t is dark,
and we may find one.'

"My father took her hand, and they ran and launched the canoe.

*****

"My father paddled, Uluvao sat in the bow of the canoe. The night was
very dark, and she was frightened, for in the waters hereabout are many
_tanifa_ the thick, short shark, that will leap out of the water and
fall on a canoe and crush it, so that those who paddle may be thrown out
and devoured. And as she trembled she looked out at the shore of the two
islands, which were now close to, and said to my father, 'Lo! what is
this? I see a light as of a little fire.'

"Lauati ceased to paddle and looked. And there, between the trunks of
the cocoanuts, he saw the faint gleam of a little fire, and something,
as of a figure, that moved.

"The girl Uluvao had a quick wisdom. 'Ah,' said she, 'perhaps it is the
war canoes (taumualua) from Falifa. Those dogs hath learnt that all our
men are gone away to Falealili to the _fono_ and they have come here to
the islands to eat and rest, so that they may fall upon our town when it
is dawn, and slay us all. Let us back, ere it is too late.'

"But as she spoke she looked into the water, and my father looked too;
and they both trembled. Deep down in the blackness of the sea was it
that they saw--yet it quickly came nearer and nearer, like unto a great
flame of white fire. It was a _tanlfa_. Like flashes of lightning did
my father dash his paddle into the water and urge the canoe to the land,
for he knew that when the _tanifa_ had come to the surface it would look
and then dive, and when it came up again would spring upon and devour
them both.

"'It is better to give our heads to the men of Falifa than for us to go
into the belly of the shark,' he said, 'and it may be we can land, and
they see us not.' And so with fear gnawing at their vitals the canoe
flew along, and the streak of fire underneath was close upon them when
they struck the edge of the coral and knew they were safe.

*****

"They dragged the canoe over the reef and then got in again, and paddled
softly along till they passed the light of the fire, and then they
landed on a little beach about a hundred _gafa_ (fathoms) away. Then
again Uluvao, who was a girl of wisdom, spoke.

*****

"'Listen,' she said, 'O man of my heart. Let us creep through the bushes
and look. It may be that these men of Falifa are tired and weary, and
sleep like hogs. Take thou, then, O Lauati, thy shark club and knife
from the canoe, a