Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/130

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114
DETECTIVE BARNEY

noise, the crew would not come out and throw him off into the water again. He could sleep there comfortably. He needed sleep.

He got the upper part of his body through the gate, between the poles, without much difficulty, but his legs hung back and impeded him; and when he began to crawl along the road, watching cunningly for the reappearance of the house, he found that his knees were unwilling to help him. Under these conditions his progress was necessarily slow. Besides, the house seldom reappeared in the place where it had vanished. It kept moving all around the horizon. He discovered that it followed the yellow light—that if he could hold this steady with his eyes, he could control the house. Then he began to gain on it. He was swimming “dog fashion,” of course. On account of the weight of his legs he had all he could do to keep his chin above water, and the spray splashed in his eyes.

When he got hold of the veranda steps, he clung there, floating. He was unable to drag