Come, come, said Silver; stow this talk. He s dead, and he don 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 the doubloons.
We started, certainly; but in spite of the hot sun and the staring
daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the
wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of
the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
XXXII
The Treasure-hunt--The Voice Among the Trees
Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver
and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained
the brow of the ascent.
The plateau being somewhat tilted towards the west, this spot on which
we had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before us,
over the tree-tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf;
behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island,
but saw--clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands--a great field
of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted
with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but
that of the distant breakers, mounting from all round, and the chirp of
countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail, upon the sea; the
very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude.
Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.
There are three tall trees, said he, about in the right line from
Skeleton Island. Spy-glass shoulder, I take it, means that lower p int
there. It s child s play to find the stuff now. I ve half a mind to dine
first.
I don t feel sharp, growled Morgan. Thinkin o Flint--I think it
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