Grey, who was much more hurt than I had
been, was too weak to leave his hammock, I promised to remain in mine to
keep him company. When Macquoid came to me, therefore, one day and told
me that I might dress and go on deck, I replied in a very faint voice,
that I had not strength to move, and groaned a great deal when he moved
me to dress my wound.

"Some internal injury, I fear," he observed, "I must see to it."

He then turned to Spellman, to dress his cheeks. He groaned exactly in
the way I had done, and spoke in the same faint tone, declaring his
inability to rise.

"Ah, poor fellow, some internal injury, I fear; I must see to it,"
remarked the assistant-surgeon in the same tone, as he left us.

Miss Susan, thinking that he had quitted the sick bay, sat up in his
hammock, and made a well-known and expressive signal to me with his
thumb to his nose, which Macquoid, who happened at that moment to turn
his head, could not have failed to observe.

"Miss Susan, you donkey, you have spoilt all. We are found out," I
exclaimed. "Macquoid saw your sign to me."

Spellman declared that did not signify; that he would explain how it
happened to Macquoid, and assure him that the gesture was one which he
frequently made when suffering from a paroxysm of pain.

I told him that he had better say nothing of the sort, and that he would
only make matters worse, but he persisted that he knew better than I
did, and told me to hold my tongue. Of course it was very wrong to sham
to be worse than I was, but I persuaded myself that it was not like
actual malingering, as I had a foundation for my assertion, and really
did not feel as if I could walk. Still I may as well say here, that
though I have ever been through life merry by nature, as well as by
name, and have loved joking as much as any man, I have learned to hate
and detest falsehood. It is un-Christian like in the first place, and
thoroughly low and ungentlemanly in the second. I say this, lest in
consequence of my having introduced the wonderful adventures of my
shipmate, Mr Johnson, it may be considered that I think lightly of the
importance of speaking the truth. To do Jonathan justice he took ample
care that his yarns should never for a moment deceive the most
simple-minded or credulous of his hearers. At that time, however, I did
not see things as clearly as I did when I grew older, and I was vexed at
having tried to deceive Macquoid, more from the fear of being