“He is too weak now for an operation,” the surgeon continued; “but you can leave him with me, and I think by to-morrow he will be able to stand it.”
If Jack had made the least fuss at the prospect of having his leg cut off, or had let a single groan escape, there is hardly any doubt that he would be limping through life on one leg. But the brave way that he bore the pain and the doctor’s verdict made him a powerful friend.
The Captain of a naval vessel cannot control his surgeon’s treatment of a case; but the Captain’s wishes naturally go a long way, even with the surgeon. So it was a great point for Jack when the Captain interceded for him.
“There’s the making of an Admiral in that lad in the hospital,” the Captain told the doctor later in the day. “I never saw a boy bear pain better. I wish you would save his leg if you possibly can.”
“He’d be well much quicker to take it off,” the surgeon retorted. “But I’ll give him every chance I can. There is a bare possibility that I may be able to save it.”
There was joy in the Radway family when it became known that there was a chance of saving Jack’s leg; but all that Jack himself would say was, “Leave it all to the doctor; he will do what he can.”
Three weeks afterwards Jack still lay in the Alleghany’s hospital with two legs to his body, but one half hidden in splints and plaster. Mr. and Mrs. Radway visited him every day, and the broken bone was healing so nicely that the doctor thought that in three or four weeks more Jack might be able to hobble about the deck on crutches, when more trouble came. A new gun-boat steamed into the harbor to take the Alleghany’s place, bringing orders for the Alleghany to go at once to the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. This was particularly unfortunate for Jack, for his broken bone was just in that state where the motion of taking him ashore would be likely to displace it. But that unwelcome order from Washington proved to be a long step towards making Jack one of our American naval heroes.
“It would be a great risk to take him ashore,” the surgeon said to Mr. Radway. “The least movement of the leg would set him back to where we began. You had much better let him go North with us. The voyage will do him good; and even if we are not sent back here, he can easily make his way home when he is able to travel.”
Nothing could have suited Jack better than this, for he had become attached to the gun-boat and her officers; so it was soon settled that he was to lie still on his bed and be carried to Brooklyn. For more than a month he lay there without seeing anything of the great city on either side of him; and the Alleghany was already under orders to sail for Key West before he was able to venture on deck with a crutch under each arm. There were delays in getting away, so by the time the gun-boat was steaming down the coast Jack was walking slowly about her deck with a cane, and the color was in his cheeks again and the old sparkle in his eyes. He was in hopes of finding a schooner at Key West that would carry him to Appalachicola; but he was not to see the old town again for many a day.
The Alleghany was a little below Hatteras, when she sighted a Confederate blockade-runner, and she immediately gave chase. But, much to the surprise of the officers, this blockade-runner did not run away, as they generally did. She was much larger than the Alleghany, and well manned and armed, and she preferred to stay and fight. Almost before he knew it Jack was in the midst of a hot naval battle. The two vessels were soon close together, and there was such a thunder of guns and such a smother of smoke that he does not pretend to remember exactly what happened. But after it was all over, and the blockade-runner was a prize, with the stars and stripes flying from her stern, Jack walked as straight as anybody down to the little hospital where he had spent so many weeks.