"Do you know the name of the house where you lived, my hearty?" asked the
man, with beaming face; but Rupert shook his head impatiently, and went
chattering on about how his future domain was to be arranged.
"You can come sometimes in your big boat and see us, man," he remarked,
"and I'll show you how to sail it in our sea, for I don't expect you'll
know how to do it properly. I shall have a boat of my very own then: my
papa will give me one. And when I'm not a soldier I shall be a sailor, and
I'll teach you how to be one too."
"Thank you, my little man, I'll be sure and come and learn of you," and
the child looked a little offended at the general laugh from the rest.
"You needn't bring those men with you another time," he said, "I don't
fink they understand fings properly."
At that moment the young surgeon reappeared with Eileen in his wake. She
looked grave and sorrowful, and went to the fire to take off the soup she
was preparing, whilst the men glanced up at the doctor, and asked what he
thought of his patient.
"We heard him groaning a good bit at first, and Jim isn't one to cry out
for naught," said Rupert's friend; "I'm afraid he's a good bit hurt. What
do you make of him, sir? Can he be taken ashore?"
"No, he must stay where he is. He could not stand any sort of move yet. He
has been badly hurt, and there is a great deal of inflammation about him.
He will be easier now that I have bandaged him up right, and his lungs
will have a chance of healing; but he has been left much too long without
medical aid. If I could have seen him at once, things would have been much
better. However, we will hope for the best. Any way, the worst of the pain
is over now, unless the inflammation spreads."
"Have you hurted my Jim?" asked Rupert, doubling his little fists and
bristling up like a young turkey-cock. "If you have, I'll frash you. I
won't have my Jim hurted. He came into the water after me. Now I'm taking
care of him. You didn't ought to have gone and seen him without my leave!"
and he strode up to the doctor as though he meant to inflict condign
punishment upon him forthwith.
But the young man understood children, and soon made friends with the
young autocrat, now ruling Lone Rock with a rod of iron. He soon got him
to talk of himself, and called up many reminiscences of his past life,
all of which he carefully noted. From his own better knowledge of the
way in which gently-born children lived, he succeeded in eliciting more
information from the boy than any of his other new friends had done.
When the little fellow grew tired of talking at last, and went out with
Pat to play, the young man made some notes in his pocket book, and turning
to Eileen, said--
"Are you anxious to be rid of your young charge? I will take him home to
my mother if you like. I am sure she would give him shelter for a time,
till he can be traced. Is he not rather a burden to you here?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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