nfidence that goes so far to win victory.
Moreover, they lacked leadership. The master of the brig, as I
afterwards discovered, was in the roundhouse, and Vetch (in this
equal to himself) was not to be seen, having ever a tender regard
for the safety of his skin. And so, after some few minutes of it,
the buccaneers turned tail and fled for their lives into the
forecastle, where they barricaded themselves.

Leaving Cludde to keep an eye on them, I rushed down the companion
to find Vetch and to assure Mistress Lucy that her troubles were at
an end. And there was Vetch, trying to batter down the door of the
cabin in which she had locked herself. His design, I guessed, was
to seize her and use her to extort terms from us. He had the
advantage of me in that I was coming from the full daylight into
the dimness of below decks, and before I had reached the ladder
foot he fired his pistol at me, the bullet striking my thigh. I
fell to the floor; he sprang over my body and up the steps; I cried
out to Cludde to seize him, and to Mistress Lucy that the fight was
over, and then all things became a blank to me.

When I came to myself, I knew by the lazy rocking of the vessel
that it was once more afloat; I was lying on a bench beneath a
porthole, and when I turned my head to see more particularly where
I was, Mistress Lucy came towards me, her eyes shining with
kindness.

"Mistress Lucy!" I cried, trying to rise, but wincing at an
exquisite pain in my leg.

"Don't move," she said. "The surgeon said you were to lie quite
still."

"The surgeon!" I repeated, scarce believing I had heard aright.

"Yes, you are surprised," she said with a smile; "but that is not
the strangest of the many strange things that have happened of
late. One of the crew of this vessel was once a surgeon; he took
his degrees in Edinburgh, he told me--"

"And that's true," said a harsh voice, and there entered the cabin
one of the buccaneers--a big bottle-nosed fellow, with a face of
purple hue. "And how are ye the noo, Mister?"

"Mighty shaky!" I said. "What is wrong with me?"

"A bit wound in the dexter femur," he said, "within a hair's
breadth like o' your femoral artery and kingdom come.

"But ye'll do fine," he added, feeling my pulse. "Man, ye've good
blood in your veins, and me having a good hand at the cutting,
we'll verra soon have ye on your two feet again; and the lassie
will no like be fashed at that, I'm thinkin'."

"I am to thank you