A sudden shout. I awakened. It was just daybreak. Straight ahead was a wild white line of surf. It broke over a long, low coral reef, and just behind it was a high cliff. We had run into a strong current during the night. Krauss had awakened just in time to see that it had carried us perilously near the reef. The wind was sweeping us toward the breakers. "Raise sail," I shouted. We scrambled frantically and raised the canvas. The wind was inshore. We could not head into it. We were being blown slowly, inexorably on to the reef. People accustomed to the surfs along ordinary coasts have no idea of what breakers are like off the islands of the South Pacific. The surf all over the Pacific is particularly strong. But when it breaks over a mid-oceanic coral reef nothing can live in it. The strongest swimmer is sure to be dashed to pieces against the jagged coral. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration: The Sea Devil is caught again. With bayonets at his back they strip him of his weapons.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration: The Sea Devil and Kircheiss as prisoners on the New Zealand isle of Motuihi. The New Zealand colonel in whose uniform Von Luckner made his sensational escape] --------------------------------------------------------------------- And there wasn't the slightest hope of our moving against the wind and backing away from the reef. Slowly, slowly we were nearing it. The breakers roared like thunder. In a few moments, we would be flung into that death trap of water and coral. Pistol in hand, I shouted something to the effect that I didn't intend to be ground to death by the breakers on that jagged coral. The others looked for their pistols. One could not find his. Between the pull of the current and the power of our sails, we were drifting along the reef, edging toward it. The wind gave us an extra push. We were in the backwash, only a few yards away from the breakers. And still one man could not find his pistol. Instinctively, we all waited. And that was what saved our lives. Suddenly we saw the reef drop away, slanting back at a sharp angle, and a moment later we were drifting parallel to the coral.