Chapter XI

`NO, not I,' said Silver. `Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me - out of college and all - Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like a dog, and sun - dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names to their ships - Royal Fortune and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so let her stay, I says. So it was with the Cassandra as brought us all safe home from Malabar, after England took the Viceroy of the Indies; so it was with the old Walrus, Flint's old ship, as I've seen amuck with the red blood and fit to sink with gold.'

`Ah!' cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and evidently full of admiration, `he was the flower of the flock, was Flint!'

`Davis was a man, too, by all accounts,' said Silver. `I never sailed along of him; first with England, then with Flint, that's my story; and now here on my own account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That aint bad for a man before the mast - all safe in bank. 'Tain't earning now, it's saving does it, you may lay to that. Where's all England's men now? I dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most on 'em aboard here, and glad to get the duff - been begging before that, some on 'em. Old Pew, as had lost his sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred pound in a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now and under hatches; but for two year before that, shiver my timbers! the man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the powers!'

`Well, it aint much use, after all,' said the young seaman.

`'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it - that, nor nothing,' cried Silver. `But now, you look here: you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you like a man.'

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that would have killed him through the barrel. Meantime, he ran on, little supposing he was overheard.

`Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough and they risk swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting cocks, and when a cruise is done, why, it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea again in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise I set up gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you Ah, but I've lived easy in the meantime; never denied myself o nothing heart desires, and slep' soft and ate dainty all my days, but when at sea. And how did I begin? Before the mast like you!'

`Well,' said the other, `but all the other money's gone now aint it? You daren't show face in Bristol after this.'

`Why, where might you suppose it was?' asked Silver derisively.

`At Bristol, in banks and places,' answered his companion `It were,' said the cook; `it were when we weighed anchor But my old missis has it all by now. And the ``Spy-glass'' is sold, lease and good-will and rigging; and the old girl's of to meet me. I would tell you where, for I trust you; but it 'ud make jealousy among the mates.'

`And can you trust your missis?' asked the other.

`Gentlemen of fortune,' returned the cook, `usually trusts little among themselves, and right they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way with me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable - one as knows me, I mean - it won't be in the same world with old John. There was some that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his own self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud. They