“Is that north? Yes. I think I see the patch you mean.”
“Then fix your glass on the horizon just on the line where the sea melts into sky, under the middle one of those three patches. Quick, before they change.”
Jack took the glass and looked through.
“See it?”
“No,” he said.
“Haven’t got the glass straight perhaps,” said the captain. “Take a shot with it first as if it were a gun—look along the top and fix it upon the horizon line, and then sweep it right and left till you make the land.”
“I’ve got it,” cried Jack.
“The land?”
“No, the line of the horizon. I wasn’t looking through the eye-piece. That’s it; now I can see the edge of the sea quite plainly.”
“Then you are clever,” said the captain, laughing. “I never did. Well, sweep it about to right and left. See the land?”