I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jibflapped and filled upon the other tack with a report like a gun. Theschooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, theother sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again and hung idle.

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now I lost no time,crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled headforemost on the deck.

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which wasstill drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed sincethe mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken bythe neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.

Suddenly the _Hispaniola_ came right into the wind. The jibs behind mecracked aloud; the rudder slammed to; the whole ship gave a sickeningheave and shudder; and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck.

There were the two watchmen, sure enough; Red-cap on his back, as stiffas a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix,and his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands proppedagainst the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open beforehim on the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle.

For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a vicious horse, thesails filling, now on one tack, now on another, and the boom swinging toand fro till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again,too, there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark, and aheavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell--so much heavier weatherwas made of it by this great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsidedcoracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.

At every jump of the schooner, Red-cap slipped to and fro; but--what wasghastly to behold--neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosinggrin was any way disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump, too,Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon thedeck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body cantingtoward the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid fromme; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the frayedringlet of one whisker.

At the same time I observed, around both of them, splashes of dark bloodupon the planks, and began to feel sure that they had killed each otherin their drunken wrath.

While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm moment when the shipwas still, Israel Hands turned partly round, and with a low moan,writhed himself back to the position in which I had seen him first. Themoan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which hisjaw hung open, went right to my heart. But when I remembered the talk Ihad overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me.

I walked aft until I reached the mainmast.

"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, ironically.

He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to expresssurprise. All he could do was to utter one word, "Brandy."

It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as itonce more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down thecompanion-stairs into the cabin.

It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy. All thelock-fast places had been broken open in quest of the chart. The floorwas thick with mud, where the ruffians had sat down to drink or consultafter wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all paintedin clear white, and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirtyhands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to therolling of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open on thetable, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose, for pipe-lights. In themidst of all this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown asumber.

I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles amost surprising number had been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly,since the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have been sober.

Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy left, for Hands; andfor myself I routed out some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunchof raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put downmy own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the coxswain'sreach, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, deep drink ofwater, and then, and not until then, gave Hands the brandy.

He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth.

"Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"

I had sat down already in my own corner and begun to eat.

"Much hurt?" I asked him.

He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.

"If that doctor was aboard," he said, "I'd be right enough in a coupleof turns; but I don't have no manner of luck, you see, and that's what'sthe matter with me. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," headded, indicating the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman,anyhow. And where mought you have come from?"

"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this ship, Mr.Hands, and you'll please regard me as your captain until furthernotice."

He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. Some of the color hadcome back into his cheeks, though he still looked very sick and stillcontinued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about.

"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors, Mr. Hands; and byyour leave I'll strike 'em. Better none than these."

And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines, hauled down theircursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.

"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; "and there's an end toCaptain Silver."

He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while on his breast.

"I reckon," he said at last--"I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind o'want to get ashore, now. S'pose we talks."

"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I wentback to my meal with a good appetite.

"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse--"O'Brien were hisname--a rank Irelander--this man and me got the canvas on her, meaningfor to sail her back. Well, _he's_ dead now, he is--as dead as bilge;and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I give you a hint, youain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me foodand drink, and a old scarf or ankercher to tie my wound up, you do; andI'll tell you how to sail her; and that's about square all round, I takeit."

"I'll tell you one thing," says I; "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd'sanchorage. I mean to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there."

"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber,after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I'velost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't noch'ice, not I. I'd help you sail her up to Execution Dock, by thunder!so I would."

Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this. We struck ourbargain on the spot. In three minutes I had the _Hispaniola_ sailingeasily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with goodhopes of turning the northern point ere noon, and beating down again asfar as North Inlet before high water, when we might beach her safely,and wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land.

Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got asoft silk handkerchief of my mother's. With this, and with my aid, Handsbound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and afterhe had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, hebegan to pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer,and looked in every way another man.

The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, thecoast of the island flashing by, and the view changing every minute.Soon we were past the high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country,sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that again,and had turned the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on thenorth.

I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright,sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast. I had nowplenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which hadsmitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest Ihad made. I should, I think, have had nothing left me to desire but forthe eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the deck,and the odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smilethat had in it something both of pain and weakness--a haggard, old man'ssmile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow oftreachery, in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, andwatched me at my work.