11 first he heard the grinding roar of an incoming wave ; next he heard the argument of many sea-birds arising from the closest rocks as he struggled to a sitting position ( cowardly buggers were creeping up , he thought , and they would have been taking pecks out of me soon enough , still breathing or nodthey 're nothing but vultures with a coat of paint ) ; then he became aware that one popkin halfdthe one in his right handdhad tumbled onto the hard gray sand because he had been holding it with a whole hand when he came through the door and now wasdor had beendholding it in a hand which had suffered a forty per cent reduction .