and you ll see it wrote there.
Ah, Merry, remarked Silver, standing for cap n again? You re a
pushing lad, to be sure.
But this time everyone was entirely in Merry s favour. They began to
scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them. One
thing I observed, which looked well for us: they all got out upon the
opposite side from Silver.
Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the other, the pit
between us, and nobody screwed up high enough to offer the first blow.
Silver never moved; he watched them, very upright on his crutch, and
looked as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave, and no mistake.
At last Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters.
Mates, says he, there s two of them alone there; one s the old
cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this; the
other s that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates--
He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead a
charge. But just then--crack! crack! crack!--three musket-shots flashed
out of the thicket. Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the
man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length
upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other
three turned and ran for it with all their might.
Before you could wink, Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into
the struggling Merry, and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the
last agony, George, said he, I reckon I settled you.
At the same moment, the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with
smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.
Forward! cried the doctor. Double quick, my lads. We must head em
off the boats.
And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through the bushes to
the chest.
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