thought at the moment. A numbness came over me.

"That's what saved _you_!" he replied. "Between us, we've managed to set
them off on a false tack somewhere. The humming has ceased. It's
gone--for the moment at any rate!"

A wave of hysterical laughter seized me again, and this time spread to
my friend too--great healing gusts of shaking laughter that brought a
tremendous sense of relief in their train. We made our way back to the
fire and put the wood on so that it blazed at once. Then we saw that the
tent had fallen over and lay in a tangled heap upon the ground.

We picked it up, and during the process tripped more than once and
caught our feet in sand.

"It's those sand-funnels," exclaimed the Swede, when the tent was up
again and the firelight lit up the ground for several yards about us.
"And look at the size of them!"

All round the tent and about the fireplace where we had seen the moving
shadows there were deep funnel-shaped hollows in the sand, exactly
similar to the ones we had already found over the island, only far
bigger and deeper, beautifully formed, and wide enough in some instances
to admit the whole of my foot and leg.

Neither of us said a word. We both knew that sleep was the safest thing
we could do, and to bed we went accordingly without further delay,
having first thrown sand on the fire and taken the provision sack and
the paddle inside the tent with us. The canoe, too, we propped in such a
way at the end of the tent that our feet touched it, and the least