“I wish that I could say, sir, that I thought all had gone well,” returned Saltwell. “However, we must now do our best to mend matters. Well, doctor, what report can you make of poor Linton?” he asked of the surgeon, who just then appeared on deck.
“I have extracted the ball, and he has recovered his senses,” answered the surgeon. “He is in very great danger; but I can give no decided opinion as yet. He has expressed a wish to see you, and has begged me to call you.”
“Poor, poor fellow, I’ll go below instantly,” cried Saltwell, hurrying down, and auguring the worst from the doctor’s tone.
He found Linton stretched out in his narrow berth, lighted by the sickly glare of a small lamp fastened against the bulkhead.
The clothes had been thrown over the lower part of his body; but his shoulder was bare, the pallid hue of his skin contrasting with the dark, red stains on the linen of the shirt, which had been cut off, and still lay beneath it. The arm, on the side where the ball had entered the neck, lay immovable by his side, looking shrunk and withered, except a slight twitching of the fingers, which showed the agony he was enduring.
O’Farrell, the assistant surgeon, sat at the head of the bed, applying a cooling lotion round the part which had been bound up, to prevent inflammation, if possible, from setting in, administering now and then some restorative to revive him from the exhaustion consequent to his great loss of blood.
As soon as Saltwell entered, his eyes turned towards him, and his lips moved; but his brother-officer heard no sound, till he put his ear close to his mouth.
“Saltwell,” he whispered, “don’t let them blame me wrongfully for being beaten off by those rascally pirates; I did my best, as you know I would. Our poor captain—I grieve for him more. Don’t let a stain remain on our names. And, Saltwell, if I die, as I think I shall, when you get home, see my poor Julia—bear her my deepest love, and tell her I thought of her to the last.”
“I’ll do all you wish, my dear fellow,” answered Saltwell, deeply affected. “But we must not let you slip through the doctor’s fingers; cheer up, for the sake of all your friends. And now try and get some rest—it will do you more good than any thing I can say, or the doctor can give you.”
“I fear not, Saltwell, I fear not,” said Linton. “But I won’t keep you, for you’ll be wanted on deck, as the boats will soon be coming back, and I trust to you to remember to fulfil my wishes.”