ave in with the best grace
he could muster and ordered one of the men to fetch Evelin to the spot.
On receiving the message Lance of course at once flung down his tools
and hastened to the assistance of the injured man. When he reached the
scene of the catastrophe he found all hands, Ralli included, crowded
round the prostrate gun, and everybody giving orders at the same time,
everybody excited, and everything in a state of the direst confusion.

As he joined the group Ralli stepped forward with a smile on his lips,
which in nowise cloaked his chagrin at being obliged to yield to the
demands of the men, and began--

"You see, mister soldier, we cannot do without you it seems, after all.
Just lend the men a hand to--"

But Lance brushed past him without deigning the slightest notice; and,
pushing his way through the crowd, called upon a few of the men by name
to assist him in relieving the unfortunate armourer from the ponderous
weight of the gun, which still lay upon the poor fellow's mangled limbs.
Such implicit confidence had these men in him, prisoner among them
though he was, that his mere presence sufficed to restore them to order;
and in a few minutes the armourer, ghastly pale, and with every nerve
quivering from the excruciating pain of his terrible injuries, was
safely withdrawn from beneath the gun.

"Now, make a stretcher, some of you--ah, Dickinson, _you_ are the man
for this job; just make a stretcher, my good fellow--the same sort of
thing that you made for the lad Bob, you know--and let's get our patient
into a boat as quickly as possible; I can do nothing with him here,"
said Lance.

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Dickinson promptly; and away he went with two or
three more men to set about the work, Lance plying the injured man
frequently with small doses of rum meanwhile.

Ralli stood upon the outskirts of the crowd angrily watching the
proceedings. He could not shut his eyes to the fact of Lance's
popularity with the men, and he vowed within himself that he would make
him pay dearly for it before the day was done, even if he were compelled
to seize him up and flog him himself.

The stretcher was soon ready, and the armourer having been placed upon
it, was carried as carefully as possible down to the boat. As the
procession passed the shipyard Lance beckoned to Captain Staunton,
saying--

"I shall need your assistance in this case. It will be a case of
amputation unless I am greatly mistaken, and