en be praised!" cried Colonel Vereker. "He's sleeping again, now!"

"Faith, an' a good job, too, for him, poor crayture," said Garry. "He's
in a bad way, I till you, sor! an' he'd betther die aisy whin he's about
it, sure, than kickin' up a row that won't help him."

"What!" returned the colonel. "Do you think he's going to die?"

"Begorrah, all the docthers in the worrld wouldn't save him!"

"My poor friend, my poor friend!" cried the colonel. "I will stay with
him then, to the end, so as to soothe his last moments!"

There was evidently a struggle going on in Colonel Vereker's mind
between his desire to do his duty, as he thought, to the dying man, and
his natural anxiety to be on deck participating in all the excitement of
the chase after the runaway ship and the coming fight with the Haytians,
when the black rascals would be called to a final account for all the
misery and bloodshed they had caused.

Garry O'Neil saw this, and pooh-poohed the idea of the colonel remaining
below.

"Faith, there ain't the laste bit of good, sor, in yer stoppin' down
here at all, at all," said he in his brisk, energetic way. "The poor
chap won't be afther stirrin' ag'in for the next two hours or more; an'
if he does, bedad, he won't ricognise ye, or any one ilse for that
matther!"

"But, sir doctor--"

"Houly Moses! I till you, colonel, there ain't no use in your stoppin'
another minnit!" impatiently cried the good-natured Irishman,
interrupting his half-hearted expostulator. "Jist you clear out of this
at once, an' go on deck an' say the foightin' with those murtherin'
bleyguards. I'll moind my paychant now till that old thaife Weston's
finished all the schraps lift in the plates an' bottles from lunch; an'
thin, faith, he shall take charge of him an' I'll come up too, to say
the foon. Now, be off wid ye, colonel, dear; you'll say the poor chap
ag'in afther the rumpus is over. Dick Haldane, me darlint, hind the
colonel the loan of yer arrum, alannah. There, now off ye both go.
Away wid ye!"

So saying, he fairly pushed us out of the cabin; and, the colonel
limping by my side and using my shoulder as a crutch, as he had
previously done, we both went up the companion-ladder, and gained the
poop.

The scene here presented a striking contrast to that we had just left,
the fresh air, bright sun, and sparkling sea all speaking of life and
movement, in exchange for the stuffy atmosphere of the darkened saloon
and its