"And no one has come to you in all that time?"
"You are the first. Now"—as she finished the soup—"take a good drink of this,"—some weak rum and water warmed up in another pannikin, over which she choked and coughed and wrinkled up her pretty nose distastefully. "Then you will go to sleep again, and in the morning I hope you will be all right."
"But there is so much I would like to know——"
"When you have had another long sleep. Are you quite warm?"
"Quite. That horrid stuff was like fire."
"You were cold enough when we found you. In fact we believed you were dead."
She shivered and nestled down among the blankets with a wave of colour in her face.
"I will sleep," she said quietly, and the Doctor left her to herself.
XXVI
It was almost dark before the mate pitched his cargo up on to the deck and came groping up the side after it.