Louis always seemed to know all
about everything. Perhaps if he had been with the party all the time, he
might have lost some portion of his reputation as a walking
encyclopaedia; for when he was to be with her on any excursion, he took
extraordinary pains to post himself upon the topics likely to be
considered.

"You notice that post near the siding," said Captain Ringgold when the
party on the promenade had been re-enforced by the addition of the young
men, and the steamer began to move again. "That is one of the five
kilometre posts; and you will find them all the way to the Red Sea."

"What is a kilometre?" inquired Mrs. Woolridge.

"I have talked so much that I will ask Mr. Belgrave to explain it,"
replied the captain.

"It belongs to the French metrical system, which most people have come
to believe is the best in the world. I suppose everybody here knows what
a meridian is, for it was explained when we were talking about great
circles and geographical or sea miles. A meridian is a great circle
reaching around the earth, and passing through the equator and the
poles. A quadrant of a meridian is the quarter of a meridian, extending
from the equator to either pole. This is something that does not vary in
extent. A commission of five learned men, especially in mathematics, was
appointed by the French Academy, at the instance of the government, to
adopt a standard, and they made it a metre, which is the ten millionth
part of the quadrant of a meridian. The metre is 3.28 feet of our
measure, with five more decimal places after it.

"Ten metres make a decametre, and one thousand metres make a kilometre,
and ten thousand metres make a myriametre. Without bothering with all
these decimals, a kilometre is about five-eighths of a mile. Five
kilometres make three miles and one-tenth, which is the distance between
these posts," said Louis in conclusion.

"How came you to be so ready with your explanation, Mr. Belgrave?" asked
Miss Blanche, with a pleasant smile of approval.

"Captain Scott had talked the whole thing to us on board of the Maud
while he steered the steamer," replied Louis.

"But he knows five times as much about metres as I do; for I could not
have explained the meridian business," interjected the captain of the
Maud.

"Five miles an hour is slow travelling; but it enables us to see the
country, and also to talk about it," said Dr. Hawkes.

"If you don't mean that I am talking too much, Doctor"--