They were now opposite the rocks that they had striven to pass, while the prau, lighter in construction, was a hundred yards away. The hissing, rushing sound of the retiring water was terrible, and in blank despair in face of this awful convulsion of nature all gazed wildly before them, when all at once there was a sharp shock, the cutter heeled over a little, and this time there could be no mistake, she had struck upon the rocks of the north point or arm of Crater Bay, and the sea was retiring from them and leaving them fast.
Chapter Forty Six.
How Safety was won.
The captain recovered himself, but he was helpless in such an emergency, and no words passed. There was nothing to be done but wait.
“Are we in great danger, father?” whispered Mark, taking his hand.
“Yes, my boy, in great danger,” replied the captain in a solemn whisper. “I can do no more.”
“What is the great danger?” said the major quietly. “That,” said the captain, pointing seaward. “The water retires like this, only to come back in force. There: it is coming back.”
They needed no telling, for the awful roar of the earthquake wave announced its coming, and with it as they remained fixed and helpless upon the rock they could see the prau, after being sucked out, as it were, for nearly a quarter of a mile, being carried back at terrific speed. There was a fascination in the scene of the others’ peril that took away from their own, though, had they paused to think, it must have been to realise that the cutter would be lifted up by the coming wave and dashed upon the black perpendicular rocks at the head of the bay.