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- 1305
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1243
- text
- cluster of islands, where we were going to refit, abounding with
delicious fruits, and peopled by a race almost wholly unsophisticated
by intercourse with strangers.
In order, perhaps, to guard against the possibility of anyone finding
out the precise latitude and longitude of the spot we were going to,
Jermin never revealed to us the ship’s place at noon, though such is
the custom aboard of most vessels.
Meanwhile, he was very assiduous in his attention to the invalids.
Doctor Long Ghost having given up the keys of the medicine-chest, they
were handed over to him; and, as physician, he discharged his duties to
the satisfaction of all. Pills and powders, in most cases, were thrown
to the fish, and in place thereof, the contents of a mysterious little
quarter cask were produced, diluted with water from the “butt.” His
draughts were mixed on the capstan, in cocoa-nut shells marked with the
patients’ names. Like shore doctors, he did not eschew his own
medicines, for his professional calls in the forecastle were sometimes
made when he was comfortably tipsy: nor did he omit keeping his
invalids in good-humour, spinning his yarns to them, by the hour,
whenever he went to see them.
Owing to my lameness, from which I soon began to recover, I did no
active duty, except standing an occasional “trick” at the helm. It was
in the forecastle chiefly, that I spent my time, in company with the
Long Doctor, who was at great pains to make himself agreeable. His
books, though sadly torn and tattered, were an invaluable resource. I
read them through again and again, including a learned treatise on the
yellow fever. In addition to these, he had an old file of Sydney
papers, and I soon became intimately acquainted with the localities of
all the advertising tradesmen there. In particular, the rhetorical
flourishes of Stubbs, the real-estate auctioneer, diverted me
exceedingly, and I set him down as no other than a pupil of Robins the
Londoner.
Aside from the pleasure of his society, my intimacy with Long Ghost was
of great service to me in other respects. His disgrace in the cabin
only confirmed the good-will of the democracy in the forecastle; and
they not only treated him in the most friendly manner, but looked up to
him with the utmost deference, besides laughing heartily at all his
jokes. As his chosen associate, this feeling for him extended to me,
and gradually we came to be regarded in the light of distinguished
guests. At meal-times we were always first served, and otherwise were
treated with much respect.
Among other devices to kill time, during the frequent calms, Long Ghost
hit upon the game of chess. With a jack-knife, we carved the pieces
quite tastefully out of bits of wood, and our board was the middle of a
chest-lid, chalked into squares, which, in playing, we straddled at
either end. Having no other suitable way of distinguishing the sets, I
marked mine by tying round them little scarfs of black silk, torn from
an old neck-handkerchief. Putting them in mourning this way, the doctor
said, was quite appropriate, seeing that they had reason to feel sad
three games out of four. Of chess, the men never could make head nor
tail; indeed, their wonder rose to such a pitch that they at last
regarded the mysterious movements of the game with something more than
perplexity; and after puzzling over them through several long
engagements, they came to the conclusion that we must be a couple of
necromancers.
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