That young gentleman held up his hand.
“Only a word or two and I’ll be quiet.”
“Yes, you’d better. If you say much I’ll fetch old Whitney to give you an awful dose.”
“Tell me this: is the captain much cut up, and Mr Staples, too?”
“Of course they are, both of them, horribly.”
Mark sighed, and was silent for some moments.
“Tell me about Tom Fillot,” he said at last. “How is he?”
“Pretty well all right again.”
There was another pause, which lasted some minutes, before the sick lad spoke again.
“Couldn’t the doctor save them?”