This put me in a great fear , and I crawled under cover of the nearest live-oak and squatted there , hearkening , as silent as a mouse . Another voice answered , and then the first voice , which I now recognized to be Silver 's , once more took up the story and ran on for a long while in a stream , only now and again interrupted by the other . By the sound they must have been talking earnestly , and almost fiercely ; but no distinct word came to my hearing . At last the speakers seemed to have paused and perhaps to have sat down , for not only did they cease to draw any nearer , but the birds themselves began to grow more quiet and to settle again to their places in the swamp . And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business , that since I had been so foolhardy as to come ashore with these desperadoes , the least I could do was to overhear them at their councils , and that my plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage , under the favourable ambush of the crouching trees . I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly , not only by the sound of their voices but by the behaviour of the few birds that still hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders . Crawling on all fours , I made steadily but slowly towards them , till at last , raising my head to an aperture among the leaves , I could see clear down into a little green dell beside the marsh , and closely set about with trees , where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to face in conversation . The sun beat full upon them . Silver had thrown his hat beside him on the ground , and his great , smooth , blond face , all shining with heat , was lifted to the other man 's in a kind of appeal . `` Mate , '' he was saying , `` it 's because I thinks gold dust of you -- gold dust , and you may lay to that ! If I had n't took to you like pitch , do you think I 'd have been here a-warning of you ? All 's up -- you ca n't make nor mend ; it 's to save your neck that I 'm a-speaking , and if one of the wild uns knew it , where 'd I be , Tom -- now , tell me , where 'd I be ? '' `` Silver , '' said the other man -- and I observed he was not only red in the face , but spoke as hoarse as a crow , and his voice shook too , like a taut rope -- `` Silver , '' says he , `` you 're old , and you 're honest , or has the name for it ; and you 've money too , which lots of poor sailors has n't ; and you 're brave , or I 'm mistook . And will you tell me you 'll let yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs ? Not you ! As sure as God sees me , I 'd sooner lose my hand . If I turn agin my dooty -- '' And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise . I had found one of the honest hands -- well , here , at that same moment , came news of another . Far away out in the marsh there arose , all of a sudden , a sound like the cry of anger , then another on the back of it ; and then one horrid , long-drawn scream . The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a score of times ; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again , darkening heaven , with a simultaneous whirr ; and long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain , silence had re-established its empire , and only the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon .
Tom had leaped at the sound , like a horse at the spur , but XXXXX had not winked an eye .
Silver Spy-glass Tom afternoon dooty first languor marsh-birds uns whirr