"Arnica, you lazy rascals!" she hissed, and some one went for it. My cuts were soaked in it, and it stung furiously, but the cuts of barnacles are poisonous, and I rather preferred arnica to friar's balsam, which I knew Bill would rub me with. Then the bos'n helped me to my bunk, and Miss Lucy Docking was left alone with me to attend to my wants.
"I suppose my advice and counsel was not so good this time?" she said as Bill left us.
"Well, it taught me one thing, all right enough," I said, "and that may do me some good in the future."
"And how is that?" asked the lady, looking at me with some show of concern. She had wonderful eyes, and her hair was noticeably curly at the temples—and her mouth——
"Well, it will teach me never, no, never, under any circumstances whatever, do you understand?—never to take it again," I said, taking her hand.
"We'll see about that later on," she said, and her mouth had a peculiar droop at the corners that has been a constant source of dread to me ever since—that is, whenever I see it.
IN THE HULL OF THE "HERALDINE"
"I understand that you did good work in the Prince Alfred in time of trouble," said Lord Hawkes, looking at me with approval. He was manager of the Prince Line, and, when he sent for any of us to tell us that we had done well, it was time to—well, he didn't often do that, and I must have shown some embarrassment.