Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George and his late
comrades that these words had not been said in vain.
That s for number one, cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his
brow, for he had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.
Why, I give you my word, I m sick to speak to you. You ve neither sense
nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you
come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o fortune! I reckon tailors is your trade.
Go on, John, said Morgan. Speak up to the others.
Ah, the others! returned John. They re a nice lot, ain t they? You
say this cruise is bungled. Ah! By gum, if you could understand how bad
it s bungled, you would see! We re that near the gibbet that my neck s
stiff with thinking on it. You ve seen em, maybe, hanged in chains,
birds about em, seamen p inting em out as they go down with the tide.
Who s that? says one. That! Why, that s John Silver. I knowed him
well, says another. And you can hear the chains a-jangle as you go
about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that s about where we are,
every mother s son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and
other ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about number four,
and that boy, why, shiver my timbers, isn t he a hostage? Are we a-going
to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I
shouldn t wonder. Kill that boy? Not me, mates! And number three? Ah,
well, there s a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don t count it
nothing to have a real college doctor to see you every day--you, John,
with your head broke--or you, George Merry, that had the ague shakes
upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the colour of lemon peel
to this same moment on the clock? And maybe, perhaps, you didn t know
there was a consort coming either? But there is, and not so long till
then; and we ll see who ll be glad to have a hostage when it comes to
that. And as for number two, and why I made a bargain--well, you came
crawling on your knees to me to make it--on your knees you came, you was
that downhearted--and you d have starved too if I hadn t--but that s a
trifle! You look there--that s why!
And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly
recognized--none other than the chart on yellow paper, with the three
red crosses, that I had found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the
captain s chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more than I
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