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other officer and man implicit obedience to my every command until we docked at
home.
His face brightened at my words, and he assured me that I would find him as
ready to acknowledge my command upon the wrong side of thirty as upon the
right, an assurance which I hastened to tell him I did not need.
The storm continued to rage for three days, and as far as the wind scarce varied a
point during all that time, I knew that we must be far beyond thirty, drifting
rapidly east by south. All this time it had been impossible to work upon the
damaged engines or the gravity-screen generators; but we had a full set of
instruments upon the bridge, for Alvarez, after discovering my intentions, had
fetched the reserve instruments from his own cabin, where he had hidden them.
Those which Johnson had seen him destroy had been a third set which only
Alvarez had known was aboard the Coldwater.
We waited impatiently for the sun, that we might determine our exact location,
and upon the fourth day our vigil was rewarded a few minutes before noon.
Every officer and man aboard was tense with nervous excitement as we awaited
the result of the reading. The crew had known almost as soon as I that we were
doomed to cross thirty, and I am inclined to believe that every man jack of them
was tickled to death, for the spirits of adventure and romance still live in the
hearts of men of the twenty-second century, even though there be little for them
to feed upon between thirty and one hundred seventy-five.
The men carried none of the burdens of responsibility. They might cross thirty
with impunity, and doubtless they would return to be heroes at home; but how
different the home-coming of their commanding officer!
The wind had dropped to a steady blow, still from west by north, and the sea had
gone down correspondingly. The crew, with the exception of those whose duties
kept them below, were ranged on deck below the bridge. When our position was
definitely fixed I personally announced it to the eager, waiting men.
"Men," I said, stepping forward to the handrail and looking down into their
upturned, bronzed faces, "you are anxiously awaiting information as to the ship's
position. It has been determined at latitude fifty degrees seven minutes north,
longitude twenty degrees sixteen minutes west."
I paused and a buzz of animated comment ran through the massed men beneath
me. "Beyond thirty. But there will be no change in commanding officers, in
routine or in discipline, until after we have docked again in New York."
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