Read Online Tales From Gavagan's Bar by L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt - Free Book Online

has not been broadcast outside the scientific world for much the same reasons that persuaded Mr. Willison to keep it quiet. I am a biologist and have been rather closely associated with several me mbers of the Harvard Marine Life expedition to the Bahamas. You may or may not know that its purpose was to collect specimens of marine life on Jackson Key. This is rather a miserable little sandspit off Great Abaco Island, but it does have peculiarly interesting forms of minor marine fauna.
     
                  You may have seen photographs of the expedition at work. If you have, the center of the picture was almost certainly occupied by a young lady clad in shorts and performing some scientific task. She is blonde and extremely photogenic, and her name is Cornelia Hartwig.
     
                  The morning after the Trinidad Castle disaster, she found a survivor of that ship who had floated into the surf of Jackson Key on a grating. I think there can be very little doubt that it was your friend Van Nest, though he gave his name as Campbell. He was not in good condition when discovered, though not in serious danger. Restoratives were applied, but there could be no question of sending him to the mainland at once, because the expedition's supply ship made only periodic visits and neither of the two small motorboats was adequate.
     
                  My friend Professor Rousseau says that, when the young man recovered consciousness and was informed of this, he did not appear to object. He was looking at Cornelia Hartwig, and with an almost equal intensity she was looking at him. I should perhaps explain about her. She is a highly competent biologist but, like your friend Van Nest, may be described as always falling in love. On field expeditions like the one to Jackson Key, it is her usual habit to select one of the older and more thoroughly married members of the scientific staff; and this has caused some trouble in the past. In fact, the members of the expedition were waiting with some apprehension to see who would be the victim on this occasion; and it was with relief that they observed her spending the entire day with the castaway. I cannot imagine what they found in common to talk about, but Professor Rousseau says they had no difficulty.
     
                  In the evening, when Campbell, or rather Van Nest, was able to be up and about and had eaten something, Cornelia took him to the opposite side of the island from the camp, where there were some palm trees, to look for ghost crabs by the light of the full moon. I don't know whether they discovered any ghost crabs; but as they sat there under the palms, the extraordinary series of animals you describe appeared as if from nowhere and formed a circle around them at a respectful distance, including a blue spectral tarsier and a frilled lizard of a rich maroon color.
     
                  There is no doubt that Cornelia was enchanted. At the sight of so many species unknown to science, I would have been myself. The couple did not return to camp until long after all the rest were in bed. When Cornelia told her story in the morning, it was received with a certain amount of skepticism and even of merriment, by the other members of the expedition. I am not surprised. The behavior of Van Nest's animals at Jackson Key was somewhat different than that you describe in the city. Not one of them was visible that morning. They had disappeared with the night.
     
                  This reception of her story irritated Cornelia; and, on the following evening, she persuaded Professor Rousseau himself to accompany them to the palm trees. He says the animals appeared to come out of the undergrowth and their description tallied with that you gave, Mr. Willison. He threw a flashlight on them and dispelled any idea that they were hallucinations, for they had solidity; but all his efforts to collect a specimen failed because of their