About eight o'clock
The going was fine , over a springy turf and sometimes they tore through wide belts of tall mustard . Jo and Jim were in fine fettle as the end of the journey came in sight and there was promise of their coming to close quarters with the pirates and possibly rescuing their oppressed brothers from captivity . Then , too , the passage of the strait in an open boat appealed to their sense of adventure . About eight o'clock , they came to a ranch two miles from the harbor , where Senor Sebastian had a short talk with a man who owned the small boat that had been referred to . He was perfectly willing to lend them the boat and also sent a Mexican servant to bring back their horses and put them up in his stables . Not forgetting to thank him for his great kindness to them , the boys turned their horses ' heads for the harbor , the last lap of their long journey had begun . In a half hour , they stood on the shore of a long , narrow inlet , at a point where a craft was moored .