Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1898-09-23
had been set full-stretch, like racer,

his plan before the others had had time
to realize the disappointment.
"Jim," he whispered, stake that, and
stand by for trouble
And he passed me double-barreled
pistol. N
At the same time he began quietly
moving northward, and in few steps
had put the hollow between us two
and the other five. Then he looked at me
and nodded, as much as to say: Here
is narrow corner" as, indeed,
thought it was. His looks were now
quite friendly; and was so revolted
at these constant changes that could
not forbear whispering: $50 you've
changed sides again."
There was no time left for him to
answer in. The buccaneers, with oaths
and cries, began to leap, one after an
other, into the pit, and to dig with
their fingers, throwing the boards aside
as they did so: Morgan found piece of
gold. He held it up with perfect
spout of oaths. It was a two-guinea
piece, and it went from hand to hand
among them for quarter of min
ute.
"Two guineas!" roared Merry, shall-
ing it at Silver. "That's your 100000,
is it? You're the man for bargains,
amt you? You're him that never bun
gled nothing, you wooden-headed lub-
| bert"
dig away, boys" said Silver, with
the coolest insolence; you'll find some
| TO T oh
"Pig-nuts?" repeated Merry, in a
scream. "Mates, do you hear that?
tell you, now, that man there knew it
all along. Look in the face of him, and.
you'll see it wrote there"
"Ah, Merry" remarked Silver, "stand
ing for cap'n again? You're pushing
lad. to be sure"
in Merry's favor. They began to scram-
BILE out of the excavation, darting fu
rious looks behind them. One thing I
observed, which looked we'll for us;
they they all s!I got out upon the opposite side
Well, there we stood, two on one
side, five on the other, the pit between
us, and nobody screwed up high enough
to offer the first blow. Silver never
moved; he watched them, very upright
on his crutch, and looked as cool as ever
I saw him. He was brave, and no mis-
take.
At last, Merry seemed to think
speech might help matters.
"Mates," says he, there's two OF
them alone there; ones the old cripple
that brought us all here and blundered
us down to this; the others that cub
that I mean to have the heart of. Now,
| mates"
He was raising his arm and his voice,
and plainly meant to lead charge.
| But just then-crack! crack! crack
three musket shots flashed out of the
thicket. Merry tumbled head foremost
into the excavations; the man with the
bandage spun round like teetotum,
and fell all his length upon his side,
where he lay dead, but still twitching:
and the other three turned and ran
for it with all their might.
Before you could wink Long John had
fired three barrels of pistol into the
struggling Merry; and as the man rolled
up his eyes at him in the last agony.
George" said he, 81 reckon settled
YOU"
At the same moment the doctor, Gray,
and Ben Gum joined us, with smoking
muskets, from among the nutmeg trees.
forward" cried the doctor.
Double quick, my lads. We must head
'em off the boats"
And we set off at a great pace, some
times plunging through the bushes to
the chest.
tell you, but Silver was anxious to
keep UP with US. The work that man
went through, lcaping on his crutch till
the muscles of his chest were fit to
burst, was work no sound man ever
equaled; and so thinks the doctor. AS
it was, he was already 30 yards behind
us and on the verge of stra ngling when
we reached the brow of the slope.
Doctor" he hailed, "see there! no
hurry!"
Sure enough, there was no hurry. In
a more open part of the plateau we
could see the three survivors still run
ming in the same direction as they had
started, right for Mizzen~mast Hill. We
were already between them and their
boats, and so we four sat down to
brea 1.-THE, while Long John, mopping
his face, came slowly up with us.
"Thank We kindly, DOCTOR" says he.
"You came in about the nick, l guess,
for me and Hawkins. And so it's you,
|
nice one, to be sure"
"1m Ben Gum, am" replied the
maroon, wriggling like an eel in his
embarrassment. "And," he added, after
a long pause, show do, Mr.. Silver! Pref
ty well, I thank We, says you
"Ben, Ben" murmured Silver, "to
think as you've done me-"
The doctor sent back Gray for one
of the pickaxes. deserted in their flight,
by the mutineers; and then, as we pro-
ceeded leisurely downhill to where the
boats were lying, related in few words
what had taken place. It was story
that profoundly interested Silver, and
Ben Gum, the haH-idiot maroon, was
the hero from beginning to end.
| len, IN ms long, lonely Wanderlngs
about the island, had found the .skele-
ton-it was he that had rifed it; he
had found the treasure; he had dug
it up Git was the half of his pickax
that lay broken in the excavation); he
had carried it on his back in many
weary journeys from the foot of the tall
pine to a cave he had en- the two-pointed
! hill at the northeast angle ofthe island,
| and thera Il hod lni ctornd L.. fa4x.