nother anchor was got ready
and  dropped  in a fathom and a half of water. We  all pulled round again to
Rum  Cove,  the nearest point for Ben Gunn's treasure-house;  and then Gray,
single-handed, returned with the gig to the HISPANIOLA, where he was to pass
the night on guard.
     A  gentle slope  ran up from the beach to the entrance of the  cave. At
the top, the squire met us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of
my escapade either  in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute
he somewhat flushed.
     "John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain  and imposter -  a
monstrous imposter, sir. I am told I am not to prosecute you.  Well, then, I
will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like mill-stones."
     "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.
     --------------------------------------------------------------
     34. 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.
     That was about our  last  doing on the island. Before that, we  had got
the  treasure stowed  and had  shipped enough water and the remainder of the
goat meat in case of any distress; and at last, one fine morning, we weighed
anchor,  which was  about all  that we could  manage, and stood out of North
Inlet, the  same colours flying that the captain  had flown and fought under
at the palisade.
     The  three fellows must have been watching  us closer  than  we thought
for, as  we  soon had proved. For coming through the narrows, we  had to lie
very  near the  southern  point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling
together on a spit of sand, with their arms raised in  supplication. It went
to all our  hearts, I  think, to leave them in that  wretched state;  but we
could not risk another mutiny;  and to take  them home for  the gibbet would
have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor  hailed them and told them of
the stores we had left, and where they were to find them. But they continued
to call us by name and appeal  to us, for God's sake, to be merciful and not
leave them to die in such a place.
     At last, seeing the ship  still bore  on her course and was now swiftly
drawing out of earshot, one of them - I know not which it was - leapt to his
feet with a  hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent a shot
whistling  over Silver's head and through the main-sail. After that, we kept
under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked out they had disappeared
from the spit, and the  spit  itself  had  almost melted out of sight in the
growing distance. That was, at least, the  end  of that; and before noon, to
my inexpressible joy, the highest rock of Treasure Island had  sunk into the
blue round of sea.
     We were so short of  men that everyone on board had to  bear  a  hand -
only the captain lying on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders, for
though greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head for
the  nearest port in Spanish America, for we could  not risk the voyage home
without fresh hands; and as it was, what with baffling winds and a couple of
fresh gales, we were all worn out before we reached it.
     It  was just  at  sundown  when  we  cast  anchor  in a  most beautiful
land-locked gulf,  and  were  immediately  surrounded by shore boats full of
Negroes and Mexican Indians  and half-bloods  selling fruits and  vegetables
and offering  to dive for bits of money. The sight  of so many good-humoured
faces (especially  the blacks), the taste of  the tropical fruits, and above
all the lights that began to shine in the town made a most charming contrast
to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island; and the doctor and the squire,
taking me along with them, went ashore to pass the  early part of the night.
Here they met the captain of an  English man-of-war, fell in talk with  him,
went on board his ship,  and, in short, had so agreeable a time that day was
breaking when we came alongside the HISPANIOLA. Ben Gunn  was on deck alone,
and as  soon as we came on  board  he began, with wonderful  contortions, to
make us a confession. Silver was gone. The maroon had connived at his escape
in a shore boat some hours ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to
preserve  our lives, which  would certainly  have been forfeit  if "that man
with the one leg had stayed aboard." But this was not all.  The sea-cook had
not gone  empty-handed. He  had cut  through a  bulkhead unobserved and  had
removed one of the  sacks  of  coin, worth perhaps  three  or  four  hundred
guineas, to help him on his further wanderings.
     I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him. Well, to make
a  long story short, we got a few  hands  on board, made a good cruise home,
and the  HISPANIOLA reached Bristol  just  as Mr.  Blandly  was beginning to
think  of  fitting out her  consort. Five men  only of those who had  sailed
returned  with  her. "Drink and the devil  had  done  for the rest,"  with a
vengeance,  although, to be sure, we were not quite in so bad a case as that
other ship they sang about:
     With one man of her crew alive,
     What put to sea with seventy-five.
     All of us had an ample share of  the  treasure  and  used  it wisely or
foolishly, according  to our natures. Captain Smollett is  now  retired from
the sea.  Gray not only  saved his money, but  being  suddenly smit with the
desire to  rise, also  studied his profession,  and he  is now mate and part
owner of  a  fine full-rigged ship,  married  besides, and the  father of  a
family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in
three weeks,  or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging
on  the twentieth. Then  he  was given  a lodge to keep,  exactly  as he had
feared upon the  island;  and  he still lives,  a  great  favourite,  though
something of a butt, with the country boys, and  a notable  singer in church
on Sundays and saints' days.
     Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one
leg has at last gone  clean out of my life;  but I  dare  say he met his old
Negress, and perhaps still lives  in comfort with her and Captain  Flint. It
is to  be hoped so, I suppose,  for his chances of comfort  in another world
are very small.
     The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint
buried them; and certainly they shall lie there  for me. Oxen and wain-ropes
would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and  the worst dreams
that ever I have are when I  hear the surf booming about its coasts or start
upright in bed with the sharp  voice of Captain  Flint still ringing  in  my
ears: "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"