t know as them there drops o' mystur' was 'cause o' my poor
lad Master Nic, I should ha' thought it was all on account o' what Cap'n
Lawrence said. `Friend!' he says. Well, I like that. I s'pose it's
'cause I've allus tried to do my dooty, though I've made a horful muddle
on it more'n once."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.

The next time the doctor came below to see his patients he examined Pete
Burge.

"Humph!" he ejaculated. "Lucky for you, my man, that you have such a
thick skull. You'll do now; but you've had a narrow escape. There, you
can go up on deck every day a bit, but keep out of the sun; it's very
hot, and getting hotter. It will do you more good than stopping down in
this black hole."

"Thank ye, master," said Pete; and he lay still in his hammock, waiting
for the doctor to go on deck before getting out and beginning to dress.

"Look here," said the doctor; "you are not off the sick-list yet, and
you will come down and look after this lad till he is fit to go up.--
Well, how are you, my lad?--Hold that light closer," he continued,
turning to his assistant. "Humph! fever stronger.--Has he been talking
to you--sensibly?"

"Yes, zir," replied Pete. "A good deal muddled at first, but he began
asking questions at last."

"What about?"

"Didn't know how he come here, and I had to tell him."

"Yes! What then?"

"Give a zort of a groan, zir, and been talking to hisself ever zince."

"Humph! Poor wretch," muttered the doctor, and he gave some
instructions to his assistant before turning once more to Pete:

"Look here, you had better stay with your mate when you are not on deck.
If he gets worse you can fetch me."

"Where shall I find you, zir?" asked Pete.

"Ask one of the men."

Pete began to dress as soon as he was alone, and found that it was no
easy task on account of a strange feeling of giddiness; but he succeeded
at last, and stepped to Nic's hammock and laid a cool hand upon the poor
fellow's burning brow. Then he went on deck, glad to sit down right
forward in the shade cast by one of the sails and watch the blue water
whenever the vessel heeled over.

The exertion, the fresh air, and the rocking motion of the ship produced
a feeling of drowsiness, and Pete was dropping off to sleep when he
started into wakefulness again, for half-a-dozen men came up a hatchway
close at hand, with the irons they wore clinking, to sit down upon the
deck pretty near the conva