The mutineers do not return to attack again. Hunter, the servant who was knocked unconscious during the fight, dies in the night. The doctor declares that the captain should not “walk nor move his arm” (208) for weeks due to his wounds. After consulting with the captain and the squire, the doctor sets off into the trees with a sword and the treasure map. Jim believes he is going to see Ben Gunn. It is hot inside the cabin, and Jim fantasizes about walking in the cool woods like the doctor. He fills his pockets with biscuits when no one is looking. He plans to find the white rock and to “ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had hidden his boat” (211).

While the squire and Gray are assisting the injured captain, Jim sneaks into the trees. He makes his way “straight for the east coast of the island” (211) in the late afternoon. He spies on the pirates, who are “talking and laughing” (213). As night falls, Jim walks down the beach and finds the white rock. There, hidden beneath a “little tent of goatskins” (214), he finds “Ben Gunn’s boat—homemade if ever anything was homemade: a rude, lopsided framework of tough wood and stretched upon that a covering of goatskin, with the hair inside” (214).