This admitted his fingers, and taking out the needle of the compass he broke it half in two.

Then replacing the brass lid, leaving all the pieces of the ruined instrument inside, he slipped the compass back into its original place and crept back to his bed by the fire.
"Now," he thought "I reckon Mr.Sam Hardwicke's long head will be puzzled, and I reckon I'll be even with him, when he gives up that he can't go on, and has to turn back to Camp Jackson.

A pretty story he'll have to tell, and wont people want to know how his compass got broke?
They'll think it very curious, and maybe they wont suspect that he broke it himself, for an excuse.

Oh! wont they though!" He fairly chuckled with delight, in anticipation of Sam's humiliation.
He knew that the country south of them was wholly unsettled, a perfect wilderness of woods and canebrakes and swamps, which nobody could go through without some guide as to the points of the compass, and hence he was satisfied that the destruction of Sam's instrument was an effectual way of compelling the young captain to retreat while it was still possible to retrace the trail the party had made in coming.

He was so delighted that he could not sleep and hours passed before he closed his eyes..