round
him on the poop, cadets as well as midshipmen, on the alert to watch for
the dip and mark off the angle on our sextants, we were found to be in
latitude 48 degrees 50 minutes North, and longitude 7 degrees 35 minutes
West, showing that we had run some two hundred miles or so since leaving
Plymouth Sound.

After observing the sun's altitude, we were supposed to work out the
reckoning for ourselves independently of each other; though, when the
master sent us down to the gunroom to do this, the lazy hands amongst
us, who were by a long way in the majority, cribbed from those who were
readier at figures, like Larkyns and Ned Anstruther, both of whom
arrived at the same result as Mr Quadrant, ay even in a shorter time,
handing in their papers for inspection before I had well-nigh begun
mine.

"Here, Vernon, take my log and copy it out," cried Larkyns, seeing me
somewhat puzzled over the calculations I was making by the aid of a fat
volume of logarithm tables and Roper's "Navigator"; "you look
considerably fogged, old chappie, by the cut of your jib."

"No thank you," I replied, all on my mettle, determined not to be beat.
"I want to try and make it out by myself, so that I shall know how to do
it next time."

"Bravo, youngster," put in Mr Stormcock. "That's the only way to
become a good navigator. Fudging your reckoning will never teach you
how to work out your altitudes; you stick to it, my boy, and do it on
your own hook."

Nor did the master's mate content himself with merely giving me this
sound advice; for, sitting down by my side, he overhauled my figures
and, being an expert mathematician, soon put me in the right road to
arriving at a solution of my difficulties.

Really, he explained the various steps necessary in order to work out
the reckoning in such a simple way that I understood it thoroughly;
learning more in this one lesson from Mr Stormcock than I had done, I
think, during the three months that I had studied navigation while on
board the training-ship _Illustrious_.

I learnt even yet more.

That was, not to judge by appearances and form hasty conclusions as to
the character of my messmates; as, up to the moment of his coming thus
to my aid, I had always considered Mr Stormcock an ill-tempered and
soured man--whereas I now saw he was at bottom a good-natured fellow and
one ready enough to help another when opportunity offered!

It was a lesson which, like the one he had just taught me in