"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 you boys. There's nothin' of the
fresh, gabby kid about any of you. I'll do it fer you, Skipper." And
the bargain was sealed with a warm grip between the two friends.
"There's one thing I ought to speak about though," said Jim, "and that
is in regard to old Bill Broom, the pirate, who had the _Sea Eagle_
before we took her. He is a revengeful old beggar and may make you
trouble if he gets a chance."
"I never really met Broom, though I came near it once," remarked the
old captain grimly, "but if he is wise, he won't come bothering around
me or the _Sea Eagle_ either."
"I expect old Pete will stay aboard and the boy," said Jim, "so you
won't be without some company."
"I've always got 'Lyssus' here," grinned the captain, picking up the
big tortoise shell that was purring around his legs. "I don't want any
better company than him."
"He is a good old fellow," said Jim, playfully nipping the cat's ears
with his fingers, "and a mighty good sailor, too." Just then Jim
chanced to look up, scanning the expanse of sea ahead, not with the
expectation of seeing anything, but just force of habit. Immediately
he straightened up and his gray eyes narrowed with interest.
"What is it, Skipper?" questioned the old captain, getting to his
feet.
"It looks like smoke," exclaimed Jim, "about three points on our
starboard bow."
"Maybe it's a steamer," said the captain. "We ought to be running
across them now once in a while."
"Possibly it's a volcano," suggested Jim.
By this time the captain had got the glass from his cabin, and had it
focused on the slender blue-gray column of smoke that was rising close
to the southeastern horizon.
"It's a ship, almost burned out," exclaimed the captain.
"By jove!" cried Jim. "We will see exactly what it is," and he gave
the order to Pete, who was at the wheel, to change the _Sea Eagle's_
course accordingly.
"I reckon nobody is alive aboard," remarked the captain. "She looks
pretty well burned out."
No sooner had the ship's course been changed, than every member of the
crew was out on deck to see what was up, and all were intensely
interested watching the column of smoke that now could be seen rising
from a dark hull close to the water, marking one of those oft-repeated
tragedies of the sea. Rapidly the gallant little _Sea Eagle_ plowed
the blue surface of the ocean in a straight course towards the burning
ship.
Many were the conjectures as to how the destroyed ship came to be in
her present hapless condition. Jo thought that she had probably caught
afire and the crew had been compelled to abandon her, but the engineer
shook his head at this theory.
"I don't agree with you, Joseph. My idea is that she is a derelict
that has been abandoned possibly years ago. Some ship has crossed her
trail recently, and to get rid of her as an uncharted menace to ships
in regular travel, has set fire to her, but without completing her
destruction."
"They are bad things to be lying around loose," said Jim. "If we had
been off our course a little, and it had been some hours later, we
would have stood a jolly good chance of running plump into this ship,
and if we had not gone down, we would have been badly stove up."
"You would have gone down," said the engineer briefly.
"I suppose there are a good many of these derelicts floating around
the oceans," remarked Juarez.
"Yes," said the engineer, "and some of them have most interesting
histories. There was a curious incident in regard to a barque named
the _Norton_ that was abandoned in the Atlantic some years ago. The
skipper and the crew were rescued by a sailing vessel, and, after a
while, they drew near an English port.
"The skipper of the _Norton_ was pacing the poop deck from force of
habit, when he suddenly stopped as if petrified, and his jaw dropped,
for there ahead of him alongside of a wharf was his lost and
abandoned ship. The explanation was simple. She had been picked up by
a passing steamer and towed into port, for salvage."
The _Sea Eagle_ was now within a half mile of the derelict and she
could be made out quite plainly. She was a good-sized wooden vessel, a
three-sticker, but the masts had been broken off and the ship had been
rendered entirely helpless. She was rolling sluggishly to the motion
of the waves, without life or hope.
"She's the _Maria Crothers_, London," said the captain from the upper
deck, looking through the glass, "and she looks like she has been
floating around for several years."
In a few minutes the _Sea Eagle_ was lying to, a short distance from
the derelict. It was evident that she had been abandoned a long time.
The sides and bottom of the ship were encrusted with barnacles and
long green streamers of sea weeds on her sides and bow gave her a most
ancient and dilapidated appearance.
In the center of the main deck smoke was slowly rising into the air
from the charred timbers.
"She is too water-logged to burn," said the captain.
"We will try to blow her up, Captain," cried Jim. "She is a dangerous
proposition so near to the coast."
"It's a good idea, lad," agreed the captain.
"Lower the boat, my hearties," ordered Jim with a grin.
They put two kegs of powder into the boat, and with the material for a
couple of long fuses, they started for the derelict, now but a short
distance off. None of the boys will ever forget that boarding of the
abandoned vessel, not on account of the danger, for there was none,
but for the unusualness of the occasion and the picturesqueness of the
scene.
The sun was just setting as they rowed towards the _Maria Crothers_,
or what was once that gallant vessel, and the crimson glow came over
the slow-rolling swell and touched everything with a lurid light,
especially the desolate derelict. As they were nearing the hulk, Tom
exclaimed:
"Look, there is a shark coming out from a hole under her bow!"
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 sassy, 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 ship 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.