“You may trust that to me, sir, and I will do the best I can,” answered Owen; “but perhaps you are not so ill as you suppose. Let me call the doctor, and he may give you something to restore your strength.”
“Yes, call him; but I doubt if anything he can give me will do that,” answered the captain.
The doctor had turned in, but immediately rose on being summoned by Owen. He brought some medicine with him, which he at once gave to the captain on feeling his pulse.
“You are a brave man, Captain Aggett,” he said, “I will not disguise the truth from you. You are sinking. Any worldly matters you have to arrange should be settled without delay.”
“I have done that already, doctor,” answered the captain, in a weak voice. “Who has the watch, Owen?”
“The third mate, sir,” he answered.
“I will see the first and second mates then, as soon as they have finished their observations. Go and call them, Owen,” said the captain.
Owen hurried on deck. The second mate, with the assistance of the third, had just taken a satisfactory observation.
Owen told Mr Grey that the captain wished to see him, but Mr Scoones had not made his appearance on deck. Owen found him in his berth, and gave him the captain’s message.
“Dying, is he? That’s the lot of all men,” observed the mate in an indifferent tone.