There being no answer to this, McWhirter contented himself with eyeing
me.

"I'm thinking," I said, "of going to Europe. The sea is calling me,
Mac."

"So was the grave a month ago, but it didn't get you. Don't be an ass,
boy. How are you going to sea?"

"Before the mast." This apparently conveying no meaning to McWhirter,
I supplemented--"as a common sailor."

He was indignant at first, offering me his room and a part of his small
salary until I got my strength; then he became dubious; and finally, so
well did I paint my picture of long, idle days on the ocean, of sweet,
cool nights under the stars, with breezes that purred through the
sails, rocking the ship to slumber--finally he waxed enthusiastic, and
was even for giving up the pharmacy at once and sailing with me.

He had been fitting out the storeroom of a sailing-yacht with drugs, he
informed me, and doing it under the personal direction of the owner's
wife.

"I've made a hit with her," he confided. "Since she's learned I'm a
graduate M.D., she's letting me do the whole thing. I've made up some
lotions to prevent sunburn, and that seasick prescription of old
Larimer's, and she thinks I'm the whole cheese. I'll suggest you as
ships doctor."

"How many men in the crew?"

"Eight, I think, or ten. It's a small boat, and carries a small crew."

"Then they don't want a ship's doctor. If I go, I'll go as a sailor,"
I said firmly. "And I want your word, Mac, not a word about me, except
that I am honest."

"You'll have to wash decks, probably."

"I am filled with a wild longing to wash decks," I asserted, smiling at
his disturbed face. "I should probably also have to polish brass.
There's a great deal of brass on the boat."

"How do you know that?"

When I told him, he was much excited, and, although it was dark and the
Ella consisted of three lights, he insisted on the opera-glasses, and
was persuaded he saw her. Finally he put down the glasses and came
over, to me.

"Perhaps you are right, Leslie," he said soberly. "You don't want
charity, any more than they want a ship's doctor. Wherever you go and
whatever you do, whether you're swabbing decks in your bare feet or
polishing brass railings with an old sock, you're a man."

He was more moved than I had ever seen him, and ate a gum-drop to cover
his embarrassment. Soon after that he took his departure, and the
following day he telephoned to say that, if the sea was still calling
me,