“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.
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.
