"Let's get under the lee of that quarter-boat," said I. "We can hear each other there. Who's at the wheel?" "Dutch Joe." "Come to the binnacle first, and I'll talk to you about the ship's course, and then we'll get under the quarter-boat, and he'll think I am giving you sailing directions." We did this, and I gave the boatswain some instructions in the hearing of the Dutchman; and to appear very much in earnest, the boatswain and I hove the log whilst Dutch Joe turned the glass, which he could easily attend to, holding a spoke with one hand, for the ship was steering herself. We then walked to the quarter-boat and stood under the lee of it. "Bo'sun," said I, "the more I think of your scheme, the better I like it. Whatever may happen, your being in the hold will prevent any man from scuttling the ship." "Yes, so it will; I'll take care of that. One blow must do the job--he mustn't cry out. The pianofortes are amidships on nearly two foot of dunnage; all forrard the cases run large, and it's there they'll find space." "My intention is not to wait until we come to the Gulf in order to carry this out," said I; "I'll clap on sixty, eighty, a hundred miles, just as I see my way, to every day's run, so as to bring the Gulf of Mexico close alongside the Bermuda Islands. Do you understand, bo'sun?" "Yes, I understand. There's no use in waitin'. You're quite right to get it over. The sooner the better, says I." "We shall average a run of 300 miles every twenty-four hours, and I'll slip in an extra degree whenever I can. Who's to know?" "Ne'er a man on this wessel, sir," he answered. "There's not above two as can spell words in a book." "So I should think. Of course I shall have to prick off the chart according to the wind. A breeze like this may well give us three hundred miles. If it fall calm I can make her drift sixty miles west-sou'-west, and clap on another eighty for steerage way. I shall have double reckonings--one for the crew, one for myself. You, as chief mate, will know it's all right." "Leave that to me," he answered, with a short laugh. "They've found out by this time that the ship's a clipper, and I'll let 'em understand that there never was a better navigator than you. It 'll be for you and me to keep as much canvas on her as she'll carry in our watches, for the sake of appearance; and if I was you, sir, I'd trim the log-line afresh." "A good idea," said I. "I'll give her a double dose. Twelve knots shall be nothing in a moderate breeze." We both laughed at this; and then, to make my presence on deck appear reasonable, I walked to the binnacle. I returned and said-- "In nine days hence we must contrive to be in longitude 62° and latitude 33°;--somewhere about it. If we can average 180 miles every day we shall do it." "What do you make the distance from where we are now to the Gulf?" "In broad numbers, three thousand miles." "No more?"