"Reg'lar wusser," said another voice, which I knew to be Blane's.

"Look sharp there, my lads," cried Jarette, from somewhere overhead,
which must have been the poop-deck. "That one dead?"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"You're a liar, Barney Blane."

"If he's dead, pitch him overboard."

"But he arn't dead, captain," growled Bob Hampton. "There's stuff
enough in him to make a full-sized sailor yet, and he's far too good to
be chucked over to the sharkses."

"But Barney Blane said he was dead."

"Don't you take no notice o' what Barney Blane says, skipper," cried
Dumlow. "He dunno chalk from cheese best o' times, and I know he can't
tell a dead man from mutton."

"Hear, hear, mate!" cried Bob Hampton. "Haw, haw, haw; we'll chuck the
boy overboard if you like, capt'n; but there's a kick in one of his hind
legs, an' I see him wink and waggle one ear."

"Let him lie there a bit till I come round," cried Jarette. "You go on
and clear that cabin."

"Ay, ay," cried the three men who were near. "Come on, lads. Here,
Barney, go and get that there pannikin o' water from the breaker, and
pour some in the boy's mouth. What yer go and say he were dead for?"

"Well, mate, I thought as he were. He had enough to ha' killed a man,
let alone a boy."

"You look sharp, and we'll pull him and the doctor through, see if we
don't. I don't think no bones is broke. Them chesties sheltered 'em."

Then I felt water being trickled into my mouth and some poured over my
forehead, while, though I could neither move nor speak, I heard
Jarette's voice giving orders apparently ever so far away.

"Look sharp, lads," said Bob Hampton, "or Frog-soup 'll be back and
bully us."

"Must give the jollop purser a drop more," said Dumlow. "Here, he arn't
dead neither; takes the water down as free as if it were grog. They'll
come right agen, won't they?"

"Ay, to be sure," said Bob Hampton. "Now then, heave ahead afore he
comes. Rum games these here, messmets."

"Rum arn't the right word," said Dumlow, and then all was perfectly
still again, and I lay there wondering what was the matter, and why I
couldn't think as I should, and make out why I was lying there on my
back in the hot sun listening to a low moaning sound, and some one close
to my ear talking in a muttering tone.

Then there was silence again for I don't know how long: before there was
another low moan, and the voice close by me muttered--

"Oh, for more strength--could have s