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diff --git a/27780.txt b/27780.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57d52c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/27780.txt @@ -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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TREASURE ISLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 27780.txt or 27780.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/7/8/27780/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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