Burke stepped to the bulwarks and looked down at the boat wallowing in the cross-seas. Huntington was standing on the rail, his right hand against the side of the lorcha, his body giving easily to every shock; and Burke gazed hungry-eyed at his cool, alert demeanour.
"A woman; she's at the hospital now," he answered, in the same rigid, subdued tone.
"For God's sake," cried Burke, his voice breaking into frenzy, "give me something to do, something to do!"
"All right, old man," answered Huntington, showing no surprise. "Throw us a rope."
Burke threw a rope. A case was tied to it and hauled on deck.
The rope was thrown back. A demijohn was hauled up, then another, and another.
"Carbolic," shouted Huntington. "Disinfect the boat."
The doctor waved his hand, and the launch churned away.
The day was heavy with heat. The wind had died, the sea was glazed, and the tin roofs of Manila glistened white. A torpor fell from the brazen heavens, and all day Burke struggled beneath it in a frenzy of toil. When he had cleaned the boat thoroughly, he arranged the little cabin into a hospital. Almost immediately it had its occupant. A boy was down. Jerry laid him on his cot, pried his teeth open with his knife, and poured some chlorodyne between them; then walked to the mainmast, and soon to the watchers on shore the leprous banner rose against the gory hues of the setting sun. The boat came and took the child away.
When the launch came, in the morning, Burke was standing at the head of the ladder. All the traces of a fearful night were in his face, and yet Huntington's scrutiny found something satisfactory in the man. The old khaki suit had been washed, and hung, still damp, upon his frame.
More medicines and disinfectants, a supply of food and distilled water, several objects, very vulgar and very grim, were passed up, and then the doctor asked:
Burke shook his head in indecisive negative.
"I have you on the pay-roll," added the officer, casually; "assistant inspector; three-and-a-half a day."
Burke dropped his eyes to the deck. Then he blurted out:
"All right," said Huntington, rapidly measuring with his eye the frame before him. "Anything else?"
Again an embarrassed silence, then another burst:
