ards were promptly manned. One man started the chorus that
jerked the main topsail aloft.

"Oh, come all you little yaller boys
An' roll the cotton _down_!
Oh, a husky pull, my bully boys,
An' roll the cotton _down_!"

In a trice, it would seem, her three topsails were mastheaded and the
foretopsail laid to the mast. The fore-braces came in, hand over hand,
the hawsers were tossed overboard and the tug fell astern. The _Bertha
Hamilton_ leaned gracefully to the freshening gale, and was shooting
for the Narrows.

"It is perfectly beautiful, isn't it?" cried Ruth.

"Magnificent," agreed Drew.

"It's the finest harbor in all the world, to my mind," declared
Parmalee.

"I wonder when we'll see it again," mused Ruth, with a touch of
apprehension in her voice.

"Oh, it won't be long before we're back," prophesied Parmalee.

"And when we do come back, we'll have enough doubloons with us to buy
up the whole city," joked Drew.

"Don't be too sure of that," smiled Ruth. "Those who go out to shear
sometimes come back shorn."

"We simply can't fail," asserted Drew. "Especially as we're taking a
mascot along with us."

"The mascot may prove to be a hoodoo," laughed Ruth. "I've thought
more than once that I shouldn't have teased my father to take me along."

"He'd have robbed the whole trip of brightness if he had refused,"
affirmed Parmalee.

"It's nice of you to say that," returned Ruth. "But if any serious
trouble should come up, fighting or anything of that kind, you might
find me terribly in the way."

"We'd only have an additional reason to fight the harder," declared
Drew. "No harm should come to you while any of us were left alive.
But really, there's nothing to worry about. This trip is going to be a
summer excursion."

"Nothing more serious to fear than the ghosts of some of the old
pirates who may be keeping guard over their doubloons and may resent
our intrusion," said Parmalee.

"I'm not afraid of ghosts," cried Ruth. "It's only creatures of flesh
and blood that give me any worry."

"If anything should come up," said Drew, "we're in pretty good shape to
give the mischief-makers a tussle. Your father has a good collection
of weapons down in the cabin."

"Yes," assented Ruth; "and I know how to load and handle a revolver."

Drew put up his hands in pretended fright.

"Don't shoot!" he pleaded.

Thus with jest and compliment and banter the time passed until they
were o