Soon we were all aboard, and to us who had always trod the decks when the _Seagull_ lay upon the bosom of the water it was a peculiar experience to find her stationary and wedged tight between two big rocks. There was more or less disorder on board, as was natural when you consider we had deserted the ship in a panic of fear; but there seemed no especial damage of any port and the men set to work and quickly put things to rights again. The sea was falling rapidly. After we reached the ship there was no wave of sufficient magnitude to dash the spray over her side, and few that even wetted her. The passengers at once sought their staterooms and put them in order for further occupancy. De Jiminez was delighted at the thought that he had saved his precious cargo, although what good the guns and truck could do the revolution in Colombia was a mystery to the rest of us. Little Jim was in a sullen, silent mood and seemed to think fate was playing him a sorry trick. Perhaps she was; but my opinion is we were lucky to come out of the typhoon as well as we did. It was assuredly the worst storm I have ever experienced. So far we had seen no natives at all, and Uncle Naboth said to Bryonia: “Perhaps you’re mistaken about this being the island of the Pearl People. For if them natives you’ve described are as careful as you say they are about guarding their coast, they would have been after us long before this.” “We quite sure we right,” answered Bry. “But you see, in such storm as this they think no natives of other islands can come here to attack, so they stay at home in their big city. To-morrow they come here, plenty of them; and then we must fight hard.” This set my father thinking. He turned to Ned Britton and said: “Do you s’pose we could get the boats around to-night? The sea’s easier now and if we wait till to-morrow we may have the natives on us. We can’t very well afford to lose the boats, for without ’em we’d have no way to leave this island.” Ned cast a look over the water and then nodded. “All right, Cap’n,” he said. “We’ll try it.” He went away to pick his men, and Bry returned to the kitchen galley and started dinner. Fortunately the _Seagull_ was well provisioned and we had enough supplies to last our party for several months. As Nux was laying the cabin table for the noonday meal I said to him: “Why are the natives of Faytan called the Pearl People—and why should your tribe make such a desperate effort to conquer them?”