CHAPTER lI.—THE WRECK OF THE MERSEY WITCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 71

CHAPTER lI.— THE WRECK OF THE MERSEY WITCH.

The Maori is a brown man. His hair is straight, coarse, black, and bright as jet. His eyes are brown, his teeth are pearly Arhite : and Avhen he smiles those brown eyes sparkle and those Avhito teeth gleam. A Maori's smile is one of Naiure's most complete creations.

Bxit as Enoko poked his head out of the door of the hut, his face did not display merriment. Day was breaking, yet he could see nothing but the flying scud and the dim outline of the shore ; he could hear nothing but the roar of the breakers, battering the boulders of the ocean.

He came out of the hut, his teeth chattering with the raAvncss of the morning, and made a general survey of the scene.

" It's too cold," he muttered in his own language. "There's too much wind, too much sea."

With another look at the angry breakers, he went back into ths hut. " Tahuna/' he cried, "there's no fishing to-day — tbe weather's bad."

Tahuna stirred under his blankets, sat up, and said in Maori : " 111 come and look for myself."

The two men went out into the cold morning air.

"No," said Tahuna, "it's no good ; there's a north-east gale. We had better go backtc the pa Avhen the day has wdl dawned."

The words were hardly out of his mouth, Avhen a sudden A r eering of the wind drew the scud from the sea and confined it to the crest of the rocky, wooded cliff under Avhich the Maoris stood. The sea lay exposed, grey and- foaming ; but it Avas not on the sea that the men's eyes Avere riveted. There, in the roaring, rushing tide, a ship lay helpless on the rocks.

Enoko peered, as though he mistrusted the sight of his' eye — he had but one. T-ihuna ran to the hut and called, " Come out, both of you. There's a ship on the ro"k<? !"'

From the htit isstied tAVo sleepy female forms — the one that of the chief's wife, the other that of a pretty girl. The former was a tj pical Maori wahine of. the better claso, with regular features and an abundance of long bjack hair ; the latter Avas not more than eighteen years old, of ,1 lignter complexion, full figured, and with a good-natuied face which expressed grief d-vid anxiety in eA'ery feature. " Oh !" she exclaimed, as a great ivaA T e broke OA r er the helpless ship ; "ths poor sailors 1 will be drowned. What can Are do?"'

■'Amiria," said the chief to her, "go back to the pa and tell the people to come and help. We three " — he pointed to his wife, Enoko, and himself — " will see Arhat we can do."

"No," replied the girl; "I can SAvim as Avtll as any ot you. I shall stay and help. ' She ran along the beach to the point nearest the wreck, and the others folloAred her.

Tahuna, standing in the wash of the sea, cried out 1 : ''A rope! A rope! A rope!" But his voice did not penetrate ten. yards into the face of the gale. Then all four, drenched with spray, shouted together-, with a similar result.

"If they could float a rope ashore," said the chief, " we Avould make it fast and so save them." The A-essel lay outside a big reef, which stretched between her and the shore ; her hull was almost hidden by the surf Avhich broke OA*er her, the only dry j>lace on her being the foretop, which was crowded with sailors ; and it wa& evident she must soon break up under the battering seas which swept over her continually.

" They can't swim,"' said the chief. Avith v. gesture of disgust. "The pake ha is a sheep in the water. We must go to them. Xow, remember: when you get near the ship, call out for a rope. We can drift back easily enough."'

He dropped Ihe blankets in which he was wrapped and walked seawards till the surf was up to his knees. The others followed his example, the girl standing with the other woman between the men.

'• Now," cried Tahuna, as a great breaker retired; and the four Maoris rushed forward and plunged into the surf. But the force of the next Arave da&lied them back upon- the beach. Three times they tried to strike out from the shore, but each time they were Avashcd back. Tahuna" s face was bleeding, Enoko limped ss he rose to make the fourth attempt, but the women had »o far escaped unscathed.

" When the Avave goes out,"' cried the chief, " rush forward and grasp the rocks at the bottom. Then Avhen the big wave passe*, swim a few strokes, dive when the next one comes, and take hold of the rocks co-nin."

" That's a good plan," said Enoko. " Let us try it." A great sea broke on the shore ; they ull rushed forward, and disappeared as the next wave came. Almost immediately their black heads were bobbing on the water. There came another great breaker, the four heads disappeared, and four pairs of feet went up in the air. The wave swept over the spot where they had dived, but bore no struggling brown bodies with it. Then again, but further out to sea. the black heads appeared, to sink again before the next wave. Strong in nerve, powerful in limb Arere those amphibious Maoris, accustomed to the water from the year of their birth.

They were now fifty yards from the shore, and swam independently - of or.c another ; diving but seldom and bravely breasting the waves.

The perishing sailors, who eagerly watched the swimmers, laised a shout, which as a faint cry reached the Maoris and gave them new courage.

Between tho natives and the ship stretched a white line of foam, hissing, rearing, boiling over a black reef which it was impossible to cross. The tired swimmers, therefore, Lad to make a painful detour. Slowly Tahuna and Enoko, who were in front, directed their course towards a channel at one end of the reef, and the women followed in their wake. Amongst the great seas that swept shorewards with unbroken force the swimmers seemed powerless to make further headway They were swimming on their sides, but all their strength and skill seemed of little avail in bringing them any nearer to their goal, But suddenly Amiria dived beneath the great Vugavs, ;md when her black head and tangled, wet mane reappeared, she was in front of the men. They and the chiefs wife followed her example, and soon all four swimmers had py^sed through the channel. Outside another reef lay parallel to the first, and on it lay the stranded ship, fixed and fast, with the green seas pounding her to pieces.

When the Maoris were some fifty yards from the ship, they spread themselves oub in a line parallel to the reef on which lay the wreck, her copper plates exposed halfway to the keel. "Hops! Rope! Rope!" shouted the Maoris. Their voices barely reached the ship, but the sailors well knew for what the swimmers had risked their lives. Already a man had unrove- the fore-signal halyards; the sailors raised a shout, and the rope was thrown. It fell midway between Tahuna and Enoko, where Amiria was swimming. Quickly the brave girl grasped the life-line, and it was not long before her companions were beside her. They now swam towards the channel. Once in the middle of that, they turned on their backs and floated, each holding tight to the rope, and the waves bearing thorn, unresisting, towards the shore. The return passage took only a few minutes, but to get through the breakers which whitened the beach with foam was a matter of life or death to the swimmers. They were grasped by the great seas and hurled, helpless, upon the grinding boulders ; they were sucked back by ths receding tide, to be again thrown upon the shore.

Tahuna was the first to scramble out of the. surf, though he limped as he walked above high-water mark. Amiria lay exhausted on the very margin, the shallow surge sweeping over her ; but the rope was .still in her hand. The chief first- carried the girl up +0 the beach, and laid her, panting en the stones ; then he went to look for the ethers. His wife, with wonderful fortune, was carried uninjured to his very feel, but Enoku was straggling in the back-wash, which was drawing him into a great oncoming sea Forgetting his maimed fool, the chief sprang towards his friend, seiz°d hold of him and a boulder simultaneously, and let the coming wiva pass over him and break on the beach. Just as it retired, he picked up Enoko md staggered ashore with his helpless burden.

For five minutes they all lay. panting and still. Tbeu Amiria got up and hauled on the life-line. Behind her a strange piece or rock, shaped like a roughly-squared pillai. stood upright from the beach, To this sbs made fast ths line, on which she pulled har' 5 and strong. Tahuna rose i>nd helped her, and soon out of the surf there came a two-inch rope which had been tied to the signal halyards.

When the chief and the girl had fixed the thicker rope round the rock, Tahuna tied the end of the life-line about his waist, walked to the edge of the sea, and held up his hand.

That was a s-ignal for the first man to lfave the ship He wou'd have to come band-over hand along the rope, through the wateis that boiled over the deadly leef--. and through the thundering s=eas that beat the shore. And hand -over-hand he came, past <Le reef on which the ship lay, ••cross the wild stretch of deep water, over the second and more perilous reef, and inta the middle of the breakers of the beach.* There he lost hi* hold, bui Tahuna dasheC'l into the surf and seized him. The chic.i could now give no attention to his owi, 1 ' safety, but his wife and Amiria hauled orj the life line and prevented him and hi;| burden from being carried seawards by thfj

back-wash. And so the first man was iavpd from the wreck of the Mersey Witch. Others soon followed. Tahuna became exhausted ; his wife took his place, and tied- the life-line round her waist. After she had rescued four men, Enoko came to himself &nd relieved her ; and Amiria, not to be outdone in daring, tied the other end of the line about her waist, and took her stand beside the half-blind man. Aa the captain, who was the last man to leave the ship, was dragged out of the taging sea, a troop of Maoris arrived from the pa with blankets, food, and drink. Boon the newcomers had lighted a fire in

a sheltered niche of the cliff, and round the cheerful blaze they placed the chilled and fxhausted sailors. The captain, when he could speak, said to Tahuna: ''Weren't you one of those who swam out to the ship?" " Yeh, boss, that me," replied the chief in broken English. "You feel all right now, fch?" " Where are the women we saw in the ■water?" ~-

"T'e wahine?" said Tahuna. "They all figlit, boss."' "Where are they? I should like to see th?m. I should like to thank them."'

The chief's wife, her back against the cliff, was resting after her exertions ;

'Amiria was attending to one of the men »he had pulled out of the surf, a tall, fair man, whose limbs she was chafing beside the fire. When the chief called to his wife and the giri, Amiria rose, and placing her Englishman in the charge of a big Maori woman, she flung over her shoulders m old korowai cloak which she had picked lip from the beach, and pushing through the thiong she was presented to the caplain.

Ho was a short thick-set man/ weatherbeaten by two score voyages. "So you're ibe girl we saw in the water," said he. "You're a girl to be proud of. You? laughter, chief?^ Amiria's face broke 'into a smile, and Jrom her pretty mouth bubbled the sweettst laughter a man could hear. "Not my/ taughter," replied Taiuna, as Us wife aproaehed, "but this my wahine — i?hat you call wife." ' The Maori woman was smiling the I Hierous smile of her race. "You're a brave crowd," said the captein. '"My crew and I owe you our lives.- My prejudice against colour is shaken — I'm not sure that it'll ever

xecover the shock you've given it.

A man

may sail round the world a dozen times, 1 an' there's still somethings he's -got' to learn. I never would ha.' believed a man, let alone a -woman, could ha' swum in such a 7a 7 - sea. "? An' you're the natives of - the epimtry? — a^-fine race, a fine race.'' As they stood talking, rain had commenced to "• drive in from the, sea. The captain surveyed the miserable scene for a. moment , ov two, £henJie said: "I think, chief, that If you're ready we'll get these- men under shelter. "' And so, some supported by their flnsky friends and some carried in blankets, the crew of 'the Mersey Witch, drenched and cold, but saved from the sea, were conveyed to the huts of the pa. (To-be continued.)