It was soon obvious to von Giespert and his henchman Strauss that the race was by no means a decided event. There was little doubt but that the German-owned vessel would arrive off the island first, but in the race against darkness the latter would win easily.
With the suddenness common to tropical climes, the short twilight gave place to intense darkness. There was no moon and the stars were obscured. The Titania displayed her navigation light, but the Zug apparently did not. She might have shown her port and starboard lights, but even by the aid of night-glasses no red and green blurr was visible from the Titania; nor did the leading vessel hoist a stern light. All that indicated her presence was a phosphorescent swirl in the water under her stumpy counter, and an occasional display of sparks from her funnel.
Harborough could well afford to hold on, although the low-lying reefs of Ni Telang were not so many miles away. Following in the wake of the Zug, he knew that the Hun vessel would give him fair warning of the partly-submerged danger, because if the Hun tramp piled herself upon the coral there would be sufficient time for the Titania to port her helm hard over and avoid the danger.
But presently the Zug ported her helm. She had now displayed her navigation lights, and the white and green showed two points on the Titania's starboard bow.
"She's funked it, by Jove!" ejaculated Villiers.
"And I don't blame her," added Harborough, straining his ears to catch the sound of the roar of the surf above the steady pulsations of the engines. "Now we'll have to watch her. It's like a game of musical chairs with two players for a solitary vacant seat. We'll have to keep our end up till dawn, and then we'll let them slip in."
It was an eerie night. Except those whose duties required them to be below, the Titania's crew remained on deck. Up and down on a four-mile beat parallel to the eastern side of Ni Telang the two vessels cruised, passing and repassing each other like two dogs "ready to wound and yet afraid to strike ". Occasionally the Titania played her searchlights upon the island in order to verify her position, although Harborough took good care not to let the beams bear upon the rival ship.
Shortly after midnight the Zug attempted the passage through the reef. By the aid of an Aldis lamp in her bows she cautiously approached the gap in the line of foam that showed ghastly-white in the tropical darkness. But almost at the moment of success Strauss's nerve failed him, and, reversing engines, the German vessel backed away.
At length Harborough consulted the luminous dial of his wristlet watch.
"It'll be dawn in another ten minutes," he announced. "We'll carry on a little longer than usual on this course, and let them think we've been caught napping."