Read Casca 17: The Warrior for Free Online Page B

1836, and the Coyne reported a group of small islands in 1842. However, in 1849 the Carl Gustaf found a depth of fifty-six fathoms."
    "So?" the captain queried.
    Liam closed the book and slammed it on the chart table in disgust. "That's all. Not another word."
    "Jesus'" Larson shouted.
    "Land ho," came a hail from the deck, and everybody scrambled for the companionway.
    This time there was no doubt. The island was very clear on the horizon. Larsen looked at Sandy, who was on watch.
    "How long has that been there?"
    The Scot grimaced and shook his head. "Just now, skipper. Just now. Even clear air hides things here, dammit."
    Larsen looked up at the bright, cloudless sky, then back at the island and shook his head. "Well, thank God, we saw it anyway. Let's get these sails down. There's sure to be a reef somewhere between us and the island." He shouted to the man out on the bowsprit. "How's the water?"
    "Deep and clear," the seaman shouted back.
    Under reduced sail the Rangaroa slowly approached the island. Larsen paced the deck restlessly. The whole crew was on the lookout—on the bowsprit, in the crow's nest, all over the rigging.
    The man on the bowsprit called, "Changing water."
    "Ready anchor," Larsen shouted, and the crew sprang to ready the forward anchor as Larsen himself went out onto the bowsprit.
    Casca was as far forward as he could get without getting in the way of the crew, and he could see that the water had changed from deep blue to a dark green. As he watched it changed again, to a lighter green.
    "Ready about, anchor over," Larsen shouted from the bowsprit, and came running back to the helm. The crew hefted the heavy anchor over the side and it hung there ready to drop.
    Now Casca could see faint ripples ahead of the ship where an underwater reef disturbed the movement of the sea.
    "Lee ho," Larsen shouted, and Sandy put the helm over. The sailors on the port side let go the ropes they were holding, and those on the starboard side hauled on theirs while others ran across the deck helping the light breeze move the sails to the other tack.
    The Rangaroa came slowly around and the island was astern.
    "Sail ho," one of the seamen shouted as he saw a boat put out from the distant island.
    Soon they could see canoes coming from several points: sail canoes—two and three hulls lashed together with great, broad decks between and enormous triangular sails; single outrigger sail canoes—the outrigger a deftly shaped log, the canoe itself dug out of a log; and huge dugout canoes with twenty men at the paddles. The dugouts came racing through the water, passing the sail craft, the crews singing lustily in time with their strokes.
    And rafts. Rafts of bamboo poles lashed together with vines, a single, small sail on a short mast. These came out over the reef to the Rangaroa and surrounded her, their smiling crews shouting welcomes.
    " Haere mai, haere mai, Valangi. Bula, bula . Welcome, Valangi , welcome. Bienvenidos," and some other words in Chinese and Japanese, or perhaps Malay. They shouted welcome in all the languages they knew.
    " Valangi ," Sandy explained, "means men from the sky." He jerked his head upward toward several seamen sitting in the crosstrees. "Looks to them like we climb down the masts out of the sky."
    The islanders pointed to where the other craft were coming through the unseen opening in the reef.
    Larsen glanced at Ulf. "The reef might be tricky, but we'll be a damn sight safer, inside than out here. We can't sail farther till we repair the rudder anyway."
    All right with me , thought Casca, who had already decided that he would feel more comfortable with the reef between him and the Pacific, rather than riding between the Pacific and the reef. "Yeah," he said, "I'll be happy to be inside the reef."
    "Unless they decide to eat us," the dour Greenlander muttered flatly, giving Casca something to think about.
    These people were very different from those they had left in Tahiti. They were darker,