Hands  exclaimed,  "Oh, stow that! Don't you  get sucking  of that
bilge, John. Let's have a go of the rum."
     "Dick," said  Silver,  "I trust  you. I've a  gauge  on the keg,  mind.
There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring it up."
     Terrified as I was, I  could not help thinking to myself that this must
have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him.
     Dick  was gone but a little  while, and during his absence Israel spoke
straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I  could catch,
and yet I gathered some important news, for besides other scraps that tended
to  the same  purpose,  this whole  clause  was audible: "Not another man of
them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful men on board.
     When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pannikin and
drank - one  "To luck," another with a "Here's  to  old  Flint," and  Silver
himself saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your luff,
plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."
     Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and  looking
up, I found the moon had risen and was silvering the  mizzen-top and shining
white on the luff of the fore-sail; and almost at the same time the voice of
the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     12. Council of War
     THERE  was a great rush of  feet across the deck.  I  could hear people
tumbling up from  the cabin and the forecastle, and  slipping in  an instant
outside my barrel, I  dived behind the fore-sail,  made a double towards the
stern,  and came  out upon  the open  deck in time to join  Hunter  and  Dr.
Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.
     There all  hands  were  already  congregated.  A belt of fog had lifted
almost  simultaneously  with  the  appearance  of  the  moon.  Away  to  the
south-west of us we saw two  low  hills, about a couple  of miles apart, and
rising  behind  one of them  a  third and higher hill, whose peak  was still
buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure.
     So much I saw, almost in  a  dream, for I had not yet recovered from my
horrid fear of a minute or two before. And then I heard the voice of Captain
Smollett issuing orders. The HISPANIOLA was  laid a  couple of points nearer
the  wind and  now sailed a course that would just clear the  island  on the
east.
     "And now, men," said  the captain, when all was  sheeted home, "has any
one of you ever seen that land ahead?"
     "I have, sir,"  said Silver.  "I've watered  there with a  trader I was
cook in."
     "The anchorage is  on the south, behind an islet, I  fancy?"  asked the
captain.
     "Yes,  sir; Skeleton  Island they calls  it. It were a  main place  for
pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed all their names for it. That
hill to the nor'ard they calls the Fore-mast Hill;  there are three hills in
a row running south'ard - fore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the main - that's
the big un, with  the cloud on  it  - they  usually calls the Spy-glass,  by
reason  of a lookout they kept when they  was in the anchorage cleaning, for
it's there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking your pardon."
     "I  have a  chart  here," says  Captain  Smollett. "See  if  that's the
place."
     Long John's  eyes burned in his  head  as he took the chart, but by the
fresh look of the paper I knew he was doomed to disappointment. This was not
the map we found in  Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy, complete  in
all things -  names and heights and soundings - with the single exception of
the  red  crosses  and  the  written  notes.  Sharp  as  must have been  his
annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it.
     "Yes, sir," said he,  "this  is the spot, to be sure, and very prettily
drawed  out.  Who  might  have  done that,  I wonder? The pirates  were  too
ignorant, I reckon. Aye,  here  it is: 'Capt. Kidd's Anchorage'  - just  the
name my shipmate called it. There's a  strong current runs along  the south,
and then away nor'ard up the west coast.  Right  you was, sir," says he, "to
haul your  wind and keep the weather of the island. Leastways,  if such  was
your  intention as to enter and careen, and there  ain't no better place for
that in these waters."
     "Thank  you, my man," says Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you later on  to
give us a help. You may go."
     I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of
the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to
myself. He  did not know, to be  sure, that I had overheard his council from
the apple  barrel,  and  yet I  had by this time taken such a horror  of his
cruelty,  duplicity, and power that I could scarce conceal a shudder when he
laid his hand upon my arm.
     "Ah," says he, "this here is a sweet spot,  this island -  a sweet spot
for a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe, and you'll climb trees, and you'll
hunt  goats,  you  will; and  you'll get aloft on  them hills  like  a  goat
yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber leg,
I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young and have ten toes, and you may  lay
to that. When you want to go a bit of  exploring, you just ask old John, and
he'll put up a snack for you to take along."
     And clapping me in the friendliest way upon  the  shoulder, he  hobbled
off  forward  and went below. Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr.  Livesey
were talking together on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them
my story, I durst not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about
in my  thoughts to find some probable  excuse, Dr.  Livesey called me to his
side. He  had left his pipe below, and being a  slave to tobacco, had  meant
that I should fetch it; but as soon as I was near enough to speak and not to
be overheard, I  broke immediately, "Doctor, let me  speak.  Get the captain
and squire down to the cabin, and then make some pretence to  send for me. I
have terrible news."
     The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he  was master
of himself.
     "Thank  you, Jim,"  said  he quite loudly, "that  was all  I wanted  to
know," as if he had asked me a question.
     And with that  he  turned on  his heel and rejoined the other two. They
spoke together for a little, and though  none of them started, or raised his
voice, or so much  as whistled,  it  was plain enough that  Dr. Livesey  had
communicated my request, for the  next  thing that I heard  was  the captain
giving an order to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on deck.
     "My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say to you. This land
that we have  sighted is the place we  have been sailing for. Mr. Trelawney,
being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, has just asked me a word
or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man  on board had done  his
duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask to  see it  done better, why,  he and I
and the doctor are going below to  the  cabin to drink YOUR health and luck,
and you'll have grog served out  for you to drink OUR health and luck.  I'll
tell  you what I think of this: I think it handsome.  And if you think  as I
do, you'll give a good sea-cheer for the gentleman that does it."
     The cheer followed  - that was a matter of  course; but it rang out  so
full and  hearty that I confess I could hardly believe  these same men  were
plotting for our blood.
     "One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett," cried Long John when the first had
subsided.
     And this also was given with a will.
     On the top of that the three  gentlemen went below, and not long after,
word was sent forward that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin.
     I found them all three seated round the table, a bottle of Spanish wine
and some raisins before  them,  and the doctor smoking away, with his wig on
his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The stern window
was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon shining behind
on the ship's wake.
     "Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something to say. Speak up."
     I did as  I was  bid, and as short  as I could make  it, told the whole
details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor
did any one of the three of them make  so  much as a movement, but they kept
their eyes upon my face from first to last.
     "Jim," said Dr. Livesey, "take a seat."
     And  they made me sit down  at table beside them, poured me out a glass
of wine, filled my hands with raisins,  and all  three, one after the other,
and each with  a bow, drank my good health, and their service  to me, for my
luck and courage.
     "Now,  captain," said  the squire, "you were right, and  I was wrong. I
own myself an ass, and I await your orders."
     "No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a
crew that meant to mutiny but what showed signs before, for any man that had
an eye in his  head to see the  mischief  and take steps according. But this
crew," he added, "beats me."
     "Captain," said the doctor, "with  your  permission, that's  Silver.  A
very remarkable man."
     "He'd look remarkably well from a yard-arm, sir," returned the captain.
"But this is  talk; this don't lead to anything. I see three or four points,
and with Mr. Trelawney's permission, I'll name them."
     "You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," says Mr. Trelawney
grandly.
     "First  point,"  began  Mr. Smollett. "We  must go on, because we can't
turn  back. If I gave the word to go about, they  would rise at once. Second
point, we have time before us  - at least until this treasure's found. Third
point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to blows  sooner
or later, and what I propose is to  take time by the forelock, as the saying
is, and come to blows some fine day when they least expect it. We can count,
I take it, on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney?"
     "As upon myself," declared the squire.
     "Three,"  reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins
here. Now, about the honest hands?"
     "Most  likely Trelawney's  own  men," said the doctor;  "those  he  had
picked up for himself before he lit on Silver."
     "Nay," replied the squire. "Hands was one of mine."
     "I did think I could have trusted Hands," added the captain.
     "And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir,
I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up."
     "Well,  gentlemen," said the  captain, "the best  that I can say is not
much. We must  lay to, if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's trying
on a man, I  know. It would be pleasanter to come  to blows.  But there's no
help for it till we know our men. Lay to, and whistle for a wind,  that's my
view."
     "Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than anyone. The men are
not shy with him, and Jim is a noticing lad."
     "Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the squire.
     I  began  to feel  pretty  desperate  at  this,  for I felt  altogether
helpless; and yet, by an odd  train of circumstances,  it was indeed through
me that  safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased,  there  were only
seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we  could rely; and out of these
seven one was a  boy, so that the grown  men on  our side  were six to their
nineteen.
     =======================================================================

        PART THREE
     My Shore Adventure
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     13. How My Shore Adventure Began
     THE  appearance of  the island  when I came  on deck  next morning  was
altogether  changed. Although the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had made
a great deal of way during the  night and were now lying becalmed about half
a  mile to the  south-east of the  low eastern  coast.  Grey-coloured  woods
covered a large part of the surface.  This even tint was indeed broken up by
streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands, and by  many  tall trees of
the pine family, out-topping  the others - some  singly, some in clumps; but
the general colouring was uniform and sad. The  hills ran up clear above the
vegetation  in spires  of naked  rock. All  were  strangely shaped, and  the
Spy-glass, which  was  by  three  or  four  hundred feet  the tallest on the
island, was  likewise the strangest in configuration, running  up sheer from
almost  every side and then suddenly  cut off  at the top like a pedestal to
put a statue on.
     The HISPANIOLA was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The booms
were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole
ship  creaking,  groaning,  and jumping  like a manufactory. I  had to cling
tight  to the  backstay, and  the world turned  giddily before my  eyes, for
though I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, this standing still
and  being rolled about  like a bottle was a thing I never  learned to stand
without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an empty stomach.
     Perhaps it was this - perhaps it was the  look  of the island, with its
grey, melancholy woods, and  wild  stone spires, and  the surf that we could
both see  and hear foaming and  thundering on the steep  beach  -  at least,
although the sun shone bright  and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and
crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would have been glad
to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart sank, as the  saying is,
into my boots; and  from the first look onward,  I hated the very thought of
Treasure Island.
     We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was  no sign of any
wind,  and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped three
or  four miles round the corner of the island and  up the  narrow passage to
the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one  of the boats, where
I had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled
fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command of my boat, and instead of
keeping the crew in order, he grumbled as loud as the worst.
     "Well," he said with an oath, "it's not forever."
     I thought this was a very bad sign, for up to that day the men had gone
briskly and willingly about their business; but the very sight of the island
had relaxed the cords of discipline.
     All the way in, Long John stood by  the steersman and  conned the ship.
He  knew the  passage like  the palm  of his hand, and though the man in the
chains got everywhere more  water  than  was down in the  chart,  John never
hesitated once.
     "There's a strong scour with the ebb,"  he said, "and this here passage
has been dug out, in a manner of speaking, with a spade."
     We brought up just where the anchor  was in the chart, about a third of
a mile from each  shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on the
other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up clouds of
birds  wheeling and crying  over the woods, but in less than  a  minute they
were down again and all was once more silent.
     The place was entirely  land-locked, buried in woods, the trees  coming
right  down to  high-water mark,  the shores mostly flat,  and  the hilltops
standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheatre, one here, one there.
Two  little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as you
might call it; and  the foliage round that part  of the shore  had a kind of
poisonous  brightness. From the ship we  could see nothing  of the house  or
stockade, for they were quite buried among trees; and if it had not been for
the  chart on the companion, we  might  have been  the first  that had  ever
anchored there since the island arose out of the seas.
     There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the  surf
booming half a mile away along the beaches and against  the rocks outside. A
peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage - a  smell  of sodden leaves
and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor  sniffing and  sniffing, like
someone tasting a bad egg.
     "I don't know about treasure," he said,  "but I'll stake my wig there's
fever here."
     If the conduct  of the  men had  been alarming in the  boat,  it became
truly  threatening  when  they  had  come aboard.  They  lay about the  deck
growling together in talk. The slightest order  was  received  with a  black
look and grudgingly and  carelessly obeyed. Even the honest  hands must have
caught  the infection, for  there was not one man  aboard to  mend  another.
Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thunder-cloud.
     And it was  not only we of  the cabin party who perceived  the  danger.
Long  John was hard at work going from group  to group, spending himself  in
good advice, and as for example no man  could have shown a better. He fairly
outstripped  himself in  willingness and  civility;  he  was  all  smiles to
everyone. If an order were given, John would be on his crutch in an instant,
with the cheeriest "Aye, aye, sir!" in the world; and when there was nothing
else to  do,  he  kept up one song  after  another,  as if  to  conceal  the
discontent of the rest. Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon,
this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John appeared the worst. We held  a
council in the cabin.
     "Sir," said the  captain,  "if I risk another order, the  whole ship'll
come  about our ears  by the run. You see, sir, here it is.  I  get  a rough
answer, do I not? Well,  if I speak back, pikes will be going in two shakes;
if I don't, Silver will see there's something under that, and the game's up.
Now, we've only one man to rely on."
     "And who is that?" asked the squire.
     "Silver, sir," returned the  captain; "he's as anxious as you and  I to
smother  things up. This is  a tiff; he'd soon talk 'em  out of it if he had
the chance, and what I propose to do is to  give him the chance. Let's allow
the  men an afternoon ashore. If they  all go, why we'll  fight the ship. If
they  none of them go, well then, we  hold  the  cabin, and God  defend  the
right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll  bring 'em aboard again
as mild as lambs."
     It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all the sure  men;
Hunter, Joyce,  and Redruth were taken into our confidence and received  the
news with less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for, and then
the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.
     "My lads," said he, "we've had a  hot day and are all tired and  out of
sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody - the boats are still in the water;  you
can  take the gigs,  and as many as please may go ashore  for the afternoon.
I'll fire a gun half an hour before sundown."
     I  believe the silly fellows  must have thought they would  break their
shins  over treasure  as soon as they were landed, for they all  came out of
their sulks in a moment and gave a cheer that started the echo in a far-away
hill and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round the anchorage.
     The captain was too bright to be in the way. He whipped out of sight in
a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party, and I fancy it was as well he
did  so. Had  he been on deck, he could  no longer so much as have pretended
not to understand  the situation. It was as  plain  as  day.  Silver was the
captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The honest hands - and I
was soon  to  see it  proved that  there were such on board - must have been
very stupid fellows. Or rather, I suppose the truth was this, that all hands
were disaffected by  the  example of the  ringleaders - only some more, some
less; and a few, being good fellows  in the  main, could neither be  led nor
driven any further. It is one thing to be idle and skulk  and quite  another
to take a ship  and murder a number of innocent men.  At last, however,  the
party was made up.  Six  fellows were to stay on  board,  and  the remaining
thirteen, including Silver, began to embark.
     Then it was that  there came into my head the first of the mad  notions
that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men  were left by Silver,
it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship; and since only six
were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had  no present need of
my  assistance. It occurred  to me at once to go  ashore. In a  jiffy I  had
slipped over the side and curled up in the fore-sheets of  the nearest boat,
and almost at the same moment she shoved off.
     No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying,  "Is  that you, Jim?
Keep your  head down." But Silver, from the other  boat, looked sharply over
and called out to  know if  that were  me; and from  that moment I  began to
regret what I had done.
     The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in, having some start
and being at once  the lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead  of her
consort, and the bow  had struck among the shore-side trees and I had caught
a  branch and swung  myself  out and plunged into the nearest thicket  while
Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind.
     "Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting.
     But  you may suppose  I  paid no heed; jumping,  ducking, and  breaking
through, I ran straight before my nose till I could run no longer.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     14. The First Blow
     I WAS so pleased  at having given the slip to Long John that I began to
enjoy myself and look around me with some  interest on the strange land that
I was in. I had crossed a marshy tract  full of willows, bulrushes, and odd,
outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now come out upon the skirts  of an open
piece of  undulating, sandy country,  about  a mile long,  dotted with a few
pines and a great  number of  contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth,
but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of the open stood one
of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks shining vividly in the sun.
     I now  felt  for the first time  the joy of  exploration. The  isle was
uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and  nothing lived in front  of
me but dumb brutes  and fowls. I turned hither and  thither among the trees.
Here and there were  flowering plants, unknown to me; here  and  there I saw
snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of rock and hissed at me with a
noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did  I suppose that he  was a
deadly enemy and that the noise was the famous rattle.
     Then  I  came  to  a  long  thicket of these  oaklike trees -  live, or
evergreen, oaks, I  heard afterwards they should be called  - which grew low
along the sand like brambles,  the  boughs  curiously  twisted, the  foliage
compact, like  thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of the
sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it  reached the
margin  of the broad,  reedy  fen, through which the nearest of  the  little
rivers  soaked  its way into the anchorage.  The marsh  was  steaming in the
strong sun, and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled through the haze.
     All at once there began  to go a sort of bustle among the  bulrushes; a
wild duck flew up with  a quack, another  followed, and soon  over the whole
surface of the marsh a  great cloud of birds hung screaming  and circling in
the air.  I judged  at once that some of my shipmates  must be  drawing near
along the borders of the fen. Nor was  I deceived, for soon I heard the very
distant and low tones of  a human  voice, which, as I continued to give ear,
grew steadily louder and nearer. This put me in a great fear, and  I crawled
under  cover  of  the  nearest live-oak and  squatted there, hearkening,  as
silent as a mouse.
     Another  voice  answered,  and  then  the  first  voice,  which  I  now
recognized to be Silver's, once more took up the story and ran on for a long
while in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound
they must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely; but  no distinct
word came to my hearing.
     At last the  speakers seemed  to  have paused  and perhaps to have  sat
down,  for not  only did  they  cease  to  draw  any  nearer, but the  birds
themselves began to  grow more quiet  and to settle again to their places in
the swamp. And now I began  to feel  that I was neglecting my business, that
since I had been so foolhardy as to come ashore with  these desperadoes, the
least I could do was  to overhear them  at their councils, and that my plain
and  obvious  duty  was  to  draw as  close  as  I could  manage, under  the
favourable ambush of the crouching trees.
     I could tell the direction of  the speakers pretty exactly, not only by
the sound of their voices but by the behaviour of  the few birds that  still
hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders.
     Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at
last,  raising my head  to  an aperture  among the leaves, I could see clear
down into a little green dell beside  the marsh, and closely set  about with
trees, where Long John Silver and another of the  crew stood face to face in
conversation.
     The sun beat  full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat  beside  him on
the  ground, and his great, smooth, blond  face, all shining  with heat, was
lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal.
     "Mate," he was saying,  "it's  because I thinks gold dust of you - gold
dust, and  you may lay to that! If I hadn't took  to you  like pitch, do you
think I'd  have  been here  a-warning of you? All's up - you can't  make nor
mend; it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of the wild uns
knew it, where'd I be, Tom - now, tell me, where'd I be?"
     "Silver," said  the other man  - and  I observed he was not only red in
the face,  but  spoke as hoarse  as a crow, and his voice shook too, like  a
taut  rope - "Silver,"  says he, "you're old, and you're honest,  or has the
name for it; and you've money  too, which  lots of poor  sailors hasn't; and
you're brave, or I'm mistook. And  will you tell me you'll  let yourself  be
led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure as God sees me,
I'd sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin my dooty - "
     And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I had found one
of the honest hands - well, here, at that same moment, came news of another.
Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound like the cry
of anger, then another on the back of it;  and then  one horrid,  long-drawn
scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a score of times;  the whole
troop of  marsh-birds  rose  again,  darkening heaven,  with a  simultaneous
whirr; and long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain, silence
had re-established its empire, and only the rustle of the redescending birds
and the boom of the distant surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.
     Tom  had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the  spur, but Silver had
not winked an eye. He stood  where he  was,  resting lightly on  his crutch,
watching his companion like a snake about to spring.
     "John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand.
     "Hands  off!"  cried Silver, leaping  back a yard, as it seemed  to me,
with the speed and security of a trained gymnast.
     "Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other.
     "It's a  black  conscience that  can make  you  feared of  me.  But  in
heaven's name, tell me, what was that?"
     "That?" returned Silver, smiling away,  but warier than ever, his eye a
mere pin-point in his big face, but gleaming  like a  crumb of glass. "That?
Oh, I reckon that'll be Alan."
     And at this point Tom flashed out like a hero.
     "Alan!" he  cried. "Then rest  his soul for  a true seaman! And  as for
you, John Silver, long you've been  a mate of mine, but you're mate of  mine
no more. If I die like a dog, I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan, have
you? Kill me too, if you can. But I defies you."
     And with that, this  brave fellow turned his back directly on the  cook
and set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a
cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of  his armpit,
and sent that uncouth missile hurtling through the  air. It struck poor Tom,
point foremost,  and with stunning violence, right between the  shoulders in
the middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, and fell.
     Whether  he were injured much  or  little, none could  ever tell.  Like
enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he had
no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey even without  leg or
crutch, was on the top of him next moment and had twice buried his knife  up
to the hilt in that defenceless body. From my place  of ambush, I could hear
him pant aloud as he struck the blows.
     I do not know  what it rightly is to faint,  but I do know that for the
next  little while the whole world swam away  from before  me in a  whirling
mist; Silver and the birds, and  the tall Spy-glass hilltop, going round and
round and  topsy-turvy before my  eyes, and  all manner of bells ringing and
distant voices shouting in my ear.
     When I came again to  myself the  monster had pulled himself  together,
his crutch under his arm,  his hat upon his  head.  Just before him Tom  lay
motionless upon the sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit, cleansing
his blood-stained knife the  while upon a wisp of grass. Everything else was
unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly on the  steaming marsh and  the
tall pinnacle  of the mountain,  and I  could  scarce  persuade myself  that
murder had been actually done  and a human life  cruelly cut  short a moment
since before my eyes.
     But now John put his  hand  into his pocket, brought out a whistle, and
blew upon it several modulated blasts that rang far across the heated air. I
could not tell, of course, the meaning of the signal, but it instantly awoke
my fears. More men would be coming. I might be discovered. They had  already
slain two of  the honest people; after Tom and Alan, might  not I come next?
Instantly  I began to extricate myself and crawl back again, with what speed
and silence I could manage, to  the more open portion of the wood. As I  did
so, I could hear  hails  coming and  going between the old buccaneer and his
comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings. As soon as  I was clear of
the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce minding the direction of my
flight, so long as it led me from the murderers; and as I ran, fear grew and
grew upon me until it turned into a kind of frenzy.
     Indeed, could anyone  be more entirely lost than I? When the gun fired,
how should I dare to  go down to the boats among those fiends, still smoking
from their  crime? Would not the first of them who saw me wring my neck like
a snipe's? Would not my absence itself be  an evidence to them  of my alarm,
and therefore of my fatal knowledge? It was all over, I thought. Good-bye to
the HISPANIOLA;  good-bye to the  squire, the doctor, and the captain! There
was nothing left for me but death by starvation or death by the hands of the
mutineers.
     All this  while,  as I say, I was still running, and without taking any
notice, I had drawn near to the foot of the  little hill with the  two peaks
and had got into a part of the island  where the live-oaks  grew more widely
apart  and seemed more like forest  trees in  their  bearing and dimensions.
Mingled  with these were  a few  scattered  pines, some fifty,  some  nearer
seventy, feet high.  The  air too smelt  more freshly than  down beside  the
marsh.
     And here  a fresh  alarm  brought me to a standstill  with  a  thumping
heart.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     15. The Man of the Island
     FROM  the side of  the hill, which was here steep and stony, a spout of
gravel was dislodged and  fell  rattling and bounding  through the trees. My
eyes  turned instinctively in that direction,  and I  saw a figure leap with
great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine.  What it was, whether bear or man
or monkey,  I could in no  wise tell. It seemed dark and shaggy; more I knew
not. But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.
     I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides; behind me the murderers,
before  me this lurking nondescript.  And immediately I began to prefer  the
dangers that I  knew  to  those I knew  not.  Silver  himself appeared  less
terrible in  contrast with this  creature of  the woods, and I turned on  my
heel,  and looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began  to  retrace my
steps in the direction of the boats.
     Instantly the  figure  reappeared, and making a wide  circuit, began to
head me off.  I was tired, at  any rate; but had I  been  as fresh as when I
rose, I could see  it was in vain for  me to contend  in speed with  such an
adversary.  From trunk to trunk  the  creature flitted like a deer,  running
manlike  on two  legs,  but unlike  any man  that I  had ever seen, stooping
almost  double as it ran. Yet a man  it was, I could  no longer be in  doubt
about that.
     I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I was within an ace of
calling  for help. But the mere fact that  he was  a man, however wild,  had
somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver began to  revive in proportion.
I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of escape; and as I
was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed into my mind. As soon
as I remembered I was not defenceless, courage glowed again in my  heart and
I set my face  resolutely  for this man of  the  island  and walked  briskly
towards him.
     He was concealed by this time  behind  another tree trunk;  but he must
have  been  watching me  closely,  for  as  soon as  I began to  move in his
direction he  reappeared and took a step to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew
back,  came  forward again, and at  last, to  my wonder and confusion, threw
himself on his knees and held out his clasped hands in supplication. At that
I once more stopped.
     "Who are you?" I asked.
     "Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like
a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke with a Christian
these three years." I could now see that he was a white man  like myself and
that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was
burnt by the sun;  even  his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked quite
startling  in  so dark a face.  Of  all the  beggar-men  that I had seen  or
fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old
ship's  canvas and  old sea-cloth, and  this extraordinary patchwork was all
held together by  a system  of  the most various and incongruous fastenings,
brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist  he
wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid in his
whole accoutrement.
     "Three years!" I cried. "Were you shipwrecked?"
     "Nay, mate," said he; "marooned."
     I had heard the word,  and  I  knew  it stood  for a horrible  kind  of
punishment common  enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is put
ashore  with a little powder and  shot and left behind  on some desolate and
distant island.
     "Marooned three  years agone,"  he continued, "and lived on goats since
then, and berries, and oysters.  Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do for
himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You mightn't happen
to have a piece of cheese about you, now?  No? Well,  many's the long  night
I've dreamed of  cheese - toasted,  mostly - and woke up  again, and here  I
were."
     "If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you shall have cheese by the
stone."
     All  this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my
hands,  looking at my boots, and generally, in the intervals  of his speech,
showing a  childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow creature. But at my
last words he perked up into a kind of startled slyness.
     "If ever you can get aboard  again, says you?" he repeated. "Why,  now,
who's to hinder you?"
     "Not you, I know," was my reply.
     "And right you  was," he cried. "Now you -  what do you  call yourself,
mate?"
     "Jim," I told him.
     "Jim,  Jim," says he, quite pleased  apparently. "Well,  now, Jim, I've
lived that rough as you'd  be  ashamed to hear of.  Now,  for instance,  you
wouldn't think I had had a pious mother - to look at me?" he asked.
     "Why, no, not in particular," I answered.
     "Ah, well," said  he, "but I had - remarkable pious. And I was a civil,
pious boy, and could rattle off my catechism that fast, as you couldn't tell
one word from another. And here's  what it come to,  Jim, and it  begun with
chuck-farthen on the blessed grave-stones! That's what it begun with, but it
went further'n that; and so my  mother told me, and predicked the whole, she
did,  the pious woman! But it were Providence that put me here. I've thought
it all out in this here  lonely island, and  I'm  back  on piety.  You don't
catch me tasting rum so much, but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, the
first chance I have. I'm bound I'll be good, and I see the way to. And, Jim"
- looking all round him and lowering his voice to a whisper - "I'm rich."
     I now felt sure that  the poor fellow  had gone  crazy in his solitude,
and I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face, for he repeated  the
statement hotly: "Rich!  Rich! I  says. And I'll tell you what:  I'll make a
man of you, Jim.  Ah, Jim, you'll bless  your stars,  you will, you  was the
first that found me!"
     And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow over his face, and he
tightened  his grasp upon  my  hand  and raised  a  forefinger threateningly
before my eyes.
     "Now, Jim, you tell me true: that ain't Flint's ship?" he asked.
     At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to believe that I  had found
an ally, and I answered him at once.
     "It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is  dead; but I'll tell you  true, as
you ask me - there are some of Flint's hands aboard; worse luck for the rest
of us."
     "Not a man - with one - leg?" he gasped.
     "Silver?" I asked.
     "Ah, Silver!" says he. "That were his name."
     "He's the cook, and the ringleader too."
     He was still holding me by the wrist,  and  at that  he give it quite a
wring.
     "If you was sent by  Long  John," he  said, "I'm as good as pork, and I
know it. But where was you, do you suppose?"
     I had made my  mind up in a moment, and by way of  answer told  him the
whole story of our  voyage and the predicament in which we  found ourselves.
He heard me with the keenest  interest, and when I had done he patted  me on
the head.
     "You're a good lad, Jim," he  said; "and you're all in a  clove  hitch,
ain't you? Well, you just put your trust in Ben Gunn - Ben Gunn's the man to
do  it.  Would  you think it likely, now,  that  your  squire would  prove a
liberal-minded one in  case  of help  - him  being in a clove hitch,  as you
remark?"
     I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.
     "Aye, but you see," returned  Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean giving me a gate
to keep, and  a  suit of livery clothes, and  such; that's not my mark, Jim.
What  I mean is,  would  he be likely to come  down to the toon of, say  one
thousand pounds out of money that's as good as a man's own already?"
     "I am sure he would," said I. "As it was, all hands were to share."
     "AND a passage home?" he added with a look of great shrewdness.
     "Why," I  cried, "the squire's a  gentleman. And besides, if we got rid
of the others, we should want you to help work the vessel home."
     "Ah," said he, "so you would." And he seemed very much relieved.
     "Now,  I'll tell you what," he went on. "So much I'll tell  you, and no
more. I were in Flint's ship when he buried the treasure; he and six along -
six strong seamen. They  was ashore nigh on a week, and us standing  off and
on in the old  WALRUS. One  fine day up went the signal, and here come Flint
by himself in a little  boat, and his  head done up in a blue scarf. The sun
was getting up, and mortal white he looked about the cutwater. But, there he
was, you mind, and the six all dead - dead and buried. How he done it, not a
man aboard  us could make  out.  It  was battle, murder, and  sudden  death,
leastways -  him against six.  Billy Bones  was the mate; Long  John, he was
quartermaster;  and t