“No, and pray do not send for him. Leave him to attend to the poor fellows who need him more than I do.” “I insist upon sending for him. All our badly injured men have been looked to. And now that I see your hurt is not the trifle you would make it out to be. Here, Jones, go down to the cockpit and desire the surgeon to come up at once. Men, to your duties!” The messenger went on his errand. The seamen dispersed at the order. And soon the good doctor came. “Ah! Mr. Rosenthal wounded? I thought it hardly possible for you to have escaped, if all were true that I had heard of you. Not badly hurt, I hope? Let me see! This fellow had struck at you from behind, and with a dagger, too. May Satan fly away with the cowardly assassin! If he can be identified, he ought to be hanged!” “Never mind him now! I don’t care to have him identified. And I don’t think the wound severe.” “No, it is not severe! A few days’ rest and regimen will set you all right.” The doctor soon closed the wound, and then told Justin to lean on his arm while he led him to his stateroom. But Justin asked the doctor first to send down to the cabin, and get the women out upon some pretence, as he did not wish to distress Miss Conyers with needless fears. “Miss Conyers! Why, bless you, my dear fellow, I left Miss Conyers in the cockpit, hovering like an angel of mercy over the poor wounded sailors there, ministering to their wants, alleviating their sufferings and bringing smiles to faces that before her coming had been wrung with anguish! She is a lovely woman,” said the doctor. “Heaven knows she is,” responded Justin. The doctor now supported his patient to the stateroom, laid him in the berth, and after a few moments left him in a refreshing sleep. CHAPTER XXXVIII. EXPIATION. Among the killed on board the _Xyphias_ was Captain Spear. Whether it had been owing to his long enforced abstinence from his bane, strong drink, or to the long hours of solitude giving him ample time for reflection on the desert island, or to earlier and holier associations revived, or to all these influences combined, I do not know; but it is certain that a gradual change for the better had been stealing over this man for some time before the sea fight. Up to the day of the engagement he had had the freedom of the ship. On that day, however, in the beginning of the action, Captain Yetsom, meeting him on deck, had said: “I know how hard it is for a brave man to be cooped up in his quarters while a battle is going on; but prudential considerations oblige me to send you to yours. Were you at large here, unforeseen accidents might place it in your power to do us much injury.”