hted by the sickly
glare of a small lamp fastened against the bulkhead.

The clothes had been thrown over the lower part of his body; but his
shoulder was bare, the pallid hue of his skin contrasting with the dark,
red stains on the linen of the shirt, which had been cut off, and still
lay beneath it. The arm, on the side where the ball had entered the
neck, lay immovable by his side, looking shrunk and withered, except a
slight twitching of the fingers, which showed the agony he was enduring.

O'Farrell, the assistant surgeon, sat at the head of the bed, applying a
cooling lotion round the part which had been bound up, to prevent
inflammation, if possible, from setting in, administering now and then
some restorative to revive him from the exhaustion consequent to his
great loss of blood.

As soon as Saltwell entered, his eyes turned towards him, and his lips
moved; but his brother-officer heard no sound, till he put his ear close
to his mouth.

"Saltwell," he whispered, "don't let them blame me wrongfully for being
beaten off by those rascally pirates; I did my best, as you know I
would. Our poor captain--I grieve for him more. Don't let a stain
remain on our names. And, Saltwell, if I die, as I think I shall, when
you get home, see my poor Julia--bear her my deepest love, and tell her
I thought of her to the last."

"I'll do all you wish, my dear fellow," answered Saltwell, deeply
affected. "But we must not let you slip through the doctor's fingers;
cheer up, for the sake of all your friends. And now try and get some
rest--it will do you more good than any thing I can say, or the doctor
can give you."

"I fear not, Saltwell, I fear not," said Linton. "But I won't keep you,
for you'll be wanted on deck, as the boats will soon be coming back, and
I trust to you to remember to fulfil my wishes."

Saltwell saw that his presence did more harm than good to his wounded
friend, as it induced him to talk; so, bidding him try to sleep, he left
the cabin. As he reached the deck, he saw that the first faint
indications of the coming dawn had appeared in the eastern horizon--not
streaks of light exactly, but a less dense gloom, which could best be
distinguished by contrasting it with the darkness of the opposite
horizon, and, at that instant, the flash of a gun was seen in the same
quarter, and the sound came booming over the water towards them.

"Ah! there comes the cutter," he exclaimed; "Tompion is firing his b