Fitz the Filibuster | Page 7

thoughtfully--"in a boat? I came in a boat? Yes, I
suppose so, because we are at sea. But somehow I don't know how it is.
I can't recollect. But I say, hasn't it turned very warm?"
"Yes. Getting warmer every day."
"But my head--I don't understand."
"Don't you? Well, never mind. How do you feel?"
"Oh, quite well, thank you. But I want to know why I am here--in your
cabin."
"Oh, you will know soon enough. Don't worry about it now till you get
strong again."
"Till I get strong again? There, now you are beginning to puzzle me
once more. I am strong enough now, and--No, I am not," added the lad,
rather pitifully, as he raised one hand and let it fall back. "That arm
feels half numbed as if it had been hurt, and," he added, rather excitedly,
"you asked me how I was. Have I been ill?"

"Yes, very," was the reply. "But don't fret about it. You are coming all
right again fast."
Fitz lay back with his brow wrinkled up, gazing at his companion and
trying to think hard; but all in vain, and with a weary gesticulation--
"I can't understand," he said. "I try to think, but my head seems to go
rolling round again, and I can only remember that mill."
"Then take my advice about it. Don't try to think at all."
"But I must think; I want to know."
"Oh, you'll know soon enough. You can't think, because you are very
weak now. I was just the same when I had the fever at Vera Cruz--felt
as if my head wouldn't go; but it got better every day, and that's how
yours will be."
"Did I catch a fever, then?" said Fitz eagerly.
"No," was the reply. "You caught something else," and the speaker
smiled grimly.
"Caught something else? And been very bad?"
The lad nodded.
"Then--then," cried Fitz excitedly, "Captain Glossop had me sent
aboard this ship to get me out of the way?"
"Well, not exactly. But don't you bother, I tell you. You are getting
right again fast, and father says you'll be all right now you have turned
the corner."
"Who's `father'?" said Fitz.
"That's a rum question. Why, my father, of course--the skipper of this
schooner."

"Oh, I see; the skipper of this schooner," said Fitz thoughtfully. "Is it a
fast one?"
"Awfully," said the lad eagerly. "You will quite enjoy seeing how we
can sail when you are well enough to come on deck. Why, if you go on
like this we ought to be able to get you up in a day or two. The weather
is splendid now. My father is a capital doctor."
"What!" cried Fitz. "Why, you told me just now that he was the skipper
of this schooner."
"Well, so he is. But I say, don't you worry about asking questions.
Couldn't you drink a cup of tea?"
"I don't know; I dare say I could. Yes, I should like one. But never
mind about that now. I don't quite understand why Captain Glossop
should send me on board this schooner. This is not the Liverpool
Hospital Ship, is it?"
"Oh no."
"How many sick people have you got on board?"
"None at all," said the lad, "now you are getting well."
Fitz lay looking at the speaker wistfully. There was something about
his frank face and manner that he liked.
"I don't understand," he said sadly. "It's all a puzzle, and I suppose it is
all as you say through being so ill."
"Yes, of course. That's it, old chap. I say, you don't mind me calling
you `old chap,' do you?"
"Well, no," said Fitz, smiling sadly. "You mean it kindly, I suppose."
"Well, I want to be kind to you, seeing how bad you've been. I thought
one day you were going to Davy Jones's locker, as the sailors call it."

"Was I so bad as that?" cried Fitz eagerly.
"Yes, horrid. Father and I felt frightened, because it would have been
so serious; but there, I won't say another word. I am going to get you
some tea."
The invalid made an effort to stay him, but the lad paid no heed--
hurrying out of the cabin and shutting the door quietly after him,
leaving Fitz deep in thought.
He lay with his white face wrinkled up, trying hard, in spite of what
had been said, to think out what it all meant, but always with his
thoughts tending towards his head rolling round in a mill and getting no
farther; in fact, it seemed to be going round again for about the nth time,
as mathematicians term it, when the cabin-door once more opened, and
his attendant bore in a steaming hot cup of tea, to