oat was run aground, it was just high-water, and the
two sailors who had been left in charge of her, and who had evidently
been drinking too much rum, went to sleep, and never noticed that the
tide was going out. When they woke, the boat was high and dry, and
with all the strength of the whole crew they could not move her,
because the sand at that part of the beach was very soft. This did not
seem to trouble any of them very much, for Robinson heard one of the
sailors shout, "Let her alone, Jack, can't ye? She'll float next
tide."

All forenoon Robinson watched, and when the hottest time of the day
had come, he noticed the sailors throw themselves down under the
trees, and go to sleep, some distance away from the three prisoners.

Then Robinson and Friday, taking their muskets and pistols, stole down
cautiously behind the three men, to try to speak to them without the
others knowing.

Robinson had put on his goatskin coat and the great hairy hat that he
had made for himself; and with his cutlass and pistols in his belt,
and a gun over each shoulder, he looked very fierce.

The men did not see him till he spoke, and they were so startled by
his wild look, and by the sight of two men armed to the teeth, that
they nearly ran away. But Robinson told them not to be alarmed; he was
an Englishman, and a friend, and would help them if they would show
him how it could be done.

Then they explained to him what had happened. One of the three was
Captain of the ship that lay at anchor off the island. Of the others,
one was mate of the ship, and the third man was a passenger. The crew
had mutinied, the Captain told Robinson, and had put him and the other
two in irons, and the ringleaders in the mutiny had proposed to kill
them. Now they meant to leave them on the island to perish.

The Captain was so astonished at finding anybody there who proposed to
help him, that he said in his wonder: "Am I talking to a man, or to an
angel from heaven?"

"If the Lord had sent an angel, sir," said Robinson, "he would
probably have come better clothed."

Then he asked if the boat's crew had any firearms, and was told that
they had only two muskets, one of which was left in the boat. "The
rest should be easy, then," Robinson said; "we can either kill them
all, or take them prisoners, as we please."

The Captain was unwilling to see the men killed, for he said if two of
the worst of them were got rid of, he believed the rest would return