Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/195

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The Island of Appledore
175

It took some little time to get this dispatch off, as he had first to go up to his room to look up the address. His father had left his mother in Lima and had gone up to some little mining town in the Andes, where the Spanish names were of the most unpronounceable kind. The operator’s short temper was quite exhausted when at last she had got it all.

“When you think up anything new, let me know,” was her acid farewell as she rang off.

Captain Saulsby had grown tired of waiting and had walked back to his cottage. Billy found him at the foot of the garden, staring out to sea through the binoculars that had been one of the trophies of their adventure at the mill.

“Nice glasses that German fellow left us,” the old sailor remarked as he lowered them to change the focus. Then he added more slowly, “I shouldn’t wonder if he would be coming back for them one of these days.”

“Why, how can you think that?” cried Billy astonished.

“Well,” the Captain returned reflectively, “there’s Harvey Jarreth now. He has been sporting a lot of new clothes lately and has been getting money from somebody. There is no person about here complaining that Harvey