Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-03-31

went through, leaping on his crutch till
the muscles of his chest were fit TO
burst, was work no sound man ever
equalcd; and so thinks the doctor. As
it was. he was already 30 yards behind
US and on the verge of strangling when
we reached the brow of the slope.
Doctor" he hailed, see there! NO
hurry"
Sure enough, there was no hurry. In
n 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 the, while Long John, mopping g
HRS face, came slowly up with US.
THANK ye kindly, doctor" says he,
"You came in about the nick, guess,
for me and Hawkins. And so it's you,
Ben Gunnr' he added. "Well, you're a
nice one, to be sure"
I'm Ben Gum, / am," replied the
maroon, wriggling like an eel in his
embarrassment. "And," he added, after
a long pause, chow do, Mr.. Silver! Pret-
ty well, thank ye, 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
ho hn1 Il f01y nj cfn
that profoundly interested Silver, and
Ben Gum, the haH-idiot maroon, was
the hero from beginning to end.
Pen, in his long, lonely wanderings
about the island, had found the skele-
tout was he that had rifcd il; he
had found the treasure; he had dug
it up ct 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 cave he had ON the tNvo-pointed
hill at the northeast angle of'the island,
and there it had laid stored in safety
since two months before the arrival of
the 'Hispaniola."
When the doctor had wormed his Sc
cret from him on the afternoon of the
attack, and when, next morning, he
saw the anchorage deserted, he had
gone to Silver, given him the chart,
which was now useless-given him the
stores, for Ben GunnS cave was well
supplied with goats meat salted by
hfmself-given anything and every
thing to get a chance of moving in
safety from the stockade to the two
pointed hill, there to be clear of ma
laria and keep guard upon the money.
''As for you, JIM" he said, at went
against my heart, but | did what ]
| thought best for those who had stood
by their duty; ard if you were not one
| of these, whose fault was it?"
That morning, finding that was to
be involved In the horrid disappoint-
ment he had prepared for the mu-
| tineers, he had run all the way to the
cave, and, leaving Squire to guard the
| captain, had taken Gray and the ma
room and started, making the diagonal
across the island, to be at hand be-
| side the pine. Soon, however, he saw
| that our party had the start of him;
and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had
| been dispatched in front to do his best
alone. Then 1t had occurred to him to
work upon the superstitions of his for
mer shipmatcs, and he was so far sue
cessful that Gray and the doctor had
come up and were already ambushed
before the arrival of the treasure hunt
! ers.
"Ah," said Silver, 'it was fortunate
| for me that ] had Hawkins here. You
would have let old John be cut to bits
and never given it a thought, doctor"
Not thought" replied DR.. Livesey
cheerily.
And by this time we had reached the
| gigs. The doctor, with TIE pick AK, de
molished one of them, and then we al
got aboard the other, and set out to 20
round by the sea for North Inlet.
This was run of eight or nine miles
| Silver, though he was almost killed
/ already with fatigue, was set to an oar
| like the rest of u.s.. and we were soor
sllimming swiftly over smooth sea
Soon we passed out of the straits ant
| doubled the southeast corner of the
island, round which, four days ago, we
had towed the "Hispaniola."
As we passed the two-pointed hill, w,