This seemed good reasoning, and the two boys went below where they snatched a few hours' sleep. It seemed only a minute to Chris from the time he lay down in his hammock, knowing he was too excited to sleep, until Ned Cilley was at his side with a lantern, bringing food for Amos and himself. "Best eat up, lads," Ned told them, "and join the Captain, sez he to me, for land is just ahead and the Captain do be waiting you on the bridge, Chris, me lad." The food was bolted down in no time and Chris, feeling fresh and alert, ran up to the warm darkness of the bridge. To his surprise the usual lanterns were not lit; only a small shaded light shed its rays on the compass near the wheel. At his questioning look Captain Blizzard muttered: "Impossible to tell how close behind the _Venture_ may be. We have come quickly, but they have the faster ship. I have no wish to give them more clue than necessary as to where we may be." He looked keenly toward the bow, his hands clasped behind his back. "Land is off the starboard quarter, and Abner Cloud is out on the bowsprit looking for the reef. We have passed our anchorage--they expected us, or some other ship, for fires were lit on shore. Sail has been taken in; we are going slowly and will soon be there, by my reckoning." His eyes grown used to the dark, Chris now saw that it was a remarkably light night. There was no moon, but a myriad of stars gave a clear pallid sheen to the sea. Chris, looking to his left, could make out the blacker mass against the stars that was Tahiti. The _Mirabelle_ was close inshore, and the scent of hot sand from the beaches, of flowers and of plants, made Chris take many deep grateful breaths. "May I go forward and be with Abner?" he asked the Captain. "Aye," replied that good man, for by this time Chris was as surefooted as any sailor and for the last month or more had been clambering barefoot in the rigging with the best of them. "Aye lad," the Captain told him, "and hurry. Happen your eyes are sharper than Abner's. Sing out when you spy the reef. We will heave to, and then God be with you, my lad, to find us out the channel to the cove!" Chris ran forward to the bow of the _Mirabelle_, and out along the bowsprit where, at the tip, he could see the long form of Abner Cloud stretched out at full length. They murmured a greeting and waited, eyes straining ahead. Then both saw the phosphorus gleam and fade, gleam and fade as the waves broke over the coral. Eerie jade-green and white-gold, the phosphorus shone in the starlight. "Reef-ho!" sang out Abner, and the sound of his shout was echoed back from the closeness of the shore in faint dangerous mockery. "_Reef-ho!_" "Reef-ho!" came a third time from the bridge, and then "Heave-ho!" thundered Captain Blizzard. "Drop anchor, lads!" Abner left his place to go back and lend a hand, and in his sudden solitude Chris grasped a rope and swung down to the water.