a red cap--the very rogue that I had seen some
hours before stride-legs upon the palisade. Apparently they were talking
and laughing, though at that distance--upwards of a mile--I could, of
course, hear no word of what was said. All at once there began the most
horrid, unearthly screaming, which at first startled me badly, though I
had soon remembered the voice of Captain Flint, and even thought I could
make out the bird by her bright plumage as she sat perched upon her
master's wrist.

Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man
with the red cap and his comrade went below by the cabin companion.

Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind the Spy-glass, and
as the fog was collecting rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I
saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that evening.

The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still some eighth of
a mile farther down the spit, and it took me a goodish while to get up
with it, crawling, often on all-fours, among the scrub. Night had almost
come when I laid my hand on its rough sides. Right below it there was an
exceedingly small hollow of green turf, hidden by banks and a thick
underwood about knee-deep, that grew there very plentifully; and in the
centre of the dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins, like what
the gipsies carry about with them in England.

I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the tent, and there was Ben
Gunn's boat--home-made if ever anything was home-made: a rude, lop-sided
framework of tough wood, and stretched upon that a covering of goat-skin,
with the hair inside. The thing was extremely small, even for me, and I
can hardly imagine that it could have floated with a full-sized man.
There was one thwart set as low as possible, a kind of stretcher in the
bows, and a double paddle for propulsion.

I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient Britons made, but I
have seen one since, and I can give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's boat
than by saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever made by
man. But the great advantage of the coracle it certainly possessed, for
it was exceedingly light and portable.

Well, now that I had found the boat, you would have thought I had had
enough of truantry for once; but, in the meantime, I had taken another
notion, and become so obstinately fond of it, that I would have carried
it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain Smoll