theirs. We
are inoffensive enough surely; and they would have gained by our
presence if they had been friendly. But they're nearly all alike."

"Have you seen cases like this before?" asked the doctor.

"Oh yes, several."

"And after a few hours' struggle the strength of the poison dies out,
and the sufferer recovers?"

The captain glanced in the direction of Jack, and seeing that his
attention was apparently entirely taken up by the sufferer, he said in a
low tone--"Yes, sir, the strength of the poison died out, but the
wounded man died too;" and every word went through Jack like some keen
blade, and for the moment he drew his breath with as much difficulty as
the man before him.

"In the cases I saw there was no doctor near at hand, and we who
attended the poor fellows could do no more than try to draw the poison
from the wounds and burn them out. But it seemed to me that the poison
acted like the bite, of a snake, and altered the blood, while at last
the symptoms were like those I have heard of when the patient has
lock-jaw."

"Tetanus," said the doctor gravely.

"But it can't be so hopeless here. You were with him and attended him
from the first."

"Yes; I have done all I can for him, poor fellow, and with his fine
physique he may fight through it."

"Would amputation have saved him?" asked Sir John.

"I do not believe it would have had any effect upon a wound like that,
even if it had been performed ten minutes after the injury," said the
doctor. "The circulation is so rapid that the poison is running through
the system at once, and to proceed to such an extremity seems to be
giving the patient another terrible shock to fight against when his
state is bad enough without."

"Then you have done everything you can?"

"Everything. He is beyond human aid."

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

THE CREW HAVE THEIR OWN OPINIONS.

The utter exhaustion produced by the struggle on the mountain slope and
through the forest died away with Jack in the light of the terrible
trouble which had come upon him; and as the afternoon wore on he just
partook of such food as his father brought to him, for he would not
leave the wounded man's side; and at last sunset came as they lay about
a couple of miles out softly rocking upon the calm sea. He had heard
how the canoes had been watched till they disappeared below the horizon
line, and that all danger from another attack had passed away, but that
seemed nothing in the