For the rest , the HISPANIOLA must trust to luck , like myself . By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into shadow -- the last rays , I remember , falling through a glade of the wood and shining bright as jewels on the flowery mantle of the wreck . It began to be chill ; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward , the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends . I scrambled forward and looked over . It seemed shallow enough , and holding the cut hawser in both hands for a last security , I let myself drop softly overboard . The water scarcely reached my waist ; the sand was firm and covered with ripple marks , and I waded ashore in great spirits , leaving the HISPANIOLA on her side , with her main-sail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay . About the same time , the sun went fairly down and the breeze whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines . At least , and at last , I was off the sea , nor had I returned thence empty-handed . There lay the schooner , clear at last from buccaneers and ready for our own men to board and get to sea again . I had nothing nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade and boast of my achievements . Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry , but the recapture of the HISPANIOLA was a clenching answer , and I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my time . So thinking , and in famous spirits , I began to set my face homeward for the block house and my companions . I remembered that the most easterly of the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd 's anchorage ran from the two-peaked hill upon my left , and I bent my course in that direction that I might pass the stream while it was small . The wood was pretty open , and keeping along the lower spurs , I had soon turned the corner of that hill , and not long after waded to the mid-calf across the watercourse . This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben Gunn , the maroon ; and I walked more circumspectly , keeping an eye on every side . The dusk had come nigh hand completely , and as I opened out the cleft between the two peaks , I became aware of a wavering glow against the sky , where , as I judged , the man of the island was cooking his supper before a roaring fire . And yet I wondered , in my heart , that he should show himself so careless . For if I could see this radiance , might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore among the marshes ? Gradually the night fell blacker ; it was all I could do to guide myself even roughly towards my destination ; the double hill behind me and the Spy-glass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter ; the stars were few and pale ; and in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits . Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me .
I looked up ; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the XXXXX , and soon after I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees , and knew the moon had risen .
Gunn HISPANIOLA Smollett Spy-glass beam-ends blacker fire glade left seaward