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.

CHAPTER XXX

ON PAROLE

I was wakened--indeed, we were all wakened, for I could see even the
sentinel shake himself together from where he had fallen against the
doorpost--by a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the
wood:

"Blockhouse, ahoy!" it cried. "Here's the doctor."

And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear the sound, yet my
gladness was not without admixture. I remembered with confusion my
insubordinate and stealthy conduct; and when I saw where it had brought
me--among what companions and surrounded by what dangers--I felt ashamed
to look him in the face.

He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come; and when I
ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw him standing, like Silver once
before, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapor.

"You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried Silver, broad awake
and beaming with good nature in a moment. "Bright and early, to be sure;
and it's the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations.
George, shake up your timbers, son, and help Doctor Livesey over the
ship's side. All a-doin' well, your patients was--all well and merry."

So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop, with his crutch under his
elbow, and one hand upon the side of the log-house--quite the old John
in voice, manner, and expression.

"We've quite a surprise for you, too, sir," he continued. "We've a
little stranger here--he! he! A noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking
fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a supercargo, he did, right
alongside of John--stem to stem we was, all night."

Doctor Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty near the
cook, and I could hear the alteration in his voice as he said:

"Not Jim?"

"The very same Jim as ever was," says Silver.

The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak, and it was some
seconds before he seeme