“Sir,” said Silver, “as between man and man, that’s too much and too little. What you’re after, why you left the blockhouse, why you’ve given me that there chart, I don’t know, now, do I? and yet I done your bidding with my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here’s too much. If you won’t tell me what you mean plain out, just say so, and I’ll leave the helm.”

“No,” said the doctor, musingly, “I’ve no right to say more; it’s not my secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you my word, I’d tell it you. But I’ll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I’ll have my wig sorted by the captain, or I’m mistaken! And first, I’ll give you a bit of hope. Silver, if we both get out alive out of this wolf-trap, I’ll do my best to save you, short of perjury.”

Silver’s face was radiant. “You couldn’t say more, I am sure, sir, not if you was my mother,” he cried.