--that in such company it was
impossible for him to tire! but Rose was too much distressed by her
father's narrative to observe the compliment.

Still, in spite of his protest, there was something in our hero's manner
and look which belied his words; and when he returned to the coastguard
station that day, and was about to lie down for much-needed repose, his
friend and mate, David Bowers, was surprised to see him turn deadly
pale, stagger, and fall on his bed in a state of insensibility.

"Hallo! Jeff, what's wrong?" exclaimed Bowers, starting up, seizing his
friend's arm, and giving him a shake, for he was much puzzled. To see a
man knocked into a state of insensibility was nothing new or unfamiliar
to Bowers, but to see a powerful young fellow like Jeff go off in a
fainting fit like a woman was quite out of his experience.

Jeff, however, remained deaf to his mate's hallo! and when at last a
doctor was fetched, it was found that he had been seriously injured;
insomuch that the medical man stood amazed when he heard how he had
walked several miles and sat up for several hours after his exertions
and accident at the wreck. That medical man, you see, happened to be an
old bachelor, and probably did not know what love can accomplish!

"I very much fear," he said to Captain Millet, after inspecting his
patient, "that the poor fellow has received some bad internal injuries.
The mast, or whatever it was, must have struck him a tremendous blow,
for his side is severely bruised, and two of his ribs are broken."

"Pretty tough ribs to break, too," remarked the captain, with a look of
profound distress.

"You are right," returned the doctor; "remarkably tough, but not quite
fitted to withstand such a powerful battering-ram as the mainmast of a
six-hundred-ton barque."

"Now, doctor, what's to be done with him? You see, the poor young
fellow is not only my friend, but he has saved my life, so I feel bound
to look well after him; and this isn't quite the sort o' place to be ill
in," he added, looking round the somewhat bare apartment, whose walls
were adorned with carbines and cutlasses.

"The wisest thing for him to do is to go into hospital, where he will
receive the best of medical treatment and careful nursing."

"Wouldn't the nursing of an old lady that loves him like a mother, and a
comfortable cottage, do as well?"

"No doubt it would," said the doctor, with a smile, "if he also had
proper medical attendance