“Can’t say as I do. I never seen one like this before.”
“Why, blast you, all you’ve got to do is to twist them timber noggins till it goes right, and that does the whole business. Then you let her go.”
“Where’s any timber noggins hereabouts?” asked the mate.
“Why, on the tail of the log; see?” and the skipper took up the trailing-screw.
“Ah, yes, I see; but how about this clock machine that goes on the rail. Don’t seem to open exactly.”
The skipper took up this part and examined it carefully.
“That’s all right. It don’t open; you just keep on letting her twist, and add on to where you start from or subtract from where you are.”
“I see,” said the mate, and without further ado he dropped the trailing-screw overboard.
The third mate saw all this, and he determined to investigate the instrument during his watch that night.
When he went forward he stopped at the carpenter’s room.