Chapter 22

very anxious to know if Captain Delmar was out of danger; but that could not be ascertained till I saw the surgeon. I remained thinking over the events which had passed. I called to mind that the captain, in his delirium, had called me his own boy, his Percival and I felt more happy.

About an hour after I had awoke, the surgeon came into the room. "How is Captain Delmar, sir?" said I.

"I am glad to say that he is much better; but I must wake up poor Cross, who is tired out."

Cross, who was awake the moment that we spoke, was now on his legs.

"You must go to the captain, and keep the bed-clothes on him, Cross. He is now in a perspiration, and it must not be checked--do you understand?"

"Yes," replied Bob, walking away into the other room.

"You are all right again, Keene," said the surgeon, feeling my pulse; "we will look at your wounds by-and-by, and change the dressing."

"Tell me, sir," said I, "how have you managed? Nobody has found it out?"

"Oh, no; it is supposed that Captain Delmar is badly wounded, and that you have the yellow fever, and we must keep it up--that is the reason why Bob Cross is the only one allowed to come into the sick rooms. I have no doubt that Captain Delmar will be sensible in a few hours, and then we shall be puzzled what to say to him. Must we tell him the truth?"

"Not at present, sir, at all events: tell him that he has fought the duel, and killed his man; he will think that he did it when he was out of his senses, or else that the fever has driven it from his memory."

"Well, perhaps that will be the best way just now; it will relieve his mind, for with his return to sensibility will also revive his feelings of disgrace and dishonour; and if they are not checked, the fever may come on again."

The surgeon gave me some breakfast this morning, and then dressed my wounds, which he pronounced were doing quite well; and about twelve o'clock the master came on shore with the first lieutenant. The master came into my room after the first lieutenant went away, who had been told by the surgeon that he could not see Captain Delmar--and he, of course, did not wish to come into contact with me, who he supposed had the yellow fever. In the afternoon Captain Delmar woke up from his stupor--the fever had left him, and he had nothing to combat with but extreme debility. "Where am I?" said he, after a pause; and, recollecting himself, he continued to Cross, who was the only person in the room, and who had received his instructions from the surgeon, "How long have I lain here?"

"Ever since the duel, sir."

"The duel--how do you mean?"

"I mean ever since your honour fought the duel, and killed the soldger officer."

"Killed--duel--I can't recollect having fought the duel."

"Dare say not, your honour," replied Bob; "you were in a roaring fever at the time; but you would not stay in bed, all the surgeon could do--go you would; but when you had fought, we were obliged to carry you back again."

"And so I really have fought--I have not the least recollection--I must have been in a high fever indeed. Where's the surgeon?"

"He's in the verandah below, sir, speaking to some soldger officers who have come to inquire after your health. Here he comes."

The surgeon came in, and Captain Delmar then said to him, "Is this all true that Cross has been telling me? Have I really fought a duel and killed my adversary?"

"I regret to say, sir, that he is dead, and was buried yesterday; but, if you please, you must not talk any more at present--you must be quiet for a few hours."

"Well, doctor, so that my honour is saved, I am content to obey you-- it's very odd--" Here the captain was exhausted, and was silent, and in a few minutes he was again asleep, and remained slumbering till the next morning, when he was much better. He then entered into conversation with the surgeon, making him describe the duel; and the latter did so, so as to satisfy the captain; and he also informed him that I had been taken ill with the fever, and was in the next room.

"Next room!" replied the captain: "why was he not sent on board? Are all the midshipmen who are taken ill to be brought to my house to be cured?"

I overheard this reply of the captain, and it cut me to the heart. I felt what an invincible pride had to be conquered before I could obtain my wishes.

The surgeon answered Captain Delmar,--"As only you and Mr Keene were taken with the fever, I thought it better that he should remain here, than that the ship's company should take it by his being sent on board. I trust, Captain Delmar, I have done right?"

"Yes, I see," replied the captain; "you did perfectly right--I did not think of that. I hope Mr Keene is doing well?"

"I trust that we shall get him through it, sir," replied the surgeon.

"Pray let him have anything that he requires, Mr ---; let him want for nothing during his illness and convalescence. He would be a heavy loss to the service," added the captain.

"He would, indeed, sir," replied the surgeon.

"Here are the journals of St. Pierre, in which there are several accounts of the duel, most of them incorrect. Some say that you were twice wounded, others once."

"I dare say they thought so," replied the captain, "for Cross tells me that I was carried home. It's very singular that I should have fought in such a condition. Thank you, Mr ---; I will read them when I have lain down a little, for I am tired again already."

The surgeon then informed the captain of the death of Captain W.

"Poor fellow!" replied Captain Delmar. "Well, I will not make any appointments until I am better." The captain then lay down again, leaving the newspapers on the coverlet.

A week now passed, during which both the captain and I became nearly convalescent: we had both been out of bed, and had remained for a few hours on the sofas in our respective rooms. The surgeon told me that it would be necessary to tell him the truth very soon, and that he thought he would do so on the following day. It did, however, happen that the discovery was not made to him by the surgeon. In the afternoon, when the latter was on board, Captain Delmar felt so strong that he resolved to put on his clothes, and go into the sitting-room. He desired Cross to give them to him, and the first articles handed to him were his trowsers, and Bob quite forgot that I had worn them.

"Why, how's this?" said the captain--"here's a hole through the waistband, and they are bloody."

Bob was so frightened, that he walked out of the room as if he had not heard what the captain had said. It appears that the captain took up his coat, and discovered another hole in the shoulder, with the same marks of blood.

"This is quite a dream," said the captain, talking to himself--"I've no wound, and yet the newspapers say that I was wounded twice. Cross! Cross!--Where is Cross?"

Bob, who had taken refuge in my room, where we overheard everything he said, whispered, "It's no use now, Mr Keene,--I must tell it all; never fear me, I know how to do it." And then he obeyed the captain's summons, leaving me in a state of great nervous anxiety.

"Cross," said the captain sternly, "I insist upon knowing the truth: I have been deceived by my officers. Did I, or did I not, fight this duel?"

"Well, sir," replied Cross, "the truth was only kept back from you till you were quite well again, and I suppose I must tell it to you now. You were too ill, and you raved about our honour, and that you were disgraced, and that--"

"Well, go on, sir."

"I will, Captain Delmar; but I hope you'll not be angry, sir. Mr Keene could not bear to see you in that way, and he said he would lay down his life for you at any time, and he begged Mr Smith, the master, to allow him to fight the duel, because he said that he was so like you in person (which, somehow or other he is, that's certain), that no one would know it was him if he put on your honour's wig and uniform: that's how it was, sir."

"Go on," said the captain.

"Well, sir, the master could not bear the sneering of the sogers on shore, and he consented that Mr Keene should take your place, which he did, sir; and I hope you will not be angry with Mr Keene, for it's your old coat, sir, and I think it may have a piece let in, that it won't be seen."

Cross then went on describing the whole affair--of course praising me-- and told the captain that everybody on board, as well as on shore, thought that he was wounded and that I had been taken with the yellow fever, and that nobody knew the real truth except the master, the surgeon, and himself.

"Is Mr Keene seriously hurt?" inquired the captain, after a pause.

"No, sir; the doctor says he will do very well. He was as near gone as ever a man was: at one time his breath would not move a feather--all the blood was out of his body."

For a minute the captain made no reply; at last he said, in a quiet tone, "You may leave the room, Cross."

What were the thoughts and feelings of Captain Delmar when he was left to reflect upon the information which he had received, I cannot tell but that he was not angry I inferred by the tone in which he desired Cross to leave the room. I was absorbed in my own feelings, when the surgeon entered the room, and gave me a letter. "Here's a schooner just come in with despatches from the admiral," said the surgeon: "the second lieutenant has brought them on shore for the captain, and among the letters from England I found this one for you. I have seen Cross," continued the surgeon, nodding his head significantly as he left the room.

"The second lieutenant, with despatches, sir," reported Bob Cross to the captain in the other room--"Shall I show him in?"

"No, I am not well; desire him to send them in by you," replied the captain.

While the captain was busy with his despatches, I read my letter, which was from my mother, enclosing a copy of one from my grandmother, announcing my mother's death. Of course there were a great many dying wishes; but that was a matter of course. I felt happy that this letter to the captain arrived at such a propitious time, as I knew that the announcement of my mother's death would be a great point in my favour. That it ought not to have been, I confess; but I knew whom I had to deal with: the captain was ashamed of his intimacy, and the claims of my mother upon him, but not so much ashamed of me; and, now that she was removed, probably he might not be at all ashamed. My mother was no relation, and below him--I was his own flesh and blood, and half ennobled by so being.

The captain sent on board orders for getting under weigh. It appeared that the admiral had written to him, desiring him to sail for the coast of South America, to look after a French frigate, and that, as there was no farther occasion for so large a force at Martinique, he was to leave the next senior officer in command; but this was Captain W, who had died of the fever.

As senior in command, Captain Delmar then filled up the vacancy; the captain of a corvette was appointed to Captain W's ship; our first lieutenant to the command of the corvette; but the lieutenant's vacancy was not filled up, much to the surprise of the officers of the squadron. This was the work of the afternoon; in the evening the master was sent for, and a consultation held with him and the surgeon, which ended in the captain's consenting to go on board with his arm in a sling, as if he had been wounded, and my being put into a cot, and removed on board to the captain's cabin, as if still too weak with the fever to quit my bed. Cross was enjoined silence, and I was made acquainted by the surgeon with the result of the conference.

The next morning we were all embarked, and we hove the anchor up, and made sail to the southward. It must be observed, that I had neither seen nor had any communications with the captain, during the whole of this time. He was informed by the surgeon that I was in great distress of mind at the news of my mother's death, and that my recovery would be retarded in consequence.