watch."

Then he leaped up the steep steps leading to the quarter deck, closely
followed by Jo, who took Pete's place at the wheel, while that worthy
went below; and the captain turned into his cabin on the quarter deck
without more ado. If anyone besides Jim had been so forgetful, there
would have been a vast amount of growling on his part, but Jim was a
favorite.

CHAPTER V

WORKING THE SHIP

It was now ten o'clock, and the ship steadily held her way over the
plunging seas, and the wind came from out the vague spaces of the
night, not chill, but bracing. How Jim loved it! Sometimes he felt
when he was pacing the deck at night on watch, that he liked the ocean
even better than the mountains.

As he strode back and forth he thought and pondered over Jeems' story.
Suppose they should find this rich pocket mine of gold in the Sierras,
what would they do with the money? Jim was not grasping and the mere
idea of getting rich did not appeal to him. "A fool can make money,"
he had sometimes said, "but it takes a wise man to spend it." Then he
brought his fist down hard upon the rail.

"I've got it, Jo," he cried, "if we find that mine, we will take a
trip around the world and see if we can't discover something new.
We've got the ship already."

"What do we need of more money?" asked Jo. "Let's head her around now
and strike out for the Philippines. We have got some of that treasure
left that we discovered in Mexico."

"I wonder what Pap would say," replied Jim, lowering his voice, "if he
found that he had been shanghied in any such fashion. I suspicion that
there would be a mutiny aboard this craft."

"I forgot about him," admitted Jo.

"Another thing, you don't realize how much money it takes to keep a
yacht going, even if we are under sail part of the time. This boat has
got to be overhauled when we get to port. Drydocked for one thing,
liable to cost $500; then the engines will have to be overhauled. Next
coal and provisions----"

"I reckon we had better discover that mine," agreed Jo.

"That's where you show your good sense," concluded Jim.

So as the schooner yacht went northward following her unseen path
through the darkness, the boys' minds were busy with their plans for
the future. For one, I envy them their buoyant freedom, their hearty
comradeship, and their chance for new and varying adventure. Yet they
had earned much of the good fortune that had come to them by their
pluck in danger and