Hunting the Skipper Part 28

"I suppose so, sir," said Roberts sulkily.

"Better tell me that my services were not called for, and that you could all have done without me. I call what I have gone through hard work, and tell you, sir, that it was a time of great anxiety."

"So it must have been, doctor," put in Murray, "and I feel very grateful for the way you did away with my pain."

"There's a sneak!" cried Roberts angrily. "Who began to bully me for dragging him into the discussion?"

"You are the sneak, sir," said the doctor, "for trying to dodge out of the matter like this. Murray spoke out like a man."

"Boy," growled Roberts.

"Very well, sir; like a grateful boy, if that pleases you better. Like one who appreciates my service and is not ready to turn up his nose at what such fellows as you call 'doctor's stuff,' just as if a medical man or a surgeon thought of nothing but wasting the ship's stores upon those who are glad enough to come to them when they are out of sorts, and most often from their neglect of common sense precautions, or from over indulgence in the good things of life."

"Precious lot of chances we get to indulge in the good things of life on board ship!" said Roberts bitterly.

"Let me tell you, sir," said the doctor, shaking his finger at the midshipman, "that there is nothing better for a growing lad than the strict discipline and the enforced temperance and moderate living of shipboard. Better for you, though, if you had not so much idleness."

"Idleness, sir!" cried the lad.

"Yes, sir. You want more work. Ah! You may sneer. Perhaps not quite so much as I have to do, but more than you get. Yes, sir, when you know better you will learn to see that the doctor's life is a very arduous one."

"But you get lots of time, sir, for natural history and fishing and shooting."

"Not 'lots of time,' sir, as you term it, but some time certainly; and what is that but work in the cause of science? And look here, Mr Roberts, whenever I do get an opportunity for going ash.o.r.e shooting or botanising, or have a boat out for fishing or dredging, do I not invariably enlist the services of you or Mr Murray?"

"Hear, hear!" cried the latter, in the most parliamentary way.

"Thank you, Mr Murray," said the doctor. "I shall not forget this."

"Don't you believe him, doctor," cried Roberts. "He doesn't mean it.

He's only currying favour."

"Nothing of the kind, sir," said the doctor sharply. "I flatter myself that I understand Mr Murray better than you do, sir. I understand his temperament quite as well as I do yours, sir, which is atrabilious."

"Eh?" exclaimed Roberts. "What's that, sir?"

"Black bilious, sir, if you really don't know. I have studied your temperament, sir, and let me tell you that you would be doing very wisely if you came to me this evening for a little treatment."

"But I've only just got out of your hands, sir," cried the midshipman, in a voice full of protest.

"That was for the superficial trouble, sir, due to the scorching and singeing. Now it is plain to me that what you went through in that attack upon the blacks' town has stirred up the secretions of your liver."

"Oh, doctor, that it hasn't!" cried the lad. "And I'm sure that I want no physicking."

"I think I know best, sir. If you were in robust health there would be none of that display of irritability of temper that you evince. You as his messmate must have noticed this irritability, Mr Murray?"

"Constantly, sir," said that individual solemnly. "Oh you!" growled Roberts fiercely. "Just you wait!"

"There!" cried the doctor triumphantly. "You are proving the truth of my diagnosis, Mr Roberts. Come to me before night, and I will give you what you require. There, you have given me ample reason for strongly resenting your language, Mr Roberts, but now I fully realise the cause I shall pa.s.s it over. You require my services, sir, and that is enough."

"I don't require them, sir," cried the lad, boiling over with pa.s.sion now. "I was hurt a good deal over the expedition, but now that's better; there's nothing whatever the matter with me; and you are taking advantage of your position and are about to force me to swallow a lot of your horrid stuff. I won't, though; see if I do!"

"You see, Mr Murray," said the doctor, smiling in a way which irritated one of his hearers almost beyond bearing, "he is proving all I have said to the full. There, be calm, Roberts, my dear boy; we have left the horrible river and coast behind, and a few days out upon the broad ocean will with my help soon clear away the unpleasant symptoms from which you have been suffering, and--"

"Not interfering, am I, doctor?" said a voice which made the two lads start round.

"Not in the least, Anderson; not in the least. Mr Roberts here is a trifle the worse for our run up that muddy river, but I shall soon put that right with our trip through the healthier portions of our globe."

"Through the healthier portions of the globe, doctor!" said the chief officer. "Why, what do you mean?"

"Mean? Only that the West Coast of Africa is about as horrible a station as unhappy man could be placed in by the powers that be, while now we are going where--"

"Why, doctor, you don't mean to say that you do not understand where we are going?"

"I mean to say I do know, sir--away from the swampy exhalations and black fevers of the horrible district where we have been cruising, and out upon the high seas."

"Yes, to cross them, doctor," said the lieutenant drily. "We are going to leave the black fevers behind, but in all probability to encounter the yellow."

"What!" cried the doctor. "I did not understand--"

"What the captain said? Well, I did, sir. The skipper has only just now been vowing to me that he will never rest until he has run down that slaver."

"Ah! Yes, I understand that," said the doctor. "Then that means--?"

"A long stern chase through the West Indian Islands, and perhaps in and out and along the coasts of the Southern American States--wherever, in fact, the plantations are worked by slaves whose supplies are kept up by traders such as the scoundrel who cheated us into a run up that river where his schooner was lying. Why, doctor, it seems to me that we are only going out of the frying-pan into the fire."

"Dear me, yes," said the doctor. "You are quite right. Then under these circ.u.mstances, Mr Roberts," he continued, turning sharply round upon the midshipman, "the sooner you commence your treatment the better."

"But really, sir," began Roberts, who looked so taken aback that his messmate had hard work to contain himself and master the outburst of laughter that was ready to explode.

"Don't argue, Mr Roberts," said the doctor importantly. "I do not know how you find him in your dealings, Anderson," he continued, "but as a patient I must say that of all the argumentative, self-willed young men I ever encountered Mr Roberts carries off the palm."

"Yes, he has a will of his own, my dear doctor," said the lieutenant, giving the middy a meaning glance, "but you must take him in hand. I prescribe my way; when you take him in hand next you must prescribe yours."

"I intend so doing," said the doctor, and he walked aft with the chief officer.

This was Frank Murray's opportunity, and hurrying to the side, he leaned his arms upon the bulwarks and laughed till his sides ached before his companion fully realised the fact, his attention having been taken up by the pair who were going towards where the captain was slowly pacing the deck with his hands behind him.

"Oh, grinning at it all, are you?" said Roberts now. "It's very funny, isn't it! An abominable, pragmatical, self-satisfied a.s.s, that's what he is; and are we almost grown-up men to be handed over to be treated just as he pleases? No; I'll resign the service first. Yes, laugh away, my fine fellow! You see if I don't pay you out for this! Oh, go it! But you see if I take any of his beastly old stuff!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"COLD PISON."

Roberts kept his word that same evening, for just as the darkness was setting in and the two lads had walked forward to lean over the side and gaze down at the unruffled transparent sea and wonder which were reflections of the golden glory of the stars and which were the untold myriads of phosph.o.r.escent creatures that, as far down as eye could penetrate, spangled the limpid sea, the lad suddenly gave his companion a nudge with his elbow.