a few weeks."

"Won't he have an awful scar?"

"There'll be a bit of a scar. But he won't have any more scars than you,
at that, my boy."

"Are my feet going to take a long time to heal, Doctor?"

"I'm afraid it'll be quite a while before they feel all right. We'll
have you up and around before examinations, however, just the same.
That's more than I can say for my other patient, though. He's badly
burned."

"Have you found out who he was?" queried Eric.

"Certainly. He's the chief engineer of the craft, or, to speak more
rightly, he was the chief engineer."

"How do you suppose he got left behind?"

"That's quite a story," the surgeon answered, as he tore off a piece of
bandage. "He's too sick to do much talking, but it seems that when the
fire was reported beyond control he sent all hands on deck out of the
engine room, remaining behind himself to look after the pump-engines.
The passengers and crew immediately took to the boats. When he tried to
get up on deck a few minutes later he found that he was cut off. He had
to get a crowbar and wrench his way through an iron grating, before he
could get to the open air.

"In the meantime, every one supposed that he was in one or other of the
boats, and they had pushed off, leaving him marooned. For an hour or
more the flames smoldered, and the deck was quite bearable. He tried to
gather materials for a raft, but almost everything on the ship was iron.
The cabin fittings were wood, but he couldn't find an ax, the sockets
where the axes were usually kept being empty.

"Then he remembered that the wireless instruments were clamped on to a
wooden bench and he went into the deck-house to try to tear that apart.
The door slammed as he went in, and while he was yanking at the bench
the ship buckled and the pressure jammed the door, making him a
prisoner. He seems to remember very little after that, but he must have
tried hard to get out, for he broke his arm in some way."

"How about the wireless messages?"

"He says the operator had jotted down the original message he had sent,
and he tried to repeat it as best he could. Of course all that last
stuff no one could understand was sent when he was semi-conscious."

Eric winced as the other touched his shoulder.

"Get ready now," the surgeon said, "I'm going to snap that bone back
into place. Ready?"

"Go ahead," the boy answered through set teeth.

The surgeon gave a quick sharp twist and there was a click as the