“Ukula,” he exclaimed, nodding his head in that direction. “More better you speak cap’n.”
“It can’t be Ukula,” Stump exclaimed, his voice feigning surprise at the suggestion.
“Big reef, plenty sharks. Cap’n Scott smell the channel, you no can see.” Mata gave his advice in short sentences.
As the “Talofa” approached, Stump’s nerve began to fail him. To wreck the schooner was more than he contemplated, yet if Mata could recognize Ukula, Captain Scott surely would at the first glance and defeat the plan. To call Captain Scott now would end in putting the schooner about and steering out to sea. Stump then would have risked his captain’s anger for no end. The would-be navigator had been confident that he could find the narrow entrance between the reefs, but with the glare of lights in his eyes, his mind was in utter bewilderment. He was in momentary terror of hearing the roar of the surf under the “Talofa’s” bow and the grinding of her keel on the treacherous reef.
“Shark,” Mata exclaimed pointing to a monster black fin, traveling along near at hand to leeward of the schooner.
Stump was seized with a sudden wild panic. His motor nerves became paralyzed. The confusion of lights and the ever increasing roar of the surf caused his knees to tremble and his heart to almost stop beating. A voice behind him, which a few minutes earlier would have brought terror to his soul, now fell like sweet music upon his ear.
“What’s the meaning of this, Mr. Stump?” Captain Scott’s tone, though quiet, betrayed great concern. “Shorten sail, sir!” he shouted. “We must be nearly on the reef.” Then of a sudden the situation dawned upon Captain Scott. Stump was energetically kicking the sleeping sailors to wakefulness, bawling out his orders to “let go the gear” and “man the down-hauls.”
“Great guns!” the captain cried aghast. “It’s Ukula.”
Mata grunted an affirmative.
“Bear a hand there.” Captain Scott’s voice could be heard above the thunder of flapping canvas. “Douse everything. Get this speed off her.” He glanced anxiously into the compass; the schooner was on her course.