The Frontier Boys in the Sierras Part 7

Juarez now had the cannon loaded and ready to fire. The _Sea Eagle_ was moving obliquely away from the storm-center and it was a very difficult shot, but still a possible one on account of the size of the target. The old captain took much interest in the skill of his protege Jim, whom he considered worthy to be enrolled in the straight-shooting American navy. He stood with his st.u.r.dy figure well braced and the gla.s.s in hand ready to mark a successful shot.

"Don't you think you have got that weepin' raised a leetle too high?"

he inquired anxiously of Jim.

"I'm aiming a little over, sir," replied Jim, "because I think the sh.e.l.l will fall a little in that distance."

"I guess you know your business better than I do, Skipper," replied the captain. "I was no shot 'cept with a blunderbuss that would scatter."

"Make a bull's-eye, Jim," urged Juarez.

"You mean a whale's eye," put in Jo.

"Humph!" said Jim, "don't talk that way; you will make me miss."

"You mean----" Jo got no further, for Jim held up a cautionary hand.

"Ready now," he cried.

The captain clapped the spy-gla.s.s to his eye, there was a roar and the quarter deck shook under their feet, then the captain shook the gla.s.s above his head.

"Yer struck into the shark gang, Skipper," he cried, "I said you would be a recruit for John Paul Jones."

"Let me have a chance," said Jo.

"All right," agreed Jim, "I don't want to be a hog."

So Jo took his turn. With due deliberation he aimed the shining little cannon aft toward the distant fray. Then he fired, but the shot sent up a spurt from a wave some distance short.

"We are getting too far away," said Jim, "to get in an accurate shot."

"Say, Jim," put in Tom, "you haven't told me why things seem closer on the ocean than they do on land." If pertinacity meant success in life, Tom Darlington would no doubt reach the top of the ladder. Jim was somewhat surprised, and he did not want to admit ignorance, so he sparred for time.

"Now, Thomas," said James, "I am not paid to do your thinking for you, but if you will sit down and think for ten minutes and if at the end of that time you have not reached a logical conclusion, I will explain the matter to you."

"Ho! Professor!" railed Tom, pulling out his silver timepiece, which was so heavy that it would be a dangerous weapon if thrown, "if you ain't ready with your explanation you will lose your place."

Jim took this warning with perfect nonchalance, but his mind was very active just the same trying to solve this problem, because Tom would never let up on him if he found out that he was bluffing. But why was an object nearer, anyway, in appearance on the ocean than on land?

Why? Perhaps it was the difference in atmosphere. No, for in high alt.i.tudes things appeared closer on account of the clarity of the air than they did at sea level.

Six minutes pa.s.sed, still no answer had come to Jim, yet he was perfectly calm and contained as though he were the perfection of wisdom. He folded his arms across his chest and regarded Tom serenely as he sat on the opposite side of the deck on a coil of rope, regarding his big brother skeptically. Eight minutes had pa.s.sed, and Tom, taking out his watch, recorded the fact with quiet triumph.

"Eight minutes and a quarter," he declared, "and no land in sight yet."

"Eight and a half," he tolled, "nine!" Jim was apparently entirely composed, but his mind had not yet reached a complete explanation. It was, however, on the right track, but the time was short.

"Ten," cried Tom. "Speak up, Professor."

"It's your place first," he replied.

"Give it up."

"Now listen carefully," began Jim in a magisterial manner, "and if there is anything you don't quite understand, raise your hand."

"Humph!" grunted Tom, "I guess that I can understand anything you can tell me."

"Well, children, it's this way," continued Jim. "When you are upon the land and you look at something in the distance your eyesight is stretched from point to point by intervening objects, while on the ocean your vision instead of being stretched out collapses as it were because there is a monotonous level between your eye and the object.

Now I hope you will remember what I have just told you, children.

School is dismissed."

Jo seemed to be unduly impressed with the idea that he was a schoolboy again, so he grabbed Tom's hat and made as if he was going to throw it overboard. Tom made a grab for Jo and missed, then there was a great chase around the main deck. Jo was very fleet of foot and gained on his pursuer, until Tom saw that he must resort to stratagem; so no sooner had Jo disappeared around the corner of the quarter deck than Tom doubled back on his own trail, to the cook's galley, that had a door opening on either side, so that one could step into either pa.s.sageway.

Tom leaped into the galley, and was quick to the other door, that he opened a wee bit; he saw that Jo had just swerved into the pa.s.sageway and down he came full tilt toward where Tom lay in ambush, swinging the latter's captured hat in his hand. Tom watched him eagerly, then he sprang out from his hiding place directly in front of the flying Jo, who was utterly surprised, but he was under such headway that he could not stop.

Tom met him squarely and down they went in a heap, the lurch of the ship sending Jo's head heavily against an iron stanchion. His body gave a jerk and quiver, then he stretched out unconscious. We all know that skylarking of that kind sometimes produces the worst accidents.

Naturally Tom was terribly frightened, for he thought Jo was killed, and he did look it, stretched out, with his eyes closed.

"Jim!" cried Tom, "Jim! come here quick."

There was something in Tom's voice that made Jim appear in a hurry.

"Get the brandy," he said. Tom lost no time in getting the bottle out of a locker in the main cabin. When he returned he found Juarez and Jeems standing near looking very sober, while the old captain and Jim worked over him.

The Frontier Boys had gone through many dangers unscathed, and it seemed terrible that Jo should be so badly hurt in a moment of play.

In fifteen minutes' time, however, Jo was partially himself, but he could not walk and had to be helped to his cabin, and that night he had a high fever, but next day he was quite himself, due mainly to a rugged const.i.tution.

A few days later the weather began to change. The sea became rough and boisterous, with head winds and decidedly colder, but the boys did not complain, in fact they rather liked it, as they were strong and hardy and enjoyed battling with the elements.

"It's the sweaters for us now," said Jo, coming out on deck, to find the nasty gray sea swept by rain squalls, and the deck sodden and the sky sullen.

"I like it," declared Juarez, "the tropics are all right for a few weeks, but I couldn't stand it for long."

"That's because you lads are stormy petrels," remarked Jeems.

"If by that poetic symbol you mean that we are always in trouble,"

replied Jim, "you certainly have struck it."

Then the boys went below to get their respective sweaters, the colors being chosen according to their individual taste. Tom's was black, which is no insinuation against his character; Jim's was blue; Juarez the same color and Jo's red. As for hats, they still wore their weather-beaten sombreros. They were just the hats for this kind of weather.

The evening came on dark and bl.u.s.tery and with a steady beating rain from the northwest. All about, the seas were humping through the darkness. But the _Sea Eagle_ was a staunch boat, well built, and well ballasted, and though she shipped a few seas and the spray flew high over her bridge, she did not roll or plunge unduly.

"Sort of a nasty night, Jim," remarked Jo, as their dark forms emerged on deck from the companionway.

"It's dark and threatening," replied Jim, "and looks fierce, but for real high rolling give me that first night in the channel between Maui and Hawaii."

Jo made some remark, but a sudden gust of wind took it out of his mouth and anyone to leeward would have got the benefit of it. The only light forward was a glow that came from the engine-room. Jim and Jo stepped inside out of the storm and found Juarez there as usual, and Tom was seated on a step. He was watching the two men moving around the shining engine, which worked smoothly and unceasingly, and its condition showed how carefully it was tended.

"Gosh! but it is good to get inside here out of the storm," exclaimed Jim. The engineer nodded pleasantly, as he was a man of few words.