atoll, and all the
schooners were bucking and plunging into it. The _Malahini_ had begun
shoving her bow and fo'c'sle head under the bigger ones, and at times
her waist was filled rail-high with water.

"Now's the time for your engine!" Grief bellowed; and Captain Warfield,
crawling over to where the engineer lay, shouted emphatic commands.

Under the engine, going full speed ahead, the _Malahini_ behaved better.
While she continued to ship seas over her bow, she was not jerked down
so fiercely by her anchors. On the other hand, she was unable to get any
slack in the chains. The best her forty horsepower could do was to ease
the strain.

Still the wind increased. The little _Nuhiva_, lying abreast of the
_Malahini_ and closer in to the beach, her engine still unrepaired and
her captain ashore, was having a bad time of it. She buried herself so
frequently and so deeply that they wondered each time if she could clear
herself of the water. At three in the afternoon buried by a second sea
before she could free herself of the preceding one, she did not come up.

Mulhall looked at Grief.

"Burst in her hatches," was the bellowed answer.

Captain Warfield pointed to the _Winifred_, a little schooner plunging
and burying outside of them, and shouted in Grief's ear. His voice came
in patches of dim words, with intervals of silence when whisked away by
the roaring wind.

"Rotten little tub... Anchors hold... But how she holds together... Old
as the ark----"

An hour later Hermann pointed to her. Her for'ard bitts, foremast, and
most of her bow were gone, having been jerked out of her by her anchors.
She swung broadside, rolling in the trough and settling by the head, and
in this plight was swept away to leeward.

Five vessels now remained, and of them the _Malahini_ was the only one
with an engine. Fearing either the _Nuhiva's_ or the _Winifdred's_
fate, two of them followed the _Roberta's_ example, knocking out the
chain-shackles and running for the passage. The _Dolly_ was the first,
but her tarpaulin was carried away, and she went to destruction on the
lee-rim of the atoll near the _Misi_ and the _Cactus_. Undeterred by
this, the _Moana_ let go and followed with the same result.

"Pretty good engine that, eh?" Captain Warfield yelled to his owner.

Grief put out his hand and shook. "She's paying for herself!" he yelled
back. "The wind's shifting around to the southward, and we ought to lie
easier!"

Slowly and