Many Cargoes | Page 3

the other chap could reply, the skipper hisself comes down,
accompanied by the fust mate, with a look on his face which made
Harry give the deepest and hollowest cough he'd ever done.
"'What they reely want,' ses the skipper, turning to the mate, 'is keerful
nussing.'
"'I wish you'd let me nuss 'em,' ses the fust mate, 'only ten minutes-- I'd
put 'em both on their legs, an' running for their lives into the bargain, in
ten minutes.'
"'Hold your tongue, sir,' ses the skipper; 'what you say is unfeeling,
besides being an insult to me. Do you think I studied medicine all these
years without knowing when a man's ill?'
"The fust mate growled something and went on deck, and the skipper
started examining of 'em again. He said they was wonderfully patient
lying in bed so long, an' he had 'em wrapped up in bedclo'es and carried
on deck, so as the pure air could have a go at 'em. WE had to do the
carrying, an' there they sat, breathing the pure air, and looking at the
fust mate out of the corners of their eyes. If they wanted anything from
below one of us had to go an' fetch it, an' by the time they was taken
down to bed again, we all resolved to be took ill too.
"Only two of 'em did it though, for Harry, who was a powerful, ugly-
tempered chap, swore he'd do all sorts o' dreadful things to us if we
didn't keep well and hearty, an' all 'cept these two did. One of 'em,
Mike Rafferty, laid up with a swelling on his ribs, which I knew myself
he 'ad 'ad for fifteen years, and the other chap had paralysis. I never saw
a man so reely happy as the skipper was. He was up an down with his
medicines and his instruments all day long, and used to make notes of
the cases in a big pocket-book, and read 'em to the second mate at
mealtimes.
"The fo'c'sle had been turned into hospital about a week, an' I was on
deck doing some odd job or the other, when the cook comes up to me
pulling a face as long as a fiddle.

"'Nother invalid,' ses he; 'fust mate's gone stark, staring mad!'
"'Mad?' ses I.
"'Yes,' ses he. 'He's got a big basin in the galley, an' he's laughing like a
hyener an' mixing bilge-water an' ink, an' paraffin an' butter an' soap an'
all sorts o' things up together. The smell's enough to kill a man; I've had
to come away.'
"Curious-like, I jest walked up to the galley an' puts my 'ed in, an' there
was the mate as the cook said, smiling all over his face, and ladling
some thick sticky stuff into a stone bottle.
"'How's the pore sufferers, sir?' ses he, stepping out of the galley jest as
the skipper was going by.
"'They're very bad; but I hope for the best," ses the skipper, looking at
him hard. 'I'm glad to see you've turned a bit more feeling.'
"'Yes, sir,' ses the mate. 'I didn't think so at fust, but I can see now them
chaps is all very ill. You'll s'cuse me saying it, but I don't quite approve
of your treatment.'
"I thought the skipper would ha' bust.
"'My treatment?' ses he. 'My treatment? What do you know about it ?'
"'You're treating 'em wrong, sir,' ses the mate. 'I have here' (patting the
jar) 'a remedy which 'ud cure them all if you'd only let me try it.'
"'Pooh!' ses the skipper. 'One medicine cure all diseases! The old story.
What is it? Where'd you get it from?' ses he.
"'I brought the ingredients aboard with me,' ses the mate. 'It's a
wonderful medicine discovered by my grandmother, an' if I might only
try it I'd thoroughly cure them pore chaps.'
"'Rubbish!' ses the skipper.

"'Very well, sir,' ses the mate, shrugging his shoulders. "O' course, if
you won't let me you won't. Still I tell you, if you'd let me try I'd cure
'em all in two days. That's a fair challenge.'
"Well, they talked, and talked, and talked, until at last the skipper give
way and went down below with the mate, and told the chaps they was
to take the new medicine for two days, jest to prove the mate was
wrong.
"'Let pore old Dan try it first, sir,' ses Harry, starting up, an' sniffing as
the mate took the cork out; 'he's been awful bad since you've been
away.'
"'Harry's worse than I am, sir,' ses Dan; 'it's only his kind heart that
makes him say that.'
"'It don't matter which is fust,' ses the mate, filling a tablespoon with it,
'there's plenty for