ns are to be
carried into the hold. Have some electric lights rigged up on long
wires, so they can be taken in," he added to the mate, who promised to
see that it was done.

"Hum," remarked Mr. Weatherby, as he and Nat walked toward the
pilot-house. "You can't make me believe a lurch of the ship loosened
that bale so it fell. Bumstead doesn't stow his cargo in such a
careless fashion. He's too good a sailor."

"What do you think then?" asked Nat.

"I think some one pushed that bale down."

"Do you think the person wanted to hurt me?"

"I can't say as to that. It may have been done by accident, by a
sailor asleep in the hold. Certainly no rat did it," and the pilot
smiled. But he was more worried than he would admit to Nat.

"I am glad I got out."

"I don't suppose you feel much like taking a lesson in navigation?"

"Oh, I'm always ready for that," was the answer. "I'm all right now.
My head has stopped aching."

"Then come into the pilot-house with me, and I will explain a few more
things to you. I think you have a natural talent for this sort of
life, and I like to show to boys, who appreciate it, the different
things there are to learn. For there are a good many of them, and it's
going to take you a long time."

Nat had no false notions about learning to be a pilot. He knew it
would take him several years to be a capable one, but he determined to
get a good ground work or the higher branches of it, and so he
listened carefully to all that Mr. Weatherby told him.

He learned how to read the compass and how to give the proper signals
to the engineer.

For a number of days he spent several hours out of the twenty-four in
the pilot-house with Mr. Weatherby. He got an understanding of the
charts of the lake, of the various signals used by other ships, to
indicate the course they were on, and he learned to know the meaning
of the shore signal lights, and the location of the lighthouses that
marked the dangerous rocks and shoals.

"You're doing very well," Mr. Weatherby said to him one day. "Much
better than I expected. Some time I'll let you try your hand at
steering a bit."

"Oh, that will be fine!" exclaimed Nat, but he little knew what was
going to result from it.

CHAPTER IX

A NARROW ESCAPE

Though he was much interested in beginning on his long-cherished plan
of becoming a pilot, Nat did not lose sight of the fact that there was
some mystery concerning his father, in which the mate had