American Boys Afloat by Oliver Optic

There were two compasses on board of the Maud, and Captain Scott had one of them on the forecastle. Using his ingenuity, he had arranged a couple of sights so that he could accurately obtain the bearing of the Tarifa lighthouse.

"Now we have it! " exclaimed he at the right moment.

"Two: forty-five! " shouted Louis, as he looked at his watch.

"We took our departure at one: thirty, and we have made this distance in one: fifteen, fifteen miles," added the captain.

"But that is incredible! " protested Louis; "for that gives her twelve knots an hour, and, according to your statement, we have been going against the current that always sets out of the Strait."

"The Directory does not admit that it always sets that way, though it does so nearly always," said Scott. "Besides, the statement is that the tide sets out near the shores on both sides. It is in the middle of the Strait that the great current runs into the Mediterranean, and only the last five miles of our course was anywhere near the middle. It is plain enough to me that we have been helped by the outward current near the land, and retarded the last fifteen or twenty minutes."

"Swing six and cast out noine, and ye's will come to ut," laughed Felix, who did not take so much interest in the discussion as his companions.

Captain Scott took a piece of paper from his pocket and began to figure on it, though it was quite impossible to make the correct allowances for the current inward in the middle of the Strait and the ebb-tide near the shore of Spain.

"I think we can hit it pretty near," said he at last. "The tide helped us about a knot an hour, and the middle current kept us back about half a knot in twenty minutes. This is rather rough estimating, but I put it down that the Maud has made the equivalent of ten and a half knots an hour."

"Bully for the Maud! " shouted Felix.

"What you have done? " demanded Felipe, coming forward as far as the pilot-house.

"You have made ten and a half knots an hour, Mr. Engineer," replied Scott.

"_Diez y medio nudos la hora_," added Louis, saying the same thing in Spanish.

"Very good! I do more than that now," replied Felipe, delighted with the result.

"The eastern point of Tangier Bay is Point Malabata. Our course will take the steamer close to it, allowing a little for the current; and when it bears east half a mile distant, that will give us ten knots," said Captain Scott, looking at the chart all the time.

It was very evident to all on deck that the engineer was driving the engine to its utmost, and Louis thought it best to make a call upon him and caution him not to overdo the matter. Felipe pointed to the gage, and assured him that he was on the safe side, and that the boiler was very strong, for the Pacha had told him that he had required it to be built of double the ordinary strength. The steam-gage certainly indicated no danger; and, as Felipe would be the first one to be sent up into the air in case of an explosion, Louis concluded that he would not be willing to sacrifice himself as the first victim.

"What time is it now, Louis? " demanded the captain, when the steamer was off Point Malabata and half a mile beyond it.

"Three: thirty-five," replied Louis, who had drawn his watch before.

Scott began to figure again, repeating aloud his calculation as he proceeded.

"We have been through different currents since we began the last run," said he, with the plan in his hand. "Half the way we ran against the middle current, and the last half with the ebb-tide."