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wrinkled his brows over it, while Captain Candle lay back with a flicker of a smile on his lips and watched the lad struggle with his thoughts.

After a time Phil raised his head. ‘‘First, sir,” said he, "I shall draw the first ship’s rhomb thus, from A unto E, which shall be south-south-west. Then I shall lay a line from A unto C as the ninety leagues that she sailed west. Next I shall lay my line from C to D, and further, as her south-west course. Then I shall lay from A a line that shall correspond to the six-score leagues the second ship sailed, which cuts at D the line I drew before.” As he talked, he worked with his pen, and the master, rising as if in surprise, bent over the table and watched every motion.

The pen drew lines and arcs and lettered them and wrote out a problem in proportions. Hesitating, the point crawled over columns of figures.

“The rhomb of the second ship,” said Phil at last, “is degrees sixty-seven, and minutes thirty-six. Her course is near west-south-west. And the first ship sailed forty-nine leagues.”

Tapping the table, as one does who meditates, Captain Candle looked more sharply at the lad. ‘‘You are clever with your pen.”

"‘T is owing to the good Dr. Arber at Roehampton,” Phil replied. ‘‘Had I abode with him longer, I had been cleverer still, for he was an able scholar; but there was much in school I had no taste for.”

The captain’s eyes searched his face. ‘‘I sent for you,” he said, ‘‘because I was minded to make you my boatswain. But now, if my mate were lost, I swear I ’d seat you at mine own table.”

Phil rose.