t how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and
windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely
to get in that quarter. For--you would have thought men would have been
ashamed of themselves--no soul would consent to return with us to the
"Admiral Benbow." The more we told of our troubles, the more--man,
woman, and child--they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of
Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well enough known to
some there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men who
had been to field-work on the far side of the "Admiral Benbow"
remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the road, and,
taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least had
seen a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter,
anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to
death. And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could
get several who were willing enough to ride to Doctor Livesey's, which
lay in another direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.

They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other
hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother
made them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that
belonged to her fatherless boy. "If none of the rest of you dare," she
said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and small
thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men! We'll have that chest
open, if we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley,
to bring back our lawful money in."

Of course I said I would go with my mother; and of course they all cried
out at our foolhardiness; but even then not a man would go along with
us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we were
attacked; and to promise to have horses ready saddled, in case we were
pursued on our return; while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's
in search of armed assistance.

My heart was beating fiercely when we two set forth in the cold night
upon this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to rise and
peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our
haste, for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would be
bright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We
slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear
anything to inc