mstances, by employing the arms of Tom and his
companions, he evidently did not yet possess all the knowledge
necessary to determine his position by calculation.

In four or five years more, Dick Sand would know thoroughly that
beautiful and difficult sailor's craft. He would know how to use the
sextant--that instrument which Captain Hull's hand had held every day,
and which gave him the height of the stars. He would read on the
chronometer the hour of the meridian of Greenwich, and from it would be
able to deduce the longitude by the hour angle. The sun would be made
his counselor each day. The moon--the planets would say to him, "There,
on that point of the ocean, is thy ship!" That firmament, on which the
stars move like the hands of a perfect clock, which nothing shakes nor
can derange, and whose accuracy is absolute--that firmament would tell
him the hours and the distances. By astronomical observations he would
know, as his captain had known every day, nearly to a mile, the place
occupied by the "Pilgrim," and the course followed as well as the
course to follow.

And now, by reckoning, that is by the progress measured on the log,
pointed out by the compass, and corrected by the drift, he must alone
ask his way.

However, he did not falter.

Mrs. Weldon understood all that was passing in the young novice's
resolute heart.

"Thank you, Dick," she said to him, in a voice which did not tremble.
"Captain Hull is no more. All his crew have perished with him. The fate
of the ship is in your hands! Dick, you will save the ship and those on
board!"

"Yes, Mrs. Weldon," replied Dick Sand, "yes! I shall attempt it, with
the aid of God!"

"Tom and his companions are honest men on whom you can depend entirely."

"I know it, and I shall make sailors of them, and we shall work
together. With fine weather that will be easy. With bad weather--well,
with bad weather, we shall strive, and we shall save you yet, Mrs.
Weldon--you and your little Jack, both! Yes, I feel that I shall do it."

And he repeated:

"With the aid of God!"

"Now, Dick, can you tell where the 'Pilgrim' is?" asked Mrs. Weldon.

"Easily," replied the novice. "I have only to consult the chart on
board, on which her position was marked yesterday by Captain Hull."

"And will you be able to put the ship in the right direction?"

"Yes, I shall be able to put her prow to the east, nearly at the point
of the American coast that we must reach."

"But,