This is nothing, he said as soon as he had closed the door. I have
drawn blood enough to keep him quiet awhile; he should lie for a week
where he is--that is the best thing for him and you; but another stroke
would settle him.
III
The Black Spot
About noon I stopped at the captain s door with some cooling drinks
and medicines. He was lying very much as we had left him, only a little
higher, and he seemed both weak and excited.
Jim, he said, you re the only one here that s worth anything, and you
know I ve been always good to you. Never a month but I ve given you a
silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, I m pretty low,
and deserted by all; and Jim, you ll bring me one noggin of rum, now,
won t you, matey?
The doctor-- I began.
But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily.
Doctors is all swabs, he said; and that doctor there, why, what do
he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates
dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the
sea with earthquakes--what do the doctor know of lands like that?--and I
lived on rum, I tell you. It s been meat and drink, and man and wife,
to me; and if I m not to have my rum now I m a poor old hulk on a lee
shore, my blood ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab ; and he ran on
again for a while with curses. Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,
he continued in the pleading tone. I can t keep em still, not I. I
haven t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor s a fool, I tell you.
If I don t have a dram o rum, Jim, I ll have the horrors; I seen some
on em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as
plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I m a man that
has lived rough, and I ll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass
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