ant him, an' is too skeered to
say so, I 'll tell him, in the right sort of Spanish, an' all. Now,
had it been the skipper--"

Boyle hardly knew what to think--"had it been the skipper."

CHAPTER XII

ENLIGHTENMENT

The captain was enthusiastic when he heard of Elsie's idea for the
protection of the main deck--"an excellent notion," he termed it, but
he scouted the suggestion that she should undertake the work herself.

"You little know what hauling taut heavy canvas means," he said when
they met at lunch. "It would tear the skin off your hands. No, Miss
Maxwell, we can put our Chileans on to that job. I have something
better for you to do. Can you map?"

"I have copied heaps of plans for my father," she told him.

"Excellent! At noon to-day I took an observation, so I intend to
devote an hour to revising the chart. Will you help? Joey is in the
scheme already. Then the Admiralty will gracefully acknowledge the
survey supplied by Miss Elsie Maxwell, Captain Arthur Courtenay, and
Joey, otherwise known as 'the pup.'"

His allusion to the dog by name recalled "Jose the Wine-bag," but Elsie
thought she would retain that tiny scrap of detective information for
the present. So she simply said:

"You will explain to me my part of the undertaking, of course?"

"Certainly. You must first correct the Index Error. Then you subtract
the Dip and the Refraction in Altitude, take the sun's semi-diameter
from the Nautical Almanac, and add the Parallax. Do you follow me?"

"Perfectly; it sounds the easiest thing. But I don't wish to hear the
remarks of the Admiralty when they see the result."

"I am interested in navigation, to the slight extent possible to a mere
yachtsman: may I join you?" interposed Christobal.

"Oh, yes," said the captain off-handedly.

Elsie repressed the smile on her lips. Did the worthy doctor fear
developments if this harmless map-making progressed in his absence?
She imagined, too, that Courtenay's acquiesence in Christobal's desire
to be present was not wholly in accordance with his innermost wish.
She promptly crushed that dangerous fancy. The captain was only
seeking for some excuse to take her away from the rough work of rigging
the extra awnings. How odd that the other thought should have cropped
up first!

"You still think the _Kansas_ will win clear of her difficulties?" she
said rather hurriedly. "I am sorry to bring King Charles's head into
the conversation, b