ns in his trunk. He conceived the idea of being
present on deck at twelve o'clock, when the captain made his
observation, and of learning from him, as it were accidentally, what the
sun's altitude was observed to be. This he could very easily do, for it
was customary to have the observation made not only by the captain, but
by one or two of the chief officers of the ship also, at the same time,
who are all always provided with sextants for the purpose. The results,
when obtained, are compared together, to see if they agree--each
observer telling the others what altitude he obtains. Thus they are more
sure of getting the result correctly. Besides, it is important that
these officers should have practice, so that they may be able to take
the observation when the captain is sick, or when they come to command
ships themselves.

Now, the mate above referred to thought that, by standing near the
captain and his officers when they made the observations, he could
overhear them in comparing their results, and then that he could go down
into his state room immediately; and that there, by working very
diligently, he could ascertain the run of the ship before it should be
reported on the captain's bulletin, and so know beforehand what ticket
would gain the prize. Or, if he could not determine absolutely what the
precise ticket would be,--since his computation might not agree
precisely with that made by the captain,--he could determine within two
or three of the right one, and then buy three tickets--that is, the one
which agreed with his calculation, and also the one above and below
it--for perhaps a sovereign or so apiece: he would thus get the ten
sovereigns by an expenditure of three or four. His plan, in fact, was
similar to that of the Colonel; only his estimate was to be based on the
observation, while that of the Colonel was based on the dead reckoning.
They both performed their computations in a very skilful manner, and
they came to nearly the same result. The mate came to the conclusion
that the run of the ship would be 266 miles; while the Colonel, as has
already been stated, made it 267. While, therefore, the Colonel, to make
sure of the prize, wished to buy tickets 266, 267, and 268, the mate
wished to secure 265, 266, and 267. The mate, after making some inquiry,
found who had 265; and, after some bargaining, succeeded in buying it
for two sovereigns and a half. But he could not hear any thing of 266.
As for 267, he di