but not seriously damaged in my timbers. There, you see, though I
have only been a fortnight at sea, I am getting quite nautical."

"That is right, lad--that is right," Captain Dave said, a little
unsteadily. "My dame and Nellie will soon put you into ship-shape
trim again. So you got burnt, I hear, by one of those rascally Dutch
fire-ships? and John tells me that the captain of the sailors who
carried you here said that you had gained mighty credit for
yourself."

"I did my best, as everyone did, Captain Dave. There was not a man on
board the Fleet who did not do his duty, or we should never have
beaten the Dutchmen so soundly."

"You had better not talk any more," Mrs. Dowsett said. "You are in my
charge now, and my first order is that you must keep very quiet, or
else you will be having fever come on. You had best take a little of
this broth now. Nellie will sit with you while I go out to prepare
you a cooling drink."

"I will take a few spoonfuls of the soup since John has taken the
trouble to prepare it for me," Cyril said; "though, indeed, my lips
are so parched and swollen that the cooling drink will be much more
to my taste."

"I think it were best first, dame," the Captain said, "that John and
I should get him comfortably into bed, instead of lying there wrapped
up in the blanket in which they brought him ashore. The broth will be
none the worse for cooling a bit."