`` Ah ! '' said the captain , and that was all he said . What a supper I had of it that night , with all my friends around me ; and what a meal it was , with Ben Gunn 's salted goat and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the HISPANIOLA . Never , I am sure , were people gayer or happier . And there was Silver , sitting back almost out of the firelight , but eating heartily , prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted , even joining quietly in our laughter -- the same bland , polite , obsequious seaman of the voyage out . 34 And Last THE next morning we fell early to work , for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach , and thence three miles by boat to the HISPANIOLA , was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen . The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us ; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to ensure us against any sudden onslaught , and we thought , besides , they had had more than enough of fighting . Therefore the work was pushed on briskly . Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat , while the rest during their absences piled treasure on the beach . Two of the bars , slung in a rope 's end , made a good load for a grown man -- one that he was glad to walk slowly with . For my part , as I was not much use at carrying , I was kept busy all day in the cave packing the minted money into bread-bags . It was a strange collection , like Billy Bones 's hoard for the diversity of coinage , but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them . English , French , Spanish , Portuguese , Georges , and Louises , doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins , the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years , strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider 's web , round pieces and square pieces , and pieces bored through the middle , as if to wear them round your neck -- nearly every variety of money in the world must , I think , have found a place in that collection ; and for number , I am sure they were like autumn leaves , so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out . Day after day this work went on ; by every evening a fortune had been stowed aboard , but there was another fortune waiting for the morrow ; and all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers . At last -- I think it was on the third night -- the doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle , when , from out the thick darkness below , the wind brought us a noise between shrieking and singing . It was only a snatch that reached our ears , followed by the former silence . `` Heaven forgive them , '' said the doctor ; '' 't is the mutineers ! '' `` All drunk , sir , '' struck in the voice of Silver from behind us . Silver , I should say , was allowed his entire liberty , and in spite of daily rebuffs , seemed to regard himself once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependent . Indeed , it was remarkable how well he bore these slights and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all .
Yet , I think , none treated him better than a dog , unless it was Ben XXXXX , who was still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster , or myself , who had really something to thank him for ; although for that matter , I suppose , I had reason to think even worse of him than anybody else , for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau .
't French Gunn Louises Spanish bread-bags coinage day evening mutineers