Next morning at breakfast I said:
"How was it, Tom, that when we were buying our outfit at Leavenworth we forgot to get a compass? That is a pretty useful thing in travelling across the prairie, where there is no road or trail to follow?"
"Well," replied Tom, "it would be handy to have a compass, but we haven't got one and so we'll have to do the next best thing, and thank the Lord I have a good watch to run our course by."
"What!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean that you can tell the points of the compass by a watch?" And Jack chimed in: "I never heard of the like."
"If you live long enough, young fellows, you may find out that there are some other things you never heard of. Look here, I'll explain to you how it's done," and Tom pulled his big silver watch out of his pocket, opened it, and put it on the table.
"You turn the watch so that the hour-hand points to the sun; then measure just half-way to the figure twelve on the dial in the shortest direction, and that will be south. Of course, the opposite point will be north, and you can tell east or west.
"If you get it firmly fixed in your mind that, with the hour-hand of a watch pointing to the sun, half-way between that and the figure twelve in the shortest direction on the dial is south, you can always get the points of the compass when the sun is shining."
"Whoever taught you that watch trick, Tom?" I asked.
"First Lieutenant James E. B. Stuart, late of G Company, First Cavalry, and now an officer in the rebel army, learnt me that once when I was out on a scout with him in the mountains and we got lost," answered Tom. "It was cloudy and we wandered about in every direction except the right one, as lost men will do. After a while the sun came out for a little while and I saw Jeb halt, take out his watch, and look at the sun. Then he said: 'Now, I have got it. The trail is off in this direction,' pointing with his right hand, while he held the watch in the left. Then he called to me: 'Come here, sergeant, and I will show you how to tell north and south by a watch. It may be useful to you some day.' And then he explained it to me, and many's the time it has been useful."
By the time we had everything packed up after breakfast and the team strung out, the sun was up and we started north.