ere was no expression in them,
and his face was almost colourless except for the broad smear of blood.
It was oozing fast from a laceration in his scalp, but Dampier, who
noticed his chilliness, did not in the meanwhile trouble about that.
He stripped off the senseless man's long boots, and unshipping a hot
fender iron from the stove laid it against his feet. Afterwards he
contrived to get some whisky down his throat, and then set to work to
wash the scalp wound, dropping into the water a little of the
permanganate of potash, which is freely used at sea. When that was
done he applied a rag dipped in the same fluid, and seeing no result of
his efforts went back on deck. He was anxious about his patient, but
not unduly so, for he had discovered long ago that men of his
description are apt to recover from more serious injuries. By and bye,
he said, Wyllard's brain, which had evidently been rudely jarred by the
shock, would resume its functions.

It was blowing very hard when he stood near the wheel. A steep sea was
already tumbling after the schooner, but she was, at least, heading out
from where they supposed the ice to be, and he let her go, keeping her
away before it, and heading a little south of east. When morning came
the sea was very high, and the faint light further dimmed by snow, but
it seemed to him just safe, and no more, to run, and they held on while
the big combers came up astern and forged by, ridged with foam, high
above her rail.

She was travelling very fast, to the eastwards, under boom-foresail and
one little jib, with her mainmast broken short off where the bolts of
the halliard blocks had traversed it, and Dampier realised that because
of that every knot she made then could not by any means be recovered
that season. He wondered, with a little uneasiness, what Wyllard would
say when he came to himself again. In the meanwhile he said nothing,
but lay like a log in his bunk, only that there was now a little warmth
in him.

Next day the breeze moderated somewhat, and they let her come up a
little, heading further south; while on the morning after that Wyllard
showed signs of returning consciousness. Dampier, however, kept away
from him, partly to allow his senses to readjust themselves, and partly
because he rather shrank from the coming interview. At length, when
dusk was falling, Charly came up to say that Wyllard, who seemed quite
sensible, insisted on seeing him, and Dampier went down wi