quall was coming down from the eastward. Then
Laheu, an old warrior in another canoe, cried out that they should
return on their track a little and get into deep water; "for," said he,
"if we swamp, away from Tia Kau, it is but a little thing, but here--"
and he clasped his hands rapidly together and then tore them apart.
They knew what he meant--the sharks that, at night-time forsaking the
deep waters, patrolled in droves of thousands the shallow waters of the
reef to devour the turtle and the schools of TAFAU ULI and other fish.
In quick, alarmed silence the people headed back, but even then the
first fierce squall struck them, and some of the frail canoes began to
fill at once. "I MATAGI! I MATAGI! (head to the wind)" a man called
out; "head to the wind, or we perish! 'Tis but a puff and it is gone."

* * * * *

But it was more than a puff. The seven canoes, all abreast, were still
in shallow water, and the paddlers kept them dead in the teeth of the
whistling wind and stinging rain, and called out words of encouragement
to one another and to the women and children, as another black squall
burst upon them and the curling seas began to break. The canoe in which
was Atupa's daughter was the largest and best of all the seven, but was
much overladen, and on the outrigger grating were four children. These
the chief's daughter was endeavouring to shield from the rain by
covering them with a mat, when one of them, a little girl, endeavoured
to steady herself by holding to one of the thin pieces of grating; it
broke, and her arm fell through and struck the water, and in an instant
she gave a dull, smothered wail. Palu, the woman, seized her by her
hair and pulled the child up to a sitting posture, and then shrieked
with terror--the girl's arm was gone.

* * * * *

And then in the blackness of night, lightened now by the white,
seething, boiling surge, the people saw in the phosphorescent water
countless hundreds of the savage terrors of the Tia Kau darting hither
and thither amongst the canoes--for the smell of blood had brought them
together instantly. Presently a great grey monster tore the paddle from
out the hands of the steersman of the canoe wherein were the terrified
Palu and the four children, and then, before the man for'ard could
bring her head to the wind, she broached to and filled. Like ravening
wolves the sharks dashed upon their prey, and ere the people had time
to give more than a despairing cry, those hi