ad
orchilla moss growing in profusion on their trunks--some of these being
nearly three feet in diameter, and bigger, Jim said, than any trees he
had previously seen on the island.

Those in pursuit of the skipper thought he would have stopped on thus
meeting the first-mate.

But, no. He did not halt for an instant.

"Come on, Flinders," he only called out. "Come on, Flinders, we air
arter the buccaneer cap'en an' the treasure!"

Then, plunging down the side of the hill he made for a bare space
further down beyond the trees, waving his arms over his head and
shouting and screaming at the pitch of his voice, like the raging madman
that he had become.

Arrived at the bottom of the declivity, the captain abruptly paused; and
Jim Chowder and Jan, who were close behind, came up with him.

There was no need to stop him; for the skipper flung himself on the
ground at a spot where, to their wonder, they now observed three
skeletons sitting up and arranged in a circle; while in the centre of
the terrible group of bony figures was a cask on end, whose odour at
once betrayed its contents.

Rum!

A pannikin was on the ground beside the hand of one of the remnants of
mortality, and this the skipper took up, drawing a spigot from out of
the cask and filling it.

"Hyar's to ye, my brave buccaneers!" he cried, tossing it off as if it
had been water. "Hyar's to ye all an' the gold!"

He was going to fill another pannikin and drain that; but Jan Steenbock
kicked over the cask, preventing him.

Captain Snaggs at once sprung to his feet again.

As before, he took no notice of Jan's action.

It appeared as if his mind were suddenly bent on something else and that
he now forgot everything anterior to the one thought that possessed him.

"Come on now, my brave buccaneers, an' show us the gold," he cried.
"Lead on, my beauties, an' I'll foller, by thunder, to the devil
himself!"

So saying, back he climbed up the hill, and down a little pathway along
the top till he came to the entrance to the cave which Tom Bullover and
Hiram and I had first discovered; and then, suddenly, before Jan
Steenbock and Jim Chowder could see where he had gone, he disappeared
within the opening.

Jan and Jim alone had continued the pursuit, the other hands having
remained behind to release the first-mate from his uncomfortable billet
on board the tortoise; and Jim Chowder giving up the hunt at this point,
and returning to rejoin his comrades