in and coming out, and, for the life of me, I could tell you nothing of
the channel, or of the course, after we are once fairly up with the islands. No
one knows any thing of either, but Jasper and the pilot.«
    »Here's a circumstance for you, serjeant,« said Cap, leading his
brother-in-law, a little aside. »There is no one on board to pump, for they all
suck from ignorance, at the first stroke of the brake. How the devil am I to
find the way to this station.«
    »Sure enough, Brother Cap; your question is more easily put than answered.
Is there no such thing as figuring it out, by navigation? I thought you
salt-water mariners were able to do as small a thing as that! I have often read
of their discovering islands, surely.«
    »That you have, brother; that you have; and this discovery would be the
greatest of them all, for it would not only be discovering one island, but one
island out of a thousand. I might make out to pick up a single needle on this
deck, old as I am, but I much doubt if I could pick one out of a haystack.«
    »Still, the sailors of the lake, have a method of finding the places they
wish to go to.«
    »If I have understood you, serjeant, this station, or block house, is
particularly private?«
    »It is indeed; the utmost care having been taken to prevent a knowledge of
its position, from reaching the enemy.«
    »And you expect me, a stranger on your lake, to find this place without
chart, course, distance, latitude, longitude, or soundings - ay, d--e, or
tallow! Allow me to ask if you think a mariner runs by his nose, like one of
Pathfinder's hounds?«
    »Well, brother, you may yet learn something by questioning the young man at
the helm; I can hardly think that he is as ignorant as he pretends to be.«
    »Hum - this looks like another circumstance! For that matter, the case is
getting to be so full of circumstances, that one hardly knows how to foot up the
evidence. But we will soon see how much the lad knows.«
    Cap and the serjeant now returned to their station near the helm, and the
former renewed his inquiries.
    »Do you happen to know what may be the latitude and longitude of this