Captain Warfield gave in, but as the boat shoved off he stood up in the sternsheets and shook his fist ashore.
“I'll settle with you yet, Narii,” he cried. “You're the only skipper in the group that steals other men's sailors,” He sat down, and in lowered voice queried: “Now what's Tai-Hotauri up to? He's on to something, but what is it?”
IV
As the boat came alongside the Malahini, Hermann's anxious face greeted them over the rail.
“Bottom out fall from barometer,” he announced. “She's goin' to blow. I got starboard anchor overhaul.”
“Overhaul the big one, too,” Captain Warfield ordered, taking charge. “And here, some of you, hoist in this boat. Lower her down to the deck and lash her bottom up.”
Men were busy at work on the decks of all the schooners. There was a great clanking of chains being overhauled, and now one craft, and now another, hove in, veered, and dropped a second anchor. Like the Malahini, those that had third anchors were preparing to drop them when the wind showed what quarter it was to blow from.
The roar of the big surf continually grew though the lagoon lay in the mirror-like calm.
There was no sign of life where Parlay's big house perched on the sand. Boat and copra-sheds and the sheds where the shell was stored were deserted.