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 insolence to up and stand for cap'n over
me--you, that sunk 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 Jo