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1The other men were variously burthened, some carrying picks and shovels--for that had been the very first necessary they
2brought ashore from the HISPANIOLA--others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal. All the stores, I
3observed, came from our stock, and I could see the truth of Silver's words the night before. Had he not struck a bargain
4with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been driven to subsist on clear water and the
5proceeds of their hunting. Water would have been little to their taste; a sailor is not usually a good shot; and besides
6all that, when they were so short of eatables, it was not likely they would be very flush of powder. Well, thus
7equipped, we all set out--even the fellow with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in shadow--and straggled,
8one after another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the
9pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in their muddy and unbailed condition. Both were to be carried along with us
10for the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers divided between them, we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. As
11we pulled over, there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large to be a guide; and
12the terms of the note on the back, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran, the reader may remember,
13thus: Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E. Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. Ten feet. A
14tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right before us the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three
15hundred feet high, adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass and rising again towards the
16south into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzenmast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with
17pine-trees of varying height. Every here and there, one of a different species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its
18neighbours, and which of these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain Flint could only be decided on the spot, and by
19the readings of the compass. Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the boats had picked a favourite of his
20own ere we were half-way over, Long John alone shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there. We
21pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary the hands prematurely, and after quite a long passage, landed at the
22mouth of the second river--that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass. Thence, bending to our left, we began to
23ascend the slope towards the plateau. At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted, marish vegetation greatly
24delayed our progress; but by little and little the hill began to steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood to
25change its character and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of the island that we
26were now approaching. A heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets of
27green nutmeg-trees were dotted here and there with the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines; and the first
28mingled their spice with the aroma of the others. The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this, under the sheer
29sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to our senses. The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and
30leaping to and fro. About the centre, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I followed--I tethered by my rope, he
31ploughing, with deep pants, among the sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or he must
32have missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill. We had thus proceeded for about half a mile and were
33approaching the brow of the plateau when the man upon the farthest left began to cry aloud, as if in terror. Shout after
34shout came from him, and the others began to run in his direction. "He can't 'a found the treasure," said old Morgan,
35hurrying past us from the right, "for that's clean a-top." Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it was
36something very different. At the foot of a pretty big pine and involved in a green creeper, which had even partly lifted
37some of the smaller bones, a human skeleton lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground. I believe a chill struck
38for a moment to every heart. "He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, bolder than the rest, had gone up close and was
39examining the rags of clothing. "Leastways, this is good sea-cloth." "Aye, aye," said Silver; "like enough; you wouldn't
40look to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't in natur'." Indeed, on a
41second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body was in a natural position. But for some disarray (the work,
42perhaps, of the birds that had fed upon him or of the slow-growing creeper that had gradually enveloped his remains) the
43man lay perfectly straight--his feet pointing in one direction, his hands, raised above his head like a diver's,
44pointing directly in the opposite. "I've taken a notion into my old numbskull," observed Silver. "Here's the compass;
45there's the tip-top p'int o' Skeleton Island, stickin' out like a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line
46of them bones." It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of the island, and the compass read duly E.S.E.
47and by E. "I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there is our line for the Pole Star and the
48jolly dollars. But, by thunder! If it don't make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of HIS jokes, and no
49mistake. Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em, every man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by
50compass, shiver my timbers! They're long bones, and the hair's been yellow. Aye, that would be Allardyce. You mind
51Allardyce, Tom Morgan?" "Aye, aye," returned Morgan; "I mind him; he owed me money, he did, and took my knife ashore
52with him." "Speaking of knives," said another, "why don't we find his'n lying round? Flint warn't the man to pick a
53seaman's pocket; and the birds, I guess, would leave it be." "By the powers, and that's true!" cried Silver. "There
54ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy box. It don't
55look nat'ral to me." "No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns! Messmates,
56but if Flint was living, this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they
57are now." "I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said Morgan. "Billy took me in. There he laid, with penny-pieces
58on his eyes." "Dead--aye, sure enough he's dead and gone below," said the fellow with the bandage; "but if ever sperrit
59walked, it would be Flint's. Dear heart, but he died bad, did Flint!" "Aye, that he did," observed another; "now he
60raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now he sang. 'Fifteen Men' were his only song, mates; and I tell you true, I
61never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main hot, and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as
62clear as clear--and the death-haul on the man already." "Come, come," said Silver; "stow this talk. He's dead, and he
63don't walk, that I know; leastways, he won't walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for
64the doubloons." We started, certainly; but in spite of the hot sun and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran
65separate and shouting through the wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of the dead
66buccaneer had fallen on their spirits. XXXII The Treasure-hunt--The Voice Among the Trees Partly from the damping
67influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained
68the brow of the ascent.
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