worked up the reckoning for the longitude. We got eight bells nearly an
hour ago, and the bulletin must have been posted by this time."

"It was posted some time ago. All the officers work up the reckoning; and I
did so with the others. The commander and I agreed to a second."

"What do you mean by saying you do not know the run?" demanded Louis.

"I do know the run; but that was not what you asked me," answered Scott
with the same mischievous smile.

"What did I ask you?"

"The first time you asked me all right, and I should have answered you if I
had not felt obliged to switch off and inform you and Miss Woolridge of my
new appointment. The second time you put it you changed the question."

"I changed it?" queried Louis.

"You remember that when Mrs. Blossom asked Flix where under the sun he had
been, he replied that he had not been anywhere, as it happened to be in the
evening, when the sun was not overhead."

"A quibble!" exclaimed Louis, laughing.

"Granted; but one which was intended to test your information in regard to
a nautical problem. You asked me the second time for the run of to-day for
the last twenty-four hours."

"And that was what I asked you the first time," answered Louis.

"I beg your pardon, but you asked me simply for the run to-day."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Will you please to tell me how many hours there are in a sea-day?" asked
Scott, becoming more serious.

"That depends," answered Louis, laughing. "You have me on the run."

"You will find that the bulletin signed by the first officer gives the run
as 330 miles; but the answer to your second question is 337 miles, about,"
added the third officer. "Just here the day is only twenty-three hours and
forty minutes long as we are running; and the faster we go the shorter the
day," continued the speaker, who was ciphering all the time on a card.

"I don't see how that can be," interposed Miss Blanche, with one of her
prettiest smiles.

"There is the lunch-bell; but I shall be very happy to explain the matter
more fully later in the day, Miss Woolridge, unless you prefer that Louis
should do it," suggested Scott.

"I doubt if I could do it, and I should be glad to listen to the
explanation," replied Louis, as they descended to the main cabin; for the
new third officer was permitted to retain his place at the table as well as
his state-room.

The commander had suggested that there was likely to be some change of
cabin arran