Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/147

Rh "I should think not," said I.

"So I set to work to study navigation, and I may say that I am quite prepared to command your Excellency's fleet, if you want an admiral, Sir," she added with a mock curtsy to me. "I mastered the art of taking observations, of great circle sailing, of working the log, and mapping a course on a chart. All that took time, but I wanted to insure as far as might be a successful voyage. Then I thought it necessary to get up the subject of steam engines, so that I might not by accident blow up my boiler, or otherwise come to grief. I then selected a beautiful and powerful vessel, one of the triumphs of our shipwrights before the new breed came in, and made little trial trips in her, till I could manage the steering gear and other apparatus. It was nearly two years before I felt in a position to start."

"Two years! but now it is four," cried Gell.

"You shall hear all about it. I now began to collect provisions of all sorts, as well as maps, books, instruments, and everything that I thought could be of use either on the voyage or for you when I reached these islands. I was single handed and this work