"On the chart. Why, I've studied charts since I was a kid, and gone every kind of voyage you can think of—playing at buccaneering or whaling, or discovering the North Pole. Every kid does that."
"They do, eh?" said Charlie, evidently quite unimpressed. "I never did."
"That's because you've about as much imagination as a turnip in that head of yours," I broke in, in defence of my young Apollo.
"Maybe, if you're so smart," continued Charlie, paying no attention to me, "you can navigate us through the North Bight?"
"Maybe!" answered our youngster pertly, with an odd little smile. He had evidently recovered his nerve, and seemed to take pleasure in piquing Charlie's bearish suspicions.
CHAPTER V
In Which We Enter the Wilderness.
Andros, as no other of the islands, is surrounded by a ring of reefs stretching all around its coasts. The waters inside this ring are seldom more than a fathom or two deep, and, spreading out for miles and miles above a level coral floor, give something of the effect of a vast natural swimming-bath. Frequently there is no more than four or five feet of water, and in calm weather it would be almost possible to walk for miles across this strange sea-bottom.