ee were content to let the precise
time remain a matter of conjecture.

"Tim, how close are we to land?" asked Elwood.

"I should say about the same distance that the land is from us, and
begorrah that's the best information I can give yees."

"I could see the mountains very plainly when the sun was setting," said
Howard, "and it cannot be many miles away."

"What sort of a country is it off here?" pursued Elwood, pointing in the
direction of the land.

"It is wild and rocky, and there are plenty of Indians and wild animals
there."

"How do you know?" asked Elwood, in some amazement.

"I have taken the trouble to learn all about California that I could
before coming."

"I believe they have _gold_ there?" said Elwood, in rather a bantering
vein.

"Tim can tell you more about that than I can, as he came to California
to hunt gold."

"How is that, Tim?"

"Begorrah, but he shpakes the truth. I wint up among the mountains to
hunt gowld."

"And what luck had you?"

"Luck, is it?" repeated the Irishman, with an expression of ludicrous
disgust. "Luck, does ye call it, to have your head cracked and your
shins smashed by the copper-skins, chawed up by the b'ars, froze to
death in the mountains, drowned in the rivers--that run into the top of
yer shanty when yer sound asleep--your feet gnawed off by wolverines, as
they call--and--but whisht! don't talk to me of luck, and all the time
ye never gets a sight of a particle of gowld."

The boys laughed, Howard said:

"But your luck is not every one's, Tim; there have been plenty who have
made fortunes at the business."

"Yis, but they wasn't Tim O'Rooneys. He's not the man that was born to
be rich!"

"You're better satisfied where you are."

"Yis, thank God, that I've such a good home, and an ongrateful dog would
I baa if I should ask more."

"But, Elwood, it's getting late, and this night air begins to feel
chilly. It can't be far from midnight."

"I am willing; where's Terror? Ah! here he is; old fellow, come along
and keep faithful watch over your friends."

"Boys," said Tim O'Rooney, with a strange, husky intonation, "you
remember my dream about this steamer burning?"

"Yes; what of it?"

"It is coming thrue!"

_He spoke the truth!_

CHAPTER III.

AFLOAT.

As Tim O'Rooney spoke, he pointed to the bow of the steamer, where, in
the bright moonlight, some smoke could be seen rising--where, too, the
next instant, they caught sight of a gl