Chapter 5
It was late afternoon, and the heat had gone out of the day. Emmeline, seated on the grass opposite to him, was holding the end of the line, whilst he got the kinks out of it, when suddenly she raised her head. There was not a breath of wind; the hush of the far-distant surf came through the blue weather--the only audible sound except, now and then, a movement and flutter from the bird perched in the branches of the artu. All at once another sound mixed itself with the voice of the surf--a faint, throbbing sound, like the beating of a distant drum. "Listen!" said Emmeline. Dick paused for a moment in his work. All the sounds of the island were familiar: this was something quite strange. Faint and far away, now rapid, now slow; coming from where, who could say? Sometimes it seemed to co
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