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1"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job; and there he lies, for me," said I. "This here's an unlucky ship, this
2HISPANIOLA, Jim," he went on, blinking. "There's a power of men been killed in this HISPANIOLA--a sight o' poor seamen
3dead and gone since you and me took ship to Bristol. I never seen sich dirty luck, not I. There was this here O'Brien
4now--he's dead, ain't he? Well now, I'm no scholar, and you're a lad as can read and figure, and to put it straight, do
5you take it as a dead man is dead for good, or do he come alive again?" "You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the
6spirit; you must know that already," I replied. "O'Brien there is in another world, and may be watching us." "Ah!" says
7he. "Well, that's unfort'nate--appears as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsomever, sperrits don't reckon for
8much, by what I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now, you've spoke up free, and I'll take it kind if
9you'd step down into that there cabin and get me a--well, a--shiver my timbers! I can't hit the name on 't; well, you
10get me a bottle of wine, Jim--this here brandy's too strong for my head." Now, the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be
11unnatural, and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story was a
12pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck--so much was plain; but with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes
13never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon
14the dead O'Brien. All the time he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner, so
15that a child could have told that he was bent on some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where
16my advantage lay and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily conceal my suspicions to the end. "Some wine?"
17I said. "Far better. Will you have white or red?" "Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me, shipmate," he
18replied; "so it's strong, and plenty of it, what's the odds?" "All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, Mr. Hands.
19But I'll have to dig for it." With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could, slipped off my shoes,
20ran quietly along the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the fore companion. I
21knew he would not expect to see me there, yet I took every precaution possible, and certainly the worst of my suspicions
22proved too true. He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty
23sharply when he moved--for I could hear him stifle a groan--yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed himself
24across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the port scuppers and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or
25rather a short dirk, discoloured to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it for a moment, thrusting forth his under jaw,
26tried the point upon his hand, and then, hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled back again into his
27old place against the bulwark. This was all that I required to know. Israel could move about, he was now armed, and if
28he had been at so much trouble to get rid of me, it was plain that I was meant to be the victim. What he would do
29afterwards--whether he would try to crawl right across the island from North Inlet to the camp among the swamps or
30whether he would fire Long Tom, trusting that his own comrades might come first to help him--was, of course, more than I
31could say. Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point, since in that our interests jumped together, and that
32was in the disposition of the schooner. We both desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a sheltered place, and so
33that, when the time came, she could be got off again with as little labour and danger as might be; and until that was
34done I considered that my life would certainly be spared. While I was thus turning the business over in my mind, I had
35not been idle with my body. I had stolen back to the cabin, slipped once more into my shoes, and laid my hand at random
36on a bottle of wine, and now, with this for an excuse, I made my reappearance on the deck. Hands lay as I had left him,
37all fallen together in a bundle and with his eyelids lowered as though he were too weak to bear the light. He looked up,
38however, at my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a man who had done the same thing often, and took a good
39swig, with his favourite toast of "Here's luck!" Then he lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling out a stick of
40tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid. "Cut me a junk o' that," says he, "for I haven't no knife and hardly strength
41enough, so be as I had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I've missed stays! Cut me a quid, as'll likely be the last, lad, for I'm
42for my long home, and no mistake." "Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I was you and thought myself so
43badly, I would go to my prayers like a Christian man." "Why?" said he. "Now, you tell me why." "Why?" I cried. "You were
44asking me just now about the dead. You've broken your trust; you've lived in sin and lies and blood; there's a man you
45killed lying at your feet this moment, and you ask me why! For God's mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why." I spoke with a
46little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk he had hidden in his pocket and designed, in his ill thoughts, to end me with.
47He, for his part, took a great draught of the wine and spoke with the most unusual solemnity. "For thirty years," he
48said, "I've sailed the seas and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and foul, provisions running out,
49knives going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my
50fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it. And now, you look here," he added, suddenly changing his
51tone, "we've had about enough of this foolery. The tide's made good enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap'n
52Hawkins, and we'll sail slap in and be done with it." All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the navigation was
53delicate, the entrance to this northern anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the
54schooner must be nicely handled to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and I am very sure that Hands was
55an excellent pilot, for we went about and about and dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a neatness that
56were a pleasure to behold. Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land closed around us. The shores of North Inlet
57were as thickly wooded as those of the southern anchorage, but the space was longer and narrower and more like, what in
58truth it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us, at the southern end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last
59stages of dilapidation. It had been a great vessel of three masts but had lain so long exposed to the injuries of the
60weather that it was hung about with great webs of dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken root
61and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed us that the anchorage was calm. "Now," said
62Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees all around of it,
63and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship." "And once beached," I inquired, "how shall we get her off
64again?"
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