A RACE WITH DEATH 157 
roar of the sea and the howl of the wind. We could do noth- 
ing but stand there and watch, and as the lightning flashed, 
we looked for breakers ahead. 
“After we had run a given distance we altered our course, 
and started to cross the famous Bougainville Strait. I have 
heard old hands and sea captains speak of the roughness of 
this channel at times, but I just took it for sea yarns. Sto- 
ries are told of vessels lost; steamers have had to turn back, 
and in so doing have been damaged. Wrecked vessels lie 
along the shores of this channel. Any person who has trav- 
eled the Pacific knows of the Bougainville Strait. I shall 
never forget the night we crossed with the doctor. The 
memory of that night will be with me to my dying day. 
“The little ship raced over those huge breakers, driven 
by wind and sea. I had to slow up the engine to give the 
vessel a chance to lift by the stern. We dared not turn to 
the left or right. Our only hope was to race ahead of those 
huge waves. 
“As the lightning flashed we could see great waves break- 
ing all around us. The little vessel would one moment be 
mounted up on the top of the waves, the next moment she 
would be in the trough of a terrible sea. If at that moment 
she was allowed to veer, all would be lost. 
“Poor Moses lost his nerve many times. He said to me 
he was sure that we were on the reef because of the break- 
ers. He believed that the open sea could not break. Several 
times he thought the long curling waves would engulf us, 
but they only went racing madly by. 
“All the time we were running that race I was praying 
to the Lord that, as we neared Malo coast, He would flash 
the lightning on the shore, so that I could see it, and some- 
how I felt quite confident that as we neared the shore the 
Lord would show it to me. 
“We raced on, and then the lightning flashed out ahead 
of us to the left, and sure enough, there was the shore with 
its breaking reef, about six hundred yards off. 
