in four hundred feet.

"And now to return to the business in hand. My telescope informed me
that the slave fleet was anchored at a distance of eighteen thousand
three hundred feet (or a shade over three nautical miles) from the tree,
and that the western entrance to the creek is twenty-eight thousand nine
hundred feet (or about four and three-quarter nautical miles) from the
same spot. We have now only to mark off these two distances on the two
compass-bearings which we last laid down on the chart: thus,"--measuring
and marking off the distances as he spoke--"and here we have the
position of the slavers and of the entrance to the creek; and by a
moment's use of Mildmay's parallel ruler--thus--we get the compass-
bearing of the entrance from the _Daphne_. There it is--south-east by
east; and now we measure the distance from one to the other, and find it
to be--eight miles, as nearly as it is possible to measure it. Thus,
you see, my rough-and ready survey of this afternoon affords us the
means of ascertaining our course and distance from the _Daphne_ to a
point for which we should otherwise have been obliged to search, and
which we could not possibly have hoped to find in the impenetrable fog
which now overspreads the river."

"Thank you, Mr Smellie," said I, highly delighted with the lesson I had
received; "if it will not be troubling you too much I think I must ask
you to give me a lesson or two in surveying when you can spare the
time."

"I shall be very pleased," was the reply. "Never hesitate to come to me
for any information or instruction which you think I may be able to
afford you. I shall always be happy to help you on in your studies to
the utmost extent of my ability. But we have not quite finished yet,
and it is now, Mildmay, that I think _you_ may perhaps be able to help
us. You see we shall have to pull--or sail, as the case may
be--_across_ the current, and it will therefore be necessary to make
some allowance for its set. Now do you happen to know anything about
the speed of the current in the river?"

"Not half so much as I should like," replied the master; "but a hint
which the skipper dropped this morning caused me to take the dinghy and
go away out in mid-stream _to spend the day in fishing_--ha--ha--ha!
The Yankee had his glass turned full upon me, off and on, the whole
morning--so I'm told--and if so I daresay he saw that I had some fairly
good sport. But I wasn't so busy with my hooks