will kill them both."

"Just now," interrupted Jim, "we must attend to the business in hand."

"I put the matter in your control."

"At the hour named," suggested Jim, "do you go to the appointed place.
I will be in hiding near at hand with the others of my party. There will
be five of us."

"And what am I to do?"

"Do exactly as you have planned. Do not, I beg of you, vary one iota.
Let your man in the tree know that he must be ready for quick action."

"You have ever my thanks!" said the Senor.

Very carefully, Jim went over in anticipation every move of the
arrangement. When about to take leave, the Senor wrung his hand
expressing his gratitude and they parted. Jim rejoined his party and
found them eating the lunch they had brought with them from the ship.

During the afternoon Jim scouted around the country to the north of them
with a result that had much bearing upon the future, but he was on hand
with the others long before the appointed hour.

CHAPTER XI.

ON BOARD THE SEA EAGLE.

We must now revert to the afternoon on which the redoubtable Captain
Broome sailed from the harbor of San Francisco. It will be recalled that
his was the first of the three vessels to leave the harbor. The captain
was sitting in the cabin of the Sea Eagle in consultation with the
Mexican dwarf whom, concealed in a hamper, he had smuggled on board. It
was their purpose to have the boys think that the dwarf had been drowned
at the time he had slipped from the professor's grasp and plunged into
the waters of the bay.

The captain was sitting in a revolving chair in front of the desk, whose
top was strewn with papers and charts over which he had been pouring.
His thoughts apparently had not been particularly pleasing, for there
was a scowl upon his hard face which looked harder than ever, and there
was an ugly glitter in his eye which boded evil for whoever crossed his
path. Nevertheless, the dwarf, who was seated, or rather perched, upon
the top of a worn and battered sea chest at the opposite side of the
room, regarded him with indifference. If there was anything upon the
face of the earth or of its waters of which the Mexican was afraid or
which had the power to make him blench, he had never met it.

For a moment or two the captain glared at the dwarf, who returned his
look indifferently.

"A nice mess you've made of this business," growled the captain.

"It wasn't my fault," returned the dwarf surlily.

"The