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; and for myself I routed out some biscuits, some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down my own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the coxswain's reach, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, deep drink of water, and then, and not till then, gave Hands the brandy. He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth. `Aye,' 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 couple of turns; but I don't have no manner of luck, you see, and that's what's the matter with me. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is,' he added, 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 further notice.' He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. Some of the colour had come back into his cheeks, though he still looked very sick, and still continued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about. `By-the-bye,' I continued, `I can't have these colours, Mr Hands; and, by your leave, I'll strike 'em. Better none than these.' And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the colour lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard. `God save the king!' said I, wavkng my cap; `and there's an end to Captain 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 of want to get ashore, now. S'pose we talks.' `Why, yes,' says I, `with all my heart, Mr Hands. Say on.' And I went back to my meal with a good appetite. `This man,' he began, nodding feebly at the corpse - `O'Brien were his name - a rank Irelander - this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning for 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 gives you a hint, you aint that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food and drink, and a old scarf or ankecher to tie my wound up, you do; and I'll tell you how to sail her; and that's about square all round, I take it.' `I'll tell you one thing,' says I: `I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's anchorage.
I mean to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there.' `To be sure you did,' he cried. `Why, I aint sich an infernal lubber, after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've lost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no ch'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 our bargain on the spot. In three minutes I had the Hispaniola sailing easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good hopes of turning the northern point ere noon, and beating down again as far 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 a soft silk handkerchief of my mother's.
With this, and with my aid, Hands bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he began 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, the coast 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 the north. I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright, sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast. I had now plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I had made. I should, I think, have had nothing left me to desire but for the 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 smile that had in it something both of pain and weakness - a haggard, old man's smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery, in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and watched me at my work.
