 When Delgrange and his fellow pioneers reach the island they are irritated and frustrated by a bizarre ceremony that their native porters conduct before proceeding with the unloading of their supplies from the steamer which brought them.As the steamer departs and disappears over the horizon, due to return in six months, a sense of their solitude descends.They compose messages to their friends and family to be transmitted by radio, but the radio operator returns looking agitated.