hand, maternal voice,
came from the same young lady who had flown at him like a wild-cat with
this very problem in her mouth. She mesmerized him, problem and all; he
subsided into a complacent languor, and at last went to sleep, thinking
only of her. But the topic had entered his mind too deeply to be finally
dismissed. It returned next day, though in a different form. You must
know that Hazel, as he lay on his back in the boat, had often, in a
half-drowsy way, watched the effect of the sun upon the boat's mast; it
now stood, a bare pole, and at certain hours acted like the needle of a
dial by casting a shadow on the sands. Above all, he could see pretty
well by means of this pole and its shadow when the sun attained its
greatest elevation. He now asked Miss Rolleston to assist him in making
this observation exactly.

She obeyed his instructions, and the moment the shadow reached its
highest angle, and showed the minutest symptom of declension, she said,
"Now," and Hazel called out in a loud voice:

"Noon!"

"And forty-nine minutes past eight at Sydney," said Helen, holding out
her chronometer; for she had been sharp enough to get it ready of her own
accord.

Hazel looked at her and at the watch with amazement and incredulity.

"What?" said he. "Impossible. You can't have kept Sydney time all this
while."

"And pray why not?" said Helen. "Have you forgotten that once somebody
praised me for keeping Sydney time; it helped you, somehow or other, to
know where we were."

"And so it will now," cried Hazel, exultingly. "But no! it is impossible.
We have gone through scenes that-- You can't have wound that watch up
without missing a day."

"Indeed but I have," said Helen. "Not wind my watch up! Why, if I was
dying I should wind my watch up. See, it requires no key; a touch or two
of the fingers and it is done. Oh, I am remarkably constant in all my
habits; and this is an old friend I never neglect. Do you remember that
terrible night in the boat, when neither of us expected to see the
morning--oh, how good and brave you were!--well, I remember winding it up
that night. I kissed it, and bade it good-by. But I never dreamed of not
winding it up because I was going to be killed. What! am I not to be
praised again, as I was on board ship? Stingy! can't afford to praise one
twice for the same thing."

"Praised!" cried Hazel excitedly; "worshiped, you mean. Why, we have got
the longitude by means of your chronometer. I