The repeated the in the conjunctive noun phrase “the ball or the compass” was accidentally removed by Oliver Cowdery when he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. Virtually everywhere else Oliver faithfully copied such repeated the’s from 𝓞 into 𝓟. This kind of repetition is characteristic of the Book of Mormon text and could be considered a Hebraism when the determiner is the definite article the. English typically avoids such repetition. For further discussion, see conjunctive repetition in volume 3.
Summary: Restore in 2 Nephi 5:12 the reading of 𝓞, which has the repeated the in the conjunctive phrase “the ball or the compass”.