"It must have been gulls," said Honey Smith.
"It didn't sound like gulls," answered Frank Merrill. For an instant he
fell into meditation so deep that he virtually forgot the presence of
the other two. "I don't know what it was," he said finally in an
exasperated tone. "I'm going to sleep."
They walked back to camp. Frank Merrill rolled himself up in a blanket,
lay down. Soon there came from his direction only the sound of regular,
deep breathing.
"Well, Honey," Billy Fairfax asked, a note of triumph in his voice, "how
about it?"
"Well, Billy," Honey Smith said in a baffled tone, "when you get the
answer, give it to me."
Nobody mentioned the night's experience the next day. But a dozen times
Frank Merrill stopped his work to gaze out to sea, an expression of
perplexity on his face.
The next night, however, they were all waked again, waked twice. It was
Ralph Addington who spoke first; a kind of hoarse grunt and a "What the
devil was that?"
"What?" the others called.
"Damned if I know," Ralph answered. "If you wouldn't think I was off my
conch, I'd say it was a gang of women laughing."
Pete Murphy, who always woke in high spirits, began to joke Ralph
Addington. The other three were silent. In fifteen minutes they were all
asleep; sixty, they were all awake again.
It was Pete Murphy who sounded the alarm this time. "Say, something
spoke to me," he said. "Or else I'm a nut. Or else I have had the most
vivid dream I've ever had." Evidently he did not believe that it was a
dream. He sat up and listened; the others listened, too. There was no
sound in the soft, still night, however. They talked for a little while,
a strangely subdued quintette. It was as though they were all trying to
comment on these experiences without saying anything about them.
They slept through the next night undisturbed until just before sunrise.
Then Honey Smith woke them. It was still dark, but a fine dawn-glow had
begun faintly to silver the east. "Say, you fellows," he exclaimed.
"Wake up!" His voice vibrated with excitement, although he seemed to try
to keep it low. "There are strange critters round here. No mistake this
time. Woke with a start, feeling that something had brushed over me -
saw a great bird - a gigantic thing - flying off heard one woman's laugh
- then another - ."