CHAPTER XXIX
HOW HE CAME INTO AN UNKNOWN PLACE
Having lodged his eggs in a ledge under the big slab, Gard stole away to
learn, if he could, if he had the rock all to himself.
He wanted water, and he wanted his bottle of cognac and the tin dipper;
for puffins' eggs, while not unpalatable beaten up with cognac, are of a
flavour calculated to exercise the strongest stomach when eaten raw.
He feared the men would have made away with all his small possessions,
but he could only try. So he stole like a shadow round the crown of the
ridge and along towards the shelter, standing at times motionless for
whole minutes till the rush of the waves below should pass and give him
chance of hearing.
But on L'Etat the sound of many waters never ceases night or day, and
the night wind hummed among the stones of the shelter, and, as it
happened, John Drillot had just lurched over in avoidance of a lump of
rock which was intruding on his comfort, and in so doing had lodged his
heavy boot in Peter Vaudin's ribs, and so their sonorous duet was
stilled, and neither of them was very sound asleep, when Gard, after
listening anxiously and hearing nothing, dropped on his hands and knees
and felt cautiously inside.
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