" And the stout colonel
groaned aloud.
When the surgeon left them, they fell naturally upon another topic, the
pledge they had given Dodd about the L. 14,000. They ascertained it was
upon him, next his skin; but it seemed as unnecessary as it was repugnant
to remove it from his living person. They agreed, however, that instantly
on his decease they would take possession of it, note the particulars,
seal it up, and carry it to Mrs. Dodd, with such comfort as they could
hope to give her by relating the gallant act in which his precious life
was lost.
At 9 P.M. the surgeon took his place by Dodd's bedside; and the pair,
whom one thing after another had drawn so close together, retired to
Kenealy's cabin.
Many a merry chat they had had there, and many a gaseonade, being rival
hunters; but now they were together for physical companionship in sorrow
rather than for conversation. They smoked their cigars in moody silence,
and at midnight shook hands with a sigh and parted. That sigh meant to
say that in the morning all would be over.
They turned in; but, ere either of them was asleep, suddenly the
captain's cabin seemed to fill with roars and shrieks of wild beasts,
that made the whole ship ring in the silent night The savage cries were
answered on deck by shouts of dismay and many pattering feet making for
the companion ladder; but the nearest persons to the cabin, and the first
to reach it, were Kenealy and Fullalove, who burst in, the former with a
drawn sword, the latter with a revolver, both in their nightgowns; and
there saw a sight that took their breath away.
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