"'What is it I must say?' he cried hoarsely, in a voice that by its very abasement had taken on a certain dignity.
"'You know. The truth, or nothing!'
"His face was shocking in its self-revelation; a strong man breaking isn't a pleasant object. I saw how awful had been this struggle of the wills. He came to his final decision as we watched, lost his last grip....
"'I did it—as you said—you must know all about it. I suppose I sank her—I had no intention ... You madman! For God's sake, haul up, before you're in the breakers!'
"'Show me your insurance money' said Lee Fu inexorably.
"Wilbur dug frantically in an inside pocket, produced a packet of bank notes, and held them out in a hand that trembled violently as the gale fluttered the crisp leaves.
"'Throw them overboard'
"For the fraction of a second he hesitated; then all resolution went out in his eyes like a dying flame. He extended his arm rigidly, and loosed the notes. They were gone down the wind almost before our eyes could follow them.
"In the same instant, Lee Fu flung down the great tiller. The sampan came into the wind with a shock that threw us all to the deck. Close under our lee quarter lay the breakers, less than a couple of hundred yards away. Lee Fu made frantic signals forward, where the crew were watching us in a state of utter terror. I felt the centreboard drop; a patch of sail rose slowly on the mainmast. The boat answered, gathered headway, drove forward....
"It was just in time. We had run past the low island, and couldn't hope to regain its shelter in such a gale; but a pile of tumbled rocks lay off its leeward end, carving out a small sub-zone of protection. This spot we might be able to fetch, if we managed to escape the clutch of the breakers. Escape them we did, after a hair-raising five minutes, and threw out our anchors in the most precarious berth ever afforded, with our stern brushing the very fringe of the breakers. But the anchors held; and there we rode until the storm was over.