reached, hooked on, and with a stamp
and a run she was hauled up, and I was close up to the side as she was
swung in, and Ching lifted out dripping, and sank down in a heap as soon
as the men tried to set him on his feet.

"Here, let me have a look at him," said the doctor.

"But first of all, why did you cling there instead of calling for help?"
cried Mr Reardon angrily.

"Bah! don't worry the man, sir," said the doctor sharply. "He's nearly
insensible. What's this canister doing at the end of his tail?"

"Bah!" ejaculated the captain angrily, and he said something to Mr
Reardon, and then went down to the cabin.

"Look here," cried the lieutenant angrily, "I want the names of the men
who played this blackguardly trick upon the poor fellow."

"Yes, afterwards," said the doctor. "He's insensible, poor fellow.
Here, one of you, a knife?"

Half-a-dozen jack-knives were opened and presented to the doctor, but I
sprang forward.

"Don't do that, sir, please!" I cried excitedly.

"Eh? Not cut off this absurd thing?"

"No, sir. The poor fellow went overboard to escape having the pigtail
cut, and it would break his heart."

Mr Reardon turned upon me sharply, and I anticipated a severe reproof,
but he only gave me a nod.

"Carry him below," he said. And I walked beside the men to save the
poor fellow from any fresh indignity, while half-an-hour later he had
had a good rubbing and was lying in hot blankets fast asleep, partly
from exhaustion, partly consequent upon having had a tumbler of mixture,
steaming and odorous, which the doctor had administered with his own
hands.

"Not to be taken every three hours, Herrick," he said, with a curious
dry smile. "Fine mixture that, in its proper place. Know what it was?"

"It smelt like grog, sir," I replied.

"Oh, did it? Now, do you for a moment suppose that when a
carefully-trained medical man of great experience is called in to a
patient suffering from shock and a long immersion he would prescribe and
exhibit such a commonplace remedy as grog?"

"Don't know, sir," I said. "But I should."

"Then, my good lad, as soon as you get back from this unpleasant voyage,
the best thing you can do will be to go straight to your father and tell
him that you have made a mistake in your vocation, and that he had
better enter you for a series of terms at one of the universities, and
then as a student at one of the hospitals."

"But I'm going to be a sailor, sir."

"Y