should lie down in my. own place (I thought, with a silent chuckle) and enjoy their faces when they found me in the morning. My foot struck something yielding—it was a sleeper's leg, and he turned and groaned, but without awaking.
And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forth out of the darkness:
"Pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!" and so forth, without pause or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill.
Silver's green parrot, Captain Flint! It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she, keeping better watch than any human being, who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain. I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp, clipping tone of.the parrot, the sleepers awoke and sprung up, and with a mighty oath the voice of Silver cried:
"Who goes?"
I turned to run, struck violently against one person, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a second, who, for his part, closed upon and held me tight.
"Bring a torch, Dick," said Silver, when my capture was thus assured.
And one of the men left the log-house, and presently returned with a lighted brand.
