"'Nichols, we're lost!' I heard him cry in my ear. The voice was uneven, plaintive; it made me angry, and revived a few sparks of my own courage.
"'What of it?' I cried harshly 'Turner was lost, too'
"'You believe that?...'
"I looked at him point-blank; his eyes suddenly shifted, he couldn't face me now.
"'Why don't you own up, before it's too late?' I shouted at him.
"Without answering he moved away hastily, like innocence offended. But the strong man was gone, the air of perfect confidence had disappeared; he was shattered and spent, but not yet broken. Pride is a more tenacious quality than courage; men with hearts of water, with their knees knocking together, will continue to function through self-esteem. Besides, what would have been the use now, as he saw it, to make confession? Nothing, apparently, could save us; there was no shelter, no hope in sight....
"Looking above his head, where the sky and the sea met in a blanket of flying spume, I caught sight for an instant of something that resembled the vague form of a headland. Watching closely, I saw it again—unmistakeably the shadow of land, broad on the port bow.... Land! That meant that the wind had shifted to southward, that we were being blown against the shore. And that, in turn, meant that the centre of the typhoon had passed inland, behind Hong Kong, and would issue into the China Sea somewhere down the coast.
"I worked my way cautiously aft, where Lee Fu stood like a man of iron at the tiller, lashed to a heavy cross-rail that must have been constructed for such occasions. He saw me coming, leaned slightly toward me.
"'Land!' I shouted, pointing on the port bow.
"He nodded vigorously, disclosing that he'd already seen it. '... Recognize...' The rest of his answer was blown away by the storm.