She held it to this course until there came a brief lull. Then again she took up a direct course toward the shore.
The lull was short-lived. Soon the wind was once again cracking about their ears and the boat was bouncing like a cork.
With lips set in a straight line and every muscle drawn tight as a bow string, Lena braced herself for the task that lay before her.
Dark clouds engulfed them like a shroud. Waves, reaching for the boat and missing, gave forth serpent-like hisses as they broke into foam.
Suddenly Norma’s lips parted for a scream of warning. The scream failed. A fierce gust of wind drove it down her throat. Before them, so close it seemed they could not miss, were two jagged piles of gray rock.
“Like the jaws of a giant sea serpent,” she told herself with a shudder.
She stole a look at Lena. She was like a statue. Her strong arms were rigid. One moment they raced toward one reef, the next they had whirled half about and were racing for the other. Then, as a great wave, white with foam, hit them, they were lifted high to be shot forward in a mass of foam.
“Made it,” Norma heard the astonishing Lena murmur.
It became apparent at once that this reef formed a barrier that held the water back for, once across it, they found themselves in calmer waters.
Lena’s answer to this was full speed ahead and not one of them dared cry: