While Mrs. Aubyn was drinking her tea the nurse held a hurried consultation with the ward-master and one of the doctors.
"Now you mention it," remarked the latter, "I did notice that the patient looked a bit tough for a commissioned officer. A sub., even though he be a reserve man, does not as a rule decorate his chest with fanciful tattoo designs. Have you any of the 'Terrier's' ship's company who can identify the patient?"
The result of the consultation was that an able seaman, suffering from slight shock, was brought into the officer's ward.
The man's weather-beaten face relaxed into a broad grin when he saw the supposed sub-lieutenant.
"Strike me pink!" he ejaculated in undisguised astonishment, and heedless of the fact that he was in the presence of a superior officer. "Mike O'Milligan will have the time of his life when he wakes up to find himself in with the officers."
"Mike O'Milligan?" repeated the surgeon.
"Ay; first-class stoker—that's what he is," declared the seaman, with the air of a man who is instrumental in denouncing an impostor. He seemed to imagine that it was a piece of audacity on the part of the luckless O'Milligan, in spite of the fact that he was unconscious when brought into the hospital.
"Did you see Sub-Lieutenant Aubyn after the explosion?" asked the nurse.
"Ay, ma'am. He was all right. Saw him with my own eyes on the quarter-deck when the hands mustered aft. Don't remember seeing him after that, though."
"I think there has been a mistake, Mrs. Aubyn," said the nurse on returning to her private sitting-room, where Terence's mother was striving to forget doubts and fears in a cup of tea. "A stoker was admitted to the ward under the inexplicable error that he was your son. Dr. Hardiman is making inquiries, and we hope to clear the matter up satisfactorily. You need not worry about finding a hotel; we can put you up for the night."