k nodded. "Yes, poor chap," he whispered. "No chance of his
weathering it. Ripped open by one of those broad-bladed spears. Can't
possibly recover. Well, I must go and look after my other patients; I'm
acting surgeon's mate, you know."

"Surgeon's mate!" I ejaculated. "Why, you surely don't mean to say
that Murdoch has been bowled over, too, do you?"

"No; not so bad as that," answered Jack. "He's away with the rest in
the boats. The skipper's gone to pay a return visit to those fellows
who beat up our quarters last night. And now I really must be off, you
know. Go to sleep, if you can; it will do you all the good in the
world."

Go to sleep! Yes, it was excellent advice, but I did not seem able to
follow it just then; the throbbing and aching of my arm and the racking
pain of my sore head were altogether against it, to say nothing of the
continuous groaning and moaning of the injured men round about me, and
the occasional sharp ejaculations of agony extorted from the unfortunate
individual who happened at the moment to be under the surgeon's hands.
So, instead, I looked about me and endeavoured to form some idea of the
extent of our casualties during the past night. Judging from what I
saw, they must have been pretty heavy, for I counted twenty-three
wounded, including myself, and I realised that there might be others
elsewhere, for the tent in which we lay was full; there did not seem to
be room enough for another patient in it without undue crowding. And
even supposing that we comprised the sum total of the wounded, there
must have been a large proportion of dead in so desperate an affair as
that of the past night. I estimated that in so obstinately contested a
fight as that in which we had all sustained our injuries, and against
such tremendous odds as those which were opposed to us, there must have
been at least half as many dead as wounded, which would make our
casualties up to thirty-five; a very heavy percentage out of a crew
that, owing to various causes, was already, before this fresh
misfortune, growing short-handed. When to these came to be added the
casualties sustained on the preceding day in the attack upon the
barracoon, it seemed to me that our new captain would have little more
than a mere handful of men available for service on this fresh
expedition upon which he had embarked--for I did not suppose that he had
gone off taking with him every sound man and leaving the camp and the
wou