sage; for, although we could
not see it owing to the rain, we felt the force of the swift current
running out, and could hear the subdued roar of the dangerous tide-rips.
Tematau was for'ard, holding on to the fore-stay and peering ahead.
Suddenly he gave a cry of alarm and shouted to me to luff.

It was too late, for almost at the same time we struck with a crash, and
the current, catching the boat's stern, slewed her round broadside on to
the reef, where she lay hard and fast, though shaking in every timber
as a wall of water, hissing like a boiling cauldron, formed against her
starboard side.

Bidding the women sit quite quiet, we let go main and jib halliards and
got the sails inboard--no easy task under the circumstances. The water
was not very deep, less than three feet, and every moment was decreasing
in depth as the tide rushed out. This was fortunate for us in one
respect, for we could at least see what damage had been done when she
struck and possibly make it good; but on the other hand we should have
to stick where we were till the flood tide, and I was horribly afraid of
the rain clearing off and revealing us to the natives.

However, there was no use in meeting trouble halfway, so we waited
patiently for half an hour, when the reef became bare and we could make
an examination of the boat's bottom--on one side at least. It did not
take us long to discover that no great harm had been done--she had
struck fairly stem on to a patch of growing coral, which was better than
hard rock--and beyond carrying away a bit of her false keel, and deeply
scoring the bow planking, there was nothing else we could see at which
to grumble.

I was considering what was best to be done--the whole five of us could
not even move so heavy a boat an inch--when to my disgust the rain
suddenly cleared, and I saw that we were aground on Entrance Island,
with a native village staring us in our faces less than a quarter of
a mile away! And almost at the same moment we saw ten or a dozen men
walking over the reef towards us. Through my glasses I saw that they
were carrying nets and fish baskets, and I felt relieved at once; the
moment they saw us they dropped their burdens and came on at a run. None
of them were armed.

[Illustration: Carrying nets and fish baskets 158]

CHAPTER XII

"They are some of the king's fisherfolk," said Tepi, scanning them
closely; "that is their village, Only fishermen and two of the king's
pilots