No hurry ! '' Sure enough there was no hurry . In a more open part of the plateau , we could see the three survivors still running in the same direction as they had started , right for Mizzenmast Hill . We were already between them and the boats ; and so we four sat down to breathe , while Long John , mopping his face , came slowly up with us . `` Thank ye kindly , doctor , '' says he . `` You came in in about the nick , I guess , for me and Hawkins . And so it 's you , Ben Gunn ! '' he added . `` Well , you 're a nice one , to be sure . '' `` I 'm Ben Gunn , I am , '' replied the maroon , wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment . `` And , '' he added , after a long pause , `` how do , Mr. Silver ? Pretty well , I thank ye , says you . '' `` Ben , Ben , '' murmured Silver , `` to think as you 've done me ! '' The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pick-axes deserted , in their flight , by the mutineers , and then as we proceeded leisurely downhill to where the boats were lying , related in a few words what had taken place . It was a story that profoundly interested Silver ; and Ben Gunn , the half-idiot maroon , was the hero from beginning to end . Ben , in his long , lonely wanderings about the island , had found the skeleton -- it was he that had rifled it ; he had found the treasure ; he had dug it up -LRB- it was the haft of his pick-axe that lay broken in the excavation -RRB- ; he had carried it on his back , in many weary journeys , from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the north-east angle of the island , and there it had lain stored in safety since two months before the arrival of the HISPANIOLA . When the doctor had wormed this secret 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 Gunn 's cave was well supplied with goats ' meat salted by himself -- given anything and everything to get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to the two-pointed hill , there to be clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money . `` As for you , Jim , '' he said , `` it went against my heart , but I did what I thought best for those who had stood by their duty ; and if you were not one of these , whose fault was it ? '' That morning , finding that I was to be involved in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for the mutineers , he had run all the way to the cave , and leaving the squire to guard the captain , had taken Gray and the maroon and started , making the diagonal across the island to be at hand beside 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 it had occurred to him to work upon the superstitions of his former shipmates , and he was so far successful that XXXXX and the doctor had come up and were already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure-hunters .
Gray HISPANIOLA Hill John attack haft morning mutineers pick-axe pick-axes