124 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN.
" How long, then, do you reckon^ Dick, we ought to be in arriving at the coast ? *' " Under sîx-and-twenty days," replied Dîck. He pauséd before he spoke agaîn, then added,^ " But what mystifies me even more than our failing to sight the land is this : we hâve nqt come across a single vessel ; and yet vessels wîthout number are always traversing thèse seas." " But do you not think," înquîred Mrs. Weldon, ** that you hâve made some error in your reckoning ? Is your speed really what you hâve supposed ? " " Impossible, madam," replied Dick, wîth an air of dignity, "impossible that I should hâve fallen into error. The log has been consulted, without fail, every half-hour. I am about to hâve it lowered now, and I will undertake to show you that we are at this présent moment making ten miles an hour, which would give considerably over 200 miles a day." He then called out to Tom, — " Tom, lower the log ! " The old man was quite accustomed to the duty. The log was fastened to the line and thrown overboard. It ran out regularly for about five-and-twenty fathoms, when ail at once the line slackened in Tom's hand. » " It is broken ! " cried Tom ; " the cord is broken ! '* "Broken?" exclaimed Dick : "good heavens ! we hâve lost the log ! " It was too true. The log was gone. Tom drew in the rope. Dick took it up and examîned it. It had not broken at its point of union with the log ; it had given way in the middle, at a place where the strands in some unaccountable way had wom strangely thin. Dick*s agony of mind, in spite of his effort to be calm, was intensely great A suspicion of foui play involun- tarily occurred to him. He knew that the rope had been of first-rate make ; he knew that it had been quite sound when used before ; but he could prove nothing ; he could only mourn over the loss which committed him to the sole remaining compass as his ony guàe.
