hogany table, dined quietly, and the four
of us excused ourselves just before dessert. The twilight was already
falling--like gray shadows of wings over land and sea--and we wanted to
be at our post. We didn't desire that the peril of the lagoon should
strike in our absence. And we left a more hopeful spirit among the other
occupants of the manor house.

They were all glad that armed men would guard the lagoon shore that
night. I suppose it gave them some sense of security otherwise not
known. The four of us procured our rifles, and walked, a grim company,
down to the shore of the lagoon.

"We want to guard as much of the shore line as we can, and still keep
each other in sight," Slatterly said. "And there's no getting away from
it that we want to be in easy rifle range of each other."

He posted us at fifty-yard intervals along the craggy margin. I was
placed near the approach of the rock wall, overlooking a wide stretch of
the shore, Weldon's post was fifty yards above mine, the sheriff's next,
and Nopp's most distant of all. Then we were left to watch the tides and
the night and the stars probing through the darkening mantle of the sky.

We had no definite orders. We were simply to watch, to fire at will in
case of an emergency, to guard the occupants of the manor house against
any danger that might emerge from the depths of the lagoon. The tide, at
the lowest ebb at the hour of our arrival, began soon to flow again. The
glassy surface was fretted by the beat and crash of oncoming waves
against the rocky barrier. We saw the little rivulets splash through;
the water's edge crept slowly up the craggy shore. The dusk deepened,
and soon it was deep night.

We were none too close together. I could barely make out the tall figure
of Weldon, standing statuesque on a great, gray crag beside the lagoon.
His figure was so dim that it was hard to believe in its reality, the
gun at his shoulder was but a fine penciled line, and with the growing
darkness, it was hard to make him out at all. Soon it took a certain
measure of imagination to conceive of that darker spot in the mist of
darkness as the form of a fellow man.

The sense of isolation increased. We heard no sound from each other, but
the night itself was full of little, hushed noises. From my camp fire
beside Manatee Marsh I had often heard the same sounds, but they were
more compelling now, they held the attention with unswerving constancy,
and they seemed to penet