He bent above the shrunken form of the old steward. Wang's eyelids fluttered; he was slowly regaining consciousness.
"Wang, why didn't you come and tell me, in time to save all this?"
The Chinaman's eyes regarded him with a stare of mingled surprise and affection, a stare that somehow suggested a wise and quiet amusement.
"I tellee you, Cappen. You no savvy. S'pose no savvy, no can do. Mus' wait, makee savvy."
It was a terrible condemnation. Captain Sheldon ground his teeth at the bitter truth of it. His own obstinacy, his own evil! Nothing that Wang could have said, before the thing had happened, would possibly have changed his mind. He had committed himself to error. The old servant had been forced to save them single-handed, to retrieve his master's failure with his own life.
Wang was muttering, as he neared the end. He was about to join "Old Cappen" With a good report and a clean record. No one could have known the depth of the calm that had come to that aged heart. Even the awful pain of the wound had stopped, under the shock of the cool water. He seemed to be drifting off into an eternal opium dream.
"What is it, Wang? Can I do anything for you?"
"No, sir, Cappen. Bym'by, finishee"
He lay quiet for a moment, then plucked at the other's sleeve.
"Old Cappen say, boy step high. Look out! Maybe more-better stop, look-see"