"But you can tell me your candid opinion about my brother's wound," said Brace. "Well," replied the captain, "I'll go so far as to say that if I'd got that hole through my arm I should be very savage, I should make use of some language, and I should say I'd shoot every Indian I saw with a bow and arrows, and of course I shouldn't do it; but I don't think I should make myself uncomfortable about it any more, but just leave it to Nature to cure." "You think that he will recover, then?" said Brace eagerly. "I do," said the captain. "What have you got to say about it, mister?" He turned to the American as he spoke, and Briscoe, who had been keenly watching the half-insensible patient all the time Brace and the captain had been speaking, rose up slowly. "I'm not a doctor, skipper," he said, "and the only experience I have had in this way has been with rattlesnake bites." "Well, that's near enough for me, sir," said the captain tartly. "I should say that the difference between the symptoms of a wound from a poisoned arrow and one caused by a poisoned tooth wouldn't be very great." "Perhaps not," said Briscoe thoughtfully. "Well, I don't quite like this drowsiness that has come over our patient; it's 'most as if he had been given a dose of opium to soothe the pain. It is the only bad symptom I see." "Don't say you're no doctor, sir," said Captain Banes, with a low chuckle, "because it seems to me that you are." "Why do you think so?" said Briscoe, looking at him wonderingly. "Because you've put your finger down on the exact spot directly." "I do not understand you." "Why, I mean this. What did I do, squire, when you and I were alone in the cabin when we first brought your brother aboard?" "You gave him a part of a glass of water with some laudanum in it." "To be sure I did, to calm down the pain; and that was what I call laudanum and Mr Briscoe here calls opium." "Then I agree with you, Captain Banes, that there are no bad symptoms at present," said Briscoe quickly. "Let us leave him to sleep off the effect of what you have given him, and see how he looks when he wakes up." "Eh? What is it, Dellow?" said the captain sharply, for the first mate appeared at the door of the cabin. "We want to know what's to be done," said the mate. "What about?" asked the captain. "What's the matter?" "Three arrows have come aboard since you came down." "Were you able to see who shot them?" said the captain. "No." "Is there any wind?" "Not enough to fill a sail," was the mate's response. "Humph! and it's no use to drop down lower, because I expect the Indians have canoes. Keep the men all under cover of the bulwarks, and you and Lynton can take a couple of rifles and amuse yourselves shooting any wild beasts you see on the starboard bow. But mind you all keep well under cover. You understand?"