there were four men-of-war idling about a certain harbour of Samoa. One
of the vessels was the flag-ship, with its admiral on board. On one of
the other vessels was an officer who had years before explored this
harbour. It was the hurricane season. He advised the admiral not to
enter the harbour, for the indications foretold a gale, and himself was
not sure that his chart was in all respects correct, for the harbour had
been hurriedly explored and sounded. But the admiral gave orders, and
they sailed in.

"That day a tremendous hurricane came crying down upon Samoa. It swept
across the island, levelled forests of cocoa palms, battered villages to
pieces, caught that little fleet in the harbour, and played with it in a
horrible madness. To right and left were reefs, behind was the shore,
with a monstrous surf rolling in; before was a narrow passage. One
vessel made its way out--on it was the officer who had surveyed the
harbour. In the open sea there was safety. He brought his vessel down
the coast a little distance, put a rope about him and in the wild surf
made for the shore. I believe he could have been court-martialled for
leaving his ship, but he was a man who had taken a great many risks of
one kind and another in his time. It was one chance out of a hundred;
but he made it--he got to the shore, travelled down to the harbour where
the men-of-war were careening towards the reefs, unable to make the
passage out, and once again he tied a rope about him and plunged into the
surf to try for the admiral's ship. He got there terribly battered.
They tell how a big wave lifted him and landed him upon the quarter-deck
just as big waves are not expected to do. Well, like the hero in any
melodrama of the kind, he very prettily piloted monsieur the admiral and
his fleet out to the open sea."

She paused, smiling in an inscrutable sort of way, then turned and said