The sea was a sheet of silver, tinged with pink. The tremendous arch of
the sky was all shimmering and glimmering with the promise of the sun.
Already the mist above, flecked with clustered clouds, flushed with
rose colour and dull gold. I heard the low splash of the waves breaking
and curling across the beach. A wandering breeze, fresh and fragrant,
blew the curtains of my window. There was the scent of sweet bay in the
room, and everywhere the subtile, nameless perfume of the sea.
When at last I stood upon the shore, the air and sea were all aglimmer
in a rosy light, deepening to crimson in the zenith. Along the beach I
saw a little cove, shelving and all ashine, where shallow waves washed
with a mellow sound. Fine as dusted gold the shingle glowed, and the
thin film of water rose, receded, crept up again a little higher, and
again flowed back, with the low hiss of snowy foam and gilded bubbles
breaking.
I stood a little while quiet, my eyes upon the water, the invitation of
the ocean in my ears, vague and sweet as the murmur of a shell. Then I
looked at my bathing suit and towels.
"In we go!" said I aloud. A second later the prophecy was fulfilled.
I swam far out to sea, and as I swam the waters all around me turned to
gold. The sun had risen.
There is a fragrance in the sea at dawn that none can name. Whitethorn
abloom in May, sedges asway, and scented rushes rustling in an inland
wind recall the sea to me--I can't say why.
Far out at sea I raised myself, swung around, dived, and set out again
for shore, striking strong strokes until the flecked foam flew. And
when at last I shot through the breakers, I laughed aloud and sprang
upon the beach, breathless and happy. Then from the ocean came another
cry, clear, joyous, and a white arm rose in the air.
She came drifting in with the waves like a white sea-sprite, laughing
at me from her tangled hair, and I plunged into the breakers again to
join her.
Side by side we swam along the coast, just outside the breakers, until
in the next cove we saw the flutter of her maid's cap strings.
"I will beat you to breakfast!" she cried, as I rested, watching her
glide up along the beach.
"Done!" said I--"for a sea-shell!"
"Done!" she called across the water.
I made good speed along the shore, and I was not long in dressing,
but when I entered the dining-room she was there, demure, smiling,
exquisite in her cool, white frock.
"The sea-shell is yours," said I. "I hope I can find one with a pearl
in it."
The professor hurried in before she could reply. He greeted me very
cordially, but there was an abstracted air about him, and he called me
Dick until I recognised that remonstrance was useless. He was not long
over his coffee and rolls.
"McPeek and Frisby will return with the last load, including your
trunk, by early afternoon," he said, rising and picking up his bundle
of drawings. "I haven't time to explain to you what we are doing,
Dick, but Daisy will take you about and instruct you. She will give
you the rifle standing in my room--it's a good Winchester. I have
sent for an 'Express' for you, big enough to knock over any elephant
in India.--Daisy, take him through the sheds and tell him everything.
Luncheon is at noon.--Do you usually take luncheon, Dick?"
"When I am permitted," I smiled.
"Well," said the professor doubtfully, "you mustn't come back here
for it. Freda can take you what you want. Is your hand unsteady after
eating?"
"Why, papa!" said Daisy. "Do you intend to starve him?"
We all laughed.
The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his
sea boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as
though he were thinking of something else.
We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until a
distant sand dune hid him.
"Come," said Daisy Holroyd, "I am going to take you to the shop."
She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty
combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long low
structure that I had noticed the evening before.
The interior was lighted by the numberless little portholes, and I
could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I
did see.
In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred feet
long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an enormous
whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I saw that
it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic bat-like wings
rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal possessed
legs--four of them--with most unpleasant-looking webbed claws fully
eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too, resembled
something between a crocodile and a monstrous snapping turtle.
The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and blue prints. A
man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the vertebræ of the
lizardlike tail.
"Where on earth did such a reptile come from?" I asked at length.
"Oh, it's not real!" said Daisy scornfully; "it's papier-maché."
"I see," said I--"a stage prop."
"A what?" asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment.
"Why, a--a sort of Siegfried dragon--a what's-his-name--er, Pfafner, or
Peffer, or----"
"If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you," said
Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved toward the door. I apologized--for
what, I knew not--and we became reconciled. She ran into her father's
room and brought me the rifle, a very good Winchester. She also gave me
a cartridge belt, full.
"Now," she smiled, "I shall take you to your observatory, and when we
arrive you are to begin your duty at once."
"And that duty?" I ventured, shouldering the rifle.
"That duty is, to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole
affair--but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the
sea."
"This," said I, "is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon."
I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for
almost three seconds.
We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes
skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full
glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where sun-scorched
shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned seaweed glistened,
bronzed and iridescent. Then, as we climbed a little hill, the sea wind
freshened in our faces, and lo! the ocean lay below us, far-stretching
as the eye could reach, glittering, magnificent.
Daisy sat down flat on the sand. It takes a clever girl to do that and
retain the respectful deference due her from men. It takes a graceful
girl to accomplish it triumphantly when a man is looking.
"You must sit beside me," she said--as though it would prove irksome to
me.
"Now," she continued, "you must watch the water while I am talking."