The Frontier Boys in the Sierras Part 15

Sure enough, with sinuous motion a long and ugly-looking shark swam slowly a short distance below the surface, taking on a greenish hue, from the color of the water. There was something singularly repellent about him and peculiarly sinister in his every motion.

"If he gets too sa.s.sy, we will treat him like we did his friends and brethren near the coast of Maine," said Jim. "When we were in the canoes. Remember, Jeems?"

"Don't mention it to me," warned Jeems. "I'm liable to have a chill."

It was not difficult to board the derelict, when the boat was brought on the lee side, for the vessel was down well with the water. Jim jumped aboard and the others followed, except old Pete, who was at the oars; he kept the boat close while the barrels of powder were transferred.

The boys found nothing on the old craft of especial interest. They could still see that the cabin had been a handsome one, with dark wood like mahogany and properly gilded, but everything was now mildewed or covered with green slime. There were sea things crawling everywhere.

Jim found his work cut out for him to get the powder planted where it would do the best execution. Darkness came on, and he was busy aft with one keg while Juarez and the engineer were planting the other for'ard. They had got a number of lanterns from the s.h.i.+p to work by, and, from a distance they looked like glow worms on the dark surface of the waters.

It was a most weird and peculiar sight, but after nearly two hours'

work, everything was ready. Only Jim, Juarez and the engineer were left upon the derelict, with old Pete ready at the oars to pull away as soon as the men should jump into the boat after firing the fuses.

"Already for'ard!" yelled Jim.

"Ready," came Juarez's reply.

They touched the long fuse and then ran and stepped lightly into the boat. Pete dug the oars into the water and away the boat leapt towards the _Sea Eagle_. She had cleared the derelict about a hundred feet, when with two dull shaking thuds, and a glare of red light at either end, the derelict was blown to destruction, and pieces of broken timber fell all about the boat. Some pieces fell even on the deck of the _Sea Eagle_. In a few minutes the broken hull had sunk below the dark waters of the Pacific. The work had been well done.

Two days later the _Sea Eagle_ turned from the windy channel into her own harbor on the southern coast of California with the flag flying, and as the anchor chain rattled down into the quiet water, there came a salute from the two cannon on the upper deck. Then Jim turned and gripped the hand of his old friend.

"Here you are at home, Captain. Now it's for the Lost Mine, boys."

"And good luck to you," said the old captain heartily. "I and the _Sea Eagle_ will be here when you return."

The boys at parting gave three rousing cheers.

CHAPTER XVI

AN EXCITING CHARGE

It was indeed a beautiful morning, with the sun s.h.i.+ning with a clarity that is characteristic only of the higher alt.i.tudes. There was quite a procession coming up the steep mountain trail. As yet they could not be made out distinctly, as they were so far down the mountain side.

Then they were lost to view in one of the folds of the slope.

"I wonder whom those tenderfeet are?" The voice came from a man who was crouching behind a granite boulder. He had been watching the approaching party intently for some time. "One thing, sartain,"

the voice continued, "them fellars will find trouble if they keep traveling in this neck of the woods."

The speaker was not a prepossessing-looking party. He was of squat figure, very strongly built. His face and neck burned to a brick red.

His s.h.i.+rt of a nondescript color was open at the neck, exposing a hairy throat. A rifle was gripped firmly in one powerful paw, and there was a knife and pistol in his belt.

He was an ugly-looking customer, and it was evident that his mission was not a peaceful one. Once more he took a look down the trail. The approaching party was much nearer now and he could count the individuals.

"Five!" he exclaimed. "Looks like they might give the boys trouble.

That fellar in front has sartain got a fine horse."

Already the voices of the five came clearly to his ears, and it would not be long before they would top the ridge, and the scout, for such he was, would be discovered.

"It's time for me to scat!" he exclaimed.

And he did, taking long swinging strides that soon took him out of sight of the ridge, into a belt of pines. Here the stranger stopped again and watched for the tenderfoot party to put in an appearance. He did not have long to wait, for there came the strong clear sound of voices, and then he saw a gallant figure on a gray horse ride into full view. This young fellow was dressed in blue, with a flannel s.h.i.+rt of the same color, and a gray sombrero, which was pushed back from his sunburnt forehead.

A perfectly polished rifle was hung across his back, and there was a revolver in the holster at his hip. The young fellow rode his splendid animal with an ease and mastery that showed long experience.

Behind the leader rode a shorter lad, but very stockily built, and of extremely dark complexion, with heavy black hair, cut square across.

"That chap must be an Injun," remarked the watcher in the pines.

But the reader who is more intelligent and better informed, knows otherwise, for he is acquainted with these riders and has been in their company before, and it is not necessary to pa.s.s the entire procession in review. The Frontier Boys were all there, and Jeems Howell likewise. The man in the pines was deeply interested in these mounted men, viewing them from his position back of a big pine, in front of which was a screen of brush.

He saw that they were well mounted and armed, nor did they appear entirely like tenderfeet either. There was something in the way they rode and their general air that showed that they could take care of themselves. Once or twice he partially raised his rifle as though about to fire at the leader, but he evidently thought better of it, and contented himself with a mere reconnoissance.

The Frontier Boys were unmindful that they were watched, but they were not careless. Juarez, especially, seemed on the alert, and even suspicious. He kept looking around and once he came to a halt.

Swinging off his roan, he began to examine the ground.

"Scent something, comrade?" inquired Jim gravely.

"Something wrong around here," he said.

"Panther, painter, or mountain lion?" inquired Tom.

"Look out, he will bite you," volunteered Jo.

Shaking his head, Juarez mounted his horse and took his place in line, and the procession started again, but always the red-faced, red-necked scout kept them in view for his own purposes. He did not have much trouble to keep up, for the boys did not hurry their horses. They had had a hard pull for several hours that morning, and Jim decided it was best to let them take it easy, as there still was plenty of hard work ahead.

"How soon will we reach your ancient castle, Jeems?" inquired Jim.

"In time for dinner, boss, I reckon," replied Jeems.

"Dinner be ready for us?" inquired Tom hungrily.

"Well, as I haven't seen my ancestral walls for nigh on to twenty years," replied Jeems, "I'm much afeard that the dinner is petrified by this time."

"We don't mind that," laughed Jo. "Haven't we eaten grub in Mexican restaurants and along the border? Nothing is too tough for us."

"That's so," agreed the chorus.

"This country begins to look very familiar," soliloquized Jeems.

"Here's a rock I've sat on many a time to rest coming home from a hunt, and down there are the three pines struck by lightning, on the Fourth of July, too----"

"Go on with you," jeered Tom, "don't give us any tall yarn like that."

"Halt! there he goes!" cried Juarez, bringing his rifle to his shoulder and aiming it at a fleeting shadow among the pines down the mountain slope. He did not fire, however, and without a minute's hesitation the boys turned their horses down the steep mountain slope towards the woods where the man had been detected by Juarez's observant eye.

Away they went full tilt, and to an outsider it seemed certain that some one was sure to get his neck broken. Jo's horse did stumble, plowing its nose into the gravel, and sending Jo forward about a dozen feet, landing on shoulder and neck. Pretty well shaken up, he was too, but not injured.