“What’s that?”
“Sure thing!”
Alex sat weakly down. This was too much to believe.
“Yes, sir! He set my broken leg!”
“He must have been a surgeon, wanting practice!” Alex said, with a wrinkling of the nose. “I’ve heard of such people before now.”
“No, sir,” insisted Paul, with a shrug of the shoulders, “he wasn’t any such thing. He was a regular surgeon, duly qualified, and all that. Yes, sir, he was a regular practitioner.”
“This thing is too good to keep!” exclaimed Alex, ducking out of the cabin door. “I’ll have to spread the glad tidings!”
When the boy got to the deck he found it in confusion. Captain Joe was occupying the center of the stage, with Tommy a close second. The parrot was talking and the dog was barking.
In the distance the Esmeralda was shoving her nose through the rain. The thieves, it seemed, were not satisfied to let the Rambler go in that way.
Her cabin lights were ablaze, and her deck was crowded with people. Her appearance at that point effectually blocked the entrance to the creek.