Story 2—Chapter 6.
When consciousness returned to me I found myself lying on my back on the deck of a vessel, surrounded and propped up by pillows; and Jack Brown sitting beside me reading a book.
I felt a curious sensation of weakness and emptiness in my head—as if it were hollow, and a strange disinclination, almost inability, to speak or think. Suddenly this passed away, and the events which I have related in the previous chapters rushed back upon my memory with vivid power.
“It must have been a dream,” I thought, “or I must have been ill and delirious, and these things have passed through my fevered brain.”
At that moment the thought of Jack’s amputated leg came into my head. “That will prove it,” thought I, and turned quickly to look at my friend. One glance was sufficient—a wooden stump occupied the place of his right leg. I groaned aloud and burst into tears.
“Come, Bob,” said Jack in a soft, kind tone, laying down his book and bending over me. “Come, my poor fellow, keep quiet. It’s about time you had your dinner. Lie still and I’ll fetch it to you.”
I laid my hand on his arm and detained him. “Then it’s all true,” said I in a tone of the deepest despondency.
“Is what all true?”