ky, Jeremy Pitt came forth upon the
Captain's arm.

Seated on the hatch-coamings, the Somersetshire lad gratefully filled
his lungs with the cool night air, and professed himself revived
thereby. Then with the seaman's instinct his eyes wandered to the
darkling vault of heaven, spangled already with a myriad golden points
of light. Awhile he scanned it idly, vacantly; then, his attention
became sharply fixed. He looked round and up at Captain Blood, who stood
beside him.

"D'ye know anything of astronomy, Peter?" quoth he.

"Astronomy, is it? Faith, now, I couldn't tell the Belt of Orion from
the Girdle of Venus."

"Ah! And I suppose all the others of this lubberly crew share your
ignorance."

"It would be more amiable of you to suppose that they exceed it."

Jeremy pointed ahead to a spot of light in the heavens over the
starboard bow. "That is the North Star," said he.

"Is it now? Glory be, I wonder ye can pick it out from the rest."

"And the North Star ahead almost over your starboard bow means that
we're steering a course, north, northwest, or maybe north by west, for I
doubt if we are standing more than ten degrees westward."

"And why shouldn't we?" wondered Captain Blood.

"You told me--didn't you?--that we came west of the archipelago between
Tobago and Grenada, steering for Curacao. If that were our present
course, we should have the North Star abeam, out yonder."

On the instant Mr. Blood shed his laziness. He stiffened with
apprehension, and was about to speak when a shaft of light clove the
gloom above their heads, coming from the door of the poop cabin which
had just been opened. It closed again, and presently there was a step
on the companion. Don Diego was approaching. Captain Blood's fingers
pressed Jerry's shoulder with significance. Then he called the Don,
and spoke to him in English as had become his custom when others were
present.

"Will ye settle a slight dispute for us, Don Diego?" said he lightly.
"We are arguing, Mr. Pitt and I, as to which is the North Star."

"So?" The Spaniard's tone was easy; there was almost a suggestion that
laughter lurked behind it, and the reason for this was yielded by his
next sentence. "But you tell me Mr. Pitt he is your navigant?"

"For lack of a better," laughed the Captain, good-humouredly
contemptuous. "Now I am ready to wager him a hundred pieces of eight
that that is the North Star." And he flung out an arm towards a point
of light in the h