it?"

"Hor! hor! hor!" chuckled the old sailor.

"Well, it feels like it," said Carey, pettishly.

"Perhaps I hardly ought to tell you now," said the doctor, gravely.

"Then it is," cried Carey, excitedly.

"No, no, no. Nonsense. You have fractured a bone, but it is not a
serious matter, my dear fellow. It is the collar-bone, but if you are
quiet it will soon knit together again."

"How queer. But I've hurt my head too."

"Yes, a good deal; but that will soon come right."

"Not cracked it, have I, doctor?"

"Decidedly not."

"Ha!" sighed the boy. "That's a good job. That comes of having a good
thick head, Bob. I remember slipping, but no more. I say, didn't I
come down an awful whop?"

"You lie still and don't talk, my boy," said the doctor, quietly.

"Yes, directly; but tell me about the ship. Why aren't we going on? I
can't hear the throbbing of the engine."

"Nay, my lad," said the old sailor, shaking his head; "never no more."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you must know, Carey, my lad," said the doctor; "but I don't want
you to become excited about it. If I tell you, will you lie still then
and be patient?"

"Of course I will, doctor, if I must."

"The fact is, then, since your fall we have been in a terrible
hurricane."

"A hurricane? Why, it was only this morning I tumbled."

The doctor shook his head.

"Never mind when it was," he said. "You have been lying here some time,
and I grieve to tell you that while you were insensible we had a great
mishap. The main shaft broke, and we have been driven on a reef."

"Wrecked?"

"Yes."

"But we're all saved?"

"I hope so," said the doctor. "Now I shall tell you no more to-day.
Will you have a little more water?"

"Yes, please," said the boy, eagerly, and he drank the half-glassful
more given to him with the greatest of avidity, closed his eyes directly
after, and dropped off into a calm sleep.

"That's bad, aren't it, sir?" whispered the old sailor, as the doctor
bent over his patient.

"Bad? No. Look at the soft dewy perspiration on his temples."

"I see, sir. Oughtn't it to be wiped dry?"

"No, no; let him sleep. It is a sign that he will not be troubled with
fever, and its following weakness."

"But he aren't had no brackfuss, sir."

"He has had all that he requires, and he will sleep for hours now."

"Bless the lad! That's good news, sir. It's a fine thing to be a
doctor, and know all these things. Can h