“’Tain’t much past two bells,” Stump hastened to answer. “Wind’s hauling to northward. I was a-going to tell you if you were awake.” The captain grunted. Stump waited in silence. No answer. The captain was again asleep. Stump moved, this time more cautiously, up the hatch. The night was dark. The sky, brilliant with stars, accentuated the shrouded deep. Undefined shadowy shapes above the southern horizon Stump knew to be the high mountain range of the islands of Ukula. Within an hour’s time lights made their appearance. As time wore on more and more lights sprang up from the sea. Stump, despite the fear of his master’s vengeance, smiled grimly. These lights were in the town of Ukula and on board the anchored war-ships. The “Talofa” was being drawn as by a loadstone to its deserved retribution. The lights came nearer. Stump glanced anxiously at the clock inside the companion hatch. The hands pointed to quarter past nine o’clock. Now he thought he could hear the thunder of the surf beating upon the reef. Mata seemed wrapped in characteristic native reserve. If he saw the lights ahead, he considered them not his concern. “Fishing on the reef at Saluafata,” Stump said finally to relieve the tension on his own nerves. Mata gazed fixedly at the lights for nearly a minute. “Ukula,” he exclaimed, nodding his head in that direction. “More better you speak cap’n.” “It can’t be Ukula,” Stump exclaimed, his voice feigning surprise at the suggestion. “Big reef, plenty sharks. Cap’n Scott smell the channel, you no can see.” Mata gave his advice in short sentences. As the “Talofa” approached, Stump’s nerve began to fail him. To wreck the schooner was more than he contemplated, yet if Mata could recognize Ukula, Captain Scott surely would at the first glance and defeat the plan. To call Captain Scott now would end in putting the schooner about and steering out to sea. Stump then would have risked his captain’s anger for no end. The would-be navigator had been confident that he could find the narrow entrance between the reefs, but with the glare of lights in his eyes, his mind was in utter bewilderment. He was in momentary terror of hearing the roar of the surf under the “Talofa’s” bow and the grinding of her keel on the treacherous reef. “Shark,” Mata exclaimed pointing to a monster black fin, traveling along near at hand to leeward of the schooner. Stump was seized with a sudden wild panic. His motor nerves became paralyzed. The confusion of lights and the ever increasing roar of the surf caused his knees to tremble and his heart to almost stop beating. A voice behind him, which a few minutes earlier would have brought terror to his soul, now fell like sweet music upon his ear.