WHEREIN TEMPEST STAYS BEHIND
the sea, and, as soon as the sun rose, the sky was of the same brilliant blue as before.
Of the Manihiki, however, there was nothing to be seen. Lifted from her rocky bed by giant waves, she had slid off the reef and now lay many fathoms below the surface.
The men began to grow restless as time wore on. They did not face with calmness the prospect of being marooned indefinitely.
"If we 've got to die, we'd rather do it putting up a fight to get somewhere in the long-boat than lying around here, Cap'n," said one of the men while the subject was being threshed out.
"I quite agree with you," said the skipper, "though I would n't give much for the chances of the boat if another tornado like the last one comes along and hits her. Still, it's no use waiting here like rats in a trap when there is a run of only about four hundred miles to Suva in the Fijis."
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