et or
so.

Then Sparks moved in, too. For the same reason. He said it was getting
on his nerves running back and forth to the lab to pick up our outgoing
bulletins. So he shifted the generator, radio gear and all over to a
corner of the lab and brought in his bunk.

By the tenth of June we could see that the spraying was a losing battle.
And it finally took the big tragedy to drive home the truth that was all
about us already. When the crew got ready to go out to their planes on
the eleventh, everyone except the four of us in the lab tent was drafted
to help clear webs between the tents and the beach. We could hear them
shouting from tent to tent as they made up their work party. We could no
longer see across the distance. Everywhere outside, vision was obscured
by the grayish film of webs on which little droplets caught the tropical
sun like a million tiny mirrors. In the shade it was like trying to peer
through thin milk, with the vicious, leggy little shadows skittering
about restlessly.

As usual in the morning, the hum of the Tabbies had risen above the
normal jungle buzzing, and this morning it was the loudest we'd heard
it.

Well, we heard the first screen door squeak open, and someone let out a
whoop as the group moved out with brooms, palm fronds and sticks to
snatch a path through the nightmare of spider webs. The other two doors
opened and slammed, and we could hear many sounds of deep disgust voiced
amid the grunts and thrashings.

They must have been almost to the beach when the first scream reached
us. Cleve had been listening in fascination, and the awful sound tore
him loose of his senses. He screamed back. The rest of us had to sit on
him to quiet him. Then the others outside all began screaming--not
words, just shattering screams of pure terror, mixed with roars of pain
and anger. Soon there was no more anger. Just horror. And in a few
minutes they died away.

* * * * *

Sellers and Sparks and I looked at each other. Cleve had vomited and
passed out. Sparks got out Cleve's whiskey, and we spilled half of it
trying to get drinks into us.

Sparks snapped out of it first. He didn't try to talk to us. He just
went to his gear, turned on the generator and warmed up the radio. He
told Honolulu what had happened as we had heard it.

When he finished, he keyed over for an acknowledgment. The operator said
to hold on for a minute. Then he said they would _try_ to dispa