“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.

PART THREE—­My Shore Adventure

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.