Valentine Williams

“ After dinner, Garth yawned expansively and opined that he would turn in. The unwonted exercise of the afternoon, he declared, had fagged him out. But I had no mind for bed. My brain, stimulated by the unaccustomed environment, was active. The apparition at the graveside during the storm had profoundly disquieted me and I wanted to think. So I strolled outside for a solitary pipe beneath the stars.
On the shore I found Carstairs, pipe in mouth, contemplating the sea. ”

“ I said soothingly to humour him, for he was like a spoilt child, “and you'll see what marvels Carstairs has accomplished in the way of making us comfortable. And you needn't worry about the cave. It's splendidly sheltered. Not a drop of water will get in!”
Night was falling by the time we emerged from the steamy atmosphere of the sopping woods and made for the faint glow of light which shone from our cave. Carstairs met us at the entrance. He had fully justified my prophecy to Garth. ”

“ To be wet to the skin an hour's tramp from camp may amuse you, Major Okewood, but the prospect of a heavy chill does not strike me as being funny in the least!”
In high dudgeon he placed upon his head the shapeless mass of soggy felt which had once been a hat.
“I vote we make a move for the camp,” he proposed. “That is, if anything is left of it. I should not be in the least surprised to find the cave under water, our stores ruined, and Carstairs drowned—or struck by lightning, as like as not. ”

“ Garth's ill-temper melted perceptibly, and it was with the utmost cordiality that he raised his glass and pledged the success of the expedition. The ingenuity of the incomparable Carstairs had so completely reproduced the atmosphere of civilization that it was difficult to believe that we three were dining on a lonely islet in the middle of the Pacific. ”

“ I had my own theory about that drink and perhaps Carstairs had his;—anyway, we did not discuss it.
“Grand night, sir!” said Carstairs, taking his pipe out of his mouth as I approached over the sand.
“Wonderful!” I commented. “Good spot this, Carstairs!”
The man did not reply. He was sucking on his pipe which did not seem to be drawing well.
“It's an uncanny kind o' place, as you might say, sir!” he remarked presently.
“Well,” I observed, “it's a bit lonesome, I suppose. But all desert islands are that!”
“Lonesome?” retorted the man. ”

“ You know how it was in the war, sir—w'en you was workin' out in No Man's Land on a pitch-black night, scared to death you was walkin' into Fritz's line, tellin' yerself all through, 'If you can't see him, he can't see you,' but feelin'—well, as though there was nothin' but eyes starin' at you all round! ”