I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, andperhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at oncein a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man's money--if hehad any--was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that ourcaptain's shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me--Black Dogand the blind beggar--would be inclined to give up their booty inpayment of the dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at onceand ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone andunprotected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemedimpossible for either of us to remain much longer in the house; the fallof coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, filled uswith alarm. The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approachingfootsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlorfloor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near athand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, Ijumped in my skin for terror. Something must speedily be resolved upon,and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in theneighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bareheaded as we were, weran out at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.

The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view, on theother side of the next cove; and what greatly encouraged me, it was inan opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made hisappearance, and whither he had presumably returned. We were not manyminutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of eachother and hearken. But there was no unusual sound--nothing but the lowwash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.

It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet, and I shallnever forget how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in doors andwindows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likelyto get in that quarter. For--you would have thought men would have beenashamed of themselves--no soul would consent to return with us to the"Admiral Benbow." The more we told of our troubles, the more--man,woman, and child--they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name ofCaptain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well enough known tosome there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men whohad been to field-work on the far side of the "Admiral Benbow"remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the road, and,taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least hadseen a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter,anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them todeath. And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we couldget several who were willing enough to ride to Doctor Livesey's, whichlay in another direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.

They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the otherhand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mothermade them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money thatbelonged to her fatherless boy. "If none of the rest of you dare," shesaid, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and smallthanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men! We'll have that chestopen, if we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley,to bring back our lawful money in."

Of course I said I would go with my mother; and of course they all criedout at our foolhardiness; but even then not a man would go along withus. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we wereattacked; and to promise to have horses ready saddled, in case we werepursued on our return; while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor'sin search of armed assistance.

My heart was beating fiercely when we two set forth in the cold nightupon this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to rise andpeered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased ourhaste, for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would bebright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. Weslipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hearanything to increase our terrors till, to our huge relief, the door ofthe "Admiral Benbow" had closed behind us.

I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a moment in thedark, alone in the house with the dead captain's body. Then my mothergot a candle in the bar, and, holding each other's hands, we advancedinto the parlor. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyesopen, and one arm stretched out.

"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they might come andwatch outside. And now," said she, when I had done so, "we have to getthe key off _that_; and who's to touch it, I should like to know!" andshe gave a kind of sob as she said the words.

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand therewas a little round of paper, blackened on one side. I could not doubtthat this was the _black spot_; and, taking it up, I found written onthe other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message, "Youhave till ten to-night."

"He had till ten, mother," said I; and, just as I said it, our old clockbegan striking. This sudden noise startled us shockingly; but the newswas good, for it was only six.

"Now, Jim," she said, "that key!"

I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble,and some thread and big needles, a piece of pig-tail tobacco bitten awayat the end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and atinder-box, were all that they contained, and I began to despair.

"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.

Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at the neck, andthere, sure enough, hanging to a bit of tarry string, which I cut withhis own gully, we found the key. At this triumph we were filled withhope, and hurried upstairs, without delay, to the little room where hehad slept so long, and where his box had stood since the day of hisarrival.

It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside, the initial "B"burned on the top of it with a hot iron, and the corners somewhatsmashed and broken as by long, rough usage.

"Give me the key," said my mother, and though the lock was very stiff,she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.

A strong smell of tobacco and tar arose from the interior, but nothingwas to be seen on the top except a suit of very good clothes, carefullybrushed and folded. They had never been worn, my mother said. Under thatthe miscellany began--a quadrant, a tin cannikin, several sticks oftobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver, anold Spanish watch, and some other trinkets of little value and mostly offoreign make, a pair of compasses mounted with brass, and five or sixcurious West Indian shells. I have often wondered since why he shouldhave carried about these shells with him in his wandering, guilty, andhunted life.

In the meantime we found nothing of any value but the silver and thetrinkets, and neither of these were in our way. Underneath there was anold boat-cloak, whitened with sea-salt on many a harbor-bar. My motherpulled it up with impatience, and there lay before us, the last thingsin the chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, anda canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.

"I'll show those rogues that I'm an honest woman," said my mother. "I'llhave my dues and not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And shebegan to count over the amount of the captain's score from the sailor'sbag into the one that I was holding.

It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all countriesand sizes--doubloons, and louis-d'ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight,and I know not what besides, all shaken together at random. The guineas,too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my motherknew how to make her count.

When we were about halfway through, I suddenly put my hand upon her arm,for I had heard in the silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heartinto my mouth--the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozenroad. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Thenit struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could hear the handle beingturned, and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter; andthen there was a long time of silence both within and without. At lastthe tapping recommenced, and to our indescribable joy and gratitude,died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.

"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going"; for I was surethe bolted door must have seemed suspicious, and would bring the wholehornet's nest about our ears; though how thankful I was that I hadbolted it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.

But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take afraction more than was due to her, and was obstinately unwilling to becontent with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; sheknew her rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing withme, when a little low whistle sounded a good way off upon the hill. Thatwas enough, and more than enough, for both of us.

"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet.

"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskinpacket.

Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the candle by theempty chest; and the next we had opened the door and were in fullretreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidlydispersing; already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground oneither side, and it was only in the exact bottom of the dell and roundthe tavern door that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal thefirst steps of our escape. Far less than halfway to the hamlet, verylittle beyond the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into themoonlight. Nor was this all; for the sound of several footsteps runningcame already to our ears, and as we looked back in their direction, alight, tossing to and fro, and still rapidly advancing, showed that oneof the new-comers carried a lantern.

"My dear," said my mother, suddenly, "take the money and run on. I amgoing to faint."

This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought. How I cursed thecowardice of the neighbors! how I blamed my poor mother for her honestyand her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We werejust at the little bridge, by good fortune, and I helped her, totteringas she was, to the edge of the bank, where, sure enough, she gave a sighand fell on my shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do itall, and I am afraid it was roughly done, but I managed to drag her downthe bank and a little way under the arch. Farther I could not move her,for the bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl below it. Sothere we had to stay--my mother almost entirely exposed, and both of uswithin earshot of the inn.