" 'Tis done, and I fear 'twas far from pleasant," he told me at last, in his old-fashioned speech.
"Nay, sir, it wasn't."
"I'd 've given ye a gill of grog, to dull your sensibilities, but 'twas needful that ye feel and indicate pain, to disclose to me your condition."
"What is it, sir, if you'll kindly tell me?"
"The shinbone, called the tibia, is surely broke. I can't be sure of the smaller legbone, known as the fibula, but I think 'tis whole. Moreover, I believe the break to be clean and not compound, which should expedite its healing."
"I'm glad to hear it, Cap'n."
"Mate Hedric, what would you recommend to be done?"
"Why, if 'twas mine, I'd rather have Owens here put his hand at setting it, than leave it to some Sicilian sawbones, always singing and wine-bibbling, or a Frenchman either."
Ezra Owens had joined our company soon after we had lost Tom Childers off Finisterre, and except for 'Giny Jim, he was the only man aboard not a New England Yankee. About forty, somewhat windy, and a Philadelphian besides, he would fit the part of ship's lawyer; instead he aspired to physic. However, I had never seen him perform any medical feats beyond giving pills for a binding, sumac to stop a flux, removing slivers, and curing gurry sores.
"I reckon we'd best not have any journeyman doctors setting the bosun's bones," the captain replied. "And since we can't get him to an American leech, the next best would be a British, who when he means leg,' can say leg,' and not 'jamby.' "
"I'm of the same mind, Cap'n."
"Then why not run him down to Malta, where there's an English naval hospital, and doctors most as good as we'd find in Boston? The bone was broke helping a shipmate beyond call o' duty, and if my charterers revile me for doing what I deem fit, to hell and damnation with 'em."
It was not lightly or on small occasion that Captain Phillips cursed. It seemed to me that those Boston merchants must look about the rooms they were sitting in, wondering what had shaked the walls.
Captain Phillips turned to me and spoke in his usual manner.
"We'll land you there, then lade our cargo of Marsala wine to fetch to Copenhagen. By the time we get back here—say nine weeks—your leg will be fit to stand on, though not as good as new. We'll pick you up as we come by for duty aft the mast."
The last three words were spoken by him so calmly, and heard by me so fervently, that my head reeled. Perhaps his tongue had slipped, when he had meant to say, " 'fore the mast."
"Sir, I'm not sure I understood you," I replied as steadfastly as I could, while the men gaped.
" 'Tis no wonder, since I'd given you no hint of it before. In truth, I'd meant to wait till Mr. Tyler went his way. But some good news to raise your spirits while we're away will surely help the healing, so I'll tell you now. In short, Mr. Tyler's returning to Salem as soon as I can spare him, to be master of Mr. Derby's two-masted sloop a-building in his yard, and I mean to appoint you to his berth as second mate."
There was only one thing I had breath to say. Happily it was the best and proper thing.
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Ye should know that I'm sole owner of the vessel, having bought Eli Morton's share when we last came up home, so my choice is final. But ye've a hard duty ahead of ye, to equal Mr. Tyler, and I'll expect you to come to it, and so will all hands."
"Sir, may I speak free?"
"Every man has the right to speak free on this ship until he speaks unfit for a man, for we sail 'neath the flag of freedom."
"It's that difference between us and foreign ships that makes me ask this favor." I had sat up, my broken leg stiff in front of me, but it was not its throbbing pain that wet my face with sweat. "You know how British officers look down on men 'fore the mast. I'm not used to it, and it would go hard with me. So if you could see your way to brevet me second mate before you leave me in Malta, I'd be better treated by all who deal with me."
"Now that's to be thought of, and if 'tis a little irregular, since when have Americans bowed down to regulations? By God I'll do it."
I had been weakened more than I knew by my ordeal underwater, for now my chest heaved and I must bow my face in my hands. For a little space I feared I had shamed myself before all hands, but it was not so.
Until I could master myself again, they looked away, talking to one another of other matters.
CHAPTER 3
The Visitor
Malta was known as the Crossroads of the Sea. I reckoned it a good name, since it lay almost an equal distance from Gibraltar to Alexandria, and you could not sail from any western Mediterranean port to any eastern without passing its door. It was the rock that had stood between Turkish fleets and the Christian coasts. In olden days, before America was discovered, it was the Crossroads of the World.
Only a little larger than Marthas Vineyard, but almost in cannon shot of the pirate strongholds of Tunis and Tripoli, it caused many a turbaned reis to tug his beard.
We came into Valletta, called the New Capital, on the northeast side of the island. At a distance it looked like a multi-colored rock, all its buildings being yellow, red, or orange-colored stone. When we anchored in the roads, under the guns of St. Elmo, lighters came rushing to us in the shape of gondolas, manned by medium-size, agile, somewhat handsome men, fairer-skinned than the Sicilians and more soberly dressed. These were the genuine Maltese. The captain told us they descended from Phoenicians settling here three thousand years ago, and their language, although sounding like Arabic, was incomprehensible to any other people in the world. Many of the lighter-men spoke Italian, and now the island had come under British rule, no few were learning English.
Much of the hill above the harbor being too steep for roads, long flights of steps served the townfolk, and most of the freight went up on donkeyback. For the nonce, I myself was a piece of freight. Although our carpenter had fixed braces of board to hold my leg steady, I must be lightered in and toted pickaback to the nearest carrozza—a carriage so small that I almost, not quite, had to stretch my leg on the horse's rump—then drawn by a roundabout course to the hospital. Even so, the dignities of my new rank were properly preserved.
Before making the trip I had bought part of Mate Tyler's wardrobe. Although not quite as tall, he weighed almost the same, so the clothes fitted me well enough; and since he was a neat and sparing man, they were nearly as good as new. Better yet, they were of a quality befitting a junior officer of a little trader, respectable but not in the least rich; in fact they would hardly be in keeping with his captaincy. Yet when the jollies guarding the hospital gate saw scales on the shoulders of my broadcloth coat—these were distant, poor relations of epaulets—and anchors embroidered with gilt thread on my sleeves, they gave me a routine salute.
The hospital occupied one of the lodges of the Knights of Malta, who had ruled the island until the French conquest three years before. My mates who had brought me here stood about a moment, their arms dangling, then with glum faces and blunt farewells, took themselves off. Three hours later, a snuff-taking dandy with a train of flunkeys condescended to glance at my leg, pinch it, wipe his hands on a towel, and call in a small, pale-colored, soft-spoken Maltese addressed as Doctor Korda. When I had looked well into his face, marking his quiet, quick, sure ways, I was glad my case had not been worth the bigwig's attention.
" 'E knows a bloke's bones as I knew the spars of a hooker," an old seadog told me. He had learned his art as an orderly at the great hospital of Saint John. Before laying hand on me, he gave me a tot of rum and a pill of opium; after that, with my leg battened down till I could not wiggle a toe, I could curse or complain as the notion struck me without him pausing an instant or modifying his treatment in the least jot. Actually I did neither, for the honor of the Vindictive in sight of other patients from great ships o' the line. And once my silence stopped his small, strong hands and caused him to look at me, smile, and wipe some cold drops from my face.