The news-democrat. (Providence, R.I.) 1906-1909, 1906-06-26
THE NEWS DEMOCRATS DAILY STORY
To be published in daily instalments on this page
--THE
SLAVE SQUADRON
A THRILLING TALE OF ADVENTURE
By HARRY COLLINGwOOD
CHAPTER VII.-Continued.

Now 1 may tell you, by way OF ex-
planation. that surveying consists. broad
ly, in the measurement OF angles and
lines. The angles are. as you have al
ready seen very easily taken by means
of a pocket compass; but the measure
ment or the lines bothered me very con-
siderably for a long time. OF course you
can measure a line with perfect accuracy
by means OF surveyors chain, but 1
wanted something which, If not quite SO
accurate as that, would be sufficiently
correct, while not occupying more than
q few seconds In the operation OF meas
urement. So / set 10 work and trained
myself to judge distances by the eye
alone; and by constant dilgent practise
] acquired quite a surprising amount of
proficiency. And let me say here, L
would very strongly recommend you and
every young officer TO practise the same
thing: you will be surprised when you
discover In how many unexpected ways 1t
will be found useful Well. l managed to
do a great deal OF serviceable work even
In this rough but after
time / grew dissatisfied with it, wanted
some means OF measuring which should
be Just as rapid but great deal more
accurate. / thought the matter over for
& long time. and at last hit upon the
idea OF turning the telescope TO account.
The way ! did IL was this. You have. OF
course, found that If you look through
your telescope at an object say. half
mile away, and then direct the instru-
ment TO another object, say four miles
off, wou have 10 alter the focus Of the
glass before you can see the second OBJ
feet distinctly. 1t was this popularity
which l pressed into my service as a
means of measuring distances. My hrst
step was 10 secure small. handy but
frst-rate telescope-the best could pro-
cure for money; and. provided with this,
commenced operations by looking
through 1t at objects. the exact distances
of which from me l knew. / focused the
glass upon them carefully and then made
a little scratch on the tube showing how
far IL had been necessary TO draw IL out
In order TO see the object distinctly; and
then marked the scratch with the dis
tance OF the object. You see." pointing
70 the tube, IL have a regular scale of
distances here, from one hundred yards
UP TO ten miles; and these scratches, let
me tell you, represent the expenditure OF
a vast amount of time and labor. But
they are worth IL all. For instance l
want 20 ascertain the distance OF an OBJ
feet I direct the telescope toward II,
focus the instrument carefully. and find
that / can see II most clearly when the
tube is drawn out TO, say. this distance"
suiting the action 10 the word. II then
look at the scale scratched on the tube,
and find that II reads six thousand one
hundred feet-which Is n few feet over
one nautical mile. And thus l measure all
my distances, and am so enabled 10 make
a really satisfactory little survey in few
minutes as I'm the case OF this afternoon.
you must not suppose. however, that
! am able to measure In this way with
absolute accuracy; i am not; but man
age to get very near approximation to
Il, near enough for such purposes as the
present Thus. within the distance OF n
quarter OF mile / have found that
can always measure within two feet OF
the actual distance; beyond that and up
10 bss,y IN mile can measure within four
fee. of the actual distance: and so on up
10 ten miles, which dinstance I can meas
ure 10 within four hundred feet.
"And now 20 return to t.e business I'm
hand MY telescope Informed me that
the slave fleet was anchored al a distance
of eighteen thousand three hundred feet
Sor a shade over three nautical miles,
from the tree, and that the creek is
twenty eight thousand nine hundred feet
tor about four and three-quarter nautical
miles) from the same spot We have
now only 20 mark of these two distances
on the two compass-bearings which we
last laid down on the chart thus meas
uring and marking OF the distances as he
spoke-"and here we have the position OF
the slavers and Of the entrance 10 the
creek;a ;and by a moments use OF Mild