."

"There's no saying," replied he. They were seated on the rocks just
where she had watched the great battle and far and near the "sea cows"
were sunning themselves on the rocks whilst beyond the seal beach the
penguins were drilling in long lines. Scarcely a breath of wind stirred
and the sea lay calm like a sheet of dim blue glass to where the islands
sat beneath the sky of summer.

But the islands had drawn closer since morning and the birds seemed
busier than usual and more clamorous. To the eastward where the cliffs
rose higher, guillemots had their home on the ledges of basalt and the
wheezy bagpipe-like cry of them came in bursts every now and then as
though they were angry about something, whilst the cry of the razorbills
and the "get-away, get-away" of the kittiwakes had a sharper note. The
puffins alone were calm, swimming in coveys on the glassy water and
leaving long ripples in their wake.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE GREAT WIND

The sun sank, broadened out and banded with mist beyond the Lizard
Point, and before his upper limb had been swallowed by the rocks the
business began with a blow from the hills.

Most winds come in gusts and pauses, this wind from the Infernal Regions
came at first steady and warm, never ceasing, steadily growing like the
thrust of an infinite sword driven with a rapidly increasing momentum
and a murmur like the voice of Speed herself.

Raft and the girl saw that the sea elephants were herding up into the
shelter of the cliffs and that the gulls had vanished as though they had
never been.

And still the wind increased, its voice now a long monotonous cry,
steadily sharpening, yet deepening, stern as the Voice of Wrath.

"It's blowing up," said Raft, "and there's more coming."

Then over the cliff and undershot by the last rays of sunset came the
clouds chased and harried by the wind, tearing before and torn by the
teeth of the gale.

Raft and the girl stood watching till pebbles and rocks the size of
coconuts began to fall on the beach blown over the cliff edge, till the
sea, flat and milk-white, seemed to bend under the stress, till it would
seem that the very islands would be blown away.

The girl felt light-headed and giddy as though the rush above had
rarefied the air under the cliffs. Not a drop of rain fell, the wind
held the sky and the whole world. It seemed loosed from some mysterious
keeping never to be recaptured until it had blown the sea away and
flatte