ot scruple to put before the needy governess?
Surely that was impossible. There were limits even to his audacity--

"Well, how is my chief hydrographer progressing?"

Courtenay's cheery voice banished the unwelcome specter of Ventana.
Elsie started.

"I do believe you were day-dreaming," said the captain with a surprised
smile. "A penny for your thoughts?"

"I don't think you can pay me," she retorted, hoping to cover her
confusion.

"Won't you accept Chilean currency?"

"Not on the high seas."

"But you are on dry land. Please make a dot on your map at 51 degrees
14 minutes 9 seconds South, and 74 degrees 59 minutes 3 seconds West.
That is the present position of the ship. Are you listening, Boyle?
According to the chart, the ship is high and dry, four miles inland."

"Huh!" grunted Boyle. "Reminds me of a skipper I once sailed with,
bound from Rotterdam to Hull in ballast. There was a Scotch mist best
part of the trip, an' the old man loaded with schnapps to keep out the
damp. First time he got a squint of the sun he went as yaller as a
Swede turnip. 'It's all up with us, boys,' he said. 'My missus is
forty fathoms below. We've just sailed over York.' You see, he'd made
a mistake of a few degrees."

"Boyle," said Courtenay, severely, "what has come to you? Are you
actually making a joke?"

"I think I must have bin tongue-tied before, captain."

"Before what?"

"Before that lame duck in the fo'c'sle stuck his tobacco-cutter into my
jaw. I can talk like a prize parrot now--can't I, Miss Maxwell?"

Elsie was laughing, but she remembered the subject on which Boyle had
displayed his new-found power of speech; and human parrots are apt to
say too much.

"Please don't tell any more funny little stories," she cried, "or I
shall be putting dots in the wrong places."

"And causing us to waste time scandalously. Are you ready, Miss
Maxwell? Let me pin this compass card on the table. Use the parallel
ruler; regard each inch as a mile, and I'll do the rest by guesswork."

Courtenay took his binoculars, and went on to the bridge. He called
out the apparent distance of each landmark he could distinguish,
described it, and gave its true bearing. In the result, Elsie found
she had prepared a clear and fairly accurate chart of the bay and its
headlands, while the position of the distant range of mountains was
marked with tolerable precision. But Courtenay was far from being
satisfied.

"If I ha