“What are those for?” asked Ed, who had by this time reduced Phil to a condition of baldness.
“How much water is there above the false bottom now?” queried Phil, whose mind refused to be diverted from his duty as captain.
“The water to cleanse the wound, the salt to disinfect it, and I didn’t notice any water above the floor,” said Irv, replying to both questions in a single breath.
Ed laughed, but Phil eagerly asked, “You mean that the water doesn’t come over the flooring at all,—that there’s no water above the bilge?”
“I didn’t observe any,” said Irv, “but I wasn’t thinking particularly about it. I’ll go and look again.”
“No,” said Phil; “I’ll go myself if you’ll get me a lantern, for it’s so nearly dark now that it must be quite dark inside.”
When the lantern came, Phil made a hurried inspection with a blanket thrown over his otherwise bare shoulders. Then he thrust his shaven head above the deck and called to the two boys at the pumps:—
“I say, fellows, you can stop one of the pumps now, and keep only one going. One of you go below and get supper. Make it a hearty one, for we haven’t eaten a mouthful in twenty-four hours.”
In the day’s excitements not one of them had thought about food, but now that supper was mentioned they all realized that their appetites were voracious.
Having given his orders, Phil submitted himself again to the hands of his surgeons. Irv poured some of the hot water into a basin and added a tablespoonful or so of salt.