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PART THREE--My Shore Adventure
Chapter 13
How My Shore Adventure Began
THE appearance of the island when I came on
deck next morning was altogether changed.
Although the breeze had now utterly ceased,
we had made a great deal of way during the
night and were now lying becalmed about
half a mile to the south-east of the low
eastern coast.
Grey-coloured woods covered a large part of
the surface.
This even tint was indeed broken up by
streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower
lands, and by many tall trees of the pine
family, out-topping the others--some
singly, some in clumps; but the general
colouring was uniform and sad.
The hills ran up clear above the vegetation
in spires of naked rock.
All were strangely shaped, and the Spy-
glass, which was by three or four hundred
feet the tallest on the island, was
likewise the strangest in configuration,
running up sheer from almost every side and
then suddenly cut off at the top like a
pedestal to put a statue on.
The HISPANIOLA was rolling scuppers under
in the ocean swell.
The booms were tearing at the blocks, the
rudder was banging to and fro, and the
whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping
like a manufactory.
I had to cling tight to the backstay, and
the world turned giddily before my eyes,
for though I was a good enough sailor when
there was way on, this standing still and
being rolled about like a bottle was a
thing I never learned to stand without a
qualm or so, above all in the morning, on
an empty stomach.
Perhaps it was this--perhaps it was the
look of the island, with its grey,
melancholy woods, and wild stone spires,
and the surf that we could both see and
hear foaming and thundering on the steep
beach--at least, although the sun shone
bright and hot, and the shore birds were
fishing and crying all around us, and you
would have thought anyone would have been
glad to get to land after being so long at
sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into
my boots; and from the first look onward, I
hated the very thought of Treasure Island.
We had a dreary morning's work before us,
for there was no sign of any wind, and the
boats had to be got out and manned, and the
ship warped three or four miles round the
corner of the island and up the narrow
passage to the haven behind Skeleton
Island.
I volunteered for one of the boats, where I
had, of course, no business.
The heat was sweltering, and the men
grumbled fiercely over their work.
Anderson was in command of my boat, and
instead of keeping the crew in order, he
grumbled as loud as the worst.
"Well," he said with an oath, "it's not
forever."
I thought this was a very bad sign, for up
to that day the men had gone briskly and
willingly about their business; but the
very sight of the island had relaxed the
cords of discipline.
All the way in, Long John stood by the
steersman and conned the ship.
He knew the passage like the palm of his
hand, and though the man in the chains got
everywhere more water than was down in the
chart, John never hesitated once.
"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he
said, "and this here passage has been dug
out, in a manner of speaking, with a
spade."
We brought up just where the anchor was in
the chart, about a third of a mile from
each shore, the mainland on one side and
Skeleton Island on the other.
The bottom was clean sand.
The plunge of our anchor sent up clouds of
birds wheeling and crying over the woods,
but in less than a minute they were down
again and all was once more silent.
The place was entirely land-locked, buried
in woods, the trees coming right down to
high-water mark, the shores mostly flat,
and the hilltops standing round at a
distance in a sort of amphitheatre, one
here, one there.
Two little rivers, or rather two swamps,
emptied out into this pond, as you might
call it; and the foliage round that part of
the shore had a kind of poisonous
brightness.
From the ship we could see nothing of the
house or stockade, for they were quite
buried among trees; and if it had not been
for the chart on the companion, we might
have been the first that had ever anchored
there since the island arose out of the
seas.
There was not a breath of air moving, nor a
sound but that of the surf booming half a
mile away along the beaches and against the
rocks outside.
A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the
anchorage--a smell of sodden leaves and
rotting tree trunks.
I observed the doctor sniffing and
sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.
"I don't know about treasure," he said,
"but I'll stake my wig there's fever here."
If the conduct of the men had been alarming
in the boat, it became truly threatening
when they had come aboard.
They lay about the deck growling together
in talk.
The slightest order was received with a
black look and grudgingly and carelessly
obeyed.
Even the honest hands must have caught the
infection, for there was not one man aboard
to mend another.
Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a
thunder-cloud.
And it was not only we of the cabin party
who perceived the danger.
Long John was hard at work going from group
to group, spending himself in good advice,
and as for example no man could have shown
a better.
He fairly outstripped himself in
willingness and civility; he was all smiles
to everyone.
If an order were given, John would be on
his crutch in an instant, with the
cheeriest "Aye, aye, sir!" in the world;
and when there was nothing else to do, he
kept up one song after another, as if to
conceal the discontent of the rest.
Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy
afternoon, this obvious anxiety on the part
of Long John appeared the worst.
We held a council in the cabin.
"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another
order, the whole ship'll come about our
ears by the run.
You see, sir, here it is.
I get a rough answer, do I not?
Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going
in two shakes; if I don't, Silver will see
there's something under that, and the
game's up.
Now, we've only one man to rely on."
"And who is that?" asked the squire.
"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's
as anxious as you and I to smother things
up.
This is a tiff; he'd soon talk 'em out of
it if he had the chance, and what I propose
to do is to give him the chance.
Let's allow the men an afternoon ashore.