At the end of this time the commander descended to his cabin, inviting Scott to go with him. On the great table was spread out the large chart of the Indian Ocean. From Aden to Bombay he had drawn a red line, indicating the course, east by north a quarter north, which was the course on which the steamer was sailing. "Have you the blue book that comes with this chart, Captain Ringgold?" asked Scott, rather timidly, as though he had something on his mind which he did not care to present too abruptly; for the commander was about the biggest man on earth to him. "This chart is an old one, as you may see by the looks of it and the courses marked on it from the Cape of Good Hope," replied the captain, looking at the young officer, to fathom his meaning. "I put all my charts on board of the Guardian-Mother when we sailed for Bermuda the first time. If I ever had the blue book of which you speak, I haven't it now; and I forget all about it." "I bought that chart at Aden the first day we were there, when I expected to navigate the Maud to Bombay; and with it came the blue book, which treats mainly of winds, weather, and currents," added Scott. "I studied it with reference to this voyage, and I found a paragraph which interested me. I will go to my state-room for the book, if you will permit me to read about ten lines from it to you." The captain did not object, and Scott soon returned to the commander's cabin with the book. The autocrat of the ship was plainly dissatisfied with himself at the failure of his prediction for fine weather, and perhaps he feared that the ambitious young officer intended to instruct him in regard to the situation, though Scott had conducted himself in the most modest and inoffensive manner. "I don't wish to be intrusive, Captain Ringgold, but I thought it was possible that you had forgotten this paragraph," said the young officer, with abundant deference in his tone and manner. "Probably I never saw it; but read it, Mr. Scott," replied the commander. "The weather is generally fine, and the sky clear, with neither squall nor rain, except between Ras Seger and the island of Masira,'" Scott began to read, when the commander interrupted him, and fixed his gaze on the chart, to find the localities mentioned. "Ras Sajer," said the captain, placing the point of his pencil on the cape whose name he read. "That must be the one you mention." "No doubt of it, sir; and I have noticed that the spelling on the chart and in the books doesn't agree at all. The island is Massera on my chart." "They mean the same locality. Go on, Mr. Scott," added the captain. "'And the vicinity of the bay of Kuriyan Muriyan, where the winds and weather are more boisterous and variable than on any other part of the coast,'" continued Scott. "Where is that bay?" asked the commander. "It is between the two points mentioned before; but it is Kuria Muria on the chart;" and the captain had the point of his pencil on it by this time.