“Don't you hear the bell?” repeated Serena. “Wake up! Daniel! Daniel!”
Daniel stirred and opened his eyes. The Bluebird had vanished, so had Azuba, but the thumps and jingles were real enough.
“Hey?” he mumbled, drowsily. “Stop poundin' me, won't you?”
“Pounding you! I've been pounding and shaking you for goodness knows how long. I began to think you were dead. Wake up! Don't you hear the bell?”
Daniel, still but two-thirds awake, rolled over, raised himself on his elbow and grunted, “Bell! What bell?”
“The door bell. Someone's at the door. Don't you hear them?”
Captain Dan slid out of bed. His bare feet struck the cold floor beneath the open window and he was wide awake at last. The room was pitch dark, so morning had not come, and yet someone WAS at the door, the front door. The bell was ringing steadily and the ringer was varying the performance by banging the door with his feet. The captain fumbled for the button, found and pressed it, and the electric light blazed.
“For mercy sakes!” he grumbled, glancing at his watch hanging beside the head of the bed, “it's quarter past one. Who in time is turnin' us out this time of night?”
Serena, nervous and frightened—she, too, had been aroused from a sound sleep—answered sharply.
“I don't know,” she snapped. “It's something important though, or they wouldn't do it. Hurry up and find out, can't you? I never saw such a man!”