d him to speak to his shipmates while
Harry and I were out of the way, and not to say that we entertained the
idea, but simply to state his belief that we would accompany them if
they made up their minds to run off from the slave village. Before
doing anything, I was very anxious to see Tubbs; but he was so busily
employed on board that he could not manage to come on shore. It was
very probable, I thought, that the captain would not give him leave, and
that he must come at night if he came at all. I thought again of all
sorts of excuses for visiting the ship, although I feared, if I did so,
that I might be detained on board. Several days passed; the "Vulture"
was ready for sea, but a sufficient number of slaves to form her cargo
had not yet arrived; others, however, were coming in, sometimes twenty
or thirty at a time. It would not take more than a couple of hours to
stow them all away on board. Although by this time all the wounded men
had recovered, they pretended to be too weak to get out of their cots.
Once or twice the captain looked in to see how they were getting on,
when they all groaned and spoke in feeble tones, as if they were very
little better.

"I can't say much for your doctoring, young sirs," he observed, turning
to Harry and me. "I believe if you had left the men alone they would
have got well of themselves. I never have had a surgeon on board my
ship, and never intend to have one. Nature is the best surgeon, and if
she can't cure a man he must die."

"I don't know what you would say if you were wounded, captain, and there
was no one to extract the ball," observed Harry.

"I should have to take my chance with the rest," answered the captain in
a tone which showed, however, that he did not like the remark. "But,
whether cured or not, these fellows must come on board and try and do
their duty," he exclaimed as he left the house.

"I must get some stronger medicines then," I said, the thought suddenly
striking me that this would be the best excuse for visiting the ship;
for although the captain spoke in the way he did, he had a
medicine-chest on board well stored with drugs, with a book of
directions for their use.

"I thought that you before took enough physic on shore to cure a dozen
fellows," he remarked.

"And so I did, sir, but I remember seeing on the last visit a mixture,
the name of which I forget, for restoring strength to people who have
been brought down, and that's just what th