ed; "you know right well you wouldn't do the thing
yourself--neither you nor squire nor captain; and no more will I. Silver
trusted me; I passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you did not
let me finish. If they come to torture me, I might let slip a word of
where the ship is, for I got the ship, part by luck and part by risking,
and she lies in North Inlet, on the southern beach, and just below high
water. At half tide she must be high and dry."

"The ship!" exclaimed the doctor.

Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he heard me out in
silence.

"There is a kind of fate in this," he observed when I had done. "Every
step, it's you that saves our lives; and do you suppose by any chance
that we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my
boy. You found out the plot; you found Ben Gunn--the best deed that
ever you did, or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter, and
talking of Ben Gunn! Why, this is the mischief in person. Silver!" he
cried. "Silver! I'll give you a piece of advice," he continued as
the cook drew near again; "don't you be in any great hurry after that
treasure."

"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," said Silver. "I can
only, asking your pardon, save my life and the boy's by seeking for that
treasure; and you may lay to that."

"Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go one step
further: look out for squalls when you find it."

"Sir," said Silver, "as between man and man, that's too much and too
little. What you're after, why you left the block house, why you given
me that there chart, I don't know, now, do I? And yet I done your
bidding with my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here's
too much. If you won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so and
I'll leave the helm."

"No," said the doctor musingly; "I've no right to say more; it's not my
secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you my word, I'd tell it you. But
I'll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have
my wig sorted by the captain or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll give you a
bit of hope; Silver, if we both get alive out of this wolf-trap, I'll do
my best to save you, short of perjury."

Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more, I'm sure, sir, not if
you was my mother," he cried.

"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor. "My second is a
piece of advice: keep the boy close beside you, and when you need he