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 Mizzenmast 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.”