"For my part, I was cruelly afraid. Without clear comprehension, I felt the tremendous significance of the moment, perceived that the crisis had come in the battle of the wills. One or the other of them must break now; but if it didn’t happen shortly, there would be no time left in which to record the triumph. My eyes met Lee Fu’s for an instant, as he swept the retreating shore. He threw some message into the glance—but I had passed beyond the range of understanding. It seemed to me that he was excited, even elated, and as calm as ever—as if he’d found those marks he had been looking for, as if he knew his ground. "The deafening roar of the breakers filled our ears smothering the voice of the storm like an outburst of heavy artillery. I turned away, overcome by a sickening sensation. I couldn’t bear to look any longer. Instead, I found myself watching Lee Fu. He waited tensely, peering ahead and to windward with lightning glances. A wave caught us, flung us forward. Suddenly I heard him cry out at my side in exultation, as he bore down on the tiller. The cry was echoed from forward by a loud scream that shot like an arrow through the thunder, where Wilbur had sunk beside the rail. The sampan fell off, still carried high on the crest of the wave.... "Then, in a moment like the coming of death, we plunged into the reef. I have no knowledge of what took place; there are no words to tell the story. Solid water swamped us; the thunder of the surf crushed the mind.... But we didn’t strike, there was a way through, we had crossed the outer margin of the reef. The sampan emerged from the breakers, remained afloat, slowly became manageable. The wind caught us again. Ahead stretched the suggestion of a channel. Ten minutes passed, ten minutes that seemed like as many ages, while we ran the terrible gauntlet of the reef, surrounded by towering breakers, lost in the appalling steady roar of the elements. Suddenly, without warning, we were flung between a pair of jagged ledges and launched forward bodily on the surface of an open lagoon. "A low rocky island lay in the centre of the nest of reefs, a stretch of open water to leeward of it, all completely hidden from view until that moment. The open water ran for perhaps a couple of miles; beyond that, again, the surf began in another unbroken line. It would take us ten minutes to cross this lagoon ... another interlude. "’Bring Captain Wilbur’ said Lee Fu in my ear. "I crept forward, where Wilbur lay beside the rail, his arm around a stanchion. He was moaning to himself like an injured man. I kicked him roughly; he lifted an ashen face. "’Come aft—you’re wanted’ I cried. "He followed like a whipped cur. Lee Fu, at the tiller, beckoned us to stand beside him. I pulled Wilbur up by the slack of the coat, and pinned him against the cross-rail.