had been leaning.

"Ho!" cried a gruff voice, "I have got you at last."

"It looks that way," admitted Juarez. "Who are you and what do you
want?"

"You," replied the other.

"What do you want with me?" went on Juarez.

"That you will soon find out," was the reply, with just a suspicion of
exultant laughter in the tone of the speaker, at the same time relaxing
his hold a little.

With the quickness of a panther, Juarez, as he felt the other's hold
relax, slipped from his grasp, and whirling about seized his opponent in
turn and a moment later the two were rolling and tumbling about on the
floor of the dock. They were so equally matched in strength that it
seemed only by chance or through some lucky turn in his favor that
either would be able to overcome the other.

CHAPTER II.

A CONFERENCE.

Jim Darlington and John Berwick, the latter the once time engineer of
the Sea Eagle, were on the morning on which our story opened, after an
early breakfast, seated in a secluded part of the rotunda of the
Commercial Hotel, where, safe from possible eavesdroppers, they were
discussing the events of the previous day.

"Well, Jim," asked Berwick, "what comes next?"

"I don't know," answered Jim. "I am just trying to think it out."

"Well, I hope your mind is in better condition than mine," returned
Berwick, "I don't seem to see any way out."

"Then, we must make one."

"I confess it's too much for me," went on Berwick, sitting back
resignedly. "That old rascal of a Bill Broome seems to have made a clean
sweep of it this time. He's got the young senorita safe in his clutches
on the Sea Eagle, and with that sister for a jailer, as far as I can see
he will sail away with her and we can sit here and chew our thumbs for
all we can do."

Berwick was referring to his own and Jim's experiences as related in a
previous book, the "Frontier Boys in Frisco."

"I am not so sure of that," exclaimed Jim, shutting his teeth down with
a snap. "I am not through with that old pirate yet."

"I'm with you there, Jim," agreed Berwick. "I owe him something on my
own account, but I don't see any prospect of an immediate payment."

"If we only knew which way he was going."

"That's a pretty big if," said Berwick.

"Maybe not as big as it looks," returned Jim. "At any rate, I mean to
find out."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I don't know yet, but I mean to find a way."

"I think you will, Jim. Have you no plan in vie