He lay where he fell, and when Matt's brain
cleared and he came out on deck the captain was moaning.
"Get up, you brute!" Matt ordered. "You got the wrong pig by the ear
that time."
"My leg ban broken," Kjellin whimpered.
"I wish it was your neck," Matt replied with feeling, and bent over to
examine his fallen foe. When he grasped Kjellin by the right
shoulder, however, the Finn screamed with pain, so Matt called the
steward, and together they lifted him and carried him to his berth.
"I'll bet a cooky you're a total loss and no accident insurance," Matt
soliloquized. "You're not worth it, but for the sake of the owners
I'll get a doctor to look you over," and he went ashore at once. When
the doctor had looked Thorwald Kjellin over his verdict was a broken
tibia, a broken radius and a broken clavicle.
Matt was concerned. "I don't think I ever had any of those things to
get broken," he declared humorously, "but if mere words mean anything
I'll bet this is a hospital job." The doctor nodded, and Matt turned
to the captain: "Do you want to go to the hospital in Eureka or in
San Francisco?"
"I ban vant to go home," the Finn moaned.
"Very well, captain; I guess your successor will bring you there. I'm
going up to the mill office now to report to the owners by telephone.
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