Paul looked away from the stranger with a shudder. While he had been forward at the rescue and carrying the stranger aft the breeze had died away. All aloft was now idle.
"Can't I leave here and help you?" asked Emily. "We must try to save his life."
"It's a mighty unpleasant task for you."
"Don't think of me as being helpless, Paul. Please. I know I can do so many things. I'm not the same woman you met back there."
She looked away to the westward as she spoke.
"Come, then." He put the wheel in beckets. "Forward——Get some water out of the galley."
Emily ran to do as she was bidden and Paul went below to the medicine chest. The medical supplies provided some strychnine tablets and, tincturing a glass of water with this heart stimulant, the castaways took turn about forcing drops of the fluid between the cracked lips. Emily discovered a jar of beef extract among the stores and made up a little of this for the sufferer.
After two hours of careful and unceasing attention the derelict opened his rheumy eyes and stared at the sky for a second.
"Hello, stranger," said Paul. "Feeling better?"
The eyes closed again and the cracked lips muttered an inaudible blur of words. It was plainly an unconscious answer.