thought you was cap n here, perhaps. By the powers, but I ll teach you
better! Cross me, and you ll go where many a good man s gone before you,
first and last, these thirty year back--some to the yard-arm, shiver
my timbers, and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There s
never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a terwards,
Tom Morgan, you may lay to that.
Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others.
Tom s right, said one.
I stood hazing long enough from one, added another. I ll be hanged if
I ll be hazed by you, John Silver.
Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with ME? roared Silver,
bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe still
glowing in his right hand. Put a name on what you re at; you ain t
dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many
years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the
latter end of it? You know the way; you re all gentlemen o fortune, by
your account. Well, I m ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and I ll
see the colour of his inside, crutch and all, before that pipe s empty.
Not a man stirred; not a man answered.
That s your sort, is it? he added, returning his pipe to his mouth.
Well, you re a gay lot to look at, anyway. Not much worth to fight, you
ain t. P r aps you can understand King George s English. I m cap n here
by lection. I m cap n here because I m the best man by a long sea-mile.
You won t fight, as gentlemen o fortune should; then, by thunder,
you ll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; I never seen
a better boy than that. He s more a man than any pair of rats of you in
this here house, and what I say is this: let me see him that ll lay a
hand on him--that s what I say, and you may lay to it.
There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall,
my heart still going like a sledge-hammer, but with a ray of hope
now shining in my bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms
crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he had
been in church; yet his eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the
151