"How's that, Ned?" asked Tom, a new note coming into his voice.
"Were you thinking of going to Japan and taking a hand in the
undersea search?"

"No. But stock in this company is being sold, and shareholders
stand to win big returns--if the wrecks are come upon."

"That's just it!" exclaimed Tom. "If they find the wrecks! And
let me tell you, Ned, that there's a mighty big 'if' in it all.
Do you realize how hard it is to find anything on the ocean, to
say nothing of something under it?"

"I hadn't thought of it."

"Well, you'd better think of it. You know on the ocean sailors
have to locate a certain imaginary position by calculation, using
the sun and stars as guides. Of course, they have navigation down
pretty fine, and a good pilot can get to a place on the surface
of the ocean and meet another craft there almost as well as you
and I can make an appointment to meet at Main and Broad streets
at a certain hour.

"But lots of times there are errors in calculations or a storm
comes up hiding the sun and stars, and, instead of a captain
getting to where he wants to, he's anywhere from one to a hundred
miles out. Now the location of Broad and Main Streets doesn't
change even in a storm.

"And I'm not saying that a location on an ocean changes. I'm
only saying that the least disturbance or error in calculation