ith  a deep flush and
cried "No!" and swore.
     Silver struck the barrel with his open hand.
     "Si-lence!"  he roared  and looked  about him  positively  like a lion.
"Doctor," he went on in his  usual tones, "I was a-thinking of that, knowing
as  how  you  had a  fancy for  the boy. We're all humbly grateful for  your
kindness, and  as you see,  puts faith in you and  takes the drugs down like
that much grog. And I take it I've found a way as'll suit all. Hawkins, will
you give me your word of honour as a young gentleman - for a young gentleman
you are, although poor born - your word of honour not to slip your cable?"
     I readily gave the pledge required.
     "Then, doctor," said Silver,  "you just step  outside o' that stockade,
and  once you're there I'll bring the boy down on the  inside,  and I reckon
you can yarn through the spars. Good day to you, sir, and all our dooties to
the squire and Cap'n Smollett."
     The explosion of disapproval,  which  nothing  but Silver's black looks
had restrained, broke out immediately the  doctor had left the house. Silver
was roundly accused of playing  double - of  trying to make a separate peace
for himself, of sacrificing  the interests  of his accomplices  and victims,
and, in one word, of the identical, exact thing that he was doing. It seemed
to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not imagine how  he was to turn
their anger. But  he  was twice the  man the rest were, and his last night's
victory had given him a huge  preponderance on  their  minds. He called them
all the fools and dolts you can imagine, said it was necessary I should talk
to the doctor, fluttered the chart  in their faces, asked them if they could
afford to break the treaty the very day they were bound a-treasure-hunting.
     "No, by  thunder!" he cried. "It's  us  must  break the treaty when the
time comes; and till then  I'll gammon that doctor, if  I  have to  ile  his
boots  with brandy." And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked out
upon his crutch,  with his hand on my shoulder, leaving them  in a disarray,
and silenced by his volubility rather than convinced.
     "Slow, lad, slow,"  he  said. "They might round upon us in a twinkle of
an eye if we was seen to hurry."
     Very deliberately, then,  did we advance across  the sand to  where the
doctor awaited us on the other side of the stockade, and as soon  as we were
within easy speaking distance Silver stopped.
     "You'll  make  a note  of this here  also,  doctor," says  he, "and the
boy'll tell you  how I saved his life, and were deposed for it  too, and you
may  lay to that. Doctor, when  a man's steering as near the  wind as  me  -
playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in his body, like - you wouldn't
think it too much,  mayhap, to give him one good word? You'll please bear in
mind  it's not  my life only now  -  it's that boy's into  the  bargain; and
you'll  speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o'  hope to go  on, for the
sake of mercy."
     Silver was a changed man once he was out there and had  his back to his
friends and  the block house; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice
trembled; never was a soul more dead in earnest.
     "Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Dr. Livesey.
     "Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I  - not SO  much!"  and he snapped his
fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say  it. But  I'll own  up  fairly,  I've  the
shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true; I never seen a
better man! And you'll not forget what I done good, not any more than you'll
forget the bad, I know. And I step aside - see  here - and leave you and Jim
alone. And  you'll put that down for me too,  for it's a  long  stretch,  is
that!"
     So saying, he stepped  back  a little  way, till he was out of earshot,
and  there sat  down upon a  tree-stump and began to whistle, spinning round
now  and again upon his seat  so as to command  a sight, sometimes of me and
the doctor and sometimes  of  his unruly ruffians as they went to and fro in
the sand between the fire - which they were busy rekindling - and the house,
from which  they  brought  forth pork and bread  to make the breakfast. "So,
Jim," said the doctor sadly, "here you are. As you have brewed, so shall you
drink, my boy.  Heaven knows, I cannot find it in my heart to blame you, but
this much I will say, be  it kind or unkind: when Captain Smollett was well,
you dared not have gone off;  and when he  was ill and couldn't help  it, by
George, it was downright cowardly!"
     I will own that I here  began to  weep. "Doctor,"  I said,  "you  might
spare  me. I  have  blamed myself  enough;  my life's forfeit anyway, and  I
should have been dead  by  now  if Silver  hadn't stood  for me; and doctor,
believe this,  I can die - and I dare say I deserve  it - but what I fear is
torture. If they come to torture me - "
     "Jim," the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite changed, "Jim, I
can't have this. Whip over, and we'll run for it."
     "Doctor," said I, "I passed my word."
     "I know, I know," he cried. "We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it
on my shoulders,  holus  bolus,  blame and shame,  my boy; but stay here,  I
cannot let you. Jump! One jump, and you're out, and  we'll run for  it  like
antelopes."
     "No,"  I  replied;  "you  know right  well you wouldn't  do  the  thing
yourself - neither you  nor squire  nor captain; and no more  will I. Silver
trusted me; I passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you did not let me
finish. If they come to torture  me, I might let  slip a word  of  where the
ship is, for I got the ship, part by luck and part by risking, and  she lies
in North Inlet,  on the southern beach,  and just below high water.  At half
tide she must be high and dry."
     "The ship!" exclaimed the doctor.
     Rapidly I  described to  him my  adventures,  and  he  heard me  out in
silence.
     "There is  a kind of fate in this," he observed when I had done. "Every
step, it's you that saves our lives; and do  you suppose  by any chance that
we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy. You
found out the plot; you found Ben Gunn - the best deed that ever you did, or
will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter, and talking of Ben Gunn!
Why,  this is the mischief in  person. Silver!" he cried. "Silver! I'll give
you a piece of advice," he continued as the cook drew near again; "don't you
be in any great hurry after that treasure."
     "Why, sir, I do my possible, which  that ain't,"  said Silver.  "I  can
only,  asking your pardon, save my  life  and the  boy's by seeking for that
treasure; and you may lay to that."
     "Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that  is so, I'll  go one  step
further: look out for squalls when you find it."
     "Sir,"  said Silver, "as between man  and man, that's  too much and too
little. What you're  after,  why you left the block  house, why you given me
that there chart, I don't know, now, do I? And  yet I done your bidding with
my eyes shut and never a  word of hope! But no, this here's too much. If you
won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so and I'll leave the helm."
"No," said the  doctor  musingly;  "I've no right to say  more; it's  not my
secret, you see,  Silver, or, I give you my word, I'd tell  it you. But I'll
go as far with you as  I dare  go, and a step  beyond, for I'll have  my wig
sorted by the  captain  or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll  give you a bit  of
hope; Silver, if we both get alive out of this wolf-trap, I'll do my best to
save you, short of perjury."
     Silver's face  was radiant. "You  couldn't say more, I'm sure, sir, not
if you was my mother," he cried.
     "Well, that's my first concession," added the  doctor. "My second is  a
piece of advice: keep  the boy close  beside you,  and  when you  need help,
halloo. I'm off to seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I speak
at random. Good-bye, Jim."
     And  Dr. Livesey shook hands  with me  through the stockade, nodded  to
Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     31. The Treasure-hunt - Flint's Pointer
     "JIM," said Silver when we were alone, "if I saved your life, you saved
mine;  and I'll not forget it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for  it -
with the  tail of my eye, I did; and I seen you say no, as plain as hearing.
Jim, that's one to you.  This is the first  glint of  hope  I had  since the
attack failed, and I owe it you. And now,  Jim, we're to go in for this here
treasure-hunting, with sealed  orders too,  and I don't like it; and you and
me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll save our necks in spite o'
fate and fortune."
     Just  then a man hailed us from the fire  that breakfast was ready, and
we were soon seated  here  and there  about  the sand over biscuit and fried
junk. They had  lit a fire fit to roast an ox, and it  was now  grown so hot
that they could only  approach it from  the windward,  and  even  there  not
without precaution. In the same wasteful spirit, they had cooked, I suppose,
three times  more than we could  eat; and one of them, with  an empty laugh,
threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and roared  again  over this
unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow;  hand to
mouth is the only word that  can describe  their way of doing; and what with
wasted food and  sleeping sentries, though they were bold enough for a brush
and be  done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like a
prolonged campaign.
     Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his shoulder, had not
a word of blame for their recklessness. And this  the more surprised me, for
I thought he had never shown himself so cunning as he did then.
     "Aye,  mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Barbecue to think  for you
with  this here head. I got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have the
ship. Where they have  it, I  don't know yet;  but once we hit the treasure,
we'll have to jump  about and find out.  And  then, mates,  us  that has the
boats, I reckon, has the upper hand."
     Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of the hot  bacon; thus he
restored their hope and  confidence, and, I more than suspect,  repaired his
own at the same time.
     "As for hostage," he continued, "that's  his last talk,  I  guess, with
them he loves so  dear. I've got my  piece o'  news, and  thanky to  him for
that;  but  it's  over  and  done.  I'll take  him  in  a  line  when  we go
treasure-hunting,  for  we'll  keep  him  like  so  much  gold,  in case  of
accidents, you  mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the ship and treasure
both and off  to sea  like jolly companions, why then we'll talk Mr. Hawkins
over,  we  will, and  we'll  give him  his share, to be  sure,  for all  his
kindness."
     It was no  wonder the men were in a good humour now. For my part, I was
horribly cast  down. Should  the scheme he  had now sketched prove feasible,
Silver,  already doubly a traitor,  would  not hesitate to adopt it.  He had
still a foot in  either camp, and there was  no doubt he would prefer wealth
and freedom  with the pirates  to a bare escape from hanging, which was  the
best he had to hope on our side.
     Nay, and even  if  things so fell out that he  was  forced to keep  his
faith with Dr. Livesey, even then what danger lay before us! What  a  moment
that would be when  the suspicions of his followers  turned to certainty and
he and  I  should have to fight for dear life  - he a  cripple and I a boy -
against five strong and active  seamen! Add  to this double apprehension the
mystery that still hung over  the behaviour of my friends, their unexplained
desertion  of  the stockade,  their inexplicable cession of  the  chart,  or
harder  still to understand, the doctor's last warning to Silver,  "Look out
for squalls when you find it," and you will readily believe how little taste
I found in my breakfast  and with  how uneasy a  heart I set forth behind my
captors on the quest for treasure.
     We made  a curious figure,  had anyone been there  to  see us  - all in
soiled sailor clothes and all but me armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns
slung about him - one before and  one behind - besides the great  cutlass at
his waist and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat. To complete
his  strange  appearance,  Captain  Flint sat perched  upon his shoulder and
gabbling  odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk. I had a line about my waist
and followed obediently after the  sea-cook, who held  the loose end of  the
rope, now in his  free hand,  now between  his  powerful teeth.  For all the
world, I was led like a dancing bear.
     The other men were variously burthened, some carrying picks and shovels
- for that  had been the  very  first necessary they brought ashore from the
HISPANIOLA - others laden with  pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal.
All the stores,  I observed, came from our stock, and I could  see the truth
of Silver's  words the night before. Had he not struck  a  bargain with  the
doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been driven to
subsist  on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting. Water  would have
been little to their taste; a sailor is not usually a good shot; and besides
all that, when they were so short of eatables,  it was not likely they would
be very flush of powder.
     Well, thus equipped, we all set out - even  the  fellow with the broken
head, who should  certainly have kept  in  shadow - and straggled, one after
another, to  the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace
of the drunken  folly of  the pirates, one in a broken  thwart, and both  in
their  muddy and unbailed condition. Both were  to be  carried along with us
for the sake  of safety; and so, with  our numbers  divided between them, we
set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. As we pulled over, there was some
discussion on the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large to be a
guide; and the terms of the note on the  back, as you will hear, admitted of
some ambiguity. They ran, the reader may remember, thus:
     Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
     Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
     Ten feet.
     A tall  tree  was thus  the principal  mark.  Now, right  before us the
anchorage  was bounded by  a  plateau from  two to  three hundred feet high,
adjoining on the north the sloping  southern  shoulder of the  Spy-glass and
rising again towards the south into the  rough, cliffy  eminence  called the
Mizzen-mast Hill. The  top of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine-trees
of  varying height. Every  here and there, one  of a  different species rose
forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours, and  which of  these was the
particular  "tall tree" of Captain Flint could only  be decided on the spot,
and by the readings of the compass.
     Yet, although that was  the  case, every  man  on  board  the boats had
picked  a favourite of his own ere  we  were half-way over,  Long John alone
shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there.
     We  pulled easily,  by  Silver's directions,  not to  weary  the  hands
prematurely,  and after quite a long  passage,  landed at the mouth  of  the
second river - that which runs down a woody  cleft of the Spy-glass. Thence,
bending to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards the plateau.
     At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted, marish vegetation
greatly delayed  our progress; but  by little and little  the  hill began to
steepen and  become stony  under foot, and the wood to  change its character
and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of
the  island  that  we  were  now approaching. A heavy-scented broom and many
flowering shrubs had  almost  taken the  place of  grass. Thickets of  green
nutmeg-trees  were dotted here and there with the red columns  and the broad
shadow of the pines; and the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the
others.  The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this, under the sheer
sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to our senses.
     The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to
and  fro.  About the centre, and  a good way behind  the rest, Silver  and I
followed - I tethered by my rope, he ploughing, with deep pants,  among  the
sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed,  I had to lend him a hand,  or he
must have missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill.
     We had thus  proceeded  for  about half a mile and were approaching the
brow of the plateau when the man upon the farthest left began  to cry aloud,
as if in terror. Shout  after  shout  came from him, and the others began to
run in his direction.
     "He can't  'a found the treasure,"  said old Morgan,  hurrying  past us
from the right, "for that's clean a-top."
     Indeed,  as we  found when we  also reached the spot, it  was something
very  different. At the foot of  a pretty big pine and  involved in a  green
creeper, which had even partly  lifted  some  of the smaller bones, a  human
skeleton  lay, with a few shreds  of  clothing, on  the ground.  I believe a
chill struck for a moment to every heart.
     "He  was a seaman," said George Merry,  who,  bolder than the rest, had
gone up close and was examining  the rags  of clothing. "Leastways, this  is
good sea-cloth."
     "Aye, aye," said Silver;  "like enough; you  wouldn't look  to  find  a
bishop  here, I reckon. But  what sort of  a  way  is that for bones to lie?
'Tain't in natur'."
     Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body
was in a natural position.  But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the
birds  that had  fed  upon  him  or of  the slow-growing  creeper  that  had
gradually  enveloped his remains) the man lay perfectly straight - his  feet
pointing in one direction,  his hands, raised above his head like a diver's,
pointing directly in the opposite.
     "I've taken a notion  into my old numbskull,"  observed Silver. "Here's
the compass; there's the tip-top p'int o' Skeleton Island, stickin' out like
a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line of them bones."
     It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of  the island,
and the compass read duly E.S.E. and by E.
     "I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there
is our line for  the Pole Star and the jolly dollars. But, by thunder! If it
don't  make  me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of HIS jokes, and
no mistake. Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em,  every man; and
this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver my timbers! They're
long bones, and the hair's  been  yellow. Aye, that would be  Allardyce. You
mind Allardyce, Tom Morgan?"
     "Aye, aye," returned Morgan; "I mind him; he owed me money, he did, and
took my knife ashore with him."
     "Speaking of knives,"  said  another, "why  don't  we find  his'n lying
round?  Flint warn't the  man to  pick a seaman's pocket; and  the birds,  I
guess, would leave it be."
     "By the powers, and that's true!" cried Silver.
     "There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still  feeling round among
the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to me."
     "No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral, nor not nice, says
you. Great guns!  Messmates,  but if  Flint was living, this would be a  hot
spot for you  and me.  Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they
are now."
     "I saw him dead with these here deadlights,"  said  Morgan. "Billy took
me in. There he laid, with penny-pieces on his eyes."
     "Dead -  aye, sure enough he's  dead  and  gone below," said the fellow
with the  bandage; "but if ever  sperrit  walked, it would be Flint's.  Dear
heart, but he died bad, did Flint!"
     "Aye,  that he  did,"  observed  another;  "now  he raged,  and now  he
hollered for the rum, and now  he  sang. 'Fifteen Men'  were his only  song,
mates; and I tell you true, I never  rightly liked to hear  it since. It was
main  hot,  and the  windy was open, and I hear that  old song comin' out as
clear as clear - and the death-haul on the man already."
     "Come,  come,"  said Silver; "stow this talk.  He's dead,  and he don't
walk, that I know; leastways, he won't walk by day, and you may lay to that.
Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons."
     We  started, certainly; but  in spite of  the  hot sun and  the staring
daylight, the  pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the wood,
but kept  side by side and spoke  with bated breath. The  terror of the dead
buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     32. The Treasure-hunt - The Voice Among the Trees
     PARTLY from the damping  influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver
and the sick folk, the whole party  sat down as soon as they had  gained the
brow of the ascent. The plateau being somewhat tilted towards the west, this
spot on which we had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before
us, over  the tree-tops, we  beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf;
behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage  and Skeleton Island, but
saw - clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands - a great field of open
sea  upon the  east.  Sheer above us  rose the Spy-glass,  here dotted  with
single pines, there black with precipices. There was no  sound  but  that of
the  distant  breakers, mounting from all round, and the  chirp of countless
insects in  the brush. Not  a  man, not  a  sail, upon  the  sea;  the  very
largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude.
     Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.
     "There are three 'tall trees'"  said he, "about in the  right line from
Skeleton  Island.  'Spy-glass shoulder,' I  take  it, means that lower p'int
there. It's  child's play to find the  stuff now.  I've half a mind  to dine
first."
     "I don't feel  sharp," growled Morgan. "Thinkin'  o' Flint - I think it
were - as done me."
     "Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he's dead," said Silver.
     "He  were an ugly devil," cried a  third  pirate with a shudder;  "that
blue in the face too!"
     "That was how the rum took him,"  added Merry. "Blue! Well, I reckon he
was blue. That's a true word."
     Ever since they  had found the  skeleton and  got  upon  this  train of
thought,  they  had  spoken  lower and  lower,  and they had  almost got  to
whispering by now, so that the sound of  their talk  hardly interrupted  the
silence  of  the  wood.  All of a sudden,  out of the middle of the trees in
front of  us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well-known air and
words:
     "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -
     Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
     I never have seen men more dreadfully  affected than  the pirates.  The
colour  went from their six faces  like enchantment; some  leaped  to  their
feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan grovelled on the ground.
     "It's Flint, by - !" cried Merry.
     The song  had stopped as  suddenly as it began  - broken off, you would
have said, in the middle of a note, as though someone had laid his hand upon
the  singer's mouth.  Coming through  the  clear, sunny atmosphere among the
green tree-tops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly; and the effect
on my companions was the stranger.
     "Come,"  said  Silver, struggling with his  ashen lips  to get the word
out;  "this won't do. Stand by to go about. This is a rum start, and I can't
name  the voice,  but  it's someone  skylarking -  someone  that's flesh and
blood, and you may lay to that."
     His  courage  had come back as he  spoke, and some of the colour to his
face along with it. Already  the others had  begun to  lend an  ear  to this
encouragement and were  coming a little  to themselves, when the  same voice
broke  out again - not this time  singing, but in a faint distant  hail that
echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy-glass.
     "Darby  M'Graw," it wailed - for  that is the word that  best describes
the sound -  "Darby M'Graw!  Darby  M'Graw!"  again and again and again; and
then rising a little  higher, and with an oath that I leave out: "Fetch  aft
the rum, Darby!"
     The  buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from
their  heads.  Long after  the voice  had  died away they  still  stared  in
silence, dreadfully, before them.
     "That fixes it!" gasped one. "Let's go."
     "They was his last words," moaned Morgan, "his last words above board."
     Dick  had  his  Bible  out and was  praying volubly. He  had been  well
brought up, had Dick, before he came to sea and fell among bad companions.
     Still  Silver was  unconquered.  I  could hear his teeth rattle in  his
head, but he had not yet surrendered.
     "Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby," he muttered; "not one
but us that's here." And then, making a great effort: "Shipmates," he cried,
"I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man or  devil. I  never
was feared  of  Flint in his life, and, by the powers,  I'll face him  dead.
There's seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a mile from here. When
did ever a  gentleman o'  fortune show his stern  to that much dollars for a
boozy old seaman with a blue mug - and him dead too?"
     But there  was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers, rather,
indeed, of growing terror at the irreverence of his words.
     "Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a sperrit."
     And the rest were all too terrified to  reply. They would have run away
severally had they  dared; but fear kept them together, and  kept them close
by John, as if  his daring helped them. He,  on  his part, had  pretty  well
fought his weakness down.
     "Sperrit?  Well, maybe,"  he said. "But there's one  thing not clear to
me. There was an echo. Now, no  man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow;  well
then, what's he doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That ain't
in natur', surely?"
     This argument seemed weak enough  to  me. But you can  never tell  what
will  affect the superstitious, and to my  wonder, George Merry  was greatly
relieved.
     "Well, that's  so," he said.  "You've a head upon your shoulders, John,
and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates! This  here crew is on a wrong tack,  I do
believe.  And come to think on  it, it was like Flint's  voice, I grant you,
but not just so clear-away like it, after  all. It was liker somebody else's
voice now - it was liker - "
     "By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared Silver.
     "Aye, and so it were," cried  Morgan, springing on his knees. "Ben Gunn
it were!"
     "It don't make much odds, do it, now?" asked Dick. "Ben Gunn's not here
in the body any more'n Flint."
     But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn.
     "Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn," cried Merry; "dead or alive, nobody minds
him."
     It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned and how the natural
colour had revived in their faces.  Soon they  were  chatting together, with
intervals of listening; and not long after,  hearing no further  sound, they
shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry walking first  with Silver's
compass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton Island. He had said the
truth:  dead  or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.  Dick  alone still held  his
Bible, and looked around him as he went, with  fearful glances; but he found
no sympathy, and Silver even joked him on his precautions.
     "I  told you," said  he - "I told you you had sp'iled your Bible. If it
ain't no good  to swear by, what do you suppose a sperrit would give for it?
Not that!" and he snapped his big fingers,  halting a moment on his  crutch.
But Dick was not to be  comforted; indeed, it was soon  plain to me that the
lad was  falling sick;  hastened  by heat, exhaustion, and the  shock of his
alarm, the fever,  predicted by Dr. Livesey, was  evidently growing  swiftly
higher.
     It was fine open walking here,  upon the summit; our way lay  a  little
downhill,  for, as  I have said, the  plateau tilted towards the  west.  The
pines,  great and small,  grew wide  apart;  and even between the clumps  of
nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking,  as
we did, pretty near north-west across the island, we drew, on the  one hand,
ever nearer  under the shoulders of the Spy-glass, and on  the other, looked
ever wider over that western bay where I had once tossed and trembled in the
oracle.
     The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the
wrong one. So  with the second. The  third rose nearly two hundred feet into
the air above a clump of  underwood - a  giant of  a  vegetable, with a  red
column as big as a cottage, and a  wide shadow around  in  which  a  company
could have manoeuvred.  It was conspicuous far to sea  both on the  east and
west and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon the chart.
     But it was not  its size that  now impressed my companions; it was  the
knowledge  that seven hundred thousand pounds  in gold  lay somewhere buried
below its spreading shadow.  The thought of the money, as they  drew nearer,
swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads; their
feet grew speedier  and  lighter;  their  whole  soul  was found up  in that
fortune, that whole lifetime  of extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting
there  for each of  them.  Silver  hobbled,  grunting,  on  his crutch;  his
nostrils stood  out  and  quivered; he  cursed  like a madman when the flies
settled  on his hot and shiny countenance; he plucked furiously at the  line
that  held me to him  and from  time to time  turned his eyes upon me with a
deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts,  and certainly
I read them like  print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had
been forgotten: his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the
past,  and I could not doubt that he hoped to  seize upon the treasure, find
and board the HISPANIOLA under cover of night, cut every honest throat about
that island, and  sail away  as he had at first intended,  laden with crimes
and riches.
     Shaken as I  was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up  with
the rapid pace of the treasure-hunters. Now and again I stumbled, and it was
then that  Silver plucked  so roughly at  the  rope and launched at  me  his
murderous glances. Dick, who  had dropped  behind us and  now brought up the
rear, was babbling  to  himself  both prayers and curses as  his fever  kept
rising. This also added to my  wretchedness, and to crown all, I was haunted
by the thought of the tragedy that had once been acted on that plateau, when
that ungodly buccaneer with the blue face - he who died at Savannah, singing
and shouting  for  drink - had  there, with  his own hand, cut down  his six
accomplices. This grove that was now so peaceful must  then  have  rung with
cries, I  thought;  and  even with the thought  I could believe  I heard  it
ringing still.
     We were now at the margin of the thicket.
     "Huzza,  mates, all together!"  shouted  Merry; and the foremost  broke
into a run.
     And suddenly, not  ten  yards  further, we beheld  them stop. A low cry
arose. Silver  doubled his pace,  digging  away with the foot of  his crutch
like one possessed; and next moment he and I had come also to a dead halt.
     Before us was  a great excavation, not very  recent,  for the sides had
fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom. In this  were the shaft of a
pick broken in two and the boards of several packing-cases strewn around. On
one  of these boards I  saw, branded with a  hot iron, the name WALRUS - the
name of Flint's ship.
     All  was clear  to probation. The CACHE had  been found and rifled; the
seven hundred thousand pounds were gone!
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     33. The Fall of a Chieftain
     THERE never was such an overturn in  this world. Each of  these six men
was as though  he had been  struck.  But with Silver the blow passed  almost
instantly.  Every  thought  of his soul had  been set  full-stretch,  like a
racer, on that money; well, he was brought up, in a single second, dead; and
he kept his head, found his temper,  and changed his plan before the  others
had had time to realize the disappointment.
     "Jim,"  he whispered, "take  that, and  stand by  for trouble."  And he
passed me a double-barrelled pistol.
     At the same time, he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps
had put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he  looked  at me
and nodded, as much  as to  say, "Here  is a narrow corner," as,  indeed,  I
thought it was. His  looks were not quite friendly, and I was so revolted at
these  constant changes that  I could  not  forbear whispering,  "So  you've
changed sides again."
     There was no time left for him to answer in. The buccaneers, with oaths
and  cries, began  to leap, one after another, into  the pit and to dig with
their fingers,  throwing  the boards aside  as they did so.  Morgan  found a
piece  of gold.  He held  it up with  a  perfect spout  of oaths.  It  was a
two-guinea piece, and it went from  hand to hand among them for a quarter of
a minute.
     "Two  guineas!" roared Merry,  shaking it at Silver. "That's your seven
hundred thousand  pounds, is it? You're  the  man  for bargains,  ain't you?
You're him that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!"
     "Dig away, boys," said Silver with the  coolest insolence; "you'll find
some pig-nuts and I shouldn't wonder."
     "Pig-nuts!"  repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates, do you hear  that?  I
tell you now, that man there knew it all along. Look in the face of  him and
you'll see it wrote there."
     "Ah, Merry,"  remarked  Silver,  "standing  for cap'n  again? You're  a
pushing lad, to be sure."
     But  this time  everyone was entirely  in Merry's favour. They began to
scramble  out  of  the excavation, darting furious glances behind  them. One
thing I  observed,  which  looked well  for  us: they all  got  out upon the
opposite side from Silver.
     Well,  there  we  stood,  two  on one side, five  on the other, the pit
between  us, and  nobody screwed  up  high  enough to offer  the first blow.
Silver never moved; he watched them, very upright on his  crutch, and looked
as cool as ever  I  saw  him. He  was  brave, and no mistake. At  last Merry
seemed to think a speech might help matters.
     "Mates," says he, "there's  two  of them  alone  there;  one's the  old
cripple that brought us all here  and blundered us down to this; the other's
that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates - "
     He  was raising his  arm  and  his voice, and plainly  meant  to lead a
charge.  But  just then - crack! crack!  crack! - three musket-shots flashed
out of the thicket. Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the man
with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length upon his
side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other three turned and
ran for it with all their might.
     Before you could wink, Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into
the struggling Merry, and as the man rolled up his  eyes at  him in the last
agony, "George," said he, "I reckon I settled you."
     At  the  same  moment,  the doctor, Gray, and  Ben Gunn joined us, with
smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.
     "Forward!" cried the doctor. "Double  quick, my lads.  We must head 'em
off the boats."
     And we set off  at a great pace,  sometimes plunging through the bushes
to the chest.
     I tell  you,  but Silver was anxious  to keep up with us. The work that
man went through, leaping on  his crutch till the muscles  of his chest were
fit to burst, was work no sound man ever equalled; and so thinks the doctor.
As  it  was,  he  was already thirty yards  behind  us and  on  the verge of
strangling when we reached the brow of the slope.
     "Doctor," he hailed, "see there! No hurry!"
     Sure enough there was no hurry.  In a more open part of the plateau, we
could see  the three survivors still running in  the same  direction as they
had  started, right for Mizzen-mast Hill. We were  already between  them and
the boats; and so we four sat down to breathe,  while Long John, mopping his
face, came slowly up with us.
     "Thank ye kindly, doctor," says  he. "You came  in in about the nick, I
guess,  for me and Hawkins. And  so  it's  you,  Ben Gunn!" he added. "Well,
you're a nice one, to be sure."
     "I'm Ben  Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his
embarrassment.  "And," he added, after a long pause, "how  do,  Mr.  Silver?
Pretty well, I thank ye, says you."
     "Ben, Ben," murmured Silver, "to think as you've done me!"
     The  doctor sent back Gray for one  of the pick-axes deserted, in their
flight,  by the  mutineers, and then as we proceeded leisurely  downhill  to
where the boats were lying, related in a few  words what had taken place. It
was a story that  profoundly interested Silver; and Ben Gunn, the half-idiot
maroon, was the hero from beginning to end.
     Ben,  in  his long,  lonely wanderings about the  island, had found the
skeleton - it  was he that had rifled it; he had found the  treasure; he had
dug  it  up (it  was  the  haft  of  his pick-axe that  lay  broken  in  the
excavation); he had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from the
foot of the tall  pine  to  a cave  he  had  on the two-pointed hill  at the
north-east angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in safety since
two months before the arrival of the HISPANIOLA.
     When the doctor had wormed this secret from him on the afternoon of the
attack, and when next morning he saw the anchorage deserted, he had  gone to
Silver, given him the  chart, which was now  useless - given him the stores,
for  Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats' meat  salted by himself -
given anything  and everything to get a  chance of moving in safety from the
stockade to the two-pointed hill, there to  be  clear of malaria and keep  a
guard upon the money.
     "As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart, but I did what I
thought best for those who had stood by their duty; and  if you were not one
of these, whose fault was it?"
     That  morning,  finding  that  I  was  to  be  involved  in the  horrid
disappointment he  had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way to
the  cave, and  leaving  the squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray and
the  maroon and started, making the diagonal across the island to be at hand
beside  the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party had the start of him;
and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot,  had  been dispatched in  front to do his
best alone. Then it had occurred to  him to work upon  the  superstitions of
his former  shipmates, and he was so far successful that Gray and the doctor
had  come  up   and  were  already  ambushed  before  the   arrival  of  the
treasure-hunters.
     "Ah," said Silver, "it  were fortunate for me  that I had Hawkins here.
You  would have let old John be  cut to bits,  and never given it a thought,
doctor."
     "Not a thought," replied Dr. Livesey cheerily.
     And  by  this  time  we  had reached  the  gigs. The doctor,  with  the
pick-axe, demolished one  of them, and then  we all got aboard the other and
set out to go round by sea for North Inlet.
     This  was a  run  of eight or nine miles. Silver, though  he was almost
killed already with fatigue, was  set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we
were  soon  skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed  out  of  the
straits  and doubled the south-east  corner of the island, round which, four
days ago, we had towed the HISPANIOLA.
     As we passed the two-pointed hill, we could see the black  mouth of Ben
Gunn's cave  and  a figure  standing by it,  leaning on a musket. It was the
squire,  and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in which the
voice of Silver joined as  heartily as any. Three miles farther, just inside
the mouth  of North Inlet, what should we meet but  the HISPANIOLA, cruising
by herself? The last flood had lifted her, and had there been much wind or a
strong  tide  current,  as  in the southern anchorage,  we should never have
found her more, or found her  stranded  beyond  help. As it was,  there  was
little amiss beyond the wreck of the main-sail. A