"For the fraction of a second he hesitated; then all resolution went out in his eyes like a dying flame. He extended his arm rigidly, and loosed the notes. They were gone down the wind almost before our eyes could follow them. "In the same instant, Lee Fu flung down the great tiller. The sampan came into the wind with a shock that threw us all to the deck. Close under our lee quarter lay the breakers, less than a couple of hundred yards away. Lee Fu made frantic signals forward, where the crew were watching us in a state of utter terror. I felt the centreboard drop; a patch of sail rose slowly on the mainmast. The boat answered, gathered headway, drove forward.... "It was just in time. We had run past the low island, and couldn’t hope to regain its shelter in such a gale; but a pile of tumbled rocks lay off its leeward end, carving out a small sub-zone of protection. This spot we might be able to fetch, if we managed to escape the clutch of the breakers. Escape them we did, after a hair-raising five minutes, and threw out our anchors in the most precarious berth ever afforded, with our stern brushing the very fringe of the breakers. But the anchors held; and there we rode until the storm was over. "Wilbur lay as he had fallen after the sampan’s frantic plunge. He made no movement; and we, on our part, left him where he was" *X* "Two nights later, under a clear starry sky, we slipped through Lymoon Pass on the tail of the land breeze. Before we reached Wanchi, it fell flat calm. We shipped the long sweeps and began to row; the chattering crew, who’d never expected to see Hong Kong again, fell to work willingly. The lights of the city twinkled against the Peak, the sleeping fleet swung at anchor in the landlocked harbour; all was silence and tranquillity ... as we see it now. But that night, let me tell you, the familiar scene was invested with a poignant charm. At length we reached the bulkhead, from which we’d taken our maniac departure three days before, and settled in our berth as comfortably as if we’d just returned from a pleasure trip down the bay.