“I am afraid somewhat badly. Do not let the men know it. Help me to the bulwarks, where I can hold on.”
He called Stephen, who was also loading and firing as fast as he could, to come and help him. The Captain continued, wounded as he was, to cheer on the men. Several more broadsides were exchanged, the bullets all the time flying about like hail, when the pirate’s bows were seen to be turning from them. Presently she hauled her wind, and stood away to the southward. The British crew on this raised a hearty cheer as they sent a few last shot flying after her. Scarcely had the shout died away than the brave Captain sank down on the deck.
“We must carry him below and see to his wounds,” said Stephen, and Roger called Sam Stokes and another man to their assistance.
“Tell the mate to stand on till he loses sight of the pirate, and then haul to the northward,” whispered the Captain in a faint voice. He could say no more. As soon as he was placed in his berth, Stephen and Roger did their best to doctor him, but they were unaccustomed to surgical operations.
“Let me see what I can do,” said Sam. “I have had half-a-dozen bullets in my body during my time, and seen hundreds of men wounded, so I ought to have a little notion.” So he set to work in a methodical way to discover what had become of the bullet which had entered the Captain’s side. He managed to find it, and, what was of great consequence, the cloth which had been carried in at the same time, and got them out, then stopped the blood and bound up the wound.
“Cannot say how he will do, but I have done my best, and can do no more,” observed old Sam as he left the cabin to look after some of his wounded messmates.
Three men had been killed and five wounded out of the crew, which greatly reduced their strength. The first mate, who now took command, hauled up to the northward, as the Captain had directed him. As the Dolphin had been running for so many hours out of her course, she was considerably to the southward of the Straits, though the mate asserted that they would be able to fetch the entrance of the Straits if the wind held the following day. Nothing more was seen of the Algerine during the night, and hopes were entertained that she would not again attempt to molest them. The Captain, notwithstanding that the bullet had been extracted, continued in a very weak state, and almost unconscious. Stephen and Roger, not trusting to the mate’s navigation, got out the chart, marked down the course they had run to the best of their knowledge, and the next morning took an observation, which placed the Dolphin considerably to the southward. Whereon the mate asserted that she was much nearer the coast, in fact she had been sailing almost parallel with it for a considerable distance, and soon after noon he put the ship about and steered due east.
“I think, sir, that to sight the rock of Gibraltar we should be steering north-east,” observed Stephen, pointing to the chart.
“Ho, ho, young man, you fancy that you understand navigation better than I do,” said the mate. “Just keep your remarks to yourself till I request you to make them.”
Stephen could say no more, but he and Roger agreed, when the first mate went below, they would try to get the second to alter the ship’s course. The first mate seemed to suspect their intentions, for he remained on deck, and when the wind drew more from the east which it did shortly after noon, kept the ship away to the south-east.