Page:The Gates of Morning - Henry De Vere Stacpoole.pdf/247

 the course to full south and handed the wheel to Poni.

She had done her work, e Haya, steered they for ever now they would never raise Karolin—so far to the west that even the lagoon light would be all but invisible.

The first sun ray brought Aioma to his feet, he saw Poni at the wheel and Le Moan lying near him fast asleep like a creature caught back into darkness now that her work was done. The sunrise to port told him that the ship was heading south, then he came forward and looked.

The southern sea showed no sign and the southern sky no hint of the great lagoon. Not a bird’s wing appeared.

He roused Dick, who came forward and they stood whilst the canoe-builder pointed to the south.

“There is nothing,” said Aioma—“yet we have come all the night and she is never wrong—not even the light in the sky. Yet by now the trees should have shown.”

Dick, gazing into the remote south at the blue and perfect and pitiless sky, unbroken at the sea line, unstained above it, drew in his breath; a cold hand seemed placed on his heart. Where then was Karolin?

“Who knows,” said Aioma, “it may show when the sun is higher. Let us wait.”

They waited and watched whilst the sun rose in the sky, but the sun revealed nothing that the dawn had not shown—nothing save away to the westward un-