“How can I tell until I examine the wound? Here, take hold of this sleeve of his undershirt while I take the other. Now draw gently. There’s the wound. And what a wound! I fear it is all over with our poor captain! Come, Ethel! stop that! This is no time for blubbering like a woman, my boy! A minute, as we use or waste it, may save or lose our captain’s life. Here, take the water in this basin and gently swab the blood away from that wound, which I perceive has nearly stopped bleeding, while I run for my instruments,” said the doctor, rushing out of the cabin as fast as his fat legs could carry him.
No braver man than young Ethel had boarded the Sea Scourge that day; yet, as soon as the doctor was gone, he burst into sobs that shook his whole frame; and his fast-falling tears mingled freely with the water with which he washed his captain’s wound. He did his work as tenderly and as thoroughly as possible, and had perfectly cleansed the wound by the time the doctor returned. And even to the young man’s unprofessional eye the wound looked less formidable than at first.
The doctor got down upon his knees and made a very careful examination, and then he lifted his head and exclaimed:
“Thank Heaven! it is not near so bad as I had expected to find it! It is an ugly flesh wound at worst, and he’ll weather it. You see, a pistol ball has entered here on his right side and furrowed its way clear across the chest, and come out under the left arm. No wonder he bled so much. But he could bear it. He could bear it!”
While the doctor spoke he lost no time; he was busy cutting long, slim strips of sticking plaster, with which he gradually brought the ragged edges of the wound together, securing them by laying the strips at right angles with the length of the wound, and then carefully bandaging.
When this was done, with young Ethel’s assistance, he washed his patient thoroughly, put fresh clothes on him and laid him on his bed.
Lastly the doctor administered restoratives, that soon brought the captain to himself.
On recovering his consciousness, Captain Yetsom looked languidly around, and, finding himself upon his bed, and, seeing Dr. Brown and Lieutenant Ethel bending anxiously over him, he feebly inquired:
“Why am I here? What has happened?”
“You have been wounded, but not seriously. You fainted from loss of blood and fell upon your cabin floor. Lieutenant Ethel found you and called me. And we have dressed your wound, and undressed you and put you to bed, where you are to remain for the present.”