Part 27 (1/2)

”With those poor creatures on board”

”Just as we'd made 'em clean and comf'able, sir Oh, my poor head!”

”Let's see to Mr Russell first, and then I'll bind up your head as well as I can”

”How's one to see to Mr Russell, sir? Why, plagues o' Egypt's nothing to darkness like this”

Mark bent over his brother officer, and passed his hand over his face and head

”He's not bleeding,” he whispered, impressed as he was by the darkness and their terrible position

”More am I, sir, but I', but they got it hard same as I did Wood out here ain't like wood at hoh, but iron-wood's like what they call it”

”Who is this?” said Mark, as, after gently letting Mr Russell's head sink back, his hands encountered another face

”I dunno, sir It was everyabout Tom Fillot, AB, and no one else What's he feel like?”

”Like one of our ly one with very stiff whiskers? If so be it is, you may take your davy it's Joe Dance”

”How aly?” cried Mark, petulantly

”By the feel, sir Try his nose Joe Dance's nose hangs a bit over to starboard, and there's a dent in it just about the end where he chipped it agin a shot case”

”Oh, I can't tell all that,” cried Mark--”Yes, his nose has a little dent in it, and his whiskers are stiff”

”Then that's Joe Dance, sir”

”Avast there! Let rowl

”That's Joe, sir, safe enough Harkee there! Hear 'e sounds came out of the darkness some distance away now, and To all the sail they can, sir Look! you can see the water bri us”

”Oh, Toht to have stopped on deck”

”No yer oughtn't, sir Your orders was to take your watch below, and that was enough for you Dooty is dooty, sir, be it never so dootiful, as the proverb says”

”But if I had been on deck I ot a rap o' the head like the pore fellows did, sir”

”Well, perhaps so, Tom I wonder why they didn't strike h you are a young gentle to be a boy, sir I was one once upon a ti a head like this here”