“Come alongside,” the officer called; and five minutes later a big sailor had Jack in his arms, carrying him up the gangway, and he was taken into the boat’s hospital and laid on another cot. It was an unusual thing on a naval vessel, and when the big bluff surgeon came the Captain was with him, and several more of the officers. The examination gave Jack more pain than he had had before, but still he kept his teeth clinched, and refused even to moan. “It is a bad fracture, and should have been attended to sooner,” the surgeon said at length. “There is nothing to be done for it now but to take off the leg.” “Oh, I hope not!” Mr. Radway exclaimed. “Is there no other way?” “He knows best, father,” Jack said; “he will do the best he can for me.” “He is too weak now for an operation,” the surgeon continued; “but you can leave him with me, and I think by to-morrow he will be able to stand it.” If Jack had made the least fuss at the prospect of having his leg cut off, or had let a single groan escape, there is hardly any doubt that he would be limping through life on one leg. But the brave way that he bore the pain and the doctor’s verdict made him a powerful friend. The Captain of a naval vessel cannot control his surgeon’s treatment of a case; but the Captain’s wishes naturally go a long way, even with the surgeon. So it was a great point for Jack when the Captain interceded for him. “There’s the making of an Admiral in that lad in the hospital,” the Captain told the doctor later in the day. “I never saw a boy bear pain better. I wish you would save his leg if you possibly can.” “He’d be well much quicker to take it off,” the surgeon retorted. “But I’ll give him every chance I can. There is a bare possibility that I may be able to save it.” There was joy in the Radway family when it became known that there was a chance of saving Jack’s leg; but all that Jack himself would say was, “Leave it all to the doctor; he will do what he can.” Three weeks afterwards Jack still lay in the _Alleghany’s_ hospital with two legs to his body, but one half hidden in splints and plaster. Mr. and Mrs. Radway visited him every day, and the broken bone was healing so nicely that the doctor thought that in three or four weeks more Jack might be able to hobble about the deck on crutches, when more trouble came. A new gun-boat steamed into the harbor to take the _Alleghany’s_ place, bringing orders for the _Alleghany_ to go at once to the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. This was particularly unfortunate for Jack, for his broken bone was just in that state where the motion of taking him ashore would be likely to displace it. But that unwelcome order from Washington proved to be a long step towards making Jack one of our American naval heroes.