yards from the wreck, they spread
themselves out in a line parallel to the reef on which lay the ship, her
copper plates exposed half-way to the keel. "Rope! Rope! Rope!" shouted
the Maoris. Their voices barely reached the ship, but the sailors well
knew for what the swimmers risked their lives. Already a man had unrove
the fore-signal-halyards, the sailors raised a shout and the coiled rope
was thrown. It fell midway between Tahuna and Enoko, where Amiria was
swimming. Quickly the brave girl grasped the life-line, and it was not
long before her companions were beside her.

They now swam towards the channel. Once in the middle of that, they
turned on their backs and floated, each holding tight to the rope, and
the waves bearing them towards the shore.

The return passage took only a few minutes, but to get through the
breakers which whitened the beach with foam was a matter of life or
death to the swimmers. They were grasped by the great seas and were
hurled upon the grinding boulders; they were sucked back by the receding
tide, to be again thrown upon the shore.

Tahuna was the first to scramble out of the surf, though he limped as he
walked above high-water-mark. Amiria lay exhausted on the very margin,
the shallow surge sweeping over her; but the rope was still in her hand.
The chief first carried the girl up the beach, and laid her, panting, on
the stones; then he went back to look for the others. His wife, with
wonderful fortune, was carried uninjured to his very feet, but Enoko was
struggling in the back-wash which was drawing him into a great oncoming
sea. Forgetting his maimed foot, the chief sprang towards his friend,
seized hold of him and a boulder simultaneously, and let the coming wave
pass over him and break upon the beach. Just as it retired, he picked up
Enoko, and staggered ashore with his helpless burden.

For five minutes they all lay, panting and still. Then Amiria got up and
hauled on the life-line. Behind her a strange piece of rock, shaped like
a roughly-squared pillar, stood upright from the beach. To this she made
fast the line, on which she pulled hard and strong. Tahuna rose, and
helped her, and soon out of the surf there came a two-inch rope which
had been tied to the signal-halyards.

When the chief and the girl had fixed the thicker rope round the rock,
Tahuna tied the end of the life-line about his waist, walked to the edge
of the sea, and held up his hand.

That was a signal for the