nd," 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 nursing
babe in her arms, and in answer received the information that her house
had just been swept into the lagoon.

This was the highest spot of land in miles, and already, in many places
on either hand, the great seas were making a clean breach of the slender
ring of the atoll and surging into the lagoon. Twenty miles around
stretched the ring of the atoll, and in no place was it more than fifty
fathoms wide. It was the height of the diving season, and from all the
islands around, even as far as Tahiti, the natives had gathered.

"There are twelve hundred men, women, and children here," said Captain
Lynch. "I wonder how many will be here tomorrow morning."

"But why don't it blow?--that's what I want to know," Raoul demanded.

"Don't worry, young man, don't worry; you'll get your troubles fast
enough."

Even as Captain Lynch spoke, a great watery mass smote the atoll.

The sea water churned about them three inches deep under the chairs. A
low wail of fear went up from the many women. The children, with clasped
hands, stared at the immense rollers and cried piteously. Chickens and
cats, wading perturbedly in the water, as by common consent, with flight
and scramble took refuge on the roof of the captain's house. A Paumotan,
with a litter of new-born puppies in a basket,