Near the island I climbed into the apple barrel for a last apple, and I fell half asleep at the bottom of it. Silver sat down beside the barrel and began to talk, and what I heard froze my blood. He had sailed with Flint himself. Most of the crew were his old pirates, and as soon as the treasure was aboard they would kill the squire, the captain and the doctor. "Dead men don't bite," said Silver. One honest sailor refused to join them, and I heard him dragged away. Then the lookout shouted "Land ho!" and the deck filled with running feet. I slipped out of the barrel in the confusion and found the doctor. That night the three gentlemen counted their friends: there were seven of them and nineteen pirates, and only I knew it.