`` Thank you kindly , sir , '' replied Long John , again saluting . `` I dare you to thank me ! '' cried the squire . `` It is a gross dereliction of my duty . Stand back . '' And thereupon we all entered the cave . It was a large , airy place , with a little spring and a pool of clear water , overhung with ferns . The floor was sand . Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett ; and in a far corner , only duskily flickered over by the blaze , I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold . That was Flint 's treasure that we had come so far to seek and that had cost already the lives of seventeen men from the HISPANIOLA . How many it had cost in the amassing , what blood and sorrow , what good ships scuttled on the deep , what brave men walking the plank blindfold , what shot of cannon , what shame and lies and cruelty , perhaps no man alive could tell . Yet there were still three upon that island -- Silver , and old Morgan , and Ben Gunn -- who had each taken his share in these crimes , as each had hoped in vain to share in the reward . `` Come in , Jim , '' said the captain . `` You 're a good boy in your line , Jim , but I do n't think you and me 'll go to sea again . You 're too much of the born favourite for me . Is that you , John Silver ? What brings you here , man ? '' `` Come back to my dooty , sir , '' returned Silver . `` 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 XXXXX 's salted goat and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the HISPANIOLA .
Flint Gunn HISPANIOLA Jim Morgan Silver Smollett blindfold dooty quadrilaterals