He would know how to use the sextant--that instrument which Captain Hull's hand had held every day, and which gave him the height of the stars.

He would read on the chronometer the hour of the meridian of Greenwich, and from it would be able to deduce the longitude by the hour angle.

The sun would be made his counselor each day.

The moon--the planets would say to him, "There, on that point of the ocean, is thy ship!" That firmament, on which the stars move like the hands of a perfect clock, which nothing shakes nor can derange, and whose accuracy is absolute--that firmament would tell him the hours and the distances.

By astronomical observations he would know, as his captain had known every day, nearly to a mile, the place occupied by the "Pilgrim," and the course followed as well as the course to follow.
And now, by reckoning, that is by the progress measured on the log, pointed out by the compass, and corrected by the drift, he must alone ask his way.
However, he did not falter.
Mrs.Weldon understood all that was passing in the young novice's resolute heart.
"Thank you, Dick," she said to him, in a voice which did not tremble.
"Captain Hull is no more.