It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins , but we were alarmed for his safety . With the men in the temper they were in , it seemed an even chance if we should see the lad again . We ran on deck . The pitch was bubbling in the seams ; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick ; if ever a man smelt fever and dysentery , it was in that abominable anchorage . The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle ; ashore we could see the gigs made fast and a man sitting in each , hard by where the river runs in . One of them was whistling `` Lillibullero . '' Waiting was a strain , and it was decided that Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly-boat in quest of information . The gigs had leaned to their right , but Hunter and I pulled straight in , in the direction of the stockade upon the chart . The two who were left guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance ; `` Lillibullero '' stopped off , and I could see the pair discussing what they ought to do . Had they gone and told Silver , all might have turned out differently ; but they had their orders , I suppose , and decided to sit quietly where they were and hark back again to `` Lillibullero . '' There was a slight bend in the coast , and I steered so as to put it between us ; even before we landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs . I jumped out and came as near running as I durst , with a big silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness ' sake and a brace of pistols ready primed for safety . I had not gone a hundred yards when I reached the stockade . This was how it was : a spring of clear water rose almost at the top of a knoll . Well , on the knoll , and enclosing the spring , they had clapped a stout loghouse fit to hold two score of people on a pinch and loopholed for musketry on either side . All round this they had cleared a wide space , and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet high , without door or opening , too strong to pull down without time and labour and too open to shelter the besiegers . The people in the log-house had them in every way ; they stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like partridges . All they wanted was a good watch and food ; for , short of a complete surprise , they might have held the place against a regiment . What particularly took my fancy was the spring . For though we had a good enough place of it in the cabin of the HISPANIOLA , with plenty of arms and ammunition , and things to eat , and excellent wines , there had been one thing overlooked -- we had no water .
I was thinking this over when there XXXXX ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of death .
Had came clapped eat gone occurred pull ran smelt took