the water. It was found on raising
him that his right leg was broken at the thigh.

When Jim recovered consciousness he did not complain. He was a man of
stern mould, and neither groaned nor spoke; but he was not the less
impressed with the kindness and apparent skill with which the mission
skipper treated him.

Having received a certain amount of surgical training, the skipper--
although unlearned and a fisherman--knew well how to put the leg in
splints and otherwise to treat the patient.

"It's pretty bad, I fear," he said soothingly, observing that Jim's lips
were compressed, and that beads of perspiration were standing on his
brow.

Jim did not reply, but smiled grimly and nodded, for the rolling of the
ship caused him increasing agony as the injured parts began to inflame.

"I'm not very good at this sort o' work," said the mission skipper
modestly, "but thank God the new hospital-ship is cruisin' wi' the Short
Blue just now. I saw her only yesterday, so we'll put you aboard of her
and there you'll find a reg'lar shore-goin' surgeon, up to everything,
and with all the gimcracks and arrangements of a reg'lar shore-goin'
hospital. They've got a new contrivance too--a sort o' patent
stretcher, invented by a Mr Dark o' the head office in London--which'll
take you out o' the boat into the ship without movin' a bone or muscle,
so keep your mind easy, skipper, for you'll be aboard the _Queen
Victoria_ before many hours go by."

Poor Greely appreciated the statement about the stretcher more than all
the rest that was said, for he was keenly alive to the difficulty of
passing a broken-boned man out of a little boat into a smack or steamer
in a heavy sea, having often had to do it.

The mission skipper was right, for early the next day Jim was strapped
to a wonderful frame and passed into the hospital-ship without shake or
shock, and his comrades were retained in the mission smack until they
could be sent on shore. Greely and his men learned many lessons which
they never afterwards forgot on board of the _Queen Victoria_--the
foundation lesson being that they were lost sinners and that Jesus
Christ came "to seek and to save the lost."

Slowly, and at first unwillingly, Skipper Greely took the great truths
in. Several weeks passed, and he began to move about with some of his
wonted energy. Much to his surprise he found himself one morning
signing the temperance pledge-books, persuaded thereto by the skipper of