Part 28 (1/2)

”I suppose so, sir,” said Roberts sulkily.

”Better tell me that my services were not called for, and that you could all have done without me. I call what I have gone through hard work, and tell you, sir, that it was a time of great anxiety.”

”So it must have been, doctor,” put in Murray, ”and I feel very grateful for the way you did away with my pain.”

”There's a sneak!” cried Roberts angrily. ”Who began to bully me for dragging him into the discussion?”

”You are the sneak, sir,” said the doctor, ”for trying to dodge out of the matter like this. Murray spoke out like a man.”

”Boy,” growled Roberts.

”Very well, sir; like a grateful boy, if that pleases you better. Like one who appreciates my service and is not ready to turn up his nose at what such fellows as you call 'doctor's stuff,' just as if a medical man or a surgeon thought of nothing but wasting the s.h.i.+p's stores upon those who are glad enough to come to them when they are out of sorts, and most often from their neglect of common sense precautions, or from over indulgence in the good things of life.”

”Precious lot of chances we get to indulge in the good things of life on board s.h.i.+p!” said Roberts bitterly.

”Let me tell you, sir,” said the doctor, shaking his finger at the mids.h.i.+pman, ”that there is nothing better for a growing lad than the strict discipline and the enforced temperance and moderate living of s.h.i.+pboard. Better for you, though, if you had not so much idleness.”

”Idleness, sir!” cried the lad.

”Yes, sir. You want more work. Ah! You may sneer. Perhaps not quite so much as I have to do, but more than you get. Yes, sir, when you know better you will learn to see that the doctor's life is a very arduous one.”

”But you get lots of time, sir, for natural history and fis.h.i.+ng and shooting.”

”Not 'lots of time,' sir, as you term it, but some time certainly; and what is that but work in the cause of science? And look here, Mr Roberts, whenever I do get an opportunity for going ash.o.r.e shooting or botanising, or have a boat out for fis.h.i.+ng or dredging, do I not invariably enlist the services of you or Mr Murray?”

”Hear, hear!” cried the latter, in the most parliamentary way.

”Thank you, Mr Murray,” said the doctor. ”I shall not forget this.”

”Don't you believe him, doctor,” cried Roberts. ”He doesn't mean it.

He's only currying favour.”

”Nothing of the kind, sir,” said the doctor sharply. ”I flatter myself that I understand Mr Murray better than you do, sir. I understand his temperament quite as well as I do yours, sir, which is atrabilious.”

”Eh?” exclaimed Roberts. ”What's that, sir?”

”Black bilious, sir, if you really don't know. I have studied your temperament, sir, and let me tell you that you would be doing very wisely if you came to me this evening for a little treatment.”

”But I've only just got out of your hands, sir,” cried the mids.h.i.+pman, in a voice full of protest.

”That was for the superficial trouble, sir, due to the scorching and singeing. Now it is plain to me that what you went through in that attack upon the blacks' town has stirred up the secretions of your liver.”

”Oh, doctor, that it hasn't!” cried the lad. ”And I'm sure that I want no physicking.”

”I think I know best, sir. If you were in robust health there would be none of that display of irritability of temper that you evince. You as his messmate must have noticed this irritability, Mr Murray?”

”Constantly, sir,” said that individual solemnly. ”Oh you!” growled Roberts fiercely. ”Just you wait!”