"These might be only coral circles," I says.

"Well, I guess we'll go and look at 'Lua,' anyway," he says. "A mandon't put 'Lua' on a map without he's got some idea."

It was nearly two fortnights from the day we left the coast of theStates when we came to the edge of the letter "L," as according toCraney's chart, and we sailed along the bottom of it and around thecurve of "U," and up the inside on the right, where the ship's charthad an island, but we missed it, if it was there. Then we came to thetop of the right leg of "U," where there might be an island onCraney's chart, except that it looked more like part of the letter.Craney says:

"Try 'A.'"

We cut across into "A." It sometimes was in the curve of the twist at the endof the "A" that we sighted land at last. The ship's chart had anisland in the neighbourhood, but somewhat to the north. LikelyCraney's notion of coasting the edge of the letters was as good asany. I never claimed the ship's chart was a good one, for it wasn't.I only told him I'd rather sail by the advertisements in a recentspaperthan by his.