230“All over but the shouting!” he jubilated. “Take them down, you fellows, while I read them aloud to you.”
Three pencils were all the boys could muster, but these fairly leaped from their pockets.
“I don’t know what they mean,” was Bill’s prelude, “but here they are. Forty-four, then a space, then thirty-two. That’s what’s on the first line. Then under that is another lot, sixty-seven, then a space, then forty-one.”
“Hurrah!” yelled Lester, jumping up and clicking his heels together. “Latitude! Longitude! We’ll find it now!”
“Do you think that’s what the figures mean?” inquired Bill, his caution still in evidence.
“I don’t think at all, I know,” jubilated Lester. “It means longitude sixty-seven degrees forty-one minutes, and latitude forty-four degrees and thirty-two minutes. Look again and see if there’s anything about seconds.”
But further search failed to reveal anything more than had already been detected.
“Never mind, that’s near enough,” concluded Lester. “That will give it to us within a few miles, and it’s up to us to find the exact spot.”
“Have you got the instruments to take the observations with and find out just where the spot is?” asked Teddy.
“Sure I have,” was the answer. “I’ve a sextant 231 stowed away in a locker on board the Ariel and father has shown me how to use it.”