`No more an ass than I, sir,' returned the captain. `I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny but what showed signs before, for any man that had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps according. But this crew,' he added `beats me.'

`Captain,' said the doctor, `with your permission, that Silver. A very remarkable man.'

`He'd look remarkably well from a yard-arm, sir,' returned the captain. `But this is talk; this don't lead to anything. I see three or four points, and with Mr Trelawney's permission I'll name them.'

`You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak,' says Mr Trelawney, grandly.

`First point,' began Mr Smollett. `We must go on, because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to go about, they would rise at once. Second point, we have time before us - at least until this treasure's found. Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to blows sooner or later and what I propose is, to take time by the forelock, as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when they least expect it. We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr Trelawney?'

`As upon myself,' declared the squire.

`Three,' reckoned the captain, `ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins, here. Now, about the honest hands?'

`Most likely Trelawney's own men,' said the doctor; `those he had picked up for himself, before he lit on Silver.'

`Nay,' replied the squire, `Hands was one of mine.'

`I did think I could have trusted Hands,' added the captain.

`And to think that they're all Englishmen!' broke out the squire. `Sir, I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up.'

`Well, gentlemen,' said the captain, `the best that I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright look out. It's trying on a man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to, and whistle for a wind, that's my view.'

`Jim here,' said the doctor, `can help us more than anyone. The men are not shy with him, and Jim is a noticing lad.'

`Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you,' added the squire. I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances, it was indeed through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely; and out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were six to their nineteen.