SHIPWRECK 43 



of the truly stirring spectacles that come the way of those who 

 delight in color. We were treading our way back to the bluff 

 overlooking the wreck, our eyes to the ground. The sun was 

 setting, tinging everything with refulgent gold. From high 

 above, from far up in the firmament came a faint crying— plain- 

 tive mournful notes like those the wild geese sing on the north 

 wind. We looked up and froze in our tracks. From the interior 

 of the island was coming a great flock of scarlet flamingo, wings 

 ablaze in the setting sun. Like geese they were flying in V- 

 shaped formation, guided by a leader. There must have been 

 hundreds of them. As they moved, the scarlet of their wings 

 flashed and flared, set in vivid contrast by the velvety black 

 of their wing tips. Nearer and nearer they came, crying the 

 while, reached the land's edge, circled and returned to the dark 

 interior. And at the same moment the sun dipped beneath the 

 horizon, taking the light away and plunging land and sea into 

 darkness. 



Under the glittering stars, with the song of the east wind in 

 our ears as it rustled through the grasses and rolled the sand 

 grains up and down the dunes, on the solid ground that smelt 

 of dead and dying greenery, we slept the sleep of exhaustion. 

 And though out on the coral that night the sea tore our vessel 

 to pieces, growling through the teeth of the reef as it rended the 

 timbers one from the other, we did not move. 



Like Kim who lay on the ground and gathered new strength 

 we rose the next morning, refreshed and with a brighter out- 

 look. New days bring new problems, new tasks, new ideas. We 

 were done with the sea, for the present at least— the land was 

 our portion. What would we make of it? 



The first thing that came to our minds was our whereabouts. 

 Where were we? We knew only that we were on one of the 

 Bahamas. But which one? We salvaged a chart from the rub- 

 bish on the beach and looked it over. Noon sights of the day 



