d be defeated should anything happen to you. No.
This is mine, Gordon, and--"

Barry stirred, and Vandersee stopped speaking; shooting a hurried look
at the skipper and then motioning to the others to follow, he went
swiftly out of the hut. Gordon remained and stared full into the
wide-open eyes of Barry.

"What was Vandersee doing here?" demanded Barry, not yet distinguishing
Gordon's face.

"You've been dreaming, skipper," returned Gordon, busying himself with
fresh bandages to avoid facing Barry for a moment.

"Dreaming my aunt!"

"I think you have," insisted Gordon, and now he came to the cot and
began to remove Barry's bandages. "Let me renew your dressings."

"Oh, it's you, is it, Gordon?" exclaimed Barry, now wide awake, if he
had been dreaming before. "Then you'll tell me the truth, won't you? If
that wasn't Vandersee I saw a moment ago, and two naval officers with
him, my brain's cracked, that's all."

"Not cracked, Captain. That's the effect of the medicine you've taken.
No doubt Mr. Little will have some queer notions, too, when he wakes
up. It's better for you to throw out all these notions as soon as they
form. They only hinder your recovery. Now let me fix you up."

"Not one damned bandage! If I'm to be treated like a baby, I'll act like
one. Let Miss Sheldon do it. She won't lie, anyhow."

Gordon laid down his dressings and left the hut without a reply. And
Barry lay there, fuming, sore, and sick, waiting for the nurse who never
appeared. Hours seemed to pass; certainly one hour had gone; then it was
Mrs. Goring who came in, swiftly hiding a troubled expression beneath a
sunny smile of greeting.

"I'll have to inflict myself on you, Captain," she said, deftly removing
his bandages, in spite of his petulant objections. "Miss Sheldon has not
yet returned," she went on. "She visited your men, you know. She will
come to you as soon as possible, for she considers you her own private
patient."

Mrs. Goring beamed kindly upon him, and the skipper's irritation passed
under her sympathetic touch.

"Tell me," he begged cajolingly, "wasn't that Vandersee in here awhile
ago?"

"Oh, he's been here many times, Captain," smiled back Mrs. Goring.

"Yes, yes, I know. I mean while Gordon was here with us."

"Why, didn't you ask him?"

"Oh, tell me, or say you won't," Barry burst out angrily. "Of course I
asked him. He said not. Gordon's a liar!"

"S-sh!" she soothed, laying a cool hand on Barry's heat