d to be instructed in navigation, and I shall be glad to help such an
exceptional lad."

The next day the _Furious_, having received all her stores, went out to
Spithead. The midshipmen had been all fully engaged, and there were no
lessons with the padre, but on the following day these were resumed, and
presently one of the other boys came down with a message that Will was to
go to the padre's cabin.

"I have arranged, lad," the chaplain said when he entered, "to give you a
quarter of an hour a day to help you on with your navigation, and I take
it that you, on your part, are ready to do the work. It seems to me almost
out of the question that you can be advanced enough to enter upon such
studies. That, however, I shall soon ascertain. Now open that book and let
me see how you would work out the following observation," and he gave him
the necessary data.

In five minutes Will handed him the result.

"Of course, sir, to obtain the exact answer I should require to know more
than you have given me."

"That is quite right. To-morrow you shall go on deck with me, and I will
show you how to use a quadrant and take the altitude of the sun, and from
it how to calculate the longitude, which is somewhat more difficult than
the latitude. I see you have a good knowledge of figures, and I am quite
sure that at the end of a few days' work you will be able to take an
observation that will be close enough for all practical purposes."

He then asked Will many questions as to his course of study, the books he
had read, and the manner in which he had got up the book-work of
navigation.

"But how did you manage about logarithms," he said. "I generally find them
great stumbling-blocks in the way of my pupils."

"I don't really understand them now, sir. I can look down the columns and
find the number I want, and see how it works out the result, but why it
should do so I have not been able to understand. It seems quite different
from other operations in figures."

"It is so," the chaplain said, "and let me tell you that not one navigator
in fifty really grasps the principle. They 'fudge', as it is termed, the
answer, and if they get it right are quite content without troubling
themselves in any way with the principle involved. If you want to be a
good navigator you must grasp the principle, and work the answer out for
yourself. When you can do this you will have a right to call yourself a
navigator. If you come to me at twelve o'clo