"Better run out toward the reef and approach from that side," said the doctor, after considering for a few moments the difficulties of their position. For they were literally in the dark, and did not know but what they might be running into danger--that from the canoes which must be attacking the crew, or that of getting into their friends' line of fire. As the doctor kept a sharp look-out, he helped to lay the wounded man in a more easy position, and bathed his head and face with the comparatively cool water; but the poor fellow showed no sign of revival, and Jack's face grew more anxious, the doctor's graver and more stern. At the end of a few minutes they had passed out of the smoke cloud, which was still increasing from the firing going on and the fumes rolling out of the funnel, and they could now grasp the position of affairs. The steamer still lay at anchor, and she was engaging half-a-dozen long canoes, whose occupants were raining arrows upon the deck, and every now and then, with terrible temerity, they were paddled rapidly near enough to hurl their spears at any one they could see. "Well, we must risk it, and get on board somehow," said the doctor. "Give way, my lads, and pull for your lives. I'll steer as well under cover as I can. Jack, lad, keep on bathing the poor fellow's face." The men began pulling with all their might, and the nearer they drew to the yacht, naturally the better cover they secured, though, as Jack sat dipping his handkerchief in the sea from time to time, and laying it upon Ned's burning head, he wondered that one or other of the canoes did not come round to meet them and cut them off. Probably they were too much occupied by their own troubles, for, stung at last by the vicious attack into fierce reprisals, the yacht was giving the savages ample proof of her power. "Don't fire at them with rifles," Sir John had said, "it is only slaughtering the poor ignorant wretches. Give them some good sharp lesson that shall teach them to respect an English vessel come upon a peaceful mission." "There is only one, sir," said the captain quietly. "Sink two or three of the canoes with round-shot." "You feel that it is absolutely necessary?" asked Sir John. "So necessary, that if we do not do that they will for certain board us, and as they are about fifty to one, we shall not be here to-morrow to tell the tale." Sir John hesitated no longer, and just as the boat was racing for the yacht, the firing had begun, the former shots having been with blank cartridge, in the vain hope of scaring the enemy away. The boat was now sighted from the yacht's deck, and a faint cheer reached Jack's ears as they sped over the water. But while they were still some three hundred yards from the gangway, one of the great canoes suddenly started away from the others, and with the paddles making the water flash and foam, came round the yacht's bows and made a dash for the solitary little boat to cut her off.