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The whole vein of Negro quartz had been cut out of three sides, leaving caves that simulated catacombs. Further west another excavation in the same kind of rock was probably the town-quarry. The two lieutenants were directed next morning to survey this place, and also a second ruin and reef reported to be found on the left bank, a little below camp.
Oh, Reggie, I tried to get to her to release her, but that brute raised his pistol and pointed it at her, saying, `If you offer to touch her, I'll blow her brains out! If you want to gain her release, tell me what you know about the working of this ship, and as soon as we are outside the reef you may release the child. "What could I do, Reggie?
"Yes, I fancy that is so," came more graciously from the still irate gentleman. "Then all stations are not alike. That compass station at Bell Reef, for example, that you were asking me about yesterday; the government lays out specific duties and makes special rules for such a station, as in fact it does for all radio stations.
Khor Shinab is a well-known resort for slave-trading craft; small boats can easily hide in its narrow creeks and escape observation. We stayed two days while the sails were mended on the shore, and it was hours and hours before the anchor that was in the reef could be got up and fastened to the dry land.
We kept working to windward all night, between that extensive reef to the westward, and those small keys and reefs which lay between us and the land, and of which I have since observed, Captain Cook, in his sketch, takes no notice; the outer reef he marks, but leaves a large open space between it and the land, which describes the reef to be a round cluster of rocks above and under water: he probably had not an opportunity of observing this dangerous place so near to the land as we had: there may be a channel to the leeward between the inner end of this reef and the shore, but it had very little the appearance of it; as we saw many low shrubby islands between us and the shore, to which they were probably connected by a reef under water, which, at the distance we were from it, could not be ascertained.
Too many sharks had come inside the reef. That was the trouble. A young girl and an old man had been eaten by them. And of the young men who dared dive for lobsters, one was eaten, and one lost an arm, and another lost one hand and one foot. "But there was Keikiwai, the Water Baby, only eleven years old, but half fish himself and talking the language of fishes.
As I entered, the gentleman came forward. "Miss Reef, Mr. Bristed," said my companion, by way of introduction. So this was my employer. As he stood before me, I surveyed him; a well-formed gentleman, above the ordinary height, with pale complexion, set off by dark, penetrative eyes; a shapely head covered with long, heavy masses of straight dark hair.
The place had changed in some subtle manner; everything was there as before, yet everything seemed different the lagoon seemed narrower, the reef nearer, the cocoa-palms not nearly so tall. She was contrasting the real things with the recollection of them when seen by a child. The black speck had vanished from the reef; the storm had swept it utterly away.
Then Dick caught the line thrown him and with some trouble dragged the end of the hawser on board. He was surprised to find that it was not broken, but he waved his hand to the others as he drove the launch ahead, steering for the beach, near which he expected to find a passage through the reef.
"We are pulling, mate, as hard as we can," answered the men from the other boats. If we had any doubts of it before it was now clear enough that an unusually strong current was setting us towards the reef, even faster than we could pull away from it. Whenever the men showed any signs of relaxing their efforts Harry came to the bows and cheered them on, leaving Dick to steer.
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