im, and was filled with admiration for his character. Besides that,
he knew that his patient alone could solve this great mystery, which
puzzled him exceedingly.

Unfortunately, Daniel's condition was one of those which defy all
professional skill, and where all hope depends upon time, nature, and
constitution. To try to question him would have been absurd; for he
had so far continued delirious. At times he thought he was on board
his sloop in the swamps of the Kamboja; but most frequently he imagined
himself fighting against enemies bent upon his ruin. The names of Sarah
Brandon, Mrs. Brian, and Thomas Elgin, were constantly on his lips,
mixed up with imprecations and fearful threats.

For twenty days he remained so; and for twenty days and twenty nights
his "man," Baptist Lefloch, who had caught the murderer, was by his
bedside, watching his slightest movement, and ever bending over him
tenderly. Not one of those noble daughters of divine wisdom, whom we
meet in every part of the globe, wherever there is a sick man to nurse,
could have been more patient, more attentive, or more ingenious, than
this common sailor. He had put off his shoes, so as to walk more softly;
and he came and went on tiptoe, his face full of care and anxiety,
preparing draughts, and handling with his huge bony hands, with
laughable, but almost touching precautions, the small phials out of
which he had to give a spoonful to his patient at stated times.

"I'll have you appointed head nurse of the navy, Lefloch," said the old
surgeon.

But he shook his head and answered,--

"I would not like the place, commandant. Only, you see, when we were
down there on the Kamboja, and Baptist Lefloch was writhing like a worm
in the grip of the cholera, and when he was already quite blue and cold,
Lieut. Champcey did not send for one of those lazy Annamites to rub him,
he came himself, and rubbed him till he brought back the heat and life
itself. Now, you see, I want to do some little for him."

"You would be a great scamp if you did not."

The surgeon hardly left the wounded man himself. He visited him four
or five times a day, once at least every night, and almost every day
remained for hours sitting by his bedside, examining the patient, and
experiencing, according to the symptoms, the most violent changes from
hope to fear, and back again. It was thus he learned a part, at least,
of Daniel's history,--that he was to marry a daughter of Count Ville-
Ha