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CHAPTER SIX

expressed himself naturally, to order Lizbeth to leave the man alone and go on deck immediately. And yet, even as the words framed themselves on his lips, he knew he could not say them. Someone had to take up Dobson's job and he intended to appoint a Petty Officer-the one most easily spared. But this was not the moment to do so with his supposedly-honoured guest concerning himself with the men's well-being.
" Have you any aqua vitae on board?" Lizbeth asked, looking up at Rodney as he stood speechless beside her.
" Aqua vitae?" he echoed stupidly.
" Yes, I require it for the next man."
She nodded as she spoke to a man lying on the other side of the one she was treating. He had been hit in the shoulder-a great open wound, torn, bleeding and blackened with powder.
" Give him spirits if you have no laudanum," Rodney said, well aware there were only two sorts of medicine for wounded men when the pain became really unbearable.
" He has had some laudanum," Lizbeth replied, "and I do not wish him to drink the aqua vitae, I want to pour it into the wound."
" God's light! Whatever for?" Rodney ejaculated.
There were a few bottles aboard of the precious brandywine, which he himself enjoyed, but he thought for a moment that Lizbeth was demented when she asked that he should sacrifice his special liquor for such a cause.
She saw his confusion and explained patiently.
" You see how dirty the wound is. When the Spanish cannonball hit him he was carrying the powder and shot between our own cannons. 'Twas spilled all over him. A wound that is as dirty as that is bound to gangrene unless we can get it clean. If I had herbs such as I have at home, I could deal with it. A clover of garlic is excellent, but I have none here and I believe that aqua vitae will clean it up equally as well."
" Who told you such things?" Rodney asked.
" I have heard men talk since I was a child of the hurts they have suffered. It was a favourite topic of conversation at my father's table. I know, too, a little of the healing properties of herbs and the cleaning value of raw spirit. Can I have the aqua vitae?"