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I'll be lettin' the compass pilot me to the east'ard. 'Twill take me the right direction whatever." Levelling the compass carefully in his hand so that the needle swung freely he found the east, and as rapidly as his little legs would carry him set out again in his effort to escape the two sleeping men and to find camp and his friends. At intervals he stopped to consult his compass.
The brig don't seem to sail so well as she used to, and we fell in with over half a dozen fine craft that we couldn't get near. They just walked away from us like we was at anchor. We've come in now to give the old hooker an overhaul she wants it badly enough and then I think I shall try my luck further to the east'ard, away on t'other side of the Cape altogether.
But where be going wi' the spy-glass?" "Over yonder along the cliffs to look at the Eilyguggs." "Eh?" cried the man, sharply. "'Long yonder, past the houses?" "Yes." "Nay, nay, nay, I wouldn't go that away. Go east'ard. It's a deal better and nicer that way, and there's more buds." "I'll go that way another time," said the boy, surlily, and he hurried on.
"There's some fine dry wood just to the east'ard and close to shore," suggested David, as they picked up their axes. "It's right handy." A dozen yards from the camp David suddenly stopped and exclaimed: "What's that now?"
"I dun know; but I was here last night, an' I'd take my davy, I saw the little gal in the ranche of a feller away in the plains, five hundred miles to the east'ard, two months ago. Her father, poor chap, was killed by a wild horse." "How was dat?" inquired the negro, with an expression of great interest.
The captain paused at this point, and opened fire with his pipe for some minutes. "Now," he continued, "there's another thing I want to ax you. I'm goin' to-morrow afternoon to take a cruise along the cliffs to the east'ard in the preventive boat, just to keep up my sea legs. They've got scent o' some smugglin' business that's goin' on, an' my friend Leftenant Lindsay has asked me to go.
"Wall," continued Captain Sol, reddening with the roar of laughter that accompanied the recollection, "it ain't for me, bein' a perfesser of religion, to let on what the men in the bot said, but it had a master-effect on the deacon, for afore them rescuers got back to the steamer he'd shook aout his reefs and was haulin' to the east'ard.
However, he managed to hold on to 'em, and at last the fever left him; but he was that weak he hadn't strength to turn over in his berth without help. "All this time we were going to the east'ard, or about east-south-east, with everything set that the spars would bear.
"Cap'n," he said, "while you've been busy wi' Barker, there, about the ordnance, I've been starin' at the town through thicky glass o' yours, and the thought have comed to me that if we're goin' to be obliged to bombard, we're anchored in the wrong place. We ought to be lyin' somewhere over there, a bit more to the east'ard, and a li'l bit closer inshore.
What's made it so terrible awk'ard for all hands of us is that we're now without a navigator, and have lost our reckonin'. So, after Chips and I had confabulated a bit, we comed to the conclusion that, knowin' as we was well in the track of ships bound to the east'ard, the best thing we could do was to heave-to and wait until somethin' comed along that could spare us somebody to navigate the ship for us to Sydney.
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