Miles in length, carrying tens of thousands of tons in weight, its
impact shook the frail atoll like an earthquake. Captain Lynch was
startled.

"Gracious!" he bellowed, half rising from his chair, then sinking
back.

"But there is no wind," Raoul persisted. "I could understand it if
there was wind along with it."

"You'll get the wind soon enough without worryin' for it," was the
grim reply.

The two men sat on in silence. The sweat stood out on their skin in
myriads of tiny drops that ran together, forming blotches of moisture,
which, in turn, coalesced into rivulets that dripped to the ground.
They panted for breath, the old man's efforts being especially
painful. A sea swept up the beach, licking around the trunks of the
cocoanuts and subsiding almost at their feet.

"Way past high water mark," Captain Lynch remarked; "and I've been
here eleven years." He looked at his watch. "It is three o'clock."

A man and woman, at their heels a motley following of brats and curs,
trailed disconsolately by. They came to a halt beyond the house, and,
after much irresolution, sat down in the sand. A few minutes later
another family trailed in from the opposite direction, the men and
women carrying a heterogeneous assortment of possessions. And soon
several hundred persons of all ages and sexes were congregated about
the captain's dwelling. He called to one new arrival, a woman with a