You, Seth Barker, hold up that lantern," says he to the carpenter, as
bold as brass and as ready as a crack physician at a guinea a peep;
"give me some linen, one of you--and please be quick about it. I'll
trouble you for a knife, Mister Peter, and a slice of your shirt, if
you don't mind!"

Now, he had only to say this and I do believe that all four of us began
to tear up our linen and to make ourselves as naked as Adam when they
discharged him from Eden; but Peter Bligh, he was first with it, and he
had out his clasp-knife and cut a length of his Belfast shift before
you could say "Jack Robinson."

"'Tis unlikely that I'll match it in these parts, and I've worn it to
my mother's memory," says he while he did it; "but 'tis yours, Dolly,
lad, and welcome. And what now?" asks he.

"Be quiet, Mister Peter," says Dolly, sharply; "that's what next. Be
quiet and nurse the doctor's leg, and do please keep that lantern
steady."

Well, big men as we were, we kept quiet for the asking, as ignorance
always will when skill is at the helm. Very prettily, I must say, and
very neatly did Dolly begin to bind the wound, and to cut the suckers
from their hold. The rest of us stood about and looked on and made
believe we were very useful. It was an odd thing to tell ourselves that
a man, who had been hale and hearty five minutes before, might now be
going out on the floor of that hovel. I knew little of Duncan Gray, but
what little I did know I liked beyond the ordinary; and every time that
Dolly took a twist on his bandage or fingered the wound with the
tenderness of a woman, I said, "Well done, lad, well done; we'll save
him yet." And this the boy himself believed.

"It's only a cut," said he, "and if there's no poison, he'll be well
enough in a week. But he won't be able to stand, that's certain. I'd
give ten pounds for an antiseptic, I realty would!"

I knew what he meant all right; but the others didn't, and Peter Bligh,
he must come in with his foolishness.

"They're mortal rare in these parts," said he; "I've come across many
things in the Pacific, but anyskeptics isn't one of 'em. May-be he'll
not need 'em, Dolly. We was twenty-four men down on the Ohio with
yellow-jack, and not an ounce of anyskeptics did I swallow! And here I
am, hale and hearty, as you'll admit."

"And talking loud," said Seth Barker, "talking very loud, gentlemen!"

It was wisdom, upon my word, for not one of us, I swear (until Seth
Barker spoke),