it is to be noted that people seldom
argue on behalf of the items of faith they hold most firmly. The
spinsters merely remarked that there were a strange number of wrecks on
the sand-bar that led to The Cloud, and that, go where he would in the
village, he would get no sand-pilot to take him across while the tide
was beaten up by the wind, and a pilot he must have, or he would sink in
the quicksands and never be seen again.

Caius walked, with the merry wind for a playfellow, down through long
rows of fish-sheds, and heard what the men had to say with regard to his
journey. He heard exactly what the women had told him, for no one would
venture upon the dune that day.

Then, still in company with the madcap wind, he walked up on the nearer
hills, and saw that this island was narrow, lying between blue fields of
sea, both bay and ocean filled with wave crests, ever moving. The outer
sea beat upon the sandy beach with a roar and volume of surf such as he
had never seen before, for under the water the sand-bank stretched out a
mile but a little below the sea's level, and the breakers, rolling in,
retarded by it and labouring to make their accustomed course, came on
like wild beasts that were chafed into greater anger at each bound, so
that with ever-increasing fury they roared and plunged until they
touched the verge.

From the hills he saw that the fish-sheds which stood along the village
street could only be a camping place for the fishers at the season of
work, for all along the inner sides of the hills there were small
farm-houses, large enough and fine enough to make good dwellings. The
island was less savage than he had supposed. Indignation rose within him
that people apparently so well-to-do should let their neighbours die
without extending a helping hand. He would have been glad to go and
bully some owner of a horse and cart into taking him the last stage of
his journey without further delay; but he did not do this, he only
roamed upon the hills enjoying the fair prospect of the sea and the
sister isles, and went back to his inn about two o'clock. There he
feasted again upon the luxurious provision that the spinsters had been
making for the appetite that the new air had given him. He ate roast
duck, stuffed with a paste of large island mushrooms, preserved since
their season, and tarts of bake-apple berries, and cranberries, and the
small dark mokok berry--three kinds of tart he ate, with fresh cream
upon them,