Page:The Innocents Abroad (1869).djvu/50

36 In the course of time I brought up on the starboard side of the pilot-house, and found a sextant lying on a bench. Now, I said, they “take the sun” through this thing; I should think I might see that vessel through it. I had hardly got it to my eye when someone touched me on the shoulder and said deprecatingly:

“I’ll have to get you to give that to me, Sir. If there’s any

thing you’d like to know about taking the sun, I’d as soon tell you as not—but I don’t like to trust any body with that instrument. If you want any figuring done— Aye, aye, sir!”

He was gone to answer a call from the other side. I sought the deck-sweep:

“Who is that spider-legged gorilla yonder with the sanctimonious countenance?”

“It’s Captain Jones, Sir—the chief mate.”