s for Captain Nichols, he, also, is at
my mercy. Ah, here are the raincoats. Put one on, Captain Wilbur; you
will need it sorely before your return. Now we must hurry. I would be
clear of the harbor before darkness entirely falls.'

"Issuing from the doorway, the gale caught us with a swirl that carried
us around the corner and down a side street. 'To the right!' Lee Fu
shouted. Wilbur, lurching ahead, obeyed sullenly. We came about and made
for the water front through the fringe of the Chinese quarter, the most
remarkable trio, perhaps, that had ever threaded those familiar
thoroughfares.

"Overhead, the sky had settled low on the slope of the Peak. We
floundered on, enveloped in a gray gloom like that of an eclipse. When
we reached the water front the face of the bay had undergone a sinister
change, its yellow-green waters lashed into sickly foam and shrouded by
an unnatural gleaming darkness. A distant moaning sound ran through the
upper air, vague yet distinctly audible. The center of the typhoon was
headed in our direction.

"As we staggered along the quay, my thoughts worked rapidly. I saw the
plan now, and recognized the dangerous nature of the undertaking on
which we'd embarked. It was to be a game of bluff, in which we would
have to risk our lives if the other held his ground.

"I edged toward Lee Fu. 'Will you go on the water?' I asked in his ear.

"He nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on Wilbur ahead.

"'But it can't be done,' I told him. 'A boat won't live.'

"'There is always a definite alternative,' he replied abruptly.

"'Yes--that we sink.'

"'Exactly.'

"All at once, in a flash of enlightenment, the greatness of the occasion
came to me. By Jove! He had taken the matter in his own hands; he had
stepped in when the gods had failed. But he had observed the divine
proprieties; had seen that if he presumed to act for the gods he must
throw his own life, as well, into the balance. He must run every risk.
It was for them, after all, to make the final choice. He was only
forcing action on the gods.

"I gazed at him in wonder. He advanced stiffly against the storm,
walking like an automaton. Beneath the close pulled rim of a black
sou'wester his smooth oval countenance looked ridiculously vacant, like
the face of a placid moon. He was the only calm object on earth, sea or
sky; against the lashing rain, the dancing boats, the scudding clouds,
the hurried shadows of appearing and vanishing men, he stood