"But we think they will use ours because we selected a place close to a river and the ocean, close to forests and fairly near minerals."
"Yes, you have done a wonderful job, I know that much about it."
"Well, we'll go out and re-check our lines," Jon said. "I've been studying and experimenting with the theodolite, and I can...."
"What is that?" she asked.
"What's what? Oh, the 'theodolite'? That's the surveyor's telescope. I've learned enough about it so I can tell if our lines have been run straight, and as we were so careful in measuring the distances, I'm quite sure they're fairly accurate."
"Yes," Jak chimed in, "I'll bet none of them are more than an inch off, if that."
"Optimist," Jon scoffed. "I'd take that bet away from you, only it'd be cheating an infant."
Jak started a retort, then thought better of it, and shut up.
They left the ship soon, Jon carrying the surveying instrument over his shoulder, and Jak the marker-pole. Arrived at the nearest corner of their townsite, Jon set the instrument down, while Jak went on to the next stake.
By means of the graduated circle attached just below the telescope, and the plumb line suspended from it, Jon adjusted the collapsible legs until he felt sure it was correctly focussed. Then, as Jak went ahead from stake to stake, Jon took sights to make sure each marker was centered on his cross hairs. The ones that were not, he indicated by hand signals, and Jak reset them to left or right, until Jon was satisfied.