On the far side of the open stood one of the hills , with two quaint , craggy peaks shining vividly in the sun . I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration . The isle was uninhabited ; my shipmates I had left behind , and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and fowls . I turned hither and thither among the trees . Here and there were flowering plants , unknown to me ; here and there I saw snakes , and one raised his head from a ledge of rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top . Little did I suppose that he was a deadly enemy and that the noise was the famous rattle . Then I came to a long thicket of these oaklike trees -- live , or evergreen , oaks , I heard afterwards they should be called -- which grew low along the sand like brambles , the boughs curiously twisted , the foliage compact , like thatch . The thicket stretched down from the top of one of the sandy knolls , spreading and growing taller as it went , until it reached the margin of the broad , reedy fen , through which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage . The marsh was steaming in the strong sun , and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled through the haze . All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among the bulrushes ; a wild duck flew up with a quack , another followed , and soon over the whole surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and circling in the air . I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be drawing near along the borders of the fen . Nor was I deceived , for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice , which , as I continued to give ear , grew steadily louder and nearer . 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 XXXXX with heat , was lifted to the other man 's in a kind of appeal .
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