“It is something to do with the noise we all heard last night.”
At that moment, with the rising sun shining full upon his fierce, contracted face and glistening bald head, Drinkwater stood leaning out from the farther bank, holding tightly with one hand to an overhanging birch, and if ever countenance wore a fiendish smile, it was his.
Chapter Nineteen.
The Great Peril.
The Vicar had no chance to ask Josh what he had heard, for the boy had rushed on to the dam, regardless of any danger that might be near, to reach Mr Willows, to whom he clung breathless and exhausted from his efforts to answer the summons of the bell.
“Where’s Will?” he cried, earnestly. “Where’s Will?”
“Safe, boy, safe,” replied Willows, huskily. “Back to the side. It’s dangerous here.”
“I only wanted to know where Will was. I don’t mind now. I’m going to stop and help.”