"That's right, old man," said the Second, "and now I'll fetch the doctor."
The doctor was the chief engineer, who forthwith came aft with a hot iron and seared the stump of my finger.
"And now, laddie, ye'll do," he said; "and I must awa, for there is some leetle difficulty with the boilers."
"She carried you here," said the Second, answering my eyes, "though how she managed it I can't say. And she had sucked the poison clean from your wound, and Mac said there was no danger left. Though, mind you, the kriss had enough on it to kill twenty men.
"Yes," he went on, "I'm all right, and you shall tell me how it happened to you afterwards. Now you must swallow this sleeping draught Mac's left for you."
And I swallowed the medicine he gave me.
But I did not sleep; I fell into a stupor. I could not move or speak; yet I could hear and understand.
The sailors were clearing the decks above me; at intervals the steam whistle sounded; we were preparing to get under way.
At last came the cry, "All strangers leave the ship," and there was a bustle across the gangway.
The woman in the corner rose, came to my bunk and kissed me on the lips, opened the door, went into the alley-way and on to the deck. She mounted to the poop above my head, then a shadow passed for a moment athwart my port-hole. I heard a splash—and she had done suttee for her love of me.