“Jim,” said Silver when we were alone, “I saved your life, and now you’ve saved mine. I saw the doctor tell you to run, and I saw you say no. I won’t forget it. You and I must stay close now, back to back, and we’ll save our necks.”
At breakfast Silver sat with Captain Flint on his shoulder and cheered his men up.
“You’re lucky to have Barbecue to think for you, mates,” he said. “They have the ship, it’s true. I don’t know where it is yet, but once we have the treasure, we’ll find it. We have the boats, so we’re the stronger side. As for the boy, I’ll keep him on a rope. He’s worth as much as gold to us, in case of accidents. And once we have the ship and the treasure, we’ll give Mr. Hawkins his share, for all his kindness.”
The men laughed, happy again, but my heart was heavy. If this plan worked, Silver would follow it. He would rather be rich and free with the pirates than only escape hanging with us. And even if he kept his word to the doctor, he and I—a man with one leg and a boy—would have to fight five strong sailors for our lives. I did not understand my friends either. Why had they given Silver the map? And what did the doctor mean: “Look out for trouble when you find it”?
We set off, everyone armed except me. Silver had two guns, a big cutlass and two pistols, and the parrot chattered on his shoulder. I had a rope around my waist, and Silver held the other end, sometimes in his hand and sometimes between his strong teeth. I was led like a dancing bear. The others carried picks and shovels, or pork, bread and brandy from our own stores.
We crossed the harbor in the two boats. On the way, the men talked about the note on the back of the map:
“Tall tree, Spyglass shoulder, a point to the north of north-northeast.
Skeleton Island east-southeast and by east.
Ten feet.”
Ahead of us, on a high hill below Spyglass Hill, several pines stood much taller than the rest, and before we landed, every man had chosen his own tall tree. Only Long John shrugged and told them to wait.
We landed and began to climb. The men spread out, shouting and jumping. Silver and I came behind, and sometimes I had to give him a hand, or his crutch would have slid on the stones.
We had gone about half a mile when the man farthest to the left began to shout in terror. The others ran toward him.
At the foot of a big pine lay a human skeleton, half covered by a green plant, with a few pieces of old clothes. For a moment every heart went cold.
“He was a sailor,” said George Merry, who was bolder than the rest. “This is good sea cloth.”
“Aye,” said Silver. “But look how the bones are lying. That’s not natural.”
The man lay perfectly straight. His feet pointed one way, and his hands were stretched above his head like a diver’s, pointing the other way.
“Here’s the compass,” said Silver. “There’s the top of Skeleton Island, sticking up like a tooth. Check the line of those bones.”
The body pointed straight at Skeleton Island: east-southeast and by east.
“I thought so!” cried Silver. “This is a pointer. The bones show us the direction on the map. But, shiver my timbers, it makes me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of his jokes. He came here with six men, and he killed every one of them. Then he used a compass to lay this one down in the right direction. Long bones, yellow hair. That would be Allardyce.”
“There’s nothing left here, not even a coin or a knife,” said Merry, feeling among the bones. “It doesn’t look natural to me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” said Silver. “If Flint were alive, you and I would be in danger here. Six of them, and six of us. And now they’re bones.”
“Dead, aye,” said the man with the bandage. “But if any ghost ever walked, it would be Flint’s. Flint died a terrible death. He shouted for rum, and he sang that old song.”
“Come, come,” said Silver. “He’s dead, and he doesn’t walk. Not by day, anyway. On to the gold!”
We went on. But in spite of the hot sun, the pirates no longer spread out and shouted. They kept close together and spoke in low voices. Fear of Flint, dead as he was, had fallen on them all.