Angel Island

"Sure do I," Honey said cheerfully. "Only remember one thing, Billy.

That wasn't a dream any more than this is."

"All right," Billy exclaimed. "You don't have to show me. A funny thing

happened to me last night. I'm not telling the others. They won't

believe it and - well, my nerves are all on end. I know I'd get mad if

they began to jolly. I was sleeping like the dickens - a

sure-for-certain Rip Van Winkle - when all of a sudden - Did you ever

have a pet cat, Honey?"

"Nope."

"Well, I've had lots of them. I like cats. I had one once that used to

wake me up at two minutes past seven every morning as regularly as two

minutes past seven came - not an instant before, not an instant after.

He turned the trick by jumping up on the bed and looking steadily into

my face. Never touched me, you understand. Well, l waked this morning

just after sunrise with a feeling that Kilo was there staring at me.

Somebody was - " Billy paused. He swallowed rapidly and wet his lips.

"But it wasn't Kilo." Billy paused again.

"I'm listening, bo," said Honey, shying another stone.

"It was a girl looking at me," Billy said, simply as though it were

something to be expected. He paused. Then, "Get that? A girl! She was

bending over me - pretty close - I could almost touch her. I can see her

now as plainly as I see you. She was blonde. One of those pale-gold

blondes with hair like honey and features cut with a chisel. You know

the type. Some people think it's cold. It's a kind of beauty that's

always appealed to me, though." He stopped.

"Well," Honey prodded him with a kind of non-committal calm, "what

happened?"

"Nothing. If you can believe me - nothing. I stared - oh, I guess I

stared for a quarter of a minute straight up into the most beautiful

pair of eyes that I ever saw in my life. I stared straight up into them

and I stared straight down into them. They were as deep as a well and as

gray as a cloud and as cold as ice. And they had lashes - " For a moment

the quiet directness of Billy's narrative was disturbed by a whiff of

inner tumult. "Whew! what eyelashes! Honey, did you ever come across a

lonely mountain lake with high reeds growing around the edge? You know

how pure and unspoiled and virginal it seems. That was her eyes. They

sort of hypnotized me. My eyes closed and - when I awoke it was broad

daylight. What do you think?"