Steve Young Part 7

"I'm very, very sorry, Mr Hands...o...b..," whispered Steve, as the captain walked away. "I didn't mean to treat it lightly, only to look as if I were not a coward."

"Yes, yes, I understand, my lad," was the reply; "but it is a lesson to you. I wouldn't go through those moments again for a thousand pounds.

Why, Steve, my lad, I saw, as if in a flash, a funeral at sea, our trip at an end, and poor Captain Marsham going back feeling that he was to blame for your death."

"Oh, I say, Mr Hands...o...b.., don't talk like that!" whispered Steve.

"Was it really so bad?"

"Bad, sir! Why, what do you think you are made of--india-rubber? Did you suppose that you would drop on to the deck and bounce up again, to come down then on your feet and strike an att.i.tude like a clown in a pantomime? I haven't patience with you!"

"I'm very sorry, sir, really," said Steve again.

"Not half so sorry as we should have been," said the doctor testily.

"But there, I don't know; it would have been a good riddance. Boys are more bother than they are worth, especially consequential and conceited boys, like you are. Hullo! what are you putting your hand there for?

Not hurt?"

"I--I don't know," said Steve, pressing both hands to his side. "Yes, I do; it hurts horribly."

"But you didn't fall."

"No; Johannes struck me there, and gripped the flesh. Feels as if he had broken my ribs."

"How do you know, sir? You never had any ribs broken, did you?"

"No," replied Steve; "but it feels as one would suppose ribs would feel if they were broken."

"Bah! You don't know anything about it. That's why I called you conceited. Here, come down into the cabin."

He took Steve by the arm, and the boy winced.

"What! Something wrong there, too?"

"I don't know," said Steve in an altered tone. "I don't know anything, only that I'm so horribly conceited. If I did, I should say my shoulder was wrenched with the jerk."

"Come along," said the doctor, changing his tone. "There, my lad, I was a bit hard upon you; but you gave me a terrible fright, and I haven't got over it yet."

He led the way toward the cabin; but before they reached the companion hatch the captain came up, looking very stern. Then he, too, altered his manner.

"What is it?" he said anxiously. "Steve is not hurt?"

"Not much, I think. We're going down to see."

"I hope not," said the captain quickly; and his eyes met Steve's as, without another word, he quietly held out his hand.

It was a very simple action, but it meant a great deal; and as the lad felt the quiet, firm pressure given to his fingers, he grew more and more, as he had expressed himself, sorry for the pain he had so inadvertently caused.

"Now, then," said the doctor, as soon as he had closed the cabin door, "I ought to be very much obliged to you, Steve, for giving me something to keep my surgical lore from growing rusty."

"Oh, I say!" cried the boy, "don't talk like that, sir. There isn't much the matter, is there?"

"Not much the matter! Why, you talked about broken ribs. Don't you call that much the matter?"

"Oh, but--"

"Here, let's see, patient. Don't; I'll do that."

He pressed the boy back on to the locker, and then proceeded to make his examination, while Steve watched his face anxiously, trying to gather from the intent countenance whether he had sustained any serious injury.

"Hum! ha!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the doctor, as he went on manipulating the boy's chest, back, and ribs. "That hurt you?"

"Horribly, sir."

"And that?"

"Yes, sir; worse."

"Can't help it. Well, that?"

"Oh! that's worse of all, sir."

"Humph! Now then, take a good, long, deep breath."

Steve obeyed.

"Now another, deeper and longer. Draw the air well in after an outward breath, to empty the lungs. Hah! that's better. Well, there are no broken rib ends piercing the lungs."

"Oh no, I hope not!" cried Steve anxiously. "The ribs are broken, then?"

"Not they. All sound as mine are. There, that will do; get on your jacket."

Steve began, but the pain the act gave him turned him sick, and seeing this the doctor helped him.

"There must be something the matter, sir," he said, rather piteously, "or it wouldn't hurt like this."

"Hardly fair to call it anything the matter, my lad. Your shoulder has had a nasty wrench from the jerk with which you were brought up."

"But it hurts so much lower down."

"And no wonder. In two or three days your side there will be black and blue."

"And why--what should make it so, sir?"

"Johannes' great hand. Why, he must have gripped you there like a steel claw."

"Yes, he did. I felt it like that. He got hold of a lot of the flesh."

"Exactly; and a good thing, too. Better than letting you fall sixty to seventy feet."

"Much," said Steve dolefully.