tudes, had returned
to his native island for the recovery of his health. He and his sister
lived together in a very pleasant house of their own, in the Vale, about
two miles from St. Peter-Port.

He looked yellow enough to be on the verge of an attack of jaundice when
he came across me.

"Hallo, Martin!" he cried, "I am delighted to see you, my boy. I've been
a little out of sorts lately; but I would not let Johanna send for your
father. He does very well to go dawdling after women, and playing with
their pulses, but I don't want him dawdling after me. Tell me what you
have to say about me, my lad."

He went on to tell me his symptoms, while a sudden idea struck me almost
like a flash of genius.

I am nothing of a genius; but at that time new thoughts came into my
mind with wonderful rapidity. It was positively necessary that I should
run over to Sark this week--I had given my word to Miss Ollivier that I
would do so--but I dared not mention such a project at home. My mother
and Julia would be up in arms at the first syllable I uttered.

What if I could do two patients good at one stroke, kill two birds with
one stone? Captain Carey had a pretty little yacht lying idle in St.
Sampson's Harbor, and a day's cruising would do him all the good in the
world. Why should he not carry me over to Sark, when I could visit my
other patient, and nobody be made miserable by the trip?

"I will make you up some of your old medicine," I said, "but I strongly
recommend you to have a day out on the water; seven or eight hours at
any rate. If the weather keeps as fine as it is now, it will do you a
world of good."

"It is so dreary alone," he objected, "and Johanna would not care to go
out at this season, I know."

"If I could manage it," I said, deliberating, "I should be glad to have
a day with you."

"Ah! if you could do that!" he replied, eagerly.

"I'll see about it," I said. "Should you mind where you sailed to?"

"Not at all, not at all, my boy," he answered, "so that I get your
company. You shall be skipper, or helmsman, or both, if you like."

"Well, then," I replied, "you might take me over to the Havre Gosselin,
to see how my patient's broken arm is going on. It's a bore there being
no resident medical man there at this moment. The accident last autumn
was a great loss to the island."

"Ah! poor fellow!" said Captain Carey, "he was a sad loss to them. But
I'll take you over with pleasure, Martin; any day you fix