“What? My dear fellow, go and beg the captain to hang ’em at once out of their misery. It will be a kindness. Do you know what a Chinese prison is?”
“No.”
“Then I do. It would be a mercy to kill them.”
“The Chinese authorities may wish to make an example of them so as to repress piracy.”
“Let ’em make an example of some one else. Eh? Bandage too tight, my lad?”
“No, sir,” said Barkins rather faintly. “The wound hurts a good deal.”
“Good sign; ’tis its nature to,” said the doctor jocosely.
“But—er—you don’t think, sir—”
“‘That you may die after it,’ as we used to say over cut fingers at school. Bah! it’s a nice clean honest cut, made with a sharp knife. Heal up like anything with your healthy young flesh.”
“But don’t these savage people sometimes poison their blades, sir?”