"
"I'll have half a crown's worth," moaned the miserable mate.
"Mr. Mackenzie," said a faint voice from the skipper's cabin.
"Sir?" yelled the mate, who was in torment.
"Don't answer me like that, sir," said the skipper, sharply. "Will you
please to remember that I'm ill, and can't bear that horrible noise
you're making?"
"I'm--ill--too," gasped the mate.
"Ill? Nonsense!" said the skipper, severely. "We can't both be ill.
How about the ship?"
There was no reply, but from another cabin the voice of Mr. Rogers was
heard calling wildly for medical aid, and offering impossible sums in
exchange for it. The doctor went from cabin to cabin, and, first
collecting his fees, administered sundry potions to the sufferers; and
then, in his capacity of cook, went forward and made an unsavory mess he
called gruel, which he insisted upon their eating.
Thanks to his skill, the invalids were freed from the more violent of
their pains, but this freedom was followed by a weakness so alarming that
they could hardly raise their heads from their pillows--a state of things
which excited the intense envy of the third officer, who, owing to his
responsibilities, might just as well have been without one.
In this state of weakness, and with the fear of impending dissolution
before his eyes, the skipper sent for Mr.
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