"Good evening, lad," greeted the captain in a kindly tone.
"Good evening, sir," answered Dan.
"You discovered the shoal spot on your way out to the range to-day, did you not?"
"Yes, sir."
"How did you come to do that!"
"I try to observe everything, sir. The water there did not look like the rest of the water of the bay, so I looked over and saw the bottom."
"Exactly. Why did you not notify the ship? You had reasons for not doing so, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"What were they?"
"In the first place, sir, it would have been presumptuous of me to have done so. In the second place, I thought that, of course, the navigator knew every inch of the bottom hereabouts."