29

The Black Spot Again

THE council of buccaneers had lasted some time, when
one of them re-entered the house, and with a repetition
of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical
air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch. Silver
briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again,
leaving us together in the dark.

"There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by
this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone.

I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out.
The embers of the great fire had so far burned
themselves out and now glowed so low and duskily that I
understood why these conspirators desired a torch.
About half-way down the slope to the stockade, they
were collected in a group; one held the light, another
was on his knees in their midst, and I saw the blade of
an open knife shine in his hand with varying colours in
the moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat
stooping, as though watching the manoeuvres of this last.
I could just make out that he had a book as well as a
knife in his hand, and was still wondering how anything
so incongruous had come in their possession when the
kneeling figure rose once more to his feet and the whole
party began to move together towards the house.

"Here they come," said I; and I returned to my former
position, for it seemed beneath my dignity that they
should find me watching them.

"Well, let 'em come, lad--let 'em come," said Silver
cheerily. "I've still a shot in my locker."

The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled
together just inside, pushed one of their number
forward. In any other circumstances it would have been
comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he set
down each foot, but holding his closed right hand in
front of him.

"Step up, lad," cried Silver. "I won't eat you. Hand
it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do; I won't hurt
a depytation."

Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth more
briskly, and having passed something to Silver, from
hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back again to
his companions.

The sea-cook looked at what had been given him.

"The black spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where
might you have got the paper? Why, hillo! Look here,
now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and cut this out of
a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"

"Ah, there!" said Morgan. "There! Wot did I say? No
good'll come o' that, I said."

"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," continued
Silver. "You'll all swing now, I reckon. What soft-
headed lubber had a Bible?"

"It was Dick," said one.

"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," said
Silver. "He's seen his slice of luck, has Dick, and
you may lay to that."

But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in.

"Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew
has tipped you the black spot in full council, as in
dooty bound; just you turn it over, as in dooty bound,
and see what's wrote there. Then you can talk."

"Thanky, George," replied the sea-cook. "You always
was brisk for business, and has the rules by heart,
George, as I'm pleased to see. Well, what is it,
anyway? Ah! 'Deposed'--that's it, is it? Very pretty
wrote, to be sure; like print, I swear. Your hand o'
write, George? Why, you was gettin' quite a leadin'
man in this here crew. You'll be cap'n next, I
shouldn't wonder. Just oblige me with that torch
again, will you? This pipe don't draw."

"Come, now," said George, "you don't fool this crew no
more. You're a funny man, by your account; but you're
over now, and you'll maybe step down off that barrel
and help vote."

"I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned
Silver contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do;
and I wait here--and I'm still your cap'n, mind--till
you outs with your grievances and I reply; in the
meantime, your black spot ain't worth a biscuit. After
that, we'll see."

"Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of
apprehension; WE'RE all square, we are. First,
you've made a hash of this cruise--you'll be a bold man
to say no to that. Second, you let the enemy out o'
this here trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I
dunno, but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third,
you wouldn't let us go at them upon the march. Oh, we
see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty,
that's what's wrong with you. And then, fourth,
there's this here boy."

"Is that all?" asked Silver quietly.

"Enough, too," retorted George. "We'll all swing and
sun-dry for your bungling."

"Well now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints;
one after another I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o'
this cruise, did I? Well now, you all know what I
wanted, and you all know if that had been done that
we'd 'a been aboard the HISPANIOLA this night as
ever was, every man of us alive, and fit, and full of
good plum-duff, and the treasure in the hold of her, by
thunder! Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as
was the lawful cap'n? Who tipped me the black spot the
day we landed and began this dance? Ah, it's a fine
dance--I'm with you there--and looks mighty like a
hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London
town, it does. But who done it? Why, it was Anderson,
and Hands, and you, George Merry! And you're the last
above board of that same meddling crew; and you have
the Davy Jones's insolence to up and stand for cap'n
over me--you, that sank the lot of us! By the powers!
But this tops the stiffest yarn to nothing."

Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George
and his late comrades that these words had not been
said in vain.

"That's for number one," cried the accused, wiping the
sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with a
vehemence that shook the house. "Why, I give you my
word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense
nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers
was that let you come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o'
fortune! I reckon tailors is your trade."

"Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to the others."

"Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice lot,
ain't they? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah! By
gum, if you could understand how bad it's bungled, you
would see! We're that near the gibbet that my neck's
stiff with thinking on it. You've seen 'em, maybe,
hanged in chains, birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em
out as they go down with the tide. 'Who's that?' says
one. 'That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him
well,' says another. And you can hear the chains a-
jangle as you go about and reach for the other buoy.
Now, that's about where we are, every mother's son of
us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other
ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about
number four, and that boy, why, shiver my timbers,
isn't he a hostage? Are we a-going to waste a hostage?
No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I
shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy? Not me, mates! And
number three? Ah, well, there's a deal to say to
number three. Maybe you don't count it nothing to have
a real college doctor to see you every day--you, John,
with your head broke--or you, George Merry, that had
the ague shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has
your eyes the colour of lemon peel to this same moment
on the clock? And maybe, perhaps, you didn't know
there was a consort coming either? But there is, and
not so long till then; and we'll see who'll be glad to
have a hostage when it comes to that. And as for
number two, and why I made a bargain--well, you came
crawling on your knees to me to make it--on your knees
you came, you was that downhearted--and you'd have
starved too if I hadn't--but that's a trifle! You look
there--that's why!"

And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I
instantly recognized--none other than the chart on
yellow paper, with the three red crosses, that I had
found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the captain's
chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more
than I could fancy.

But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance of
the chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers.
They leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse. It went
from hand to hand, one tearing it from another; and by
the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with
which they accompanied their examination, you would
have thought, not only they were fingering the very
gold, but were at sea with it, besides, in safety.

"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F., and
a score below, with a clove hitch to it; so he done ever."

"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to get
away with it, and us no ship."

Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself with
a hand against the wall: "Now I give you warning,
George," he cried. "One more word of your sauce, and
I'll call you down and fight you. How? Why, how do I
know? You had ought to tell me that--you and the rest,
that lost me my schooner, with your interference, burn
you! But not you, you can't; you hain't got the
invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and
shall, George Merry, you may lay to that."

"That's fair enow," said the old man Morgan.

"Fair! I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost the
ship; I found the treasure. Who's the better man at
that? And now I resign, by thunder! Elect whom you
please to be your cap'n now; I'm done with it."

"Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue forever! Barbecue
for cap'n!"

"So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George,
I reckon you'll have to wait another turn, friend; and
lucky for you as I'm not a revengeful man. But that
was never my way. And now, shipmates, this black spot?
'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck
and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all."

"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it?" growled
Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse he had
brought upon himself.

"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver
derisively. "Not it. It don't bind no more'n a
ballad-book."

"Don't it, though?" cried Dick with a sort of joy.
"Well, I reckon that's worth having too."

"Here, Jim--here's a cur'osity for you," said Silver,
and he tossed me the paper.

It was around about the size of a crown piece. One
side was blank, for it had been the last leaf; the
other contained a verse or two of Revelation--these
words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon my
mind: "Without are dogs and murderers." The printed
side had been blackened with wood ash, which already
began to come off and soil my fingers; on the blank
side had been written with the same material the one
word "Depposed." I have that curiosity beside me at
this moment, but not a trace of writing now remains
beyond a single scratch, such as a man might make with
his thumb-nail.

That was the end of the night's business. Soon after,
with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, and the
outside of Silver's vengeance was to put George Merry
up for sentinel and threaten him with death if he
should prove unfaithful.

It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows
I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I had
slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position,
and above all, in the remarkable game that I saw Silver
now engaged upon--keeping the mutineers together with
one hand and grasping with the other after every means,
possible and impossible, to make his peace and save his
miserable life. He himself slept peacefully and snored
aloud, yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was,
to think on the dark perils that environed and the
shameful gibbet that awaited him.