ling coal, until Pete and
the boy get over their lameness. This sentence to be immediately
executed." And it was.

"I'm glad the sentence is going to be executed instead of us," said
Jo as he was sent below with his comrade in crime to get busy feeding
the insatiable furnace. Altogether the boys were pleased to get off
without the rope's end being used on them.

"That was a good sentence, Judge," said John Berwick to Jim after the
court had adjourned. "It met the case, for the real damage done was
having Pete and the boy laid off on account of their prank."

"That's it," remarked Jim. "Then, too, Jo and Tom are husky and hard
workers, and, with them shoveling coal, we ought to get to the coast
now in a few days."

CHAPTER XV

"THE MARIA CROTHERS"

As the boys drew near the end of the voyage, they began to be anxious
to see the land once more, not that they were tired of the sea, for
they had come to regard the _Sea Eagle_ as their home, and every plank
was familiar to them. Moreover, there was nothing equal to the freedom
of life on the ocean wave, but they were anxious to start for the
Sierras to attempt the discovery of the Lost Mine, so that perchance
they could take a trip around the world.

According to their calculations it was now only a question of a few
days before they would make the harbor from which they had sailed a
few months before. Jim was on the quarter deck talking over matters
with Captain Kerns. It was a very pleasant afternoon, with a clear
shining sun, and a sparkling sea, and sufficient breeze to make the
air alive. The captain was seated in his scarred but comfortable
armchair. That was the only piece of furniture which he had brought
with him from his cabin on the coast. He wore his heavy woolen jacket
buttoned across his chest because it was cool even in the sun. Jim
leaned easily against the rail, dressed in his well-remembered blue
flannel shirt, and trousers to match, with the gray sombrero pushed
back from his forehead. His bronzed face and keen gray eyes determined
him to be a very fair specimen of the American boy when in top-notch
condition.

"I hope you will be able to look after the _Sea Eagle_, Captain,"
propounded Jim, "while we are in the mountains."

The captain mused for a while, pursing up his eyes, then he took his
short blackened pipe out of his mouth.

"I'll do it, Skipper," he said. "I'm fond of this yere boat, and it's
like home to me. Then, too, I like