" I said to myself. "It was a piece of
mad folly. He was won over by that brute of a Frenchman, who, now that
he has obtained all he wants, throws over the tool he used, and ends by
shooting him. Poor fellow! how could he be such a fool?"

I sat on, thinking how bitterly he would have repented his folly, and
how his last days must have been spent in the keenest of regret. And it
was in this spirit that I bent down over him, to thrust my hand in his
breast to feel for the beating of his heart.

"Mr Frewen," I whispered as I rose, "tell me how you think he is now."

The doctor bent down, and after a little examination, rose again.

"There is no difference which I can detect," he said gravely.

"But you will--you will--"

"Will what, Dale?" he said, for I had paused.

"You will not treat him as if--as if he were a criminal?"

"How can I help it? He is one. We have him to thank for our position
here, for those two people being left on the ship, at the mercy of those
scoundrels."

His whole manner changed as he said this, and his voice sounded full of
fierce anger.

"Yes," I faltered, "that's all true; but you will not be revengeful?"

"A doctor revengeful, Dale?" he said quickly.

"I don't mean that," I said. "I mean, you will do your best to save his
life?"

"For him to be punished by the law?"

"I was not thinking of that," I said hastily. "I mean, that you will do
all you can to cure him, Mr Frewen?"

"Why, of course, my lad--of course. Am I not a doctor? I am neither
prosecutor nor judge. You have curious ideas about my profession."

"I could not help it, Mr Frewen," I pleaded. "It is only that I am so
anxious for him to recover."

"And do you another ill turn, Dale--betray us once more!"

"No, no, it isn't that." I cried; "it is only that I should like him to
live and be sorry for all this. I believe, after what has taken place
to-night, he would be only too glad to come over to our side, and fight
for us."

"Perhaps so, if he were well enough; but who would ever dream of
trusting him again?"

I was silent, thinking as I was how terrible was the slip my messmate
had made, and seeing now clearly how it must take years for him to climb
back to the position he held when we left the London Docks.

"There," said Mr Frewen at last, "you need not be afraid, Dale. I
shall treat him as I would any other patient. A medical man has but one
aim when he treats a sick person, a surgeon one w