Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/140

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

114^ DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN. Almost îmmediately afterwards, Tom awakened from his slumber. His eye feil instinctîvely on the compass, and he saw in a moment that the ship was out of her proper course. By a turn of the helm he brought her head to what he supposed to be the east. But he was mistaken. During his brief interval of unconsciousness a pièce of iron had been deposited beneath the magnetic needle, which by this means had been diverted thirty degrees to the right, and, instead of pointing due north, inciined far towards north-east. Consequently it came to pass that the " Piigrim/* supposed by her young commander to be making good headway due east, was in reality, under the brisk north-west breeze, speeding along towards the south-east