King o' the Beach Part 6

"Yes, yes, but--"

"Oh, doctor," cried the boy, in a voice full of excitement, "don't say I broke my new double gla.s.s!"

"My dear lad," cried the doctor, smiling; "I don't know."

"Doctor!"

"But if you have I'll buy you another."

"So I fell from up aloft?"

"Here you are, sir," came in a hoa.r.s.e voice; "got at the tank quite easy, and I found a sound gla.s.s."

Then the st.u.r.dy fellow gave a frisk after the fas.h.i.+on of an ancient goat.

"Hooroar!" he cried; "Jack's alive O! I knew he wouldn't die a bit!"

"Hus.h.!.+ Silence, man!" cried the doctor. "Mind! you're spilling the water."

"So I am," said the old sailor, gruffly, and he began to pour out a gla.s.sful from the tin he held in one hand, raising the other so as to make the clear, cool liquid sparkle in bubbles as if he meant to give it a head.

"Ha!" sighed Carey, smiling. "Quick! I am so thirsty."

He was about to try and rise, but the doctor checked him.

"Don't do that," he said. "I'll raise you up, pillow and all, and Bostock shall hold it to your lips. No, stop.--Is the vessel much broken up, my man?"

"Not a bit, sir, but I expect she's got holes in her bottom."

"I won't be a minute, Carey, lad. I'm going to my surgery. Don't move."

He hurried out, leaving Bostock standing with the gla.s.s and tin of water, breathing hard and staring down at the injured boy.

"Here, Bob," said Carey, faintly. "What's the matter?"

"You lie still and wait till the doctor comes back, my lad," said the old fellow, gruffly.

"I am lying still," said Carey, peevishly. "Tell me directly; what's the matter?"

"Why, you said you knowed. I heard yer. You said you fell from up aloft."

"Yes, yes," cried Carey; "but the doctor asked you if the s.h.i.+p was much broken up."

"Did he, sir?"

"You know he did, and you said she had got some holes in her bottom."

"Did I, sir?"

"Yes, yes, of course you did," cried Carey, impatiently.

"Well, it's a rum un, then, sir."

"Now, no nonsense; tell me, surely. Oh, I don't understand!" sighed the boy, wearily.

"Here we are, my boy," said the doctor, entering with a piece of gla.s.s tube bent at right angles. "Give me the gla.s.s, Bostock."

"Gla.s.s it is, sir," growled the man, and the doctor inserted one end of the gla.s.s syphon in the water and the other between his patient's lips, so that he could drink without being raised.

Carey half, closed his eyes, and his countenance bespoke his intense enjoyment, as the cool, pleasant water trickled slowly down his dry throat till the gla.s.s was emptied, and the old sailor raised the tin he held.

"'Nother go, sir?" he asked.

"Yes," said Carey.

"No," said the doctor; "not yet."

"Ha!" sighed Carey; "but that was good. I say, doctor, I am broken somewhere, am I not?"

"Yes."

"'Tisn't my neck, is it?"

"Hor! hor! hor!" chuckled the old sailor.

"Well, it feels like it," said Carey, pettishly.

"Perhaps I hardly ought to tell you now," said the doctor, gravely.

"Then it is," cried Carey, excitedly.

"No, no, no. Nonsense. You have fractured a bone, but it is not a serious matter, my dear fellow. It is the collar-bone, but if you are quiet it will soon knit together again."

"How queer. But I've hurt my head too."

"Yes, a good deal; but that will soon come right."

"Not cracked it, have I, doctor?"

"Decidedly not."

"Ha!" sighed the boy. "That's a good job. That comes of having a good thick head, Bob. I remember slipping, but no more. I say, didn't I come down an awful whop?"

"You lie still and don't talk, my boy," said the doctor, quietly.

"Yes, directly; but tell me about the s.h.i.+p. Why aren't we going on? I can't hear the throbbing of the engine."

"Nay, my lad," said the old sailor, shaking his head; "never no more."