With the compass placed squarely over the end of the post Bob sighted across it, directing Jim, who had moved off at a distance of half a dozen yards, until he was in the desired position. Then the compass was carried forward to this point, and as Joe trimmed away the branches or hewed down trees which obstructed the view, Harry walked ahead according to the old sailor's orders.
Walter made the third point in the observation; and thus the line was continued by the one in the rear going forward when the distance had been measured, until forty-one fathoms, or two hundred and forty-six feet, had been covered.
"Here we are!" Joe cried as the final living peg was in position; "and there's nothing that looks like a palmetto anywhere near. Are you sure the course is true?"
"I know it can't be half a fathom out of the way," Bob said as he wiped the perspiration from his face and gazed around in perplexity. "This is what comes of takin' a bearin' that's likely to be knocked outer line."
"If the tree isn't where it ought to be must we give up the search?" Walter asked as a look of disappointment came over his face.
"We won't cry quits quite so soon as this," Bob replied quickly. "Joe, drive a stake where Harry stands, so we can find the spot ag'in, an' then get ready to start on the other course."
When this had been done Bob brought the compass forward once more, and Joe struck out southeast by east—a direction which caused them to return almost over the same course, the stake standing at the point of an acute angle.
This second course was but little more than one-quarter the distance of the first; but the underbrush was more tangled, which made the labor of clearing a path proportionately greater, and it was nearly night-fall when Joe shouted, as he pressed on in advance:
"There's no need of squinting across that compass-box any longer, for here's the coral-head as plain as the nose on a man's face!"
Without thinking that by leaving their positions all this last portion of the work might have to be repeated, the boys rushed forward eagerly despite Bob's warning shouts; and thus deserted by his assistants, the old sailor could do no less than join the others, who were standing around what looked like a dull-white rock of the same form as that so rudely pictured on the time-stained paper.