Under the influence of favouring breezes and bright skies the _Walrus_
swept gaily over the ocean at the beginning of her voyage, with
"stuns'ls slow and aloft, royals and sky-scrapers," according to Captain
Stride. At least, if these were not the exact words he used, they
express pretty well what he meant, namely, a "cloud of canvas."
But this felicitous state of things did not last. The tropics were
reached, where calms prevailed with roasting heat. The Southern
Atlantic was gained, and gales were met with. The celebrated Cape was
doubled, and the gales, if we may say so, were trebled. The Indian
Ocean was crossed, and the China Seas were entered, where typhoons blew
some of the sails to ribbons, and snapped off the topmasts like
pipe-stems. Then she sailed into the great Pacific, and for a time the
_Walrus_ sported pleasantly among the coral islands.
During all this time, and amid all these changes, Charlie Brooke, true
to his character, was the busiest and most active man on board. Not
that his own special duties gave him much to do, for, until the vessel
should reach port, these were rather light; but our hero--as Stride
expressed it--"must always be doing." If he had not work to do he made
it--chiefly in the way of assisting other people. Indeed there was
scarcely a man or boy on board who did not have the burden of his toil,
whatever it was, lightened in consequence of young Brooke's tendency to
put his powerful shoulder voluntarily to the wheel. He took the daily
observations with the captain, and worked out the ship's course during
the previous twenty-four hours. He handled the adze and saw with the
carpenter, learned to knot and splice, and to sew canvas with the
bo's'n's mate, commented learnedly and interestingly on the preparation
of food with the cook, and spun yarns with the men on the forecastle, or
listened to the long-winded stories of the captain and officers in the
cabin. He was a splendid listener, being much more anxious to ascertain
exactly the opinions of his friends and mates than to advance his own.
Of course it followed that Charlie was a favourite.
With his insatiable desire to acquire information of every kind, he had
naturally, when at home, learned a little rough-and-tumble surgery, with
a slight smattering of medicine. It was not much, but it proved to be
useful as far as it went, and his "little knowledge" was not
"dangerous," because he modestly refused to go a single step beyond it
in the way of practice, unless, indeed, he was urgently pressed to do so
by his patients. In virtue of his attainments, real and supposed, he
came to be recognised as the doctor of the ship, for the _Walrus_
carried no medical man.
"Look here, Brooke," said the only passenger on board--a youth of
somewhat delicate constitution, who was making the voyage for the sake
of his health,--"I've got horrible toothache. D'you think you can do
anything for me?"
"Let's have a look at it," said Charlie, with kindly interest, though he
felt half inclined to smile at the intensely lugubrious expression of
the youth's face.
"Why, Raywood, that is indeed a bad tooth; nothing that I know of will
improve it. There's a cavern in it big and black enough to call to
remembrance the Black Hole of Calcutta! A red-hot wire might destroy
the nerve, but I never saw one used, and should not like to try it."
"Horrible!" exclaimed Raywood. "I've been mad with pain all the
morning, and can't afford to be driven madder. Perhaps, somewhere or
other in the ship there may be a--a--thingumy."
"A whatumy?" inquired the other.
"A key, or--or--pincers," groaned Raywood, "for extracting--oh! man,
couldn't you pull it out?"
"Easily," said Charlie, with a smile. "I've got a pair of forceps--
always carry them in case of need, but never use them unless the patient
is very bad, and _must_ have it out."
Poor Raywood protested, with another groan, that his was a case in
point, and it _must_ come out; so Charlie sought for and found his
forceps.
"It won't take long, I suppose?" said the patient rather nervously, as
he opened his mouth.
"Oh no. Only a moment or--"
A fearful yell, followed by a gasp, announced to the whole ship's
company that a crisis of some sort had been passed by some one, and the
expert though amateur dentist congratulated his patient on his
deliverance from the enemy.
Only three of the ship's company, however, had witnessed the operation.
One was Dick Darvall, the seaman who chanced to be steering at the time,
and who could see through the open skylight what was being enacted in
the cabin. Another was the captain, who stood beside him. The third
was the cabin-boy, Will Ward, who chanced to be cleaning some brasses
about the skylight at the time, and was transfixed by what we may style
delightfully horrible sensations. These three watched the proceedings
with profound interest, some sympathy, and not a little amusement.
"Mind your helm, Darvall," said the Captain, stifling a laugh as the
yell referred to burst on his ears.
"Ay, ay, sir," responded the seaman, bringing his mind back to his duty,
as he bestowed a wink on the brass-polishing cabin-boy.
"He's up to everything," said Darvall in a low voice, referring to our
hero.
"From pitch-and-toss to manslaughter," responded the boy, with a broad
grin.
"I do believe, Mr Brooke, that you can turn your hand to anything,"
said Captain Stride, as Charlie came on deck a few minutes later. "Did
you ever study doctoring or surgery?"
"Not regularly," answered Charlie; "but occasionally I've had the chance
of visiting hospitals and dissecting-rooms, besides hearing lectures on
anatomy, and I have taken advantage of my opportunities. Besides, I'm
fond of mechanics; and tooth-drawing is somewhat mechanical. Of course
I make no pretension to a knowledge of regular dentistry, which
involves, I believe, a scientific and prolonged education."
"May be so, Mr Brooke," returned the captain, "but your knowledge seems
deep and extensive enough to me, for, except in the matter o'
navigation, I haven't myself had much schoolin', but I do like to see a
fellow that can use his hands. As I said to my missus, not two days
before I left 'er: `Maggie,' says I, `a man that can't turn his hands to
anything ain't worth his salt. For why? He's useless at sea, an', by
consequence, can't be of much value on land.'"
"Your reasoning is unanswerable," returned Charlie, with a laugh.
"Not so sure o' that," rejoined the captain, with a modestly dubious
shake of his head; "leastwise, however unanswerable it may be, my missus
always manages to answer it--somehow."
At that moment one of the sailors came aft to relieve the
man-at-the-wheel.
Dick Darvall was a grave, tall, dark, and handsome man of about
five-and-twenty, with a huge black beard, as fine a seaman as one could
wish to see standing at a ship's helm, but he limped when he left his
post and went forward.
"How's the leg to-day, Darvall!" asked young Brooke, as the man passed.
"Better, sir, thankee."
"That's well. I'll change the dressing in half-an-hour. Don't disturb
it till I come."
"Thankee, sir, I won't."
"Now then, Raywood," said Charlie, descending to the cabin, where his
patient was already busy reading Maury's _Physical Geography of the
Sea_, "let's have a look at the gum."
"Oh, it's all right," said Raywood. "D'you know, I think one of the
uses of severe pain is to make one inexpressibly thankful for the mere
absence of it. Of course there is a little sensation of pain left,
which might make me growl at other times, but that positively feels
comfortable now by contrast!"
"There is profound sagacity in your observations," returned Charlie, as
he gave the gum a squeeze that for a moment or two removed the comfort;
"there, now, don't suck it, else you'll renew the bleeding. Keep your
mouth shut."
With this caution the amateur dentist left the cabin, and proceeded to
the fore-part of the vessel. In passing the steward's pantry a youthful
voice arrested him.
"Oh, please, sir," said Will Ward, the cabin-boy, advancing with a slate
in his hand, "I _can't_ make out the sum you set me yesterday, an' I'm
quite sure I've tried and tried as hard as ever I could to understand
it."
"Let me see," said his friend, taking the slate and sitting down on a
locker. "Have you read over the rule carefully?"
"Yes, sir, I have, a dozen times at least, but it won't come right,"
answered the boy, with wrinkles enough on his young brow to indicate the
very depths of puzzlement.
"Fetch the book, Will, and let's examine it."