irds increased until they were in hundreds, then in
thousands, perpetually wheeling and swooping and rising and hovering
over him in a great white cloud. And they were of many kinds, mostly
white, some grey, others sooty brown or mottled, and some wholly
black. Then in the midst of the crowrd of birds he saw one of great
size wheeling about like a king or giant among the others, with wings
of amazing length, wild eyes of a glittering yellow, and a yellow
beak half as long as Martin's arm, with a huge vulture-like hook at
the end. Now when this mighty bird swooped close down over his head,
fanning him with its immense wings, Martin again began to be alarmed
at its formidable appearance; and as more and more birds came, with
more of the big kind, and the wild outcry they made increased, his
fear and astonishment grew; then all at once these feelings rose to
extreme terror and amazement at the sight of a new bird-like
creature a thousand times bigger than the largest one in the
circling crowd above, coming swiftly towards him. He saw that it was
not flying but swimming or gliding over the surface of the sea; and
its body was black, and above the body were many immense white wings
of various shapes, which stood up like a white cloud.

Overcome with terror he fell flat on the raft, hiding his face in
the brown seaweed that covered it; then in a few minutes the sea
became agitated and rocked him in his raft, and a wave came over him
which almost swept him into the sea. At the same time the outcry of
the birds were redoubled until he was nearly deafened by their
screams, and the screams seemed to shape themselves into words.
"Martin! Martin!" the birds seemed to be screaming. "Look up, Martin,
look up, look up!" The whole air above and about him seemed to be
full of the cries, and every cry said to him, "Martin! Martin! lookup!
lookup!"

[Illustration: ]

Although dazed with the awful din and almost fainting with terror
and weakness, he could not resist the command. Pressing his hands on
the raft he at last struggled up to his knees, and saw that the
feared bird-like monster had passed him by: he saw that it was a
ship with a black hull, its white sails spread, and that the motion
of the water and the wave that swept over him had been created by
the ship as it came close to the raft. It was now rapidly gliding
from him, but still very near, and he saw a crowd of strange-looking
rough men, with sun-browned faces and long ha