"Your wife sent me," said the tall man briskly. "My name"s Thompson-Dr.
Thompson. She says you"ve got a case of small-pox on board which she wants me to see."
"We"ve got a doctor," said the skipper and mate together.
"So your wife said, but she wished me particularly to see the case,"
said Dr. Thompson. "It"s also my duty as the medical officer of the port."
"You"ve done it, George, you"ve done it," moaned the panic-stricken skipper reproachfully.
"Well, anybody can make a mistake," whispered the mate" back; "an" he can"t touch us, as it ain"t small-pox. Let him come, and we"ll lay it on to the cook. Say he made a mistake."
"That"s the ticket," said the skipper, and turned to a.s.sist the doctor to the deck as the mate hurried below to persuade the indignant boy to strip and go to bed.
In the midst of a breathless silence the doctor examined the patient; then, to the surprise of all, he turned to the crew and examined them one after the other.
"How long has this boy been ill?" he demanded.
"About four days," said the puzzled skipper.
"You see what comes of trying to hush this kind of thing up," said the doctor sternly. "You keep the patient down here instead of having him taken away and the ship disinfected, and now all these other poor fellows have got it."
"What?" screamed the skipper, as the crew broke into profane expressions of astonishment and self-pity. "Got what?"
"Why, the small-pox," said the doctor. "Got it in its worst form too.
Suppressed. There"s not one of them got a mark on him. It"s all inside."
"Well, I"m d.a.m.ned," said the skipper, as the crew groaned despairingly.
"What else did you expect?" inquired the doctor wrathfully. "Well, they can"t be moved now; they must all go to bed, and you and the mate must nurse them."
"And s"pose we catch it?" said the mate feelingly.
"You must take your chance," said the doctor; then he relented a little.
"I"ll try to send a couple of nurses down this afternoon," he added. "In the meantime you must do what you can for them."
"Very good sir," said the skipper brokenly.
"All you can do at present," said the doctor, as he slowly mounted the steps, "is to sponge them all over with cold water. Do it every half-hour till the rash comes out."
"Very good," said the skipper again. "But you"ll hurry up with the nurses, sir!"
He stood in a state of bewilderment until the doctor was out of sight, and then, with a heavy sigh, took his coat off and set to work.
He and the mate, after warning off the men who had come down to work, spent all the morning in sponging their crew, waiting with an impatience born of fatigue for the rash to come out. This impatience was shared by the crew, the state of mind of the cook after the fifth sponging calling for severe rebuke on the part of the skipper.
"I wish the nurses "ud come, George," he said, as they sat on the deck panting after their exertions; "this is a pretty mess if you like."
"Seems like a judgment," said the mate wearily.
"Halloa, there," came a voice from the quay.
Both men turned and looked up at the speaker.
"Halloa," said the skipper dully.
"What"s all this about small-pox?" demanded the new-comer abruptly.
The skipper waved his hand languidly towards the forecastle.
"Five of "em down with it," he said quietly. "Are you another doctor, sir?"
Without troubling to reply, their visitor jumped on board and went nimbly below, followed by the other two.
"Stand out of the light," he said brusquely. "Now, my lads, let"s have a look at you."
He examined them in a state of bewilderment, grunting strangely as the washed-out men submitted to his scrutiny.
"They"ve had the best of cold sponging," said the skipper, not without a little pride.
"Best of what?" demanded the other.
The skipper told him, drawing back indignantly as the doctor suddenly sat down and burst into a hoa.r.s.e roar of laughter. The unfeeling noise grated harshly on the sensitive ears of the sick men, and Joe Burrows, raising himself in his bunk, made a feeble attempt to hit him.
"You"ve been sold," said the doctor, wiping his eyes.
"I don"t take your meaning," said the skipper with dignity.
"Somebody"s been having a joke with you," said the doctor. "Get up, you fools; you"ve got about as much small-pox as I have."
"Do you mean to tell me-" began the skipper.
"Somebody"s been having a joke with you, I tell you," repeated the doctor, as the men, with sundry oaths, half of relief, half of dudgeon, got out of bed and began groping for their clothes. "Who is it, do you think?"
The skipper shook his head, and the mate, following his lead, in duty bound, shook his; but a little while after, as they sat by the wheel smoking and waiting for the men to return to work the cargo out, they were more confidential. The skipper removed his pipe from his mouth, and, having eyed the mate for some time in silence, jerked his thumb in the direction of the railway station. The mate, with a woe-begone nod, a.s.sented.
THE CABIN Pa.s.sENGER
The captain of the Fearless came on to the wharf in a manner more suggestive of deer-stalking than that of a prosaic shipmaster returning to his craft. He dodged round an empty van, lurked behind an empty barrel, flitted from that to a post, and finally from the interior of a steam crane peeped melodramatically on to the deck of his craft.
To the ordinary observer there was no cause for alarm. The decks were a bit slippery but not dangerous except to a novice; the hatches were on, and in the lighted galley the cook might be discovered moving about in a manner indicative of quiet security and an untroubled conscience.
With a last glance behind him the skipper descended from the crane and stepped lightly aboard.