At last it came—N-Night they called it. The tide was right. There was no moon. There was a brisk off-shore wind. Slowly they poled the proa down to the sea. The great lateen sail was hoisted. Close in the lee of the shore it caught little wind, but farther out it bellied to a strong breeze, and the proa gained speed.
While moonless, the night was clear. They set a course due south, the Southern Cross their lodestar. They had fashioned a crude log and log line, and while the knots were running they tried to estimate their speed. Sarina guessed twelve knots. She was not far off.
"If this wind holds," she said, "we'll be well off the southern tip of Nassau Island before 2:00 o'clock tomorrow morning. Then we'll take a southwesterly course. I want to get out of the coastal waters of Sumatra and Java before we swing to the southeast toward Australia. This way we'll give Engano a wide berth. Then there'll be only the Cocos Islands to worry about, as far as land is concerned. I don't know if the Japs have anything on Cocos."
"Are they the same as the Keeling Islands?" asked Jerry.
"Yes, but my father always called them the Cocos Islands because he said Keeling was 'a damned Englishman.'" She laughed, and so did Tarzan.
"Nobody loves an Englishman," he said. "But I'm not so sure that Keeling was an Englishman."
"There's a light at 2:00 o'clock," said Davis.
"Probably on Nassau," said Sarina. "Let's hope so, for if it isn't, it's a ship's light; and we don't want any business with ships."
"I don't think their ships would be showing any lights," said Jerry. "There are too many Allied subs in these waters."
Morning found them in an empty ocean—just a vast, round cauldron of tumbling gray water. The wind had freshened, and great seas were running. S/Sgt. Rosetti was sick. Between spasms he remarked, "I got a half-wit cousin. He joined the Navy." After a while he said, "It won't be long now. This crate won't stand much more, and it can't come too soon to suit me. This is the first time in my life I ever wanted to die." Then he leaned over the rail and heaved again.
"Cheer up, Shrimp," said Bubonovitch. "It won't be long now before we go ashore on Australia—maybe only a month or so."
"Geeze!" groaned Rosetti.
"You will get over being sick pretty soon, Tony," said Sarina.
"Some admirals always get sick when they first go to sea after shore duty," said Tarzan.
"I don't want to be an admiral. I joins up for air, 'and what do I get? For couple or three months I been a doughboy; now I'm a gob. Geeze!" He leaned over the rail again.
"Poor Tony," said Sarina.
The long days passed. The wind veered into the southeast. The southeast trade wind that would blow for ten months had started. Sarina took long tacks, first to starboard and then to port. It was slow going, but their luck had held. They were well past the Keeling Islands now, and no sign of enemy shipping.
Douglas, who had been standing his trick as lookout, had come aft. "It's an awful lot of water," he said. "Flying it, it seems terrible big— the Pacific, I mean; but down here on the surface it seems like there isn't anything in the world but water; and this is only the Indian Ocean, which ain't a drop in the bucket alongside the Pacific. It makes you feel pretty small and insignificant."
"There's sure a lot of water in the world," agreed van der Bos.
"Three quarters of the whole surface of the Earth is water," said Corrie.
"And the Pacific has a greater area than all the land surfaces of the Earth combined," said Jerry.
"If I owned it," said Rosetti, "I'd trade the whole damn works for any old street corner in Chi."
"What I don't like about it," said Douglas, "is the total absence of scenery. Now, in California—"
"He's off again," said Bubonovitch.
"But he's got something just the same," said Davis. "Gawd! how I'd like to see a cow—just one measly little cow deep in the heart of Texas."
"I'll settle for land, any old land, right now," said Rosetti. "Even Brooklyn would look good. I might even settle down there. I'm fed up on travelin'."
"Travel is broadening, Shrimp," said Bubonovitch. "Just look what it's done for you. You like a Britisher, you love a dame, and you have learned to speak fairly intelligible English, thanks to Sarina."
"I ain't getting broadened much lately," objected Rosetti. "We ain't seen nothing but water for weeks. I'd like to see something else."
"Smoke at eleven o'clock!" called Jerry, who had gone forward as lookout. Sarina smiled. The airmen's method of indicating direction always amused her, but she had to admit that it was practical.
Everybody looked in the direction indicated where a black smudge was showing just above the horizon.
"Maybe you're going to see something beside water now, Shrimp," said Davis. "Your wish was granted in a hurry."
"That must be a ship," called Jerry, "and I think we'd better hightail it out of here."
"Toward five o'clock?" asked Sarina.
"Keerect," said Jerry, "and pronto."
They came about and sailed before the wind in a northwesterly direction, every eye on that ominous black smudge. "It might be British," said Corrie, hopefully.
"It might be," agreed Tak, "but we can't take any chances. It might just as well be Jap."
For what seemed a long time there was no noticeable change in the appearance of the thing they watched so fearfully; then Tarzan's keen eyes discerned the superstructure of a ship rising above the horizon. He watched closely for a few minutes. "It is going to cut right across our course," he said. "It will pass astern, but they're bound to sight us."
"If it's Jap," said Sarina, "it's bound for Sumatra or Java. Our only chance is to hold this course and pray—pray for wind and more wind. If it's one of those little Jap merchant ships, we can outrun it if the wind picks up. Or if we can just hold our lead until after dark, we can get away."
The proa seemed never to have moved more slowly. Straining eyes watched the menace grow larger, as the hull of a ship climbed over the rim of the world. "It's like a bad dream," said Corrie, "where something horrible is chasing you, and you can't move. And the wind is dying."
"You guys ain't prayin' hard enough," said Rosetti.
"All I can remember," said Davis, "is 'now I lay me down to sleep,' and I can't remember all of that."
A sudden gust of wind bellied the great sail, and the speed of the proa increased noticeably. "Somebody hit the jack pot," said Douglas.
But the strange ship continued to gain on them. "She's changed course," said Tarzan. "She's heading for us." A moment later he said, "I can see her colors now. She's a Jap all right."
"I should have gone to church like Mom always wanted me to," said Davis. "I might have learned some good prayers. But if I can't pray so good," he said a moment later, "I sure can shoot good." He picked up his rifle and slipped a clip into the magazine.
"We can all shoot good," said Jerry, "but we can't sink a ship with what we got to shoot with."
"That's a small, armed merchantman," said Tarzan. "She probably carries 20-mm anti-aircraft guns and .30 caliber machine guns."
"I guess we're out gunned," said Bubonovitch, with a wry grin.
"The effective range of the 20s is only about 1200 yards," said Jerry. "These pop guns will do better than that. We ought to be able to get a few Nips before they finish us off—that is if you folks want to fight." He looked around at them. "We can surrender, or we can fight. What do you say?"