1 "It doesn't much matter who it was," replied the doctor.
2 At last Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters.
3 The squire made no bones about the matter; he despised the captain.
4 "If there's any doubt about the matter, he is," returned the doctor.
5 The captain, the squire, and I were talking matters over in the cabin.
6 For that matter, anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to death.
7 The jibs I speedily doused and brought tumbling to the deck, but the main-sail was a harder matter.
8 For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.
9 But as things fell out, my poor father died quite suddenly that evening, which put all other matters on one side.
10 If that doctor was aboard," he said, "I'd be right enough in a couple of turns, but I don't have no manner of luck, you see, and that's what's the matter with me.
11 The cheer followed--that was a matter of course; but it rang out so full and hearty that I confess I could hardly believe these same men were plotting for our blood.
12 You wish us to keep this matter dark and to make a garrison of the stern part of the ship, manned with my friend's own people, and provided with all the arms and powder on board.
13 And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could get several who were willing enough to ride to Dr. Livesey's, which lay in another direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.
14 Yet, I think, none treated him better than a dog, unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster, or myself, who had really something to thank him for; although for that matter, I suppose, I had reason to think even worse of him than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau.
15 In the meantime the supervisor rode on, as fast as he could, to Kitt's Hole; but his men had to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading, and sometimes supporting, their horses, and in continual fear of ambushes; so it was no great matter for surprise that when they got down to the Hole the lugger was already under way, though still close in.