nd, had left us without a word. He stood at
the rail, supporting himself by main strength, facing the frightful line
of the approaching reefs; and on his back was written the desperate
struggle he was having. It bent and twisted, sagging with sudden
irresolution, writhing with stubborn obduracy, straightening and shaking
itself at times in a wave of firmness and confidence, only to quail once
more before the sight that met his eyes. He couldn't believe that Lee Fu
would hold the course. 'Only another moment!' he kept crying to himself.
'Hold on a little longer!' Yet his will had been sapped by the long
hours of the night and the terror of the dawn; and courage, which with
him had rested only on the sands of ostentation, had crumbled long ago.

"I turned away, overcome by a sickening sensation; I couldn't look
longer. Lee Fu waited tensely, peering ahead and to windward with
lightning glances. A wave caught us, flung us forward. Suddenly I heard
him cry out at my side in exultation as he bore down on the tiller. The
cry was echoed from forward by a loud scream that shot like an arrow
through the thunder. Wilbur had sunk beside the rail. The sampan fell
off, carried high on the wave.

"Then, in a moment like the coming of death, we plunged into the reef. I
have no knowledge of what took place--and there are no words to tell the
story. Solid water swamped us; the thunder of the surf stopped the mind.
But we didn't touch, there was a way through, we had crossed the outer
margin of the reef. We ran the terrible gauntlet of the reef, surrounded
on every hand by towering breakers, lost in the appalling roar of the
elements. Without warning, we were flung between a pair of jagged ledges
and launched bodily on the surface of a concealed lagoon.

"A low rocky island lay in the center of the nest of reefs, with a
stretch of open water to leeward of it, all completely hidden from view
until that moment. The open water ran for perhaps a couple of miles;
beyond it the surf began again in another unbroken line. It would take
us ten minutes to cross the lagoon.

"'Bring Captain Wilbur,' said Lee Fu.

"I crept forward, where Wilbur lay beside the rail, his arm around a
stanchion. He was moaning to himself as if he'd been injured. I kicked
him roughly; he lifted an ashen face.

"'Come aft--you're wanted,' I cried.

"He followed like a dog. Lee Fu, at the tiller, beckoned us to stand
beside him; I pulled Wilbur up by the slack of h