ngree was really the cause of my postponement.

For another ten days the life of the Camp pursued its even and
delightful way, blessed by perfect summer weather, a good harvest of
fish, fine winds for sailing, and calm, starry nights. Maloney's selfish
prayer had been favourably received. Nothing came to disturb or perplex.
There was not even the prowling of night animals to vex the rest of Mrs.
Maloney; for in previous camps it had often been her peculiar affliction
that she heard the porcupines scratching against the canvas, or the
squirrels dropping fir-cones in the early morning with a sound of
miniature thunder upon the roof of her tent. But on this island there
was not even a squirrel or a mouse. I think two toads and a small and
harmless snake were the only living creatures that had been discovered
during the whole of the first fortnight. And these two toads in all
probability were not two toads, but one toad.

Then, suddenly, came the terror that changed the whole aspect of the
place--the devastating terror.

It came, at first, gently, but from the very start it made me realise
the unpleasant loneliness of our situation, our remote isolation in this
wilderness of sea and rock, and how the islands in this tideless Baltic
ocean lay about us like the advance guard of a vast besieging army. Its
entry, as I say, was gentle, hardly noticeable, in fact, to most of us:
singularly undramatic it certainly was. But, then, in actual life this
is often the way the dreadful climaxes move upon us, leaving the heart
undisturbed almost to the last minute, and then overwhelming it with a
sudden rush of horror. For it was the custom at breakfast to listen
patiently while each in turn related the trivial adventures of the
night--how they slept, whether the wind shook their tent, whether the
spider on the ridge pole had moved, whether they had heard the toad, and
so forth--and on this particular morning Joan, in the middle of a little
pause, made a truly novel announcement:

"In the night I heard the howling of a dog," she said, and then flushed
up to the roots of her hair when we burst out laughing. For the idea of
there being a dog on this forsaken island that was only able to support
a snake and two toads was distinctly ludicrous, and I remember Maloney,
half-way through his burnt porridge, capping the announcement by
declaring that he had heard a "Baltic turtle" in the lagoon, and his
wife's expression of frantic alarm before