Little Dr. Wu, after one startled glance at his august master’s smiling, newly alert countenance, smiled broadly himself, and hurried off to order the sedan chair to be in readiness as soon as the _Sea Gull’s_ biggest boat could be manned. “I have not seen His Excellency so like his old, healthful self in months,” he confided, beamingly, to Captain Eric, when proffering his request for the boat. “This sea voyage is surely doing for him all that we hoped—that, and his interest in your honorable daughter, sir. He is centering on her all that affection and pride he would have given his own son. My hopes are high that he will effect an entire recovery in the immediate future.” Bowing ceremoniously, he hurried away as fast as he had come, followed by the coolie bearers and the big, gold-and-crimson-lacquer sedan chair. Both Lis and Erica accompanied this second expedition ashore, and experienced all the thrills of old explorers conducting a novice, in exhibiting the island and the camp of the _Narwhal’s_ crew to the smiling appreciation of His Excellency Sun Li, Governor of Canton. The astonishment of the sailors and Captain Joy himself at sight of their splendid procession fed the children’s inward satisfaction to the point where it could no longer be repressed, but simply had to break out in giggles, which in turn brought answering smiles from the older and more staid beholders. Altogether it was a highly satisfying and eventful day, and it is doubtful whether Erica could have slept at all that night, tucked snugly into her berth in the lovely little cabin Sun Li had had fitted up for her, if she hadn’t also been so utterly weary mentally and physically that sleep was upon her before she had had time to marshal her memories of the past hours for reconsideration. Captain Eric, however, lay awake a longer time than his daughter, occupied with much less pleasant reflections. That noon’s high tide had not floated the _Sea Gull_, so now there was nothing for it but to settle down to a ten days’ wait for the flood tide at full moon. If that failed—— He turned over restlessly in his bunk and refused to allow his thoughts to dwell on that eventuality. There was no use in crossing bridges before one reached them. CHAPTER XVII Captain Eric’s philosophy about not crossing bridges ahead of time proved to have been well founded in this particular case. Full moon, when it came, not only ushered in a flood tide, but was accompanied with a heavy blow out of the northwest which drove a great volume of water before it through the narrow mouth of Shipwreck Bay—which was the name by which Erica and Lis had christened the harbor where the _Sea Gull_ lay on her reef. This extra pressure of wind and water made that tide a memorable one in the island’s history, and the clipper floated clear, on its crest, to the deep side of the coral bar.