CHAPTER X
THEY got to the wounded captain and raised him: he revived a little; and,
the moment he caught sight of Mr. Sharpe, he clutched him, and cried,
"Stunsels!"
"Oh, captain," said Sharpe, "let the ship go; it is you we are anxious
for now."
At this Dodd lifted up his hands and beat the air impatiently, and cried
again in the thin, querulous voice of' a wounded man, but eagerly,
"STUNSELS! STUNSELS!"
On this, Sharpe gave the command.
"Make sail. All hands set stunsels 'low and aloft!"
While the unwounded hands swarmed into the rigging, the surgeon came aft
in all haste; but Dodd declined him till all his men should have been
looked to: meantime he had himself carried to the poop and laid on a
mattress, his bleeding head bound tight with a wet cambric handkerchief,
and his pale face turned towards the hostile schooner astern. She had to
hove to, and was picking up the survivors of her blotted-out consort. The
group on the _Agra's_ quarter-deck watched her to see what she would do
next; flushed with immediate success, the younger officers crowed their
fears she would not be game to attack them again.
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