“It’s no use your coming in here if you want to get cool,” he announced peevishly. “It’s as hot as Tophet in this place.”
“Let’s get up under the trees where there’s a breeze,” Jack suggested. The breeze, however, was hard to find. Still, it was cooler than in the tent, and the three boys stretched themselves out on a thin carpet of pine needles and leaves.
“Just see how smooth it is today,” said Bee, nodding at the water. “Let’s go out after dinner and see if we can see that wreck you told about, Jack.”
“All right. We can try. I guess we won’t find the water much smoother while we’re here. We ought to have one of those glass bottomed boats they use out in California. I was reading about them once. They say you can look right down into the water for fathoms and see the fishes and the seaweed and coral.”
“What’s a fathom?” asked Bee.
“Six feet. Father used to tell about a couple of men who used to sail out of here. They were brothers. One of them was six feet and four inches and the other was six feet and two inches tall. They used to call the taller one Long Fathom and the other Short Fathom.”
“I thought a fathom was a long way; four or five hundred feet,” said Bee.
“Maybe you were thinking of a cable. A cable’s six hundred feet, and ten cables make a knot.”
“And a knot is more than a mile, isn’t it?”
“Eight hundred and two feet more. Twenty knots equal just about twenty-three miles.”