ail, which you can stretch across the thwarts, our old friend can cook
them while he is acting as my physician."

Jonathan, who had been tearing a couple of long strips off his shirt,
and binding them round David's leg while he was speaking, now soused the
bandages with sea water, taking it up in the one uninjured boot which he
had kept for baling purposes, and then propped it up in an easy
position, so that it should be directly exposed to the rays of the sun,
which was now almost vertical, and hotter than they had yet felt it. He
then unstepped the mast, and arranged the sail like an awning over the
rest of the boat, serving to shelter themselves--with the exception of
David's leg, of course--from the heat, which was decidedly more
comfortable, and act as a table for their culinary arrangements.

On counting them, which they had not done before, they found they had
thirteen bonetas and skipjacks, beside the molly hawk, which they
determined to eat while it was fresh; and then would have sufficient
food, as the fish would keep perfectly when dried, for quite that number
of days--a lucky number as Jonathan said, as it was "a baker's dozen,"
and certainly not an even one.

"An unlucky one, you mean," said David. "They say that when thirteen
people sit down at table together one is sure to die before the year is
out."

"That will only apply to the fish," said Jonathan laughing, "and they're
dead already, and will be eaten soon. And talking of that, Dave, I
think it's about dinner-time; what say you? My clock here," patting his
stomach as he spoke, "warns me that it needs winding up."

"All right, I feel peckish myself," answered David, who was skinning and
cutting open the fish leisurely with his clasp knife, which he could do
easily without removing from his position or shifting his leg, while
Jonathan cleaned them and washed them in the sea over the side of the
boat preparatory to spreading them out on the top of their awning to dry
in the sun. "Just wait till I finish this last beggar, and then I'll
tackle Miss Molly Hawk, and we'll begin. Do you know, Jonathan, I don't
think birds are half so bad eaten raw? I did enjoy that cape pigeon
yesterday."

"So did I," said the other. "It makes me hungrier to think of it. Look
alive, old boy, or I'll start on one of these fish just to keep my hand
in."

"No, you won't, or your teeth either, you cannibal," said David
jocularly. "I'm captain, and purser too, an