“Somebody will catch you.”
“I hope not.”
“We-ell, I hope, not, too,” said Miss Milly frankly. “I don’t suppose it is just right, but I’ll try to help you. If I see a chance for you to get away I’ll come to this door and knock—see, like this.”
She knocked twice in succession, but lightly, so that nobody might hear her but the stowaway.
“Thank you—thank you!” murmured the boy, and then he shut the trap quickly, for a heavy step sounded from the cabin without.
Somebody had come down from the deck—probably the officer of the watch.
CHAPTER XXX
SHOWING WHAT MISS MILLY DOES FOR BRANDON
Brandon crept away from the trap in the bulkhead, fearing that at any moment the person who had entered the outer cabin during his conversation with the captain’s daughter, might strive to capture him. He was afraid that the person had heard his movements in descending into the cargo hold again; but if the newcomer did hear anything, Milly evidently convinced him that there was nothing unusual going on, for Brandon was not disturbed.
Then ensued for the stowaway a period of anxious waiting. The very fact that some hope of successful escape had been held out to him, made the waiting all the harder to bear.
Each hour was bringing the Success nearer to Savannah, and Brandon remained near the bulkhead all the time, so as to miss no communication from his fair assistant.