"So I should judge, for my brain is rather muddled."
"Does your head pain you?" asked the medical gentleman, placing his hand on the injured part.
"It does not exactly pain me, but it feels rather sore. I think I will get up, and see how that affects me."
Somers got up, and immediately came to the conclusion that he was not very badly damaged; and the surgeon was happy to corroborate his opinion. With the exception of a soreness over the left temple, he felt pretty well. The blow from the iron fist of the burly seaman had stunned him; and the kicks received from the big boots of the a.s.sailant had produced sundry black and blue places on his body, which a man not accustomed to hard knocks might have looked upon with suspicion, but to which Somers paid no attention.
The surgeon had carefully examined him before his consciousness returned, and was fully satisfied that he had not been seriously injured. Somers walked across the room two or three times, and bathed his head with cold water, which in a great measure restored the consistency of his ideas. He felt a little sore, but he soon became as chipper and as cheerful as an early robin. His first thought was, that he had escaped being murdered, and he was devoutly thankful to G.o.d for the mercy which had again spared his life.
The doctor, after giving him some directions in regard to his head, and the black and blue spots on his body, left the room. He was a naval surgeon, a guest in the hotel, and promised to see his patient again in the morning.
"How do you feel, Somers?" asked Lieutenant Pillgrim, who sat on the bed, gazing with interest, not unmixed with anxiety, at his companion.
"I feel pretty well, considering the hard rap I got on the head."
"You have a hard head, Somers."
"Why so?"
"If you had not, you would have been a dead man. The fellow pounded you with his fist, which is about as heavy as an anvil, and kicked you with his boots, which are large enough and stout enough to make two very respectable gunboats."
"Things are rather mixed in my mind," added Somers, rubbing his head again, as if to explain how a strong-minded young man like himself should be troubled in his upper works.
"I am not surprised at that. You have remained insensible more than half an hour. I was afraid, before the surgeon saw you, that your pipe was out, and you had become a D.D. without taking orders."
"I think I had a narrow escape. What a tiger the fellow was that pitched into me!"
"It was all a mistake on his part."
"Perhaps it was; but that don"t make my head feel any better. Who is he, and what is he?"
"He is the captain of a coaster. He had considerable money in his pocket, and he thought you had concealed yourself in his room for the purpose of robbing him. When he saw that you were an officer in the navy, he was overwhelmed with confusion, and really felt very bad about it."
"I don"t know that I blame him for what he did, under the circ.u.mstances.
His conclusion was not a very unnatural one. I don"t exactly comprehend how I happen to be in the Continental House, after these stunning events."
"Don"t you?" said Pillgrim, with a smile.
"If I had been in condition to expect anything, I should naturally have expected to find myself, on coming to my senses, in the low groggery where I received the blows."
"That is very easily accounted for. I happened to be at the house when you were struck down. I was in the lower room, and heard the row. With others I went up to see what the matter was. I had a carriage in the street, and when I recognized you, the captain of the coaster, at my request, took you up in his arms like a baby, carried you down into the street, and put you into the vehicle, and you were brought here. I presume this will fill up the entire gap in your recollection."
"It is all as clear as mud now," laughed Somers. "Mr. Pillgrim, I am very grateful to you for the kind offices you rendered me."
"Don"t mention it, my dear fellow. I should have been worse than a brute if I had done any less than I did."
"That may be; but my grat.i.tude is none the less earnest on that account.
Those are villainous people in that house, and I might have been butchered and cut up, if I had been left there."
"I think not. The captain of the coaster is evidently an honest man; at any rate he is very sorry for what he did. But, Somers, my dear fellow,--you will pardon me if I seem impertinent,--how did you happen to be in such a place?" continued Mr. Pillgrim, with a certain affectation of slyness in his look, as though he had caught the exemplary young man in a house where he would not have been willing to be seen.
"How did _you_ happen to be there?" demanded Somers.
"I don"t profess to be a very proper person. I take my whiskey when I want it."
"So do I; and the only difference between us is, that I never happen to want it."
"I did not go into that house for my whiskey, though. It is rather strange that we should both happen into such a place at the same time."
"Rather strange."
"But I will tell you why I was there," added Pillgrim. "I received a letter from a wounded sailor, asking me to call upon him, and a.s.sist him in obtaining a pension."
"Did you, indeed!" exclaimed Somers, amazed at this explanation. "You have also told how I happened to be there."
"How was that?"
"I received just such a letter as that you describe," replied Somers, taking the dirty epistle from his pocket, which he opened and exhibited to his brother officer.
"The handwriting is the same, and the substance of both letters is essentially the same. That"s odd--isn"t it?" continued the lieutenant, as he drew the epistle he had received from his pocket. "I got mine when I came in, about ten o"clock; and thinking I might go to New York in the morning for a couple of days, I thought I would attend to the matter at once."
Somers took the letters, and compared them. They were written by the same person, on the same kind of paper, and were both mailed on the same day.
"This looks rather suspicious to me," added Pillgrim, reflecting on the circ.u.mstances.
"Why suspicious?"
"Why should both of us have been called? Tom Barron claims to have served with me, as he did with you. I don"t remember any such person."
"Neither do I."
"Did you find out whether there was any such person at the house as Tom Barron?"
"The woman at the bar told me there was a wounded sailor there whose description answered to that contained in the letter."
"So she told me. Did you see him?"
"No."
"I did not; and between you and me, I don"t believe there is any Tom Barron there, or anywhere else. This business must be investigated,"
said Pillgrim, very decidedly.
Somers did not wish it to be investigated. He was utterly opposed to an investigation, for he was fearful, if the matter should be "ventilated,"
that more would be shown than he was willing to have exhibited at the present time; in other words, Coles would find out that his enterprising scheme had been exposed to a third person.
"I don"t care to be mixed up in any revelations of low life, Mr.
Pillgrim; and, as I have lost nothing, and the hard knocks I received were given under a mistake, I think I would rather let the matter rest just where it is."
"Very natural for a young man of your style," laughed the lieutenant.