When the gun fired , how should I dare to go down to the boats among those fiends , still smoking from their crime ? Would not the first of them who saw me wring my neck like a snipe 's ? Would not my absence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm , and therefore of my fatal knowledge ? It was all over , I thought . Good-bye to the HISPANIOLA ; good-bye to the squire , the doctor , and the captain ! There was nothing left for me but death by starvation or death by the hands of the mutineers . All this while , as I say , I was still running , and without taking any notice , I had drawn near to the foot of the little hill with the two peaks and had got into a part of the island where the live-oaks grew more widely apart and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing and dimensions . Mingled with these were a few scattered pines , some fifty , some nearer seventy , feet high . The air too smelt more freshly than down beside the marsh . And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with a thumping heart . 15 The Man of the Island FROM the side of the hill , which was here steep and stony , a spout of gravel was dislodged and fell rattling and bounding through the trees . My eyes turned instinctively in that direction , and I saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine . What it was , whether bear or man or monkey , I could in no wise tell . It seemed dark and shaggy ; more I knew not . But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand . I was now , it seemed , cut off upon both sides ; behind me the murderers , before me this lurking nondescript . And immediately I began to prefer the dangers that I knew to those I knew not . Silver himself appeared less terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods , and I turned on my heel , and looking sharply behind me over my shoulder , began to retrace my steps in the direction of the boats . Instantly the figure reappeared , and making a wide circuit , began to head me off . I was tired , at any rate ; but had I been as fresh as when I rose , I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an adversary .
From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer , XXXXX manlike on two legs , but unlike any man that I had ever seen , stooping almost double as it ran .
Mingled dislodged drawn fired looking running saw spout tell thumping