With the wind almost abeam and steaming down on her, The Lion's Paw rocketed toward the open mouth of the Pass. Sheets of spray broke over the scuppers and exploded back into the cockpit; her rolling and pitching kept yanking at the sheets, and the crack of waves beating against her forefoot sounded like artillery fire.

   The three in the Lion’s Paw—the boat once called Hard A Lee—had come too far and faced too much to beat the storm. They had run away in Ben’s boat—Penny and Nick from the orphan asylum. Ben from his uncle, however his uncle had said his father, Lieut. Ben Sturgess, USN was dead.
   But Ben is confident his father is not dead. He will come back, he tells Penny and Nick, when we find a Lion's Paw.
   But won’t the lion need it Nick asks, and Ben explains it's a rare seashell.
   Down the Florida coast the three sail, into the Everglades, to Captiva Island in the Gulf of Mexico. There the most exciting adventure of all awaits them.