“You know that we have saved ten minutes by that operation, sir,” I replied, looking at my watch. “It is seventeen minutes past three and we have only nine miles more to make which can be done in thirty-five minutes. This will bring us in at the wharf at seven minutes before four. We shall have at least five minutes to spare. We should certainly have been behind time if we had gone around the South Shoe.”
“But do you think it is safe to go through that narrow place, Wolf?” asked the great man.
“I think I can take this boat through a thousand times without failing once,” I answered, wiping the perspiration from my brow, for the intense excitement of the passage, overlooked and criticized as I was by the magnate and his son, had thrown me into a fever heat.
“If I had known what you intended to do, I would not have permitted it.”
“For that reason, sir, I did not tell you,” I replied, laughing. “I want to say, sir, that I haven’t done this thing blindly and recklessly.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed the mate, who understood the matter better than any one present except myself.
“You said something to me a few weeks ago about taking command of this boat, Colonel Wimpleton. Well, sir, I have studied up this subject, and taken the shore bearings. I can give you the precise rule I followed.”
“I should like to hear it,” said the colonel, bestowing upon me a cheerful smile of approbation.
“Yes, sir. When the pine tree on the Shooter ranges with the barn on the east shore, stop her. Then, when the north point of the Shooter ranges with an oak tree on the east shore, starboard the helm. When the boat has turned so that the chimney of the cottage ranges with the bow flagpole, the pilot sighting from the center of the wheel-house, go ahead again. Then you are all right; and it can be done a thousand times without a single failure if you follow the directions.”
“But why do you stop her?” asked the colonel curiously.