nsed the
wound; then he said sharply--

"How did you come to let your shipmate lose so much blood?"

"Why, sir, we hadn't not so much as a pocket-handkerchief aboard. We
tried a big handful of salt, but that made him holler awful before he
lost his senses, and the wessel was makin' such heavy weather of it, we
couldn't spare a man to hould him when he was rollin' on the cabin
floor."

"Yes, sir; Lord, save us!" said another battered, begrimed fellow. "If
he'd a-rolled agen the stove we couldn't done nothin'. We was hard put
to it to save the wessel and ourselves."

"I see now. Steward, my case. This must be sewn up."

Ferrier had hardly drawn three stitches through, when one of the seamen
fainted away, and this complication, added to the inexorable roll of the
yacht, made Ferrier's task a hard one; but the indomitable Scot was on
his mettle. He finished his work, and then said--

"Now, my lads, you cannot take your mate on board again. I'm going to
give him my own berth, and he'll stay here."

"How are we to get him again, sir?"

"That I don't know. I only know that he'll die if he has to be flung
about any more."

"Well, sir, you fare to be a clever man, and you're a good 'un. We're
not three very good 'uns, me and these chaps isn't, but if you haves a
meetin' Sunday we're goin' to be here."

Then came the usual handshaking, and the two gentlemen's palms were
remarkably unctuous before the visitors departed.

"Look here, Lennard, if I'd had slings something like those used in the
troopships for horses, I should have got that poor fellow up as easily
as if he'd been a kitten. And now, how on earth are we to lower him down
that narrow companion? We must leave it to Freeman and the men. Neither
of us can keep a footing. What a pity we haven't a wide hatchway with
slings! That twisting down the curved steps means years off the poor
soul's life."

The gentle sailors did their best, but the patient suffered badly, and
Ferrier found it hard to force beef-tea between the poor fellow's
clenched teeth.

Lucky Tom Betts! Had he been sent back to the smack he would have died
like a dog; as it was, he was tucked into a berth between snowy sheets,
and Tom Lennard kept watch over him while Ferrier went off to board the
disabled smack. All the ladies were able to meet in the saloon now, and
even the two invalids eagerly asked at short intervals after the
patient's health. Lucky Tom Betts!

Marion Dearsley begged tha