“That thing never happened to me before,” Captain Godfree said when he and Dick were in the cabin together an hour later. “There must have been something in the atmosphere to deceive me; perhaps it was the refraction; I had no more doubt that we were off San Juan than I have that we’re sitting here. We had a narrow escape, and there’s no telling how badly we’re injured till we get into San Juan harbor. I think we have lost most of our propeller, but we have enough left to move us. It’s a bad beginning for your Porto Rico voyage.” “Bad!” Dick repeated; “why, you couldn’t have done anything to suit me better. I know as much about stranding a ship now as an old sailor. I’m only sorry I could do nothing to help you.” “Oh, but you can!” Captain Godfree retorted. “You can do a great deal to help me. It’s lucky for me I have you aboard, for you can give me a great deal of assistance with the cabling and the Board of Survey.” “Board of Survey?” Dick asked; “what is that?” “Oh, you see you don’t know all about stranding a ship yet!” the captain laughed. “When you get her off, that’s only the beginning of the job. The Board of Survey is worse than running on the rocks. We have all that to come yet, and it will make a good newspaper article for you, too.” “Why, you’re a perfect jewel of a captain to travel with!” Dick exclaimed. “The voyage down will make one article, stranding the ship is good for another, and this Board of Survey, whatever it is, will be the third, before I begin with Porto Rico at all. One thing I don’t understand, captain. What were all those lights on shore? How did they come to be there?” “Those were signals for us,” the captain replied, “to warn us off. They saw us standing in for the shore, and knew that we’d be on that deadly Arecibo reef in a few minutes unless we put about. Arecibo is one of the ports we touch at, and our agents there burned those tar barrels to show us we were in danger. That is one of the most dangerous reefs on the coast, covered with the bones of lost ships. When we brought up sharp astern and probably broke our propeller, we ran into the ribs of some sunken vessel. “But I want you to help me, Sumner,” the captain went on; “and we have a big job before us. I’ll explain to you what has to be done in such a case, so that you’ll understand. As soon as we reach port I have to cable my owners that the ship has been stranded and tell them how much damage was done. That has to be done with the cable code, of course, because telegraphing from Porto Rico to London costs three dollars a word, and we must put it in as few words as possible. You’ve no idea what hard work it is to put a dispatch into the code; at least it is for me; perhaps it may be easier for you.