"I say, Sam," said Bob Sharp, "how do you do that?"

"How do I do what? Prick the map?"

"No, I mean how do you know where we are and which way we go?"

"That's just what I want to know," said Sid Russell.

"And me, too," chimed in Billy Bunker and Jake Elliott.

"Well, come here, all of you," replied Sam, "and I'll show you. We
started there, at camp Jackson,--you see, don't you, where the Coosa
and the Tallapoosa rivers come together and we are going down there,"
pointing to a spot on the map, "to the sea, or rather to the Bay near
Pensacola."

"Are we! Good! I never saw the sea," said Sid Russell, speaking faster
than any of the boys had ever heard him speak before.

"Yes, that is the place we're going to, and presently I'll tell you
what we're going for; but one thing at a time. You see the course is a
little west of south, nearly but not quite southwest. The distance, in
an air line is about a hundred and twenty-five miles: that is to say
Pensacola is about a hundred and ten miles further south than camp
Jackson, and about fifty miles further west."

"That would be a hundred and sixty miles then," said Billy Bowlegs.

"Yes," replied Sam, "it would if we went due south and then due west,