Evening star., 1926-10-17

in a thousand now" the skipper ~
marked. but let's play that for al
it's WORTH
Cheered by Toms courage and the
light ~ day. we all bucked up.
Get that storm trysail out Of the
lazarette.' I yelled to Murc as. knife
in hand. l crawled ont on the boomkin
to cut away the remnant Of the miz-
zen. Five minutes later we had set
the tiny hit OF canvas and had found
that ii helped to steady the ship con-
siderably. Then wall arose forward.
The jib. when set. had torn to ribbons
How long will the mainsail LAST"
Tom hOwled at me.
Not more than fifteen minutes"
estimated, thinking Of the great rip in
Il.
IAN right set it. Fifteen minutes
with il may pull us through" came
the word. We jumped to spread that
battered canvas.
Could we have sailed within four
and half points Of the wind we
might have scraped ny Grange Isla nd
the skipper had entertained some
f1eetinR hopes Of doing that-hut
there was no chance Of accomplish.
ing the feat under our miSerably short
sail and In those seas Soon II was
evident that we must face the unex-
plOred da ngers between the isla nd and
the reef.
SLACK away mainsail. slack away
headSails." The skipper. realizing the
futility of trying to beat ia windward.
was going to try to sail throu: h the
reefs. The Eleanor raced of before
the wind.
Nov there was. in truth. nothing
more that we could do. n the
end OF the Eleanor and those aboard
her was to come. II would come and
come soon. great calm settled over
US all.
This was suddenly Interrupted nv a
ha IL from Charlie. aloft:
Taubada. Tauhads! tmaster) him
fellow reef got hole
Charlie was fairly dancing as he
stretched an arm out over the port
bow. Hardly daring to believe him.
We all stared hard where he pointed.
At first all we could see was Just
another PERCEPTIONS line Of breakers
| that rose sheer over the reef. poised
for an instant while the piercing light
darted through the crystal.green
walls. and smashed thunderously I"
creamy foam. Then-there IT is,-
No. Yes. YES. There was patch
perhaps fifty feet wide where the
/ charging line did not break. hut rolled
! sm' othly on and in to another reef
hundred feet further inShore.
Fascinated. charmed we stared at
| this portal as the skipper swung the
bow toward Il. How ma jestically
those successive waves tramred
through it. And. oh. How dead
purple was the water that shone in
the shallow Of the troughs
Now or never. Now "r never
lows"
Lets go." 7 howled. and. In an
| one slim hope. Well we all knew our
danger. If there were FIVE feet of
| water instead of little over six over
that gateway. in two minutes the
Elean nor would be held helpless in the
gap. awaiting the infuriated strength
of the next sea.
Like a chip we rose up the face Of
that hig sea. looked down the decks
| and saw the bOwsprit plunCing into Q
subma rine garden Of coral-a garden
of magic beauty. Of fairy flowers.
"Fye-eeeeeeee" the reef was astern
and Charles yell was echoed by us
| all We We're in the open gulf.
There Is not much more to tell.
| Three hours later we limped into q
Government station up the coast
| where we rested and worked for q
| week. Then once more we headed
back into Port Moresby for more com
plete repairs. There we We're greeted
as ones from the dead we had bepn
reported lost dozen times by natives
who had glinpsed MS battling in the
mist and the foulness of the worst
months storm ever recorded in New
| Guinea