lie very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of
them kneeling together on a spit of sand, with their arms raised in
supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that
wretched state; but we could not risk another mutiny; and to take them
home for the gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor
hailed them and told them of the stores we had left, and where they were
to find them. But they continued to call us by name and appeal to us,
for God s sake, to be merciful and not leave them to die in such a
place.
At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course and was now swiftly
drawing out of earshot, one of them--I know not which it was--leapt to
his feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent
a shot whistling over Silver s head and through the main-sail.
After that, we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked
out they had disappeared from the spit, and the spit itself had almost
melted out of sight in the growing distance. That was, at least, the end
of that; and before noon, to my inexpressible joy, the highest rock of
Treasure Island had sunk into the blue round of sea.
We were so short of men that everyone on board had to bear a hand--only
the captain lying on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders, for
though greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We laid her
head for the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could not risk the
voyage home without fresh hands; and as it was, what with baffling winds
and a couple of fresh gales, we were all worn out before we reached it.
It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful
land-locked gulf, and were immediately surrounded by shore boats full
of Negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods selling fruits and
vegetables and offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many
good-humoured faces (especially the blacks), the taste of the tropical
fruits, and above all the lights that began to shine in the town made a
most charming contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island;
and the doctor and the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore
to pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an
English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and,
in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came
alongside the HISPANIOLA.
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