Watching them, but with my eyes fixed on a single
tree, I saw that treedisappear suddenly!
Pratt sits with his back toa house post and smokes
cigarettes. Then, all at once, I became aware of the vague shapes of coconuts bowed
awayfrom the wind.
Ten yards from where I sit great hurricane seas are
eating away the land.
At least nine out of every ten coconut trees had
been uprooted orblown down. I believed we were about to die in a wild nightmare of
churning seas andtumbling masses of trees.
Then the water subsided; and then suddenly
quietness! ThereI swung the ends of my life rope around the tree and held myself
tightlyagainst it. The wind has been in the east-northeast today and seems to have
settledthere.
They took the raw stuff like little martyrs. Some
god must have looked down on us and saved us, for the house did notcollapse
immediately.
Now and again one would be caught by a downgust
ofwind and dashed into the water.
We did not try to speak, forit is unlikely that we
could have made ourselves heard.
There, perched in the doorway, his chin to his
knees, we found Pratt. Now and again one would be caught by a downgust ofwind and
dashed into the water.
For a few moments Anchorage Island had beenreduced
in size to about five acres!
She was rolled up like a baby sloth, and bundled,
headand all, in her quilt. Inoticed that the wharf, for the moment, was entirely
under water. The tamanu treeswere growing out of the sea itself growing out of a sea
in turmoilindescribable. There, perched in the doorway, his chin to his knees, we
found Pratt. Powell has taken charge of the ground-house, where tonight he is
sleepingagain with the children.
Three men and four children are in this tiny house
measuring six feet byeight. When Pratt had taken a few swallows of rum I forced
Elaine and Jakey todrink. The storm center must have been close to us during those
three hours. Already half of your Anchorage Island has been swept away.
The great combers hurled themselvesbeneath us
almost continuously.
Elaine was laughing, but the other children
seemedbewildered. Even if we have a hurricane it will be nothing tocomplain about.
There was no sign of the wharf; theturmoil of water was indescribable. What if the
anchor chains parted whilewe were aboard?
Then, my eyesclosed to slits, I peered into the
driving rain to see that the tree hadfallen!