Tom Cringle's Log Part 51

"Poo, poo," quoth his friend, "don't bother now--hillo--what the deuce I say, Wagtail--Gelid, my lad, look there"--as one of the seamen, with another following him, brought down on his back the poor fellow who had been wounded, and laid his b.l.o.o.d.y load on the table.

To those who are unacquainted with these matters, it may be right to say, that the captain's cabin, in a small vessel like the Wave, is often in an emergency used as a c.o.c.kpit--and so it was in the present instance.

"Beg pardon, Captain and gentlemen," said the surgeon, "but I must, I fear, perform an ugly operation on this poor fellow. I fancy you had better go on deck, gentlemen."

Now I had an opportunity to see of what sterling metal my friends were at bottom made. Mr Bang in a twinkling had his coat off.

"Doctor, I can be of use, I know it--no skill, but steady nerves,"

although he had reckoned a leetle without his host here,--"And I can swathe a bandage too, although no surgeon," said Wagtail.

Gelid said nothing, but he was in the end the best surgeon's mate amongst them. The poor fellow, Wiggins, one of the captain's gigs, and a most excellent man, in quarterdeck parlance, was now laid on the table a fine handsome young fellow, faint and pale, very pale, but courageous as a lion, even in his extremity. It appeared that a round shot had shattered his leg above the knee. A tourniquet had been applied on his thigh, and there was not much bleeding.

"Captain," said the poor fellow, while Bang supported him in his arms, "I shall do yet, sir; indeed I have no great pain."

All this time the surgeon was cutting off his trowsers, and then, to be sure, a terrible spectacle presented itself. The foot and leg, blue and shrunk, were connected with the thigh by a band of muscle about two inches wide, and an inch thick; that fined away to a bunch of white tendons or sinews at the knee, which again swelled out as they melted into the muscles of the calf of the leg; but as for the knee bone, it was smashed to pieces, leaving white spikes protruding from the shattered limb above, as well as from the shank beneath. The doctor gave the poor fellow a large dose of laudanum in a gla.s.s of brandy, and then proceeded to amputate the limb, high up on the thigh. Bang stood the knife part of it very steadily, but the instant the saw rasped against the shattered bone he shuddered.

"I am going, Cringle--can't stand that--sick as a dog"--and he was so faint that I had to relieve him in supporting the poor fellow. Wagtail had also to go on deck, but Paul Gelid remained firm as a rock. The limb was cut off, the arteries taken up very cleverly, and the surgeon was in the act of slacking the tourniquet a little, when the thread that fastened the largest, or femoral artery, suddenly gave way and a gush like the jet from a fire-engine took place. The poor fellow had just time to cry out, "Take that cold hand off my heart!" when his chest collapsed, his jaw fell, and in an instant his pulse stopped.

"Dead as Julius Caesar, Captain," said Gelid, with his usual deliberation. Dead enough, thought I; and I was leaving the cabin to resume my post on deck, when I stumbled against something at the ladder foot.

"My, what is that?" grumbled I.

"It is me, sir," said a small faint voice.

"You!--who are you?"

"Reefpoint, sir."

"Bless me, boy, what are you doing here? Not hurt, I hope?"

"A little, sir--a graze from a splinter, sir--the same shot that struck poor Wiggins knocked it off, sir."

"Why did you not go to the doctor, then, Mr Reefpoint?"

"I waited till he was done with Wiggins, sir; but now, since it is all over with him, I will go and be dressed."

His voice grew fainter and fainter, until I could scarcely hear him. I got him in my arms, and helped him into the cabin, where, on stripping the poor little fellow, it was found that he was much hurt on the right side, just above the hip. Bang's kind heart, for by this time a gla.s.s of water had cured him of his faintness, shone conspicuous on this occasion.

"Why, Reefy--little Reefy--you are not hurt, my man--Surely you are not wounded--such a little fellow,--I should have as soon thought of firing at a musquitto."

"Indeed, sir, but I am; see here."--Bang looked at the hurt, as he supported the wounded midshipman in his arms.

"G.o.d help me," said the excellent fellow, "you seem to me fitter for your mother's nursery, my poor dear boy, than to be knocked about in this coa.r.s.e way here."

Reefy, at this moment, fell over into his arms, in a dead faint.

"You must take my berth, with the Captain's permission," said Aaron, while he and Wagtail undressed him with the greatest care, and placed him in the narrow crib.

"Thank you, my dear sir," moaned little Reefpoint; "were my mother here, sir she would thank you too."

Stern duty now called me on deck, and I heard no more. The night was still very dark, and I could see nothing of the chase, but I made all the sail I could in the direction which I calculated she would steer, trusting that, before morning, we might get another glimpse of her. In a little while Bang came on deck.

"I say, Tom, now since little Reefy is asleep--what think you big craft that--nearly caught a Tartar--not very sorry he has escaped, eh?"

"Why, my dear sir, I trust he has not escaped; I hope, when the day breaks, now since we have less wind, that we may have a tussle with him yet."

"No, you don't wish it, do you, really and truly?"

"Indeed, I do, sir; and the only thing which bothers me is the peril that you and your friends must necessarily encounter."

"Poo, poo, don't mind us, Tom, don't mind us; but an't he too big for you, Tom?"

He said this in such a comical way, that, for the life of me, I could not help laughing.

"Why, we shall see; but attack him I must, and shall, if I can get at him. However, we shall wait till morning; so I recommend your turning in, now since they have cleared away the c.o.c.kpit out of the cabin; so good-night, my dear sir--I must stay here, I fear."

"Good-night, Tom; G.o.d bless you. I shall go and comfort Wagtail and Paul."

I was at this time standing well aft on the larboard side of the deck, close abaft of the tiller-rope, so that, with no earthly disposition to be an eavesdropper, I could neither help seeing nor hearing what was going on in the cabin, as the small open skylight was close to my All vestiges of the c.o.c.kpit had been cleared away, and the table was laid for supper. Wagtail and Gelid were sitting on the side I stood on, so that I could not see them, although I heard every word they said.

Presently Bang entered, and sat down opposite his allies. He crossed his arms, and leant down over the table, looking at them steadily.

"My dear Aaron," I could hear little Wagtail say, "speak, man, don't frighten a body so."

"Ah, Bang," drawled out Paul, "jests are good, being well-timed; what can you mean by that face of yours now, since the fighting is all over?"

My curiosity fairly overcame my good manners, and I moved round more amidships, so as to command a view of both parties, as they sat opposite each other at the narrow table.

Bang still held his peace for another minute; at length, in a very solemn tone, he said, "Gentlemen, do you ever say your prayers?" I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Aaron had a most musical deep mellow voice, and now it absolutely thrilled to my very soul.

Wagtail and Paul looked at him, and then at each other, with a most absurd expression--between fear and jest--between crying and laughing but gave him no answer.

"Are you, my lads, such blockheads as to be ashamed to acknowledge that you say your prayers?"

"Ah," aid Gelid, "why, ah no--not--that is"

"Oh, you Catholics are all so bigoted,--I suppose we should cross ourselves, eh?" said Wagtail hastily.

"I am a Catholic, Master Wagtail," rejoined Bang--"better that than nothing. Before sunrise, we may both have proved the truth of our creeds, if you have one; but if you mean it as a taunt, Wagtail, it does discredit to your judgment to select such a moment, to say nothing of your heart. However, you cannot make me angry with you, Pepperpot, you little Creole wasp, do as you will." A slight smile here curled Aaron's lip for an instant, although he immediately resumed the solemn tone in which he had previously spoken.--"But I had hoped that two such old friends, as you both have been to me, would not altogether have made up their minds in cold blood, if advertised of their danger, to run the chance of dying like dogs in a ditch, without one preparatory thought towards that tremendous Being, before whom we may all stand before morning."

"Murder!" quoth Wagtail, fairly frightened; "are you really serious, Aaron? I did not--would not, for the world, hurt your feelings in earnest, my dear; why do you desire so earnestly to know whether or not I ever say my prayers?"

"Oh, don't bother, man," rejoined Bang, resuming his usual friendly tone; "you had better say boldly that you do not, without any roundaboutation."

"But why, my dear Bang, why do you ask the question?" persisted Wagtail, in a deuced quandary.

"Simply,"--and here our friend's voice once more fell to the low deep serious tone in which he had opened the conference,--"simply because, in my humble estimation, if you don't say your prayers tonight, it is three to one you shall never pray again."

"The deuce!" said Pepperpot, twisting himself in all directions, as if his inexpressibles had been nailed to his seat, and he was trying to escape from them. "What, in the devil's name, mean you, man?"