Help!help!screamed the voice shrilly.Are you goin'to leave me to die all alone?He-elp!The minister turned.Hush!he called,in answer to the voice,hush!I'll bring you water in a minute.Burgess,he added,you and the rest go ashore.I shall stay.You'll stay?You'll STAY?With THAT?You're crazy as a loon.
Don't be a fool,man!Come on!We'll send the doctor and somebody else--some one that's had it,maybe,or ain't afraid.I am and I'm goin'.Don't be a fool.Thoph,from the dory,shouted to know what was the matter.Ellery climbed the ladder to the deck and walked over to the rail.As he approached,Burgess fell back a few feet.
Thoph,said the minister,addressing the pair in the dory,there is a sick man down in the forecastle.He has been alone there for hours,I suppose,certainly since his shipmates ran away.If he is left longer without help,,he will surely die.Some one must stay with him.You and the rest row ashore and get the doctor and whoever else you can.I'll stay here till they come.Thoph and his companions set up a storm of protest.It was foolish,it was crazy,the man would die anyhow,and so on.They begged the minister to come with them.But he was firm.
Don't stop to argue,he urged.Hurry and get the doctor.Come on,Charlie,ordered Bill.No use talkin'to him,he's set.Come on!I won't stay alongside this craft another minute for nobody.If you be comin',come.Burgess,still protesting,clambered over the rail.The dory swung clear of the brig.The rowers settled themselves for the stroke.
Better change your mind,Mr.Ellery,pleaded Charlie.I hate to leave you this way.It seems mean,but I'm a married man with children,like the rest of us here,and I can't take no risks.
Better come,too.No?Well,we'll send help quick as the Lord'll let us.By the Almighty!he added,in a sudden burst,you've got more spunk than I have--yes,or anybody I ever come across.I'll say that for you,if you are a parson.Give way,fellers.The oars dipped,bent,and the dory moved off.The sound of the creaking thole pins shot a chill through Ellery's veins.His knees shook,and involuntarily a cry for them to come back rose to his lips.But he choked it down and waved his hand in farewell.Then,not trusting himself to look longer at the receding boat,he turned on his heel and walked toward the forecastle.
The water butts stood amidships,not far from the open door of the galley.Entering the latter he found an empty saucepan.This he filled from the cask,and then,with it in his hand,turned toward the black hatchway.Here was the greatest test of his courage.To descend that ladder,approach that bunk,and touch the terrible creature in it,these were the tasks he had set himself to do,but could he?
Vaccination in those days was by no means the universal custom that it now is.And smallpox,even now,is a disease the name of which strikes panic to a community.The minister had been vaccinated when he was a child,but that was--so it seemed to him--a very long time ago.And that forecastle was so saturated with the plague that to enter it meant almost certain infection.He had stayed aboard the brig because the pitiful call for help had made leaving a cowardly impossibility.Now,face to face,and in cold blood,with the alternative,it seemed neither so cowardly or impossible.
The man would die anyhow,so Thoph had said;was there any good reason why he should risk dying,too,and dying in that way?
