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The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of the blockhouseshowed me the worst of my apprehensions realized. The pirates were inpossession of the house and stores; there was the cask of cognac, therewere the pork and bread, as before; and, what tenfold increased myhorror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge that all hadperished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there toperish with them.

There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was leftalive. Five of them were on their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenlycalled out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only risenupon his elbow; he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage roundhis head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recentlydressed. I remembered the man who had been shot and run back among thewoods in the great attack, and doubted not that this was he.

The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's shoulder. Hehimself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more stern than I was usedto. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled hismission, but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay andtorn with sharp briers of the wood.

"So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! dropped in,like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly."

And thereupon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and began to fill apipe.

"Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had agood light, "That'll do, my lad," he added, "stick the glim in the woodheap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to!--you needn't stand up forMr. Hawkins; _he'll_ excuse you, you may lay to that. And so,Jim"--stopping the tobacco--"here you are, and quite a pleasant surprisefor poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you,but this here gets away from me clean, it do."

To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set mewith my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking Silver in theface, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with blackdespair in my heart.

Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and thenran on again:

"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you _are_ here," says he, "I'll give you apiece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit,and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I alwayswanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, mycock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up toany day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and righthe is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone deadagain you--'ungrateful scamp' was what he said; and the short and longof the whole story is about here: You can't go back to your own lot, forthey won't have you; and, without you start a third ship's company allby yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'nSilver."

So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and though I partlybelieved the truth of Silver's statement, that the cabin party wereincensed at me for my desertion, I was more relieved than distressed bywhat I heard.

"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued Silver,"though there you are, and you may lay to it. I'm all for argyment; Inever seen good come out o' threatening. If you like the service, well,you'll jine; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer no--freeand welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said by mortal seaman,shiver my sides!"

"Am I to answer, then?" I asked, with a very tremulous voice. Throughall this sneering talk I was made to feel the threat of death thatoverhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in mybreast.

"Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pressing of you. Take your bearings.None of us won't hurry you, mate; time goes so pleasant in your company,you see."

"Well," says I, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm to choose, I declare Ihave a right to know what's what, and why you're here, and where myfriends are."

"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers, in a deep growl. "Ah, he'dbe a lucky one as knowed that!"

"You'll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till you're spoke to, myfriend," cried Silver, truculently, to this speaker. And then, in hisfirst gracious tones, he replied to me: "Yesterday morning, Mr.Hawkins," said he, "in the dogwatch, down came Doctor Livesey with aflag of truce. Says he: 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out. Ship's gone!'Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. Iwon't say no. Leastways, none of us had looked out. We looked out, and,by thunder! the old ship was gone. I never seen a pack o' fools lookfishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that I looked thefishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, himand I, and here we are; stores, brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you wasthoughtful enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the wholeblessed boat, from crosstrees to keelson. As for them, they've tramped;I don't know where's they are."

He drew again quietly at his pipe.

"And lest you should take it into that head of yours," he went on, "thatyou was included in the treaty, here's the last word that was said: 'Howmany are you,' says I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he--'four, and one of uswounded. As for that boy, I don't know where he is, confound him,' sayshe, 'nor I don't much care. We're about sick of him.' These was hiswords."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," returned Silver.

"And now I am to choose?"

"And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that," said Silver.

"Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I haveto look for. Let the worst come to the worst, it's little I care. I'veseen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two Ihave to tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited; "andthe first is this: Here you are, in a bad way; ship lost, treasure lost,men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know whodid it--it was I! I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land,and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now atthe bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour wasout. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was Iwho killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought herwhere you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side;I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear youthan I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thingI'll say, and no more; if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and whenyou fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you all I can. It is foryou to choose. Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare me andkeep a witness to save you from the gallows."

I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, to my wonder, nota man of them moved, but all sat staring at me like as many sheep. Andwhile they were still staring I broke out again:

"And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're the best man here, andif things go to the worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctorknow the way I took it."

"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so curious that Icould not, for the life of me, decide whether he were laughing at myrequest or had been favorably affected by my courage.

"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced seaman--Morgan byname--whom I had seen in Long John's public-house upon the quays ofBristol. "It was him that knowed Black Dog."

"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook, "I'll put another again tothat, by thunder! for it was this same boy that faked the chart fromBilly Bones. First and last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!"

"Then here goes!" said Morgan, with an oath.

And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty.

"Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom Morgan? Maybe youthought you were captain here, perhaps. By the powers, but I'll teachyou better! Cross me and you'll go where many a good man's gone beforeyou, first and last, these thirty year back--some to the yardarm, shivermy sides! and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There'snever a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward,Tom Morgan, you may lay to that."

Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others.

"Tom's right," said one.

"I stood hazing long enough from one," added another. "I'll be hanged ifI'll be hazed by you, John Silver."

"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with _me_?" roared Silver,bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe stillglowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain'tdumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this manyyears to have a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawser atthe latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune,by your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, andI'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, before that pipe'sempty."

Not a man stirred; not a man answered.

"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth."Well, you're a gay lot to look at, any way. Not worth much to fight,you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'nhere by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a longsea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; then, bythunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; Inever seen a better boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of ratsof you in this here house, and what I say is this: Let me see himthat'll lay a hand on him--that's what I say, and you may lay to it."

There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall,my heart still going like a sledgehammer, but with a ray of hope nowshining in my bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his armscrossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he hadbeen in church; yet his eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept thetail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, drew graduallytogether toward the far end of the blockhouse, and the low hiss of theirwhispering sounded in my ears continuously, like a stream. One afteranother they would look up, and the red light of the torch would fallfor a second on their nervous faces; but it was not toward me, it wastoward Silver that they turned their eyes.

"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into theair. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to."

"Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men; "you're pretty free withsome of the rules, maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. Thiscrew's dissatisfied; this crew don't vally bullying a marlinspike; thiscrew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that; and byyour own rules I take it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir,acknowledging you for to be capting at this present, but I claim myright and steps outside for a council."

And with an elaborate sea-salute this fellow, a long, ill-looking,yellow-eyed man of five-and-thirty, stepped coolly toward the door anddisappeared out of the house. One after another the rest followed hisexample, each making a salute as he passed, each adding some apology."According to rules," said one. "Foc's'le council," said Morgan. And sowith one remark or another, all marched out and left Silver and me alonewith the torch.

The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe.

"Now, look you here, Jim Hawkins," he said in a steady whisper that wasno more than audible, "you're within half a plank of death, and, what'sa long sight worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But youmark, I stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to; no, nottill you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt, and behanged into the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says tomyself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll stand by you. You'rehis last card, and by the living thunder, John, he's yours! Back toback, says I. You save your witness and he'll save your neck!"

I began dimly to understand.

"You mean all's lost?" I asked.

"Ay, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck gone--that's the sizeof it. Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen noschooner--well, I'm tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and theircouncil, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save yourlife--if so be as I can--from them. But see here, Jim--tit for tat--yousave Long John from swinging."

I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking--he, theold buccaneer, the ringleader throughout.

"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.

"It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up plucky, and by thunder,I've a chance."

He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, andtook a fresh light to his pipe.

"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a head on my shoulders,I have. I'm on squire's side now. I know you've got that ship safesomewheres. How you done it I don't know, but safe it is. I guess Handsand O'Brien turned soft. I never much believed in neither of _them_. Nowyou mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won't let others. I know when agame's up, I do; and I know a lad that's stanch. Ah, you that'syoung--you and me might have done a power of good together!"

He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin.

"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked, and when I had refused, "Well,I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there'strouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give methe chart, Jim?"

My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness offurther questions.

"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's something under that,no doubt--something, surely, under that, Jim--bad or good."

And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair headlike a man who looks forward to the worst.