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.