"Guess they didn't," answered the man, giving a stroke or two, and looking as if he found it pleasant to tell his story to so winsome a listener. "Just as they were at their wit's end what to do with me, we come upon a young surgeon, lurking there to watch the fight or to hide,--don't know which. There he was any way, looking scared half to death. Tom Hunt, my mate, made him stop and look at me. My leg was smashed, and ought to come off right away, he said. 'Do it, then!' says Tom. He was one of your rough-and-readys, Tom was; but at heart as kind as a--well, as a woman." And the boatman gave a smile and a nod at the one opposite him. "Thanks; but do tell on. It is so interesting." And Rose let all her flowers stray down into the bottom of the boat, as she clasped her hands and leaned forward to listen. "Don't know as I'd better tell this part. It ain't pleasant," began the man. "You must. I want it all. Dreadful things do me good, and other people's sufferings teach me how to bear my own," said Rose, in her imperious way. "You don't look as if you ought to have any." And the man's eyes rested on the delicate face opposite, full of a pleasant blending of admiration, pity, and protection. "I have; but not like yours. Go on, please." "Well, if you say so, here goes. The surgeon was worried, and said he couldn't do nothing,--hadn't got his instruments, and so on. 'Yes, you have. Out with em,' says Tom, rapping on a case he sees in the chap's breast-pocket. 'Can't do it without bandages,' he says next. 'Here they are, and more where they came from,' says Tom; and off came his shirt-sleeves, and was stripped up in a jiffy. 'I must have help,' says that confounded surgeon, dawdling round, and me groaning my life out at his feet. 'Here's help,--lots of it,' says Tom, taking my head on his arm; while Parkes tied up his wounded face and stood ready to lend a hand. Seeing no way out of it, the surgeon went to work. Good Lord, but that _was_ awful!" The mere memory of it made the speaker shut his eyes with a shiver, as if he felt again the sharp agony of shattered bones, rent flesh, and pitiless knife. "Never mind that. Tell how you got comfortable again," said Milly, shaking her head at Rose.