Before the boat could get alongside the steamer, Captain Brisbane came in sight, and rushed down the ladder to the forecastle. Probably the man who had been on watch had told him that something had happened to the expedition in the boat, for he manifested considerable excitement when he appeared on deck. “What is the trouble, Mr. Belgrave?” demanded the captain. “This man in the stern is shot in the shoulder, and I want him attended to before I say anything,” replied Louis, who was a Christian at heart as well as in form, and was willing to heal the wound even of an enemy. “Shot in the shoulder!” exclaimed the captain. “Have you been in a fight?” The chief of the expedition did not answer the question, for the boat had come up to the gangway by this time, and he gave himself up to the duty of putting the sufferer on board. With the help of the captain and the deck hand, Flounder was easily transferred to the steamer, and conveyed to a stateroom, where he was put into the berth. Like all masters of vessels, Captain Brisbane had some skill in prescribing for the sick, and in dressing wounds; for none but the largest vessels carry a surgeon. Somewhat to the astonishment of Louis, Flounder submitted to an examination, and behaved himself in a reasonable manner. His coat was removed, and his shirt turned down so that the wound could be seen. “Not bad at all,” said the captain, after he had looked the man over very carefully. “I have often cured worse wounds than this one on board ship. It is not in the shoulder, as you said, Mr. Belgrave: it is in the arm near the shoulder, but has not touched the bone. The ball went through the fleshy part and came out on the other side.” “I am glad it is no worse, though it seems to be painful,” added Louis. The captain proceeded to stanch the flow of blood, and then dressed the wound very skilfully for an amateur. He insisted that the patient should keep very quiet; and the party left the room. Louis insisted that he should be locked in, to which the captain assented, and declared that the man was as secure where he was as he would be in a cell in The Tombs. “Now what is all this about, Mr. Belgrave?” demanded the captain impatiently. “If you will direct your man on deck to watch that room, I will tell you all I know, which is hardly more than you have already learned,” replied Louis, as he led the way to the forward part of the boat. The captain directed the man on duty to watch the door of the stateroom; and the trio seated themselves on the forecastle. Louis said that Bickling must be the first one to tell his story, for he alone knew what had transpired on the shore before the leader landed. “Which it was Flounder that fell upon me like a thief and a robber, sir, when I ’ad done nothing in the world to vex ’im,” replied the cook, not a little excited when he recalled the scene. “He knocked me down, sir, when I was thinking of nothing. Then ’e wanted me to go on board of the Maud, which”--