erchance there might come again a recurrence of
the noise.

For perhaps something over an hour we stood there very silent and
listening; but there came to us no sound beyond the continuous noise of
the wind, and so, by that time, having grown somewhat impatient of
waiting, and the moon being well risen, the bo'sun beckoned to me to make
the round of the camp with him. Now, just as I turned away, chancing to
look downward at the clear water directly below, I was amazed to see that
an innumerable multitude of great fish, like unto those which I had seen
on the previous night, were swimming from the weed-continent towards the
island. At that, I stepped nearer the edge; for they came so directly
towards the island that I expected to see them close inshore; yet I could
not perceive one; for they seemed all of them to vanish at a point some
thirty yards distant from the beach, and at that, being amazed both by
the numbers of the fish and their strangeness, and the way in which they
came on continually, yet never reached the shore, I called to the bo'sun
to come and see; for he had gone on a few paces. Upon hearing my call, he
came running back; whereat I pointed into the sea below. At that, he
stooped forward and peered very intently, and I with him; yet neither one
of us could discover the meaning of so curious an exhibition, and so for
a while we watched, the bo'sun being quite so much interested as I.

Presently, however, he turned away, saying that we did foolishly to stand
here peering at every curious sight, when we should be looking to the
welfare of the camp, and so we began to go the round of the hill-top.
Now, whilst we had been watching and listening, we had suffered the fire
to die down to a most unwise lowness, and consequently, though the moon
was rising, there was by no means the same brightness that should have
made the camp light. On perceiving this, I went forward to throw some
fuel on to the fire, and then, even as I moved, it seemed to me that I
saw something stir in the shadow of the tent. And at that, I ran towards
the place, uttering a shout, and waving my cut-and-thrust; yet I found
nothing, and so, feeling somewhat foolish, I turned to make up the fire,
as had been my intention, and whilst I was thus busied, the bo'sun came
running over to me to know what I had seen, and in the same instant there
ran three of the men out of the tent, all of them waked by my sudden cry.
But I had naught to tell them, s