r
had remarked, the kroo boys were plying their paddles with tremendous
energy. They looked over their shoulders with some apprehension, and
then at the repeated shouts of their leader they dug their blades into
the boiling surf and struggled to push the craft towards the shore. But
in spite of their exertions the surf-boat seemed to be receding. She
appeared to be slowly gliding backward down the far side of the billow
which had just passed, falling, in fact, towards the gulf which lay
between it and the monstrous wave which followed.

"They're done," cried the officer.

"They'll manage it, I think," said Dick, quietly. "But it's touch and
go."

And that it proved to be. The men aboard shouted, and drove their
paddles with fierce energy, while the spray licked about them, and the
following wave seemed to surround them. The passengers, seeing their
danger, behaved like sensible beings. They sat still and clutched their
seats, while they looked backward apprehensively. Suddenly the boat
began to move forward. The efforts of the paddlers were having the
desired effect. It slowly gathered way, though the following wave, with
its green curling crest now erected high above the craft, seemed to be
about to fall upon it and swamp the passengers. Another shout, another
fierce struggle, and the boat shot forward, the crest of the wave
doubled up, caved in at that point, subsided into the seething boil
about it, and then glided under the surf-boat, lifting it swiftly into
the air. How it moved! It might have been shot from a gun. And the
kroo men had reversed their paddles. They were now doing their utmost
to restrain the boat, to keep her from being dashed on the shore. It
was a magnificent struggle. The curling wave, a huge mass of foam and
water, burst with a thunderous boom on the sand, and breaking into a
million cascades, shot its torrents up on to the beach. The boat fell
as suddenly till its keel was close to the sand, when it leapt forward
again and finally came with a bump to the ground. At once the kroo boys
leapt over the side, waist-deep in the receding water. They were almost
dragged from their feet, but they clutched the boat, and putting their
united strength to the task, ran her a few feet higher up, till, when
the water subsided, she was left almost high and dry.

"Bravo!" shouted the officer and Dick together. "It was a narrow
squeak. Ah, how are you, Preston?" went on the former as he