The Pearl Fishers

e camp fire they noticed a gr

f. The voice of the gulls was one of the familiar sounds of

ling one with another, but against some common enemy. Then the sound died away little by little, and when he came

r than his ordinary time. The wind that had been blowing so strongly yesterday had

ef close to the wrec

us swell, an infinite heaving of the very depths of the ocean finding[Pg 70] express

breakers seemed r

the sea. The breakers were equidistant and equal in vo

nt, and, catching sight of

lectricity or something in the ai

here has been a big storm somewhe

od looking

had at once a surface brilliancy and a dullness in its depths. Toward the sh

ed away to the camping place,

diving to-day?" asked F

oming, if I am not mistaken. I feel it in my skin, and I feel it in my nerves. I suppose it's the electricity

stinctly on the windless[Pg 71] air, the gulls were crying again, and, standing up,

continued their argumen

out seaward, the whole lot of them.

and they are clearing out of the track. Wo

th sailcloth, and he now set to make the lashings more secure. They worked an hour, and when t

the sea, still glassing in and breaking in rhythmical

surf the silence was no

d to come from nowhere, rocking them and tossing them hither and thither, making

ook down

ety. He had dug out a hole beneath one of the trees a

oming. Nothing is safe above ground. A cyclone[Pg 72]

on the great sto

a black line appeared, hard and di

a wall. As it rose, it lightened to a dark copper color, and as it rose

d the sun, as if shrinking before the coming attac

e lagoon and bending the foliage, and then all a

forgotten; less a sound than a vibration-deep and almost musi

the two men had gone for a moment toward the lagoon edge,

truck them, and, battling against it, they reached

flat as a board, beaten to a dead level by

e coconuts torn from the palms striking the sand, and Floyd had a momentary vision of nuts hitting the lagoon like round shot fired by artillery, and then the whole solid world s

ound her to protect her. He heard Schumer calling out something, but what he could no

evilish yell that seemed the expression of all the ferocity

cal. The enmity of th

nd crawling a bit forward, he saw the rain. It was not falling, it was driving across the lagoon in a

d slackening, the rain, upheld

outed to Floyd; "it's just a sto

e of the sea, that had now added

reef. The sound was like the roar of a railway train in a tunnel. Somethin

ny a storm; the position of the trees and their relationshi

ng broken down, but here not a tree went, though the palms were b

rise more and more, while the fac

and when dark set in, though the wind had lessened still more, the sea had ris

se of the tearing of timber from timber, the roll and rumble of balks awash on the coral, and then, worn out and huddled together

g half a gale. The fury of the storm had been in its first impact,

where the wreck had lain was unapproach

emselves in the sunshine, stiff and chill from the dam

That's what made it blow out so soon. A storm is like a man-it has only a certain length of life,

been stirred up. This sea will travel right down to the

ng as if gently stirred by some giant's finger in the wind-whipped water; the reef, as far as

," said Floyd. "Your business, too, that was, for if

ff-I was too careful about the packing; and the drainage is all right-people rarely think of that. It doesn't do stuff any harm to b

be found anywhere, so they breakfasted on canned meat

drainage afforded at the two ends. Schumer had packed the perishable goods on top-they were qui

still more, but the

hing ground," said Schumer, "and we can begin agai