was pretty to see how gingerly the sailors carried the sinking man up
the ladder, and one fetched swabs, and the others laid him down softly
on them at their captain's feet.

"Well done, men," said he. "Poor fellow! Pray Heaven, we may not have
come too late. Now stand aloof a bit. Send the surgeon aft."

The surgeon came, and looked, and felt the heart. He shook his head, and
called for brandy. He had Staines's head raised, and got half a spoonful
of diluted brandy down his throat. But there was an ominous gurgling.

After several such attempts at intervals, he said plainly the man's life
could not be saved by ordinary means.

"Then try extraordinary," said the captain. "My orders are that he is to
be saved. There is life in him. You have only got to keep it there. He
MUST be saved; he SHALL be saved."

"I should like to try Dr. Staines's remedy," said the surgeon.

"Try it, then what is it?"

"A bath of beef-tea. Dr. Staines says he applied it to a starved
child--in the Lancet."

"Take a hundred-weight of beef, and boil it in the coppers."

Thus encouraged, the surgeon went to the cook, and very soon beef was
steaming on a scale and at a rate unparalleled.