“Thank you kindly, sir,” replied Long John, again saluting.
“I dare you to thank me!” cried the squire. “It is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back.”
And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large,airy place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water,overhung with ferns. The floor was sand.Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett;and in a far corner,only duskily flickered over by the blaze,I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold.That was Flint’s treasure that we had come so far to seek and that had cost already the lives of seventeen men from the HISPANIOLA. How many it had cost in the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet there were still three upon that island--Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben Gunn--who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain to share in the reward.
“Come in, Jim,” said the captain.“You’re a good boy in your line, Jim,but I don’t think you and me’ll go to sea again.You’re too much of the born favourite for me.Is that you, John Silver?What brings you here, man?”
“Come back to my dooty, sir,” returned Silver.
“Ah!” said the captain, and that was all he said.
What a supper I had of it that night,with all my friends around me; and what a meal it was,with Ben Gunn’s salted goat and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the HISPANIOLA. Never, I am sure, were people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter--the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.
XXXIV And Last
The next morning we fell early to work,for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the HISPANIOLA, was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to ensure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought, besides, they had had more than enough of fighting.
Therefore the work was pushed on briskly.Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat,while the rest during their absences piled treasure on the beach.Two of the bars, slung in a rope’s end,made a good load for a grown man--one that he was glad to walk slowly with.For my part, as I was not much use at carrying,I was kept busy all day in the cave packing the minted money into bread-bags.
It was a strange collection,like Billy Bones’s hoard for the diversity of coinage,but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider’s web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck--nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out.
Day after day this work went on;by every evening a fortune had been stowed aboard,but there was another fortune waiting for the morrow;and all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
At last--I think it was on the third night--the doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle, when, from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought us a noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached our ears, followed by the former silence.
“Heaven forgive them,” said the doctor;“’tis the mutineers!”
“All drunk, sir,” struck in the voice of Silver from behind us.
Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty,and in spite of daily rebuffs,seemed to regard himself once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all. Yet, I think, none treated him better than a dog, unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster, or myself, who had really something to thank him for; although for that matter, I suppose, I had reason to think even worse of him than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor answered him.
“Drunk or raving,” said he.
“Right you were, sir,” replied Silver;“and precious little odds which, to you and me.”
“I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man,” returned the doctor with a sneer,“and so my feelings may surprise you, Master Silver.But if I were sure they were raving--as I am morally certain one,at least, of them is down with fever--I should leave this camp,and at whatever risk to my own carcass,take them the assistance of my skill.”
“Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong,” quoth Silver. “You would lose your precious life,and you may lay to that. I’m on your side now,hand and glove; and I shouldn’t wish for to see the party weakened,let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you.But these men down there,they couldn’t keep their word--no,not supposing they wished to; and what’s more,they couldn’t believe as you could.”
“No,” said the doctor.“You’re the man to keep your word, we know that.”
Well, that was about the last news we had of the three pirates.Only once we heard a gunshot a great way off and supposed them to be hunting.A council was held,and it was decided that we must desert them on the island--to the huge glee,I must say, of Ben Gunn,and with the strong approval of Gray.We left a good stock of powder and shot,the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines,and some other necessaries, tools, clothing,a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope,and by the particular desire of the doctor,a handsome present of tobacco.