The bleeding had pretty well stopped, and would, I felt sure, quite stop
in a few minutes, so perhaps I should not be acting wisely if I
disturbed the injury then, for it might be better if I tried to bring
him to his senses, and then he would advise me what to do, and how to do
it.
I believe I was in great pain then, but I forgot it for the moment as I
looked round and I saw that there was water there, and sponges and
towels were close at hand, so without farther hesitation I poured out
some of the water into a little basin, and taking a sponge, well bathed
his face, after opening the window, for the cabin was suffocating.
I bathed and bathed, and changed the water so as to get it a little
cooler, though the rapid evaporation helped me most, and at last, to my
great delight, his eyelids began to quiver, and finally he lay there
staring at me wildly, and with his face terribly white.
"Mr Frewen, do you know me?" I said.
"Know you?--know you? Yes, of course," he said hoarsely. "What is the
matter?--what has happened?" and his hand went to the back of his head.
"You were hurt when the powder went off," I said, watching his face
eagerly. "Don't you remember?"
"Yes," he cried eagerly. "I threw myself back over the barricade with
you."
"And the door and all the boxes and chests were blown in and buried us,
I think."
"Was--was any one killed?" he said huskily.
"I don't know; I think not," I replied.
"But don't you know, boy?" he cried angrily.
"No; I was hurt by the chests the same as you were, and don't know what
happened. It was all like being in a dream till a little while ago."
"Then you know nothing?" he said excitedly.
"I only have a sort of misty recollection of lying there after the
explosion, till I was carried out on deck and laid in the sun."
Then I told him all about being like in a nightmare, and hearing them
talk of throwing us both overboard, only Bob Hampton said we were alive.
"The scoundrel!" he said bitterly.
"Well, I thought it very jolly of him then," I said, "for if it had not
been for him we should have--"