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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Treasure Island
+
+Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+Illustrator: Milo Winter
+
+Release Date: January 12, 2009 [EBook #27780]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S LIBRARY
+
+
+         _Treasure Island_
+
+       Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+          _Illustrated by_
+            Milo Winter
+
+
+           [Illustration]
+
+
+           GRAMERCY BOOKS
+              NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ Foreword copyright © 1986 by Random House Value Publishing
+ Color Illustrations by Milo Winter copyright © 1915, 1943 by Rand
+ McNally & Company
+ All rights reserved.
+
+ This 2002 edition published by Gramercy Books, an imprint of Random
+ House Value Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc., 280 Park
+ Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
+
+ Gramercy is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of
+ Random House, Inc.
+
+ Printed and bound in the United States of America
+
+ Cover design by Judy Fucci, Studio Graphix, Inc.
+
+ Random House
+ New York · Toronto · London · Sydney · Auckland
+ www.randomhouse.com
+
+
+ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
+
+ Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.
+     Treasure Island/Robert Louis Stevenson; illustrated in color by
+   Milo Winter.
+       p. cm.--(Illustrated children's library)
+     Originally published: New York: Children's classics, 1986.
+     Summary: While going through the possessions of a deceased guest
+   who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a
+   treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune.
+     ISBN 0-517-22114-4
+     [1. Buried treasure--Fiction. 2. Pirates--Fiction. 3. Adventure
+   and adventures--Fiction. 4. Caribbean Area--History--18th
+   century--Fiction.] I. Winter, Milo, 1888-1956, ill. II. Title.
+   III. Series.
+
+   PZ7.S8482 Tr 2002
+   [Fic]--dc21
+
+                                                              2002023301
+ 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
+    note. Dialect and variant spellings have been retained, whilst
+    inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. Color plates have
+    been repositioned according to their captions; the 'Color Plates'
+    listing remains as printed to indicate the original locations.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+ _To the Hesitating Purchaser_                             _viii_
+ _List of Color Plates_                                      _ix_
+ _Dedication_                                                 _x_
+
+
+ PART I
+ THE OLD BUCCANEER
+
+ CHAPTER
+      I. At the "Admiral Benbow"                                3
+     II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears                      11
+    III. The Black Spot                                        19
+     IV. The Sea-Chest                                         26
+      V. The Last of the Blind Man                             33
+     VI. The Captain's Papers                                  40
+
+
+ PART II
+ THE SEA-COOK
+
+    VII. I Go to Bristol                                       49
+   VIII. At the Sign of the "Spy-Glass"                        55
+     IX. Powder and Arms                                       62
+      X. The Voyage                                            69
+     XI. What I Heard in the Apple Barrel                      76
+    XII. Council of War                                        83
+
+
+ PART III
+ MY SHORE ADVENTURE
+
+   XIII. How My Shore Adventure Began                          93
+    XIV. The First Blow                                        99
+     XV. The Man of the Island                                106
+
+
+ PART IV
+ THE STOCKADE
+
+    XVI. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--How the Ship
+           was Abandoned                                      117
+   XVII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--The
+           Jolly-Boat's Last Trip                             123
+  XVIII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--End of the
+           First Day's Fighting                               129
+    XIX. Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins--The Garrison
+           in the Stockade                                    135
+     XX. Silver's Embassy                                     142
+    XXI. The Attack                                           149
+
+
+ PART V
+ MY SEA ADVENTURE
+
+   XXII. How My Sea Adventure Began                           159
+  XXIII. The Ebb-Tide Runs                                    166
+   XXIV. The Cruise of the Coracle                            172
+    XXV. I Strike the Jolly Roger                             179
+   XXVI. Israel Hands                                         185
+  XXVII. "Pieces of Eight"                                    195
+
+
+ PART VI
+ CAPTAIN SILVER
+
+ XXVIII. In the Enemy's Camp                                  205
+   XXIX. The Black Spot Again                                 214
+    XXX. On Parole                                            222
+   XXXI. The Treasure-Hunt--Flint's Pointer                   230
+  XXXII. The Treasure-Hunt--The Voice among the Trees         238
+ XXXIII. The Fall of a Chieftain                              245
+  XXXIV. And Last                                             252
+
+
+
+
+TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
+
+
+    If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
+      Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
+    If schooners, islands, and maroons
+      And Buccaneers and buried Gold,
+    And all the old romance, retold
+      Exactly in the ancient way,
+    Can please, as me they pleased of old,
+      The wiser youngsters of to-day:
+
+    --So be it, and fall on! If not,
+      If studious youth no longer crave,
+    His ancient appetites forgot,
+      Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
+    Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
+      So be it, also! And may I
+    And all my pirates share the grave
+      Where these and their creations lie!
+
+
+
+
+COLOR PLATES
+
+
+                                                    OPPOSITE PAGE
+
+ I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came
+ plodding to the inn door                                      50
+
+ "Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"                     51
+
+ "Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never
+ clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you,
+ now?"                                                         82
+
+ It was something to see him get on with his cooking
+ like someone safe ashore                                      83
+
+ They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+ swivel                                                       178
+
+ In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
+ and were upon us                                             179
+
+ Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds           210
+
+ Nearly every variety of money in the world must have
+ found a place in that collection                             211
+
+
+
+
+                        _To_
+                   LLOYD OSBOURNE
+               An American Gentleman
+       In accordance with whose classic taste
+     The following narrative has been designed
+ It is now, in return for numerous delightful hours
+       And with the kindest wishes, dedicated
+             By his affectionate friend
+                    _THE AUTHOR_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+THE OLD BUCCANEER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW"
+
+
+Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having
+asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from
+the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the
+island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I
+take up my pen in the year of grace 17--, and go back to the time when
+my father kept the "Admiral Benbow" Inn, and the brown old seaman, with
+the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.
+
+[Illustration: _I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came
+plodding to the inn door_ (Page 3)]
+
+I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn
+door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall,
+strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pig-tail falling over the
+shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with
+black, broken nails, and the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid
+white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as
+he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so
+often afterwards:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest,
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and
+broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of
+stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared,
+called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he
+drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still
+looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
+
+"This is a handy cove," says he, at length; "and a pleasant sittyated
+grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
+
+My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he
+cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help
+up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum
+and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch
+ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I
+see what you're at--there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces
+on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," said
+he, looking as fierce as a commander.
+
+And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had
+none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed
+like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man
+who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning
+before at the "Royal George"; that he had inquired what inns there were
+along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and
+described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of
+residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
+
+He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or
+upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner
+of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly
+he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and
+blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came
+about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back
+from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the
+road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind
+that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was
+desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" (as
+now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would
+look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlor;
+and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was
+present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I
+was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.
+
+He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the
+first of every month if I would only keep my "weather eye open for a
+seafaring man with one leg," and let him know the moment he appeared.
+Often enough when the first of the month came round, and I applied to
+him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me
+down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it,
+bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the
+seafaring man with one leg."
+
+How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On
+stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and
+the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a
+thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg
+would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous
+kind of a creature who had never had but one leg, and that in the middle
+of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch,
+was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my
+monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
+
+But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one
+leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who
+knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than
+his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his
+wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call
+for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his
+stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house
+shaking with "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," all the neighbors joining
+in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing
+louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most
+overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for
+silence all around; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question,
+or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not
+following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he
+had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
+
+His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories
+they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and
+the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his
+own account, he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men
+that God ever allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he told
+these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the
+crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be
+ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over
+and put down and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his
+presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking
+back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country
+life; and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to
+admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and a "real old salt," and
+such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England
+terrible at sea.
+
+In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week
+after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had
+been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to
+insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through
+his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor
+father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a
+rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have
+greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.
+
+All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his
+dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his
+hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it
+was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his
+coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before
+the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
+and he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and with these, for the
+most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had
+ever seen open.
+
+He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end, when my poor
+father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Doctor Livesey came
+late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my
+mother, and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until his horse should
+come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old "Benbow." I
+followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright
+doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and
+pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all,
+with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting
+far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he--the captain,
+that is--began to pipe up his eternal song:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
+    Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big
+box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled
+in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this
+time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it
+was new, that night, to nobody but Doctor Livesey, and on him I observed
+it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment
+quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the
+gardener, on a new cure for rheumatics. In the meantime the captain
+gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand
+upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean--silence. The
+voices stopped at once, all but Doctor Livesey's; he went on as before,
+speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe between every
+word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand
+again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous
+oath: "Silence, there, between decks!"
+
+"Were you addressing me, sir?" said the doctor; and when the ruffian had
+told him, with another oath, that this was so, replied, "I have only one
+thing to say to you, sir, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world
+will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!"
+
+The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened
+a sailor's clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand,
+threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.
+
+The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him, as before, over his
+shoulder, and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the
+room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady:
+
+"If you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket, I promise,
+upon my honor, you shall hang at the next assizes."
+
+Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain soon
+knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like
+a beaten dog.
+
+"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know there's such a
+fellow in my district, you may count I'll have an eye upon you day and
+night. I'm not a doctor only, I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath
+of complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like
+to-night's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed
+out of this. Let that suffice."
+
+Soon after Doctor Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode away, but
+the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS
+
+
+It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the
+mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you
+will see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard
+frosts and heavy gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor
+father was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and my mother
+and I had all the inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough without
+paying much regard to our unpleasant guest.
+
+It was one January morning, very early--a pinching, frosty morning--the
+cove all gray with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones,
+the sun still low, and only touching the hill-tops and shining far to
+seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual, and set out down the
+beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat,
+his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I
+remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and
+the last sound I heard of him, as he turned the big rock, was a loud
+snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Doctor
+Livesey.
+
+Well, mother was upstairs with father, and I was laying the breakfast
+table against the captain's return, when the parlor door opened and a
+man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale,
+tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand; and, though he
+wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my
+eyes open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this
+one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea
+about him too.
+
+I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum, but
+as I was going out of the room to fetch it he sat down upon a table and
+motioned to me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my
+hand.
+
+"Come here, sonny," said he. "Come nearer here."
+
+I took a step nearer.
+
+"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked, with a kind of leer.
+
+I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who
+stayed at our house, whom we called the captain.
+
+"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as
+not. He has a cut on one cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him,
+particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument
+like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek--and we'll put it, if you
+like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my
+mate Bill in this here house?"
+
+I told him he was out walking.
+
+"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
+
+And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was
+likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other questions,
+"Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."
+
+The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all
+pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was
+mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of
+mine, I thought; and, besides, it was difficult to know what to do.
+
+The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round
+the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself
+into the road, but he immediately called me back, and, as I did not obey
+quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy
+face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I
+was back again he returned to his former manner, half-fawning,
+half-sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and
+he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he, "as
+like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride of my 'art. But the great
+thing for boys is discipline, sonny--discipline. Now, if you had sailed
+along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twice--not
+you. That was never Bill's way, nor the way of sich as sailed with him.
+And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm,
+bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and me'll just go back into the
+parlor, sonny, and get behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little
+surprise--bless his 'art, I say again."
+
+So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlor, and put me
+behind him into the corner, so that we were both hidden by the open
+door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather
+added to my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened
+himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in
+the sheath, and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing
+as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.
+
+At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without
+looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room to
+where his breakfast awaited him.
+
+"Bill," said the stranger, in a voice that I thought he had tried to
+make bold and big.
+
+The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had
+gone out of his face, and even his nose was blue; he had the look of a
+man who sees a ghost, or the Evil One, or something worse, if anything
+can be; and, upon my word, I felt sorry to see him, all in a moment,
+turn so old and sick.
+
+"Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate, Bill, surely," said
+the stranger.
+
+The captain made a sort of gasp.
+
+"Black Dog!" said he.
+
+"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at his ease. "Black Dog
+as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate, Billy, at the 'Admiral
+Benbow' Inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two,
+since I lost them two talons," holding up his mutilated hand.
+
+"Now, look here," said the captain; "you've run me down; here I am;
+well, then, speak up; what is it?"
+
+"That's you, Bill," returned Black Dog; "you're in the right of it,
+Billy. I'll have a glass of rum from this dear child here, as I've took
+such a liking to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square,
+like old shipmates."
+
+When I returned with the rum they were already seated on either side of
+the captain's breakfast table--Black Dog next to the door, and sitting
+sideways, so as to have one eye on his old shipmate and one, as I
+thought, on his retreat.
+
+He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of your keyholes for
+me, sonny," he said, and I left them together and retired into the bar.
+
+For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could hear
+nothing but a low gabbling; but at last the voices began to grow higher,
+and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the captain.
+
+"No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried once. And again, "If it
+comes to swinging, swing all, say I."
+
+Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and other
+noises; the chair and table went over in a lump, a clash of steel
+followed, and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw Black Dog
+in full flight, and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn
+cutlasses, and the former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just
+at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut,
+which would certainly have split him to the chin had it not been
+intercepted by our big signboard of "Admiral Benbow." You may see the
+notch on the lower side of the frame to this day.
+
+That blow was the last of the battle. Once out upon the road, Black Dog,
+in spite of his wound, showed a wonderful clean pair of heels, and
+disappeared over the edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain, for
+his part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered man. Then he
+passed his hand over his eyes several times, and at last turned back
+into the house.
+
+"Jim," says he, "rum"; and as he spoke he reeled a little, and caught
+himself with one hand against the wall.
+
+"Are you hurt?" cried I.
+
+"Rum," he repeated. "I must get away from here. Rum! rum!"
+
+I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen
+out, and I broke one glass and fouled the tap, and while I was still
+getting in my own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlor, and, running
+in, beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor. At the same
+instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running
+downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head. He was breathing
+very loud and hard, but his eyes were closed and his face was a horrible
+color.
+
+"Dear, deary me!" cried my mother, "what a disgrace upon the house! And
+your poor father sick!"
+
+In the meantime we had no idea what to do to help the captain, nor any
+other thought but that he had got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the
+stranger. I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down his
+throat, but his teeth were tightly shut, and his jaws as strong as iron.
+It was a happy relief for us when the door opened and Doctor Livesey
+came in, on his visit to my father.
+
+"Oh, doctor," we cried, "what shall we do? Where is he wounded?"
+
+"Wounded? A fiddlestick's end!" said the doctor. "No more wounded than
+you or I. The man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins,
+just you run upstairs to your husband and tell him, if possible, nothing
+about it. For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly
+worthless life; and, Jim, you get me a basin."
+
+When I got back with the basin the doctor had already ripped up the
+captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in
+several places. "Here's luck," "A fair wind," and "Billy Bones, his
+fancy," were very neatly and clearly executed on the forearm; and up
+near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from
+it--done, as I thought, with great spirit.
+
+"Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this picture with his finger.
+"And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a look at
+the color of your blood. Jim," he said, "are you afraid of blood?"
+
+"No, sir," said I.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "you hold the basin," and with that he took his
+lancet and opened a vein.
+
+A great deal of blood was taken before the captain opened his eyes and
+looked mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with an
+unmistakable frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked
+relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he tried to raise himself,
+crying:
+
+"Where's Black Dog?"
+
+"There is no Black Dog here," said the doctor, "except what you have on
+your own back. You have been drinking rum; you have had a stroke
+precisely as I told you; and I have just, very much against my own will,
+dragged you headforemost out of the grave. Now, Mr. Bones--"
+
+"That's not my name," he interrupted.
+
+"Much I care," returned the doctor. "It's the name of a buccaneer of my
+acquaintance, and I call you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I
+have to say to you is this: One glass of rum won't kill you, but if you
+take one you'll take another and another, and I stake my wig if you
+don't break off short, you'll die--do you understand that?--die, and go
+to your own place, like the man in the Bible. Come, now, make an
+effort. I'll help you to your bed for once."
+
+Between us, with much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs, and
+laid him on his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow, as if he
+were almost fainting.
+
+"Now, mind you," said the doctor, "I clear my conscience--the name of
+rum for you is death."
+
+And with that he went off to see my father, taking me with him by the
+arm.
+
+"This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had closed the door. "I have
+drawn blood enough to keep him quiet awhile; he should lie for a week
+where he is--that is the best thing for him and you, but another stroke
+would settle him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE BLACK SPOT
+
+
+About noon I stopped at the captain's door with some cooling drinks and
+medicines. He was lying very much as we had left him, only a little
+higher, and he seemed both weak and excited.
+
+"Jim," he said, "you're the only one here that's worth anything; and you
+know I've always been good to you. Never a month but I've given you a
+silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low,
+and deserted by all; and, Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now,
+won't you, matey?"
+
+"The doctor--" I began.
+
+But he broke in, cursing the doctor in a feeble voice, but heartily.
+"Doctors is all swabs," he said; "and that doctor there, why, what do he
+know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates
+dropping round with yellow jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the
+sea with earthquakes--what do the doctor know of lands like that?--and I
+lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to
+me; and if I am not to have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee
+shore. My blood'll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab," and he ran on
+again for a while with curses. "Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges," he
+continued in the pleading tone. "I can't keep 'em still, not I. I
+haven't had a drop this blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I tell you.
+If I don't have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors; I seen some
+on 'em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as
+plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I'm a man that has
+lived rough, and I'll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass
+wouldn't hurt me. I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim."
+
+He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me, for my
+father, who was very low that day, needed quiet; besides, I was
+reassured by the doctor's words, now quoted to me, and rather offended
+by the offer of a bribe.
+
+"I want none of your money," said I, "but what you owe my father. I'll
+get you one glass and no more."
+
+When I brought it to him he seized it greedily and drank it out.
+
+"Ay, ay," said he, "that's some better, sure enough. And now, matey, did
+that doctor say how long I was to lie here in this old berth?"
+
+"A week at least," said I.
+
+"Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do that; they'd have the black
+spot on me by then. The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me
+this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want to
+nail what is another's. Is that seamanly behavior, now, I want to know?
+But I'm a saving soul. I never wasted good money of mine, nor lost it
+neither; and I'll trick 'em again. I'm not afraid on 'em. I'll shake out
+another reef, matey, and daddle 'em again."
+
+As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed with great difficulty,
+holding to my shoulder with a grip that almost made me cry out, and
+moving his legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited as they
+were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in
+which they were uttered. He paused when he had got into a sitting
+position on the edge.
+
+"That doctor's done me," he murmured. "My ears is singing. Lay me back."
+
+Before I could do much to help him he had fallen back again to his
+former place, where he lay for a while silent.
+
+"Jim," he said, at length, "you saw that seafaring man to-day?"
+
+"Black Dog?" I asked.
+
+"Ah! Black Dog," said he. "_He's_ a bad 'un; but there's worse that put
+him on. Now, if I can't get away nohow, and they tip me the black spot,
+mind you, it's my old sea-chest they're after; you get on a horse--you
+can, can't you? Well, then, you get on a horse and go to--well, yes, I
+will!--to that eternal doctor swab, and tell him to pipe all
+hands--magistrates and sich--and he'll lay 'em aboard at the 'Admiral
+Benbow'--all old Flint's crew, man and boy, all on 'em that's left. I
+was first mate, I was, old Flint's first mate, and I'm the on'y one as
+knows the place. He gave it me at Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as
+if I was to now, you see. But you won't peach unless they get the black
+spot on me, or unless you see that Black Dog again, or a seafaring man
+with one leg, Jim--him above all."
+
+"But what is the black spot, captain?" I asked.
+
+"That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that. But you keep
+your weather-eye open, Jim, and I'll share with you equals, upon my
+honor."
+
+He wandered a little longer, his voice growing weaker; but soon after I
+had given him his medicine, which he took like a child, with the remark,
+"If ever a seaman wanted drugs, it's me," he fell at last into a heavy,
+swoon-like sleep, in which I left him. What I should have done had all
+gone well I do not know. Probably I should have told the whole story to
+the doctor; for I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of
+his confessions and make an end of me. But as things fell out, my poor
+father died quite suddenly that evening, which put all other matters on
+one side. Our natural distress, the visits of the neighbors, the
+arranging of the funeral, and all the work of the inn to be carried on
+in the meanwhile, kept me so busy that I had scarcely time to think of
+the captain, far less to be afraid of him.
+
+He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and had his meals as usual,
+though he ate little, and had more, I am afraid, than his usual supply
+of rum, for he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing
+through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. On the night before the
+funeral he was as drunk as ever; and it was shocking, in that house of
+mourning, to hear him singing away his ugly old sea-song; but, weak as
+he was, we were all in fear of death for him, and the doctor was
+suddenly taken up with a case many miles away, and was never near the
+house after my father's death. I have said the captain was weak, and
+indeed he seemed rather to grow weaker than to regain his strength. He
+clambered up and down stairs, and went from the parlor to the bar and
+back again, and sometimes put his nose out of doors to smell the sea,
+holding on to the walls as he went for support, and breathing hard and
+fast, like a man on a steep mountain. He never particularly addressed
+me, and it is my belief he had as good as forgotten his confidences; but
+his temper was more flighty, and, allowing for his bodily weakness, more
+violent than ever. He had an alarming way now when he was drunk of
+drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before him on the table. But,
+with all that, he minded people less, and seemed shut up in his own
+thoughts and rather wandering. Once, for instance, to our extreme
+wonder, he piped up to a different air, a kind of country love-song,
+that he must have learned in his youth before he had begun to follow the
+sea.
+
+So things passed until the day after the funeral and about three o'clock
+of a bitter, foggy, frosty afternoon, I was standing at the door for a
+moment, full of sad thoughts about my father, when I saw someone drawing
+slowly near along the road. He was plainly blind, for he tapped before
+him with a stick, and wore a great green shade over his eyes and nose;
+and he was hunched, as if with age or weakness, and wore a huge old
+tattered sea-cloak with a hood that made him appear positively deformed.
+I never saw in my life a more dreadful-looking figure. He stopped a
+little from the inn and, raising his voice in an odd sing-song,
+addressed the air in front of him:
+
+"Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, who has lost the precious
+sight of his eyes in the gracious defense of his native country,
+England, and God bless King George!--where or in what part of this
+country he may now be?"
+
+"You are at the 'Admiral Benbow,' Black Hill Cove, my good man," said I.
+
+"I hear a voice," said he, "a young voice. Will you give me your hand,
+my kind young friend, and lead me in?"
+
+I held out my hand, and the horrible, soft-spoken, eyeless creature
+gripped it in a moment like a vise. I was so much startled that I
+struggled to withdraw, but the blind man pulled me close up to him with
+a single action of his arm.
+
+"Now, boy," he said, "take me in to the captain."
+
+"Sir," said I, "upon my word I dare not."
+
+"Oh," he sneered, "that's it! Take me in straight, or I'll break your
+arm."
+
+He gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that made me cry out.
+
+"Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The captain is not what he
+used to be. He sits with a drawn cutlass. Another gentleman--"
+
+"Come, now, march," interrupted he, and I never heard a voice so cruel,
+and cold, and ugly as that blind man's. It cowed me more than the pain,
+and I began to obey him at once, walking straight in at the door and
+towards the parlor, where the sick old buccaneer was sitting, dazed with
+rum. The blind man clung close to me, holding me in one iron fist, and
+leaning almost more of his weight on me than I could carry. "Lead me
+straight up to him, and when I'm in view, cry out, 'Here's a friend for
+you, Bill.' If you don't, I'll do this," and with that he gave me a
+twitch that I thought would have made me faint. Between this and that, I
+was so utterly terrified by the blind beggar that I forgot my terror of
+the captain, and as I opened the parlor door, cried out the words he had
+ordered in a trembling voice.
+
+The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum went out of
+him and left him staring sober. The expression of his face was not so
+much of terror as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, but I
+do not believe he had enough force left in his body.
+
+"Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can
+hear a finger stirring. Business is business. Hold out your left hand.
+Boy, take his left hand by the wrist and bring it near to my right."
+
+We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the
+hollow of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's,
+which closed upon it instantly.
+
+"And now that's done," said the blind man, and at the words he suddenly
+left hold of me, and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped
+out of the parlor and into the road, where, as I stood motionless, I
+could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance.
+
+It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to gather our
+senses; but at length, and about the same moment, I released his wrist,
+which I was still holding, and he drew in his hand, and looked sharply
+into the palm.
+
+"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours! We'll do them yet!" and he sprang
+to his feet.
+
+Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat, stood swaying
+for a moment, and then, with a peculiar sound, fell from his whole
+height face foremost to the floor.
+
+I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste was all in vain.
+The captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious
+thing to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man, though of
+late I had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead I
+burst into a flood of tears. It was the second death I had known, and
+the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SEA-CHEST
+
+
+I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and
+perhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once
+in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man's money--if he
+had any--was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our
+captain's shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me--Black Dog
+and the blind beggar--would be inclined to give up their booty in
+payment of the dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at once
+and ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone and
+unprotected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed
+impossible for either of us to remain much longer in the house; the fall
+of coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, filled us
+with alarm. The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching
+footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor
+floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at
+hand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I
+jumped in my skin for terror. Something must speedily be resolved upon,
+and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in the
+neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bareheaded as we were, we
+ran out at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.
+
+The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view, on the
+other side of the next cove; and what greatly encouraged me, it was in
+an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his
+appearance, and whither he had presumably returned. We were not many
+minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each
+other and hearken. But there was no unusual sound--nothing but the low
+wash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.
+
+It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet, and I shall
+never forget how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and
+windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely
+to get in that quarter. For--you would have thought men would have been
+ashamed of themselves--no soul would consent to return with us to the
+"Admiral Benbow." The more we told of our troubles, the more--man,
+woman, and child--they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of
+Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well enough known to
+some there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men who
+had been to field-work on the far side of the "Admiral Benbow"
+remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the road, and,
+taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least had
+seen a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter,
+anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to
+death. And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could
+get several who were willing enough to ride to Doctor Livesey's, which
+lay in another direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.
+
+They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other
+hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother
+made them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that
+belonged to her fatherless boy. "If none of the rest of you dare," she
+said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and small
+thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men! We'll have that chest
+open, if we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley,
+to bring back our lawful money in."
+
+Of course I said I would go with my mother; and of course they all cried
+out at our foolhardiness; but even then not a man would go along with
+us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we were
+attacked; and to promise to have horses ready saddled, in case we were
+pursued on our return; while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's
+in search of armed assistance.
+
+My heart was beating fiercely when we two set forth in the cold night
+upon this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to rise and
+peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our
+haste, for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would be
+bright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We
+slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear
+anything to increase our terrors till, to our huge relief, the door of
+the "Admiral Benbow" had closed behind us.
+
+I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a moment in the
+dark, alone in the house with the dead captain's body. Then my mother
+got a candle in the bar, and, holding each other's hands, we advanced
+into the parlor. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes
+open, and one arm stretched out.
+
+"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they might come and
+watch outside. And now," said she, when I had done so, "we have to get
+the key off _that_; and who's to touch it, I should like to know!" and
+she gave a kind of sob as she said the words.
+
+I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand there
+was a little round of paper, blackened on one side. I could not doubt
+that this was the _black spot_; and, taking it up, I found written on
+the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message, "You
+have till ten to-night."
+
+"He had till ten, mother," said I; and, just as I said it, our old clock
+began striking. This sudden noise startled us shockingly; but the news
+was good, for it was only six.
+
+"Now, Jim," she said, "that key!"
+
+I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble,
+and some thread and big needles, a piece of pig-tail tobacco bitten away
+at the end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and a
+tinder-box, were all that they contained, and I began to despair.
+
+"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.
+
+Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at the neck, and
+there, sure enough, hanging to a bit of tarry string, which I cut with
+his own gully, we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with
+hope, and hurried upstairs, without delay, to the little room where he
+had slept so long, and where his box had stood since the day of his
+arrival.
+
+It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside, the initial "B"
+burned on the top of it with a hot iron, and the corners somewhat
+smashed and broken as by long, rough usage.
+
+"Give me the key," said my mother, and though the lock was very stiff,
+she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.
+
+A strong smell of tobacco and tar arose from the interior, but nothing
+was to be seen on the top except a suit of very good clothes, carefully
+brushed and folded. They had never been worn, my mother said. Under that
+the miscellany began--a quadrant, a tin cannikin, several sticks of
+tobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver, an
+old Spanish watch, and some other trinkets of little value and mostly of
+foreign make, a pair of compasses mounted with brass, and five or six
+curious West Indian shells. I have often wondered since why he should
+have carried about these shells with him in his wandering, guilty, and
+hunted life.
+
+In the meantime we found nothing of any value but the silver and the
+trinkets, and neither of these were in our way. Underneath there was an
+old boat-cloak, whitened with sea-salt on many a harbor-bar. My mother
+pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before us, the last things
+in the chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, and
+a canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.
+
+"I'll show those rogues that I'm an honest woman," said my mother. "I'll
+have my dues and not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And she
+began to count over the amount of the captain's score from the sailor's
+bag into the one that I was holding.
+
+It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all countries
+and sizes--doubloons, and louis-d'ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight,
+and I know not what besides, all shaken together at random. The guineas,
+too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother
+knew how to make her count.
+
+When we were about halfway through, I suddenly put my hand upon her arm,
+for I had heard in the silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heart
+into my mouth--the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozen
+road. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then
+it struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could hear the handle being
+turned, and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter; and
+then there was a long time of silence both within and without. At last
+the tapping recommenced, and to our indescribable joy and gratitude,
+died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.
+
+"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going"; for I was sure
+the bolted door must have seemed suspicious, and would bring the whole
+hornet's nest about our ears; though how thankful I was that I had
+bolted it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.
+
+But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a
+fraction more than was due to her, and was obstinately unwilling to be
+content with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; she
+knew her rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing with
+me, when a little low whistle sounded a good way off upon the hill. That
+was enough, and more than enough, for both of us.
+
+"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet.
+
+"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin
+packet.
+
+Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the candle by the
+empty chest; and the next we had opened the door and were in full
+retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly
+dispersing; already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground on
+either side, and it was only in the exact bottom of the dell and round
+the tavern door that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal the
+first steps of our escape. Far less than halfway to the hamlet, very
+little beyond the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into the
+moonlight. Nor was this all; for the sound of several footsteps running
+came already to our ears, and as we looked back in their direction, a
+light, tossing to and fro, and still rapidly advancing, showed that one
+of the new-comers carried a lantern.
+
+"My dear," said my mother, suddenly, "take the money and run on. I am
+going to faint."
+
+This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought. How I cursed the
+cowardice of the neighbors! how I blamed my poor mother for her honesty
+and her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We were
+just at the little bridge, by good fortune, and I helped her, tottering
+as she was, to the edge of the bank, where, sure enough, she gave a sigh
+and fell on my shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do it
+all, and I am afraid it was roughly done, but I managed to drag her down
+the bank and a little way under the arch. Farther I could not move her,
+for the bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl below it. So
+there we had to stay--my mother almost entirely exposed, and both of us
+within earshot of the inn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN
+
+
+My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear; for I could not
+remain where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence, sheltering
+my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our
+door. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive, seven
+or eight of them, running hard, their feet beating out of time along the
+road, and the man with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran
+together, hand in hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the
+middle man of this trio was the blind beggar. The next moment his voice
+showed me that I was right.
+
+"Down with the door!" he cried.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush was made upon the
+"Admiral Benbow," the lantern-bearer following; and then I could see
+them pause, and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were
+surprised to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the blind
+man again issued his commands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as
+if he were afire with eagerness and rage.
+
+"In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their delay.
+
+Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the
+formidable beggar. There was a pause, then a cry of surprise, and then
+a voice shouting from the house:
+
+"Bill's dead!"
+
+But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.
+
+"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft and
+get the chest," he cried.
+
+I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that the house
+must have shook with it. Promptly afterward fresh sounds of astonishment
+arose; the window of the captain's room was thrown open with a slam and
+a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned out into the moonlight, head
+and shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the road below him.
+
+[Illustration: _"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"_ (Page 34)]
+
+"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us. Someone's turned the chest out
+alow and aloft."
+
+"Is it there?" roared Pew.
+
+"The money's there."
+
+The blind man cursed the money.
+
+"Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.
+
+"We don't see it here, nohow," returned the man.
+
+"Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blind man again.
+
+At that, another fellow, probably he who had remained below to search
+the captain's body, came to the door of the inn. "Bill's been overhauled
+a'ready," said he, "nothin' left."
+
+"It's these people of the inn--it's that boy. I wish I had put his eyes
+out!" cried the blind man, Pew. "They were here no time ago--they had
+the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."
+
+"Sure enough, they left their glim here," said the fellow from the
+window.
+
+"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiterated Pew, striking
+with his stick upon the road.
+
+Then there followed a great to-do through all our old inn, heavy feet
+pounding to and fro, furniture all thrown over, doors kicked in, until
+the very rocks re-echoed, and the men came out again, one after another,
+on the road, and declared that we were nowhere to be found. And just
+then the same whistle that had alarmed my mother and myself over the
+dead captain's money was once more clearly audible through the night,
+but this time twice repeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's
+trumpet, so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault; but I now found
+that it was a signal from the hillside toward the hamlet, and, from its
+effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them of approaching danger.
+
+"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have to budge, mates."
+
+"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool and a coward from the
+first--you wouldn't mind him. They must be close by; they can't be far;
+you have your hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs. Oh, shiver
+my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!"
+
+This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows began
+to look here and there among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought,
+and with half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest
+stood irresolute on the road.
+
+"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you hang a leg! You'd
+be as rich as kings if you could find it, and you know it's here, and
+you stand there skulking. There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, and I
+did it--a blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you! I'm to be a
+poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a
+coach! If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit, you would catch
+them still."
+
+"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled one.
+
+"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another. "Take the
+Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."
+
+Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so high at these
+objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand,
+he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded
+heavily on more than one.
+
+These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant, threatened him
+in horrid terms, and tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from
+his grasp.
+
+This quarrel was the saving of us; for while it was still raging,
+another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the
+hamlet--the tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the same time a
+pistol-shot, flash, and report came from the hedge side. And that was
+plainly the last signal of danger, for the buccaneers turned at once and
+ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one
+slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not a sign of
+them remained but Pew. Him they had deserted, whether in sheer panic or
+out of revenge for his ill words and blows, I know not; but there he
+remained behind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping
+and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn, and ran a
+few steps past me, towards the hamlet, crying:
+
+"Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you won't leave old Pew,
+mates--not old Pew?"
+
+Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four or five riders
+came in sight in the moonlight, and swept at full gallop down the slope.
+
+At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and ran straight for
+the ditch, into which he rolled. But he was on his feet again in a
+second, and made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the
+nearest of the coming horses.
+
+The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that
+rang high into the night, and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him
+and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face,
+and moved no more.
+
+I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were pulling up, at any
+rate, horrified at the accident, and I soon saw what they were. One,
+tailing out behind the rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to
+Doctor Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he had met by the
+way, and with whom he had had the intelligence to return at once. Some
+news of the lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance,
+and set him forth that night in our direction, and to that circumstance
+my mother and I owed our preservation from death.
+
+Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we had carried her up
+to the hamlet, a little cold water and salts very soon brought her back
+again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still
+continued to deplore the balance of the money.
+
+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. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to keep out of the
+moonlight, or he would get some lead in him, and at the same time a
+bullet whistled close by his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the
+point and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, as he said, "like a fish
+out of water," and all he could do was to dispatch a man to B---- to
+warn the cutter. "And that," said he, "is just about as good as nothing.
+They've got off clean, and there's an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad I
+trod on Master Pew's corns"; for by this time he had heard my story.
+
+I went back with him to the "Admiral Benbow," and you cannot imagine a
+house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by
+these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and
+though nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's
+money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could see at once that we
+were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing of the scene.
+
+"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, what in fortune were
+they after? More money, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact, sir, I believe I
+have the thing in my breast-pocket; and, to tell you the truth, I should
+like to get it put in safety."
+
+"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take it, if you like."
+
+"I thought, perhaps, Doctor Livesey--" I began.
+
+"Perfectly right," he interrupted, very cheerily, "perfectly right--a
+gentleman and a magistrate. And, now I come to think of it, I might as
+well ride round there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's
+dead, when all's done; not that I regret it, but he's dead, you see, and
+people will make it out against an officer of his Majesty's revenue, if
+make it out they can. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll
+take you along."
+
+I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back to the hamlet
+where the horses were. By the time I had told mother of my purpose they
+were all in the saddle.
+
+"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse; take up this lad
+behind you."
+
+As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt, the supervisor
+gave the word, and the party struck out at a bouncing trot on the road
+to Doctor Livesey's house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS
+
+
+We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before Doctor Livesey's door.
+The house was all dark to the front.
+
+Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup
+to descend by. The door was opened almost at once by the maid.
+
+"Is Doctor Livesey in?" I asked.
+
+"No," she said. He had come home in the afternoon, but had gone up to
+the Hall to dine and pass the evening with the squire.
+
+"So there we go, boys," said Mr. Dance.
+
+This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but ran with
+Dogger's stirrup-leather to the lodge gates, and up the long, leafless,
+moonlit avenue to where the white line of the Hall buildings looked on
+either hand on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted and, taking
+me along with him, was admitted at a word into the house.
+
+The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed us at the end into
+a great library, all lined with bookcases and busts upon top of them,
+where the squire and Doctor Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of
+a bright fire.
+
+I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall man, over six
+feet high, and broad in proportion, and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready
+face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels. His
+eyebrows were very black, and moved readily, and this gave him a look of
+some temper, not bad, you would say, but quick and high.
+
+"Come in, Mr. Dance," said he, very stately and condescending.
+
+"Good evening, Dance," said the doctor, with a nod. "And good evening to
+you, friend Jim. What good wind brings you here?"
+
+The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and told his story like a
+lesson; and you should have seen how the two gentlemen leaned forward
+and looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise and
+interest. When they heard how my mother went back to the inn, Doctor
+Livesey fairly slapped his thigh, and the squire cried "Bravo!" and
+broke his long pipe against the grate. Long before it was done, Mr.
+Trelawney (that, you will remember, was the squire's name) had got up
+from his seat, and was striding about the room, and the doctor, as if to
+hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking
+very strange indeed with his own close-cropped, black poll.
+
+At last Mr. Dance finished the story.
+
+"Mr. Dance," said the squire, "you are a very noble fellow. And as for
+riding down that black, atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of
+virtue, sir, like stamping on a cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump,
+I perceive. Hawkins, will you ring that bell? Mr. Dance must have some
+ale."
+
+"And so, Jim," said the doctor, "you have the thing that they were
+after, have you?"
+
+"Here it is, sir," said I, and gave him the oilskin packet.
+
+The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were itching to open
+it; but, instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the pocket of his
+coat.
+
+"Squire," said he, "when Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be
+off on his Majesty's service; but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to
+sleep at my house, and, with your permission, I propose we should have
+up the cold pie, and let him sup."
+
+"As you will, Livesey," said the squire; "Hawkins has earned better than
+cold pie."
+
+So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a side-table, and I made a
+hearty supper, for I was as hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was
+further complimented, and at last dismissed.
+
+"And now, squire," said the doctor.
+
+"And now, Livesey," said the squire, in the same breath.
+
+"One at a time, one at a time," laughed Doctor Livesey. "You have heard
+of this Flint, I suppose?"
+
+"Heard of him!" cried the squire. "Heard of him, you say! He was the
+blood-thirstiest buccaneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint.
+The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him that, I tell you, sir,
+I was sometimes proud he was an Englishman. I've seen his topsails with
+these eyes, off Trinidad, and the cowardly son of a rum-puncheon that I
+sailed with put back--put back, sir, into Port of Spain."
+
+"Well, I've heard of him myself, in England," said the doctor. "But the
+point is, had he money?"
+
+"Money!" cried the squire. "Have you heard the story? What were these
+villains after but money? What do they care for but money? For what
+would they risk their rascal carcasses but money?"
+
+"That we shall soon know," replied the doctor. "But you are so
+confoundedly hot-headed and exclamatory that I cannot get a word in.
+What I want to know is this: Supposing that I have here in my pocket
+some clue to where Flint buried his treasure, will that treasure amount
+to much?"
+
+"Amount, sir!" cried the squire. "It will amount to this: If we have the
+clue you talk about, I'll fit out a ship in Bristol dock, and take you
+and Hawkins here along, and I'll have that treasure if I search a year."
+
+"Very well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if Jim is agreeable, we'll
+open the packet," and he laid it before him on the table.
+
+The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out his
+instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors. It
+contained two things--a book and a sealed paper.
+
+"First of all we'll try the book," observed the doctor.
+
+The squire and I were both peering over his shoulder as he opened it,
+for Doctor Livesey had kindly motioned me to come round from the
+side-table, where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search.
+On the first page there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man
+with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or practice. One was the
+same as the tattoo mark, "Billy Bones his fancy"; then there was "Mr. W.
+Bones, mate," "No more rum," "Off Palm Key he got itt," and some other
+snatches, mostly single words and unintelligible. I could not help
+wondering who it was that had "got itt," and what "itt" was that he got.
+A knife in his back as like as not.
+
+"Not much instruction there," said Doctor Livesey, as he passed on.
+
+The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious series of
+entries. There was a date at one end of the line and at the other a sum
+of money, as in common account-books; but instead of explanatory
+writing, only a varying number of crosses between the two. On the 12th
+of June, 1745, for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become
+due to someone, and there was nothing but six crosses to explain the
+cause. In a few cases, to be sure, the name of a place would be added,
+as "Offe Caraccas"; or a mere entry of latitude and longitude, as "62°
+17' 20", 19° 2' 40"."
+
+The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the amount of the separate
+entries growing larger as time went on, and at the end a grand total had
+been made out, after five or six wrong additions, and these words
+appended, "Bones, his pile."
+
+"I can't make head or tail of this," said Doctor Livesey.
+
+"The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the squire. "This is the
+black-hearted hound's account-book. These crosses stand for the names of
+ships or towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are the scoundrel's
+share, and where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something
+clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here was some unhappy vessel
+boarded off that coast. God help the poor souls that manned her--coral
+long ago."
+
+"Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be a traveler. Right! And
+the amounts increase, you see, as he rose in rank."
+
+There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of places noted
+in the blank leaves toward the end, and a table for reducing French,
+English, and Spanish moneys to a common value.
+
+"Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the one to be cheated."
+
+"And now," said the squire, "for the other."
+
+The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble by way of
+seal; the very thimble, perhaps, that I had found in the captain's
+pocket. The doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell out
+the map of an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings, names of
+hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that would be needed to
+bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine
+miles long and five across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon
+standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbors, and a hill in the
+center part marked "The Spy-glass." There were several additions of a
+later date; but, above all, three crosses of red ink--two on the north
+part of the island, one in the southwest, and, beside this last, in the
+same red ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the
+captain's tottery characters, these words: "Bulk of treasure here."
+
+Over on the back the same hand had written this further information:
+
+    "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
+
+    "Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
+
+    "Ten feet.
+
+    "The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the trend
+    of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black crag with the
+    face on it.
+
+    "The arms are easy found, in the sandhill, N. point of north inlet
+    cape, bearing E. and a quarter N.
+
+                                                                 "J. F."
+
+That was all, but brief as it was, and, to me, incomprehensible, it
+filled the squire and Doctor Livesey with delight.
+
+"Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up this wretched practice at
+once. To-morrow I start for Bristol. In three weeks' time--three
+weeks!--two weeks--ten days--we'll have the best ship, sir, and the
+choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy. You'll make a
+famous cabin-boy, Hawkins. You, Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am
+admiral. We'll take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter. We'll have favorable
+winds, a quick passage, and not the least difficulty in finding the
+spot, and money to eat--to roll in--to play duck and drake with ever
+after."
+
+"Trelawney," said the doctor, "I'll go with you; and I'll go bail for
+it, so will Jim, and be a credit to the undertaking. There's only one
+man I'm afraid of."
+
+"And who's that?" cried the squire. "Name the dog, sir!"
+
+"You," replied the doctor, "for you cannot hold your tongue. We are not
+the only men who know of this paper. These fellows who attacked the inn
+to-night--bold, desperate blades, for sure--and the rest who stayed
+aboard that lugger, and more, I dare say, not far off, are, one and all,
+through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that money. We must none
+of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I shall stick together in the
+meanwhile; you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and,
+from first to last, not one of us must breathe a word of what we've
+found."
+
+"Livesey," returned the squire, "you are always in the right of it. I'll
+be as silent as the grave."
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE SEA-COOK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+I GO TO BRISTOL
+
+
+It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for the sea,
+and none of our first plans--not even Doctor Livesey's, of keeping me
+beside him--could be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to
+London for a physician to take charge of his practice; the squire was
+hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of
+old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams
+and the most charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures. I
+brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I
+well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I
+approached that island, in my fancy, from every possible direction; I
+explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand times to that
+tall hill they call the Spy-glass, and from the top enjoyed the most
+wonderful and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with
+savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals that
+hunted us; but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and
+tragic as our actual adventures.
+
+So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed
+to Doctor Livesey, with this addition, "To be opened in the case of his
+absence, by Tom Redruth or Young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found,
+or rather I found--for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading
+anything but print--the following important news:
+
+                              "_Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17--._
+
+    "DEAR LIVESEY: As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or still
+    in London, I send this in double to both places.
+
+    "The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea.
+    You never imagined a sweeter schooner--a child might sail her--two
+    hundred tons; name, _Hispaniola_.
+
+    "I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has proved himself
+    throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable fellow literally
+    slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did every one in Bristol,
+    as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for--treasure, I
+    mean."
+
+"Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Doctor Livesey will not
+like that. The squire has been talking, after all."
+
+"Well, who's a better right?" growled the gamekeeper. "A pretty rum go
+if Squire ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey, I should think."
+
+At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and read straight on:
+
+    "Blandly himself found the _Hispaniola_, and by the most admirable
+    management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of men in
+    Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length
+    of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money;
+    that the _Hispaniola_ belonged to him, and that he sold to me
+    absurdly high--the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare,
+    however, to deny the merits of the ship.
+
+    "So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure--riggers
+    and what not--were most annoyingly slow, but time cured that. It was
+    the crew that troubled me.
+
+    "I wished a round score of men--in case of natives, buccaneers, or
+    the odious French--and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find
+    so much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune
+    brought me the very man that I required.
+
+    "I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I fell in
+    talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public house,
+    knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore,
+    and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled
+    down there that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt.
+
+    "I was monstrously touched--so would you have been--and, out of pure
+    pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook. Long John Silver
+    he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a
+    recommendation, since he lost it in his country's service, under the
+    immortal Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable
+    age we live in!
+
+    "Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I
+    had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a few
+    days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable--not pretty to
+    look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable
+    spirit. I declare we could fight a frigate.
+
+    "Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
+    engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of
+    fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.
+
+    "I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a
+    bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I
+    hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho! Hang
+    the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So
+    now, Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.
+
+    "Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for a
+    guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol.
+
+                                                        "JOHN TRELAWNEY.
+
+    "P.S.--I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send
+    a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had
+    found an admirable fellow for sailing-master--a stiff man, which I
+    regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver
+    unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have
+    a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war
+    fashion on board the good ship _Hispaniola_.
+
+    "I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of
+    my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never
+    been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is
+    a woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be
+    excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the
+    health, that sends him back to roving.
+
+                                                                  "J. T.
+
+    "P.P.S.--Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.
+
+                                                                 "J. T."
+
+You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
+beside myself with glee, and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom
+Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
+under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such
+was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law
+among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even
+to grumble.
+
+The next morning he and I set out on foot for the "Admiral Benbow," and
+there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The captain, who had
+so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the wicked
+cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the
+public rooms and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture--above
+all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy
+as an apprentice also, so that she should not want help while I was
+gone.
+
+It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my
+situation. I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me,
+not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now at sight of this
+clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I
+had my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life;
+for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting
+him right and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.
+
+The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were
+afoot again and on the road. I said good-by to mother and the cove where
+I had lived since I was born, and the dear old "Admiral Benbow"--since
+he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One of my last thoughts was
+of the captain, who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked
+hat, his saber-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we
+had turned the corner, and my home was out of sight.
+
+The mail picked us up about dusk at the "Royal George" on the heath. I
+was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of
+the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal
+from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale,
+through stage after stage; for when I was awakened at last, it was by a
+punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing
+still before a large building in a city street, and that the day had
+already broken a long time.
+
+"Where are we?" I asked.
+
+"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."
+
+Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks,
+to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk,
+and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the
+great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one,
+sailors were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft,
+high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a
+spider's. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to
+have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was
+something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been
+far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in
+their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pig-tails, and
+their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or
+archbishops I could not have been more delighted.
+
+And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner, with a piping
+boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown
+island, and to seek for buried treasure.
+
+While I was still in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of
+a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea
+officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his
+face, and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk.
+
+"Here you are!" he cried; "and the doctor came last night from London.
+Bravo!--the ship's company complete."
+
+"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?"
+
+"Sail!" says he. "We sail to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE "SPY-GLASS"
+
+
+When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave me a note addressed to
+John Silver, at the sign of the "Spy-glass," and told me I should easily
+find the place by following the line of the docks, and keeping a bright
+lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for a sign. I
+set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see some more of the ships and
+seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and
+bales, for the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern in
+question.
+
+It was a bright enough little place of entertainment. The sign was newly
+painted; the windows had neat red curtains; the floor was cleanly
+sanded. There was a street on each side, and an open door on both, which
+made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of
+tobacco smoke.
+
+The customers were mostly seafaring men, and they talked so loudly that
+I hung at the door, almost afraid to enter.
+
+As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a glance I was
+sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip,
+and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with
+wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall
+and strong, with a face as big as a ham--plain and pale, but
+intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits,
+whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a
+slap on the shoulder for the more favored of his guests.
+
+Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first mention of Long John in
+Squire Trelawney's letter, I had taken a fear in my mind that he might
+prove to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so long at
+the old "Benbow." But one look at the man before me was enough. I had
+seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind man Pew, and I thought I
+knew what a buccaneer was like--a very different creature, according to
+me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.
+
+I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold, and walked right up
+to the man where he stood, propped on his crutch, talking to a customer.
+
+"Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out the note.
+
+"Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to be sure. And who may you
+be?" And when he saw the squire's letter he seemed to me to give
+something almost like a start.
+
+"Oh!" said he, quite aloud, and offering his hand, "I see. You are our
+new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you."
+
+And he took my hand in his large firm grasp.
+
+Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and made
+for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the street in a
+moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at a
+glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had come
+first to the "Admiral Benbow."
+
+"Oh," I cried, "stop him! it's Black Dog!"
+
+"I don't care two coppers who he is," cried Silver, "but he hasn't paid
+his score. Harry, run and catch him."
+
+One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up and started in
+pursuit.
+
+"If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score," cried Silver; and
+then, relinquishing my hand, "Who did you say he was?" he asked. "Black
+what?"
+
+"Dog, sir," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers?
+He was one of them."
+
+"So?" cried Silver. "In my house! Ben, run and help Harry. One of those
+swabs, was he? Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here."
+
+The man whom he called Morgan--an old, gray-haired, mahogany-faced
+sailor--came forward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid.
+
+[Illustration: _"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never
+clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you, now?"_ (Page 57)]
+
+"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never clapped your
+eyes on that Black--Black Dog before, did you, now?"
+
+"Not I, sir," said Morgan, with a salute.
+
+"You didn't know his name, did you?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's as good for you!" exclaimed the
+landlord. "If you had been mixed up with the like of that, you would
+never have put another foot in my house, you may lay to that. And what
+was he saying to you?"
+
+"I don't rightly know, sir," answered Morgan.
+
+"Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed dead-eye?"
+cried Long John. "Don't rightly know, don't you? Perhaps you don't
+happen to rightly know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now,
+what was he jawing--v'yages, cap'ns, ships? Pipe up! What was it?"
+
+"We was a-talkin' of keel-hauling," answered Morgan.
+
+"Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may
+lay to that. Get back to your place for a lubber, Tom."
+
+And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver added to me, in a
+confidential whisper, that was very flattering, as I thought:
+
+"He's quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on'y stupid. And now," he ran on
+again, aloud, "let's see--Black Dog? No, I don't know the name, not I.
+Yet I kind of think I've--yes, I've seen the swab. He used to come here
+with a blind beggar, he used."
+
+"That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I knew that blind man, too. His
+name was Pew."
+
+"It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew! That were his name for
+certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he did! If we run down this Black Dog
+now, there'll be news for Cap'n Trelawney! Ben's a good runner; few
+seamen run better than Ben. He should run him down, hand over hand, by
+the powers! He talked o' keel-hauling, did he? _I'll_ keel-haul him!"
+
+All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was stumping up and
+down the tavern on his crutch, slapping tables with his hand, and giving
+such a show of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge or
+a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly reawakened on
+finding Black Dog at the "Spy-glass," and I watched the cook narrowly.
+But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the
+time the two men had come back out of breath, and confessed that they
+had lost the track in a crowd, and been scolded like thieves, I would
+have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.
+
+"See here, now, Hawkins," said he, "here's a blessed hard thing on a man
+like me, now, ain't it? There's Cap'n Trelawney--what's he to think?
+Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house,
+drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and
+here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights! Now,
+Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap'n. You're a lad, you are, but
+you're as smart as paint. I see that when you first came in. Now, here
+it is: What could I do, with this old timber I hobble on? When I was an
+A B master mariner I'd have come up alongside of him, hand over hand,
+and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I would; and now--"
+
+And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw dropped as though he
+had remembered something.
+
+"The score!" he burst out. "Three goes o' rum! Why, shiver my timbers,
+if I hadn't forgotten my score!"
+
+And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks.
+I could not help joining, and we laughed together, peal after peal,
+until the tavern rang again.
+
+"Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he said, at last, wiping his
+cheeks. "You and me should get on well, Hawkins, for I'll take my davy I
+should be rated ship's boy. But, come, now, stand by to go about. This
+won't do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I'll put on my old cocked hat and
+step along of you to Cap'n Trelawney, and report this here affair. For,
+mind you, it's serious, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me's come out
+of it with what I should make so bold as to call credit. Nor you
+neither, says you; not smart--none of the pair of us smart. But dash my
+buttons! that was a good 'un about my score."
+
+And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that though I did not
+see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.
+
+On our little walk along the quays he made himself the most interesting
+companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their
+rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going
+forward--how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third
+making ready for sea; and every now and then telling me some little
+anecdote of ships or seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had
+learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one of the best of
+possible shipmates.
+
+When we got to the inn, the squire and Doctor Livesey were seated
+together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they
+should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.
+
+Long John told the story from first to last, with a great deal of spirit
+and the most perfect truth. "That was how it were, now, weren't it,
+Hawkins?" he would say, now and again, and I could always bear him
+entirely out.
+
+The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got away, but we all
+agreed there was nothing to be done, and after he had been complimented,
+Long John took up his crutch and departed.
+
+"All hands aboard by four this afternoon!" shouted the squire after him.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook, in the passage.
+
+"Well, squire," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't put much faith in your
+discoveries, as a general thing, but I will say this--John Silver suits
+me."
+
+"That man's a perfect trump," declared the squire.
+
+"And now," added the doctor, "Jim may come on board with us, may he
+not?"
+
+"To be sure he may," said the squire. "Take your hat, Hawkins, and we'll
+see the ship."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+POWDER AND ARMS
+
+
+The _Hispaniola_ lay some way out, and we went under the figureheads and
+around the sterns of many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated
+beneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however, we
+swung alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the
+mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears and a
+squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon
+observed that things were not the same between Mr. Trelawney and the
+captain.
+
+This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry with everything on
+board, and was soon to tell us why, for we had hardly got down into the
+cabin when a sailor followed us.
+
+"Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you," said he.
+
+"I am always at the captain's orders. Show him in," said the squire.
+
+The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and
+shut the door behind him.
+
+"Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all
+shipshape and seaworthy?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak plain, I believe, at the
+risk of offense. I don't like this cruise; I don't like the men; and I
+don't like my officer. That's short and sweet."
+
+"Perhaps, sir, you don't like the ship?" inquired the squire, very
+angry, as I could see.
+
+"I can't speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried," said the
+captain. "She seems a clever craft; more I can't say."
+
+"Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?" said the
+squire.
+
+But here Doctor Livesey cut in.
+
+"Stay a bit," said he, "stay a bit. No use of such questions as that but
+to produce ill-feeling. The captain has said too much or he has said too
+little, and I'm bound to say that I require an explanation of his words.
+You don't, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?"
+
+"I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to sail this ship
+for that gentleman where he should bid me," said the captain. "So far so
+good. But now I find that every man before the mast knows more than I
+do. I don't call that fair, now, do you?"
+
+"No," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't."
+
+"Next," said the captain, "I learn we are going after treasure--hear it
+from my own hands, mind you. Now, treasure is ticklish work; I don't
+like treasure voyages on any account; and I don't like them, above all,
+when they are secret, and when (begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the
+secret has been told to the parrot."
+
+"Silver's parrot?" asked the squire.
+
+"It's a way of speaking," said the captain. "Blabbed, I mean. It's my
+belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about; but I'll tell
+you my way of it--life or death, and a close run."
+
+"That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough," replied Doctor
+Livesey. "We take the risk, but we are not so ignorant as you believe
+us. Next, you say you don't like the crew. Are they not good seamen?"
+
+"I don't like them, sir," returned Captain Smollett. "And I think I
+should have had the choosing of my own hands, if you go to that."
+
+"Perhaps you should," replied the doctor. "My friend should, perhaps,
+have taken you along with him; but the slight, if there be one, was
+unintentional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow?"
+
+"I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman, but he's too free with
+the crew to be a good officer. A mate should keep himself to
+himself--shouldn't drink with the men before the mast."
+
+"Do you mean he drinks?" cried the squire.
+
+"No, sir," replied the captain; "only that he's too familiar."
+
+"Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?" asked the doctor.
+"Tell us what you want."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise?"
+
+"Like iron," answered the squire.
+
+"Very good," said the captain. "Then, as you've heard me very patiently,
+saying things that I could not prove, hear me a few words more. They are
+putting the powder and the arms in the fore hold. Now, you have a good
+place under the cabin; why not put them there?--first point. Then you
+are bringing four of your own people with you, and they tell me some of
+them are to be berthed forward. Why not give them the berths here beside
+the cabin?--second point."
+
+"Any more?" asked Mr. Trelawney.
+
+"One more," said the captain. "There's been too much blabbing already."
+
+"Far too much," agreed the doctor.
+
+"I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued Captain Smollett;
+"that you have a map of an island; that there's crosses on the map to
+show where treasure is; and that the island lies--" And then he named
+the latitude and longitude exactly.
+
+"I never told that," cried the squire, "to a soul."
+
+"The hands know it, sir," returned the captain.
+
+"Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins," cried the squire.
+
+"It doesn't much matter who it was," replied the doctor. And I could see
+that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney's
+protestations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so loose a talker; yet
+in this case I believe he was really right, and that nobody had told the
+situation of the island.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," continued the captain, "I don't know who has this
+map, but I make it a point it shall be kept secret even from me and Mr.
+Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign."
+
+"I see," said the doctor. "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. In other
+words, you fear a mutiny."
+
+"Sir," said Captain Smollett, "with no intention to take offense, I deny
+your right to put words into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be
+justified in going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As
+for Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest; some of the men are the
+same; all may be for what I know. But I am responsible for the ship's
+safety and the life of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going,
+as I think, not quite right; and I ask you to take certain precautions,
+or let me resign my berth. And that's all."
+
+"Captain Smollett," began the doctor, with a smile, "did ever you hear
+the fable of the mountain and the mouse? You'll excuse me, I dare say,
+but you remind me of that fable. When you came in here I'll stake my wig
+you meant more than this."
+
+"Doctor," said the captain, "you are smart. When I came in here I meant
+to get discharged. I had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a
+word."
+
+"No more I would," cried the squire. "Had Livesey not been here I should
+have seen you to the deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do as you
+desire, but I think the worse of you."
+
+"That's as you please, sir," said the captain. "You'll find I do my
+duty."
+
+And with that he took his leave.
+
+"Trelawney," said the doctor, "contrary to all my notions, I believe you
+have managed to get two honest men on board with you--that man and John
+Silver."
+
+"Silver, if you like," cried the squire, "but as for that intolerable
+humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright
+un-English."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "we shall see."
+
+When we came on deck the men had begun already to take out the arms and
+powder, yo-ho-ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood
+by superintending.
+
+The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The whole schooner had been
+overhauled; six berths had been made astern, out of what had been the
+after-part of the main hold, and this set of cabins was only joined to
+the galley and forecastle by a sparred passage on the port side. It had
+been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the
+doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth and
+I were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep
+on deck in the companion, which had been enlarged on each side till you
+might almost have called it a round-house. Very low it was still, of
+course, but there was room to swing two hammocks, and even the mate
+seemed pleased with the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, had been doubtful
+as to the crew, but that is only guess, for, as you shall hear, we had
+not long the benefit of his opinion.
+
+We were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths, when the
+last man or two, and Long John along with them, came off in a
+shore-boat.
+
+The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness, and, as soon as
+he saw what was doing, "So ho, mates!" said he, "what's this!"
+
+"We're a-changing the powder, Jack," answers one.
+
+"Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we do, we'll miss the morning
+tide!"
+
+"My orders!" said the captain, shortly. "You may go below, my man. Hands
+will want supper."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook; and, touching his forelock, he
+disappeared at once in the direction of his galley.
+
+"That's a good man, captain," said the doctor.
+
+"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy with that,
+men--easy," he ran on, to the fellows who were shifting the powder; and
+then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a
+long brass nine--"Here, you ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off
+with you to the cook and get some work."
+
+And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite loudly, to the
+doctor:
+
+"I'll have no favorites on my ship."
+
+I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking, and hated the
+captain deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE VOYAGE
+
+
+All that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their
+place, and boatfuls of the squire's friends, Mr. Blandly and the like,
+coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had a
+night at the "Admiral Benbow" when I had half the work; and I was
+dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe,
+and the crew began to man the capstan bars. I might have been twice as
+weary, yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and
+interesting to me--the brief commands, the shrill notes of the whistle,
+the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns.
+
+"Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave," cried one voice.
+
+"The old one," cried another.
+
+"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch
+under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so
+well:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest"--
+
+And then the whole crew bore chorus:
+
+    "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.
+
+Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old "Admiral
+Benbow" in a second, and I seemed to hear the voice of the captain
+piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up; soon it was
+hanging dripping at the bows; soon the sails began to draw, and the land
+and shipping to flit by on either side, and before I could lie down to
+snatch an hour of slumber the _Hispaniola_ had begun her voyage to the
+Isle of Treasure.
+
+I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was fairly prosperous.
+The ship proved to be a good ship, the crew were capable seamen, and the
+captain thoroughly understood his business. But before we came the
+length of Treasure Island, two or three things had happened which
+require to be known.
+
+Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than the captain had
+feared. He had no command among the men, and people did what they
+pleased with him. But that was by no means the worst of it; for after a
+day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks,
+stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time after time he
+was ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut himself;
+sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the
+companion; sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and
+attend to his work at least passably.
+
+In the meantime we could never make out where he got the drink. That was
+the ship's mystery. Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to
+solve it, and when we asked him to his face, he would only laugh, if he
+were drunk, and if he were sober, deny solemnly that he ever tasted
+anything but water.
+
+He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad influence among the
+men, but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself
+outright, so nobody was much surprised, nor very sorry, when one dark
+night, with a head sea, he disappeared entirely and was seen no more.
+
+"Overboard!" said the captain. "Well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble
+of putting him in irons."
+
+But there we were, without a mate, and it was necessary, of course, to
+advance one of the men. The boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest
+man aboard, and though he kept his old title, he served in a way as
+mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him
+very useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy weather. And the
+coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, experienced seaman,
+who could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything.
+
+He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and so the mention of his
+name leads me on to speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men
+called him.
+
+[Illustration: _It was something to see him get on with his cooking like
+someone safe ashore_ (Page 71)]
+
+Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck, to have
+both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him wedge the
+foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against it, yielding
+to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like someone safe
+ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather
+cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to help him across the
+widest spaces--Long John's earrings, they were called--and he would hand
+himself from one place to another, now using the crutch, now trailing it
+alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some
+of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see
+him so reduced.
+
+"He's no common man, Barbecue," said the coxswain to me. "He had good
+schooling in his young days, and can speak like a book when so minded;
+and brave--a lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him grapple
+four and knock their heads together--him unarmed."
+
+All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He had a way of talking to
+each, and doing everybody some particular service. To me he was
+unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept
+as clean as a new pin; the dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot
+in a cage in the corner.
+
+"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; "come and have a yarn with John.
+Nobody more welcome than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the
+news. Here's Cap'n Flint--I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the
+famous buccaneer--here's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our v'yage.
+Wasn't you, Cap'n?"
+
+And the parrot would say, with great rapidity: "Pieces of eight! pieces
+of eight! pieces of eight!" till you wondered that it was not out of
+breath or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.
+
+"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, may be, two hundred years old,
+Hawkins--they live forever mostly, and if anybody's seen more wickedness
+it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England--the great Cap'n
+England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and
+Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was at the fishing up of
+the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of eight,' and
+little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em, Hawkins! She was
+at the boarding of the _Viceroy of the Indies_ out of Goa, she was, and
+to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you smelt
+powder--didn't you, cap'n?"
+
+"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.
+
+"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give her
+sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars and
+swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John would
+add, "you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old
+innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire and none the wiser, you may lay
+to that. She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before the
+chaplain." And John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had,
+that made me think he was the best of men.
+
+In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty
+distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the
+matter; he despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke
+but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
+word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have
+been wrong about the crew; that some of them were as brisk as he wanted
+to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a
+downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man
+has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would add,
+"all I say is, we're not home again, and I don't like the cruise."
+
+The squire, at this, would turn away and march up and down the deck,
+chin in air.
+
+"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I should explode."
+
+We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the
+_Hispaniola_. Every man on board seemed well content, and they must have
+been hard to please if they had been otherwise, for it is my belief
+there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea.
+Double grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff on odd days,
+as, for instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday; and
+always a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist, for anyone to
+help himself that had a fancy.
+
+"Never knew good to come of it yet," the captain said to Doctor Livesey.
+"Spoil foc's'le hands, make devils. That's my belief."
+
+But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall hear, for if it had
+not been for that we should have had no note of warning and might all
+have perished by the hand of treachery.
+
+This is how it came about.
+
+We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after--I
+am not allowed to be more plain--and now we were running down for it
+with a bright lookout day and night. It was about the last day of our
+outward voyage, by the largest computation; some time that night, or, at
+latest, before noon of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure Island.
+We were heading south-southwest, and had a steady breeze abeam and a
+quiet sea. The _Hispaniola_ rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now
+and then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and aloft; everyone
+was in the bravest spirits, because we were now so near an end of the
+first part of our adventure.
+
+Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over and I was on my way
+to my berth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. I ran on
+deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at
+the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away gently to
+himself, and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea
+against the bows and around the sides of the ship.
+
+In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there was scarce an
+apple left; but, sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of
+the waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either fallen
+asleep, or was on the point of doing so, when a heavy man sat down with
+rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders
+against it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to speak.
+It was Silver's voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I would
+not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there, trembling and
+listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these dozen
+words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended
+upon me alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL
+
+
+"No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, along
+of my timber leg. The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his
+deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me--out of
+college and all--Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged
+like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was
+Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names to their
+ships--_Royal Fortune_ and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so
+let her stay, I says. So it was with the _Cassandra_, as brought us all
+safe home from Malabar, after England took the _Viceroy of the Indies_;
+so it was with the old _Walrus_, Flint's old ship, as I've seen a-muck
+with the red blood and fit to sink with gold."
+
+"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and
+evidently full of admiration, "he was the flower of the flock, was
+Flint!"
+
+"Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said Silver. "I never sailed
+along of him; first with England, then with Flint, that's my story; and
+now here on my own account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine
+hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That ain't bad
+for a man before the mast--all safe in bank. 'Tain't earning now, it's
+saving does it, you may lay to that. Where's all England's men now? I
+dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most of 'em aboard here, and glad to get
+the duff--been begging before that, some of 'em. Old Pew, as had lost
+his sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred pounds in
+a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now
+and under hatches; but for two years before that, shiver my timbers! the
+man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and
+starved at that, by the powers!"
+
+"Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the young seaman.
+
+"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it--that, nor nothing,"
+cried Silver. "But now, you look here; you're young, you are, but you're
+as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk
+to you like a man."
+
+You can imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue
+addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to
+myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him
+through the barrel. Meantime he ran on, little supposing he was
+overheard.
+
+"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and they risk
+swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise
+is done, why it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in
+their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea
+again in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all
+away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of
+suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise I set up
+gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. Ah, but I've lived
+easy in the meantime; never denied myself o' nothing heart desires, and
+slept soft and ate dainty all my days, but when at sea. And how did I
+begin? Before the mast, like you!"
+
+"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now, ain't it?
+You daren't show face in Bristol after this."
+
+"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked Silver, derisively.
+
+"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.
+
+"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed anchor. But my old
+missis has it all by now. And the 'Spy-glass' is sold, lease and good
+will and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you
+where, for I trust you; but it 'ud make jealousy among the mates."
+
+"And you can trust your missis?" asked the other.
+
+"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually trust little among
+themselves, and right they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way with
+me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable--one as knows me, I
+mean--it won't be in the same world with old John. There was some that
+was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his own
+self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest
+crew afloat, was Flint's; the devil himself would have been feared to go
+to sea with them. Well, now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you
+seen yourself how easy I keep company; but when I was quartermaster,
+_lambs_ wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure
+of yourself in old John's ship."
+
+"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half a quarter like
+the job till I had this talk with you, John, but there's my hand on it
+now."
+
+"And a brave lad you were, and smart, too," answered Silver, shaking
+hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for
+a gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on."
+
+By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms. By a
+"gentleman of fortune" they plainly meant neither more nor less than a
+common pirate, and the little scene that I had overheard was the last
+act in the corruption of one of the honest hands--perhaps of the last
+one left aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved, for,
+Silver giving a little whistle, a third man strolled up and sat down by
+the party.
+
+"Dick's square," said Silver.
+
+"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice of the coxswain,
+Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick." And he turned his quid and spat.
+"But, look here," he went on, "here's what I want to know, Barbecue--how
+long are we a-going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've had
+a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed me long enough, by thunder!
+I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and
+that."
+
+"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account, nor never was. But
+you're able to hear, I reckon; leastways your ears is big enough. Now,
+here's what I say--you'll berth forward, and you'll live hard, and
+you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober, till I give the word; and you
+may lay to that, my son."
+
+"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain. "What I say is,
+when? That's what I say."
+
+"When! by the powers!" cried Silver. "Well, now, if you want to know,
+I'll tell you when. The last moment I can manage; and that's when.
+Here's a first-rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for
+us. Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such--I don't know
+where it is, do I? No more do you, says you. Well, then, I mean this
+squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by
+the powers! Then we'll see. If I was sure of you all, sons of double
+Dutchmen, I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back again before
+I struck."
+
+"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think," said the lad Dick.
+
+"We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We can steer a
+course, but who's to set one? That's what all you gentlemen split on,
+first and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back
+into the trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and
+a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort you are. I'll finish with
+'em at the island, as soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But
+you're never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a sick heart
+to sail with the likes of you!"
+
+"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin' of you?"
+
+"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I seen laid aboard? and
+how many brisk lads drying in the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver;
+"and all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me? I seen a
+thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay your course, and a
+p'int to windward, you would ride in carriages, you would. But not you!
+I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go hang."
+
+"Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling, John; but there's others
+as could hand and steer as well as you," said Israel. "They liked a bit
+o' fun, they did. They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their
+fling, like jolly companions, everyone."
+
+"So?" said Silver. "Well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and
+he died a beggar-man. Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah,
+they was a sweet crew, they was! on'y, where are they?"
+
+"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay 'em athwart, what are we to do with
+'em, anyhow?"
+
+"There's the man for me!" cried the cook, admiringly. "That's what I
+call business. Well, what would you think? Put 'em ashore like maroons?
+That would have been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that much pork?
+That would have been Flint's or Billy Bones's."
+
+"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead men don't bite,' says
+he. Well, he's dead now, hisself; he knows the long and short on it now;
+and if ever a rough hand come to port, it was Billy."
+
+"Right you are," said Silver, "rough and ready. But mark you here: I'm
+an easy man--I'm quite the gentleman, says you; but this time it's
+serious. Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote--death. When I'm in
+Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these
+sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at
+prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why let her rip!"
+
+"John," cried the coxswain, "you're a man!"
+
+"You'll say so, Israel, when you see," said Silver. "Only one thing I
+claim--I claim Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his body with
+these hands. Dick!" he added, breaking off, "you must jump up, like a
+sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."
+
+You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have leaped out and run for
+it, if I had found the strength; but my limbs and heart alike misgave
+me. I heard Dick begin to rise, and then some one seemingly stopped him,
+and the voice of Hands exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, stow that! Don't you get sucking of that bilge, John. Let's have a
+go of the rum."
+
+"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the keg, mind.
+There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring it up."
+
+Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself that this must
+have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him.
+
+Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence Israel spoke
+straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I could
+catch, and yet I gathered some important news; for, besides other scraps
+that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was audible: "Not
+another man of them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful men on
+board.
+
+When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pannikin and
+drank--one "To luck"; another with a "Here's to old Flint," and Silver
+himself saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your
+luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."
+
+Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and, looking
+up, I found the moon had risen, and was silvering the mizzen-top and
+shining white on the luff of the foresail, and almost at the same time
+the voice on the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+COUNCIL OF WAR
+
+
+There was a great rush of feet across the deck. I could hear people
+tumbling up from the cabin and the foc's'le; and slipping in an instant
+outside my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double towards
+the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and
+Doctor Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.
+
+There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted
+almost simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the
+southwest of us we saw two low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and
+rising behind one of them a third and higher hill, whose peak was still
+buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure.
+
+So much I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my
+horrid fear of a minute or two before. And then I heard the voice of
+Captain Smollett issuing orders. The _Hispaniola_ was laid a couple of
+points nearer the wind, and now sailed a course that would just clear
+the island on the east.
+
+"And now, men," said the captain, when all was sheeted home, "has any
+one of you ever seen that land ahead?"
+
+"I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there with a trader I was cook
+in."
+
+"The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I fancy?" asked the
+captain.
+
+"Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a main place for
+pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed all their names for it.
+That hill to the nor'ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are three
+hills in a row running south'ard--fore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the
+main--that's the big 'un, with the cloud on it--they usually calls the
+Spy-glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the
+anchorage cleaning; for it's there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking
+your pardon."
+
+"I have a chart here," said Captain Smollett. "See if that's the place."
+
+Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but, by the
+fresh look of the paper, I knew he was doomed to disappointment. This
+was not the map we found in Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy,
+complete in all things--names, and heights, and soundings--with the
+single exception of the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must
+have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it.
+
+"Yes, sir," said he, "this is the spot, to be sure, and very prettily
+drawed out. Who might have done that, I wonder? The pirates were too
+ignorant, I reckon. Ay, here it is: 'Captain Kidd's Anchorage'--just the
+name my shipmate called it. There's a strong current runs along the
+south, and then away nor'ard up the west coast. Right you was, sir,"
+said he, "to haul your wind and keep the weather of the island.
+Leastways, if such was your intention as to enter and careen, and there
+ain't no better place for that in these waters."
+
+"Thank you, my man," said Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you, later on, to
+give us a help. You may go."
+
+I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of
+the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw him drawing
+nearer to myself. He did not know, to be sure, that I had overheard his
+council from the apple barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken such a
+horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I could scarce conceal
+a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm.
+
+"Ah," said he, "this here is a sweet spot, this island--a sweet spot for
+a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe, and you'll climb trees, and you'll
+hunt goats, you will, and you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat
+yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber
+leg, I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes, and
+you may lay to that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you just
+ask old John and he'll put up a snack for you to take along."
+
+And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off
+forward and went below.
+
+Captain Smollett, the squire, and Doctor Livesey were talking together
+on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst
+not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about in my
+thoughts to find some probable excuse, Doctor Livesey called me to his
+side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave to tobacco, had
+meant that I should fetch it; but as soon as I was near enough to speak
+and not be overheard, I broke out immediately: "Doctor, let me speak.
+Get the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make some
+pretense to send for me. I have terrible news."
+
+The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he was master
+of himself.
+
+"Thank you, Jim," said he, quite loudly; "that was all I wanted to
+know," as if he had asked me a question.
+
+And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the other two. They
+spoke together for a little, and though none of them started, or raised
+his voice, or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Doctor
+Livesey had communicated my request, for the next thing that I heard was
+the captain giving an order to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on
+deck.
+
+"My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say to you. This land
+that we have sighted is the place we have been sailing to. Mr.
+Trelawney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, has just
+asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man on
+board had done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask to see it done
+better, why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to
+drink _your_ health and luck, and you'll have grog served out for you to
+drink _our_ health and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this: I think
+it handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good sea cheer for
+the gentleman that does it."
+
+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.
+
+"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett!" cried Long John, when the first had
+subsided.
+
+And this also was given with a will.
+
+On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and not long after,
+word was sent forward that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin.
+
+I found them all three seated around the table, a bottle of Spanish wine
+and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away, with his wig
+on his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The stern
+window was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon
+shining behind on the ship's wake.
+
+"Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something to say. Speak up."
+
+I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make it, told the whole
+details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done,
+nor did anyone of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they
+kept their eyes upon my face from first to last.
+
+"Jim," said Doctor Livesey, "take a seat."
+
+And they made me sit down at a table beside them, poured me out a glass
+of wine, filled my hands with raisins, and all three, one after the
+other, and each with a bow, drank my good health, and their service to
+me, for my luck and courage.
+
+"Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right and I was wrong. I own
+myself an ass, and I await your orders."
+
+"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a
+crew that meant to mutiny but what showed signs before, for any man that
+had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps according. But
+this crew," he added, "beats me."
+
+"Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission, that's Silver. A very
+remarkable man."
+
+"He'd look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir," returned the captain.
+"But this is talk; this don't lead to anything. I see three or four
+points, and with Mr. Trelawney's permission I'll name them."
+
+"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," said Mr. Trelawney,
+grandly.
+
+"First point," began Mr. Smollett, "we must go on because we can't turn
+back. If I gave the word to turn about, they would rise at once. Second
+point, we have time before us--at least until this treasure's found.
+Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to
+blows sooner or later, and what I propose is to take time by the
+forelock, as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when they
+least expect it. We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr.
+Trelawney?"
+
+"As upon myself," declared the squire.
+
+"Three," reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins
+here. Now, about the honest hands?"
+
+"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor; "those he picked up
+for himself before he lit on Silver."
+
+"Nay," replied the squire, "Hands was one of mine."
+
+"I did think I could have trusted Hands," added the captain.
+
+"And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir,
+I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that I can say is not
+much. We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's
+trying on a man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But
+there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to and whistle for a
+wind; that's my view."
+
+"Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than anyone. The men are
+not shy with him and Jim is a noticing lad."
+
+"Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the squire.
+
+I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether
+helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances, it was indeed
+through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there
+were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely, and
+out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were
+six to their nineteen.
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+MY SHORE ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN
+
+
+The appearance of the island when I came on deck next morning was
+altogether changed. Although the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had
+made a great deal of way during the night and were now lying becalmed
+about half a mile to the southeast of the low eastern coast.
+Gray-colored woods covered a large part of the surface. This even tint
+was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands
+and by many tall trees of the pine family, out-topping the others--some
+singly, some in clumps; but the general coloring was uniform and sad.
+The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All
+were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass, which was by three or four
+hundred feet the tallest on the island, was likewise the strangest in
+configuration, running up sheer from almost every side and then suddenly
+cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a statue on.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The
+booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and
+the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had
+to cling tight to the backstay and the world turned giddily before my
+eyes; for though I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, this
+standing still and being rolled about like a bottle was a thing I never
+learned to stand without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an
+empty stomach.
+
+Perhaps it was this--perhaps it was the look of the island, with its
+gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we
+could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach--at
+least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were
+fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone
+would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart
+sank, as the saying is, into my boots, and from that first look onward I
+hated the very thought of Treasure Island.
+
+We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any
+wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped
+three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow
+passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one of
+the boats, where I had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering
+and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command
+of my boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order he grumbled as loud
+as the worst.
+
+"Well," he said, with an oath, "it's not forever."
+
+I thought this was a very bad sign, for, up to that day, the men had
+gone briskly and willingly about their business, but the very sight of
+the island had relaxed the cords of discipline.
+
+All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and conned the ship. He
+knew the passage like the palm of his hand; and though the man in the
+chains got everywhere more water than was down in the chart, John never
+hesitated once.
+
+"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he said, "and this here passage
+has been dug out, in a manner of speaking, with a spade."
+
+We brought up just where the anchor was in the chart, about a third of a
+mile from each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on
+the other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up
+clouds of birds wheeling and crying over the woods, but in less than a
+minute they were down again, and all was once more silent.
+
+The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods, the trees coming
+right down to high-water mark, the shores mostly flat, and the hill-tops
+standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, one here, one
+there. Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this
+pond, as you might call it and the foliage round that part of the shore
+had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could see nothing
+of the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among trees; and if
+it had not been for the chart on the companion, we might have been the
+first that had ever anchored there since the islands arose out of the
+seas.
+
+There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf
+booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the rocks
+outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage--a smell of
+sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing
+and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.
+
+"I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's
+fever here."
+
+If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became truly
+threatening when they had come aboard. They lay about the deck,
+growling together in talk. The slightest order was received with a black
+look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands must
+have caught the infection, for there was not one man aboard to mend
+another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thundercloud.
+
+And it was not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger. Long
+John was hard at work going from group to group, spending himself in
+good advice, and as for example no man could have shown a better. He
+fairly outstripped himself in willingness and civility; he was all
+smiles to everyone. If an order were given, John would be on his crutch
+in an instant, with the cheeriest "Ay, ay, sir!" in the world; and when
+there was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if
+to conceal the discontent of the rest.
+
+Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious
+anxiety on the part of Long John appeared the worst.
+
+We held a council in the cabin.
+
+"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another order, the whole ship'll
+come about our ears by the run. You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough
+answer, do I not? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two
+shakes; if I don't, Silver will see there's something under that, and
+the game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on."
+
+"And who is that?" asked the squire.
+
+"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's as anxious as you and I to
+smother things up. This is a tiff; he'd soon talk 'em out of it if he
+had the chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the chance.
+Let's allow the men an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why, we'll
+fight the ship. If they none of them go, well, then, we hold the cabin,
+and God defend the right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll
+bring 'em aboard again as mild as lambs."
+
+It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all the sure men.
+Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were taken into our confidence, and received
+the news with less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for,
+and then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.
+
+"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are all tired and out of
+sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody; the boats are still in the water;
+you can take the gigs, and as many as please can go ashore for the
+afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an hour before sundown."
+
+I believe the silly fellows must have thought they would break their
+shins over treasure as soon as they were landed; for they all came out
+of their sulks in a moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a
+far-away hill, and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round
+the anchorage.
+
+The captain was too bright to be in the way. He whipped out of sight in
+a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party, and I fancy it was as
+well he did so. Had he been on deck he could no longer so much as have
+pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain as day.
+Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The
+honest hands--and I was soon to see it proved that there were such on
+board--must have been very stupid fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the
+truth was this, that all hands were disaffected by the example of the
+ringleaders--only some more, some less; and a few, being good fellows in
+the main, could neither be led nor driven any farther. It is one thing
+to be idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and murder a
+number of innocent men.
+
+At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay on
+board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver, began to embark.
+
+Then it was that there came into my head the first of the mad notions
+that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men were left by
+Silver, it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship; and
+since only six were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had
+no present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go
+ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side and curled up in the
+foresheets of the nearest boat, and almost at the same moment she shoved
+off.
+
+No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, "Is that you, Jim?
+Keep your head down." But Silver, from the other boat, looked sharply
+over and called out to know if that were me; and from that moment I
+began to regret what I had done.
+
+The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in, having some start,
+and being at once the lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead of
+her consort, and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, and I
+had caught a branch and swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest
+thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind.
+
+"Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting.
+
+But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, ducking, and breaking
+through, I ran straight before my nose, till I could run no longer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST BLOW
+
+
+I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John, that I began to
+enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land
+that I was in. I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes,
+and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and had now come out upon the skirts
+of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted
+with a few pines, and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the
+oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of
+the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks, shining
+vividly in the sun.
+
+I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The isle was
+uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and nothing lived in front
+of me but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and thither among the
+trees. Here and there were flowering plants, unknown to me; here and
+there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of rock and
+hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did I
+suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and that the noise was the famous
+rattle.
+
+Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like trees--live, or
+evergreen, oaks, I heard afterward they should be called--which grew low
+along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage
+compact, like thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of
+the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it
+reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of
+the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh was
+steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled
+through the haze.
+
+All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among the bulrushes; a
+wild duck flew up with a quack, another followed, and soon over the
+whole surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and
+circling in the air. I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be
+drawing near along the borders of the fen. Nor was I deceived, for soon
+I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which, as I
+continued to give ear, grew steadily louder and nearer.
+
+This put me in great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest
+live-oak, and squatted there, hearkening, as silent as a mouse.
+
+Another voice answered; and then the first voice, which I now recognized
+to be Silver's, once more took up the story, and ran on for a long while
+in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound
+they must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely, but no
+distinct word came to my hearing.
+
+At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps to have sat
+down, for not only did they cease to draw any nearer, but the birds
+themselves began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to their places
+in the swamp.
+
+And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business; that since I
+had been so foolhardy as to come ashore with these desperadoes, the
+least I could do was to overhear them at their councils, and that my
+plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage, under
+the favorable ambush of the crouching trees.
+
+I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly, not only by
+the sound of their voices, but by the behavior of the few birds that
+still hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders.
+
+Crawling on all-fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at
+last, raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear
+down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about
+with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to
+face in conversation.
+
+The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat beside him on the
+ground, and his great, smooth, blonde face, all shining with heat, was
+lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal.
+
+"Mate," he was saying, "it's because I thinks gold dust of you--gold
+dust, and you may lay to that! If I hadn't took to you like pitch, do
+you think I'd have been here a-warning of you? All's up--you can't make
+nor mend; it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of the
+wild 'uns knew it, where 'ud I be, Tom--now tell me, where 'ud I be?"
+
+"Silver," said the other man--and I observed he was not only red in the
+face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a
+taut rope--"Silver," says he, "you're old, and you're honest, or has the
+name for it; and you've money, too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't;
+and you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you tell me you'll let
+yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure
+as God sees me, I'd sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin my dooty--"
+
+And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I had found one
+of the honest hands--well, here, at that same moment, came news of
+another. Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound
+like the cry of anger, then another on the back of it, and then one
+horrid, long-drawn scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a
+score of times; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again, darkening
+heaven with a simultaneous whir; and long after that death-yell was
+still ringing in my brain, silence had re-established its empire, and
+only the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant
+surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.
+
+Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the spur; but Silver had
+not winked an eye. He stood where he was, resting lightly on his crutch,
+watching his companion like a snake about to spring.
+
+"John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand.
+
+"Hands off!" cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it seemed to me, with
+the speed and security of a trained gymnast.
+
+"Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other. "It's a black
+conscience that can make you feared of me. But, in heaven's name, tell
+me what was that?"
+
+"That?" returned Silver, smiling away, but warier than ever, his eye a
+mere pin-point in his big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass.
+"That? Oh, I reckon that'll be Alan."
+
+And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.
+
+"Alan!" he cried. "Then rest his soul for a true seaman! And as for you,
+John Silver, long you've been a mate of mine, but you're mate of mine no
+more. If I die like a dog I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan,
+have you? Kill me, too, if you can. But I defies you."
+
+And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook and
+set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a
+cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his
+armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through the air. It struck
+poor Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between the
+shoulders in the middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort
+of gasp and fell.
+
+Whether he was injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like
+enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he
+had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even
+without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment, and had twice
+buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenseless body. From my place
+of ambush I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.
+
+I do not know what it rightly is to faint, but I do know that for the
+next little while the whole world swam away from before me in a whirling
+mist; Silver and the birds and the tall Spy-glass hilltop going round
+and round and topsy-turvy before my eyes, and all manner of bells
+ringing, and distant voices shouting in my ear.
+
+When I came again to myself the monster had pulled himself together, his
+crutch under his arm, his hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay
+motionless upon the sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit,
+cleansing his blood-stained knife the while upon a whisp of grass.
+Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly upon
+the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the mountain, and I could
+scarce persuade myself that murder had actually been done and a human
+life cruelly cut short a moment since, before my eyes.
+
+But now John put his hand into his pocket, brought out a whistle, and
+blew upon it several modulated blasts, that rang far across the heated
+air. I could not tell, of course, the meaning of the signal, but it
+instantly awoke my fears. More men would be coming. I might be
+discovered. They had already slain two of the honest people; after Tom
+and Alan, might not I come next?
+
+Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl back again, with what
+speed and silence I could manage, to the more open portion of the wood.
+As I did so I could hear hails coming and going between the old
+buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings. As
+soon as I was clear of the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce
+minding the direction of my flight, so long as it led me from the
+murderers, and as I ran, fear grew and grew upon me, until it turned
+into a kind of frenzy.
+
+Indeed, could anyone be more entirely lost than I? When the gun fired,
+how should I dare to go down to the boats among those fiends, still
+smoking from their crime? Would not the first of them who saw me wring
+my neck like a snipe's? Would not my absence itself be an evidence to
+them of my alarm, and therefore of my fatal knowledge? It was all over,
+I thought. Good-by to the _Hispaniola_, good-by to the squire, the
+doctor, and the captain. There was nothing left for me but death by
+starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers.
+
+All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, without taking any
+notice, I had drawn near to the foot of the little hill with the two
+peaks, and had got into a part of the island where the wild oaks grew
+more widely apart, and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing
+and dimensions. Mingled with these were a few scattered pines, some
+fifty, some nearer seventy, feet high. The air, too, smelled more fresh
+than down beside the marsh.
+
+And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with a thumping heart.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MAN OF THE ISLAND
+
+
+From the side of the hill, which was here steep and stony, a spout of
+gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling and bounding through the trees.
+My eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw a figure leap
+with great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether
+bear, or man, or monkey, I could in nowise tell. It seemed dark and
+shaggy; more I knew not. But the terror of this new apparition brought
+me to a stand.
+
+I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides: behind me the murderers,
+before me this lurking nondescript. And immediately I began to prefer
+the dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared
+less terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I turned
+on my heel, and, looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began to
+retrace my steps in the direction of the boats.
+
+Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a wide circuit, began to
+head me off. I was tired, at any rate, but had I been as fresh as when I
+rose, I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an
+adversary. From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer, running
+man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, stooping
+almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was! I could no longer be in doubt
+about that.
+
+I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I was within an ace of
+calling for help. But the mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had
+somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver began to revive in
+proportion. I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of
+escape, and as I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed
+into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not defenseless, courage
+glowed again in my heart, and I set my face resolutely for this man of
+the island, and walked briskly toward him.
+
+He was concealed by this time, behind another tree-trunk, but he must
+have been watching me closely, for as soon as I began to move in his
+direction he reappeared and took a step to meet me. Then he hesitated,
+drew back, came forward again, and, at last, to my wonder and confusion,
+threw himself on his knees and held out his clasped hands in
+supplication.
+
+At that I once more stopped.
+
+"Who are you?" I asked.
+
+"Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like
+a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke with a
+Christian these three years."
+
+I could now see that he was a white man like myself, and that his
+features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was
+burned by the sun; even his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked
+quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen
+or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters
+of old ships' canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork
+was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous
+fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin.
+About his waist he wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the
+one thing solid in his whole accouterment.
+
+"Three years!" I cried. "Were you shipwrecked?"
+
+"Nay, mate," said he, "marooned."
+
+I had heard the word and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of
+punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is
+put ashore with a little powder and shot and left behind on some
+desolate and distant island.
+
+"Marooned three years agone," he continued, "and lived on goats since
+then, and berries and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do
+for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You
+mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well,
+many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese--toasted, mostly--and woke
+up again, and here I were."
+
+"If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you shall have cheese by the
+stone."
+
+All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my
+hands, looking at my boots, and generally, in the intervals of his
+speech, showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a
+fellow-creature. But at my last words he perked up into a kind of
+startled slyness.
+
+"If ever you get aboard again, says you?" he repeated. "Why, now, who's
+to hinder you?"
+
+"Not you, I know," was my reply.
+
+"And right you was," he cried. "Now you--what do you call yourself,
+mate?"
+
+"Jim," I told him.
+
+"Jim, Jim," says he, quite pleased, apparently. "Well, now, Jim, I've
+lived that rough as you'd be ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance, you
+wouldn't think I had had a pious mother--to look at me?" he asked.
+
+"Why, no, not in particular," I answered.
+
+"Ah, well," said he, "but I had--remarkable pious. And I was a civil,
+pious boy, and could rattle off my catechism that fast as you couldn't
+tell one word from another. And here's what it come to, Jim, and it
+begun with chuck-farthen on the blessed gravestones! That's what it
+begun with, but it went further'n that, and so my mother told me, and
+predicked the whole, she did, the pious woman. But it were Providence
+that put me here. I've thought it all out in this here lonely island and
+I'm back on piety. You can't catch me tasting rum so much, but just a
+thimbleful for luck, of course, the first chance I have. I'm bound I'll
+be good, and I see the way to. And, Jim"--looking all round him and
+lowering his voice to a whisper--"I'm rich."
+
+I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and
+I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face, for he repeated the
+statement hotly:
+
+"Rich! rich! I says. And I'll tell you what, I'll make a man of you,
+Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless your stars, you will, you was the first that
+found me!"
+
+And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow over his face and he
+tightened his grasp upon my hand and raised a forefinger threateningly
+before my eyes.
+
+"Now, Jim, you tell me true; that ain't Flint's ship?" he asked.
+
+At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to believe that I had found
+an ally and I answered him at once.
+
+"It's not Flint's ship and Flint is dead, but I'll tell you true, as
+you ask me--there are some of Flint's hands aboard; worse luck for the
+rest of us."
+
+"Not a man--with one--leg?" he gasped.
+
+"Silver?" I asked.
+
+"Ah, Silver!" says he, "that were his name."
+
+"He's the cook, and the ringleader, too."
+
+He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he gave it quite a
+wring. "If you was sent by Long John," he said, "I'm as good as pork and
+I know it. But where was you, do you suppose?"
+
+I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told him the
+whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which we found
+ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he
+patted me on the head.
+
+"You're a good lad, Jim," he said, "and you're all in a clove hitch,
+ain't you? Well, you just put your trust in Ben Gunn--Ben Gunn's the man
+to do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a
+liberal-minded one in case of help--him being in a clove hitch, as you
+remark?"
+
+I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.
+
+"Ay, but you see," returned Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean giving me a gate to
+keep and a suit of livery clothes, and such; that's not my mark, Jim.
+What I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the toon of, say one
+thousand pounds out of money that's as good as a man's own already?"
+
+"I am sure he would," said I. "As it was, all hands were to share."
+
+"_And_ a passage home?" he added, with a look of great shrewdness.
+
+"Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. And, besides, if we got rid
+of the others, we should want you to help work the vessel home."
+
+"Ah," said he, "so you would." And he seemed very much relieved.
+
+"Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "So much I'll tell you, and no
+more. I were in Flint's ship when he buried the treasure; he and six
+along--six strong seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week, and us
+standing off and on in the old _Walrus_. One fine day up went the
+signal, and here come Flint by himself in a little boat, and his head
+done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal white he
+looked about the cutwater. But, there he was, you mind, and the six all
+dead--dead and buried. How had he done it, not a man aboard us could
+make out. It was battle, murder, and sudden death, leastways--him
+against six. Billy Bones was the mate; Long John, he was quartermaster;
+and they asked him where the treasure was. 'Ah,' says he, 'you can go
+ashore, if you like, and stay,' he says; 'but as for the ship, she'll
+beat up for more, by thunder!' That's what he said.
+
+"Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we sighted this
+island. 'Boys,' said I, 'here's Flint's treasure; let's land and find
+it.' The cap'n was displeased at that; but my messmates were all of a
+mind, and landed. Twelve days they looked for it, and every day they had
+the worse word for me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard. 'As
+for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,' they says, 'and a
+spade, and a pickax. You can stay here and find Flint's money for
+yourself,' they says.
+
+"Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite of Christian
+diet from that day to this. But now, you look here; look at me. Do I
+look like a man before the mast? No, says you. Nor I weren't, neither, I
+says."
+
+And with that he winked and pinched me hard.
+
+"Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim," he went on. "Nor he
+weren't neither--that's the words. Three years he were the man of this
+island, light and dark, fair and rain; and sometimes he would, may be,
+think upon a prayer (says you), and sometimes he would, may be, think of
+his old mother, so be as she's alive (you'll say); but the most part of
+Gunn's time (this is what you'll say)--the most part of his time was
+took up with another matter. And then you'll give him a nip, like I do."
+
+And he pinched me again, in the most confidential manner.
+
+"Then," he continued, "then you'll up, and you'll say this: Gunn is a
+good man (you'll say), and he puts a precious sight more confidence--a
+precious sight, mind that--in a gen'leman born than in these gen'lemen
+of fortune, having been one hisself."
+
+"Well," I said, "I don't understand one word that you've been saying.
+But that's neither here nor there; for how am I to get on board?"
+
+"Ah," said he, "that's the hitch, for sure. Well, there's my boat that I
+made with my two hands. I keep her under the white rock. If the worst
+come to the worst, we might try that after dark. Hi!" he broke out,
+"what's that?"
+
+For just then, although the sun had still an hour or two to run, all the
+echoes of the island awoke and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon.
+
+"They have begun to fight!" I cried. "Follow me!"
+
+And I began to run toward the anchorage, my terrors all forgotten;
+while, close at my side, the marooned man in his goat-skins trotted
+easily and lightly.
+
+"Left, left," says he; "keep to your left hand, mate Jim! Under the
+trees with you! There's where I killed my first goat. They don't come
+down here now; they're all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of
+Benjamin Gunn. Ah! and there's the cetemery"--cemetery he must have
+meant. "You see the mounds? I come here and prayed, nows and thens, when
+I thought maybe a Sunday would be about doo. It weren't quite a chapel,
+but it seemed more solemn like; and then, says you, Ben Gunn was
+shorthanded--no chapling, nor so much as a Bible and a flag, you says."
+
+So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving any answer.
+
+The cannon-shot was followed, after a considerable interval, by a volley
+of small arms.
+
+Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mile in front of me, I
+beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above a wood.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV
+
+THE STOCKADE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED
+
+
+It was about half-past one--three bells in the sea phrase--that the two
+boats went ashore from the _Hispaniola_. The captain, the squire, and I
+were talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a breath of wind,
+we should have fallen on the six mutineers who were left aboard with us,
+slipped our cable, and away to sea. But the wind was wanting; and, to
+complete our helplessness, down came Hunter with the news that Jim
+Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was gone ashore with the rest.
+
+It had never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed
+for his safety. With the men in the temper they were in, it seemed an
+even chance if we should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch
+was bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick;
+if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery it was in that abominable
+anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail in the
+forecastle; ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a man sitting in
+each, hard by where the river runs in. One of them was whistling
+"Lillibullero."
+
+Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go
+ashore with the jolly-boat, in quest of information.
+
+The gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I pulled straight in,
+in the direction of the stockade upon the chart. The two who were left
+guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance;
+"Lillibullero" stopped off, and I could see the pair discussing what
+they ought to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might have turned
+out differently; but they had their orders, I suppose, and decided to
+sit quietly where they were and hark back again to "Lillibullero."
+
+There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to put it
+between us. Even before we landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs; I
+jumped out and came as near running as I durst, with a big silk
+handkerchief under my hat for coolness' sake, and a brace of pistols
+ready primed for safety.
+
+I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade.
+
+This was how it was: A spring of clear water arose at the top of a
+knoll. Well, on the knoll, and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a
+stout log house, fit to hold two-score people on a pinch, and loopholed
+for musketry on every side. All around this they had cleared a wide
+space, and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet high,
+without door or opening, too strong to pull down without time and labor,
+and too open to shelter the besiegers. The people in the log house had
+them in every way; they stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
+like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food; for, short
+of a complete surprise, they might have held the place against a
+regiment.
+
+What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For, though we had a
+good place of it in the cabin of the _Hispaniola_, with plenty of arms
+and ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, there had been
+one thing overlooked--we had no water. I was thinking this over, when
+there came ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of
+death. I was not new to violent death--I have served his Royal Highness
+the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound myself at Fontenoy--but I know
+my pulse went dot and carry one. "Jim Hawkins is gone," was my first
+thought.
+
+It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been
+a doctor. There is no time to dilly-dally in our work. And so now I made
+up my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned to the shore and
+jumped on board the jolly-boat.
+
+By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We made the water fly, and the
+boat was soon alongside and I aboard the schooner.
+
+I found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire was sitting down, as
+white as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us to, the good soul!
+and one of the six forecastle hands was little better.
+
+"There's a man," said Captain Smollett, nodding toward him, "new to this
+work. He came nigh-hand fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. Another
+touch of the rudder and that man would join us."
+
+I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details
+of its accomplishment.
+
+We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the forecastle,
+with three or four loaded muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter
+brought the boat round under the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work
+loading her with powder, tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs of pork,
+a cask of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest.
+
+In the meantime the squire and the captain stayed on deck, and the
+latter hailed the coxswain, who was the principal man aboard.
+
+"Mr. Hands," he said, "here are two of us with a brace of pistols each.
+If any one of you six make a signal of any description, that man's
+dead."
+
+They were a good deal taken aback; and, after a little consultation, one
+and all tumbled down the fore companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us
+on the rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the sparred
+gallery, they went about ship at once, and a head popped out again on
+deck.
+
+"Down, dog!" cried the captain.
+
+And the head popped back again, and we heard no more for the time of
+these six very faint-hearted seamen.
+
+By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we had the jolly-boat
+loaded as much as we dared. Joyce and I got out through the stern port,
+and we made for shore again, as fast as oars could take us.
+
+This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. "Lillibullero"
+was dropped again, and just before we lost sight of them behind the
+little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a
+mind to change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver
+and the others might be close at hand, and all might very well be lost
+by trying for too much.
+
+We had soon touched land in the same place as before and set to work to
+provision the blockhouse. All three made the first journey, heavily
+laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to
+guard them--one man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets--Hunter
+and I returned to the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So we
+proceeded, without pausing to take breath, till the whole cargo was
+bestowed, when the two servants took up their position in the
+blockhouse, and I, with all my power, sculled back to the _Hispaniola_.
+
+That we should have risked a second boat load seems more daring than it
+really was. They had the advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the
+advantage of arms. Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and before
+they could get within range for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves
+we should be able to give a good account of a half dozen at least.
+
+The squire was waiting for me at the stern window, all his faintness
+gone from him. He caught the painter and made it fast, and we fell to
+loading the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and biscuit was the
+cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for squire and me and
+Redruth and the captain. The rest of the arms and powder we dropped
+overboard in two fathoms and a half of water, so that we could see the
+bright steel shining far below us in the sun on the clean, sandy bottom.
+
+By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the ship was swinging
+round to her anchor. Voices were heard faintly halloaing in the
+direction of the two gigs; and though this reassured us for Joyce and
+Hunter, who were well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off.
+
+Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery and dropped into the
+boat, which we then brought round to the ship's counter, to be handier
+for Captain Smollett.
+
+"Now, men," said he, "do you hear me?"
+
+There was no answer from the forecastle.
+
+"It's to you, Abraham Gray--it's to you I am speaking."
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, "I am leaving this ship,
+and I order you to follow your captain. I know you are a good man at
+bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of you's as bad as he makes
+out. I have my watch here in my hand; I give you thirty seconds to join
+me in."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain, "don't hang so long in
+stays. I'm risking my life and the lives of these good gentlemen every
+second."
+
+There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out burst Abraham Gray
+with a knife-cut on the side of the cheek, and came running to the
+captain, like a dog to the whistle.
+
+"I'm with you, sir," said he.
+
+And the next moment he and the captain had dropped aboard of us, and we
+had shoved off and given way.
+
+We were clear out of the ship, but not yet ashore in our stockade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP
+
+
+This fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In the first
+place, the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was gravely
+overloaded. Five grown men, and three of them--Trelawney, Redruth, and
+the captain--over six feet high, was already more than she was meant to
+carry. Add to that the powder, pork, and the bread-bags. The gunwale was
+lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little water, and my breeches
+and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a
+hundred yards.
+
+The captain made us trim the boat, and we got her to lie a little more
+evenly. All the same, we were afraid to breathe.
+
+In the second place, the ebb was now making--a strong, rippling current
+running westward through the basin, and then south'ard and seaward down
+the straits by which we had entered in the morning. Even the ripples
+were a danger to our overloaded craft, but the worst of it was that we
+were swept out of our true course, and away from our proper
+landing-place behind the point. If we let the current have its way we
+should come ashore beside the gigs, where the pirates might appear at
+any moment.
+
+"I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," said I to the captain. I
+was steering, while he and Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars.
+"The tide keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"
+
+"Not without swamping the boat," said he. "You must bear up, sir, if you
+please--bear up until you see you're gaining."
+
+I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept sweeping us westward
+until I had laid her head due east, or just about right angles to the
+way we ought to go.
+
+"We'll never get ashore at this rate," said I.
+
+"If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it,"
+returned the captain. "We must keep upstream. You see, sir," he went on,
+"if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say
+where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded by the
+gigs; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken, and then we can
+dodge back along the shore."
+
+"The current's less a'ready, sir," said the man Gray, who was sitting in
+the foresheets; "you can ease her off a bit."
+
+"Thank you, my man," said I, quite as if nothing had happened, for we
+had all quietly made up our minds to treat him like one of ourselves.
+
+Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his voice was a
+little changed.
+
+"The gun!" said he.
+
+"I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure he was thinking of a
+bombardment of the fort. "They could never get the gun ashore, and if
+they did, they could never haul it through the woods."
+
+"Look astern, doctor," replied the captain.
+
+We had entirely forgotten the long nine; and there, to our horror, were
+the five rogues busy about her, getting off her jacket, as they called
+the stout tarpaulin cover under which she sailed. Not only that, but it
+flashed into my mind at the same moment that the round shot and the
+powder for the gun had been left behind, and a stroke with an ax would
+put it all into the possession of the evil ones aboard.
+
+"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray, hoarsely.
+
+At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the landing-place. By
+this time we had got so far out of the run of the current that we kept
+steerage way even at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I could
+keep her steady for the goal. But the worst of it was, that with the
+course I now held, we turned our broadside instead of our stern to the
+_Hispaniola_, and offered a target like a barn door.
+
+I could hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced rascal, Israel Hands,
+plumping down a round shot on the deck.
+
+"Who's the best shot?" asked the captain.
+
+"Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I.
+
+"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one of those men, sir?
+Hands, if possible," said the captain.
+
+Trelawney was as cold as steel. He looked to the priming of his gun.
+
+"Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, sir, or you'll swamp the
+boat. All hands stand by to trim her when he aims."
+
+The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leaned over to the
+other side to keep the balance, and all was so nicely contrived that we
+did not ship a drop.
+
+[Illustration: _They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+swivel_ (Page 125)]
+
+They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the swivel, and
+Hands, who was at the muzzle, with the rammer, was, in consequence, the
+most exposed. However, we had no luck; for just as Trelawney fired,
+down he stooped, the ball whistling over him, and it was one of the
+other four who fell.
+
+The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his companions on board, but by
+a great number of voices from the shore, and looking in that direction I
+saw the other pirates trooping out from among the trees and tumbling
+into their places in the boats.
+
+"Here come the gigs, sir," said I.
+
+"Give way, then," said the captain. "We mustn't mind if we swamp her
+now. If we can't get ashore, all's up."
+
+"Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added; "the crew of the
+other is most likely going around by shore to cut us off."
+
+"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain. "Jack ashore, you
+know. It's not them I mind; it's the round shot. Carpet bowls! My lady's
+maid couldn't miss. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, and we'll
+hold water."
+
+In the meantime we had been making headway at a good pace for a boat so
+overloaded, and we had shipped but little water in the process. We were
+now close in; thirty or forty strokes and we should beach her, for the
+ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sand below the clustering
+trees. The gig was no longer to be feared; the little point had already
+concealed it from our eyes. The ebb-tide, which had so cruelly delayed
+us, was now making reparation, and delaying our assailants. The one
+source of danger was the gun.
+
+"If I durst," said the captain, "I'd stop and pick off another man."
+
+But it was plain that they meant nothing should delay their shot. They
+had never so much as looked at their fallen comrade, though he was not
+dead, and I could see him trying to crawl away.
+
+"Ready!" cried the squire.
+
+"Hold!" cried the captain, quick as an echo.
+
+And he and Redruth backed with a great heave that sent her astern bodily
+under water. The report fell in at the same instant of time. This was
+the first that Jim heard, the sound of the squire's shot not having
+reached him. When the ball passed, not one of us precisely knew, but I
+fancy it must have been over our heads, and that the wind of it may have
+contributed to our disaster.
+
+At any rate the boat sunk by the stern, quite gently, in three feet of
+water, leaving the captain and myself, facing each other, on our feet.
+The other three took complete headers, and came up again, drenched and
+bubbling.
+
+So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost, and we could wade
+ashore in safety. But there were all our stores at the bottom, and, to
+make things worse, only two guns out of five remained in a state for
+service. Mine I had snatched from my knees, and held over my head, by a
+sort of instinct. As for the captain, he had carried his over his
+shoulder by a bandoleer, and, like a wise man, lock uppermost. The other
+three had gone down with the boat. To add to our concern, we heard
+voices already drawing near us in the woods along the shore; and we had
+not only the danger of being cut off from the stockade in our
+half-crippled state, but the fear before us whether, if Hunter and Joyce
+were attacked by half a dozen, they would have the sense and conduct to
+stand firm. Hunter was steady, that we knew; Joyce was a doubtful
+case--a pleasant, polite man for a valet, and to brush one's clothes,
+but not entirely fitted for a man-of-war.
+
+With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast as we could, leaving
+behind us the poor jolly-boat, and a good half of all our powder and
+provisions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING
+
+
+We made our best speed across the strip of wood that now divided us from
+the stockade, and at every step we took the voices of the buccaneers
+rang nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran, and the
+cracking of the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket.
+
+I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest, and looked to
+my priming.
+
+"Captain," said I, "Trelawney is the dead shot. Give him your gun; his
+own is useless."
+
+They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and cool, as he had been
+since the beginning of the bustle, hung a moment on his heel to see that
+all was fit for service. At the same time, observing Gray to be unarmed,
+I handed him my cutlass. It did all our hearts good to see him spit in
+his hand, knit his brows, and make the blade sing through the air. It
+was plain from every line of his body that our new hand was worth his
+salt.
+
+Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the wood and saw the stockade
+in front of us. We struck the inclosure about the middle of the south
+side, and, almost at the same time, seven mutineers--Job Anderson, the
+boatswain, at their head--appeared in full cry at the southwestern
+corner.
+
+They paused, as if taken aback, and before they recovered, not only the
+squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce from the blockhouse, had time to
+fire.
+
+The four shots came in rather a scattering volley, but they did the
+business; one of the enemy actually fell, and the rest, without
+hesitation, turned and plunged into the trees.
+
+After reloading we walked down the outside of the palisade to see to the
+fallen enemy. He was stone dead--shot through the heart.
+
+We began to rejoice over our good success, when just at that moment a
+pistol cracked in the bush, a ball whistled close past my ear and poor
+Tom Redruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. Both the squire
+and I returned the shot, but as we had nothing to aim at, it is probable
+we only wasted powder. Then we reloaded and turned our attention to poor
+Tom.
+
+The captain and Gray were already examining him, and I saw with half an
+eye that all was over.
+
+I believe the readiness of our return volley had scattered the mutineers
+once more, for we were suffered without further molestation to get the
+poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade, and carried, groaning and
+bleeding, into the log-house.
+
+Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of surprise, complaint,
+fear, or even acquiescence, from the very beginning of our troubles till
+now, when we had laid him down in the log-house to die! He had lain like
+a Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery; he had followed every order
+silently, doggedly, and well; he was the oldest of our party by a score
+of years; and now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it was he that was
+to die.
+
+The squire dropped down beside him on his knees and kissed his hand,
+crying like a child.
+
+"Be I going, doctor?" he asked.
+
+"Tom, my man," said I, "you're going home."
+
+"I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun first," he replied.
+
+"Tom," said the squire, "say you forgive me, won't you?"
+
+"Would that be respectful like, from me to you, squire?" was the answer.
+"Howsoever, so be it, amen!"
+
+After a little while of silence he said he thought somebody might read a
+prayer. "It's the custom, sir," he added, apologetically. And not long
+after, without another word, he passed away.
+
+In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed to be wonderfully
+swollen about the chest and pockets, had turned out a great many various
+stores--the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, pen, ink,
+the log-book, and pounds of tobacco. He had found a longish fir tree
+lying felled and cleared in the inclosure, and, with the help of Hunter,
+he had set it up at the corner of the log-house, where the trunks
+crossed and made an angle. Then, climbing on the roof, he had with his
+own hand bent and run up the colors.
+
+This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re-entered the log-house and set
+about counting up the stores, as if nothing else existed. But he had an
+eye on Tom's passage for all that, and as soon as all was over came
+forward with another flag and reverently spread it on the body.
+
+"Don't you take on, sir," he said, shaking the squire's hand. "All's
+well with him; no fear for a hand that's been shot down in his duty to
+captain and owner. It mayn't be good divinity, but it's a fact."
+
+Then he pulled me aside.
+
+"Doctor Livesey," he said, "in how many weeks do you and squire expect
+the consort?"
+
+I told him it was a question, not of weeks, but of months; that if we
+were not back by the end of August Blandly was to send to find us, but
+neither sooner nor later. "You can calculate for yourself," I said.
+
+"Why, yes," returned the captain, scratching his head, "and making a
+large allowance, sir, for all the gifts of Providence, I should say we
+were pretty close hauled."
+
+"How do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"It's a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That's what I mean,"
+replied the captain. "As for powder and shot, we'll do. But the rations
+are short, very short--so short, Doctor Livesey, that we're perhaps as
+well without that extra mouth."
+
+And he pointed to the dead body under the flag.
+
+Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round shot passed high above the
+roof of the log-house and plumped far beyond us in the wood.
+
+"Oho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've little enough powder
+already, my lads."
+
+At the second trial the aim was better and the ball descended inside the
+stockade, scattering a cloud of sand, but doing no further damage.
+
+"Captain," said the squire, "the house is quite invisible from the ship.
+It must be the flag they are aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it
+in?"
+
+"Strike my colors!" cried the captain. "No, sir, not I," and as soon as
+he had said the words I think we all agreed with him. For it was not
+only a piece of stout, seamanly good feeling; it was good policy
+besides, and showed our enemies that we despised their cannonade.
+
+All through the evening they kept thundering away. Ball after ball flew
+over or fell short, or kicked up the sand in the inclosure; but they had
+to fire so high that the shot fell dead and buried itself in the soft
+sand. We had no ricochet to fear; and though one popped in through the
+roof of the log-house and out again through the floor, we soon got used
+to that sort of horse-play and minded it no more than cricket.
+
+"There is one thing good about all this," observed the captain; "the
+wood in front of us is likely clear. The ebb has made a good while; our
+stores should be uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring in pork."
+
+Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. Well armed, they stole
+out of the stockade, but it proved a useless mission. The mutineers were
+bolder than we fancied, or they put more trust in Israel's gunnery, for
+four or five of them were busy carrying off our stores and wading out
+with them to one of the gigs that lay close by, pulling an oar or so to
+hold her steady against the current. Silver was in the stern-sheets in
+command, and every man of them was now provided with a musket from some
+secret magazine of their own.
+
+The captain sat down to his log, and here is the beginning of the entry:
+
+    "Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, ship's doctor; Abraham
+    Gray, carpenter's mate; John Trelawney, owner; John Hunter and
+    Richard Joyce, owner's servants, landsmen--being all that is left
+    faithful of the ship's company--with stores for ten days at short
+    rations, came ashore this day and flew British colors on the
+    log-house in Treasure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's servant,
+    landsman, shot by the mutineers; James Hawkins, cabin-boy--"
+
+And at the same time I was wondering over poor Jim Hawkins' fate.
+
+A hail on the land side.
+
+"Somebody hailing us," said Hunter, who was on guard.
+
+"Doctor! squire! captain! Hallo, Hunter, is that you?" came the cries.
+
+And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins, safe and sound, come
+climbing over the stockade.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS--THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE
+
+
+As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a halt, stopped me by the
+arm and sat down.
+
+"Now," said he, "there's your friends, sure enough."
+
+"Far more likely it's the mutineers," I answered.
+
+"That!" he cried. "Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but
+gen'lemen of fortune, Silver would fly the Jolly Roger, you don't make
+no doubt of that. No, that's your friends. There's been blows, too, and
+I reckon your friends has had the best of it; and here they are ashore
+in the old stockade, as was made years and years ago by Flint. Ah, he
+was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! Barring rum, his match was
+never seen. He were afraid of none, not he; on'y Silver--Silver was that
+genteel."
+
+"Well," said I, "that may be so, and so be it; all the more reason that
+I should hurry on and join my friends."
+
+"Nay, mate," returned Ben, "not you. You're a good boy, or I'm mistook;
+but you're on'y a boy, all told. Now Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn't bring
+me there, where you're going--not rum wouldn't, till I see your born
+gen'leman, and gets it on his word of honor. And you won't forget my
+words: 'A precious sight' (that's what you'll say), 'a precious sight
+more confidence'--and then nips him."
+
+And he pinched me the third time with the same air of cleverness.
+
+"And when Ben Gunn is wanted you know where to find him, Jim. Just where
+you found him to-day. And him that comes is to have a white thing in his
+hand; and he's to come alone. Oh! and you'll say this: 'Ben Gunn,' says
+you, 'has reasons of his own.'"
+
+"Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You have something to propose,
+and you wish to see the squire or the doctor, and you're to be found
+where I found you. Is that all?"
+
+"And when? says you," he added. "Why, from about noon observation to
+about six bells."
+
+"Good," says I, "and now may I go?"
+
+"You won't forget?" he inquired, anxiously. "Precious sight, and reasons
+of his own, says you. Reasons of his own; that's the mainstay; as
+between man and man. Well, then"--still holding me--"I reckon you can
+go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to see Silver, you wouldn't go for to sell
+Ben Gunn? wild horses wouldn't draw it from you? No, says you. And if
+them pirates came ashore, Jim, what would you say but there'd be widders
+in the morning?"
+
+Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannon ball came tearing
+through the trees and pitched in the sand, not a hundred yards from
+where we two were talking. The next moment each of us had taken to our
+heels in a different direction.
+
+For a good hour to come frequent reports shook the island, and balls
+kept crashing through the woods. I moved from hiding-place to
+hiding-place, always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying
+missiles. But toward the end of the bombardment, though still I durst
+not venture in the direction of the stockade, where the balls fell
+oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my heart again; and
+after a long detour to the east, crept down among the shore-side trees.
+
+The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling and tumbling in the
+woods, and ruffling the gray surface of the anchorage; the tide, too,
+was far out, and great tracts of sand lay uncovered; the air, after the
+heat of the day, chilled me through my jacket.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ still lay where she had anchored; but, sure enough,
+there was the Jolly Roger--the black flag of piracy--flying from her
+peak. Even as I looked there came another red flash and another report,
+that sent the echoes clattering, and one more round shot whistled
+through the air. It was the last of the cannonade.
+
+I lay for some time, watching the bustle which succeeded the attack. Men
+were demolishing something with axes on the beach near the stockade--the
+poor jolly-boat, I afterwards discovered. Away, near the mouth of the
+river, a great fire was glowing among the trees, and between that point
+and the ship one of the gigs kept coming and going, the men, whom I had
+seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like children. But there was a
+sound in their voices which suggested rum.
+
+At length I thought I might return towards the stockade. I was pretty
+far down on the low, sandy spit that incloses the anchorage to the east,
+and is joined at half-water to Skeleton Island; and now, as I rose to my
+feet, I saw, some distance farther down the spit, and rising from among
+low bushes, an isolated rock, pretty high, and peculiarly white in
+color. It occurred to me that this might be the white rock of which Ben
+Gunn had spoken, and that some day or other a boat might be wanted, and
+I should know where to look for one.
+
+Then I skirted among the woods until I had regained the rear, or
+shoreward side, of the stockade, and was soon warmly welcomed by the
+faithful party.
+
+I had soon told my story, and began to look about me. The log-house was
+made of unsquared trunks of pine--roof, walls, and floor. The latter
+stood in several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above the
+surface of the sand. There was a porch at the door, and under this porch
+the little spring welled up into an artificial basin of a rather odd
+kind--no other than a great ship's kettle of iron, with the bottom
+knocked out, and sunk "to her bearings," as the captain said, among the
+sand.
+
+Little had been left beside the framework of the house, but in one
+corner there was a stone slab laid down by way of hearth, and an old
+rusty iron basket to contain the fire.
+
+The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the stockade had been
+cleared of timber to build the house, and we could see by the stumps
+what a fine and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the soil had
+been washed away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only
+where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and
+some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green among the sand.
+Very close around the stockade--too close for defense, they said--the
+wood still flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side, but
+toward the sea with a large admixture of live-oaks.
+
+The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, whistled through every
+chink of the rude building, and sprinkled the floor with a continual
+rain of fine sand. There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand
+in our suppers, sand dancing in the spring at the bottom of the kettle,
+for all the world like porridge beginning to boil. Our chimney was a
+square hole in the roof; it was but a little part of the smoke that
+found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us
+coughing and piping the eye.
+
+Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face tied up in a bandage
+for a cut he had got in breaking away from the mutineers; and that poor
+old Tom Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and stark,
+under the Union Jack.
+
+If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all have fallen in the
+blues, but Captain Smollett was never the man for that. All hands were
+called up before him, and he divided us into watches. The doctor, and
+Gray, and I, for one; the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon the other.
+Tired as we all were, two were sent out for firewood, two more were sent
+to dig a grave for Redruth, the doctor was named cook, I was put sentry
+at the door, and the captain himself went from one to another, keeping
+up our spirits and lending a hand wherever it was wanted.
+
+From time to time the doctor came to the door for a little air and to
+rest his eyes, which were almost smoked out of his head, and whenever he
+did so, he had a word for me.
+
+"That man Smollett," he said once, "is a better man than I am. And when
+I say that it means a deal, Jim."
+
+Another time he came and was silent for a while. Then he put his head on
+one side, and looked at me.
+
+"Is this Ben Gunn a man?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know, sir," said I. "I am not very sure whether he's sane."
+
+"If there's any doubt about the matter, he is," returned the doctor. "A
+man who has been three years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim,
+can't expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human
+nature. Was it cheese you said he had a fancy for?"
+
+"Yes, sir, cheese," I answered.
+
+"Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that comes of being dainty in
+your food. You've seen my snuff-box, haven't you? And you never saw me
+take snuff; the reason being that in my snuff-box I carry a piece of
+Parmesan cheese--a cheese made in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that's
+for Ben Gunn!"
+
+Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the sand, and stood round
+him for a while bare-headed in the breeze. A good deal of firewood had
+been got in, but not enough for the captain's fancy, and he shook his
+head over it, and told us we "must get back to this to-morrow rather
+livelier." Then, when we had eaten our pork, and each had a good stiff
+glass of brandy grog, the three chiefs got together in a corner to
+discuss our prospects.
+
+It appears they were at their wits' end what to do, the stores being so
+low that we must have been starved into surrender long before help came.
+But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the buccaneers until
+they either hauled down their flag or ran away with the _Hispaniola_.
+From nineteen they were already reduced to fifteen, two others were
+wounded, and one, at least--the man shot beside the gun--severely
+wounded, if he were not dead. Every time we had a crack at them, we were
+to take it, saving our own lives, with the extremest care. And, beside
+that, we had two able allies--rum and the climate.
+
+As for the first, though we were about half a mile away, we could hear
+them roaring and singing late into the night; and as for the second, the
+doctor staked his wig, that camped where they were in the marsh, and
+unprovided with remedies, the half of them would be on their backs
+before a week.
+
+"So," he added, "if we are not all shot down first, they'll be glad to
+be packing in the schooner. It's always a ship, and they can get to
+buccaneering again, I suppose."
+
+"First ship that I ever lost," said Captain Smollett.
+
+I was dead tired, as you may fancy, and when I got to sleep, which was
+not till after a great deal of tossing, I slept like a log of wood.
+
+The rest had long been up, and had already breakfasted and increased the
+pile of firewood by about half as much again, when I was awakened by a
+bustle and the sound of voices.
+
+"Flag of truce!" I heard someone say, and then, immediately after, with
+a cry of surprise, "Silver himself!"
+
+And, at that, up I jumped, and, rubbing my eyes, ran to a loophole in
+the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SILVER'S EMBASSY
+
+
+Sure enough, there were two men just outside the stockade, one of them
+waving a white cloth; the other, no less a person than Silver himself,
+standing placidly by.
+
+It was still quite early, and the coldest morning that I think I ever
+was abroad in; a chill that pierced into the marrow. The sky was bright
+and cloudless overhead, and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the
+sun. But where Silver stood with his lieutenant all was still in shadow,
+and they waded knee-deep in a low, white vapor that had crawled during
+the night out of the morass. The chill and the vapor taken together told
+a poor tale of the island. It was plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy
+spot.
+
+"Keep indoors, men," said the captain. "Ten to one this is a trick."
+
+Then he hailed the buccaneer.
+
+"Who goes? Stand, or we fire."
+
+"Flag of truce!" cried Silver.
+
+The captain was in the porch, keeping himself carefully out of the way
+of a treacherous shot, should any be intended. He turned and spoke to
+us.
+
+"Doctor's watch on the lookout. Doctor Livesey, take the north side, if
+you please; Jim the east; Gray, west. The watch below, all hands to load
+muskets. Lively, men, and careful."
+
+And then he turned again to the mutineers.
+
+"And what do you want with your flag of truce?" he cried.
+
+This time it was the other man who replied.
+
+"Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms," he shouted.
+
+"Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried the captain. And we
+could hear him adding to himself: "Cap'n, is it? My heart, and here's
+promotion!"
+
+Long John answered for himself.
+
+"Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap'n, after your desertion,
+sir"--laying a particular emphasis upon the word "desertion." "We're
+willing to submit, if we can come to terms, and no bones about it. All I
+ask is your word, Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and sound out of this
+here stockade, and one minute to get out o' shot before a gun is fired."
+
+"My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not the slightest desire to
+talk to you. If you wish to talk to me, you can come, that's all. If
+there's any treachery, it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you."
+
+"That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John cheerily. "A word from you's
+enough. I know a gentleman, and you may lay to that."
+
+We could see the man who carried the flag of truce attempting to hold
+Silver back. Nor was that wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the
+captain's answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud, and slapped him on
+the back, as if the idea of alarm had been absurd. Then he advanced to
+the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a leg up, and with great vigor
+and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping safely to the
+other side.
+
+I will confess that I was far too much taken up with what was going on
+to be of the slightest use as sentry; indeed, I had already deserted my
+eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had now seated
+himself on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his head in his
+hands, and his eyes fixed on the water as it bubbled out of the old iron
+kettle in the sand. He was whistling to himself, "Come, Lasses and
+Lads."
+
+Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. What with the
+steepness of the incline, the thick tree-stumps, and the soft sand, he
+and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it
+like a man, in silence, and at last arrived before the captain, whom he
+saluted in the handsomest style. He was tricked out in his best; an
+immense blue coat, thick with brass buttons, hung as low as to his
+knees, and a fine laced hat was set on the back of his head.
+
+"Here you are, my man," said the captain, raising his head. "You had
+better sit down."
+
+"You ain't a-going to let me inside, cap'n?" complained Long John. "It's
+a main cold morning, to be sure, sir, to sit outside upon the sand."
+
+"Why, Silver," said the captain, "if you had pleased to be an honest man
+you might have been sitting in your galley. It's your own doing. You're
+either my ship's cook--and then you were treated handsome--or Cap'n
+Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!"
+
+"Well, well, cap'n," returned the sea-cook, sitting down as he was
+bidden on the sand, "you'll have to give me a hand up again, that's all.
+A sweet, pretty place you have of it here. Ah, there's Jim! The top of
+the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service. Why, there you all
+are together like a happy family, in a manner of speaking."
+
+"If you have anything to say, my man, better say it," said the captain.
+
+"Right you are, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver. "Dooty is dooty, to be
+sure. Well, now, you look here, that was a good lay of yours last night.
+I don't deny it was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a
+handspike-end. And I'll not deny neither but what some of my people was
+shook--maybe all was shook; maybe I was shook myself; maybe that's why
+I'm here for terms. But you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice, by
+thunder! We'll have to do sentry-go, and ease off a point or so on the
+rum. Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the wind's eye. But I'll
+tell you I was sober; I was on'y dog tired; and if I'd awoke a second
+sooner I'd 'a' caught you at the act, I would. He wasn't dead when I got
+round to him, not he."
+
+"Well?" says Captain Smollett, as cool as can be.
+
+All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you would never have
+guessed it from his tone. As for me, I began to have an inkling. Ben
+Gunn's last words came back to my mind. I began to suppose that he had
+paid the buccaneers a visit while they all lay drunk together round
+their fire, and I reckoned up with glee that we had only fourteen
+enemies to deal with.
+
+"Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure, and we'll have
+it--that's our point! You would just as soon save your lives, I reckon;
+and that's yours. You have a chart, haven't you?"
+
+"That's as may be," replied the captain.
+
+"Oh, well, you have, I know that," returned Long John. "You needn't be
+so husky with a man; there ain't a particle of service in that, and you
+may lay to it. What I mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant
+you no harm, myself."
+
+"That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the captain. "We know
+exactly what you meant to do, and we don't care; for now, you see, you
+can't do it."
+
+And the captain looked at him calmly, and proceeded to fill a pipe.
+
+"If Abe Gray--" Silver broke out.
+
+"Avast there!" cried Mr. Smollett. "Gray told me nothing, and I asked
+him nothing; and what's more, I would see you and him and this whole
+island blown clean out of the water into blazes first. So there's my
+mind for you, my man, on that."
+
+This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver down. He had been
+growing nettled before, but now he pulled himself together.
+
+"Like enough," said he. "I would set no limits to what gentlemen might
+consider shipshape, or might not, as the case were. And, seein' as how
+you are about to take a pipe, cap'n, I'll make so free as do likewise."
+
+And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men sat silently
+smoking for quite a while, now looking each other in the face, now
+stopping their tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. It was as good as
+the play to see them.
+
+"Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give us the chart to get the
+treasure by, and drop shooting poor seamen, and stoving of their heads
+in while asleep. You do that and we'll offer you a choice. Either you
+come aboard along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give
+you my affy-davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you somewhere safe
+ashore. Or, if that ain't to your fancy, some of my hands being rough,
+and having old scores, on account of hazing, then you can stay here, you
+can. We'll divide stores with you, man for man; and I'll give my
+affy-davy, as before, to speak the first ship I sight, and send 'em here
+to pick you up. Now you'll own that's talking. Handsomer you couldn't
+look to get, not you. And I hope"--raising his voice--"that all hands in
+this here blockhouse will overhaul my words, for what is spoke to one is
+spoke to all."
+
+Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out the ashes of his
+pipe in the palm of his left hand.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked.
+
+"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John. "Refuse that and you've
+seen the last of me but musket-balls."
+
+"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear me. If you'll come up
+one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to clap you all in irons, and to take
+you home to a fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander
+Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colors, and I'll see you all to Davy
+Jones. You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship--there's not
+a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can't fight us--Gray, there,
+got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Master Silver; you're
+on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand here and tell you so, and
+they're the last good words you'll get from me; for, in the name of
+heaven, I'll put a bullet in your back when next I meet you. Tramp, my
+lad. Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, and double quick."
+
+Silver's face was a picture; his eyes started in his head with wrath. He
+shook the fire out of his pipe.
+
+"Give me a hand up!" he cried.
+
+"Not I," returned the captain.
+
+"Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared.
+
+Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest imprecations, he crawled
+along the sand till he got hold of the porch and could hoist himself
+again upon his crutch. Then he spat into the spring.
+
+"There!" he cried, "that's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out,
+I'll stove in your old blockhouse like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by
+thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side.
+Them that die'll be the lucky ones."
+
+And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, plowed down the sand, was
+helped across the stockade, after four or five failures, by the man with
+the flag of truce, and disappeared in an instant afterward among the
+trees.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE ATTACK
+
+
+As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had been closely
+watching him, turned toward the interior of the house, and found not a
+man of us at his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever seen
+him angry.
+
+"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we slunk back to our places, "Gray,"
+he said, "I'll put your name in the log; you've stood by your duty like
+a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought
+you had worn the king's coat! If that was how you served at Fontenoy,
+sir, you'd have been better in your berth."
+
+The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy
+loading the spare muskets, and everyone with a red face, you may be
+certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.
+
+The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he spoke.
+
+"My lads," he said, "I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in
+red-hot on purpose; and before the hour's out, as he said, we shall be
+boarded. We're outnumbered, I needn't tell you that, but we fight in
+shelter; and, a minute ago, I should have said we fought with
+discipline. I've no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you
+choose."
+
+Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, that all was clear.
+
+On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were only two
+loopholes; on the south side where the porch was, two again; and on the
+north side, five. There was a round score of muskets for the seven of
+us; the firewood had been built into four piles--tables, you might
+say--one about the middle of each side, and on each of these tables some
+ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready to the hand of the
+defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
+
+"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is past, and we
+mustn't have smoke in our eyes."
+
+The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr. Trelawney, and the
+embers smothered among sand.
+
+"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and back to
+your post to eat it," continued Captain Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad;
+you'll want it before you've done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy
+to all hands."
+
+And while this was going on the captain completed, in his own mind, the
+plan of the defense.
+
+"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See and don't expose
+yourself; keep within, and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east
+side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you
+are the best shot--you and Gray will take this long north side, with the
+five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they can get up to it, and
+fire in upon us through our own ports, things would begin to look dirty.
+Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account at the shooting; we'll stand
+by to load and bear a hand."
+
+As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon as the sun had
+climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell with all its force upon the
+clearing, and drank up the vapors at a draught. Soon the sand was
+baking, and the resin melting in the logs of the blockhouse. Jackets and
+coats were flung aside; shirts were thrown open at the neck, and rolled
+up to the shoulders; and we stood there, each at his post, in a fever of
+heat and anxiety.
+
+An hour passed away.
+
+"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as the doldrums. Gray,
+whistle for a wind."
+
+And just at that moment came the first news of the attack.
+
+"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see anyone, am I to fire?"
+
+"I told you so!" cried the captain.
+
+"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce, with the same quiet civility.
+
+Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set us all on the alert,
+straining ears and eyes--the musketeers with their pieces balanced in
+their hands, the captain out in the middle of the blockhouse, with his
+mouth very tight and a frown on his face.
+
+So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and
+fired. The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and
+repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a
+string of geese, from every side of the inclosure. Several bullets
+struck the log-house, but not one entered; and, as the smoke cleared
+away and vanished, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet
+and empty as before. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket-barrel
+betrayed the presence of our foes.
+
+"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.
+
+"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."
+
+"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain Smollett. "Load
+his gun, Hawkins. How many should you say there were on your side,
+doctor?"
+
+"I know precisely," said Doctor Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this
+side. I saw the three flashes--two close together--one farther to the
+west."
+
+"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on yours, Mr. Trelawney?"
+
+But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the
+north--seven, by the squire's computation; eight or nine, according to
+Gray. From the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It was
+plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed from the north, and
+that on the other three sides we were only to be annoyed by a show of
+hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangements. If
+the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would
+take possession of any unprotected loophole, and shoot us down like rats
+in our own stronghold.
+
+Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud
+huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north
+side, and ran straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the fire was
+once more opened from the woods, and a rifle-ball sang through the
+doorway, and knocked the doctor's musket into bits.
+
+The boarders swarmed over the fence, like monkeys. Squire and Gray fired
+again and yet again; three men fell, one forward into the inclosure, two
+back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently more frightened
+than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack, and instantly
+disappeared among the trees.
+
+Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing
+inside our defenses; while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight
+men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though
+useless fire on the log-house.
+
+[Illustration: _In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
+and were upon us_ (Page 153)]
+
+The four who had boarded made straight before them for the building,
+shouting as they ran, and the men among the trees shouted back to
+encourage them. Several shots were fired, but such was the hurry of the
+marksmen, that not one appeared to have taken effect. In a moment the
+four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.
+
+The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle
+loophole.
+
+"At 'em, all hands--all hands!" he roared, in a voice of thunder.
+
+At the same moment another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle,
+wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and, with
+one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.
+Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all round the house, appeared
+suddenly in the doorway, and fell with his cutlass on the doctor.
+
+Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we were firing, under
+cover, at an exposed enemy; now it was we who lay uncovered, and could
+not return a blow.
+
+The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative
+safety. Cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol-shots,
+and one loud groan, rang in my ears.
+
+"Out, lads, out and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" cried the
+captain.
+
+I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the same time
+snatching another, gave me a cut across the knuckles which I hardly
+felt. I dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight. Someone was
+close behind, I knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing
+his assailant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell upon him, beat
+down his guard, and sent him sprawling on his back, with a great slash
+across his face.
+
+"Round the house, lads! round the house!" cried the captain, and even in
+the hurly-burly I perceived a change in his voice.
+
+Mechanically I obeyed, turned eastward, and, with my cutlass raised, ran
+round the corner of the house. Next moment I was face to face with
+Anderson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head,
+flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but, as the blow
+still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my
+footing in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the slope.
+
+When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers had been
+already swarming up the palisade to make an end of us. One man, in a red
+nightcap, with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon the top and
+thrown a leg across. Well, so short had been the interval, that when I
+found my feet again all was in the same posture, the fellow with the red
+nightcap still halfway over, another still just showing his head above
+the top of the stockade. And yet, in this breath of time, the fight was
+over, and the victory ours.
+
+Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the big boatswain ere he
+had time to recover from his lost blow. Another had been shot at a
+loophole in the very act of firing into the house, and now lay in agony,
+the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor
+had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who had scaled the palisade, one
+only remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on the
+field, was now clambering out again with the fear of death upon him.
+
+"Fire--fire from the house!" cried the doctor. "And you, lads, back into
+cover."
+
+But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and the last boarder
+made good his escape and disappeared with the rest into the wood. In
+three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who
+had fallen, four on the inside and one on the outside of the palisade.
+
+The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. The survivors
+would soon be back where they had left their muskets, and at any moment
+the fire might recommence.
+
+The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke, and we saw at a
+glance the price we had paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his
+loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to move
+again; while right in the center the squire was supporting the captain,
+one as pale as the other.
+
+"The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney.
+
+"Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett.
+
+"All that could, you may be bound," returned the doctor; "but there's
+five of them will never run again."
+
+"Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. Five against three
+leaves us four to nine. That's better odds than we had at starting. We
+were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, and that's as bad to
+bear."[1]
+
+    [1] The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot
+    by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same evening of his
+    wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by the faithful
+    party.
+
+
+
+
+PART V
+
+MY SEA ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN
+
+
+There was no return of the mutineers--not so much as another shot out of
+the woods. They had "got their rations for that day," as the captain put
+it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the
+wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked outside, in spite of the
+danger, and even outside we could hardly tell what we were at, for the
+horror of the loud groans that reached us from the doctor's patients.
+
+Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action only three still
+breathed--that one of the pirates who had been shot at the loophole,
+Hunter, and Captain Smollett--and of these the first two were as good as
+dead; the mutineer, indeed, died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter,
+do what we could, never recovered consciousness in this world. He
+lingered all day, breathing loudly like the old buccaneer at home in his
+apoplectic fit; but the bones of his chest had been crushed by the blow
+and his skull fractured in falling, and some time in the following
+night, without sign or sound, he went to his Maker.
+
+As for the captain, his wounds were grievous indeed, but not dangerous.
+No organ was fatally injured. Anderson's ball--for it was Job that shot
+him first--had broken his shoulder-blade and touched the lung, not
+badly; the second had only torn and displaced some muscles in the calf.
+He was sure to recover, the doctor said, but in the meantime, and for
+weeks to come, he must not walk nor move his arm, nor so much as speak
+when he could help it.
+
+My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a flea-bite. Doctor
+Livesey patched it up with plaster, and pulled my ears for me into the
+bargain.
+
+After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side awhile
+in consultation; and when they had talked to their heart's content, it
+being then a little past noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols,
+girt on a cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket over
+his shoulder, crossed the palisade on the north side and set off briskly
+through the trees.
+
+Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of the blockhouse, to be
+out of earshot of our officers, consulting, and Gray took his pipe out
+of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunderstruck he
+was at this occurrence.
+
+"Why, in the name of Davy Jones," said he, "is Doctor Livesey mad?"
+
+"Why, no," says I. "He's about the last of this crew for that, I take
+it."
+
+"Well, shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be, but if _he's_ not, mark
+my words, _I_ am."
+
+"I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea, and if I am right,
+he's going now to see Ben Gunn."
+
+I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime, the house being
+stifling hot, and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze
+with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my head which was
+not by any means so right. What I began to do was to envy the doctor,
+walking in the cool shadow of the woods, with the birds about him and
+the pleasant smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, with my clothes
+stuck to the hot resin, and so much blood about me, and so many poor
+dead bodies lying all around, that I took a disgust of the place that
+was almost as strong as fear.
+
+All the time I was washing out the blockhouse, and then washing up the
+things from dinner, this disgust and envy kept growing stronger and
+stronger, till at last, being near a bread-bag, and no one then
+observing me, I took the first step toward my escapade and filled both
+pockets of my coat with biscuit.
+
+I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to do a foolish,
+over-bold act, but I was determined to do it with all the precautions in
+my power. These biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me at
+least from starving till far on in the next day.
+
+The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, and as I already
+had a powder-horn and bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms.
+
+As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad one in itself. It
+was to go down the sandy spit that divides the anchorage on the east
+from the open sea, find the white rock I had observed last evening, and
+ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had hidden his
+boat--a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe. But as I was
+certain I should not be allowed to leave the inclosure, my only plan was
+to take French leave and slip out when nobody was watching, and that was
+so bad a way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong. But I was only
+a boy and I had made my mind up.
+
+Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admirable opportunity. The
+squire and Gray were busy helping the captain with his bandages; the
+coast was clear; I made a bolt for it over the stockade and into the
+thickest of the trees, and before my absence was observed I was out of
+cry of my companions.
+
+This was my second folly, far worse than the first, as I left but two
+sound men to guard the house; but, like the first, it was a help toward
+saving all of us.
+
+I took my way straight for the east coast of the island, for I was
+determined to go down the seaside of the spit to avoid all chance of
+observation from the anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon,
+although still warm and sunny. As I continued to thread the tall woods I
+could hear from far before me not only the continuous thunder of the
+surf, but a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs which
+showed me the sea breeze set in higher than usual. Soon cool draughts of
+air began to reach me, and a few steps farther I came forth into the
+open borders of the grove and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the
+horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam along the beach.
+
+I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island. The sun might
+blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface smooth and
+blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the
+external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night, and I scarce
+believe there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of
+earshot of their noise.
+
+I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, thinking I
+was now got far enough to the south, I took the cover of some thick
+bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit.
+
+Behind me was the sea; in front, the anchorage. The sea-breeze, as
+though it had the sooner blown itself out by its unusual violence, was
+already at an end; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from
+the south and southeast, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage,
+under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden as when first we
+entered it. The _Hispaniola_, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly
+portrayed from the truck to the water-line, the Jolly Roger hanging from
+her peak.
+
+Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern-sheets--him I could
+always recognize--while a couple of men were leaning over the stern
+bulwarks, one of them with a red cap--the very rogue that I had seen
+some hours before stride-legs upon the palisade. Apparently they were
+talking and laughing, though at that distance--upward of a mile--I could
+of course hear no word of what was said.
+
+All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly screaming, which at
+first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice of
+Captain Flint, and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright
+plumage as she sat perched upon her master's wrist.
+
+Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man
+with the red cap and his comrade went below by the cabin companion.
+
+Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind the Spy-glass, and
+as the fog was collecting rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I
+saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that evening.
+
+The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still some eighth of
+a mile farther down the spit, and it took me a goodish while to get up
+with it, crawling, often on all-fours, among the scrub. Night had almost
+come when I laid my hand on its rough sides. Right below it there was
+an exceedingly small hollow of green turf, hidden by banks and a thick
+underwood about knee-deep, that grew there very plentifully; and in the
+center of the dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins, like what
+the gypsies carry about with them in England.
+
+I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the tent, and there was
+Ben Gunn's boat--homemade if ever anything was homemade--a rude,
+lopsided framework of tough wood, and stretched upon that a covering of
+goat-skin, with the hair inside. The thing was extremely small, even for
+me, and I can hardly imagine that it could have floated with a
+full-sized man. There was one thwart set as low as possible, a kind of
+stretcher in the bows, and a double paddle for propulsion.
+
+I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient Britons made, but I
+have seen one since, and I can give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's
+boat than by saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever
+made by man. But the great advantage of the coracle it certainly
+possessed, for it was exceedingly light and portable.
+
+Well, now that I had found the boat, you would have thought I had had
+enough of truantry for once; but in the meantime I had taken another
+notion, and become so obstinately fond of it that I would have carried
+it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain Smollett himself. This was to
+slip out under cover of the night, cut the _Hispaniola_ adrift, and let
+her go ashore where she fancied. I had quite made up my mind that the
+mutineers, after their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their
+hearts than to up anchor and away to sea; this, I thought, it would be a
+fine thing to prevent, and now that I had seen how they left their
+watchman unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little
+risk.
+
+Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty meal of biscuit. It
+was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose. The fog had now buried
+all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared,
+absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And when, at last, I
+shouldered the coracle, and groped my way stumblingly out of the hollow
+where I had supped, there were but two points visible on the whole
+anchorage.
+
+One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated pirates lay
+carousing in the swamp. The other, a mere blur of light upon the
+darkness, indicated the position of the anchored ship. She had swung
+round to the ebb--her bow was now toward me--the only lights on board
+were in the cabin; and what I saw was merely a reflection on the fog of
+the strong rays that flowed from the stern window.
+
+The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade through a long belt
+of swampy sand, where I sank several times above the ankle, before I
+came to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little way in,
+with some strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downward, on the
+surface.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE EBB-TIDE RUNS
+
+
+The coracle--as I had ample reason to know before I was done with
+her--was a very safe boat for a person of my height and weight, both
+buoyant and clever in a sea-way; but she was the most cross-grained,
+lopsided craft to manage. Do as you pleased, she always made more leeway
+than anything else, and turning round and round was the maneuver she was
+best at. Even Ben Gunn himself has admitted that she was "queer to
+handle till you knew her way."
+
+Certainly I did not know her way. She turned in every direction but the
+one I was bound to go; the most part of the time we were broadside on,
+and I am very sure I never should have made the ship at all but for the
+tide. By good fortune, paddle as I pleased, the tide was still sweeping
+me down; and there lay the _Hispaniola_ right in the fairway, hardly to
+be missed.
+
+First she loomed before me like a blot of something yet blacker than
+darkness, then her spars and hull began to take shape, and the next
+moment, as it seemed (for the further I went the brisker grew the
+current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser, and had laid hold.
+
+The hawser was as taut as a bowstring and the current so strong she
+pulled upon her anchor. All round the hull, in the blackness, the
+rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.
+One cut with my sea gully, and the _Hispaniola_ would go humming down
+the tide.
+
+So far so good; but it next occurred to my recollection that a taut
+hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to
+one, if I were so foolhardy as to cut the _Hispaniola_ from her anchor,
+I and the coracle would be knocked clean out of the water.
+
+This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had not again
+particularly favored me, I should have had to abandon my design. But the
+light airs which had begun blowing from the southeast and south had
+hauled round after nightfall into the southwest. Just while I was
+meditating, a puff came, caught the _Hispaniola_, and forced her up into
+the current; and, to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my
+grasp, and the hand by which I held it dip for a second under water.
+
+With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth,
+and cut one strand after another, till the vessel swung only by two.
+Then I lay quiet, waiting to sever these last when the strain should be
+once more lightened by a breath of wind.
+
+All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices from the cabin; but,
+to say truth, my mind had been so entirely taken up with other thoughts
+that I had scarcely given ear. Now, however, when I had nothing else to
+do, I began to pay more heed.
+
+One I recognized for the coxswain's, Israel Hands, that had been Flint's
+gunner in former days. The other was, of course, my friend of the red
+nightcap. Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they were still
+drinking; for, even while I was listening, one of them, with a drunken
+cry, opened the stern window and threw out something, which I divined
+to be an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy; it was plain that
+they were furiously angry. Oaths flew like hailstones, and every now and
+then there came forth such an explosion as I thought was sure to end in
+blows. But each time the quarrel passed off, and the voices grumbled
+lower for a while, until the next crisis came, and, in its turn, passed
+away without result.
+
+On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp fire burning warmly
+through the shore-side trees. Someone was singing a dull, old droning
+sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and
+seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. I had
+heard it on the voyage more than once, and remembered these words:
+
+    "But one man of the crew alive,
+    What put to sea with seventy-five."
+
+And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appropriate for a
+company that had met such cruel losses in the morning. But, indeed, from
+what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed
+on.
+
+At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the
+dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more, and with a good, tough
+effort, cut the last fibers through.
+
+The breeze had but little action on the coracle, and I was almost
+instantly swept against the bows of the _Hispaniola_. At the same time
+the schooner began to turn upon her heel, spinning slowly, end for end,
+across the current.
+
+I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment to be swamped; and
+since I found I could not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved
+straight astern. At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbor, and
+just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord
+that was trailing overboard across the stern bulwarks. Instantly I
+grasped it.
+
+Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It was at first mere
+instinct, but once I had it in my hands and found it fast, curiosity
+began to get the upper hand, and I determined I should have one look
+through the cabin window.
+
+I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when I judged myself near
+enough, rose at infinite risk to about half my height, and thus
+commanded the roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin.
+
+By this time the schooner and her little consort were gliding pretty
+swiftly through the water; indeed, we had already fetched up level with
+the camp fire. The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading
+the innumerable ripples with an incessant weltering splash; and until I
+got my eye above the window sill I could not comprehend why the watchmen
+had taken no alarm. One glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only
+one glance that I durst take from that unsteady skiff. It showed me
+Hands and his companion locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a
+hand upon the other's throat.
+
+I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, for I was near
+overboard. I could see nothing for the moment but these two furious,
+encrimsoned faces, swaying together under the smoky lamp; and I shut my
+eyes to let them grow once more familiar with the darkness.
+
+The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the whole diminished
+company about the camp fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so
+often:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
+    Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil were at that very
+moment in the cabin of the _Hispaniola_, when I was surprised by a
+sudden lurch of the coracle. At the same moment she yawed sharply and
+seemed to change her course. The speed in the meantime had strangely
+increased.
+
+I opened my eyes at once. All around me were little ripples, combing
+over with a sharp, bristling sound and slightly phosphorescent. The
+_Hispaniola_ herself, a few yards in whose wake I was still being
+whirled along, seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her spars toss
+a little against the blackness of the night; nay, as I looked longer, I
+made sure she also was wheeling to the southward.
+
+I glanced over my shoulder and my heart jumped against my ribs. There,
+right behind me, was the glow of the camp fire. The current had turned
+at right angles, sweeping round along with it the tall schooner and the
+little dancing coracle; ever quickening, ever bubbling higher, ever
+muttering louder, it went spinning through the narrows for the open sea.
+
+Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a violent yaw, turning,
+perhaps, through twenty degrees; and almost at the same moment one shout
+followed another from on board. I could hear feet pounding on the
+companion ladder, and I knew that the two drunkards had at last been
+interrupted in their quarrel and awakened to a sense of their disaster.
+
+I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched skiff and devoutly
+recommended my spirit to its Maker. At the end of the straits I made
+sure we must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where all my
+troubles would be ended speedily; and though I could perhaps bear to
+die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as it approached.
+
+So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten to and fro upon the
+billows, now and again wetted with flying sprays, and never ceasing to
+expect death at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon me; a
+numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst of
+my terrors, until sleep at last intervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle
+I lay and dreamed of home and the old "Admiral Benbow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE
+
+
+It was broad day when I awoke and found myself tossing at the southwest
+end of Treasure Island. The sun was up, but was still hid from me behind
+the great bulk of the Spy-glass, which on this side descended almost to
+the sea in formidable cliffs.
+
+Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at my elbow, the hill bare
+and dark, the head bound with cliffs forty or fifty feet high and
+fringed with great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter of a
+mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to paddle in and land.
+
+That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen rocks the breakers
+spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and
+falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw myself,
+if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore or spending
+my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.
+
+Nor was that all, for crawling together on flat tables of rock, or
+letting themselves drop into the sea with loud reports, I beheld huge
+slimy monsters--soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness--two or
+three score of them together, making the rocks to echo with their
+barkings.
+
+I have understood since that they were sea lions, and entirely harmless.
+But the look of them, added to the difficulty of the shore and the high
+running of the surf, was more than enough to disgust me of that
+landing-place. I felt willing rather to starve at sea than to confront
+such perils.
+
+In the meantime I had a better chance, as I supposed, before me. North
+of Haulbowline Head the land runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a
+long stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, again, there comes
+another cape--Cape of the Woods, as it was marked upon the chart--buried
+in tall green pines, which descended to the margin of the sea.
+
+I remembered what Silver had said about the current that sets northward
+along the whole west coast of Treasure Island; and seeing from my
+position that I was already under its influence, I preferred to leave
+Haulbowline Head behind me, and reserve my strength for an attempt to
+land upon the kindlier-looking Cape of the Woods.
+
+There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. The wind blowing steady
+and gentle from the south, there was no contrariety between that and the
+current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.
+
+Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have perished; but as it was, it
+is surprising how easily and securely my little and light boat could
+ride. Often, as I still lay at the bottom, and kept no more than an eye
+above the gunwale, I would see a big blue summit heaving close above me;
+yet the coracle would but bounce a little, dance as if on springs, and
+subside on the other side into the trough as lightly as a bird.
+
+I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat up to try my skill at
+paddling. But even a small change in the disposition of the weight will
+produce violent changes in the behavior of a coracle. And I had hardly
+moved before the boat, giving up at once her gentle, dancing movement,
+ran straight down a slope of water so steep that it made me giddy, and
+struck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the side of the next
+wave.
+
+I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly back into my old
+position, whereupon the coracle seemed to find her head again, and led
+me softly as before among the billows. It was plain she was not to be
+interfered with, and at that rate, since I could in no way influence her
+course, what hope had I left of reaching land?
+
+I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my head, for all that.
+First, moving with all care, I gradually bailed out the coracle with my
+sea cap; then getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself
+to study how it was she managed to slip so quietly through the rollers.
+
+I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, glossy mountain it looks
+from shore, or from a vessel's deck, was for all the world like any
+range of hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth places and
+valleys. The coracle, left to herself, turning from side to side,
+threaded, so to speak, her way through these lower parts, and avoided
+the steep slopes and higher toppling summits of the wave.
+
+"Well, now," thought I to myself, "it is plain I must lie where I am,
+and not disturb the balance; but it is plain, also, that I can put the
+paddle over the side, and from time to time, in smooth places, give her
+a shove or two towards land." No sooner thought upon than done. There I
+lay on my elbows, in the most trying attitude, and every now and again
+gave a weak stroke or two to turn her head to shore.
+
+It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and, as
+we drew near the Cape of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss
+that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was,
+indeed, close in. I could see the cool, green tree-tops swaying together
+in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next promontory without
+fail.
+
+It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst. The glow
+of the sun from above, its thousand-fold reflection from the waves, the
+sea water that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt,
+combined to make my throat burn and my brain ache. The sight of the
+trees so near at hand had almost made me sick with longing; but the
+current had soon carried me past the point; and, as the next reach of
+sea opened out, I beheld a sight that changed the nature of my thoughts.
+
+Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the _Hispaniola_
+under sail. I made sure, of course, that I should be taken, but I was so
+distressed for want of water, that I scarce knew whether to be glad or
+sorry at the thought; and, long before I had come to a conclusion,
+surprise had taken possession of my mind, and I could do nothing but
+stare and wonder.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ was under her mainsail and two jibs, and the beautiful
+white canvas shone in the sun like snow or silver. When I first sighted
+her, all her sails were drawing, she was laying a course about
+northwest, and I presumed the men on board were going round the island
+on their way back to the anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more
+and more to the westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were
+going about in chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's
+eye, was taken dead aback, and stood there awhile helpless, with her
+sails shivering.
+
+"Clumsy fellows," said I, "they must still be drunk as owls." And I
+thought how Captain Smollett would have set them skipping.
+
+Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off, and filled again upon another
+tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or so, and brought up once more dead
+in the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and
+down, north, south, east, and west, the _Hispaniola_ sailed by swoops
+and dashes, and at each repetition ended as she had begun, with idly
+flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steering. And, if
+so, where were the men? Either they were dead drunk, or had deserted
+her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get on board, I might return the
+vessel to her captain.
+
+The current was bearing coracle and schooner southward at an equal rate.
+As for the latter's sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she
+hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if
+she did not even lose. If I only dared to sit up and paddle, I made sure
+that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an air of adventure that
+inspired me, and the thought of the water breaker beside the
+fore companion doubled my growing courage.
+
+Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by another cloud of spray, but
+this time stuck to my purpose and set myself with all my strength and
+caution to paddle after the unsteered _Hispaniola_. Once I shipped a sea
+so heavy that I had to stop and bail, with my heart fluttering like a
+bird, but gradually I got into the way of the thing and guided my
+coracle among the waves, with only now and then a blow upon her bows
+and a dash of foam in my face.
+
+I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner. I could see the brass glisten
+on the tiller as it banged about, and still no soul appeared upon her
+decks. I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. If not, the men
+were lying drunk below, where I might batten them down, perhaps, and do
+what I chose with the ship.
+
+For some time she had been doing the worst thing possible for
+me--standing still. She headed nearly due south, yawing, of course, all
+the time. Each time she fell off her sails partly filled, and these
+brought her, in a moment, right to the wind again. I have said this was
+the worst thing possible for me; for, helpless as she looked in this
+situation, with the canvas crackling like cannon, and the blocks
+trundling and banging on the deck, she still continued to run away from
+me, not only with the speed of the current, but by the whole amount of
+her leeway, which was naturally great.
+
+But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze fell, for some seconds,
+very low, and the current gradually turning her, the _Hispaniola_
+revolved slowly round her center and at last presented me her stern,
+with the cabin window still gaping open and the lamp over the table
+still burning on into the day. The mainsail hung drooped like a banner.
+She was stock-still but for the current.
+
+For the last little while I had even lost, but now, redoubling my
+efforts, I began once more to overhaul the chase.
+
+I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came again in a clap;
+she filled on the port tack and was off again, stooping and skimming
+like a swallow.
+
+My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was towards joy.
+Round she came, till she was broadside on to me--round still till she
+had covered a half, and then two-thirds, and then three-quarters of the
+distance that separated us. I could see the waves boiling white under
+her forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me from my low station in the
+coracle.
+
+And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I had scarce time to
+think--scarce time to act and save myself. I was on the summit of one
+swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was
+over my head. I sprang to my feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under
+water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged
+between the stay and the brace, and as I still clung there panting, a
+dull blow told me that the schooner had charged down upon and struck the
+coracle and that I was left without retreat on the _Hispaniola_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER
+
+
+I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jib
+flapped and filled upon the other tack with a report like a gun. The
+schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, the
+other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again and hung idle.
+
+This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now I lost no time,
+crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled headforemost on the deck.
+
+I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was
+still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.
+Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since
+the mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken by
+the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.
+
+Suddenly the _Hispaniola_ came right into the wind. The jibs behind me
+cracked aloud; the rudder slammed to; the whole ship gave a sickening
+heave and shudder; and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
+the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck.
+
+There were the two watchmen, sure enough; Red-cap on his back, as stiff
+as a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix,
+and his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped
+against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open before
+him on the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle.
+
+For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a vicious horse, the
+sails filling, now on one tack, now on another, and the boom swinging to
+and fro till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again,
+too, there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark, and a
+heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell--so much heavier weather
+was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsided
+coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.
+
+At every jump of the schooner, Red-cap slipped to and fro; but--what was
+ghastly to behold--neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing
+grin was any way disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump, too,
+Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon the
+deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body canting
+toward the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid from
+me; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the frayed
+ringlet of one whisker.
+
+At the same time I observed, around both of them, splashes of dark blood
+upon the planks, and began to feel sure that they had killed each other
+in their drunken wrath.
+
+While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm moment when the ship
+was still, Israel Hands turned partly round, and with a low moan,
+writhed himself back to the position in which I had seen him first. The
+moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his
+jaw hung open, went right to my heart. But when I remembered the talk I
+had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me.
+
+I walked aft until I reached the mainmast.
+
+"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, ironically.
+
+He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to express
+surprise. All he could do was to utter one word, "Brandy."
+
+It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as it
+once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down the
+companion-stairs into the cabin.
+
+It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy. All the
+lock-fast places had been broken open in quest of the chart. The floor
+was thick with mud, where the ruffians had sat down to drink or consult
+after wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted
+in clear white, and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty
+hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to the
+rolling of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open on the
+table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose, for pipe-lights. In the
+midst of all this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown as
+umber.
+
+I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles a
+most surprising number had been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly,
+since the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have been sober.
+
+Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy left, for Hands; and
+for myself I routed out some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch
+of raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down
+my own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the coxswain's
+reach, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, deep drink of
+water, and then, and not until then, gave Hands the brandy.
+
+He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth.
+
+"Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"
+
+I had sat down already in my own corner and begun to eat.
+
+"Much hurt?" I asked him.
+
+He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.
+
+"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. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," he
+added, indicating the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman,
+anyhow. And where mought you have come from?"
+
+"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this ship, Mr.
+Hands, and you'll please regard me as your captain until further
+notice."
+
+He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. Some of the color had
+come back into his cheeks, though he still looked very sick and still
+continued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about.
+
+"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors, Mr. Hands; and by
+your leave I'll strike 'em. Better none than these."
+
+And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines, hauled down their
+cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.
+
+"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; "and there's an end to
+Captain Silver."
+
+He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while on his breast.
+
+"I reckon," he said at last--"I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind o'
+want to get ashore, now. S'pose we talks."
+
+"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I went
+back to my meal with a good appetite.
+
+"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse--"O'Brien were his
+name--a rank Irelander--this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning
+for to sail her back. Well, _he's_ dead now, he is--as dead as bilge;
+and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I give you a hint, you
+ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food
+and drink, and a old scarf or ankercher to tie my wound up, you do; and
+I'll tell you how to sail her; and that's about square all round, I take
+it."
+
+"I'll tell you one thing," says I; "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's
+anchorage. I mean to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there."
+
+"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber,
+after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've
+lost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no
+ch'ice, not I. I'd help you sail her up to Execution Dock, by thunder!
+so I would."
+
+Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this. We struck our
+bargain on the spot. In three minutes I had the _Hispaniola_ sailing
+easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good
+hopes of turning the northern point ere noon, and beating down again as
+far as North Inlet before high water, when we might beach her safely,
+and wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land.
+
+Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got a
+soft silk handkerchief of my mother's. With this, and with my aid, Hands
+bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after
+he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he
+began to pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer,
+and looked in every way another man.
+
+The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, the
+coast of the island flashing by, and the view changing every minute.
+Soon we were past the high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country,
+sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that again,
+and had turned the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on the
+north.
+
+I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright,
+sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast. I had now
+plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had
+smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I
+had made. I should, I think, have had nothing left me to desire but for
+the eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the deck,
+and the odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile
+that had in it something both of pain and weakness--a haggard, old man's
+smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of
+treachery, in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and
+watched me at my work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ISRAEL HANDS
+
+
+The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. We could run
+so much easier from the northeast corner of the island to the mouth of
+the North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to anchor, and dared not beach
+her until the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our
+hands. The coxswain told me how to lay the ship to; after a good many
+trials I succeeded, and we both sat in silence over another meal.
+
+"Cap'n," said he, at length, with that same uncomfortable smile, "here's
+my old shipmate, O'Brien; s'pose you was to heave him overboard. I ain't
+partic'lar, as a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling his hash;
+but I don't reckon him ornamental, now, do you?"
+
+"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job; and there he lies, for
+me," said I.
+
+"This here's an unlucky ship--the _Hispaniola_, Jim," he went on,
+blinking. "There's a power of men been killed in this _Hispaniola_--a
+sight o' poor seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship to
+Bristol. I never seen such dirty luck, not I. There was this here
+O'Brien, now--he's dead, ain't he? Well, now, I'm no scholar, and you're
+a lad as can read and figure; and, to put it straight, do you take it as
+a dead man is dead for good, or do he come alive again?"
+
+"You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit; you must know
+that already," I replied. "O'Brien, there, is in another world, and may
+be watching us."
+
+"Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nate--appears as if killing parties
+was a waste of time. Howsomever, sperrits don't reckon for much, by what
+I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now you've spoke
+up free, and I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin
+and get me a--well, a--shiver my timbers! I can't hit the name on't.
+Well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim--this here brandy's too strong
+for my head."
+
+Now the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural; and as for the
+notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The
+whole story was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck--so much was
+plain, but with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes never
+met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a look
+to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien. All the
+time he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty,
+embarrassed manner, so that a child could have told that he was bent on
+some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my
+advantage lay, and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily
+conceal my suspicions to the end.
+
+"Some wine?" I said. "Far better. Will you have white or red?"
+
+"Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me, shipmate," he
+replied; "so it's strong, and plenty of it, what's the odds?"
+
+"All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, Mr. Hands. But I'll have
+to dig for it."
+
+With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could,
+slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the sparred gallery, mounted the
+forecastle ladder and popped my head out of the fore companion. I knew
+he would not expect to see me there, yet I took every precaution
+possible, and certainly the worst of my suspicions proved too true.
+
+He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though his
+leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply when he moved--for I could hear
+him stifle a groan--yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed
+himself across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the port
+scuppers, and picked out of a coil of rope a long knife, or rather a
+short dirk, discolored to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it for a
+moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried the point upon his hand,
+and then hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled back
+again into his old place against the bulwark.
+
+This was all that I required to know. Israel could move about; he was
+now armed, and if he had been at so much trouble to get rid of me, it
+was plain that I was meant to be the victim. What he would do
+afterward--whether he would try to crawl right across the island from
+North Inlet to the camp among the swamps, or whether he would fire Long
+Tom, trusting that his own comrades might come first to help him, was,
+of course, more than I could say.
+
+Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point, since in that our
+interests jumped together, and that was in the disposition of the
+schooner. We both desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a
+sheltered place, and so that when the time came, she could be got off
+again with as little labor and danger as might be; and until that was
+done I considered that my life would certainly be spared.
+
+While I was thus turning the business over in my mind I had not been
+idle with my body. I had stolen back to the cabin, slipped once more
+into my shoes and laid my hand at random on a bottle of wine, and now
+with this for an excuse, I made my reappearance on the deck.
+
+Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together in a bundle, and with
+his eyelids lowered as though he were too weak to bear the light. He
+looked up, however, at my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a
+man who had done the same thing often, and took a good swig, with his
+favorite toast of "Here's luck!" Then he lay quiet for a little, and
+then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid.
+
+"Cut me a junk o' that," says he, "for I haven't no knife, and hardly
+strength enough, so be as I had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I've missed
+stays! Cut me a quid as'll likely be the last, lad; for I'm for my long
+home, and no mistake."
+
+"Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I was you and thought
+myself so badly, I would go to my prayers, like a Christian man."
+
+"Why?" said he. "Now you tell me why."
+
+"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now about the dead. You've
+broken your trust; you've lived in sin and lies and blood; there's a man
+you killed lying at your feet this moment; and you ask me why! For God's
+mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."
+
+I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk he had hidden in
+his pocket, and designed, in his ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for
+his part, took a great draught of the wine and spoke with the most
+unusual solemnity.
+
+"For thirty year," he said, "I've sailed the seas and seen good and bad,
+better and worse, fair weather and foul, provisions running out, knives
+going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o'
+goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite;
+them's my views--amen, so be it. And now, you look here," he added,
+suddenly changing his tone, "we've had about enough of this foolery. The
+tide's made good enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap'n Hawkins,
+and we'll sail slap in and be done with it."
+
+All told, we had scarce two miles to run, but the navigation was
+delicate, the entrance to this northern anchorage was not only narrow
+and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely
+handled to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and I am
+very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot; for we went about and
+about, and dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a neatness
+that were a pleasure to behold.
+
+Scarcely had we passed the head before the land closed around us. The
+shores of North Inlet were as thickly wooded as those of the southern
+anchorage, but the space was longer and narrower, and more like, what in
+truth it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us, at the southern
+end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapidation. It
+had been a great vessel of three masts, but had lain so long exposed to
+the injuries of the weather that it was hung about with great webs of
+dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken root,
+and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed
+us that the anchorage was calm.
+
+"Now," said Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for to beach a ship
+in. Fine flat sand, never a catspaw, trees all around of it, and flowers
+a-blowing like a garding on that old ship."
+
+"And, once beached," I inquired, "how shall we get her off again?"
+
+"Why, so," he replied; "you take a line ashore there on the other side
+at low water; take a turn about one o' them big pines; bring it back,
+take a turn around the capstan and lie-to for the tide. Come high water,
+all hands take a pull upon the line, and off she comes as sweet as
+natur'. And now, boy, you stand by. We're near the bit now, and she's
+too much way on her. Starboard a little--so--steady--starboard--larboard
+a little--steady--steady!"
+
+So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly obeyed; till, all of a
+sudden, he cried: "Now, my hearty, luff!" And I put the helm hard up,
+and the _Hispaniola_ swung round rapidly and ran stem on for the low
+wooded shore.
+
+The excitement of these last maneuvers had somewhat interfered with the
+watch I had kept hitherto, sharply enough, upon the coxswain. Even then
+I was still so much interested, waiting for the ship to touch, that I
+had quite forgot the peril that hung over my head, and stood craning
+over the starboard bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide
+before the bows. I might have fallen without a struggle for my life, had
+not a sudden disquietude seized upon me and made me turn my head.
+Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his shadow moving with the tail of
+my eye; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat's; but, sure enough, when
+I looked round, there was Hands, already halfway toward me, with the
+dirk in his right hand.
+
+We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes met, but while mine was
+the shrill cry of terror, his was a roar of fury like a charging bull's.
+At the same instant he threw himself forward and I leaped sideways
+toward the bows. As I did so I let go of the tiller, which sprung sharp
+to leeward; and I think this saved my life, for it struck Hands across
+the chest, and stopped him, for the moment, dead.
+
+Before he could recover I was safe out of the corner where he had me
+trapped, with all the deck to dodge about. Just forward of the mainmast
+I stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim, though he had
+already turned and was once more coming directly after me, and drew the
+trigger. The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash nor sound;
+the priming was useless with sea water. I cursed myself for my neglect.
+Why had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded my only weapons? Then
+I should not have been as now, a mere fleeing sheep before this butcher.
+
+Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move, his grizzled
+hair tumbling over his face and his face itself as red as a red ensign
+with his haste and fury. I had no time to try my other pistol, nor,
+indeed, much inclination, for I was sure it would be useless. One thing
+I saw plainly: I must not simply retreat before him, or he would
+speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment since he had so nearly
+boxed me in the stern. Once so caught, and nine or ten inches of the
+blood-stained dirk would be my last experience on this side of eternity.
+I placed my palms against the mainmast, which was of a goodish bigness,
+and waited, every nerve upon the stretch.
+
+Seeing that I meant to dodge he also paused, and a moment or two passed
+in feints on his part and corresponding movements upon mine. It was such
+a game as I had often played at home about the rocks of Black Hill Cove;
+but never before, you may be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as
+now. Still, as I say it, it was a boy's game, and I thought I could hold
+my own at it against an elderly seaman with a wounded thigh. Indeed, my
+courage had begun to rise so high that I allowed myself a few darting
+thoughts on what would be the end of the affair; and while I saw
+certainly that I could spin it out for long, I saw no hope of any
+ultimate escape.
+
+Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the _Hispaniola_ struck,
+staggered, ground for an instant in the sand, and then, swift as a blow,
+canted over to the port side, till the deck stood at an angle of
+forty-five degrees, and about a puncheon of water splashed into the
+scupper holes, and lay in a pool between the deck and bulwark.
+
+We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of us rolled, almost
+together, into the scuppers, the dead Red-cap, with his arms still
+spread out, tumbling stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that my
+head came against the coxswain's foot with a crack that made my teeth
+rattle. Blow and all, I was the first afoot again, for Hands had got
+involved with the dead body. The sudden canting of the ship had made the
+deck no place for running on; I had to find some new way of escape, and
+that upon the instant, for my foe was almost touching me. Quick as
+thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up hand over hand,
+and did not draw a breath till I was seated on the crosstrees.
+
+[Illustration: _Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds_
+(Page 193)]
+
+I had been saved by being prompt; the dirk had struck not half a foot
+below me as I pursued my upward flight; and there stood Israel Hands
+with his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a perfect statue of
+surprise and disappointment.
+
+Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time in changing the
+priming of my pistol, and then, having one ready for service, and to
+make assurance doubly sure, I proceeded to draw the load of the other,
+and recharge it afresh from the beginning.
+
+My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; he began to see the dice
+going against him, and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled
+himself heavily into the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his teeth, began
+slowly and painfully to mount. It cost him no end of time and groans to
+haul his wounded leg behind him; and I had quietly finished my
+arrangements before he was much more than a third of the way up. Then,
+with a pistol in either hand, I addressed him:
+
+"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out! Dead
+men don't bite, you know," I added, with a chuckle.
+
+He stopped instantly. I could see by the workings of his face that he
+was trying to think, and the process was so slow and laborious that, in
+my new-found security, I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow or two,
+he spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme
+perplexity. In order to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth,
+but, in all else, he remained unmoved.
+
+"Jim," says he, "I reckon we're fouled, you and me, and we'll have to
+sign articles. I'd have had you but for that there lurch; but I don't
+have no luck, not I; and I reckon I'll have to strike, which comes hard,
+you see, for a master mariner to a ship's younker like you, Jim."
+
+I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock
+upon a walk, when, all in a breath, back went his right hand over his
+shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow
+and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the
+mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment--I scarce can say it
+was by my own volition, and I am sure it was without a conscious
+aim--both my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They
+did not fall alone; with a choked cry the coxswain loosed his grasp upon
+the shrouds, and plunged head first into the water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+"PIECES OF EIGHT"
+
+
+Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water,
+and from my perch on the crosstrees I had nothing below me but the
+surface of the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, was, in consequence,
+nearer to the ship, and fell between me and the bulwarks. He rose once
+to the surface in a lather of foam and blood, and then sank again for
+good. As the water settled, I could see him lying huddled together on
+the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A fish or
+two whipped past his body. Sometimes, by the quivering of the water, he
+appeared to move a little, as if he were trying to rise. But he was dead
+enough, for all that, being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish
+in the very place where he had designed my slaughter.
+
+I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick, faint, and
+terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and chest. The dirk,
+where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hot
+iron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me,
+for these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a murmur; it was the
+horror I had upon my mind of falling from the crosstree into that still,
+green water beside the body of the coxswain.
+
+I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes as if to
+cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came back again, my pulses
+quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more in possession
+of myself.
+
+It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; but either it stuck too
+hard or my nerve failed me, and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly
+enough, that very shudder did the business. The knife, in fact, had come
+the nearest in the world to missing me altogether; it held me by a mere
+pinch of skin, and this the shudder tore away. The blood ran down the
+faster, to be sure, but I was my own master again, and only tacked to
+the mast by my coat and shirt.
+
+These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and then regained the
+deck by the starboard shrouds. For nothing in the world would I have
+again ventured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds, from
+which Israel had so lately fallen.
+
+I went below and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good
+deal, and still bled freely, but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor
+did it greatly gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and
+as the ship was now, in a sense, my own, I began to think of clearing it
+from its last passenger--the dead man, O'Brien.
+
+He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like
+some horrid, ungainly sort of puppet; life-size, indeed, but how
+different from life's color or life's comeliness! In that position, I
+could easily have my way with him, and as the habit of tragical
+adventures had worn off almost all my terror for the dead, I took him by
+the waist as if he had been a sack of bran, and, with one good heave,
+tumbled him overboard. He went in with a sounding plunge; the red cap
+came off, and remained floating on the surface; and as soon as the
+splash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying side by side, both
+wavering with the tremulous movement of the water. O'Brien, though still
+quite a young man, was very bald. There he lay with that bald head
+across the knees of the man who killed him, and the quick fishes
+steering to and fro over both.
+
+I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just turned. The sun was
+within so few degrees of setting that already the shadow of the pines
+upon the western shore began to reach right across the anchorage and
+fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up, and
+though it was well warded off by the hill with the two peaks upon the
+east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself and the
+idle sails to rattle to and fro.
+
+I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I speedily doused and
+brought tumbling to the deck, but the mainsail was a harder matter. Of
+course, when the schooner canted over, the boom had swung outboard, and
+the cap of it and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought
+this made it still more dangerous, yet the strain was so heavy that I
+half feared to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The
+peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon
+the water; and since, pull as I liked, I could not budge the downhaul,
+that was the extent of what I could accomplish. For the rest, the
+_Hispaniola_ must trust to luck, like myself.
+
+By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into shadow--the last rays,
+I remember, falling through a glade of the wood, and shining bright as
+jewels on the flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill, the
+tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more
+on her beam-ends.
+
+I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed shallow enough, and
+holding the cut hawser in both hands for a last security, I let myself
+drop softly overboard. The water scarcely reached my waist; the sand was
+firm and covered with ripple-marks, and I waded ashore in great spirits,
+leaving the _Hispaniola_ on her side, with her mainsail trailing wide
+upon the surface of the bay. About the same time the sun went fairly
+down, and the breeze whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines.
+
+At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I returned thence
+empty-handed. There lay the schooner, clear at last from buccaneers and
+ready for our own men to board and get to sea again. I had nothing
+nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade and boast of my
+achievements. Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the
+recapture of the _Hispaniola_ was a clinching answer, and I hoped that
+even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my time.
+
+So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set my face homeward for
+the blockhouse and my companions. I remembered that the most easterly of
+the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran from the
+two-peaked hill upon my left; and I bent my course in that direction
+that I might pass the stream while it was small. The wood was pretty
+open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon turned the corner of
+that hill, and not long after waded to the mid-calf across the
+watercourse.
+
+This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben Gunn, the maroon,
+and I walked more circumspectly, keeping an eye on every side. The dusk
+had come nigh hand completely, and, as I opened out the cleft between
+the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against the sky, where,
+as I judged, the man of the island was cooking his supper before a
+roaring fire. And yet I wondered, in my heart, that he should show
+himself so careless. For if I could see this radiance, might it not
+reach the eye of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore among the
+marshes?
+
+Gradually the night fell blacker; it was all I could do to guide myself
+even roughly toward my destination; the double hill behind me and the
+Spy-glass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter, the stars were few
+and pale, and in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among
+bushes and rolling into sandy pits.
+
+Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked up; a pale glimmer
+of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after
+I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and
+knew the moon had risen.
+
+With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my
+journey; and, sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew
+near to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies
+before it, I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went
+a trifle warily. It would have been a poor end of my adventures to get
+shot down by my own party in mistake.
+
+The moon was climbing higher and higher; its light began to fall here
+and there in masses through the more open districts of the wood, and
+right in front of me a glow of a different color appeared among the
+trees. It was red and hot, and now and again it was a little
+darkened--as it were the embers of a bonfire smoldering.
+
+For the life of me I could not think what it might be.
+
+At last I came right down upon the borders of the clearing. The western
+end was already steeped in moon-shine; the rest, and the blockhouse
+itself, still lay in a black shadow, chequered with long, silvery
+streaks of light. On the other side of the house an immense fire had
+burned itself into clear embers and shed a steady, red reverberation,
+contrasting strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not
+a soul stirring, nor a sound beside the noises of the breeze.
+
+I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and perhaps a little terror
+also. It had not been our way to build great fires; we were, indeed, by
+the captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood, and I began to
+fear that something had gone wrong while I was absent.
+
+I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in shadow, and at a
+convenient place, where the darkness was thickest, crossed the palisade.
+
+To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and knees, and crawled,
+without a sound, toward the corner of the house. As I drew nearer, my
+heart was suddenly and greatly lightened. It was not a pleasant noise in
+itself, and I have often complained of it at other times, but just then
+it was like music to hear my friends snoring together so loud and
+peaceful in their sleep. The sea-cry of the watch, that beautiful "All's
+well," never fell more reassuringly on my ear.
+
+In the meantime there was no doubt of one thing; they kept an infamous
+bad watch. If it had been Silver and his lads that were now creeping in
+on them, not a soul would have seen daybreak. That was what it was,
+thought I, to have the captain wounded; and again I blamed myself
+sharply for leaving them in that danger with so few to mount guard.
+
+By this time I had got to the door and stood up. All was dark within, so
+that I could distinguish nothing by the eye. As for sounds, there was
+the steady drone of the snorers, and a small occasional noise, a
+flickering or pecking that I could in no way account for.
+
+With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I 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 sprang 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PART VI
+
+CAPTAIN SILVER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP
+
+
+The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of the blockhouse
+showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized. The pirates were in
+possession of the house and stores; there was the cask of cognac, there
+were the pork and bread, as before; and, what tenfold increased my
+horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge that all had
+perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there to
+perish with them.
+
+There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was left
+alive. Five of them were on their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly
+called out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only risen
+upon his elbow; he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round
+his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently
+dressed. I remembered the man who had been shot and run back among the
+woods in the great attack, and doubted not that this was he.
+
+The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's shoulder. He
+himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more stern than I was used
+to. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his
+mission, but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay and
+torn with sharp briers of the wood.
+
+"So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! dropped in,
+like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly."
+
+And thereupon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and began to fill a
+pipe.
+
+"Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had a
+good light, "That'll do, my lad," he added, "stick the glim in the wood
+heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to!--you needn't stand up for
+Mr. Hawkins; _he'll_ excuse you, you may lay to that. And so,
+Jim"--stopping the tobacco--"here you are, and quite a pleasant surprise
+for poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you,
+but this here gets away from me clean, it do."
+
+To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set me
+with my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking Silver in the
+face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black
+despair in my heart.
+
+Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and then
+ran on again:
+
+"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you _are_ here," says he, "I'll give you a
+piece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit,
+and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always
+wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my
+cock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to
+any day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right
+he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone dead
+again you--'ungrateful scamp' was what he said; and the short and long
+of the whole story is about here: You can't go back to your own lot, for
+they won't have you; and, without you start a third ship's company all
+by yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'n
+Silver."
+
+So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and though I partly
+believed the truth of Silver's statement, that the cabin party were
+incensed at me for my desertion, I was more relieved than distressed by
+what I heard.
+
+"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued Silver,
+"though there you are, and you may lay to it. I'm all for argyment; I
+never seen good come out o' threatening. If you like the service, well,
+you'll jine; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer no--free
+and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said by mortal seaman,
+shiver my sides!"
+
+"Am I to answer, then?" I asked, with a very tremulous voice. Through
+all this sneering talk I was made to feel the threat of death that
+overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my
+breast.
+
+"Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pressing of you. Take your bearings.
+None of us won't hurry you, mate; time goes so pleasant in your company,
+you see."
+
+"Well," says I, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm to choose, I declare I
+have a right to know what's what, and why you're here, and where my
+friends are."
+
+"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers, in a deep growl. "Ah, he'd
+be a lucky one as knowed that!"
+
+"You'll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till you're spoke to, my
+friend," cried Silver, truculently, to this speaker. And then, in his
+first gracious tones, he replied to me: "Yesterday morning, Mr.
+Hawkins," said he, "in the dogwatch, down came Doctor Livesey with a
+flag of truce. Says he: 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out. Ship's gone!'
+Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. I
+won't say no. Leastways, none of us had looked out. We looked out, and,
+by thunder! the old ship was gone. I never seen a pack o' fools look
+fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that I looked the
+fishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, him
+and I, and here we are; stores, brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you was
+thoughtful enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the whole
+blessed boat, from crosstrees to keelson. As for them, they've tramped;
+I don't know where's they are."
+
+He drew again quietly at his pipe.
+
+"And lest you should take it into that head of yours," he went on, "that
+you was included in the treaty, here's the last word that was said: 'How
+many are you,' says I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he--'four, and one of us
+wounded. As for that boy, I don't know where he is, confound him,' says
+he, 'nor I don't much care. We're about sick of him.' These was his
+words."
+
+"Is that all?" I asked.
+
+"Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," returned Silver.
+
+"And now I am to choose?"
+
+"And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that," said Silver.
+
+"Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I have
+to look for. Let the worst come to the worst, it's little I care. I've
+seen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two I
+have to tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited; "and
+the first is this: Here you are, in a bad way; ship lost, treasure lost,
+men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who
+did it--it was I! I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land,
+and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now at
+the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour was
+out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I
+who killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her
+where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side;
+I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you
+than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing
+I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and when
+you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you all I can. It is for
+you to choose. Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and
+keep a witness to save you from the gallows."
+
+I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, to my wonder, not
+a man of them moved, but all sat staring at me like as many sheep. And
+while they were still staring I broke out again:
+
+"And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're the best man here, and
+if things go to the worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor
+know the way I took it."
+
+"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so curious that I
+could not, for the life of me, decide whether he were laughing at my
+request or had been favorably affected by my courage.
+
+"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced seaman--Morgan by
+name--whom I had seen in Long John's public-house upon the quays of
+Bristol. "It was him that knowed Black Dog."
+
+"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook, "I'll put another again to
+that, by thunder! for it was this same boy that faked the chart from
+Billy Bones. First and last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!"
+
+"Then here goes!" said Morgan, with an oath.
+
+And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty.
+
+"Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you
+thought you were captain here, perhaps. By the powers, but I'll teach
+you better! Cross me and you'll go where many a good man's gone before
+you, first and last, these thirty year back--some to the yardarm, shiver
+my sides! and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There's
+never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward,
+Tom Morgan, you may lay to that."
+
+Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others.
+
+"Tom's right," said one.
+
+"I stood hazing long enough from one," added another. "I'll be hanged if
+I'll be hazed by you, John Silver."
+
+"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with _me_?" roared Silver,
+bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe still
+glowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't
+dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many
+years to have a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawser at
+the latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune,
+by your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and
+I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, before that pipe's
+empty."
+
+Not a man stirred; not a man answered.
+
+"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth.
+"Well, you're a gay lot to look at, any way. Not worth much to fight,
+you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n
+here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long
+sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; then, by
+thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; I
+never seen a better boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats
+of you in this here house, and what I say is this: Let me see him
+that'll lay a hand on him--that's what I say, and you may lay to it."
+
+There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall,
+my heart still going like a sledgehammer, but with a ray of hope now
+shining in my bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms
+crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he had
+been in church; yet his eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the
+tail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, drew gradually
+together toward the far end of the blockhouse, and the low hiss of their
+whispering sounded in my ears continuously, like a stream. One after
+another they would look up, and the red light of the torch would fall
+for a second on their nervous faces; but it was not toward me, it was
+toward Silver that they turned their eyes.
+
+"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the
+air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to."
+
+"Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men; "you're pretty free with
+some of the rules, maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This
+crew's dissatisfied; this crew don't vally bullying a marlinspike; this
+crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that; and by
+your own rules I take it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir,
+acknowledging you for to be capting at this present, but I claim my
+right and steps outside for a council."
+
+And with an elaborate sea-salute this fellow, a long, ill-looking,
+yellow-eyed man of five-and-thirty, stepped coolly toward the door and
+disappeared out of the house. One after another the rest followed his
+example, each making a salute as he passed, each adding some apology.
+"According to rules," said one. "Foc's'le council," said Morgan. And so
+with one remark or another, all marched out and left Silver and me alone
+with the torch.
+
+The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe.
+
+"Now, look you here, Jim Hawkins," he said in a steady whisper that was
+no more than audible, "you're within half a plank of death, and, what's
+a long sight worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But you
+mark, I stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to; no, not
+till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt, and be
+hanged into the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says to
+myself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll stand by you. You're
+his last card, and by the living thunder, John, he's yours! Back to
+back, says I. You save your witness and he'll save your neck!"
+
+I began dimly to understand.
+
+"You mean all's lost?" I asked.
+
+"Ay, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck gone--that's the size
+of it. Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no
+schooner--well, I'm tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and their
+council, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save your
+life--if so be as I can--from them. But see here, Jim--tit for tat--you
+save Long John from swinging."
+
+I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking--he, the
+old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout.
+
+"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.
+
+"It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up plucky, and by thunder,
+I've a chance."
+
+He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and
+took a fresh light to his pipe.
+
+"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a head on my shoulders,
+I have. I'm on squire's side now. I know you've got that ship safe
+somewheres. How you done it I don't know, but safe it is. I guess Hands
+and O'Brien turned soft. I never much believed in neither of _them_. Now
+you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won't let others. I know when a
+game's up, I do; and I know a lad that's stanch. Ah, you that's
+young--you and me might have done a power of good together!"
+
+He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin.
+
+"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked, and when I had refused, "Well,
+I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there's
+trouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give me
+the chart, Jim?"
+
+My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness of
+further questions.
+
+"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's something under that,
+no doubt--something, surely, under that, Jim--bad or good."
+
+And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head
+like a man who looks forward to the worst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN
+
+
+The council of the buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of them
+re-entered the house, and with a repetition of the same salute, which
+had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch.
+Silver briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again, leaving us
+together in the dark.
+
+"There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by this time
+adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone.
+
+I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out. The embers of the
+great fire had so far burned themselves out, and now glowed so low and
+duskily, that I understood why these conspirators desired a torch. About
+halfway down the slope to the stockade they were collected in a group;
+one held the light; another was on his knees in their midst, and I saw
+the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colors, in the
+moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though
+watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just make out that he had a
+book as well as a knife in his hand; and was still wondering how
+anything so incongruous had come in their possession, when the kneeling
+figure rose once more to his feet, and the whole party began to move
+together toward the house.
+
+"Here they come," said I; and I returned to my former position, for it
+seemed beneath my dignity that they should find me watching them.
+
+"Well, let 'em come, lad--let 'em come," said Silver, cheerily. "I've
+still a shot in my locker."
+
+The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled together just
+inside, pushed one of their number forward. In any other circumstances
+it would have been comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he set
+down each foot, but holding his closed right hand in front of him.
+
+"Step up, lad," cried Silver. "I won't eat you. Hand it over, lubber. I
+know the rules, I do; I won't hurt a depytation."
+
+Thus encouraged the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly, and having
+passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly
+back again to his companions.
+
+The sea-cook looked at what had been given him.
+
+"The black spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where might you have got
+the paper? Why, hello! look here, now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and
+cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"
+
+"Ah, there," said Morgan, "there! Wot did I say? No good'll come o'
+that, I said."
+
+"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," continued Silver. "You'll
+all swing now, I reckon. What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?"
+
+"It was Dick," said one.
+
+"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," said Silver. "He's seen
+his slice of luck, has Dick, and you may lay to that."
+
+But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in.
+
+"Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew has tipped you the
+black spot in full council, as in dooty bound; just you turn it over, as
+in dooty bound, and see what's wrote there. Then you can talk."
+
+"Thanky, George," replied the sea-cook. "You always was brisk for
+business, and has the rules by heart, George, as I'm pleased to see.
+Well, what is it, anyway? Ah! 'Deposed'--that's it, is it? Very pretty
+wrote, to be sure; like print, I swear. Your hand o' write, George? Why,
+you was gettin' quite a leadin' man in this here crew. You'll be cap'n
+next, I shouldn't wonder. Just oblige me with that torch again, will
+you? this pipe don't draw."
+
+"Come, now," said George, "you don't fool this crew no more. You're a
+funny man, by your account; but you're over now, and you'll maybe step
+down off that barrel, and help vote."
+
+"I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned Silver,
+contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do; and I wait here--and I'm
+still your cap'n, mind--till you outs with your grievances, and I reply;
+in the meantime, your black spot ain't worth a biscuit. After that we'll
+see."
+
+"Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of apprehension;
+_we're_ all square, we are. First, you've made a hash of this
+cruise--you'll be a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let the
+enemy out o' this here trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I dunno,
+but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let us go at
+them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to
+play booty, that's what's wrong with you. And then, fourth, there's this
+here boy."
+
+"Is that all?" asked Silver, quietly.
+
+"Enough, too," retorted George. "We'll all swing and sun-dry for your
+bungling."
+
+"Well, now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints; one after another
+I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o' this cruise, did I? Well, now, you all
+know what I wanted; and you all know, if that had been done, that we'd
+'a' been aboard the _Hispaniola_ this night as ever was, every man of us
+alive, and fit, and full of good plum-duff, and the treasure in the hold
+of her, by thunder! Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as was the
+lawful cap'n? Who tipped me the black spot the day we landed, and began
+this dance? Ah, it's a fine dance--I'm with you there--and looks mighty
+like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London town, it
+does. But who done it? Why, it was Anderson, and Hands, and you, George
+Merry! And you're the last above board of that same meddling crew; and
+you have the Davy Jones insolence to up and stand for cap'n over
+me--you, that sunk the lot of us! By the powers! but this tops the
+stiffest yarn to nothing."
+
+Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George and his late
+comrades that these words had not been said in vain.
+
+"That's for number one," cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his
+brow, for he had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.
+"Why, I give you my word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense
+nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you
+come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune! I reckon tailors is your trade."
+
+"Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to the others."
+
+"Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice lot, ain't they? You
+say this cruise is bungled. Ah! by gum, if you could understand how bad
+it's bungled, you would see! We're that near the gibbet that my neck's
+stiff with thinking on it. You've seen 'em, maybe, hanged in chains,
+birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as they go down with the tide.
+'Who's that?' says one. 'That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him
+well,' says another. And you can hear the chains a-jangle as you go
+about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that's about where we are,
+every mother's son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and
+other ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about number four,
+and that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn't he a hostage? Are we a-going
+to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I
+shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy? not me, mates! And number three? Ah,
+well, there's a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don't count it
+nothing to have a real college doctor come to see you every day--you,
+John, with your head broke--or you, George Merry, that had the ague
+shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the color of
+lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? And maybe, perhaps, you
+didn't know there was a consort coming, either? But there is, and not so
+long till then; and we'll see who'll be glad to have a hostage when it
+comes to that. And as for number two, and why I made a bargain--well,
+you come crawling on your knees to me to make it--on your knees you
+came, you was that downhearted--and you'd have starved, too, if I
+hadn't--but that's a trifle! you look there--that's why!"
+
+And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly
+recognized--none other than the chart on yellow paper, with the three
+red crosses, that I had found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the
+captain's chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more than I
+could fancy.
+
+But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance of the chart was
+incredible to the surviving mutineers. They leaped upon it like cats
+upon a mouse. It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from another;
+and by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with which they
+accompanied their examination, you would have thought, not only they
+were fingering the very gold, but were at sea with it, besides, in
+safety.
+
+"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F., and a score below,
+with a close hitch to it, so he done ever."
+
+"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to get away with it, and
+us no ship?"
+
+Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself with a hand against
+the wall: "Now, I give you warning, George," he cried. "One more word of
+your sauce, and I'll call you down and fight you. How? Why, how do I
+know? You had ought to tell me that--you and the rest, that lost me my
+schooner, with your interference, burn you! But not you, you can't; you
+ain't got the invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and
+shall, George Merry, you may lay to that."
+
+"That's fair enow," said the old man Morgan.
+
+"Fair! I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost the ship; I found the
+treasure. Who's the better man at that? And now I resign, by thunder!
+Elect whom you please to be your cap'n now; I'm done with it."
+
+"Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue forever! Barbecue for cap'n!"
+
+"So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George, I reckon you'll
+have to wait another turn, friend, and lucky for you as I'm not a
+revengeful man. But that was never my way. And now, shipmates, this
+black spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and
+spoiled his Bible, and that's about all."
+
+"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it?" growled Dick, who was
+evidently uneasy at the curse he had brought upon himself.
+
+"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver, derisively. "Not it. It
+don't bind no more'n a ballad-book."
+
+"Don't it, though?" cried Dick, with a sort of joy. "Well, I reckon
+that's worth having, too."
+
+"Here, Jim--here's a cur'osity for you," said Silver, and he tossed me
+the paper.
+
+It was a round about the size of a crown piece. One side was blank, for
+it had been the last leaf; the other contained a verse or two of
+Revelation--these words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon
+my mind: "Without are dogs and murderers." The printed side had been
+blackened with wood ash, which already began to come off and soil my
+fingers; on the blank side had been written with the same material the
+one word "Deposed." I have that curiosity beside me at this moment; but
+not a trace of writing now remains beyond a single scratch, such as a
+man might make with his thumb-nail.
+
+That was the end of the night's business. Soon after, with a drink all
+round, we lay down to sleep, and the outside of Silver's vengeance was
+to put George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him with death if he
+should prove unfaithful.
+
+It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows I had matter
+enough for thought in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own
+most perilous position, and, above all, in the remarkable game that I
+saw Silver now engaged upon--keeping the mutineers together with one
+hand, and grasping, with the other, after every means, possible and
+impossible, to make his peace and save his miserable life. He himself
+slept peacefully, and snored aloud; yet my heart was sore for him,
+wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed, and the
+shameful gibbet that awaited him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+ON PAROLE
+
+
+I was wakened--indeed, we were all wakened, for I could see even the
+sentinel shake himself together from where he had fallen against the
+doorpost--by a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the
+wood:
+
+"Blockhouse, ahoy!" it cried. "Here's the doctor."
+
+And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear the sound, yet my
+gladness was not without admixture. I remembered with confusion my
+insubordinate and stealthy conduct; and when I saw where it had brought
+me--among what companions and surrounded by what dangers--I felt ashamed
+to look him in the face.
+
+He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come; and when I
+ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw him standing, like Silver once
+before, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapor.
+
+"You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried Silver, broad awake
+and beaming with good nature in a moment. "Bright and early, to be sure;
+and it's the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations.
+George, shake up your timbers, son, and help Doctor Livesey over the
+ship's side. All a-doin' well, your patients was--all well and merry."
+
+So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop, with his crutch under his
+elbow, and one hand upon the side of the log-house--quite the old John
+in voice, manner, and expression.
+
+"We've quite a surprise for you, too, sir," he continued. "We've a
+little stranger here--he! he! A noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking
+fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a supercargo, he did, right
+alongside of John--stem to stem we was, all night."
+
+Doctor Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty near the
+cook, and I could hear the alteration in his voice as he said:
+
+"Not Jim?"
+
+"The very same Jim as ever was," says Silver.
+
+The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak, and it was some
+seconds before he seemed able to move on.
+
+"Well, well," he said at last, "duty first and pleasure afterwards, as
+you might have said yourself, Silver. Let us overhaul these patients of
+yours."
+
+A moment afterwards he had entered the blockhouse, and, with one grim
+nod to me, proceeded with his work among the sick. He seemed under no
+apprehension, though he must have known that his life, among these
+treacherous demons, depended on a hair, and he rattled on to his
+patients as if he were paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet
+English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on the men, for they
+behaved to him as if nothing had occurred--as if he were still ship's
+doctor, and they still faithful hands before the mast.
+
+"You're doing well, my friend," he said to the fellow with the bandaged
+head, "and if ever any person had a close shave, it was you; your head
+must be as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it? You're a pretty
+color, certainly; why, your liver, man, is upside down. Did you take
+that medicine? Did he take that medicine, men?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, he took it sure enough," returned Morgan.
+
+"Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doctor, or prison doctor, as I
+prefer to call it," says Doctor Livesey, in his pleasantest way, "I make
+it a point of honor not to lose a man for King George (God bless him!)
+and the gallows."
+
+The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed the home-thrust in
+silence.
+
+"Dick don't feel well, sir," said one.
+
+"Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well, step up here, Dick, and let me
+see your tongue. No, I should be surprised if he did; the man's tongue
+is fit to frighten the French. Another fever."
+
+"Ah, there," said Morgan, "that comed of sp'iling Bibles."
+
+"That comed--as you call it--of being arrant asses," retorted the
+doctor, "and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and
+the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough. I think it most
+probable--though, of course, it's only an opinion--that you'll all have
+the deuce to pay before you get that malaria out of your systems. Camp
+in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised at you. You're less of a fool
+than many, take you all round; but you don't appear to me to have the
+rudiments of a notion of the rules of health.
+
+"Well," he added, after he had dosed them round, and they had taken his
+prescriptions, with really laughable humility, more like charity
+school-children than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates, "well, that's
+done for to-day. And now I should wish to have a talk with that boy,
+please."
+
+And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly.
+
+George Merry was at the door, spitting and spluttering over some
+bad-tasted medicine; but at the first word of the doctor's proposal he
+swung round with a deep flush, and cried, "No!" and swore.
+
+Silver struck the barrel with his open hand.
+
+"Si-lence!" he roared, and looked about him positively like a lion.
+"Doctor," he went on, in his usual tones, "I was thinking of that,
+knowing as how you had a fancy for the boy. We're all humbly grateful
+for your kindness, and, as you see, puts faith in you, and takes the
+drugs down like that much grog. And I take it I've found a way as'll
+suit all. Hawkins, will you give me your word of honor as a young
+gentleman--for a young gentleman you are, although poor born--your word
+of honor not to slip your cable?"
+
+I readily gave the pledge required.
+
+"Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step outside o' that stockade,
+and once you're there, I'll bring the boy down on the inside, and I
+reckon you can yarn through the spars. Good-day to you, sir, and all our
+dooties to the squire and Cap'n Smollett."
+
+The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but Silver's black looks had
+restrained, broke out immediately the doctor had left the house. Silver
+was roundly accused of playing double--of trying to make a separate
+peace for himself--of sacrificing the interests of his accomplices and
+victims; and, in one word, of the identical, exact thing that he was
+doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not
+imagine how he was to turn their anger. But he was twice the man the
+rest were, and his last night's victory had given him a huge
+preponderance on their minds. He called them all the fools and dolts
+you can imagine, said it was necessary I should talk to the doctor,
+fluttered the chart in their faces, asked them if they could afford to
+break the treaty the very day they were bound a-treasure-hunting.
+
+"No, by thunder!" he cried, "it's us must break the treaty when the time
+comes; and till then I'll gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots
+with brandy."
+
+And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked out upon his crutch,
+with his hand on my shoulder, leaving them in a disarray, and silenced
+by his volubility rather than convinced.
+
+"Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round upon us in a twinkle of an
+eye if we was seen to hurry."
+
+Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the sand to where the
+doctor awaited us on the other side of the stockade, and as soon as we
+were within easy speaking distance, Silver stopped.
+
+"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," said he, "and the boy'll
+tell you how I saved his life, and were deposed for it, too, and you may
+lay to that. Doctor, when a man's steering as near to the wind as
+me--playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in his body, like--you
+wouldn't think it too much, mayhap, to give him one good word! You'll
+please bear in mind it's not my life only now--it's that boy's into the
+bargain; and you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to
+go on, for the sake of mercy."
+
+Silver was a changed man, once he was out there and had his back to his
+friends and the blockhouse; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his
+voice trembled; never was a soul more dead in earnest.
+
+"Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Doctor Livesey.
+
+"Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I--not _so_ much!" and he snapped his
+fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly, I've the
+shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true; I never
+seen a better man! And you'll not forget what I done good, not any more
+than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step aside--see here--and
+leave you and Jim alone. And you'll put that down for me, too, for it's
+a long stretch, is that!"
+
+So saying, he stepped back a little way till he was out of earshot, and
+there sat down upon a tree-stump and began to whistle, spinning round
+now and again upon his seat so as to command a sight, sometimes of me
+and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they went to and
+fro in the sand, between the fire--which they were busy rekindling--and
+the house, from which they brought forth pork and bread to make the
+breakfast.
+
+"So, Jim," said the doctor, sadly, "here you are. As you have brewed, so
+shall you drink, my boy. Heaven knows I cannot find it in my heart to
+blame you; but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind: when Captain
+Smollett was well you dared not have gone off, and when he was ill, and
+couldn't help it by George, it was downright cowardly!"
+
+I will own that I here began to weep. "Doctor," I said, "you might spare
+me. I have blamed myself enough; my life's forfeit anyway, and I should
+have been dead now if Silver hadn't stood for me; and, doctor, believe
+this, I can die--and I dare say I deserve it--but what I fear is
+torture. If they come to torture me--"
+
+"Jim," the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite changed, "Jim, I
+can't have this. Whip over, and we'll run for it."
+
+"Doctor," said I, "I passed my word."
+
+"I know, I know," he cried. "We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it
+on my shoulders, holus-bolus, blame and shame, my boy; but stay here, I
+cannot let you. Jump! One jump and you're out, and we'll run for it like
+antelopes."
+
+"No," I replied, "you know right well you wouldn't do the thing
+yourself; neither you, nor squire, nor captain, and no more will I.
+Silver trusted me; I passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you did
+not let me finish. If they come to torture me, I might let slip a word
+of where the ship is; for I got the ship, part by luck and part by
+risking, and she lies in North Inlet, on the southern beach, and just
+below high water. At half-tide she must be high and dry."
+
+"The ship!" exclaimed the doctor.
+
+Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he heard me out in
+silence.
+
+"There's a kind of fate in this," he observed, when I had done. "Every
+step it's you that save our lives, and do you suppose by any chance that
+we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy.
+You found out the plot; you found Ben Gunn--the best deed that ever you
+did, or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter! and talking
+of Ben Gunn, why, this is the mischief in person. Silver!" he cried,
+"Silver! I'll give you a piece of advice," he continued, as the cook
+drew near again; "don't you be in any great hurry after that treasure."
+
+"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," said Silver. "I can
+only, asking your pardon, save my life and the boy's by seeking for that
+treasure; and you may lay to that."
+
+"Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go one step
+farther; look out for squalls when you find it!"
+
+"Sir," said Silver, "as between man and man, that's too much and too
+little. What you're after, why you left the blockhouse, why you've given
+me that there chart, I don't know, now, do I? and yet I done your
+bidding with my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here's
+too much. If you won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so, and
+I'll leave the helm."
+
+"No," said the doctor, musingly, "I've no right to say more; it's not my
+secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you my word, I'd tell it you. But
+I'll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have
+my wig sorted by the captain, or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll give you
+a bit of hope. Silver, if we both get out alive out of this wolf-trap,
+I'll do my best to save you, short of perjury."
+
+Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more, I am sure, sir, not
+if you was my mother," he cried.
+
+"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor. "My second is a
+piece of advice. Keep the boy close beside you, and when you need help,
+halloo. I'm off to seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I
+speak at random. Good-by, Jim."
+
+And Doctor Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to
+Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE TREASURE-HUNT--FLINT'S POINTER
+
+
+"Jim," said Silver, when we were alone, "if I saved your life, you saved
+mine, and I'll not forget it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for
+it--with the tail of my eye, I did--and I seen you say no, as plain as
+hearing. Jim, that's one to you. This is the first glint of hope I had
+since the attack failed, and I owe it to you. And now, Jim, we're to go
+in for this here treasure-hunting, with sealed orders, too, and I don't
+like it; and you and me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll
+save our necks in spite o' fate and fortune."
+
+Just then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast was ready, and we
+were soon seated here and there about the sand over biscuit and fried
+junk. They had lighted a fire fit to roast an ox; and it was now grown
+so hot that they could only approach it from the windward, and even
+there not without precaution. In the same wasteful spirit, they had
+cooked, I suppose, three times more than we could eat; and one of them,
+with an empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and
+roared again over this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men so
+careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word that can describe
+their way of doing; and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries,
+though they were bold enough for a brush and be done with it, I could
+see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign.
+
+Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his shoulder, had not
+a word of blame for their recklessness. And this the more surprised me,
+for I thought he had never showed himself so cunning as he did then.
+
+"Ay, mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Barbecue to think for you
+with this here head. I got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have
+the ship. Where they have it, I don't know yet; but once we hit the
+treasure, we'll have to jump about and find out. And then, mates, us
+that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand."
+
+Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of the hot bacon; thus he
+restored their hope and confidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired
+his own at the same time.
+
+"As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last talk, I guess, with
+them he loves so dear. I've got my piece o' news, and thanky to him for
+that; but it's over and done. I'll take him in a line when we go
+treasure-hunting, for we'll keep him like so much gold, in case of
+accidents, you mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the ship and
+treasure both, and off to sea like jolly companions, why, then we'll
+talk Mr. Hawkins over, we will, and we'll give him his share, to be
+sure, for all his kindness."
+
+It was no wonder the men were in a good humor now. For my part, I was
+horribly cast down. Should the scheme he had now sketched prove
+feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate to adopt
+it. He had still a foot in either camp, and there was no doubt he would
+prefer wealth and freedom with the pirates to a bare escape from
+hanging, which was the best he had to hope on our side.
+
+Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced to keep his faith
+with Doctor Livesey, even then what danger lay before us! What a moment
+that would be when the suspicions of his followers turned to certainty,
+and he and I should have to fight for dear life--he, a cripple, and I, a
+boy--against five strong and active seamen!
+
+Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung over the
+behavior of my friends; their unexplained desertion of the stockade;
+their inexplicable cession of the chart; or, harder still to understand,
+the doctor's last warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls when you find
+it"; and you will readily believe how little taste I found in my
+breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth behind my captors on
+the quest for treasure.
+
+We made a curious figure, had anyone been there to see us; all in soiled
+sailor clothes, and all but me armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns
+slung about him, one before and one behind--besides the great cutlass at
+his waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat. To
+complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his
+shoulder and gabbled odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk. I had a line
+about my waist, and followed obediently after the sea-cook, who held the
+loose end of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his powerful
+teeth. For all the world, I was led like a dancing bear.
+
+The other men were variously burdened; some carrying picks and
+shovels--for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore
+from the _Hispaniola_--others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the
+midday meal. All the stores, I observed, came from our stock, and I
+could see the truth of Silver's words the night before. Had he not
+struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the
+ship, must have been driven to subsist on clear water, and the proceeds
+of their hunting. Water would have been little to their taste; a sailor
+is not usually a good shot; and, besides all that, when they were so
+short of eatables, it was not likely they would be very flush of powder.
+
+Well, thus equipped, we all set out--even the fellow with the broken
+head, who should certainly have kept in shadow--and straggled, one after
+another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore
+trace of the drunken folly of the pirates, one in a broken thwart, and
+both in their muddied and unbailed condition. Both were to be carried
+along with us, for the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers divided
+between them, we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage.
+
+As we pulled over, there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross
+was, of course, far too large to be a guide; and the terms of the note
+on the back, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran, the
+reader may remember, thus:
+
+    "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
+
+    "Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
+
+    "Ten feet."
+
+A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right before us, the
+anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred feet high,
+adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass,
+and rising again toward the south into the rough, cliffy eminence called
+the Mizzen-mast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with
+pine trees of varying height. Every here and there, one of a different
+species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of
+these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain Flint could only be
+decided on the spot, and by the readings of the compass.
+
+Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the boats had picked
+a favorite of his own ere we were halfway over, Long John alone
+shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there.
+
+We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary the hands
+prematurely; and, after quite a long passage, landed at the mouth of the
+second river--that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass.
+Thence, bending to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards the
+plateau.
+
+At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted, marsh vegetation
+greatly delayed our progress; but by little and little the hill began to
+steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood to change its
+character and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a most
+pleasant portion of the island that we were now approaching. A
+heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place
+of grass. Thickets of green nutmeg-trees were dotted here and there with
+the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines, and the first mingled
+their spice with the aroma of the others. The air, besides, was fresh
+and stirring, and this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful
+refreshment to our senses.
+
+The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to
+and fro. About the center, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I
+followed--I tethered by my rope, he plowing, with deep pants, among the
+sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or
+he must have missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill.
+
+We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, and were approaching the
+brow of the plateau, when the man upon the farthest left began to cry
+aloud, as if in terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the others
+began to run in his direction.
+
+"He can't 'a' found the treasure," said old Morgan, hurrying past us
+from the right, "for that's clean a-top."
+
+Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it was something very
+different. At the foot of a pretty big pine, and involved in a green
+creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human
+skeleton lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground. I believe a
+chill struck for a moment to every heart.
+
+"He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, bolder than the rest, had
+gone up close, and was examining the rags of clothing. "Leastways, this
+is good sea-cloth."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Silver, "like enough; you wouldn't look to find a bishop
+here, I reckon. But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't
+in natur'."
+
+Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body
+was in a natural position. But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of
+the birds that had fed upon him, or of the slow-growing creeper that had
+gradually enveloped his remains) the man lay perfectly straight--his
+feet pointing in one direction, his hands raised above his head like a
+diver's, pointing directly in the opposite.
+
+"I've taken a notion into my old numskull," observed Silver. "Here's the
+compass; there's the tip-top p'int of Skeleton Island, stickin' out like
+a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line of them bones."
+
+It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of the island,
+and the compass read duly E.S.E. by E.
+
+"I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there
+is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly dollars. But, by thunder! if
+it don't make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of _his_
+jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em,
+every man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver
+my timbers! They're long bones, and the hair's been yellow. Ay, that
+would be Allardyce. You mind Allardyce, Tom Morgan?"
+
+"Ay, ay," returned Morgan, "I mind him; he owed me money, he did, and
+took my knife ashore with him."
+
+"Speaking of knives," said another, "why don't we find his'n lying
+round? Flint warn't the man to pick a seaman's pocket; and the birds, I
+guess, would leave it be."
+
+"By the powers and that's true!" cried Silver.
+
+"There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among
+the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to
+me."
+
+"No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral, nor not nice, says
+you. Great guns, messmates, but if Flint was living this would be a hot
+spot for you and me! Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what
+they are now."
+
+"I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said Morgan. "Billy took me
+in. There he laid, with penny-pieces on his eyes."
+
+"Dead--ay, sure enough he's dead and gone below," said the fellow with
+the bandage; "but if ever sperrit walked it would be Flint's. Dear
+heart, but he died bad, did Flint!"
+
+"Ay, that he did," observed another; "now he raged and now he hollered
+for the rum, and now he sang. 'Fifteen Men' were his only song, mates;
+and I tell you true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main
+hot and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as clear
+as clear--and the death-haul on the man already."
+
+"Come, come," said Silver, "stow this talk. He's dead, and he don't
+walk, that I know; leastways he won't walk by day, and you may lay to
+that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons."
+
+We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and the staring
+daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the
+wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of
+the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE TREASURE-HUNT--THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES
+
+
+Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver
+and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained
+the brow of the ascent.
+
+The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the west, this spot on which we
+had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the
+tree-tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf; behind, we
+not only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but
+saw--clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands--a great field of
+open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted
+with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but
+that of the distant breakers mounting from all around, and the chirp of
+countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail upon the sea; the
+very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude.
+
+Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.
+
+"There are three 'tall trees,'" said he, "about in the right line from
+Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass Shoulder,' I take it, means that lower p'int
+there. It's child's play to find the stuff now. I've half a mind to dine
+first."
+
+"I don't feel sharp," growled Morgan. "Thinkin' o' Flint--I think it
+were--as done me."
+
+"Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he's dead," said Silver.
+
+"He was an ugly devil," cried a third pirate, with a shudder; "that blue
+in the face, too!"
+
+"That was how the rum took him," added Merry. "Blue! well I reckon he
+was blue. That's a true word."
+
+Ever since they had found the skeleton and got upon this train of
+thought, they had spoken lower and lower, and they had almost got to
+whispering by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted
+the silence of the wood. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees
+in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well-known
+air and words:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. The
+color went from their six faces like enchantment; some leaped to their
+feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan groveled on the ground.
+
+"It's Flint, by ----!" cried Merry.
+
+The song had stopped as suddenly as it began--broken off, you would have
+said, in the middle of a note, as though someone had laid his hand upon
+the singer's mouth. Coming so far through the clear, sunny atmosphere
+among the green tree-tops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly,
+and the effect on my companions was the stranger.
+
+"Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to get the word out,
+"that won't do. Stand by to go about. This is a rum start, and I can't
+name the voice, but it's someone skylarking--someone that's flesh and
+blood, and you may lay to that."
+
+His courage had come back as he spoke, and some of the color to his face
+along with it. Already the others had begun to lend an ear to this
+encouragement, and were coming a little to themselves, when the same
+voice broke out again--not this time singing, but in a faint, distant
+hail, that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy-glass.
+
+"Darby M'Graw," it wailed--for that is the word that best describes the
+sound--"Darby M'Graw! Darby M'Graw!" again and again and again; and then
+rising a little higher, and with an oath that I leave out: "Fetch aft
+the rum, Darby!"
+
+The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from
+their heads. Long after the voice had died away they still stared in
+silence, dreadfully, before them.
+
+"That fixes it!" gasped one. "Let's go."
+
+"They was his last words," moaned Morgan, "his last words above-board."
+
+Dick had his Bible out and was praying volubly. He had been well brought
+up, had Dick, before he came to sea and fell among bad companions.
+
+Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth rattle in his
+head, but he had not yet surrendered.
+
+"Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby," he muttered; "not one
+but us that's here." And then, making a great effort: "Shipmates," he
+cried, "I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man nor
+devil. I never was feared of Flint in his life, and, by the powers, I'll
+face him dead. There's seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a
+mile from here. When did ever a gentleman o' fortune show his stern to
+that much dollars for a boozy old seaman with a blue mug--and him dead,
+too?"
+
+But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers; rather,
+indeed, of growing terror at the irreverence of his words.
+
+"Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a sperrit."
+
+And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They would have run away
+severally had they dared, but fear kept them together, and kept them
+close by John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his part, had pretty
+well fought his weakness down.
+
+"Sperrit? Well, maybe," he said. "But there's one thing not clear to me.
+There was an echo. Now, no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow. Well,
+then, what's he doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That
+ain't in natur', surely."
+
+This argument seemed weak enough to me. But you can never tell what will
+affect the superstitious, and, to my wonder, George Merry was greatly
+relieved.
+
+"Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head upon your shoulders, John,
+and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates! This here crew is on a wrong tack, I
+do believe. And come to think on it, it was like Flint's voice, I grant
+you, but not just so clear away like it, after all. It was liker
+somebody else's voice now--it was liker--"
+
+"By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared Silver.
+
+"Ay, and so it were," cried Morgan, springing on his knees. "Ben Gunn it
+were!"
+
+"It don't make much odds, do it, now?" asked Dick. "Ben Gunn's not here
+in the body, any more'n Flint."
+
+But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn.
+
+"Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn," cried Merry; "dead or alive, nobody minds
+him!"
+
+It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned, and how the natural
+color had revived in their faces. Soon they were chatting together, with
+intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing no further sound,
+they shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry walking first with
+Silver's compass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton Island. He
+had said the truth; dead or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.
+
+Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around him as he went, with
+fearful glances; but he found no sympathy, and Silver even joked him on
+his precautions.
+
+"I told you," said he, "I told you you had sp'iled your Bible. If it
+ain't no good to swear by, what do you suppose a sperrit would give for
+it? Not that!" and he snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his
+crutch.
+
+But Dick was not to be comforted; indeed, it was soon plain to me that
+the lad was falling sick; hastened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of
+his alarm, the fever, predicted by Doctor Livesey, was evidently growing
+swiftly higher.
+
+It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our way lay a little
+downhill, for, as I have said, the plateau tilted toward the west. The
+pines, great and small, grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of
+nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking,
+as we did, pretty near northwest across the island, we drew, on the one
+hand, ever nearer under the shoulders of the Spy-glass, and on the
+other, looked ever wider over that western bay where I had once tossed
+and trembled in the coracle.
+
+The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearing, proved the
+wrong one. So with the second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet
+into the air above a clump of underwood; a giant of a vegetable, with a
+red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a
+company could have maneuvered. It was conspicuous far to sea, both on
+the east and west, and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon
+the chart.
+
+But it was not its size that now impressed my companions; it was the
+knowledge that seven hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere
+buried below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they
+drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in
+their heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was
+bound up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and
+pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of them.
+
+Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils stood out and
+quivered; he cursed like a madman when the flies settled on his hot and
+shiny countenance; he plucked furiously at the line that held me to him,
+and, from time to time, turned his eyes upon me with a deadly look.
+Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts; and certainly I read
+them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had
+been forgotten; his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of
+the past; and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the
+treasure, find and board the _Hispaniola_ under cover of night, cut
+every honest throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first
+intended, laden with crimes and riches.
+
+Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with
+the rapid pace of the treasure-hunters. Now and again I stumbled, and it
+was then that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me
+his murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped behind us, and now brought
+up the rear, was babbling to himself both prayers and curses, as his
+fever kept rising. This also added to my wretchedness, and, to crown
+all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been
+acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue
+face--he who had died at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink--had
+there, with his own hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove, that
+was now so peaceful, must then have rung with cries, I thought; and even
+with the thought I could believe I heard it ringing still.
+
+We were now at the margin of the thicket.
+
+"Huzza, mates, altogether!" shouted Merry, and the foremost broke into a
+run.
+
+And suddenly, not ten yards farther, we beheld them stop. A low cry
+arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch
+like one possessed, and next moment he and I had come also to a dead
+halt.
+
+Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for the sides had
+fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft
+of a pick broken in two and the boards of several packing cases strewn
+around. On one of these boards I saw branded with a hot iron, the name
+_Walrus_--the name of Flint's ship.
+
+All was clear to probation. The _cache_ had been found and rifled--the
+seven hundred thousand pounds were gone!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN
+
+
+There never was such an overturn in this world. Each of these six men
+was as though he had been struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost
+instantly. Every thought of his soul had been set full-stretch, like a
+racer, on that money; well, he was brought up in a single second, dead;
+and he kept his head, found his temper, and changed his plan before the
+others had had time to realize the disappointment.
+
+"Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by for trouble."
+
+And he passed me a double-barreled pistol.
+
+At the same time he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps
+had put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked at
+me and nodded, as much as to say: "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed,
+I thought it was. His looks were now quite friendly, and I was so
+revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering:
+"So you've changed sides again."
+
+There was no time left for him to answer in. The buccaneers, with oaths
+and cries, began to leap, one after another, into the pit, and to dig
+with their fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. Morgan
+found a piece of gold. He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It
+was a two-guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand among them for a
+quarter of a minute.
+
+"Two guineas!" roared Merry, shaking it at Silver. "That's your seven
+hundred thousand pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains, ain't you?
+You're him that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!"
+
+"Dig away, boys," said Silver, with the coolest insolence; "you'll find
+some pig-nuts, and I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"Pig-nuts!" repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates, do you hear that? I
+tell you now, that man there knew it all along. Look in the face of him,
+and you'll see it wrote there."
+
+"Ah, Merry," remarked Silver, "standing for cap'n again? You're a
+pushing lad, to be sure."
+
+But this time every one was entirely in Merry's favor. They began to
+scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them. One
+thing I observed, which looked well for us; they all got out upon the
+opposite side from Silver.
+
+Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the other, the pit
+between us, and nobody screwed up high enough to offer the first blow.
+Silver never moved; he watched them, very upright on his crutch, and
+looked as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave, and no mistake.
+
+At last, Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters.
+
+"Mates," says he, "there's two of them alone there; one's the old
+cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this; the
+other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates--"
+
+He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead a
+charge. But just then--crack! crack! crack!--three musket-shots flashed
+out of the thicket. Merry tumbled headforemost into the excavation; the
+man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum, and fell all his length
+upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other
+three turned and ran for it with all their might.
+
+Before you could wink Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into
+the struggling Merry; and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the
+last agony, "George," said he, "I reckon I settled you."
+
+At the same moment the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with
+smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.
+
+"Forward!" cried the doctor. "Double quick, my lads. We must head 'em
+off the boats."
+
+And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through the bushes to
+the chest.
+
+I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us. The work that man
+went through, leaping on his crutch till the muscles of his chest were
+fit to burst, was work no sound man ever equaled; and so thinks the
+doctor. As it was, he was already thirty yards behind us, and on the
+verge of strangling, when we reached the brow of the slope.
+
+"Doctor," he hailed, "see there! no hurry!"
+
+Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open part of the plateau we
+could see the three survivors still running in the same direction as
+they had started, right for Mizzen-mast Hill. We were already between
+them and the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe, while Long John,
+mopping his face, came slowly up with us.
+
+"Thank ye kindly, doctor," says he. "You came in in about the nick, I
+guess, for me and Hawkins. And so it's you, Ben Gunn!" he added. "Well,
+you're a nice one, to be sure."
+
+"I'm Ben Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his
+embarrassment. "And," he added, after a long pause, "how do, Mr. Silver!
+Pretty well, I thank ye, says you."
+
+"Ben, Ben," murmured Silver, "to think as you've done me!"
+
+The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes deserted, in their
+flight, by the mutineers; and then as we proceeded leisurely downhill to
+where the boats were lying, related, in a few words, what had taken
+place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn,
+the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end.
+
+Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the
+skeleton. It was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he
+had dug it up (it was the haft of his pickax that lay broken in the
+excavation); he had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from
+the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at
+the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in
+safety since two months before the arrival of the _Hispaniola_.
+
+When the doctor had wormed this secret from him, on the afternoon of the
+attack, and when, next morning, he saw the anchorage deserted, he had
+gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now useless; given him
+the stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats' meat
+salted by himself; given anything and everything to get a chance of
+moving in safety from the stockade to the two-pointed hill, there to be
+clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money.
+
+"As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart, but I did what I
+thought best for those who had stood by their duty; and if you were not
+one of these, whose fault was it?"
+
+That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the horrid
+disappointment he had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way
+to the cave, and, leaving squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray
+and the maroon, and started, making the diagonal across the island, to
+be at hand beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party had the
+start of him; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been dispatched in
+front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to him to work upon the
+superstitions of his former shipmates; and he was so far successful that
+Gray and the doctor had come up and were already ambushed before the
+arrival of the treasure-hunters.
+
+"Ah," said Silver, "it was fortunate for me that I had Hawkins here. You
+would have let old John be cut to bits, and never given it a thought,
+doctor."
+
+"Not a thought," replied Doctor Livesey, cheerily.
+
+And by this time we had reached the gigs. The doctor, with the pickax,
+demolished one of them, and then we all got aboard the other, and set
+out to go round by the sea for North Inlet.
+
+This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though he was almost
+killed already with fatigue, was set to an oar, like the rest of us, and
+we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed out of
+the straits and doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which,
+four days ago, we had towed the _Hispaniola_.
+
+As we passed the two-pointed hill we could see the black mouth of Ben
+Gunn's cave, and a figure standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was
+the squire, and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in
+which the voice of Silver joined as heartily as any.
+
+Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of North Inlet, what should
+we meet but the _Hispaniola_, cruising by herself! The last flood had
+lifted her, and had there been much wind, or a strong tide current, as
+in the southern anchorage, we should never have found her more, or found
+her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was little amiss, beyond the
+wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was got ready, and dropped in a
+fathom and a half of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, the
+nearest point for Ben Gunn's treasure-house; and then Gray,
+single-handed, returned with the gig to the _Hispaniola_, where he was
+to pass the night on guard.
+
+A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of the cave. At the
+top, the squire met us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of
+my escapade, either in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite
+salute he somewhat flushed.
+
+"John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain and impostor--a
+monstrous impostor, sir. I am told I am not to prosecute you. Well,
+then, I will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like
+millstones."
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John, again saluting.
+
+"I dare you to thank me!" cried the squire. "It is a gross dereliction
+of my duty. Stand back!"
+
+And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large, airy place, with
+a little spring and a pool of clear water, overhung with ferns. The
+floor was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett; and in a far
+corner, only duskily flickered over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps
+of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was Flint's
+treasure that we had come so far to seek, and that had cost already the
+lives of seventeen men from the _Hispaniola_. How many it had cost in
+the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the
+deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon,
+what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet
+there were still three upon that island--Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben
+Gunn--who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in
+vain to share in the reward.
+
+"Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good boy in your line, Jim;
+but I don't think you and me'll go to sea again. You're too much of the
+born favorite for me. Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here,
+man?"
+
+"Come back to my dooty, sir," returned Silver.
+
+"Ah!" said the captain, and that was all he said.
+
+What a supper I had of it that night, with all my friends around me; and
+what a meal it was, with Ben Gunn's salted goat, and some delicacies and
+a bottle of old wine from the _Hispaniola_. Never, I am sure, were
+people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out
+of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when
+anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter--the same
+bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+AND LAST
+
+
+The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this
+great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three
+miles by boat to the _Hispaniola_, was a considerable task for so small
+a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did
+not greatly trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was
+sufficient to insure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought,
+besides, they had had more than enough of fighting.
+
+Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and Ben Gunn came and
+went with the boat, while the rest during their absences piled treasure
+on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's end, made a good load
+for a grown man--one that he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part,
+as I was not much use at carrying, I was kept busy all day in the cave,
+packing the minted money into bread-bags.
+
+It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity
+of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I
+never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish,
+Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and
+moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the
+last hundred years, strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked
+like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square
+pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round
+your neck--nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think,
+have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they
+were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my
+fingers with sorting them out.
+
+[Illustration: _Nearly every variety of money in the world must have
+found a place in that collection_ (Page 253)]
+
+Day after day this work went on; by every evening a fortune had been
+stowed aboard, but there was another fortune waiting for the morrow; and
+all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
+
+At last--I think it was on the third night--the doctor and I were
+strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of
+the isle, when, from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought us a
+noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached
+our ears, followed by the former silence.
+
+"Heaven forgive them," said the doctor; "'tis the mutineers!"
+
+"All drunk, sir," struck in the voice of Silver from behind us.
+
+Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and, in spite of
+daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once more as quite a privileged
+and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these
+slights, and with what unwearying politeness he kept at trying to
+ingratiate himself with all. 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. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor
+answered him.
+
+"Drunk or raving," said he.
+
+"Right you were, sir," replied Silver; "and precious little odds which,
+to you and me."
+
+"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man," returned
+the doctor, with a sneer, "and so my feelings may surprise you, Master
+Silver. But if I were sure they were raving--as I am morally certain
+one, at least, of them is down with fever--I should leave this camp,
+and, at whatever risk to my own carcass, take them the assistance of my
+skill."
+
+"Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong," quoth Silver. "You
+would lose your precious life, and you may lay to that. I'm on your side
+now, hand and glove; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened,
+let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But these men down
+there, they couldn't keep their word--no, not supposing they wished
+to--and what's more, they couldn't believe as you could."
+
+"No," said the doctor. "You're the man to keep your word, we know that."
+
+Well, that was about the last news we had of the three pirates. Only
+once we heard a gunshot a great way off, and supposed them to be
+hunting. A council was held and it was decided that we must desert them
+on the island--to the huge glee, I must say, of Ben Gunn, and with the
+strong approval of Gray. We left a good stock of powder and shot, the
+bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines and some other necessaries,
+tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope, and, by the
+particular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco.
+
+That was about our last doing on the island. Before that we had got the
+treasure stowed and had shipped enough water and the remainder of the
+goat meat, in case of any distress; and at last, one fine morning, we
+weighed anchor, which was about all that we could manage, and stood out
+of North Inlet, the same colors flying that the captain had flown and
+fought under at the palisade.
+
+The three fellows must have been watching us closer than we thought for,
+as we soon had proved. For, coming through the narrows we had to lie
+very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of them
+kneeling together on a spit of sand with their arms raised in
+supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that
+wretched state, but we could not risk another mutiny, and to take them
+home for the gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor
+hailed them and told them of the stores we had left, and where they were
+to find them, but they continued to call us by name and appeal to us for
+God's sake to be merciful and not leave them to die in such a place.
+
+At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, and was now swiftly
+drawing out of earshot, one of them--I know not which it was--leaped to
+his feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent
+a shot whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail.
+
+After that we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked
+out they had disappeared from the spit, and the spit itself had almost
+melted out of sight in the growing distance. That was, at least, the end
+of that; and before noon, to my inexpressible joy, the highest rock of
+Treasure Island had sunk into the blue round of sea.
+
+We were so short of men that everyone on board had to bear a hand--only
+the captain lying on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders, for
+though greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head
+for the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could not risk the
+voyage home without fresh hands; and as it was, what with baffling winds
+and a couple of fresh gales, we were all worn out before we reached it.
+
+It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful
+landlocked gulf, and were immediately surrounded by shore boats full of
+negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods, selling fruits and
+vegetables, and offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many
+good-humored faces (especially the blacks), the taste of the tropical
+fruits, and above all, the lights that began to shine in the town, made
+a most charming contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island;
+and the doctor and the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore to
+pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an
+English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and
+in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came
+alongside the _Hispaniola_.
+
+Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came on board he began,
+with wonderful contortions, to make us a confession. Silver was gone.
+The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore boat some hours ago,
+and he now assured us he had only done so to preserve our lives, which
+would certainly have been forfeited if "that man with the one leg had
+stayed aboard." But this was not all. The sea-cook had not gone
+empty-handed. He had cut through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed
+one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three or four hundred
+guineas, to help him on his further wanderings.
+
+I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him.
+
+Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands on board, made a
+good cruise home, and the _Hispaniola_ reached Bristol just as Mr.
+Blandly was beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five men only
+of those who had sailed returned with her. "Drink and the devil had done
+for the rest" with a vengeance, although, to be sure, we were not quite
+in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about:
+
+    "With one man of the crew alive,
+    What put to sea with seventy-five."
+
+All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and used it wisely or
+foolishly, according to our natures. Captain Smollett is now retired
+from the sea. Gray not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit
+with the desire to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate
+and part owner of a fine full-rigged ship; married besides, and the
+father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he
+spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more exact, in nineteen days,
+for he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to
+keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he still lives, a
+great favorite, though something of a butt with the country boys, and a
+notable singer in church on Sundays and saints' days.
+
+Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one
+leg has at last gone clean out of my life, but I dare say he met his old
+negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint.
+It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another
+world are very small.
+
+The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint
+buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and
+wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island, and
+the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about
+its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain
+Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight! pieces of eight!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Treasure Island
+
+Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+Illustrator: Milo Winter
+
+Release Date: January 12, 2009 [EBook #27780]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 403px;">
+<img src="images/001.jpg" width="403" height="550" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="hd1"><b>The Illustrated Children's Library</b></div>
+
+<h1><i><big>Treasure Island</big></i></h1>
+
+<h2><big>Robert Louis Stevenson</big></h2>
+
+<div class="hd2"><i><small>Illustrated by</small></i><br />
+<b>Milo Winter</b></div>
+
+<div class="figt" style="width: 262px;">
+<img src="images/002.png" width="262" height="237" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<div class="hd2"><small><b><span class="smcap">Gramercy Books<br />
+New York</span></b></small></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="bk1"><p>Foreword copyright &copy; 1986 by Random House Value Publishing<br />
+Color Illustrations by Milo Winter copyright &copy; 1915, 1943 by Rand McNally &amp; Company<br />
+All rights reserved.</p>
+
+<p>This 2002 edition published by Gramercy Books, an imprint of Random
+House Value Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc., 280 Park
+Avenue, New York, NY 10017.</p>
+
+<p>Gramercy is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of
+Random House, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>Printed and bound in the United States of America</p>
+
+<p>Cover design by Judy Fucci, Studio Graphix, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>Random House<br />
+New York &middot; Toronto &middot; London &middot; Sydney &middot; Auckland<br />
+www.randomhouse.com</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="sp1">Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data</p>
+
+<p>Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.</p>
+
+<p class="sp2">Treasure Island/Robert Louis Stevenson; illustrated in color by Milo Winter.</p>
+
+<p class="sp3">p. cm.&mdash;(Illustrated children's library)</p>
+
+<p class="sp2">Originally published: New York: Children's classics, 1986.</p>
+
+<p class="sp2">Summary: While going through the possessions of a deceased guest
+who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a
+treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="sp2">ISBN 0-517-22114-4</p>
+
+<p class="sp2">[1. Buried treasure&mdash;Fiction. 2. Pirates&mdash;Fiction. 3. Adventure
+and adventures&mdash;Fiction. 4. Caribbean Area&mdash;History&mdash;18th
+century&mdash;Fiction.] I. Winter, Milo, 1888-1956, ill. II. Title.
+III. Series.</p></div>
+
+<p>PZ7.S8482 Tr 2002<br />
+[Fic]&mdash;dc21</p>
+
+<p class="td2">2002023301</p>
+
+<p>9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1</p></div>
+
+<div class="trn"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b>
+Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
+note. Dialect and variant spellings have been retained, whilst
+inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. Color plates have
+been repositioned according to their captions; the 'Color Plates'
+listing remains as printed to indicate the original locations.</div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="td2" colspan="3"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5" colspan="2"><i>To the Hesitating Purchaser</i></td><td class="td6"><i><a href="#Page_viii">viii</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5" colspan="2"><i>List of Color Plates</i></td><td class="td6"><i><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5" colspan="2"><i>Dedication</i></td><td class="td6"><i><a href="#Page_x">x</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART I</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">The Old Buccaneer</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td class="td2" colspan="2"></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">I.</td><td class="td1">At the "Admiral Benbow"</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">II.</td><td class="td1">Black Dog Appears and Disappears</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">III.</td><td class="td1">The Black Spot</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">IV.</td><td class="td1">The Sea-Chest</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">V.</td><td class="td1">The Last of the Blind Man</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VI.</td><td class="td1">The Captain's Papers</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART II</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">The Sea-Cook</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VII.</td><td class="td1">I Go to Bristol</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VIII.</td><td class="td1">At the Sign of the "Spy-Glass"</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">IX.</td><td class="td1">Powder and Arms</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">X.</td><td class="td1">The Voyage</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XI.</td><td class="td1">What I Heard in the Apple Barrel</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XII.</td><td class="td1">Council of War</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART III<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">My Shore Adventure</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIII.</td><td class="td1">How My Shore Adventure Began</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIV.</td><td class="td1">The First Blow</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XV.</td><td class="td1">The Man of the Island</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART IV</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">The Stockade</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVI.</td><td class="td1">Narrative Continued by the Doctor&mdash;How the Ship was Abandoned</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVII.</td><td class="td1">Narrative Continued by the Doctor&mdash;The Jolly-Boat's Last Trip</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVIII.</td><td class="td1">Narrative Continued by the Doctor&mdash;End of the First Day's Fighting</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIX.</td><td class="td1">Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins&mdash;The Garrison in the Stockade</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XX.</td><td class="td1">Silver's Embassy</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXI.</td><td class="td1">The Attack</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART V</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">My Sea Adventure</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXII.</td><td class="td1">How My Sea Adventure Began</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXIII.</td><td class="td1">The Ebb-Tide Runs</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXIV.</td><td class="td1">The Cruise of the Coracle</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXV.</td><td class="td1">I Strike the Jolly Roger</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXVI.</td><td class="td1">Israel Hands</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXVII.</td><td class="td1">"Pieces of Eight"</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="3">PART VI<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td4" colspan="3">Captain Silver</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXVIII.</td><td class="td1">In the Enemy's Camp</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXIX.</td><td class="td1">The Black Spot Again</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXX.</td><td class="td1">On Parole</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXXI.</td><td class="td1">The Treasure-Hunt&mdash;Flint's Pointer</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXXII.</td><td class="td1">The Treasure-Hunt&mdash;The Voice among the Trees</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXXIII.</td><td class="td1">The Fall of a Chieftain</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XXXIV.</td><td class="td1">And Last</td><td class="td6"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER</h2>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 18em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If sailor tales to sailor tunes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Storm and adventure, heat and cold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If schooners, islands, and maroons<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And Buccaneers and buried Gold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the old romance, retold<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Exactly in the ancient way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Can please, as me they pleased of old,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The wiser youngsters of to-day:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;So be it, and fall on! If not,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If studious youth no longer crave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His ancient appetites forgot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or Cooper of the wood and wave:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So be it, also! And may I<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all my pirates share the grave<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where these and their creations lie!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p>
+<h2>COLOR PLATES</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="td6" colspan="2"><small>OPPOSITE PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came
+plodding to the inn door</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpa">50</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpb">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never
+clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you,
+now?"</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpc">82</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">It was something to see him get on with his cooking
+like someone safe ashore</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpd">83</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+swivel</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpe">178</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
+and were upon us</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpf">179</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cpg">210</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td5">Nearly every variety of money in the world must have
+found a place in that collection</td><td class="td6"><a href="#cph">211</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><i>To</i><br />
+LLOYD OSBOURNE<br />
+An American Gentleman<br />
+In accordance with whose classic taste<br />
+The following narrative has been designed<br />
+It is now, in return for numerous delightful hours<br />
+And with the kindest wishes, dedicated<br />
+By his affectionate friend<br />
+<i>THE AUTHOR</i></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figc">
+<img src="images/003.png" width="268" height="302" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART I</small><br />
+THE OLD BUCCANEER</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER I<br />
+<small>AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW"</small></h2>
+
+<p>Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and the rest of these
+gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole
+particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning
+to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the
+island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet
+lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17&mdash;, and
+go back to the time when my father kept the "Admiral
+Benbow" Inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber
+cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.</p>
+
+<p>I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came
+plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind
+him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown
+man; his tarry pig-tail falling over the shoulders of his
+soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black,
+broken nails, and the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty,
+livid white. I remember him looking round the cove
+and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking
+out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 17em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figr" style="width: 346px;"><a name="cpa" id="cpa"></a>
+<img src="images/004.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 3</div>
+<i>I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came plodding to the inn door</i></div>
+
+<p class="noin">in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been
+tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he
+carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly
+for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him,
+he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the
+taste, and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at
+our signboard.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a handy cove," says he, at length; "and a
+pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?"</p>
+
+<p>My father told him no, very little company, the more
+was the pity.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here
+you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow;
+"bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll
+stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum
+and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up
+there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me?
+You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at&mdash;there";
+and he threw down three or four gold pieces
+on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked
+through that," said he, looking as fierce as a commander.</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as
+he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who
+sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper,
+accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came
+with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the
+morning before at the "Royal George"; that he had
+inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing
+ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely,
+had chosen it from the others for his place of residence.
+And that was all we could learn of our guest.</p>
+
+<p>He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung
+round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next the fire,
+and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would
+not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce,
+and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and
+the people who came about our house soon learned to
+let him be. Every day, when he came back from his stroll,
+he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the
+road. At first we thought it was the want of company of
+his own kind that made him ask this question; but at last
+we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a
+seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" (as now and
+then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he
+would look in at him through the curtained door before
+he entered the parlor; and he was always sure to be as
+silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me,
+at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was,
+in a way, a sharer in his alarms.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken me aside one day and promised me a
+silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would
+only keep my "weather eye open for a seafaring man
+with one leg," and let him know the moment he appeared.
+Often enough when the first of the month came round,
+and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow
+through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before
+the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring
+me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out
+for "the seafaring man with one leg."</p>
+
+<p>How that personage haunted my dreams, I need
+scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook
+the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along
+the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand
+forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip;
+now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never
+had but one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To
+see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and
+ditch, was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I
+paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the
+shape of these abominable fancies.</p>
+
+<p>But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring
+man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the
+captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There
+were nights when he took a deal more rum and water
+than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes
+sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding
+nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round,
+and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories
+or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the
+house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," all
+the neighbors joining in for dear life, with the fear of
+death upon them, and each singing louder than the other
+to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding
+companion ever known; he would slap his hand
+on the table for silence all around; he would fly up in a
+passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none
+was put, and so he judged the company was not following
+his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn
+till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.</p>
+
+<p>His stories were what frightened people worst of all.
+Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking
+the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and
+wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own
+account, he must have lived his life among some of the
+wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+the language in which he told these stories shocked our
+plain country people almost as much as the crimes that
+he described. My father was always saying the inn would
+be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to
+be tyrannized over and put down and sent shivering to
+their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good.
+People were frightened at the time, but on looking back
+they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet
+country life; and there was even a party of the younger
+men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true
+sea-dog," and a "real old salt," and such like names, and
+saying there was the sort of man that made England
+terrible at sea.</p>
+
+<p>In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept
+on staying week after week, and at last month after month,
+so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my
+father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more.
+If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose
+so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor
+father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his
+hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance
+and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his
+early and unhappy death.</p>
+
+<p>All the time he lived with us the captain made no
+change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings
+from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen
+down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a
+great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance
+of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his
+room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches.
+He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke
+with any but the neighbors, and with these, for the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none
+of us had ever seen open.</p>
+
+<p>He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end,
+when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took
+him off. Doctor Livesey came late one afternoon to see
+the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and
+went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until his horse should
+come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the
+old "Benbow." I followed him in, and I remember
+observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his
+powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and
+pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and
+above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a
+pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, with his arms on
+the table. Suddenly he&mdash;the captain, that is&mdash;began
+to pipe up his eternal song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink and the devil had done for the rest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be
+that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room, and
+the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that
+of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this time we had
+all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it
+was new, that night, to nobody but Doctor Livesey, and
+on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect,
+for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he
+went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a
+new cure for rheumatics. In the meantime the captain
+gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we
+all knew to mean&mdash;silence. The voices stopped at once,
+all but Doctor Livesey's; he went on as before, speaking
+clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe between
+every word or two. The captain glared at him for a while,
+flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last
+broke out with a villainous oath: "Silence, there, between
+decks!"</p>
+
+<p>"Were you addressing me, sir?" said the doctor; and
+when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that
+this was so, replied, "I have only one thing to say to you,
+sir, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon
+be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!"</p>
+
+<p>The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet,
+drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife, and balancing it
+open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor
+to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him,
+as before, over his shoulder, and in the same tone of voice,
+rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly
+calm and steady:</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not put that knife this instant into your
+pocket, I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at the
+next assizes."</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the
+captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and
+resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now
+know there's such a fellow in my district, you may count
+I'll have an eye upon you day and night. I'm not a doctor
+only, I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint
+against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+to-night's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted
+down and routed out of this. Let that suffice."</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Doctor Livesey's horse came to the door and
+he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening,
+and for many evenings to come.</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 331px;">
+<img src="images/005.png" width="331" height="327" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II<br />
+<small>BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS</small></h2>
+
+<p>It was not very long after this that there occurred the
+first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the
+captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs. It was
+a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and heavy
+gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor father
+was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and my
+mother and I had all the inn upon our hands, and were
+kept busy enough without paying much regard to our
+unpleasant guest.</p>
+
+<p>It was one January morning, very early&mdash;a pinching,
+frosty morning&mdash;the cove all gray with hoar-frost, the
+ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low, and
+only touching the hill-tops and shining far to seaward.
+The captain had risen earlier than usual, and set out down
+the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of
+the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat
+tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging
+like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last
+sound I heard of him, as he turned the big rock, was a
+loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still
+running upon Doctor Livesey.</p>
+
+<p>Well, mother was upstairs with father, and I was laying
+the breakfast table against the captain's return, when
+the parlor door opened and a man stepped in on whom I
+had never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand; and,
+though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a
+fighter. I had always my eyes open for seafaring men,
+with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me.
+He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea
+about him too.</p>
+
+<p>I asked him what was for his service, and he said he
+would take rum, but as I was going out of the room to
+fetch it he sat down upon a table and motioned to me to
+draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, sonny," said he. "Come nearer here."</p>
+
+<p>I took a step nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked, with
+a kind of leer.</p>
+
+<p>I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was
+for a person who stayed at our house, whom we called the
+captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the
+captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek, and a
+mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has
+my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like, that your
+captain has a cut on one cheek&mdash;and we'll put it, if you
+like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told
+you. Now, is my mate Bill in this here house?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him he was out walking.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"</p>
+
+<p>And when I had pointed out the rock and told him
+how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and
+answered a few other questions, "Ah," said he, "this'll
+be as good as drink to my mate Bill."</p>
+
+<p>The expression of his face as he said these words was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking
+that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing he
+meant what he said. But it was no affair of mine,
+I thought; and, besides, it was difficult to know what
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn
+door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a
+mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the road, but he
+immediately called me back, and, as I did not obey quick
+enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his
+tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made
+me jump. As soon as I was back again he returned to his
+former manner, half-fawning, half-sneering, patted me on
+the shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and he had taken
+quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he,
+"as like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride of my
+'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny&mdash;discipline.
+Now, if you had sailed along of Bill, you
+wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twice&mdash;not you.
+That was never Bill's way, nor the way of sich as sailed
+with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with
+a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure.
+You and me'll just go back into the parlor, sonny, and get
+behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little surprise&mdash;bless
+his 'art, I say again."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the
+parlor, and put me behind him into the corner, so that we
+were both hidden by the open door. I was very uneasy
+and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to my
+fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened
+himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened
+the blade in the sheath, and all the time we were waiting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+there he kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call
+a lump in the throat.</p>
+
+<p>At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind
+him, without looking to the right or left, and marched
+straight across the room to where his breakfast awaited
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Bill," said the stranger, in a voice that I thought he
+had tried to make bold and big.</p>
+
+<p>The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all
+the brown had gone out of his face, and even his nose was
+blue; he had the look of a man who sees a ghost, or the Evil
+One, or something worse, if anything can be; and, upon
+my word, I felt sorry to see him, all in a moment, turn
+so old and sick.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate,
+Bill, surely," said the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The captain made a sort of gasp.</p>
+
+<p>"Black Dog!" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at
+his ease. "Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his
+old shipmate, Billy, at the 'Admiral Benbow' Inn. Ah,
+Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I
+lost them two talons," holding up his mutilated hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here," said the captain; "you've run me
+down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's you, Bill," returned Black Dog; "you're in the
+right of it, Billy. I'll have a glass of rum from this dear
+child here, as I've took such a liking to; and we'll sit
+down, if you please, and talk square, like old shipmates."</p>
+
+<p>When I returned with the rum they were already
+seated on either side of the captain's breakfast table&mdash;Black
+Dog next to the door, and sitting sideways, so as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+to have one eye on his old shipmate and one, as I thought,
+on his retreat.</p>
+
+<p>He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None
+of your keyholes for me, sonny," he said, and I left them
+together and retired into the bar.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen,
+I could hear nothing but a low gabbling; but at last the
+voices began to grow higher, and I could pick up a word
+or two, mostly oaths, from the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried once. And
+again, "If it comes to swinging, swing all, say I."</p>
+
+<p>Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous explosion
+of oaths and other noises; the chair and table went over
+in a lump, a clash of steel followed, and then a cry of
+pain, and the next instant I saw Black Dog in full flight,
+and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses,
+and the former streaming blood from the left shoulder.
+Just at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last
+tremendous cut, which would certainly have split him to
+the chin had it not been intercepted by our big signboard
+of "Admiral Benbow." You may see the notch on the
+lower side of the frame to this day.</p>
+
+<p>That blow was the last of the battle. Once out upon
+the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a
+wonderful clean pair of heels, and disappeared over the
+edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain, for his
+part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered man.
+Then he passed his hand over his eyes several times, and
+at last turned back into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," says he, "rum"; and as he spoke he reeled a
+little, and caught himself with one hand against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you hurt?" cried I.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Rum," he repeated. "I must get away from here.
+Rum! rum!"</p>
+
+<p>I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that
+had fallen out, and I broke one glass and fouled the tap,
+and while I was still getting in my own way, I heard a
+loud fall in the parlor, and, running in, beheld the captain
+lying full length upon the floor. At the same instant my
+mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running
+downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head.
+He was breathing very loud and hard, but his eyes were
+closed and his face was a horrible color.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, deary me!" cried my mother, "what a disgrace
+upon the house! And your poor father sick!"</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime we had no idea what to do to help the
+captain, nor any other thought but that he had got his
+death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. I got the rum,
+to be sure, and tried to put it down his throat, but his
+teeth were tightly shut, and his jaws as strong as iron. It
+was a happy relief for us when the door opened and Doctor
+Livesey came in, on his visit to my father.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, doctor," we cried, "what shall we do? Where
+is he wounded?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wounded? A fiddlestick's end!" said the doctor.
+"No more wounded than you or I. The man has had
+a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins, just
+you run upstairs to your husband and tell him, if possible,
+nothing about it. For my part, I must do my best to save
+this fellow's trebly worthless life; and, Jim, you get me a
+basin."</p>
+
+<p>When I got back with the basin the doctor had already
+ripped up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great
+sinewy arm. It was tattooed in several places. "Here's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+luck," "A fair wind," and "Billy Bones, his fancy," were
+very neatly and clearly executed on the forearm; and up
+near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a
+man hanging from it&mdash;done, as I thought, with great
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this picture with
+his finger. "And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your
+name, we'll have a look at the color of your blood. Jim,"
+he said, "are you afraid of blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said he, "you hold the basin," and with
+that he took his lancet and opened a vein.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal of blood was taken before the captain
+opened his eyes and looked mistily about him. First he
+recognized the doctor with an unmistakable frown; then
+his glance fell upon me, and he looked relieved. But
+suddenly his color changed, and he tried to raise himself,
+crying:</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Black Dog?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no Black Dog here," said the doctor, "except
+what you have on your own back. You have been drinking
+rum; you have had a stroke precisely as I told you;
+and I have just, very much against my own will, dragged
+you headforemost out of the grave. Now, Mr. Bones&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's not my name," he interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"Much I care," returned the doctor. "It's the name
+of a buccaneer of my acquaintance, and I call you by it
+for the sake of shortness, and what I have to say to you is
+this: One glass of rum won't kill you, but if you take one
+you'll take another and another, and I stake my wig if you
+don't break off short, you'll die&mdash;do you understand that?&mdash;die,
+and go to your own place, like the man in the Bible.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+Come, now, make an effort. I'll help you to your bed for
+once."</p>
+
+<p>Between us, with much trouble, we managed to hoist
+him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his head fell
+back on the pillow, as if he were almost fainting.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, mind you," said the doctor, "I clear my conscience&mdash;the
+name of rum for you is death."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he went off to see my father, taking me
+with him by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had closed
+the door. "I have drawn blood enough to keep him quiet
+awhile; he should lie for a week where he is&mdash;that is the
+best thing for him and you, but another stroke would settle
+him."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III<br />
+<small>THE BLACK SPOT</small></h2>
+
+<p>About noon I stopped at the captain's door with some
+cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying very much
+as we had left him, only a little higher, and he seemed
+both weak and excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," he said, "you're the only one here that's worth
+anything; and you know I've always been good to you.
+Never a month but I've given you a silver fourpenny for
+yourself. And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low, and
+deserted by all; and, Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of
+rum, now, won't you, matey?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>But he broke in, cursing the doctor in a feeble voice, but
+heartily. "Doctors is all swabs," he said; "and that
+doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men?
+I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round
+with yellow jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the
+sea with earthquakes&mdash;what do the doctor know of lands
+like that?&mdash;and I lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat
+and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I am not to
+have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee shore. My
+blood'll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab," and he
+ran on again for a while with curses. "Look, Jim, how
+my fingers fidges," he continued in the pleading tone.
+"I can't keep 'em still, not I. I haven't had a drop this
+blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I tell you. If I don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors; I seen
+some on 'em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there,
+behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the
+horrors, I'm a man that has lived rough, and I'll raise
+Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't hurt
+me. I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim."</p>
+
+<p>He was growing more and more excited, and this
+alarmed me, for my father, who was very low that day,
+needed quiet; besides, I was reassured by the doctor's
+words, now quoted to me, and rather offended by the offer
+of a bribe.</p>
+
+<p>"I want none of your money," said I, "but what you
+owe my father. I'll get you one glass and no more."</p>
+
+<p>When I brought it to him he seized it greedily and
+drank it out.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," said he, "that's some better, sure enough.
+And now, matey, did that doctor say how long I was to
+lie here in this old berth?"</p>
+
+<p>"A week at least," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do that;
+they'd have the black spot on me by then. The lubbers
+is going about to get the wind of me this blessed moment;
+lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want to nail
+what is another's. Is that seamanly behavior, now, I want
+to know? But I'm a saving soul. I never wasted good
+money of mine, nor lost it neither; and I'll trick 'em again.
+I'm not afraid on 'em. I'll shake out another reef, matey,
+and daddle 'em again."</p>
+
+<p>As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed with
+great difficulty, holding to my shoulder with a grip
+that almost made me cry out, and moving his legs like so
+much dead weight. His words, spirited as they were in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice
+in which they were uttered. He paused when he had
+got into a sitting position on the edge.</p>
+
+<p>"That doctor's done me," he murmured. "My ears
+is singing. Lay me back."</p>
+
+<p>Before I could do much to help him he had fallen back
+again to his former place, where he lay for a while silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," he said, at length, "you saw that seafaring man
+to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Black Dog?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Black Dog," said he. "<i>He's</i> a bad 'un; but
+there's worse that put him on. Now, if I can't get away
+nohow, and they tip me the black spot, mind you, it's my
+old sea-chest they're after; you get on a horse&mdash;you can,
+can't you? Well, then, you get on a horse and go to&mdash;well,
+yes, I will!&mdash;to that eternal doctor swab, and tell
+him to pipe all hands&mdash;magistrates and sich&mdash;and he'll
+lay 'em aboard at the 'Admiral Benbow'&mdash;all old Flint's
+crew, man and boy, all on 'em that's left. I was first mate,
+I was, old Flint's first mate, and I'm the on'y one as knows
+the place. He gave it me at Savannah, when he lay
+a-dying, like as if I was to now, you see. But you won't
+peach unless they get the black spot on me, or unless you
+see that Black Dog again, or a seafaring man with one
+leg, Jim&mdash;him above all."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is the black spot, captain?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that.
+But you keep your weather-eye open, Jim, and I'll share
+with you equals, upon my honor."</p>
+
+<p>He wandered a little longer, his voice growing weaker;
+but soon after I had given him his medicine, which he
+took like a child, with the remark, "If ever a seaman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+wanted drugs, it's me," he fell at last into a heavy, swoon-like
+sleep, in which I left him. What I should have done
+had all gone well I do not know. Probably I should have
+told the whole story to the doctor; for I was in mortal
+fear lest the captain should repent of his confessions and
+make an end of me. But as things fell out, my poor father
+died quite suddenly that evening, which put all other matters
+on one side. Our natural distress, the visits of the
+neighbors, the arranging of the funeral, and all the work
+of the inn to be carried on in the meanwhile, kept me so
+busy that I had scarcely time to think of the captain, far
+less to be afraid of him.</p>
+
+<p>He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and had
+his meals as usual, though he ate little, and had more, I
+am afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for he helped
+himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing through his
+nose, and no one dared to cross him. On the night before
+the funeral he was as drunk as ever; and it was shocking,
+in that house of mourning, to hear him singing away his
+ugly old sea-song; but, weak as he was, we were all in fear
+of death for him, and the doctor was suddenly taken up
+with a case many miles away, and was never near the house
+after my father's death. I have said the captain was weak,
+and indeed he seemed rather to grow weaker than to regain
+his strength. He clambered up and down stairs, and went
+from the parlor to the bar and back again, and sometimes
+put his nose out of doors to smell the sea, holding on to
+the walls as he went for support, and breathing hard and
+fast, like a man on a steep mountain. He never particularly
+addressed me, and it is my belief he had as good as
+forgotten his confidences; but his temper was more flighty,
+and, allowing for his bodily weakness, more violent than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+ever. He had an alarming way now when he was drunk
+of drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before him on
+the table. But, with all that, he minded people less, and
+seemed shut up in his own thoughts and rather wandering.
+Once, for instance, to our extreme wonder, he piped up to
+a different air, a kind of country love-song, that he must
+have learned in his youth before he had begun to follow
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>So things passed until the day after the funeral and
+about three o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty afternoon, I
+was standing at the door for a moment, full of sad thoughts
+about my father, when I saw someone drawing slowly
+near along the road. He was plainly blind, for he tapped
+before him with a stick, and wore a great green shade over
+his eyes and nose; and he was hunched, as if with age or
+weakness, and wore a huge old tattered sea-cloak with a
+hood that made him appear positively deformed. I never
+saw in my life a more dreadful-looking figure. He
+stopped a little from the inn and, raising his voice in an
+odd sing-song, addressed the air in front of him:</p>
+
+<p>"Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, who
+has lost the precious sight of his eyes in the gracious
+defense of his native country, England, and God bless
+King George!&mdash;where or in what part of this country
+he may now be?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are at the 'Admiral Benbow,' Black Hill Cove,
+my good man," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear a voice," said he, "a young voice. Will you
+give me your hand, my kind young friend, and lead me
+in?"</p>
+
+<p>I held out my hand, and the horrible, soft-spoken, eyeless
+creature gripped it in a moment like a vise. I was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+much startled that I struggled to withdraw, but the blind
+man pulled me close up to him with a single action of his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, boy," he said, "take me in to the captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said I, "upon my word I dare not."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he sneered, "that's it! Take me in straight, or
+I'll break your arm."</p>
+
+<p>He gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that made me cry out.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The captain
+is not what he used to be. He sits with a drawn cutlass.
+Another gentleman&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, now, march," interrupted he, and I never
+heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind
+man's. It cowed me more than the pain, and I began to
+obey him at once, walking straight in at the door and
+towards the parlor, where the sick old buccaneer was sitting,
+dazed with rum. The blind man clung close to me,
+holding me in one iron fist, and leaning almost more of
+his weight on me than I could carry. "Lead me straight
+up to him, and when I'm in view, cry out, 'Here's a friend
+for you, Bill.' If you don't, I'll do this," and with that
+he gave me a twitch that I thought would have made me
+faint. Between this and that, I was so utterly terrified
+by the blind beggar that I forgot my terror of the captain,
+and as I opened the parlor door, cried out the words he
+had ordered in a trembling voice.</p>
+
+<p>The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the
+rum went out of him and left him staring sober. The
+expression of his face was not so much of terror as of
+mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, but I do
+not believe he had enough force left in his body.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+I can't see, I can hear a finger stirring. Business is
+business. Hold out your left hand. Boy, take his left
+hand by the wrist and bring it near to my right."</p>
+
+<p>We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass
+something from the hollow of the hand that held his stick
+into the palm of the captain's, which closed upon it
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"And now that's done," said the blind man, and at the
+words he suddenly left hold of me, and with incredible
+accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of the parlor and
+into the road, where, as I stood motionless, I could hear
+his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before either I or the captain seemed
+to gather our senses; but at length, and about the same
+moment, I released his wrist, which I was still holding,
+and he drew in his hand, and looked sharply into the palm.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours! We'll do them
+yet!" and he sprang to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat,
+stood swaying for a moment, and then, with a peculiar
+sound, fell from his whole height face foremost to the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste
+was all in vain. The captain had been struck dead by
+thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing to understand,
+for I had certainly never liked the man, though of late I
+had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was
+dead I burst into a flood of tears. It was the second death
+I had known, and the sorrow of the first was still fresh in
+my heart.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV<br />
+<small>THE SEA-CHEST</small></h2>
+
+<p>I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that
+I knew, and perhaps should have told her long before, and
+we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous
+position. Some of the man's money&mdash;if he had any&mdash;was
+certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our captain's
+shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me&mdash;Black
+Dog and the blind beggar&mdash;would be inclined
+to give up their booty in payment of the dead man's debts.
+The captain's order to mount at once and ride for Doctor
+Livesey would have left my mother alone and unprotected,
+which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed impossible
+for either of us to remain much longer in the house;
+the fall of coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of
+the clock, filled us with alarm. The neighborhood, to
+our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and
+what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor
+floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar
+hovering near at hand and ready to return, there were
+moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin
+for terror. Something must speedily be resolved upon,
+and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek
+help in the neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than
+done. Bareheaded as we were, we ran out at once in the
+gathering evening and the frosty fog.</p>
+
+<p>The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+out of view, on the other side of the next cove; and what
+greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction
+from that whence the blind man had made his appearance,
+and whither he had presumably returned. We were not
+many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped
+to lay hold of each other and hearken. But there was no
+unusual sound&mdash;nothing but the low wash of the ripple
+and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet,
+and I shall never forget how much I was cheered to
+see the yellow shine in doors and windows; but that, as it
+proved, was the best of the help we were likely to get in
+that quarter. For&mdash;you would have thought men would
+have been ashamed of themselves&mdash;no soul would consent
+to return with us to the "Admiral Benbow." The
+more we told of our troubles, the more&mdash;man, woman,
+and child&mdash;they clung to the shelter of their houses.
+The name of Captain Flint, though it was strange to me,
+was well enough known to some there, and carried a great
+weight of terror. Some of the men who had been to field-work
+on the far side of the "Admiral Benbow" remembered,
+besides, to have seen several strangers on the road,
+and, taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away;
+and one at least had seen a little lugger in what we called
+Kitt's Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a comrade
+of the captain's was enough to frighten them to death.
+And the short and the long of the matter was, that while
+we could get several who were willing enough to ride
+to Doctor Livesey's, which lay in another direction, not
+one would help us to defend the inn.</p>
+
+<p>They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument
+is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+each had said his say, my mother made them a speech. She
+would not, she declared, lose money that belonged to her
+fatherless boy. "If none of the rest of you dare," she said,
+"Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and
+small thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men!
+We'll have that chest open, if we die for it. And I'll thank
+you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to bring back our lawful
+money in."</p>
+
+<p>Of course I said I would go with my mother; and
+of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness; but
+even then not a man would go along with us. All they
+would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we were
+attacked; and to promise to have horses ready saddled,
+in case we were pursued on our return; while one lad
+was to ride forward to the doctor's in search of armed
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was beating fiercely when we two set forth
+in the cold night upon this dangerous venture. A full
+moon was beginning to rise and peered redly through the
+upper edges of the fog, and this increased our haste, for
+it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would
+be bright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes
+of any watchers. We slipped along the hedges, noiseless
+and swift, nor did we see or hear anything to increase our
+terrors till, to our huge relief, the door of the "Admiral
+Benbow" had closed behind us.</p>
+
+<p>I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for
+a moment in the dark, alone in the house with the dead
+captain's body. Then my mother got a candle in the bar,
+and, holding each other's hands, we advanced into the
+parlor. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his
+eyes open, and one arm stretched out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother;
+"they might come and watch outside. And now," said
+she, when I had done so, "we have to get the key off <i>that</i>;
+and who's to touch it, I should like to know!" and she
+gave a kind of sob as she said the words.</p>
+
+<p>I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close
+to his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened
+on one side. I could not doubt that this was the <i>black spot</i>;
+and, taking it up, I found written on the other side, in a
+very good, clear hand, this short message, "You have till
+ten to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"He had till ten, mother," said I; and, just as I said it,
+our old clock began striking. This sudden noise startled
+us shockingly; but the news was good, for it was only six.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Jim," she said, "that key!"</p>
+
+<p>I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small
+coins, a thimble, and some thread and big needles, a piece
+of pig-tail tobacco bitten away at the end, his gully with
+the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and a tinder-box,
+were all that they contained, and I began to despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.</p>
+
+<p>Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt
+at the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging to a bit of
+tarry string, which I cut with his own gully, we found the
+key. At this triumph we were filled with hope, and
+hurried upstairs, without delay, to the little room where
+he had slept so long, and where his box had stood since
+the day of his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside, the
+initial "B" burned on the top of it with a hot iron, and
+the corners somewhat smashed and broken as by long,
+rough usage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Give me the key," said my mother, and though the
+lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the
+lid in a twinkling.</p>
+
+<p>A strong smell of tobacco and tar arose from the
+interior, but nothing was to be seen on the top except a suit
+of very good clothes, carefully brushed and folded. They
+had never been worn, my mother said. Under that the
+miscellany began&mdash;a quadrant, a tin cannikin, several
+sticks of tobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a
+piece of bar silver, an old Spanish watch, and some other
+trinkets of little value and mostly of foreign make, a pair
+of compasses mounted with brass, and five or six curious
+West Indian shells. I have often wondered since why
+he should have carried about these shells with him in his
+wandering, guilty, and hunted life.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime we found nothing of any value but
+the silver and the trinkets, and neither of these were in
+our way. Underneath there was an old boat-cloak,
+whitened with sea-salt on many a harbor-bar. My
+mother pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before
+us, the last things in the chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth,
+and looking like papers, and a canvas bag that gave forth,
+at a touch, the jingle of gold.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show those rogues that I'm an honest woman,"
+said my mother. "I'll have my dues and not a farthing
+over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And she began to
+count over the amount of the captain's score from the
+sailor's bag into the one that I was holding.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all
+countries and sizes&mdash;doubloons, and louis-d'ors, and
+guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know not what besides,
+all shaken together at random. The guineas, too, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my
+mother knew how to make her count.</p>
+
+<p>When we were about halfway through, I suddenly put
+my hand upon her arm, for I had heard in the silent, frosty
+air, a sound that brought my heart into my mouth&mdash;the
+tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozen road.
+It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our
+breath. Then it struck sharp on the inn door, and then we
+could hear the handle being turned, and the bolt rattling
+as the wretched being tried to enter; and then there was a
+long time of silence both within and without. At last the
+tapping recommenced, and to our indescribable joy and
+gratitude, died slowly away again until it ceased to be
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going";
+for I was sure the bolted door must have seemed suspicious,
+and would bring the whole hornet's nest about our ears;
+though how thankful I was that I had bolted it, none
+could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.</p>
+
+<p>But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent
+to take a fraction more than was due to her, and was
+obstinately unwilling to be content with less. It was not
+yet seven, she said, by a long way; she knew her rights
+and she would have them; and she was still arguing with
+me, when a little low whistle sounded a good way off upon
+the hill. That was enough, and more than enough, for
+both of us.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking
+up the oilskin packet.</p>
+
+<p>Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving
+the candle by the empty chest; and the next we had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+opened the door and were in full retreat. We had not
+started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly dispersing;
+already the moon shone quite clear on the high
+ground on either side, and it was only in the exact bottom
+of the dell and round the tavern door that a thin veil still
+hung unbroken to conceal the first steps of our escape.
+Far less than halfway to the hamlet, very little beyond
+the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into the moonlight.
+Nor was this all; for the sound of several footsteps
+running came already to our ears, and as we looked back
+in their direction, a light, tossing to and fro, and still
+rapidly advancing, showed that one of the new-comers
+carried a lantern.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said my mother, suddenly, "take the money
+and run on. I am going to faint."</p>
+
+<p>This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought.
+How I cursed the cowardice of the neighbors! how I
+blamed my poor mother for her honesty and her greed,
+for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We
+were just at the little bridge, by good fortune, and I
+helped her, tottering as she was, to the edge of the bank,
+where, sure enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my
+shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do
+it all, and I am afraid it was roughly done, but I managed
+to drag her down the bank and a little way under the arch.
+Farther I could not move her, for the bridge was too low
+to let me do more than crawl below it. So there we had
+to stay&mdash;my mother almost entirely exposed, and both
+of us within earshot of the inn.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V<br />
+<small>THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN</small></h2>
+
+<p>My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear; for
+I could not remain where I was, but crept back to the
+bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a bush
+of broom, I might command the road before our door.
+I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive,
+seven or eight of them, running hard, their feet beating
+out of time along the road, and the man with the lantern
+some paces in front. Three men ran together, hand in
+hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the
+middle man of this trio was the blind beggar. The next
+moment his voice showed me that I was right.</p>
+
+<p>"Down with the door!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush was
+made upon the "Admiral Benbow," the lantern-bearer
+following; and then I could see them pause, and hear
+speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were surprised
+to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the
+blind man again issued his commands. His voice sounded
+louder and higher, as if he were afire with eagerness and
+rage.</p>
+
+<p>"In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on
+the road with the formidable beggar. There was a pause,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+then a cry of surprise, and then a voice shouting from
+the house:</p>
+
+<p>"Bill's dead!"</p>
+
+<p>But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.</p>
+
+<p>"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the
+rest of you aloft and get the chest," he cried.</p>
+
+<p>I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so
+that the house must have shook with it. Promptly afterward
+fresh sounds of astonishment arose; the window of
+the captain's room was thrown open with a slam and a
+jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned out into the
+moonlight, head and shoulders, and addressed the blind
+beggar on the road below him.</p>
+
+<div class="figr"><a name="cpb" id="cpb"></a>
+<img src="images/006.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 34</div>
+<i>"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"</i></div>
+
+<p>"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us. Someone's
+turned the chest out alow and aloft."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it there?" roared Pew.</p>
+
+<p>"The money's there."</p>
+
+<p>The blind man cursed the money.</p>
+
+<p>"Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"We don't see it here, nohow," returned the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blind
+man again.</p>
+
+<p>At that, another fellow, probably he who had remained
+below to search the captain's body, came to the door of
+the inn. "Bill's been overhauled a'ready," said he,
+"nothin' left."</p>
+
+<p>"It's these people of the inn&mdash;it's that boy. I wish I
+had put his eyes out!" cried the blind man, Pew. "They
+were here no time ago&mdash;they had the door bolted when
+I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough, they left their glim here," said the
+fellow from the window.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiterated
+Pew, striking with his stick upon the road.</p>
+
+<p>Then there followed a great to-do through all our old
+inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture all thrown
+over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks re-echoed, and
+the men came out again, one after another, on the road,
+and declared that we were nowhere to be found. And
+just then the same whistle that had alarmed my mother
+and myself over the dead captain's money was once more
+clearly audible through the night, but this time twice
+repeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's trumpet,
+so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault; but I now
+found that it was a signal from the hillside toward the
+hamlet, and, from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signal
+to warn them of approaching danger.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have
+to budge, mates."</p>
+
+<p>"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool
+and a coward from the first&mdash;you wouldn't mind him.
+They must be close by; they can't be far; you have your
+hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs. Oh, shiver
+my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two
+of the fellows began to look here and there among the
+lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and with half an
+eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest stood
+irresolute on the road.</p>
+
+<p>"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you
+hang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if you could find it,
+and you know it's here, and you stand there skulking.
+There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, and I did it&mdash;a
+blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you! I'm to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I
+might be rolling in a coach! If you had the pluck of a
+weevil in a biscuit, you would catch them still."</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another.
+"Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."</p>
+
+<p>Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so high
+at these objections; till at last, his passion completely
+taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left
+in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily on more
+than one.</p>
+
+<p>These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant,
+threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in vain to catch
+the stick and wrest it from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>This quarrel was the saving of us; for while it was still
+raging, another sound came from the top of the hill on
+the side of the hamlet&mdash;the tramp of horses galloping.
+Almost at the same time a pistol-shot, flash, and report
+came from the hedge side. And that was plainly the last
+signal of danger, for the buccaneers turned at once and
+ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the
+cove, one slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a
+minute not a sign of them remained but Pew. Him they
+had deserted, whether in sheer panic or out of revenge
+for his ill words and blows, I know not; but there he
+remained behind, tapping up and down the road in a
+frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades. Finally
+he took the wrong turn, and ran a few steps past me,
+towards the hamlet, crying:</p>
+
+<p>"Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you
+won't leave old Pew, mates&mdash;not old Pew?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four
+or five riders came in sight in the moonlight, and swept
+at full gallop down the slope.</p>
+
+<p>At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and
+ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. But he
+was on his feet again in a second, and made another dash,
+now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the
+coming horses.</p>
+
+<p>The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went
+Pew with a cry that rang high into the night, and the
+four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He
+fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face, and
+moved no more.</p>
+
+<p>I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were
+pulling up, at any rate, horrified at the accident, and I
+soon saw what they were. One, tailing out behind the
+rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to Doctor
+Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he had
+met by the way, and with whom he had had the intelligence
+to return at once. Some news of the lugger in Kitt's
+Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance, and set him
+forth that night in our direction, and to that circumstance
+my mother and I owed our preservation from death.</p>
+
+<p>Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when
+we had carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water
+and salts very soon brought her back again, and she was
+none the worse for her terror, though she still continued
+to deplore the balance of the money.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+was no great matter for surprise that when they got down
+to the Hole the lugger was already under way, though still
+close in. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to
+keep out of the moonlight, or he would get some lead in
+him, and at the same time a bullet whistled close by his
+arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the point and disappeared.
+Mr. Dance stood there, as he said, "like a fish
+out of water," and all he could do was to dispatch a man
+to B&mdash;&mdash; to warn the cutter. "And that," said he, "is
+just about as good as nothing. They've got off clean, and
+there's an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad I trod on
+Master Pew's corns"; for by this time he had heard my
+story.</p>
+
+<p>I went back with him to the "Admiral Benbow," and
+you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the
+very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their
+furious hunt after my mother and myself; and though
+nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's
+money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could see at
+once that we were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing
+of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins,
+what in fortune were they after? More money, I
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact, sir,
+I believe I have the thing in my breast-pocket; and, to tell
+you the truth, I should like to get it put in safety."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take it,
+if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought, perhaps, Doctor Livesey&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly right," he interrupted, very cheerily, "perfectly
+right&mdash;a gentleman and a magistrate. And, now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+I come to think of it, I might as well ride round there
+myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's dead,
+when all's done; not that I regret it, but he's dead, you
+see, and people will make it out against an officer of his
+Majesty's revenue, if make it out they can. Now, I'll tell
+you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll take you along."</p>
+
+<p>I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked
+back to the hamlet where the horses were. By the time
+I had told mother of my purpose they were all in the
+saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse;
+take up this lad behind you."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt,
+the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck out
+at a bouncing trot on the road to Doctor Livesey's house.</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 397px;">
+<img src="images/007.png" width="397" height="284" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI<br />
+<small>THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS</small></h2>
+
+<p>We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before
+Doctor Livesey's door. The house was all dark to the
+front.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and
+Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door was
+opened almost at once by the maid.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Doctor Livesey in?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. He had come home in the afternoon,
+but had gone up to the Hall to dine and pass the evening
+with the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"So there we go, boys," said Mr. Dance.</p>
+
+<p>This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount,
+but ran with Dogger's stirrup-leather to the lodge gates,
+and up the long, leafless, moonlit avenue to where the
+white line of the Hall buildings looked on either hand
+on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted and,
+taking me along with him, was admitted at a word into
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed
+us at the end into a great library, all lined with bookcases
+and busts upon top of them, where the squire and
+Doctor Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of a
+bright fire.</p>
+
+<p>I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was
+a tall man, over six feet high, and broad in proportion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready face, all roughened
+and reddened and lined in his long travels. His eyebrows
+were very black, and moved readily, and this gave him a
+look of some temper, not bad, you would say, but quick
+and high.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, Mr. Dance," said he, very stately and condescending.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Dance," said the doctor, with a nod.
+"And good evening to you, friend Jim. What good wind
+brings you here?"</p>
+
+<p>The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and told his
+story like a lesson; and you should have seen how the two
+gentlemen leaned forward and looked at each other, and
+forgot to smoke in their surprise and interest. When
+they heard how my mother went back to the inn, Doctor
+Livesey fairly slapped his thigh, and the squire cried
+"Bravo!" and broke his long pipe against the grate.
+Long before it was done, Mr. Trelawney (that, you will
+remember, was the squire's name) had got up from his
+seat, and was striding about the room, and the doctor, as
+if to hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig, and
+sat there, looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped,
+black poll.</p>
+
+<p>At last Mr. Dance finished the story.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dance," said the squire, "you are a very noble
+fellow. And as for riding down that black, atrocious
+miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue, sir, like stamping
+on a cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump, I
+perceive. Hawkins, will you ring that bell? Mr. Dance
+must have some ale."</p>
+
+<p>"And so, Jim," said the doctor, "you have the thing
+that they were after, have you?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here it is, sir," said I, and gave him the oilskin packet.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were
+itching to open it; but, instead of doing that, he put it
+quietly in the pocket of his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Squire," said he, "when Dance has had his ale he
+must, of course, be off on his Majesty's service; but I
+mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house, and,
+with your permission, I propose we should have up the
+cold pie, and let him sup."</p>
+
+<p>"As you will, Livesey," said the squire; "Hawkins
+has earned better than cold pie."</p>
+
+<p>So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a side-table,
+and I made a hearty supper, for I was as hungry
+as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was further complimented,
+and at last dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, squire," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Livesey," said the squire, in the same
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"One at a time, one at a time," laughed Doctor Livesey.
+"You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heard of him!" cried the squire. "Heard of him,
+you say! He was the blood-thirstiest buccaneer that
+sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The Spaniards
+were so prodigiously afraid of him that, I tell you, sir, I
+was sometimes proud he was an Englishman. I've seen
+his topsails with these eyes, off Trinidad, and the cowardly
+son of a rum-puncheon that I sailed with put back&mdash;put
+back, sir, into Port of Spain."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've heard of him myself, in England," said
+the doctor. "But the point is, had he money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Money!" cried the squire. "Have you heard the
+story? What were these villains after but money? What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+do they care for but money? For what would they risk
+their rascal carcasses but money?"</p>
+
+<p>"That we shall soon know," replied the doctor. "But
+you are so confoundedly hot-headed and exclamatory that
+I cannot get a word in. What I want to know is this:
+Supposing that I have here in my pocket some clue to
+where Flint buried his treasure, will that treasure amount
+to much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amount, sir!" cried the squire. "It will amount to
+this: If we have the clue you talk about, I'll fit out a ship
+in Bristol dock, and take you and Hawkins here along, and
+I'll have that treasure if I search a year."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if Jim is
+agreeable, we'll open the packet," and he laid it before
+him on the table.</p>
+
+<p>The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to
+get out his instrument case and cut the stitches with his
+medical scissors. It contained two things&mdash;a book and a
+sealed paper.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all we'll try the book," observed the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>The squire and I were both peering over his shoulder
+as he opened it, for Doctor Livesey had kindly motioned
+me to come round from the side-table, where I had been
+eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. On the first page
+there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man
+with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or practice.
+One was the same as the tattoo mark, "Billy Bones his
+fancy"; then there was "Mr. W. Bones, mate," "No more
+rum," "Off Palm Key he got itt," and some other snatches,
+mostly single words and unintelligible. I could not help
+wondering who it was that had "got itt," and what "itt"
+was that he got. A knife in his back as like as not.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not much instruction there," said Doctor Livesey, as
+he passed on.</p>
+
+<p>The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious
+series of entries. There was a date at one end of the line
+and at the other a sum of money, as in common account-books;
+but instead of explanatory writing, only a varying
+number of crosses between the two. On the 12th of June,
+1745, for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly
+become due to someone, and there was nothing but six
+crosses to explain the cause. In a few cases, to be sure,
+the name of a place would be added, as "Offe Caraccas";
+or a mere entry of latitude and longitude, as "62&deg; 17&#8242; 20&#8243;,
+19&deg; 2&#8242; 40&#8243;."</p>
+
+<p>The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the amount
+of the separate entries growing larger as time went on, and
+at the end a grand total had been made out, after five or
+six wrong additions, and these words appended, "Bones,
+his pile."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't make head or tail of this," said Doctor Livesey.</p>
+
+<p>"The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the squire.
+"This is the black-hearted hound's account-book. These
+crosses stand for the names of ships or towns that they sank
+or plundered. The sums are the scoundrel's share, and
+where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something
+clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here was
+some unhappy vessel boarded off that coast. God help the
+poor souls that manned her&mdash;coral long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be a
+traveler. Right! And the amounts increase, you see, as
+he rose in rank."</p>
+
+<p>There was little else in the volume but a few bearings
+of places noted in the blank leaves toward the end, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+a table for reducing French, English, and Spanish moneys
+to a common value.</p>
+
+<p>"Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the one
+to be cheated."</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the squire, "for the other."</p>
+
+<p>The paper had been sealed in several places with a
+thimble by way of seal; the very thimble, perhaps, that
+I had found in the captain's pocket. The doctor opened
+the seals with great care, and there fell out the map of
+an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings, names
+of hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that
+would be needed to bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon
+its shores. It was about nine miles long and five across,
+shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon standing up, and
+had two fine landlocked harbors, and a hill in the center
+part marked "The Spy-glass." There were several additions
+of a later date; but, above all, three crosses of red
+ink&mdash;two on the north part of the island, one in the
+southwest, and, beside this last, in the same red ink, and
+in a small, neat hand, very different from the captain's
+tottery characters, these words: "Bulk of treasure here."</p>
+
+<p>Over on the back the same hand had written this further
+information:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.</p>
+
+<p>"Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten feet.</p>
+
+<p>"The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the trend
+of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black crag with the
+face on it.</p>
+
+<p>"The arms are easy found, in the sandhill, N. point of north inlet
+cape, bearing E. and a quarter N.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">"J. F."</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That was all, but brief as it was, and, to me, incomprehensible,
+it filled the squire and Doctor Livesey with
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up this
+wretched practice at once. To-morrow I start for Bristol.
+In three weeks' time&mdash;three weeks!&mdash;two weeks&mdash;ten
+days&mdash;we'll have the best ship, sir, and the choicest crew
+in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy. You'll
+make a famous cabin-boy, Hawkins. You, Livesey, are
+ship's doctor; I am admiral. We'll take Redruth, Joyce,
+and Hunter. We'll have favorable winds, a quick passage,
+and not the least difficulty in finding the spot, and money
+to eat&mdash;to roll in&mdash;to play duck and drake with ever
+after."</p>
+
+<p>"Trelawney," said the doctor, "I'll go with you; and
+I'll go bail for it, so will Jim, and be a credit to the undertaking.
+There's only one man I'm afraid of."</p>
+
+<p>"And who's that?" cried the squire. "Name the dog,
+sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"You," replied the doctor, "for you cannot hold your
+tongue. We are not the only men who know of this paper.
+These fellows who attacked the inn to-night&mdash;bold, desperate
+blades, for sure&mdash;and the rest who stayed aboard
+that lugger, and more, I dare say, not far off, are, one and
+all, through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that
+money. We must none of us go alone till we get to sea.
+Jim and I shall stick together in the meanwhile; you'll
+take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and, from
+first to last, not one of us must breathe a word of what
+we've found."</p>
+
+<p>"Livesey," returned the squire, "you are always in the
+right of it. I'll be as silent as the grave."</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART II</small><br />
+THE SEA-COOK</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII<br />
+<small>I GO TO BRISTOL</small></h2>
+
+<p>It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were
+ready for the sea, and none of our first plans&mdash;not even
+Doctor Livesey's, of keeping me beside him&mdash;could be
+carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to
+London for a physician to take charge of his practice; the
+squire was hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the
+Hall under the charge of old Redruth, the gamekeeper,
+almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams and the most
+charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures.
+I brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details
+of which I well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the
+housekeeper's room, I approached that island, in my fancy,
+from every possible direction; I explored every acre of its
+surface; I climbed a thousand times to that tall hill they
+call the Spy-glass, and from the top enjoyed the most wonderful
+and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was
+thick with savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full
+of dangerous animals that hunted us; but in all my fancies
+nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual
+adventures.</p>
+
+<p>So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a
+letter addressed to Doctor Livesey, with this addition, "To
+be opened in the case of his absence, by Tom Redruth or
+Young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found, or
+rather I found&mdash;for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+reading anything but print&mdash;the following important
+news:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="td2">"<i>Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17&mdash;.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Livesey</span>: As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or
+still in London, I send this in double to both places.</p>
+
+<p>"The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea.
+You never imagined a sweeter schooner&mdash;a child might sail her&mdash;two
+hundred tons; name, <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has proved himself
+throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable fellow literally
+slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did every one in Bristol, as soon
+as they got wind of the port we sailed for&mdash;treasure, I mean."</p></div>
+
+<p>"Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Doctor
+Livesey will not like that. The squire has been talking,
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, who's a better right?" growled the gamekeeper.
+"A pretty rum go if Squire ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey,
+I should think."</p>
+
+<p>At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and read
+straight on:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Blandly himself found the <i>Hispaniola</i>, and by the most admirable
+management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of men in
+Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length
+of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money;
+that the <i>Hispaniola</i> belonged to him, and that he sold to me absurdly
+high&mdash;the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare, however,
+to deny the merits of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure&mdash;riggers
+and what not&mdash;were most annoyingly slow, but time cured that. It
+was the crew that troubled me.</p>
+
+<p>"I wished a round score of men&mdash;in case of natives, buccaneers, or
+the odious French&mdash;and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find so
+much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought
+me the very man that I required.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I fell in
+talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public house, knew
+all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted
+a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled down there
+that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt.</p>
+
+<p>"I was monstrously touched&mdash;so would you have been&mdash;and, out
+of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook. Long John
+Silver he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a recommendation,
+since he lost it in his country's service, under the immortal
+Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable age
+we live in!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew
+I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a few
+days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable&mdash;not pretty to look
+at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit. I declare
+we could fight a frigate.</p>
+
+<p>"Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
+engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of
+fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a bull,
+sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I hear my old
+tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho! Hang the treasure!
+It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come
+post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.</p>
+
+<p>"Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for
+a guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">"<span class="smcap">John Trelawney.</span></p>
+
+<p>"P.S.&mdash;I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send
+a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had found
+an admirable fellow for sailing-master&mdash;a stiff man, which I regret,
+but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver unearthed a very
+competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have a boatswain
+who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war fashion on board the
+good ship <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of my
+own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never been
+overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused
+for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends
+him back to roving.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">"J. T.</p>
+
+<p>"P.P.S.&mdash;Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">"J. T."</p></div>
+
+<p>You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put
+me. I was half beside myself with glee, and if ever I
+despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, who could do
+nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the under-gamekeepers
+would gladly have changed places with him; but
+such was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure
+was like law among them all. Nobody but old Redruth
+would have dared so much as even to grumble.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning he and I set out on foot for the
+"Admiral Benbow," and there I found my mother in
+good health and spirits. The captain, who had so long
+been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the
+wicked cease from troubling. The squire had had everything
+repaired, and the public rooms and the sign
+repainted, and had added some furniture&mdash;above all a
+beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found
+her a boy as an apprentice also, so that she should not
+want help while I was gone.</p>
+
+<p>It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the
+first time, my situation. I had thought up to that moment
+of the adventures before me, not at all of the home that
+I was leaving; and now at sight of this clumsy stranger,
+who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I
+had my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy
+a dog's life; for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred
+opportunities of setting him right and putting him
+down, and I was not slow to profit by them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The night passed, and the next day, after dinner,
+Redruth and I were afoot again and on the road. I said
+good-by to mother and the cove where I had lived since
+I was born, and the dear old "Admiral Benbow"&mdash;since
+he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One
+of my last thoughts was of the captain, who had so often
+strode along the beach with his cocked hat, his saber-cut
+cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we had
+turned the corner, and my home was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>The mail picked us up about dusk at the "Royal
+George" on the heath. I was wedged in between Redruth
+and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of the swift motion
+and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal
+from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and
+down dale, through stage after stage; for when I was
+awakened at last, it was by a punch in the ribs, and I
+opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before
+a large building in a city street, and that the day had
+already broken a long time.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn
+far down the docks, to superintend the work upon the
+schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our way,
+to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the
+great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations.
+In one, sailors were singing at their work; in another,
+there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to
+threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's. Though
+I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to
+have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and
+salt was something new. I saw the most wonderful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw,
+besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and
+whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pig-tails, and their
+swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many
+kings or archbishops I could not have been more delighted.</p>
+
+<p>And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner,
+with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen;
+to sea, bound for an unknown island, and to seek for
+buried treasure.</p>
+
+<p>While I was still in this delightful dream, we came
+suddenly in front of a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney,
+all dressed out like a sea officer, in stout blue cloth,
+coming out of the door with a smile on his face, and a
+capital imitation of a sailor's walk.</p>
+
+<p>"Here you are!" he cried; "and the doctor came last
+night from London. Bravo!&mdash;the ship's company complete."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sail!" says he. "We sail to-morrow."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br />
+<small>AT THE SIGN OF THE "SPY-GLASS"</small></h2>
+
+<p>When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave me a
+note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the "Spy-glass,"
+and told me I should easily find the place by following
+the line of the docks, and keeping a bright
+lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope
+for a sign. I set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see
+some more of the ships and seamen, and picked my way
+among a great crowd of people and carts and bales, for
+the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern
+in question.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bright enough little place of entertainment.
+The sign was newly painted; the windows had neat red
+curtains; the floor was cleanly sanded. There was a
+street on each side, and an open door on both, which
+made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite
+of clouds of tobacco smoke.</p>
+
+<p>The customers were mostly seafaring men, and they
+talked so loudly that I hung at the door, almost afraid
+to enter.</p>
+
+<p>As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room,
+and at a glance I was sure he must be Long John. His
+left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left
+shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with
+wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird.
+He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+ham&mdash;plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed,
+he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling
+as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word
+or a slap on the shoulder for the more favored of his
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first mention
+of Long John in Squire Trelawney's letter, I had taken
+a fear in my mind that he might prove to be the very
+one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so long at
+the old "Benbow." But one look at the man before me
+was enough. I had seen the captain, and Black Dog, and
+the blind man Pew, and I thought I knew what a buccaneer
+was like&mdash;a very different creature, according to
+me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.</p>
+
+<p>I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold,
+and walked right up to the man where he stood, propped
+on his crutch, talking to a customer.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out the note.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to be sure.
+And who may you be?" And when he saw the squire's
+letter he seemed to me to give something almost like a
+start.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said he, quite aloud, and offering his hand,
+"I see. You are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>And he took my hand in his large firm grasp.</p>
+
+<p>Just then one of the customers at the far side rose
+suddenly and made for the door. It was close by him,
+and he was out in the street in a moment. But his hurry
+had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at a glance.
+It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who
+had come first to the "Admiral Benbow."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh," I cried, "stop him! it's Black Dog!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care two coppers who he is," cried Silver,
+"but he hasn't paid his score. Harry, run and catch
+him."</p>
+
+<p>One of the others who was nearest the door leaped
+up and started in pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>"If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score,"
+cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand, "Who
+did you say he was?" he asked. "Black what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dog, sir," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not told you
+of the buccaneers? He was one of them."</p>
+
+<p>"So?" cried Silver. "In my house! Ben, run and
+help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? Was that
+you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here."</p>
+
+<p>The man whom he called Morgan&mdash;an old, gray-haired,
+mahogany-faced sailor&mdash;came forward pretty
+sheepishly, rolling his quid.</p>
+
+<div class="figr" style="width: 344px;"><a name="cpc" id="cpc"></a>
+<img src="images/008.jpg" width="344" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 57</div>
+<i>"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never clapped your eyes
+on that Black Dog before, did you, now?"</i></div>
+
+<p>"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you
+never clapped your eyes on that Black&mdash;Black Dog
+before, did you, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, sir," said Morgan, with a salute.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't know his name, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's as good for you!"
+exclaimed the landlord. "If you had been mixed up
+with the like of that, you would never have put another
+foot in my house, you may lay to that. And what was
+he saying to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't rightly know, sir," answered Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a
+blessed dead-eye?" cried Long John. "Don't rightly
+know, don't you? Perhaps you don't happen to rightly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now,
+what was he jawing&mdash;v'yages, cap'ns, ships? Pipe up!
+What was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We was a-talkin' of keel-hauling," answered Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suitable thing,
+too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place for
+a lubber, Tom."</p>
+
+<p>And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver
+added to me, in a confidential whisper, that was very
+flattering, as I thought:</p>
+
+<p>"He's quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on'y stupid.
+And now," he ran on again, aloud, "let's see&mdash;Black
+Dog? No, I don't know the name, not I. Yet I kind
+of think I've&mdash;yes, I've seen the swab. He used to
+come here with a blind beggar, he used."</p>
+
+<p>"That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I knew
+that blind man, too. His name was Pew."</p>
+
+<p>"It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew!
+That were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a shark,
+he did! If we run down this Black Dog now, there'll
+be news for Cap'n Trelawney! Ben's a good runner;
+few seamen run better than Ben. He should run him
+down, hand over hand, by the powers! He talked o'
+keel-hauling, did he? <i>I'll</i> keel-haul him!"</p>
+
+<p>All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was
+stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, slapping
+tables with his hand, and giving such a show of
+excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge
+or a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been
+thoroughly reawakened on finding Black Dog at the
+"Spy-glass," and I watched the cook narrowly. But he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and
+by the time the two men had come back out of breath,
+and confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd,
+and been scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail
+for the innocence of Long John Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, now, Hawkins," said he, "here's a blessed
+hard thing on a man like me, now, ain't it? There's
+Cap'n Trelawney&mdash;what's he to think? Here I have
+this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own
+house, drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and
+tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the
+slip before my blessed deadlights! Now, Hawkins, you
+do me justice with the cap'n. You're a lad, you are, but
+you're as smart as paint. I see that when you first came
+in. Now, here it is: What could I do, with this old
+timber I hobble on? When I was an A&nbsp;B master mariner
+I'd have come up alongside of him, hand over hand, and
+broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I would; and
+now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw
+dropped as though he had remembered something.</p>
+
+<p>"The score!" he burst out. "Three goes o' rum!
+Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn't forgotten my score!"</p>
+
+<p>And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears
+ran down his cheeks. I could not help joining, and we
+laughed together, peal after peal, until the tavern rang
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he said,
+at last, wiping his cheeks. "You and me should get
+on well, Hawkins, for I'll take my davy I should be rated
+ship's boy. But, come, now, stand by to go about. This
+won't do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I'll put on my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+old cocked hat and step along of you to Cap'n Trelawney,
+and report this here affair. For, mind you, it's serious,
+young Hawkins; and neither you nor me's come out of
+it with what I should make so bold as to call credit. Nor
+you neither, says you; not smart&mdash;none of the pair of
+us smart. But dash my buttons! that was a good 'un about
+my score."</p>
+
+<p>And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that
+though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again obliged
+to join him in his mirth.</p>
+
+<p>On our little walk along the quays he made himself
+the most interesting companion, telling me about the
+different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and
+nationality, explaining the work that was going forward&mdash;how
+one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and
+a third making ready for sea; and every now and then
+telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen, or
+repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly.
+I began to see that here was one of the best of possible
+shipmates.</p>
+
+<p>When we got to the inn, the squire and Doctor Livesey
+were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a
+toast in it, before they should go aboard the schooner on
+a visit of inspection.</p>
+
+<p>Long John told the story from first to last, with a great
+deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. "That was
+how it were, now, weren't it, Hawkins?" he would say,
+now and again, and I could always bear him entirely out.</p>
+
+<p>The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got
+away, but we all agreed there was nothing to be done, and
+after he had been complimented, Long John took up his
+crutch and departed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All hands aboard by four this afternoon!" shouted
+the squire after him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook, in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, squire," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't put
+much faith in your discoveries, as a general thing, but I
+will say this&mdash;John Silver suits me."</p>
+
+<p>"That man's a perfect trump," declared the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," added the doctor, "Jim may come on
+board with us, may he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure he may," said the squire. "Take your
+hat, Hawkins, and we'll see the ship."</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 334px;">
+<img src="images/009.png" width="334" height="299" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX<br />
+<small>POWDER AND ARMS</small></h2>
+
+<p>The <i>Hispaniola</i> lay some way out, and we went under
+the figureheads and around the sterns of many other
+ships, and their cables sometimes grated beneath our
+keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however,
+we swung alongside, and were met and saluted as we
+stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown old
+sailor, with earrings in his ears and a squint. He and
+the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon
+observed that things were not the same between Mr.
+Trelawney and the captain.</p>
+
+<p>This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry
+with everything on board, and was soon to tell us why,
+for we had hardly got down into the cabin when a sailor
+followed us.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I am always at the captain's orders. Show him in,"
+said the squire.</p>
+
+<p>The captain, who was close behind his messenger,
+entered at once, and shut the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All
+well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak plain, I
+believe, at the risk of offense. I don't like this cruise;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+I don't like the men; and I don't like my officer. That's
+short and sweet."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, sir, you don't like the ship?" inquired the
+squire, very angry, as I could see.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried,"
+said the captain. "She seems a clever craft; more I
+can't say."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?"
+said the squire.</p>
+
+<p>But here Doctor Livesey cut in.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay a bit," said he, "stay a bit. No use of such
+questions as that but to produce ill-feeling. The captain
+has said too much or he has said too little, and I'm bound
+to say that I require an explanation of his words. You
+don't, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to
+sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid me,"
+said the captain. "So far so good. But now I find
+that every man before the mast knows more than I do. I
+don't call that fair, now, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Next," said the captain, "I learn we are going after
+treasure&mdash;hear it from my own hands, mind you. Now,
+treasure is ticklish work; I don't like treasure voyages
+on any account; and I don't like them, above all, when
+they are secret, and when (begging your pardon, Mr.
+Trelawney) the secret has been told to the parrot."</p>
+
+<p>"Silver's parrot?" asked the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a way of speaking," said the captain. "Blabbed,
+I mean. It's my belief neither of you gentlemen know
+what you are about; but I'll tell you my way of it&mdash;life
+or death, and a close run."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough," replied
+Doctor Livesey. "We take the risk, but we are not so
+ignorant as you believe us. Next, you say you don't like
+the crew. Are they not good seamen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like them, sir," returned Captain Smollett.
+"And I think I should have had the choosing of my own
+hands, if you go to that."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you should," replied the doctor. "My friend
+should, perhaps, have taken you along with him; but the
+slight, if there be one, was unintentional. And you don't
+like Mr. Arrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman, but he's
+too free with the crew to be a good officer. A mate
+should keep himself to himself&mdash;shouldn't drink with
+the men before the mast."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean he drinks?" cried the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied the captain; "only that he's too
+familiar."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?"
+asked the doctor. "Tell us what you want."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this
+cruise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like iron," answered the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the captain. "Then, as you've
+heard me very patiently, saying things that I could not
+prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting the
+powder and the arms in the fore hold. Now, you have
+a good place under the cabin; why not put them there?&mdash;first
+point. Then you are bringing four of your own
+people with you, and they tell me some of them are to
+be berthed forward. Why not give them the berths
+here beside the cabin?&mdash;second point."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Any more?" asked Mr. Trelawney.</p>
+
+<p>"One more," said the captain. "There's been too much
+blabbing already."</p>
+
+<p>"Far too much," agreed the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued Captain
+Smollett; "that you have a map of an island; that
+there's crosses on the map to show where treasure is; and
+that the island lies&mdash;" And then he named the latitude
+and longitude exactly.</p>
+
+<p>"I never told that," cried the squire, "to a soul."</p>
+
+<p>"The hands know it, sir," returned the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins," cried
+the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't much matter who it was," replied the
+doctor. And I could see that neither he nor the captain
+paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney's protestations.
+Neither did I, to be sure, he was so loose a talker; yet
+in this case I believe he was really right, and that nobody
+had told the situation of the island.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," continued the captain, "I don't
+know who has this map, but I make it a point it shall be
+kept secret even from me and Mr. Arrow. Otherwise I
+would ask you to let me resign."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said the doctor. "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. In
+other words, you fear a mutiny."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Captain Smollett, "with no intention to
+take offense, I deny your right to put words into my
+mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in going to
+sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest; some of
+the men are the same; all may be for what I know. But
+I am responsible for the ship's safety and the life of every
+man Jack aboard of her. I see things going, as I think,
+not quite right; and I ask you to take certain precautions,
+or let me resign my berth. And that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Smollett," began the doctor, with a smile,
+"did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the
+mouse? You'll excuse me, I dare say, but you remind
+me of that fable. When you came in here I'll stake my
+wig you meant more than this."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," said the captain, "you are smart. When
+I came in here I meant to get discharged. I had no
+thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a word."</p>
+
+<p>"No more I would," cried the squire. "Had Livesey
+not been here I should have seen you to the deuce. As
+it is, I have heard you. I will do as you desire, but I
+think the worse of you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's as you please, sir," said the captain. "You'll
+find I do my duty."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>"Trelawney," said the doctor, "contrary to all my
+notions, I believe you have managed to get two honest
+men on board with you&mdash;that man and John Silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Silver, if you like," cried the squire, "but as for
+that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct
+unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-English."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the doctor, "we shall see."</p>
+
+<p>When we came on deck the men had begun already
+to take out the arms and powder, yo-ho-ing at their work,
+while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood by superintending.</p>
+
+<p>The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+whole schooner had been overhauled; six berths had been
+made astern, out of what had been the after-part of the
+main hold, and this set of cabins was only joined to the
+galley and forecastle by a sparred passage on the port
+side. It had been originally meant that the captain, Mr.
+Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the doctor, and the squire were
+to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth and I were to
+get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain were
+to sleep on deck in the companion, which had been
+enlarged on each side till you might almost have called
+it a round-house. Very low it was still, of course, but
+there was room to swing two hammocks, and even the
+mate seemed pleased with the arrangement. Even he,
+perhaps, had been doubtful as to the crew, but that is
+only guess, for, as you shall hear, we had not long the
+benefit of his opinion.</p>
+
+<p>We were all hard at work changing the powder and
+the berths, when the last man or two, and Long John
+along with them, came off in a shore-boat.</p>
+
+<p>The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness,
+and, as soon as he saw what was doing, "So ho, mates!"
+said he, "what's this!"</p>
+
+<p>"We're a-changing the powder, Jack," answers one.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we do,
+we'll miss the morning tide!"</p>
+
+<p>"My orders!" said the captain, shortly. "You may
+go below, my man. Hands will want supper."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook; and, touching his
+forelock, he disappeared at once in the direction of his
+galley.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good man, captain," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+with that, men&mdash;easy," he ran on, to the fellows who
+were shifting the powder; and then suddenly observing
+me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a long
+brass nine&mdash;"Here, you ship's boy," he cried, "out o'
+that! Off with you to the cook and get some work."</p>
+
+<p>And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite
+loudly, to the doctor:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have no favorites on my ship."</p>
+
+<p>I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking,
+and hated the captain deeply.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X<br />
+<small>THE VOYAGE</small></h2>
+
+<p>All that night we were in a great bustle getting things
+stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the squire's friends,
+Mr. Blandly and the like, coming off to wish him a good
+voyage and a safe return. We never had a night at the
+"Admiral Benbow" when I had half the work; and I
+was dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boatswain
+sounded his pipe, and the crew began to man the capstan bars.
+I might have been twice as weary, yet I would not
+have left the deck, all was so new and interesting to me&mdash;the
+brief commands, the shrill notes of the whistle, the
+men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's
+lanterns.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave," cried one voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The old one," cried another.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing
+by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke out
+in the air and words I knew so well:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 18em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest"&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And then the whole crew bore chorus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 15em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them
+with a will.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to
+the old "Admiral Benbow" in a second, and I seemed
+to hear the voice of the captain piping in the chorus. But
+soon the anchor was short up; soon it was hanging
+dripping at the bows; soon the sails began to draw, and
+the land and shipping to flit by on either side, and before
+I could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber the
+<i>Hispaniola</i> had begun her voyage to the Isle of Treasure.</p>
+
+<p>I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was
+fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a good ship,
+the crew were capable seamen, and the captain thoroughly
+understood his business. But before we came the length
+of Treasure Island, two or three things had happened
+which require to be known.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than
+the captain had feared. He had no command among the
+men, and people did what they pleased with him. But
+that was by no means the worst of it; for after a day or
+two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye,
+red cheeks, stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness.
+Time after time he was ordered below in disgrace.
+Sometimes he fell and cut himself; sometimes he lay all
+day long in his little bunk at one side of the companion;
+sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and
+attend to his work at least passably.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime we could never make out where he
+got the drink. That was the ship's mystery. Watch him
+as we pleased, we could do nothing to solve it, and when
+we asked him to his face, he would only laugh, if he were
+drunk, and if he were sober, deny solemnly that he ever
+tasted anything but water.</p>
+
+<p>He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+among the men, but it was plain that at this rate he must
+soon kill himself outright, so nobody was much surprised,
+nor very sorry, when one dark night, with a head sea, he
+disappeared entirely and was seen no more.</p>
+
+<p>"Overboard!" said the captain. "Well, gentlemen,
+that saves the trouble of putting him in irons."</p>
+
+<p>But there we were, without a mate, and it was necessary,
+of course, to advance one of the men. The boatswain,
+Job Anderson, was the likeliest man aboard, and though
+he kept his old title, he served in a way as mate. Mr.
+Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made
+him very useful, for he often took a watch himself in
+easy weather. And the coxswain, Israel Hands, was a
+careful, wily, old, experienced seaman, who could be
+trusted at a pinch with almost anything.</p>
+
+<p>He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and
+so the mention of his name leads me on to speak of our
+ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men called him.</p>
+
+<div class="figr"><a name="cpd" id="cpd"></a>
+<img src="images/010.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 71</div>
+<i>It was something to see him get on with his cooking like someone safe ashore</i></div>
+
+<p>Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round
+his neck, to have both hands as free as possible. It was
+something to see him wedge the foot of the crutch
+against a bulkhead, and, propped against it, yielding to
+every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking
+like someone safe ashore. Still more strange was it to
+see him in the heaviest of weather cross the deck. He
+had a line or two rigged up to help him across the widest
+spaces&mdash;Long John's earrings, they were called&mdash;and
+he would hand himself from one place to another, now
+using the crutch, now trailing it alongside by the lanyard,
+as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some of the
+men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity
+to see him so reduced.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He's no common man, Barbecue," said the coxswain
+to me. "He had good schooling in his young days, and
+can speak like a book when so minded; and brave&mdash;a
+lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him
+grapple four and knock their heads together&mdash;him
+unarmed."</p>
+
+<p>All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He had
+a way of talking to each, and doing everybody some
+particular service. To me he was unweariedly kind, and
+always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept as
+clean as a new pin; the dishes hanging up burnished, and
+his parrot in a cage in the corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; "come and
+have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than
+yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the news. Here's
+Cap'n Flint&mdash;I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the
+famous buccaneer&mdash;here's Cap'n Flint predicting success
+to our v'yage. Wasn't you, Cap'n?"</p>
+
+<p>And the parrot would say, with great rapidity: "Pieces
+of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!" till you wondered
+that it was not out of breath or till John threw his
+handkerchief over the cage.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, may be, two
+hundred years old, Hawkins&mdash;they live forever mostly,
+and if anybody's seen more wickedness it must be the
+devil himself. She's sailed with England&mdash;the great
+Cap'n England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar,
+and at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence, and
+Portobello. She was at the fishing up of the wrecked
+plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of eight,' and
+little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em,
+Hawkins! She was at the boarding of the <i>Viceroy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+the Indies</i> out of Goa, she was, and to look at her you
+would think she was a babby. But you smelt powder&mdash;didn't
+you, cap'n?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would
+say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and then the
+bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on, passing
+belief for wickedness. "There," John would add, "you
+can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this
+poor old innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire and
+none the wiser, you may lay to that. She would swear the
+same, in a manner of speaking, before the chaplain." And
+John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had,
+that made me think he was the best of men.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were
+still on pretty distant terms with one another. The squire
+made no bones about the matter; he despised the captain.
+The captain, on his part, never spoke but when he was
+spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
+word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that
+he seemed to have been wrong about the crew; that some
+of them were as brisk as he wanted to see, and all had
+behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a
+downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the
+wind than a man has a right to expect of his own married
+wife, sir. But," he would add, "all I say is, we're not
+home again, and I don't like the cruise."</p>
+
+<p>The squire, at this, would turn away and march up
+and down the deck, chin in air.</p>
+
+<p>"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I
+should explode."</p>
+
+<p>We had some heavy weather, which only proved the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+qualities of the <i>Hispaniola</i>. Every man on board seemed
+well content, and they must have been hard to please if
+they had been otherwise, for it is my belief there was
+never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea.
+Double grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff
+on odd days, as, for instance, if the squire heard it was
+any man's birthday; and always a barrel of apples standing
+broached in the waist, for anyone to help himself that
+had a fancy.</p>
+
+<p>"Never knew good to come of it yet," the captain said
+to Doctor Livesey. "Spoil foc's'le hands, make devils.
+That's my belief."</p>
+
+<p>But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall
+hear, for if it had not been for that we should have had
+no note of warning and might all have perished by the
+hand of treachery.</p>
+
+<p>This is how it came about.</p>
+
+<p>We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island
+we were after&mdash;I am not allowed to be more plain&mdash;and
+now we were running down for it with a bright lookout
+day and night. It was about the last day of our outward
+voyage, by the largest computation; some time that night,
+or, at latest, before noon of the morrow, we should sight
+the Treasure Island. We were heading south-southwest,
+and had a steady breeze abeam and a quiet sea. The
+<i>Hispaniola</i> rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and
+then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and
+aloft; everyone was in the bravest spirits, because we
+were now so near an end of the first part of our adventure.</p>
+
+<p>Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over
+and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred to me that
+I should like an apple. I ran on deck. The watch was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+all forward looking out for the island. The man at the
+helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away
+gently to himself, and that was the only sound excepting
+the swish of the sea against the bows and around the sides
+of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there
+was scarce an apple left; but, sitting down there in the
+dark, what with the sound of the waters and the rocking
+movement of the ship, I had either fallen asleep, or was
+on the point of doing so, when a heavy man sat down
+with rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he
+leaned his shoulders against it, and I was just about to
+jump up when the man began to speak. It was Silver's
+voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I would
+not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there,
+trembling and listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity;
+for from these dozen words I understood that the
+lives of all the honest men aboard depended upon me
+alone.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI<br />
+<small>WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL</small></h2>
+
+<p>"No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was
+quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The same broadside
+I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights. It was a
+master surgeon, him that ampytated me&mdash;out of college
+and all&mdash;Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was
+hanged like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso
+Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was, and comed of
+changing names to their ships&mdash;<i>Royal Fortune</i> and so
+on. Now, what a ship was christened, so let her stay, I
+says. So it was with the <i>Cassandra</i>, as brought us all
+safe home from Malabar, after England took the <i>Viceroy
+of the Indies</i>; so it was with the old <i>Walrus</i>, Flint's old
+ship, as I've seen a-muck with the red blood and fit to
+sink with gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand
+on board, and evidently full of admiration, "he was the
+flower of the flock, was Flint!"</p>
+
+<p>"Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said Silver.
+"I never sailed along of him; first with England, then
+with Flint, that's my story; and now here on my own
+account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine hundred
+safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That
+ain't bad for a man before the mast&mdash;all safe in bank.
+'Tain't earning now, it's saving does it, you may lay to
+that. Where's all England's men now? I dunno. Where's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+Flint's? Why, most of 'em aboard here, and glad to get
+the duff&mdash;been begging before that, some of 'em. Old
+Pew, as had lost his sight, and might have thought shame,
+spends twelve hundred pounds in a year, like a lord in
+Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now and
+under hatches; but for two years before that, shiver my
+timbers! the man was starving. He begged, and he stole,
+and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the powers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the young
+seaman.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it&mdash;that,
+nor nothing," cried Silver. "But now, you look here;
+you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I
+see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you
+like a man."</p>
+
+<p>You can imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable
+old rogue addressing another in the very same
+words of flattery as he had used to myself. I think, if
+I had been able, that I would have killed him through
+the barrel. Meantime he ran on, little supposing he was
+overheard.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives
+rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat and drink
+like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise is done, why it's
+hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in
+their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good
+fling, and to sea again in their shirts. But that's not the
+course I lay. I puts it all away, some here, some there,
+and none too much anywheres, by reason of suspicion.
+I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise I set up
+gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. Ah,
+but I've lived easy in the meantime; never denied myself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+o' nothing heart desires, and slept soft and ate dainty all
+my days, but when at sea. And how did I begin? Before
+the mast, like you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone
+now, ain't it? You daren't show face in Bristol after this."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked Silver,
+derisively.</p>
+
+<p>"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed
+anchor. But my old missis has it all by now. And the
+'Spy-glass' is sold, lease and good will and rigging; and
+the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you where, for
+I trust you; but it 'ud make jealousy among the mates."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can trust your missis?" asked the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually
+trust little among themselves, and right they are, you
+may lay to it. But I have a way with me, I have. When
+a mate brings a slip on his cable&mdash;one as knows me, I
+mean&mdash;it won't be in the same world with old John.
+There was some that was feared of Pew, and some that
+was feared of Flint; but Flint his own self was feared
+of me. Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest
+crew afloat, was Flint's; the devil himself would have
+been feared to go to sea with them. Well, now, I tell you,
+I'm not a boasting man, and you seen yourself how easy I
+keep company; but when I was quartermaster, <i>lambs</i>
+wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may
+be sure of yourself in old John's ship."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half
+a quarter like the job till I had this talk with you, John,
+but there's my hand on it now."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And a brave lad you were, and smart, too," answered
+Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all the barrel shook,
+"and a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I never
+clapped my eyes on."</p>
+
+<p>By this time I had begun to understand the meaning
+of their terms. By a "gentleman of fortune" they plainly
+meant neither more nor less than a common pirate, and
+the little scene that I had overheard was the last act
+in the corruption of one of the honest hands&mdash;perhaps of
+the last one left aboard. But on this point I was soon to
+be relieved, for, Silver giving a little whistle, a third man
+strolled up and sat down by the party.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick's square," said Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice
+of the coxswain, Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick."
+And he turned his quid and spat. "But, look here," he
+went on, "here's what I want to know, Barbecue&mdash;how
+long are we a-going to stand off and on like a blessed
+bumboat? I've had a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett;
+he's hazed me long enough, by thunder! I want to go into
+that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account,
+nor never was. But you're able to hear, I reckon; leastways
+your ears is big enough. Now, here's what I say&mdash;you'll
+berth forward, and you'll live hard, and you'll
+speak soft, and you'll keep sober, till I give the word; and
+you may lay to that, my son."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain.
+"What I say is, when? That's what I say."</p>
+
+<p>"When! by the powers!" cried Silver. "Well, now,
+if you want to know, I'll tell you when. The last moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+I can manage; and that's when. Here's a first-rate seaman,
+Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for us. Here's
+this squire and doctor with a map and such&mdash;I don't
+know where it is, do I? No more do you, says you. Well,
+then, I mean this squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and
+help us to get it aboard, by the powers! Then we'll see.
+If I was sure of you all, sons of double Dutchmen, I'd have
+Cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back again before I
+struck."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think,"
+said the lad Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver.
+"We can steer a course, but who's to set one? That's
+what all you gentlemen split on, first and last. If I had
+my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back into the
+trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations
+and a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort you
+are. I'll finish with 'em at the island, as soon's the blunt's
+on board, and a pity it is. But you're never happy till
+you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a sick heart to sail
+with the likes of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin'
+of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I
+seen laid aboard? and how many brisk lads drying in
+the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver; "and all for
+this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me?
+I seen a thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y
+lay your course, and a p'int to windward, you would ride
+in carriages, you would. But not you! I know you.
+You'll have your mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go
+hang."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling,
+John; but there's others as could hand and steer as well
+as you," said Israel. "They liked a bit o' fun, they did.
+They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their fling,
+like jolly companions, everyone."</p>
+
+<p>"So?" said Silver. "Well, and where are they now?
+Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. Flint was,
+and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they was a sweet
+crew, they was! on'y, where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay 'em athwart, what
+are we to do with 'em, anyhow?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's the man for me!" cried the cook, admiringly.
+"That's what I call business. Well, what would you
+think? Put 'em ashore like maroons? That would have
+been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that much
+pork? That would have been Flint's or Billy Bones's."</p>
+
+<p>"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead
+men don't bite,' says he. Well, he's dead now, hisself; he
+knows the long and short on it now; and if ever a rough
+hand come to port, it was Billy."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are," said Silver, "rough and ready. But
+mark you here: I'm an easy man&mdash;I'm quite the gentleman,
+says you; but this time it's serious. Dooty is dooty,
+mates. I give my vote&mdash;death. When I'm in Parlyment,
+and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these sea-lawyers
+in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked for, like
+the devil at prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the
+time comes, why let her rip!"</p>
+
+<p>"John," cried the coxswain, "you're a man!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll say so, Israel, when you see," said Silver.
+"Only one thing I claim&mdash;I claim Trelawney. I'll
+wring his calf's head off his body with these hands.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+Dick!" he added, breaking off, "you must jump up, like
+a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."</p>
+
+<p>You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have
+leaped out and run for it, if I had found the strength;
+but my limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard Dick
+begin to rise, and then some one seemingly stopped him,
+and the voice of Hands exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stow that! Don't you get sucking of that bilge,
+John. Let's have a go of the rum."</p>
+
+<p>"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the
+keg, mind. There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring
+it up."</p>
+
+<p>Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself
+that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong
+waters that destroyed him.</p>
+
+<p>Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence
+Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a
+word or two that I could catch, and yet I gathered some
+important news; for, besides other scraps that tended to
+the same purpose, this whole clause was audible: "Not
+another man of them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful
+men on board.</p>
+
+<p>When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took
+the pannikin and drank&mdash;one "To luck"; another with
+a "Here's to old Flint," and Silver himself saying, in a
+kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your luff,
+plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."</p>
+
+<p>Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel,
+and, looking up, I found the moon had risen, and was
+silvering the mizzen-top and shining white on the luff
+of the foresail, and almost at the same time the voice
+on the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII<br />
+<small>COUNCIL OF WAR</small></h2>
+
+<p>There was a great rush of feet across the deck. I could
+hear people tumbling up from the cabin and the foc's'le;
+and slipping in an instant outside my barrel, I dived
+behind the foresail, made a double towards the stern, and
+came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and
+Doctor Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.</p>
+
+<p>There all hands were already congregated. A belt of
+fog had lifted almost simultaneously with the appearance
+of the moon. Away to the southwest of us we saw two
+low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and rising behind
+one of them a third and higher hill, whose peak was still
+buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>So much I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet
+recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or two before.
+And then I heard the voice of Captain Smollett issuing
+orders. The <i>Hispaniola</i> was laid a couple of points
+nearer the wind, and now sailed a course that would just
+clear the island on the east.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, men," said the captain, when all was
+sheeted home, "has any one of you ever seen that land
+ahead?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there with
+a trader I was cook in."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I
+fancy?" asked the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a
+main place for pirates once, and a hand we had on
+board knowed all their names for it. That hill to the
+nor'ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are three
+hills in a row running south'ard&mdash;fore, main, and mizzen,
+sir. But the main&mdash;that's the big 'un, with the
+cloud on it&mdash;they usually calls the Spy-glass, by reason
+of a lookout they kept when they was in the anchorage
+cleaning; for it's there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking
+your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a chart here," said Captain Smollett. "See
+if that's the place."</p>
+
+<p>Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the
+chart, but, by the fresh look of the paper, I knew he was
+doomed to disappointment. This was not the map we
+found in Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy, complete
+in all things&mdash;names, and heights, and soundings&mdash;with
+the single exception of the red crosses and the written
+notes. Sharp as must have been his annoyance, Silver had
+the strength of mind to hide it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said he, "this is the spot, to be sure, and
+very prettily drawed out. Who might have done that, I
+wonder? The pirates were too ignorant, I reckon. Ay,
+here it is: 'Captain Kidd's Anchorage'&mdash;just the name
+my shipmate called it. There's a strong current runs
+along the south, and then away nor'ard up the west coast.
+Right you was, sir," said he, "to haul your wind and
+keep the weather of the island. Leastways, if such was
+your intention as to enter and careen, and there ain't no
+better place for that in these waters."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my man," said Captain Smollett. "I'll
+ask you, later on, to give us a help. You may go."</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed
+his knowledge of the island, and I own I was half-frightened
+when I saw him drawing nearer to myself. He
+did not know, to be sure, that I had overheard his council
+from the apple barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken
+such a horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I
+could scarce conceal a shudder when he laid his hand
+upon my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, "this here is a sweet spot, this island&mdash;a
+sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe, and
+you'll climb trees, and you'll hunt goats, you will, and
+you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat yourself. Why,
+it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber
+leg, I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young, and have
+ten toes, and you may lay to that. When you want to go
+a bit of exploring, you just ask old John and he'll put up
+a snack for you to take along."</p>
+
+<p>And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder,
+he hobbled off forward and went below.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Smollett, the squire, and Doctor Livesey were
+talking together on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I
+was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them
+openly. While I was still casting about in my thoughts
+to find some probable excuse, Doctor Livesey called me to
+his side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave
+to tobacco, had meant that I should fetch it; but as soon
+as I was near enough to speak and not be overheard, I
+broke out immediately: "Doctor, let me speak. Get
+the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make
+some pretense to send for me. I have terrible news."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The doctor changed countenance a little, but next
+moment he was master of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Jim," said he, quite loudly; "that was all
+I wanted to know," as if he had asked me a question.</p>
+
+<p>And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the
+other two. They spoke together for a little, and though
+none of them started, or raised his voice, or so much as
+whistled, it was plain enough that Doctor Livesey had
+communicated my request, for the next thing that I heard
+was the captain giving an order to Job Anderson, and all
+hands were piped on deck.</p>
+
+<p>"My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say
+to you. This land that we have sighted is the place we
+have been sailing to. Mr. Trelawney, being a very open-handed
+gentleman, as we all know, has just asked me a
+word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man
+on board had done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask
+to see it done better, why, he and I and the doctor are
+going below to the cabin to drink <i>your</i> health and luck,
+and you'll have grog served out for you to drink <i>our</i> health
+and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this: I think it
+handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good
+sea cheer for the gentleman that does it."</p>
+
+<p>The cheer followed&mdash;that was a matter of course&mdash;but
+it rang out so full and hearty, that I confess I could
+hardly believe these same men were plotting for our blood.</p>
+
+<p>"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett!" cried Long
+John, when the first had subsided.</p>
+
+<p>And this also was given with a will.</p>
+
+<p>On the top of that the three gentlemen went below,
+and not long after, word was sent forward that Jim
+Hawkins was wanted in the cabin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I found them all three seated around the table, a bottle
+of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, and
+the doctor smoking away, with his wig on his lap,
+and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The
+stern window was open, for it was a warm night, and
+you could see the moon shining behind on the ship's
+wake.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something
+to say. Speak up."</p>
+
+<p>I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make it,
+told the whole details of Silver's conversation. Nobody
+interrupted me till I was done, nor did anyone of the
+three of them make so much as a movement, but they
+kept their eyes upon my face from first to last.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," said Doctor Livesey, "take a seat."</p>
+
+<p>And they made me sit down at a table beside them,
+poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands with
+raisins, and all three, one after the other, and each with
+a bow, drank my good health, and their service to me, for
+my luck and courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right and
+I was wrong. I own myself an ass, and I await your
+orders."</p>
+
+<p>"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I
+never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny but what
+showed signs before, for any man that had an eye in his
+head to see the mischief and take steps according. But
+this crew," he added, "beats me."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission,
+that's Silver. A very remarkable man."</p>
+
+<p>"He'd look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir,"
+returned the captain. "But this is talk; this don't lead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+to anything. I see three or four points, and with Mr.
+Trelawney's permission I'll name them."</p>
+
+<p>"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," said
+Mr. Trelawney, grandly.</p>
+
+<p>"First point," began Mr. Smollett, "we must go on
+because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to turn
+about, they would rise at once. Second point, we have
+time before us&mdash;at least until this treasure's found.
+Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got
+to come to blows sooner or later, and what I propose is
+to take time by the forelock, as the saying is, and come to
+blows some fine day when they least expect it. We can
+count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney?"</p>
+
+<p>"As upon myself," declared the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"Three," reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven,
+counting Hawkins here. Now, about the honest hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor;
+"those he picked up for himself before he lit on Silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," replied the squire, "Hands was one of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I did think I could have trusted Hands," added the
+captain.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out
+the squire. "Sir, I could find it in my heart to blow the
+ship up."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that I
+can say is not much. We must lay to, if you please, and
+keep a bright lookout. It's trying on a man, I know. It
+would be pleasanter to come to blows. But there's no
+help for it till we know our men. Lay to and whistle for
+a wind; that's my view."</p>
+
+<p>"Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+anyone. The men are not shy with him and Jim is a
+noticing lad."</p>
+
+<p>"Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the
+squire.</p>
+
+<p>I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether
+helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances,
+it was indeed through me that safety came. In
+the meantime, talk as we pleased, there were only seven
+out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely,
+and out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown
+men on our side were six to their nineteen.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART III</small><br />
+MY SHORE ADVENTURE</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII<br />
+<small>HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN</small></h2>
+
+<p>The appearance of the island when I came on deck next
+morning was altogether changed. Although the breeze
+had now utterly ceased, we had made a great deal of way
+during the night and were now lying becalmed about half
+a mile to the southeast of the low eastern coast. Gray-colored
+woods covered a large part of the surface. This
+even tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break
+in the lower lands and by many tall trees of the pine
+family, out-topping the others&mdash;some singly, some in
+clumps; but the general coloring was uniform and sad.
+The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of
+naked rock. All were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass,
+which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest on the
+island, was likewise the strangest in configuration, running
+up sheer from almost every side and then suddenly cut
+off at the top like a pedestal to put a statue on.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Hispaniola</i> was rolling scuppers under in the ocean
+swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder
+was banging to and fro, and the whole ship creaking,
+groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had to cling
+tight to the backstay and the world turned giddily before
+my eyes; for though I was a good enough sailor when
+there was way on, this standing still and being rolled
+about like a bottle was a thing I never learned to stand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an
+empty stomach.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was this&mdash;perhaps it was the look of the
+island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone
+spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear
+foaming and thundering on the steep beach&mdash;at least,
+although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore
+birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would
+have thought anyone would have been glad to get to land
+after being so long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is,
+into my boots, and from that first look onward I hated the
+very thought of Treasure Island.</p>
+
+<p>We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there
+was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out
+and manned, and the ship warped three or four miles
+round the corner of the island and up the narrow passage
+to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for
+one of the boats, where I had, of course, no business. The
+heat was sweltering and the men grumbled fiercely over
+their work. Anderson was in command of my boat, and
+instead of keeping the crew in order he grumbled as loud
+as the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, with an oath, "it's not forever."</p>
+
+<p>I thought this was a very bad sign, for, up to that day,
+the men had gone briskly and willingly about their
+business, but the very sight of the island had relaxed the
+cords of discipline.</p>
+
+<p>All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and
+conned the ship. He knew the passage like the palm of
+his hand; and though the man in the chains got everywhere
+more water than was down in the chart, John never
+hesitated once.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he said, "and
+this here passage has been dug out, in a manner of
+speaking, with a spade."</p>
+
+<p>We brought up just where the anchor was in the chart,
+about a third of a mile from each shore, the mainland on
+one side and Skeleton Island on the other. The bottom
+was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up clouds
+of birds wheeling and crying over the woods, but in less
+than a minute they were down again, and all was once
+more silent.</p>
+
+<p>The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods,
+the trees coming right down to high-water mark, the
+shores mostly flat, and the hill-tops standing round at a
+distance in a sort of amphitheater, one here, one there.
+Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into
+this pond, as you might call it and the foliage round that
+part of the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. From
+the ship we could see nothing of the house or stockade,
+for they were quite buried among trees; and if it had not
+been for the chart on the companion, we might have been
+the first that had ever anchored there since the islands
+arose out of the seas.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but
+that of the surf booming half a mile away along the
+beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar stagnant
+smell hung over the anchorage&mdash;a smell of sodden
+leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor
+sniffing and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake
+my wig there's fever here."</p>
+
+<p>If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the
+boat, it became truly threatening when they had come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+aboard. They lay about the deck, growling together in
+talk. The slightest order was received with a black look,
+and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest
+hands must have caught the infection, for there was not
+one man aboard to mend another. Mutiny, it was plain,
+hung over us like a thundercloud.</p>
+
+<p>And it was not only we of the cabin party who perceived
+the danger. Long John was hard at work going
+from group to group, spending himself in good advice,
+and as for example no man could have shown a better. He
+fairly outstripped himself in willingness and civility; he
+was all smiles to everyone. If an order were given,
+John would be on his crutch in an instant, with the
+cheeriest "Ay, ay, sir!" in the world; and when there
+was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another,
+as if to conceal the discontent of the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon,
+this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John appeared
+the worst.</p>
+
+<p>We held a council in the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another order, the
+whole ship'll come about our ears by the run. You see,
+sir, here it is. I get a rough answer, do I not? Well, if I
+speak back, pikes will be going in two shakes; if I don't,
+Silver will see there's something under that, and the
+game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is that?" asked the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's as anxious
+as you and I to smother things up. This is a tiff; he'd
+soon talk 'em out of it if he had the chance, and what I
+propose to do is to give him the chance. Let's allow the
+men an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why, we'll fight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+the ship. If they none of them go, well, then, we hold
+the cabin, and God defend the right. If some go, you
+mark my words, sir, Silver'll bring 'em aboard again as
+mild as lambs."</p>
+
+<p>It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all
+the sure men. Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were taken
+into our confidence, and received the news with less surprise
+and a better spirit than we had looked for, and then
+the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.</p>
+
+<p>"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are all
+tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody; the
+boats are still in the water; you can take the gigs, and as
+many as please can go ashore for the afternoon. I'll fire
+a gun half an hour before sundown."</p>
+
+<p>I believe the silly fellows must have thought they would
+break their shins over treasure as soon as they were landed;
+for they all came out of their sulks in a moment, and gave
+a cheer that started the echo in a far-away hill, and sent
+the birds once more flying and squalling round the
+anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was too bright to be in the way. He
+whipped out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to
+arrange the party, and I fancy it was as well he did so.
+Had he been on deck he could no longer so much as have
+pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain
+as day. Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious
+crew he had of it. The honest hands&mdash;and I was soon to
+see it proved that there were such on board&mdash;must have
+been very stupid fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the truth
+was this, that all hands were disaffected by the example
+of the ringleaders&mdash;only some more, some less; and a few,
+being good fellows in the main, could neither be led nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+driven any farther. It is one thing to be idle and skulk,
+and quite another to take a ship and murder a number of
+innocent men.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows
+were to stay on board, and the remaining thirteen, including
+Silver, began to embark.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that there came into my head the first of
+the mad notions that contributed so much to save our lives.
+If six men were left by Silver, it was plain our party
+could not take and fight the ship; and since only six were
+left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had no
+present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at once
+to go ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side and
+curled up in the foresheets of the nearest boat, and almost
+at the same moment she shoved off.</p>
+
+<p>No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, "Is
+that you, Jim? Keep your head down." But Silver, from
+the other boat, looked sharply over and called out to
+know if that were me; and from that moment I began to
+regret what I had done.</p>
+
+<p>The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in,
+having some start, and being at once the lighter and the
+better manned, shot far ahead of her consort, and the bow
+had struck among the shore-side trees, and I had caught
+a branch and swung myself out, and plunged into the
+nearest thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a
+hundred yards behind.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting.</p>
+
+<p>But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, ducking,
+and breaking through, I ran straight before my nose, till
+I could run no longer.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV<br />
+<small>THE FIRST BLOW</small></h2>
+
+<p>I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John,
+that I began to enjoy myself and look around me with
+some interest on the strange land that I was in. I had
+crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and
+odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and had now come out
+upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy
+country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines, and
+a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in
+growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far
+side of the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint,
+craggy peaks, shining vividly in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The
+isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind,
+and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and
+fowls. I turned hither and thither among the trees. Here
+and there were flowering plants, unknown to me; here
+and there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a
+ledge of rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike the
+spinning of a top. Little did I suppose that he was a
+deadly enemy, and that the noise was the famous rattle.</p>
+
+<p>Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like trees&mdash;live,
+or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterward they should
+be called&mdash;which grew low along the sand like brambles,
+the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage compact, like
+thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+of the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it
+went, until it reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen,
+through which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its
+way into the anchorage. The marsh was steaming in the
+strong sun, and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled
+through the haze.</p>
+
+<p>All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among
+the bulrushes; a wild duck flew up with a quack, another
+followed, and soon over the whole surface of the marsh
+a great cloud of birds hung screaming and circling in the
+air. I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be
+drawing near along the borders of the fen. Nor was I
+deceived, for soon I heard the very distant and low tones
+of a human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew
+steadily louder and nearer.</p>
+
+<p>This put me in great fear, and I crawled under cover
+of the nearest live-oak, and squatted there, hearkening,
+as silent as a mouse.</p>
+
+<p>Another voice answered; and then the first voice, which
+I now recognized to be Silver's, once more took up the
+story, and ran on for a long while in a stream, only now
+and again interrupted by the other. By the sound they
+must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely, but
+no distinct word came to my hearing.</p>
+
+<p>At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps
+to have sat down, for not only did they cease to draw any
+nearer, but the birds themselves began to grow more
+quiet, and to settle again to their places in the swamp.</p>
+
+<p>And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my
+business; that since I had been so foolhardy as to come
+ashore with these desperadoes, the least I could do was
+to overhear them at their councils, and that my plain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage,
+under the favorable ambush of the crouching trees.</p>
+
+<p>I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly,
+not only by the sound of their voices, but by the behavior
+of the few birds that still hung in alarm above the heads
+of the intruders.</p>
+
+<p>Crawling on all-fours, I made steadily but slowly
+towards them, till at last, raising my head to an aperture
+among the leaves, I could see clear down into a little
+green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about with
+trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew
+stood face to face in conversation.</p>
+
+<p>The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his
+hat beside him on the ground, and his great, smooth,
+blonde face, all shining with heat, was lifted to the other
+man's in a kind of appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"Mate," he was saying, "it's because I thinks gold dust
+of you&mdash;gold dust, and you may lay to that! If I hadn't
+took to you like pitch, do you think I'd have been here
+a-warning of you? All's up&mdash;you can't make nor mend;
+it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of
+the wild 'uns knew it, where 'ud I be, Tom&mdash;now tell
+me, where 'ud I be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silver," said the other man&mdash;and I observed he was
+not only red in the face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow,
+and his voice shook, too, like a taut rope&mdash;"Silver,"
+says he, "you're old, and you're honest, or has the name
+for it; and you've money, too, which lots of poor sailors
+hasn't; and you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you
+tell me you'll let yourself be led away with that kind of
+a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure as God sees me, I'd
+sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin my dooty&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise.
+I had found one of the honest hands&mdash;well, here, at that
+same moment, came news of another. Far away out in
+the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound like the
+cry of anger, then another on the back of it, and then one
+horrid, long-drawn scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass
+re-echoed it a score of times; the whole troop of marsh-birds
+rose again, darkening heaven with a simultaneous
+whir; and long after that death-yell was still ringing
+in my brain, silence had re-established its empire,
+and only the rustle of the redescending birds and the
+boom of the distant surges disturbed the languor of the
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the spur;
+but Silver had not winked an eye. He stood where he
+was, resting lightly on his crutch, watching his companion
+like a snake about to spring.</p>
+
+<p>"John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off!" cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it
+seemed to me, with the speed and security of a trained
+gymnast.</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other.
+"It's a black conscience that can make you feared of me.
+But, in heaven's name, tell me what was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"That?" returned Silver, smiling away, but warier
+than ever, his eye a mere pin-point in his big face, but
+gleaming like a crumb of glass. "That? Oh, I reckon
+that'll be Alan."</p>
+
+<p>And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.</p>
+
+<p>"Alan!" he cried. "Then rest his soul for a true
+seaman! And as for you, John Silver, long you've been
+a mate of mine, but you're mate of mine no more. If I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+die like a dog I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan,
+have you? Kill me, too, if you can. But I defies you."</p>
+
+<p>And with that this brave fellow turned his back
+directly on the cook and set off walking for the beach.
+But he was not destined to go far. With a cry John
+seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of
+his armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through
+the air. It struck poor Tom, point foremost, and with
+stunning violence, right between the shoulders in the
+middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort of
+gasp and fell.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he was injured much or little, none could ever
+tell. Like enough, to judge from the sound, his back was
+broken on the spot. But he had no time given him to
+recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even without leg or
+crutch, was on the top of him next moment, and had twice
+buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenseless body.
+From my place of ambush I could hear him pant aloud
+as he struck the blows.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what it rightly is to faint, but I do know
+that for the next little while the whole world swam away
+from before me in a whirling mist; Silver and the birds
+and the tall Spy-glass hilltop going round and round and
+topsy-turvy before my eyes, and all manner of bells
+ringing, and distant voices shouting in my ear.</p>
+
+<p>When I came again to myself the monster had pulled
+himself together, his crutch under his arm, his hat upon
+his head. Just before him Tom lay motionless upon the
+sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit, cleansing
+his blood-stained knife the while upon a whisp of grass.
+Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly
+upon the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+the mountain, and I could scarce persuade myself that
+murder had actually been done and a human life cruelly
+cut short a moment since, before my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But now John put his hand into his pocket, brought out
+a whistle, and blew upon it several modulated blasts, that
+rang far across the heated air. I could not tell, of course,
+the meaning of the signal, but it instantly awoke my fears.
+More men would be coming. I might be discovered.
+They had already slain two of the honest people; after
+Tom and Alan, might not I come next?</p>
+
+<p>Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl back
+again, with what speed and silence I could manage, to
+the more open portion of the wood. As I did so I could
+hear hails coming and going between the old buccaneer
+and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings.
+As soon as I was clear of the thicket, I ran as I never ran
+before, scarce minding the direction of my flight, so long
+as it led me from the murderers, and as I ran, fear grew
+and grew upon me, until it turned into a kind of frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, could anyone be more entirely lost than I?
+When the gun fired, how should I dare to go down to
+the boats among those fiends, still smoking from their
+crime? Would not the first of them who saw me wring
+my neck like a snipe's? Would not my absence itself be
+an evidence to them of my alarm, and therefore of my
+fatal knowledge? It was all over, I thought. Good-by
+to the <i>Hispaniola</i>, good-by to the squire, the doctor, and
+the captain. There was nothing left for me but death by
+starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers.</p>
+
+<p>All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, without
+taking any notice, I had drawn near to the foot of
+the little hill with the two peaks, and had got into a part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+of the island where the wild oaks grew more widely apart,
+and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing and
+dimensions. Mingled with these were a few scattered
+pines, some fifty, some nearer seventy, feet high. The air,
+too, smelled more fresh than down beside the marsh.</p>
+
+<p>And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with
+a thumping heart.</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/011.png" width="408" height="441" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV<br />
+<small>THE MAN OF THE ISLAND</small></h2>
+
+<p>From the side of the hill, which was here steep and
+stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling
+and bounding through the trees. My eyes turned instinctively
+in that direction, and I saw a figure leap with great
+rapidity behind the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether
+bear, or man, or monkey, I could in nowise tell. It seemed
+dark and shaggy; more I knew not. But the terror of this
+new apparition brought me to a stand.</p>
+
+<p>I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides: behind
+me the murderers, before me this lurking nondescript.
+And immediately I began to prefer the dangers that I
+knew to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared less
+terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods, and
+I turned on my heel, and, looking sharply behind me
+over my shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the
+direction of the boats.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a wide
+circuit, began to head me off. I was tired, at any rate,
+but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I could see it was
+in vain for me to contend in speed with such an adversary.
+From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer, running
+man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had
+ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man
+it was! I could no longer be in doubt about that.</p>
+
+<p>I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+was within an ace of calling for help. But the mere fact
+that he was a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured
+me, and my fear of Silver began to revive in proportion.
+I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of
+escape, and as I was so thinking, the recollection of my
+pistol flashed into my mind. As soon as I remembered
+I was not defenseless, courage glowed again in my heart,
+and I set my face resolutely for this man of the island, and
+walked briskly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>He was concealed by this time, behind another tree-trunk,
+but he must have been watching me closely, for as
+soon as I began to move in his direction he reappeared
+and took a step to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew
+back, came forward again, and, at last, to my wonder
+and confusion, threw himself on his knees and held out
+his clasped hands in supplication.</p>
+
+<p>At that I once more stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice sounded
+hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben
+Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke with a Christian these
+three years."</p>
+
+<p>I could now see that he was a white man like myself,
+and that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever
+it was exposed, was burned by the sun; even his lips
+were black, and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so
+dark a face. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen or
+fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed
+with tatters of old ships' canvas and old sea-cloth, and
+this extraordinary patchwork was all held together
+by a system of the most various and incongruous fastenings,
+brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+gaskin. About his waist he wore an old brass-buckled
+leather belt, which was the one thing solid in his whole
+accouterment.</p>
+
+<p>"Three years!" I cried. "Were you shipwrecked?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, mate," said he, "marooned."</p>
+
+<p>I had heard the word and I knew it stood for a horrible
+kind of punishment common enough among the buccaneers,
+in which the offender is put ashore with a little
+powder and shot and left behind on some desolate and
+distant island.</p>
+
+<p>"Marooned three years agone," he continued, "and
+lived on goats since then, and berries and oysters. Wherever
+a man is, says I, a man can do for himself. But,
+mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You mightn't
+happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No?
+Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese&mdash;toasted,
+mostly&mdash;and woke up again, and here I were."</p>
+
+<p>"If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you shall
+have cheese by the stone."</p>
+
+<p>All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket,
+smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, and generally,
+in the intervals of his speech, showing a childish pleasure
+in the presence of a fellow-creature. But at my last words
+he perked up into a kind of startled slyness.</p>
+
+<p>"If ever you get aboard again, says you?" he repeated.
+"Why, now, who's to hinder you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not you, I know," was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>"And right you was," he cried. "Now you&mdash;what
+do you call yourself, mate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," I told him.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim, Jim," says he, quite pleased, apparently. "Well,
+now, Jim, I've lived that rough as you'd be ashamed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+hear of. Now, for instance, you wouldn't think I had
+had a pious mother&mdash;to look at me?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no, not in particular," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well," said he, "but I had&mdash;remarkable pious.
+And I was a civil, pious boy, and could rattle off my
+catechism that fast as you couldn't tell one word from
+another. And here's what it come to, Jim, and it begun
+with chuck-farthen on the blessed gravestones! That's
+what it begun with, but it went further'n that, and so
+my mother told me, and predicked the whole, she did,
+the pious woman. But it were Providence that put me
+here. I've thought it all out in this here lonely island
+and I'm back on piety. You can't catch me tasting rum
+so much, but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, the
+first chance I have. I'm bound I'll be good, and I see
+the way to. And, Jim"&mdash;looking all round him and
+lowering his voice to a whisper&mdash;"I'm rich."</p>
+
+<p>I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy
+in his solitude, and I suppose I must have shown
+the feeling in my face, for he repeated the statement
+hotly:</p>
+
+<p>"Rich! rich! I says. And I'll tell you what, I'll make
+a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless your stars, you
+will, you was the first that found me!"</p>
+
+<p>And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow
+over his face and he tightened his grasp upon my hand
+and raised a forefinger threateningly before my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Jim, you tell me true; that ain't Flint's ship?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to believe
+that I had found an ally and I answered him at once.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not Flint's ship and Flint is dead, but I'll tell you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+true, as you ask me&mdash;there are some of Flint's hands
+aboard; worse luck for the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a man&mdash;with one&mdash;leg?" he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Silver?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Silver!" says he, "that were his name."</p>
+
+<p>"He's the cook, and the ringleader, too."</p>
+
+<p>He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he
+gave it quite a wring. "If you was sent by Long John,"
+he said, "I'm as good as pork and I know it. But where
+was you, do you suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of
+answer told him the whole story of our voyage and the
+predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard
+me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he
+patted me on the head.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a good lad, Jim," he said, "and you're all in
+a clove hitch, ain't you? Well, you just put your trust
+in Ben Gunn&mdash;Ben Gunn's the man to do it. Would
+you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove
+a liberal-minded one in case of help&mdash;him being in a
+clove hitch, as you remark?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, but you see," returned Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean
+giving me a gate to keep and a suit of livery clothes, and
+such; that's not my mark, Jim. What I mean is, would
+he be likely to come down to the toon of, say one thousand
+pounds out of money that's as good as a man's own
+already?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he would," said I. "As it was, all hands
+were to share."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>And</i> a passage home?" he added, with a look of great
+shrewdness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. And, besides,
+if we got rid of the others, we should want you
+to help work the vessel home."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, "so you would." And he seemed very
+much relieved.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "So much I'll
+tell you, and no more. I were in Flint's ship when he
+buried the treasure; he and six along&mdash;six strong seamen.
+They was ashore nigh on a week, and us standing off and
+on in the old <i>Walrus</i>. One fine day up went the signal,
+and here come Flint by himself in a little boat, and his
+head done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and
+mortal white he looked about the cutwater. But, there he
+was, you mind, and the six all dead&mdash;dead and buried.
+How had he done it, not a man aboard us could make out.
+It was battle, murder, and sudden death, leastways&mdash;him
+against six. Billy Bones was the mate; Long John, he was
+quartermaster; and they asked him where the treasure was.
+'Ah,' says he, 'you can go ashore, if you like, and stay,'
+he says; 'but as for the ship, she'll beat up for more, by
+thunder!' That's what he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we
+sighted this island. 'Boys,' said I, 'here's Flint's treasure;
+let's land and find it.' The cap'n was displeased at that;
+but my messmates were all of a mind, and landed. Twelve
+days they looked for it, and every day they had the worse
+word for me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard.
+'As for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,'
+they says, 'and a spade, and a pickax. You can stay here
+and find Flint's money for yourself,' they says.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite
+of Christian diet from that day to this. But now, you look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+here; look at me. Do I look like a man before the mast?
+No, says you. Nor I weren't, neither, I says."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he winked and pinched me hard.</p>
+
+<p>"Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim,"
+he went on. "Nor he weren't neither&mdash;that's the words.
+Three years he were the man of this island, light and dark,
+fair and rain; and sometimes he would, may be, think
+upon a prayer (says you), and sometimes he would, may
+be, think of his old mother, so be as she's alive (you'll
+say); but the most part of Gunn's time (this is what you'll
+say)&mdash;the most part of his time was took up with another
+matter. And then you'll give him a nip, like I do."</p>
+
+<p>And he pinched me again, in the most confidential
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," he continued, "then you'll up, and you'll say
+this: Gunn is a good man (you'll say), and he puts a
+precious sight more confidence&mdash;a precious sight, mind
+that&mdash;in a gen'leman born than in these gen'lemen of
+fortune, having been one hisself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I said, "I don't understand one word that
+you've been saying. But that's neither here nor there; for
+how am I to get on board?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, "that's the hitch, for sure. Well, there's
+my boat that I made with my two hands. I keep her
+under the white rock. If the worst come to the worst, we
+might try that after dark. Hi!" he broke out, "what's
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>For just then, although the sun had still an hour or two
+to run, all the echoes of the island awoke and bellowed to
+the thunder of a cannon.</p>
+
+<p>"They have begun to fight!" I cried. "Follow me!"</p>
+
+<p>And I began to run toward the anchorage, my terrors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+all forgotten; while, close at my side, the marooned man
+in his goat-skins trotted easily and lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Left, left," says he; "keep to your left hand, mate
+Jim! Under the trees with you! There's where I killed
+my first goat. They don't come down here now; they're
+all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of Benjamin
+Gunn. Ah! and there's the cetemery"&mdash;cemetery
+he must have meant. "You see the mounds? I come
+here and prayed, nows and thens, when I thought maybe a
+Sunday would be about doo. It weren't quite a chapel,
+but it seemed more solemn like; and then, says you, Ben
+Gunn was shorthanded&mdash;no chapling, nor so much as a
+Bible and a flag, you says."</p>
+
+<p>So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving
+any answer.</p>
+
+<p>The cannon-shot was followed, after a considerable
+interval, by a volley of small arms.</p>
+
+<p>Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mile in front
+of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above
+a wood.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART IV</small><br />
+THE STOCKADE</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI<br />
+<small>NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR&mdash;HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED</small></h2>
+
+<p>It was about half-past one&mdash;three bells in the sea
+phrase&mdash;that the two boats went ashore from the
+<i>Hispaniola</i>. The captain, the squire, and I were talking
+matters over in the cabin. Had there been a breath of
+wind, we should have fallen on the six mutineers who
+were left aboard with us, slipped our cable, and away to
+sea. But the wind was wanting; and, to complete our
+helplessness, down came Hunter with the news that Jim
+Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was gone ashore
+with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>It had never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins,
+but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men in the
+temper they were in, it seemed an even chance if we
+should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch
+was bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place
+turned me sick; if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery
+it was in that abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels
+were sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle;
+ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a man sitting
+in each, hard by where the river runs in. One of them
+was whistling "Lillibullero."</p>
+
+<p>Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter
+and I should go ashore with the jolly-boat, in quest of
+information.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I
+pulled straight in, in the direction of the stockade upon
+the chart. The two who were left guarding their boats
+seemed in a bustle at our appearance; "Lillibullero"
+stopped off, and I could see the pair discussing what they
+ought to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might
+have turned out differently; but they had their orders,
+I suppose, and decided to sit quietly where they were
+and hark back again to "Lillibullero."</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so
+as to put it between us. Even before we landed we had
+thus lost sight of the gigs; I jumped out and came as near
+running as I durst, with a big silk handkerchief under
+my hat for coolness' sake, and a brace of pistols ready
+primed for safety.</p>
+
+<p>I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on the
+stockade.</p>
+
+<p>This was how it was: A spring of clear water arose
+at the top of a knoll. Well, on the knoll, and inclosing
+the spring, they had clapped a stout log house, fit to hold
+two-score people on a pinch, and loopholed for musketry
+on every side. All around this they had cleared a wide
+space, and then the thing was completed by a paling six
+feet high, without door or opening, too strong to pull
+down without time and labor, and too open to shelter the
+besiegers. The people in the log house had them in every
+way; they stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
+like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and
+food; for, short of a complete surprise, they might have
+held the place against a regiment.</p>
+
+<p>What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For,
+though we had a good place of it in the cabin of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+<i>Hispaniola</i>, with plenty of arms and ammunition, and
+things to eat, and excellent wines, there had been one thing
+overlooked&mdash;we had no water. I was thinking this over,
+when there came ringing over the island the cry of a man
+at the point of death. I was not new to violent death&mdash;I
+have served his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland,
+and got a wound myself at Fontenoy&mdash;but I know my
+pulse went dot and carry one. "Jim Hawkins is gone,"
+was my first thought.</p>
+
+<p>It is something to have been an old soldier, but more
+still to have been a doctor. There is no time to dilly-dally
+in our work. And so now I made up my mind instantly,
+and with no time lost returned to the shore and jumped
+on board the jolly-boat.</p>
+
+<p>By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We made
+the water fly, and the boat was soon alongside and I aboard
+the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>I found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire
+was sitting down, as white as a sheet, thinking of the harm
+he had led us to, the good soul! and one of the six forecastle
+hands was little better.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a man," said Captain Smollett, nodding
+toward him, "new to this work. He came nigh-hand
+fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. Another touch
+of the rudder and that man would join us."</p>
+
+<p>I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled
+on the details of its accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin
+and the forecastle, with three or four loaded muskets
+and a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat
+round under the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work
+loading her with powder, tins, muskets, bags of biscuits,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+kegs of pork, a cask of cognac, and my invaluable medicine
+chest.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the squire and the captain stayed on
+deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, who was the principal
+man aboard.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hands," he said, "here are two of us with a brace
+of pistols each. If any one of you six make a signal of
+any description, that man's dead."</p>
+
+<p>They were a good deal taken aback; and, after a little
+consultation, one and all tumbled down the fore companion,
+thinking, no doubt, to take us on the rear. But
+when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the sparred
+gallery, they went about ship at once, and a head popped
+out again on deck.</p>
+
+<p>"Down, dog!" cried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>And the head popped back again, and we heard no
+more for the time of these six very faint-hearted seamen.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we had
+the jolly-boat loaded as much as we dared. Joyce and I
+got out through the stern port, and we made for shore
+again, as fast as oars could take us.</p>
+
+<p>This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore.
+"Lillibullero" was dropped again, and just before we
+lost sight of them behind the little point, one of them
+whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a mind to
+change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that
+Silver and the others might be close at hand, and all might
+very well be lost by trying for too much.</p>
+
+<p>We had soon touched land in the same place as before
+and set to work to provision the blockhouse. All three
+made the first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores
+over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to guard them&mdash;one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets&mdash;Hunter
+and I returned to the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves
+once more. So we proceeded, without pausing to
+take breath, till the whole cargo was bestowed, when the
+two servants took up their position in the blockhouse, and
+I, with all my power, sculled back to the <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>That we should have risked a second boat load seems
+more daring than it really was. They had the advantage
+of numbers, of course, but we had the advantage of arms.
+Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and before they
+could get within range for pistol shooting, we flattered
+ourselves we should be able to give a good account of a
+half dozen at least.</p>
+
+<p>The squire was waiting for me at the stern window,
+all his faintness gone from him. He caught the painter
+and made it fast, and we fell to loading the boat for our
+very lives. Pork, powder, and biscuit was the cargo, with
+only a musket and a cutlass apiece for squire and me and
+Redruth and the captain. The rest of the arms and powder
+we dropped overboard in two fathoms and a half of water,
+so that we could see the bright steel shining far below us
+in the sun on the clean, sandy bottom.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the ship
+was swinging round to her anchor. Voices were heard
+faintly halloaing in the direction of the two gigs; and
+though this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who were
+well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off.</p>
+
+<p>Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery and
+dropped into the boat, which we then brought round
+to the ship's counter, to be handier for Captain Smollett.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, men," said he, "do you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer from the forecastle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's to you, Abraham Gray&mdash;it's to you I am
+speaking."</p>
+
+<p>Still no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, "I am
+leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your captain.
+I know you are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not
+one of the lot of you's as bad as he makes out. I have my
+watch here in my hand; I give you thirty seconds to join
+me in."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain, "don't
+hang so long in stays. I'm risking my life and the lives
+of these good gentlemen every second."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out
+burst Abraham Gray with a knife-cut on the side of the
+cheek, and came running to the captain, like a dog to the
+whistle.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you, sir," said he.</p>
+
+<p>And the next moment he and the captain had dropped
+aboard of us, and we had shoved off and given way.</p>
+
+<p>We were clear out of the ship, but not yet ashore in
+our stockade.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII<br />
+<small>NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR&mdash;THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP</small></h2>
+
+<p>This fifth trip was quite different from any of the
+others. In the first place, the little gallipot of a boat that
+we were in was gravely overloaded. Five grown men, and
+three of them&mdash;Trelawney, Redruth, and the captain&mdash;over
+six feet high, was already more than she was meant
+to carry. Add to that the powder, pork, and the bread-bags.
+The gunwale was lipping astern. Several times we
+shipped a little water, and my breeches and the tails of
+my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a hundred
+yards.</p>
+
+<p>The captain made us trim the boat, and we got her to
+lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were afraid to
+breathe.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, the ebb was now making&mdash;a strong,
+rippling current running westward through the basin, and
+then south'ard and seaward down the straits by which we
+had entered in the morning. Even the ripples were a
+danger to our overloaded craft, but the worst of it was that
+we were swept out of our true course, and away from our
+proper landing-place behind the point. If we let the current
+have its way we should come ashore beside the gigs,
+where the pirates might appear at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," said I
+to the captain. I was steering, while he and Redruth, two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+fresh men, were at the oars. "The tide keeps washing
+her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not without swamping the boat," said he. "You must
+bear up, sir, if you please&mdash;bear up until you see you're
+gaining."</p>
+
+<p>I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept
+sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due east,
+or just about right angles to the way we ought to go.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll never get ashore at this rate," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must
+even lie it," returned the captain. "We must keep upstream.
+You see, sir," he went on, "if once we dropped
+to leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say where we
+should get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded by
+the gigs; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken,
+and then we can dodge back along the shore."</p>
+
+<p>"The current's less a'ready, sir," said the man Gray,
+who was sitting in the foresheets; "you can ease her off
+a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my man," said I, quite as if nothing had
+happened, for we had all quietly made up our minds to
+treat him like one of ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his
+voice was a little changed.</p>
+
+<p>"The gun!" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure he was
+thinking of a bombardment of the fort. "They could
+never get the gun ashore, and if they did, they could never
+haul it through the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"Look astern, doctor," replied the captain.</p>
+
+<p>We had entirely forgotten the long nine; and there, to
+our horror, were the five rogues busy about her, getting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+off her jacket, as they called the stout tarpaulin cover under
+which she sailed. Not only that, but it flashed into my
+mind at the same moment that the round shot and the
+powder for the gun had been left behind, and a stroke
+with an ax would put it all into the possession of the evil
+ones aboard.</p>
+
+<p>"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the landing-place.
+By this time we had got so far out of the run
+of the current that we kept steerage way even at our
+necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I could keep her
+steady for the goal. But the worst of it was, that with the
+course I now held, we turned our broadside instead of our
+stern to the <i>Hispaniola</i>, and offered a target like a barn
+door.</p>
+
+<p>I could hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced rascal,
+Israel Hands, plumping down a round shot on the deck.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's the best shot?" asked the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one of
+those men, sir? Hands, if possible," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>Trelawney was as cold as steel. He looked to the priming
+of his gun.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, sir, or
+you'll swamp the boat. All hands stand by to trim her
+when he aims."</p>
+
+<p>The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we
+leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, and all
+was so nicely contrived that we did not ship a drop.</p>
+
+<div class="figr"><a name="cpe" id="cpe"></a>
+<img src="images/012.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 125</div><i>They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the swivel</i></div>
+
+<p>They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle, with the rammer,
+was, in consequence, the most exposed. However,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+we had no luck; for just as Trelawney fired, down he
+stooped, the ball whistling over him, and it was one of
+the other four who fell.</p>
+
+<p>The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his companions
+on board, but by a great number of voices from the shore,
+and looking in that direction I saw the other pirates trooping
+out from among the trees and tumbling into their
+places in the boats.</p>
+
+<p>"Here come the gigs, sir," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Give way, then," said the captain. "We mustn't
+mind if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore,
+all's up."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added;
+"the crew of the other is most likely going around by
+shore to cut us off."</p>
+
+<p>"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain.
+"Jack ashore, you know. It's not them I mind; it's the
+round shot. Carpet bowls! My lady's maid couldn't
+miss. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, and we'll
+hold water."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime we had been making headway at a
+good pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had shipped
+but little water in the process. We were now close in;
+thirty or forty strokes and we should beach her, for the
+ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sand below
+the clustering trees. The gig was no longer to be feared;
+the little point had already concealed it from our eyes.
+The ebb-tide, which had so cruelly delayed us, was now
+making reparation, and delaying our assailants. The one
+source of danger was the gun.</p>
+
+<p>"If I durst," said the captain, "I'd stop and pick off
+another man."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But it was plain that they meant nothing should delay
+their shot. They had never so much as looked at their
+fallen comrade, though he was not dead, and I could
+see him trying to crawl away.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready!" cried the squire.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" cried the captain, quick as an echo.</p>
+
+<p>And he and Redruth backed with a great heave that
+sent her astern bodily under water. The report fell in at
+the same instant of time. This was the first that Jim
+heard, the sound of the squire's shot not having reached
+him. When the ball passed, not one of us precisely knew,
+but I fancy it must have been over our heads, and that
+the wind of it may have contributed to our disaster.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate the boat sunk by the stern, quite gently, in
+three feet of water, leaving the captain and myself, facing
+each other, on our feet. The other three took complete
+headers, and came up again, drenched and bubbling.</p>
+
+<p>So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost,
+and we could wade ashore in safety. But there were all
+our stores at the bottom, and, to make things worse, only
+two guns out of five remained in a state for service. Mine
+I had snatched from my knees, and held over my head,
+by a sort of instinct. As for the captain, he had carried
+his over his shoulder by a bandoleer, and, like a wise man,
+lock uppermost. The other three had gone down with
+the boat. To add to our concern, we heard voices already
+drawing near us in the woods along the shore; and we had
+not only the danger of being cut off from the stockade in
+our half-crippled state, but the fear before us whether,
+if Hunter and Joyce were attacked by half a dozen, they
+would have the sense and conduct to stand firm. Hunter
+was steady, that we knew; Joyce was a doubtful case&mdash;a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+pleasant, polite man for a valet, and to brush one's
+clothes, but not entirely fitted for a man-of-war.</p>
+
+<p>With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast
+as we could, leaving behind us the poor jolly-boat, and
+a good half of all our powder and provisions.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII<br />
+<small>NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR&mdash;END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING</small></h2>
+
+<p>We made our best speed across the strip of wood that
+now divided us from the stockade, and at every step we
+took the voices of the buccaneers rang nearer. Soon we
+could hear their footfalls as they ran, and the cracking
+of the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket.</p>
+
+<p>I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest,
+and looked to my priming.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," said I, "Trelawney is the dead shot. Give
+him your gun; his own is useless."</p>
+
+<p>They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and cool,
+as he had been since the beginning of the bustle, hung a
+moment on his heel to see that all was fit for service. At
+the same time, observing Gray to be unarmed, I handed
+him my cutlass. It did all our hearts good to see him
+spit in his hand, knit his brows, and make the blade sing
+through the air. It was plain from every line of his
+body that our new hand was worth his salt.</p>
+
+<p>Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the wood
+and saw the stockade in front of us. We struck the
+inclosure about the middle of the south side, and, almost
+at the same time, seven mutineers&mdash;Job Anderson, the
+boatswain, at their head&mdash;appeared in full cry at the
+southwestern corner.</p>
+
+<p>They paused, as if taken aback, and before they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+recovered, not only the squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce
+from the blockhouse, had time to fire.</p>
+
+<p>The four shots came in rather a scattering volley, but
+they did the business; one of the enemy actually fell,
+and the rest, without hesitation, turned and plunged into
+the trees.</p>
+
+<p>After reloading we walked down the outside of the
+palisade to see to the fallen enemy. He was stone dead&mdash;shot
+through the heart.</p>
+
+<p>We began to rejoice over our good success, when just
+at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a ball whistled
+close past my ear and poor Tom Redruth stumbled and
+fell his length on the ground. Both the squire and I
+returned the shot, but as we had nothing to aim at, it
+is probable we only wasted powder. Then we reloaded
+and turned our attention to poor Tom.</p>
+
+<p>The captain and Gray were already examining him,
+and I saw with half an eye that all was over.</p>
+
+<p>I believe the readiness of our return volley had scattered
+the mutineers once more, for we were suffered
+without further molestation to get the poor old gamekeeper
+hoisted over the stockade, and carried, groaning
+and bleeding, into the log-house.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of surprise,
+complaint, fear, or even acquiescence, from the
+very beginning of our troubles till now, when we had
+laid him down in the log-house to die! He had lain
+like a Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery; he had
+followed every order silently, doggedly, and well; he
+was the oldest of our party by a score of years; and
+now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it was he that was
+to die.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The squire dropped down beside him on his knees and
+kissed his hand, crying like a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Be I going, doctor?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom, my man," said I, "you're going home."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun first,"
+he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom," said the squire, "say you forgive me, won't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would that be respectful like, from me to you,
+squire?" was the answer. "Howsoever, so be it, amen!"</p>
+
+<p>After a little while of silence he said he thought somebody
+might read a prayer. "It's the custom, sir," he
+added, apologetically. And not long after, without
+another word, he passed away.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed
+to be wonderfully swollen about the chest and pockets,
+had turned out a great many various stores&mdash;the British
+colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, pen, ink, the log-book,
+and pounds of tobacco. He had found a longish
+fir tree lying felled and cleared in the inclosure, and,
+with the help of Hunter, he had set it up at the corner
+of the log-house, where the trunks crossed and made an
+angle. Then, climbing on the roof, he had with his own
+hand bent and run up the colors.</p>
+
+<p>This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re-entered
+the log-house and set about counting up the stores, as
+if nothing else existed. But he had an eye on Tom's
+passage for all that, and as soon as all was over came
+forward with another flag and reverently spread it on
+the body.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you take on, sir," he said, shaking the squire's
+hand. "All's well with him; no fear for a hand that's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+been shot down in his duty to captain and owner. It
+mayn't be good divinity, but it's a fact."</p>
+
+<p>Then he pulled me aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor Livesey," he said, "in how many weeks do
+you and squire expect the consort?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him it was a question, not of weeks, but of
+months; that if we were not back by the end of August
+Blandly was to send to find us, but neither sooner nor
+later. "You can calculate for yourself," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," returned the captain, scratching his head,
+"and making a large allowance, sir, for all the gifts of
+Providence, I should say we were pretty close hauled."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That's what
+I mean," replied the captain. "As for powder and shot,
+we'll do. But the rations are short, very short&mdash;so short,
+Doctor Livesey, that we're perhaps as well without that
+extra mouth."</p>
+
+<p>And he pointed to the dead body under the flag.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round shot
+passed high above the roof of the log-house and plumped
+far beyond us in the wood.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've
+little enough powder already, my lads."</p>
+
+<p>At the second trial the aim was better and the ball
+descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud of sand,
+but doing no further damage.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," said the squire, "the house is quite invisible
+from the ship. It must be the flag they are aiming at.
+Would it not be wiser to take it in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Strike my colors!" cried the captain. "No, sir, not
+I," and as soon as he had said the words I think we all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+agreed with him. For it was not only a piece of stout,
+seamanly good feeling; it was good policy besides, and
+showed our enemies that we despised their cannonade.</p>
+
+<p>All through the evening they kept thundering away.
+Ball after ball flew over or fell short, or kicked up the
+sand in the inclosure; but they had to fire so high that
+the shot fell dead and buried itself in the soft sand. We
+had no ricochet to fear; and though one popped in
+through the roof of the log-house and out again through
+the floor, we soon got used to that sort of horse-play and
+minded it no more than cricket.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing good about all this," observed the
+captain; "the wood in front of us is likely clear. The ebb
+has made a good while; our stores should be uncovered.
+Volunteers to go and bring in pork."</p>
+
+<p>Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. Well
+armed, they stole out of the stockade, but it proved a
+useless mission. The mutineers were bolder than we
+fancied, or they put more trust in Israel's gunnery, for
+four or five of them were busy carrying off our stores
+and wading out with them to one of the gigs that lay
+close by, pulling an oar or so to hold her steady against
+the current. Silver was in the stern-sheets in command,
+and every man of them was now provided with a musket
+from some secret magazine of their own.</p>
+
+<p>The captain sat down to his log, and here is the beginning
+of the entry:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, ship's doctor; Abraham
+Gray, carpenter's mate; John Trelawney, owner; John Hunter and
+Richard Joyce, owner's servants, landsmen&mdash;being all that is left faithful
+of the ship's company&mdash;with stores for ten days at short rations, came
+ashore this day and flew British colors on the log-house in Treasure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's servant, landsman, shot by the mutineers;
+James Hawkins, cabin-boy&mdash;"</p></div>
+
+<p>And at the same time I was wondering over poor Jim
+Hawkins' fate.</p>
+
+<p>A hail on the land side.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody hailing us," said Hunter, who was on
+guard.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor! squire! captain! Hallo, Hunter, is that
+you?" came the cries.</p>
+
+<p>And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins, safe
+and sound, come climbing over the stockade.</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 399px;">
+<img src="images/013.png" width="399" height="325" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX<br />
+<small>NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS&mdash;THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE</small></h2>
+
+<p>As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a
+halt, stopped me by the arm and sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said he, "there's your friends, sure enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Far more likely it's the mutineers," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"That!" he cried. "Why, in a place like this, where
+nobody puts in but gen'lemen of fortune, Silver would
+fly the Jolly Roger, you don't make no doubt of that. No,
+that's your friends. There's been blows, too, and I reckon
+your friends has had the best of it; and here they are
+ashore in the old stockade, as was made years and years
+ago by Flint. Ah, he was the man to have a headpiece,
+was Flint! Barring rum, his match was never seen. He
+were afraid of none, not he; on'y Silver&mdash;Silver was
+that genteel."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "that may be so, and so be it; all the
+more reason that I should hurry on and join my friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, mate," returned Ben, "not you. You're a good
+boy, or I'm mistook; but you're on'y a boy, all told. Now
+Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn't bring me there, where
+you're going&mdash;not rum wouldn't, till I see your born
+gen'leman, and gets it on his word of honor. And you
+won't forget my words: 'A precious sight' (that's what
+you'll say), 'a precious sight more confidence'&mdash;and
+then nips him."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And he pinched me the third time with the same air
+of cleverness.</p>
+
+<p>"And when Ben Gunn is wanted you know where to
+find him, Jim. Just where you found him to-day. And
+him that comes is to have a white thing in his hand;
+and he's to come alone. Oh! and you'll say this: 'Ben
+Gunn,' says you, 'has reasons of his own.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You have
+something to propose, and you wish to see the squire or
+the doctor, and you're to be found where I found you.
+Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"And when? says you," he added. "Why, from about
+noon observation to about six bells."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," says I, "and now may I go?"</p>
+
+<p>"You won't forget?" he inquired, anxiously. "Precious
+sight, and reasons of his own, says you. Reasons of
+his own; that's the mainstay; as between man and man.
+Well, then"&mdash;still holding me&mdash;"I reckon you can
+go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to see Silver, you wouldn't
+go for to sell Ben Gunn? wild horses wouldn't draw it
+from you? No, says you. And if them pirates came
+ashore, Jim, what would you say but there'd be widders
+in the morning?"</p>
+
+<p>Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannon
+ball came tearing through the trees and pitched in the
+sand, not a hundred yards from where we two were talking.
+The next moment each of us had taken to our heels
+in a different direction.</p>
+
+<p>For a good hour to come frequent reports shook the
+island, and balls kept crashing through the woods. I
+moved from hiding-place to hiding-place, always pursued,
+or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying missiles. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+toward the end of the bombardment, though still I durst
+not venture in the direction of the stockade, where the
+balls fell oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up
+my heart again; and after a long detour to the east, crept
+down among the shore-side trees.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling and
+tumbling in the woods, and ruffling the gray surface of
+the anchorage; the tide, too, was far out, and great tracts
+of sand lay uncovered; the air, after the heat of the day,
+chilled me through my jacket.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Hispaniola</i> still lay where she had anchored; but,
+sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger&mdash;the black flag
+of piracy&mdash;flying from her peak. Even as I looked there
+came another red flash and another report, that sent the
+echoes clattering, and one more round shot whistled
+through the air. It was the last of the cannonade.</p>
+
+<p>I lay for some time, watching the bustle which succeeded
+the attack. Men were demolishing something
+with axes on the beach near the stockade&mdash;the poor jolly-boat,
+I afterwards discovered. Away, near the mouth
+of the river, a great fire was glowing among the trees, and
+between that point and the ship one of the gigs kept
+coming and going, the men, whom I had seen so gloomy,
+shouting at the oars like children. But there was a sound
+in their voices which suggested rum.</p>
+
+<p>At length I thought I might return towards the
+stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, sandy spit
+that incloses the anchorage to the east, and is joined at
+half-water to Skeleton Island; and now, as I rose to my
+feet, I saw, some distance farther down the spit, and
+rising from among low bushes, an isolated rock, pretty
+high, and peculiarly white in color. It occurred to me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+that this might be the white rock of which Ben Gunn
+had spoken, and that some day or other a boat might be
+wanted, and I should know where to look for one.</p>
+
+<p>Then I skirted among the woods until I had regained
+the rear, or shoreward side, of the stockade, and was soon
+warmly welcomed by the faithful party.</p>
+
+<p>I had soon told my story, and began to look about me.
+The log-house was made of unsquared trunks of pine&mdash;roof,
+walls, and floor. The latter stood in several places
+as much as a foot or a foot and a half above the surface
+of the sand. There was a porch at the door, and under
+this porch the little spring welled up into an artificial
+basin of a rather odd kind&mdash;no other than a great ship's
+kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out, and sunk
+"to her bearings," as the captain said, among the sand.</p>
+
+<p>Little had been left beside the framework of the house,
+but in one corner there was a stone slab laid down by
+way of hearth, and an old rusty iron basket to contain
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the stockade
+had been cleared of timber to build the house, and we
+could see by the stumps what a fine and lofty grove had
+been destroyed. Most of the soil had been washed away
+or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only
+where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a thick
+bed of moss and some ferns and little creeping bushes
+were still green among the sand. Very close around the
+stockade&mdash;too close for defense, they said&mdash;the wood
+still flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side,
+but toward the sea with a large admixture of live-oaks.</p>
+
+<p>The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken,
+whistled through every chink of the rude building, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand.
+There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand in our
+suppers, sand dancing in the spring at the bottom of the
+kettle, for all the world like porridge beginning to boil.
+Our chimney was a square hole in the roof; it was but a
+little part of the smoke that found its way out, and the
+rest eddied about the house, and kept us coughing and
+piping the eye.</p>
+
+<p>Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face tied
+up in a bandage for a cut he had got in breaking away
+from the mutineers; and that poor old Tom Redruth, still
+unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and stark, under the
+Union Jack.</p>
+
+<p>If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all have
+fallen in the blues, but Captain Smollett was never the
+man for that. All hands were called up before him, and
+he divided us into watches. The doctor, and Gray, and
+I, for one; the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon the other.
+Tired as we all were, two were sent out for firewood,
+two more were sent to dig a grave for Redruth, the doctor
+was named cook, I was put sentry at the door, and the
+captain himself went from one to another, keeping up
+our spirits and lending a hand wherever it was wanted.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time the doctor came to the door for a
+little air and to rest his eyes, which were almost smoked
+out of his head, and whenever he did so, he had a word
+for me.</p>
+
+<p>"That man Smollett," he said once, "is a better man
+than I am. And when I say that it means a deal, Jim."</p>
+
+<p>Another time he came and was silent for a while. Then
+he put his head on one side, and looked at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this Ben Gunn a man?" he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, sir," said I. "I am not very sure
+whether he's sane."</p>
+
+<p>"If there's any doubt about the matter, he is," returned
+the doctor. "A man who has been three years biting his
+nails on a desert island, Jim, can't expect to appear as
+sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human nature. Was
+it cheese you said he had a fancy for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, cheese," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that comes of
+being dainty in your food. You've seen my snuff-box,
+haven't you? And you never saw me take snuff; the
+reason being that in my snuff-box I carry a piece of
+Parmesan cheese&mdash;a cheese made in Italy, very nutritious.
+Well, that's for Ben Gunn!"</p>
+
+<p>Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the
+sand, and stood round him for a while bare-headed in the
+breeze. A good deal of firewood had been got in, but
+not enough for the captain's fancy, and he shook his head
+over it, and told us we "must get back to this to-morrow
+rather livelier." Then, when we had eaten our pork,
+and each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog, the three
+chiefs got together in a corner to discuss our prospects.</p>
+
+<p>It appears they were at their wits' end what to do, the
+stores being so low that we must have been starved into
+surrender long before help came. But our best hope, it
+was decided, was to kill off the buccaneers until they
+either hauled down their flag or ran away with the
+<i>Hispaniola</i>. From nineteen they were already reduced
+to fifteen, two others were wounded, and one, at least&mdash;the
+man shot beside the gun&mdash;severely wounded, if he
+were not dead. Every time we had a crack at them, we
+were to take it, saving our own lives, with the extremest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+care. And, beside that, we had two able allies&mdash;rum
+and the climate.</p>
+
+<p>As for the first, though we were about half a mile away,
+we could hear them roaring and singing late into the night;
+and as for the second, the doctor staked his wig, that
+camped where they were in the marsh, and unprovided
+with remedies, the half of them would be on their backs
+before a week.</p>
+
+<p>"So," he added, "if we are not all shot down first,
+they'll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It's always
+a ship, and they can get to buccaneering again, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"First ship that I ever lost," said Captain Smollett.</p>
+
+<p>I was dead tired, as you may fancy, and when I got
+to sleep, which was not till after a great deal of tossing,
+I slept like a log of wood.</p>
+
+<p>The rest had long been up, and had already breakfasted
+and increased the pile of firewood by about half
+as much again, when I was awakened by a bustle and the
+sound of voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Flag of truce!" I heard someone say, and then,
+immediately after, with a cry of surprise, "Silver himself!"</p>
+
+<p>And, at that, up I jumped, and, rubbing my eyes, ran
+to a loophole in the wall.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX<br />
+<small>SILVER'S EMBASSY</small></h2>
+
+<p>Sure enough, there were two men just outside the stockade,
+one of them waving a white cloth; the other, no less
+a person than Silver himself, standing placidly by.</p>
+
+<p>It was still quite early, and the coldest morning that I
+think I ever was abroad in; a chill that pierced into the
+marrow. The sky was bright and cloudless overhead,
+and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the sun. But
+where Silver stood with his lieutenant all was still in
+shadow, and they waded knee-deep in a low, white vapor
+that had crawled during the night out of the morass. The
+chill and the vapor taken together told a poor tale of the
+island. It was plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep indoors, men," said the captain. "Ten to one
+this is a trick."</p>
+
+<p>Then he hailed the buccaneer.</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes? Stand, or we fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Flag of truce!" cried Silver.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was in the porch, keeping himself carefully
+out of the way of a treacherous shot, should any be intended.
+He turned and spoke to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor's watch on the lookout. Doctor Livesey, take
+the north side, if you please; Jim the east; Gray, west.
+The watch below, all hands to load muskets. Lively, men,
+and careful."</p>
+
+<p>And then he turned again to the mutineers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And what do you want with your flag of truce?" he
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>This time it was the other man who replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms,"
+he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>"Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried
+the captain. And we could hear him adding to himself:
+"Cap'n, is it? My heart, and here's promotion!"</p>
+
+<p>Long John answered for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap'n, after
+your desertion, sir"&mdash;laying a particular emphasis upon
+the word "desertion." "We're willing to submit, if we
+can come to terms, and no bones about it. All I ask is
+your word, Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and sound out
+of this here stockade, and one minute to get out o' shot
+before a gun is fired."</p>
+
+<p>"My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not the
+slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk to
+me, you can come, that's all. If there's any treachery,
+it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John cheerily.
+"A word from you's enough. I know a gentleman, and
+you may lay to that."</p>
+
+<p>We could see the man who carried the flag of truce
+attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that wonderful,
+seeing how cavalier had been the captain's answer. But
+Silver laughed at him aloud, and slapped him on the
+back, as if the idea of alarm had been absurd. Then he
+advanced to the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a
+leg up, and with great vigor and skill succeeded in surmounting
+the fence and dropping safely to the other side.</p>
+
+<p>I will confess that I was far too much taken up with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+what was going on to be of the slightest use as sentry;
+indeed, I had already deserted my eastern loophole and
+crept up behind the captain, who had now seated himself
+on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his head
+in his hands, and his eyes fixed on the water as it bubbled
+out of the old iron kettle in the sand. He was whistling to
+himself, "Come, Lasses and Lads."</p>
+
+<p>Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll.
+What with the steepness of the incline, the thick tree-stumps,
+and the soft sand, he and his crutch were as
+helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it like a
+man, in silence, and at last arrived before the captain,
+whom he saluted in the handsomest style. He was tricked
+out in his best; an immense blue coat, thick with brass
+buttons, hung as low as to his knees, and a fine laced hat
+was set on the back of his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Here you are, my man," said the captain, raising his
+head. "You had better sit down."</p>
+
+<p>"You ain't a-going to let me inside, cap'n?" complained
+Long John. "It's a main cold morning, to be sure, sir,
+to sit outside upon the sand."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Silver," said the captain, "if you had pleased
+to be an honest man you might have been sitting in your
+galley. It's your own doing. You're either my ship's
+cook&mdash;and then you were treated handsome&mdash;or Cap'n
+Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can
+go hang!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, cap'n," returned the sea-cook, sitting down
+as he was bidden on the sand, "you'll have to give me a
+hand up again, that's all. A sweet, pretty place you have
+of it here. Ah, there's Jim! The top of the morning to
+you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service. Why, there you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+all are together like a happy family, in a manner of
+speaking."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have anything to say, my man, better say it,"
+said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver.
+"Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well, now, you look here,
+that was a good lay of yours last night. I don't deny it
+was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a handspike-end.
+And I'll not deny neither but what some of
+my people was shook&mdash;maybe all was shook; maybe I
+was shook myself; maybe that's why I'm here for terms.
+But you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice, by thunder!
+We'll have to do sentry-go, and ease off a point or so
+on the rum. Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the
+wind's eye. But I'll tell you I was sober; I was on'y dog
+tired; and if I'd awoke a second sooner I'd 'a' caught you
+at the act, I would. He wasn't dead when I got round to
+him, not he."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" says Captain Smollett, as cool as can be.</p>
+
+<p>All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you would
+never have guessed it from his tone. As for me, I began
+to have an inkling. Ben Gunn's last words came back to
+my mind. I began to suppose that he had paid the buccaneers
+a visit while they all lay drunk together round their
+fire, and I reckoned up with glee that we had only fourteen
+enemies to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure,
+and we'll have it&mdash;that's our point! You would just as
+soon save your lives, I reckon; and that's yours. You
+have a chart, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's as may be," replied the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, you have, I know that," returned Long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+John. "You needn't be so husky with a man; there ain't
+a particle of service in that, and you may lay to it. What
+I mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant you
+no harm, myself."</p>
+
+<p>"That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the
+captain. "We know exactly what you meant to do, and
+we don't care; for now, you see, you can't do it."</p>
+
+<p>And the captain looked at him calmly, and proceeded
+to fill a pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"If Abe Gray&mdash;" Silver broke out.</p>
+
+<p>"Avast there!" cried Mr. Smollett. "Gray told me
+nothing, and I asked him nothing; and what's more, I
+would see you and him and this whole island blown clean
+out of the water into blazes first. So there's my mind for
+you, my man, on that."</p>
+
+<p>This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver down.
+He had been growing nettled before, but now he pulled
+himself together.</p>
+
+<p>"Like enough," said he. "I would set no limits to what
+gentlemen might consider shipshape, or might not, as the
+case were. And, seein' as how you are about to take a
+pipe, cap'n, I'll make so free as do likewise."</p>
+
+<p>And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men
+sat silently smoking for quite a while, now looking each
+other in the face, now stopping their tobacco, now leaning
+forward to spit. It was as good as the play to see them.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give us the
+chart to get the treasure by, and drop shooting poor seamen,
+and stoving of their heads in while asleep. You do
+that and we'll offer you a choice. Either you come aboard
+along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give
+you my affy-davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+somewhere safe ashore. Or, if that ain't to your fancy,
+some of my hands being rough, and having old scores, on
+account of hazing, then you can stay here, you can. We'll
+divide stores with you, man for man; and I'll give
+my affy-davy, as before, to speak the first ship I sight, and
+send 'em here to pick you up. Now you'll own that's
+talking. Handsomer you couldn't look to get, not you.
+And I hope"&mdash;raising his voice&mdash;"that all hands in
+this here blockhouse will overhaul my words, for what
+is spoke to one is spoke to all."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out
+the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John.
+"Refuse that and you've seen the last of me but musket-balls."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear me.
+If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to
+clap you all in irons, and to take you home to a fair
+trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander
+Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colors, and I'll see
+you all to Davy Jones. You can't find the treasure. You
+can't sail the ship&mdash;there's not a man among you fit to
+sail the ship. You can't fight us&mdash;Gray, there, got away
+from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Master Silver;
+you're on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand here and
+tell you so, and they're the last good words you'll get from
+me; for, in the name of heaven, I'll put a bullet in your
+back when next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle
+out of this, please, hand over hand, and double quick."</p>
+
+<p>Silver's face was a picture; his eyes started in his head
+with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Give me a hand up!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," returned the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared.</p>
+
+<p>Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest
+imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he got hold
+of the porch and could hoist himself again upon his
+crutch. Then he spat into the spring.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he cried, "that's what I think of ye. Before
+an hour's out, I'll stove in your old blockhouse like a rum
+puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's
+out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be
+the lucky ones."</p>
+
+<p>And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, plowed
+down the sand, was helped across the stockade, after
+four or five failures, by the man with the flag of truce,
+and disappeared in an instant afterward among the trees.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI<br />
+<small>THE ATTACK</small></h2>
+
+<p>As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had
+been closely watching him, turned toward the interior
+of the house, and found not a man of us at his post but
+Gray. It was the first time we had ever seen him angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we slunk back
+to our places, "Gray," he said, "I'll put your name in the
+log; you've stood by your duty like a seaman. Mr. Trelawney,
+I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought you
+had worn the king's coat! If that was how you served
+at Fontenoy, sir, you'd have been better in your berth."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes,
+the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and everyone
+with a red face, you may be certain, and a flea in his
+ear, as the saying is.</p>
+
+<p>The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"My lads," he said, "I've given Silver a broadside. I
+pitched it in red-hot on purpose; and before the hour's
+out, as he said, we shall be boarded. We're outnumbered,
+I needn't tell you that, but we fight in shelter; and, a minute
+ago, I should have said we fought with discipline. I've
+no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you choose."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, that all
+was clear.</p>
+
+<p>On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+were only two loopholes; on the south side where the
+porch was, two again; and on the north side, five. There
+was a round score of muskets for the seven of us; the firewood
+had been built into four piles&mdash;tables, you might
+say&mdash;one about the middle of each side, and on each of
+these tables some ammunition and four loaded muskets
+were laid ready to the hand of the defenders. In the
+middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.</p>
+
+<p>"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is
+past, and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes."</p>
+
+<p>The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr.
+Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help
+yourself, and back to your post to eat it," continued Captain
+Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad; you'll want it
+before you've done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy
+to all hands."</p>
+
+<p>And while this was going on the captain completed, in
+his own mind, the plan of the defense.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See
+and don't expose yourself; keep within, and fire through
+the porch. Hunter, take the east side, there. Joyce, you
+stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you are the
+best shot&mdash;you and Gray will take this long north side,
+with the five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they
+can get up to it, and fire in upon us through our own
+ports, things would begin to look dirty. Hawkins, neither
+you nor I are much account at the shooting; we'll stand
+by to load and bear a hand."</p>
+
+<p>As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon
+as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell
+with all its force upon the clearing, and drank up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+vapors at a draught. Soon the sand was baking, and the
+resin melting in the logs of the blockhouse. Jackets and
+coats were flung aside; shirts were thrown open at the
+neck, and rolled up to the shoulders; and we stood there,
+each at his post, in a fever of heat and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed away.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as
+the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind."</p>
+
+<p>And just at that moment came the first news of the
+attack.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see anyone, am
+I to fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told you so!" cried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce, with the same quiet
+civility.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set
+us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes&mdash;the musketeers
+with their pieces balanced in their hands, the captain out
+in the middle of the blockhouse, with his mouth very tight
+and a frown on his face.</p>
+
+<p>So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped
+up his musket and fired. The report had scarcely died
+away ere it was repeated and repeated from without in a
+scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string of geese,
+from every side of the inclosure. Several bullets struck
+the log-house, but not one entered; and, as the smoke
+cleared away and vanished, the stockade and the woods
+around it looked as quiet and empty as before. Not a
+bough waved, not the gleam of a musket-barrel betrayed
+the presence of our foes.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain
+Smollett. "Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should
+you say there were on your side, doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know precisely," said Doctor Livesey. "Three shots
+were fired on this side. I saw the three flashes&mdash;two close
+together&mdash;one farther to the west."</p>
+
+<p>"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on
+yours, Mr. Trelawney?"</p>
+
+<p>But this was not so easily answered. There had come
+many from the north&mdash;seven, by the squire's computation;
+eight or nine, according to Gray. From the east
+and west only a single shot had been fired. It was plain,
+therefore, that the attack would be developed from the
+north, and that on the other three sides we were only to
+be annoyed by a show of hostilities. But Captain Smollett
+made no change in his arrangements. If the mutineers
+succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would
+take possession of any unprotected loophole, and shoot us
+down like rats in our own stronghold.</p>
+
+<p>Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly,
+with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped
+from the woods on the north side, and ran straight on the
+stockade. At the same moment, the fire was once more
+opened from the woods, and a rifle-ball sang through the
+doorway, and knocked the doctor's musket into bits.</p>
+
+<p>The boarders swarmed over the fence, like monkeys.
+Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men
+fell, one forward into the inclosure, two back on the outside.
+But of these, one was evidently more frightened
+than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack, and
+instantly disappeared among the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+good their footing inside our defenses; while from the
+shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each evidently
+supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though useless
+fire on the log-house.</p>
+
+<div class="figr" style="width: 346px;"><a name="cpf" id="cpf"></a>
+<img src="images/014.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 153</div><i>In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us</i></div>
+
+<p>The four who had boarded made straight before them
+for the building, shouting as they ran, and the men among
+the trees shouted back to encourage them. Several shots
+were fired, but such was the hurry of the marksmen, that
+not one appeared to have taken effect. In a moment the
+four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.</p>
+
+<p>The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at
+the middle loophole.</p>
+
+<p>"At 'em, all hands&mdash;all hands!" he roared, in a voice
+of thunder.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment another pirate grasped Hunter's
+musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands,
+plucked it through the loophole, and, with one stunning
+blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor. Meanwhile
+a third, running unharmed all round the house,
+appeared suddenly in the doorway, and fell with his cutlass
+on the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we
+were firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy; now it
+was we who lay uncovered, and could not return a blow.</p>
+
+<p>The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our
+comparative safety. Cries and confusion, the flashes and
+reports of pistol-shots, and one loud groan, rang in my ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Out, lads, out and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!"
+cried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the
+same time snatching another, gave me a cut across the
+knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed out of the door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+into the clear sunlight. Someone was close behind, I
+knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing
+his assailant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell
+upon him, beat down his guard, and sent him sprawling
+on his back, with a great slash across his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Round the house, lads! round the house!" cried the
+captain, and even in the hurly-burly I perceived a change
+in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Mechanically I obeyed, turned eastward, and, with my
+cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house. Next
+moment I was face to face with Anderson. He roared
+aloud, and his hanger went up above his head, flashing in
+the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but, as the
+blow still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one side,
+and missing my footing in the soft sand, rolled headlong
+down the slope.</p>
+
+<p>When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers
+had been already swarming up the palisade to make
+an end of us. One man, in a red nightcap, with his cutlass
+in his mouth, had even got upon the top and thrown a leg
+across. Well, so short had been the interval, that when I
+found my feet again all was in the same posture, the fellow
+with the red nightcap still halfway over, another still
+just showing his head above the top of the stockade. And
+yet, in this breath of time, the fight was over, and the
+victory ours.</p>
+
+<p>Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the
+big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his lost
+blow. Another had been shot at a loophole in the very
+act of firing into the house, and now lay in agony, the
+pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I had seen,
+the doctor had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+had scaled the palisade, one only remained unaccounted
+for, and he, having left his cutlass on the field, was now
+clambering out again with the fear of death upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire&mdash;fire from the house!" cried the doctor. "And
+you, lads, back into cover."</p>
+
+<p>But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and
+the last boarder made good his escape and disappeared
+with the rest into the wood. In three seconds nothing
+remained of the attacking party but the five who had
+fallen, four on the inside and one on the outside of the
+palisade.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter.
+The survivors would soon be back where they had left
+their muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence.</p>
+
+<p>The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke,
+and we saw at a glance the price we had paid for victory.
+Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot
+through the head, never to move again; while right in
+the center the squire was supporting the captain, one as
+pale as the other.</p>
+
+<p>"The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney.</p>
+
+<p>"Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett.</p>
+
+<p>"All that could, you may be bound," returned the doctor;
+"but there's five of them will never run again."</p>
+
+<p>"Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. Five
+against three leaves us four to nine. That's better odds
+than we had at starting. We were seven to nineteen then,
+or thought we were, and that's as bad to bear."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot by
+Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same evening of his
+wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by the faithful
+party.</p></div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART V</small><br />
+MY SEA ADVENTURE</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII<br />
+<small>HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN</small></h2>
+
+<p>There was no return of the mutineers&mdash;not so much
+as another shot out of the woods. They had "got their
+rations for that day," as the captain put it, and we had
+the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the
+wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked outside,
+in spite of the danger, and even outside we could hardly
+tell what we were at, for the horror of the loud groans that
+reached us from the doctor's patients.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action only
+three still breathed&mdash;that one of the pirates who had
+been shot at the loophole, Hunter, and Captain Smollett&mdash;and
+of these the first two were as good as dead; the
+mutineer, indeed, died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter,
+do what we could, never recovered consciousness in
+this world. He lingered all day, breathing loudly like
+the old buccaneer at home in his apoplectic fit; but the
+bones of his chest had been crushed by the blow and his
+skull fractured in falling, and some time in the following
+night, without sign or sound, he went to his Maker.</p>
+
+<p>As for the captain, his wounds were grievous indeed,
+but not dangerous. No organ was fatally injured. Anderson's
+ball&mdash;for it was Job that shot him first&mdash;had
+broken his shoulder-blade and touched the lung, not
+badly; the second had only torn and displaced some muscles
+in the calf. He was sure to recover, the doctor said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+but in the meantime, and for weeks to come, he must not
+walk nor move his arm, nor so much as speak when he
+could help it.</p>
+
+<p>My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a flea-bite.
+Doctor Livesey patched it up with plaster, and
+pulled my ears for me into the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's
+side awhile in consultation; and when they had
+talked to their heart's content, it being then a little past
+noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols, girt on a
+cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket
+over his shoulder, crossed the palisade on the north side
+and set off briskly through the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of the
+blockhouse, to be out of earshot of our officers, consulting,
+and Gray took his pipe out of his mouth and fairly forgot
+to put it back again, so thunderstruck he was at this
+occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, in the name of Davy Jones," said he, "is Doctor
+Livesey mad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no," says I. "He's about the last of this crew
+for that, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be,
+but if <i>he's</i> not, mark my words, <i>I</i> am."</p>
+
+<p>"I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea, and if
+I am right, he's going now to see Ben Gunn."</p>
+
+<p>I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime,
+the house being stifling hot, and the little patch of sand
+inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, I began to
+get another thought into my head which was not by any
+means so right. What I began to do was to envy the doctor,
+walking in the cool shadow of the woods, with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+birds about him and the pleasant smell of the pines, while
+I sat grilling, with my clothes stuck to the hot resin, and
+so much blood about me, and so many poor dead bodies
+lying all around, that I took a disgust of the place that
+was almost as strong as fear.</p>
+
+<p>All the time I was washing out the blockhouse, and
+then washing up the things from dinner, this disgust and
+envy kept growing stronger and stronger, till at last, being
+near a bread-bag, and no one then observing me, I took
+the first step toward my escapade and filled both pockets
+of my coat with biscuit.</p>
+
+<p>I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to
+do a foolish, over-bold act, but I was determined to do it
+with all the precautions in my power. These biscuits,
+should anything befall me, would keep me at least from
+starving till far on in the next day.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols,
+and as I already had a powder-horn and bullets, I felt
+myself well supplied with arms.</p>
+
+<p>As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad
+one in itself. It was to go down the sandy spit that divides
+the anchorage on the east from the open sea, find the
+white rock I had observed last evening, and ascertain
+whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had hidden
+his boat&mdash;a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe.
+But as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the
+inclosure, my only plan was to take French leave and slip
+out when nobody was watching, and that was so bad a
+way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong. But I
+was only a boy and I had made my mind up.</p>
+
+<p>Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admirable
+opportunity. The squire and Gray were busy helping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+the captain with his bandages; the coast was clear; I made
+a bolt for it over the stockade and into the thickest of the
+trees, and before my absence was observed I was out of
+cry of my companions.</p>
+
+<p>This was my second folly, far worse than the first, as
+I left but two sound men to guard the house; but, like
+the first, it was a help toward saving all of us.</p>
+
+<p>I took my way straight for the east coast of the island,
+for I was determined to go down the seaside of the spit
+to avoid all chance of observation from the anchorage. It
+was already late in the afternoon, although still warm
+and sunny. As I continued to thread the tall woods I
+could hear from far before me not only the continuous
+thunder of the surf, but a certain tossing of foliage and
+grinding of boughs which showed me the sea breeze set
+in higher than usual. Soon cool draughts of air began to
+reach me, and a few steps farther I came forth into the
+open borders of the grove and saw the sea lying blue and
+sunny to the horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its
+foam along the beach.</p>
+
+<p>I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island.
+The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a breath,
+the surface smooth and blue, but still these great rollers
+would be running along all the external coast, thundering
+and thundering by day and night, and I scarce believe
+there is one spot in the island where a man would be out
+of earshot of their noise.</p>
+
+<p>I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment,
+till, thinking I was now got far enough to the south, I took
+the cover of some thick bushes and crept warily up to the
+ridge of the spit.</p>
+
+<p>Behind me was the sea; in front, the anchorage. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+sea-breeze, as though it had the sooner blown itself out
+by its unusual violence, was already at an end; it had been
+succeeded by light, variable airs from the south and southeast,
+carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage, under
+lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden as when first
+we entered it. The <i>Hispaniola</i>, in that unbroken mirror,
+was exactly portrayed from the truck to the water-line, the
+Jolly Roger hanging from her peak.</p>
+
+<p>Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern-sheets&mdash;him
+I could always recognize&mdash;while a couple of
+men were leaning over the stern bulwarks, one of them
+with a red cap&mdash;the very rogue that I had seen some hours
+before stride-legs upon the palisade. Apparently they
+were talking and laughing, though at that distance&mdash;upward
+of a mile&mdash;I could of course hear no word of what
+was said.</p>
+
+<p>All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly
+screaming, which at first startled me badly, though I had
+soon remembered the voice of Captain Flint, and even
+thought I could make out the bird by her bright plumage
+as she sat perched upon her master's wrist.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for
+shore, and the man with the red cap and his comrade went
+below by the cabin companion.</p>
+
+<p>Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind
+the Spy-glass, and as the fog was collecting rapidly, it
+began to grow dark in earnest. I saw I must lose no time
+if I were to find the boat that evening.</p>
+
+<p>The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was
+still some eighth of a mile farther down the spit, and it
+took me a goodish while to get up with it, crawling, often
+on all-fours, among the scrub. Night had almost come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+when I laid my hand on its rough sides. Right below
+it there was an exceedingly small hollow of green turf,
+hidden by banks and a thick underwood about knee-deep,
+that grew there very plentifully; and in the center of the
+dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins, like what the
+gypsies carry about with them in England.</p>
+
+<p>I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the tent,
+and there was Ben Gunn's boat&mdash;homemade if ever anything
+was homemade&mdash;a rude, lopsided framework of
+tough wood, and stretched upon that a covering of goat-skin,
+with the hair inside. The thing was extremely small,
+even for me, and I can hardly imagine that it could have
+floated with a full-sized man. There was one thwart set
+as low as possible, a kind of stretcher in the bows, and
+a double paddle for propulsion.</p>
+
+<p>I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient
+Britons made, but I have seen one since, and I can give
+you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's boat than by saying it
+was like the first and the worst coracle ever made by man.
+But the great advantage of the coracle it certainly possessed,
+for it was exceedingly light and portable.</p>
+
+<p>Well, now that I had found the boat, you would have
+thought I had had enough of truantry for once; but in
+the meantime I had taken another notion, and become so
+obstinately fond of it that I would have carried it out, I
+believe, in the teeth of Captain Smollett himself. This
+was to slip out under cover of the night, cut the <i>Hispaniola</i>
+adrift, and let her go ashore where she fancied. I had
+quite made up my mind that the mutineers, after their
+repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts
+than to up anchor and away to sea; this, I thought, it would
+be a fine thing to prevent, and now that I had seen how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+they left their watchman unprovided with a boat, I
+thought it might be done with little risk.</p>
+
+<p>Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty
+meal of biscuit. It was a night out of ten thousand for
+my purpose. The fog had now buried all heaven. As
+the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared, absolute
+blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And
+when, at last, I shouldered the coracle, and groped my
+way stumblingly out of the hollow where I had supped,
+there were but two points visible on the whole anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated
+pirates lay carousing in the swamp. The other, a mere
+blur of light upon the darkness, indicated the position of
+the anchored ship. She had swung round to the ebb&mdash;her
+bow was now toward me&mdash;the only lights on board
+were in the cabin; and what I saw was merely a reflection
+on the fog of the strong rays that flowed from the stern
+window.</p>
+
+<p>The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade
+through a long belt of swampy sand, where I sank several
+times above the ankle, before I came to the edge of the
+retreating water, and wading a little way in, with some
+strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downward, on
+the surface.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII<br />
+<small>THE EBB-TIDE RUNS</small></h2>
+
+<p>The coracle&mdash;as I had ample reason to know before I
+was done with her&mdash;was a very safe boat for a person of
+my height and weight, both buoyant and clever in a sea-way;
+but she was the most cross-grained, lopsided craft
+to manage. Do as you pleased, she always made more
+leeway than anything else, and turning round and round
+was the maneuver she was best at. Even Ben Gunn himself
+has admitted that she was "queer to handle till you
+knew her way."</p>
+
+<p>Certainly I did not know her way. She turned in
+every direction but the one I was bound to go; the most
+part of the time we were broadside on, and I am very
+sure I never should have made the ship at all but for the
+tide. By good fortune, paddle as I pleased, the tide was
+still sweeping me down; and there lay the <i>Hispaniola</i>
+right in the fairway, hardly to be missed.</p>
+
+<p>First she loomed before me like a blot of something
+yet blacker than darkness, then her spars and hull began
+to take shape, and the next moment, as it seemed (for the
+further I went the brisker grew the current of the ebb),
+I was alongside of her hawser, and had laid hold.</p>
+
+<p>The hawser was as taut as a bowstring and the current
+so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All round the
+hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and
+chattered like a little mountain stream. One cut with my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+sea gully, and the <i>Hispaniola</i> would go humming down
+the tide.</p>
+
+<p>So far so good; but it next occurred to my recollection
+that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as dangerous
+as a kicking horse. Ten to one, if I were so foolhardy
+as to cut the <i>Hispaniola</i> from her anchor, I and the coracle
+would be knocked clean out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had not
+again particularly favored me, I should have had to
+abandon my design. But the light airs which had begun
+blowing from the southeast and south had hauled round
+after nightfall into the southwest. Just while I was meditating,
+a puff came, caught the <i>Hispaniola</i>, and forced
+her up into the current; and, to my great joy, I felt the
+hawser slacken in my grasp, and the hand by which I
+held it dip for a second under water.</p>
+
+<p>With that I made my mind up, took out my gully,
+opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand after another,
+till the vessel swung only by two. Then I lay quiet, waiting
+to sever these last when the strain should be once
+more lightened by a breath of wind.</p>
+
+<p>All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices from
+the cabin; but, to say truth, my mind had been so entirely
+taken up with other thoughts that I had scarcely given
+ear. Now, however, when I had nothing else to do, I
+began to pay more heed.</p>
+
+<p>One I recognized for the coxswain's, Israel Hands,
+that had been Flint's gunner in former days. The other
+was, of course, my friend of the red nightcap. Both men
+were plainly the worse of drink, and they were still drinking;
+for, even while I was listening, one of them, with a
+drunken cry, opened the stern window and threw out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+something, which I divined to be an empty bottle. But
+they were not only tipsy; it was plain that they were
+furiously angry. Oaths flew like hailstones, and every
+now and then there came forth such an explosion as I
+thought was sure to end in blows. But each time the
+quarrel passed off, and the voices grumbled lower for
+a while, until the next crisis came, and, in its turn, passed
+away without result.</p>
+
+<p>On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp fire
+burning warmly through the shore-side trees. Someone
+was singing a dull, old droning sailor's song, with a droop
+and a quaver at the end of every verse, and seemingly
+no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. I had
+heard it on the voyage more than once, and remembered
+these words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 16em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But one man of the crew alive,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What put to sea with seventy-five."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appropriate
+for a company that had met such cruel losses in
+the morning. But, indeed, from what I saw, all these
+buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on.</p>
+
+<p>At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and drew
+nearer in the dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more,
+and with a good, tough effort, cut the last fibers through.</p>
+
+<p>The breeze had but little action on the coracle, and I
+was almost instantly swept against the bows of the <i>Hispaniola</i>.
+At the same time the schooner began to turn
+upon her heel, spinning slowly, end for end, across the
+current.</p>
+
+<p>I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment
+to be swamped; and since I found I could not push the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+coracle directly off, I now shoved straight astern. At
+length I was clear of my dangerous neighbor, and just
+as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a
+light cord that was trailing overboard across the stern
+bulwarks. Instantly I grasped it.</p>
+
+<p>Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It was
+at first mere instinct, but once I had it in my hands and
+found it fast, curiosity began to get the upper hand, and
+I determined I should have one look through the cabin
+window.</p>
+
+<p>I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when I
+judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to about
+half my height, and thus commanded the roof and a slice
+of the interior of the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the schooner and her little consort were
+gliding pretty swiftly through the water; indeed, we had
+already fetched up level with the camp fire. The ship
+was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading the innumerable
+ripples with an incessant weltering splash; and
+until I got my eye above the window sill I could not comprehend
+why the watchmen had taken no alarm. One
+glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only one
+glance that I durst take from that unsteady skiff. It
+showed me Hands and his companion locked together
+in deadly wrestle, each with a hand upon the other's
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, for I
+was near overboard. I could see nothing for the moment
+but these two furious, encrimsoned faces, swaying together
+under the smoky lamp; and I shut my eyes to let them
+grow once more familiar with the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+whole diminished company about the camp fire had broken
+into the chorus I had heard so often:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink and the devil had done for the rest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil were
+at that very moment in the cabin of the <i>Hispaniola</i>, when
+I was surprised by a sudden lurch of the coracle. At the
+same moment she yawed sharply and seemed to change
+her course. The speed in the meantime had strangely
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>I opened my eyes at once. All around me were little
+ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling sound and
+slightly phosphorescent. The <i>Hispaniola</i> herself, a few
+yards in whose wake I was still being whirled along,
+seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her spars toss
+a little against the blackness of the night; nay, as I looked
+longer, I made sure she also was wheeling to the southward.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced over my shoulder and my heart jumped
+against my ribs. There, right behind me, was the glow
+of the camp fire. The current had turned at right angles,
+sweeping round along with it the tall schooner and the
+little dancing coracle; ever quickening, ever bubbling
+higher, ever muttering louder, it went spinning through
+the narrows for the open sea.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a violent
+yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty degrees; and almost
+at the same moment one shout followed another from
+on board. I could hear feet pounding on the companion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+ladder, and I knew that the two drunkards had at last
+been interrupted in their quarrel and awakened to a sense
+of their disaster.</p>
+
+<p>I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched skiff
+and devoutly recommended my spirit to its Maker. At
+the end of the straits I made sure we must fall into some
+bar of raging breakers, where all my troubles would be
+ended speedily; and though I could perhaps bear to die,
+I could not bear to look upon my fate as it approached.</p>
+
+<p>So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten to
+and fro upon the billows, now and again wetted with
+flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect death at the next
+plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon me; a numbness,
+an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst
+of my terrors, until sleep at last intervened, and in my
+sea-tossed coracle I lay and dreamed of home and the old
+"Admiral Benbow."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV<br />
+<small>THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE</small></h2>
+
+<p>It was broad day when I awoke and found myself
+tossing at the southwest end of Treasure Island. The sun
+was up, but was still hid from me behind the great bulk
+of the Spy-glass, which on this side descended almost to
+the sea in formidable cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at my
+elbow, the hill bare and dark, the head bound with cliffs
+forty or fifty feet high and fringed with great masses of
+fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter of a mile to seaward,
+and it was my first thought to paddle in and land.</p>
+
+<p>That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen
+rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations,
+heavy sprays flying and falling, succeeded one
+another from second to second; and I saw myself, if I
+ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore
+or spending my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was that all, for crawling together on flat tables
+of rock, or letting themselves drop into the sea with loud
+reports, I beheld huge slimy monsters&mdash;soft snails, as
+it were, of incredible bigness&mdash;two or three score of them
+together, making the rocks to echo with their barkings.</p>
+
+<p>I have understood since that they were sea lions, and
+entirely harmless. But the look of them, added to the
+difficulty of the shore and the high running of the surf,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+was more than enough to disgust me of that landing-place.
+I felt willing rather to starve at sea than to confront
+such perils.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime I had a better chance, as I supposed,
+before me. North of Haulbowline Head the land runs
+in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a long stretch of
+yellow sand. To the north of that, again, there comes
+another cape&mdash;Cape of the Woods, as it was marked
+upon the chart&mdash;buried in tall green pines, which
+descended to the margin of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I remembered what Silver had said about the current
+that sets northward along the whole west coast of Treasure
+Island; and seeing from my position that I was already
+under its influence, I preferred to leave Haulbowline
+Head behind me, and reserve my strength for an attempt
+to land upon the kindlier-looking Cape of the Woods.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. The
+wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, there
+was no contrariety between that and the current, and the
+billows rose and fell unbroken.</p>
+
+<p>Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have perished;
+but as it was, it is surprising how easily and securely my
+little and light boat could ride. Often, as I still lay at
+the bottom, and kept no more than an eye above the gunwale,
+I would see a big blue summit heaving close above
+me; yet the coracle would but bounce a little, dance as
+if on springs, and subside on the other side into the trough
+as lightly as a bird.</p>
+
+<p>I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat up to
+try my skill at paddling. But even a small change in
+the disposition of the weight will produce violent changes
+in the behavior of a coracle. And I had hardly moved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+before the boat, giving up at once her gentle, dancing
+movement, ran straight down a slope of water so steep
+that it made me giddy, and struck her nose, with a spout
+of spray, deep into the side of the next wave.</p>
+
+<p>I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly back
+into my old position, whereupon the coracle seemed to
+find her head again, and led me softly as before among
+the billows. It was plain she was not to be interfered
+with, and at that rate, since I could in no way influence
+her course, what hope had I left of reaching land?</p>
+
+<p>I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my head,
+for all that. First, moving with all care, I gradually
+bailed out the coracle with my sea cap; then getting my
+eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself to study
+how it was she managed to slip so quietly through the
+rollers.</p>
+
+<p>I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, glossy
+mountain it looks from shore, or from a vessel's deck,
+was for all the world like any range of hills on the dry
+land, full of peaks and smooth places and valleys. The
+coracle, left to herself, turning from side to side, threaded,
+so to speak, her way through these lower parts, and
+avoided the steep slopes and higher toppling summits of
+the wave.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now," thought I to myself, "it is plain I must
+lie where I am, and not disturb the balance; but it is plain,
+also, that I can put the paddle over the side, and from
+time to time, in smooth places, give her a shove or two
+towards land." No sooner thought upon than done.
+There I lay on my elbows, in the most trying attitude, and
+every now and again gave a weak stroke or two to turn
+her head to shore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain
+ground; and, as we drew near the Cape of the Woods,
+though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I had still
+made some hundred yards of easting. I was, indeed, close
+in. I could see the cool, green tree-tops swaying together
+in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next
+promontory without fail.</p>
+
+<p>It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with
+thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its thousand-fold
+reflection from the waves, the sea water that fell and
+dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt, combined
+to make my throat burn and my brain ache. The sight
+of the trees so near at hand had almost made me sick with
+longing; but the current had soon carried me past the
+point; and, as the next reach of sea opened out, I beheld
+a sight that changed the nature of my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld
+the <i>Hispaniola</i> under sail. I made sure, of course, that
+I should be taken, but I was so distressed for want of
+water, that I scarce knew whether to be glad or sorry at
+the thought; and, long before I had come to a conclusion,
+surprise had taken possession of my mind, and I could
+do nothing but stare and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Hispaniola</i> was under her mainsail and two jibs,
+and the beautiful white canvas shone in the sun like snow
+or silver. When I first sighted her, all her sails were
+drawing, she was laying a course about northwest, and
+I presumed the men on board were going round the
+island on their way back to the anchorage. Presently she
+began to fetch more and more to the westward, so that
+I thought they had sighted me and were going about in
+chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+eye, was taken dead aback, and stood there awhile helpless,
+with her sails shivering.</p>
+
+<p>"Clumsy fellows," said I, "they must still be drunk
+as owls." And I thought how Captain Smollett would
+have set them skipping.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off, and filled
+again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or
+so, and brought up once more dead in the wind's eye.
+Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and
+down, north, south, east, and west, the <i>Hispaniola</i> sailed
+by swoops and dashes, and at each repetition ended as
+she had begun, with idly flapping canvas. It became
+plain to me that nobody was steering. And, if so, where
+were the men? Either they were dead drunk, or had
+deserted her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get on
+board, I might return the vessel to her captain.</p>
+
+<p>The current was bearing coracle and schooner southward
+at an equal rate. As for the latter's sailing, it was
+so wild and intermittent, and she hung each time so long
+in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if she did not
+even lose. If I only dared to sit up and paddle, I made
+sure that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an air
+of adventure that inspired me, and the thought of the
+water breaker beside the fore companion doubled my
+growing courage.</p>
+
+<p>Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by another
+cloud of spray, but this time stuck to my purpose and
+set myself with all my strength and caution to paddle
+after the unsteered <i>Hispaniola</i>. Once I shipped a sea
+so heavy that I had to stop and bail, with my heart fluttering
+like a bird, but gradually I got into the way of the
+thing and guided my coracle among the waves, with only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+now and then a blow upon her bows and a dash of foam
+in my face.</p>
+
+<p>I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner. I could
+see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged about, and
+still no soul appeared upon her decks. I could not choose
+but suppose she was deserted. If not, the men were lying
+drunk below, where I might batten them down, perhaps,
+and do what I chose with the ship.</p>
+
+<p>For some time she had been doing the worst thing
+possible for me&mdash;standing still. She headed nearly due
+south, yawing, of course, all the time. Each time she
+fell off her sails partly filled, and these brought her, in
+a moment, right to the wind again. I have said this was
+the worst thing possible for me; for, helpless as she looked
+in this situation, with the canvas crackling like cannon,
+and the blocks trundling and banging on the deck, she
+still continued to run away from me, not only with the
+speed of the current, but by the whole amount of her
+leeway, which was naturally great.</p>
+
+<p>But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze fell,
+for some seconds, very low, and the current gradually
+turning her, the <i>Hispaniola</i> revolved slowly round her
+center and at last presented me her stern, with the cabin
+window still gaping open and the lamp over the table
+still burning on into the day. The mainsail hung drooped
+like a banner. She was stock-still but for the current.</p>
+
+<p>For the last little while I had even lost, but now,
+redoubling my efforts, I began once more to overhaul the
+chase.</p>
+
+<p>I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind
+came again in a clap; she filled on the port tack and was
+off again, stooping and skimming like a swallow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was
+towards joy. Round she came, till she was broadside
+on to me&mdash;round still till she had covered a half, and
+then two-thirds, and then three-quarters of the distance
+that separated us. I could see the waves boiling white
+under her forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me
+from my low station in the coracle.</p>
+
+<p>And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I had
+scarce time to think&mdash;scarce time to act and save myself.
+I was on the summit of one swell when the schooner came
+stooping over the next. The bowsprit was over my head.
+I sprang to my feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under
+water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my
+foot was lodged between the stay and the brace, and as I
+still clung there panting, a dull blow told me that the
+schooner had charged down upon and struck the coracle
+and that I was left without retreat on the <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV<br />
+<small>I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER</small></h2>
+
+<p>I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when
+the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other tack with
+a report like a gun. The schooner trembled to her keel
+under the reverse, but next moment, the other sails still
+drawing, the jib flapped back again and hung idle.</p>
+
+<p>This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now I
+lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled
+headforemost on the deck.</p>
+
+<p>I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail,
+which was still drawing, concealed from me a certain
+portion of the after-deck. Not a soul was to be seen. The
+planks, which had not been swabbed since the mutiny,
+bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken
+by the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the
+scuppers.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the <i>Hispaniola</i> came right into the wind.
+The jibs behind me cracked aloud; the rudder slammed
+to; the whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder;
+and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
+the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee
+after-deck.</p>
+
+<p>There were the two watchmen, sure enough; Red-cap
+on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his arms stretched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+out like those of a crucifix, and his teeth showing through
+his open lips; Israel Hands propped against the bulwarks,
+his chin on his chest, his hands lying open before him on
+the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow
+candle.</p>
+
+<p>For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a
+vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one tack, now on
+another, and the boom swinging to and fro till the mast
+groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again, too,
+there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark,
+and a heavy blow of the ship's bows against the
+swell&mdash;so much heavier weather was made of it by this
+great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsided coracle,
+now gone to the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>At every jump of the schooner, Red-cap slipped to and
+fro; but&mdash;what was ghastly to behold&mdash;neither his attitude
+nor his fixed teeth-disclosing grin was any way disturbed
+by this rough usage. At every jump, too, Hands
+appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down
+upon the deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and
+the whole body canting toward the stern, so that his face
+became, little by little, hid from me; and at last I could
+see nothing beyond his ear and the frayed ringlet of one
+whisker.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time I observed, around both of them,
+splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and began to feel
+sure that they had killed each other in their drunken wrath.</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm
+moment when the ship was still, Israel Hands turned
+partly round, and with a low moan, writhed himself back
+to the position in which I had seen him first. The moan,
+which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+which his jaw hung open, went right to my heart. But
+when I remembered the talk I had overheard from the
+apple barrel, all pity left me.</p>
+
+<p>I walked aft until I reached the mainmast.</p>
+
+<p>"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, ironically.</p>
+
+<p>He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far
+gone to express surprise. All he could do was to utter one
+word, "Brandy."</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and
+dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the
+deck, I slipped aft and down the companion-stairs into
+the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy.
+All the lock-fast places had been broken open in quest of
+the chart. The floor was thick with mud, where the
+ruffians had sat down to drink or consult after wading in
+the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted
+in clear white, and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern
+of dirty hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together
+in corners to the rolling of the ship. One of the doctor's
+medical books lay open on the table, half of the leaves
+gutted out, I suppose, for pipe-lights. In the midst of all
+this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown
+as umber.</p>
+
+<p>I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and
+of the bottles a most surprising number had been drunk
+out and thrown away. Certainly, since the mutiny began,
+not a man of them could ever have been sober.</p>
+
+<p>Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy left,
+for Hands; and for myself I routed out some biscuit,
+some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, and a piece
+of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the
+coxswain's reach, went forward to the water-breaker, and
+had a good, deep drink of water, and then, and not until
+then, gave Hands the brandy.</p>
+
+<p>He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle
+from his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"</p>
+
+<p>I had sat down already in my own corner and begun to
+eat.</p>
+
+<p>"Much hurt?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.</p>
+
+<p>"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. As
+for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," he added, indicating
+the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman,
+anyhow. And where mought you have come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession
+of this ship, Mr. Hands, and you'll please regard me as
+your captain until further notice."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing.
+Some of the color had come back into his cheeks, though
+he still looked very sick and still continued to slip out and
+settle down as the ship banged about.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors,
+Mr. Hands; and by your leave I'll strike 'em. Better
+none than these."</p>
+
+<p>And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines,
+hauled down their cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.</p>
+
+<p>"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; "and
+there's an end to Captain Silver."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while
+on his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon," he said at last&mdash;"I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins,
+you'll kind o' want to get ashore, now. S'pose we
+talks."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands.
+Say on." And I went back to my meal with a good
+appetite.</p>
+
+<p>"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse&mdash;"O'Brien
+were his name&mdash;a rank Irelander&mdash;this
+man and me got the canvas on her, meaning for to sail
+her back. Well, <i>he's</i> dead now, he is&mdash;as dead as bilge;
+and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I give
+you a hint, you ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now,
+look here, you gives me food and drink, and a old scarf
+or ankercher to tie my wound up, you do; and I'll tell
+you how to sail her; and that's about square all round,
+I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you one thing," says I; "I'm not going back
+to Captain Kidd's anchorage. I mean to get into North
+Inlet, and beach her quietly there."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an
+infernal lubber, after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried
+my fling, I have, and I've lost, and it's you has the wind
+of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no ch'ice, not I.
+I'd help you sail her up to Execution Dock, by thunder!
+so I would."</p>
+
+<p>Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this.
+We struck our bargain on the spot. In three minutes
+I had the <i>Hispaniola</i> sailing easily before the wind along
+the coast of Treasure Island, with good hopes of turning
+the northern point ere noon, and beating down again as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+far as North Inlet before high water, when we might
+beach her safely, and wait till the subsiding tide permitted
+us to land.</p>
+
+<p>Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own
+chest, where I got a soft silk handkerchief of my mother's.
+With this, and with my aid, Hands bound up the great
+bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after he
+had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the
+brandy, he began to pick up visibly, sat straighter up,
+spoke louder and clearer, and looked in every way another
+man.</p>
+
+<p>The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before
+it like a bird, the coast of the island flashing by, and the
+view changing every minute. Soon we were past the
+high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country, sparsely
+dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that
+again, and had turned the corner of the rocky hill that
+ends the island on the north.</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased
+with the bright, sunshiny weather and these different
+prospects of the coast. I had now plenty of water and
+good things to eat, and my conscience, which had smitten
+me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest
+I had made. I should, I think, have had nothing
+left me to desire but for the eyes of the coxswain as they
+followed me derisively about the deck, and the odd smile
+that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile
+that had in it something both of pain and weakness&mdash;a
+haggard, old man's smile; but there was, besides that,
+a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery, in his expression
+as he craftily watched, and watched, and watched
+me at my work.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI<br />
+<small>ISRAEL HANDS</small></h2>
+
+<p>The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the
+west. We could run so much easier from the northeast
+corner of the island to the mouth of the North Inlet.
+Only, as we had no power to anchor, and dared not
+beach her until the tide had flowed a good deal farther,
+time hung on our hands. The coxswain told me how
+to lay the ship to; after a good many trials I succeeded,
+and we both sat in silence over another meal.</p>
+
+<p>"Cap'n," said he, at length, with that same uncomfortable
+smile, "here's my old shipmate, O'Brien; s'pose
+you was to heave him overboard. I ain't partic'lar, as
+a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling his hash;
+but I don't reckon him ornamental, now, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job; and
+there he lies, for me," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"This here's an unlucky ship&mdash;the <i>Hispaniola</i>, Jim,"
+he went on, blinking. "There's a power of men been
+killed in this <i>Hispaniola</i>&mdash;a sight o' poor seamen dead
+and gone since you and me took ship to Bristol. I never
+seen such dirty luck, not I. There was this here O'Brien,
+now&mdash;he's dead, ain't he? Well, now, I'm no scholar,
+and you're a lad as can read and figure; and, to put it
+straight, do you take it as a dead man is dead for good,
+or do he come alive again?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+you must know that already," I replied. "O'Brien, there,
+is in another world, and may be watching us."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nate&mdash;appears
+as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsomever,
+sperrits don't reckon for much, by what I've seen. I'll
+chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now you've spoke
+up free, and I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that
+there cabin and get me a&mdash;well, a&mdash;shiver my timbers!
+I can't hit the name on't. Well, you get me a
+bottle of wine, Jim&mdash;this here brandy's too strong for
+my head."</p>
+
+<p>Now the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural;
+and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy,
+I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story was a pretext.
+He wanted me to leave the deck&mdash;so much was
+plain, but with what purpose I could in no way imagine.
+His eyes never met mine; they kept wandering to and
+fro, up and down, now with a look to the sky, now with
+a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien. All the time he
+kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most
+guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child could have
+told that he was bent on some deception. I was prompt
+with my answer, however, for I saw where my advantage
+lay, and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could
+easily conceal my suspicions to the end.</p>
+
+<p>"Some wine?" I said. "Far better. Will you have
+white or red?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me,
+shipmate," he replied; "so it's strong, and plenty of it,
+what's the odds?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, Mr.
+Hands. But I'll have to dig for it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With that I scuttled down the companion with all the
+noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the
+sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder and popped
+my head out of the fore companion. I knew he would
+not expect to see me there, yet I took every precaution
+possible, and certainly the worst of my suspicions proved
+too true.</p>
+
+<p>He had risen from his position to his hands and knees,
+and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply
+when he moved&mdash;for I could hear him stifle a groan&mdash;yet
+it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed himself
+across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the
+port scuppers, and picked out of a coil of rope a long
+knife, or rather a short dirk, discolored to the hilt with
+blood. He looked upon it for a moment, thrusting forth
+his under jaw, tried the point upon his hand, and then
+hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled
+back again into his old place against the bulwark.</p>
+
+<p>This was all that I required to know. Israel could
+move about; he was now armed, and if he had been at
+so much trouble to get rid of me, it was plain that I was
+meant to be the victim. What he would do afterward&mdash;whether
+he would try to crawl right across the island
+from North Inlet to the camp among the swamps, or
+whether he would fire Long Tom, trusting that his own
+comrades might come first to help him, was, of course,
+more than I could say.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point,
+since in that our interests jumped together, and that was
+in the disposition of the schooner. We both desired to
+have her stranded safe enough, in a sheltered place, and
+so that when the time came, she could be got off again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+with as little labor and danger as might be; and until
+that was done I considered that my life would certainly
+be spared.</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus turning the business over in my
+mind I had not been idle with my body. I had stolen back
+to the cabin, slipped once more into my shoes and laid
+my hand at random on a bottle of wine, and now with
+this for an excuse, I made my reappearance on the deck.</p>
+
+<p>Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together in a
+bundle, and with his eyelids lowered as though he were
+too weak to bear the light. He looked up, however, at
+my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a man
+who had done the same thing often, and took a good
+swig, with his favorite toast of "Here's luck!" Then he
+lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling out a stick of
+tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid.</p>
+
+<p>"Cut me a junk o' that," says he, "for I haven't no
+knife, and hardly strength enough, so be as I had. Ah,
+Jim, Jim, I reckon I've missed stays! Cut me a quid
+as'll likely be the last, lad; for I'm for my long home, and
+no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I
+was you and thought myself so badly, I would go to my
+prayers, like a Christian man."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" said he. "Now you tell me why."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now
+about the dead. You've broken your trust; you've lived
+in sin and lies and blood; there's a man you killed lying
+at your feet this moment; and you ask me why! For
+God's mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."</p>
+
+<p>I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk
+he had hidden in his pocket, and designed, in his ill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, took a great
+draught of the wine and spoke with the most unusual
+solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>"For thirty year," he said, "I've sailed the seas and
+seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and
+foul, provisions running out, knives going, and what not.
+Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness
+yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite;
+them's my views&mdash;amen, so be it. And now, you look
+here," he added, suddenly changing his tone, "we've had
+about enough of this foolery. The tide's made good
+enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap'n Hawkins,
+and we'll sail slap in and be done with it."</p>
+
+<p>All told, we had scarce two miles to run, but the
+navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern
+anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east
+and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled
+to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and
+I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot; for we
+went about and about, and dodged in, shaving the banks,
+with a certainty and a neatness that were a pleasure to
+behold.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had we passed the head before the land closed
+around us. The shores of North Inlet were as thickly
+wooded as those of the southern anchorage, but the space
+was longer and narrower, and more like, what in truth
+it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us, at the
+southern end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages
+of dilapidation. It had been a great vessel of three masts,
+but had lain so long exposed to the injuries of the weather
+that it was hung about with great webs of dripping seaweed,
+and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken root,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight,
+but it showed us that the anchorage was calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for
+to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a catspaw, trees
+all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on
+that old ship."</p>
+
+<p>"And, once beached," I inquired, "how shall we get
+her off again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, so," he replied; "you take a line ashore there
+on the other side at low water; take a turn about one o'
+them big pines; bring it back, take a turn around the
+capstan and lie-to for the tide. Come high water, all
+hands take a pull upon the line, and off she comes as
+sweet as natur'. And now, boy, you stand by. We're
+near the bit now, and she's too much way on her. Starboard
+a little&mdash;so&mdash;steady&mdash;starboard&mdash;larboard a
+little&mdash;steady&mdash;steady!"</p>
+
+<p>So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly
+obeyed; till, all of a sudden, he cried: "Now, my hearty,
+luff!" And I put the helm hard up, and the <i>Hispaniola</i>
+swung round rapidly and ran stem on for the low wooded
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement of these last maneuvers had somewhat
+interfered with the watch I had kept hitherto, sharply
+enough, upon the coxswain. Even then I was still so
+much interested, waiting for the ship to touch, that I
+had quite forgot the peril that hung over my head, and
+stood craning over the starboard bulwarks and watching
+the ripples spreading wide before the bows. I might
+have fallen without a struggle for my life, had not a
+sudden disquietude seized upon me and made me turn
+my head. Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+shadow moving with the tail of my eye; perhaps it was
+an instinct like a cat's; but, sure enough, when I looked
+round, there was Hands, already halfway toward me,
+with the dirk in his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes
+met, but while mine was the shrill cry of terror, his was
+a roar of fury like a charging bull's. At the same instant
+he threw himself forward and I leaped sideways toward
+the bows. As I did so I let go of the tiller, which sprung
+sharp to leeward; and I think this saved my life, for it
+struck Hands across the chest, and stopped him, for the
+moment, dead.</p>
+
+<p>Before he could recover I was safe out of the corner
+where he had me trapped, with all the deck to dodge
+about. Just forward of the mainmast I stopped, drew
+a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim, though he
+had already turned and was once more coming directly
+after me, and drew the trigger. The hammer fell, but
+there followed neither flash nor sound; the priming was
+useless with sea water. I cursed myself for my neglect.
+Why had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded my
+only weapons? Then I should not have been as now, a
+mere fleeing sheep before this butcher.</p>
+
+<p>Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he
+could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face and
+his face itself as red as a red ensign with his haste and
+fury. I had no time to try my other pistol, nor, indeed,
+much inclination, for I was sure it would be useless. One
+thing I saw plainly: I must not simply retreat before
+him, or he would speedily hold me boxed into the bows,
+as a moment since he had so nearly boxed me in the
+stern. Once so caught, and nine or ten inches of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+blood-stained dirk would be my last experience on this
+side of eternity. I placed my palms against the mainmast,
+which was of a goodish bigness, and waited, every
+nerve upon the stretch.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that I meant to dodge he also paused, and a
+moment or two passed in feints on his part and corresponding
+movements upon mine. It was such a game as
+I had often played at home about the rocks of Black Hill
+Cove; but never before, you may be sure, with such a
+wildly beating heart as now. Still, as I say it, it was a
+boy's game, and I thought I could hold my own at it
+against an elderly seaman with a wounded thigh. Indeed,
+my courage had begun to rise so high that I allowed
+myself a few darting thoughts on what would be the end
+of the affair; and while I saw certainly that I could spin
+it out for long, I saw no hope of any ultimate escape.</p>
+
+<p>Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the <i>Hispaniola</i>
+struck, staggered, ground for an instant in the sand, and
+then, swift as a blow, canted over to the port side, till the
+deck stood at an angle of forty-five degrees, and about a
+puncheon of water splashed into the scupper holes, and
+lay in a pool between the deck and bulwark.</p>
+
+<p>We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of
+us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers, the dead
+Red-cap, with his arms still spread out, tumbling stiffly
+after us. So near were we, indeed, that my head came
+against the coxswain's foot with a crack that made my
+teeth rattle. Blow and all, I was the first afoot again,
+for Hands had got involved with the dead body. The
+sudden canting of the ship had made the deck no place
+for running on; I had to find some new way of escape,
+and that upon the instant, for my foe was almost touching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+me. Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds,
+rattled up hand over hand, and did not draw a breath
+till I was seated on the crosstrees.</p>
+
+<div class="figr"><a name="cpg" id="cpg"></a>
+<img src="images/015.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 193</div><i>Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds</i></div>
+
+<p>I had been saved by being prompt; the dirk had struck
+not half a foot below me as I pursued my upward flight;
+and there stood Israel Hands with his mouth open and
+his face upturned to mine, a perfect statue of surprise
+and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time in
+changing the priming of my pistol, and then, having one
+ready for service, and to make assurance doubly sure, I
+proceeded to draw the load of the other, and recharge
+it afresh from the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; he
+began to see the dice going against him, and after an
+obvious hesitation, he also hauled himself heavily into
+the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his teeth, began slowly
+and painfully to mount. It cost him no end of time and
+groans to haul his wounded leg behind him; and I had
+quietly finished my arrangements before he was much
+more than a third of the way up. Then, with a pistol in
+either hand, I addressed him:</p>
+
+<p>"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow
+your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know," I
+added, with a chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped instantly. I could see by the workings of
+his face that he was trying to think, and the process was
+so slow and laborious that, in my new-found security,
+I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow or two, he
+spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme
+perplexity. In order to speak he had to take the dagger
+from his mouth, but, in all else, he remained unmoved.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Jim," says he, "I reckon we're fouled, you and me,
+and we'll have to sign articles. I'd have had you but for
+that there lurch; but I don't have no luck, not I; and I
+reckon I'll have to strike, which comes hard, you see, for
+a master mariner to a ship's younker like you, Jim."</p>
+
+<p>I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited
+as a cock upon a walk, when, all in a breath, back
+went his right hand over his shoulder. Something sang
+like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow and then
+a sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder
+to the mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the
+moment&mdash;I scarce can say it was by my own volition,
+and I am sure it was without a conscious aim&mdash;both
+my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands.
+They did not fall alone; with a choked cry the coxswain
+loosed his grasp upon the shrouds, and plunged head first
+into the water.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII<br />
+<small>"PIECES OF EIGHT"</small></h2>
+
+<p>Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far
+out over the water, and from my perch on the crosstrees
+I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay. Hands,
+who was not so far up, was, in consequence, nearer to
+the ship, and fell between me and the bulwarks. He
+rose once to the surface in a lather of foam and blood,
+and then sank again for good. As the water settled,
+I could see him lying huddled together on the clean,
+bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A fish
+or two whipped past his body. Sometimes, by the quivering
+of the water, he appeared to move a little, as if he
+were trying to rise. But he was dead enough, for all
+that, being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish
+in the very place where he had designed my slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel
+sick, faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running
+over my back and chest. The dirk, where it had pinned
+my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hot iron;
+yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed
+me, for these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a
+murmur; it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling
+from the crosstree into that still, green water beside the
+body of the coxswain.</p>
+
+<p>I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I
+shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+mind came back again, my pulses quieted down to a more
+natural time, and I was once more in possession of myself.</p>
+
+<p>It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; but
+either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I
+desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough, that
+very shudder did the business. The knife, in fact, had
+come the nearest in the world to missing me altogether;
+it held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this the shudder
+tore away. The blood ran down the faster, to be sure,
+but I was my own master again, and only tacked to the
+mast by my coat and shirt.</p>
+
+<p>These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and
+then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. For
+nothing in the world would I have again ventured,
+shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds,
+from which Israel had so lately fallen.</p>
+
+<p>I went below and did what I could for my wound;
+it pained me a good deal, and still bled freely, but it
+was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall
+me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and
+as the ship was now, in a sense, my own, I began to think
+of clearing it from its last passenger&mdash;the dead man,
+O'Brien.</p>
+
+<p>He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks,
+where he lay like some horrid, ungainly sort of puppet;
+life-size, indeed, but how different from life's color or
+life's comeliness! In that position, I could easily have
+my way with him, and as the habit of tragical adventures
+had worn off almost all my terror for the dead, I took
+him by the waist as if he had been a sack of bran, and,
+with one good heave, tumbled him overboard. He went
+in with a sounding plunge; the red cap came off, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+remained floating on the surface; and as soon as the
+splash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying side by
+side, both wavering with the tremulous movement of the
+water. O'Brien, though still quite a young man, was very
+bald. There he lay with that bald head across the knees
+of the man who killed him, and the quick fishes steering
+to and fro over both.</p>
+
+<p>I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just turned.
+The sun was within so few degrees of setting that already
+the shadow of the pines upon the western shore began
+to reach right across the anchorage and fall in patterns
+on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up, and
+though it was well warded off by the hill with the two
+peaks upon the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little
+softly to itself and the idle sails to rattle to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I speedily
+doused and brought tumbling to the deck, but the mainsail
+was a harder matter. Of course, when the schooner
+canted over, the boom had swung outboard, and the cap
+of it and a foot or two of sail hung even under water.
+I thought this made it still more dangerous, yet the strain
+was so heavy that I half feared to meddle. At last I got
+my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly,
+a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon
+the water; and since, pull as I liked, I could not budge
+the downhaul, that was the extent of what I could
+accomplish. For the rest, the <i>Hispaniola</i> must trust to
+luck, like myself.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into
+shadow&mdash;the last rays, I remember, falling through a
+glade of the wood, and shining bright as jewels on the
+flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling
+more and more on her beam-ends.</p>
+
+<p>I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed
+shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both hands
+for a last security, I let myself drop softly overboard.
+The water scarcely reached my waist; the sand was firm
+and covered with ripple-marks, and I waded ashore in
+great spirits, leaving the <i>Hispaniola</i> on her side, with her
+mainsail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay. About
+the same time the sun went fairly down, and the breeze
+whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines.</p>
+
+<p>At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I returned
+thence empty-handed. There lay the schooner, clear at
+last from buccaneers and ready for our own men to board
+and get to sea again. I had nothing nearer my fancy than
+to get home to the stockade and boast of my achievements.
+Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the
+recapture of the <i>Hispaniola</i> was a clinching answer, and
+I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had
+not lost my time.</p>
+
+<p>So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set my
+face homeward for the blockhouse and my companions.
+I remembered that the most easterly of the rivers which
+drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran from the two-peaked
+hill upon my left; and I bent my course in that
+direction that I might pass the stream while it was
+small. The wood was pretty open, and keeping along
+the lower spurs, I had soon turned the corner of that hill,
+and not long after waded to the mid-calf across the
+watercourse.</p>
+
+<p>This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben
+Gunn, the maroon, and I walked more circumspectly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+keeping an eye on every side. The dusk had come nigh
+hand completely, and, as I opened out the cleft between
+the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against
+the sky, where, as I judged, the man of the island was
+cooking his supper before a roaring fire. And yet I wondered,
+in my heart, that he should show himself so careless.
+For if I could see this radiance, might it not reach
+the eye of Silver himself where he camped upon the
+shore among the marshes?</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the night fell blacker; it was all I could do
+to guide myself even roughly toward my destination; the
+double hill behind me and the Spy-glass on my right hand
+loomed faint and fainter, the stars were few and pale,
+and in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping
+among bushes and rolling into sandy pits.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked
+up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the
+summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after I saw something
+broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and
+knew the moon had risen.</p>
+
+<p>With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained
+to me of my journey; and, sometimes walking,
+sometimes running, impatiently drew near to the stockade.
+Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies before it, I
+was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and
+went a trifle warily. It would have been a poor end of
+my adventures to get shot down by my own party in
+mistake.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was climbing higher and higher; its light
+began to fall here and there in masses through the more
+open districts of the wood, and right in front of me a glow
+of a different color appeared among the trees. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+red and hot, and now and again it was a little darkened&mdash;as
+it were the embers of a bonfire smoldering.</p>
+
+<p>For the life of me I could not think what it might be.</p>
+
+<p>At last I came right down upon the borders of the
+clearing. The western end was already steeped in moon-shine;
+the rest, and the blockhouse itself, still lay in a
+black shadow, chequered with long, silvery streaks of
+light. On the other side of the house an immense fire
+had burned itself into clear embers and shed a steady,
+red reverberation, contrasting strongly with the mellow
+paleness of the moon. There was not a soul stirring, nor
+a sound beside the noises of the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and perhaps
+a little terror also. It had not been our way to build great
+fires; we were, indeed, by the captain's orders, somewhat
+niggardly of firewood, and I began to fear that something
+had gone wrong while I was absent.</p>
+
+<p>I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in
+shadow, and at a convenient place, where the darkness
+was thickest, crossed the palisade.</p>
+
+<p>To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and
+knees, and crawled, without a sound, toward the corner
+of the house. As I drew nearer, my heart was suddenly
+and greatly lightened. It was not a pleasant noise in
+itself, and I have often complained of it at other times,
+but just then it was like music to hear my friends snoring
+together so loud and peaceful in their sleep. The sea-cry
+of the watch, that beautiful "All's well," never fell
+more reassuringly on my ear.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime there was no doubt of one thing;
+they kept an infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver
+and his lads that were now creeping in on them, not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+soul would have seen daybreak. That was what it was,
+thought I, to have the captain wounded; and again I
+blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that danger
+with so few to mount guard.</p>
+
+<p>By this time I had got to the door and stood up. All
+was dark within, so that I could distinguish nothing by
+the eye. As for sounds, there was the steady drone of the
+snorers, and a small occasional noise, a flickering or pecking
+that I could in no way account for.</p>
+
+<p>With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I
+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&mdash;it
+was a sleeper's leg, and he turned and groaned, but without
+awaking.</p>
+
+<p>And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forth
+out of the darkness:</p>
+
+<p>"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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp clipping
+tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and sprang up,
+and with a mighty oath the voice of Silver cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes?"</p>
+
+<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Bring a torch, Dick," said Silver, when my capture
+was thus assured.</p>
+
+<p>And one of the men left the log-house, and presently
+returned with a lighted brand.</p>
+
+<div class="figc">
+<img src="images/003.png" width="268" height="302" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><small>PART VI</small><br />
+CAPTAIN SILVER</h2>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII<br />
+<small>IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP</small></h2>
+
+<p>The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of
+the blockhouse showed me the worst of my apprehensions
+realized. The pirates were in possession of the house
+and stores; there was the cask of cognac, there were the
+pork and bread, as before; and, what tenfold increased
+my horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge
+that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that
+I had not been there to perish with them.</p>
+
+<p>There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another
+man was left alive. Five of them were on their feet,
+flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep
+of drunkenness. The sixth had only risen upon his elbow;
+he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round
+his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still
+more recently dressed. I remembered the man who had
+been shot and run back among the woods in the great
+attack, and doubted not that this was he.</p>
+
+<p>The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's
+shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler
+and more stern than I was used to. He still wore his
+fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his mission,
+but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay
+and torn with sharp briers of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+timbers! dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that
+friendly."</p>
+
+<p>And thereupon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and
+began to fill a pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and
+then, when he had a good light, "That'll do, my lad," he
+added, "stick the glim in the wood heap; and you, gentlemen,
+bring yourselves to!&mdash;you needn't stand up for Mr.
+Hawkins; <i>he'll</i> excuse you, you may lay to that. And so,
+Jim"&mdash;stopping the tobacco&mdash;"here you are, and quite
+a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I see you were
+smart when first I set my eyes on you, but this here gets
+away from me clean, it do."</p>
+
+<p>To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer.
+They had set me with my back against the wall, and I
+stood there, looking Silver in the face, pluckily enough,
+I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black despair
+in my heart.</p>
+
+<p>Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure,
+and then ran on again:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you <i>are</i> here," says he,
+"I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always liked
+you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own
+self when I was young and handsome. I always wanted
+you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman,
+and now, my cock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a
+fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on
+discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right he is. Just
+you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone
+dead again you&mdash;'ungrateful scamp' was what he said;
+and the short and long of the whole story is about here:
+You can't go back to your own lot, for they won't have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+you; and, without you start a third ship's company all by
+yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with
+Cap'n Silver."</p>
+
+<p>So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and
+though I partly believed the truth of Silver's statement,
+that the cabin party were incensed at me for my desertion,
+I was more relieved than distressed by what I heard.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands,"
+continued Silver, "though there you are, and you may
+lay to it. I'm all for argyment; I never seen good come
+out o' threatening. If you like the service, well, you'll
+jine; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer
+no&mdash;free and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be
+said by mortal seaman, shiver my sides!"</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to answer, then?" I asked, with a very tremulous
+voice. Through all this sneering talk I was made
+to feel the threat of death that overhung me, and my
+cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pressing of you. Take
+your bearings. None of us won't hurry you, mate; time
+goes so pleasant in your company, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," says I, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm to choose,
+I declare I have a right to know what's what, and why
+you're here, and where my friends are."</p>
+
+<p>"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers, in a
+deep growl. "Ah, he'd be a lucky one as knowed that!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till you're
+spoke to, my friend," cried Silver, truculently, to this
+speaker. And then, in his first gracious tones, he replied
+to me: "Yesterday morning, Mr. Hawkins," said he,
+"in the dogwatch, down came Doctor Livesey with a
+flag of truce. Says he: 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+Ship's gone!' Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass,
+and a song to help it round. I won't say no. Leastways,
+none of us had looked out. We looked out, and, by thunder!
+the old ship was gone. I never seen a pack o' fools
+look fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that I
+looked the fishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.'
+We bargained, him and I, and here we are; stores,
+brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you was thoughtful
+enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the whole
+blessed boat, from crosstrees to keelson. As for them,
+they've tramped; I don't know where's they are."</p>
+
+<p>He drew again quietly at his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"And lest you should take it into that head of yours,"
+he went on, "that you was included in the treaty, here's
+the last word that was said: 'How many are you,' says
+I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he&mdash;'four, and one of us
+wounded. As for that boy, I don't know where he is,
+confound him,' says he, 'nor I don't much care. We're
+about sick of him.' These was his words."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," returned Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I am to choose?"</p>
+
+<p>"And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that,"
+said Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know
+pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst come
+to the worst, it's little I care. I've seen too many die since
+I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two I have to
+tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited;
+"and the first is this: Here you are, in a bad way; ship
+lost, treasure lost, men lost; your whole business gone to
+wreck; and if you want to know who did it&mdash;it was I!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land, and
+I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands,
+who is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every word
+you said before the hour was out. And as for the
+schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I who
+killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who
+brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of
+you. The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this
+business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear
+a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing
+I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, bygones are bygones,
+and when you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll
+save you all I can. It is for you to choose. Kill another
+and do yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a witness
+to save you from the gallows."</p>
+
+<p>I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, to
+my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all sat staring
+at me like as many sheep. And while they were still staring
+I broke out again:</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're the
+best man here, and if things go to the worst, I'll take it
+kind of you to let the doctor know the way I took it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so
+curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide whether
+he were laughing at my request or had been favorably
+affected by my courage.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced
+seaman&mdash;Morgan by name&mdash;whom I had seen in Long
+John's public-house upon the quays of Bristol. "It was
+him that knowed Black Dog."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook, "I'll put
+another again to that, by thunder! for it was this same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones. First and
+last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then here goes!" said Morgan, with an oath.</p>
+
+<p>And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been
+twenty.</p>
+
+<p>"Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom
+Morgan? Maybe you thought you were captain here,
+perhaps. By the powers, but I'll teach you better! Cross
+me and you'll go where many a good man's gone before
+you, first and last, these thirty year back&mdash;some to the
+yardarm, shiver my sides! and some by the board, and all
+to feed the fishes. There's never a man looked me between
+the eyes and seen a good day a'terward, Tom Morgan, you
+may lay to that."</p>
+
+<p>Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom's right," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"I stood hazing long enough from one," added another.
+"I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John Silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with
+<i>me</i>?" roared Silver, bending far forward from his position
+on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his right
+hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't dumb,
+I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived
+this many years to have a son of a rum puncheon cock
+his hat athwart my hawser at the latter end of it? You
+know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune, by your
+account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that
+dares, and I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all,
+before that pipe's empty."</p>
+
+<p>Not a man stirred; not a man answered.</p>
+
+<p>"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to look at, any
+way. Not worth much to fight, you ain't. P'r'aps you
+can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n here
+by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by
+a long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune
+should; then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to
+it! I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy than
+that. He's more a man than any pair of rats of you in
+this here house, and what I say is this: Let me see him
+that'll lay a hand on him&mdash;that's what I say, and you
+may lay to it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause after this. I stood straight
+up against the wall, my heart still going like a sledgehammer,
+but with a ray of hope now shining in my
+bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms
+crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as
+though he had been in church; yet his eye kept wandering
+furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly followers.
+They, on their part, drew gradually together
+toward the far end of the blockhouse, and the low hiss
+of their whispering sounded in my ears continuously, like
+a stream. One after another they would look up, and the
+red light of the torch would fall for a second on their
+nervous faces; but it was not toward me, it was toward
+Silver that they turned their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver,
+spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it,
+or lay to."</p>
+
+<p>"Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men;
+"you're pretty free with some of the rules, maybe you'll
+kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew's dissatisfied;
+this crew don't vally bullying a marlinspike; this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as
+that; and by your own rules I take it we can talk together.
+I ax your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for to be capting
+at this present, but I claim my right and steps outside
+for a council."</p>
+
+<p>And with an elaborate sea-salute this fellow, a long,
+ill-looking, yellow-eyed man of five-and-thirty, stepped
+coolly toward the door and disappeared out of the house.
+One after another the rest followed his example, each
+making a salute as he passed, each adding some apology.
+"According to rules," said one. "Foc's'le council," said
+Morgan. And so with one remark or another, all marched
+out and left Silver and me alone with the torch.</p>
+
+<p>The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look you here, Jim Hawkins," he said in a
+steady whisper that was no more than audible, "you're
+within half a plank of death, and, what's a long sight
+worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But
+you mark, I stand by you through thick and thin. I
+didn't mean to; no, not till you spoke up. I was about
+desperate to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into
+the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says
+to myself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll
+stand by you. You're his last card, and by the living
+thunder, John, he's yours! Back to back, says I. You
+save your witness and he'll save your neck!"</p>
+
+<p>I began dimly to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean all's lost?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck
+gone&mdash;that's the size of it. Once I looked into that bay,
+Jim Hawkins, and seen no schooner&mdash;well, I'm tough,
+but I gave out. As for that lot and their council, mark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save your
+life&mdash;if so be as I can&mdash;from them. But see here, Jim&mdash;tit
+for tat&mdash;you save Long John from swinging."</p>
+
+<p>I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was
+asking&mdash;he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout.</p>
+
+<p>"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up
+plucky, and by thunder, I've a chance."</p>
+
+<p>He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped
+among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a
+head on my shoulders, I have. I'm on squire's side now.
+I know you've got that ship safe somewheres. How you
+done it I don't know, but safe it is. I guess Hands and
+O'Brien turned soft. I never much believed in neither
+of <i>them</i>. Now you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I
+won't let others. I know when a game's up, I do; and I
+know a lad that's stanch. Ah, you that's young&mdash;you and
+me might have done a power of good together!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked, and when I had
+refused, "Well, I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I
+need a caulker, for there's trouble on hand. And, talking
+o' trouble, why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim?"</p>
+
+<p>My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw
+the needlessness of further questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's
+something under that, no doubt&mdash;something, surely,
+under that, Jim&mdash;bad or good."</p>
+
+<p>And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking
+his great fair head like a man who looks forward to the
+worst.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX<br />
+<small>THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN</small></h2>
+
+<p>The council of the buccaneers had lasted some time,
+when one of them re-entered the house, and with a repetition
+of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical
+air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch. Silver
+briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again, leaving
+us together in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had
+by this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out.
+The embers of the great fire had so far burned themselves
+out, and now glowed so low and duskily, that I understood
+why these conspirators desired a torch. About
+halfway down the slope to the stockade they were collected
+in a group; one held the light; another was on his
+knees in their midst, and I saw the blade of an open knife
+shine in his hand with varying colors, in the moon and
+torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as
+though watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just
+make out that he had a book as well as a knife in his hand;
+and was still wondering how anything so incongruous had
+come in their possession, when the kneeling figure rose
+once more to his feet, and the whole party began to move
+together toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they come," said I; and I returned to my former<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+position, for it seemed beneath my dignity that they should
+find me watching them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let 'em come, lad&mdash;let 'em come," said Silver,
+cheerily. "I've still a shot in my locker."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled
+together just inside, pushed one of their number forward.
+In any other circumstances it would have been comical to
+see his slow advance, hesitating as he set down each foot,
+but holding his closed right hand in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Step up, lad," cried Silver. "I won't eat you. Hand
+it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do; I won't hurt a
+depytation."</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged the buccaneer stepped forth more
+briskly, and having passed something to Silver, from hand
+to hand, slipped yet more smartly back again to his companions.</p>
+
+<p>The sea-cook looked at what had been given him.</p>
+
+<p>"The black spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where
+might you have got the paper? Why, hello! look here,
+now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and cut this out of a
+Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there," said Morgan, "there! Wot did I say?
+No good'll come o' that, I said."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," continued
+Silver. "You'll all swing now, I reckon. What
+soft-headed lubber had a Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was Dick," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," said
+Silver. "He's seen his slice of luck, has Dick, and you
+may lay to that."</p>
+
+<p>But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in.</p>
+
+<p>"Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+has tipped you the black spot in full council, as in dooty
+bound; just you turn it over, as in dooty bound, and see
+what's wrote there. Then you can talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanky, George," replied the sea-cook. "You always
+was brisk for business, and has the rules by heart, George,
+as I'm pleased to see. Well, what is it, anyway? Ah!
+'Deposed'&mdash;that's it, is it? Very pretty wrote, to be
+sure; like print, I swear. Your hand o' write, George?
+Why, you was gettin' quite a leadin' man in this here
+crew. You'll be cap'n next, I shouldn't wonder. Just
+oblige me with that torch again, will you? this pipe don't
+draw."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, now," said George, "you don't fool this crew
+no more. You're a funny man, by your account; but
+you're over now, and you'll maybe step down off that
+barrel, and help vote."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned
+Silver, contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do;
+and I wait here&mdash;and I'm still your cap'n, mind&mdash;till
+you outs with your grievances, and I reply; in the meantime,
+your black spot ain't worth a biscuit. After that
+we'll see."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of
+apprehension; <i>we're</i> all square, we are. First, you've
+made a hash of this cruise&mdash;you'll be a bold man to say
+no to that. Second, you let the enemy out o' this here
+trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I dunno, but
+it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let
+us go at them upon the march. Oh, we see through you,
+John Silver; you want to play booty, that's what's wrong
+with you. And then, fourth, there's this here boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" asked Silver, quietly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Enough, too," retorted George. "We'll all swing
+and sun-dry for your bungling."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints;
+one after another I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o'
+this cruise, did I? Well, now, you all know what I
+wanted; and you all know, if that had been done, that
+we'd 'a' been aboard the <i>Hispaniola</i> this night as ever
+was, every man of us alive, and fit, and full of good
+plum-duff, and the treasure in the hold of her, by thunder!
+Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as
+was the lawful cap'n? Who tipped me the black spot the
+day we landed, and began this dance? Ah, it's a fine
+dance&mdash;I'm with you there&mdash;and looks mighty like a
+hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London
+town, it does. But who done it? Why, it was Anderson,
+and Hands, and you, George Merry! And you're
+the last above board of that same meddling crew; and
+you have the Davy Jones insolence to up and stand for
+cap'n over me&mdash;you, that sunk the lot of us! By the
+powers! but this tops the stiffest yarn to nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George
+and his late comrades that these words had not been said
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"That's for number one," cried the accused, wiping
+the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with a
+vehemence that shook the house. "Why, I give you my
+word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense nor
+memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was
+that let you come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune!
+I reckon tailors is your trade."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to the
+others."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice
+lot, ain't they? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah! by
+gum, if you could understand how bad it's bungled, you
+would see! We're that near the gibbet that my neck's
+stiff with thinking on it. You've seen 'em, maybe, hanged
+in chains, birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as
+they go down with the tide. 'Who's that?' says one.
+'That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him well,'
+says another. And you can hear the chains a-jangle as
+you go about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that's
+about where we are, every mother's son of us, thanks to
+him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other ruination fools
+of you. And if you want to know about number four, and
+that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn't he a hostage? Are
+we a-going to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be
+our last chance, and I shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy?
+not me, mates! And number three? Ah, well, there's a
+deal to say to number three. Maybe you don't count it
+nothing to have a real college doctor come to see you every
+day&mdash;you, John, with your head broke&mdash;or you, George
+Merry, that had the ague shakes upon you not six hours
+agone, and has your eyes the color of lemon peel to this
+same moment on the clock? And maybe, perhaps, you
+didn't know there was a consort coming, either? But
+there is, and not so long till then; and we'll see who'll be
+glad to have a hostage when it comes to that. And as for
+number two, and why I made a bargain&mdash;well, you come
+crawling on your knees to me to make it&mdash;on your knees
+you came, you was that downhearted&mdash;and you'd have
+starved, too, if I hadn't&mdash;but that's a trifle! you look
+there&mdash;that's why!"</p>
+
+<p>And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+recognized&mdash;none other than the chart on yellow paper,
+with the three red crosses, that I had found in the oilcloth
+at the bottom of the captain's chest. Why the doctor
+had given it to him was more than I could fancy.</p>
+
+<p>But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance of the
+chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers. They
+leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse. It went from hand
+to hand, one tearing it from another; and by the oaths and
+the cries and the childish laughter with which they accompanied
+their examination, you would have thought, not
+only they were fingering the very gold, but were at sea
+with it, besides, in safety.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F., and
+a score below, with a close hitch to it, so he done ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to
+get away with it, and us no ship?"</p>
+
+<p>Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself
+with a hand against the wall: "Now, I give you warning,
+George," he cried. "One more word of your sauce, and
+I'll call you down and fight you. How? Why, how do
+I know? You had ought to tell me that&mdash;you and the
+rest, that lost me my schooner, with your interference,
+burn you! But not you, you can't; you ain't got the
+invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and
+shall, George Merry, you may lay to that."</p>
+
+<p>"That's fair enow," said the old man Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"Fair! I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost the
+ship; I found the treasure. Who's the better man at that?
+And now I resign, by thunder! Elect whom you please
+to be your cap'n now; I'm done with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue forever! Barbecue
+for cap'n!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George,
+I reckon you'll have to wait another turn, friend, and
+lucky for you as I'm not a revengeful man. But that was
+never my way. And now, shipmates, this black spot?
+'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and
+spoiled his Bible, and that's about all."</p>
+
+<p>"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it?" growled
+Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse he had
+brought upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver, derisively.
+"Not it. It don't bind no more'n a ballad-book."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't it, though?" cried Dick, with a sort of joy.
+"Well, I reckon that's worth having, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Jim&mdash;here's a cur'osity for you," said Silver,
+and he tossed me the paper.</p>
+
+<p>It was a round about the size of a crown piece. One
+side was blank, for it had been the last leaf; the other
+contained a verse or two of Revelation&mdash;these words
+among the rest, which struck sharply home upon my
+mind: "Without are dogs and murderers." The printed
+side had been blackened with wood ash, which already
+began to come off and soil my fingers; on the blank side
+had been written with the same material the one word
+"Deposed." I have that curiosity beside me at this moment;
+but not a trace of writing now remains beyond a
+single scratch, such as a man might make with his thumb-nail.</p>
+
+<p>That was the end of the night's business. Soon after,
+with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, and the
+outside of Silver's vengeance was to put George Merry
+up for sentinel, and threaten him with death if he should
+prove unfaithful.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows
+I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I
+had slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position,
+and, above all, in the remarkable game that I saw
+Silver now engaged upon&mdash;keeping the mutineers together
+with one hand, and grasping, with the other, after
+every means, possible and impossible, to make his peace
+and save his miserable life. He himself slept peacefully,
+and snored aloud; yet my heart was sore for him, wicked
+as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed, and
+the shameful gibbet that awaited him.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX<br />
+<small>ON PAROLE</small></h2>
+
+<p>I was wakened&mdash;indeed, we were all wakened, for I
+could see even the sentinel shake himself together from
+where he had fallen against the doorpost&mdash;by a clear,
+hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the wood:</p>
+
+<p>"Blockhouse, ahoy!" it cried. "Here's the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear
+the sound, yet my gladness was not without admixture. I
+remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy
+conduct; and when I saw where it had brought me&mdash;among
+what companions and surrounded by what dangers&mdash;I
+felt ashamed to look him in the face.</p>
+
+<p>He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly
+come; and when I ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw
+him standing, like Silver once before, up to the mid-leg in
+creeping vapor.</p>
+
+<p>"You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried
+Silver, broad awake and beaming with good nature in a
+moment. "Bright and early, to be sure; and it's the early
+bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations. George,
+shake up your timbers, son, and help Doctor Livesey over
+the ship's side. All a-doin' well, your patients was&mdash;all
+well and merry."</p>
+
+<p>So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop, with his
+crutch under his elbow, and one hand upon the side of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+the log-house&mdash;quite the old John in voice, manner, and
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>"We've quite a surprise for you, too, sir," he continued.
+"We've a little stranger here&mdash;he! he! A noo
+boarder and lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut as a fiddle;
+slep' like a supercargo, he did, right alongside of John&mdash;stem
+to stem we was, all night."</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Livesey was by this time across the stockade and
+pretty near the cook, and I could hear the alteration in
+his voice as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Not Jim?"</p>
+
+<p>"The very same Jim as ever was," says Silver.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak,
+and it was some seconds before he seemed able to move on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," he said at last, "duty first and pleasure
+afterwards, as you might have said yourself, Silver. Let
+us overhaul these patients of yours."</p>
+
+<p>A moment afterwards he had entered the blockhouse,
+and, with one grim nod to me, proceeded with his work
+among the sick. He seemed under no apprehension,
+though he must have known that his life, among these
+treacherous demons, depended on a hair, and he rattled
+on to his patients as if he were paying an ordinary professional
+visit in a quiet English family. His manner, I
+suppose, reacted on the men, for they behaved to him as
+if nothing had occurred&mdash;as if he were still ship's doctor,
+and they still faithful hands before the mast.</p>
+
+<p>"You're doing well, my friend," he said to the fellow
+with the bandaged head, "and if ever any person had a
+close shave, it was you; your head must be as hard as
+iron. Well, George, how goes it? You're a pretty color,
+certainly; why, your liver, man, is upside down. Did you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+take that medicine? Did he take that medicine, men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir, he took it sure enough," returned Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doctor, or
+prison doctor, as I prefer to call it," says Doctor Livesey,
+in his pleasantest way, "I make it a point of honor not to
+lose a man for King George (God bless him!) and the
+gallows."</p>
+
+<p>The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed the
+home-thrust in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick don't feel well, sir," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well, step up here,
+Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I should be surprised
+if he did; the man's tongue is fit to frighten the
+French. Another fever."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there," said Morgan, "that comed of sp'iling
+Bibles."</p>
+
+<p>"That comed&mdash;as you call it&mdash;of being arrant asses,"
+retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to know
+honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous
+slough. I think it most probable&mdash;though, of
+course, it's only an opinion&mdash;that you'll all have the
+deuce to pay before you get that malaria out of your
+systems. Camp in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised
+at you. You're less of a fool than many, take you
+all round; but you don't appear to me to have the rudiments
+of a notion of the rules of health.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he added, after he had dosed them round, and
+they had taken his prescriptions, with really laughable
+humility, more like charity school-children than blood-guilty
+mutineers and pirates, "well, that's done for
+to-day. And now I should wish to have a talk with that
+boy, please."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>George Merry was at the door, spitting and spluttering
+over some bad-tasted medicine; but at the first word of
+the doctor's proposal he swung round with a deep flush,
+and cried, "No!" and swore.</p>
+
+<p>Silver struck the barrel with his open hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Si-lence!" he roared, and looked about him positively
+like a lion. "Doctor," he went on, in his usual tones,
+"I was thinking of that, knowing as how you had a fancy
+for the boy. We're all humbly grateful for your kindness,
+and, as you see, puts faith in you, and takes the drugs
+down like that much grog. And I take it I've found a
+way as'll suit all. Hawkins, will you give me your word
+of honor as a young gentleman&mdash;for a young gentleman
+you are, although poor born&mdash;your word of honor not
+to slip your cable?"</p>
+
+<p>I readily gave the pledge required.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step outside o'
+that stockade, and once you're there, I'll bring the boy
+down on the inside, and I reckon you can yarn through
+the spars. Good-day to you, sir, and all our dooties to
+the squire and Cap'n Smollett."</p>
+
+<p>The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but Silver's
+black looks had restrained, broke out immediately
+the doctor had left the house. Silver was roundly accused
+of playing double&mdash;of trying to make a separate peace
+for himself&mdash;of sacrificing the interests of his accomplices
+and victims; and, in one word, of the identical, exact thing
+that he was doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this
+case, that I could not imagine how he was to turn their
+anger. But he was twice the man the rest were, and his
+last night's victory had given him a huge preponderance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+on their minds. He called them all the fools and dolts
+you can imagine, said it was necessary I should talk to
+the doctor, fluttered the chart in their faces, asked them
+if they could afford to break the treaty the very day they
+were bound a-treasure-hunting.</p>
+
+<p>"No, by thunder!" he cried, "it's us must break the
+treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll gammon
+that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with brandy."</p>
+
+<p>And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked out
+upon his crutch, with his hand on my shoulder, leaving
+them in a disarray, and silenced by his volubility rather
+than convinced.</p>
+
+<p>"Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round upon
+us in a twinkle of an eye if we was seen to hurry."</p>
+
+<p>Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the sand
+to where the doctor awaited us on the other side of the
+stockade, and as soon as we were within easy speaking
+distance, Silver stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," said he,
+"and the boy'll tell you how I saved his life, and were
+deposed for it, too, and you may lay to that. Doctor, when
+a man's steering as near to the wind as me&mdash;playing
+chuck-farthing with the last breath in his body, like&mdash;you
+wouldn't think it too much, mayhap, to give him one good
+word! You'll please bear in mind it's not my life only
+now&mdash;it's that boy's into the bargain; and you'll speak
+me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to go on, for the
+sake of mercy."</p>
+
+<p>Silver was a changed man, once he was out there and
+had his back to his friends and the blockhouse; his cheeks
+seemed to have fallen in, his voice trembled; never was a
+soul more dead in earnest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Doctor
+Livesey.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I&mdash;not <i>so</i> much!"
+and he snapped his fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say it.
+But I'll own up fairly, I've the shakes upon me for the
+gallows. You're a good man and a true; I never seen a
+better man! And you'll not forget what I done good,
+not any more than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I
+step aside&mdash;see here&mdash;and leave you and Jim alone.
+And you'll put that down for me, too, for it's a long
+stretch, is that!"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he stepped back a little way till he was out
+of earshot, and there sat down upon a tree-stump and
+began to whistle, spinning round now and again upon
+his seat so as to command a sight, sometimes of me and
+the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they
+went to and fro in the sand, between the fire&mdash;which
+they were busy rekindling&mdash;and the house, from which
+they brought forth pork and bread to make the breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"So, Jim," said the doctor, sadly, "here you are. As
+you have brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. Heaven
+knows I cannot find it in my heart to blame you; but this
+much I will say, be it kind or unkind: when Captain
+Smollett was well you dared not have gone off, and when
+he was ill, and couldn't help it by George, it was downright
+cowardly!"</p>
+
+<p>I will own that I here began to weep. "Doctor," I
+said, "you might spare me. I have blamed myself
+enough; my life's forfeit anyway, and I should have been
+dead now if Silver hadn't stood for me; and, doctor,
+believe this, I can die&mdash;and I dare say I deserve it&mdash;but
+what I fear is torture. If they come to torture me&mdash;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Jim," the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite
+changed, "Jim, I can't have this. Whip over, and we'll
+run for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," said I, "I passed my word."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know," he cried. "We can't help that,
+Jim, now. I'll take it on my shoulders, holus-bolus, blame
+and shame, my boy; but stay here, I cannot let you. Jump!
+One jump and you're out, and we'll run for it like antelopes."</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, "you know right well you wouldn't
+do the thing yourself; neither you, nor squire, nor captain,
+and no more will I. Silver trusted me; I passed my word,
+and back I go. But, doctor, you did not let me finish. If
+they come to torture me, I might let slip a word of where
+the ship is; for I got the ship, part by luck and part by
+risking, and she lies in North Inlet, on the southern beach,
+and just below high water. At half-tide she must be high
+and dry."</p>
+
+<p>"The ship!" exclaimed the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he
+heard me out in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a kind of fate in this," he observed, when I
+had done. "Every step it's you that save our lives, and
+do you suppose by any chance that we are going to let you
+lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy. You
+found out the plot; you found Ben Gunn&mdash;the best deed
+that ever you did, or will do, though you live to ninety.
+Oh, by Jupiter! and talking of Ben Gunn, why, this is
+the mischief in person. Silver!" he cried, "Silver!
+I'll give you a piece of advice," he continued, as the cook
+drew near again; "don't you be in any great hurry after
+that treasure."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," said
+Silver. "I can only, asking your pardon, save my life
+and the boy's by seeking for that treasure; and you may
+lay to that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go
+one step farther; look out for squalls when you find it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Silver, "as between man and man, that's
+too much and too little. What you're after, why you left
+the blockhouse, why you've given me that there chart, I
+don't know, now, do I? and yet I done your bidding with
+my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this
+here's too much. If you won't tell me what you mean
+plain out, just say so, and I'll leave the helm."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the doctor, musingly, "I've no right to say
+more; it's not my secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you
+my word, I'd tell it you. But I'll go as far with you as
+I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have my wig sorted
+by the captain, or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll give you
+a bit of hope. Silver, if we both get out alive out of this
+wolf-trap, I'll do my best to save you, short of perjury."</p>
+
+<p>Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more,
+I am sure, sir, not if you was my mother," he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor.
+"My second is a piece of advice. Keep the boy close
+beside you, and when you need help, halloo. I'm off to
+seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I speak at
+random. Good-by, Jim."</p>
+
+<p>And Doctor Livesey shook hands with me through the
+stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into
+the wood.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI<br />
+<small>THE TREASURE-HUNT&mdash;FLINT'S POINTER</small></h2>
+
+<p>"Jim," said Silver, when we were alone, "if I saved
+your life, you saved mine, and I'll not forget it. I seen
+the doctor waving you to run for it&mdash;with the tail of my
+eye, I did&mdash;and I seen you say no, as plain as hearing.
+Jim, that's one to you. This is the first glint of hope I
+had since the attack failed, and I owe it to you. And
+now, Jim, we're to go in for this here treasure-hunting,
+with sealed orders, too, and I don't like it; and you and
+me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll save our
+necks in spite o' fate and fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Just then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast
+was ready, and we were soon seated here and there about
+the sand over biscuit and fried junk. They had lighted
+a fire fit to roast an ox; and it was now grown so hot that
+they could only approach it from the windward, and
+even there not without precaution. In the same wasteful
+spirit, they had cooked, I suppose, three times more than
+we could eat; and one of them, with an empty laugh,
+threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and roared
+again over this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men
+so careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word
+that can describe their way of doing; and what with
+wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they were bold
+enough for a brush and be done with it, I could see their
+entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his
+shoulder, had not a word of blame for their recklessness.
+And this the more surprised me, for I thought he had
+never showed himself so cunning as he did then.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Barbecue
+to think for you with this here head. I got what I
+wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have the ship. Where
+they have it, I don't know yet; but once we hit the treasure,
+we'll have to jump about and find out. And then, mates,
+us that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand."</p>
+
+<p>Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of the
+hot bacon; thus he restored their hope and confidence,
+and, I more than suspect, repaired his own at the same
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last talk,
+I guess, with them he loves so dear. I've got my piece
+o' news, and thanky to him for that; but it's over and
+done. I'll take him in a line when we go treasure-hunting,
+for we'll keep him like so much gold, in case of accidents,
+you mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the
+ship and treasure both, and off to sea like jolly companions,
+why, then we'll talk Mr. Hawkins over, we
+will, and we'll give him his share, to be sure, for all his
+kindness."</p>
+
+<p>It was no wonder the men were in a good humor now.
+For my part, I was horribly cast down. Should the
+scheme he had now sketched prove feasible, Silver,
+already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate to adopt it.
+He had still a foot in either camp, and there was no doubt
+he would prefer wealth and freedom with the pirates to
+a bare escape from hanging, which was the best he had
+to hope on our side.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced
+to keep his faith with Doctor Livesey, even then what
+danger lay before us! What a moment that would be
+when the suspicions of his followers turned to certainty,
+and he and I should have to fight for dear life&mdash;he, a
+cripple, and I, a boy&mdash;against five strong and active seamen!</p>
+
+<p>Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still
+hung over the behavior of my friends; their unexplained
+desertion of the stockade; their inexplicable cession of
+the chart; or, harder still to understand, the doctor's last
+warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls when you find
+it"; and you will readily believe how little taste I found
+in my breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth
+behind my captors on the quest for treasure.</p>
+
+<p>We made a curious figure, had anyone been there to
+see us; all in soiled sailor clothes, and all but me armed
+to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about him, one
+before and one behind&mdash;besides the great cutlass at his
+waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat.
+To complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat
+perched upon his shoulder and gabbled odds and ends of
+purposeless sea-talk. I had a line about my waist, and
+followed obediently after the sea-cook, who held the loose
+end of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his
+powerful teeth. For all the world, I was led like a dancing
+bear.</p>
+
+<p>The other men were variously burdened; some carrying
+picks and shovels&mdash;for that had been the very first
+necessary they brought ashore from the <i>Hispaniola</i>&mdash;others
+laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday
+meal. All the stores, I observed, came from our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+stock, and I could see the truth of Silver's words the night
+before. Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor, he
+and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been
+driven to subsist on clear water, and the proceeds of their
+hunting. Water would have been little to their taste; a
+sailor is not usually a good shot; and, besides all that,
+when they were so short of eatables, it was not likely they
+would be very flush of powder.</p>
+
+<p>Well, thus equipped, we all set out&mdash;even the fellow
+with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in
+shadow&mdash;and straggled, one after another, to the beach,
+where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace of
+the drunken folly of the pirates, one in a broken thwart,
+and both in their muddied and unbailed condition. Both
+were to be carried along with us, for the sake of safety;
+and so, with our numbers divided between them, we set
+forth upon the bosom of the anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>As we pulled over, there was some discussion on the
+chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large to be
+a guide; and the terms of the note on the back, as you will
+hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran, the reader
+may remember, thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.</p>
+
+<p>"Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten feet."</p></div>
+
+<p>A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right
+before us, the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from
+two to three hundred feet high, adjoining on the north
+the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass, and rising
+again toward the south into the rough, cliffy eminence
+called the Mizzen-mast Hill. The top of the plateau<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+was dotted thickly with pine trees of varying height.
+Every here and there, one of a different species rose forty
+or fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of these
+was the particular "tall tree" of Captain Flint could
+only be decided on the spot, and by the readings of the
+compass.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, although that was the case, every man on board
+the boats had picked a favorite of his own ere we were
+halfway over, Long John alone shrugging his shoulders
+and bidding them wait till they were there.</p>
+
+<p>We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary
+the hands prematurely; and, after quite a long passage,
+landed at the mouth of the second river&mdash;that which
+runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass. Thence, bending
+to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards the
+plateau.</p>
+
+<p>At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted,
+marsh vegetation greatly delayed our progress; but by
+little and little the hill began to steepen and become
+stony under foot, and the wood to change its character
+and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a
+most pleasant portion of the island that we were now
+approaching. A heavy-scented broom and many flowering
+shrubs had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets
+of green nutmeg-trees were dotted here and there with
+the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines, and
+the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others.
+The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this, under
+the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to our
+senses.</p>
+
+<p>The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting
+and leaping to and fro. About the center, and a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+way behind the rest, Silver and I followed&mdash;I tethered
+by my rope, he plowing, with deep pants, among the
+sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend
+him a hand, or he must have missed his footing and fallen
+backward down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, and were
+approaching the brow of the plateau, when the man upon
+the farthest left began to cry aloud, as if in terror. Shout
+after shout came from him, and the others began to run
+in his direction.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't 'a' found the treasure," said old Morgan,
+hurrying past us from the right, "for that's clean a-top."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it
+was something very different. At the foot of a pretty big
+pine, and involved in a green creeper, which had even
+partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human skeleton
+lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground. I
+believe a chill struck for a moment to every heart.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, bolder
+than the rest, had gone up close, and was examining the
+rags of clothing. "Leastways, this is good sea-cloth."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," said Silver, "like enough; you wouldn't look
+to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what sort of a way
+is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't in natur'."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to
+fancy that the body was in a natural position. But for
+some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the birds that had
+fed upon him, or of the slow-growing creeper that had
+gradually enveloped his remains) the man lay perfectly
+straight&mdash;his feet pointing in one direction, his hands
+raised above his head like a diver's, pointing directly in
+the opposite.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've taken a notion into my old numskull," observed
+Silver. "Here's the compass; there's the tip-top p'int of
+Skeleton Island, stickin' out like a tooth. Just take a bearing,
+will you, along the line of them bones."</p>
+
+<p>It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction
+of the island, and the compass read duly E.S.E. by E.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter.
+Right up there is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly
+dollars. But, by thunder! if it don't make me cold inside
+to think of Flint. This is one of <i>his</i> jokes, and no mistake.
+Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em, every
+man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass,
+shiver my timbers! They're long bones, and the
+hair's been yellow. Ay, that would be Allardyce. You
+mind Allardyce, Tom Morgan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," returned Morgan, "I mind him; he owed
+me money, he did, and took my knife ashore with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Speaking of knives," said another, "why don't we find
+his'n lying round? Flint warn't the man to pick a seaman's
+pocket; and the birds, I guess, would leave it be."</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers and that's true!" cried Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling
+round among the bones; "not a copper doit nor a
+baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral,
+nor not nice, says you. Great guns, messmates, but if Flint
+was living this would be a hot spot for you and me! Six
+they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said
+Morgan. "Billy took me in. There he laid, with penny-pieces
+on his eyes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Dead&mdash;ay, sure enough he's dead and gone below,"
+said the fellow with the bandage; "but if ever sperrit
+walked it would be Flint's. Dear heart, but he died bad,
+did Flint!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, that he did," observed another; "now he raged
+and now he hollered for the rum, and now he sang.
+'Fifteen Men' were his only song, mates; and I tell you
+true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main
+hot and the windy was open, and I hear that old song
+comin' out as clear as clear&mdash;and the death-haul on the
+man already."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come," said Silver, "stow this talk. He's dead,
+and he don't walk, that I know; leastways he won't walk
+by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch
+ahead for the doubloons."</p>
+
+<p>We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and
+the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate
+and shouting through the wood, but kept side by side and
+spoke with bated breath. The terror of the dead buccaneer
+had fallen on their spirits.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII<br />
+<small>THE TREASURE-HUNT&mdash;THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES</small></h2>
+
+<p>Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly
+to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down
+as soon as they had gained the brow of the ascent.</p>
+
+<p>The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the west,
+this spot on which we had paused commanded a wide
+prospect on either hand. Before us, over the tree-tops,
+we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf;
+behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage and
+Skeleton Island, but saw&mdash;clear across the spit and the
+eastern lowlands&mdash;a great field of open sea upon the east.
+Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted with single
+pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound
+but that of the distant breakers mounting from all around,
+and the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a man,
+not a sail upon the sea; the very largeness of the view
+increased the sense of solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.</p>
+
+<p>"There are three 'tall trees,'" said he, "about in the
+right line from Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass Shoulder,'
+I take it, means that lower p'int there. It's child's play
+to find the stuff now. I've half a mind to dine first."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel sharp," growled Morgan. "Thinkin' o'
+Flint&mdash;I think it were&mdash;as done me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he's dead,"
+said Silver.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He was an ugly devil," cried a third pirate, with a
+shudder; "that blue in the face, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"That was how the rum took him," added Merry.
+"Blue! well I reckon he was blue. That's a true word."</p>
+
+<p>Ever since they had found the skeleton and got upon
+this train of thought, they had spoken lower and lower,
+and they had almost got to whispering by now, so that
+the sound of their talk hardly interrupted the silence of
+the wood. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees
+in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the
+well-known air and words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 17em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than
+the pirates. The color went from their six faces like
+enchantment; some leaped to their feet, some clawed hold
+of others; Morgan groveled on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Flint, by &mdash;&mdash;!" cried Merry.</p>
+
+<p>The song had stopped as suddenly as it began&mdash;broken
+off, you would have said, in the middle of a note,
+as though someone had laid his hand upon the singer's
+mouth. Coming so far through the clear, sunny atmosphere
+among the green tree-tops, I thought it had sounded
+airily and sweetly, and the effect on my companions was
+the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to
+get the word out, "that won't do. Stand by to go about.
+This is a rum start, and I can't name the voice, but it's
+someone skylarking&mdash;someone that's flesh and blood, and
+you may lay to that."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His courage had come back as he spoke, and some of
+the color to his face along with it. Already the others
+had begun to lend an ear to this encouragement, and were
+coming a little to themselves, when the same voice broke
+out again&mdash;not this time singing, but in a faint, distant
+hail, that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy-glass.</p>
+
+<p>"Darby M'Graw," it wailed&mdash;for that is the word
+that best describes the sound&mdash;"Darby M'Graw! Darby
+M'Graw!" again and again and again; and then rising a
+little higher, and with an oath that I leave out: "Fetch
+aft the rum, Darby!"</p>
+
+<p>The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their
+eyes starting from their heads. Long after the voice had
+died away they still stared in silence, dreadfully, before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"That fixes it!" gasped one. "Let's go."</p>
+
+<p>"They was his last words," moaned Morgan, "his last
+words above-board."</p>
+
+<p>Dick had his Bible out and was praying volubly. He
+had been well brought up, had Dick, before he came to
+sea and fell among bad companions.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth
+rattle in his head, but he had not yet surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby,"
+he muttered; "not one but us that's here." And then,
+making a great effort: "Shipmates," he cried, "I'm here
+to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man nor devil. I
+never was feared of Flint in his life, and, by the powers,
+I'll face him dead. There's seven hundred thousand
+pound not a quarter of a mile from here. When did ever
+a gentleman o' fortune show his stern to that much dollars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+for a boozy old seaman with a blue mug&mdash;and him dead,
+too?"</p>
+
+<p>But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his
+followers; rather, indeed, of growing terror at the irreverence
+of his words.</p>
+
+<p>"Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a
+sperrit."</p>
+
+<p>And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They
+would have run away severally had they dared, but fear
+kept them together, and kept them close by John, as if his
+daring helped them. He, on his part, had pretty well
+fought his weakness down.</p>
+
+<p>"Sperrit? Well, maybe," he said. "But there's one
+thing not clear to me. There was an echo. Now, no man
+ever seen a sperrit with a shadow. Well, then, what's he
+doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That
+ain't in natur', surely."</p>
+
+<p>This argument seemed weak enough to me. But you
+can never tell what will affect the superstitious, and, to
+my wonder, George Merry was greatly relieved.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head upon your
+shoulders, John, and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates!
+This here crew is on a wrong tack, I do believe. And
+come to think on it, it was like Flint's voice, I grant you,
+but not just so clear away like it, after all. It was liker
+somebody else's voice now&mdash;it was liker&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, and so it were," cried Morgan, springing on his
+knees. "Ben Gunn it were!"</p>
+
+<p>"It don't make much odds, do it, now?" asked Dick.
+"Ben Gunn's not here in the body, any more'n Flint."</p>
+
+<p>But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn," cried Merry; "dead
+or alive, nobody minds him!"</p>
+
+<p>It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned,
+and how the natural color had revived in their faces.
+Soon they were chatting together, with intervals of listening;
+and not long after, hearing no further sound, they
+shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry walking
+first with Silver's compass to keep them on the right line
+with Skeleton Island. He had said the truth; dead or
+alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.</p>
+
+<p>Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around him
+as he went, with fearful glances; but he found no sympathy,
+and Silver even joked him on his precautions.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you," said he, "I told you you had sp'iled your
+Bible. If it ain't no good to swear by, what do you suppose
+a sperrit would give for it? Not that!" and he
+snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his crutch.</p>
+
+<p>But Dick was not to be comforted; indeed, it was soon
+plain to me that the lad was falling sick; hastened by heat,
+exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm, the fever, predicted
+by Doctor Livesey, was evidently growing swiftly
+higher.</p>
+
+<p>It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our
+way lay a little downhill, for, as I have said, the plateau
+tilted toward the west. The pines, great and small, grew
+wide apart; and even between the clumps of nutmeg and
+azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking,
+as we did, pretty near northwest across the island, we
+drew, on the one hand, ever nearer under the shoulders
+of the Spy-glass, and on the other, looked ever wider over
+that western bay where I had once tossed and trembled
+in the coracle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearing,
+proved the wrong one. So with the second. The
+third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a
+clump of underwood; a giant of a vegetable, with a red
+column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in
+which a company could have maneuvered. It was conspicuous
+far to sea, both on the east and west, and might
+have been entered as a sailing mark upon the chart.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not its size that now impressed my companions;
+it was the knowledge that seven hundred thousand
+pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below its
+spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they
+drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their
+eyes burned in their heads; their feet grew speedier and
+lighter; their whole soul was bound up in that fortune,
+that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure, that lay
+waiting there for each of them.</p>
+
+<p>Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils
+stood out and quivered; he cursed like a madman when
+the flies settled on his hot and shiny countenance; he
+plucked furiously at the line that held me to him, and,
+from time to time, turned his eyes upon me with a deadly
+look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts;
+and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate
+nearness of the gold, all else had been forgotten; his promise
+and the doctor's warning were both things of the past;
+and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the
+treasure, find and board the <i>Hispaniola</i> under cover of
+night, cut every honest throat about that island, and sail
+away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and
+riches.</p>
+
+<p>Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+to keep up with the rapid pace of the treasure-hunters.
+Now and again I stumbled, and it was then that Silver
+plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me his
+murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped behind us,
+and now brought up the rear, was babbling to himself
+both prayers and curses, as his fever kept rising. This
+also added to my wretchedness, and, to crown all, I was
+haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been
+acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with
+the blue face&mdash;he who had died at Savannah, singing and
+shouting for drink&mdash;had there, with his own hand, cut
+down his six accomplices. This grove, that was now
+so peaceful, must then have rung with cries, I thought;
+and even with the thought I could believe I heard it ringing
+still.</p>
+
+<p>We were now at the margin of the thicket.</p>
+
+<p>"Huzza, mates, altogether!" shouted Merry, and the
+foremost broke into a run.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly, not ten yards farther, we beheld them
+stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging
+away with the foot of his crutch like one possessed, and
+next moment he and I had come also to a dead halt.</p>
+
+<p>Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for
+the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom.
+In this were the shaft of a pick broken in two and
+the boards of several packing cases strewn around. On
+one of these boards I saw branded with a hot iron, the
+name <i>Walrus</i>&mdash;the name of Flint's ship.</p>
+
+<p>All was clear to probation. The <i>cache</i> had been found
+and rifled&mdash;the seven hundred thousand pounds were
+gone!</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII<br />
+<small>THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN</small></h2>
+
+<p>There never was such an overturn in this world. Each
+of these six men was as though he had been struck. But
+with Silver the blow passed almost instantly. Every
+thought of his soul had been set full-stretch, like a racer,
+on that money; well, he was brought up in a single second,
+dead; and he kept his head, found his temper, and changed
+his plan before the others had had time to realize the disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by for
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>And he passed me a double-barreled pistol.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he began quietly moving northward,
+and in a few steps had put the hollow between us two and
+the other five. Then he looked at me and nodded, as much
+as to say: "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed, I
+thought it was. His looks were now quite friendly, and
+I was so revolted at these constant changes that I could not
+forbear whispering: "So you've changed sides again."</p>
+
+<p>There was no time left for him to answer in. The
+buccaneers, with oaths and cries, began to leap, one after
+another, into the pit, and to dig with their fingers, throwing
+the boards aside as they did so. Morgan found a piece
+of gold. He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It
+was a two-guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand
+among them for a quarter of a minute.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Two guineas!" roared Merry, shaking it at Silver.
+"That's your seven hundred thousand pounds, is it?
+You're the man for bargains, ain't you? You're him that
+never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dig away, boys," said Silver, with the coolest insolence;
+"you'll find some pig-nuts, and I shouldn't wonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Pig-nuts!" repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates,
+do you hear that? I tell you now, that man there knew
+it all along. Look in the face of him, and you'll see it
+wrote there."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Merry," remarked Silver, "standing for cap'n
+again? You're a pushing lad, to be sure."</p>
+
+<p>But this time every one was entirely in Merry's favor.
+They began to scramble out of the excavation, darting
+furious glances behind them. One thing I observed,
+which looked well for us; they all got out upon the opposite
+side from Silver.</p>
+
+<p>Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the other,
+the pit between us, and nobody screwed up high enough
+to offer the first blow. Silver never moved; he watched
+them, very upright on his crutch, and looked as cool as
+ever I saw him. He was brave, and no mistake.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Merry seemed to think a speech might help
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>"Mates," says he, "there's two of them alone there;
+one's the old cripple that brought us all here and blundered
+us down to this; the other's that cub that I mean to
+have the heart of. Now, mates&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant
+to lead a charge. But just then&mdash;crack! crack! crack!&mdash;three
+musket-shots flashed out of the thicket. Merry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+tumbled headforemost into the excavation; the man with
+the bandage spun round like a teetotum, and fell all his
+length upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching;
+and the other three turned and ran for it with all
+their might.</p>
+
+<p>Before you could wink Long John had fired two barrels
+of a pistol into the struggling Merry; and as the man
+rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, "George,"
+said he, "I reckon I settled you."</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn
+joined us, with smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Forward!" cried the doctor. "Double quick, my
+lads. We must head 'em off the boats."</p>
+
+<p>And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging
+through the bushes to the chest.</p>
+
+<p>I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us.
+The work that man went through, leaping on his crutch
+till the muscles of his chest were fit to burst, was work
+no sound man ever equaled; and so thinks the doctor. As
+it was, he was already thirty yards behind us, and on the
+verge of strangling, when we reached the brow of the
+slope.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," he hailed, "see there! no hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open part
+of the plateau we could see the three survivors still running
+in the same direction as they had started, right for
+Mizzen-mast Hill. We were already between them and
+the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe, while Long
+John, mopping his face, came slowly up with us.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank ye kindly, doctor," says he. "You came in in
+about the nick, I guess, for me and Hawkins. And so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+it's you, Ben Gunn!" he added. "Well, you're a nice one,
+to be sure."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Ben Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling
+like an eel in his embarrassment. "And," he added, after
+a long pause, "how do, Mr. Silver! Pretty well, I thank
+ye, says you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, Ben," murmured Silver, "to think as you've
+done me!"</p>
+
+<p>The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes deserted,
+in their flight, by the mutineers; and then as we
+proceeded leisurely downhill to where the boats were lying,
+related, in a few words, what had taken place. It was
+a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn,
+the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end.</p>
+
+<p>Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island,
+had found the skeleton. It was he that had rifled it; he
+had found the treasure; he had dug it up (it was the haft
+of his pickax that lay broken in the excavation); he had
+carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from the
+foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed
+hill at the northeast angle of the island, and there it had
+lain stored in safety since two months before the arrival
+of the <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When the doctor had wormed this secret from him, on
+the afternoon of the attack, and when, next morning, he
+saw the anchorage deserted, he had gone to Silver, given
+him the chart, which was now useless; given him the
+stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats'
+meat salted by himself; given anything and everything
+to get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to
+the two-pointed hill, there to be clear of malaria and
+keep a guard upon the money.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart,
+but I did what I thought best for those who had stood by
+their duty; and if you were not one of these, whose fault
+was it?"</p>
+
+<p>That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the
+horrid disappointment he had prepared for the mutineers,
+he had run all the way to the cave, and, leaving squire to
+guard the captain, had taken Gray and the maroon, and
+started, making the diagonal across the island, to be at
+hand beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our
+party had the start of him; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of
+foot, had been dispatched in front to do his best alone.
+Then it had occurred to him to work upon the superstitions
+of his former shipmates; and he was so far successful
+that Gray and the doctor had come up and were
+already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure-hunters.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Silver, "it was fortunate for me that I had
+Hawkins here. You would have let old John be cut to
+bits, and never given it a thought, doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a thought," replied Doctor Livesey, cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>And by this time we had reached the gigs. The doctor,
+with the pickax, demolished one of them, and then we all
+got aboard the other, and set out to go round by the sea
+for North Inlet.</p>
+
+<p>This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though
+he was almost killed already with fatigue, was set to an
+oar, like the rest of us, and we were soon skimming swiftly
+over a smooth sea. Soon we passed out of the straits and
+doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which,
+four days ago, we had towed the <i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed the two-pointed hill we could see the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+black mouth of Ben Gunn's cave, and a figure standing
+by it, leaning on a musket. It was the squire, and we
+waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in
+which the voice of Silver joined as heartily as any.</p>
+
+<p>Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of North
+Inlet, what should we meet but the <i>Hispaniola</i>, cruising
+by herself! The last flood had lifted her, and had there
+been much wind, or a strong tide current, as in the southern
+anchorage, we should never have found her more, or
+found her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was
+little amiss, beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another
+anchor was got ready, and dropped in a fathom and a half
+of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, the
+nearest point for Ben Gunn's treasure-house; and then
+Gray, single-handed, returned with the gig to the <i>Hispaniola</i>,
+where he was to pass the night on guard.</p>
+
+<p>A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance
+of the cave. At the top, the squire met us. To me he was
+cordial and kind, saying nothing of my escapade, either
+in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute
+he somewhat flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain
+and impostor&mdash;a monstrous impostor, sir. I am told I
+am not to prosecute you. Well, then, I will not. But the
+dead men, sir, hang about your neck like millstones."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John, again
+saluting.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare you to thank me!" cried the squire. "It is a
+gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back!"</p>
+
+<p>And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large,
+airy place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water,
+overhung with ferns. The floor was sand. Before a big<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+fire lay Captain Smollett; and in a far corner, only duskily
+flickered over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin
+and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was Flint's
+treasure that we had come so far to seek, and that had cost
+already the lives of seventeen men from the <i>Hispaniola</i>.
+How many it had cost in the amassing, what blood and
+sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep, what brave
+men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon,
+what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive
+could tell. Yet there were still three upon that island&mdash;Silver,
+and old Morgan, and Ben Gunn&mdash;who had each
+taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain
+to share in the reward.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good boy
+in your line, Jim; but I don't think you and me'll go to
+sea again. You're too much of the born favorite for me.
+Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here, man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come back to my dooty, sir," returned Silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said the captain, and that was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>What a supper I had of it that night, with all my
+friends around me; and what a meal it was, with Ben
+Gunn's salted goat, and some delicacies and a bottle of
+old wine from the <i>Hispaniola</i>. Never, I am sure, were
+people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting
+back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily,
+prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted,
+even joining quietly in our laughter&mdash;the same bland,
+polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV<br />
+<small>AND LAST</small></h2>
+
+<p>The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation
+of this great mass of gold near a mile by land
+to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the <i>Hispaniola</i>,
+was a considerable task for so small a number of
+workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island
+did not greatly trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder
+of the hill was sufficient to insure us against any sudden
+onslaught, and we thought, besides, they had had more
+than enough of fighting.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and
+Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while the rest
+during their absences piled treasure on the beach. Two
+of the bars, slung in a rope's end, made a good load for a
+grown man&mdash;one that he was glad to walk slowly with.
+For my part, as I was not much use at carrying, I was
+kept busy all day in the cave, packing the minted money
+into bread-bags.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for
+the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much
+more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than
+in sorting them. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
+Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and
+moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of
+Europe for the last hundred years, strange oriental pieces
+stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces
+bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your
+neck&mdash;nearly every variety of money in the world must,
+I think, have found a place in that collection; and for
+number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that
+my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting
+them out.</p>
+
+<div class="figr" style="width: 341px;"><a name="cph" id="cph"></a>
+<img src="images/016.jpg" width="341" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+<div class="td2">Page 253</div><i>Nearly every variety of money in the world must have found a place in
+that collection</i></div>
+
+<p>Day after day this work went on; by every evening a
+fortune had been stowed aboard, but there was another
+fortune waiting for the morrow; and all this time we heard
+nothing of the three surviving mutineers.</p>
+
+<p>At last&mdash;I think it was on the third night&mdash;the doctor
+and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it
+overlooks the lowlands of the isle, when, from out the thick
+darkness below, the wind brought us a noise between
+shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached
+our ears, followed by the former silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forgive them," said the doctor; "'tis the
+mutineers!"</p>
+
+<p>"All drunk, sir," struck in the voice of Silver from
+behind us.</p>
+
+<p>Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and,
+in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once
+more as quite a privileged and friendly dependent.
+Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights,
+and with what unwearying politeness he kept at trying
+to ingratiate himself with all. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+fresh treachery upon the plateau. Accordingly, it was
+pretty gruffly that the doctor answered him.</p>
+
+<p>"Drunk or raving," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you were, sir," replied Silver; "and precious
+little odds which, to you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a
+humane man," returned the doctor, with a sneer, "and so
+my feelings may surprise you, Master Silver. But if I
+were sure they were raving&mdash;as I am morally certain
+one, at least, of them is down with fever&mdash;I should leave
+this camp, and, at whatever risk to my own carcass, take
+them the assistance of my skill."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong,"
+quoth Silver. "You would lose your precious life, and
+you may lay to that. I'm on your side now, hand and
+glove; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened,
+let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But
+these men down there, they couldn't keep their word&mdash;no,
+not supposing they wished to&mdash;and what's more, they
+couldn't believe as you could."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the doctor. "You're the man to keep your
+word, we know that."</p>
+
+<p>Well, that was about the last news we had of the three
+pirates. Only once we heard a gunshot a great way off,
+and supposed them to be hunting. A council was held
+and it was decided that we must desert them on the island&mdash;to
+the huge glee, I must say, of Ben Gunn, and with
+the strong approval of Gray. We left a good stock of
+powder and shot, the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines
+and some other necessaries, tools, clothing, a spare
+sail, a fathom or two of rope, and, by the particular desire
+of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That was about our last doing on the island. Before
+that we had got the treasure stowed and had shipped
+enough water and the remainder of the goat meat, in case
+of any distress; and at last, one fine morning, we weighed
+anchor, which was about all that we could manage, and
+stood out of North Inlet, the same colors flying that the
+captain had flown and fought under at the palisade.</p>
+
+<p>The three fellows must have been watching us closer
+than we thought for, as we soon had proved. For, coming
+through the narrows we had to lie very near the southern
+point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling together
+on a spit of sand with their arms raised in supplication.
+It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that
+wretched state, but we could not risk another mutiny, and
+to take them home for the gibbet would have been a cruel
+sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them and told them
+of the stores we had left, and where they were to find them,
+but they continued to call us by name and appeal to us for
+God's sake to be merciful and not leave them to die in such
+a place.</p>
+
+<p>At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, and was
+now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of them&mdash;I know
+not which it was&mdash;leaped to his feet with a hoarse cry,
+whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent a shot
+whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail.</p>
+
+<p>After that we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and
+when next I looked out they had disappeared from the
+spit, and the spit itself had almost melted out of sight in
+the growing distance. That was, at least, the end of that;
+and before noon, to my inexpressible joy, the highest rock
+of Treasure Island had sunk into the blue round of sea.</p>
+
+<p>We were so short of men that everyone on board had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+bear a hand&mdash;only the captain lying on a mattress in
+the stern and giving his orders, for though greatly recovered
+he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head
+for the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could
+not risk the voyage home without fresh hands; and as it
+was, what with baffling winds and a couple of fresh gales,
+we were all worn out before we reached it.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most
+beautiful landlocked gulf, and were immediately surrounded
+by shore boats full of negroes and Mexican
+Indians and half-bloods, selling fruits and vegetables, and
+offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many
+good-humored faces (especially the blacks), the taste of
+the tropical fruits, and above all, the lights that began to
+shine in the town, made a most charming contrast to our
+dark and bloody sojourn on the island; and the doctor
+and the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore
+to pass the early part of the night. Here they met the
+captain of an English man-of-war, fell in talk with him,
+went on board his ship, and in short, had so agreeable a
+time that day was breaking when we came alongside the
+<i>Hispaniola</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came
+on board he began, with wonderful contortions, to make
+us a confession. Silver was gone. The maroon had connived
+at his escape in a shore boat some hours ago, and
+he now assured us he had only done so to preserve our
+lives, which would certainly have been forfeited if "that
+man with the one leg had stayed aboard." But this was
+not all. The sea-cook had not gone empty-handed. He
+had cut through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed
+one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+four hundred guineas, to help him on his further wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him.</p>
+
+<p>Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands
+on board, made a good cruise home, and the <i>Hispaniola</i>
+reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was beginning to
+think of fitting out her consort. Five men only of those
+who had sailed returned with her. "Drink and the devil
+had done for the rest" with a vengeance, although, to be
+sure, we were not quite in so bad a case as that other ship
+they sang about:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="width: 16em;"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"With one man of the crew alive,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What put to sea with seventy-five."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and used it
+wisely or foolishly, according to our natures. Captain
+Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray not only
+saved his money, but, being suddenly smit with the desire
+to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate and
+part owner of a fine full-rigged ship; married besides,
+and the father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a
+thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks,
+or, to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back
+begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to
+keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he
+still lives, a great favorite, though something of a butt
+with the country boys, and a notable singer in church on
+Sundays and saints' days.</p>
+
+<p>Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable
+seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean out of
+my life, but I dare say he met his old negress, and perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to
+be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in
+another world are very small.</p>
+
+<p>The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know,
+where Flint buried them; and certainly they shall lie
+there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me
+back again to that accursed island, and the worst dreams
+that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about
+its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of
+Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight!
+pieces of eight!"</p>
+
+<div class="figc" style="width: 262px;">
+<img src="images/002.png" width="262" height="237" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
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@@ -0,0 +1,8092 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Treasure Island
+
+Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+Illustrator: Milo Winter
+
+Release Date: January 12, 2009 [EBook #27780]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S LIBRARY
+
+
+         _Treasure Island_
+
+       Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+          _Illustrated by_
+            Milo Winter
+
+
+           [Illustration]
+
+
+           GRAMERCY BOOKS
+              NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ Foreword copyright (C) 1986 by Random House Value Publishing
+ Color Illustrations by Milo Winter copyright (C) 1915, 1943 by Rand
+ McNally & Company
+ All rights reserved.
+
+ This 2002 edition published by Gramercy Books, an imprint of Random
+ House Value Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc., 280 Park
+ Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
+
+ Gramercy is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of
+ Random House, Inc.
+
+ Printed and bound in the United States of America
+
+ Cover design by Judy Fucci, Studio Graphix, Inc.
+
+ Random House
+ New York . Toronto . London . Sydney . Auckland
+ www.randomhouse.com
+
+
+ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
+
+ Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.
+     Treasure Island/Robert Louis Stevenson; illustrated in color by
+   Milo Winter.
+       p. cm.--(Illustrated children's library)
+     Originally published: New York: Children's classics, 1986.
+     Summary: While going through the possessions of a deceased guest
+   who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a
+   treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune.
+     ISBN 0-517-22114-4
+     [1. Buried treasure--Fiction. 2. Pirates--Fiction. 3. Adventure
+   and adventures--Fiction. 4. Caribbean Area--History--18th
+   century--Fiction.] I. Winter, Milo, 1888-1956, ill. II. Title.
+   III. Series.
+
+   PZ7.S8482 Tr 2002
+   [Fic]--dc21
+
+                                                              2002023301
+ 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
+    note. Dialect and variant spellings have been retained, whilst
+    inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. Color plates have
+    been repositioned according to their captions; the 'Color Plates'
+    listing remains as printed to indicate the original locations.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+ _To the Hesitating Purchaser_                             _viii_
+ _List of Color Plates_                                      _ix_
+ _Dedication_                                                 _x_
+
+
+ PART I
+ THE OLD BUCCANEER
+
+ CHAPTER
+      I. At the "Admiral Benbow"                                3
+     II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears                      11
+    III. The Black Spot                                        19
+     IV. The Sea-Chest                                         26
+      V. The Last of the Blind Man                             33
+     VI. The Captain's Papers                                  40
+
+
+ PART II
+ THE SEA-COOK
+
+    VII. I Go to Bristol                                       49
+   VIII. At the Sign of the "Spy-Glass"                        55
+     IX. Powder and Arms                                       62
+      X. The Voyage                                            69
+     XI. What I Heard in the Apple Barrel                      76
+    XII. Council of War                                        83
+
+
+ PART III
+ MY SHORE ADVENTURE
+
+   XIII. How My Shore Adventure Began                          93
+    XIV. The First Blow                                        99
+     XV. The Man of the Island                                106
+
+
+ PART IV
+ THE STOCKADE
+
+    XVI. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--How the Ship
+           was Abandoned                                      117
+   XVII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--The
+           Jolly-Boat's Last Trip                             123
+  XVIII. Narrative Continued by the Doctor--End of the
+           First Day's Fighting                               129
+    XIX. Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins--The Garrison
+           in the Stockade                                    135
+     XX. Silver's Embassy                                     142
+    XXI. The Attack                                           149
+
+
+ PART V
+ MY SEA ADVENTURE
+
+   XXII. How My Sea Adventure Began                           159
+  XXIII. The Ebb-Tide Runs                                    166
+   XXIV. The Cruise of the Coracle                            172
+    XXV. I Strike the Jolly Roger                             179
+   XXVI. Israel Hands                                         185
+  XXVII. "Pieces of Eight"                                    195
+
+
+ PART VI
+ CAPTAIN SILVER
+
+ XXVIII. In the Enemy's Camp                                  205
+   XXIX. The Black Spot Again                                 214
+    XXX. On Parole                                            222
+   XXXI. The Treasure-Hunt--Flint's Pointer                   230
+  XXXII. The Treasure-Hunt--The Voice among the Trees         238
+ XXXIII. The Fall of a Chieftain                              245
+  XXXIV. And Last                                             252
+
+
+
+
+TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
+
+
+    If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
+      Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
+    If schooners, islands, and maroons
+      And Buccaneers and buried Gold,
+    And all the old romance, retold
+      Exactly in the ancient way,
+    Can please, as me they pleased of old,
+      The wiser youngsters of to-day:
+
+    --So be it, and fall on! If not,
+      If studious youth no longer crave,
+    His ancient appetites forgot,
+      Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
+    Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
+      So be it, also! And may I
+    And all my pirates share the grave
+      Where these and their creations lie!
+
+
+
+
+COLOR PLATES
+
+
+                                                    OPPOSITE PAGE
+
+ I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came
+ plodding to the inn door                                      50
+
+ "Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"                     51
+
+ "Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never
+ clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you,
+ now?"                                                         82
+
+ It was something to see him get on with his cooking
+ like someone safe ashore                                      83
+
+ They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+ swivel                                                       178
+
+ In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
+ and were upon us                                             179
+
+ Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds           210
+
+ Nearly every variety of money in the world must have
+ found a place in that collection                             211
+
+
+
+
+                        _To_
+                   LLOYD OSBOURNE
+               An American Gentleman
+       In accordance with whose classic taste
+     The following narrative has been designed
+ It is now, in return for numerous delightful hours
+       And with the kindest wishes, dedicated
+             By his affectionate friend
+                    _THE AUTHOR_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+THE OLD BUCCANEER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW"
+
+
+Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having
+asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from
+the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the
+island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I
+take up my pen in the year of grace 17--, and go back to the time when
+my father kept the "Admiral Benbow" Inn, and the brown old seaman, with
+the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.
+
+[Illustration: _I remember him as if it were yesterday as he came
+plodding to the inn door_ (Page 3)]
+
+I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn
+door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall,
+strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pig-tail falling over the
+shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with
+black, broken nails, and the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid
+white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as
+he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so
+often afterwards:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest,
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and
+broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of
+stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared,
+called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he
+drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still
+looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
+
+"This is a handy cove," says he, at length; "and a pleasant sittyated
+grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
+
+My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he
+cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help
+up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum
+and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch
+ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I
+see what you're at--there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces
+on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," said
+he, looking as fierce as a commander.
+
+And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had
+none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed
+like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man
+who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning
+before at the "Royal George"; that he had inquired what inns there were
+along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and
+described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of
+residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
+
+He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or
+upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner
+of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly
+he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and
+blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came
+about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back
+from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the
+road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind
+that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was
+desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" (as
+now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would
+look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlor;
+and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was
+present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I
+was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.
+
+He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the
+first of every month if I would only keep my "weather eye open for a
+seafaring man with one leg," and let him know the moment he appeared.
+Often enough when the first of the month came round, and I applied to
+him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me
+down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it,
+bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the
+seafaring man with one leg."
+
+How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On
+stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and
+the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a
+thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg
+would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous
+kind of a creature who had never had but one leg, and that in the middle
+of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch,
+was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my
+monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
+
+But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one
+leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who
+knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than
+his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his
+wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call
+for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his
+stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house
+shaking with "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," all the neighbors joining
+in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing
+louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most
+overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for
+silence all around; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question,
+or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not
+following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he
+had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
+
+His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories
+they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and
+the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his
+own account, he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men
+that God ever allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he told
+these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the
+crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be
+ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over
+and put down and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his
+presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking
+back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country
+life; and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to
+admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and a "real old salt," and
+such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England
+terrible at sea.
+
+In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week
+after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had
+been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to
+insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through
+his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor
+father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a
+rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have
+greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.
+
+All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his
+dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his
+hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it
+was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his
+coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before
+the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
+and he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and with these, for the
+most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had
+ever seen open.
+
+He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end, when my poor
+father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Doctor Livesey came
+late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my
+mother, and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until his horse should
+come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old "Benbow." I
+followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright
+doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and
+pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all,
+with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting
+far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he--the captain,
+that is--began to pipe up his eternal song:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
+    Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big
+box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled
+in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this
+time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it
+was new, that night, to nobody but Doctor Livesey, and on him I observed
+it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment
+quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the
+gardener, on a new cure for rheumatics. In the meantime the captain
+gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand
+upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean--silence. The
+voices stopped at once, all but Doctor Livesey's; he went on as before,
+speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe between every
+word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand
+again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous
+oath: "Silence, there, between decks!"
+
+"Were you addressing me, sir?" said the doctor; and when the ruffian had
+told him, with another oath, that this was so, replied, "I have only one
+thing to say to you, sir, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world
+will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!"
+
+The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened
+a sailor's clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand,
+threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.
+
+The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him, as before, over his
+shoulder, and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the
+room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady:
+
+"If you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket, I promise,
+upon my honor, you shall hang at the next assizes."
+
+Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain soon
+knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like
+a beaten dog.
+
+"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know there's such a
+fellow in my district, you may count I'll have an eye upon you day and
+night. I'm not a doctor only, I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath
+of complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like
+to-night's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed
+out of this. Let that suffice."
+
+Soon after Doctor Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode away, but
+the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS
+
+
+It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the
+mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you
+will see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard
+frosts and heavy gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor
+father was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and my mother
+and I had all the inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough without
+paying much regard to our unpleasant guest.
+
+It was one January morning, very early--a pinching, frosty morning--the
+cove all gray with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones,
+the sun still low, and only touching the hill-tops and shining far to
+seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual, and set out down the
+beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat,
+his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I
+remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and
+the last sound I heard of him, as he turned the big rock, was a loud
+snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Doctor
+Livesey.
+
+Well, mother was upstairs with father, and I was laying the breakfast
+table against the captain's return, when the parlor door opened and a
+man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale,
+tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand; and, though he
+wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my
+eyes open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this
+one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea
+about him too.
+
+I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum, but
+as I was going out of the room to fetch it he sat down upon a table and
+motioned to me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my
+hand.
+
+"Come here, sonny," said he. "Come nearer here."
+
+I took a step nearer.
+
+"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked, with a kind of leer.
+
+I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who
+stayed at our house, whom we called the captain.
+
+"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as
+not. He has a cut on one cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him,
+particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument
+like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek--and we'll put it, if you
+like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my
+mate Bill in this here house?"
+
+I told him he was out walking.
+
+"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
+
+And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was
+likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other questions,
+"Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."
+
+The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all
+pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was
+mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of
+mine, I thought; and, besides, it was difficult to know what to do.
+
+The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round
+the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself
+into the road, but he immediately called me back, and, as I did not obey
+quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy
+face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I
+was back again he returned to his former manner, half-fawning,
+half-sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and
+he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he, "as
+like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride of my 'art. But the great
+thing for boys is discipline, sonny--discipline. Now, if you had sailed
+along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twice--not
+you. That was never Bill's way, nor the way of sich as sailed with him.
+And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm,
+bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and me'll just go back into the
+parlor, sonny, and get behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little
+surprise--bless his 'art, I say again."
+
+So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlor, and put me
+behind him into the corner, so that we were both hidden by the open
+door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather
+added to my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened
+himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in
+the sheath, and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing
+as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.
+
+At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without
+looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room to
+where his breakfast awaited him.
+
+"Bill," said the stranger, in a voice that I thought he had tried to
+make bold and big.
+
+The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had
+gone out of his face, and even his nose was blue; he had the look of a
+man who sees a ghost, or the Evil One, or something worse, if anything
+can be; and, upon my word, I felt sorry to see him, all in a moment,
+turn so old and sick.
+
+"Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate, Bill, surely," said
+the stranger.
+
+The captain made a sort of gasp.
+
+"Black Dog!" said he.
+
+"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at his ease. "Black Dog
+as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate, Billy, at the 'Admiral
+Benbow' Inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two,
+since I lost them two talons," holding up his mutilated hand.
+
+"Now, look here," said the captain; "you've run me down; here I am;
+well, then, speak up; what is it?"
+
+"That's you, Bill," returned Black Dog; "you're in the right of it,
+Billy. I'll have a glass of rum from this dear child here, as I've took
+such a liking to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square,
+like old shipmates."
+
+When I returned with the rum they were already seated on either side of
+the captain's breakfast table--Black Dog next to the door, and sitting
+sideways, so as to have one eye on his old shipmate and one, as I
+thought, on his retreat.
+
+He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of your keyholes for
+me, sonny," he said, and I left them together and retired into the bar.
+
+For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could hear
+nothing but a low gabbling; but at last the voices began to grow higher,
+and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the captain.
+
+"No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried once. And again, "If it
+comes to swinging, swing all, say I."
+
+Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and other
+noises; the chair and table went over in a lump, a clash of steel
+followed, and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw Black Dog
+in full flight, and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn
+cutlasses, and the former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just
+at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut,
+which would certainly have split him to the chin had it not been
+intercepted by our big signboard of "Admiral Benbow." You may see the
+notch on the lower side of the frame to this day.
+
+That blow was the last of the battle. Once out upon the road, Black Dog,
+in spite of his wound, showed a wonderful clean pair of heels, and
+disappeared over the edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain, for
+his part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered man. Then he
+passed his hand over his eyes several times, and at last turned back
+into the house.
+
+"Jim," says he, "rum"; and as he spoke he reeled a little, and caught
+himself with one hand against the wall.
+
+"Are you hurt?" cried I.
+
+"Rum," he repeated. "I must get away from here. Rum! rum!"
+
+I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen
+out, and I broke one glass and fouled the tap, and while I was still
+getting in my own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlor, and, running
+in, beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor. At the same
+instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running
+downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head. He was breathing
+very loud and hard, but his eyes were closed and his face was a horrible
+color.
+
+"Dear, deary me!" cried my mother, "what a disgrace upon the house! And
+your poor father sick!"
+
+In the meantime we had no idea what to do to help the captain, nor any
+other thought but that he had got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the
+stranger. I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down his
+throat, but his teeth were tightly shut, and his jaws as strong as iron.
+It was a happy relief for us when the door opened and Doctor Livesey
+came in, on his visit to my father.
+
+"Oh, doctor," we cried, "what shall we do? Where is he wounded?"
+
+"Wounded? A fiddlestick's end!" said the doctor. "No more wounded than
+you or I. The man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins,
+just you run upstairs to your husband and tell him, if possible, nothing
+about it. For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly
+worthless life; and, Jim, you get me a basin."
+
+When I got back with the basin the doctor had already ripped up the
+captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in
+several places. "Here's luck," "A fair wind," and "Billy Bones, his
+fancy," were very neatly and clearly executed on the forearm; and up
+near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from
+it--done, as I thought, with great spirit.
+
+"Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this picture with his finger.
+"And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a look at
+the color of your blood. Jim," he said, "are you afraid of blood?"
+
+"No, sir," said I.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "you hold the basin," and with that he took his
+lancet and opened a vein.
+
+A great deal of blood was taken before the captain opened his eyes and
+looked mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with an
+unmistakable frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked
+relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he tried to raise himself,
+crying:
+
+"Where's Black Dog?"
+
+"There is no Black Dog here," said the doctor, "except what you have on
+your own back. You have been drinking rum; you have had a stroke
+precisely as I told you; and I have just, very much against my own will,
+dragged you headforemost out of the grave. Now, Mr. Bones--"
+
+"That's not my name," he interrupted.
+
+"Much I care," returned the doctor. "It's the name of a buccaneer of my
+acquaintance, and I call you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I
+have to say to you is this: One glass of rum won't kill you, but if you
+take one you'll take another and another, and I stake my wig if you
+don't break off short, you'll die--do you understand that?--die, and go
+to your own place, like the man in the Bible. Come, now, make an
+effort. I'll help you to your bed for once."
+
+Between us, with much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs, and
+laid him on his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow, as if he
+were almost fainting.
+
+"Now, mind you," said the doctor, "I clear my conscience--the name of
+rum for you is death."
+
+And with that he went off to see my father, taking me with him by the
+arm.
+
+"This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had closed the door. "I have
+drawn blood enough to keep him quiet awhile; he should lie for a week
+where he is--that is the best thing for him and you, but another stroke
+would settle him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE BLACK SPOT
+
+
+About noon I stopped at the captain's door with some cooling drinks and
+medicines. He was lying very much as we had left him, only a little
+higher, and he seemed both weak and excited.
+
+"Jim," he said, "you're the only one here that's worth anything; and you
+know I've always been good to you. Never a month but I've given you a
+silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low,
+and deserted by all; and, Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now,
+won't you, matey?"
+
+"The doctor--" I began.
+
+But he broke in, cursing the doctor in a feeble voice, but heartily.
+"Doctors is all swabs," he said; "and that doctor there, why, what do he
+know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates
+dropping round with yellow jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the
+sea with earthquakes--what do the doctor know of lands like that?--and I
+lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to
+me; and if I am not to have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee
+shore. My blood'll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab," and he ran on
+again for a while with curses. "Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges," he
+continued in the pleading tone. "I can't keep 'em still, not I. I
+haven't had a drop this blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I tell you.
+If I don't have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors; I seen some
+on 'em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as
+plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I'm a man that has
+lived rough, and I'll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass
+wouldn't hurt me. I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim."
+
+He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me, for my
+father, who was very low that day, needed quiet; besides, I was
+reassured by the doctor's words, now quoted to me, and rather offended
+by the offer of a bribe.
+
+"I want none of your money," said I, "but what you owe my father. I'll
+get you one glass and no more."
+
+When I brought it to him he seized it greedily and drank it out.
+
+"Ay, ay," said he, "that's some better, sure enough. And now, matey, did
+that doctor say how long I was to lie here in this old berth?"
+
+"A week at least," said I.
+
+"Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do that; they'd have the black
+spot on me by then. The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me
+this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want to
+nail what is another's. Is that seamanly behavior, now, I want to know?
+But I'm a saving soul. I never wasted good money of mine, nor lost it
+neither; and I'll trick 'em again. I'm not afraid on 'em. I'll shake out
+another reef, matey, and daddle 'em again."
+
+As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed with great difficulty,
+holding to my shoulder with a grip that almost made me cry out, and
+moving his legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited as they
+were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in
+which they were uttered. He paused when he had got into a sitting
+position on the edge.
+
+"That doctor's done me," he murmured. "My ears is singing. Lay me back."
+
+Before I could do much to help him he had fallen back again to his
+former place, where he lay for a while silent.
+
+"Jim," he said, at length, "you saw that seafaring man to-day?"
+
+"Black Dog?" I asked.
+
+"Ah! Black Dog," said he. "_He's_ a bad 'un; but there's worse that put
+him on. Now, if I can't get away nohow, and they tip me the black spot,
+mind you, it's my old sea-chest they're after; you get on a horse--you
+can, can't you? Well, then, you get on a horse and go to--well, yes, I
+will!--to that eternal doctor swab, and tell him to pipe all
+hands--magistrates and sich--and he'll lay 'em aboard at the 'Admiral
+Benbow'--all old Flint's crew, man and boy, all on 'em that's left. I
+was first mate, I was, old Flint's first mate, and I'm the on'y one as
+knows the place. He gave it me at Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as
+if I was to now, you see. But you won't peach unless they get the black
+spot on me, or unless you see that Black Dog again, or a seafaring man
+with one leg, Jim--him above all."
+
+"But what is the black spot, captain?" I asked.
+
+"That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that. But you keep
+your weather-eye open, Jim, and I'll share with you equals, upon my
+honor."
+
+He wandered a little longer, his voice growing weaker; but soon after I
+had given him his medicine, which he took like a child, with the remark,
+"If ever a seaman wanted drugs, it's me," he fell at last into a heavy,
+swoon-like sleep, in which I left him. What I should have done had all
+gone well I do not know. Probably I should have told the whole story to
+the doctor; for I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of
+his confessions and make an end of me. But as things fell out, my poor
+father died quite suddenly that evening, which put all other matters on
+one side. Our natural distress, the visits of the neighbors, the
+arranging of the funeral, and all the work of the inn to be carried on
+in the meanwhile, kept me so busy that I had scarcely time to think of
+the captain, far less to be afraid of him.
+
+He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and had his meals as usual,
+though he ate little, and had more, I am afraid, than his usual supply
+of rum, for he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing
+through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. On the night before the
+funeral he was as drunk as ever; and it was shocking, in that house of
+mourning, to hear him singing away his ugly old sea-song; but, weak as
+he was, we were all in fear of death for him, and the doctor was
+suddenly taken up with a case many miles away, and was never near the
+house after my father's death. I have said the captain was weak, and
+indeed he seemed rather to grow weaker than to regain his strength. He
+clambered up and down stairs, and went from the parlor to the bar and
+back again, and sometimes put his nose out of doors to smell the sea,
+holding on to the walls as he went for support, and breathing hard and
+fast, like a man on a steep mountain. He never particularly addressed
+me, and it is my belief he had as good as forgotten his confidences; but
+his temper was more flighty, and, allowing for his bodily weakness, more
+violent than ever. He had an alarming way now when he was drunk of
+drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before him on the table. But,
+with all that, he minded people less, and seemed shut up in his own
+thoughts and rather wandering. Once, for instance, to our extreme
+wonder, he piped up to a different air, a kind of country love-song,
+that he must have learned in his youth before he had begun to follow the
+sea.
+
+So things passed until the day after the funeral and about three o'clock
+of a bitter, foggy, frosty afternoon, I was standing at the door for a
+moment, full of sad thoughts about my father, when I saw someone drawing
+slowly near along the road. He was plainly blind, for he tapped before
+him with a stick, and wore a great green shade over his eyes and nose;
+and he was hunched, as if with age or weakness, and wore a huge old
+tattered sea-cloak with a hood that made him appear positively deformed.
+I never saw in my life a more dreadful-looking figure. He stopped a
+little from the inn and, raising his voice in an odd sing-song,
+addressed the air in front of him:
+
+"Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, who has lost the precious
+sight of his eyes in the gracious defense of his native country,
+England, and God bless King George!--where or in what part of this
+country he may now be?"
+
+"You are at the 'Admiral Benbow,' Black Hill Cove, my good man," said I.
+
+"I hear a voice," said he, "a young voice. Will you give me your hand,
+my kind young friend, and lead me in?"
+
+I held out my hand, and the horrible, soft-spoken, eyeless creature
+gripped it in a moment like a vise. I was so much startled that I
+struggled to withdraw, but the blind man pulled me close up to him with
+a single action of his arm.
+
+"Now, boy," he said, "take me in to the captain."
+
+"Sir," said I, "upon my word I dare not."
+
+"Oh," he sneered, "that's it! Take me in straight, or I'll break your
+arm."
+
+He gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that made me cry out.
+
+"Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The captain is not what he
+used to be. He sits with a drawn cutlass. Another gentleman--"
+
+"Come, now, march," interrupted he, and I never heard a voice so cruel,
+and cold, and ugly as that blind man's. It cowed me more than the pain,
+and I began to obey him at once, walking straight in at the door and
+towards the parlor, where the sick old buccaneer was sitting, dazed with
+rum. The blind man clung close to me, holding me in one iron fist, and
+leaning almost more of his weight on me than I could carry. "Lead me
+straight up to him, and when I'm in view, cry out, 'Here's a friend for
+you, Bill.' If you don't, I'll do this," and with that he gave me a
+twitch that I thought would have made me faint. Between this and that, I
+was so utterly terrified by the blind beggar that I forgot my terror of
+the captain, and as I opened the parlor door, cried out the words he had
+ordered in a trembling voice.
+
+The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum went out of
+him and left him staring sober. The expression of his face was not so
+much of terror as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, but I
+do not believe he had enough force left in his body.
+
+"Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can
+hear a finger stirring. Business is business. Hold out your left hand.
+Boy, take his left hand by the wrist and bring it near to my right."
+
+We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the
+hollow of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's,
+which closed upon it instantly.
+
+"And now that's done," said the blind man, and at the words he suddenly
+left hold of me, and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped
+out of the parlor and into the road, where, as I stood motionless, I
+could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance.
+
+It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to gather our
+senses; but at length, and about the same moment, I released his wrist,
+which I was still holding, and he drew in his hand, and looked sharply
+into the palm.
+
+"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours! We'll do them yet!" and he sprang
+to his feet.
+
+Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat, stood swaying
+for a moment, and then, with a peculiar sound, fell from his whole
+height face foremost to the floor.
+
+I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste was all in vain.
+The captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious
+thing to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man, though of
+late I had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead I
+burst into a flood of tears. It was the second death I had known, and
+the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SEA-CHEST
+
+
+I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and
+perhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once
+in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man's money--if he
+had any--was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our
+captain's shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me--Black Dog
+and the blind beggar--would be inclined to give up their booty in
+payment of the dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at once
+and ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone and
+unprotected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed
+impossible for either of us to remain much longer in the house; the fall
+of coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, filled us
+with alarm. The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching
+footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor
+floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at
+hand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I
+jumped in my skin for terror. Something must speedily be resolved upon,
+and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in the
+neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bareheaded as we were, we
+ran out at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.
+
+The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view, on the
+other side of the next cove; and what greatly encouraged me, it was in
+an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his
+appearance, and whither he had presumably returned. We were not many
+minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each
+other and hearken. But there was no unusual sound--nothing but the low
+wash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.
+
+It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet, and I shall
+never forget how much I was cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and
+windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely
+to get in that quarter. For--you would have thought men would have been
+ashamed of themselves--no soul would consent to return with us to the
+"Admiral Benbow." The more we told of our troubles, the more--man,
+woman, and child--they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of
+Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well enough known to
+some there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men who
+had been to field-work on the far side of the "Admiral Benbow"
+remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the road, and,
+taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least had
+seen a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter,
+anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to
+death. And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could
+get several who were willing enough to ride to Doctor Livesey's, which
+lay in another direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.
+
+They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other
+hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother
+made them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that
+belonged to her fatherless boy. "If none of the rest of you dare," she
+said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and small
+thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men! We'll have that chest
+open, if we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley,
+to bring back our lawful money in."
+
+Of course I said I would go with my mother; and of course they all cried
+out at our foolhardiness; but even then not a man would go along with
+us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, lest we were
+attacked; and to promise to have horses ready saddled, in case we were
+pursued on our return; while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's
+in search of armed assistance.
+
+My heart was beating fiercely when we two set forth in the cold night
+upon this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to rise and
+peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our
+haste, for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would be
+bright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We
+slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear
+anything to increase our terrors till, to our huge relief, the door of
+the "Admiral Benbow" had closed behind us.
+
+I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a moment in the
+dark, alone in the house with the dead captain's body. Then my mother
+got a candle in the bar, and, holding each other's hands, we advanced
+into the parlor. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes
+open, and one arm stretched out.
+
+"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they might come and
+watch outside. And now," said she, when I had done so, "we have to get
+the key off _that_; and who's to touch it, I should like to know!" and
+she gave a kind of sob as she said the words.
+
+I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand there
+was a little round of paper, blackened on one side. I could not doubt
+that this was the _black spot_; and, taking it up, I found written on
+the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message, "You
+have till ten to-night."
+
+"He had till ten, mother," said I; and, just as I said it, our old clock
+began striking. This sudden noise startled us shockingly; but the news
+was good, for it was only six.
+
+"Now, Jim," she said, "that key!"
+
+I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble,
+and some thread and big needles, a piece of pig-tail tobacco bitten away
+at the end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and a
+tinder-box, were all that they contained, and I began to despair.
+
+"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.
+
+Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at the neck, and
+there, sure enough, hanging to a bit of tarry string, which I cut with
+his own gully, we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with
+hope, and hurried upstairs, without delay, to the little room where he
+had slept so long, and where his box had stood since the day of his
+arrival.
+
+It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside, the initial "B"
+burned on the top of it with a hot iron, and the corners somewhat
+smashed and broken as by long, rough usage.
+
+"Give me the key," said my mother, and though the lock was very stiff,
+she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.
+
+A strong smell of tobacco and tar arose from the interior, but nothing
+was to be seen on the top except a suit of very good clothes, carefully
+brushed and folded. They had never been worn, my mother said. Under that
+the miscellany began--a quadrant, a tin cannikin, several sticks of
+tobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver, an
+old Spanish watch, and some other trinkets of little value and mostly of
+foreign make, a pair of compasses mounted with brass, and five or six
+curious West Indian shells. I have often wondered since why he should
+have carried about these shells with him in his wandering, guilty, and
+hunted life.
+
+In the meantime we found nothing of any value but the silver and the
+trinkets, and neither of these were in our way. Underneath there was an
+old boat-cloak, whitened with sea-salt on many a harbor-bar. My mother
+pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before us, the last things
+in the chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, and
+a canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.
+
+"I'll show those rogues that I'm an honest woman," said my mother. "I'll
+have my dues and not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And she
+began to count over the amount of the captain's score from the sailor's
+bag into the one that I was holding.
+
+It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all countries
+and sizes--doubloons, and louis-d'ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight,
+and I know not what besides, all shaken together at random. The guineas,
+too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother
+knew how to make her count.
+
+When we were about halfway through, I suddenly put my hand upon her arm,
+for I had heard in the silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heart
+into my mouth--the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozen
+road. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then
+it struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could hear the handle being
+turned, and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter; and
+then there was a long time of silence both within and without. At last
+the tapping recommenced, and to our indescribable joy and gratitude,
+died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.
+
+"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going"; for I was sure
+the bolted door must have seemed suspicious, and would bring the whole
+hornet's nest about our ears; though how thankful I was that I had
+bolted it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.
+
+But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a
+fraction more than was due to her, and was obstinately unwilling to be
+content with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; she
+knew her rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing with
+me, when a little low whistle sounded a good way off upon the hill. That
+was enough, and more than enough, for both of us.
+
+"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet.
+
+"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin
+packet.
+
+Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the candle by the
+empty chest; and the next we had opened the door and were in full
+retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly
+dispersing; already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground on
+either side, and it was only in the exact bottom of the dell and round
+the tavern door that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal the
+first steps of our escape. Far less than halfway to the hamlet, very
+little beyond the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into the
+moonlight. Nor was this all; for the sound of several footsteps running
+came already to our ears, and as we looked back in their direction, a
+light, tossing to and fro, and still rapidly advancing, showed that one
+of the new-comers carried a lantern.
+
+"My dear," said my mother, suddenly, "take the money and run on. I am
+going to faint."
+
+This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought. How I cursed the
+cowardice of the neighbors! how I blamed my poor mother for her honesty
+and her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We were
+just at the little bridge, by good fortune, and I helped her, tottering
+as she was, to the edge of the bank, where, sure enough, she gave a sigh
+and fell on my shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do it
+all, and I am afraid it was roughly done, but I managed to drag her down
+the bank and a little way under the arch. Farther I could not move her,
+for the bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl below it. So
+there we had to stay--my mother almost entirely exposed, and both of us
+within earshot of the inn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN
+
+
+My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear; for I could not
+remain where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence, sheltering
+my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our
+door. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive, seven
+or eight of them, running hard, their feet beating out of time along the
+road, and the man with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran
+together, hand in hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the
+middle man of this trio was the blind beggar. The next moment his voice
+showed me that I was right.
+
+"Down with the door!" he cried.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush was made upon the
+"Admiral Benbow," the lantern-bearer following; and then I could see
+them pause, and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were
+surprised to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the blind
+man again issued his commands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as
+if he were afire with eagerness and rage.
+
+"In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their delay.
+
+Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the
+formidable beggar. There was a pause, then a cry of surprise, and then
+a voice shouting from the house:
+
+"Bill's dead!"
+
+But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.
+
+"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft and
+get the chest," he cried.
+
+I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that the house
+must have shook with it. Promptly afterward fresh sounds of astonishment
+arose; the window of the captain's room was thrown open with a slam and
+a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned out into the moonlight, head
+and shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the road below him.
+
+[Illustration: _"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us"_ (Page 34)]
+
+"Pew!" he cried, "they've been before us. Someone's turned the chest out
+alow and aloft."
+
+"Is it there?" roared Pew.
+
+"The money's there."
+
+The blind man cursed the money.
+
+"Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.
+
+"We don't see it here, nohow," returned the man.
+
+"Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blind man again.
+
+At that, another fellow, probably he who had remained below to search
+the captain's body, came to the door of the inn. "Bill's been overhauled
+a'ready," said he, "nothin' left."
+
+"It's these people of the inn--it's that boy. I wish I had put his eyes
+out!" cried the blind man, Pew. "They were here no time ago--they had
+the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."
+
+"Sure enough, they left their glim here," said the fellow from the
+window.
+
+"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiterated Pew, striking
+with his stick upon the road.
+
+Then there followed a great to-do through all our old inn, heavy feet
+pounding to and fro, furniture all thrown over, doors kicked in, until
+the very rocks re-echoed, and the men came out again, one after another,
+on the road, and declared that we were nowhere to be found. And just
+then the same whistle that had alarmed my mother and myself over the
+dead captain's money was once more clearly audible through the night,
+but this time twice repeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's
+trumpet, so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault; but I now found
+that it was a signal from the hillside toward the hamlet, and, from its
+effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them of approaching danger.
+
+"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have to budge, mates."
+
+"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool and a coward from the
+first--you wouldn't mind him. They must be close by; they can't be far;
+you have your hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs. Oh, shiver
+my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!"
+
+This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows began
+to look here and there among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought,
+and with half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest
+stood irresolute on the road.
+
+"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you hang a leg! You'd
+be as rich as kings if you could find it, and you know it's here, and
+you stand there skulking. There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, and I
+did it--a blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you! I'm to be a
+poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a
+coach! If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit, you would catch
+them still."
+
+"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled one.
+
+"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another. "Take the
+Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."
+
+Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so high at these
+objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand,
+he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded
+heavily on more than one.
+
+These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant, threatened him
+in horrid terms, and tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from
+his grasp.
+
+This quarrel was the saving of us; for while it was still raging,
+another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the
+hamlet--the tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the same time a
+pistol-shot, flash, and report came from the hedge side. And that was
+plainly the last signal of danger, for the buccaneers turned at once and
+ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one
+slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not a sign of
+them remained but Pew. Him they had deserted, whether in sheer panic or
+out of revenge for his ill words and blows, I know not; but there he
+remained behind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping
+and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn, and ran a
+few steps past me, towards the hamlet, crying:
+
+"Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you won't leave old Pew,
+mates--not old Pew?"
+
+Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four or five riders
+came in sight in the moonlight, and swept at full gallop down the slope.
+
+At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and ran straight for
+the ditch, into which he rolled. But he was on his feet again in a
+second, and made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the
+nearest of the coming horses.
+
+The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that
+rang high into the night, and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him
+and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face,
+and moved no more.
+
+I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were pulling up, at any
+rate, horrified at the accident, and I soon saw what they were. One,
+tailing out behind the rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to
+Doctor Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he had met by the
+way, and with whom he had had the intelligence to return at once. Some
+news of the lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance,
+and set him forth that night in our direction, and to that circumstance
+my mother and I owed our preservation from death.
+
+Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we had carried her up
+to the hamlet, a little cold water and salts very soon brought her back
+again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still
+continued to deplore the balance of the money.
+
+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. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to keep out of the
+moonlight, or he would get some lead in him, and at the same time a
+bullet whistled close by his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the
+point and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, as he said, "like a fish
+out of water," and all he could do was to dispatch a man to B---- to
+warn the cutter. "And that," said he, "is just about as good as nothing.
+They've got off clean, and there's an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad I
+trod on Master Pew's corns"; for by this time he had heard my story.
+
+I went back with him to the "Admiral Benbow," and you cannot imagine a
+house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by
+these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and
+though nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's
+money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could see at once that we
+were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing of the scene.
+
+"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, what in fortune were
+they after? More money, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact, sir, I believe I
+have the thing in my breast-pocket; and, to tell you the truth, I should
+like to get it put in safety."
+
+"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take it, if you like."
+
+"I thought, perhaps, Doctor Livesey--" I began.
+
+"Perfectly right," he interrupted, very cheerily, "perfectly right--a
+gentleman and a magistrate. And, now I come to think of it, I might as
+well ride round there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's
+dead, when all's done; not that I regret it, but he's dead, you see, and
+people will make it out against an officer of his Majesty's revenue, if
+make it out they can. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll
+take you along."
+
+I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back to the hamlet
+where the horses were. By the time I had told mother of my purpose they
+were all in the saddle.
+
+"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse; take up this lad
+behind you."
+
+As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt, the supervisor
+gave the word, and the party struck out at a bouncing trot on the road
+to Doctor Livesey's house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS
+
+
+We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before Doctor Livesey's door.
+The house was all dark to the front.
+
+Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup
+to descend by. The door was opened almost at once by the maid.
+
+"Is Doctor Livesey in?" I asked.
+
+"No," she said. He had come home in the afternoon, but had gone up to
+the Hall to dine and pass the evening with the squire.
+
+"So there we go, boys," said Mr. Dance.
+
+This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but ran with
+Dogger's stirrup-leather to the lodge gates, and up the long, leafless,
+moonlit avenue to where the white line of the Hall buildings looked on
+either hand on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted and, taking
+me along with him, was admitted at a word into the house.
+
+The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed us at the end into
+a great library, all lined with bookcases and busts upon top of them,
+where the squire and Doctor Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of
+a bright fire.
+
+I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall man, over six
+feet high, and broad in proportion, and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready
+face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels. His
+eyebrows were very black, and moved readily, and this gave him a look of
+some temper, not bad, you would say, but quick and high.
+
+"Come in, Mr. Dance," said he, very stately and condescending.
+
+"Good evening, Dance," said the doctor, with a nod. "And good evening to
+you, friend Jim. What good wind brings you here?"
+
+The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and told his story like a
+lesson; and you should have seen how the two gentlemen leaned forward
+and looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise and
+interest. When they heard how my mother went back to the inn, Doctor
+Livesey fairly slapped his thigh, and the squire cried "Bravo!" and
+broke his long pipe against the grate. Long before it was done, Mr.
+Trelawney (that, you will remember, was the squire's name) had got up
+from his seat, and was striding about the room, and the doctor, as if to
+hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking
+very strange indeed with his own close-cropped, black poll.
+
+At last Mr. Dance finished the story.
+
+"Mr. Dance," said the squire, "you are a very noble fellow. And as for
+riding down that black, atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of
+virtue, sir, like stamping on a cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump,
+I perceive. Hawkins, will you ring that bell? Mr. Dance must have some
+ale."
+
+"And so, Jim," said the doctor, "you have the thing that they were
+after, have you?"
+
+"Here it is, sir," said I, and gave him the oilskin packet.
+
+The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were itching to open
+it; but, instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the pocket of his
+coat.
+
+"Squire," said he, "when Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be
+off on his Majesty's service; but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to
+sleep at my house, and, with your permission, I propose we should have
+up the cold pie, and let him sup."
+
+"As you will, Livesey," said the squire; "Hawkins has earned better than
+cold pie."
+
+So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a side-table, and I made a
+hearty supper, for I was as hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was
+further complimented, and at last dismissed.
+
+"And now, squire," said the doctor.
+
+"And now, Livesey," said the squire, in the same breath.
+
+"One at a time, one at a time," laughed Doctor Livesey. "You have heard
+of this Flint, I suppose?"
+
+"Heard of him!" cried the squire. "Heard of him, you say! He was the
+blood-thirstiest buccaneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint.
+The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him that, I tell you, sir,
+I was sometimes proud he was an Englishman. I've seen his topsails with
+these eyes, off Trinidad, and the cowardly son of a rum-puncheon that I
+sailed with put back--put back, sir, into Port of Spain."
+
+"Well, I've heard of him myself, in England," said the doctor. "But the
+point is, had he money?"
+
+"Money!" cried the squire. "Have you heard the story? What were these
+villains after but money? What do they care for but money? For what
+would they risk their rascal carcasses but money?"
+
+"That we shall soon know," replied the doctor. "But you are so
+confoundedly hot-headed and exclamatory that I cannot get a word in.
+What I want to know is this: Supposing that I have here in my pocket
+some clue to where Flint buried his treasure, will that treasure amount
+to much?"
+
+"Amount, sir!" cried the squire. "It will amount to this: If we have the
+clue you talk about, I'll fit out a ship in Bristol dock, and take you
+and Hawkins here along, and I'll have that treasure if I search a year."
+
+"Very well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if Jim is agreeable, we'll
+open the packet," and he laid it before him on the table.
+
+The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out his
+instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors. It
+contained two things--a book and a sealed paper.
+
+"First of all we'll try the book," observed the doctor.
+
+The squire and I were both peering over his shoulder as he opened it,
+for Doctor Livesey had kindly motioned me to come round from the
+side-table, where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search.
+On the first page there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man
+with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or practice. One was the
+same as the tattoo mark, "Billy Bones his fancy"; then there was "Mr. W.
+Bones, mate," "No more rum," "Off Palm Key he got itt," and some other
+snatches, mostly single words and unintelligible. I could not help
+wondering who it was that had "got itt," and what "itt" was that he got.
+A knife in his back as like as not.
+
+"Not much instruction there," said Doctor Livesey, as he passed on.
+
+The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious series of
+entries. There was a date at one end of the line and at the other a sum
+of money, as in common account-books; but instead of explanatory
+writing, only a varying number of crosses between the two. On the 12th
+of June, 1745, for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become
+due to someone, and there was nothing but six crosses to explain the
+cause. In a few cases, to be sure, the name of a place would be added,
+as "Offe Caraccas"; or a mere entry of latitude and longitude, as "62 
+deg. 17' 20", 19 deg. 2' 40"."
+
+The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the amount of the separate
+entries growing larger as time went on, and at the end a grand total had
+been made out, after five or six wrong additions, and these words
+appended, "Bones, his pile."
+
+"I can't make head or tail of this," said Doctor Livesey.
+
+"The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the squire. "This is the
+black-hearted hound's account-book. These crosses stand for the names of
+ships or towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are the scoundrel's
+share, and where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something
+clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here was some unhappy vessel
+boarded off that coast. God help the poor souls that manned her--coral
+long ago."
+
+"Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be a traveler. Right! And
+the amounts increase, you see, as he rose in rank."
+
+There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of places noted
+in the blank leaves toward the end, and a table for reducing French,
+English, and Spanish moneys to a common value.
+
+"Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the one to be cheated."
+
+"And now," said the squire, "for the other."
+
+The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble by way of
+seal; the very thimble, perhaps, that I had found in the captain's
+pocket. The doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell out
+the map of an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings, names of
+hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that would be needed to
+bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine
+miles long and five across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon
+standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbors, and a hill in the
+center part marked "The Spy-glass." There were several additions of a
+later date; but, above all, three crosses of red ink--two on the north
+part of the island, one in the southwest, and, beside this last, in the
+same red ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the
+captain's tottery characters, these words: "Bulk of treasure here."
+
+Over on the back the same hand had written this further information:
+
+    "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
+
+    "Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
+
+    "Ten feet.
+
+    "The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the trend
+    of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black crag with the
+    face on it.
+
+    "The arms are easy found, in the sandhill, N. point of north inlet
+    cape, bearing E. and a quarter N.
+
+                                                                 "J. F."
+
+That was all, but brief as it was, and, to me, incomprehensible, it
+filled the squire and Doctor Livesey with delight.
+
+"Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up this wretched practice at
+once. To-morrow I start for Bristol. In three weeks' time--three
+weeks!--two weeks--ten days--we'll have the best ship, sir, and the
+choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy. You'll make a
+famous cabin-boy, Hawkins. You, Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am
+admiral. We'll take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter. We'll have favorable
+winds, a quick passage, and not the least difficulty in finding the
+spot, and money to eat--to roll in--to play duck and drake with ever
+after."
+
+"Trelawney," said the doctor, "I'll go with you; and I'll go bail for
+it, so will Jim, and be a credit to the undertaking. There's only one
+man I'm afraid of."
+
+"And who's that?" cried the squire. "Name the dog, sir!"
+
+"You," replied the doctor, "for you cannot hold your tongue. We are not
+the only men who know of this paper. These fellows who attacked the inn
+to-night--bold, desperate blades, for sure--and the rest who stayed
+aboard that lugger, and more, I dare say, not far off, are, one and all,
+through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that money. We must none
+of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I shall stick together in the
+meanwhile; you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and,
+from first to last, not one of us must breathe a word of what we've
+found."
+
+"Livesey," returned the squire, "you are always in the right of it. I'll
+be as silent as the grave."
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE SEA-COOK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+I GO TO BRISTOL
+
+
+It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for the sea,
+and none of our first plans--not even Doctor Livesey's, of keeping me
+beside him--could be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to
+London for a physician to take charge of his practice; the squire was
+hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of
+old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams
+and the most charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures. I
+brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I
+well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I
+approached that island, in my fancy, from every possible direction; I
+explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand times to that
+tall hill they call the Spy-glass, and from the top enjoyed the most
+wonderful and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with
+savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals that
+hunted us; but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and
+tragic as our actual adventures.
+
+So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed
+to Doctor Livesey, with this addition, "To be opened in the case of his
+absence, by Tom Redruth or Young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found,
+or rather I found--for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading
+anything but print--the following important news:
+
+                              "_Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17--._
+
+    "DEAR LIVESEY: As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or still
+    in London, I send this in double to both places.
+
+    "The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea.
+    You never imagined a sweeter schooner--a child might sail her--two
+    hundred tons; name, _Hispaniola_.
+
+    "I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has proved himself
+    throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable fellow literally
+    slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did every one in Bristol,
+    as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for--treasure, I
+    mean."
+
+"Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Doctor Livesey will not
+like that. The squire has been talking, after all."
+
+"Well, who's a better right?" growled the gamekeeper. "A pretty rum go
+if Squire ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey, I should think."
+
+At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and read straight on:
+
+    "Blandly himself found the _Hispaniola_, and by the most admirable
+    management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of men in
+    Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length
+    of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money;
+    that the _Hispaniola_ belonged to him, and that he sold to me
+    absurdly high--the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare,
+    however, to deny the merits of the ship.
+
+    "So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure--riggers
+    and what not--were most annoyingly slow, but time cured that. It was
+    the crew that troubled me.
+
+    "I wished a round score of men--in case of natives, buccaneers, or
+    the odious French--and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find
+    so much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune
+    brought me the very man that I required.
+
+    "I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I fell in
+    talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public house,
+    knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore,
+    and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled
+    down there that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt.
+
+    "I was monstrously touched--so would you have been--and, out of pure
+    pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook. Long John Silver
+    he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a
+    recommendation, since he lost it in his country's service, under the
+    immortal Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable
+    age we live in!
+
+    "Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I
+    had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a few
+    days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable--not pretty to
+    look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable
+    spirit. I declare we could fight a frigate.
+
+    "Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
+    engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of
+    fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.
+
+    "I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a
+    bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I
+    hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho! Hang
+    the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So
+    now, Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.
+
+    "Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for a
+    guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol.
+
+                                                        "JOHN TRELAWNEY.
+
+    "P.S.--I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send
+    a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had
+    found an admirable fellow for sailing-master--a stiff man, which I
+    regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver
+    unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have
+    a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war
+    fashion on board the good ship _Hispaniola_.
+
+    "I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of
+    my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never
+    been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is
+    a woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be
+    excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the
+    health, that sends him back to roving.
+
+                                                                  "J. T.
+
+    "P.P.S.--Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.
+
+                                                                 "J. T."
+
+You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
+beside myself with glee, and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom
+Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
+under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such
+was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law
+among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even
+to grumble.
+
+The next morning he and I set out on foot for the "Admiral Benbow," and
+there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The captain, who had
+so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the wicked
+cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the
+public rooms and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture--above
+all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy
+as an apprentice also, so that she should not want help while I was
+gone.
+
+It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my
+situation. I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me,
+not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now at sight of this
+clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I
+had my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life;
+for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting
+him right and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.
+
+The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were
+afoot again and on the road. I said good-by to mother and the cove where
+I had lived since I was born, and the dear old "Admiral Benbow"--since
+he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One of my last thoughts was
+of the captain, who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked
+hat, his saber-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we
+had turned the corner, and my home was out of sight.
+
+The mail picked us up about dusk at the "Royal George" on the heath. I
+was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of
+the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal
+from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale,
+through stage after stage; for when I was awakened at last, it was by a
+punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing
+still before a large building in a city street, and that the day had
+already broken a long time.
+
+"Where are we?" I asked.
+
+"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."
+
+Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks,
+to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk,
+and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the
+great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one,
+sailors were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft,
+high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a
+spider's. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to
+have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was
+something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been
+far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in
+their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pig-tails, and
+their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or
+archbishops I could not have been more delighted.
+
+And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner, with a piping
+boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown
+island, and to seek for buried treasure.
+
+While I was still in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of
+a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea
+officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his
+face, and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk.
+
+"Here you are!" he cried; "and the doctor came last night from London.
+Bravo!--the ship's company complete."
+
+"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?"
+
+"Sail!" says he. "We sail to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE "SPY-GLASS"
+
+
+When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave me a note addressed to
+John Silver, at the sign of the "Spy-glass," and told me I should easily
+find the place by following the line of the docks, and keeping a bright
+lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for a sign. I
+set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see some more of the ships and
+seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and
+bales, for the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern in
+question.
+
+It was a bright enough little place of entertainment. The sign was newly
+painted; the windows had neat red curtains; the floor was cleanly
+sanded. There was a street on each side, and an open door on both, which
+made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of
+tobacco smoke.
+
+The customers were mostly seafaring men, and they talked so loudly that
+I hung at the door, almost afraid to enter.
+
+As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a glance I was
+sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip,
+and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with
+wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall
+and strong, with a face as big as a ham--plain and pale, but
+intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits,
+whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a
+slap on the shoulder for the more favored of his guests.
+
+Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first mention of Long John in
+Squire Trelawney's letter, I had taken a fear in my mind that he might
+prove to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so long at
+the old "Benbow." But one look at the man before me was enough. I had
+seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind man Pew, and I thought I
+knew what a buccaneer was like--a very different creature, according to
+me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.
+
+I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold, and walked right up
+to the man where he stood, propped on his crutch, talking to a customer.
+
+"Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out the note.
+
+"Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to be sure. And who may you
+be?" And when he saw the squire's letter he seemed to me to give
+something almost like a start.
+
+"Oh!" said he, quite aloud, and offering his hand, "I see. You are our
+new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you."
+
+And he took my hand in his large firm grasp.
+
+Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and made
+for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the street in a
+moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at a
+glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had come
+first to the "Admiral Benbow."
+
+"Oh," I cried, "stop him! it's Black Dog!"
+
+"I don't care two coppers who he is," cried Silver, "but he hasn't paid
+his score. Harry, run and catch him."
+
+One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up and started in
+pursuit.
+
+"If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score," cried Silver; and
+then, relinquishing my hand, "Who did you say he was?" he asked. "Black
+what?"
+
+"Dog, sir," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers?
+He was one of them."
+
+"So?" cried Silver. "In my house! Ben, run and help Harry. One of those
+swabs, was he? Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here."
+
+The man whom he called Morgan--an old, gray-haired, mahogany-faced
+sailor--came forward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid.
+
+[Illustration: _"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never
+clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you, now?"_ (Page 57)]
+
+"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never clapped your
+eyes on that Black--Black Dog before, did you, now?"
+
+"Not I, sir," said Morgan, with a salute.
+
+"You didn't know his name, did you?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's as good for you!" exclaimed the
+landlord. "If you had been mixed up with the like of that, you would
+never have put another foot in my house, you may lay to that. And what
+was he saying to you?"
+
+"I don't rightly know, sir," answered Morgan.
+
+"Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed dead-eye?"
+cried Long John. "Don't rightly know, don't you? Perhaps you don't
+happen to rightly know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now,
+what was he jawing--v'yages, cap'ns, ships? Pipe up! What was it?"
+
+"We was a-talkin' of keel-hauling," answered Morgan.
+
+"Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may
+lay to that. Get back to your place for a lubber, Tom."
+
+And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver added to me, in a
+confidential whisper, that was very flattering, as I thought:
+
+"He's quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on'y stupid. And now," he ran on
+again, aloud, "let's see--Black Dog? No, I don't know the name, not I.
+Yet I kind of think I've--yes, I've seen the swab. He used to come here
+with a blind beggar, he used."
+
+"That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I knew that blind man, too. His
+name was Pew."
+
+"It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew! That were his name for
+certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he did! If we run down this Black Dog
+now, there'll be news for Cap'n Trelawney! Ben's a good runner; few
+seamen run better than Ben. He should run him down, hand over hand, by
+the powers! He talked o' keel-hauling, did he? _I'll_ keel-haul him!"
+
+All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was stumping up and
+down the tavern on his crutch, slapping tables with his hand, and giving
+such a show of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge or
+a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly reawakened on
+finding Black Dog at the "Spy-glass," and I watched the cook narrowly.
+But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the
+time the two men had come back out of breath, and confessed that they
+had lost the track in a crowd, and been scolded like thieves, I would
+have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.
+
+"See here, now, Hawkins," said he, "here's a blessed hard thing on a man
+like me, now, ain't it? There's Cap'n Trelawney--what's he to think?
+Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house,
+drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and
+here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights! Now,
+Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap'n. You're a lad, you are, but
+you're as smart as paint. I see that when you first came in. Now, here
+it is: What could I do, with this old timber I hobble on? When I was an
+A B master mariner I'd have come up alongside of him, hand over hand,
+and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I would; and now--"
+
+And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw dropped as though he
+had remembered something.
+
+"The score!" he burst out. "Three goes o' rum! Why, shiver my timbers,
+if I hadn't forgotten my score!"
+
+And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks.
+I could not help joining, and we laughed together, peal after peal,
+until the tavern rang again.
+
+"Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he said, at last, wiping his
+cheeks. "You and me should get on well, Hawkins, for I'll take my davy I
+should be rated ship's boy. But, come, now, stand by to go about. This
+won't do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I'll put on my old cocked hat and
+step along of you to Cap'n Trelawney, and report this here affair. For,
+mind you, it's serious, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me's come out
+of it with what I should make so bold as to call credit. Nor you
+neither, says you; not smart--none of the pair of us smart. But dash my
+buttons! that was a good 'un about my score."
+
+And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that though I did not
+see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.
+
+On our little walk along the quays he made himself the most interesting
+companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their
+rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going
+forward--how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third
+making ready for sea; and every now and then telling me some little
+anecdote of ships or seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had
+learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one of the best of
+possible shipmates.
+
+When we got to the inn, the squire and Doctor Livesey were seated
+together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they
+should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.
+
+Long John told the story from first to last, with a great deal of spirit
+and the most perfect truth. "That was how it were, now, weren't it,
+Hawkins?" he would say, now and again, and I could always bear him
+entirely out.
+
+The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got away, but we all
+agreed there was nothing to be done, and after he had been complimented,
+Long John took up his crutch and departed.
+
+"All hands aboard by four this afternoon!" shouted the squire after him.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook, in the passage.
+
+"Well, squire," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't put much faith in your
+discoveries, as a general thing, but I will say this--John Silver suits
+me."
+
+"That man's a perfect trump," declared the squire.
+
+"And now," added the doctor, "Jim may come on board with us, may he
+not?"
+
+"To be sure he may," said the squire. "Take your hat, Hawkins, and we'll
+see the ship."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+POWDER AND ARMS
+
+
+The _Hispaniola_ lay some way out, and we went under the figureheads and
+around the sterns of many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated
+beneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however, we
+swung alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the
+mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears and a
+squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon
+observed that things were not the same between Mr. Trelawney and the
+captain.
+
+This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry with everything on
+board, and was soon to tell us why, for we had hardly got down into the
+cabin when a sailor followed us.
+
+"Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you," said he.
+
+"I am always at the captain's orders. Show him in," said the squire.
+
+The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and
+shut the door behind him.
+
+"Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all
+shipshape and seaworthy?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak plain, I believe, at the
+risk of offense. I don't like this cruise; I don't like the men; and I
+don't like my officer. That's short and sweet."
+
+"Perhaps, sir, you don't like the ship?" inquired the squire, very
+angry, as I could see.
+
+"I can't speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried," said the
+captain. "She seems a clever craft; more I can't say."
+
+"Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?" said the
+squire.
+
+But here Doctor Livesey cut in.
+
+"Stay a bit," said he, "stay a bit. No use of such questions as that but
+to produce ill-feeling. The captain has said too much or he has said too
+little, and I'm bound to say that I require an explanation of his words.
+You don't, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?"
+
+"I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to sail this ship
+for that gentleman where he should bid me," said the captain. "So far so
+good. But now I find that every man before the mast knows more than I
+do. I don't call that fair, now, do you?"
+
+"No," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't."
+
+"Next," said the captain, "I learn we are going after treasure--hear it
+from my own hands, mind you. Now, treasure is ticklish work; I don't
+like treasure voyages on any account; and I don't like them, above all,
+when they are secret, and when (begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the
+secret has been told to the parrot."
+
+"Silver's parrot?" asked the squire.
+
+"It's a way of speaking," said the captain. "Blabbed, I mean. It's my
+belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about; but I'll tell
+you my way of it--life or death, and a close run."
+
+"That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough," replied Doctor
+Livesey. "We take the risk, but we are not so ignorant as you believe
+us. Next, you say you don't like the crew. Are they not good seamen?"
+
+"I don't like them, sir," returned Captain Smollett. "And I think I
+should have had the choosing of my own hands, if you go to that."
+
+"Perhaps you should," replied the doctor. "My friend should, perhaps,
+have taken you along with him; but the slight, if there be one, was
+unintentional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow?"
+
+"I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman, but he's too free with
+the crew to be a good officer. A mate should keep himself to
+himself--shouldn't drink with the men before the mast."
+
+"Do you mean he drinks?" cried the squire.
+
+"No, sir," replied the captain; "only that he's too familiar."
+
+"Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?" asked the doctor.
+"Tell us what you want."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise?"
+
+"Like iron," answered the squire.
+
+"Very good," said the captain. "Then, as you've heard me very patiently,
+saying things that I could not prove, hear me a few words more. They are
+putting the powder and the arms in the fore hold. Now, you have a good
+place under the cabin; why not put them there?--first point. Then you
+are bringing four of your own people with you, and they tell me some of
+them are to be berthed forward. Why not give them the berths here beside
+the cabin?--second point."
+
+"Any more?" asked Mr. Trelawney.
+
+"One more," said the captain. "There's been too much blabbing already."
+
+"Far too much," agreed the doctor.
+
+"I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued Captain Smollett;
+"that you have a map of an island; that there's crosses on the map to
+show where treasure is; and that the island lies--" And then he named
+the latitude and longitude exactly.
+
+"I never told that," cried the squire, "to a soul."
+
+"The hands know it, sir," returned the captain.
+
+"Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins," cried the squire.
+
+"It doesn't much matter who it was," replied the doctor. And I could see
+that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney's
+protestations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so loose a talker; yet
+in this case I believe he was really right, and that nobody had told the
+situation of the island.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," continued the captain, "I don't know who has this
+map, but I make it a point it shall be kept secret even from me and Mr.
+Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign."
+
+"I see," said the doctor. "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. In other
+words, you fear a mutiny."
+
+"Sir," said Captain Smollett, "with no intention to take offense, I deny
+your right to put words into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be
+justified in going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As
+for Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest; some of the men are the
+same; all may be for what I know. But I am responsible for the ship's
+safety and the life of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going,
+as I think, not quite right; and I ask you to take certain precautions,
+or let me resign my berth. And that's all."
+
+"Captain Smollett," began the doctor, with a smile, "did ever you hear
+the fable of the mountain and the mouse? You'll excuse me, I dare say,
+but you remind me of that fable. When you came in here I'll stake my wig
+you meant more than this."
+
+"Doctor," said the captain, "you are smart. When I came in here I meant
+to get discharged. I had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a
+word."
+
+"No more I would," cried the squire. "Had Livesey not been here I should
+have seen you to the deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do as you
+desire, but I think the worse of you."
+
+"That's as you please, sir," said the captain. "You'll find I do my
+duty."
+
+And with that he took his leave.
+
+"Trelawney," said the doctor, "contrary to all my notions, I believe you
+have managed to get two honest men on board with you--that man and John
+Silver."
+
+"Silver, if you like," cried the squire, "but as for that intolerable
+humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright
+un-English."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "we shall see."
+
+When we came on deck the men had begun already to take out the arms and
+powder, yo-ho-ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood
+by superintending.
+
+The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The whole schooner had been
+overhauled; six berths had been made astern, out of what had been the
+after-part of the main hold, and this set of cabins was only joined to
+the galley and forecastle by a sparred passage on the port side. It had
+been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the
+doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth and
+I were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep
+on deck in the companion, which had been enlarged on each side till you
+might almost have called it a round-house. Very low it was still, of
+course, but there was room to swing two hammocks, and even the mate
+seemed pleased with the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, had been doubtful
+as to the crew, but that is only guess, for, as you shall hear, we had
+not long the benefit of his opinion.
+
+We were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths, when the
+last man or two, and Long John along with them, came off in a
+shore-boat.
+
+The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness, and, as soon as
+he saw what was doing, "So ho, mates!" said he, "what's this!"
+
+"We're a-changing the powder, Jack," answers one.
+
+"Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we do, we'll miss the morning
+tide!"
+
+"My orders!" said the captain, shortly. "You may go below, my man. Hands
+will want supper."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook; and, touching his forelock, he
+disappeared at once in the direction of his galley.
+
+"That's a good man, captain," said the doctor.
+
+"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy with that,
+men--easy," he ran on, to the fellows who were shifting the powder; and
+then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a
+long brass nine--"Here, you ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off
+with you to the cook and get some work."
+
+And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite loudly, to the
+doctor:
+
+"I'll have no favorites on my ship."
+
+I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking, and hated the
+captain deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE VOYAGE
+
+
+All that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their
+place, and boatfuls of the squire's friends, Mr. Blandly and the like,
+coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had a
+night at the "Admiral Benbow" when I had half the work; and I was
+dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe,
+and the crew began to man the capstan bars. I might have been twice as
+weary, yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and
+interesting to me--the brief commands, the shrill notes of the whistle,
+the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns.
+
+"Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave," cried one voice.
+
+"The old one," cried another.
+
+"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch
+under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so
+well:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest"--
+
+And then the whole crew bore chorus:
+
+    "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.
+
+Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old "Admiral
+Benbow" in a second, and I seemed to hear the voice of the captain
+piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up; soon it was
+hanging dripping at the bows; soon the sails began to draw, and the land
+and shipping to flit by on either side, and before I could lie down to
+snatch an hour of slumber the _Hispaniola_ had begun her voyage to the
+Isle of Treasure.
+
+I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was fairly prosperous.
+The ship proved to be a good ship, the crew were capable seamen, and the
+captain thoroughly understood his business. But before we came the
+length of Treasure Island, two or three things had happened which
+require to be known.
+
+Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than the captain had
+feared. He had no command among the men, and people did what they
+pleased with him. But that was by no means the worst of it; for after a
+day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks,
+stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time after time he
+was ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut himself;
+sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the
+companion; sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and
+attend to his work at least passably.
+
+In the meantime we could never make out where he got the drink. That was
+the ship's mystery. Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to
+solve it, and when we asked him to his face, he would only laugh, if he
+were drunk, and if he were sober, deny solemnly that he ever tasted
+anything but water.
+
+He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad influence among the
+men, but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself
+outright, so nobody was much surprised, nor very sorry, when one dark
+night, with a head sea, he disappeared entirely and was seen no more.
+
+"Overboard!" said the captain. "Well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble
+of putting him in irons."
+
+But there we were, without a mate, and it was necessary, of course, to
+advance one of the men. The boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest
+man aboard, and though he kept his old title, he served in a way as
+mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him
+very useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy weather. And the
+coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, experienced seaman,
+who could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything.
+
+He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and so the mention of his
+name leads me on to speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men
+called him.
+
+[Illustration: _It was something to see him get on with his cooking like
+someone safe ashore_ (Page 71)]
+
+Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck, to have
+both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him wedge the
+foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against it, yielding
+to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like someone safe
+ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather
+cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to help him across the
+widest spaces--Long John's earrings, they were called--and he would hand
+himself from one place to another, now using the crutch, now trailing it
+alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some
+of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see
+him so reduced.
+
+"He's no common man, Barbecue," said the coxswain to me. "He had good
+schooling in his young days, and can speak like a book when so minded;
+and brave--a lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him grapple
+four and knock their heads together--him unarmed."
+
+All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He had a way of talking to
+each, and doing everybody some particular service. To me he was
+unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept
+as clean as a new pin; the dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot
+in a cage in the corner.
+
+"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; "come and have a yarn with John.
+Nobody more welcome than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the
+news. Here's Cap'n Flint--I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the
+famous buccaneer--here's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our v'yage.
+Wasn't you, Cap'n?"
+
+And the parrot would say, with great rapidity: "Pieces of eight! pieces
+of eight! pieces of eight!" till you wondered that it was not out of
+breath or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.
+
+"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, may be, two hundred years old,
+Hawkins--they live forever mostly, and if anybody's seen more wickedness
+it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England--the great Cap'n
+England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and
+Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was at the fishing up of
+the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of eight,' and
+little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em, Hawkins! She was
+at the boarding of the _Viceroy of the Indies_ out of Goa, she was, and
+to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you smelt
+powder--didn't you, cap'n?"
+
+"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.
+
+"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give her
+sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars and
+swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John would
+add, "you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old
+innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire and none the wiser, you may lay
+to that. She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before the
+chaplain." And John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had,
+that made me think he was the best of men.
+
+In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty
+distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the
+matter; he despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke
+but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
+word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have
+been wrong about the crew; that some of them were as brisk as he wanted
+to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a
+downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man
+has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would add,
+"all I say is, we're not home again, and I don't like the cruise."
+
+The squire, at this, would turn away and march up and down the deck,
+chin in air.
+
+"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I should explode."
+
+We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the
+_Hispaniola_. Every man on board seemed well content, and they must have
+been hard to please if they had been otherwise, for it is my belief
+there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea.
+Double grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff on odd days,
+as, for instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday; and
+always a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist, for anyone to
+help himself that had a fancy.
+
+"Never knew good to come of it yet," the captain said to Doctor Livesey.
+"Spoil foc's'le hands, make devils. That's my belief."
+
+But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall hear, for if it had
+not been for that we should have had no note of warning and might all
+have perished by the hand of treachery.
+
+This is how it came about.
+
+We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after--I
+am not allowed to be more plain--and now we were running down for it
+with a bright lookout day and night. It was about the last day of our
+outward voyage, by the largest computation; some time that night, or, at
+latest, before noon of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure Island.
+We were heading south-southwest, and had a steady breeze abeam and a
+quiet sea. The _Hispaniola_ rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now
+and then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and aloft; everyone
+was in the bravest spirits, because we were now so near an end of the
+first part of our adventure.
+
+Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over and I was on my way
+to my berth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. I ran on
+deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at
+the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away gently to
+himself, and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea
+against the bows and around the sides of the ship.
+
+In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there was scarce an
+apple left; but, sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of
+the waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either fallen
+asleep, or was on the point of doing so, when a heavy man sat down with
+rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders
+against it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to speak.
+It was Silver's voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I would
+not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there, trembling and
+listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these dozen
+words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended
+upon me alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL
+
+
+"No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, along
+of my timber leg. The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his
+deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me--out of
+college and all--Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged
+like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was
+Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names to their
+ships--_Royal Fortune_ and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so
+let her stay, I says. So it was with the _Cassandra_, as brought us all
+safe home from Malabar, after England took the _Viceroy of the Indies_;
+so it was with the old _Walrus_, Flint's old ship, as I've seen a-muck
+with the red blood and fit to sink with gold."
+
+"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and
+evidently full of admiration, "he was the flower of the flock, was
+Flint!"
+
+"Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said Silver. "I never sailed
+along of him; first with England, then with Flint, that's my story; and
+now here on my own account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine
+hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That ain't bad
+for a man before the mast--all safe in bank. 'Tain't earning now, it's
+saving does it, you may lay to that. Where's all England's men now? I
+dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most of 'em aboard here, and glad to get
+the duff--been begging before that, some of 'em. Old Pew, as had lost
+his sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred pounds in
+a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now
+and under hatches; but for two years before that, shiver my timbers! the
+man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and
+starved at that, by the powers!"
+
+"Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the young seaman.
+
+"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it--that, nor nothing,"
+cried Silver. "But now, you look here; you're young, you are, but you're
+as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk
+to you like a man."
+
+You can imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue
+addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to
+myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him
+through the barrel. Meantime he ran on, little supposing he was
+overheard.
+
+"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and they risk
+swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise
+is done, why it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in
+their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea
+again in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all
+away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of
+suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise I set up
+gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. Ah, but I've lived
+easy in the meantime; never denied myself o' nothing heart desires, and
+slept soft and ate dainty all my days, but when at sea. And how did I
+begin? Before the mast, like you!"
+
+"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now, ain't it?
+You daren't show face in Bristol after this."
+
+"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked Silver, derisively.
+
+"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.
+
+"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed anchor. But my old
+missis has it all by now. And the 'Spy-glass' is sold, lease and good
+will and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you
+where, for I trust you; but it 'ud make jealousy among the mates."
+
+"And you can trust your missis?" asked the other.
+
+"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually trust little among
+themselves, and right they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way with
+me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable--one as knows me, I
+mean--it won't be in the same world with old John. There was some that
+was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his own
+self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest
+crew afloat, was Flint's; the devil himself would have been feared to go
+to sea with them. Well, now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you
+seen yourself how easy I keep company; but when I was quartermaster,
+_lambs_ wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure
+of yourself in old John's ship."
+
+"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half a quarter like
+the job till I had this talk with you, John, but there's my hand on it
+now."
+
+"And a brave lad you were, and smart, too," answered Silver, shaking
+hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for
+a gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on."
+
+By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms. By a
+"gentleman of fortune" they plainly meant neither more nor less than a
+common pirate, and the little scene that I had overheard was the last
+act in the corruption of one of the honest hands--perhaps of the last
+one left aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved, for,
+Silver giving a little whistle, a third man strolled up and sat down by
+the party.
+
+"Dick's square," said Silver.
+
+"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice of the coxswain,
+Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick." And he turned his quid and spat.
+"But, look here," he went on, "here's what I want to know, Barbecue--how
+long are we a-going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've had
+a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed me long enough, by thunder!
+I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and
+that."
+
+"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account, nor never was. But
+you're able to hear, I reckon; leastways your ears is big enough. Now,
+here's what I say--you'll berth forward, and you'll live hard, and
+you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober, till I give the word; and you
+may lay to that, my son."
+
+"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain. "What I say is,
+when? That's what I say."
+
+"When! by the powers!" cried Silver. "Well, now, if you want to know,
+I'll tell you when. The last moment I can manage; and that's when.
+Here's a first-rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for
+us. Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such--I don't know
+where it is, do I? No more do you, says you. Well, then, I mean this
+squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by
+the powers! Then we'll see. If I was sure of you all, sons of double
+Dutchmen, I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back again before
+I struck."
+
+"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think," said the lad Dick.
+
+"We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We can steer a
+course, but who's to set one? That's what all you gentlemen split on,
+first and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back
+into the trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and
+a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort you are. I'll finish with
+'em at the island, as soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But
+you're never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a sick heart
+to sail with the likes of you!"
+
+"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin' of you?"
+
+"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I seen laid aboard? and
+how many brisk lads drying in the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver;
+"and all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me? I seen a
+thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay your course, and a
+p'int to windward, you would ride in carriages, you would. But not you!
+I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go hang."
+
+"Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling, John; but there's others
+as could hand and steer as well as you," said Israel. "They liked a bit
+o' fun, they did. They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their
+fling, like jolly companions, everyone."
+
+"So?" said Silver. "Well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and
+he died a beggar-man. Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah,
+they was a sweet crew, they was! on'y, where are they?"
+
+"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay 'em athwart, what are we to do with
+'em, anyhow?"
+
+"There's the man for me!" cried the cook, admiringly. "That's what I
+call business. Well, what would you think? Put 'em ashore like maroons?
+That would have been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that much pork?
+That would have been Flint's or Billy Bones's."
+
+"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead men don't bite,' says
+he. Well, he's dead now, hisself; he knows the long and short on it now;
+and if ever a rough hand come to port, it was Billy."
+
+"Right you are," said Silver, "rough and ready. But mark you here: I'm
+an easy man--I'm quite the gentleman, says you; but this time it's
+serious. Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote--death. When I'm in
+Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these
+sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at
+prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why let her rip!"
+
+"John," cried the coxswain, "you're a man!"
+
+"You'll say so, Israel, when you see," said Silver. "Only one thing I
+claim--I claim Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his body with
+these hands. Dick!" he added, breaking off, "you must jump up, like a
+sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."
+
+You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have leaped out and run for
+it, if I had found the strength; but my limbs and heart alike misgave
+me. I heard Dick begin to rise, and then some one seemingly stopped him,
+and the voice of Hands exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, stow that! Don't you get sucking of that bilge, John. Let's have a
+go of the rum."
+
+"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the keg, mind.
+There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring it up."
+
+Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself that this must
+have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him.
+
+Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence Israel spoke
+straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I could
+catch, and yet I gathered some important news; for, besides other scraps
+that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was audible: "Not
+another man of them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful men on
+board.
+
+When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pannikin and
+drank--one "To luck"; another with a "Here's to old Flint," and Silver
+himself saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your
+luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."
+
+Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and, looking
+up, I found the moon had risen, and was silvering the mizzen-top and
+shining white on the luff of the foresail, and almost at the same time
+the voice on the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+COUNCIL OF WAR
+
+
+There was a great rush of feet across the deck. I could hear people
+tumbling up from the cabin and the foc's'le; and slipping in an instant
+outside my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double towards
+the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and
+Doctor Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.
+
+There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted
+almost simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the
+southwest of us we saw two low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and
+rising behind one of them a third and higher hill, whose peak was still
+buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure.
+
+So much I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my
+horrid fear of a minute or two before. And then I heard the voice of
+Captain Smollett issuing orders. The _Hispaniola_ was laid a couple of
+points nearer the wind, and now sailed a course that would just clear
+the island on the east.
+
+"And now, men," said the captain, when all was sheeted home, "has any
+one of you ever seen that land ahead?"
+
+"I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there with a trader I was cook
+in."
+
+"The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I fancy?" asked the
+captain.
+
+"Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a main place for
+pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed all their names for it.
+That hill to the nor'ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are three
+hills in a row running south'ard--fore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the
+main--that's the big 'un, with the cloud on it--they usually calls the
+Spy-glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the
+anchorage cleaning; for it's there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking
+your pardon."
+
+"I have a chart here," said Captain Smollett. "See if that's the place."
+
+Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but, by the
+fresh look of the paper, I knew he was doomed to disappointment. This
+was not the map we found in Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy,
+complete in all things--names, and heights, and soundings--with the
+single exception of the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must
+have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it.
+
+"Yes, sir," said he, "this is the spot, to be sure, and very prettily
+drawed out. Who might have done that, I wonder? The pirates were too
+ignorant, I reckon. Ay, here it is: 'Captain Kidd's Anchorage'--just the
+name my shipmate called it. There's a strong current runs along the
+south, and then away nor'ard up the west coast. Right you was, sir,"
+said he, "to haul your wind and keep the weather of the island.
+Leastways, if such was your intention as to enter and careen, and there
+ain't no better place for that in these waters."
+
+"Thank you, my man," said Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you, later on, to
+give us a help. You may go."
+
+I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of
+the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw him drawing
+nearer to myself. He did not know, to be sure, that I had overheard his
+council from the apple barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken such a
+horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I could scarce conceal
+a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm.
+
+"Ah," said he, "this here is a sweet spot, this island--a sweet spot for
+a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe, and you'll climb trees, and you'll
+hunt goats, you will, and you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat
+yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber
+leg, I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes, and
+you may lay to that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you just
+ask old John and he'll put up a snack for you to take along."
+
+And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off
+forward and went below.
+
+Captain Smollett, the squire, and Doctor Livesey were talking together
+on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst
+not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about in my
+thoughts to find some probable excuse, Doctor Livesey called me to his
+side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave to tobacco, had
+meant that I should fetch it; but as soon as I was near enough to speak
+and not be overheard, I broke out immediately: "Doctor, let me speak.
+Get the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make some
+pretense to send for me. I have terrible news."
+
+The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he was master
+of himself.
+
+"Thank you, Jim," said he, quite loudly; "that was all I wanted to
+know," as if he had asked me a question.
+
+And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the other two. They
+spoke together for a little, and though none of them started, or raised
+his voice, or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Doctor
+Livesey had communicated my request, for the next thing that I heard was
+the captain giving an order to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on
+deck.
+
+"My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say to you. This land
+that we have sighted is the place we have been sailing to. Mr.
+Trelawney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, has just
+asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man on
+board had done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask to see it done
+better, why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to
+drink _your_ health and luck, and you'll have grog served out for you to
+drink _our_ health and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this: I think
+it handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good sea cheer for
+the gentleman that does it."
+
+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.
+
+"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett!" cried Long John, when the first had
+subsided.
+
+And this also was given with a will.
+
+On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and not long after,
+word was sent forward that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin.
+
+I found them all three seated around the table, a bottle of Spanish wine
+and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away, with his wig
+on his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The stern
+window was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon
+shining behind on the ship's wake.
+
+"Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something to say. Speak up."
+
+I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make it, told the whole
+details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done,
+nor did anyone of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they
+kept their eyes upon my face from first to last.
+
+"Jim," said Doctor Livesey, "take a seat."
+
+And they made me sit down at a table beside them, poured me out a glass
+of wine, filled my hands with raisins, and all three, one after the
+other, and each with a bow, drank my good health, and their service to
+me, for my luck and courage.
+
+"Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right and I was wrong. I own
+myself an ass, and I await your orders."
+
+"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a
+crew that meant to mutiny but what showed signs before, for any man that
+had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps according. But
+this crew," he added, "beats me."
+
+"Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission, that's Silver. A very
+remarkable man."
+
+"He'd look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir," returned the captain.
+"But this is talk; this don't lead to anything. I see three or four
+points, and with Mr. Trelawney's permission I'll name them."
+
+"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," said Mr. Trelawney,
+grandly.
+
+"First point," began Mr. Smollett, "we must go on because we can't turn
+back. If I gave the word to turn about, they would rise at once. Second
+point, we have time before us--at least until this treasure's found.
+Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to
+blows sooner or later, and what I propose is to take time by the
+forelock, as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when they
+least expect it. We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr.
+Trelawney?"
+
+"As upon myself," declared the squire.
+
+"Three," reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins
+here. Now, about the honest hands?"
+
+"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor; "those he picked up
+for himself before he lit on Silver."
+
+"Nay," replied the squire, "Hands was one of mine."
+
+"I did think I could have trusted Hands," added the captain.
+
+"And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir,
+I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that I can say is not
+much. We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's
+trying on a man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But
+there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to and whistle for a
+wind; that's my view."
+
+"Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than anyone. The men are
+not shy with him and Jim is a noticing lad."
+
+"Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the squire.
+
+I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether
+helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances, it was indeed
+through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there
+were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely, and
+out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were
+six to their nineteen.
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+MY SHORE ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN
+
+
+The appearance of the island when I came on deck next morning was
+altogether changed. Although the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had
+made a great deal of way during the night and were now lying becalmed
+about half a mile to the southeast of the low eastern coast.
+Gray-colored woods covered a large part of the surface. This even tint
+was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands
+and by many tall trees of the pine family, out-topping the others--some
+singly, some in clumps; but the general coloring was uniform and sad.
+The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All
+were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass, which was by three or four
+hundred feet the tallest on the island, was likewise the strangest in
+configuration, running up sheer from almost every side and then suddenly
+cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a statue on.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The
+booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and
+the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had
+to cling tight to the backstay and the world turned giddily before my
+eyes; for though I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, this
+standing still and being rolled about like a bottle was a thing I never
+learned to stand without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an
+empty stomach.
+
+Perhaps it was this--perhaps it was the look of the island, with its
+gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we
+could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach--at
+least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were
+fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone
+would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart
+sank, as the saying is, into my boots, and from that first look onward I
+hated the very thought of Treasure Island.
+
+We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any
+wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped
+three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow
+passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one of
+the boats, where I had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering
+and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command
+of my boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order he grumbled as loud
+as the worst.
+
+"Well," he said, with an oath, "it's not forever."
+
+I thought this was a very bad sign, for, up to that day, the men had
+gone briskly and willingly about their business, but the very sight of
+the island had relaxed the cords of discipline.
+
+All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and conned the ship. He
+knew the passage like the palm of his hand; and though the man in the
+chains got everywhere more water than was down in the chart, John never
+hesitated once.
+
+"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he said, "and this here passage
+has been dug out, in a manner of speaking, with a spade."
+
+We brought up just where the anchor was in the chart, about a third of a
+mile from each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on
+the other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up
+clouds of birds wheeling and crying over the woods, but in less than a
+minute they were down again, and all was once more silent.
+
+The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods, the trees coming
+right down to high-water mark, the shores mostly flat, and the hill-tops
+standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, one here, one
+there. Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this
+pond, as you might call it and the foliage round that part of the shore
+had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could see nothing
+of the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among trees; and if
+it had not been for the chart on the companion, we might have been the
+first that had ever anchored there since the islands arose out of the
+seas.
+
+There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf
+booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the rocks
+outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage--a smell of
+sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing
+and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.
+
+"I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's
+fever here."
+
+If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became truly
+threatening when they had come aboard. They lay about the deck,
+growling together in talk. The slightest order was received with a black
+look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands must
+have caught the infection, for there was not one man aboard to mend
+another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thundercloud.
+
+And it was not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger. Long
+John was hard at work going from group to group, spending himself in
+good advice, and as for example no man could have shown a better. He
+fairly outstripped himself in willingness and civility; he was all
+smiles to everyone. If an order were given, John would be on his crutch
+in an instant, with the cheeriest "Ay, ay, sir!" in the world; and when
+there was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if
+to conceal the discontent of the rest.
+
+Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious
+anxiety on the part of Long John appeared the worst.
+
+We held a council in the cabin.
+
+"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another order, the whole ship'll
+come about our ears by the run. You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough
+answer, do I not? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two
+shakes; if I don't, Silver will see there's something under that, and
+the game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on."
+
+"And who is that?" asked the squire.
+
+"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's as anxious as you and I to
+smother things up. This is a tiff; he'd soon talk 'em out of it if he
+had the chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the chance.
+Let's allow the men an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why, we'll
+fight the ship. If they none of them go, well, then, we hold the cabin,
+and God defend the right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll
+bring 'em aboard again as mild as lambs."
+
+It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all the sure men.
+Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were taken into our confidence, and received
+the news with less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for,
+and then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.
+
+"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are all tired and out of
+sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody; the boats are still in the water;
+you can take the gigs, and as many as please can go ashore for the
+afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an hour before sundown."
+
+I believe the silly fellows must have thought they would break their
+shins over treasure as soon as they were landed; for they all came out
+of their sulks in a moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a
+far-away hill, and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round
+the anchorage.
+
+The captain was too bright to be in the way. He whipped out of sight in
+a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party, and I fancy it was as
+well he did so. Had he been on deck he could no longer so much as have
+pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain as day.
+Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The
+honest hands--and I was soon to see it proved that there were such on
+board--must have been very stupid fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the
+truth was this, that all hands were disaffected by the example of the
+ringleaders--only some more, some less; and a few, being good fellows in
+the main, could neither be led nor driven any farther. It is one thing
+to be idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and murder a
+number of innocent men.
+
+At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay on
+board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver, began to embark.
+
+Then it was that there came into my head the first of the mad notions
+that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men were left by
+Silver, it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship; and
+since only six were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had
+no present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go
+ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side and curled up in the
+foresheets of the nearest boat, and almost at the same moment she shoved
+off.
+
+No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, "Is that you, Jim?
+Keep your head down." But Silver, from the other boat, looked sharply
+over and called out to know if that were me; and from that moment I
+began to regret what I had done.
+
+The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in, having some start,
+and being at once the lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead of
+her consort, and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, and I
+had caught a branch and swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest
+thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind.
+
+"Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting.
+
+But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, ducking, and breaking
+through, I ran straight before my nose, till I could run no longer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST BLOW
+
+
+I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John, that I began to
+enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land
+that I was in. I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes,
+and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and had now come out upon the skirts
+of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted
+with a few pines, and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the
+oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of
+the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks, shining
+vividly in the sun.
+
+I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The isle was
+uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and nothing lived in front
+of me but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and thither among the
+trees. Here and there were flowering plants, unknown to me; here and
+there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of rock and
+hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did I
+suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and that the noise was the famous
+rattle.
+
+Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like trees--live, or
+evergreen, oaks, I heard afterward they should be called--which grew low
+along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage
+compact, like thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of
+the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it
+reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of
+the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh was
+steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled
+through the haze.
+
+All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among the bulrushes; a
+wild duck flew up with a quack, another followed, and soon over the
+whole surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and
+circling in the air. I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be
+drawing near along the borders of the fen. Nor was I deceived, for soon
+I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which, as I
+continued to give ear, grew steadily louder and nearer.
+
+This put me in great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest
+live-oak, and squatted there, hearkening, as silent as a mouse.
+
+Another voice answered; and then the first voice, which I now recognized
+to be Silver's, once more took up the story, and ran on for a long while
+in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound
+they must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely, but no
+distinct word came to my hearing.
+
+At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps to have sat
+down, for not only did they cease to draw any nearer, but the birds
+themselves began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to their places
+in the swamp.
+
+And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business; that since I
+had been so foolhardy as to come ashore with these desperadoes, the
+least I could do was to overhear them at their councils, and that my
+plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage, under
+the favorable ambush of the crouching trees.
+
+I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly, not only by
+the sound of their voices, but by the behavior of the few birds that
+still hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders.
+
+Crawling on all-fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at
+last, raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear
+down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about
+with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to
+face in conversation.
+
+The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat beside him on the
+ground, and his great, smooth, blonde face, all shining with heat, was
+lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal.
+
+"Mate," he was saying, "it's because I thinks gold dust of you--gold
+dust, and you may lay to that! If I hadn't took to you like pitch, do
+you think I'd have been here a-warning of you? All's up--you can't make
+nor mend; it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of the
+wild 'uns knew it, where 'ud I be, Tom--now tell me, where 'ud I be?"
+
+"Silver," said the other man--and I observed he was not only red in the
+face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a
+taut rope--"Silver," says he, "you're old, and you're honest, or has the
+name for it; and you've money, too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't;
+and you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you tell me you'll let
+yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure
+as God sees me, I'd sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin my dooty--"
+
+And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I had found one
+of the honest hands--well, here, at that same moment, came news of
+another. Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound
+like the cry of anger, then another on the back of it, and then one
+horrid, long-drawn scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a
+score of times; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again, darkening
+heaven with a simultaneous whir; and long after that death-yell was
+still ringing in my brain, silence had re-established its empire, and
+only the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant
+surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.
+
+Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the spur; but Silver had
+not winked an eye. He stood where he was, resting lightly on his crutch,
+watching his companion like a snake about to spring.
+
+"John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand.
+
+"Hands off!" cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it seemed to me, with
+the speed and security of a trained gymnast.
+
+"Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other. "It's a black
+conscience that can make you feared of me. But, in heaven's name, tell
+me what was that?"
+
+"That?" returned Silver, smiling away, but warier than ever, his eye a
+mere pin-point in his big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass.
+"That? Oh, I reckon that'll be Alan."
+
+And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.
+
+"Alan!" he cried. "Then rest his soul for a true seaman! And as for you,
+John Silver, long you've been a mate of mine, but you're mate of mine no
+more. If I die like a dog I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan,
+have you? Kill me, too, if you can. But I defies you."
+
+And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook and
+set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a
+cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his
+armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through the air. It struck
+poor Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between the
+shoulders in the middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort
+of gasp and fell.
+
+Whether he was injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like
+enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he
+had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even
+without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment, and had twice
+buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenseless body. From my place
+of ambush I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.
+
+I do not know what it rightly is to faint, but I do know that for the
+next little while the whole world swam away from before me in a whirling
+mist; Silver and the birds and the tall Spy-glass hilltop going round
+and round and topsy-turvy before my eyes, and all manner of bells
+ringing, and distant voices shouting in my ear.
+
+When I came again to myself the monster had pulled himself together, his
+crutch under his arm, his hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay
+motionless upon the sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit,
+cleansing his blood-stained knife the while upon a whisp of grass.
+Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly upon
+the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the mountain, and I could
+scarce persuade myself that murder had actually been done and a human
+life cruelly cut short a moment since, before my eyes.
+
+But now John put his hand into his pocket, brought out a whistle, and
+blew upon it several modulated blasts, that rang far across the heated
+air. I could not tell, of course, the meaning of the signal, but it
+instantly awoke my fears. More men would be coming. I might be
+discovered. They had already slain two of the honest people; after Tom
+and Alan, might not I come next?
+
+Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl back again, with what
+speed and silence I could manage, to the more open portion of the wood.
+As I did so I could hear hails coming and going between the old
+buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings. As
+soon as I was clear of the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce
+minding the direction of my flight, so long as it led me from the
+murderers, and as I ran, fear grew and grew upon me, until it turned
+into a kind of frenzy.
+
+Indeed, could anyone be more entirely lost than I? When the gun fired,
+how should I dare to go down to the boats among those fiends, still
+smoking from their crime? Would not the first of them who saw me wring
+my neck like a snipe's? Would not my absence itself be an evidence to
+them of my alarm, and therefore of my fatal knowledge? It was all over,
+I thought. Good-by to the _Hispaniola_, good-by to the squire, the
+doctor, and the captain. There was nothing left for me but death by
+starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers.
+
+All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, without taking any
+notice, I had drawn near to the foot of the little hill with the two
+peaks, and had got into a part of the island where the wild oaks grew
+more widely apart, and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing
+and dimensions. Mingled with these were a few scattered pines, some
+fifty, some nearer seventy, feet high. The air, too, smelled more fresh
+than down beside the marsh.
+
+And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with a thumping heart.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MAN OF THE ISLAND
+
+
+From the side of the hill, which was here steep and stony, a spout of
+gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling and bounding through the trees.
+My eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw a figure leap
+with great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether
+bear, or man, or monkey, I could in nowise tell. It seemed dark and
+shaggy; more I knew not. But the terror of this new apparition brought
+me to a stand.
+
+I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides: behind me the murderers,
+before me this lurking nondescript. And immediately I began to prefer
+the dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared
+less terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I turned
+on my heel, and, looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began to
+retrace my steps in the direction of the boats.
+
+Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a wide circuit, began to
+head me off. I was tired, at any rate, but had I been as fresh as when I
+rose, I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an
+adversary. From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer, running
+man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, stooping
+almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was! I could no longer be in doubt
+about that.
+
+I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I was within an ace of
+calling for help. But the mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had
+somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver began to revive in
+proportion. I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of
+escape, and as I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed
+into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not defenseless, courage
+glowed again in my heart, and I set my face resolutely for this man of
+the island, and walked briskly toward him.
+
+He was concealed by this time, behind another tree-trunk, but he must
+have been watching me closely, for as soon as I began to move in his
+direction he reappeared and took a step to meet me. Then he hesitated,
+drew back, came forward again, and, at last, to my wonder and confusion,
+threw himself on his knees and held out his clasped hands in
+supplication.
+
+At that I once more stopped.
+
+"Who are you?" I asked.
+
+"Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like
+a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke with a
+Christian these three years."
+
+I could now see that he was a white man like myself, and that his
+features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was
+burned by the sun; even his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked
+quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen
+or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters
+of old ships' canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork
+was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous
+fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin.
+About his waist he wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the
+one thing solid in his whole accouterment.
+
+"Three years!" I cried. "Were you shipwrecked?"
+
+"Nay, mate," said he, "marooned."
+
+I had heard the word and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of
+punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is
+put ashore with a little powder and shot and left behind on some
+desolate and distant island.
+
+"Marooned three years agone," he continued, "and lived on goats since
+then, and berries and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do
+for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You
+mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well,
+many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese--toasted, mostly--and woke
+up again, and here I were."
+
+"If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you shall have cheese by the
+stone."
+
+All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my
+hands, looking at my boots, and generally, in the intervals of his
+speech, showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a
+fellow-creature. But at my last words he perked up into a kind of
+startled slyness.
+
+"If ever you get aboard again, says you?" he repeated. "Why, now, who's
+to hinder you?"
+
+"Not you, I know," was my reply.
+
+"And right you was," he cried. "Now you--what do you call yourself,
+mate?"
+
+"Jim," I told him.
+
+"Jim, Jim," says he, quite pleased, apparently. "Well, now, Jim, I've
+lived that rough as you'd be ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance, you
+wouldn't think I had had a pious mother--to look at me?" he asked.
+
+"Why, no, not in particular," I answered.
+
+"Ah, well," said he, "but I had--remarkable pious. And I was a civil,
+pious boy, and could rattle off my catechism that fast as you couldn't
+tell one word from another. And here's what it come to, Jim, and it
+begun with chuck-farthen on the blessed gravestones! That's what it
+begun with, but it went further'n that, and so my mother told me, and
+predicked the whole, she did, the pious woman. But it were Providence
+that put me here. I've thought it all out in this here lonely island and
+I'm back on piety. You can't catch me tasting rum so much, but just a
+thimbleful for luck, of course, the first chance I have. I'm bound I'll
+be good, and I see the way to. And, Jim"--looking all round him and
+lowering his voice to a whisper--"I'm rich."
+
+I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and
+I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face, for he repeated the
+statement hotly:
+
+"Rich! rich! I says. And I'll tell you what, I'll make a man of you,
+Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless your stars, you will, you was the first that
+found me!"
+
+And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow over his face and he
+tightened his grasp upon my hand and raised a forefinger threateningly
+before my eyes.
+
+"Now, Jim, you tell me true; that ain't Flint's ship?" he asked.
+
+At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to believe that I had found
+an ally and I answered him at once.
+
+"It's not Flint's ship and Flint is dead, but I'll tell you true, as
+you ask me--there are some of Flint's hands aboard; worse luck for the
+rest of us."
+
+"Not a man--with one--leg?" he gasped.
+
+"Silver?" I asked.
+
+"Ah, Silver!" says he, "that were his name."
+
+"He's the cook, and the ringleader, too."
+
+He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he gave it quite a
+wring. "If you was sent by Long John," he said, "I'm as good as pork and
+I know it. But where was you, do you suppose?"
+
+I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told him the
+whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which we found
+ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he
+patted me on the head.
+
+"You're a good lad, Jim," he said, "and you're all in a clove hitch,
+ain't you? Well, you just put your trust in Ben Gunn--Ben Gunn's the man
+to do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a
+liberal-minded one in case of help--him being in a clove hitch, as you
+remark?"
+
+I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.
+
+"Ay, but you see," returned Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean giving me a gate to
+keep and a suit of livery clothes, and such; that's not my mark, Jim.
+What I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the toon of, say one
+thousand pounds out of money that's as good as a man's own already?"
+
+"I am sure he would," said I. "As it was, all hands were to share."
+
+"_And_ a passage home?" he added, with a look of great shrewdness.
+
+"Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. And, besides, if we got rid
+of the others, we should want you to help work the vessel home."
+
+"Ah," said he, "so you would." And he seemed very much relieved.
+
+"Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "So much I'll tell you, and no
+more. I were in Flint's ship when he buried the treasure; he and six
+along--six strong seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week, and us
+standing off and on in the old _Walrus_. One fine day up went the
+signal, and here come Flint by himself in a little boat, and his head
+done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal white he
+looked about the cutwater. But, there he was, you mind, and the six all
+dead--dead and buried. How had he done it, not a man aboard us could
+make out. It was battle, murder, and sudden death, leastways--him
+against six. Billy Bones was the mate; Long John, he was quartermaster;
+and they asked him where the treasure was. 'Ah,' says he, 'you can go
+ashore, if you like, and stay,' he says; 'but as for the ship, she'll
+beat up for more, by thunder!' That's what he said.
+
+"Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we sighted this
+island. 'Boys,' said I, 'here's Flint's treasure; let's land and find
+it.' The cap'n was displeased at that; but my messmates were all of a
+mind, and landed. Twelve days they looked for it, and every day they had
+the worse word for me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard. 'As
+for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,' they says, 'and a
+spade, and a pickax. You can stay here and find Flint's money for
+yourself,' they says.
+
+"Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite of Christian
+diet from that day to this. But now, you look here; look at me. Do I
+look like a man before the mast? No, says you. Nor I weren't, neither, I
+says."
+
+And with that he winked and pinched me hard.
+
+"Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim," he went on. "Nor he
+weren't neither--that's the words. Three years he were the man of this
+island, light and dark, fair and rain; and sometimes he would, may be,
+think upon a prayer (says you), and sometimes he would, may be, think of
+his old mother, so be as she's alive (you'll say); but the most part of
+Gunn's time (this is what you'll say)--the most part of his time was
+took up with another matter. And then you'll give him a nip, like I do."
+
+And he pinched me again, in the most confidential manner.
+
+"Then," he continued, "then you'll up, and you'll say this: Gunn is a
+good man (you'll say), and he puts a precious sight more confidence--a
+precious sight, mind that--in a gen'leman born than in these gen'lemen
+of fortune, having been one hisself."
+
+"Well," I said, "I don't understand one word that you've been saying.
+But that's neither here nor there; for how am I to get on board?"
+
+"Ah," said he, "that's the hitch, for sure. Well, there's my boat that I
+made with my two hands. I keep her under the white rock. If the worst
+come to the worst, we might try that after dark. Hi!" he broke out,
+"what's that?"
+
+For just then, although the sun had still an hour or two to run, all the
+echoes of the island awoke and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon.
+
+"They have begun to fight!" I cried. "Follow me!"
+
+And I began to run toward the anchorage, my terrors all forgotten;
+while, close at my side, the marooned man in his goat-skins trotted
+easily and lightly.
+
+"Left, left," says he; "keep to your left hand, mate Jim! Under the
+trees with you! There's where I killed my first goat. They don't come
+down here now; they're all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of
+Benjamin Gunn. Ah! and there's the cetemery"--cemetery he must have
+meant. "You see the mounds? I come here and prayed, nows and thens, when
+I thought maybe a Sunday would be about doo. It weren't quite a chapel,
+but it seemed more solemn like; and then, says you, Ben Gunn was
+shorthanded--no chapling, nor so much as a Bible and a flag, you says."
+
+So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving any answer.
+
+The cannon-shot was followed, after a considerable interval, by a volley
+of small arms.
+
+Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mile in front of me, I
+beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above a wood.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV
+
+THE STOCKADE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED
+
+
+It was about half-past one--three bells in the sea phrase--that the two
+boats went ashore from the _Hispaniola_. The captain, the squire, and I
+were talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a breath of wind,
+we should have fallen on the six mutineers who were left aboard with us,
+slipped our cable, and away to sea. But the wind was wanting; and, to
+complete our helplessness, down came Hunter with the news that Jim
+Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was gone ashore with the rest.
+
+It had never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed
+for his safety. With the men in the temper they were in, it seemed an
+even chance if we should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch
+was bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick;
+if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery it was in that abominable
+anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail in the
+forecastle; ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a man sitting in
+each, hard by where the river runs in. One of them was whistling
+"Lillibullero."
+
+Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go
+ashore with the jolly-boat, in quest of information.
+
+The gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I pulled straight in,
+in the direction of the stockade upon the chart. The two who were left
+guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance;
+"Lillibullero" stopped off, and I could see the pair discussing what
+they ought to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might have turned
+out differently; but they had their orders, I suppose, and decided to
+sit quietly where they were and hark back again to "Lillibullero."
+
+There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to put it
+between us. Even before we landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs; I
+jumped out and came as near running as I durst, with a big silk
+handkerchief under my hat for coolness' sake, and a brace of pistols
+ready primed for safety.
+
+I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade.
+
+This was how it was: A spring of clear water arose at the top of a
+knoll. Well, on the knoll, and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a
+stout log house, fit to hold two-score people on a pinch, and loopholed
+for musketry on every side. All around this they had cleared a wide
+space, and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet high,
+without door or opening, too strong to pull down without time and labor,
+and too open to shelter the besiegers. The people in the log house had
+them in every way; they stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
+like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food; for, short
+of a complete surprise, they might have held the place against a
+regiment.
+
+What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For, though we had a
+good place of it in the cabin of the _Hispaniola_, with plenty of arms
+and ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, there had been
+one thing overlooked--we had no water. I was thinking this over, when
+there came ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of
+death. I was not new to violent death--I have served his Royal Highness
+the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound myself at Fontenoy--but I know
+my pulse went dot and carry one. "Jim Hawkins is gone," was my first
+thought.
+
+It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been
+a doctor. There is no time to dilly-dally in our work. And so now I made
+up my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned to the shore and
+jumped on board the jolly-boat.
+
+By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We made the water fly, and the
+boat was soon alongside and I aboard the schooner.
+
+I found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire was sitting down, as
+white as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us to, the good soul!
+and one of the six forecastle hands was little better.
+
+"There's a man," said Captain Smollett, nodding toward him, "new to this
+work. He came nigh-hand fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. Another
+touch of the rudder and that man would join us."
+
+I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details
+of its accomplishment.
+
+We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the forecastle,
+with three or four loaded muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter
+brought the boat round under the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work
+loading her with powder, tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs of pork,
+a cask of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest.
+
+In the meantime the squire and the captain stayed on deck, and the
+latter hailed the coxswain, who was the principal man aboard.
+
+"Mr. Hands," he said, "here are two of us with a brace of pistols each.
+If any one of you six make a signal of any description, that man's
+dead."
+
+They were a good deal taken aback; and, after a little consultation, one
+and all tumbled down the fore companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us
+on the rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the sparred
+gallery, they went about ship at once, and a head popped out again on
+deck.
+
+"Down, dog!" cried the captain.
+
+And the head popped back again, and we heard no more for the time of
+these six very faint-hearted seamen.
+
+By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we had the jolly-boat
+loaded as much as we dared. Joyce and I got out through the stern port,
+and we made for shore again, as fast as oars could take us.
+
+This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. "Lillibullero"
+was dropped again, and just before we lost sight of them behind the
+little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a
+mind to change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver
+and the others might be close at hand, and all might very well be lost
+by trying for too much.
+
+We had soon touched land in the same place as before and set to work to
+provision the blockhouse. All three made the first journey, heavily
+laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to
+guard them--one man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets--Hunter
+and I returned to the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So we
+proceeded, without pausing to take breath, till the whole cargo was
+bestowed, when the two servants took up their position in the
+blockhouse, and I, with all my power, sculled back to the _Hispaniola_.
+
+That we should have risked a second boat load seems more daring than it
+really was. They had the advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the
+advantage of arms. Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and before
+they could get within range for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves
+we should be able to give a good account of a half dozen at least.
+
+The squire was waiting for me at the stern window, all his faintness
+gone from him. He caught the painter and made it fast, and we fell to
+loading the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and biscuit was the
+cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for squire and me and
+Redruth and the captain. The rest of the arms and powder we dropped
+overboard in two fathoms and a half of water, so that we could see the
+bright steel shining far below us in the sun on the clean, sandy bottom.
+
+By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the ship was swinging
+round to her anchor. Voices were heard faintly halloaing in the
+direction of the two gigs; and though this reassured us for Joyce and
+Hunter, who were well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off.
+
+Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery and dropped into the
+boat, which we then brought round to the ship's counter, to be handier
+for Captain Smollett.
+
+"Now, men," said he, "do you hear me?"
+
+There was no answer from the forecastle.
+
+"It's to you, Abraham Gray--it's to you I am speaking."
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, "I am leaving this ship,
+and I order you to follow your captain. I know you are a good man at
+bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of you's as bad as he makes
+out. I have my watch here in my hand; I give you thirty seconds to join
+me in."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain, "don't hang so long in
+stays. I'm risking my life and the lives of these good gentlemen every
+second."
+
+There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out burst Abraham Gray
+with a knife-cut on the side of the cheek, and came running to the
+captain, like a dog to the whistle.
+
+"I'm with you, sir," said he.
+
+And the next moment he and the captain had dropped aboard of us, and we
+had shoved off and given way.
+
+We were clear out of the ship, but not yet ashore in our stockade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP
+
+
+This fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In the first
+place, the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was gravely
+overloaded. Five grown men, and three of them--Trelawney, Redruth, and
+the captain--over six feet high, was already more than she was meant to
+carry. Add to that the powder, pork, and the bread-bags. The gunwale was
+lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little water, and my breeches
+and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a
+hundred yards.
+
+The captain made us trim the boat, and we got her to lie a little more
+evenly. All the same, we were afraid to breathe.
+
+In the second place, the ebb was now making--a strong, rippling current
+running westward through the basin, and then south'ard and seaward down
+the straits by which we had entered in the morning. Even the ripples
+were a danger to our overloaded craft, but the worst of it was that we
+were swept out of our true course, and away from our proper
+landing-place behind the point. If we let the current have its way we
+should come ashore beside the gigs, where the pirates might appear at
+any moment.
+
+"I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," said I to the captain. I
+was steering, while he and Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars.
+"The tide keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"
+
+"Not without swamping the boat," said he. "You must bear up, sir, if you
+please--bear up until you see you're gaining."
+
+I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept sweeping us westward
+until I had laid her head due east, or just about right angles to the
+way we ought to go.
+
+"We'll never get ashore at this rate," said I.
+
+"If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it,"
+returned the captain. "We must keep upstream. You see, sir," he went on,
+"if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say
+where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded by the
+gigs; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken, and then we can
+dodge back along the shore."
+
+"The current's less a'ready, sir," said the man Gray, who was sitting in
+the foresheets; "you can ease her off a bit."
+
+"Thank you, my man," said I, quite as if nothing had happened, for we
+had all quietly made up our minds to treat him like one of ourselves.
+
+Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his voice was a
+little changed.
+
+"The gun!" said he.
+
+"I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure he was thinking of a
+bombardment of the fort. "They could never get the gun ashore, and if
+they did, they could never haul it through the woods."
+
+"Look astern, doctor," replied the captain.
+
+We had entirely forgotten the long nine; and there, to our horror, were
+the five rogues busy about her, getting off her jacket, as they called
+the stout tarpaulin cover under which she sailed. Not only that, but it
+flashed into my mind at the same moment that the round shot and the
+powder for the gun had been left behind, and a stroke with an ax would
+put it all into the possession of the evil ones aboard.
+
+"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray, hoarsely.
+
+At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the landing-place. By
+this time we had got so far out of the run of the current that we kept
+steerage way even at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I could
+keep her steady for the goal. But the worst of it was, that with the
+course I now held, we turned our broadside instead of our stern to the
+_Hispaniola_, and offered a target like a barn door.
+
+I could hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced rascal, Israel Hands,
+plumping down a round shot on the deck.
+
+"Who's the best shot?" asked the captain.
+
+"Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I.
+
+"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one of those men, sir?
+Hands, if possible," said the captain.
+
+Trelawney was as cold as steel. He looked to the priming of his gun.
+
+"Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, sir, or you'll swamp the
+boat. All hands stand by to trim her when he aims."
+
+The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leaned over to the
+other side to keep the balance, and all was so nicely contrived that we
+did not ship a drop.
+
+[Illustration: _They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the
+swivel_ (Page 125)]
+
+They had the gun, by this time, slewed around upon the swivel, and
+Hands, who was at the muzzle, with the rammer, was, in consequence, the
+most exposed. However, we had no luck; for just as Trelawney fired,
+down he stooped, the ball whistling over him, and it was one of the
+other four who fell.
+
+The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his companions on board, but by
+a great number of voices from the shore, and looking in that direction I
+saw the other pirates trooping out from among the trees and tumbling
+into their places in the boats.
+
+"Here come the gigs, sir," said I.
+
+"Give way, then," said the captain. "We mustn't mind if we swamp her
+now. If we can't get ashore, all's up."
+
+"Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added; "the crew of the
+other is most likely going around by shore to cut us off."
+
+"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain. "Jack ashore, you
+know. It's not them I mind; it's the round shot. Carpet bowls! My lady's
+maid couldn't miss. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, and we'll
+hold water."
+
+In the meantime we had been making headway at a good pace for a boat so
+overloaded, and we had shipped but little water in the process. We were
+now close in; thirty or forty strokes and we should beach her, for the
+ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sand below the clustering
+trees. The gig was no longer to be feared; the little point had already
+concealed it from our eyes. The ebb-tide, which had so cruelly delayed
+us, was now making reparation, and delaying our assailants. The one
+source of danger was the gun.
+
+"If I durst," said the captain, "I'd stop and pick off another man."
+
+But it was plain that they meant nothing should delay their shot. They
+had never so much as looked at their fallen comrade, though he was not
+dead, and I could see him trying to crawl away.
+
+"Ready!" cried the squire.
+
+"Hold!" cried the captain, quick as an echo.
+
+And he and Redruth backed with a great heave that sent her astern bodily
+under water. The report fell in at the same instant of time. This was
+the first that Jim heard, the sound of the squire's shot not having
+reached him. When the ball passed, not one of us precisely knew, but I
+fancy it must have been over our heads, and that the wind of it may have
+contributed to our disaster.
+
+At any rate the boat sunk by the stern, quite gently, in three feet of
+water, leaving the captain and myself, facing each other, on our feet.
+The other three took complete headers, and came up again, drenched and
+bubbling.
+
+So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost, and we could wade
+ashore in safety. But there were all our stores at the bottom, and, to
+make things worse, only two guns out of five remained in a state for
+service. Mine I had snatched from my knees, and held over my head, by a
+sort of instinct. As for the captain, he had carried his over his
+shoulder by a bandoleer, and, like a wise man, lock uppermost. The other
+three had gone down with the boat. To add to our concern, we heard
+voices already drawing near us in the woods along the shore; and we had
+not only the danger of being cut off from the stockade in our
+half-crippled state, but the fear before us whether, if Hunter and Joyce
+were attacked by half a dozen, they would have the sense and conduct to
+stand firm. Hunter was steady, that we knew; Joyce was a doubtful
+case--a pleasant, polite man for a valet, and to brush one's clothes,
+but not entirely fitted for a man-of-war.
+
+With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast as we could, leaving
+behind us the poor jolly-boat, and a good half of all our powder and
+provisions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR--END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING
+
+
+We made our best speed across the strip of wood that now divided us from
+the stockade, and at every step we took the voices of the buccaneers
+rang nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran, and the
+cracking of the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket.
+
+I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest, and looked to
+my priming.
+
+"Captain," said I, "Trelawney is the dead shot. Give him your gun; his
+own is useless."
+
+They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and cool, as he had been
+since the beginning of the bustle, hung a moment on his heel to see that
+all was fit for service. At the same time, observing Gray to be unarmed,
+I handed him my cutlass. It did all our hearts good to see him spit in
+his hand, knit his brows, and make the blade sing through the air. It
+was plain from every line of his body that our new hand was worth his
+salt.
+
+Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the wood and saw the stockade
+in front of us. We struck the inclosure about the middle of the south
+side, and, almost at the same time, seven mutineers--Job Anderson, the
+boatswain, at their head--appeared in full cry at the southwestern
+corner.
+
+They paused, as if taken aback, and before they recovered, not only the
+squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce from the blockhouse, had time to
+fire.
+
+The four shots came in rather a scattering volley, but they did the
+business; one of the enemy actually fell, and the rest, without
+hesitation, turned and plunged into the trees.
+
+After reloading we walked down the outside of the palisade to see to the
+fallen enemy. He was stone dead--shot through the heart.
+
+We began to rejoice over our good success, when just at that moment a
+pistol cracked in the bush, a ball whistled close past my ear and poor
+Tom Redruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. Both the squire
+and I returned the shot, but as we had nothing to aim at, it is probable
+we only wasted powder. Then we reloaded and turned our attention to poor
+Tom.
+
+The captain and Gray were already examining him, and I saw with half an
+eye that all was over.
+
+I believe the readiness of our return volley had scattered the mutineers
+once more, for we were suffered without further molestation to get the
+poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade, and carried, groaning and
+bleeding, into the log-house.
+
+Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of surprise, complaint,
+fear, or even acquiescence, from the very beginning of our troubles till
+now, when we had laid him down in the log-house to die! He had lain like
+a Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery; he had followed every order
+silently, doggedly, and well; he was the oldest of our party by a score
+of years; and now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it was he that was
+to die.
+
+The squire dropped down beside him on his knees and kissed his hand,
+crying like a child.
+
+"Be I going, doctor?" he asked.
+
+"Tom, my man," said I, "you're going home."
+
+"I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun first," he replied.
+
+"Tom," said the squire, "say you forgive me, won't you?"
+
+"Would that be respectful like, from me to you, squire?" was the answer.
+"Howsoever, so be it, amen!"
+
+After a little while of silence he said he thought somebody might read a
+prayer. "It's the custom, sir," he added, apologetically. And not long
+after, without another word, he passed away.
+
+In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed to be wonderfully
+swollen about the chest and pockets, had turned out a great many various
+stores--the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, pen, ink,
+the log-book, and pounds of tobacco. He had found a longish fir tree
+lying felled and cleared in the inclosure, and, with the help of Hunter,
+he had set it up at the corner of the log-house, where the trunks
+crossed and made an angle. Then, climbing on the roof, he had with his
+own hand bent and run up the colors.
+
+This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re-entered the log-house and set
+about counting up the stores, as if nothing else existed. But he had an
+eye on Tom's passage for all that, and as soon as all was over came
+forward with another flag and reverently spread it on the body.
+
+"Don't you take on, sir," he said, shaking the squire's hand. "All's
+well with him; no fear for a hand that's been shot down in his duty to
+captain and owner. It mayn't be good divinity, but it's a fact."
+
+Then he pulled me aside.
+
+"Doctor Livesey," he said, "in how many weeks do you and squire expect
+the consort?"
+
+I told him it was a question, not of weeks, but of months; that if we
+were not back by the end of August Blandly was to send to find us, but
+neither sooner nor later. "You can calculate for yourself," I said.
+
+"Why, yes," returned the captain, scratching his head, "and making a
+large allowance, sir, for all the gifts of Providence, I should say we
+were pretty close hauled."
+
+"How do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"It's a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That's what I mean,"
+replied the captain. "As for powder and shot, we'll do. But the rations
+are short, very short--so short, Doctor Livesey, that we're perhaps as
+well without that extra mouth."
+
+And he pointed to the dead body under the flag.
+
+Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round shot passed high above the
+roof of the log-house and plumped far beyond us in the wood.
+
+"Oho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've little enough powder
+already, my lads."
+
+At the second trial the aim was better and the ball descended inside the
+stockade, scattering a cloud of sand, but doing no further damage.
+
+"Captain," said the squire, "the house is quite invisible from the ship.
+It must be the flag they are aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it
+in?"
+
+"Strike my colors!" cried the captain. "No, sir, not I," and as soon as
+he had said the words I think we all agreed with him. For it was not
+only a piece of stout, seamanly good feeling; it was good policy
+besides, and showed our enemies that we despised their cannonade.
+
+All through the evening they kept thundering away. Ball after ball flew
+over or fell short, or kicked up the sand in the inclosure; but they had
+to fire so high that the shot fell dead and buried itself in the soft
+sand. We had no ricochet to fear; and though one popped in through the
+roof of the log-house and out again through the floor, we soon got used
+to that sort of horse-play and minded it no more than cricket.
+
+"There is one thing good about all this," observed the captain; "the
+wood in front of us is likely clear. The ebb has made a good while; our
+stores should be uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring in pork."
+
+Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. Well armed, they stole
+out of the stockade, but it proved a useless mission. The mutineers were
+bolder than we fancied, or they put more trust in Israel's gunnery, for
+four or five of them were busy carrying off our stores and wading out
+with them to one of the gigs that lay close by, pulling an oar or so to
+hold her steady against the current. Silver was in the stern-sheets in
+command, and every man of them was now provided with a musket from some
+secret magazine of their own.
+
+The captain sat down to his log, and here is the beginning of the entry:
+
+    "Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, ship's doctor; Abraham
+    Gray, carpenter's mate; John Trelawney, owner; John Hunter and
+    Richard Joyce, owner's servants, landsmen--being all that is left
+    faithful of the ship's company--with stores for ten days at short
+    rations, came ashore this day and flew British colors on the
+    log-house in Treasure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's servant,
+    landsman, shot by the mutineers; James Hawkins, cabin-boy--"
+
+And at the same time I was wondering over poor Jim Hawkins' fate.
+
+A hail on the land side.
+
+"Somebody hailing us," said Hunter, who was on guard.
+
+"Doctor! squire! captain! Hallo, Hunter, is that you?" came the cries.
+
+And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins, safe and sound, come
+climbing over the stockade.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS--THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE
+
+
+As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a halt, stopped me by the
+arm and sat down.
+
+"Now," said he, "there's your friends, sure enough."
+
+"Far more likely it's the mutineers," I answered.
+
+"That!" he cried. "Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but
+gen'lemen of fortune, Silver would fly the Jolly Roger, you don't make
+no doubt of that. No, that's your friends. There's been blows, too, and
+I reckon your friends has had the best of it; and here they are ashore
+in the old stockade, as was made years and years ago by Flint. Ah, he
+was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! Barring rum, his match was
+never seen. He were afraid of none, not he; on'y Silver--Silver was that
+genteel."
+
+"Well," said I, "that may be so, and so be it; all the more reason that
+I should hurry on and join my friends."
+
+"Nay, mate," returned Ben, "not you. You're a good boy, or I'm mistook;
+but you're on'y a boy, all told. Now Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn't bring
+me there, where you're going--not rum wouldn't, till I see your born
+gen'leman, and gets it on his word of honor. And you won't forget my
+words: 'A precious sight' (that's what you'll say), 'a precious sight
+more confidence'--and then nips him."
+
+And he pinched me the third time with the same air of cleverness.
+
+"And when Ben Gunn is wanted you know where to find him, Jim. Just where
+you found him to-day. And him that comes is to have a white thing in his
+hand; and he's to come alone. Oh! and you'll say this: 'Ben Gunn,' says
+you, 'has reasons of his own.'"
+
+"Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You have something to propose,
+and you wish to see the squire or the doctor, and you're to be found
+where I found you. Is that all?"
+
+"And when? says you," he added. "Why, from about noon observation to
+about six bells."
+
+"Good," says I, "and now may I go?"
+
+"You won't forget?" he inquired, anxiously. "Precious sight, and reasons
+of his own, says you. Reasons of his own; that's the mainstay; as
+between man and man. Well, then"--still holding me--"I reckon you can
+go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to see Silver, you wouldn't go for to sell
+Ben Gunn? wild horses wouldn't draw it from you? No, says you. And if
+them pirates came ashore, Jim, what would you say but there'd be widders
+in the morning?"
+
+Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannon ball came tearing
+through the trees and pitched in the sand, not a hundred yards from
+where we two were talking. The next moment each of us had taken to our
+heels in a different direction.
+
+For a good hour to come frequent reports shook the island, and balls
+kept crashing through the woods. I moved from hiding-place to
+hiding-place, always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying
+missiles. But toward the end of the bombardment, though still I durst
+not venture in the direction of the stockade, where the balls fell
+oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my heart again; and
+after a long detour to the east, crept down among the shore-side trees.
+
+The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling and tumbling in the
+woods, and ruffling the gray surface of the anchorage; the tide, too,
+was far out, and great tracts of sand lay uncovered; the air, after the
+heat of the day, chilled me through my jacket.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ still lay where she had anchored; but, sure enough,
+there was the Jolly Roger--the black flag of piracy--flying from her
+peak. Even as I looked there came another red flash and another report,
+that sent the echoes clattering, and one more round shot whistled
+through the air. It was the last of the cannonade.
+
+I lay for some time, watching the bustle which succeeded the attack. Men
+were demolishing something with axes on the beach near the stockade--the
+poor jolly-boat, I afterwards discovered. Away, near the mouth of the
+river, a great fire was glowing among the trees, and between that point
+and the ship one of the gigs kept coming and going, the men, whom I had
+seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like children. But there was a
+sound in their voices which suggested rum.
+
+At length I thought I might return towards the stockade. I was pretty
+far down on the low, sandy spit that incloses the anchorage to the east,
+and is joined at half-water to Skeleton Island; and now, as I rose to my
+feet, I saw, some distance farther down the spit, and rising from among
+low bushes, an isolated rock, pretty high, and peculiarly white in
+color. It occurred to me that this might be the white rock of which Ben
+Gunn had spoken, and that some day or other a boat might be wanted, and
+I should know where to look for one.
+
+Then I skirted among the woods until I had regained the rear, or
+shoreward side, of the stockade, and was soon warmly welcomed by the
+faithful party.
+
+I had soon told my story, and began to look about me. The log-house was
+made of unsquared trunks of pine--roof, walls, and floor. The latter
+stood in several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above the
+surface of the sand. There was a porch at the door, and under this porch
+the little spring welled up into an artificial basin of a rather odd
+kind--no other than a great ship's kettle of iron, with the bottom
+knocked out, and sunk "to her bearings," as the captain said, among the
+sand.
+
+Little had been left beside the framework of the house, but in one
+corner there was a stone slab laid down by way of hearth, and an old
+rusty iron basket to contain the fire.
+
+The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the stockade had been
+cleared of timber to build the house, and we could see by the stumps
+what a fine and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the soil had
+been washed away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only
+where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and
+some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green among the sand.
+Very close around the stockade--too close for defense, they said--the
+wood still flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side, but
+toward the sea with a large admixture of live-oaks.
+
+The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, whistled through every
+chink of the rude building, and sprinkled the floor with a continual
+rain of fine sand. There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand
+in our suppers, sand dancing in the spring at the bottom of the kettle,
+for all the world like porridge beginning to boil. Our chimney was a
+square hole in the roof; it was but a little part of the smoke that
+found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us
+coughing and piping the eye.
+
+Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face tied up in a bandage
+for a cut he had got in breaking away from the mutineers; and that poor
+old Tom Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and stark,
+under the Union Jack.
+
+If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all have fallen in the
+blues, but Captain Smollett was never the man for that. All hands were
+called up before him, and he divided us into watches. The doctor, and
+Gray, and I, for one; the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon the other.
+Tired as we all were, two were sent out for firewood, two more were sent
+to dig a grave for Redruth, the doctor was named cook, I was put sentry
+at the door, and the captain himself went from one to another, keeping
+up our spirits and lending a hand wherever it was wanted.
+
+From time to time the doctor came to the door for a little air and to
+rest his eyes, which were almost smoked out of his head, and whenever he
+did so, he had a word for me.
+
+"That man Smollett," he said once, "is a better man than I am. And when
+I say that it means a deal, Jim."
+
+Another time he came and was silent for a while. Then he put his head on
+one side, and looked at me.
+
+"Is this Ben Gunn a man?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know, sir," said I. "I am not very sure whether he's sane."
+
+"If there's any doubt about the matter, he is," returned the doctor. "A
+man who has been three years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim,
+can't expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human
+nature. Was it cheese you said he had a fancy for?"
+
+"Yes, sir, cheese," I answered.
+
+"Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that comes of being dainty in
+your food. You've seen my snuff-box, haven't you? And you never saw me
+take snuff; the reason being that in my snuff-box I carry a piece of
+Parmesan cheese--a cheese made in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that's
+for Ben Gunn!"
+
+Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the sand, and stood round
+him for a while bare-headed in the breeze. A good deal of firewood had
+been got in, but not enough for the captain's fancy, and he shook his
+head over it, and told us we "must get back to this to-morrow rather
+livelier." Then, when we had eaten our pork, and each had a good stiff
+glass of brandy grog, the three chiefs got together in a corner to
+discuss our prospects.
+
+It appears they were at their wits' end what to do, the stores being so
+low that we must have been starved into surrender long before help came.
+But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the buccaneers until
+they either hauled down their flag or ran away with the _Hispaniola_.
+From nineteen they were already reduced to fifteen, two others were
+wounded, and one, at least--the man shot beside the gun--severely
+wounded, if he were not dead. Every time we had a crack at them, we were
+to take it, saving our own lives, with the extremest care. And, beside
+that, we had two able allies--rum and the climate.
+
+As for the first, though we were about half a mile away, we could hear
+them roaring and singing late into the night; and as for the second, the
+doctor staked his wig, that camped where they were in the marsh, and
+unprovided with remedies, the half of them would be on their backs
+before a week.
+
+"So," he added, "if we are not all shot down first, they'll be glad to
+be packing in the schooner. It's always a ship, and they can get to
+buccaneering again, I suppose."
+
+"First ship that I ever lost," said Captain Smollett.
+
+I was dead tired, as you may fancy, and when I got to sleep, which was
+not till after a great deal of tossing, I slept like a log of wood.
+
+The rest had long been up, and had already breakfasted and increased the
+pile of firewood by about half as much again, when I was awakened by a
+bustle and the sound of voices.
+
+"Flag of truce!" I heard someone say, and then, immediately after, with
+a cry of surprise, "Silver himself!"
+
+And, at that, up I jumped, and, rubbing my eyes, ran to a loophole in
+the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SILVER'S EMBASSY
+
+
+Sure enough, there were two men just outside the stockade, one of them
+waving a white cloth; the other, no less a person than Silver himself,
+standing placidly by.
+
+It was still quite early, and the coldest morning that I think I ever
+was abroad in; a chill that pierced into the marrow. The sky was bright
+and cloudless overhead, and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the
+sun. But where Silver stood with his lieutenant all was still in shadow,
+and they waded knee-deep in a low, white vapor that had crawled during
+the night out of the morass. The chill and the vapor taken together told
+a poor tale of the island. It was plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy
+spot.
+
+"Keep indoors, men," said the captain. "Ten to one this is a trick."
+
+Then he hailed the buccaneer.
+
+"Who goes? Stand, or we fire."
+
+"Flag of truce!" cried Silver.
+
+The captain was in the porch, keeping himself carefully out of the way
+of a treacherous shot, should any be intended. He turned and spoke to
+us.
+
+"Doctor's watch on the lookout. Doctor Livesey, take the north side, if
+you please; Jim the east; Gray, west. The watch below, all hands to load
+muskets. Lively, men, and careful."
+
+And then he turned again to the mutineers.
+
+"And what do you want with your flag of truce?" he cried.
+
+This time it was the other man who replied.
+
+"Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms," he shouted.
+
+"Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried the captain. And we
+could hear him adding to himself: "Cap'n, is it? My heart, and here's
+promotion!"
+
+Long John answered for himself.
+
+"Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap'n, after your desertion,
+sir"--laying a particular emphasis upon the word "desertion." "We're
+willing to submit, if we can come to terms, and no bones about it. All I
+ask is your word, Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and sound out of this
+here stockade, and one minute to get out o' shot before a gun is fired."
+
+"My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not the slightest desire to
+talk to you. If you wish to talk to me, you can come, that's all. If
+there's any treachery, it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you."
+
+"That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John cheerily. "A word from you's
+enough. I know a gentleman, and you may lay to that."
+
+We could see the man who carried the flag of truce attempting to hold
+Silver back. Nor was that wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the
+captain's answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud, and slapped him on
+the back, as if the idea of alarm had been absurd. Then he advanced to
+the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a leg up, and with great vigor
+and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping safely to the
+other side.
+
+I will confess that I was far too much taken up with what was going on
+to be of the slightest use as sentry; indeed, I had already deserted my
+eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had now seated
+himself on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his head in his
+hands, and his eyes fixed on the water as it bubbled out of the old iron
+kettle in the sand. He was whistling to himself, "Come, Lasses and
+Lads."
+
+Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. What with the
+steepness of the incline, the thick tree-stumps, and the soft sand, he
+and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it
+like a man, in silence, and at last arrived before the captain, whom he
+saluted in the handsomest style. He was tricked out in his best; an
+immense blue coat, thick with brass buttons, hung as low as to his
+knees, and a fine laced hat was set on the back of his head.
+
+"Here you are, my man," said the captain, raising his head. "You had
+better sit down."
+
+"You ain't a-going to let me inside, cap'n?" complained Long John. "It's
+a main cold morning, to be sure, sir, to sit outside upon the sand."
+
+"Why, Silver," said the captain, "if you had pleased to be an honest man
+you might have been sitting in your galley. It's your own doing. You're
+either my ship's cook--and then you were treated handsome--or Cap'n
+Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!"
+
+"Well, well, cap'n," returned the sea-cook, sitting down as he was
+bidden on the sand, "you'll have to give me a hand up again, that's all.
+A sweet, pretty place you have of it here. Ah, there's Jim! The top of
+the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service. Why, there you all
+are together like a happy family, in a manner of speaking."
+
+"If you have anything to say, my man, better say it," said the captain.
+
+"Right you are, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver. "Dooty is dooty, to be
+sure. Well, now, you look here, that was a good lay of yours last night.
+I don't deny it was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a
+handspike-end. And I'll not deny neither but what some of my people was
+shook--maybe all was shook; maybe I was shook myself; maybe that's why
+I'm here for terms. But you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice, by
+thunder! We'll have to do sentry-go, and ease off a point or so on the
+rum. Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the wind's eye. But I'll
+tell you I was sober; I was on'y dog tired; and if I'd awoke a second
+sooner I'd 'a' caught you at the act, I would. He wasn't dead when I got
+round to him, not he."
+
+"Well?" says Captain Smollett, as cool as can be.
+
+All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you would never have
+guessed it from his tone. As for me, I began to have an inkling. Ben
+Gunn's last words came back to my mind. I began to suppose that he had
+paid the buccaneers a visit while they all lay drunk together round
+their fire, and I reckoned up with glee that we had only fourteen
+enemies to deal with.
+
+"Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure, and we'll have
+it--that's our point! You would just as soon save your lives, I reckon;
+and that's yours. You have a chart, haven't you?"
+
+"That's as may be," replied the captain.
+
+"Oh, well, you have, I know that," returned Long John. "You needn't be
+so husky with a man; there ain't a particle of service in that, and you
+may lay to it. What I mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant
+you no harm, myself."
+
+"That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the captain. "We know
+exactly what you meant to do, and we don't care; for now, you see, you
+can't do it."
+
+And the captain looked at him calmly, and proceeded to fill a pipe.
+
+"If Abe Gray--" Silver broke out.
+
+"Avast there!" cried Mr. Smollett. "Gray told me nothing, and I asked
+him nothing; and what's more, I would see you and him and this whole
+island blown clean out of the water into blazes first. So there's my
+mind for you, my man, on that."
+
+This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver down. He had been
+growing nettled before, but now he pulled himself together.
+
+"Like enough," said he. "I would set no limits to what gentlemen might
+consider shipshape, or might not, as the case were. And, seein' as how
+you are about to take a pipe, cap'n, I'll make so free as do likewise."
+
+And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men sat silently
+smoking for quite a while, now looking each other in the face, now
+stopping their tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. It was as good as
+the play to see them.
+
+"Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give us the chart to get the
+treasure by, and drop shooting poor seamen, and stoving of their heads
+in while asleep. You do that and we'll offer you a choice. Either you
+come aboard along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give
+you my affy-davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you somewhere safe
+ashore. Or, if that ain't to your fancy, some of my hands being rough,
+and having old scores, on account of hazing, then you can stay here, you
+can. We'll divide stores with you, man for man; and I'll give my
+affy-davy, as before, to speak the first ship I sight, and send 'em here
+to pick you up. Now you'll own that's talking. Handsomer you couldn't
+look to get, not you. And I hope"--raising his voice--"that all hands in
+this here blockhouse will overhaul my words, for what is spoke to one is
+spoke to all."
+
+Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out the ashes of his
+pipe in the palm of his left hand.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked.
+
+"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John. "Refuse that and you've
+seen the last of me but musket-balls."
+
+"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear me. If you'll come up
+one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to clap you all in irons, and to take
+you home to a fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander
+Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colors, and I'll see you all to Davy
+Jones. You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship--there's not
+a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can't fight us--Gray, there,
+got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Master Silver; you're
+on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand here and tell you so, and
+they're the last good words you'll get from me; for, in the name of
+heaven, I'll put a bullet in your back when next I meet you. Tramp, my
+lad. Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, and double quick."
+
+Silver's face was a picture; his eyes started in his head with wrath. He
+shook the fire out of his pipe.
+
+"Give me a hand up!" he cried.
+
+"Not I," returned the captain.
+
+"Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared.
+
+Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest imprecations, he crawled
+along the sand till he got hold of the porch and could hoist himself
+again upon his crutch. Then he spat into the spring.
+
+"There!" he cried, "that's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out,
+I'll stove in your old blockhouse like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by
+thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side.
+Them that die'll be the lucky ones."
+
+And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, plowed down the sand, was
+helped across the stockade, after four or five failures, by the man with
+the flag of truce, and disappeared in an instant afterward among the
+trees.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE ATTACK
+
+
+As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had been closely
+watching him, turned toward the interior of the house, and found not a
+man of us at his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever seen
+him angry.
+
+"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we slunk back to our places, "Gray,"
+he said, "I'll put your name in the log; you've stood by your duty like
+a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought
+you had worn the king's coat! If that was how you served at Fontenoy,
+sir, you'd have been better in your berth."
+
+The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy
+loading the spare muskets, and everyone with a red face, you may be
+certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.
+
+The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he spoke.
+
+"My lads," he said, "I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in
+red-hot on purpose; and before the hour's out, as he said, we shall be
+boarded. We're outnumbered, I needn't tell you that, but we fight in
+shelter; and, a minute ago, I should have said we fought with
+discipline. I've no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you
+choose."
+
+Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, that all was clear.
+
+On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were only two
+loopholes; on the south side where the porch was, two again; and on the
+north side, five. There was a round score of muskets for the seven of
+us; the firewood had been built into four piles--tables, you might
+say--one about the middle of each side, and on each of these tables some
+ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready to the hand of the
+defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
+
+"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is past, and we
+mustn't have smoke in our eyes."
+
+The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr. Trelawney, and the
+embers smothered among sand.
+
+"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and back to
+your post to eat it," continued Captain Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad;
+you'll want it before you've done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy
+to all hands."
+
+And while this was going on the captain completed, in his own mind, the
+plan of the defense.
+
+"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See and don't expose
+yourself; keep within, and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east
+side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you
+are the best shot--you and Gray will take this long north side, with the
+five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they can get up to it, and
+fire in upon us through our own ports, things would begin to look dirty.
+Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account at the shooting; we'll stand
+by to load and bear a hand."
+
+As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon as the sun had
+climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell with all its force upon the
+clearing, and drank up the vapors at a draught. Soon the sand was
+baking, and the resin melting in the logs of the blockhouse. Jackets and
+coats were flung aside; shirts were thrown open at the neck, and rolled
+up to the shoulders; and we stood there, each at his post, in a fever of
+heat and anxiety.
+
+An hour passed away.
+
+"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as the doldrums. Gray,
+whistle for a wind."
+
+And just at that moment came the first news of the attack.
+
+"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see anyone, am I to fire?"
+
+"I told you so!" cried the captain.
+
+"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce, with the same quiet civility.
+
+Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set us all on the alert,
+straining ears and eyes--the musketeers with their pieces balanced in
+their hands, the captain out in the middle of the blockhouse, with his
+mouth very tight and a frown on his face.
+
+So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and
+fired. The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and
+repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a
+string of geese, from every side of the inclosure. Several bullets
+struck the log-house, but not one entered; and, as the smoke cleared
+away and vanished, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet
+and empty as before. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket-barrel
+betrayed the presence of our foes.
+
+"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.
+
+"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."
+
+"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain Smollett. "Load
+his gun, Hawkins. How many should you say there were on your side,
+doctor?"
+
+"I know precisely," said Doctor Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this
+side. I saw the three flashes--two close together--one farther to the
+west."
+
+"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on yours, Mr. Trelawney?"
+
+But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the
+north--seven, by the squire's computation; eight or nine, according to
+Gray. From the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It was
+plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed from the north, and
+that on the other three sides we were only to be annoyed by a show of
+hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangements. If
+the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would
+take possession of any unprotected loophole, and shoot us down like rats
+in our own stronghold.
+
+Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud
+huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north
+side, and ran straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the fire was
+once more opened from the woods, and a rifle-ball sang through the
+doorway, and knocked the doctor's musket into bits.
+
+The boarders swarmed over the fence, like monkeys. Squire and Gray fired
+again and yet again; three men fell, one forward into the inclosure, two
+back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently more frightened
+than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack, and instantly
+disappeared among the trees.
+
+Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing
+inside our defenses; while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight
+men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though
+useless fire on the log-house.
+
+[Illustration: _In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
+and were upon us_ (Page 153)]
+
+The four who had boarded made straight before them for the building,
+shouting as they ran, and the men among the trees shouted back to
+encourage them. Several shots were fired, but such was the hurry of the
+marksmen, that not one appeared to have taken effect. In a moment the
+four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.
+
+The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle
+loophole.
+
+"At 'em, all hands--all hands!" he roared, in a voice of thunder.
+
+At the same moment another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle,
+wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and, with
+one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.
+Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all round the house, appeared
+suddenly in the doorway, and fell with his cutlass on the doctor.
+
+Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we were firing, under
+cover, at an exposed enemy; now it was we who lay uncovered, and could
+not return a blow.
+
+The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative
+safety. Cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol-shots,
+and one loud groan, rang in my ears.
+
+"Out, lads, out and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" cried the
+captain.
+
+I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the same time
+snatching another, gave me a cut across the knuckles which I hardly
+felt. I dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight. Someone was
+close behind, I knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing
+his assailant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell upon him, beat
+down his guard, and sent him sprawling on his back, with a great slash
+across his face.
+
+"Round the house, lads! round the house!" cried the captain, and even in
+the hurly-burly I perceived a change in his voice.
+
+Mechanically I obeyed, turned eastward, and, with my cutlass raised, ran
+round the corner of the house. Next moment I was face to face with
+Anderson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head,
+flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but, as the blow
+still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my
+footing in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the slope.
+
+When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers had been
+already swarming up the palisade to make an end of us. One man, in a red
+nightcap, with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon the top and
+thrown a leg across. Well, so short had been the interval, that when I
+found my feet again all was in the same posture, the fellow with the red
+nightcap still halfway over, another still just showing his head above
+the top of the stockade. And yet, in this breath of time, the fight was
+over, and the victory ours.
+
+Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the big boatswain ere he
+had time to recover from his lost blow. Another had been shot at a
+loophole in the very act of firing into the house, and now lay in agony,
+the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor
+had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who had scaled the palisade, one
+only remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on the
+field, was now clambering out again with the fear of death upon him.
+
+"Fire--fire from the house!" cried the doctor. "And you, lads, back into
+cover."
+
+But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and the last boarder
+made good his escape and disappeared with the rest into the wood. In
+three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who
+had fallen, four on the inside and one on the outside of the palisade.
+
+The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. The survivors
+would soon be back where they had left their muskets, and at any moment
+the fire might recommence.
+
+The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke, and we saw at a
+glance the price we had paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his
+loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to move
+again; while right in the center the squire was supporting the captain,
+one as pale as the other.
+
+"The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney.
+
+"Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett.
+
+"All that could, you may be bound," returned the doctor; "but there's
+five of them will never run again."
+
+"Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. Five against three
+leaves us four to nine. That's better odds than we had at starting. We
+were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, and that's as bad to
+bear."[1]
+
+    [1] The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot
+    by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same evening of his
+    wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by the faithful
+    party.
+
+
+
+
+PART V
+
+MY SEA ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN
+
+
+There was no return of the mutineers--not so much as another shot out of
+the woods. They had "got their rations for that day," as the captain put
+it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the
+wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked outside, in spite of the
+danger, and even outside we could hardly tell what we were at, for the
+horror of the loud groans that reached us from the doctor's patients.
+
+Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action only three still
+breathed--that one of the pirates who had been shot at the loophole,
+Hunter, and Captain Smollett--and of these the first two were as good as
+dead; the mutineer, indeed, died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter,
+do what we could, never recovered consciousness in this world. He
+lingered all day, breathing loudly like the old buccaneer at home in his
+apoplectic fit; but the bones of his chest had been crushed by the blow
+and his skull fractured in falling, and some time in the following
+night, without sign or sound, he went to his Maker.
+
+As for the captain, his wounds were grievous indeed, but not dangerous.
+No organ was fatally injured. Anderson's ball--for it was Job that shot
+him first--had broken his shoulder-blade and touched the lung, not
+badly; the second had only torn and displaced some muscles in the calf.
+He was sure to recover, the doctor said, but in the meantime, and for
+weeks to come, he must not walk nor move his arm, nor so much as speak
+when he could help it.
+
+My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a flea-bite. Doctor
+Livesey patched it up with plaster, and pulled my ears for me into the
+bargain.
+
+After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side awhile
+in consultation; and when they had talked to their heart's content, it
+being then a little past noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols,
+girt on a cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket over
+his shoulder, crossed the palisade on the north side and set off briskly
+through the trees.
+
+Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of the blockhouse, to be
+out of earshot of our officers, consulting, and Gray took his pipe out
+of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunderstruck he
+was at this occurrence.
+
+"Why, in the name of Davy Jones," said he, "is Doctor Livesey mad?"
+
+"Why, no," says I. "He's about the last of this crew for that, I take
+it."
+
+"Well, shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be, but if _he's_ not, mark
+my words, _I_ am."
+
+"I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea, and if I am right,
+he's going now to see Ben Gunn."
+
+I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime, the house being
+stifling hot, and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze
+with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my head which was
+not by any means so right. What I began to do was to envy the doctor,
+walking in the cool shadow of the woods, with the birds about him and
+the pleasant smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, with my clothes
+stuck to the hot resin, and so much blood about me, and so many poor
+dead bodies lying all around, that I took a disgust of the place that
+was almost as strong as fear.
+
+All the time I was washing out the blockhouse, and then washing up the
+things from dinner, this disgust and envy kept growing stronger and
+stronger, till at last, being near a bread-bag, and no one then
+observing me, I took the first step toward my escapade and filled both
+pockets of my coat with biscuit.
+
+I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to do a foolish,
+over-bold act, but I was determined to do it with all the precautions in
+my power. These biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me at
+least from starving till far on in the next day.
+
+The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, and as I already
+had a powder-horn and bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms.
+
+As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad one in itself. It
+was to go down the sandy spit that divides the anchorage on the east
+from the open sea, find the white rock I had observed last evening, and
+ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had hidden his
+boat--a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe. But as I was
+certain I should not be allowed to leave the inclosure, my only plan was
+to take French leave and slip out when nobody was watching, and that was
+so bad a way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong. But I was only
+a boy and I had made my mind up.
+
+Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admirable opportunity. The
+squire and Gray were busy helping the captain with his bandages; the
+coast was clear; I made a bolt for it over the stockade and into the
+thickest of the trees, and before my absence was observed I was out of
+cry of my companions.
+
+This was my second folly, far worse than the first, as I left but two
+sound men to guard the house; but, like the first, it was a help toward
+saving all of us.
+
+I took my way straight for the east coast of the island, for I was
+determined to go down the seaside of the spit to avoid all chance of
+observation from the anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon,
+although still warm and sunny. As I continued to thread the tall woods I
+could hear from far before me not only the continuous thunder of the
+surf, but a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs which
+showed me the sea breeze set in higher than usual. Soon cool draughts of
+air began to reach me, and a few steps farther I came forth into the
+open borders of the grove and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the
+horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam along the beach.
+
+I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island. The sun might
+blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface smooth and
+blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the
+external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night, and I scarce
+believe there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of
+earshot of their noise.
+
+I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, thinking I
+was now got far enough to the south, I took the cover of some thick
+bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit.
+
+Behind me was the sea; in front, the anchorage. The sea-breeze, as
+though it had the sooner blown itself out by its unusual violence, was
+already at an end; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from
+the south and southeast, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage,
+under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden as when first we
+entered it. The _Hispaniola_, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly
+portrayed from the truck to the water-line, the Jolly Roger hanging from
+her peak.
+
+Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern-sheets--him I could
+always recognize--while a couple of men were leaning over the stern
+bulwarks, one of them with a red cap--the very rogue that I had seen
+some hours before stride-legs upon the palisade. Apparently they were
+talking and laughing, though at that distance--upward of a mile--I could
+of course hear no word of what was said.
+
+All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly screaming, which at
+first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice of
+Captain Flint, and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright
+plumage as she sat perched upon her master's wrist.
+
+Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man
+with the red cap and his comrade went below by the cabin companion.
+
+Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind the Spy-glass, and
+as the fog was collecting rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I
+saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that evening.
+
+The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still some eighth of
+a mile farther down the spit, and it took me a goodish while to get up
+with it, crawling, often on all-fours, among the scrub. Night had almost
+come when I laid my hand on its rough sides. Right below it there was
+an exceedingly small hollow of green turf, hidden by banks and a thick
+underwood about knee-deep, that grew there very plentifully; and in the
+center of the dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins, like what
+the gypsies carry about with them in England.
+
+I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the tent, and there was
+Ben Gunn's boat--homemade if ever anything was homemade--a rude,
+lopsided framework of tough wood, and stretched upon that a covering of
+goat-skin, with the hair inside. The thing was extremely small, even for
+me, and I can hardly imagine that it could have floated with a
+full-sized man. There was one thwart set as low as possible, a kind of
+stretcher in the bows, and a double paddle for propulsion.
+
+I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient Britons made, but I
+have seen one since, and I can give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's
+boat than by saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever
+made by man. But the great advantage of the coracle it certainly
+possessed, for it was exceedingly light and portable.
+
+Well, now that I had found the boat, you would have thought I had had
+enough of truantry for once; but in the meantime I had taken another
+notion, and become so obstinately fond of it that I would have carried
+it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain Smollett himself. This was to
+slip out under cover of the night, cut the _Hispaniola_ adrift, and let
+her go ashore where she fancied. I had quite made up my mind that the
+mutineers, after their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their
+hearts than to up anchor and away to sea; this, I thought, it would be a
+fine thing to prevent, and now that I had seen how they left their
+watchman unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little
+risk.
+
+Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty meal of biscuit. It
+was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose. The fog had now buried
+all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared,
+absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And when, at last, I
+shouldered the coracle, and groped my way stumblingly out of the hollow
+where I had supped, there were but two points visible on the whole
+anchorage.
+
+One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated pirates lay
+carousing in the swamp. The other, a mere blur of light upon the
+darkness, indicated the position of the anchored ship. She had swung
+round to the ebb--her bow was now toward me--the only lights on board
+were in the cabin; and what I saw was merely a reflection on the fog of
+the strong rays that flowed from the stern window.
+
+The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade through a long belt
+of swampy sand, where I sank several times above the ankle, before I
+came to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little way in,
+with some strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downward, on the
+surface.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE EBB-TIDE RUNS
+
+
+The coracle--as I had ample reason to know before I was done with
+her--was a very safe boat for a person of my height and weight, both
+buoyant and clever in a sea-way; but she was the most cross-grained,
+lopsided craft to manage. Do as you pleased, she always made more leeway
+than anything else, and turning round and round was the maneuver she was
+best at. Even Ben Gunn himself has admitted that she was "queer to
+handle till you knew her way."
+
+Certainly I did not know her way. She turned in every direction but the
+one I was bound to go; the most part of the time we were broadside on,
+and I am very sure I never should have made the ship at all but for the
+tide. By good fortune, paddle as I pleased, the tide was still sweeping
+me down; and there lay the _Hispaniola_ right in the fairway, hardly to
+be missed.
+
+First she loomed before me like a blot of something yet blacker than
+darkness, then her spars and hull began to take shape, and the next
+moment, as it seemed (for the further I went the brisker grew the
+current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser, and had laid hold.
+
+The hawser was as taut as a bowstring and the current so strong she
+pulled upon her anchor. All round the hull, in the blackness, the
+rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.
+One cut with my sea gully, and the _Hispaniola_ would go humming down
+the tide.
+
+So far so good; but it next occurred to my recollection that a taut
+hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to
+one, if I were so foolhardy as to cut the _Hispaniola_ from her anchor,
+I and the coracle would be knocked clean out of the water.
+
+This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had not again
+particularly favored me, I should have had to abandon my design. But the
+light airs which had begun blowing from the southeast and south had
+hauled round after nightfall into the southwest. Just while I was
+meditating, a puff came, caught the _Hispaniola_, and forced her up into
+the current; and, to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my
+grasp, and the hand by which I held it dip for a second under water.
+
+With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth,
+and cut one strand after another, till the vessel swung only by two.
+Then I lay quiet, waiting to sever these last when the strain should be
+once more lightened by a breath of wind.
+
+All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices from the cabin; but,
+to say truth, my mind had been so entirely taken up with other thoughts
+that I had scarcely given ear. Now, however, when I had nothing else to
+do, I began to pay more heed.
+
+One I recognized for the coxswain's, Israel Hands, that had been Flint's
+gunner in former days. The other was, of course, my friend of the red
+nightcap. Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they were still
+drinking; for, even while I was listening, one of them, with a drunken
+cry, opened the stern window and threw out something, which I divined
+to be an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy; it was plain that
+they were furiously angry. Oaths flew like hailstones, and every now and
+then there came forth such an explosion as I thought was sure to end in
+blows. But each time the quarrel passed off, and the voices grumbled
+lower for a while, until the next crisis came, and, in its turn, passed
+away without result.
+
+On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp fire burning warmly
+through the shore-side trees. Someone was singing a dull, old droning
+sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and
+seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. I had
+heard it on the voyage more than once, and remembered these words:
+
+    "But one man of the crew alive,
+    What put to sea with seventy-five."
+
+And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appropriate for a
+company that had met such cruel losses in the morning. But, indeed, from
+what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed
+on.
+
+At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the
+dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more, and with a good, tough
+effort, cut the last fibers through.
+
+The breeze had but little action on the coracle, and I was almost
+instantly swept against the bows of the _Hispaniola_. At the same time
+the schooner began to turn upon her heel, spinning slowly, end for end,
+across the current.
+
+I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment to be swamped; and
+since I found I could not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved
+straight astern. At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbor, and
+just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord
+that was trailing overboard across the stern bulwarks. Instantly I
+grasped it.
+
+Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It was at first mere
+instinct, but once I had it in my hands and found it fast, curiosity
+began to get the upper hand, and I determined I should have one look
+through the cabin window.
+
+I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when I judged myself near
+enough, rose at infinite risk to about half my height, and thus
+commanded the roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin.
+
+By this time the schooner and her little consort were gliding pretty
+swiftly through the water; indeed, we had already fetched up level with
+the camp fire. The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading
+the innumerable ripples with an incessant weltering splash; and until I
+got my eye above the window sill I could not comprehend why the watchmen
+had taken no alarm. One glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only
+one glance that I durst take from that unsteady skiff. It showed me
+Hands and his companion locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a
+hand upon the other's throat.
+
+I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, for I was near
+overboard. I could see nothing for the moment but these two furious,
+encrimsoned faces, swaying together under the smoky lamp; and I shut my
+eyes to let them grow once more familiar with the darkness.
+
+The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the whole diminished
+company about the camp fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so
+often:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
+    Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil were at that very
+moment in the cabin of the _Hispaniola_, when I was surprised by a
+sudden lurch of the coracle. At the same moment she yawed sharply and
+seemed to change her course. The speed in the meantime had strangely
+increased.
+
+I opened my eyes at once. All around me were little ripples, combing
+over with a sharp, bristling sound and slightly phosphorescent. The
+_Hispaniola_ herself, a few yards in whose wake I was still being
+whirled along, seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her spars toss
+a little against the blackness of the night; nay, as I looked longer, I
+made sure she also was wheeling to the southward.
+
+I glanced over my shoulder and my heart jumped against my ribs. There,
+right behind me, was the glow of the camp fire. The current had turned
+at right angles, sweeping round along with it the tall schooner and the
+little dancing coracle; ever quickening, ever bubbling higher, ever
+muttering louder, it went spinning through the narrows for the open sea.
+
+Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a violent yaw, turning,
+perhaps, through twenty degrees; and almost at the same moment one shout
+followed another from on board. I could hear feet pounding on the
+companion ladder, and I knew that the two drunkards had at last been
+interrupted in their quarrel and awakened to a sense of their disaster.
+
+I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched skiff and devoutly
+recommended my spirit to its Maker. At the end of the straits I made
+sure we must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where all my
+troubles would be ended speedily; and though I could perhaps bear to
+die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as it approached.
+
+So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten to and fro upon the
+billows, now and again wetted with flying sprays, and never ceasing to
+expect death at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon me; a
+numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst of
+my terrors, until sleep at last intervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle
+I lay and dreamed of home and the old "Admiral Benbow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE
+
+
+It was broad day when I awoke and found myself tossing at the southwest
+end of Treasure Island. The sun was up, but was still hid from me behind
+the great bulk of the Spy-glass, which on this side descended almost to
+the sea in formidable cliffs.
+
+Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at my elbow, the hill bare
+and dark, the head bound with cliffs forty or fifty feet high and
+fringed with great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter of a
+mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to paddle in and land.
+
+That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen rocks the breakers
+spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and
+falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw myself,
+if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore or spending
+my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.
+
+Nor was that all, for crawling together on flat tables of rock, or
+letting themselves drop into the sea with loud reports, I beheld huge
+slimy monsters--soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness--two or
+three score of them together, making the rocks to echo with their
+barkings.
+
+I have understood since that they were sea lions, and entirely harmless.
+But the look of them, added to the difficulty of the shore and the high
+running of the surf, was more than enough to disgust me of that
+landing-place. I felt willing rather to starve at sea than to confront
+such perils.
+
+In the meantime I had a better chance, as I supposed, before me. North
+of Haulbowline Head the land runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a
+long stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, again, there comes
+another cape--Cape of the Woods, as it was marked upon the chart--buried
+in tall green pines, which descended to the margin of the sea.
+
+I remembered what Silver had said about the current that sets northward
+along the whole west coast of Treasure Island; and seeing from my
+position that I was already under its influence, I preferred to leave
+Haulbowline Head behind me, and reserve my strength for an attempt to
+land upon the kindlier-looking Cape of the Woods.
+
+There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. The wind blowing steady
+and gentle from the south, there was no contrariety between that and the
+current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.
+
+Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have perished; but as it was, it
+is surprising how easily and securely my little and light boat could
+ride. Often, as I still lay at the bottom, and kept no more than an eye
+above the gunwale, I would see a big blue summit heaving close above me;
+yet the coracle would but bounce a little, dance as if on springs, and
+subside on the other side into the trough as lightly as a bird.
+
+I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat up to try my skill at
+paddling. But even a small change in the disposition of the weight will
+produce violent changes in the behavior of a coracle. And I had hardly
+moved before the boat, giving up at once her gentle, dancing movement,
+ran straight down a slope of water so steep that it made me giddy, and
+struck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the side of the next
+wave.
+
+I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly back into my old
+position, whereupon the coracle seemed to find her head again, and led
+me softly as before among the billows. It was plain she was not to be
+interfered with, and at that rate, since I could in no way influence her
+course, what hope had I left of reaching land?
+
+I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my head, for all that.
+First, moving with all care, I gradually bailed out the coracle with my
+sea cap; then getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself
+to study how it was she managed to slip so quietly through the rollers.
+
+I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, glossy mountain it looks
+from shore, or from a vessel's deck, was for all the world like any
+range of hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth places and
+valleys. The coracle, left to herself, turning from side to side,
+threaded, so to speak, her way through these lower parts, and avoided
+the steep slopes and higher toppling summits of the wave.
+
+"Well, now," thought I to myself, "it is plain I must lie where I am,
+and not disturb the balance; but it is plain, also, that I can put the
+paddle over the side, and from time to time, in smooth places, give her
+a shove or two towards land." No sooner thought upon than done. There I
+lay on my elbows, in the most trying attitude, and every now and again
+gave a weak stroke or two to turn her head to shore.
+
+It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and, as
+we drew near the Cape of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss
+that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was,
+indeed, close in. I could see the cool, green tree-tops swaying together
+in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next promontory without
+fail.
+
+It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst. The glow
+of the sun from above, its thousand-fold reflection from the waves, the
+sea water that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt,
+combined to make my throat burn and my brain ache. The sight of the
+trees so near at hand had almost made me sick with longing; but the
+current had soon carried me past the point; and, as the next reach of
+sea opened out, I beheld a sight that changed the nature of my thoughts.
+
+Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the _Hispaniola_
+under sail. I made sure, of course, that I should be taken, but I was so
+distressed for want of water, that I scarce knew whether to be glad or
+sorry at the thought; and, long before I had come to a conclusion,
+surprise had taken possession of my mind, and I could do nothing but
+stare and wonder.
+
+The _Hispaniola_ was under her mainsail and two jibs, and the beautiful
+white canvas shone in the sun like snow or silver. When I first sighted
+her, all her sails were drawing, she was laying a course about
+northwest, and I presumed the men on board were going round the island
+on their way back to the anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more
+and more to the westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were
+going about in chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's
+eye, was taken dead aback, and stood there awhile helpless, with her
+sails shivering.
+
+"Clumsy fellows," said I, "they must still be drunk as owls." And I
+thought how Captain Smollett would have set them skipping.
+
+Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off, and filled again upon another
+tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or so, and brought up once more dead
+in the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and
+down, north, south, east, and west, the _Hispaniola_ sailed by swoops
+and dashes, and at each repetition ended as she had begun, with idly
+flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steering. And, if
+so, where were the men? Either they were dead drunk, or had deserted
+her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get on board, I might return the
+vessel to her captain.
+
+The current was bearing coracle and schooner southward at an equal rate.
+As for the latter's sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she
+hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if
+she did not even lose. If I only dared to sit up and paddle, I made sure
+that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an air of adventure that
+inspired me, and the thought of the water breaker beside the
+fore companion doubled my growing courage.
+
+Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by another cloud of spray, but
+this time stuck to my purpose and set myself with all my strength and
+caution to paddle after the unsteered _Hispaniola_. Once I shipped a sea
+so heavy that I had to stop and bail, with my heart fluttering like a
+bird, but gradually I got into the way of the thing and guided my
+coracle among the waves, with only now and then a blow upon her bows
+and a dash of foam in my face.
+
+I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner. I could see the brass glisten
+on the tiller as it banged about, and still no soul appeared upon her
+decks. I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. If not, the men
+were lying drunk below, where I might batten them down, perhaps, and do
+what I chose with the ship.
+
+For some time she had been doing the worst thing possible for
+me--standing still. She headed nearly due south, yawing, of course, all
+the time. Each time she fell off her sails partly filled, and these
+brought her, in a moment, right to the wind again. I have said this was
+the worst thing possible for me; for, helpless as she looked in this
+situation, with the canvas crackling like cannon, and the blocks
+trundling and banging on the deck, she still continued to run away from
+me, not only with the speed of the current, but by the whole amount of
+her leeway, which was naturally great.
+
+But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze fell, for some seconds,
+very low, and the current gradually turning her, the _Hispaniola_
+revolved slowly round her center and at last presented me her stern,
+with the cabin window still gaping open and the lamp over the table
+still burning on into the day. The mainsail hung drooped like a banner.
+She was stock-still but for the current.
+
+For the last little while I had even lost, but now, redoubling my
+efforts, I began once more to overhaul the chase.
+
+I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came again in a clap;
+she filled on the port tack and was off again, stooping and skimming
+like a swallow.
+
+My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was towards joy.
+Round she came, till she was broadside on to me--round still till she
+had covered a half, and then two-thirds, and then three-quarters of the
+distance that separated us. I could see the waves boiling white under
+her forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me from my low station in the
+coracle.
+
+And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I had scarce time to
+think--scarce time to act and save myself. I was on the summit of one
+swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was
+over my head. I sprang to my feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under
+water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged
+between the stay and the brace, and as I still clung there panting, a
+dull blow told me that the schooner had charged down upon and struck the
+coracle and that I was left without retreat on the _Hispaniola_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER
+
+
+I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jib
+flapped and filled upon the other tack with a report like a gun. The
+schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, the
+other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again and hung idle.
+
+This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now I lost no time,
+crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled headforemost on the deck.
+
+I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was
+still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.
+Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since
+the mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken by
+the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.
+
+Suddenly the _Hispaniola_ came right into the wind. The jibs behind me
+cracked aloud; the rudder slammed to; the whole ship gave a sickening
+heave and shudder; and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
+the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck.
+
+There were the two watchmen, sure enough; Red-cap on his back, as stiff
+as a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix,
+and his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped
+against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open before
+him on the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle.
+
+For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a vicious horse, the
+sails filling, now on one tack, now on another, and the boom swinging to
+and fro till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again,
+too, there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark, and a
+heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell--so much heavier weather
+was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsided
+coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.
+
+At every jump of the schooner, Red-cap slipped to and fro; but--what was
+ghastly to behold--neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing
+grin was any way disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump, too,
+Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon the
+deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body canting
+toward the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid from
+me; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the frayed
+ringlet of one whisker.
+
+At the same time I observed, around both of them, splashes of dark blood
+upon the planks, and began to feel sure that they had killed each other
+in their drunken wrath.
+
+While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm moment when the ship
+was still, Israel Hands turned partly round, and with a low moan,
+writhed himself back to the position in which I had seen him first. The
+moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his
+jaw hung open, went right to my heart. But when I remembered the talk I
+had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me.
+
+I walked aft until I reached the mainmast.
+
+"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, ironically.
+
+He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to express
+surprise. All he could do was to utter one word, "Brandy."
+
+It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as it
+once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down the
+companion-stairs into the cabin.
+
+It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy. All the
+lock-fast places had been broken open in quest of the chart. The floor
+was thick with mud, where the ruffians had sat down to drink or consult
+after wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted
+in clear white, and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty
+hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to the
+rolling of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open on the
+table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose, for pipe-lights. In the
+midst of all this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown as
+umber.
+
+I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles a
+most surprising number had been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly,
+since the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have been sober.
+
+Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy left, for Hands; and
+for myself I routed out some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch
+of raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down
+my own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the coxswain's
+reach, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, deep drink of
+water, and then, and not until then, gave Hands the brandy.
+
+He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth.
+
+"Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"
+
+I had sat down already in my own corner and begun to eat.
+
+"Much hurt?" I asked him.
+
+He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.
+
+"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. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," he
+added, indicating the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman,
+anyhow. And where mought you have come from?"
+
+"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this ship, Mr.
+Hands, and you'll please regard me as your captain until further
+notice."
+
+He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. Some of the color had
+come back into his cheeks, though he still looked very sick and still
+continued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about.
+
+"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors, Mr. Hands; and by
+your leave I'll strike 'em. Better none than these."
+
+And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines, hauled down their
+cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.
+
+"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; "and there's an end to
+Captain Silver."
+
+He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while on his breast.
+
+"I reckon," he said at last--"I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind o'
+want to get ashore, now. S'pose we talks."
+
+"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I went
+back to my meal with a good appetite.
+
+"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse--"O'Brien were his
+name--a rank Irelander--this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning
+for to sail her back. Well, _he's_ dead now, he is--as dead as bilge;
+and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I give you a hint, you
+ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food
+and drink, and a old scarf or ankercher to tie my wound up, you do; and
+I'll tell you how to sail her; and that's about square all round, I take
+it."
+
+"I'll tell you one thing," says I; "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's
+anchorage. I mean to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there."
+
+"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber,
+after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've
+lost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no
+ch'ice, not I. I'd help you sail her up to Execution Dock, by thunder!
+so I would."
+
+Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this. We struck our
+bargain on the spot. In three minutes I had the _Hispaniola_ sailing
+easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good
+hopes of turning the northern point ere noon, and beating down again as
+far as North Inlet before high water, when we might beach her safely,
+and wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land.
+
+Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got a
+soft silk handkerchief of my mother's. With this, and with my aid, Hands
+bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after
+he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he
+began to pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer,
+and looked in every way another man.
+
+The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, the
+coast of the island flashing by, and the view changing every minute.
+Soon we were past the high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country,
+sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that again,
+and had turned the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on the
+north.
+
+I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright,
+sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast. I had now
+plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had
+smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I
+had made. I should, I think, have had nothing left me to desire but for
+the eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the deck,
+and the odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile
+that had in it something both of pain and weakness--a haggard, old man's
+smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of
+treachery, in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and
+watched me at my work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ISRAEL HANDS
+
+
+The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. We could run
+so much easier from the northeast corner of the island to the mouth of
+the North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to anchor, and dared not beach
+her until the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our
+hands. The coxswain told me how to lay the ship to; after a good many
+trials I succeeded, and we both sat in silence over another meal.
+
+"Cap'n," said he, at length, with that same uncomfortable smile, "here's
+my old shipmate, O'Brien; s'pose you was to heave him overboard. I ain't
+partic'lar, as a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling his hash;
+but I don't reckon him ornamental, now, do you?"
+
+"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job; and there he lies, for
+me," said I.
+
+"This here's an unlucky ship--the _Hispaniola_, Jim," he went on,
+blinking. "There's a power of men been killed in this _Hispaniola_--a
+sight o' poor seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship to
+Bristol. I never seen such dirty luck, not I. There was this here
+O'Brien, now--he's dead, ain't he? Well, now, I'm no scholar, and you're
+a lad as can read and figure; and, to put it straight, do you take it as
+a dead man is dead for good, or do he come alive again?"
+
+"You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit; you must know
+that already," I replied. "O'Brien, there, is in another world, and may
+be watching us."
+
+"Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nate--appears as if killing parties
+was a waste of time. Howsomever, sperrits don't reckon for much, by what
+I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now you've spoke
+up free, and I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin
+and get me a--well, a--shiver my timbers! I can't hit the name on't.
+Well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim--this here brandy's too strong
+for my head."
+
+Now the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural; and as for the
+notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The
+whole story was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck--so much was
+plain, but with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes never
+met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a look
+to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien. All the
+time he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty,
+embarrassed manner, so that a child could have told that he was bent on
+some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my
+advantage lay, and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily
+conceal my suspicions to the end.
+
+"Some wine?" I said. "Far better. Will you have white or red?"
+
+"Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me, shipmate," he
+replied; "so it's strong, and plenty of it, what's the odds?"
+
+"All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, Mr. Hands. But I'll have
+to dig for it."
+
+With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could,
+slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the sparred gallery, mounted the
+forecastle ladder and popped my head out of the fore companion. I knew
+he would not expect to see me there, yet I took every precaution
+possible, and certainly the worst of my suspicions proved too true.
+
+He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though his
+leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply when he moved--for I could hear
+him stifle a groan--yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed
+himself across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the port
+scuppers, and picked out of a coil of rope a long knife, or rather a
+short dirk, discolored to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it for a
+moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried the point upon his hand,
+and then hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled back
+again into his old place against the bulwark.
+
+This was all that I required to know. Israel could move about; he was
+now armed, and if he had been at so much trouble to get rid of me, it
+was plain that I was meant to be the victim. What he would do
+afterward--whether he would try to crawl right across the island from
+North Inlet to the camp among the swamps, or whether he would fire Long
+Tom, trusting that his own comrades might come first to help him, was,
+of course, more than I could say.
+
+Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point, since in that our
+interests jumped together, and that was in the disposition of the
+schooner. We both desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a
+sheltered place, and so that when the time came, she could be got off
+again with as little labor and danger as might be; and until that was
+done I considered that my life would certainly be spared.
+
+While I was thus turning the business over in my mind I had not been
+idle with my body. I had stolen back to the cabin, slipped once more
+into my shoes and laid my hand at random on a bottle of wine, and now
+with this for an excuse, I made my reappearance on the deck.
+
+Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together in a bundle, and with
+his eyelids lowered as though he were too weak to bear the light. He
+looked up, however, at my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a
+man who had done the same thing often, and took a good swig, with his
+favorite toast of "Here's luck!" Then he lay quiet for a little, and
+then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid.
+
+"Cut me a junk o' that," says he, "for I haven't no knife, and hardly
+strength enough, so be as I had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I've missed
+stays! Cut me a quid as'll likely be the last, lad; for I'm for my long
+home, and no mistake."
+
+"Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I was you and thought
+myself so badly, I would go to my prayers, like a Christian man."
+
+"Why?" said he. "Now you tell me why."
+
+"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now about the dead. You've
+broken your trust; you've lived in sin and lies and blood; there's a man
+you killed lying at your feet this moment; and you ask me why! For God's
+mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."
+
+I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk he had hidden in
+his pocket, and designed, in his ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for
+his part, took a great draught of the wine and spoke with the most
+unusual solemnity.
+
+"For thirty year," he said, "I've sailed the seas and seen good and bad,
+better and worse, fair weather and foul, provisions running out, knives
+going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o'
+goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite;
+them's my views--amen, so be it. And now, you look here," he added,
+suddenly changing his tone, "we've had about enough of this foolery. The
+tide's made good enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap'n Hawkins,
+and we'll sail slap in and be done with it."
+
+All told, we had scarce two miles to run, but the navigation was
+delicate, the entrance to this northern anchorage was not only narrow
+and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely
+handled to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and I am
+very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot; for we went about and
+about, and dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a neatness
+that were a pleasure to behold.
+
+Scarcely had we passed the head before the land closed around us. The
+shores of North Inlet were as thickly wooded as those of the southern
+anchorage, but the space was longer and narrower, and more like, what in
+truth it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us, at the southern
+end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapidation. It
+had been a great vessel of three masts, but had lain so long exposed to
+the injuries of the weather that it was hung about with great webs of
+dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken root,
+and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed
+us that the anchorage was calm.
+
+"Now," said Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for to beach a ship
+in. Fine flat sand, never a catspaw, trees all around of it, and flowers
+a-blowing like a garding on that old ship."
+
+"And, once beached," I inquired, "how shall we get her off again?"
+
+"Why, so," he replied; "you take a line ashore there on the other side
+at low water; take a turn about one o' them big pines; bring it back,
+take a turn around the capstan and lie-to for the tide. Come high water,
+all hands take a pull upon the line, and off she comes as sweet as
+natur'. And now, boy, you stand by. We're near the bit now, and she's
+too much way on her. Starboard a little--so--steady--starboard--larboard
+a little--steady--steady!"
+
+So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly obeyed; till, all of a
+sudden, he cried: "Now, my hearty, luff!" And I put the helm hard up,
+and the _Hispaniola_ swung round rapidly and ran stem on for the low
+wooded shore.
+
+The excitement of these last maneuvers had somewhat interfered with the
+watch I had kept hitherto, sharply enough, upon the coxswain. Even then
+I was still so much interested, waiting for the ship to touch, that I
+had quite forgot the peril that hung over my head, and stood craning
+over the starboard bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide
+before the bows. I might have fallen without a struggle for my life, had
+not a sudden disquietude seized upon me and made me turn my head.
+Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his shadow moving with the tail of
+my eye; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat's; but, sure enough, when
+I looked round, there was Hands, already halfway toward me, with the
+dirk in his right hand.
+
+We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes met, but while mine was
+the shrill cry of terror, his was a roar of fury like a charging bull's.
+At the same instant he threw himself forward and I leaped sideways
+toward the bows. As I did so I let go of the tiller, which sprung sharp
+to leeward; and I think this saved my life, for it struck Hands across
+the chest, and stopped him, for the moment, dead.
+
+Before he could recover I was safe out of the corner where he had me
+trapped, with all the deck to dodge about. Just forward of the mainmast
+I stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim, though he had
+already turned and was once more coming directly after me, and drew the
+trigger. The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash nor sound;
+the priming was useless with sea water. I cursed myself for my neglect.
+Why had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded my only weapons? Then
+I should not have been as now, a mere fleeing sheep before this butcher.
+
+Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move, his grizzled
+hair tumbling over his face and his face itself as red as a red ensign
+with his haste and fury. I had no time to try my other pistol, nor,
+indeed, much inclination, for I was sure it would be useless. One thing
+I saw plainly: I must not simply retreat before him, or he would
+speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment since he had so nearly
+boxed me in the stern. Once so caught, and nine or ten inches of the
+blood-stained dirk would be my last experience on this side of eternity.
+I placed my palms against the mainmast, which was of a goodish bigness,
+and waited, every nerve upon the stretch.
+
+Seeing that I meant to dodge he also paused, and a moment or two passed
+in feints on his part and corresponding movements upon mine. It was such
+a game as I had often played at home about the rocks of Black Hill Cove;
+but never before, you may be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as
+now. Still, as I say it, it was a boy's game, and I thought I could hold
+my own at it against an elderly seaman with a wounded thigh. Indeed, my
+courage had begun to rise so high that I allowed myself a few darting
+thoughts on what would be the end of the affair; and while I saw
+certainly that I could spin it out for long, I saw no hope of any
+ultimate escape.
+
+Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the _Hispaniola_ struck,
+staggered, ground for an instant in the sand, and then, swift as a blow,
+canted over to the port side, till the deck stood at an angle of
+forty-five degrees, and about a puncheon of water splashed into the
+scupper holes, and lay in a pool between the deck and bulwark.
+
+We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of us rolled, almost
+together, into the scuppers, the dead Red-cap, with his arms still
+spread out, tumbling stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that my
+head came against the coxswain's foot with a crack that made my teeth
+rattle. Blow and all, I was the first afoot again, for Hands had got
+involved with the dead body. The sudden canting of the ship had made the
+deck no place for running on; I had to find some new way of escape, and
+that upon the instant, for my foe was almost touching me. Quick as
+thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up hand over hand,
+and did not draw a breath till I was seated on the crosstrees.
+
+[Illustration: _Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds_
+(Page 193)]
+
+I had been saved by being prompt; the dirk had struck not half a foot
+below me as I pursued my upward flight; and there stood Israel Hands
+with his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a perfect statue of
+surprise and disappointment.
+
+Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time in changing the
+priming of my pistol, and then, having one ready for service, and to
+make assurance doubly sure, I proceeded to draw the load of the other,
+and recharge it afresh from the beginning.
+
+My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; he began to see the dice
+going against him, and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled
+himself heavily into the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his teeth, began
+slowly and painfully to mount. It cost him no end of time and groans to
+haul his wounded leg behind him; and I had quietly finished my
+arrangements before he was much more than a third of the way up. Then,
+with a pistol in either hand, I addressed him:
+
+"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out! Dead
+men don't bite, you know," I added, with a chuckle.
+
+He stopped instantly. I could see by the workings of his face that he
+was trying to think, and the process was so slow and laborious that, in
+my new-found security, I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow or two,
+he spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme
+perplexity. In order to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth,
+but, in all else, he remained unmoved.
+
+"Jim," says he, "I reckon we're fouled, you and me, and we'll have to
+sign articles. I'd have had you but for that there lurch; but I don't
+have no luck, not I; and I reckon I'll have to strike, which comes hard,
+you see, for a master mariner to a ship's younker like you, Jim."
+
+I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock
+upon a walk, when, all in a breath, back went his right hand over his
+shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow
+and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the
+mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment--I scarce can say it
+was by my own volition, and I am sure it was without a conscious
+aim--both my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They
+did not fall alone; with a choked cry the coxswain loosed his grasp upon
+the shrouds, and plunged head first into the water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+"PIECES OF EIGHT"
+
+
+Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water,
+and from my perch on the crosstrees I had nothing below me but the
+surface of the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, was, in consequence,
+nearer to the ship, and fell between me and the bulwarks. He rose once
+to the surface in a lather of foam and blood, and then sank again for
+good. As the water settled, I could see him lying huddled together on
+the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A fish or
+two whipped past his body. Sometimes, by the quivering of the water, he
+appeared to move a little, as if he were trying to rise. But he was dead
+enough, for all that, being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish
+in the very place where he had designed my slaughter.
+
+I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick, faint, and
+terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and chest. The dirk,
+where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hot
+iron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me,
+for these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a murmur; it was the
+horror I had upon my mind of falling from the crosstree into that still,
+green water beside the body of the coxswain.
+
+I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes as if to
+cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came back again, my pulses
+quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more in possession
+of myself.
+
+It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; but either it stuck too
+hard or my nerve failed me, and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly
+enough, that very shudder did the business. The knife, in fact, had come
+the nearest in the world to missing me altogether; it held me by a mere
+pinch of skin, and this the shudder tore away. The blood ran down the
+faster, to be sure, but I was my own master again, and only tacked to
+the mast by my coat and shirt.
+
+These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and then regained the
+deck by the starboard shrouds. For nothing in the world would I have
+again ventured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds, from
+which Israel had so lately fallen.
+
+I went below and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good
+deal, and still bled freely, but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor
+did it greatly gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and
+as the ship was now, in a sense, my own, I began to think of clearing it
+from its last passenger--the dead man, O'Brien.
+
+He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like
+some horrid, ungainly sort of puppet; life-size, indeed, but how
+different from life's color or life's comeliness! In that position, I
+could easily have my way with him, and as the habit of tragical
+adventures had worn off almost all my terror for the dead, I took him by
+the waist as if he had been a sack of bran, and, with one good heave,
+tumbled him overboard. He went in with a sounding plunge; the red cap
+came off, and remained floating on the surface; and as soon as the
+splash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying side by side, both
+wavering with the tremulous movement of the water. O'Brien, though still
+quite a young man, was very bald. There he lay with that bald head
+across the knees of the man who killed him, and the quick fishes
+steering to and fro over both.
+
+I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just turned. The sun was
+within so few degrees of setting that already the shadow of the pines
+upon the western shore began to reach right across the anchorage and
+fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up, and
+though it was well warded off by the hill with the two peaks upon the
+east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself and the
+idle sails to rattle to and fro.
+
+I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I speedily doused and
+brought tumbling to the deck, but the mainsail was a harder matter. Of
+course, when the schooner canted over, the boom had swung outboard, and
+the cap of it and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought
+this made it still more dangerous, yet the strain was so heavy that I
+half feared to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The
+peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon
+the water; and since, pull as I liked, I could not budge the downhaul,
+that was the extent of what I could accomplish. For the rest, the
+_Hispaniola_ must trust to luck, like myself.
+
+By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into shadow--the last rays,
+I remember, falling through a glade of the wood, and shining bright as
+jewels on the flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill, the
+tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more
+on her beam-ends.
+
+I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed shallow enough, and
+holding the cut hawser in both hands for a last security, I let myself
+drop softly overboard. The water scarcely reached my waist; the sand was
+firm and covered with ripple-marks, and I waded ashore in great spirits,
+leaving the _Hispaniola_ on her side, with her mainsail trailing wide
+upon the surface of the bay. About the same time the sun went fairly
+down, and the breeze whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines.
+
+At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I returned thence
+empty-handed. There lay the schooner, clear at last from buccaneers and
+ready for our own men to board and get to sea again. I had nothing
+nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade and boast of my
+achievements. Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the
+recapture of the _Hispaniola_ was a clinching answer, and I hoped that
+even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my time.
+
+So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set my face homeward for
+the blockhouse and my companions. I remembered that the most easterly of
+the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran from the
+two-peaked hill upon my left; and I bent my course in that direction
+that I might pass the stream while it was small. The wood was pretty
+open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon turned the corner of
+that hill, and not long after waded to the mid-calf across the
+watercourse.
+
+This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben Gunn, the maroon,
+and I walked more circumspectly, keeping an eye on every side. The dusk
+had come nigh hand completely, and, as I opened out the cleft between
+the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against the sky, where,
+as I judged, the man of the island was cooking his supper before a
+roaring fire. And yet I wondered, in my heart, that he should show
+himself so careless. For if I could see this radiance, might it not
+reach the eye of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore among the
+marshes?
+
+Gradually the night fell blacker; it was all I could do to guide myself
+even roughly toward my destination; the double hill behind me and the
+Spy-glass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter, the stars were few
+and pale, and in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among
+bushes and rolling into sandy pits.
+
+Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked up; a pale glimmer
+of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after
+I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and
+knew the moon had risen.
+
+With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my
+journey; and, sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew
+near to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies
+before it, I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went
+a trifle warily. It would have been a poor end of my adventures to get
+shot down by my own party in mistake.
+
+The moon was climbing higher and higher; its light began to fall here
+and there in masses through the more open districts of the wood, and
+right in front of me a glow of a different color appeared among the
+trees. It was red and hot, and now and again it was a little
+darkened--as it were the embers of a bonfire smoldering.
+
+For the life of me I could not think what it might be.
+
+At last I came right down upon the borders of the clearing. The western
+end was already steeped in moon-shine; the rest, and the blockhouse
+itself, still lay in a black shadow, chequered with long, silvery
+streaks of light. On the other side of the house an immense fire had
+burned itself into clear embers and shed a steady, red reverberation,
+contrasting strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not
+a soul stirring, nor a sound beside the noises of the breeze.
+
+I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and perhaps a little terror
+also. It had not been our way to build great fires; we were, indeed, by
+the captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood, and I began to
+fear that something had gone wrong while I was absent.
+
+I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in shadow, and at a
+convenient place, where the darkness was thickest, crossed the palisade.
+
+To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and knees, and crawled,
+without a sound, toward the corner of the house. As I drew nearer, my
+heart was suddenly and greatly lightened. It was not a pleasant noise in
+itself, and I have often complained of it at other times, but just then
+it was like music to hear my friends snoring together so loud and
+peaceful in their sleep. The sea-cry of the watch, that beautiful "All's
+well," never fell more reassuringly on my ear.
+
+In the meantime there was no doubt of one thing; they kept an infamous
+bad watch. If it had been Silver and his lads that were now creeping in
+on them, not a soul would have seen daybreak. That was what it was,
+thought I, to have the captain wounded; and again I blamed myself
+sharply for leaving them in that danger with so few to mount guard.
+
+By this time I had got to the door and stood up. All was dark within, so
+that I could distinguish nothing by the eye. As for sounds, there was
+the steady drone of the snorers, and a small occasional noise, a
+flickering or pecking that I could in no way account for.
+
+With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I 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 sprang 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PART VI
+
+CAPTAIN SILVER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP
+
+
+The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of the blockhouse
+showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized. The pirates were in
+possession of the house and stores; there was the cask of cognac, there
+were the pork and bread, as before; and, what tenfold increased my
+horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge that all had
+perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there to
+perish with them.
+
+There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was left
+alive. Five of them were on their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly
+called out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only risen
+upon his elbow; he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round
+his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently
+dressed. I remembered the man who had been shot and run back among the
+woods in the great attack, and doubted not that this was he.
+
+The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's shoulder. He
+himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more stern than I was used
+to. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his
+mission, but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay and
+torn with sharp briers of the wood.
+
+"So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! dropped in,
+like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly."
+
+And thereupon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and began to fill a
+pipe.
+
+"Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had a
+good light, "That'll do, my lad," he added, "stick the glim in the wood
+heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to!--you needn't stand up for
+Mr. Hawkins; _he'll_ excuse you, you may lay to that. And so,
+Jim"--stopping the tobacco--"here you are, and quite a pleasant surprise
+for poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you,
+but this here gets away from me clean, it do."
+
+To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set me
+with my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking Silver in the
+face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black
+despair in my heart.
+
+Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and then
+ran on again:
+
+"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you _are_ here," says he, "I'll give you a
+piece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit,
+and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always
+wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my
+cock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to
+any day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right
+he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone dead
+again you--'ungrateful scamp' was what he said; and the short and long
+of the whole story is about here: You can't go back to your own lot, for
+they won't have you; and, without you start a third ship's company all
+by yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'n
+Silver."
+
+So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and though I partly
+believed the truth of Silver's statement, that the cabin party were
+incensed at me for my desertion, I was more relieved than distressed by
+what I heard.
+
+"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued Silver,
+"though there you are, and you may lay to it. I'm all for argyment; I
+never seen good come out o' threatening. If you like the service, well,
+you'll jine; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer no--free
+and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said by mortal seaman,
+shiver my sides!"
+
+"Am I to answer, then?" I asked, with a very tremulous voice. Through
+all this sneering talk I was made to feel the threat of death that
+overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my
+breast.
+
+"Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pressing of you. Take your bearings.
+None of us won't hurry you, mate; time goes so pleasant in your company,
+you see."
+
+"Well," says I, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm to choose, I declare I
+have a right to know what's what, and why you're here, and where my
+friends are."
+
+"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers, in a deep growl. "Ah, he'd
+be a lucky one as knowed that!"
+
+"You'll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till you're spoke to, my
+friend," cried Silver, truculently, to this speaker. And then, in his
+first gracious tones, he replied to me: "Yesterday morning, Mr.
+Hawkins," said he, "in the dogwatch, down came Doctor Livesey with a
+flag of truce. Says he: 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out. Ship's gone!'
+Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. I
+won't say no. Leastways, none of us had looked out. We looked out, and,
+by thunder! the old ship was gone. I never seen a pack o' fools look
+fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that I looked the
+fishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, him
+and I, and here we are; stores, brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you was
+thoughtful enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the whole
+blessed boat, from crosstrees to keelson. As for them, they've tramped;
+I don't know where's they are."
+
+He drew again quietly at his pipe.
+
+"And lest you should take it into that head of yours," he went on, "that
+you was included in the treaty, here's the last word that was said: 'How
+many are you,' says I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he--'four, and one of us
+wounded. As for that boy, I don't know where he is, confound him,' says
+he, 'nor I don't much care. We're about sick of him.' These was his
+words."
+
+"Is that all?" I asked.
+
+"Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," returned Silver.
+
+"And now I am to choose?"
+
+"And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that," said Silver.
+
+"Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I have
+to look for. Let the worst come to the worst, it's little I care. I've
+seen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two I
+have to tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited; "and
+the first is this: Here you are, in a bad way; ship lost, treasure lost,
+men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who
+did it--it was I! I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land,
+and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now at
+the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour was
+out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I
+who killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her
+where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side;
+I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you
+than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing
+I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and when
+you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you all I can. It is for
+you to choose. Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and
+keep a witness to save you from the gallows."
+
+I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, to my wonder, not
+a man of them moved, but all sat staring at me like as many sheep. And
+while they were still staring I broke out again:
+
+"And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're the best man here, and
+if things go to the worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor
+know the way I took it."
+
+"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so curious that I
+could not, for the life of me, decide whether he were laughing at my
+request or had been favorably affected by my courage.
+
+"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced seaman--Morgan by
+name--whom I had seen in Long John's public-house upon the quays of
+Bristol. "It was him that knowed Black Dog."
+
+"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook, "I'll put another again to
+that, by thunder! for it was this same boy that faked the chart from
+Billy Bones. First and last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!"
+
+"Then here goes!" said Morgan, with an oath.
+
+And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty.
+
+"Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you
+thought you were captain here, perhaps. By the powers, but I'll teach
+you better! Cross me and you'll go where many a good man's gone before
+you, first and last, these thirty year back--some to the yardarm, shiver
+my sides! and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There's
+never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward,
+Tom Morgan, you may lay to that."
+
+Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others.
+
+"Tom's right," said one.
+
+"I stood hazing long enough from one," added another. "I'll be hanged if
+I'll be hazed by you, John Silver."
+
+"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with _me_?" roared Silver,
+bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe still
+glowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't
+dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many
+years to have a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawser at
+the latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune,
+by your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and
+I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, before that pipe's
+empty."
+
+Not a man stirred; not a man answered.
+
+"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth.
+"Well, you're a gay lot to look at, any way. Not worth much to fight,
+you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n
+here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long
+sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; then, by
+thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; I
+never seen a better boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats
+of you in this here house, and what I say is this: Let me see him
+that'll lay a hand on him--that's what I say, and you may lay to it."
+
+There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall,
+my heart still going like a sledgehammer, but with a ray of hope now
+shining in my bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms
+crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he had
+been in church; yet his eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the
+tail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, drew gradually
+together toward the far end of the blockhouse, and the low hiss of their
+whispering sounded in my ears continuously, like a stream. One after
+another they would look up, and the red light of the torch would fall
+for a second on their nervous faces; but it was not toward me, it was
+toward Silver that they turned their eyes.
+
+"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the
+air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to."
+
+"Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men; "you're pretty free with
+some of the rules, maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This
+crew's dissatisfied; this crew don't vally bullying a marlinspike; this
+crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that; and by
+your own rules I take it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir,
+acknowledging you for to be capting at this present, but I claim my
+right and steps outside for a council."
+
+And with an elaborate sea-salute this fellow, a long, ill-looking,
+yellow-eyed man of five-and-thirty, stepped coolly toward the door and
+disappeared out of the house. One after another the rest followed his
+example, each making a salute as he passed, each adding some apology.
+"According to rules," said one. "Foc's'le council," said Morgan. And so
+with one remark or another, all marched out and left Silver and me alone
+with the torch.
+
+The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe.
+
+"Now, look you here, Jim Hawkins," he said in a steady whisper that was
+no more than audible, "you're within half a plank of death, and, what's
+a long sight worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But you
+mark, I stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to; no, not
+till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt, and be
+hanged into the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says to
+myself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll stand by you. You're
+his last card, and by the living thunder, John, he's yours! Back to
+back, says I. You save your witness and he'll save your neck!"
+
+I began dimly to understand.
+
+"You mean all's lost?" I asked.
+
+"Ay, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck gone--that's the size
+of it. Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no
+schooner--well, I'm tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and their
+council, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save your
+life--if so be as I can--from them. But see here, Jim--tit for tat--you
+save Long John from swinging."
+
+I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking--he, the
+old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout.
+
+"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.
+
+"It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up plucky, and by thunder,
+I've a chance."
+
+He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and
+took a fresh light to his pipe.
+
+"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a head on my shoulders,
+I have. I'm on squire's side now. I know you've got that ship safe
+somewheres. How you done it I don't know, but safe it is. I guess Hands
+and O'Brien turned soft. I never much believed in neither of _them_. Now
+you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won't let others. I know when a
+game's up, I do; and I know a lad that's stanch. Ah, you that's
+young--you and me might have done a power of good together!"
+
+He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin.
+
+"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked, and when I had refused, "Well,
+I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there's
+trouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give me
+the chart, Jim?"
+
+My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness of
+further questions.
+
+"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's something under that,
+no doubt--something, surely, under that, Jim--bad or good."
+
+And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head
+like a man who looks forward to the worst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN
+
+
+The council of the buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of them
+re-entered the house, and with a repetition of the same salute, which
+had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch.
+Silver briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again, leaving us
+together in the dark.
+
+"There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by this time
+adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone.
+
+I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out. The embers of the
+great fire had so far burned themselves out, and now glowed so low and
+duskily, that I understood why these conspirators desired a torch. About
+halfway down the slope to the stockade they were collected in a group;
+one held the light; another was on his knees in their midst, and I saw
+the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colors, in the
+moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though
+watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just make out that he had a
+book as well as a knife in his hand; and was still wondering how
+anything so incongruous had come in their possession, when the kneeling
+figure rose once more to his feet, and the whole party began to move
+together toward the house.
+
+"Here they come," said I; and I returned to my former position, for it
+seemed beneath my dignity that they should find me watching them.
+
+"Well, let 'em come, lad--let 'em come," said Silver, cheerily. "I've
+still a shot in my locker."
+
+The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled together just
+inside, pushed one of their number forward. In any other circumstances
+it would have been comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he set
+down each foot, but holding his closed right hand in front of him.
+
+"Step up, lad," cried Silver. "I won't eat you. Hand it over, lubber. I
+know the rules, I do; I won't hurt a depytation."
+
+Thus encouraged the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly, and having
+passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly
+back again to his companions.
+
+The sea-cook looked at what had been given him.
+
+"The black spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where might you have got
+the paper? Why, hello! look here, now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and
+cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"
+
+"Ah, there," said Morgan, "there! Wot did I say? No good'll come o'
+that, I said."
+
+"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," continued Silver. "You'll
+all swing now, I reckon. What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?"
+
+"It was Dick," said one.
+
+"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," said Silver. "He's seen
+his slice of luck, has Dick, and you may lay to that."
+
+But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in.
+
+"Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew has tipped you the
+black spot in full council, as in dooty bound; just you turn it over, as
+in dooty bound, and see what's wrote there. Then you can talk."
+
+"Thanky, George," replied the sea-cook. "You always was brisk for
+business, and has the rules by heart, George, as I'm pleased to see.
+Well, what is it, anyway? Ah! 'Deposed'--that's it, is it? Very pretty
+wrote, to be sure; like print, I swear. Your hand o' write, George? Why,
+you was gettin' quite a leadin' man in this here crew. You'll be cap'n
+next, I shouldn't wonder. Just oblige me with that torch again, will
+you? this pipe don't draw."
+
+"Come, now," said George, "you don't fool this crew no more. You're a
+funny man, by your account; but you're over now, and you'll maybe step
+down off that barrel, and help vote."
+
+"I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned Silver,
+contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do; and I wait here--and I'm
+still your cap'n, mind--till you outs with your grievances, and I reply;
+in the meantime, your black spot ain't worth a biscuit. After that we'll
+see."
+
+"Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of apprehension;
+_we're_ all square, we are. First, you've made a hash of this
+cruise--you'll be a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let the
+enemy out o' this here trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I dunno,
+but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let us go at
+them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to
+play booty, that's what's wrong with you. And then, fourth, there's this
+here boy."
+
+"Is that all?" asked Silver, quietly.
+
+"Enough, too," retorted George. "We'll all swing and sun-dry for your
+bungling."
+
+"Well, now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints; one after another
+I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o' this cruise, did I? Well, now, you all
+know what I wanted; and you all know, if that had been done, that we'd
+'a' been aboard the _Hispaniola_ this night as ever was, every man of us
+alive, and fit, and full of good plum-duff, and the treasure in the hold
+of her, by thunder! Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as was the
+lawful cap'n? Who tipped me the black spot the day we landed, and began
+this dance? Ah, it's a fine dance--I'm with you there--and looks mighty
+like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London town, it
+does. But who done it? Why, it was Anderson, and Hands, and you, George
+Merry! And you're the last above board of that same meddling crew; and
+you have the Davy Jones insolence to up and stand for cap'n over
+me--you, that sunk the lot of us! By the powers! but this tops the
+stiffest yarn to nothing."
+
+Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George and his late
+comrades that these words had not been said in vain.
+
+"That's for number one," cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his
+brow, for he had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.
+"Why, I give you my word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense
+nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you
+come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune! I reckon tailors is your trade."
+
+"Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to the others."
+
+"Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice lot, ain't they? You
+say this cruise is bungled. Ah! by gum, if you could understand how bad
+it's bungled, you would see! We're that near the gibbet that my neck's
+stiff with thinking on it. You've seen 'em, maybe, hanged in chains,
+birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as they go down with the tide.
+'Who's that?' says one. 'That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him
+well,' says another. And you can hear the chains a-jangle as you go
+about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that's about where we are,
+every mother's son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and
+other ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about number four,
+and that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn't he a hostage? Are we a-going
+to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I
+shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy? not me, mates! And number three? Ah,
+well, there's a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don't count it
+nothing to have a real college doctor come to see you every day--you,
+John, with your head broke--or you, George Merry, that had the ague
+shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the color of
+lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? And maybe, perhaps, you
+didn't know there was a consort coming, either? But there is, and not so
+long till then; and we'll see who'll be glad to have a hostage when it
+comes to that. And as for number two, and why I made a bargain--well,
+you come crawling on your knees to me to make it--on your knees you
+came, you was that downhearted--and you'd have starved, too, if I
+hadn't--but that's a trifle! you look there--that's why!"
+
+And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly
+recognized--none other than the chart on yellow paper, with the three
+red crosses, that I had found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the
+captain's chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more than I
+could fancy.
+
+But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance of the chart was
+incredible to the surviving mutineers. They leaped upon it like cats
+upon a mouse. It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from another;
+and by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with which they
+accompanied their examination, you would have thought, not only they
+were fingering the very gold, but were at sea with it, besides, in
+safety.
+
+"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F., and a score below,
+with a close hitch to it, so he done ever."
+
+"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to get away with it, and
+us no ship?"
+
+Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself with a hand against
+the wall: "Now, I give you warning, George," he cried. "One more word of
+your sauce, and I'll call you down and fight you. How? Why, how do I
+know? You had ought to tell me that--you and the rest, that lost me my
+schooner, with your interference, burn you! But not you, you can't; you
+ain't got the invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and
+shall, George Merry, you may lay to that."
+
+"That's fair enow," said the old man Morgan.
+
+"Fair! I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost the ship; I found the
+treasure. Who's the better man at that? And now I resign, by thunder!
+Elect whom you please to be your cap'n now; I'm done with it."
+
+"Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue forever! Barbecue for cap'n!"
+
+"So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George, I reckon you'll
+have to wait another turn, friend, and lucky for you as I'm not a
+revengeful man. But that was never my way. And now, shipmates, this
+black spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and
+spoiled his Bible, and that's about all."
+
+"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it?" growled Dick, who was
+evidently uneasy at the curse he had brought upon himself.
+
+"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver, derisively. "Not it. It
+don't bind no more'n a ballad-book."
+
+"Don't it, though?" cried Dick, with a sort of joy. "Well, I reckon
+that's worth having, too."
+
+"Here, Jim--here's a cur'osity for you," said Silver, and he tossed me
+the paper.
+
+It was a round about the size of a crown piece. One side was blank, for
+it had been the last leaf; the other contained a verse or two of
+Revelation--these words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon
+my mind: "Without are dogs and murderers." The printed side had been
+blackened with wood ash, which already began to come off and soil my
+fingers; on the blank side had been written with the same material the
+one word "Deposed." I have that curiosity beside me at this moment; but
+not a trace of writing now remains beyond a single scratch, such as a
+man might make with his thumb-nail.
+
+That was the end of the night's business. Soon after, with a drink all
+round, we lay down to sleep, and the outside of Silver's vengeance was
+to put George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him with death if he
+should prove unfaithful.
+
+It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows I had matter
+enough for thought in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own
+most perilous position, and, above all, in the remarkable game that I
+saw Silver now engaged upon--keeping the mutineers together with one
+hand, and grasping, with the other, after every means, possible and
+impossible, to make his peace and save his miserable life. He himself
+slept peacefully, and snored aloud; yet my heart was sore for him,
+wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed, and the
+shameful gibbet that awaited him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+ON PAROLE
+
+
+I was wakened--indeed, we were all wakened, for I could see even the
+sentinel shake himself together from where he had fallen against the
+doorpost--by a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the
+wood:
+
+"Blockhouse, ahoy!" it cried. "Here's the doctor."
+
+And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear the sound, yet my
+gladness was not without admixture. I remembered with confusion my
+insubordinate and stealthy conduct; and when I saw where it had brought
+me--among what companions and surrounded by what dangers--I felt ashamed
+to look him in the face.
+
+He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come; and when I
+ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw him standing, like Silver once
+before, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapor.
+
+"You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried Silver, broad awake
+and beaming with good nature in a moment. "Bright and early, to be sure;
+and it's the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations.
+George, shake up your timbers, son, and help Doctor Livesey over the
+ship's side. All a-doin' well, your patients was--all well and merry."
+
+So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop, with his crutch under his
+elbow, and one hand upon the side of the log-house--quite the old John
+in voice, manner, and expression.
+
+"We've quite a surprise for you, too, sir," he continued. "We've a
+little stranger here--he! he! A noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking
+fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a supercargo, he did, right
+alongside of John--stem to stem we was, all night."
+
+Doctor Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty near the
+cook, and I could hear the alteration in his voice as he said:
+
+"Not Jim?"
+
+"The very same Jim as ever was," says Silver.
+
+The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak, and it was some
+seconds before he seemed able to move on.
+
+"Well, well," he said at last, "duty first and pleasure afterwards, as
+you might have said yourself, Silver. Let us overhaul these patients of
+yours."
+
+A moment afterwards he had entered the blockhouse, and, with one grim
+nod to me, proceeded with his work among the sick. He seemed under no
+apprehension, though he must have known that his life, among these
+treacherous demons, depended on a hair, and he rattled on to his
+patients as if he were paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet
+English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on the men, for they
+behaved to him as if nothing had occurred--as if he were still ship's
+doctor, and they still faithful hands before the mast.
+
+"You're doing well, my friend," he said to the fellow with the bandaged
+head, "and if ever any person had a close shave, it was you; your head
+must be as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it? You're a pretty
+color, certainly; why, your liver, man, is upside down. Did you take
+that medicine? Did he take that medicine, men?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, he took it sure enough," returned Morgan.
+
+"Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doctor, or prison doctor, as I
+prefer to call it," says Doctor Livesey, in his pleasantest way, "I make
+it a point of honor not to lose a man for King George (God bless him!)
+and the gallows."
+
+The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed the home-thrust in
+silence.
+
+"Dick don't feel well, sir," said one.
+
+"Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well, step up here, Dick, and let me
+see your tongue. No, I should be surprised if he did; the man's tongue
+is fit to frighten the French. Another fever."
+
+"Ah, there," said Morgan, "that comed of sp'iling Bibles."
+
+"That comed--as you call it--of being arrant asses," retorted the
+doctor, "and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and
+the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough. I think it most
+probable--though, of course, it's only an opinion--that you'll all have
+the deuce to pay before you get that malaria out of your systems. Camp
+in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised at you. You're less of a fool
+than many, take you all round; but you don't appear to me to have the
+rudiments of a notion of the rules of health.
+
+"Well," he added, after he had dosed them round, and they had taken his
+prescriptions, with really laughable humility, more like charity
+school-children than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates, "well, that's
+done for to-day. And now I should wish to have a talk with that boy,
+please."
+
+And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly.
+
+George Merry was at the door, spitting and spluttering over some
+bad-tasted medicine; but at the first word of the doctor's proposal he
+swung round with a deep flush, and cried, "No!" and swore.
+
+Silver struck the barrel with his open hand.
+
+"Si-lence!" he roared, and looked about him positively like a lion.
+"Doctor," he went on, in his usual tones, "I was thinking of that,
+knowing as how you had a fancy for the boy. We're all humbly grateful
+for your kindness, and, as you see, puts faith in you, and takes the
+drugs down like that much grog. And I take it I've found a way as'll
+suit all. Hawkins, will you give me your word of honor as a young
+gentleman--for a young gentleman you are, although poor born--your word
+of honor not to slip your cable?"
+
+I readily gave the pledge required.
+
+"Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step outside o' that stockade,
+and once you're there, I'll bring the boy down on the inside, and I
+reckon you can yarn through the spars. Good-day to you, sir, and all our
+dooties to the squire and Cap'n Smollett."
+
+The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but Silver's black looks had
+restrained, broke out immediately the doctor had left the house. Silver
+was roundly accused of playing double--of trying to make a separate
+peace for himself--of sacrificing the interests of his accomplices and
+victims; and, in one word, of the identical, exact thing that he was
+doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not
+imagine how he was to turn their anger. But he was twice the man the
+rest were, and his last night's victory had given him a huge
+preponderance on their minds. He called them all the fools and dolts
+you can imagine, said it was necessary I should talk to the doctor,
+fluttered the chart in their faces, asked them if they could afford to
+break the treaty the very day they were bound a-treasure-hunting.
+
+"No, by thunder!" he cried, "it's us must break the treaty when the time
+comes; and till then I'll gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots
+with brandy."
+
+And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked out upon his crutch,
+with his hand on my shoulder, leaving them in a disarray, and silenced
+by his volubility rather than convinced.
+
+"Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round upon us in a twinkle of an
+eye if we was seen to hurry."
+
+Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the sand to where the
+doctor awaited us on the other side of the stockade, and as soon as we
+were within easy speaking distance, Silver stopped.
+
+"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," said he, "and the boy'll
+tell you how I saved his life, and were deposed for it, too, and you may
+lay to that. Doctor, when a man's steering as near to the wind as
+me--playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in his body, like--you
+wouldn't think it too much, mayhap, to give him one good word! You'll
+please bear in mind it's not my life only now--it's that boy's into the
+bargain; and you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to
+go on, for the sake of mercy."
+
+Silver was a changed man, once he was out there and had his back to his
+friends and the blockhouse; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his
+voice trembled; never was a soul more dead in earnest.
+
+"Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Doctor Livesey.
+
+"Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I--not _so_ much!" and he snapped his
+fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly, I've the
+shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true; I never
+seen a better man! And you'll not forget what I done good, not any more
+than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step aside--see here--and
+leave you and Jim alone. And you'll put that down for me, too, for it's
+a long stretch, is that!"
+
+So saying, he stepped back a little way till he was out of earshot, and
+there sat down upon a tree-stump and began to whistle, spinning round
+now and again upon his seat so as to command a sight, sometimes of me
+and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they went to and
+fro in the sand, between the fire--which they were busy rekindling--and
+the house, from which they brought forth pork and bread to make the
+breakfast.
+
+"So, Jim," said the doctor, sadly, "here you are. As you have brewed, so
+shall you drink, my boy. Heaven knows I cannot find it in my heart to
+blame you; but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind: when Captain
+Smollett was well you dared not have gone off, and when he was ill, and
+couldn't help it by George, it was downright cowardly!"
+
+I will own that I here began to weep. "Doctor," I said, "you might spare
+me. I have blamed myself enough; my life's forfeit anyway, and I should
+have been dead now if Silver hadn't stood for me; and, doctor, believe
+this, I can die--and I dare say I deserve it--but what I fear is
+torture. If they come to torture me--"
+
+"Jim," the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite changed, "Jim, I
+can't have this. Whip over, and we'll run for it."
+
+"Doctor," said I, "I passed my word."
+
+"I know, I know," he cried. "We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it
+on my shoulders, holus-bolus, blame and shame, my boy; but stay here, I
+cannot let you. Jump! One jump and you're out, and we'll run for it like
+antelopes."
+
+"No," I replied, "you know right well you wouldn't do the thing
+yourself; neither you, nor squire, nor captain, and no more will I.
+Silver trusted me; I passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you did
+not let me finish. If they come to torture me, I might let slip a word
+of where the ship is; for I got the ship, part by luck and part by
+risking, and she lies in North Inlet, on the southern beach, and just
+below high water. At half-tide she must be high and dry."
+
+"The ship!" exclaimed the doctor.
+
+Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he heard me out in
+silence.
+
+"There's a kind of fate in this," he observed, when I had done. "Every
+step it's you that save our lives, and do you suppose by any chance that
+we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy.
+You found out the plot; you found Ben Gunn--the best deed that ever you
+did, or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter! and talking
+of Ben Gunn, why, this is the mischief in person. Silver!" he cried,
+"Silver! I'll give you a piece of advice," he continued, as the cook
+drew near again; "don't you be in any great hurry after that treasure."
+
+"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," said Silver. "I can
+only, asking your pardon, save my life and the boy's by seeking for that
+treasure; and you may lay to that."
+
+"Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go one step
+farther; look out for squalls when you find it!"
+
+"Sir," said Silver, "as between man and man, that's too much and too
+little. What you're after, why you left the blockhouse, why you've given
+me that there chart, I don't know, now, do I? and yet I done your
+bidding with my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here's
+too much. If you won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so, and
+I'll leave the helm."
+
+"No," said the doctor, musingly, "I've no right to say more; it's not my
+secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you my word, I'd tell it you. But
+I'll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have
+my wig sorted by the captain, or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll give you
+a bit of hope. Silver, if we both get out alive out of this wolf-trap,
+I'll do my best to save you, short of perjury."
+
+Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more, I am sure, sir, not
+if you was my mother," he cried.
+
+"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor. "My second is a
+piece of advice. Keep the boy close beside you, and when you need help,
+halloo. I'm off to seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I
+speak at random. Good-by, Jim."
+
+And Doctor Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to
+Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE TREASURE-HUNT--FLINT'S POINTER
+
+
+"Jim," said Silver, when we were alone, "if I saved your life, you saved
+mine, and I'll not forget it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for
+it--with the tail of my eye, I did--and I seen you say no, as plain as
+hearing. Jim, that's one to you. This is the first glint of hope I had
+since the attack failed, and I owe it to you. And now, Jim, we're to go
+in for this here treasure-hunting, with sealed orders, too, and I don't
+like it; and you and me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll
+save our necks in spite o' fate and fortune."
+
+Just then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast was ready, and we
+were soon seated here and there about the sand over biscuit and fried
+junk. They had lighted a fire fit to roast an ox; and it was now grown
+so hot that they could only approach it from the windward, and even
+there not without precaution. In the same wasteful spirit, they had
+cooked, I suppose, three times more than we could eat; and one of them,
+with an empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and
+roared again over this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men so
+careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word that can describe
+their way of doing; and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries,
+though they were bold enough for a brush and be done with it, I could
+see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign.
+
+Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his shoulder, had not
+a word of blame for their recklessness. And this the more surprised me,
+for I thought he had never showed himself so cunning as he did then.
+
+"Ay, mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Barbecue to think for you
+with this here head. I got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have
+the ship. Where they have it, I don't know yet; but once we hit the
+treasure, we'll have to jump about and find out. And then, mates, us
+that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand."
+
+Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of the hot bacon; thus he
+restored their hope and confidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired
+his own at the same time.
+
+"As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last talk, I guess, with
+them he loves so dear. I've got my piece o' news, and thanky to him for
+that; but it's over and done. I'll take him in a line when we go
+treasure-hunting, for we'll keep him like so much gold, in case of
+accidents, you mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the ship and
+treasure both, and off to sea like jolly companions, why, then we'll
+talk Mr. Hawkins over, we will, and we'll give him his share, to be
+sure, for all his kindness."
+
+It was no wonder the men were in a good humor now. For my part, I was
+horribly cast down. Should the scheme he had now sketched prove
+feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate to adopt
+it. He had still a foot in either camp, and there was no doubt he would
+prefer wealth and freedom with the pirates to a bare escape from
+hanging, which was the best he had to hope on our side.
+
+Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced to keep his faith
+with Doctor Livesey, even then what danger lay before us! What a moment
+that would be when the suspicions of his followers turned to certainty,
+and he and I should have to fight for dear life--he, a cripple, and I, a
+boy--against five strong and active seamen!
+
+Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung over the
+behavior of my friends; their unexplained desertion of the stockade;
+their inexplicable cession of the chart; or, harder still to understand,
+the doctor's last warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls when you find
+it"; and you will readily believe how little taste I found in my
+breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth behind my captors on
+the quest for treasure.
+
+We made a curious figure, had anyone been there to see us; all in soiled
+sailor clothes, and all but me armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns
+slung about him, one before and one behind--besides the great cutlass at
+his waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat. To
+complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his
+shoulder and gabbled odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk. I had a line
+about my waist, and followed obediently after the sea-cook, who held the
+loose end of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his powerful
+teeth. For all the world, I was led like a dancing bear.
+
+The other men were variously burdened; some carrying picks and
+shovels--for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore
+from the _Hispaniola_--others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the
+midday meal. All the stores, I observed, came from our stock, and I
+could see the truth of Silver's words the night before. Had he not
+struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the
+ship, must have been driven to subsist on clear water, and the proceeds
+of their hunting. Water would have been little to their taste; a sailor
+is not usually a good shot; and, besides all that, when they were so
+short of eatables, it was not likely they would be very flush of powder.
+
+Well, thus equipped, we all set out--even the fellow with the broken
+head, who should certainly have kept in shadow--and straggled, one after
+another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore
+trace of the drunken folly of the pirates, one in a broken thwart, and
+both in their muddied and unbailed condition. Both were to be carried
+along with us, for the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers divided
+between them, we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage.
+
+As we pulled over, there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross
+was, of course, far too large to be a guide; and the terms of the note
+on the back, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran, the
+reader may remember, thus:
+
+    "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
+
+    "Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
+
+    "Ten feet."
+
+A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right before us, the
+anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred feet high,
+adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass,
+and rising again toward the south into the rough, cliffy eminence called
+the Mizzen-mast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with
+pine trees of varying height. Every here and there, one of a different
+species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of
+these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain Flint could only be
+decided on the spot, and by the readings of the compass.
+
+Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the boats had picked
+a favorite of his own ere we were halfway over, Long John alone
+shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there.
+
+We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary the hands
+prematurely; and, after quite a long passage, landed at the mouth of the
+second river--that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass.
+Thence, bending to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards the
+plateau.
+
+At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted, marsh vegetation
+greatly delayed our progress; but by little and little the hill began to
+steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood to change its
+character and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a most
+pleasant portion of the island that we were now approaching. A
+heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place
+of grass. Thickets of green nutmeg-trees were dotted here and there with
+the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines, and the first mingled
+their spice with the aroma of the others. The air, besides, was fresh
+and stirring, and this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful
+refreshment to our senses.
+
+The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to
+and fro. About the center, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I
+followed--I tethered by my rope, he plowing, with deep pants, among the
+sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or
+he must have missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill.
+
+We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, and were approaching the
+brow of the plateau, when the man upon the farthest left began to cry
+aloud, as if in terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the others
+began to run in his direction.
+
+"He can't 'a' found the treasure," said old Morgan, hurrying past us
+from the right, "for that's clean a-top."
+
+Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it was something very
+different. At the foot of a pretty big pine, and involved in a green
+creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human
+skeleton lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground. I believe a
+chill struck for a moment to every heart.
+
+"He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, bolder than the rest, had
+gone up close, and was examining the rags of clothing. "Leastways, this
+is good sea-cloth."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Silver, "like enough; you wouldn't look to find a bishop
+here, I reckon. But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't
+in natur'."
+
+Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body
+was in a natural position. But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of
+the birds that had fed upon him, or of the slow-growing creeper that had
+gradually enveloped his remains) the man lay perfectly straight--his
+feet pointing in one direction, his hands raised above his head like a
+diver's, pointing directly in the opposite.
+
+"I've taken a notion into my old numskull," observed Silver. "Here's the
+compass; there's the tip-top p'int of Skeleton Island, stickin' out like
+a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line of them bones."
+
+It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of the island,
+and the compass read duly E.S.E. by E.
+
+"I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there
+is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly dollars. But, by thunder! if
+it don't make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of _his_
+jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em,
+every man; and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver
+my timbers! They're long bones, and the hair's been yellow. Ay, that
+would be Allardyce. You mind Allardyce, Tom Morgan?"
+
+"Ay, ay," returned Morgan, "I mind him; he owed me money, he did, and
+took my knife ashore with him."
+
+"Speaking of knives," said another, "why don't we find his'n lying
+round? Flint warn't the man to pick a seaman's pocket; and the birds, I
+guess, would leave it be."
+
+"By the powers and that's true!" cried Silver.
+
+"There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among
+the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to
+me."
+
+"No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral, nor not nice, says
+you. Great guns, messmates, but if Flint was living this would be a hot
+spot for you and me! Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what
+they are now."
+
+"I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said Morgan. "Billy took me
+in. There he laid, with penny-pieces on his eyes."
+
+"Dead--ay, sure enough he's dead and gone below," said the fellow with
+the bandage; "but if ever sperrit walked it would be Flint's. Dear
+heart, but he died bad, did Flint!"
+
+"Ay, that he did," observed another; "now he raged and now he hollered
+for the rum, and now he sang. 'Fifteen Men' were his only song, mates;
+and I tell you true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main
+hot and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as clear
+as clear--and the death-haul on the man already."
+
+"Come, come," said Silver, "stow this talk. He's dead, and he don't
+walk, that I know; leastways he won't walk by day, and you may lay to
+that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons."
+
+We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and the staring
+daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the
+wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of
+the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE TREASURE-HUNT--THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES
+
+
+Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver
+and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained
+the brow of the ascent.
+
+The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the west, this spot on which we
+had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the
+tree-tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf; behind, we
+not only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but
+saw--clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands--a great field of
+open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted
+with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but
+that of the distant breakers mounting from all around, and the chirp of
+countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail upon the sea; the
+very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude.
+
+Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.
+
+"There are three 'tall trees,'" said he, "about in the right line from
+Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass Shoulder,' I take it, means that lower p'int
+there. It's child's play to find the stuff now. I've half a mind to dine
+first."
+
+"I don't feel sharp," growled Morgan. "Thinkin' o' Flint--I think it
+were--as done me."
+
+"Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he's dead," said Silver.
+
+"He was an ugly devil," cried a third pirate, with a shudder; "that blue
+in the face, too!"
+
+"That was how the rum took him," added Merry. "Blue! well I reckon he
+was blue. That's a true word."
+
+Ever since they had found the skeleton and got upon this train of
+thought, they had spoken lower and lower, and they had almost got to
+whispering by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted
+the silence of the wood. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees
+in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well-known
+air and words:
+
+    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
+      Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
+
+I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. The
+color went from their six faces like enchantment; some leaped to their
+feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan groveled on the ground.
+
+"It's Flint, by ----!" cried Merry.
+
+The song had stopped as suddenly as it began--broken off, you would have
+said, in the middle of a note, as though someone had laid his hand upon
+the singer's mouth. Coming so far through the clear, sunny atmosphere
+among the green tree-tops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly,
+and the effect on my companions was the stranger.
+
+"Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to get the word out,
+"that won't do. Stand by to go about. This is a rum start, and I can't
+name the voice, but it's someone skylarking--someone that's flesh and
+blood, and you may lay to that."
+
+His courage had come back as he spoke, and some of the color to his face
+along with it. Already the others had begun to lend an ear to this
+encouragement, and were coming a little to themselves, when the same
+voice broke out again--not this time singing, but in a faint, distant
+hail, that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy-glass.
+
+"Darby M'Graw," it wailed--for that is the word that best describes the
+sound--"Darby M'Graw! Darby M'Graw!" again and again and again; and then
+rising a little higher, and with an oath that I leave out: "Fetch aft
+the rum, Darby!"
+
+The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from
+their heads. Long after the voice had died away they still stared in
+silence, dreadfully, before them.
+
+"That fixes it!" gasped one. "Let's go."
+
+"They was his last words," moaned Morgan, "his last words above-board."
+
+Dick had his Bible out and was praying volubly. He had been well brought
+up, had Dick, before he came to sea and fell among bad companions.
+
+Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth rattle in his
+head, but he had not yet surrendered.
+
+"Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby," he muttered; "not one
+but us that's here." And then, making a great effort: "Shipmates," he
+cried, "I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man nor
+devil. I never was feared of Flint in his life, and, by the powers, I'll
+face him dead. There's seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a
+mile from here. When did ever a gentleman o' fortune show his stern to
+that much dollars for a boozy old seaman with a blue mug--and him dead,
+too?"
+
+But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers; rather,
+indeed, of growing terror at the irreverence of his words.
+
+"Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a sperrit."
+
+And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They would have run away
+severally had they dared, but fear kept them together, and kept them
+close by John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his part, had pretty
+well fought his weakness down.
+
+"Sperrit? Well, maybe," he said. "But there's one thing not clear to me.
+There was an echo. Now, no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow. Well,
+then, what's he doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That
+ain't in natur', surely."
+
+This argument seemed weak enough to me. But you can never tell what will
+affect the superstitious, and, to my wonder, George Merry was greatly
+relieved.
+
+"Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head upon your shoulders, John,
+and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates! This here crew is on a wrong tack, I
+do believe. And come to think on it, it was like Flint's voice, I grant
+you, but not just so clear away like it, after all. It was liker
+somebody else's voice now--it was liker--"
+
+"By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared Silver.
+
+"Ay, and so it were," cried Morgan, springing on his knees. "Ben Gunn it
+were!"
+
+"It don't make much odds, do it, now?" asked Dick. "Ben Gunn's not here
+in the body, any more'n Flint."
+
+But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn.
+
+"Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn," cried Merry; "dead or alive, nobody minds
+him!"
+
+It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned, and how the natural
+color had revived in their faces. Soon they were chatting together, with
+intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing no further sound,
+they shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry walking first with
+Silver's compass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton Island. He
+had said the truth; dead or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.
+
+Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around him as he went, with
+fearful glances; but he found no sympathy, and Silver even joked him on
+his precautions.
+
+"I told you," said he, "I told you you had sp'iled your Bible. If it
+ain't no good to swear by, what do you suppose a sperrit would give for
+it? Not that!" and he snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his
+crutch.
+
+But Dick was not to be comforted; indeed, it was soon plain to me that
+the lad was falling sick; hastened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of
+his alarm, the fever, predicted by Doctor Livesey, was evidently growing
+swiftly higher.
+
+It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our way lay a little
+downhill, for, as I have said, the plateau tilted toward the west. The
+pines, great and small, grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of
+nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking,
+as we did, pretty near northwest across the island, we drew, on the one
+hand, ever nearer under the shoulders of the Spy-glass, and on the
+other, looked ever wider over that western bay where I had once tossed
+and trembled in the coracle.
+
+The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearing, proved the
+wrong one. So with the second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet
+into the air above a clump of underwood; a giant of a vegetable, with a
+red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a
+company could have maneuvered. It was conspicuous far to sea, both on
+the east and west, and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon
+the chart.
+
+But it was not its size that now impressed my companions; it was the
+knowledge that seven hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere
+buried below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they
+drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in
+their heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was
+bound up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and
+pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of them.
+
+Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils stood out and
+quivered; he cursed like a madman when the flies settled on his hot and
+shiny countenance; he plucked furiously at the line that held me to him,
+and, from time to time, turned his eyes upon me with a deadly look.
+Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts; and certainly I read
+them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had
+been forgotten; his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of
+the past; and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the
+treasure, find and board the _Hispaniola_ under cover of night, cut
+every honest throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first
+intended, laden with crimes and riches.
+
+Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with
+the rapid pace of the treasure-hunters. Now and again I stumbled, and it
+was then that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me
+his murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped behind us, and now brought
+up the rear, was babbling to himself both prayers and curses, as his
+fever kept rising. This also added to my wretchedness, and, to crown
+all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been
+acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue
+face--he who had died at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink--had
+there, with his own hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove, that
+was now so peaceful, must then have rung with cries, I thought; and even
+with the thought I could believe I heard it ringing still.
+
+We were now at the margin of the thicket.
+
+"Huzza, mates, altogether!" shouted Merry, and the foremost broke into a
+run.
+
+And suddenly, not ten yards farther, we beheld them stop. A low cry
+arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch
+like one possessed, and next moment he and I had come also to a dead
+halt.
+
+Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for the sides had
+fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft
+of a pick broken in two and the boards of several packing cases strewn
+around. On one of these boards I saw branded with a hot iron, the name
+_Walrus_--the name of Flint's ship.
+
+All was clear to probation. The _cache_ had been found and rifled--the
+seven hundred thousand pounds were gone!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN
+
+
+There never was such an overturn in this world. Each of these six men
+was as though he had been struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost
+instantly. Every thought of his soul had been set full-stretch, like a
+racer, on that money; well, he was brought up in a single second, dead;
+and he kept his head, found his temper, and changed his plan before the
+others had had time to realize the disappointment.
+
+"Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by for trouble."
+
+And he passed me a double-barreled pistol.
+
+At the same time he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps
+had put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked at
+me and nodded, as much as to say: "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed,
+I thought it was. His looks were now quite friendly, and I was so
+revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering:
+"So you've changed sides again."
+
+There was no time left for him to answer in. The buccaneers, with oaths
+and cries, began to leap, one after another, into the pit, and to dig
+with their fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. Morgan
+found a piece of gold. He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It
+was a two-guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand among them for a
+quarter of a minute.
+
+"Two guineas!" roared Merry, shaking it at Silver. "That's your seven
+hundred thousand pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains, ain't you?
+You're him that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!"
+
+"Dig away, boys," said Silver, with the coolest insolence; "you'll find
+some pig-nuts, and I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"Pig-nuts!" repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates, do you hear that? I
+tell you now, that man there knew it all along. Look in the face of him,
+and you'll see it wrote there."
+
+"Ah, Merry," remarked Silver, "standing for cap'n again? You're a
+pushing lad, to be sure."
+
+But this time every one was entirely in Merry's favor. They began to
+scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them. One
+thing I observed, which looked well for us; they all got out upon the
+opposite side from Silver.
+
+Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the other, the pit
+between us, and nobody screwed up high enough to offer the first blow.
+Silver never moved; he watched them, very upright on his crutch, and
+looked as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave, and no mistake.
+
+At last, Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters.
+
+"Mates," says he, "there's two of them alone there; one's the old
+cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this; the
+other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates--"
+
+He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead a
+charge. But just then--crack! crack! crack!--three musket-shots flashed
+out of the thicket. Merry tumbled headforemost into the excavation; the
+man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum, and fell all his length
+upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other
+three turned and ran for it with all their might.
+
+Before you could wink Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into
+the struggling Merry; and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the
+last agony, "George," said he, "I reckon I settled you."
+
+At the same moment the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with
+smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees.
+
+"Forward!" cried the doctor. "Double quick, my lads. We must head 'em
+off the boats."
+
+And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through the bushes to
+the chest.
+
+I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us. The work that man
+went through, leaping on his crutch till the muscles of his chest were
+fit to burst, was work no sound man ever equaled; and so thinks the
+doctor. As it was, he was already thirty yards behind us, and on the
+verge of strangling, when we reached the brow of the slope.
+
+"Doctor," he hailed, "see there! no hurry!"
+
+Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open part of the plateau we
+could see the three survivors still running in the same direction as
+they had started, right for Mizzen-mast Hill. We were already between
+them and the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe, while Long John,
+mopping his face, came slowly up with us.
+
+"Thank ye kindly, doctor," says he. "You came in in about the nick, I
+guess, for me and Hawkins. And so it's you, Ben Gunn!" he added. "Well,
+you're a nice one, to be sure."
+
+"I'm Ben Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his
+embarrassment. "And," he added, after a long pause, "how do, Mr. Silver!
+Pretty well, I thank ye, says you."
+
+"Ben, Ben," murmured Silver, "to think as you've done me!"
+
+The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes deserted, in their
+flight, by the mutineers; and then as we proceeded leisurely downhill to
+where the boats were lying, related, in a few words, what had taken
+place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn,
+the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end.
+
+Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the
+skeleton. It was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he
+had dug it up (it was the haft of his pickax that lay broken in the
+excavation); he had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from
+the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at
+the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in
+safety since two months before the arrival of the _Hispaniola_.
+
+When the doctor had wormed this secret from him, on the afternoon of the
+attack, and when, next morning, he saw the anchorage deserted, he had
+gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now useless; given him
+the stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats' meat
+salted by himself; given anything and everything to get a chance of
+moving in safety from the stockade to the two-pointed hill, there to be
+clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money.
+
+"As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart, but I did what I
+thought best for those who had stood by their duty; and if you were not
+one of these, whose fault was it?"
+
+That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the horrid
+disappointment he had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way
+to the cave, and, leaving squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray
+and the maroon, and started, making the diagonal across the island, to
+be at hand beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party had the
+start of him; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been dispatched in
+front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to him to work upon the
+superstitions of his former shipmates; and he was so far successful that
+Gray and the doctor had come up and were already ambushed before the
+arrival of the treasure-hunters.
+
+"Ah," said Silver, "it was fortunate for me that I had Hawkins here. You
+would have let old John be cut to bits, and never given it a thought,
+doctor."
+
+"Not a thought," replied Doctor Livesey, cheerily.
+
+And by this time we had reached the gigs. The doctor, with the pickax,
+demolished one of them, and then we all got aboard the other, and set
+out to go round by the sea for North Inlet.
+
+This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though he was almost
+killed already with fatigue, was set to an oar, like the rest of us, and
+we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed out of
+the straits and doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which,
+four days ago, we had towed the _Hispaniola_.
+
+As we passed the two-pointed hill we could see the black mouth of Ben
+Gunn's cave, and a figure standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was
+the squire, and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in
+which the voice of Silver joined as heartily as any.
+
+Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of North Inlet, what should
+we meet but the _Hispaniola_, cruising by herself! The last flood had
+lifted her, and had there been much wind, or a strong tide current, as
+in the southern anchorage, we should never have found her more, or found
+her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was little amiss, beyond the
+wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was got ready, and dropped in a
+fathom and a half of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, the
+nearest point for Ben Gunn's treasure-house; and then Gray,
+single-handed, returned with the gig to the _Hispaniola_, where he was
+to pass the night on guard.
+
+A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of the cave. At the
+top, the squire met us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of
+my escapade, either in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite
+salute he somewhat flushed.
+
+"John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain and impostor--a
+monstrous impostor, sir. I am told I am not to prosecute you. Well,
+then, I will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like
+millstones."
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John, again saluting.
+
+"I dare you to thank me!" cried the squire. "It is a gross dereliction
+of my duty. Stand back!"
+
+And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large, airy place, with
+a little spring and a pool of clear water, overhung with ferns. The
+floor was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett; and in a far
+corner, only duskily flickered over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps
+of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was Flint's
+treasure that we had come so far to seek, and that had cost already the
+lives of seventeen men from the _Hispaniola_. How many it had cost in
+the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the
+deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon,
+what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet
+there were still three upon that island--Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben
+Gunn--who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in
+vain to share in the reward.
+
+"Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good boy in your line, Jim;
+but I don't think you and me'll go to sea again. You're too much of the
+born favorite for me. Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here,
+man?"
+
+"Come back to my dooty, sir," returned Silver.
+
+"Ah!" said the captain, and that was all he said.
+
+What a supper I had of it that night, with all my friends around me; and
+what a meal it was, with Ben Gunn's salted goat, and some delicacies and
+a bottle of old wine from the _Hispaniola_. Never, I am sure, were
+people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out
+of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when
+anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter--the same
+bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+AND LAST
+
+
+The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this
+great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three
+miles by boat to the _Hispaniola_, was a considerable task for so small
+a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did
+not greatly trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was
+sufficient to insure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought,
+besides, they had had more than enough of fighting.
+
+Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and Ben Gunn came and
+went with the boat, while the rest during their absences piled treasure
+on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's end, made a good load
+for a grown man--one that he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part,
+as I was not much use at carrying, I was kept busy all day in the cave,
+packing the minted money into bread-bags.
+
+It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity
+of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I
+never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish,
+Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and
+moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the
+last hundred years, strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked
+like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square
+pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round
+your neck--nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think,
+have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they
+were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my
+fingers with sorting them out.
+
+[Illustration: _Nearly every variety of money in the world must have
+found a place in that collection_ (Page 253)]
+
+Day after day this work went on; by every evening a fortune had been
+stowed aboard, but there was another fortune waiting for the morrow; and
+all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
+
+At last--I think it was on the third night--the doctor and I were
+strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of
+the isle, when, from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought us a
+noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached
+our ears, followed by the former silence.
+
+"Heaven forgive them," said the doctor; "'tis the mutineers!"
+
+"All drunk, sir," struck in the voice of Silver from behind us.
+
+Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and, in spite of
+daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once more as quite a privileged
+and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these
+slights, and with what unwearying politeness he kept at trying to
+ingratiate himself with all. 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. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor
+answered him.
+
+"Drunk or raving," said he.
+
+"Right you were, sir," replied Silver; "and precious little odds which,
+to you and me."
+
+"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man," returned
+the doctor, with a sneer, "and so my feelings may surprise you, Master
+Silver. But if I were sure they were raving--as I am morally certain
+one, at least, of them is down with fever--I should leave this camp,
+and, at whatever risk to my own carcass, take them the assistance of my
+skill."
+
+"Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong," quoth Silver. "You
+would lose your precious life, and you may lay to that. I'm on your side
+now, hand and glove; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened,
+let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But these men down
+there, they couldn't keep their word--no, not supposing they wished
+to--and what's more, they couldn't believe as you could."
+
+"No," said the doctor. "You're the man to keep your word, we know that."
+
+Well, that was about the last news we had of the three pirates. Only
+once we heard a gunshot a great way off, and supposed them to be
+hunting. A council was held and it was decided that we must desert them
+on the island--to the huge glee, I must say, of Ben Gunn, and with the
+strong approval of Gray. We left a good stock of powder and shot, the
+bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines and some other necessaries,
+tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope, and, by the
+particular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco.
+
+That was about our last doing on the island. Before that we had got the
+treasure stowed and had shipped enough water and the remainder of the
+goat meat, in case of any distress; and at last, one fine morning, we
+weighed anchor, which was about all that we could manage, and stood out
+of North Inlet, the same colors flying that the captain had flown and
+fought under at the palisade.
+
+The three fellows must have been watching us closer than we thought for,
+as we soon had proved. For, coming through the narrows we had to lie
+very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of them
+kneeling together on a spit of sand with their arms raised in
+supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that
+wretched state, but we could not risk another mutiny, and to take them
+home for the gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor
+hailed them and told them of the stores we had left, and where they were
+to find them, but they continued to call us by name and appeal to us for
+God's sake to be merciful and not leave them to die in such a place.
+
+At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, and was now swiftly
+drawing out of earshot, one of them--I know not which it was--leaped to
+his feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent
+a shot whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail.
+
+After that we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked
+out they had disappeared from the spit, and the spit itself had almost
+melted out of sight in the growing distance. That was, at least, the end
+of that; and before noon, to my inexpressible joy, the highest rock of
+Treasure Island had sunk into the blue round of sea.
+
+We were so short of men that everyone on board had to bear a hand--only
+the captain lying on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders, for
+though greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head
+for the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could not risk the
+voyage home without fresh hands; and as it was, what with baffling winds
+and a couple of fresh gales, we were all worn out before we reached it.
+
+It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful
+landlocked gulf, and were immediately surrounded by shore boats full of
+negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods, selling fruits and
+vegetables, and offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many
+good-humored faces (especially the blacks), the taste of the tropical
+fruits, and above all, the lights that began to shine in the town, made
+a most charming contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island;
+and the doctor and the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore to
+pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an
+English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and
+in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came
+alongside the _Hispaniola_.
+
+Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came on board he began,
+with wonderful contortions, to make us a confession. Silver was gone.
+The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore boat some hours ago,
+and he now assured us he had only done so to preserve our lives, which
+would certainly have been forfeited if "that man with the one leg had
+stayed aboard." But this was not all. The sea-cook had not gone
+empty-handed. He had cut through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed
+one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three or four hundred
+guineas, to help him on his further wanderings.
+
+I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him.
+
+Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands on board, made a
+good cruise home, and the _Hispaniola_ reached Bristol just as Mr.
+Blandly was beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five men only
+of those who had sailed returned with her. "Drink and the devil had done
+for the rest" with a vengeance, although, to be sure, we were not quite
+in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about:
+
+    "With one man of the crew alive,
+    What put to sea with seventy-five."
+
+All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and used it wisely or
+foolishly, according to our natures. Captain Smollett is now retired
+from the sea. Gray not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit
+with the desire to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate
+and part owner of a fine full-rigged ship; married besides, and the
+father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he
+spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more exact, in nineteen days,
+for he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to
+keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he still lives, a
+great favorite, though something of a butt with the country boys, and a
+notable singer in church on Sundays and saints' days.
+
+Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one
+leg has at last gone clean out of my life, but I dare say he met his old
+negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint.
+It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another
+world are very small.
+
+The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint
+buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and
+wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island, and
+the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about
+its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain
+Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight! pieces of eight!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
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