"Within my knowledge Louis has defended himself with a revolver in his hand three times, and in every one of them he hit his man in the right shoulder," replied Felix. "He never fires to kill; he is a dead shot, and he can put the ball just where he pleases every time. If Mazagan had been shot dead, I should know that Louis did not do it."
"I remember that the fellow in the Muski was hit in the right shoulder," added the captain.
"That disables a man without making a very dangerous wound. But, Captain, darling, don't whisper a word to Louis that he did it, for it might make him feel bad."
"I won't say a word; but ask him to come to the pilot-house, for I want to see him, Flix," said Scott, as he had had no opportunity since the catastrophe to speak to the one he regarded as the most important personage on board of the Maud.
In fact, but a very few minutes had elapsed since the event occurred. Those on the wreck had made haste to escape before they should be carried down with it, and they were still pulling at no great distance from the Maud for the shore. Louis appeared at the door of the pilot-house very promptly; for he imagined that his presence before the wounded man was not agreeable to him, and that it emphasized in his mind the disastrous failure of his expedition to this island.
"What next, Louis?" asked the captain with a smile on his face; for he believed he had stolen his friend's first question "after the battle."
"That is for you to decide, Captain Scott, and I intend to avoid any interference with the duties of the commander," replied Louis.
"But when the commander asks for advice it may be given without offence," suggested Scott. "We have just got out of the tightest place in which we have ever been placed, and our experience hitherto has been boy's play compared with this day's work."
"That is very true; this is by all odds the most serious affair in which we have ever been engaged," answered Louis, as he seated himself on the divan.
"I am not going to beat about the bush for a moment, my dear fellow; and before we talk about anything else, even of what we will do next in this trying situation, I want to say that I am very much troubled in my mind in regard to the consequences of what _I_ have done," continued Scott, as he seated himself by the side of his friend and model on the divan.