It couldn’t have been much over five minutes before they heard hurrying steps in the corridor, and Lis, a lighted lantern in his hand, stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the blackness behind him. He lifted his lantern so its light should shine farther into the cabin, and uttered an alarmed ejaculation at sight of the two girls huddled on the floor against the bunk. ”_Rick!_” he cried out sharply, then, “Milly! Are you hurt?” The clipper was not rolling at all now—a fact which seemed suddenly more ominous than all that had gone before. The girls scrambled hurriedly to their feet and caught at Lister’s arm, one on each side of him. “What’s happened?” Erica cried. “Did we hit something?” Lis nodded soberly. “Ran on a reef, they say. We don’t know what the damage to the ship is yet, of course. Uncle Eric sent me down to get you all on deck. It’s too dark to see anything, but he seems to think we’ve hit on some outstanding coral reef of one of these islands.” He had turned back along the corridor as he spoke, Erica and Milly following closely at his heels. The same thought was in both girls’ minds—did the summons to come at once on deck mean taking to the lifeboats? Was the _Sea Gull_ in as bad a case as _that_? Up on deck there was no confusion. Mrs. Folger was already there, standing by Captain Eric, with little Barbee hanging to her skirts. Miss Charity had been carried up by two of the sailors, and sat on a coil of rope, her face set and white in the light of a near-by lantern, but quite calm. Sun Li’s gorgeous sedan chair with its coolie bearers behind and before had been placed beside Miss Charity’s rope-seat, but the Governor himself was standing at the captain’s side, leaning on the arm of little Dr. Wu and observing placidly the scene about them. Erica ran to her father and slipped her arm through his, grateful for the comforting strength of the big, whipcord muscles under his blue cloth sleeve. “Are we—wrecked, father?” she asked in a small, not-too-steady voice, pressing closer. “No, no,” he returned, quickly and reassuringly. “We’ve run on a reef, sure enough, but the old clipper’s not taking in any water—we’ve not even strained her seams, praise the Lord! We’ll just have to wait for morning to find out where we are and how we’re to get afloat again.” The mate had come up on deck now, and drew near the captain to say something in a lowered voice. Captain Eric listened gravely, and then nodded. “You can all go below and turn in with easy minds,” he addressed the anxious little group about him. “A second, more thorough examination shows no water coming in. We’ve escaped by a miracle, no less. We certainly drove aground hard enough to have ripped her open, by the feel of it.” “But the wind—it’s beginning again,” Erica whispered, drawing his ear down to her lips, for she did not want the others to hear. “Aren’t we in the storm center of a hurricane, and won’t the wind be just as bad again in a few minutes?”