convex glass.

Bill snatched it eagerly and held it in front of the faintly outlined
figures.

"All over but the shouting!" he jubilated. "Take them down, you fellows,
while I read them aloud to you."

Three pencils were all the boys could muster, but these fairly leaped
from their pockets.

"I don't know what they mean," was Bill's prelude, "but here they are.
Forty-four, then a space, then thirty-two. That's what's on the first
line. Then under that is another lot, sixty-seven, then a space, then
forty-one."

"Hurrah!" yelled Lester, jumping up and clicking his heels together.
"Latitude! Longitude! We'll find it now!"

"Do you think that's what the figures mean?" inquired Bill, his caution
still in evidence.

"I don't think at all, I _know_," jubilated Lester. "It means
longitude sixty-seven degrees forty-one minutes, and latitude forty-four
degrees and thirty-two minutes. Look again and see if there's anything
about seconds."

But further search failed to reveal anything more than had already been
detected.

"Never mind, that's near enough," concluded Lester. "That will give it
to us within a few miles, and it's up to us to find the exact spot."

"Have you got the instruments to take the observations with and find out
just where the spot is?" asked Teddy.

"Sure I have," was the answer. "I've a sextant stowed away in a locker
on board the _Ariel_ and father has shown me how to use it."

"I have one, too," put in Ross.

"So much the better. We can take independent observations and then
compare them. But come along, boys. We're on the right trail at last."

They all hastened out of the forecastle, wildly excited by this latest
and most important clue.

It was the work of only a moment to throw off the lines, and the boats
were off at the fastest speed of which they were capable. Teddy had gone
aboard the _Sleuth_, so as to run the boat while Ross took his
observations, and the other boys took the _Ariel_ off Lester's
hands for the same purpose.

In a few minutes this had been done, and the boats ran alongside each
other, so that the skippers could compare notes.

"It's somewhere within five miles from here," declared Lester, at the
end of the conference. "Now, fellows, keep your eyes peeled for the
first big rock you see standing at the right of any opening and we'll
put in there so quick it will make your heads swim."

"Trust us to keep a close watch," said Fred emphatically. "We won't let
any