 The night wind off the sea was soft, warm. It sighed against the flames of the beach fire strung along the coast, riffled the sand across driftwood, across the litter. It brought close the far-off sounds of a summer beach at night, the laughter from behind screen porches, the siren call of the ukulele gently strummed, the distant screeching of gulls, and closer, the other sounds, the lash and wash of the surf,