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Title: Treasure Island
Description: Treasure Island as originally told by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Description: Treasure Island as originally told by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson
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...
TREASURE ISLAND
To
S
...
O
...
Treasure Island
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 today:
—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!
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...
The Old Sea-dog at
the Admiral Benbow
S
QUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr
...
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 pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat,
his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and
the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white
...
com
in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been
tuned and broken at the capstan bars
...
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
...
Much company, mate?’
My father told him no, very little company, the more was
the pity
...
Here you,
matey,’ he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; ‘bring
up alongside and help up my chest
...
‘I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is
what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off
...
Oh, I see what you’re at— there”; and he threw down three
or four gold pieces on the threshold
...
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
...
And that was all we
could learn of our guest
...
All day he hung
round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope;
all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire
and drank rum and water very strong
...
Every day when he came back from his stroll he would
ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road
...
When a seaman did 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 parlour;
and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any
such was present
...
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
...
’
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...
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
...
To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares
...
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
...
Often I have heard the house shaking with ‘Yo-ho-ho,
and a bottle of rum,’ all the neighbours joining in for dear
life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing
louder than the other to avoid remark
...
Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn
till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
com
whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a
hawker
...
I remember the appearance of his coat,
which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which,
before the end, was nothing but patches
...
The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open
...
Dr
...
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
...
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 Dr
...
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
...
Livesey’s; he went on as
before speaking clear and kind and drawing briskly at his
pipe between every word or two
...
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
...
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
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...
’
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
...
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 tonight’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of
this
...
’
Soon after, Dr
...
12
Treasure Island
2
...
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
...
It was one January morning, very early—a pinching,
frosty morning—the cove all grey with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only
touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward
...
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 Dr
...
Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying
the breakfast-table against the captain’s return when the
parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I had
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...
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
...
He was not sailorly, and yet
he had a smack of the sea about him too
...
I paused where I was, with my napkin in my hand
...
‘Come nearer here
...
‘Is this here table for my mate Bill?’ he asked with a kind
of leer
...
‘Well,’ said he, ‘my mate Bill would be called the captain,
as like as not
...
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
...
Now, is my mate Bill in
this here house?’
I told him he was out walking
...
’
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
...
The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round the corner
like a cat waiting for a mouse
...
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
...
But the great thing for boys is discipline,
sonny—discipline
...
That was never Bill’s way, nor the way of sich as sailed with
him
...
You and
me’ll just go back into the parlour, sonny, and get behind
the door, and we’ll give Bill a little surprise—bless his ‘art,
I say again
...
I was very uneasy and
alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to my fears
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...
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
...
‘Bill,’ said the stranger in a voice that I thought he had
tried to make bold and big
...
‘Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate,
Bill, surely,’ said the stranger
...
‘Black Dog!’ said he
...
‘Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the Admiral Benbow inn
...
‘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
16
Treasure Island
of it, Billy
...
’
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
...
‘None of
your keyholes for me, sonny,’ he said; and I left them together and retired into the bar
...
‘No, no, no, no; and an end of it!’ he cried once
...
’
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
...
You may see the notch on the lower side of the frame
to this day
...
Once out upon the
road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a wonderFree eBooks at Planet eBook
...
The captain, for his part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered man
...
‘Jim,’ says he, ‘rum”; and as he spoke, he reeled a little,
and caught himself with one hand against the wall
...
‘Rum,’ he repeated
...
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 parlour, and running in, beheld the captain lying
full length upon the floor
...
Between us we raised his head
...
‘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
...
It was a happy relief for us when the door opened and Doctor Livesey
came in, on his visit to my father
...
‘No
more wounded than you or I
...
Now, Mrs
...
For
my part, I must do my best to save this fellow’s trebly worthless life; Jim, you get me a basin
...
It was tattooed in several places
...
‘Prophetic,’ said the doctor, touching this picture with
his finger
...
Jim,’ he
said, ‘are you afraid of blood?’
‘No, sir,’ said I
...
A great deal of blood was taken before the captain
opened his eyes and looked mistily about him
...
But suddenly
his colour 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
...
com
19
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
...
Bones—‘
‘That’s not my name,’ he interrupted
...
‘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
...
I’ll help you to your bed for once
...
‘Now, mind you,’ said the doctor, ‘I clear my conscience—
the name of rum for you is death
...
‘This is nothing,’ he said as soon as he had closed the
door
...
’
20
Treasure Island
3
...
He was lying very much
as we had left him, only a little higher, and he seemed both
weak and excited
...
Never
a month but I’ve given you a silver fourpenny for yourself
...
But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but
heartily
...
It’s been meat and drink, and man
and wife, to me; and if I’m 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
...
‘I can’t keep ‘em still, not I
...
That doctor’s a fool, I tell you
...
com
21
don’t have a drain o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen
some on ‘em already
...
Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn’t hurt me
...
’
He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed
me for my father, who was very low that day and 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’ll get you one glass, and no more
...
‘Aye, aye,’ said he, ‘that’s some better, sure enough
...
‘Thunder!’ he cried
...
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
...
I never wasted good money of mine, nor lost it
neither; and I’ll trick ‘em again
...
I’ll
shake out another reef, matey, and daddle ‘em again
...
His words, spirited as they were in meaning,
contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in which
they were uttered
...
‘That doctor’s done me,’ he murmured
...
Lay me back
...
‘Jim,’ he said at length, ‘you saw that seafaring man today?’
‘Black Dog?’ I asked
...
‘HE’S a bad un; but there’s worse
that put him on
...
I was first mate, I was, old Flint’s first mate, and I’m
the on’y one as knows the place
...
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
...
‘That’s a summons, mate
...
But
you keep your weather-eye open, Jim, and I’ll share with
you equals, upon my honour
...
com
23
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
...
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
...
Our
natural distress, the visits of the neighbours, 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
...
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 at his ugly old seasong; but weak as he was, we were all in the 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
...
He clambered up and down stairs, and went from the parlour 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
24
Treasure Island
went for support and breathing hard and fast like a man on
a steep mountain
...
He had an alarming way now when he was drunk of drawing his cutlass and
laying it bare before him on the table
...
Once, for instance, to our extreme
wonder, he piped up to a different air, a king of country
love-song that he must have learned in his youth before he
had begun to follow the sea
...
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
...
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 defence 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
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...
‘I hear a voice,’ said he, ‘a young voice
...
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
...
’
‘Sir,’ said I, ‘upon my word I dare not
...
’
And he gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that made me cry
out
...
The captain is not
what he used to be
...
Another
gentleman—‘
‘Come, now, march,’ interrupted he; and I never heard
a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind man’s
...
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
...
’ If you don’t, I’ll
do this,’ and with that he gave me a twitch that I thought
would have made me faint
...
The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum
went out of him and left him staring sober
...
He made a movement to rise, but I do not believe he had
enough force left in his body
...
‘If I can’t
see, I can hear a finger stirring
...
Hold
out your left hand
...
’
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
...
It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to
gather our senses, but at length, and about at the same moment, I released his wrist, which I was still holding, and he
drew in his hand and looked sharply into the palm
...
‘Six hours
...
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
...
But haste was
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...
The captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy
...
It was the second death I had known, and the
sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart
...
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
...
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
...
The neighbourhood, to our ears, seemed haunted
by approaching footsteps; and what between the dead body
of the captain on the parlour 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
...
No sooner
said than done
...
The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though
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...
We were not many
minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay
hold of each other and hearken
...
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
...
The more we told of our
troubles, the more—man, woman, and child— they clung
to the shelter of their houses
...
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
...
And the short and the long of the matter was, that
while we could get several who were willing enough to ride
to Dr
...
30
Treasure Island
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
...
Back we will go, the way we came, and small thanks
to you big, hulking, chicken- hearted men
...
And I’ll thank you for that bag,
Mrs
...
’
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
...
My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in the
cold night upon this dangerous venture
...
We
slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see
or hear anything to increase our terrors, till, to our relief,
the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed behind us
...
Then my mother got a candle in the bar, and
holding each other’s hands, we advanced into the parlour
...
com
31
He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes open
and one arm stretched out
...
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
...
On the floor close to
his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened on the
one side
...
’
‘He had till ten, Mother,’ said I; and just as I said it, our
old clock began striking
...
‘Now, Jim,’ she said, ‘that key
...
A few small coins,
a thimble, and some thread and big needles, a piece of
pigtail 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
...
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
...
32
Treasure Island
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
...
A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the interior,
but nothing was to be seen on the top except a suit of very
good clothes, carefully brushed and folded
...
Under that, the miscellany began—a quadrant, a tin canikin, 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
...
In the meantime, we had found nothing of any value
but the silver and the trinkets, and neither of these were in
our way
...
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 have my dues, and not a farthing over
...
com
33
Hold Mrs
...
’ 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
...
The guineas, too, were about
the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother
knew how to make her count
...
It
drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath
...
At last the tapping
recommenced, and, to our indescribable joy and gratitude,
died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard
...
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
...
That was
enough, and more than enough, for both of us
...
‘And I’ll take this to square the count,’ said I, picking up
the oilskin packet
...
We had not started a moment too soon
...
Far less than half-way to
the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill, we
must come forth into the moonlight
...
‘My dear,’ said my mother suddenly, ‘take the money and
run on
...
’
This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought
...
I do not know how I found
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...
Farther I could not move her, for the
bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl below it
...
36
Treasure Island
5
...
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
...
The next moment his voice
showed me that I was right
...
‘Aye, aye, 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
...
His voice sounded louder and higher,
as if he were afire with eagerness and rage
...
Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on
the road with the formidable beggar
...
’
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...
‘Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest
of you aloft and get the chest,’ he cried
...
Promptly afterwards,
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
...
Someone’s turned
the chest out alow and aloft
...
‘The money’s there
...
‘Flint’s fist, I mean,’ he cried
...
‘Here, you below there, is it on Bill?’ cried the blind man
again
...
‘Bill’s been overhauled a’ready,’ said he; ‘nothin’ left
...
I wish I had put
his eyes out!’ cried the blind man, Pew
...
Scatter, lads,
and find ‘em
...
‘Scatter and find ‘em! Rout the house out!’ reiterated Pew,
38
Treasure Island
striking with his stick upon the road
...
And just 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
...
‘There’s Dirk again,’ said one
...
’
‘Budge, you skulk!’ cried Pew
...
They must be
close by; they can’t be far; you have your hands on it
...
‘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
...
com
39
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
...
‘They might have hid the blessed thing,’ said another
...
’
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
...
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
...
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
...
Finally he took a 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—
40
Treasure Island
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
...
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
...
Down went Pew
with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs
trampled and spurned him and passed by
...
I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders
...
One, tailing out behind the rest, was a lad
that had gone from the hamlet to Dr
...
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
...
As for my mother, when we
had carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water and
salts and that 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
...
com
41
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
...
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
...
Mr
...
‘And that,’ said he, ‘is just about
as good as nothing
...
‘Only,’ he added, ‘I’m glad I trod on Master Pew’s corns,’ for
by this time he had heard my story
...
Mr
...
‘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
...
’
‘To be sure, boy; quite right,’ said he
...
’
‘I thought perhaps Dr
...
‘Perfectly right,’ he interrupted very cheerily, ‘perfectly
42
Treasure Island
right—a gentleman and a magistrate
...
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
...
’
I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back
to the hamlet where the horses were
...
‘Dogger,’ said Mr
...
’
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 Dr
...
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...
The Captain’s Papers
W
E rode hard all the way till we drew up before Dr
...
The house was all dark to the front
...
Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by
...
‘Is Dr
...
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
...
Dance
...
Here Mr
...
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 the top of them, where the squire and Dr
...
I had never seen the squire so near at hand
...
His eyebrows were very
44
Treasure Island
black, and moved readily, and this gave him a look of some
temper, not bad, you would say, but quick and high
...
Dance,’ says he, very stately and condescending
...
‘And
good evening to you, friend Jim
...
When they
heard how my mother went back to the inn, Dr
...
Long before it was done, Mr
...
’
At last Mr
...
‘Mr
...
And as for riding down that black, atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue, sir, like stamping on a cockroach
...
Hawkins, will you
ring that bell? Mr
...
’
‘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
...
com
45
to open it; but instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the
pocket of his coat
...
’
‘As you will, Livesey,’ said the squire; ‘Hawkins has
earned better than cold pie
...
Dance was further complimented and at last dismissed
...
‘And now, Livesey,’ said the squire in the same breath
...
Livesey
...
‘Heard of him, you say!
He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed
...
The Spaniards were so prodigiously
afraid of him that, I tell you, sir, I was sometimes proud he
was an Englishman
...
’
‘Well, I’ve heard of him myself, in England,’ said the doctor
...
‘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
46
Treasure Island
carcasses but money?’
‘That we shall soon know,’ replied the doctor
...
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
...
’
‘Very well,’ said the doctor
...
The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get
out his instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors
...
‘First of all we’ll try the book,’ observed the 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
...
One was the same
as the tattoo mark, ‘Billy Bones his fancy”; then there was
‘Mr
...
Bones, mate,’ ‘No more rum,’ ‘Off Palm Key he got
itt,’ and some other snatches, mostly single words and unintelligible
...
A knife in his back as
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
‘Not much instruction there,’ said Dr
...
The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious
series of entries
...
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
...
’
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
...
Livesey
...
‘This
is the black-hearted hound’s account-book
...
The sums are the scoundrel’s share, and where
he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something clearer
...
God help the poor souls that
manned her—coral long ago
...
‘See what it is to be a traveller
...
’
There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of
places noted in the blank leaves towards the end and a table for reducing French, English, and Spanish moneys to a
common value
...
‘He wasn’t the one to be
cheated
...
’
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
...
It was
about nine miles long and five across, shaped, you might
say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbours, and a hill in the centre part marked ‘The
Spy-glass
...
’
Over on the back the same hand had written this further
information:
Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N
...
N
...
Skeleton Island E
...
E
...
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...
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
...
point of
north inlet cape, bearing E
...
J
...
That was all; but brief as it was, and to me incomprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr
...
‘Livesey,’ said the squire, ‘you will give up this wretched practice at once
...
In three
weeks’ time—three weeks!—two weeks—ten days—we’ll
have the best ship, sir, and the choicest crew in England
...
You’ll make a famous
cabin-boy, Hawkins
...
We’ll take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter
...
’
‘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
...
’
‘And who’s that?’ cried the squire
...
We are not the only men who know of this paper
...
We must none of us go alone till we get to sea
...
’
‘Livesey,’ returned the squire, ‘you are always in the right
of it
...
’
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
I Go to Bristol
I
T was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready
for the sea, and none of our first plans—not even Dr
...
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
...
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
...
So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a
letter addressed to Dr
...
’ Obeying this order, we found, or rather
I found—for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading
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...
The ship is bought and fitted
...
You never imagined a sweeter schooner—a child might
sail her—two hundred tons; name, HISPANIOLA
...
The admirable
fellow literally slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did
everyone in Bristol, as soon as they got wind of the port we
sailed for—treasure, I mean
...
Livesey will
not like that
...
’
‘Well, who’s a better right?’ growled the gamekeeper
...
Livesey, I should
think
...
There is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced
against Blandly
...
None of them dare,
however, to deny the merits of the ship
...
The workpeople, to be sure—riggers and what not—
were most annoyingly slow; but time cured that
...
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 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
...
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
...
He has no pension, Livesey
...
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
...
Long
John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
engaged
...
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
...
So now, Livesey, come post; do
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
Let young Hawkins go at
once to see his mother, with Redruth for a guard; and then
both come full speed to Bristol
...
Long John Silver unearthed a very competent
man for a mate, a man named Arrow
...
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
...
J
...
P
...
S
...
J
...
You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put
me
...
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
...
The next morning he and I set out on foot for the Admiral Benbow, and there I found my mother in good health
56
Treasure Island
and spirits
...
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
...
It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first
time, my situation
...
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
...
I said good-bye
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
...
Next moment we had turned the corner and my home was
out of sight
...
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,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
‘Where are we?’ I asked
...
‘Get down
...
Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far
down the docks to superintend the work upon the schooner
...
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
...
The smell
of tar and salt was something new
...
I
saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and
whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their
swaggering, clumsy sea- walk; and if I had seen as many
kings or archbishops I could not have been more delighted
...
‘Here you are,’ he cried, ‘and the doctor came last night
from London
...
‘We sail tomorrow!’
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
At the Sign of
the Spy-glass
W
HEN I had done breakfasting the squire gave me a
note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the Spyglass, 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 sign
...
It was a bright enough little place of entertainment
...
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
...
As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a
glance I was sure he must be Long John
...
He was very tall and strong,
with a face as big as a ham—plain and pale, but intelligent
60
Treasure Island
and smiling
...
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
...
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 pleasanttempered landlord
...
‘Mr
...
‘Yes, my lad,’ said he; ‘such is my name, to be sure
...
‘Oh!’ said he, quite loud, and offering his hand
...
You are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you
...
Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and made for the door
...
But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at glance
...
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...
‘But he
hasn’t paid his score
...
’
One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up
and started in pursuit
...
‘Black what?’
‘Dog, sir,’ said I
...
Trelawney not told you of the
buccaneers? He was one of them
...
‘In my house! Ben, run and help Harry
...
’
The man whom he called Morgan—an old, grey-haired,
mahogany-faced sailor—came forward pretty sheepishly,
rolling his quid
...
‘You didn’t know his name, did you?’
‘No, sir
...
‘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
...
‘Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed
62
Treasure Island
dead-eye?’ cried Long John
...
‘Keel-hauling, was you? And a mighty suitable thing,
too, and you may lay to that
...
’
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
...
Yet I kind of think
I’ve—yes, I’ve seen the swab
...
’
‘That he did, you may be sure,’ said I
...
His name was Pew
...
‘Pew! That were
his name for certain
...
He should run him down, hand over hand, by
the powers! He talked o’ keel- hauling, did he? I’LL keelhaul 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
...
com
63
finding Black Dog at the Spy- glass, and I watched the cook
narrowly
...
‘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
...
I see that when
you first come in
...
‘The score!’ he burst out
...
I could not help joining, and we laughed
together, peal after peal, until the tavern rang again
...
‘You and me should get on well, Hawkins,
for I’ll take my davy I should be rated ship’s boy
...
This won’t do
...
I’ll put on my old cockerel hat, and step along
of you to Cap’n Trelawney, and report this here affair
...
Nor you neither, says you; not smart— none of
the pair of us smart
...
’
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
...
I began to see that here
was one of the best of possible shipmates
...
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
...
‘That was how it
were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins?’ he would say, now and
again, and I could always bear him entirely out
...
com
65
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
...
‘Aye, aye, sir,’ cried the cook, in the passage
...
Livesey, ‘I don’t put much faith in
your discoveries, as a general thing; but I will say this, John
Silver suits me
...
‘And now,’ added the doctor, ‘Jim may come on board
with us, may he not?’
‘To be sure he may,’ says squire
...
’
66
Treasure Island
9
...
At last, however,
we got alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped
aboard by the mate, Mr
...
He and the squire were very
thick and friendly, but I soon observed that things were not
the same between Mr
...
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
...
‘I am always at the captain’s orders
...
The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once and shut the door behind him
...
I don’t like this cruise; I don’t like
the men; and I don’t like my officer
...
’
‘Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship?’ inquired the squire,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
‘I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried,’
said the captain
...
’
‘Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?’
says the squire
...
Livesey cut in
...
No use of such questions
as that but to produce ill feeling
...
You don’t, you say, like
this cruise
...
‘So far so good
...
I don’t call that fair,
now, do you?’
‘No,’ said Dr
...
’
‘Next,’ said the captain, ‘I learn we are going after treasure—hear it from my own hands, mind you
...
Trelawney) the secret
has been told to the parrot
...
‘It’s a way of speaking,’ said the captain
...
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
...
68
Treasure Island
Livesey
...
Next, you say you don’t like the crew
...
‘And I
think I should have had the choosing of my own hands, if
you go to that
...
‘My friend
should, perhaps, have taken you along with him; but the
slight, if there be one, was unintentional
...
Arrow?’
‘I don’t, sir
...
A mate should keep himself to himself—shouldn’t drink with the men before the
mast!’
‘Do you mean he drinks?’ cried the squire
...
’
‘Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?’ asked
the doctor
...
’
‘Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this
cruise?’
‘Like iron,’ answered the squire
...
‘Then, as you’ve heard me
very patiently, saying things that I could not prove, hear
me a few words more
...
Now, you have a good place under the
cabin; why not put them there?— first point
...
Why not give them
the berths here beside the cabin?—second point
...
com
69
‘Any more?’ asked Mr
...
‘One more,’ said the captain
...
’
‘Far too much,’ agreed the doctor
...
‘I never told that,’ cried the squire, ‘to a soul!’
‘The hands know it, sir,’ returned the captain
...
‘It doesn’t much matter who it was,’ replied the doctor
...
Trelawney’s protestations
...
‘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
...
Otherwise I would ask
you to let me resign
...
‘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
...
’
‘Sir,’ said Captain Smollett, ‘with no intention to take of70
Treasure Island
fence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth
...
As for Mr
...
But I am responsible for the ship’s safety
and the life of every man Jack aboard of her
...
And I ask you to take certain
precautions or let me resign my berth
...
’
‘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
...
’
‘Doctor,’ said the captain, ‘you are smart
...
I had no thought that Mr
...
’
‘No more I would,’ cried the squire
...
As it is, I
have heard you
...
’
‘That’s as you please, sir,’ said the captain
...
’
And with that he took his leave
...
’
‘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
...
com
71
‘Well,’ says the doctor, ‘we shall see
...
Arrow stood by superintending
...
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
...
Arrow, Hunter,
Joyce, the doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six
berths
...
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
...
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
...
The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness,
and as soon as he saw what was doing, ‘So ho, mates!’ says
he
...
‘Why, by the powers,’ cried Long John, ‘if we do, we’ll
miss the morning tide!’
72
Treasure Island
‘My orders!’ said the captain shortly
...
Hands will want supper
...
‘That’s a good man, captain,’ said the doctor
...
‘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
...
’
I assure you I was quite of the squire’s way of thinking,
and hated the captain deeply
...
com
73
10
...
Blandly and the like, coming off to wish him a
good voyage and a safe return
...
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 note of the whistle, the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship’s lanterns
...
‘The old one,’ cried another
...
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
...
I am not going to relate that voyage in detail
...
The ship proved to be a good ship, the
crew were capable seamen, and the captain thoroughly understood his business
...
Mr
...
He had no command among the men,
and people did what they pleased with him
...
Time after time
he was ordered below in disgrace
...
In the meantime, we could never make out where he got
the drink
...
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
...
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75
amongst 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
...
‘Well, gentlemen, that
saves the trouble of putting him in irons
...
The boatswain, Job
Anderson, was the likeliest man aboard, and though he
kept his old title, he served in a way as mate
...
Trelawney
had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him very
useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy weather
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
‘He’s no common man, Barbecue,’ said the coxswain to
me
...
’
All the crew respected and even obeyed him
...
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
one corner
...
Nobody more welcome than yourself, my
son
...
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
...
‘Now, that bird,’ he would say, ‘is, maybe, two hundred years old, Hawkins—they live forever mostly; and if
anybody’s seen more wickedness, it must be the devil himself
...
She’s been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and
Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello
...
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77
fishing up of the wrecked plate ships
...
But you smelt powder—
didn’t you, cap’n?’
‘Stand by to go about,’ the parrot would scream
...
‘There,’ John would add, ‘you can’t touch pitch
and not be mucked, lad
...
She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking,
before chaplain
...
In the meantime, the squire and Captain Smollett were
still on pretty distant terms with one another
...
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
...
As for the ship, he had taken a downright fancy
to her
...
But,’ he would
add, ‘all I say is, we’re not home again, and I don’t like the
78
Treasure Island
cruise
...
‘A trifle more of that man,’ he would say, ‘and I shall explode
...
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
...
‘Never knew good come of it yet,’ the captain said to Dr
...
‘Spoil forecastle hands, make devils
...
’
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
...
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
...
We were heading S
...
W
...
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79
abeam and a quiet sea
...
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
...
I ran on deck
...
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
...
The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against
it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to
speak
...
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Treasure Island
11
...
‘Flint was cap’n; I was quartermaster, along of my timber leg
...
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
...
Now, what a ship was
christened, so let her stay, I says
...
’
‘Ah!’ cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on
board, and evidently full of admiration
...
‘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
...
That ain’t bad for a man before
the mast—all safe in bank
...
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81
does it, you may lay to that
...
Where’s Flint’s? Why, most on ‘em aboard here,
and glad to get the duff—been begging before that, some on
‘em
...
Where is he now? Well, he’s dead now and
under hatches; but for two year 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
...
‘But now, you look here: you’re young,
you are, but you’re as smart as paint
...
’
You may 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
...
Meantime,
he ran on, little supposing he was overheard
...
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
...
But that’s not the course I lay
...
I’m fifty, mark you; once
back from this cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest
...
Ah, but I’ve lived easy in the meantime, never denied myself o’ nothing heart desires, and slep’
soft and ate dainty all my days but when at sea
...
’
‘Why, where might you suppose it was?’ asked Silver derisively
...
‘It were,’ said the cook; ‘it were when we weighed anchor
...
And the Spy-glass is
sold, lease and goodwill and rigging; and the old girl’s off
to meet me
...
’
‘And can you trust your missis?’ asked the other
...
But I have a way with me, I have
...
There was some that was
feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his
own self was feared of me
...
They
was the roughest crew afloat, was Flint’s; the devil himself
would have been feared to go to sea with them
...
Ah, you
may be sure of yourself in old John’s ship
...
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83
‘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
...
’
By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of
their terms
...
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
...
‘Oh, I know’d Dick was square,’ returned the voice of
the coxswain, Israel Hands
...
’ And he
turned his quid and spat
...
I want their pickles and wines, and that
...
But you’re able to hear, I reckon; leastways, your
ears is big enough
...
’
‘Well, I don’t say no, do I?’ growled the coxswain
...
’
‘When! By the powers!’ cried Silver
...
The last moment I can
manage, and that’s when
...
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
...
Then we’ll see
...
’
‘Why, we’re all seamen aboard here, I should think,’ said
the lad Dick
...
‘We can steer a course, but who’s to set one? That’s what all
you gentlemen split on, first and last
...
But I know the sort you are
...
But you’re never happy till you’re drunk
...
‘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
...
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85
and hurry and hurry
...
If you would on’y lay your course, and a p’int to
windward, you would ride in carriages, you would
...
You’ll have your mouthful of rum tomorrow, and go hang
...
‘They liked a bit o’ fun, they did
...
’
‘So?’ says Silver
...
Flint was, and he died
of rum at Savannah
...
‘That’s what I call business
...
Or cut ‘em down like that much pork? That would have
been Flint’s, or Billy Bones’s
...
‘‘Dead men don’t
bite,’ says he
...
’
‘Right you are,’ said Silver; ‘rough and ready
...
Dooty is dooty, mates
...
When I’m in Parlyment and riding in my
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Treasure Island
coach, I don’t want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin acoming home, unlooked for, like the devil at prayers
...
‘Only one
thing I claim—I claim Trelawney
...
‘You just jump up, like a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to
wet my pipe like
...
I heard Dick begin to rise, and
then someone seemingly stopped him, and the voice of
Hands exclaimed, ‘Oh, stow that! Don’t you get sucking of
that bilge, John
...
’
‘Dick,’ said Silver, ‘I trust you
...
There’s the key; you fill a pannikin and bring it up
...
Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him
...
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
...
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
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...
’
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
fore-sail; and almost at the same time the voice of the lookout shouted, ‘Land ho!’
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Treasure Island
12
...
I could
hear people tumbling up from the cabin and the forecastle, and slipping in an instant outside my barrel, I dived
behind the fore-sail, made a double towards the stern, and
came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and Dr
...
There all hands were already congregated
...
Away to the south-west 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
...
So much I saw, almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or two before
...
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
...
‘I’ve watered there with a trader
I was cook in
...
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...
It were a main
place for pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed
all their names for it
...
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
...
‘See if that’s
the place
...
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
...
‘Yes, sir,’ said he, ‘this is the spot, to be sure, and very
prettily drawed out
...
Aye, here it
is: ‘Capt
...
There’s a strong current runs along the south, and
then away nor’ard up the west coast
...
Leastways, if such was your intention as to enter and careen,
and there ain’t no better place for that in these waters
...
‘I’ll ask you
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Treasure Island
later on to give us a help
...
’
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
...
‘Ah,’ says he, ‘this here is a sweet spot, this island— a
sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on
...
Why, it makes me
young again
...
It’s
a pleasant thing to be young and have ten toes, and you
may lay to that
...
’
And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off forward and went below
...
Livesey were talking together on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to
tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly
...
Livesey called me to his side
...
Get the captain and squire down to the cabin,
and then make some pretence to send for me
...
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91
rible news
...
‘Thank you, Jim,’ said he quite loudly, ‘that was all I
wanted to know,’ as if he had asked me a question
...
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 Dr
...
‘My lads,’ said Captain Smollett, ‘I’ve a word to say to
you
...
Mr
...
I’ll tell you what
I think of this: I think it handsome
...
’
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
...
And this also was given with a will
...
I found them all three seated round 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
...
‘Now, Hawkins,’ said the squire, ‘you have something to
say
...
’
I did as I was bid, and as short as I could make it, told the
whole details of Silver’s conversation
...
‘Jim,’ said Dr
...
’
And they made me sit down at 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
...
I own myself an ass, and I await your orders
...
‘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
...
’
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
A very remarkable man
...
‘But this is talk; this don’t lead to anything
...
Trelawney’s
permission, I’ll name them
...
It is for you to speak,’ says Mr
...
‘First point,’ began Mr
...
‘We must go on, because we can’t turn back
...
Second point, we have time before
us—at least until this treasure’s found
...
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
...
Trelawney?’
‘As upon myself,’ declared the squire
...
Now, about the honest hands?’
‘Most likely Trelawney’s own men,’ said the doctor; ‘those
he had picked up for himself before he lit on Silver
...
‘Hands was one of mine
...
‘And to think that they’re all Englishmen!’ broke out the
squire
...
’
‘Well, gentlemen,’ said the captain, ‘the best that I can say
is not much
...
It’s trying on a man, I know
...
But there’s no help for it till we know our
men
...
’
‘Jim here,’ said the doctor, ‘can help us more than anyone
...
’
‘Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you,’ added the
squire
...
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
...
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PART THREE
My Shore Adventure
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Treasure Island
13
...
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 south-east of the low eastern coast
...
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 colouring was uniform and sad
...
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 booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole ship creaking,
groaning, and jumping like a manufactory
...
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97
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
...
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
...
The heat was sweltering,
and the men grumbled fiercely over their work
...
‘Well,’ he said with an oath, ‘it’s not forever
...
All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and
conned the ship
...
‘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
...
The bottom was
clean sand
...
The place was entirely land-locked, buried in woods, the
trees coming right down to high-water mark, the shores
mostly flat, and the hilltops standing round at a distance in
a sort of amphitheatre, one here, one there
...
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 island arose out of the seas
...
A peculiar stagnant smell
hung over the anchorage—a smell of sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks
...
‘I don’t know about treasure,’ he said, ‘but I’ll stake my
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
’
If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat,
it became truly threatening when they had come aboard
...
The
slightest order was received with a black look and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed
...
Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a
thunder-cloud
...
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
...
If an order were given, John would be on his crutch
in an instant, with the cheeriest ‘Aye, aye, 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
...
We held a council in the cabin
...
You see, sir, here it
is
...
Now, we’ve only
one man to rely on
...
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Treasure Island
‘Silver, sir,’ returned the captain; ‘he’s as anxious as you
and I to smother things up
...
Let’s allow the men an afternoon
ashore
...
If they none of
them go, well then, we hold the cabin, and God defend the
right
...
’
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
...
A turn ashore’ll hurt nobody— the boats
are still in the water; you can take the gigs, and as many as
please may go ashore for the afternoon
...
’
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
...
He whipped
out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party,
and I fancy it was as well he did so
...
It was as plain as day
...
The
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...
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 further
...
At last, however, the party was made up
...
Then it was that there came into my head the first of the
mad notions that contributed so much to save our lives
...
It occurred to me at once to go ashore
...
No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, ‘Is
that you, Jim? Keep your head down
...
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
102
Treasure Island
and swung myself out and plunged into the nearest thicket
while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind
...
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
...
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103
14
...
I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes,
and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I 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
...
I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration
...
I
turned hither and thither among the trees
...
Little did I suppose that he was a deadly enemy and that the
noise was the famous rattle
...
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Treasure Island
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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105
ness, 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 favourable ambush of the crouching trees
...
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
...
Silver had thrown his hat
beside him on the ground, and his great, smooth, blond
face, all shining with heat, was lifted to the other man’s in
a kind of appeal
...
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
...
I had found one of the honest hands—well, here, at that
same moment, came news of another
...
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 whirr; 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
...
He stood where he was,
resting lightly on his crutch, watching his companion like a
snake about to spring
...
‘Hands off!’ cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it seemed
to me, with the speed and security of a trained gymnast
...
‘It’s
a black conscience that can make you feared of me
...
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107
like a crumb of glass
...
’
And at this point Tom flashed out like a hero
...
‘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
...
You’ve killed Alan, have you? Kill me too, if
you can
...
’
And with that, this brave fellow turned his back directly
on the cook and set off walking for the beach
...
With a cry John seized the branch of
a tree, whipped the crutch out of his armpit, and sent that
uncouth missile hurtling through the air
...
His hands
flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, and fell
...
Like enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot
...
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 defenceless body
...
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 topsyturvy before my eyes, and all manner of bells ringing and
distant voices shouting in my ear
...
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 wisp of grass
...
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
...
More
men would be coming
...
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
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
...
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109
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
...
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 live-oaks grew more widely apart and
seemed more like forest trees in their bearing and dimensions
...
The air too smelt more
freshly than down beside the marsh
...
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Treasure Island
15
...
My eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw a figure leap with great
rapidity behind the trunk of a pine
...
It seemed
dark and shaggy; more I knew not
...
I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides; behind me
the murderers, before me this lurking nondescript
...
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
...
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
...
Yet a man it was, I could no longer
be in doubt about that
...
I was
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...
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
...
As soon as I remembered I was not defenceless,
courage glowed again in my heart and I set my face resolutely for this man of the island and walked briskly towards
him
...
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
...
‘Who are you?’ I asked
...
‘I’m poor Ben Gunn, I am;
and I haven’t spoke with a Christian these three years
...
His skin, wherever it
was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black,
and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face
...
He was clothed with tatters of old ship’s
canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork
was all held together by a system of the most various and in112
Treasure Island
congruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops
of tarry gaskin
...
‘Three years!’ I cried
...
’
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
...
Wherever a
man is, says I, a man can do for himself
...
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
...
’
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
...
‘If ever you can get aboard again, says you?’ he repeated
...
‘And right you was,’ he cried
...
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113
call yourself, mate?’
‘Jim,’ I told him
...
‘Well, now,
Jim, I’ve lived that rough as you’d be ashamed to hear of
...
‘Why, no, not in particular,’ I answered
...
And I
was a civil, pious boy, and could rattle off my catechism that
fast, as you couldn’t tell one word from another
...
I’ve thought it all out in this here lonely island, and I’m back on piety
...
I’m bound I’ll be good, and I see the way to
...
’
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
...
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
...
At this I had a happy inspiration
...
‘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
...
‘Silver?’ I asked
...
‘That were his name
...
’
He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he give
it quite a wring
...
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
...
‘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
...
‘Aye, 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
...
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115
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
...
’
‘AND a passage home?’ he added with a look of great
shrewdness
...
And besides, if
we got rid of the others, we should want you to help work
the vessel home
...
’ And he seemed very much
relieved
...
‘So much I’ll tell you,
and no more
...
They was ashore
nigh on a week, and us standing off and on in the old WALRUS
...
The sun was getting up, and mortal white he looked
about the cutwater
...
How he done it, not a man
aboard us could make out
...
Billy Bones was the
mate; Long John, he was quartermaster; and they asked him
where the treasure was
...
‘Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we
sighted this island
...
’ The cap’n was displeased at that, but my
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Treasure Island
messmates were all of a mind and landed
...
‘As for
you, Benjamin Gunn,’ says they, ‘here’s a musket,’ they says,
‘and a spade, and pick-axe
...
‘Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite of
Christian diet from that day to this
...
Do I look like a man before the mast? No, says
you
...
’
And with that he winked and pinched me hard
...
‘Nor he weren’t, neither—that’s the words
...
And then you’ll give
him a nip, like I do
...
‘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’leman of fortune, having
been one hisself
...
But that’s neither here nor there; for how am I
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...
Well, there’s my
boat, that I made with my two hands
...
If the worst come to the worst, we might try that
after dark
...
‘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
...
‘Follow me
...
‘Left, left,’ says he; ‘keep to your left hand, mate Jim! Under the trees with you! Theer’s where I killed my first goat
...
Ah! And
there’s the cetemery’— cemetery, he must have meant
...
It
weren’t quite a chapel, but it seemed more solemn like; and
then, says you, Ben Gunn was short-handed—no chapling,
nor so much as a Bible and a flag, you says
...
The cannon-shot was followed after a considerable interval by a volley of small arms
...
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Treasure Island
PART FOUR
The Stockade
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...
Narrative Continued
by the Doctor: How the
Ship Was Abandoned
I
T was about half past one—three bells in the sea phrase—
that the two boats went ashore from the HISPANIOLA
...
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
...
It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we
were alarmed for his safety
...
We ran on deck
...
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
...
’
Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and
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Treasure Island
I should go ashore with the jolly-boat in quest of information
...
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
...
’
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 had not gone a hundred yards when I reached the stockade
...
Well, on the knoll, and enclosing the
spring, they had clapped a stout log- house fit to hold two
score of people on a pinch and loopholed for musketry on
either side
...
The people in the log-house had them in every way; they
stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like partridges
...
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121
complete surprise, they might have held the place against a
regiment
...
For
though we had a good enough 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 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
...
It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still
to have been a doctor
...
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
...
We made the
water fly, and the boat was soon alongside and I aboard the
schooner
...
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
...
He came nigh-hand fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry
...
’
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Treasure Island
I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled
on the details of its accomplishment
...
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
...
‘Mr
...
If any one of you six make a signal of any description, that man’s dead
...
But when they saw
Redruth waiting for them in the sparred galley, they went
about ship at once, and a head popped out again on deck
...
And the head popped back again; and we heard no more,
for the time, of these six very faint-hearted seamen
...
Joyce and I got
out through the stern-port, and we made for shore again as
fast as oars could take us
...
‘Lillibullero’ was dropped again; and just before we lost
sight of them behind the little point, one of them whipped
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...
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
...
All three made the
first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores over the
palisade
...
So we proceeded without pausing to take breath, till the
whole cargo was bestowed, when the two servants took up
their position in the block house, and I, with all my power,
sculled back to the HISPANIOLA
...
They had the advantage of
numbers, of course, but we had the advantage of arms
...
The squire was waiting for me at the stern window, all his
faintness gone from him
...
Pork,
powder, and biscuit was the cargo, with only a musket and
a cutlass apiece for the squire and me and Redruth and the
captain
...
By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and the ship
was swinging round to her anchor
...
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
...
‘It’s to you, Abraham Gray—it’s to you I am speaking
...
‘Gray,’ resumed Mr
...
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
...
’
There was a pause
...
I’m risking my life and the lives of
these good gentlemen every second
...
‘I’m with you, sir,’ said he
...
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...
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Treasure Island
17
...
In the first place, the little gallipot of a boat that
we were in was gravely overloaded
...
Add to that the powder, pork, and bread-bags
...
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
...
All the same, we were afraid to breathe
...
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
...
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...
I was steering, while he and Redruth, two fresh
men, were at the oars
...
Could you pull a little stronger?’
‘Not without swamping the boat,’ said he
...
’
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
...
‘If it’s the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even
lie it,’ returned the captain
...
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
...
’
‘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
...
‘The gun!’ said he
...
‘They could never
get the gun ashore, and if they did, they could never haul it
through the woods
...
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
...
‘Israel was Flint’s gunner,’ said Gray hoarsely
...
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
...
I could hear as well as see that brandy-faced rascal Israel
Hands plumping down a round-shot on the deck
...
‘Mr
...
‘Mr
...
Trelawney was as cool as steel
...
‘Now,’ cried the captain, ‘easy with that gun, sir, or you’ll
swamp the boat
...
’
The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we
leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, and all
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...
They had the gun, by this time, slewed round upon the
swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle with the rammer, was in consequence the most exposed
...
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
...
‘Give way, then,’ cried the captain
...
If we can’t get ashore, all’s up
...
’
‘They’ll have a hot run, sir,’ returned the captain
...
It’s not them I mind; it’s the round-shot
...
Tell us, squire,
when you see the match, and we’ll hold water
...
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 ebb-tide, which
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Treasure Island
had so cruelly delayed us, was now making reparation and
delaying our assailants
...
‘If I durst,’ said the captain, ‘I’d stop and pick off another
man
...
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
...
‘Hold!’ cried the captain, quick as an echo
...
The report fell in at the same
instant of time
...
Where 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
...
The other three took complete headers, and came up again drenched and bubbling
...
No lives were lost, and
we could wade ashore in safety
...
Mine I had snatched
from my knees and held over my head, by a sort of instinct
...
The other
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...
To add to our concern, we heard voices already drawing near us in the woods along shore, and we had not only
the danger of being cut off from the stockade in our halfcrippled 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
...
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
...
Narrative Continued
by the Doctor: End of
the First Day’s Fighting
W
E 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
...
I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest
and looked to my priming
...
Give him
your gun; his own is useless
...
At the
same time, observing Gray to be unarmed, I handed him
my cutlass
...
It was plain from every line of his body that our new
hand was worth his salt
...
We struck the enclosure about the middle of the south side, and almost at the
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...
They paused as if taken aback, and before they recovered,
not only the squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce from the
block house, had time to fire
...
After reloading, we walked down the outside of the palisade to see to the fallen enemy
...
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
...
Then we reloaded and turned our attention
to poor Tom
...
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
...
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
...
‘Be I going, doctor?’ he asked
...
’
‘I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun first,’ he replied
...
‘Howsoever, so be it, amen!’
After a little while of silence, he said he thought somebody might read a prayer
...
And not long after, without another word,
he passed away
...
He had found a longish fir-tree lying
felled and trimmed in the enclosure, 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
...
This seemed mightily to relieve him
...
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135
log-house and set about counting up the stores as if nothing
else existed
...
‘Don’t you take on, sir,’ he said, shaking the squire’s hand
...
It mayn’t be good divinity, but it’s a fact
...
‘Dr
...
‘You can calculate for yourself,’ I said
...
’
‘How do you mean?’ I asked
...
That’s what I
mean,’ replied the captain
...
But the rations are short, very short— so short, Dr
...
’
And he pointed to the dead body under the flag
...
‘Oho!’ said the captain
...
’
136
Treasure Island
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
...
It must be the flag they are aiming at
...
‘No, sir, not I”; and
as soon as he had said the words, I think we all agreed with
him
...
All through the evening they kept thundering away
...
We had no ricochet to
fear, and though one popped in through the roof of the loghouse and out again through the floor, we soon got used to
that sort of horse-play and minded it no more than cricket
...
The ebb has
made a good while; our stores should be uncovered
...
Gray and hunter were the first to come forward
...
The mutineers were bolder than we fancied or
they put more trust in Israel’s gunnery
...
Silver was in the
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...
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 colours on the log-house in Treasure Island
...
A hail on the land side
...
‘Doctor! Squire! Captain! Hullo, Hunter, is that you?’
came the cries
...
138
Treasure Island
19
...
‘Now,’ said he, ‘there’s your friends, sure enough
...
‘That!’ he cried
...
No, that’s your
friends
...
Ah, he
was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! Barring rum,
his match were never seen
...
’
‘Well,’ said I, ‘that may be so, and so be it; all the more
reason that I should hurry on and join my friends
...
You’re a good boy, or
I’m mistook; but you’re on’y a boy, all told
...
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 honour
...
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139
precious sight (that’s what you’ll say), a precious sight more
confidence’— and then nips him
...
‘And when Ben Gunn is wanted, you know where to find
him, Jim
...
And him that
comes is to have a white thing in his hand, and he’s to come
alone
...
’’
‘Well,’ said I, ‘I believe I understand
...
Is that all?’
‘And when? says you,’ he added
...
’
‘Good,’ said I, ‘and now may I go?’
‘You won’t forget?’ he inquired anxiously
...
Reasons of his own; that’s
the mainstay; as between man and man
...
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
...
The
next moment each of us had taken to his heels in a different direction
...
I moved
from hiding-place to hiding-place, always pursued, or so it
seemed to me, by these terrifying missiles
...
The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling and
tumbling in the woods and ruffling the grey 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
...
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
...
I lay for some time watching the bustle which succeeded the attack
...
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
...
At length I thought I might return towards the stockade
...
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141
I was pretty far down on the low, sandy spit that encloses 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 further down the spit and rising from among low
bushes, an isolated rock, pretty high, and peculiarly white
in colour
...
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
...
The log-house was made of unsquared trunks of pine—
roof, walls, and floor
...
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
...
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
...
Very close around the stockade—too close for defence, they said—the wood still flourished high and dense,
all of fir on the land side, but towards the sea with a large
admixture of live-oaks
...
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
...
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
...
All hands were called up before him, and he divided us
into watches
...
Tired though we all were,
two were sent out for firewood; two more were set 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
...
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143
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
...
And when I say that it means a deal, Jim
...
Then he
put his head on one side, and looked at me
...
‘I do not know, sir,’ said I
...
’
‘If there’s any doubt about the matter, he is,’ returned the
doctor
...
It doesn’t lie in human nature
...
‘Well, Jim,’ says he, ‘just see the good that comes of being
dainty in your food
...
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
...
’ 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
...
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
...
Every
time we had a crack at them, we were to take it, saving our
own lives, with the extremest care
...
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
...
It’s always a ship, and
they can get to buccaneering again, I suppose
...
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
...
‘Flag of truce!’ I heard someone say; and then, immediFree eBooks at Planet eBook
...
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Treasure Island
20
...
It was still quite early, and the coldest morning that I
think I ever was abroad in—a chill that pierced into the
marrow
...
But where Silver
stood with his lieutenant, all was still in shadow, and they
waded knee-deep in a low white vapour that had crawled
during the night out of the morass
...
It was plainly a
damp, feverish, unhealthy spot
...
‘Ten to one this is
a trick
...
‘Who goes? Stand, or we fire
...
The captain was in the porch, keeping himself carefully
out of the way of a treacherous shot, should any be intended
...
Dr
...
The watch below, all hands to load muskets
...
’
And then he turned again to the mutineers
...
com
147
‘And what do you want with your flag of truce?’ he
cried
...
‘Cap’n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms,’ he
shouted
...
Who’s he?’ cried the captain
...
‘Me, sir
...
’ ‘We’re
willing to submit, if we can come to terms, and no bones
about it
...
’
‘My man,’ said Captain Smollett, ‘I have not the slightest desire to talk to you
...
If there’s any treachery, it’ll be on your side,
and the Lord help you
...
‘A
word from you’s enough
...
’
We could see the man who carried the flag of truce attempting to hold Silver back
...
But Silver laughed at him aloud and slapped him on the back as if
the idea of alarm had been absurd
...
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
...
’
Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll
...
But he stuck to it like a man in silence, and at last
arrived before the captain, whom he saluted in the handsomest style
...
‘Here you are, my man,’ said the captain, raising his
head
...
’
‘You ain’t a-going to let me inside, cap’n?’ complained
Long John
...
’
‘Why, Silver,’ said the captain, ‘if you had pleased to be
an honest man, you might have been sitting in your galley
...
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
...
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...
Doctor, here’s my service
...
’
‘If you have anything to say, my man, better say it,’ said
the captain
...
‘Dooty is
dooty, to be sure
...
I don’t deny it was a good lay
...
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
...
Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the
wind’s eye
...
He wasn’t dead when I got round to him, not he
...
All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you would
never have guessed it from his tone
...
Ben Gunn’s last words came back to my
mind
...
‘Well, here it is,’ said Silver
...
You have a chart,
haven’t you?’
150
Treasure Island
‘That’s as may be,’ replied the captain
...
‘You needn’t be so husky with a man; there ain’t a particle
of service in that, and you may lay to it
...
Now, I never meant you no harm, myself
...
‘We know exactly what you meant to do, and we don’t
care, for now, you see, you can’t do it
...
‘If Abe Gray—’ Silver broke out
...
Smollett
...
So there’s my mind for you, my man,
on that
...
He had been growing nettled before, but now he pulled
himself together
...
‘I would set no limits to what gentlemen might consider shipshape, or might not, as the case
were
...
’
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
...
‘Now,’ resumed Silver, ‘here it is
...
com
151
stoving of their heads in while asleep
...
Either you come aboard along of us,
once the treasure shipped, and then I’ll give you my affydavy, upon my word of honour, to clap you somewhere safe
ashore
...
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
...
Handsomer you couldn’t look
to get, now you
...
’
Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out the
ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand
...
‘Every last word, by thunder!’ answered John
...
’
‘Very good,’ said the captain
...
If
you’ll come up one by one, unarmed, I’ll engage to clap you
all in irons and take you home to a fair trial in England
...
You
can’t find the treasure
...
You can’t fight us— Gray,
there, got away from five of you
...
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
152
Treasure Island
back when next I meet you
...
Bundle out of
this, please, hand over hand, and double quick
...
He shook the fire out of his pipe
...
‘Not I,’ returned the captain
...
Not a man among us moved
...
Then
he spat into the spring
...
‘That’s what I think of ye
...
Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour’s out, ye’ll
laugh upon the other side
...
’
And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, ploughed
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 afterwards among the trees
...
com
153
21
...
It was the first time we had ever seen him angry
...
And then, as we all 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
...
Trelawney,
I’m surprised at you, sir
...
’
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
...
Then he
spoke
...
I pitched
it in red-hot on purpose; and before the hour’s out, as he
said, we shall be boarded
...
I’ve no manner of doubt
that we can drub them, if you choose
...
154
Treasure Island
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
...
In the middle, the cutlasses
lay ranged
...
’
The iron fire-basket was carried bodily out by Mr
...
‘Hawkins hasn’t had his breakfast
...
‘Lively, now, my lad; you’ll want it before you’ve
done
...
’
And while this was going on, the captain completed, in
his own mind, the plan of the defence
...
‘See, and
don’t expose yourself; keep within, and fire through the
porch
...
Joyce, you stand by
the west, my man
...
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
...
Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account
at the shooting; we’ll stand by to load and bear a hand
...
As soon as
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...
Soon the sane was baking and the resin melting
in the logs of the block house
...
An hour passed away
...
‘This is as dull as the doldrums
...
’
And just at that moment came the first news of the attack
...
‘Thank you, sir,’ returned Joyce with the same quiet civility
...
So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up
his musket and fired
...
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
156
Treasure Island
and empty as before
...
‘Did you hit your man?’ asked the captain
...
‘I believe not, sir
...
‘Load his gun, Hawkins
...
Livesey
...
I saw the three flashes—two close together—one farther to the west
...
‘And how many on yours,
Mr
...
There had come
many from the north—seven by the squire’s computation,
eight or nine according to Gray
...
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
...
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
...
Suddenly,
with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the
woods on the north side and ran straight on the stockade
...
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...
Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men fell,
one forwards into the enclosure, two back on the outside
...
Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good
their footing inside our defences, 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
...
Several shots were
fired, but such was the hurry of the marksmen that not one
appears to have taken effect
...
The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at
the middle loophole
...
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
...
Our position was utterly reversed
...
The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our
comparative safety
...
‘Out, lads, out, and fight ‘em in the open! Cutlasses!’
cried the captain
...
I dashed out of the door into
the clear sunlight
...
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 the face
...
Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastwards, and with my
cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house
...
He roared aloud,
and his hanger went up above his head, flashing in the sunlight
...
When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade to make
an end of us
...
Well, so short had been the interval that when I
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
And yet, in
this breath of time, the fight was over and the victory was
ours
...
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
...
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
...
‘And you,
lads, back into cover
...
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
survivors would soon be back where they had left their muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence
...
Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot
through the head, never to move again; while right in the
centre, the squire was supporting the captain, one as pale
160
Treasure Island
as the other
...
Trelawney
...
Smollett
...
’
‘Five!’ cried the captain
...
Five against
three leaves us four to nine
...
We were seven to nineteen then, or thought we
were, and that’s as bad to bear
...
Trelawney on board the schooner died
that same evening of his wound
...
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...
How My Sea
Adventure Began
T
HERE was no return of the mutineers—not so much
as another shot out of the woods
...
Squire and I cooked outside in spite of the
danger, and even outside we could hardly tell what we were
at, for horror of the loud groans that reached us from the
doctor’s patients
...
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
...
No organ was fatally injured
...
com
163
shoulder-blade and touched the lung, not badly; the second
had only torn and displaced some muscles in the calf
...
My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a fleabite
...
After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain’s side awhile in consultation; and when they had talked
to their hearts’ 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
...
‘Why, in the name of Davy Jones,’ said he, ‘is Dr
...
‘He’s about the last of this crew for that,
I take it
...
’
‘I take it,’ replied I, ‘the doctor has his idea; and if I am
right, he’s going now to see Ben Gunn
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
I 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
...
com
165
tain I should not be allowed to leave the enclosure, 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
...
Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admirable opportunity
...
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 towards saving all of us
...
It was already
late in the afternoon, although still warm and sunny
...
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
...
The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a breath,
the surface smooth and blue, but still these great rollers
166
Treasure Island
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
...
Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage
...
The HISPANIOLA, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly
portrayed from the truck to the waterline, the Jolly Roger
hanging from her peak
...
Apparently they were talking and laughing, though at that distance—upwards of a
mile—I could, of course, hear no word of what was said
...
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
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
...
The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still
some eighth of a mile further down the spit, and it took
me a goodish while to get up with it, crawling, often on all
fours, among the scrub
...
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 centre of the dell, sure enough, a little
tent of goat- skins, like what the gipsies carry about with
them in England
...
The thing was extremely small, even for me,
and I can hardly imagine that it could have floated with a
full-sized man
...
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
168
Treasure Island
first and the worst coracle ever made by man
...
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
...
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 watchmen
unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with
little risk
...
It was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose
...
As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared, absolute blackness settled
down on Treasure Island
...
One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated
pirates lay carousing in the swamp
...
She had swung round to the ebb— her bow
was now towards me—the only lights on board were in the
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
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 downwards, on
the surface
...
The Ebb-tide Runs
T
HE 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 seaway; but she was the most cross-grained, lop-sided craft to
manage
...
Even Ben Gunn himself has admitted that she was ‘queer to handle till you knew 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
...
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 farther I
went, the brisker grew the current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser and had laid hold
...
All round the hull, in
the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered
like a little mountain stream
...
com
171
and the HISPANIOLA would go humming down the tide
...
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
...
But the light airs which had begun blowing
from the south-east and south had hauled round after
nightfall into the south-west
...
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
...
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
...
One I recognized for the coxswain’s, Israel Hands, that
had been Flint’s gunner in former days
...
Both men were
plainly the worse of drink, and they were still drinking, for
172
Treasure Island
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
...
Oaths flew like
hailstones, and every now and then there came forth such
an explosion as I thought was sure to end in blows
...
On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp-fire
burning warmly through the shore-side trees
...
I had heard it on the
voyage more than once and remembered these words:
‘But one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five
...
But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers
were as callous as the sea they sailed on
...
The breeze had but little action on the coracle, and I was
almost instantly swept against the bows of the HISPANIOLA
...
com
173
heel, spinning slowly, end for end, across the current
...
At length I was clear
of my dangerous neighbour, and just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord that was trailing
overboard across the stern bulwarks
...
Why I should have done so I can hardly say
...
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
...
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
...
It showed me Hands and his companion
locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a hand upon
the other’s throat
...
I could see nothing for the moment
but these two furious, encrimsoned faces swaying together
174
Treasure Island
under the smoky lamp, and I shut my eyes to let them grow
once more familiar with the darkness
...
At
the same moment, she yawed sharply and seemed to change
her course
...
I opened my eyes at once
...
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
...
There, right behind me, was the glow of the campfire
...
com
175
er, it went spinning through the narrows for the open sea
...
I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched skiff and
devoutly recommended my spirit to its Maker
...
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
...
176
Treasure Island
24
...
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
...
I was scarce a quarter of a mile to seaward, and it was
my first thought to paddle in and land
...
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
...
I have understood since that they were sea lions, and enFree eBooks at Planet eBook
...
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
...
In the meantime I had a better chance, as I supposed,
before me
...
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
...
There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea
...
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
...
I began after a little to grow very bold and sat up to try
178
Treasure Island
my skill at paddling
...
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
...
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
...
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 dry land, full of
peaks and smooth places and valleys
...
‘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
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...
’ No sooner thought upon than done
...
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 could see
the cool green tree-tops swaying together in the breeze, and
I felt sure I should make the next promontory without fail
...
The glow of the sun from above, its thousandfold 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
...
Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the
HISPANIOLA under sail
...
The HISPANIOLA was under her main-sail and two jibs,
and the beautiful white canvas shone in the sun like snow
or silver
...
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
...
‘Clumsy fellows,’ said I; ‘they must still be drunk as owls
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
com
181
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
...
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
...
If not, the men were lying drunk
below, where I might batten them down, perhaps, and do
what I chose with the ship
...
She headed nearly due south,
yawing, of course, all the time
...
I have said this was the worst thing possible for me, for helpless as she looked in this situation, with
the canvas cracking 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
...
The breeze fell for some
seconds, very low, and the current gradually turning her,
the HISPANIOLA revolved slowly round her centre 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
...
She
182
Treasure Island
was stock-still but for the current
...
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
...
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
...
Immensely tall she looked to me from my low station in the
coracle
...
I had
scarce time to think—scarce time to act and save myself
...
The bowsprit was over my head
...
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
...
com
183
25
...
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
...
I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the main- sail,
which was still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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 anyway disturbed by
this rough usage
...
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
...
The moan, which told
of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his jaw
hung open went right to my heart
...
com
185
me
...
‘Come aboard, Mr
...
He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone
to express surprise
...
’
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
...
All the lockfast places had been broken open in quest of
the chart
...
The bulkheads, all painted in clear white
and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty hands
...
One of the doctor’s medical books lay
open on the table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose,
for pipelights
...
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
...
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
...
He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from
his mouth
...
‘Much hurt?’ I asked him
...
‘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
...
‘He warn’t no seaman anyhow
...
Hands; and you’ll please regard me as your captain until further notice
...
Some
of the colour 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
...
Hands; and by your leave, I’ll strike ‘em
...
’
And again dodging the boom, I ran to the colour lines,
handed down their cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard
...
‘And there’s
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...
‘I reckon,’ he said at last, ‘I reckon, Cap’n Hawkins, you’ll
kind of want to get ashore now
...
’
‘Why, yes,’ says I, ‘with all my heart, Mr
...
Say on
...
‘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
...
Without I gives you a hint, you ain’t
that man, as far’s I can tell
...
’
‘I’ll tell you one thing,’ says I: ‘I’m not going back to Captain Kidd’s anchorage
...
’
‘To be sure you did,’ he cried
...
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
...
’
Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this
...
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
188
Treasure Island
before high water, when we might beach her safely and wait
till the subsiding tide permitted us to land
...
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
...
We skimmed before it
like a bird, the coast of the island flashing by and the view
changing every minute
...
I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased
with the bright, sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast
...
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
...
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...
Israel Hands
T
HE wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the
west
...
Only, as we had no power to anchor and dared not beach
her till the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung
on our hands
...
‘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
...
‘This here’s an unlucky ship, this HISPANIOLA, Jim,’ he
went on, blinking
...
I never seen sich dirty luck,
not I
...
Hands, but not the spirit; you
190
Treasure Island
must know that already,’ I replied
...
’
‘Ah!’ says he
...
Howsomever, sperrits don’t
reckon for much, by what I’ve seen
...
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
...
The whole story was a pretext
...
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
...
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
...
‘Far better
...
‘I’ll bring you port, Mr
...
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...
’
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
While I was thus turning the business over in my mind,
I had not been idle with my body
...
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
...
‘Cut me a junk o’ that,’ says he, ‘for I haven’t no knife and
hardly strength enough, so be as I had
...
’
‘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
...
‘Now, you tell me why
...
‘You were asking me just now about the
dead
...
Hands,
that’s why
...
com
193
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
...
‘For thirty years,’ 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
...
Him as
strikes first is my fancy; dead men don’t bite; them’s my
views—amen, so be it
...
The tide’s made good enough by now
...
’
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
...
Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land closed
around us
...
Right before us, at the southern end, we
saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapidation
...
It was a sad sight, but it showed us that the anchorage was calm
...
Fine flat sand, never a cat’s paw, trees all
around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that
old ship
...
Come high water, all hands take a pull upon
the line, and off she comes as sweet as natur’
...
We’re near the bit now, and she’s too much
way on her
...
The excitement of these last manoeuvres had somewhat interfered with the watch I had kept hitherto, sharply
enough, upon the coxswain
...
com
195
wide before the bows
...
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 half-way towards me, with
the dirk in his right hand
...
At the same instant, he threw
himself forward and I leapt sideways towards the bows
...
Before he could recover, I was safe out of the corner
where he had me trapped, with all the deck to dodge about
...
The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash
nor sound; the priming was useless with sea-water
...
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
...
I had no
time to try my other pistol, nor indeed much inclination,
for I was sure it would be useless
...
Once so caught, and nine or
ten inches of the blood-stained dirk would be my last experience on this side of eternity
...
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
...
Still, as I say, it was a boy’s game, and I thought I
could hold my own at it against an elderly seaman with a
wounded thigh
...
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
...
So
near were we, indeed, that my head came against the coxFree eBooks at Planet eBook
...
Blow
and all, I was the first afoot again, for Hands had got involved with the dead body
...
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 cross-trees
...
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
...
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
...
‘One more step, Mr
...
198
Treasure Island
He stopped instantly
...
At last, with a swallow or two, he spoke, his face still
wearing the same expression of extreme perplexity
...
‘Jim,’ says he, ‘I reckon we’re fouled, you and me, and
we’ll have to sign articles
...
’
I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath, back went
his right hand over his shoulder
...
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
...
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...
“Pieces of Eight”
O
WING to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out
over the water, and from my perch on the cross-trees
I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay
...
He rose once
to the surface in a lather of foam and blood and then sank
again for good
...
A fish or two whipped past his body
...
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
...
The hot blood was running over my back
and chest
...
I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut
my eyes as if to cover up the peril
...
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
...
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
...
These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and then
regained the deck by the starboard shrouds
...
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
...
He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks,
where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet,
life-size, indeed, but how different from life’s colour 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
...
com
201
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
...
There he lay, with that bald head across
the knees of the man who had killed him and the quick fishes steering to and fro over both
...
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
...
I began to see a danger to the ship
...
Of course, when the schooner canted
over, the boom had swung out-board, and the cap of it and
a foot or two of sail hung even under water
...
At last I got my knife and cut
the halyards
...
For the rest, the HISPANIOLA
must trust to luck, like myself
...
It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her
beam-ends
...
It seemed shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both hands for
a last security, I let myself drop softly overboard
...
About the same
time, the sun went fairly down and the breeze whistled low
in the dusk among the tossing pines
...
There lay the schooner, clear at last
from buccaneers and ready for our own men to board and
get to sea again
...
Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but the recapture of the HISPANIOLA was a clenching answer, and I
hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not
lost my time
...
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
...
com
203
soon turned the corner of that hill, and not long after waded
to the mid-calf across the watercourse
...
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
...
For if I could
see this radiance, might it not reach the eyes 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 towards 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
...
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
...
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
...
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 colour appeared among the trees
...
For the life of me I could not think what it might be
...
The western end was already steeped in moon- shine;
the rest, and the block house itself, still lay in a black shadow chequered with long silvery streaks of light
...
There was not a soul stirring nor a sound beside the noises
of the breeze
...
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
...
To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and knees
and crawled, without a sound, towards the corner of the
house
...
It is not a pleasant noise in itself, and I have often
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
The sea-cry of the watch, that beautiful ‘All’s
well,’ never fell more reassuringly on my ear
...
If it had been Silver and his
lads that were now creeping in on them, not a soul would
have seen daybreak
...
By this time I had got to the door and stood up
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
206
Treasure Island
I had no time left me to recover
...
‘Bring a torch, Dick,’ said Silver when my capture was
thus assured
...
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...
In the Enemy’s Camp
T
HE red glare of the torch, lighting up the interior of
the block house, showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized
...
I could only judge that all had
perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been
there to perish with them
...
Five of them were on their feet, flushed
and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness
...
I remembered the man who had been shot
and had run back among the woods in the great attack, and
doubted not that this was he
...
He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and
more stern than I was used to
...
‘So,’ said he, ‘here’s Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers!
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
’
And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask and
began to fill a pipe
...
Hawkins; HE’LL excuse you,
you may lay to that
...
I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you,
but this here gets away from me clean, it do
...
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
...
‘Now, you see, Jim, so be as you ARE here,’ says he, ‘I’ll
give you a piece of my mind
...
I always wanted you to jine and take
your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you’ve
got to
...
‘Dooty is dooty,’ says he, and
right he is
...
The doctor himself is gone dead again you—’ungrateful scamp’ was what
he said; and the short and the long of the whole story is
about here: you can’t go back to your own lot, for they won’t
210
Treasure Island
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
...
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’m all for argyment; I never seen good come out o’ threatening
...
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
...
Take your
bearings
...
’
‘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
...
‘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
...
com
211
terday morning, Mr
...
Says he,
‘Cap’n Silver, you’re sold out
...
’ Well, maybe we’d
been taking a glass, and a song to help it round
...
Leastways, none of us had looked out
...
‘Well,’ says the doctor, ‘let’s bargain
...
As for them, they’ve tramped; I don’t
know where’s they are
...
‘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
...
We’re about sick of him
...
‘Is that all?’ I asked
...
‘And now I am to choose?’
‘And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that,’
said Silver
...
Let the worst come to the worst, it’s
little I care
...
212
Treasure Island
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
...
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
...
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
...
Kill
another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a
witness to save you from the gallows
...
And while they were still staring, I broke
out again, ‘And now, Mr
...
’
‘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 favourably affected by
my courage
...
com
213
man—Morgan by name—whom I had seen in Long John’s
public-house upon the quays of Bristol
...
’
‘Well, and see here,’ added the sea-cook
...
First and last, we’ve split
upon Jim Hawkins!’
‘Then here goes!’ said Morgan with an oath
...
‘Avast, there!’ cried Silver
...
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 yard-arm, shiver my
timbers, and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes
...
’
Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others
...
‘I stood hazing long enough from one,’ added another
...
’
‘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
...
Him that
wants shall get it
...
Well, I’m ready
...
’
Not a man stirred; not a man answered
...
‘Well, you’re a gay lot to look at, anyway
...
P’r’aps you can understand
King George’s English
...
I’m cap’n
here because I’m the best man by a long sea-mile
...
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
...
I stood straight up
against the wall, my heart still going like a sledge- hammer, but with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom
...
They, on their part, drew
gradually together towards the far end of the block house,
and the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ear continuously, like a stream
...
Free eBooks at Planet eBook
...
‘Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to
...
This crew’s dissatisfied; this crew don’t
vally bullying a marlin-spike; 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
...
’
And with an elaborate sea-salute, this fellow, a long, illlooking, yellow-eyed man of five and thirty, stepped coolly
towards the door and disappeared out of the house
...
‘According
to rules,’ said one
...
And so
with one remark or another all marched out and left Silver
and me alone with the torch
...
‘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
...
But, you mark, I stand by you
through thick and thin
...
I was about desperate to lose that much blunt, and
be hanged into the bargain
...
I
says to myself, you stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins’ll
stand by you
...
You save your witness,
216
Treasure Island
and he’ll save your neck!’
I began dimly to understand
...
‘Aye, by gum, I do!’ he answered
...
Once I looked into that bay, Jim
Hawkins, and seen no schooner—well, I’m tough, but I
gave out
...
I’ll save your life—if so be as I
can—from them
...
’
I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was
asking—he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout
...
‘It’s a bargain!’ cried Long John
...
‘Understand me, Jim,’ he said, returning
...
I’m on squire’s side now
...
How you done it, I
don’t know, but safe it is
...
I never much believed in neither of THEM
...
I ask no questions, nor I won’t let others
...
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
...
‘I need a
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...
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
...
‘And there’s something
under that, no doubt—something, surely, under that, Jim—
bad or good
...
218
Treasure Island
29
...
Silver briefly
agreed, and this emissary retired again, leaving us together
in the dark
...
I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out
...
About half-way 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 colours in the moon and torchlight
...
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 towards the house
...
com
219
find me watching them
...
‘I’ve still a shot in my locker
...
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
...
‘I won’t eat you
...
I know the rules, I do; I won’t hurt a depytation
...
The sea-cook looked at what had been given him
...
‘Where might
you have got the paper? Why, hillo! Look here, now; this
ain’t lucky! You’ve gone and cut this out of a Bible
...
‘There! Wot did I say? No
good’ll come o’ that, I said
...
‘You’ll all swing now, I reckon
...
‘Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers,’ said Silver
...
’
But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in
...
‘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
...
’
‘Thanky, George,’ replied the sea-cook
...
Well, what is it, anyway? Ah! ‘Deposed’—
that’s it, is it? Very pretty wrote, to be sure; like print, I
swear
...
You’ll be cap’n next, I
shouldn’t wonder
...
’
‘Come, now,’ said George, ‘you don’t fool this crew no
more
...
’
‘I thought you said you knowed the rules,’ returned Silver contemptuously
...
After that, we’ll see
...
First, you’ve made a
hash of this cruise—you’ll be a bold man to say no to that
...
Why did they want out? I dunno, but it’s pretty plain they
wanted it
...
Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to
play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you
...
com
221
there’s this here boy
...
‘Enough, too,’ retorted George
...
’
‘Well now, look here, I’ll answer these four p’ints; one
after another I’ll answer ‘em
...
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’s
insolence to up and stand for cap’n over me—you, that sank
the lot of us! By the powers! But this tops the stiffest yarn
to nothing
...
‘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
...
You’ve neither sense nor memory, and
I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you come
222
Treasure Island
to sea
...
’
‘Go on, John,’ said Morgan
...
’
‘Ah, the others!’ returned John
...
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
...
‘Who’s that?’ says one
...
I knowed him well,’ says another
...
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
...
Kill that
boy? Not me, mates! And number three? Ah, well, there’s a
deal to say to number three
...
And as for number two, and why I made
a bargain—well, you came crawling on your knees to me
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...
Why the doctor had given
it to him was more than I could fancy
...
They
leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse
...
‘Yes,’ said one, ‘that’s Flint, sure enough
...
F
...
’
‘Mighty pretty,’ said George
...
’
Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself with a
hand against the wall: ‘Now I give you warning, George,’ he
cried
...
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 hain’t got the invention of a cockroach
...
’
‘That’s fair enow,’ said the old man Morgan
...
‘You lost the ship; I
found the treasure
...
’
‘Silver!’ they cried
...
‘George, I reckon
you’ll have to wait another turn, friend; and lucky for you as
I’m not a revengeful man
...
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
...
‘A Bible with a bit cut out!’ returned Silver derisively
...
It don’t bind no more’n a ballad-book
...
‘Well, I
reckon that’s worth having too
...
It was around about the size of a crown piece
...
’ 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 ‘Depposed
...
com
225
ity 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
...
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
...
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
...
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 door-post—by a clear, hearty voice
hailing us from the margin of the wood:
‘Block house, ahoy!’ it cried
...
’
And the doctor it was
...
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
...
‘You, doctor! Top o’ the morning to you, sir!’ cried Silver,
broad awake and beaming with good nature in a moment
...
George, shake up your
timbers, son, and help Dr
...
All adoin’ well, your patients was—all well and merry
...
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...
‘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
...
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
...
‘Well, well,’ he said at last, ‘duty first and pleasure afterwards, as you might have said yourself, Silver
...
’
A moment afterwards he had entered the block house
and with one grim nod to me proceeded with his work
among the sick
...
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
...
Well, George,
how goes it? You’re a pretty colour, certainly; why, your liver, man, is upside down
...
‘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 honour not to lose a man for
King George (God bless him!) and the gallows
...
‘Dick don’t feel well, sir,’ said one
...
‘Well, step up here, Dick,
and let me see your tongue
...
Another
fever
...
’
‘That comes—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
...
Camp in a
bog, would you? Silver, I’m surprised at you
...
‘Well,’ he added after he had dosed them round and they
had taken his prescriptions, with really laughable humility,
more like charity schoolchildren than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates—‘well, that’s done for today
...
’
And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly
...
com
229
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
...
‘Si-lence!’ he roared and looked about him positively
like a lion
...
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
...
Hawkins, will you give me your word of honour as a young
gentleman—for a young gentleman you are, although poor
born—your word of honour not to slip your cable?’
I readily gave the pledge required
...
Good day to you, sir, and all our dooties to the squire and
Cap’n Smollett
...
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
...
But he was twice
the man the rest were, and his last night’s victory had given
230
Treasure Island
him a huge preponderance on their minds
...
‘No, by thunder!’ he cried
...
’
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
...
‘They might round upon us in a
twinkle of an eye if we was seen to hurry
...
‘You’ll make a note of this here also, doctor,’ says he, ‘and
the boy’ll tell you how I saved his life, and were deposed for
it too, and you may lay to that
...
’
Silver was a changed man once he was out there and
had his back to his friends and the block house; his cheeks
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...
‘Why, John, you’re not afraid?’ asked Dr
...
‘Doctor, I’m no coward; no, not I—not SO much!’ and he
snapped his fingers
...
But I’ll own
up fairly, I’ve the shakes upon me for the gallows
...
And I step aside—see here—and leave you
and Jim alone
...
‘So, Jim,’ said the doctor sadly, ‘here you are
...
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
...
I have blamed myself enough; my life’s forfeit anyway, and I should have been dead by now if Silver
hadn’t stood for me; and doctor, believe this, I can die—and
232
Treasure Island
I dare say I deserve it—but what I fear is torture
...
Whip over, and we’ll run
for it
...
’
‘I know, I know,’ he cried
...
I’ll take it on my shoulders, holus bolus, blame and shame,
my boy; but stay here, I cannot let you
...
’
‘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
...
But, doctor, you did not let me finish
...
At half tide she must be high and dry
...
Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he heard
me out in silence
...
‘Every step, it’s you that saves 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
...
Oh, by Jupiter, and
talking of Ben Gunn! Why, this is the mischief in person
...
‘Silver! I’ll give you a piece of advice,’ he
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...
’
‘Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain’t,’ said Silver
...
’
‘Well, Silver,’ replied the doctor, ‘if that is so, I’ll go one
step further: look out for squalls when you find it
...
What you’re after, why you left the
block house, why you 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
...
’
‘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
...
’
Silver’s face was radiant
...
‘Well, that’s my first concession,’ added the doctor
...
I’m off to seek it for you,
and that itself will show you if I speak at random
...
’
And Dr
...
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...
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
...
Jim, that’s one 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
...
They had lit 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
...
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
236
Treasure Island
it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign
...
And this the more surprised me, for I thought he had never
shown himself so cunning as he did then
...
I got what I wanted, I did
...
Where they have it, I don’t
know yet; but once we hit the treasure, we’ll have to jump
about and find out
...
’
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
...
I’ve got my piece o’ news, and
thanky to him for that; but it’s over and done
...
Once we got the ship and treasure both and
off to sea like jolly companions, why then we’ll talk Mr
...
’
It was no wonder the men were in a good humour now
...
Should the scheme
he had now sketched prove feasible, Silver, already doubly a
traitor, would not hesitate to adopt it
...
com
237
and freedom with the pirates to a bare escape from hanging,
which was the best he had to hope on our side
...
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 behaviour 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
...
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
...
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
...
The other men were variously burthened, some carrying
picks and shovels—for that had been the very first neces238
Treasure Island
sary they brought ashore from the HISPANIOLA— others
laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
of N
...
E
...
S
...
and by E
...
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...
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 towards
the south into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzenmast Hill
...
Every here and there, one of a
different species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours, 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
...
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
...
At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted,
marish 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
...
A heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the
place of grass
...
The air, besides, was fresh and stirring,
and this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to our senses
...
About the centre, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I followed—I tethered by my rope,
he ploughing, with deep pants, among the sliding gravel
...
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
...
‘He can’t ‘a found the treasure,’ said old Morgan, hurrying past us from the right, ‘for that’s clean a-top
...
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
...
‘He was a seaman,’ said George Merry, who, bolder than
the rest, had gone up close and was examining the rags of
clothing
...
’
‘Aye, aye,’ said Silver; ‘like enough; you wouldn’t look to
find a bishop here, I reckon
...
com
241
bones to lie? ‘Tain’t in natur’
...
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
...
‘Here’s the compass; there’s the tip-top p’int o’ Skeleton
Island, stickin’ out like a tooth
...
’
It was done
...
S
...
and by E
...
Right
up there is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly dollars
...
This is one of HIS jokes, and no mistake
...
Aye,
that would be Allardyce
...
’
‘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
...
242
Treasure Island
‘There ain’t a thing left here,’ said Merry, still feeling
round among the bones; ‘not a copper doit nor a baccy box
...
’
‘No, by gum, it don’t,’ agreed Silver; ‘not nat’ral, nor not
nice, says you
...
Six they were,
and six are we; and bones is what they are now
...
‘Billy took me in
...
’
‘Dead—aye, sure enough he’s dead and gone below,’ said
the fellow with the bandage; ‘but if ever sperrit walked, it
would be Flint’s
...
‘Fifteen Men’
were his only song, mates; and I tell you true, I never rightly
liked to hear it since
...
’
‘Come, come,’ said Silver; ‘stow this talk
...
Care killed a cat
...
’
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
...
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...
The Treasure-hunt—The
Voice Among the Trees
P
ARTLY 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
...
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
...
There was no sound but that of the distant
breakers, mounting from all round, and the chirp of countless insects in the brush
...
Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass
...
‘Spy-glass shoulder,’ I take it,
means that lower p’int there
...
I’ve half a mind to dine first
...
‘Thinkin’ o’ Flint—I
244
Treasure Island
think it were—as done me
...
‘He were 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
...
That’s a true word
...
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
...
‘It’s Flint, by ——!’ cried Merry
...
Coming 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
...
com
245
‘Come,’ said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to get
the word out; ‘this won’t do
...
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
...
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
...
Long after the voice had died
away they still stared in silence, dreadfully, before them
...
‘Let’s go
...
’
Dick had his Bible out and was praying volubly
...
Still Silver was unconquered
...
‘Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby,’ he muttered; ‘not one but us that’s here
...
I never was feared of Flint in
his life, and, by the powers, I’ll face him dead
...
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
...
‘Don’t you cross a sperrit
...
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
...
‘Sperrit? Well, maybe,’ he said
...
There was an echo
...
But you can
never tell what will affect the superstitious, and to my wonder, George Merry was greatly relieved
...
‘You’ve a head upon your shoulders, John, and no mistake
...
And come to think
on it, it was like Flint’s voice, I grant you, but not just so
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...
It was liker somebody else’s voice
now—it was liker—‘
‘By the powers, Ben Gunn!’ roared Silver
...
‘Ben Gunn it were!’
‘It don’t make much odds, do it, now?’ asked Dick
...
’
But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn
...
’
It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned and
how the natural colour had revived in their faces
...
He had said the truth: dead or alive, nobody minded
Ben Gunn
...
‘I told you,’ said he—‘I told you you had sp’iled your Bible
...
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 Dr
...
248
Treasure Island
It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our way
lay a little downhill, for, as I have said, the plateau tilted towards the west
...
Striking, as we did,
pretty near north-west 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 oracle
...
So with the second
...
It was conspicuous far to sea both
on the east and west and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon the chart
...
The thought of the money, as they drew nearer,
swallowed up their previous terrors
...
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 fuFree eBooks at Planet eBook
...
Certainly
he took no pains to hide his thoughts, and certainly I read
them like print
...
Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to
keep up with the rapid pace of the treasure-hunters
...
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 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
...
‘Huzza, mates, all together!’ shouted Merry; and the
foremost broke into a run
...
A low cry arose
...
Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for
the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom
...
On one of
these boards I saw, branded with a hot iron, the name WALRUS—the name of Flint’s ship
...
The CACHE had been found
and rifled; the seven hundred thousand pounds were gone!
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...
The Fall of a Chieftain
T
HERE never was such an overturn in this world
...
But
with Silver the blow passed almost instantly
...
‘Jim,’ he whispered, ‘take that, and stand by for trouble
...
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
...
His looks were not quite friendly, and I was so revolted at
these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering,
‘So you’ve changed sides again
...
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
...
He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths
...
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‘Two guineas!’ roared Merry, shaking it at Silver
...
’
‘Pig-nuts!’ repeated Merry, in a scream
...
Look in the face of him and you’ll see it wrote there
...
’
But this time everyone was entirely in Merry’s favour
...
One thing I observed, which
looked well for us: they all got out upon the opposite side
from Silver
...
Silver never moved; he watched them,
very upright on his crutch, and looked as cool as ever I saw
him
...
At last Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters
...
Now, mates—‘
He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant
to lead a charge
...
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253
musket-shots flashed out of the thicket
...
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
...
‘Forward!’ cried the doctor
...
We
must head ‘em off the boats
...
I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us
...
As it was,
he was already thirty yards behind us and on the verge of
strangling when we reached the brow of the slope
...
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 Mizzenmast Hill
...
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Treasure Island
‘Thank ye kindly, doctor,’ says he
...
And so it’s you, Ben
Gunn!’ he added
...
’
‘I’m Ben Gunn, I am,’ replied the maroon, wriggling
like an eel in his embarrassment
...
Silver? Pretty well, I thank ye, says
you
...
It was a story
that profoundly interested Silver; and Ben Gunn, the halfidiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end
...
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
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...
‘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 the 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
...
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
...
You would have let old John be cut to bits,
and never given it a thought, doctor
...
Livesey cheerily
...
The doctor,
with the pick-axe, demolished one of them, and then we
all got aboard the other and set out to go round by sea for
North Inlet
...
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
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Treasure Island
a smooth sea
...
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
...
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
...
Another anchor was got
ready and dropped in a fathom and a half of water
...
A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of
the cave
...
To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of my escapade either in the
way of blame or praise
...
‘John Silver,’ he said, ‘you’re a prodigious villain and imposter—a monstrous imposter, sir
...
Well, then, I will not
...
’
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...
‘I dare you to thank me!’ cried the squire
...
Stand back
...
It was a large, airy
place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water, overhung
with ferns
...
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
...
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
...
‘Come in, Jim,’ said the captain
...
You’re too much of the born favourite for me
...
‘Ah!’ said the captain, and that was all he said
...
Never, I am sure, were people gayer or
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Treasure Island
happier
...
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...
And Last
T
HE 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
...
Therefore the work was pushed on briskly
...
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
...
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
...
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
...
It was only a snatch that reached our ears, followed
by the former silence
...
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
...
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,
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...
Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor
answered him
...
‘Right you were, sir,’ replied Silver; ‘and precious little
odds which, to you and me
...
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
...
‘You would lose your precious life, and you may lay to
that
...
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
...
‘You’re the man to keep your word,
we know that
...
Only once we heard a gunshot a great way off and
supposed them to be hunting
...
We left a good stock of powder and shot,
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Treasure Island
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
...
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 colours flying that the captain had
flown and fought under at the palisade
...
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
...
The
doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we had left,
and where they were to find them
...
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—leapt 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 main-sail
...
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263
next I looked out they had disappeared from the spit, and
the spit itself had almost melted out of sight in the growing
distance
...
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
...
It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most
beautiful land-locked 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
...
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
...
Silver was gone
...
’ But this was not all
...
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
...
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
...
Five men only of those who had
sailed returned with her
...
All of us had an ample share of the treasure and used it
wisely or foolishly, according to our natures
...
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
...
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265
teen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth
...
Of Silver we have heard no more
...
It is to be hoped so,
I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are
very small
...
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!’
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Treasure Island
Title: Treasure Island
Description: Treasure Island as originally told by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Description: Treasure Island as originally told by Robert Louis Stevenson.