“North.”
“Yes, go on.”
“Then I think we went north-west.”
“Well, and after that?”
“West, father.”
“Then as we ran from the shark we went south, didn’t we?”
“I don’t know,” said Mark. “I was too intent on the way in which they were tearing him to pieces.”
“Well, you might have said you were too frightened to notice,” said the captain, smiling. “You need not have been ashamed. But come now, which way are we going now?”
“Away from the sun,” replied Mark, who felt no inclination to show that he had felt too much alarmed to take any notice of the direction they rowed. “I suppose we must be going east.”
“Well, then, if you started by going east, and kept on rowing till you are going east again, I think you may conclude that you have gone nearly round a piece of land, and that the said piece is an island. It might not be, for we may be going right into some gulf; but this place looks as much like an island as is possible, and I don’t think it can be anything else.”