“Yes, so long as we keep up his strength.”
“We, sir? You mean you.”
“I mean we, Bostock, for you will help.”
“All right, sir, ready and willin’.”
“The sleep will be the best thing for him, and when we can move him we’ll have him up on deck, and contrive a shade.”
“Oh, I can soon do that, sir. We couldn’t rig up the old awning again, but there’s plenty of canvas to set up a little un. Is he ready for some breakfast, do you think?”
“I would not wake him on any consideration. Let him sleep.”
“Good, sir. There’s a bit ready as soon as you like, and after that we can get to work.”
Carey still slept on whilst the doctor and old Bob made a hearty meal, and, taking advantage of the freedom thus afforded them, they examined their position in relation to the shore by naked eye and with one of the glasses from the captain’s cabin.
There it all was as they had partly seen overnight: the vessel firmly fixed in the rocky shallows of a great lagoon, whose waters were fast becoming of crystal-clearness and as smooth as a pond, while sea-ward there was the great sheltering reef with everlasting breakers thundering and fretting and throwing up a cloud of surf.