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for, as I have said, the plateau tilted towards the west. The pines, great and small,
grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of nutmeg and azalea, wide open
spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking, as we did, pretty near north-west
across the island, we drew, on the one hand, ever nearer under the shoulders of
the Spy-glass, and on the other, looked ever wider over that western bay where I
had once tossed and trembled in the oracle.
The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the wrong
one. So with the second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above
a clump of underwood a giant of a vegetable, with a red column as big as a
cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a company could have manoeuvred.
It was conspicuous far to sea both on the east and west and might have been
entered as a sailing mark upon the chart.
But it was not its size that now impressed my companions; it was the
knowledge that seven hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried
below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they drew nearer,
swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads; their feet
grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was found up in that fortune, that
whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of
them.
Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils stood out and quivered; he
cursed like a madman when the flies settled on his hot and shiny countenance; he
plucked furiously at the line that held me to him and from time to time turned his
eyes upon me with a deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts,
and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else
had been forgotten: his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the
past, and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the treasure, find and
board the HISPANIOLA under cover of night, cut every honest throat about that
island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and riches.
Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with the rapid
pace of the treasure-hunters. Now and again I stumbled, and it was then that
Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me his murderous glances.
Dick, who had dropped behind us and now brought up the rear, was babbling to
himself both prayers and curses as his fever kept rising. This also added to my
wretchedness, and to crown all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy that
had once been acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue
face he who died at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink had there, with
his own hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove that was now so peaceful
must then have rung with cries, I thought; and even with the thought I could
believe I heard it ringing still.
We were now at the margin of the thicket.
"Huzza, mates, all together!" shouted Merry; and the foremost broke into a run.
And suddenly, not ten yards further, we beheld them stop. A low cry arose.
Silver doubled his pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch like one
possessed; and next moment he and I had come also to a dead halt.
Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for the sides had fallen in and
grass had sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft of a pick broken in two
and the boards of several packing-cases strewn around. On one of these boards I
saw, branded with a hot iron, the name WALRUS the name of Flint's ship.
All was clear to probation. The CACHE had been found and rifled; the seven
hundred thousand pounds were gone!
Ebd
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33
The Fall of a Chieftain
THERE never was such an overturn in this world. Each of these six men was as
though he had been struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost instantly.
Every thought of his soul had been set full-stretch, like a racer, on that money;
well, he was brought up, in a single second, dead; and he kept his head, found his
temper, and changed his plan before the others had had time to realize the
disappointment.
"Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by for trouble."
And he passed me a double-barrelled pistol.
At the same time, he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps had
put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked at me and
nodded, as much as to say, "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed, I thought it was.
His looks were not quite friendly, and I was so revolted at these constant changes
that I could not forbear whispering, "So you've changed sides again."
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