“No church tower, nor light, nor fort, ha? There is a garrison, as you call it hereaway, at least?”
“Ask Sergeant Dunham, sir, if you wish to know that. All the garrison is on board the Scud.”
“But in running in, Bob, which of the channels do you think the best? the one you went last, or—or—or—ay, or the other?”
“I can't say, sir; I know nothing of either.”
“You didn't go to sleep, fellow, at the wheel, did you?”
“Not at the wheel, sir, but down in the fore-peak in my berth. Eau-douce sent us below, soldiers and all, with the exception of the pilot, and we know no more of the road than if we had never been over it. This he has always done in going in and coming out; and, for the life of me, I could tell you nothing of the channel, or the course, after we are once fairly up with the islands. No one knows anything of either but Jasper and the pilot.”
“Here is a circumstance for you, Sergeant,” said Cap, leading his brother-in-law a little aside; “there is no one on board to pump, for they all suck from ignorance at the first stroke of the brake. How the devil am I to find the way to this station for which we are bound?”
“Sure enough, brother Cap, your question is more easily put than answered. Is there no such thing as figuring it out by navigation? I thought you salt-water mariners were able to do as small a thing as that. I have often read of their discovering islands, surely.”
“That you have, brother, that you have; and this discovery would be the greatest of them all; for it would not only be discovering one island, but one island out of a thousand.”
“Still, the sailors of the lake have a method of finding the places they wish to go to.”