oliage and grinding of boughs which
showed me the sea breeze set in higher than usual. Soon cool draughts of
air began to reach me, and a few steps farther I came forth into the
open borders of the grove and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the
horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam along the beach.

I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island. The sun might
blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface smooth and
blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the
external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night, and I scarce
believe there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of
earshot of their noise.

I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, thinking I
was now got far enough to the south, I took the cover of some thick
bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit.

Behind me was the sea; in front, the anchorage. The sea-breeze, as
though it had the sooner blown itself out by its unusual violence, was
already at an end; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from
the south and southeast, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage,
under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden as when first we
entered it. The _Hispaniola_, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly
portrayed from the truck to the water-line, the Jolly Roger hanging from
her peak.

Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern-sheets--him I could
always recognize--while a couple of men were leaning over the stern
bulwarks, one of them with a red cap--the very rogue that I had seen
some hours before stride-legs upon the palisade. Apparently they were
talking and laughing, though at that distance--upward of a mile--I could
of course hear no word of what was said.

All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly screaming, which at
first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice of
Captain Flint, and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright
plumage as she sat perched upon her master's wrist.

Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man
with the red cap and his comrade went below by the cabin companion.

Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind the Spy-glass, and
as the fog was collecting rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I
saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that evening.

The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still some eighth