he tired of it in half an hour, and the schooner went on her way with

an incongruous patch of colour on the stern, and the word Farallone part

obliterated and part looking through. He refused to stand either the

middle or the morning watch. It was fine-weather sailing, he said;

and asked, with a laugh, 'Who ever heard of the old man standing watch

himself?' To the dead reckoning which Herrick still tried to keep, he

would pay not the least attention nor afford the least assistance.

'What do we want of dead reckoning?' he asked. 'We get the sun all

right, don't we?'

'We mayn't get it always though,' objected Herrick. 'And you told me

yourself you weren't sure of the chronometer.'

'Oh, there ain't no flies in the chronometer!' cried Davis.

'Oblige me so far, captain,' said Herrick stiffly. 'I am anxious to keep

this reckoning, which is a part of my duty; I do not know what to allow

for current, nor how to allow for it. I am too inexperienced; and I beg

of you to help me.'

'Never discourage zealous officer,' said the captain, unrolling the

chart again, for Herrick had taken him over his day's work and while he

was still partly sober. 'Here it is: look for yourself; anything from

west to west no'the-west, and anyways from five to twenty-five miles.

That's what the A'm'ralty chart says; I guess you don't expect to get on

ahead of your own Britishers?'

The Ebb-Tide