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 VE RI

TAS

HARVARD

COLLEGE

LIBRARY
Эт
EACH VOLUME SOLD SEPARATELY.

COLLECTION

OF

BRITISH AUTHORS

TAUCHNITZ EDITION.

VOL. 2255.

TREASURE ISLAND .

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

IN ONE VOLUME .

LEIPZIG : BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ .

PARIS : C. REINWALD & CIE, 15 , RUE DES SAINTS-PÈRES.
PARIS : THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY, 224 , RUE DE RIVOLI,
AND AT NICE, 48, QUAI ST. JEAN BAPTISte.

This Collection
is published with copyright for Continental circulation, but
all purchasers are earnestly requested not to introduce the
volumes into England or into any British Colony.
04.31.95
 COLLECTION

OF

BRITISH AUTHORS

TAUCHNITZ EDITION.

VOL. 2255.

TREASURE ISLAND BY R. L. STEVENSON.

IN ONE VOLUME.
 VE RI

TAS

HARVARD

COLLEGE

LIBRARY
 EACH VOLUME SOLD SEPARATELY .

COLLECTION

OF

BRITISH AUTHORS

TAUCHNITZ EDITION .

VOL. 2255.

TREASURE ISLAND .

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

IN ONE VOLUME .

LEIPZIG : BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ .

PARIS : C. REINWALD & CIE, 15 , RUE DES SAINTS-PÈRES.
PARIS : THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY, 224, RUE DE RIVOLI,
AND AT NICE, 48 , QUAI ST. JEAN BAPTISTE.

This Collection
is published with copyright for Continental circulation, but
all purchasers are earnestly requested not to introduce the
volumes into England or into any British Colony.
304/5:31.98
 COLLECTION
OF

BRITISH AUTHORS

TAUCHNITZ EDITION.

VOL. 2255.

TREASURE ISLAND BY R. L. STEVENSON.

IN ONE VOLUME.
 TAUCHNITZ EDITION.
By the same Author,
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE , & AN INLAND VOYAGE I vol.
KIDNAPPED I vol.
THE BLACK ARROW I vol.
THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE Ivol.
THE MERRY MEN, ETC. I vol.
ACROSS THE PLAINS, ETC. I vol.
ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS I vol.
CATRIONA. A SEQUEL TO " KIDNAPPED I vol.
TREASURE ISLAND .

BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON,

AUTHOR OF " KIDNAPPED," " THE BLACK ARROW," ETC.

COPYRIGHT EDITION.

LEIPZIG

BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ

1884.
3040331.78
:

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM THE ESTATE OF
CHARLES S. DIXWELL
MARCH 8 , 1935
 ΤΟ

S. L. O. ,

AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN,

IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHOSE CLASSIC TASTE

THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE HAS BEEN DESIGNED ,

IT IS NOW, IN RETURN FOR NUMEROUS DELIGHTFUL HOURS,

AND WITH THE KINDEST WISHES,

DEDICATED

BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND,

THE AUTHOR.
TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER.

IF sailor tales to sailor tunes,

Storm and adventure , heat and cold,
If schooners , islands , and maroons
And Buccaneers and buried Gold,
And all the old romance , retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please , as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of to-day:

-So be it, and fall on! If not,

If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave :
So be it, also ! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!
 CONTENTS.

PART I.— THE OLD BUCCANEER . Page

CHAPTER I. The Old Sea Dog at the "Admiral Benbow " II
II. Black Dog appears and disappears • • 20
III. The black Spot • 29
IV. The Sea Chest 37
V. The last of the Blind Man 45
VI. The Captain's Papers 52

PART II.-THE SEA COOK.

CHAPTER VII. I go to Bristol . · 61
VIII. At the Sign of the " Spy-glass ' 67
IX. Powder and Arms 74
X. The Voyage 81
XI. What I heard in the Apple Barrel 89
XII. Council of War 97

PART III.- MY SHORE ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER XIII. How I began my Shore Adventure • 105
XIV. The first Blow II2
XV. The Man of the Island . 120

PART IV. THE STOCKADE .

CHAPTER XVI. Narrative continued by the Doctor : How
the Ship was abandoned . 129
10 CONTENTS.

Page
CHAPTER XVII . Narrative continued by the Doctor :
The jolly Boat's last Trip 136
XVIII. Narrative continued by the Doctor :
End of the first Day's Fighting 142
XIX . Narrative resumed by Jim Hawkins :
The Garrison in the Stockade • 149
XX. Silver's Embassy 157
XXI. The Attack . 165

PART V. - MY SEA ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER XXII. How I began my Sea Adventure 174
XXIII . The Ebb-Tide runs 182
XXIV. The Cruise of the Coracle 189
XXV. I strike the jolly Roger 197
XXVI. Israel Hands • 204
XXVII. "Pieces of Eight” . 215

PART VI.- CAPTAIN SILVER.

CHAPTER XXVIII . In the Enemy's Camp 224
XXIX. The black Spot again . 235
XXX. On Parole 244
XXXI. The Treasure Hunt-Flint's Pointer 254
XXXII. The Treasure Hunt - The Voice
among the Trees 263
XXXIII. The Fall of a Chieftain 271
XXXIV. And last . 279
 TREASURE ISLAND .

PART I.
THE OLD BUCCANEER.

CHAPTER I.
THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE ADMIRAL BENBOW."

SQUIRE TRELAWNEY , Dr. Livesey , and the rest of

these gentlemen having asked me to write down the
whole particulars about Treasure Island , from the be-
ginning to the end , keeping nothing back but the
bearings of the island , and that only because there is
still treasure not yet lifted , I take up my pen in the
year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my
father kept the " Admiral Benbow" inn, and the brown
old seaman , with the sabre cut , first took up his lodg-
ing under our roof.
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 shoulders
12 TREASURE ISLAND .

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. I remember him looking
round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so,
and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang
so often afterwards :-
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho , and a bottle of rum!"
in the high , old tottering voice that seemed to have
been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he
rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike
that he carried , and when my father appeared , called
roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought
to him, he drank slowly , like a connoisseur , lingering
on the taste , and still looking about him at the cliffs
and up at our signboard.
"This is a handy cove," says he, at length ; “ and a
pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate ? "
My father told him no , very little company , the
more was the pity.
"Well , then ," said he , "this is the berth for me.
Here you , matey," he cried to the man who trundled
the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest.
I'll stay here a bit ," he continued . "I'm a plain man ;
rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head
up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call
me? You mought call me captain . Oh , I see what
you're at- there ;" and he threw down three or four
gold pieces on the threshold . "You can tell me when
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE "" ADMIRAL BENBOW." 13

I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as

a commander.
And indeed , bad as his clothes were , and coarsely
as he spoke , he had none of the appearance of a man
who sailed before the mast ; but seemed like a mate
or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The
man who came with the barrow told us the mail had
set him down the morning before at the "Royal
George;" that he had inquired what inns there were
along the coast , and hearing ours well spoken of, I
suppose , and described as lonely , had chosen it from
the others for his place of residence. And that was
all we could learn of our guest.
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he
hung round the cove , or upon the cliffs , with a brass
telescope ; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour
next the fire , and drank rum and water very strong.
Mostly he would not speak when spoken to ; only look
up sudden and fierce , and blow through his nose like
a fog-horn ; and we and the people who came about our
house soon learned to let him be. Every day , when
he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any sea-
faring men had gone by along the road ? At first we
thought it was the want of company of his own kind
that made him ask this question ; but at last we began
to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman
put up at the " Admiral Benbow " (as now and then
some did , making by the coast road for Bristol) , he
would look in at him through the curtained door before
14. TREASURE ISLAND .

he entered the parlour ; and he was always sure to be

as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For
me , at least , there was no secret about the matter; for
I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken
me aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny
on the first of every month if I would only keep my
"weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,"
and let him know the moment he appeared . Often
enough, when the first of the month came round, and I
applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through
his nose at me , and stare me down ; but before the
week was out he was sure to think better of it , bring
me my fourpenny piece , and repeat his orders to look
out for "the seafaring man with one leg. "
How that personage haunted my dreams , I need
scarcely tell you. On stormy nights , when the wind
shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared
along the cove and up the cliffs , I would see him in a
thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expres-
sions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now
at the hip ; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature
who had never had but the one leg , and that in the
middle of his body. To see him leap and run and
pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of night-
mares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly
fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the
seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the
captain himself than anybody else who knew him .
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE "6' ADMIRAL BENBOW." 15

There were nights when he took a deal more rum and

water than his head would carry ; and then he would
sometimes sit and sing his wicked , old, wild sea-songs,
minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for
glasses round , and force all the trembling company to
listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing.
Often I have heard the house shaking with " Yo-ho-ho,
and a bottle of rum ; " all the neighbours joining in for
dear life , with the fear of death upon them , and each
singing louder than the other, to avoid remark. For in
these fits he was the most over-riding companion ever
known ; he would slap his hand on the table for silence
all round ; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a
question , or sometimes because none was put , and so
he judged the company was not following his story. Nor
would he allow any one to leave the inn till he had
drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed .
His stories were what frightened people worst of all.
Dreadful stories they were ; about hanging, and walking
the plank , and storms at sea , and the Dry Tortugas,
and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By
his own account he must have lived his life among some
of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the
sea; and the language in which he told these stories
shocked our plain country people almost as much as
the crimes that he described. My father was always
saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon
cease coming there to be tyrannised over and put down,
and sent shivering to their beds ; but I really believe
16 TREASURE ISLAND .

his presence did us good. People were frightened at

the time , but on looking back they rather liked it ; it
was a fine excitement in a quiet country life ; and there
was even a party of the younger men who pretended to
admire him , calling him a "true sea-dog," and a " real
old salt ," and such like names , and saying there was
the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us ; for he
kept on staying week after week, and at last month.
after month, so that all the money had been long ex-
hausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart
to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the
captain blew through his nose so loudly, that you might
say he roared , and stared my poor father out of the
room . I have seen him wringing his hands after such
a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror
he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and
unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the captain made no
change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings
from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having
fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though
it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the
appearance of his coat, which he patched himself up-
stairs in his room , and which , before the end , was no-
thing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
and he never spoke with any but the neighbours , and
with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum.
The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open,
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE " ADMIRAL BENBOW." 17

He was only once crossed , and that was towards

the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline
that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon
to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother,
and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his
horse should come down from the hamlet , for we had
no stabling at the old "Benbow." I followed him in,
and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright
doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his
bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the
coltish country folk , and above all , with that filthy,
heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far
gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he
--the captain , that is- began to pipe up his eternal
song:-
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho , and a bottle of rum !
Drink and the devil had done for the rest-
Yo-ho-ho , and a bottle of rum !"

At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest " to be

that identical big box of his up-stairs in the front
room , and the thought had been mingled in my night-
mares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But
by this time we had all long ceased to pay any par-
ticular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to
nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did
not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for
a moment quite angrily before he went on with his
talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for
Treasure Island. 2
18 TREASURE ISLAND.

the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually

brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped
his hand upon the table before him in a way we all
knew to mean -silence. The voices stopped at once,
all but Dr. Livesey's; he went on as before , speaking
clear and kind , and drawing briskly at his pipe be-
tween every word or two. The captain glared at him
for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder,
and at last broke out with a villainous , low oath:
"Silence, there, between decks ! "

"Were you addressing me , sir?" says the doctor ;

and when the ruffian had told him , with another oath,
that this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you,
sir," replies the doctor, "that if you keep on drinking
rum , the world will soon be quit of a very dirty
scoundrel!"
The old fellow's fury was awful.He sprang to his
feet , drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife , and,
balancing it open on the palm of his hand , threatened
to pin the doctor to the wall.
The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to
him , as before , over his shoulder , and in the same
tone of voice ; rather high , so that all the room might
hear, but perfectly calm and steady:-
"If you do not put that knife this instant in your
pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at
next assizes."
Then followed a battle of looks between them; but
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW." 19

the captain soon knuckled under , put up his weapon,

and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.
"And now, sir ," continued the doctor , "since I
now know there's such a fellow in my district , you
may count I'll have an eye upon you day and night.
I'm not a doctor only; I'm a magistrate ; and if I catch
a breath of complaint against you , if it's only for a
piece of incivility like to-night's, I'll take effectual
means to have you hunted down and routed out of
this. Let that suffice."
Soon after Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door,
and he rode away; but the captain held his peace that
evening, and for many evenings to come.
20 TREASURE ISLAND.

CHAPTER II.
BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS.

Ir was not very long after this that there occurred

the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of
the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs.
It was a bitter cold winter, with long , hard frosts and
heavy gales; and it was plain from the first that my
poor father was little likely to see the spring. He
sank daily, and my mother and I had all the inn upon
our hands ; and were kept busy enough, without pay-
ing much regard to our unpleasant guest.
It was one January morning, very early-a pinch-
ing, 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. The captain had risen earlier than usual,
and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under
the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope
under his arm , his hat tilted back upon his head. I
remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake
as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him, as
he turned the big rock , was a loud snort of indigna-
tion , as though his mind was still running upon Dr.
Livesey.
Well, mother was up-stairs with father; and I was
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 21

laying the breakfast-table against the captain's return,

when the parlour door opened , and a man stepped in
on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a
pale , tallowy creature , wanting two fingers of the left
hand ; and, though he wore a cutlass, he did not look
much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for
seafaring men , with one leg or two , and I remember
this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he
had a smack of the sea about him too.
I asked him what was for his service , and he said
he would take rum; but as I was going out of the
room to fetch it he sat down upon a table , and mo-
tioned me to draw near. I paused where I was with
my napkin in my hand.
"Come here, sonny," says he. " Come nearer here."
I took a step nearer.
"Is this here table for my mate , Bill ? " he asked,
with a kind of leer.
I told him I did not know his mate Bill ; and this
was for a person who stayed in our house , whom we
called the captain.
"Well ," said he , "my mate Bill would be called
the captain , as like as not. He has a cut on one
cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him , par-
ticularly in drink, has my mate, Bill. We'll put it, for
argument like , that your captain has a cut on one
cheek- and we'll put it , if you like , that that cheek's
the right one. Ah , well ! I told you. Now , is my
mate Bill in this here house ? ”
22 TREASURE ISLAND .

I told him he was out walking.

"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
And when I had pointed out the rock and told
him how the captain was likely to return , and how
soon, and answered a few other questions , " Ah ," said
he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."
The expression of his face as he said these words
was not at all pleasant , and I had my own reasons for
thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even sup-
posing he meant what he said. But it was no affair
of mine , I thought; and , besides , it was difficult to
know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about
just inside the inn door , peering round the corner like
a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself
into the road, but he immediately called me back,
and , as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy , a
most horrible change came over his tallowy face , and
he ordered me in , with an oath that made me jump.
As soon as I was back again he returned to his former
manner, half fawning , half sneering, patted me on the
shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and he had taken
quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said
he, "as like you as two blocks , and he's all the pride
of my ' art. But the great thing for boys is discipline,
sonny- discipline. Now, if you had sailed along of
Bill , you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to
twice- not you. That was never Bill's way, nor the
way of sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough,
is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm , bless
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 23

his old ' art , to be sure. 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."
So saying , the stranger backed along with me into
the parlour, and put me behind him in the corner , SO
that we were both hidden by the open door. I was
very uneasy and alarmed , as you may fancy, and it
rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger
was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt
of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath ;
and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallow-
ing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the
throat.
At last in strode the captain , slammed the door
behind him , without looking to the right or left , and
marched straight across the room to where his break-
fast awaited him.
"Bill ," said the stranger , in a voice that I thought
he had tried to make bold and big.
The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us ;
all the brown had gone out of his face , and even his
nose was blue ; he had the look of a man who sees a
ghost , or the evil one, or something worse, if anything
can be ; and, upon my word, I felt sorry to see him, all
in a moment, turn so old and sick.
"Come, Bill, you know me ; you know an old ship-
mate, Bill, surely," said the stranger.
The captain made a sort of gasp.
14 TREASURE ISLAND.

he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be

as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For
me , at least , there was no secret about the matter; for
I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken
me aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny
on the first of every month if I would only keep my
"weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,"
and let him know the moment he appeared . Often
enough, when the first of the month came round, and I
applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through
his nose at me , and stare me down ; but before the
week was out he was sure to think better of it , bring
me my fourpenny piece , and repeat his orders to look
out for " the seafaring man with one leg.”
How that personage haunted my dreams , I need
scarcely tell you. On stormy nights , when the wind .
shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared
along the cove and up the cliffs , I would see him in a
thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expres-
sions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now
at the hip ; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature
who had never had but the one leg , and that in the
middle of his body. To see him leap and run and
pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of night-
mares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly
fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the
seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the
captain himself than anybody else who knew him.
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE “ ADMIRAL BENBOW." 15

There were nights when he took a deal more rum and

water than his head would carry ; and then he would
sometimes sit and sing his wicked , old, wild sea-songs,
minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for
glasses round, and force all the trembling company to
listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing.
Often I have heard the house shaking with " Yo-ho-ho,
and a bottle of rum ; " all the neighbours joining in for
dear life , with the fear of death upon them , and each
singing louder than the other, to avoid remark . For in
these fits he was the most over-riding companion ever
known ; he would slap his hand on the table for silence
all round ; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a
question , or sometimes because none was put , and so
he judged the company was not following his story. Nor
would he allow any one to leave the inn till he had
drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed .
His stories were what frightened people worst of all.
Dreadful stories they were ; about hanging, and walking
the plank , and storms at sea , and the Dry Tortugas,
and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By
his own account he must have lived his life among some
of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the
sea; and the language in which he told these stories
shocked our plain country people almost as much as
the crimes that he described . My father was always
saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon
cease coming there to be tyrannised over and put down,
and sent shivering to their beds ; but I really believe
16 TREASURE ISLAND.

his presence did us good. People were frightened at

the time , but on looking back they rather liked it ; it
was a fine excitement in a quiet country life ; and there
was even a party of the younger men who pretended to
admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and a " real
old salt ," and such like names , and saying there was
the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
In one way, indeed , he bade fair to ruin us ; for he
kept on staying week after week, and at last month
after month , so that all the money had been long ex-
hausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart
to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the
captain blew through his nose so loudly, that you might
say he roared , and stared my poor father out of the
room . I have seen him wringing his hands after such
a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror
he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and
unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the captain made no
change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings
from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having
fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though
it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the
appearance of his coat, which he patched himself up-
stairs in his room , and which , before the end, was no-
thing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
and he never spoke with any but the neighbours , and
with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum.
The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open,
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW." 17

He was only once crossed , and that was towards

the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline
that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon
to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother,
and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his
horse should come down from the hamlet , for we had
no stabling at the old " Benbow." I followed him in,
and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright
doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his
bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the
coltish country folk , and above all , with that filthy,
heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far
gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he
--the captain , that is-began to pipe up his eternal
song:-
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !
Drink and the devil had done for the rest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! "

At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest " to be

that identical big box of his up-stairs in the front
room , and the thought had been mingled in my night-
mares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But
by this time we had all long ceased to pay any par-
ticular notice to the song; it was new, that night , to
nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did
.
not produce an agreeable effect , for he looked up for
a moment quite angrily before he went on with his
talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for
Treasure Island. 2
18 TREASURE ISLAND.

the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually

brightened up at his own music , and at last flapped
his hand upon the table before him in a way we all
knew to mean- silence. The voices stopped at once,
all but Dr. Livesey's ; he went on as before , speaking
clear and kind , and drawing briskly at his pipe be-
tween every word or two. The captain glared at him
for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder,
and at last broke out with a villainous , low oath:
"Silence, there, between decks ! "

"Were you addressing me , sir?" says the doctor ;

and when the ruffian had told him , with another oath,
that this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you,
sir," replies the doctor , "that if you keep on drinking
rum , the world will soon be quit of a very dirty
scoundrel ! "
The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his
feet , drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife , and,
balancing it open on the palm of his hand , threatened
to pin the doctor to the wall.
The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to
him , as before , over his shoulder , and in the same
tone of voice ; rather high , so that all the room might
hear, but perfectly calm and steady:-
"If you do not put that knife this instant in your
pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at
next assizes."
Then followed a battle of looks between them; but
 THE OLD SEA DOG AT THE "ADMIRAL BENBOW." 19

the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon,

and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.
"And now, sir," continued the doctor , "since I
now know there's such a fellow in my district , you
may count I'll have an eye upon you day and night.
I'm not a doctor only; I'm a magistrate ; and if I catch
a breath of complaint against you , if it's only for a
piece of incivility like to-night's , I'll take effectual
means to have you hunted down and routed out of
this. Let that suffice ."
Soon after Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door,
and he rode away; but the captain held his peace that
evening, and for many evenings to come.
20 TREASURE ISLAND .

CHAPTER II.
BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS.

It was not very long after this that there occurred

the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of
the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs.
It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and
heavy gales ; and it was plain from the first that my
poor father was little likely to see the spring. He
sank daily, and my mother and I had all the inn upon
our hands ; and were kept busy enough, without pay-
ing much regard to our unpleasant guest.
It was one January morning, very early-a pinch-
ing, 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. The captain had risen earlier than usual,
and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under
the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope
under his arm , his hat tilted back upon his head. I
remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake
as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him, as
he turned the big rock, was a loud snort of indigna-
tion , as though his mind was still running upon Dr.
Livesey.
Well , mother was up-stairs with father; and I was
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 21

laying the breakfast-table against the captain's return,

when the parlour door opened , and a man stepped in
on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a
pale , tallowy creature , wanting two fingers of the left
hand ; and, though he wore a cutlass, he did not look
much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for
seafaring men , with one leg or two , and I remember
this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he
had a smack of the sea about him too.
I asked him what was for his service , and he said
he would take rum; but as I was going out of the
room to fetch it he sat down upon a table , and mo-
tioned me to draw near. I paused where I was with
my napkin in my hand.
"Come here, sonny," says he. "Come nearer here."
I took a step nearer.
"Is this here table for my mate , Bill ?" he asked,
with a kind of leer.
I told him I did not know his mate Bill ; and this
was for a person who stayed in our house , whom we
called the captain.
"Well ," said he , " my mate Bill would be called
the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one
cheek , and a mighty pleasant way with him , par-
ticularly in drink, has my mate, Bill. We'll put it, for
argument like , that your captain has a cut on one
cheek- and we'll put it , if you like , that that cheek's
the right one. Ah , well ! I told you. Now, is my
mate Bill in this here house?"
22 TREASURE ISLAND .

I told him he was out walking.

"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
And when I had pointed out the rock and told
him how the captain was likely to return , and how
soon, and answered a few other questions , " Ah," said
he, " this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill.”
The expression of his face as he said these words
was not at all pleasant , and I had my own reasons for
thinking that the stranger was mistaken , even sup-
posing he meant what he said. But it was no affair
of mine , I thought; and , besides , it was difficult to
know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about
just inside the inn door , peering round the corner like
a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself
into the road , but he immediately called me back,
and , as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy , a
most horrible change came over his tallowy face , and
he ordered me in , with an oath that made me jump.
As soon as I was back again he returned to his former
manner, half fawning , half sneering, patted me on the
shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and he had taken
quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said
he, " as like you as two blocks , and he's all the pride
of my 'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline,
sonny- discipline. Now, if you had sailed along of
Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to
twice - not you. That was never Bill's way , nor the
way of sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough,
is my mate Bill , with a spy-glass under his arm , bless
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS . 23

his old ' art, to be sure. 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."
So saying, the stranger backed along with me into
the parlour, and put me behind him in the corner , so
that we were both hidden by the open door. I was
very uneasy and alarmed , as you may fancy , and it
rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger
was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt
of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath ;
and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallow-
ing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the
throat.
At last in strode the captain , slammed the door
behind him , without looking to the right or left , and
marched straight across the room to where his break-
fast awaited him.
"Bill ," said the stranger , in a voice that I thought
he had tried to make bold and big.
The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us ;
all the brown had gone out of his face , and even his
nose was blue ; he had the look of a man who sees a
ghost , or the evil one, or something worse, if anything
can be ; and, upon my word, I felt sorry to see him, all
in a moment, turn so old and sick.
"Come , Bill, you know me ; you know an old ship-
mate, Bill, surely," said the stranger.
The captain made a sort of gasp.
24 TREASURE ISLAND .

"Black Dog ! " said he.

"And who else?" returned the other, getting more
at his ease. "Black Dog as ever was , come for to see
his old shipmate Billy, at the ' Admiral Benbow ' inn.
Ah , Bill , Bill , we have seen a sight of times , us two,
since I lost them two talons ," holding up his mutilated
hand.
"Now, look here ," said the captain; "you've run
me down; here I am; well, then, speak up : what is
it?"
"That's you , Bill ," returned Black Dog , " you're in
the right of it, Billy. I'll have a glass of rum from
this dear child here, as I've took such a liking to ; and
we'll sit down , if you please , and talk square , like old
shipmates."
When I returned with the rum, they were already
seated on either side of the captain's breakfast table-
Black Dog next to the door, and sitting sideways , so
as to have one eye on his old shipmate , and one , as I
thought, on his retreat.
He bade me go , and leave the door wide open.
"None of your keyholes for me , sonny," he said ; and
I left them together, and retired into the bar.
For a long time , though I certainly did my best to
listen, I could hear nothing but a low gabbling; but at
last the voices began to grow higher , and I could pick
up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the captain.
"No, no, no, no ; and an end of it ! " he cried once.
And again , "If it comes to swinging , swing all , say I."
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 25

Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous ex-

plosion of oaths and other noises -the chair and table
went over in a lump , a clash of steel followed , and
then a cry of pain , and the next instant I saw Black
Dog in full flight, and the captain hotly pursuing, both
with drawn cutlasses , and the former streaming blood
from the left shoulder. Just at the door, the captain
aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut , which
would certainly have split him to the chine had it not
been intercepted by our big signboard of Admiral
Benbow. You may see the notch on the lower side of
the frame to this day.
That blow was the last of the battle. Once out
upon the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed
a wonderful clean pair of heels , and disappeared over
the edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain, for
his part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered
man. Then he passed his hand over his eyes several
times, and at last turned back into the house.
"Jim," says he, "rum; " and as he spoke, he reeled
a little , and caught himself with one hand against the
wall.
"Are you hurt ? ” cried I.
"Rum," he repeated. "I must get away from here.
Rum ! rum! "
I ran to fetch it ; but I was quite unsteadied by all
that had fallen out , and I broke one glass and fouled
the tap , and while I was still getting in my own way,
I heard a loud fall in the parlour, and, running in, be-
26 TREASURE ISLAND.

held the captain lying full length upon the floor. At

the same instant my mother , alarmed by the cries and
fighting, came running down-stairs to help me. Between
us we raised his head . He was breathing very loud
and hard; but his eyes were closed, and his face a hor-
rible colour.
"Dear , deary me," cried my mother, "what a dis-
grace upon the house ! And your poor father sick ! "
In the meantime , we had no idea what to do to
help the captain , nor any other thought but that he
had got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger.
I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down his
throat; but his teeth were tightly shut, and his jaws as
strong as iron. It was a happy relief for us when the
door opened and Doctor Livesey came in , on his visit
to my father.
"Oh, doctor," we cried, "what shall we do? Where
is he wounded ?"
"Wounded? A fiddle-stick's end ! " said the doctor.
"No more wounded than you or I. The man has had
a stroke , as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins , just
you run up-stairs to your husband , and tell him , if
possible, nothing about it. For my part, I must do my
best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life ; and Jim
here will get me a basin."
When I got back with the basin , the doctor had
already ripped up the captain's sleeve, and exposed his
great sinewy arm . It was tattooed in several places.
"Here's luck ," " A fair wind ," and "Billy Bones his
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 27

fancy," were very neatly and clearly executed on the

forearm ; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch
of a gallows and a man hanging from it- done , as I
thought, with great spirit.
"Prophetic ," said the doctor , touching this picture
with his finger. " And now, Master Billy Bones, if that
be your name , we'll have a look at the colour of your
blood. Jim," he said, " are you afraid of blood?"
"No, sir," said I.
"Well, then ," said he , "you hold the basin ; " and
with that he took his lancet and opened a vein.
A great deal of blood was taken before the captain
opened his eyes and looked mistily about him. First
he recognised the doctor with an unmistakable frown ;
then his glance fell upon me , and he looked relieved.
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. You have
been drinking rum; you have had a stroke , precisely
as I told you ; and I have just , very much against my
own will , dragged you headforemost out of the grave.
Now, Mr. Bones--- "
"That's not my name," he interrupted.
"Much I care ," returned the doctor. " It's the
name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance ; and I call
you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I have to
say to you is this : one glass of rum won't kill you, but
28 TREASURE ISLAND.

if you take one you'll take another and another , and I

stake my wig if you don't break off short, you'll die—
do you understand that ?—die, and go to your own
place , like the man in the Bible. Come , now, make
an effort. I'll help you to your bed for once."
Between us , with much trouble , we managed to
hoist him up-stairs , and laid him on his bed , where
his head fell back on the pillow, as if he were almost
fainting.
"Now, mind you ," said the doctor , "I clear my
conscience the name of rum for you is death.”
And with that he went off to see my father, taking
me with him by the arm.
"This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had closed
the door. "I have drawn blood enough to keep him
quiet a while ; he should lie for a week where he is—
that is the best thing for him and you ; but another
stroke would settle him."
 THE BLACK SPOT. 29

CHAPTER III.
THE BLACK SPOT.

ABOUT noon I stopped at the captain's door with

some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying very
much as we had left him , only a little higher, and he
seemed both weak and excited.
"Jim ," he said , "you're the only one here that's
worth anything ; and you know I've been always good
to you . Never a month but I've given you a silver
fourpenny for yourself. And now you see , mate , I'm
pretty low, and deserted by all ; and Jim , you'll bring
me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey? ”
"The doctor ". -I began.
But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble
voice, but heartily. "Doctors is all swabs ," he said;
"and that doctor there , why, what do he know about
seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and
mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed
land a-heaving like the sea with earthquakes-what do
the doctor know of lands like that?-and I lived on
rum , I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man
and wife , to me ; and if I'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. "Look, Jim , how my fingers
30 TREASURE ISLAND.

fidges ," he continued , in the pleading tone. "I can't

keep ' em still, not I. I haven't had a drop this blessed
day. That doctor's a fool , I tell you. If I don't have
a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors ; I seen some
on ' em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there;
behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get
the horrors , I'm a man that has lived rough , and I'll
raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't
hurt me. I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin,
Jim."
He was growing more and more excited , and this
alarmed me for my father, who was very low that day,
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 want none of your money," said I , " but what
you owe my father. I'll get you one glass , and no
more."
When I brought it to him, he seized it greedily,
and drank it out.
"Ay, ay," said he, "that's some better, sure enough.
And now, matey, did that doctor say how long I was
to lie here in this old berth ?"
"A week at least," said I.
"Thunder!" he cried. " A week! I can't do that:
they'd have the black spot on me by then. The lubbers
is going about to get the wind of me this blessed mo-
ment; lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want
to nail what is another's. Is that seamanly behaviour,
 THE BLACK SPOT . 31

now, I want to know? But I'm a saving soul. I never

wasted good money of mine , nor lost it neither ; and
I'll trick ' em again. I'm not afraid on ' em. I'll shake
out another reef, matey, and daddle ' em again."
As he was thus speaking , he had risen from bed
with great difficulty, holding to my shoulder with a
grip that almost made me cry out, and moving his legs
like so much dead weight. His words, spirited as they
were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness
of the voice in which they were uttered. He paused
when he had got into a sitting position on the edge.
"That doctor's done me," he murmured. "My ears
is singing. Lay me back."
Before I could do much to help him he had fallen
back again to his former place , where he lay for a
while silent.
"Jim," he said, at length, "you saw that seafaring
man to-day?"
"Black Dog?" I asked.
"Ah ! Black Dog," says he. "He's a bad ' un ; but
there's worse that put him on. Now, if I can't get
away nohow, and they tip me the black spot , mind
you , it's my old sea-chest they're after; you get on a
horse-you can, can't you? Well, then , you get on a
horse , and go to-well , yes , I will !-to that eternal
Doctor swab, and tell him to pipe all hands-magis-
trates and sich-and he'll lay ' em aboard at the
'Admiral Benbow'-all old Flint's crew , man and boy,
all on ' em that's left. I was first mate , I was , old
32 TREASURE ISLAND.

Flint's first mate , and I'm the on'y one as knows the
place. He gave it me to Savannah , when he lay
a-dying, like as if I was to now, you see. But you
won't peach unless they get the black spot on me, or
unless you see that Black Dog again , or a seafaring
man with one leg, Jim- him above all."
"But what is the black spot, Captain ?" I asked.
"That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get
that. But you keep your weather- eye open , Jim, and
I'll share with you equals, upon my honour."
He wandered a little longer , his voice growing
weaker ; but soon after I had given him his medicine,
which he took like a child , with the remark , " If ever
a seaman wanted drugs, it's me ," he fell at last into a
heavy, swoon-like sleep, in which I left him. What
I should have done had all gone well I do not know.
Probably I should have told the whole story to the
doctor; for I was in mortal fear lest the captain should
repent of his confessions and make an end of me. But
as things fell out, my poor father died quite suddenly
that evening, which put all other matters on one side.
Our natural distress , the visits of the 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.
He got down-stairs next morning , to be sure , and
had his meals as usual , though he ate little , and had
more, I am afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for he
 THE BLACK SPOT. 33

helped himself out of the bar , scowling and blowing

through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. On
the night before the funeral he was as drunk as ever ;
and it was shocking, in that house of mourning, to hear
him singing away at his ugly old sea-song; 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. I have said the captain was weak ;
and indeed he seemed rather to grow weaker than
regain his strength. 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 went for support, and
breathing hard and fast like a man on a steep mountain.
He never particularly addressed me, and it is my belief
he had as good as forgotten his confidences ; but his
temper was more flighty , and , allowing for his bodily
weakness, more violent than ever. He had an alarming
way now when he was drunk of drawing his cutlass
and laying it bare before him on the table. But, with
all that, he minded people less, and seemed shut up in
his own thoughts and rather wandering. Once , for
instance, to our extreme wonder, he piped up to a
different air , a kind of country love-song , that he must 1
have learned in his youth before he had begun to fol-
low the sea.
So things passed until , the day after the funeral,
Treasure Island. 3
34 TREASURE ISLAND,

and about three o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty after-

noon, I was standing at the door for a moment, full of
sad thoughts about my father , when I saw some one
drawing slowly near along the road. He was plainly
blind, for he tapped before him with a stick, and wore
a great green shade over his eyes and nose ; and he
was hunched , as if with age or weakness , and wore a
huge old tattered sea-cloak with a hood, that made him
appear positively deformed. I never saw in my life a
more dreadful looking figure. He stopped a little from
the inn, and, raising his voice in an odd sing-song, ad-
dressed 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 good man," said I.
"I hear a voice ," said he " a young voice. Will
you give me your hand , my kind , young friend , and
lead me in?"
I held out my hand , and the horrible , soft-spoken,
eyeless creature gripped it in a moment like a vice. I
was so much startled that I struggled to withdraw; but
the blind man pulled me close up to him with a single
action of his arm.
"Now, boy," he said, " take me in to the captain."
"Sir," said I, "upon my word I dare not.”
 THE BLACK SPOT. 35

"Oh," he sneered, "that's it! Take me in straight,

or I'll break your arm."
And he gave it, as he spoke , a wrench that made
me cry out.
"Sir," said I, " it is for yourself I mean. The cap-
tain is not what he used to be. He sits with a drawn
cutlass . Another gentleman "--
"Come, now, march," interrupted he ; and I never
heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind
man's. It cowed me more than the pain ; and I began
to obey him at once , walking straight in at the door
and towards the parlour, where our sick old buccaneer
was sitting, dazed with rum. The blind man clung
close to me, holding me in one iron fist, and leaning
almost more of his weight on me than I could carry.
"Lead me straight up to him, and when I'm in view,
cry out , 'Here's a friend for you , Bill.' If you don't,
I'll do this; " and with that he gave me a twitch that
I thought would have made me faint. Between this
and that, I was so utterly terrified of the blind beggar
that I forgot my terror of the captain, and as I opened
the parlour door , cried out the words he had ordered
in a trembling voice.
The poor captain raised his eyes , and at one look
the rum went out of him , and left him staring sober.
The expression of his face was not so much of terror
as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise,
but I do not believe he had enough force left in his
body.
3*
 E
36 TREASUR ISLAND .

"Now, Bill , sit where you are ," said the beggar.
"If I can't see , I can hear a finger stirring. Business
is business. Hold out your left hand. Boy , take his
left hand by the wrist, and bring it near to my right."
We both obeyed him to the letter , and I saw him
pass something from the hollow of the hand that held
his stick into the palm of the captain's , which closed
upon it instantly.
"And now that's done ," said the blind man ; and
at the words he suddenly left hold of me , and , with
incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of the
parlour and into the road , where , as I still stood
motionless , I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping
into the distance.
It was some time before either I or the captain
seemed to gather our senses ; but at length , and about
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.
"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours. We'll do
them yet;" and he sprang to his feet.
Even as he did so , he reeled , put his hand to his
throat , stood swaying for a moment , and then , with a
peculiar sound, fell from his whole height face fore-
most to the floor.
I ran to him at once , calling to my mother. But
haste was all in vain. The captain had been struck
dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing
to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man,
 THE SEA CHEST. 37

though of late I had begun to pity him , but as soon

as I saw that he was dead , I burst into a flood of
tears. It was the second death I had known , and the
sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart.

CHAPTER IV.
THE SEA CHEST.

I LOST no time , of course, in telling my mother all

that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long
before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and
dangerous position. Some of the man's money— if he
had any- was certainly due to us; but it was not
likely that our captain's shipmates , above all the two
specimens seen by me , Black Dog and the blind
beggar, would be inclined to give up their booty in
payment of the dead man's debts. The captain's
order to mount at once and ride for Doctor Livesey
would have left my mother alone and unprotected,
which was not to be thought of. Indeed , it seemed
impossible for either of us to remain much longer in
the house : the fall of coals in the kitchen grate , the
very ticking of the clock , filled us with alarms. The
neighbourhood , to our ears , seemed haunted by ap-
proaching 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
38 TREASURE ISLAND ,

saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror. Some-

thing must speedily be resolved upon; and it occurred
to us at last to go forth together and seek help in the
neighbouring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bare-
headed as we were , we ran out at once in the gather-
ing evening and the frosty fog.
The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away
though out of view, on the other side of the next cove ;
and what greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite
direction from that whence the blind man had made
his appearance , and whither he had presumably re-
turned. We were not many minutes on the road,
though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other
and hearken. But there was no unusual sound— nothing
but the low wash of the ripple and the croaking of the
crows in the wood.
It was already candle-light when we reached the
hamlet , and I shall never forget how much I was
cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and windows ;
but that , as it proved , was the best of the help we
were likely to get in that quarter. For-you would
have thought men would have been ashamed of them-
selves- no soul would consent to return with us to the
"Admiral Benbow." The more we told of our troubles,
the more- man, woman , and child- they clung to the
shelter of their houses. The name of Captain Flint,
though it was strange to me, was well enough known to
some there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some
of the men who had been to field-work on the far side
 THE SEA CHEST. 39

of the "Admiral Benbow" remembered , besides , to

have seen several strangers on the road , and , taking
them to be smugglers , to have bolted away; and one
at least had seen a little lugger in what we called
Kitt's Hole. For that matter, any one who was a com-
rade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to
death. And the short and the long of the matter was,
that while we could get several who were willing enough
to ride to Dr. Livesey's which lay in another direction,
not one would help us to defend the inn.
They say cowardice is infectious ; but then argu-
ment is , on the other hand , a great emboldener; and
so when each had said his say, my mother made them
a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that
belonged to her fatherless boy; " if none of the rest of
you dare ," she said , "Jim and I dare. Back we will
go, the way we came, and small thanks to you big,
hulking, chicken-hearted men. We'll have that chest
open, if we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag,
Mrs. Crossley, to bring back our lawful money in."
Of course, I said I would go with my mother; and
of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness ; but
even then not a man would go along with us. All
they would do was to give me a loaded pistol , lest we
were attacked ; and to promise to have horses ready
saddled, in case we were pursued on our return; while
one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's in search
of armed assistance.
My heart was beating finely when we two set forth
40 TREASURE ISLAND.

in the cold night upon this dangerous venture. A full

moon was beginning to rise and peered redly through
the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our
haste , for it was plain , before we came forth again,
that all would be as bright as day, and our departure
exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We slipped
along the hedges , noiseless and swift , nor did we see
or hear anything to increase our terrors, till , to our
huge relief, the door of the " Admiral Benbow" had
closed behind us.
I slipped the bolt at once , and we stood and
panted for a moment in the dark, alone in the house
with the dead captain's body. Then my mother got
a candle in the bar, and , holding each other's hands,
we advanced into the parlour. He lay as we had left
him , on his back, with his eyes open, and one arm
stretched out.
"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother;
"they might come and watch outside. And now," said
she , when I had done so , "we have to get the key off
that; and who's to touch it, I should like to know ! "
aud she gave a kind of sob as she said the words.
I went down on my knees at once. On the floor
close to his hand there was a little round of paper,
blackened on the one side. I could not doubt that
this was the black spot; and taking it up, I found
written on the other side, in a very good, clear hand,
this short message : " You have till ten to-night."
"He had till ten , mother," said I; and just as I
 THE SEA CHEST. 4I

said it, our old clock began striking. This sudden

noise startled us shockingly; but the news was good,
for it was only six.
"Now, Jim," she said, "that key."
I felt in his pockets , one after another. A few
small coins , a thimble , and some thread and big
needles , a piece of pigtail tobacco bitten away at the
end, his gully with the crooked handle , a pocket com-
pass , and a tinder box , were all that they contained,
and I began to despair.
"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.
Overcoming a strong repugnance , I tore open his
shirt at the neck , and there , sure enough, hanging to
a bit of tarry string , which I cut with his own gully,
we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with
hope , and hurried up-stairs , without delay, to the little
room where he had slept so long , and where his box
had stood since the day of his arrival.
C It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside,
the initial "B." burned on the top of it with a hot iron,
and the corners somewhat smashed and broken as by
long, rough usage.
"Give me the key," said my mother; and though
the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown
back the lid in a twinkling .
A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the
interior, but nothing was to be seen on the top except
a suit of very good clothes , carefully brushed and
folded. They had never been worn , my mother said.
 RE
42 TREASU ISLAND .

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.
It has often set me thinking since that he should have
carried about these shells with him in his wandering,
guilty, and hunted life.
In the meantime, we had found nothing of any
value but the silver and the trinkets , and neither of
these were in our way. Underneath there was an old
boat-cloak , whitened with sea-salt on many a harbour-
bar. My mother pulled it up with impatience , and
there lay before us , the last things in the chest , a
bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, and
a canvas bag, that gave forth , at a touch, the jingle of
gold.
"
"I'll show these rogues that I'm an honest woman,"
said my mother. " I'll have my dues , and not a far-
thing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And she began
to count over the amount of the captain's score from
the sailor's bag into the one that I was holding.
It was a long, difficult business , for the coins were
of all countries and sizes - doubloons , and louis-d'ors,
and guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know not what
besides , all shaken together at random. The guineas,
too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only
that my mother knew how to make her count.
 THE SEA CHEST. 43

When we were about half way through , I suddenly

put my hand upon her arm; for I had heard in the
silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heart into
my mouth-the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick
upon the frozen road. It drew nearer and nearer,
while we sat holding our breath. Then it struck sharp
on the inn door , and then we could hear the handle
being turned, and the bolt rattling as the wretched
being tried to enter ; and then there was a long time
of silence both within and without. At last the tap-
ping re-commenced , and , to our indescribable joy and
gratitude , died slowly away again until it ceased to be
heard.
"Mother ," said I , " take the whole and let's be
going; " for I was sure the bolted door must have
seemed suspicious , and would bring the whole hornet's
nest about our ears ; though how thankful I was that I
had bolted it , none could tell who had never met that
terrible blind man.
But my mother , frightened as she was, would not
consent to take a fraction more than was due to her,
and was obstinately unwilling to be content with less.
It was not yet seven , she said , by a long way; she
knew her rights and she would have them ; and she
was still arguing with me , when a little low whistle
sounded a good way off upon the hill. That was
enough, and more than enough , for both of us.
"I'll take what I have ," she said , jumping to her
feet.
44 TREASURE ISLAND.

"And I'll take this to square the count," said I,

picking up the oilskin packet.
Next moment we were both groping down-stairs,
leaving the candle by the empty chest; and the next
we had opened the door and were in full retreat. We
had not started a moment too soon. The fog was
rapidly dispersing; already the moon shone quite clear
on the high ground on either side ; and it was only in
the exact bottom of the dell and round the tavern door
that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal the first
steps of our escape. Far less than half-way to the
hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill , we
must come forth into the moonlight. Nor was this all ;
for the sound of several footsteps running came already
to our ears , and as we looked back in their direction,
a light tossing to and fro and still rapidly advancing,
showed that one of the new-comers carried a lantern.
"My dear," said my mother suddenly, " take the
money and run on. I am going to faint."
This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought.
How I cursed the cowardice of the neighbours ; how I
blamed my poor mother for her honesty and her greed,
for her past foolhardiness and present weakness ! We
were just at the little bridge , by good fortune ; and I
helped her , tottering as she was, to the edge of the
bank , where , sure enough , she gave a sigh and fell on
my shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength
to do it at all , and I am afraid it was roughly done ;
but I managed to drag her down the bank and a little
 THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN. 45

way under the arch. Farther I could not move her,

for the bridge was too low to let me do more than
crawl below it. So there we had to stay- my mother
almost entirely exposed , and both of us within earshot
of the inn.

CHAPTER V.
THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN.

My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear;

for I could not remain where I was , but crept back to
the bank again , whence , sheltering my head behind a
bush of broom , I might command the road before our
door. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began
to arrive , seven or eight of them , running hard , their
feet beating out of time along the road , and the man
with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran
together, hand in hand ; and I made out , even through
the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the
blind beggar. The next moment his voice showed me
that I was right.
"Down with the door!" he cried.
"Ay, ay, sir ! " answered two or three ; and a rush
was made upon the " Admiral Benbow ," the lantern-
bearer following ; and then I could see them pause,
and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they
were surprised to find the door open. But the pause
was brief, for the blind man again issued his com-
 RE
ASU AND
46 TRE ISL .

mands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as if

he were afire with eagerness and rage.
"In, in, in ! " he shouted, and cursed them for their
delay.
Four or five of them obeyed at once , two remain-
ing on the road with the formidable beggar. There
was a pause , then a cry of surprise , and then a voice
shouting from the house:-
"Bill's dead !"
But the blind man swore at them again for their
delay.
"Search him , some of you shirking lubbers , and
the rest of you aloft and get the chest ," he cried.
I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so
that the house must have shook with it. Promptly
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 ad-
dressed the blind beggar on the road below him.
"Pew," he cried , "they've been before us. Some
one's turned the chest out alow and aloft."
"Is it there?" roared Pew.
"The money's there."
The blind man cursed the money.
"Flint's fist , I mean ," he cried.
"We don't see it here nohow," returned the man.
"Here , you below there , is it on Bill? " cried the
blind man again.
 THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN. 47

At that , another fellow, probably he who had re-

mained below to search the captain's body , came to
the door of the inn. "Bill's been overhauled a'ready,"
said he , "nothin' left."
"It's these people of the inn- it's that boy. I wish
I had put his eyes out ! " cried the blind man , Pew.
"They were here no time ago - they had the door
bolted when I tried it. Scatter , lads , and find ' em."
"Sure enough, they left their glim here ," said the
fellow from the window.
"Scatter and find e'm! Rout the house out! " re-
iterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the road.
Then there followed a great to-do through all our
old inn , heavy feet pounding to and fro , furniture
thrown over, doors kicked in , until the very rocks re-
echoed , and the men came out again , one after an-
other, on the road, and declared that we were nowhere
to be found. And just then the same whistle that
had alarmed my mother and myself over the dead
captain's money was once more clearly audible through
the night, but this time twice repeated. I had thought
it to be the blind man's trumpet , so to speak, sum-
moning his crew to the assault; but I now found that
it was a signal from the hillside towards the hamlet,
and, from its effect upon the buccaneers , a signal to
warn them of approaching danger.
"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll
have to budge , mates."
"Budge , you skulk ! cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool
 RE
ASU AND
48 TRE ISL .

and a coward from the first-you wouldn't mind him .

They must be close by; they can't be far; you have
your hands on it. Scatter and look for them , dogs !
Oh , shiver my soul ," he cried , " if I had eyes ! "
This appeal seemed to produce some effect , for
two ofthe fellows began to look here and there among
the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and with half
an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest
stood irresolute on the road.
"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and
you hang a leg ! You'd be as rich as kings if you
could find it , and you know it's here , and you stand
there malingering. There wasn't one of you dared
face Bill, and I did it— a blind man ! And I'm to lose
my chance for you ! I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar,
sponging for rum , when I might be rolling in a coach!
If you had the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit you would
catch them still."
"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled
one.
"They might have hid the blessed thing," said an-
other. "Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here
squalling."
Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose so
high at these objections ; till at last , his passion com-
pletely taking the upper hand , he struck at them right
and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily
on more than one.
These , in their turn , cursed back at the blind
 THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN. 49

miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in

vain to catch the stick and wrest it from his grasp.
This quarrel was the saving of us ; for while it was
still raging , another sound came from the top of the
hill on the side of the hamlet-the tramp of horses
galloping. Almost at the same time a pistol-shot, flash
and report , came from the hedge side. And that was
plainly the last signal of danger; for the buccaneers
turned at once and ran , separating in every direction,
one seaward along the cove , one slant across the hill,
and so on, so that in half a minute not a sign of them
remained but Pew. Him they had deserted , whether
in sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words and
blows , I know not ; but there he remained behind,
tapping up and down the road in a frenzy , and grop-
ing and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the
wrong turn, and ran a few steps past me, towards the
hamlet , crying :-
"Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, “you
won't leave old Pew, mates- not old Pew! "
Just then the noise of horses topped the rise , and
four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight , and
swept at full gallop down the slope.
At this Pew saw his error , turned with a scream,
and ran straight for the ditch , into which he rolled .
But he was on his feet again in a second , and made
another dash , now utterly bewildered , right under the
nearest of the coming horses.
The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down
Treasure Island. 4
50 TREASURE ISLAND.

went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night ; and
the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed
by. He fell on his side , then gently collapsed upon
his face, and moved no more.
I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They
were pulling up , at any rate , horrified at the accident ;
and I soon saw what they were. One , tailing out be-
hind the rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet
to Dr. Livesey's ; the rest were revenue officers , whom
he had met by the way, and with whom he had had
the intelligence to return at once. Some news of the
lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor
Dance , and set him forth that night in our direction,
and to that circumstance my mother and I owed our
preservation from death.
Pew was dead , stone dead. As for my mother,
when we had carried her up to the hamlet , a little
cold water and salts 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 . In the meantime the supervisor rode on,
as fast as he could , to Kitt's Hole ; but his men had
to dismount and grope down the dingle , leading , and
sometimes supporting , their horses , and in continual
fear of ambushes ; so it was no great matter for surprise
that when they got down to the Hole the lugger was
already under way, though still close in. He hailed
her. A voice replied , telling him to keep out of the
moonlight, or he would get some lead in him , and at
 THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN. 51

the same time a bullet whistled close by his arm .

Soon after, the lugger doubled the point and dis-
appeared. Mr. Dance stood there , as he said , " like a
fish out of water," and all he could do was to despatch
a man to B—— to warn the cutter. " And that," said
he, " is just about as good as nothing. They've got off
clean, and there's an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad
I trod on Master Pew's corns ; " for by this time he had
heard my story.
I went back with him to the " Admiral Benbow,"
and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of
smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these
fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and my-
self; and though nothing had actually been taken away
except the captain's money-bag and a little silver from
the till , I could see at once that we were ruined. Mr.
Dance could make nothing of the scene.
"They got the money , you say? Well , then , Haw-
kins , what in fortune were they after? More money , I
suppose ?"
"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact,
sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast-pocket ;
and, to tell you the truth, I should like to get it put in
safety."
"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take
it , if you like."
"I thought , perhaps , Dr. Livesey " ——I began.
"Perfectly right," he interrupted , very cheerily,
"perfectly right -a gentleman and a magistrate. And,
4*
52 TREASURE ISLAND.

now I come to think of it , I might as well ride round

there myself and report to him or squire. Master
Pew's dead, when all's done ; not that I regret it , but
he's dead, you see, and people will make it out against
an officer of his Majesty's revenue , if make it out they
can. Now , I'll tell you, Hawkins : if you like, I'll take
you along."
I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked
back to the hamlet where the horses were. By the
time I had told mother of my purpose they were all in
the saddle.
"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse ;
take up this lad behind you."
As soon as I was mounted , holding on to Dogger's
belt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck
out at a bouncing trot on the road to Dr. Livesey's
house.

CHAPTER VI.
THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS.

We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before

Dr. Livesey's door. The house was all dark to the front.
Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock , and
Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door
was opened almost at once by the maid.
"Is Dr. Livesey in?" I asked.
No, she said; he had come home in the afternoon,
 THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS . 53

but had gone up to the Hall to dine and pass the

evening with the squire.
"So there we go , boys," said Mr. Dance.
This time , as the distance was short , I did not
mount, but ran with Dogger's stirrup-leather to the
lodge gates , and up the long, leafless , moonlit avenue
to where the white line of the Hall buildings looked
on either hand on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance
dismounted , and , taking me along with him , was ad-
mitted at a word into the house.
The servant led us down a matted passage , and
showed us at the end into a great library, all lined
with bookcases and busts upon the top of them, where
the squire and Dr. Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either
side of a bright fire.
I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He
was a tall man , over six feet high , and broad in pro-
portion , and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready face , all
roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels.
His eyebrows were very black, and moved readily, and
this gave him a look of some temper, not bad , you
would say, but quick and high.
"Come in , Mr. Dance ," says he , very stately and
condescending.
"Good evening, Dance ," says the doctor , with a
nod. " And good evening to you, friend Jim. What
good wind brings you here?"
The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and
told his story like a lesson ; and you should have seen
54 TREASURE ISLAND.

how the two gentlemen leaned forward and looked at

each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise and
interest. When they heard how my mother went back
to the inn, Dr. Livesey fairly slapped his thigh , and
the squire cried " Bravo!" and broke his long pipe
against the grate. Long before it was done , Mr.
Trelawney (that, you will remember , was the squire's
name) had got up from his seat , and was striding
about the room , and the doctor , as if to hear the bet-
ter, had taken off his powdered wig , and sat there,
looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped,
black poll.
At last Mr. Dance finished the story.
"Mr. Dance," said the squire, "you are a very noble
fellow. And as for riding down that black, atrocious
miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue , sir , like
stamping on a cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a
trump , I perceive. Hawkins , will you ring that bell ?
Mr. Dance must have some ale."
"And so, Jim," said the doctor , "you have the
thing that they were after, have you?"
"Here it is , sir ," said I, and gave him the oilskin
packet.
The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were
itching to open it ; but instead of doing that, he put it
quietly in the pocket of his coat.
"Squire," said he , "when Dance has had his ale
he must, of course, be off on his Majesty's service ; but
I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house,
 THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS. 55

and, with your permission , I propose we should have

up the cold pie, and let him sup."
"As you will , Livesey," said the squire ; " Hawkins
has earned better than cold pie."
So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a
side-table , and I made a hearty supper, for I was as
hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was further com-
plimented, and at last dismissed.
"And now, squire," said the doctor.
"And now, Livesey ," said the squire , in the same
breath.
"One at a time, one at a time ," laughed Dr. Live-
sey. "You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?"
"Heard of him ! " cried the squire. "Heard of him,
you say! He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that
sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The Spaniards
were so prodigiously afraid of him, that, I tell you, sir,
I was sometimes proud he was an Englishman. I've
seen his top-sails with these eyes, off Trinidad, and the
cowardly son of a rum-puncheon that I sailed with put
back-put back, sir, into Port of Spain."
"Well, I've heard of him myself, in England ," said
the doctor. "But the point is, had he money?"
"Money ! " cried the squire. "Have you heard the
story? What were these villains after but money?
What do they care for but money? For what would
they risk their rascal carcases but money? "
"That we shall soon know," replied the doctor.
"But you are so confoundedly hot-headed and exclama-
 A & babes
Дл
56 TREASURE ISLAND .

tory that I cannot get a word in. What I want to know

is this : Supposing that I have here in my pocket some
clue to where Flint buried his treasure, will that trea-
sure amount to much?"
"Amount, sir ! ” cried the squire. "It will amount
to this : if we have the clue you talk about , I fit out a
ship in Bristol dock , and take you and Hawkins here
along, and I'll have that treasure if I search a year.”
"Very well ," said the doctor. "Now, then , if Jim
is agreeable , we'll open the packet; " and he laid it
before him on the table.
The bundle was sewn together , and the doctor had
to get out his instrument-case, and cut the stitches with
his medical scissors. It contained two things - a book
and a sealed paper.
"First of all we'll try the book," observed the doctor.
The squire and I were both peering over his shoulder
as he opened it , for Dr. Livesey had kindly motioned
me to come round from the side-table , where I had
been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. On the
first page there were only some scraps of writing, such
as a man with a pen in his hand might make for idle-
ness or practice. One was the same as the tattoo
mark, " Billy Bones his fancy; " then there was “ Mr.
W. Bones , mate." "No more rum." " Off Palm Key
he got itt; " and some other snatches , mostly single
words and unintelligible. I could not help wondering
who it was that had " got itt," and what " itt " was that
he got. A knife in his back as like as not.
 THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS. 57

"Not much instruction there ," said Dr. Livesey, as

he passed on.
The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a
curious series of entries. There was a date at one end
of the line and at the other a sum of money, as in com-
mon account-books ; but instead of explanatory writing,
only a varying number of crosses between the two. On
the 12th of June, 1745 , for instance, a sum of seventy
pounds had plainly become due to some one, and there
was nothing but six crosses to explain the cause. In
a few cases , to be sure , the name of a place would be
added, as "Offe Caraccas ; " or a mere entry of latitude
and longitude, as " 62 ° 17′ 20″ , 19 ° 2′ 40″ ."
The record lasted over nearly twenty years , the
amount of the separate entries growing larger as time
went on, and at the end a grand total had been made
out after five or six wrong additions , and these words
appended, "Bones, his pile."
"I can't make head or tail of this ," said Dr.
Livesey.
"The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the
squire. "This is the black-hearted hound's account-
book. These crosses stand for the names of ships or
towns that they sank or plundered . The sums are the
scoundrel's share , and where he feared an ambiguity,
you see he added something clearer. Offe Caraccas,'
now; you see, here was some unhappy vessel boarded
off that coast. God help the poor souls that manned
her-coral long ago."
 URE D
58 TREAS ISLAN .

"Right!" said the doctor. " See what it is to be a

traveller. Right ! And the amounts increase , you see,
as he rose in rank."
There was little else in the volume but a few bear-
ings of places noted in the blank leaves towards the
end, and a table for reducing French, English , and
Spanish moneys to a common value.
"Thrifty man !" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the
one to be cheated."
"And now," said the squire, " for the other."
The paper had been sealed in several places with
a thimble by way of seal; the very thimble , perhaps,
that I had found in the captain's pocket. The doctor.
opened the seals with great care, and there fell out the
map of an island , with latitude and longitude , sound-
ings , names of hills , and bays and inlets , and every
particular that would be needed to bring a ship to a
safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine
miles long and five across, shaped , you might say, like
a fat dragon standing up , and had two fine land-
locked harbours , and a hill in the centre part marked
"The Spy-glass." There were several additions of a
later date ; but , above all , three crosses of red ink-
two on the north part of the island , one in the south-
west , and , beside this last , in the same red ink , and
in a small, neat hand , very different from the captain's
tottery characters, these words : -" Bulk of treasure here."
Over on the back the same hand had written this
further information : -
 THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS. 59

"Tall tree , Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of

N.N.E.
"Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
"Ten feet.
"The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the
trend of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black crag
with the face on it.
"The arms are easy found , in the sand hill , N. point of north
inlet cape , bearing E. and a quarter N. "J. F."
That was all; but brief as it was , and , to me, in-
comprehensible , it filled the squire and Dr. Livesey
with delight.
"Livesey ," said the squire , "you will give up this
wretched practice at once. To-morrow I start for
Bristol. In three weeks' time -three weeks ! -two
weeks-ten days-we'll have the best ship, sir, and the
choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come as
cabin-boy. You'll make a famous cabin-boy, Hawkins.
You, Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am admiral. We'll
take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter. We'll have favourable
winds , a quick passage , and not the least difficulty in
finding the spot, and money to eat- to roll in — to play
duck and drake with ever after."
"Trelawney," said the doctor , " I'll go with you ;
and , I'll go bail for it , so will Jim, and be a credit to
the undertaking. There's only one man I'm afraid of."
"And who's that? " cried the squire. "Name the
dog, sir! "
"You ," replied the doctor; " for you cannot hold
your tongue. We are not the only men who know of
this paper. These fellows who attacked the inn to-
60 TREASURE ISLAND.

night- bold , desperate blades , for sure- and the rest

who stayed aboard that lugger , and more, I dare say,
not far off, are , one and all , through thick and thin,
bound that they'll get that money. We must none of
us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I shall stick
together in the meanwhile ; you'll take Joyce and
Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and, from first to last,
not one of us must breathe a word of what we've
found."
"Livesey," returned the squire , "you are always in
the right of it. I'll be as silent as the grave."
 PART II.
THE SEA COOK.

CHAPTER VII.
I GO TO BRISTOL.

It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were

ready for the sea, and none of our first plans— not even
Dr. Livesey's , of keeping me beside him-could be
carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to
London for a physician to take charge of his practice ;
the squire was hard at work at Bristol ; and I lived on
at the Hall under the charge of old Redruth, the game-
keeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams and
the most charming anticipations of strange islands and
adventures. I brooded by the hour together over the
map, all the details of which I well remembered. Sitting
by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I approached
that island in my fancy, from every possible direction;
I explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand
times to that tall hill they call the Spy-glass , and from
the top enjoyed the most wonderful and changing pro-
spects. Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with
whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals
62 TREASURE ISLAND.

that hunted us ; but in all my fancies nothing occurred

to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.
So the weeks passed on , till one fine day there
came a letter addressed to Dr. Livesey, with this addi-
tion, "To be opened , in the case of his absence , by
Tom Redruth, or young Hawkins." Obeying this order,
we found, or rather, I found- for the gamekeeper was
a poor hand at reading anything but print-the follow-
ing important news : -
"Old Anchor Inn , Bristol, March 1, 17-.
"DEAR LIVESEY, -As I do not know whether you are at the
Hall or still in London , I send this in double to both places.
"The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for
sea. You never imagined a sweeter schooner-a child might sail
her-two hundred tons; name , Hispaniola.
"I got her through my old friend , Blandly , who has proved
himself throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable fel-
low literally slaved in my interest , and so , I may say, did every
one in Bristol , as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for
-treasure , I mean."

"Redruth ," said I , interrupting the letter, " Doctor

Livesey will not like that. The squire has been talking,
after all."
"Well, who's a better right?" growled the game-
keeper. "A pretty rum go if squire aint to talk for
Doctor Livesey, I should think."
At that I gave up all attempt at commentary , and
read straight on :-
"Blandly himself found the Hispaniola , and by the most ad-
mirable management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class
of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They
go the length of declaring that this honest creature would do any-
 I GO TO BRISTOL. 63

thing for money, that the Hispaniola belonged to him, and that he
sold it me absurdly high-the most transparent calumnies. None
of them dare, however , to deny the merits of the ship.
"So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure-
riggers and what not-were most annoyingly slow ; but time cured
that. It was the crew that troubled me.
"I wished a round score of men-in case of natives, buccaneers,
or the odious French-and I had the worry of the deuce itself to
find so much as half a dozen , till the most remarkable stroke of
fortune brought me the very man that I required.
"I was standing on the dock , when , by the merest accident , I
fell in talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public-
house , knew all the seafaring men in Bristol , had lost his health
ashore , and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He
had hobbled down there that morning, he said , to get a smell of
the salt.
"I was monstrously touched—so would you have been- and,
out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook.
Long John Silver , he is called , and has lost a leg; but that I re-
garded as a recommendation, since he lost it in his country's service,
under the immortal Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine
the abominable age we live in!
"Well , sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a
crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together
in a few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable- not
pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable
spirit. I declare we could fight a frigate.
"Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had
already engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just
the sort of fresh water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of im-
portance.
"I am in the most magnificent health and spirits , eating like a
bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I hear
my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho ! Hang
the treasure ! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
So now, Livesey, come post ; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.
"Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Red-
ruth for a guard; and then both come full speed to Bristol.
"JOHN TRELAWNEY,
64 TREASURE ISLAND .

66
" Postscript.-I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way,
is to send a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of
August , had found an admirable fellow for sailing master-a stiff
man, which I regret , but , in all other respects , a treasure. Long
John Silver unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man
named Arrow. I have a boatswain who pipes , Livesey ; so things
shall go man-o-war fashion on board the good ship Hispaniola.
"I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance ; I know
of my own knowledge that he has a banker's account , which has
never been overdrawn . He leaves his wife to manage the inn ; and
as she is a woman of colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and I
may be excused for guessing that it is the wife , quite as much as
the health, that sends him back to roving.
"J. T.
"P.P.S. - Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.
"J. T."

You can fancy the excitement into which that letter

put me. I was half beside myself with glee ; and if
ever I despised a man , it was old Tom Redruth , who
could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places
with him; but such was not the squire's pleasure , and
the squire's pleasure was like law among them all. No-
body but old Redruth would have dared so much as
even to grumble.
The next morning he and I set out on foot for the
"Admiral Benbow," and there I found my mother in
good health and spirits. The captain, who had so long
been a cause of so much discomfort , was gone where
the wicked cease from troubling. The squire had had
everything repaired, and the public rooms and the sign
repainted , and had added some furniture - above all a
 I GO TO BRISTOL. 65

beautiful arm-chair for mother in the bar. He had

found her a boy as an apprentice also, so that she
should not want help while I was gone.
It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the
first time , my situation. I had thought up to that
moment of the adventures before me , not at all of the
home that I was leaving; and now, at sight of this
clumsy stranger , who was to stay here in my place be-
side my mother , I had my first attack of tears. I am
afraid I led that boy a dog's life; for as he was new
to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting
him right and putting him down , and I was not slow
to profit by them.
The night passed , and the next day , after dinner,
Redruth and I were afoot again , and on the road. I
said good-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. One of my last thoughts was of the captain,
who had so often strode along the beach with his
cocked hat, his sabre-cut cheek, and his old brass tele-
scope. Next moment we had turned the corner , and
my home was out of sight.
The mail picked us up about dusk at the " Royal
George" on the heath. I was wedged in between
Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of the
swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed
a great deal from the very first , and then slept like a
log up hill and down dale through stage after stage ;
Treasure Island. 5
 66 TREASURE ISLAND.

for when I was awakened, at last, it was by a punch in

the ribs, and I opened my eyes, to find that we were
standing still before a large building in a city street,
and that the day had already broken a long time.
"Where are we ?" I asked.
"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."
Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn
far down the docks , to superintend the work upon the
schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our way,
to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the
great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations.
In one , sailors were singing at their work; in another,
there were men aloft , high over my head, hanging to
threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's. Though
I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to
have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and
salt was something new. I saw the most wonderful
figureheads , that had all been far over the ocean. I
saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears,
and whiskers curled in ringlets , and tarry pigtails , and
their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk ; and if I had seen as
many kings or archbishops I could not have been more
1 delighted.
And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner,
with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen;
to sea, bound for an unknown island , and to seek for
buried treasures !
While I was still in this delightful dream, we came
suddenly in front of a large inn , and met Squire Tre-
 AT THE SIGN OF THE " SPY-GLASS." 67

lawney, all dressed out like a sea-officer , in stout blue

cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his face,
and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk.
"Here you are ," he cried , "and the doctor came
last night from London. Bravo ! the ship's company
complete !"
"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail? "
"Sail ! " says he, "We sail to-morrow!"

CHAPTER VIII.
AT THE SIGN OF THE " SPY-GLASS."

WHEN I had done breakfasting the squire gave me

a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the
"Spy-glass," and told me I should easily find the place
by following the line of the docks , and keeping a
bright look-out for a little tavern with a large brass
telescope for sign. I set off, overjoyed at this oppor-
tunity to see some more of the ships and seamen , and
picked my way among a great crowd of people and
carts and bales , for the dock was now at its busiest
until I found the tavern in question.
It was a bright enough little place of entertainment.
The sign was newly painted ; the windows had neat red
curtains ; the floor was cleanly sanded. There was a
street on either 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.
5*
68 TREASURE ISLAND.

The customers were mostly seafaring men; and they

talked so loudly that I hung at the door, almost afraid
to enter.
As I was waiting , a man came out of a side room,
and , at a glance , I was sure he must be Long John,
His left leg was cut off close by the hip , and under
the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed
with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a
bird. He was very tall and strong , with a face as big
as a ham-plain and pale , but intelligent and smiling.
Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling
as he moved about among the tables , with a merry
word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favoured
of his guests.
Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first men-
tion of Long John in Squire Trelawney's letter , I had
taken a fear in my mind that he might prove to be
the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so
long at the old " Benbow." But one look at the man
before me was enough. I had seen the captain , and
Black Dog, and the blind man Pew, and I thought I
knew what a buccaneer was like a very different
creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant-
tempered landlord.
I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold,
and walked right up to the man where he stood,
propped on his crutch, talking to a customer.
"Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out the note.
"Yes, my lad ," said he; " such is my name, to be
 AT THE SIGN OF THE " SPY-GLASS." 69

sure. And who may you be ?" And then as he saw

the squire's letter, he seemed to me to give something
almost like a start.
"Oh ! " said he, quite loud , and offering his hand,
"I see. You are our new cabin-boy ; pleased I am to
see you."
And he took my hand in his large firm grasp .
Just then one of the customers at the far side rose
suddenly and made for the door. It was close by him,
and he was out in the street in a moment. But his
hurry had attracted my notice , and I recognised him
at a glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two
fingers , who had come first to the " Admiral Benbow."
"Oh," I cried, " stop him ! it's Black Dog! "
"I don't care two coppers who he is ," cried Silver.
"But he hasn't paid his score. Harry, run and catch
him."
One of the others who was nearest the door leaped
up, and started in pursuit.
"If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his
score ," cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand
"Who did you say he was?" he asked. "Black
what?"
"Dog , sir ," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not told
you of the buccaneers ? He was one of them."
"So?" cried Silver. "In my house ! Ben, run and
help Harry. One of those swabs , was he? Was that
you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here."
The man whom he called Morgan-an old , grey-
70 TREASURE ISLAND.

haired, mahogany-faced sailor - came forward pretty

sheepishly, rolling his quid.
"Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly; "you
never clapped your eyes on that Black- Black Dog be-
fore, did you, now?"
"Not I, sir," said Morgan, with a salute.
"You didn't know his name, did you?"
"No, sir."
"By the powers , Tom Morgan , it's as good for
you!" exclaimed the landlord. "If you had been
mixed up with the like of that , you would never have
put another foot in my house , you may lay to that.
And what was he saying to you? "
"I don't rightly know, sir," answered Morgan.
"Do you call that a head on your shoulders , or a
blessed dead-eye ?" cried Long John. "Don't rightly
know, don't you ! Perhaps you don't happen to rightly
know who you was speaking to, perhaps ? Come, now,
what was he jawing-v'yages, cap'ns, ships? Pipe up !
What was it?"
"We was a-talkin' of keel-hauling," answered Morgan.
"Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suitable
thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your
place for a lubber, Tom."
And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver
added to me in a confidential whisper , that was very
flattering, as I thought :-
"He's quite an honest man , Tom Morgan, on'y
stupid. And now," he ran on again , aloud, " let's see
 AT THE SIGN OF THE " SPY-GLASS." 71

-Black Dog? No , I don't know the name , not I.

Yet I kind of think I've-yes, I've seen the swab. He
used to come here with a blind beggar, he used."
"That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I knew
that blind man, too. His name was Pew."
"It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew !
That were his name for certain. Ah , he looked a
shark , he did ! If we run down this Black Dog , now,
there'll be news for Cap'n Trelawney ! Ben's a good
runner; few seamen run better than Ben. He should
run him down, hand over hand , by the powers ! He
talked o' keel-hauling, did he ? I'll keel-haul him ! "
All the time he was jerking out these phrases he
was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch,
slapping tables with his hand , and giving such a show
of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey
judge or a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had
been thoroughly re-awakened on finding Black Dog at
the "Spy-glass," and I watched the cook narrowly. But
he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me,
and by the time the two men had come back out of
breath, and confessed that they had lost the track in a
crowd , and been scolded like thieves , I would have
gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.
"See here , now , Hawkins ," said he , "here's a
blessed hard thing on a man like me , now, aint it ?
There's Cap'n Trelawney - what's he to think?
I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in
my own house , drinking of my own rum! Here you
72 TREASURE ISLAND.

comes and tells me of it plain ; and here I let him

give us all the slip before my blessed dead-lights !
Now, Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap'n. You're
a lad , you are , but you're as smart as paint. I see
that when you first came in. Now, here it is: What
could I do , with this old timber I hobble on? When
I was an A B master mariner I'd have come up along-
side of him , hand over hand , and broached him to in
""
a brace of old shakes, I would ; but now-

And then , all of a sudden , he stopped , and his

jaw dropped as though he had remembered something.
"The score!" he burst out. "Three goes o' rum !
Why, shiver my timbers , if I hadn't forgotten my
score! "

And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears

ran down his cheeks. I could not help joining; and
we laughed together , peal after peal, until the tavern
rang again.
"Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he
said, at last , wiping his cheeks. " You and me should
get on well , Hawkins , for I'll take my davy I should
be rated ship's boy. But , come , now, stand by to go
about. This won't do. Dooty is dooty , mesmates.
I'll put on my old cocked hat , and step along of you
to Cap'n Trelawney, and report this here affair. For,
mind you , it's serious , young Hawkins ; and neither
you nor me's come out of it with what I should make
so bold as to call credit. Nor you neither, says you;
 AT THE SIGN OF THE " SPY-GLASS." 73

not smart- none of the pair of us smart. But dash

my buttons ! that was a good 'un about my score."
And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily,
that though I did not see the joke as he did , I was
again obliged to join him in his mirth.
On our little walk along the quays , he made him-
self the most interesting companion , telling me about
the different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage,
and nationality, explaining the work that was going
forward- how one was discharging, another taking in
cargo , and a third making ready for sea ; and every
now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships
or seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had
learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one
of the best of possible shipmates.
When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Livesey
were seated together , finishing a quart of ale with a
toast in it , before they should go aboard the schooner
on a visit of inspection.
Long John told the story from first to last , with a
great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. " That
was how it were, now, weren't it, Hawkins?" he would
say, now and again , and I could always bear him en-
tirely out.
The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had
got away; but we all agreed there was nothing to be
done, and after he had been complimented, Long John
took up his crutch and departed.
74 TREASURE ISLAND.

"All hands aboard by four this afternoon," shouted

the squire, after him .
"Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook, in the passage.
"Well, squire," said Dr. Livesey, "I don't put much
faith in your discoveries, as a general thing; but I will
say this, John Silver suits me."
"The man's a perfect trump ," declared the squire,
"And now," added the doctor, "Jim may come on
board with us, may he not?"
"To be sure he may," says squire. "Take your
hat, Hawkins, and we'll see the ship."

CHAPTER IX.
POWDER AND ARMS.

THE Hispaniola lay some way out , and we went

under the figureheads and round the sterns of many
other ships , and their cables sometimes grated under-
neath our keel , and sometimes swung above us. At
last, however, we got alongside , and were met and
saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. Arrow,
a brown old sailor , with earrings in his ears and a
squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly,
but I soon observed that things were not the same be-
tween Mr. Trelawney and the captain.
This last was a sharp-looking man , who seemed
angry with everything on board, and was soon to tell
 POWDER AND ARMS. 75

us why, for we had hardly got down into the cabin

when a sailor followed us.
"Captain Smollett , sir , axing to speak with you,"
said he.
"I am always at the captain's orders. Show him
in," said the squire .
The captain , who was close behind his messenger,
entered at once , and shut the door behind him.
"Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All
well , I hope ; all shipshape and seaworthy?"
"Well , sir ," said the captain , "better speak plain,
I believe, even at the risk of offence. I don't like this
cruise ; I don't like the men; and I don't like my officer.
That's short and sweet."
"Perhaps , sir , you don't like the ship ? " inquired
the squire , very angry , as I could see.
"I can't speak as to that , sir , not having seen her
tried ," said the captain. " She seems a clever craft ;
more I can't say."
"Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer,
either?" says the squire.
But here Dr. Livesey cut in.
"Stay a bit," said he, "stay a bit. No use of such
questions as that but to produce ill-feeling. The cap-
tain has said too much or he has said too little , and
I'm bound to say that I require an explanation of his
words. You don't, you say , like this cruise. Now,
why?"
"I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders,
76 TREASURE ISLAND.

to sail this ship for that gentlemen where he should

bid me ," said the captain. "So far so good. But now
I find that every man before the mast knows more than
I do. I don't call that fair , now, do you? "
"No ," said Dr. Livesey, " I don't."
"Next," said the captain , "I learn we are going
after treasure- hear it from my own hands , mind you.
Now, treasure is ticklish work ; I don't like treasure
voyages on any account ; and I don't like them , above
all , when they are secret , and when (begging your
pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the secret has been told to the
parrot."
"Silver's parrot?" asked the squire.
"It's a way of speaking," said the captain. " Blabbed,
I mean. It's my belief neither of you gentlemen know
what you are about ; but I'll tell you my way of it-
life or death , and a close run."
"That is all clear , and , I daresay , true enough,"
replied Dr. Livesey. "We take the risk ; but we are
not so ignorant as you believe us. Next , you say you
don't like the crew. Are they not good seamen?"
"I don't like them, sir ," returned Captain Smollett.
"And I think I should have had the choosing of my
own hands , if you go to that."
"Perhaps you should ," replied the doctor. "My
friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with him ;
but the slight, if there be one, was unintentional. And
you don't like Mr. Arrow? ”
"I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman; but
 POWDER AND ARMS. 77

he's too free with the crew to be a good officer. A

mate should keep himself to himself-shouldn't drink
with the men before the mast! "
"Do you mean he drinks ? " cried the squire.
"No , sir," replied the captain ; "only that he's too
familiar."
"Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain? ”
asked the doctor. "Tell us what you want."
"Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this
cruise?"
"Like iron ," answered the squire.
"Very good ," said the captain. "Then , as you've
heard me very patiently, saying things that I could not
prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting
the powder and the arms in the fore hold. Now, you
have a good place under the cabin ; why not put them
there?-first point. Then you are bringing four of
your own people with you , and they tell me some of
them are to be berthed forward. Why not give them
the berths here beside the cabin?-second point."
"Any more?" asked Mr. Trelawney.
"One more ," said the captain. " There's been too
much blabbing already."
"Far too much ," agreed the doctor.
"I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued
Captain Smollett : " that you have a map of an island ;
that there's crosses on the map to show where treasure
"" And then he named
is ; and that the island lies-
the latitude and longitude exactly.
78 TREASURE ISLAND.

"I never told that , " cried the squire , "to

soul !"
"The hands know it , sir," returned the captain.
"Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins,”
cried the squire.
"It doesn't much matter who it was ," replied the
doctor. And I could see that neither he nor the captain
paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney's protestations.
Neither did I , to be sure , he was so loose a talker;
yet in this case I believe he was really right , and that
nobody had told the situation of the island.
"Well , gentlemen," continued the captain , "I don't
know who has this map ; but I make it a point, it shall
be kept secret even from me and Mr. Arrow. Other-
wise I would ask you to let me resign."
"I see," said the doctor. "You wish us to keep
this matter dark , and to make a garrison of the stern
part of the ship , manned with my friend's own people,
and provided with all the arms and powder on board.
In other words , you fear a mutiny."
"Sir," said Captain Smollett, "with no intention to
take offence , I deny your right to put words into my
mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in going to
sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As
for Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest ; some
of the men are the same ; all may be for what I know.
But I am responsible for the ship's safety and the life
of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going,
as I think, not quite right. And I ask you to take
 POWDER AND ARMS . 79

certain precautions , or let me resign my berth. And

that's all."
"Captain Smollett," began the doctor, with a smile,
"did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the
mouse? You'll excuse me , I daresay , but you remind
me of that fable. When you came in here I'll stake
my wig you meant more than this."
"Doctor ," said the captain, "you are smart. When
I came in here I meant to get discharged. I had no
thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a word."
"No more I would," cried the squire. "Had Live-
sey not been here I should have seen you to the deuce.
As it is , I have heard you. I will do as you desire;
but I think the worse of you."
" That's as you please, sir," said the captain. " You'll
find I do my duty."
And with that he took his leave.
"Trelawney ," said the doctor, " contrary to all my
notions , I believe you have managed to get two honest
men on board with you— that man and John Silver."
"Silver, if you like ," cried the squire ; " but as for
that intolerable humbug , I declare I think his conduct
unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-English. "
"Well ," says the doctor, "we shall see."
When we came on deck , the men had begun al-
ready to take out the arms and powder , yo-ho-ing at
their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood by
superintending.
The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The
80 TREASURE ISLAND.

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 pas-
sage on the port side. It had been originally meant
that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the doctor,
and the squire , were to occupy these six berths. Now,
Redruth and I were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow
and the captain were to sleep on deck in the com-
panion, which had been enlarged on each side till you
might almost have called it a round-house. Very low
it was still , of course ; but there was room to swing
two hammocks , and even the mate seemed pleased
with the arrangement. Even he , perhaps , had been
doubtful as to the crew, but that is only guess ; for , as
you shall hear, we had not long the benefit of his
opinion.
We were all hard at work, changing the powder
and the berths, when the last man or two, and Long
John along with them, came off in a shore-boat.
The cook came up the side like a monkey for
cleverness, and, as soon as he saw what was doing,
"So ho, mates ! " says he, "what's this?"
"We're a-changing of the powder, Jack," answers
one.
"Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we
do, we'll miss the morning tide ! "
"My orders !" said the captain shortly. "You may
go below, my man. Hands will want supper."
 THE VOYAGE. 81

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook ; and, touching his

forelock, he disappeared at once in the direction of his
galley.
"That's a good man, captain," said the doctor.
"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy
with that, men- easy," he ran on, to the fellows who
were shifting the powder; and then suddenly observing
me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a long
brass nine-" Here, you ship's boy," he cried, " out o'
that ! Off with you to the cook and get some work."
And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say,
quite loudly, to the doctor :-
"I'll have no favourites on my ship."
I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of
thinking, and hated the captain deeply.

CHAPTER X.
THE VOYAGE.

ALL that night we were in a great bustle getting

things stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the squire's
friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming off to wish
him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had
a night at the " Admiral Benbow " when I had half the
work; and I was dog-tired when, a little before dawn,
the boatswain sounded his pipe, and the crew began
to man the capstan-bars. I might have been twice as
Treasure Island. 6
82 TREASURE ISLAND,

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 .
"Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave," cried one voice.
"The old one," cried another.
"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing
by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke
out in the air and words I knew so well-
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest "-

And then the whole crew bore chorus : -

"Yo-ho-ho , and a bottle of rum ! "

And at the third "ho !" drove the bars before them
with a will.
Even at that exciting moment it carried me back
to the old "Admiral Benbow" in a second ; and I
seemed to hear the voice of the captain piping in the
chorus. But soon the anchor was short up ; soon it
was hanging dripping at the bows ; soon the sails be-
gan to draw, and the land and shipping to flit by on
either side ; and before I could lie down to snatch an
hour of slumber the Hispaniola had begun her voyage
to the Isle of Treasure.
I am not going to relate that voyage in detail. It
was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a good
ship, the crew were capable seamen and the captain
thoroughly understood his business. But before we
 THE VOYAGE. 83

came the length of Treasure Island, two or three things

had happened which require to be known.
Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than
the captain had feared. He had no command among
the men, and people did what they pleased with him.
But that was by no means the worst of it ; for after a
day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with
hazy eye , red cheeks , stuttering tongue , and other
marks of drunkenness. Time after time he was ordered
below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut himself;
sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at
one side of the companion ; sometimes for a day or two
he would be almost sober and attend to his work at
least passably.
In the meantime, we could never make out where
he got the drink. That was the ship's mystery. Watch
him as we pleased, we could do nothing to solve it ;
and when we asked him to his face, he would only
laugh, if he were drunk, and if he were sober, deny
solemnly that he ever tasted anything but water.
He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad
influence 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.
"Overboard ! " said the captain. "Well, gentlemen,
that saves the trouble of putting him in irons."
But there we were, without a mate ; and it was
6*
84 TREASURE ISLAND.

necessary, of course, to advance one of the men. The

boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest man aboard,
and, though he kept his old title, he served in a way
as mate . Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and
his knowledge made him very useful, for he often took
a watch himself in easy weather. And the coxswain,
Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, experienced sea-
man, who could be trusted at a pinch with almost any-
thing.
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.
Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard
round his neck, to have both hands as free as possible.
It was something to see him wedge the foot of the
crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against it,
yielding to every movement of the ship, get on with
his cooking like some one safe ashore. Still more
strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather
cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to
help him across the widest spaces-Long John's ear-
rings, 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 an-
other man could walk. Yet some of the men who had
sailed with him before expressed their pity to see him
so reduced.
"He's no common man, Barbecue," said the cox-
swain to me. "He had good schooling in his young
 THE VOYAGE. 85

days, and can speak like a book when so minded ; and

brave a lion's nothing alongside of Long John ! I
seen him grapple four, and knock their heads together
-him unarmed ."
All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He
had a way of talking to each, and doing everybody
some particular service. To me he was unweariedly
kind ; and always glad to see me in the galley, which
he kept as clean as a new pin ; the dishes hanging up
burnished, and his parrot in a cage in one corner.
"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; " come and
have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than
yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the news.
Here's Cap'n Flint-I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after
the famous buccaneer- here's Cap'n Flint predicting
success to our v'yage. Wasn't you, cap'n ? "
And the parrot would say , with great rapidity,
"Pieces of eight ! pièces of eight ! pieces of eight !" till
John threw his handkerchief over the cage.
"Now, that bird," he would say, " is, may be, two
hundred years old, Hawkins - they lives for ever mostly;
and if anybody's seen more wickedness, it must be the
devil himself. She's sailed with England , the great
Cap'n England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar,
and at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence , and
Portobello. She was at the fishing up of the wrecked
plate ships. It's there she learned ' Pieces of eight,'
and little wonder ; three hundred and fifty thousand of
'em, Hawkins ! She was at the boarding of the Viceroy
86 TREASURE ISLAND.

of the Indies out of Goa, she was ; and to look at her

you would think she was a babby. But you smelt
powder- didn't you , cap'n ? ”
"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.
"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would
say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and then the
bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on,
passing belief for wickedness. " There," John would
add, "you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad .
Here's this poor old innocent bird o' mine swearing
blue fire, and none the wiser, you may lay to that. She
would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before
chaplain." And John would touch his forelock with a
solemn way he had, that made me think he was the
best of men.
In the meantime, squire and Captain Smollett were
still on pretty distant terms with one another. The
squire made no bones about the matter; he despised
the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke but
when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and
dry, and not a word wasted. He owned, when driven
into a corner, that he seemed to have been wrong about
the crew, that some of them were as brisk as he wanted
to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the
ship, he had taken a downright fancy to her. "She'll
lie a point nearer the wind than a man has a right to
expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would
add, " all I say is we're not home again, and I don't
like the cruise."
 THE VOYAGE. 87

The squire, at this, would turn away and march up

and down the deck, chin in air.
"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I
should explode."
We had some heavy weather, which only proved
the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man on board
seemed well content, and they must have been hard to
please if they had been otherwise ; for it is my belief
there was never a ship's company so spoiled since
Noah put to sea. Double grog was going on the least
excuse; there was duff on odd days, as, for instance,
if the squire heard it was any man's birthday; and
always a barrel of apples standing broached in the
waist, for any one to help himself that had a fancy.
"Never knew good come of it yet," the captain said
to Dr. Livesey. " Spoil foc's'le hands, make devils.
That's my belief."
But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall
hear; for if it had not been for that, we should have
had no note of warning, and might all have perished
by the hand of treachery.
This was how it came about.
We had run up the trades to get the wind of the
island we were after-I am not allowed to be more
plain- and now we were running down for it with a
bright look-out day and night. It was about the last
day of our outward voyage, by the largest computation ;
some time that night, or, at latest, before noon of the
morrow, we should sight the Treasure Island. We were
88 TREASURE ISLAND.

heading S.S.W., and had a steady breeze abeam and

a quiet sea. The Hispaniola rolled steadily, dipping
her bowsprit now and then with a whiff of spray. All
was drawing alow and aloft; every one was in the
bravest spirits, because we were now so near an end
of the first part of our adventure.
Now, just after sundown , when all my work was
over, and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred
to me that I should like an apple. I ran on deck.
The watch was all forward looking out for the island.
The man at the helm was watching the luff of the sail,
and whistling away gently to himself; and that was the
only sound excepting the swish of the sea against the
bows and around the sides of the ship.
In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found
there was scarce an apple left ; but, sitting down there
in the dark, what with the sound of the waters and
rocking movement of the ship , I had either fallen
asleep, or was on the point of doing so, when a heavy
man sat down with rather a clash close by. The barrel
shook as he leaned his shoulders against it, and I was
just about to jump up when the man began to speak.
It was Silver's voice, and, before I had heard a dozen
words , I would not have shown myself for all the
world, but lay there, trembling and listening, in the
extreme of fear and curiosity ; for from these dozen
words I understood that the lives of all the honest men
aboard depended upon me alone.
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL. 89

CHAPTER XI.
WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL.

"No , not I ," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n ; I was

quatermaster, along of my timber leg. The same
broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights.
It was a master surgeon , him that ampytated me-out
of college and all-Latin by the bucket, and what not ;
but he was hanged like a dog , and sun-dried like the
rest, at Corso Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was,
and comed of changing names to their ships - Royal
Fortune and so on. Now, what a ship was christened,
so let her stay , I says. So it was with the Cassandra,
as brought us all safe home from Malabar , after Eng-
land took the Viceroy of the Indies ; so it was with
the old Walrus, Flint's old ship , as I've seen a-muck
with the red blood and fit to sink with gold."
"Ah!" cried another voice , that of the youngest
hand on board , and evidently full of admiration , “ he
was the flower of the flock, was Flint !"
"Davis was a man , too , by all accounts ," said
Silver. "I never sailed along of him ; first with Eng-
land , then with Flint , that's my story; and now here
on my own account , in a manner of speaking. I laid
by nine hundred safe , from England, and two thou-
90 TREASURE ISLAND.

sand after Flint. That ain't bad for a man before the
mast-all safe in bank. ' Tain't earning now , it's sav-
ing does it , you may lay to that. Where's all Eng-
land's men now? I dunno. Where's Flint's? Why,
most on ' em aboard here , and glad to get the duff—
been begging before that , some on ' em. Old Pew, as
had lost his sight , and might have thought shame,
spends twelve hundred pound in a year , like a lord in
Parliament. 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 aint much use , after all ," said the young
seaman.
""Tain't much use for fools , you may lay to it-
that, nor nothing," cried Silver. "But now, you look
here: you're young , you are , but you're as smart as
paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you , and I'll
talk to you like a man."
You 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. I
think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him
through the barrel. Meantime , he ran on , little sup-
posing he was overheard.
"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives
rough , and they risk swinging , but they eat and drink
like fighting- cocks, and when a cruise is done, why, it's
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL 91

hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings

in their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a
good fling, and to sea again in their shirts. But that's
not the course I lay. I puts it all away, some here,
some there , and none too much anywheres , by reason
of suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you ; once back from this
cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. Time enough,
too , says you. Ah , but I've lived easy in the mean-
time ; never denied myself o' nothing heart desires,
and slep' soft and ate dainty all my days , but when
at sea. And how did I begin? Before the mast , like
you!"
"Well ," said the other, " but all the other money's
gone now, aint it? You daren't show face in Bristol
after this."
"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked
Silver, derisively.
"At Bristol , in banks and places ," answered his
companion .
"It were," said the cook ; "it were when we weighed
anchor. But my old missis has it all by now. And
the 'Spy-glass ' is sold , lease and goodwill and rigging ;
and the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you
where, for I trust you ; but it ' ud make jealousy among
the mates."
"And can you trust your missis ? " asked the other.
"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually
trusts little among themselves , and right they are , you
may lay to it. But I have a way with me , I have.
92 TREASURE ISLAND.

When a mate brings a slip on his cable - one as knows

me , I mean- it won't be in the same world with old
John. There was some that was feared of Pew, and
some that was feared of Flint ; but Flint his own self
was feared of me. Feared he was , and proud. They
was the roughest crew afloat , was Flint's; the devil
himself would have been feared to go to sea with them.
Well , now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you
seen yourself how easy I keep company; but when I
was quartermaster, lambs wasn't the word for Flint's old
buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of yourself in old
John's ship ."
"Well , I tell you now," replied the lad , " I didn't
half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with you,
John; but there's my hand on it now."
"And a brave lad you were , and smart, too ," an-
swered Silver , shaking hands so heartily that all the
barrel shook, " and a finer figure head for a gentleman
of fortune I never clapped my eyes on."
By this time I had begun to understand the mean-
ing of their terms. By a " gentleman of fortune " they
plainly meant neither more nor less than a common
pirate , and the little scene that I had overheard was
the last act in the corruption of one of the honest hands
-perhaps of the last one left aboard . But on this
point I was soon to be relieved , for Silver giving a
little whistle , a third man strolled up and sat down by
the party.
"Dick's square ," said Silver,
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL. 93

"Oh , I know'd Dick was square ," returned the

voice of the coxswain, Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is
Dick." And he turned his quid and spat. "But , look
here," he went on, " here's what I want to know, Barbecue :
how long are we a-going to stand off and on like a
blessed bumboat? I've had a'most enough o' Cap'n
Smollett ; he's hazed me long enough, by thunder! I
want to go into that cabin , I do. I want their pickles
and wines, and that."

"Israel ," said Silver, "your head aint much ac-

count, nor ever was. But you're able to hear, I reckon ;
leastways , your ears is big enough. Now, here's what
I say : you'll berth forward , and you'll live hard , and
you'll speak soft , and you'll keep sober , till I give the
word ; and you may lay to that, my son."
"Well, I don't say no, do I ? " growled the coxswain.
"What I say is, when? That's what I say."
"When! by the powers ! " cried Silver. "Well now,
if you want to know, I'll tell you when. The last
moment I can manage ; and that's when. Here's a first-
rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett , sails the blessed ship for
us. Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such
-I don't know where it is , do I ? No more do you,
says you. Well , then , I mean this squire and doctor
shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by the
powers. Then we'll see. If I was sure of you all, sons
of double Dutchmen , I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate
us half-way back again before I struck."
94 TREASURE ISLAND .

"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think,"

said the lad Dick.
"We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver.
"We can steer a course , but who's to set one ? That's
what all you gentlemen split on , first and last. If I
had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back into
the trades at least ; then we'd have no blessed mis-
calculations and a spoonful of water a day. But I know
the sort you are. I'll finish with ' em at the island , as
soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But you're
never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides , I've a
sick heart to sail with the likes of you !"
"Easy all , Long John ," cried Israel. "Who's a-
crossin' of you?"
"Why, how many tall ships, think ye , now, have I
seen laid aboard? and how many brisk lads drying in
the sun at Execution Dock? " cried Silver, "and all for
this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me ?
I seen a thing or two at sea , I have. If you would
on'y lay your course , and a p'int to windward , you
would ride in carriages , you would . But not you!
I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum to-
morrow, and go hang."
"Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling,
John ; but there's others as could hand and steer as
well as you ," said Israel. " They liked a bit o' fun,
they did. They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but
took their fling, like jolly companions every one."
"So ?" says Silver. "Well , and where are they
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL. 95

now? Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man.

Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they
was a sweet crew, they was ! on'y, where are they?"
"But ," asked Dick , "when we do lay ' em athwart,
what are we to do with ' em, anyhow? "
"There's the man for me! " cried the cook , ad-
miringly. " That's what I call business. Well , what
would you think ? Put ' em ashore like maroons ? That
would have been England's way. Or cut ' em down
like that much pork? That would have been Flint's
or Billy Bones's ."
"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. ""Dead
men don't bite ,' says he. Well , he's dead now hisself;
he knows the long and short on it now; and if ever a
rough hand come to port, it was Billy."
"Right you are ," said Silver , "rough and ready.
But mark you here : I'm an easy man- I'm quite the
gentleman, says you ; but this time it's serious. Dooty
is dooty, mates. I give my vote- death. When I'm
in Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I don't want none
of these sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home , un-
looked for , like the devil at prayers. Wait is what I
say; but when the time comes, why let her rip !"
"John," cries the coxswain, "you're a man !"
"You'll say so , Israel , when you see ," said Silver.
"Only one thing I claim—I claim Trelawney. I'll wring
his calf's head off his body with these hands , Dick!"
he added, breaking off, "you just jump up, like a sweet
lad , and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."
 RE
96 TREASU ISLAND .

You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have

leaped out and run for it, if I had found the strength ;
but my limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard
Dick begin to rise , and then some one seemingly
stopped him, and the voice of Hands exclaimed :-
"Oh , stow that ! Don't you get sucking of that
bilge, John. Let's have a go of the rum ."
"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on
the keg , mind . There's the key; you fill a pannikin
and bring it up."
Terrified as I was , I could not help thinking to
myself that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got the
strong waters that destroyed him.
Dick was gone but a little while , and during his
absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It
was but a word or two that I could catch , and yet I
gathered some important news ; for, besides other scraps
that tended to the same purpose , this whole clause was
audible : "Not another man of them 'll jine." Hence
there were still faithful men on board.
When Dick returned , one after another of the trio
took the pannikin and drank- -one " To luck ; " another
with a "Here's to old Flint; " and Silver himself say-
ing, in a kind of song , " Here's to ourselves , and hold
your luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff. "
Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the
barrel , and , looking up , I found the moon had risen,
and was silvering the mizzen-top and shining white on
 COUNCIL OF WAR. 97

'the luff of the fore-sail ; and almost at the same time

the voice of the look-out shouted, " Land ho ! "

CHAPTER XII.
COUNCIL OF WAR.

THERE was a great rush of feet across the deck. I

could hear people tumbling up from the cabin and the
foc's'le and , slipping in an instant outside my barrel,
I dived behind the fore-sail , made a double towards
the stern , and came out upon the open deck in time
to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush for the
weather bow.
There all hands were already congregated. A belt
of fog had lifted almost simultaneously with the ap-
pearance of the moon. 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. All three
seemed sharp and conical in figure.
So much I saw, almost in a dream, for I had not
yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or two
before. And then I heard the voice of Captain Smollett
issuing orders. The Hispaniola was laid a couple of
points nearer the wind , and now sailed a course that
would just clear the island on the east.
"And now, men ," said the captain , when all was
Treasure Island. 7
 URE D
98 TREAS ISLAN .

sheeted home, " has any one of you ever seen that lana”
ahead?"
"I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there with
a trader I was cook in."
"The anchorage is on the south , behind an islet , I
fancy?" asked the captain.
"Yes, sir; Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a
main place for pirates once , and a hand we had on
board knowed all their names for it. That hill to the
nor'ard they calls the Fore-mast Hill ; there are three
hills in a row running south'ard-fore , main , and
mizzen , sir. But the main - that's the big ' un , with
the cloud on it- they usually calls the Spy-glass , by
reason of a look-out they kept when they was in the
anchorage cleaning ; for it's there they cleaned their
ships, sir, asking your pardon."
"I have a chart here," says Captain Smollett. "See
if that's the place."
Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took
the chart ; but , by the fresh look of the paper , I knew
he was doomed to disappointment. This was not the
map we found in Billy Bones's chest , but an accurate
copy, complete in all things- names and heights and
soundings with the single exception of the red crosses
and the written notes. Sharp as must have been his
annoyance , Silver had the strength of mind to hide it.
"Yes , sir ," said he , "this is the spot to be sure;
and very prettily drawed out. Who might have done
that, I wonder? The pirates were too ignorant, I reckon.
 COUNCIL OF WAR. 99

Ay, here it is : ' Capt. Kidd's Anchorage ' - just the

name my shipmate called it. There's a strong current
runs along the south , and then away nor'ard up the
west coast. Right you was, sir," says he, "to haul your
wind and keep the weather of the island. Leastways,
if such was your intention as to enter and careen , and
there ain't no better place for that in these waters."
"Thank you, my man," says Captain Smollett. " I'll
ask you, later on, to give us a help. You may go."
I was surprised at the coolness with which John
avowed his knowledge of the island ; and I own I was
half-frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to my-
self. He did not know, to be sure , that I had over-
heard his council from the apple barrel, and yet I had,
by this time , taken such a horror of his cruelty, dupli-
city, and power, that I could scarce conceal a shudder
when he laid his hand upon my arm .
"Ah ," says he , "this here is a sweet spot , this
island- a sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on. You'll
bathe, and you'll climb trees , and you'll hunt goats,
you will; and you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat
yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going
to forget my timber leg , I was. It's a pleasant thing
to be young , and have ten toes , and you may lay to
that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you
just ask old John , and he'll put up a snack for you to
take along."
And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the
shoulder, he hobbled off forward, and went below.
7*
100 TREASURE ISLAND.

Captain Smollett , the squire , and Dr. Livesey were

talking together on the quarter-deck , and anxious as I
was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them
openly. While I was still casting about in my thoughts
to find some probable excuse, Dr. Livesey called me to
his side. He had left his pipe below, and being a
slave to tobacco, had meant that I should fetch it ; but
as soon as I was near enough to speak and not to be
overheard , I broke out immediately: -"Doctor , let me
speak. Get the captain and squire down to the cabin,
and then make some pretence to send for me. I have
terrible news."
The doctor changed countenance a little , but next
moment he was master of himself.
"Thank you, Jim," said he, quite loudly, "that was
all I wanted to know," as if he had asked me a question.
And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined
the other two. They spoke together for a little , and
though none of them started , or raised his voice, or so
much as whistled, it was plain enough that Dr. Livesey
had communicated my request ; for the next thing that
I heard was the captain giving an order to Job Ander-
son , and all hands were piped on deck.
"My lads ," said Captain Smollett , " I've a word to
say to you. This land that we have sighted is the
place we have been sailing to. Mr. Trelawney, being
a very open-handed gentleman , as we all know, has
just asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell
him that every man on board had done his duty, alow
 COUNCIL OF WAR. ΙΟΙ

and aloft, as I never ask to see it done better, why, he

and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to
drink your health and luck, and you'll have grog served
out for you to drink our health and luck. I'll tell you
what I think of this : I think it handsome. And if you
think as I do , you'll give a good sea cheer for the
gentleman that does it."
The cheer followed-that was a matter of course ;
but it rang out so full and hearty , that I confess I
could hardly believe these same men were plotting for
our blood .
"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett ," cried Long
John , when the first had subsided.
And this also was given with a will.
On the top of that the three gentlemen went below,
and not long after, word was sent forward that Jim
Hawkins was wanted inthe cabin.
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 . The
stern window was open , for it was a warm night , and
you could see the moon shining behind on the ship's
wake.
"Now, Hawkins," said the squire, " you have some-
thing to say. Speak up."
I did as I was bid , and as short as I could make
it , told the whole details of Silver's conversation. No-
body interrupted me till I was done , nor did any one
102 TREASURE ISLAND.

of the three of them make so much as a movement, but

they kept their eyes upon my face from first to last.
"Jim ," said Dr. Livesey , " take a seat."
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.
"Now , captain ," said the squire , "you were right,
and I was wrong. I own myself an ass , and I await
your orders."
"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain.
"I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny but
what showed signs before , for any man that had an
eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps ac-
cording. But this crew," he added, "beats me."
"Captain ," said the doctor, " with your permission,
that's Silver. A very remarkable man."
"He'd look remarkably well from a yard-arm , sir,"
returned the captain. " But this is talk; this don't lead
to anything. I see three or four points , and with Mr.
Trelawney's permission, I'll name them."
"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak,"
says Mr. Trelawney, grandly.
"First point ," began Mr. Smollett. "We must go
on, because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to
go about, they would rise at once. Second point , we
have time before us ― at least , until this treasure's
found. Third point , there are faithful hands. Now,
 COUNCIL OF WAR. 103

sir, it's got to come to blows sooner or latter ; and what

I propose is , to take time by the forelock , as the say-
ing is , and come to blows some fine day when they
least expect it. We can count , I take it , on your own
home servants, Mr. Trelawney?"
"As upon myself," declared the squire.
"Three ," reckoned the captain , " ourselves make
seven, counting Hawkins, here. Now, about the honest
hands?"
"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor ;
"those he had picked up for himself, before he lit on
Silver."
"Nay,” replied the squire, " Hands was one of mine."
"I did think I could have trusted Hands ," added
the captain .
“And to think that they're all Englishmen ! " broke
out the squire. " Sir , I could find it in my heart to
blow the ship up."
"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that
I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you please,
and keep a bright look out. It's trying on a man, I
know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But
there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to,
and whistle for a wind , that's my view."
"Jim here ," said the doctor , " can help us more
than any one. The men are not shy with him , and
Jim is a noticing lad."
"Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the
squire.
104 TREASURE ISLAND .

I began to feel pretty desperate at this , for I felt

altogether helpless ; and yet , by an odd train of cir-
cumstances, it was indeed through me that safety came.
In the meantime , talk as we pleased , there were only
seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we
could rely; and out of these seven one was a boy , so
that the grown men on our side were six to their
nineteen.
 PART III.
MY SHORE ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER XIII.
HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE.

THE appearance of the island when I came on

deck next morning was altogether changed. Although
the breeze had now utterly failed , 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. Grey-coloured woods covered.
a large part of the surface. This even tint was indeed
broken up by streaks of yellow sandbreak 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 . The hills
ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked
rock. All were strangely shaped , and the Spy-glass,
which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest on
the island , was likewise the strangest in configuration,
running up sheer from almost every side , and then
suddenly cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a
statue on,
106 TREASURE ISLAND.

The Hispaniola was rolling scuppers under in the

ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks,
the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole ship
creaking, groaning , and jumping like a manufactory.
I had to cling tight to the backstay, and the world
turned giddily before my eyes ; for though I was a good
enough sailor when there was way on, this standing still
and being rolled about like a bottle was a thing I never
learned to stand without a qualm or so , above all in
the morning, on an empty stomach.
Perhaps it was this -perhaps it was the look of
the island , with its grey , melancholy woods , and wild
stone spires , and the surf that we could both see and
hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach- at
least , although the sun shone bright and hot , and the
shore birds were fishing and crying all around us , and
you would have thought any one would have been glad
to get to land after being so long at sea , my heart
sank , as the saying is , into my boots; and from that
first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure
Island.
We had a dreary morning's work before us , for
there was no sign of any wind , and the boats had to
be got out and manned , and the ship warped three or
four miles round the corner of the island , and up the
narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island.
I volunteered for one of the boats , where I had , of
course, no business. The heat was sweltering, and the
men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was
 HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE. 107

in command of my boat , and instead of keeping the

crew in order, he grumbled as loud as the worst.
"Well ," he said , with an oath , " it's not for ever."
I thought this was a very bad sign ; for , up to that
day, the men had gone briskly and willingly about their
business ; but the very sight of the island had relaxed
the cords of discipline.
All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman
and conned the ship. He knew the passage like the
palm of his hand ; and though the man in the chains
got everywhere more water than was down in the chart,
John never hesitated once.
"There's a strong scour with the ebb ," he said,
"and this here passage has been dug out, in a manner
of speaking, with a spade."
We brought up just where the anchor was in the
chart, about a third of a mile from either shore , the
mainland on one side, and Skeleton Island on the other.
The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor
sent up clouds of birds wheeling and crying over the
woods; but in less than a minute they were down again,
and all was once more silent.
The place was entirely 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. Two little rivers, or, rather, two swamps, emptied
out into this pond, as you might call it ; and the foliage
round that part of the shore had a kind of poisonous
108 TREASURE ISLAND .

brightness. From the ship, we could see nothing of

the house or stockade , for they were quite buried
among trees ; and if it had not been for the chart on
the companion , we might have been the first that had
ever anchored there since the island arose out of the
seas.
There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound
but that of the surf booming half a mile away along
the beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar
stagnant smell hung over the anchorage- a smell of
sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the
doctor sniffing and sniffing , like some one tasting a
bad egg.
"I don't know about treasure ," he said , "but I'll
stake my wig there's fever here."
If the conduct of the men had been alarming in
the boat, it became truly threatening when they had
come aboard. They lay about the deck growling to-
gether in talk. The slightest order was received with
a black look , and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed.
Even the honest hands must have caught the infection,
for there was not one man aboard to mend another.
Mutiny, it was plain , hung over us like a thunder-
cloud.
And it was not only we of the cabin party who
perceived the danger. Long John was hard at work
going from group to group , spending himself in good
advice , and as for example no man could have shown
a better. He fairly outstripped himself in willingness
 HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE. 109

and civility; he was all smiles to every one. If an

order were given , John would be on his crutch in an
instant, with the cheeriest " Ay, ay, sir!" in the world;
and when there was nothing else to do , he kept up
one song after another , as if to conceal the discontent
of the rest.
Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy after-
noon, this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John
appeared the worst.
We held a council in the cabin.
"Sir," said the captain , " if I risk another order,
the whole ship'll come about our ears by the run.
You see, sir , here it is. I get a rough answer , do I
not ? Well, if I speak back , pikes will be going in
two shakes ; if I don't, Silver will see there's something
under that , and the game's up. Now, we've only one
man to rely on."
"And who is that? " asked the squire.
"Silver, sir," returned the captain ; "he's as anxious
as you and I to smother things up. This is a tiff;
he'd soon talk ' em out of it if he had the chance , and
what I propose to do is to give him the chance. Let's
allow the men an afternoon ashore. If they all go,
why, we'll fight the ship . If they none of them go,
well , then , we hold the cabin , and God defend the
right. If some go , you mark my words , sir , Silver 'll
bring 'em aboard again as mild as lambs."
It was so decided ; loaded pistols were served out
to all the sure men ; Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were
IIO TREASURE ISLAND .

taken into our confidence , and received the news with

less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked
for , and then the captain went on deck and addressed
the crew.
"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are
all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore 'll hurt no-
body-the boats are still in the water; you can take
the gigs , and as many as please can go ashore for the
afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an hour before sun-
down."
I believe the silly fellows must have thought they
would break their shins over treasure as soon as they
were landed ; for they all came out of their sulks in a
moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a
far-away hill , and sent the birds once more flying and
squalling round the anchorage.
The captain was too bright to be in the way. He
whipped out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to
arrange the party; and I fancy it was as well he did
SO. Had he been on deck , he could no longer so
much as have pretended not to understand the situa-
tion. It was plain as day. Silver was the captain,
and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The
honest hands - and I was soon to see it proved that
there were such on board- must have been very stupid
fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the truth was this, that
all hands were disaffected by the example of the ring-
leaders -only some more , some less ; and a few, being
good fellows in the main , could neither be led nor
 HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE. III

driven any further. It is one thing to be idle and

skulk, and quite another to take a ship and murder a
number of innocent men.
At last , however, the party was made up. Six
fellows were to stay on board , and the remaining
thirteen, including Silver, began to embark.
Then it was that there came into my head the first
of the mad notions that contributed so much to save
our lives. If six men were left by Silver, it was plain
our party could not take and fight the ship ; and since
only six were left , it was equally plain that the cabin
party had no present need of my assistance. It oc-
curred to me at once to go ashore. In a jiffy I had
slipped over the side , and curled up in the fore-sheets
of the nearest boat , and almost at the same moment
she shoved off.
No one took notice of me , only the bow oar say-
ing, "Is that you, Jim? Keep your head down." But
Silver, from the other boat , looked sharply over and
called out to know if that were me ; and from that
moment I began to regret what I had done.
The crews raced for the beach ; but the boat I was
in, having some start , and being at once the lighter
and the better manned , shot far ahead of her consort,
and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees,
and I had caught a branch and swung myself out, and
plunged into the nearest thicket , while Silver and the
rest were still a hundred yards behind.
"Jim, Jim !" I heard him shouting.
112 TREASURE ISLAND.

But you may suppose I paid no heed ; jumping,

ducking, and breaking through, I ran straight before
my nose, till I could run no longer.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE FIRST BLOW.

I WAS SO pleased at having given the slip to Long

John , that I began to enjoy myself and look around
me with some interest on the strange land that I was in.
I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows , bul-
rushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees ; and I had
now come out upon the skirts of an open piece of un-
dulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with
a few pines , and a great number of contorted trees,
not unlike the oak in growth , but pale in the foliage
like willows. On the far side of the open stood one
of the hills, with two quaint , craggy peaks , shining
vividly in the sun.
I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration.
The isle was uninhabited ; my shipmates I had left
behind, and nothing lived in front of me but dumb .
brutes and fowls. I turned hither and thither among
the trees. Here and there were flowering plants , un-
known to me ; here and there I saw snakes , and one
raised his head from a ledge of rock and hissed at me
with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little
 THE FIRST BLOW. 113

did I suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and that

the noise was the famous rattle .
Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like
trees- live, or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterwards they
should be called — which grew low along the sand like
brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage com-
pact , like thatch . The thicket stretched down from
the top of one of the sandy knolls, spreading and grow-
ing taller as it went, until it reached the margin of the
broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of the little
rivers soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh
was steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the
Spy-glass trembled through the haze.
All at once there began to go a sort of bustle
among the bulrushes ; a wild duck flew up with a quack,
another followed , and soon over the whole surface of
the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and
circling in the air. I judged at once that some of my
shipmates must be drawing near along the borders of
the fen. Nor was I deceived ; for soon I heard the
very distant and low tones of a human voice , which,
as I continued to give ear , grew steadily louder and
nearer.
This put me in a great fear , and I crawled under
cover of the nearest live-oak , and squatted there,
hearkening, as silent as a mouse.
Another voice answered ; and then the first voice,
which I now recognised to be Silver's , once more took
up the story , and ran on for a long while in a stream,
Treasure Island. 8
114 TREASURE ISLAND.

only now and again interrupted by the other. By the

sound they must have been talking earnestly , and al-
most fiercely; but no distinct word came to my hearing.
At last the speakers seemed to have paused , and
perhaps to have sat down ; for not only did they cease
to draw any nearer , but the birds themselves began to
grow more quiet , and to settle again to their places in
the swamp .
And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my
business ; that since I had been so foolhardy as to come
ashore with these desperadoes , the least I could do
was to overhear them at their councils ; and that my
plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could
manage, under the favourable ambush of the crouch-
ing trees.
I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty
exactly , not only by the sound of their voices , but by
the behaviour of the few birds that still hung in alarm
above the heads of the intruders.
Crawling on all-fours , I made steadily but slowly
towards them; till at last , raising my head to an aper-
ture among the leaves , I could see clear down into a
little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about
with trees , where Long John Silver and another of the
crew stood face to face in conversation.
The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown
his hat beside him on the ground , and his great
smooth , blond face , all shining with heat, was lifted to
the other man's in a kind of appeal,
 THE FIRST BLOW. 115

"Mate ," he was saying , " it's because I thinks gold

dust of you-gold dust , and you may lay to that ! If
I hadn't took to you like pitch , do you think I'd have
been here a-warning of you? All's up- you can't make
nor mend; it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking,
and if one of the wild ' uns knew it , where ' ud I be,
Tom- now, tell me , where 'ud I be ?"
"Silver," said the other man- and I observed he
was not only red in the face , but spoke as hoarse as
a crow , and his voice shook , too , like a taut rope-
"Silver," says he , "you're old , and you're honest , or
has the name for it ; and you've money, too, which lots
of poor sailors hasn't; and you're brave , or I'm mis-
took. And will you tell me you'll let yourself be led
away with that kind of a mess of swabs ? not you ! As
sure as God sees me , I'd sooner lose my hand . If I
turn agin my dooty--
And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a
noise. I had found one of the honest hands -- well,
here, at that same moment, came news of another. Far
away out in the marsh there arose , all of a sudden , a
sound like the cry of anger , then another on the back
of it; and then one horrid , long-drawn scream. The
rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a score of times ;
the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again , darkening
heaven , with a simultaneous 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
8*
116 TREASURE ISLAND.

redescending birds and the boom of the distant surges

disturbed the languor of the afternoon.
Tom had leaped at the sound , like a horse at the
spur ; but Silver had not winked an eye. He stood
where he was , resting lightly on his crutch , watching
his companion like a snake about to spring.
"John !" said the sailor , stretching out his hand.
"Hands off! " cried Silver , leaping back a yard , as
it seemed to me , with the speed and security of a
trained gymnast .
"Hands off, if you like , John Silver ," said the
other. "It's a black conscience that can make you
feared of me. But , in heaven's name , tell me what
was that?"
"That?" returned Silver , smiling away, but warier
than ever, his eye a mere pin-point in his big face,
but gleaming like a crumb of glass . "That ? Oh, I
reckon that'll be Alan."
And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.
"Alan !" he cried. "Then rest his soul for a true
seaman ! And as for you, John Silver, long you've been
a mate of mine , but you're mate of mine no more. If
I die like a dog , I'll die in my dooty. You've killed
Alan , have you? Kill me , too , if you can . But I
defies you."
And with that , this brave fellow turned his back
directly on the cook, and set off walking for the beach.
But he was not destined to go far. With a cry, John
 THE FIRST BLOW. 117

seized the branch of a tree , whipped the crutch out of

his armpit , and sent that uncouth missile hurtling
through the air. It struck poor Tom, point foremost,
and with stunning violence, right between the shoulders
in the middle of his back. His hands flew up , he
gave a sort of gasp , and fell.
Whether he were injured much or little, none could
ever tell. Like enough , to judge from the sound , his
back was broken on the spot. But he had no time
given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even
without leg or crutch , was on the top of him next mo-
ment , and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in
that defenceless body. From my place of ambush , I
could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.
I do not know what it rightly is to faint , but I do
know that for the next little while the whole world
swam away from before me in a whirling mist ; Silver
and the birds , and the tall Spy-glass hill-top , going
round and round and topsy-turvy before my eyes , and
all manner of bells ringing and distant voices shouting
in my ear.
When I came again to myself, the monster had
pulled himself together , his crutch under his arm , his
hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay motion-
less upon the sward ; but the murderer minded him
not a whit , cleansing his blood-stained knife the while
upon a wisp of grass. Everything else was unchanged,
the sun still shining mercilessly on the steaming marsh
and the tall pinnacle of the mountain , and I could
118 TREASURE ISLAND.

scarce persuade myself that murder had been actually

done , and a human life cruelly cut short a moment
since , before my eyes.
But now John put his hand into his pocket, brought
out a whistle , and blew upon it several modulated
blasts, that rang far across the heated air. I could not
tell , of course , the meaning of the signal ; but it in-
stantly awoke my fears. More men would be coming.
I might be discovered. They had already slain two of
the honest people ; after Tom and Alan , might not I
come next ?
Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl
back again , with what speed and silence I could
manage , to the more open portion of the wood. As I
did so , I could hear hails coming and going between
the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of
danger lent me wings. As soon as I was clear of the
thicket, I ran as I never ran before , scarce minding
the direction of my flight , so long as it led me from
the murderers ; and as I ran , fear grew and grew upon
me , until it turned into a kind of frenzy.
Indeed , could any one be more entirely lost than
I? When the gun fired, how should I dare to go down
to the boats among those fiends , still smoking from
their crime? Would not the first of them who saw me
wring my neck like a snipe's? Would not my absence
itself be an evidence to them of my alarm , and there-
fore of my fatal knowledge ? It was all over, I thought,
Good-bye to the Hispaniola ; good-bye to the squire,
 THE FIRST BLOW. 119

the doctor, and the captain ! There was nothing left

for me but death by starvation , or death by the hands
of the mutineers.
All this while , as I say , I was still running , and,
without taking any notice , I had drawn near to the
foot of the little hill with the two peaks , and had got
into a part of the island where the live-oaks grew more
widely apart, and seemed more like forest trees in their
bearing and dimensions. Mingled with these were a
few scattered pines , some fifty , some nearer seventy,
feet high. The air, too , smelt more freshly than down
beside the marsh.
And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill
with a thumping heart.
I 20 TREASURE ISLAND.

CHAPTER XV.
THE MAN OF THE ISLAND .

FROM the side of the hill, which was here steep and
stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling
and bounding through the trees. My eyes turned in-
stinctively in that direction , and I saw a figure leap
with great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine. What
it was , whether bear or man or monkey , I could in no
wise tell. It seemed dark and shaggy ; more I knew
not. But the terror of this new apparition brought me
to a stand.
I was now , it seemed , cut off upon both sides ; be-
hind me the murderers , before me this lurking non-
descript. And immediately I began to prefer the
dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Silver him-
self appeared less terrible in contrast with this creature
of the woods , and I turned on my heel , and , looking
sharply behind me over my shoulder , began to retrace
my steps in the direction of the boats.
Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a wide
circuit, began to head me off. I was tired, at any rate ;
but had I been as fresh as when I rose , I could see it
was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an
adversary. From trunk to trunk the creature flitted
 THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. 121

like a deer , running manlike on two legs , but unlike

any man that I had ever seen , stooping almost double
as it ran. Yet a man it was , I could no longer be in
doubt about that.
I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I
was within an ace of calling for help. But the mere
fact that he was a man , however wild , had somewhat
reassured me , and my fear of Silver began to revive
in proportion. I stood still , therefore , and cast about
for some method of escape ; and as I was so thinking,
the recollection of my pistol flashed into my mind . As
soon as I remembered I was not defenceless , courage
glowed again in my heart ; and I set my face resolutely
for this man of the island , and walked briskly towards
him.
He was concealed by this time, behind another tree
trunk ; but he must have been watching me closely, for
as soon as I began to move in his direction he re-
appeared and took a step to meet me. Then he hesi-
tated , drew back , came forward again , and at last , to
my wonder and confusion , threw himself on his knees
and held out his clasped hands in supplication .
At that I once more stopped.
"Who are you?" I asked .
"Ben Gunn ," he answered , and his voice sounded
hoarse and awkward , like a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben
Gunn, I am ; and I haven't spoke with a Christian these
three years."
I could now see that he was a white man like my-
122 TREASURE ISLAND.

self, and that his features were even pleasing. 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. Of all the beggar-men that
I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness.
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 in-
congruous fastenings , brass buttons, bits of stick, and
loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist he wore an old
brass-buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid
in his whole accoutrement.
"Three years! " I cried. "Were you shipwrecked ?"
"Nay, mate," said he- " marooned."
I had heard the word, and I knew it stood for a
horrible kind of punishment common enough among the
buccaneers , in which the offender is put ashore with a
little powder and shot, and left behind on some desolate
and distant island.
"Marooned three years agone ," he continued , "and
lived on goats since then, and berries , and oysters.
Wherever a man is , says I , a man can do for himself.
But, mate , my heart is sore for Christian diet. You
mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you
now? No? Well , many's the long night I've dreamed
of cheese -toasted , mostly-and woke up again , and
here I were."
"If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you shall
have cheese by the stone."
 THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. 123

All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my

jacket , smoothing my hands , looking at my boots , and
generally, in the intervals of his speech , showing a
childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow-creature.
But at my last words he perked up into a kind of
startled slyness.
"If ever you can get aboard again , says you ?" he
repeated. "Why, now, who's to hinder you ?"
"Not you, I know," was my reply.
"And right you was ," he cried. " Now you - what
do you call yourself, mate?"
"Jim," I told him.
"Jim , Jim ," says he , quite pleased apparently.
"Well , now, Jim , I've lived that rough as you'd be
ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance , you wouldn't
think I had had a pious mother- to look at me ?" he
asked .
"Why no, not in particular," I answered .
"Ah, well," said he, "but I had- remarkable pious.
And I was a civil , pious boy and could rattle off my
catechism that fast , as you couldn't tell one word from
another. And here's what it come to, Jim, and it begun
with chuck-farthen on the blessed grave-stones ! That's
what it begun with , but it went further'n that ; and so
my mother told me, and predicked the whole, she did, 1
the pious woman ! But it were Providence that put me
here. I've thought it all out in this here lonely island,
and I'm back on piety. You don't catch me tasting
rum so much; but just a thimbleful for luck, of course,
124 TREASURE ISLAND.

the first chance I have. I'm bound I'll be good, and I

see the way to. And , Jim"-looking all round him,
and lowering his voice to a whisper-" I'm rich."
I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy
in his solitude , and I suppose I must have shown the
feeling in my face ; for he repeated the statement hotly:-
"Rich! rich ! I says. And I'll tell you what : I'll
make a man of you , Jim. Ah , Jim , you'll bless your
stars, you will, you was the first that found me ! "
And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow
over his face, and he tightened his grasp upon my hand,
and raised a forefinger threateningly before my eyes.
"Now, Jim , you tell me true : that ain't Flint's
ship?" he asked .
At this I had a happy inspiration . I began to be-
lieve that I had found an ally , and I answered him at
once.
"It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is dead; but I'll tell
you true , as you ask me -there are some of Flint's
hands aboard ; worse luck for the rest of us."
"Not a man- with one- leg ? " he gasped.
"Silver?" I asked.
"Ah, Silver ! " says he ; "that were his name."
"He's the cook; and the ringleader, too."
He was still holding me by the wrist , and at that
he gave it quite a wring.
"If you was sent by Long John ," he said , " I'm as
good as pork , and I know it. But where was you , do
you suppose?"
 THE MAN OF THE ISLAND . 125

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way

of answer told him the whole story of our voyage , and
the predicament in which we found ourselves. He
heard me with the keenest interest , and when I had
done he patted me on the head.
"You're a good lad , Jim ," he said, " and you're all
in a clove hitch , aint you? Well , you just put your
trust in Ben Gunn- Ben Gunn's the man to do it.
Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would
prove a liberal-minded one in case of help- him being
in a clove hitch, as you remark ? ”
I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.
"Ay, but you see ," returned Ben Gunn , "I didn't
mean giving me a gate to keep , and a shuit of livery
clothes , and such; that's not my mark, Jim. What I
mean is , would he be likely to come down to the toon
of, say one thousand pounds out of money that's as
good as a man's own already?"
"I am sure he would ," said I. "As it was , all
hands were to share."
“And a passage home? " he added , with a look of
great shrewdness .
"Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. And,
besides, if we got rid of the others, we should want you
to help work the vessel home."
"Ah ," said he , "so you would.” And he seemed
very much relieved .
"Now , I'll tell you what ," he went on. "So much
I'll tell you, and no more. I were in Flint's ship when
126 TREASURE ISLAND .

he buried the treasure ; he and six along-six strong

seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week , and us
standing off and on in the old Walrus. One fine day
up went the signal , and here come Flint by himself in
a little boat , and his head done up in a blue scarf.
The sun was getting up , and mortal white he looked
about the cutwater. But, there he was, you mind, and
the six all dead - dead and buried . How he done it,
not a man aboard us could make out. It was battle,
murder, and sudden death, leastways- him against six .
Billy Bones was the mate ; Long John , he was quarter-
master; and they asked him where the treasure was.
" Ah,' says he, ' you can go ashore, if you like, and stay,'
he says; ' but as for the ship , she'll beat up for more,
by thunder ! ' That's what he said.
"Well, I was in another ship three years back , and
we sighted this island. ' Boys ,' said I , ' there's Flint's
treasure ; let's land and find it.' The cap'n was dis-
pleased at that ; but my messmates were all of a mind,
and landed. Twelve days they looked for it, and every
day they had the worse word for me , until one fine
morning all hands went aboard. As for you, Benjamin
Gunn,' says they, ' here's a musket ,' they says , ' and a
spade , and a pickaxe. You can stay here , and find
Flint's money for yourself,' they says.
"Well , Jim , three years have I been here , and not
a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. But now,
you look here ; look at me. Do I look like a man before
the mast ? No, says you. Nor I weren't, neither, I says."
 THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. 127

And with that he winked and pinched me hard.

"Just you mention them words to your squire,
Jim "-he went on : "Nor he weren't , neither-that's
the words. Three years he were the man of this island,
light and dark, fair and rain ; and sometimes he would,
maybe, think upon a prayer (says you), and sometimes
he would, maybe , think of his old mother, so be as
she's alive (you'll say) ; but the most part of Gunn's
time (this is what you'll say) —the most part of his
time was took up with another matter. And then you'll
give him a nip, like I do."
And he pinched me again in the most confidential
manner.
"Then," he continued- "then you'll up, and you'll
say this :-Gunn is a good man (you'll say) , and he
puts a precious sight more confidence-a precious
sight, mind that- in a gen'leman born than in these
gen'lemen of fortune, having been one hisself."
"Well ," I said , " I don't understand one word that
you've been saying. But that's neither here nor there ;
for how am I to get on board ? "
"Ah ," said he , "that's the hitch , for sure. Well,
there's my boat , that I made with my two hands . I
keep her under the white rock. If the worst come to
the worst, we might try that after dark. Hi ! " he broke
out, "what's that? "
For just then, although the sun had still an hour or
two to run , all the echoes of the island awoke and
bellowed to the thunder of a cannon,
128 TREASURE ISLAND .

"They have begun to fight ! " I cried. " Follow

me."
And I began to run towards the anchorage , my
terrors all forgotten ; while , close at my side , the
marooned man in his goatskins trotted easily and
lightly.
"Left, left," says he ; " keep to your left hand , mate
Jim ! Under the trees with you ! Theer's where I killed
my first goat. They don't come down here now; they're
all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of
Benjamin Gunn. Ah ! and there's the cetemery ”-
cemetery, he must have meant. "You see the mounds?
I come here and prayed , nows and thens , when I
thought maybe a Sunday would be about doo. It
weren't quite a chapel , but it seemed more solemn
like ; and then, says you , Ben Gunn , was short-handed
--no chapling, nor so much as a Bible and a flag, you
says."
So he kept talking as I ran , neither expecting nor
receiving any answer.
The cannon-shot was followed , after a considerable
interval, by a volley of small arms.
Another pause , and then , not a quarter of a mile
in front of me , I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the
air above a wood.
 HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED . 129

PART IV.
THE STOCKADE.

CHAPTER XVI.
NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR : HOW THE SHIP
WAS ABANDONED.

It was about half-past one-three bells in the sea

phrase that the two boats went ashore from the
Hispaniola. The captain , the squire , and I were talk-
ing matters over in the cabin. Had there been a
breath of wind , we should have fallen on the six
mutineers who were left aboard with us , slipped our
cable , and away to sea. But the wind was wanting;
and , to complete our helplessness , down came Hunter
with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a
boat and was gone ashore with the rest.
It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins ; but
we were alarmed for his safety. With the men in the
temper they were in , it seemed an even chance if we
should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The
pitch was bubbling in the seams ; the nasty stench of
the place turned me sick; if ever a man smelt fever
and dysentery, it was in that abominable anchorage.
The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail
Treasure Island. 9
130 TREASURE ISLAND .

in the forecastle ; ashore we could see the gigs made

fast , and a man sitting in each , hard by where the
river runs in. One of them was whistling “ Lilli-
bullero."
Waiting was a strain ; and it was decided that
Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly- boat , in
quest of information .
The gigs had leaned to their right ; but Hunter and
I pulled straight in, in the direction of the stockade
upon the chart. The two who were left guarding their
boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance ; " Lilli-
bullero ," stopped off, and I could see the pair discuss-
ing what they ought to do. Had they gone and told
Silver, all might have turned out differently ; but they
had their orders , I suppose , and decided to sit quietly
where they were and hark back again to " Lillibullero."
There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered
so as to put it between us; even before we landed we
had thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out , and
came as near running as I durst, with a big silk hand-
kerchief under my hat for coolness' sake , and a brace
of pistols ready primed for safety.
I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on
the stockade.
This was how it was : a spring of clear water rose
almost at the top of a knoll. Well , on the knoll , and
enclosing the spring , they had clapped a stout log-
house , fit to hold two score people on a pinch , and
loopholed for musketry on every side . All round this
 HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED. 131

they had cleared a wide space, and then the thing was
completed by a paling six feet high , without door or
opening , too strong to pull down without time and
labour, and too open to shelter the besiegers. The
people in the log-house had them in every way ; they
stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like partridges.
All they wanted was a good watch and food ; for, short
of a complete surprise , they might have held the place
against a regiment.
What particularly took my fancy was the spring.
For , though we had a good enough place of it in the
cabin of the Hispaniola , with plenty of arms and am-
munition, and things to eat , and excellent wines, there
had been one thing overlooked - we had no water. I
was thinking this over , when there came ringing over
the island the cry of a man at the point of death. I
was not new to violent death- I have served his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cumberland , and got a wound.
myself at Fontenoy-but I know my pulse went dot
and carry one. "Jim Hawkins is gone ," was my first
thought.
It is something to have been an old soldier, but
more still to have been a doctor. There is no time to
dilly-dally in our work. And so now I made up my
mind instantly, and with no time lost returned to the
shore, and jumped on board the jolly-boat.
By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We
made the water fly; and the boat was soon alongside,
and I aboard the schooner,
9*
132 TREASURE ISLAND.

I found them all shaken , as was natural. The

squire was sitting down , as white as a sheet , thinking
of the harm he had led us to , the good soul ! and one
of the six forecastle hands was little better.
" There's a man," says Captain Smollett , nodding
towards him , "new to this work. He came nigh-hand
fainting, doctor , when he heard the cry. Another
touch of the rudder and that man would join us."
I told my plan to the captain , and between us we
settled on the details of its accomplishment.
We put old Redruth in the gallery between the
cabin and the forecastle , with three or four loaded
muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter brought
the boat round under the stern-port , and Joyce and I
set to work loading her with powder tins , muskets,
bags of biscuits , kegs of pork , a cask of cognac, and
my invaluable medicine chest.
In the meantime, the squire and the captain stayed
on deck , and the latter hailed the coxswain , who was
the principal man aboard.
"Mr. Hands ," he said , "here are two of us with a
brace of pistols each. If any one of you six make a
signal of any description, that man's dead."
They were a good deal taken aback ; and , after a
little consultation , one and all tumbled down the fore
companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us on the rear.
But when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the
sparred gallery, they went about ship at once , and a
head popped out again on deck.
 HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED. 133

"Down, dog! " cries the captain.

And the head popped back again ; and we heard
no more , for the time , of these six very faint-hearted
seamen.
By this time , tumbling things in as they came , we
had the jolly-boat loaded as much as we dared . Joyce
and I got out through the stern-port , and we made for
shore again, as fast as oars could take us.
This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along
shore. "Lillibullero" was dropped again ; and just
before we lost sight of them behind the little point,
one of them whipped ashore and disappeared . I had
half a mind to change my plan and destroy their
boats , but I feared that Silver and the others might
be close at hand , and all might very well be lost by
trying for too much.
We had soon touched land in the same place as
before, and set to provision the block house . All three
made the first journey , heavily laden , and tossed our
stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to guard
them— one man , to be sure , but with half a dozen
muskets -Hunter and I returned to the jolly-boat , and
loaded ourselves once more. So we proceeded without
pausing to take breath , till the whole cargo was be-
stowed , when the two servants took up their position
in the block house , and I , with all my power , sculled
back to the Hispaniola.
That we should have risked a second boat load
seems more daring than it really was. They had the
134 TREASURE ISLAND .

advantage of numbers , of course , but we had the ad-

vantage of arms. Not one of the men ashore had a
musket, and before they could get within range for
pistol shooting , we flattered ourselves we should be
able to give a good account of a half-dozen at least.
The squire was waiting for me at the stern window,
all his faintness gone from him. He caught the painter
and made it fast, and we fell to loading the boat for
our very lives. Pork , powder , and biscuit was the
cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for
squire and me and Redruth and the captain. The
rest of the arms and powder we dropped overboard in
two fathoms and a half of water, so that we could see
the bright steel shining far below us in the sun, on the
clean, sandy bottom.
By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and
the ship was swinging round to her anchor. Voices
were heard faintly halloaing in the direction of the
two gigs ; and though this reassured us for Joyce and
Hunter , who were well to the eastward , it warned our
party to be off.
Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery,
and dropped into the boat , which we then brought
round to the ship's counter, to be handier for Captain
Smollett.
"Now men," said he, " do you hear me?"
There was no answer from the forecastle.
"It's to you , Abraham Gray-it's to you I am
speaking."
 HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED. 135

Still no reply.
"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett , a little louder , " I
am leaving this ship , and I order you to follow your
captain. I know you are a good man at bottom , and
I daresay not one of the lot of you's as bad as he
makes out. I have my watch here in my hand ; I give
you thirty seconds to join me in."
There was a pause.
"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain,
"don't hang so long in stays. I'm risking my life, and
the lives of these good gentlemen every second.".
There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and
out burst Abraham Gray with a knife-cut on the side
of the cheek, and came running to the captain , like a
dog to the whistle.
"I'm with you, sir," said he.
And the next moment he and the captain had
dropped aboard of us , and we had shoved off and
given way.
We were clear out of the ship ; but not yet ashore
in our stockade.
136 TREASURE ISLAND.

CHAPTER XVII.
NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR : THE JOLLY-
BOAT'S LAST TRIP.

THIS fifth trip was quite different from any of the

others. In the first place , the little gallipot of a boat
that we were in was gravely overloaded . Five grown
men , and three of them- Trelawney , Redruth , and
the captain- over six feet high , was already more
than she was meant to carry. Add to that the powder,
pork, and bread-bags. The gunwale was lipping astern.
Several times we shipped a little water , and my
breeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking
wet before we had gone a hundred yards.
The captain made us trim the boat , and we got
her to lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were
afraid to breathe.
In the second place , the ebb was now making—a
strong rippling current running westward through the
basin, and then south'ard and seaward down the straits
by which we had entered in the morning. Even the
ripples were a danger to our overloaded craft ; but
the worst of it was that we were swept out of our true
course, and away from our proper landing-place behind
the point. If we let the current have its way we
 THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP. 137

should come ashore beside the gigs , where the pirates

might appear at any moment.
"I cannot keep her head for the stockade , sir,"
said I to the captain . I was steering , while he and
Redruth, two fresh men , were at the oars. "The tide
keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little
stronger?"
"Not without swamping the boat ," said he. "You
must bear up , sir , if you please-bear up until you
see you're gaining."
I tried , and found by experiment that the tide
kept sweeping us westward until I had laid her head
due east , or just about right angles to the way we
ought to go.
"We'll never get ashore at this rate," said I.
"If it's the only course that we can lie , sir , we
must even lie it ," returned the captain . " We must
keep up-stream . You see , sir," he went on , "if once
we dropped to leeward of the landing-place , it's hard
to say where we should get ashore, besides the chance
of being boarded by the gigs ; whereas , the way we
go the current must slacken , and then we can dodge
back along the shore."
"The current's less a'ready , sir," said the man
Gray, who was sitting in the fore-sheets ; "you can ease
her off a bit."
"Thank you , my man ," said I, quite as if nothing
had happened ; for we had all quietly made up our
minds to treat him like one of ourselves,
138 TREASURE ISLAND.

Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought

his voice was a little changed.
"The gun! " said he.
"I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure
he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. "They
could never get the gun ashore, and if they did, they
could never haul it through the woods."
"Look astern, doctor," replied the captain.
We had entirely forgotten the long nine ; and there,
to our horror, were the five rogues busy about her,
getting off her jacket, as they called the stout tarpaulin
cover under which she sailed. Not only that, but it
flashed into my mind at the same moment that the
round shot and the powder for the gun had been left
behind, and a stroke with an axe would put it all into
the possession of the evil ones aboard .
"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray, hoarsely.
At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the
landing-place. By this time we had got so far out of
the run of the current that we kept steerage way even
at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I could
keep her steady for the goal. But the worst of it
was, that with the course I now held, we turned our
broadside instead of our stern to the Hispaniola, and
offered a target like a barn door.
I could hear , as well as see , that brandy-faced
rascal, Israel Hands, plumping down a round-shot on
the deck.
 THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP. 139

"Who's the best shot?" asked the captain.

"Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I.
"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one of
these men, sir? Hands, if possible," said the captain.
Trelawney was as cool as steel. He looked to the
priming of his gun.
"Now," cried the captain, " easy with that gun, sir,
or you'll swamp the boat. All hands stand by to trim
her when he aims."
The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and
we leaned over to the other side to keep the balance,
and all was so nicely contrived that we did not ship
a drop.
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 ex-
posed. However, we had no luck ; for just as Trelawney
fired, down he stooped, the ball whistled over him, and
it was one of the other four who fell.
The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his com-
panions on board, but by a great number of voices
from the shore, and looking in that direction I saw the
other pirates trooping out from among the trees and
tumbling into their places in the boats.
"Here come the gigs, sir," said I.
"Give way then," cried the captain. "We mustn't
mind if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore,
all's up."
"Only one of the gigs is being manned , sir," I
140 TREASURE ISLAND.

added, "the crew of the other most likely going round

by shore to cut us off.”
"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain.
"Jack ashore, you know. It's not them I mind ; it's
the round- shot. Carpet bowls ! My lady's maid couldn't
miss. Tell us , squire, when you see the match, and
we'll hold water."
In the meanwhile we had been making headway
at a good pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had
shipped but little water in the process. We were now
close in; thirty or forty strokes and we should beach
her; for the ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt
of sand below the clustering trees. The gig was no
longer to be feared ; the little 'point had already con-
cealed it from our eyes. The ebb-tide , which had so
cruelly delayed us, was now making reparation, and
delaying our assailants. The one source of danger
was the gun .
"If I durst," said the captain , " I'd stop and pick
off another man."
But it was plain that they meant nothing should
delay their shot. They had never so much as looked
at their fallen comrade, though he was not dead, and
I could see him trying to crawl away.
"Ready! " cried the squire .
"Hold !" cried the captain, quick as an echo.
And he and Redruth backed with a great heave
that sent her stern bodily under water. The report
fell in at the same instant of time. This was the first
 THE JOLLY-BOAT'S LAST TRIP. 141

that Jim heard , the sound of the squire's shot not

having reached him. 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 con-
tributed to our disaster.
At any rate , the boat sank by the stern , quite
gently, in three feet of water, leaving the captain and
myself, facing each other, on our feet. The other three
took complete headers, and came up again, drenched
and bubbling.
So far there was no great harm. No lives were
lost, and we could wade ashore in safety. But there
were all our stores at the bottom, and, to make things
worse, only two guns out of five remained in a state
for service. Mine I had snatched from my knees and
held over my head, by a sort of instinct. As for the
captain , he had carried his over his shoulder by a
bandoleer, and, like a wise man, lock uppermost. The
other three had gone down with the boat.
To add to our concern, we heard voices already
drawing near us in the woods along shore ; and we
had not only the danger of being cut off from the
stockade in our half-crippled state, but the fear before
us whether, if Hunter and Joyce were attacked by half
a dozen, they would have the sense and conduct to
stand firm . Hunter was steady, that we knew; Joyce
was a doubtful case- a pleasant, polite man for a valet,
and to brush one's clothes, but not entirely fitted for a
man of war.
142 TREASURE ISLAND.

With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as

fast as we could , leaving behind us the poor jolly-boat,
and a good half of all our powder and provisions.

CHAPTER XVIII.
NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR : END OF THE
FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING.

WE made our best speed across the strip of wood

that now divided us from the stockade ; and at every
step we took the voices of the buccaneers rang nearer.
Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran, and
the cracking of the branches as they breasted across a
bit of thicket.
I began to see we should have a brush for it in
earnest, and looked to my priming.
"Captain," said I, " Trelawney is the dead shot.
Give him your gun ; his own is useless."
They exchanged guns , and Trelawney , silent and
cool as he had been since the beginning of the bustle,
hung a moment on his heel to see that all was fit for
service. At the same time, observing Gray to be un-
armed, I handed him my cutlass. It did all our hearts
good to see him spit in his hand, knit his brows, and
make the blade sing through the air. It was plain
from every line of his body that our new hand was
worth his salt.
 END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING. 143

Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the

wood and saw the stockade in front of us. We struck
the enclosure about the middle of the south side, and,
almost at the same time, seven mutineers -Job Ander-
son, the boatswain, at their head -appeared in full cry
at the south-western corner.

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. The
four shots came in rather a scattering volley ; but they
did the business : one of the enemy actually fell, and
the rest, without hesitation, turned and plunged into
the trees.
After reloading, we walked down the outside of the
palisade to see to the fallen enemy. He was stone
dead- shot through the heart.
We began to rejoice over our good success, when
just at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a
ball whistled close past my ear, and poor Tom Redruth
stumbled and fell his length on the ground . Both the
squire and I returned the shot ; but as we had nothing
to aim at, it is probable we only wasted powder. Then
we reloaded, and turned our attention to poor Tom.
The captain and Gray were already examining him ;
and I saw with half an eye that all was over.
I believe the readiness of our return volley had
scattered the mutineers once more, for we were suffered
without further molestation to get the poor old game, *
144 TREASURE ISLAND.

keeper hoisted over the stockade, and carried, groaning

and bleeding, into the log-house.
Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of
surprise , complaint , fear , or even acquiescence , from
the very beginning of our troubles till now, when we
had laid him down in the log-house to die. He had
lain like a Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery ;
he had followed every order silently , doggedly , and
well ; he was the oldest of our party by a score of
years; and now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it was
he that was to die.
The squire dropped down beside him on his knees
and kissed his hand , crying like a child .
"Be I going , doctor ? " he asked .
"Tom, my man ," said I , " you're going home."
"I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun
first," he replied.
"Tom," said the squire, " say you forgive me, won't
you ?"
"Would that be respectful like , from me to you,
squire ?" was the answer. "Howsoever , so be it,
amen !"
After a little while of silence , he said he thought
somebody might read a prayer. "It's the custom , sir,"
he added , apologetically. And not long after, without
another word , he passed away.
In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed
to be wonderfully swollen about the chest and pockets,
had turned out a great many various stores - the British
 END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING. 145

colours , a Bible , a coil of stoutish rope , pen , ink, the

log-book, and pounds of tobacco. He had found a
longish fir-tree lying felled and cleared in the 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. Then , climbing on the roof, he had
with his own hand bent and run up the colours.
This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re-entered
the log-house , and set about counting up the stores , as
if nothing else existed . But he had an eye on Tom's
passage for all that; and as soon as all was over , came
forward with another flag , and reverently spread it on
the body.
"Don't you take on , sir," he said , shaking the
squire's hand. "All's well with him; no fear for a
hand that's been shot down in his duty to captain and
owner. It mayn't be good divinity, but it's a fact."
Then he pulled me aside.
"Dr. Livesey," he said , " in how many weeks do
you and squire expect the consort ?"
I told him it was a question , not of weeks , but of
months ; that if we were not back by the end of
August , Blandly was to send to find us; but neither
sooner nor later. "You can calculate for yourself," I
said .
"Why, yes ," returned the captain , scratching his
head , "and making a large allowance , sir , for all the
gifts of Providence , I should say we were pretty close
hauled."
Treasure Island, ΙΟ
146 TREASURE ISLAND .

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"It's a pity, sir , we lost that second load. That's
what I mean ," replied the captain. " As for powder
and shot , we'll do. But the rations are short , very
short- so short , Doctor Livesey, that we're , perhaps,
as well without that extra mouth."
And he pointed to the dead body under the flag.
Just then , with a roar and a whistle , a round shot
passed high above the roof of the log-house and
plumped far beyond us in the wood.
"Oho! " said the captain. "Blaze away! You've
little enough powder already my lads."
At the second trial , the aim was better, and the
ball descended inside the stockade , scattering a cloud
of sand , but doing no further damage.
66
' Captain ," said the squire , "the house is quite in-
visible from the ship. It must be the flag they are
aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it in?”
"Strike my colours ! " cried the captain. " No , sir,
not I;" and, as soon as he had said the words, I think
we all agreed with him. For it was not only a piece
of stout , seamanly , good feeling; it was good policy
besides , and showed our enemies that we despised
their cannonade.
All through the evening they kept thundering away.
Ball after ball flew over or fell short , or kicked up the
sand in the enclosure ; but they had to fire so high that
the shot fell dead and buried itself in the soft sand.
We had no ricochet to fear; and though one popped in
 END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING. 147

through the roof of the log-house and out again through

the floor, we soon got used to that sort of horse-play,
and minded it no more than cricket.
"There is one thing good about all this ," observed
the captain : "the wood in front of us is likely clear.
The ebb has made a good while ; our stores should be
uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring in pork."
Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward.
Well armed , they stole out of the stockade ; but it
proved a useless mission. The mutineers were bolder
than we fancied, or they put more trust in Israel's gun-
nery. For four or five of them were busy carrying off
our stores , and wading out with them to one of the
gigs that lay close by, pulling an oar or so to hold her
steady against the current. Silver was in the stern-
sheets in command ; and every man of them was now
provided with a musket from some secret magazine of
their own .
The captain sat down to his log, and here is the
beginning of the entry:-
"Alexander Smollett, master ; David Livesey, ship's
doctor; Abraham Gray, carpenter's mate; John Tre-
lawney, 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. Thomas Redruth,
owner's servant , landsman , shot by the mutineers ;
James Hawkins, cabin-boy—— "
10 *
148 TREASURE ISLAND.

And at the same time I was wondering over poor

Jim Hawkin's fate.
A hail on the land side.
"Somebody hailing us ," said Hunter , who was on
guard.
"Doctor! squire ! captain ! Hullo , Hunter, is that
you?" came the cries.
And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins,
safe and sound , come climbing over the stockade.
 THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE. 149

CHAPTER XIX.
NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS : THE GARRISON
IN THE STOCKADE

As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colours he came to

a halt , stopped me by the arm , and sat down.
“ Now,” said he, " there's your friends, sure enough."
"Far more likely it's the mutineers ," I answered .
"That !" he cried. "Why, in a place like this,
where nobody puts in but gen'lemen of fortune , Silver
would fly the Jolly Roger , you don't make no doubt of
that. No; that's your friends. There's been blows,
too , and I reckon your friends has had the best of it;
and here they are ashore in the old stockade , as was
made years and years ago by Flint. Ah , he was the
man to have a headpiece, was Flint ! Barring rum, his
match were never seen. He were afraid of none , not
he; on'y Silver- Silver was that genteel."
"Well ," said I, "that may be so , and so be it; all
the more reason that I should hurry on and join my
friends."
"Nay, mate ," returned Ben , " not you. You're a
good boy, or I'm mistook ; but you're on'y a boy , all
told. Now, Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn't bring me
there, where you're going- not rum wouldn't , till I see
your born gen'leman, and gets it on his word of honour.
150 TREASURE ISLAND.

And you won't forget my words : ' A precious sight

(that's what you'll say) , a precious sight more con-
fidence ' and then nips him."
And he pinched me the third time with the same
air of cleverness.
"And when Ben Gunn is wanted , you know where
to find him , Jim. Just wheer you found him to-day.
And him that comes is to have a white thing in his
hand : and he's to come alone. Oh ! and you'll say
this : ' Ben Gunn ,' says you , ' has reasons of his own.' "
"Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You have
something to propose , and you wish to see the squire
or the doctor; and you're to be found where I found
you. Is that all?”
"And when? says you," he added. " Why, from
about noon observation to about six bells."
"Good," said I, " and now may I go?"
"You won't forget?" he inquired, anxiously. " Pre-
cious sight, and reasons of his own, says you. Reasons
of his own; that's the mainstay; as between man and
man. Well , then"-still holding me-"I reckon you
can go, Jim. And , Jim , if you was to see Silver , you
wouldn't go for to sell Ben Gunn ? wild horses wouldn't
draw it from you ? No, says you ? And if them pirates
camp ashore , Jim , what would you say but there'd be
widders in the morning?"
Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a
cannon ball came tearing through the trees and pitched
in the sand , not a hundred yards from where we two
 THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE. 151

were talking. The next moment each of us had taken

to his heels in a different direction.
For a good hour to come frequent reports shook
the island , and balls kept crashing through the woods.
I moved from hiding-place to hiding-place , always pur-
sued , or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying mis-
siles. But towards the end of the bombardment, though
still I durst not venture in the direction of the stockade,
where the balls fell oftenest, I had begun, in a manner,
to pluck up my heart again ; and after a long detour
to the east , crept down among the shore-side trees.
The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling
and tumbling in the woods , and ruffling the grey sur-
face of the anchorage ; the tide , too , was far out , and
great tracts of sand lay uncovered ; the air , after the
heat of the day, chilled me through my jacket.
The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored ;
but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger-the black
flag of piracy-flying from her peak. Even as I looked ,
there came another red flash and another report , that
sent the echoes clattering , and one more round shot
whistled through the air. It was the last of the can-
nonade.
I lay for some time , watching the bustle which
succeeded the attack. Men were demolishing some-
thing with axes on the beach near the stockade ; the
poor jolly-boat , I afterwards discovered . Away , near
the mouth of the river, a great fire was glowing among
the trees , and between that point and the ship one of
152 TREASURE ISLAND.

the gigs kept coming and going , the men, whom I

had seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like children.
But there was a sound in their voices which suggested
rum.
At length I thought I might return towards the
stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, sandy
spit that incloses the anchorage to the east , and is
joined at half-water to Skeleton Island ; and now, as I
rose to my feet, I saw, some distance further down the
spit, and rising from among low bushes , an isolated
rock , pretty high, and peculiarly white in colour. It
occurred to me that this might be the white rock of
which Ben Gunn had spoken , and that some day or
other a boat might be wanted , and I should know
where to look for one.
Then I skirted among the woods until I had re-
gained the rear, or shoreward side , of the stockade,
and was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful party.
I had soon told my story, and began to look about
me. The log-house was made of unsquared trunks of
pine-roof, walls, and floor. The latter stood in several
places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above
the surface of the sand. There was a porch at the
door , and under this porch the little spring welled up
into an artificial basin of a rather odd kind - no other
than a great ship's kettle of iron , with the bottom
knocked out, and sunk "to her bearings," as the captain
said, among the sand .
Little had been left beside the framework of the
 THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE. 153

-house; but in one corner there was a stone slab laid

down by way of hearth , and an old rusty iron basket
to contain the fire.

The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the

stockade had been cleared of timber to build the house,
and we could see by the stumps what a fine and lofty
grove had been destroyed. Most of the soil had been
washed away or buried in drift after the removal ofthe
trees ; only where the streamlet ran down from the
kettle a thick bed of moss and some ferns and little
creeping bushes were still green among the sand. Very
close around the stockade - too close for 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.

The cold evening breeze , of which I have spoken,

whistled through every chink of the rude building, and
sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand.
There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand in
our suppers , sand dancing in the spring at the bottom
of the kettle , for all the world like porridge beginning
to boil. Our chimney was a square hole in the roof;
it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way
out, and the rest eddied about the house , and kept us
coughing and piping the eye.
Add to this that Gray, the new man , had his face
tied up in a bandage for a cut he had got in breaking
away from the mutineers; and that poor old Tom
154 TREASURE ISLAND .

Redruth, still unburied , lay along the wall , stiff and

stark, under the Union Jack.
If we had been allowed to sit idle , we should all
have fallen in the blues , but Captain Smollett was
never the man for that. All hands were called up
before him , and he divided us into watches. The
doctor, and Gray, and I , for one ; the squire , Hunter,
and Joyce upon the other. Tired as we all were , two
were sent out for firewood ; two more were 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.
From time to time the doctor came to the door for
a little air and to rest his eyes , which were almost
smoked out of his head; and whenever he did so , he
had a word for me.
"That man Smollett ," he said once , " is a better
man than I am. And when I say that it means a
deal, Jim."
Another time he came and was silent for a while.
Then he put his head on one side, and looked at me.
"Is this Ben Gunn a man ?" he asked.
"I do not know, sir," said I. "I am not very sure
'whether he's sane."
"If there's any doubt about the matter , he is ," re-
turned the doctor. "A man who has been three years
biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can't expect to
appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human
 THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE. 155

nature. Was it cheese you said he had a fancy

for?"
"Yes, sir, cheese," I answered.

"Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that comes
of being dainty in your food. You've seen my snuff-
box , haven't you? And you never saw me take snuff;
the reason being that in my snuff-box I carry a piece
of Parmesan cheese -a cheese made in Italy, very
nutritious. Well, that's for Ben Gunn ! "
Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the
sand , and stood round him for a while bare-headed in
the breeze. A good deal of firewood had been got in,
but not enough for the captain's fancy; and he shook
his head over it , and told us we "must get back to
this to-morrow rather livelier." Then, when we had
eaten our pork, and each had a good stiff glass of
brandy grog, the three chiefs got together in a corner
to discuss our prospects.
It appears they were at their wit's end what to do,
the stores being so low that we must have been starved
into surrender long before help came. But our best
hope , it was decided , was to kill off the buccaneers
until they either hauled down their flag or ran away
with the Hispaniola. From nineteen they were already
reduced to fifteen , two others were wounded , and one,
at least the man shot beside the gun - severely
wounded , if he were not dead. Every time we had a
crack at them, we were to take it, saving our own lives,
156 TREASURE ISLAND .

with the extremest care. And , besides that, we had

two able allies-rum and the climate.
As for the first , though we were about half a mile
away, we could hear them roaring and singing late into
the night ; and as for the second, the doctor staked his
wig that , camped where they were in the marsh , and
unprovided with remedies , the half of them would be
on their backs before a week.
"So ," he added , " if we are not all shot down first
they'll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It's
always a ship, and they can get to buccaneering again,
I suppose."
"First ship that ever I lost," said Captain Smollett.
I was dead tired , as you may fancy; and when I
got to sleep , which was not till after a great deal of
tossing, I slept like a log of wood.
The rest had long been up, and had already break-
fasted and increased the pile of firewood by about half
as much again , when I was wakened by a bustle and
the sound of voices.
"Flag of truce ! " I heard some one say; and then,
immediately after, with a cry of surprise , " Silver him-
self! "
And , at that , up I jumped , and , rubbing my eyes,
ran to a loophole in the wall.
 SILVER'S EMBASSY. 157

CHAPTER XX.
SILVER'S EMBASSY.

SURE enough , there were two men just outside the

stockade , one of them waving a white cloth ; the
other, no less a person than Silver himself, standing
placidly by.
It was still quite early, and the coldest morning
that I think I ever was abroad in; a chill that pierced
into the marrow. The sky was bright and cloudless
overhead, and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the
sun. But where Silver stood with his lieutenant all
was still in shadow, and they waded knee deep in a
low , white vapour , that had crawled during the night
out of the morass. The chill and the vapour taken
together told a poor tale of the island. It was plainly
a damp, feverish, unhealthy spot.
"Keep indoors , men ," said the captain. "Ten to
one this is a trick."
Then he hailed the buccaneer.
"Who goes? Stand, or we fire."
"Flag of truce," cried Silver.
The captain was in the porch, keeping himself care-
fully out of the way of a treacherous shot should any
be intended. He turned and spoke to us :-
158 TREASURE ISLAND .

"Doctor's watch on the look out. Dr. Livesey take

the north side, if you please ; Jim, the east ; Gray, west.
The watch below, all hands to load muskets. Lively,
men , and careful."
And then he turned again to the mutineers.
"And what do you want with your flag of truce ? ”
he cried.
This time it was the other man who replied.
"Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make
terms," he shouted.
"Cap'n Silver ! Don't know him. Who's he? " cried
the captain. And we could hear him adding to him-
self: " Cap'n, is it? My heart, and here's promotion ! "
Long John answered for himself.
"Me , sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap'n,
after your desertion, sir "-laying a particular emphasis
upon the word " desertion." "We're willing to submit,
if we can come to terms , and no bones about it. All
I ask is your word, Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and
sound out of this here stockade, and one minute to get
out o' shot before a gun is fired ."
"My man," said Captain Smollett , "I have not the
slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk to
me, you can come, that's all. If there's any treachery,
it'll be on your side , and the Lord help you."
"That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John, cheerily.
"A word from you's enough. I know a gentleman, and
you may lay to that."
We could see the man who carried the flag of
 SILVER'S EMBASSY. 159

truce attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that

wonderful , seeing how cavalier had been the captain's
answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud and slapped
him on the back, as if the idea of alarm had been ab-
surd. Then he advanced to the stockade , threw over
his crutch, got a leg up , and with great vigour and
skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping
safely to the other side.
I will confess that I was far too much taken up
with what was going on to be of the slightest use as
sentry; indeed , I had already deserted my eastern
loophole , and crept up behind the captain , who had
now seated himself on the threshold , with his elbows
on his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes fixed
on the water , as it bubbled out of the old iron kettle
in the sand. He was whistling to himself, " Come Lasses
and Lads."
Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll.
What with the steepness of the incline , the thick tree
stumps , and the soft sand , he and his crutch were as
helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it like a
man in silence , and at last arrived before the captain,
whom he saluted in the handsomest style. He was
tricked out in his best ; an immense blue coat, thick
with brass buttons, hung as low as to his knees, and a
fine laced hat was set on the back of his head.
"Here you are , my man," said the captain , raising
his head. "You had better sit down."
"You aint a-going to let me inside , cap'n ? " com-
160 TREASURE ISLAND .

plained Long John. "It's a main cold morning, to be

sure , sir , to sit outside upon the sand."
"Why, Silver," said the captain, " if you had pleased
to be an honest man, you might have been sitting in
your galley. It's your own doing. You're either my
ship's cook-and then you were treated handsome-
or Cap'n Silver , a common mutineer and pirate , and
then you can go hang!"
"Well , well , cap'n ," returned the sea cook , sitting
down as he was bidden on the sand , "you'll have to
give me a hand up again , that's all. A sweet pretty
place you have of it here. Ah , there's Jim! The top
of the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service.
Why, there you all are together like a happy family, in
a manner of speaking."
"If you have anything to say, my man , better say
it," said the captain .
"Right you were , Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver.
"Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well, now you look here,
that was a good lay of yours last night. I don't deny
it was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a
handspike-end. And I'll not deny neither but what
some of my people was shook-maybe all was shook;
maybe I was shook myself; maybe that's why I'm here
for terms. But you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice,
by thunder! We'll have to do sentry-go , and ease off
a point or so on the rum. Maybe you think we were
all a sheet in the wind's eye. But I'll tell you I was
sober; I was on'y dog tired ; and if I'd awoke a second
 SILVER'S EMBASSY. 161

sooner I'd a' caught you at the act, I would. He

wasn't dead when I got round to him, not he.”
"Well?" says Captain Smollett , as cool as can be.
All that Silver said was a riddle to him , but you
would never have guessed it from his tone. As for
me, I began to have an inkling. Ben Gunn's last words
came back to my mind. I began to suppose that he
had paid the buccaneers a visit while they all lay drunk
together round their fire , and I reckoned up with glee
that we had only fourteen enemies to deal with.
"Well , here it is ," said Silver. "We want that
treasure, and we'll have it—that's our point ! You would
just as soon save your lives, I reckon ; and that's yours.
You have a chart, haven't you?"
"That's as may be ," replied the captain.
"Oh, well , you have, I know that ," returned Long
John. "You needn't be so husky with a man ; there
aint a particle of service in that, and you may lay to
it. What I mean is, we want your chart. Now , I
never meant you no harm , myself."
"That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the
captain. "We know exactly what you meant to do,
and we don't care ; for now , you see , you can't do it."
And the captain looked at him calmly , and pro-
ceeded to fill a pipe.
"If Abe Gray--" Silver broke out.
"Avast there !" cried Mr. Smollett. " Gray told me
nothing, and I asked him nothing; and what's more I
would see you and him and this whole island blown
Treasure Island. II
162 TREASURE ISLAND.

clean out of the water into blazes first. So there's my

mind for you , my man , on that."
This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver
down. He had been growing nettled before , but now
he pulled himself together.
"Like enough ," said he. " I would set no limits
to what gentlemen might consider shipshape , or might
not , as the case were. And seein' as how you are
about to take a pipe , cap'n , I'll make so free as do
likewise."
And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two
men sat silently smoking for quite a while , now look-
ing each other in the face, now stopping their tobacco,
now leaning forward to spit. It was as good as the
play to see them .
"Now," resumed Silver , " here it is. You give us
the chart to get the treasure by, and drop shooting
poor seamen , and stoving of their heads in while
asleep. You do that , and we'll offer you a choice.
Either you come aboard along of us , once the treasure
shipped , and then I'll give you my affy-davy, upon my
word of honour , to clap you somewhere safe ashore.
Or, if that aint to your fancy, some of my hands being
rough , and having old scores , on account of hazing,
then you can stay here , you can. We'll divide stores
with you , man for man ; and I'll give my affy-davy , as
before , to speak the first ship I sight, and send ' em
here to pick you up. Now you'll own that's talking.
Handsomer you couldn't look to get, not you. And I
 SILVER'S EMBASSY. 163

hope "-raising his voice-"that all hands in this here

block-house will overhaul my words , for what is spoke
to one is spoke to all."
Captain Smollett rose from his seat, and knocked
out the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand.
"Is that all?" he asked.
"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John.
"Refuse that , and you've seen the last of me but
musket-balls."
"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear
me. If you'll come up one by one , unarmed , I'll en-
gage to clap you all in irons , and take you home to a
fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is
Alexander Smollett , I've flown my sovereign's colours,
and I'll see you all to Davy Jones. You can't find the
treasure. You can't sail the ship-there's not a man
among you fit to sail the ship . You can't fight us—
Gray, there , got away from five of you. Your ship's
in irons , Master Silver; you're on a lee shore , and so
you'll find. I stand here and tell you so ; and they're
the last good words you'll get from me ; for, in the
name of heaven , I'll put a bullet in your back when
next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle out of this,
please, hand over hand , and double quick."
Silver's face was a picture ; his eyes started in his
head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe.
"Give me a hand up ! " he cried.
"Not I," returned the captain.
"Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared.
II *
164 TREASURE ISLAND .

Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest

imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he got hold
of the porch and could hoist himself again upon his
crutch. Then he spat into the spring.
" There ! " he cried, "that's what I think of ye. Be-
fore an hour's out , I'll stove in your old block-house
like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh ! Be-
fore an hour's out , ye'll laugh upon the other side.
Them that die 'll be the lucky ones."
And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, 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.
 THE ATTACK. 165

CHAPTER XXI.
THE ATTACK.

As soon as Silver disappeared , the captain , who

had been closely watching him , turned towards the
interior of the house , and found not a man of us at
his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever
seen him angry .
"Quarters !" he roared. And then, as we 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 sea-
man. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor,
I thought you had worn the king's coat ! If that was
how you served at Fontenoy , sir, you'd have been
better in your berth."
The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes,
the rest were busy loading the spare muskets , and
every one with a red face , you may be certain , and a
flea in his ear, as the saying is.
The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then
he spoke.
"My lads," said he, "I've given Silver a broadside.
I pitched it in red-hot on purpose ; and before the
hour's out , as he said , we shall be boarded . We're
outnumbered , I needn't tell you that , but we fight in
shelter ; and , a minute ago , I should have said we
166 TREASURE ISLAND.

fought with discipline. I've no manner of doubt that

we can drub them, if you choose."
Then he went the rounds , and saw, as he said,
that all was clear.
On the two short sides of the house, east and west,
there were only two loopholes ; on the south side where
the porch was , two again; and on the north side , five.
There was a round score of muskets for the seven of
us; the firewood had been built into four piles-tables,
you might say-one about the middle of each side,
and on each of these tables some ammunition and four
loaded muskets were laid ready to the hand of the
defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
"Toss out the fire ," said the captain ; "the chill is
past, and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes.”
The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr.
Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand.
"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help
yourself, and back to your post to eat it ," continued
Captain Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad ; you'll want
it before you've done. Hunter , serve out a round of
brandy to all hands."
And while this was going on, the captain com-
pleted, in his own mind, the plan of the defence.
"Doctor , you will take the door," he resumed.
"See, and don't expose yourself; keep within, and fire
through the porch. Hunter, take the east side , there.
Joyce , you stand by the west , my man. Mr. Tre-
lawney, you are the best shot- you and Gray will take
 THE ATTACK 167

this long north side , with the five loopholes ; it's there
the danger is. If they can get up to it, and fire in
upon us through our own ports , things would begin to
look dirty. Hawkins , neither you nor I are much ac-
count at the shooting; we'll stand by to load and bear
a hand."

As the captain had said , the chill was past. As

soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees,
it fell with all its force upon the clearing , and drank
up the vapours at a draught. Soon the sand was
baking, and the resin melting in the logs of the block-
house. Jackets and coats were flung aside ; shirts thrown
open at the neck, and rolled up to the shoulders ; and
we stood there , each at his post, in a fever of heat
and anxiety.
An hour passed away.
"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull
as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind."
And just at that moment came the first news of the
attack.
"If you please , sir ," said Joyce , " if I see any one
am I to fire?"
"I told you so ! " cried the captain.
"Thank you , sir," returned Joyce , with the same
quiet civility.
Nothing followed for a time ; but the remark had
set us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes- the
musketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands,
168 TREASURE ISLAND.

the captain out in the middle of the block-house , with

his mouth very tight and a frown on his face.
So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped
up his musket and fired. The report had scarcely died
away ere it was repeated and repeated from without
in a scattering volley , shot behind shot , like a string
of geese , from every side of the enclosure. Several
bullets struck the log-house , but not one entered ; and,
as the smoke cleared away and vanished , the stockade
and the woods around it looked as quiet and empty
as before. Not a bough waved , not the gleam of a
musket-barrel betrayed the presence of our foes.
"Did you hit your man ?" asked the captain.
"No, sir," replied Joyce. " I believe not, sir."
"Next best thing to tell the truth ," muttered Cap-
tain Smollett. "Load his gun , Hawkins. How many
should you say there were on your side, doctor? "
"I know precisely," said Dr. Livesey. " Three shots
were fired on this side. I saw the three flashes— two
close together- one farther to the west."
"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many
on yours, Mr. Trelawney?"
But this was not so easily answered. There had
come many from the north - seven , by the squire's
computation ; eight or nine , according to Gray. From
the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It
was plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed
from the north , and that on the other three sides we
were only to be annoyed by a show of hostilities. But
 THE ATTACK. 169

Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangements.

If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he
argued , they would take possession of any unprotected
loophole , and shoot us down like rats in our own
stronghold .
Nor had we much time left to us for thought.
Suddenly, with a loud huzza , a little cloud of pirates
leaped from the woods on the north side , and ran
straight on the stockade. At the same moment , the
fire was once more opened from the woods , and a
rifle ball sang through the doorway , and knocked the
doctor's musket into bits.

The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys.

Squire and Gray fired again and yet again ; three men
fell , one forwards into the enclosure , two back on the
outside. But of these , one was evidently more fright-
ened than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack,
and instantly disappeared among the trees.
Two had bit the dust, one had fled , four had made
good their footing inside our 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.
The four who had boarded made straight before
them for the building , shouting as they ran , and the
men among the trees shouted back to encourage them .
Several shots were fired ; but , such was the hurry of
the marksmen , that not one appears to have taken
170 TREASURE ISLAND.

effect. In a moment , the four pirates had swarmed

up the mound and were upon us.
The head of Job Anderson , the boatswain , ap-
peared at the middle loophole.
"At ' em , all hands- all hands ! " he roared , in a
voice of thunder.
At the same moment , another pirate grasped
Hunter's musket by the muzzle , wrenched it from his
hands, plucked it through the loophole , and , with one
stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the
floor. Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all round
the house, appeared suddenly in the doorway, and fell
with his cutlass on the doctor.
Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since
we were firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy; now
it was we who lay uncovered , and could not return a
blow.
The log-house was full of smoke , to which we
owed our comparative safety. Cries and confusion,
the flashes and reports of pistol shots , and one loud
groan, rang in my ears.
"Out , lads , out , and fight ' em in the open ! Cut-
lasses !" cried the captain.
I snatched a cutlass from the pile , and some one,
at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut
across the knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed out
of the door into the clear sunlight. Some one was
close behind , I knew not whom. Right in front , the
doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill , and,
 THE ATTACK. 171

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.
"Round the house , lads ! round the house !" cried
the captain ; and even in the hurly-burly I perceived a
change in his voice.
Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastwards, and with
my cutlass raised , ran round the corner of the house.
Next moment I was face to face with Anderson. He
roared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head,
flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid,
but, as the blow still hung impending, leaped in a
trice upon one side , and missing my foot in the soft
sand, rolled headlong down the slope.
When I had first sallied from the door, the other
mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade
to make an end of us. One man , in a red night-cap,
with his cutlass in his mouth , had even got upon the
top and thrown a leg across. Well, so short had been
the interval, that when I found my feet again all was
in the same posture , the fellow with the red night-
cap still half way over , another still just showing his
head above the top of the stockade. And yet , in this
breath of time, the fight was over, and the victory was
ours.
Gray, following close behind me, had cut down
. the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from
his lost blow. Another had been shot at a loophole
in the very act of firing into the house, and now lay
172 TREASURE ISLAND.

in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. A

third , as I had seen , the doctor had disposed of at a
blow. Of the four who had scaled the palisade , one
only remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his
cutlass on the field , was now clambering out again
with the fear of death upon him.
"Fire-fire from the house ! " cried the doctor.
"And you, lads, back into cover."
But his words were unheeded , no shot was fired,
and the last boarder made good his escape , and dis-
appeared with the rest into the wood. In three seconds
nothing remained of the attacking party but the five
who had fallen, four on the inside, and one on the out-
side, of the palisade.
The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter.
The survivors would soon be back where they had left
their muskets , and at any moment the fire might re-
commence.
The house was by this time somewhat cleared of
smoke , and we saw at a glance the price we had paid
for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole , stunned ;
Joyce by his , shot through the head , never to move
again; while right in the centre , the squire was sup-
porting the captain, one as pale as the other.
"The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney.
"Have they run ? " asked Mr. Smollett.
"All that could , you may be bound ," returned the
doctor; " but there's five of them will never run again."
"Five !" cried the captain. " Come , that's better.
 THE ATTACK. 173

Five against three leaves us four to nine. That's better

odds than we had at starting. We were seven to
nineteen then , or thought we were , and that's as bad
to bear." *

* The mutineers were soon only eight in number , for the man
shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same even-
ing of his wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by
the faithful party.
 PART V.
MY SEA ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER XXII.
HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE.

THERE was no return of the mutineers -not so much

as another shot out of the woods. They had "got their
rations for that day," as the captain put it, and we had
the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the
wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked, outside
in spite of the danger, and even outside we could hardly
tell what we were at, for horror of the loud groans that
reached us from the doctor's patients.
Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action,
only three still breathed-that one of the pirates who
had been shot at the loophole , Hunter , and Captain
Smollett ; and of these the first two were as good as
dead ; the mutineer, indeed , died under the doctor's
knife , and Hunter, do what we could , never recovered
consciousness in this world. He lingered all day,
breathing loudly like the old buccaneer at home in
his apoplectic fit ; but the bones of his chest had been
crushed by the blow and his skull fractured in falling,
 HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE. 175

and some time in the following night , without sign or

sound, he went to his Maker.
As for the captain , his wounds were grievous in-
deed, but not dangerous. No organ was fatally injured.
Anderson's ball- for it was Job that shot him first—
had broken his shoulder-blade and touched the lung,
not badly; the second had only torn and displaced some
muscles in the calf. He was sure to recover, the doctor
said , but , in the meantime and for weeks to come, he
must not walk nor move his arm, nor so much as speak
when he could help it.
My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a
flea-bite. Doctor Livesey patched it up with plaster,
and pulled my ears for me into the bargain.
After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the
captain's side a while 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.
Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of
the block-house, to be out of earshot of our officers
consulting; and Gray took his pipe out of his mouth
and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunderstruck
he was at this occurrence.

"Why, in the name of Davy Jones ," said he , "is

Dr. Livesey mad ?"
176 TREASURE ISLAND.

"Why, no ," says I. "He's about the last of this

crew for that, I take it."
"Well, shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be ;
but if he's not, you mark my words, I am.”
"I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea ; and
if I am right, he's going now to see Ben Gunn."
I was right, as appeared later; but , in the mean-
time, the house being stifling hot, and the little patch
of sand inside the palisade ablaze with mid-day sun,
I began to get another thought into my head , which
was not by any means so right. What I began to do
was to envy the doctor , walking in the cool shadow of
the woods , with the birds about him, and the pleasant
smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, with my clothes
stuck to the hot resin , and so much blood about me,
and so many poor dead bodies lying all around , that I
took a disgust of the place that was almost as strong
as fear.
All the time I was washing out the block-house,
and then washing up the things from dinner , this dis-
gust and envy kept growing stronger and stronger, till
at last , being near a bread-bag , and no one then ob-
serving me , I took the first step towards my escapade,
and filled both pockets of my coat with biscuit.
I was a fool , if you like, and certainly I was going
to do a foolish , over-bold act; but I was determined
to do it with all the precautions in my power. These
biscuits , should anything befall me, would keep me , at
least, from starving till far on in the next day.
 HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE. 177

The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols,

and as I already had a powder-horn and bullets , I felt
myself well supplied with arms.
As for the scheme I had in my head , it was not a
bad one in itself. 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. But as I was certain 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. But I was only a boy,
and I had made my mind up.
Well , as things at last fell out , I found an admir-
able opportunity. The squire and Gray were busy
helping the captain with his bandages ; the coast was
clear ; I made a bolt for it over the stockade and into
the thickest of the trees , and before my absence was
observed I was out of cry of my companions.
This was my second folly , far worse than the first,
as I left but two sound men to guard the house ; but
like the first, it was a help towards saving all of us.
I took my way straight for the east coast of the
island , for I was determined to go down the sea side
of the spit to avoid all chance of observation from the
anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon , al-
though still warm and sunny. As I continued to thread
Treasure Island. 12
178 TREASURE ISLAND.

the tall woods I could hear from far before me not

only the continuous thunder of the surf, but a certain
tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs which showed
me the sea breeze had set in higher than usual. Soon
cool draughts of air began to reach me ; and a few
steps farther I came forth into the open borders of the
grove , and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the
horizon , and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam
along the beach.
I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure
Island. The sun might blaze overhead, the air be with-
out a breath , the surface smooth and blue , but still
these great rollers would be running along all the ex-
ternal coast , thundering and thundering by day and
night ; and I scarce believe there is one spot in the
island where a man would be out of earshot of their
noise.
I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment,
till, thinking I was now got far enough to the south , I
took the cover of some thick bushes , and crept warily
up to the ridge of the spit.
Behind me was the sea , in front the anchorage.
The sea breeze , as though it had the sooner blown it-
self out by its unusual violence, was already at an end;
it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from the
south and south-east , carrying great banks of fog; and
the anchorage, under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and
leaden as when first we entered it. The Hispaniola,
in that unbroken mirror, was exactly portrayed from the
 HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE. 179

truck to the water-line , the Jolly Roger hanging from

her peak.
Alongside lay one of the gigs , Silver in the stern-
sheets - him I could always recognise- while a couple
of men were leaning over the stern bulwarks , one of
them with a red cap-the very rogue that I had seen
some hours before stride-legs upon the palisade. Ap-
parently they were talking and laughing, though at that
distance-upwards of a mile-I could , of course , hear
no word of what was said. All at once , there began
the most horrid , unearthly screaming, which at first
startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the
voice of Captain Flint, and even thought I could make
out the bird by her bright plumage as she sat perched
upon her master's wrist.
Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled for
shore , and the man with the red cap and his comrade
went below by the cabin companion.
Just about the same time the sun had gone down
behind the Spy-glass , and as the fog was collecting
rapidly , it began to grow dark in earnest. I saw I
must lose no time if I were to find the boat that
evening.
The white rock, visible enough above the brush,
was still some eighth of a mile further down the spit,
and it took me a goodish while to get up with it,
crawling, often on all-fours , among the scrub. Night
had almost come when I laid my hand on its rough
sides. Right below it there was an exceedingly small
12 *
180 TREASURE ISLAND.

hollow of green turf, hidden by banks and a thick

underwood about knee-deep, that grew there very plenti-
fully ; 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.
I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the
tent , and there was Ben Gunn's boat- home-made if
ever anything was home-made : a rude, lop-sided frame-
work of tough wood , and stretched upon that a cover-
ing of goat-skin, with the hair inside. The thing was
extremely small, even for me, and I can hardly imagine
that it could have floated with a full-sized man. There
was one thwart set as low as possible , a kind of
stretcher in the bows , and a double paddle for pro-
pulsion.
I had not then seen a coracle , such as the ancient
Britons made , but I have seen one since , and I can
give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's boat than by
saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever
made by man. But the great advantage of the coracle
it certainly possessed , for it was exceedingly light and
portable.
Well , now that I had found the boat , you would
have thought I had had enough of truantry for once ;
but, in the meantime , I had taken another notion, and
become so obstinately fond of it , that I would have
carried it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain Smollett
himself. This was to slip out under cover of the night,
cut the Hispaniola adrift , and let her go ashore where
 HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE. 181

she fancied. I had quite made up my mind that the

mutineers , after their repulse of the morning , had no-
thing 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.
Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty
meal of biscuit. It was a night out of ten thousand for
my purpose. The fog had now buried all heaven. As
the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared, ab-
solute blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And
when, at last, I shouldered the coracle, and groped my
way stumblingly out of the hollow where I had supped,
there were but two points visible on the whole anchorage.
One was the great fire on shore , by which the
defeated pirates lay carousing in the swamp . The
other, a mere blur of light upon the darkness, indicated
the position of the anchored ship . She had swung
round to the ebb-her bow was now towards me-the
only lights on board were in the cabin ; and what I
saw was merely a reflection on the fog of the strong
rays that flowed from the stern window.
The ebb had already run some time , and I had to
wade through a long belt of swampy sand , where I
sank several times above the ankle , before I came to
the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little
way in, with some strength and dexterity, set my
coracle, keel downwards, on the surface .
182 TREASURE ISLAND.

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE EBB-TIDE RUNS.

THE Coracle - as I had ample reason to know before

I was done with her-was a very safe boat for a person
of my height and weight, both buoyant and clever in
a seaway; but she was the most cross-grained lop-sided
craft to manage. Do as you pleased, she always made
more leeway than anything else, and turning round and
round was the manoeuvre she was best at. Even Ben
Gunn himself has admitted that she was " queer to
handle till you knew her way."
Certainly I did not know her way. She turned in
every direction but the one I was bound to go; the
most part of the time we were broadside on, and I am
very sure I never should have made the ship at all
but for the tide. By good fortune, paddle as I pleased,
the tide was still sweeping me down ; and there lay
the Hispaniola right in the fair way, hardly to be
missed.
First she loomed before me like a blot of something
yet blacker than darkness , then her spars and hull I
began to take shape , and the next moment , as it
seemed (for, the further I went, the brisker grew the
current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser, and
had laid hold.
 THE EBB-TIDE RUNS. 183

The hawser was as taut as a bowstring- so strong,

she pulled upon her anchor. All round the hull, in the
blackness , the rippling current bubbled and chattered
like a little mountain stream . One cut with my sea-
gully, and the Hispaniola would go humming down the
tide.
So far so good ; but it next occurred to my recollec-
tion that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as
dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to one , if I were
so foolhardy as to cut the Hispaniola from her anchor,
I and the coracle would be knocked clean out of the
water.
This brought me to a full stop , and if fortune had
not again particularly favoured me , I should have had
to abandon my design. But the light airs which had
begun blowing from the south-east and south had
hauled round after nightfall into the south-west. Just
while I was meditating , a puff came , caught the
Hispaniola, and forced her up into the current ; and
to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my grasp,
and the hand by which I held it dip for a second
under water.
With that I made my mind up , took out my gully,
opened it with my teeth , and cut one strand after an-
other, till the vessel only swung by two. Then I lay
quiet, waiting to sever these last when the strain should
be once more lightened by a breath of wind.
All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices
from the cabin ; but, to say truth , my mind had been
184 TREASURE ISLAND.

so entirely taken up with other thoughts that I had

scarcely given ear. Now, however, when I had nothing
else to do, I began to pay more heed.
One I recognised for the coxswain's, Israel Hands,
that had been Flint's gunner in former days. The
other was, of course, my friend of the red night-cap.
Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they
were still drinking ; for, even while I was listening, one
of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern window
and threw out something, which I divined to be an
empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy ; it was
plain that they were furiously angry. Oaths flew like
hailstones, and every now and then there came forth
such an explosion as I thought was sure to end in
blows. But each time the quarrel passed off, and the
voices grumbled lower for a while, until the next crisis
came, and, in its turn, passed away without result.
On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp
fire burning warmly through the shore-side trees. Some
one was singing, a dull, old, droning sailor's song, with
a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and
seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the
singer. I had heard it on the voyage more than once,
and remembered these words : -
"But one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five."
And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appro-
priate for a company that had met such cruel losses
 THE EBB-TIDE RUNS. 185

in the morning. But, indeed, from what I saw, all these

buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on.
At last the breeze came ; the schooner sidled and
drew nearer in the dark ; I felt the hawser slacken
once more , and with a good , tough effort, cut the last
fibres through .
The breeze had but little action on the coracle
and I was almost instantly swept against the bows of
the Hispaniola. At the same time the schooner began
to turn upon her heel, spinning slowly, end for end,
across the current.
I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment
to be swamped ; and since I found I could not push
the coracle directly off, I now shoved straight astern.
At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbour; and
just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across
a light cord that was trailing overboard across the stern
bulwarks. Instantly I grasped it.
Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It
was at first mere instinct; but once I had it in my
hands and found it fast, curiosity began to get the
upper hand, and I determined I should have one look
through the cabin window.
I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when
I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to
about half my height, and thus commanded the roof
and a slice of the interior of the cabin.
By this time the schooner and her little consort
were gliding pretty swiftly through the water ; indeed,
186 TREASURE ISLAND .

we had already fetched up level with the camp fire.

The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading
the innumerable ripples with an incessant weltering
splash; and until I got my eye above the window-sill
I could not comprehend why the watchmen had taken
no alarm . One glance, however, was sufficient ; and it
was only one glance that I durst take from that un-
steady skiff. It showed me Hands and his companion
locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a hand
upon the other's throat.
I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon,
for I was near overboard. I could see nothing for the
moment, but these two furious , encrimsoned faces,
swaying together under the smoky lamp ; and I shut
my eyes to let them grow once more familiar with the
darkness.
The endless ballad had come to an end at last,
and the whole diminished company about the camp
fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so often : -
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum ! ”

I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil

were at that very moment in the cabin of the Hispaniola,
when I was surprised by a sudden lurch of the coracle.
At the same moment she yawed sharply and seemed
to change her course. The speed in the meantime
had strangely increased.
 THE EBB-TIDE RUNS. 187

I opened my eyes at once. All round me were

little ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling sound
and slightly phosphorescent. The Hispaniola herself,
a few yards in whose wake I was still being whirled
along, seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her
spars toss a little against the blackness of the night;
nay, as I looked longer, I made sure she also was
wheeling to the southward.
I glanced over my shoulder, and my heart jumped
against my ribs. There, right behind me, was the glow
of the camp fire. The current had turned at right
angles, sweeping round along with it the tall schooner
and the little dancing coracle ; ever quickening, ever
bubbling higher, ever muttering louder, it went spin-
ning through the narrows for the open sea.
Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a vio-
lent yaw, turning, perhaps , through twenty degrees ;
and almost at the same moment one shout followed
another from on board ; I could hear feet pounding on
the companion ladder ; and I knew that the two drunkards
had at last been interrupted in their quarrel and awakened
to a sense of their disaster.
I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched
skiff, and devoutly recommended my spirit to its Maker.
At the end of the straits, I made sure we must fall
into some bar of raging breakers, where all my troubles
would be ended speedily; and though I could, perhaps,
bear to die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as
it approached.
188 TREASURE ISLAND .

So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten

to and fro upon the billows , now and again wetted
with flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect death
at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon
me; a numbness , an occasional stupor, fell upon my
mind even in the midst of my terrors ; until sleep at
last supervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle I lay and
dreamed of home and the old "Admiral Benbow."
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 189

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE.

It was broad day when I awoke, and found myself

tossing at the south-west end of Treasure Island. The
sun was up, but was still hid from me behind the
great bulk of the Spy-glass, which on this side des-
cended almost to the sea in formidable cliffs.
Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at
my elbow; the hill bare and dark, the head bound
with cliffs forty or fifty feet high, and fringed with.
great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter of
a mile to seaward , and it was my first thought to
paddle in and land.
That notion was soon given over. Among the
fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed ; loud
reverberations , heavy sprays flying and falling , suc-
ceeded one another from second to second ; and I saw
myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the
rough shore, or spending my strength in vain to scale
the beetling crags.
Nor was that all; for crawling together on flat
tables of rock, or letting themselves drop into the sea
with loud reports, I beheld huge slimy monsters - soft
snails, as it were, of incredible bigness - two or three
190 TREASURE ISLAND.

score of them together, making the rocks to echo with

their barkings.
I have understood since that they were sea lions,
and entirely harmless. But the look of them, added to
the difficulty of the shore and the high running of the
surf, was more than enough to disgust me of that land-
ing place. I felt willing rather to starve at sea than
to confront such perils.
In the meantime I had a better chance, as I sup-
posed, before me. North of Haulbowline Head, the
land runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a long
stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, again,
there comes another cape - Cape of the Woods, as it
was marked upon the chart-buried in tall green pines,
which descended to the margin of the sea.
I remembered what Silver had said about the cur-
rent that sets northward along the whole west coast
of Treasure Island ; and seeing from my position that
I was already under its influence, I preferred to leave
Haulbowline Head behind me, and reserve my strength
for an attempt to land upon the kindlier-looking Cape
of the Woods.
There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. The
wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, there
was no contrariety between that and the current, and
the billows rose and fell unbroken.
Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have
perished; but as it was, it is surprising how easily and
securely my little and light boat could ride. Often, as
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 191

I still lay at the bottom, and kept no more than an

eye above the gunwale, I would see a big blue summit
heaving close above me ; yet the coracle would but
bounce a little, dance as if on springs, and subside on
the other side into the trough as lightly as a bird.
I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat up
to try my skill at paddling. But even a small change
in the disposition of the weight will produce violent
changes in the behaviour of a coracle. And I had
hardly moved before the boat, giving up at once her
gentle dancing movement, ran straight down a slope of
water so steep that it made me giddy, and struck her
nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the side of the
next wave.
I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly
back into my old position , whereupon the coracle
seemed to find her head again, and led me as softly
as before among the billows. It was plain she was
not to be interfered with, and at that rate , since I
could in no way influence her course, what hope had
I left of reaching land?
I began to be horribly frightened , but I kept my
head, for all that. First , moving with all care , I
gradually baled out the coracle with my sea-cap ; then
getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set
myself to study how it was she managed to slip so
quietly through the rollers.
I found each wave , instead of the big , smooth
glossy mountain it looks from shore, or from a vessel's
192 TREASURE ISLAND.

deck, was for all the world like any range of hills on
the dry land , full of peaks and smooth places and
valleys. The coracle, left to herself, turning from side
to side, threaded, so to speak, her way through these
lower parts, and avoided the steep slopes and higher,
toppling summits of the wave.
"Well , now," thought I to myself, " it is plain I
must lie where I am, and not disturb the balance ; but
it is plain , also , that I can put the paddle over the
side , and from time to time , in smooth places , give
her a shove or two towards land." No sooner thought
upon than done. There I lay on my elbows , in the
most trying attitude , and every now and again gave a
weak stroke or two to turn her head to shore.
It was very tiring , and slow work, yet I did visibly
gain ground; and , as we drew near the Cape of the
Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I
had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was,
indeed , close in. I could see the cool , green tree-tops
swaying together in the breeze, and I felt sure I should
make the next promontory without fail.
It was high time , for I now began to be tortured
with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its thou-
sandfold reflection from the waves, the sea-water that
fell and dried upon me , caking my very lips with salt,
combined to make my throat burn and my brain ache.
The sight of the trees so near at hand had almost
made me sick with longing ; but the current had soon
carried me past the point ; and , as the next reach of
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 193

sea opened out , I beheld a sight that changed the

nature of my thoughts.
Right in front of me , not half a mile away , I be-
made sure , of
held the Hispaniola under sail. I
course, that I should be taken ; but I was so distressed
for want of water , that I scarce knew whether to be
glad or sorry at the thought ; and , long before I had
come to a conclusion, surprise had taken entire posses-
sion of my mind , and I could do nothing but stare
and wonder.
The Hispaniola was under her main-sail and two
jibs , and the beautiful white canvas shone in the sun
like snow or silver. When I first sighted her , all her
sails were drawing; she was lying a course about north-
west; and I presumed the men on board were going
round the island on their way back to the anchorage.
Presently she began to fetch more and more to the
westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and
were going about in chase. At last , however , she fell
right into the wind's eye , was taken dead aback , and
stood there a while helpless , with her sails shivering.
"Clumsy fellows," said I; "they must still be drunk
as owls." And I thought how Captain Smollett would
have set them skipping.
Meanwhile , the schooner gradually fell off, and
filled again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for a
minute or so , and brought up once more dead in the
wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated . To
and fro, up and down, north, south, east, and west, the
Treasure Island. 13
194 TREASURE ISLAND .

Hispaniola sailed by swoops and dashes , and at each

repetition ended as she had begun , with idly-flapping
canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steer-
ing. And , if so , where were the men ? Either they
were dead drunk , or had deserted her , I thought , and
perhaps if I could get on board , I might return the
vessel to her captain.
The current was bearing coracle and schooner
southward at an equal rate. As for the latter's sailing,
it was so wild and intermittent , and she hung each
time so long in irons , that she certainly gained no-
thing , if she did not even lose. If only I dared to sit
up and paddle , I made sure that I could overhaul her.
The scheme had an air of adventure that inspired me,
and the thought of the water breaker beside the fore
companion doubled my growing courage .
Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by an-
other cloud of spray , but this time stuck to my pur-
pose; and set myself, with all my strength and caution,
to paddle after the unsteered Hispaniola.
shipped a sea so heavy that I had to stop and bail,
with my heart fluttering like a bird ; but gradually I
got into the way of the thing , and guided my coracle
among the waves, with only now and then a blow upon
her bows and a dash of foam in my face.
I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner; I could
see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged about;
and still no soul appeared upon her decks. I could
not choose but suppose she was deserted . If not , the
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 195

men were lying drunk below , where I might batten

them down , perhaps , and do what I chose with the
ship.
For some time she had been doing the worse thing
possible for me- standing still. She headed nearly
due south, yawing, of course, all the time. Each time
she fell off her sails partly filled , and these brought
her , in a moment , right to the wind again. I have
said this was the worst thing possible for me ; for help-
less 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 natur-
ally great.
But now, at last , I had my chance. The breeze
fell, for some seconds, very low, and the current gradu-
ally 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. The main-sail
hung drooped like a banner. She was stock- still , but
for the current.
For the last little while I had even lost; but now,
redoubling my efforts , I began once more to overhaul
the chase.
I was not a hundred yards from her when the
wind came again in a clap ; she filled on the port tack,
13 *
196 TREASURE ISLAND.

and was off again , stooping and skimming like a

swallow.
My first impulse was one of despair, but my second
was towards joy. Round she came, till she was broad-
side on to me- round still till she had covered a half,
and then two-thirds , and then three-quarters of the
distance that separated us. I could see the waves
boiling white under her forefoot. Immensely tall she
looked to me from my low station in the coracle.
And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I
had scarce time to think- scarce time to act and save
myself. I was on the summit of one swell when the
schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit
was over my head. I sprang to my feet , and leaped,
stamping the coracle under water. With one hand I
caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged between
the stay and the brace ; and as I still clung there pant-
ing, 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.
 I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER. 197

CHAPTER XXV.
I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER.

I HAD Scarce gained a position on the bowsprit,

when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other
tack, with a report like a gun. The schooner trembled
to her keel under the reverse ; but next moment , the
other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again,
and hung idle.
This had nearly tossed me off into the sea ; and
now I lost no time , crawled back along the bowsprit,
and tumbled head foremost on the deck.
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. Not a soul was to
be seen. The planks , which had not been swabbed
since the mutiny, bore the print of many feet ; and an
empty bottle , broken by the neck, tumbled to and fro
like a live thing in the scuppers.
Suddenly the Hispaniola came right into the wind.
The jibs behind me cracked aloud ; the rudder slammed
to ; the whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder,
and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
the sheet groaning in the blocks , and showed me the
lee after-deck.
198 TREASURE ISLAND.

There were the two watchmen , sure enough : red-

cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike , with his arms
stretched out like those of a crucifix , and his teeth
showing through his open lips ; Israel Hands propped
against the bulwarks , his chin on his chest , his hands
lying open before him on the deck , his face as white,
under its tan , as a tallow candle.

For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like

a vicious horse , the sails filling, now on one tack , now
on another, and the boom swinging to and fro till the
mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again,
too , there would come a cloud of light sprays over
the bulwark, and a heavy blow of the ship's bows
against the swell : so much heavier weather was made
of it by this great rigged ship than by my home-made,
lop-sided coracle , now gone to the bottom of the sea .

At every jump of the schooner, red-cap slipped to

and fro; but what was ghastly to behold - neither his
attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing grin was anyway
disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump , too,
Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and
settle down upon the deck, his feet sliding ever the
farther out , and the whole body canting towards the
stern , so that his face became, little by little, hid from
me ; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear
and the frayed ringlet of one whisker.
At the same time , I observed , around both of
them , splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and be-
 I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER. 199

gan to feel sure that they had killed each other in

their drunken wrath.
While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm
moment, when the ship was still , Israel Hands turned
partly round , and , with a low moan , writhed himself
back to the position in which I had seen him first.
The moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness,
and the way in which his jaw hung open , went right
to my heart. But when I remembered the talk I had
overheard from the apple barrel , all pity left me.
I walked aft until I reached the main-mast.
"Come aboard , Mr. Hands ," I said , ironically.
He rolled his eyes round heavily ; but he was too
far gone to express surprise. All he could do was to
utter one word , " Brandy."
It occurred to me there was no time to lose ; and,
dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the
deck , I slipped aft, and down the companion stairs
into the cabin.
It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly
fancy. All the lockfast places had been broken open
in quest of the chart. The floor was thick with mud,
where ruffians had sat down to drink or consult after
wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulk-
heads , all painted in clear white , and beaded round
with gilt , bore a pattern of dirty hands. Dozens of
empty bottles clinked together in corners to the roll-
ing of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books
lay open on the table , half of the leaves gutted out, I
200 TREASURE ISLAND .

suppose , for pipelights. In the midst of all this the

lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown as
umber.
I went into the cellar; and the barrels were gone,
and of the bottles a most surprising number had been
drunk out and thrown away. Certainly, since the
mutiny began , not a man of them could ever have
been sober.
Foraging about, I found a bottle with some brandy
left, for Hands ; and for myself I routed out some bis-
cuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, and
a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck , put
down my own stock behind the rudder head , and well
out of the coxswain's reach , went forward to the water-
breaker, and had a good , deep drink of water , and
then, and not till then, gave Hands the brandy.
He must have drunk a gill before he took the
bottle from his mouth.
"Aye," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o'
that!"
I had sat down already in my own corner and
begun to eat.
"Much hurt?" I asked him.
He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.
"If that doctor was aboard," he said, " I'd be right
enough in a couple of turns; but I don't have no
manner of luck , you see , and that's what's the matter
with me. As for that swab , he's good and dead , he
is," he added , indicating the man with the red cap.
 I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER. 201

"He warn't no seaman , anyhow. And where mought

you have come from ? ”
"Well ," said I , " I've come aboard to take posses-
sion of this ship , Mr. Hands ; and you'll please regard
me as your captain until further notice."
He looked at me sourly enough , but said nothing.
Some of the 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.
"By-the-by ," I continued , "I can't have these
colours, Mr. Hands; and, by your leave, I'll strike ' em.
Better none than these."
And , again dodging the boom , I ran to the colour
lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and chucked
it overboard.
"God save the king ! " said I, waving my cap ; " and
there's an end to Captain Silver ! "
He watched me keenly and slyly , his chin all the
while on his breast.
"I reckon," he said at last-" I reckon, Cap'n Haw-
kins , you'll kind of want to get ashore , now. S'pose
we talks."
"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands.
Say on." And I went back to my meal with a good
appetite.
"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse
-"O'Brien were his name-a rank Irelander- this
man and me got the canvas on her, meaning for to
sail her back. Well , he's dead now, he is as dead
202 TREASURE ISLAND .

as bilge ; and who's to sail this ship , I don't see.

Without I gives you a hint, you aint that man, as far's
I can tell. Now, look here , you gives me food and
drink , and a old scarf or ankecher to tie my wound
up, you do ; and I'll tell you how to sail her; and that's
about square all round, I take it."
"I'll tell you one thing ," says I: " I'm not going
back to Captain Kidd's anchorage. I mean to get
into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there."
"To be sure you did ," he cried. "Why, I aint
sich an infernal lubber, after all. I can see , can't I?
I've tried my fling , I have , and I've lost, and it's you
has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no
ch'ice, not I ! I'd help you sail her up to Execution
Dock, by thunder ! so I would ."
Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in
this. We struck our bargain on the spot. In three
minutes I had the Hispaniola sailing easily before the
wind along the coast of Treasure Island , with good
hopes of turning the northern point ere noon , and
beating down again as far as North Inlet before high
water , when we might beach her safely, and wait till
the subsiding tide permitted us to land.
Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my
own chest , where I got a soft silk handkerchief of my
mother's. With this , and with my aid , Hands bound
up the great bleeding stab he had received in the
thigh , and after he had eaten a little and had a swal-
low or two more of the brandy, he began to pick up
 STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER. 203

visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer, and

looked in every way another man.
The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed
before it like a bird , the coast of the island flashing
by, and the view changing every minute. Soon we
were past the high lands and bowling beside low,
sandy country , sparsely dotted with dwarf pines , and
soon we were beyond that again , and had turned the
corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on the
north.
I was greatly elated with my new command , and
pleased with the bright, sunshiny weather and these
different prospects of the coast. I had now plenty of
water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which
had smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by
the great conquest I had made. I should , I think,
have had nothing left me to desire but for the eyes of
the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the
deck, and the odd smile that appeared continually on
his face. It was a smile that had in it something
both of pain and weakness - a haggard , old man's
smile ; but there was , besides that , a grain of derision ,
a shadow of treachery, in his expression as he craftily
watched, and watched, and watched me at my work.
204 TREASURE ISLAND .

CHAPTER XXVI.
ISRAEL HANDS.

THE wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into

the west. We could run so much the easier from the
north-east corner of the island to the mouth of the
North Inlet. 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. The cox-
swain told me how to lay the ship to ; after a good
many trials I succeeded , and we both sat in silence,
over another meal.
"Cap'n," said he , at length , with that same un-
comfortable smile , "here's my old shipmate , O'Brien;
s'pose you was to heave him overboard. I aint par-
tic'lar as a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling
his hash; but I don't reckon him ornamental , now, do
you?"
"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job;
and there he lies, for me," said I.
"This here's an unlucky ship-this Hispaniola,
Jim," he went on, blinking. "There's a power of men
been killed in this Hispaniola -a sight o' poor seamen
dead and gone since you and me took ship to Bristol.
I never seen sich dirty luck , not I. There was this
 ISRAEL HANDS. 205

here O'Brien , now- he's dead , aint he? Well , now,

I'm no scholar, and you're a lad as can read and
figure ; and, to put it straight , do you take it as a
dead man is dead for good , or do he come alive
again?"
"You can kill the body, Mr. Hands , but not the
spirit; you must know that already," I replied. " O'Brien
there is in another world, and maybe watching us."
"Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nate -appears
as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsome-
ever, sperrits don't reckon for much, by what I've
seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits , Jim. And now,
you've spoke up free , and I'll take it kind if you'd
step down into that there cabin and get me a— well,
a-shiver my timbers ! I can't hit the name on't; well,
you get me a bottle of wine , Jim-this here brandy's
too strong for my head."
Now, the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be un-
natural ; and as for the notion of his preferring wine
to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story
was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck- so
much was plain ; but with what purpose I could in no
way imagine. His eyes never met mine ; they kept
wandering to and fro , up and down , now with a look
to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead
O'Brien. All the time he kept smiling , and putting
his tongue out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner,
so that a child could have told that he was bent on j
some deception. I was prompt with my answer , how-
 206 TREASURE ISLAND .

ever, for I saw where my advantage lay ; and that with

a fellow so densely stupid I could easily conceal my
suspicions to the end.
“ Some wine ? ” I said . "Far better. Will you have
white or red ?”
"Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me ,
shipmate," he replied ; " so it's strong, and plenty of it, '
what's the odds ? "
"All right ," I answered. " I'll bring you port , Mr.
Hands. But I'll have to dig for it.”
With that I scuttled down the companion with all
the noise I could , slipped off my shoes , ran quietly
along the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder,
and popped my head out of the fore companion. I
knew he would not expect to see me there ; yet I took
every precaution possible ; and certainly the worst of my
suspicions proved too true.
He had risen from his position to his hands and
knees ; and , though his leg obviously hurt him pretty
sharply when he moved -for I could hear him stifle
a groan- yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he
trailed himself across the deck. In half a minute he
had reached the port scuppers, and picked , out of a
coil of rope , a long knife , or rather a short dirk , dis-
coloured to the hilt with blood . He looked upon it
for a moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried the
point upon his hand, and then, hastily concealing it in
the bosom of his jacket , trundled back again into his
` old place against the bulwark.
 ISRAEL HANDS. 207

This was all that I required to know. Israel could

move about ; he was now armed ; and if he had been
at so much trouble to get rid of me , it was plain that
I was meant to be the victim. What he would do
afterwards—whether he would try to crawl right across
the island from North Inlet to the camp among the
swamps , or whether he would fire Long Tom, trusting
that his own comrades might come first to help him,
was , of course , more than I could say.
Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point,
since in that our interests jumped together , and that
was in the disposition of the schooner. We both de-
sired to have her stranded safe enough , in a sheltered
place , and so that , when the time came, she could be
got off again with a little labour and danger as might
be; and until that was done I considered that my life
would certainly be spared.
While I was thus turning the business over in my
mind, I had not been idle with my body. I had stolen
back to the cabin , slipped once more into my shoes,
and laid my hand at random on a bottle of wine , and
now, with this for an excuse, I made my re-appearance
on the deck.
Hands lay as I had left him , all fallen together in
a bundle , and with his eyelids lowered , as though he
were too weak to bear the light. He looked up , how-
ever, at my coming , knocked the neck off the bottle,
like a man who had done the same thing often , and
took a good swig, with his favourite toast of "Here's
208 TREASURE ISLAND.

luck ! " Then he lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling
out a stick of tobacco , begged me to cut him a quid.
"Cut me a junk o' that," says he , "for I haven't
no knife , and hardly strength enough , so be as I had.
Ah , Jim, Jim , I reckon I've missed stays ! Cut me a
quid , as 'll likely be the last , lad ; for I'm for my long
home, and no mistake."
"We'll ," said I , " I'll cut you some tobacco; but if
I was you and thought myself so badly, I would go to
my prayers , like a Christian man.”
"Why?" said he. " Now, you tell me why.”
"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now
about the dead. You've broken your trust ; you've lived
in sin and lies and blood ; there's a man you killed
lying at your feet this moment; and you ask me why!
For God's mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."
I spoke with a little heat , thinking of the bloody
dirk he had hidden in his pocket, and designed, in his
ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, took a
great draught of the wine , and spoke with the most
unusual solemnity.
"For thirty 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. Well , now I tell you , I never seen good
come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy;
dead men don't bite ; them's my views- amen , so be
it. And now, you look here ," he added , suddenly
changing his tone , "we've had about enough of this
 ISRAEL HANDS. 209

foolery. The tide's made good enough by now. You

just take my orders, Cap'n Hawkins, and we'll sail slap
in and be done with it."
All told , we had scarce two miles to run ; but the
navigation was delicate , the entrance to this northern
anchorage was not only narrow and shoal , but lay east
and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled
to be got in. I think I was a good , prompt subaltern,
and I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot ;
for we went about and about, and dodged in , shaving
the banks , with a certainty and a neatness that were a
pleasure to behold.
Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land
closed around us. The shores of North Inlet were as
thickly wooded as those of the southern anchorage ; but
the space was longer and narrower, and more like, what
in truth it was , the estuary of a river. Right before
us , at the southern end , we saw the wreck of a ship
in the last stages of dilapidation . It had been a great
vessel of three masts , but had lain so long exposed to
the injuries of the weather, that it was hung about with
great webs of dripping seaweed , and on the deck of it
shore bushes had taken root , and now flourished thick
with flowers . It was a sad sight, but it showed us that
the anchorage was calm.
"Now," said Hands, "look there ; there's a pet bit
for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand , never a cats-
paw, trees all around of it , and flowers a-blowing like
a garding on that old ship."
Treasure Island. 14
210 TREASURE ISLAND.

"And once beached," I inquired, "how shall we get

her off again?"

"Why, so ," he replied : " you take a line ashore

there on the other side at low water: take a turn about
one o' them big pines ; bring it back, take a turn round
the capstan , and lie-to for the tide. Come high water,
all hands take a pull upon the line , and off she comes
as sweet as natur'. And now, boy, you stand by. We're
near the bit now, and she's too much way on her. Star-
board a little- so- steady- starboard -larboard a little
-steady-steady ! "
So he issued his commands , which I breathlessly
obeyed ; till, all of a sudden, he cried, "Now, my hearty,
luff!" And I put the helm hard up, and the Hispaniola
swung round rapidly , and ran stem on for the low
wooded shore.
The excitement of these last manoeuvres had some-
what interfered with the watch I had kept hitherto,
sharply enough , upon the coxswain. Even then I was
still so much interested , waiting for the ship to touch,
that I had quite forgot the peril that hung over my
head , and stood craning over the starboard bulwarks
and watching the ripples spreading wide before the
bows. I might have fallen without a struggle for my
life , had not a sudden disquietude seized upon me,
and made me turn my head. Perhaps I had heard a
creak, or seen his shadow moving with the tail of my
eye; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat's ; but , sure
 ISRAEL HANDS. 211

enough, when I looked round, there was Hands, already

half-way towards me , with the dirk in his right hand.
We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes
met ; but while mine was the shrill cry of terror , his
was a roar of fury like a charging bull's. At the same
instant he threw himself forward , and I leapt sideways
towards the bows. As I did so , I left hold of the
tiller, which sprang sharp to leeward ; and I think this
saved my life, for it struck Hands across the chest, and
stopped him , for the moment , dead.
Before he could recover, I was safe out of the
corner where he had me trapped , with all the deck to
dodge about. Just forward of the mainmast I stopped,
drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim, though
he had already turned and was once more coming
directly after me, and drew the trigger. The hammer
fell , but there followed neither flash nor sound ; the
priming was useless with sea water. I cursed myself
for my neglect. Why had not I, long before , re-
primed and reloaded my only weapons? Then I should
not have been as now, a mere fleeing sheep before this
butcher.
Wounded as he was , it was wonderful how fast he
could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face,
and his face itself as red as a red ensign with his
haste and fury. I had no time to try my other pistol,
nor, indeed , much inclination , for I was sure it would
be useless. One thing I saw plainly: I must not simply
retreat before him, or he would speedily hold me boxed
14 *
212 TREASURE ISLAND.

into the bows, as a moment since he had so nearly

boxed me in the stern. Once so caught, and nine or
ten inches of the blood-stained dirk would be my last
experience on this side of eternity. I placed my palms
against the mainmast , which was of a goodish bigness,
and waited, every nerve upon the stretch.
Seeing that I meant to dodge, he also paused ; and
a moment or two passed in feints on his part , and
corresponding movements upon mine. It was such a
game as I had often played at home about the rocks
of Black Hill Cove ; but never before, you may be sure,
with such a wildly beating heart as now. Still , as I
say, it was a boy's game , and I thought I could hold
my own at it, against an elderly seaman with a wounded
thigh. Indeed, my courage had begun to rise so high,
that I allowed myself a few darting thoughts on what
would be the end of the affair; and while I saw cer-
tainly that I could spin it out for long , I saw no hope
of any ultimate escape.
Well , while things stood thus , suddenly the His-
paniola 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 de-
grees, and about a puncheon of water splashed into the
scupper holes, and lay, in a pool, between the deck and
bulwark.
We were both of us capsized in a second, and both
of us rolled , almost together , into the scuppers ; the
dead red-cap , with his arms still spread out , tumbling
 ISRAEL HANDS. 213

stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that my head

came against the coxswain's foot with a crack that made
my teeth rattle . Blow and all , I was the first afoot
again ; for Hands had got involved with the dead body.
The sudden canting of the ship had made the deck no
place for running on ; I had to find some new way of
escape, and that upon the instant, for my foe was almost
touching me. Quick as thought , I sprang into the
mizzen shrouds , rattled up hand over hand , and did
not draw a breath till I was seated on the cross-trees.
I had been saved by being prompt ; the dirk had
struck not half a foot below me , as I pursued my up-
ward flight; and there stood Israel Hands with his
mouth open and his face upturned to mine , a perfect
statue of surprise and disappointment.
Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time
in changing the priming of my pistol, and then, having
one ready for service , and to make assurance doubly
sure , I proceeded to draw the load of the other, and
recharge it afresh from the beginning.
My new employment struck Hands all of a heap ;
he began to see the dice going against him; and after
an obvious hesitation , he also hauled himself heavily
into the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his teeth, began
slowly and painfully to mount. It cost him no end of
time and groans to haul his wounded leg behind him ;
and I had quietly finished my arrangements before he
was much more than a third of the way up. Then,
with a pistol in either hand , I addressed him.
214 TREASURE ISLAND .

"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow

your brains out ! Dead men don't bite , you know ," I
added, with a chuckle.
He stopped instantly. I could see by the working
of his face that he was trying to think, and the process
was so slow and laborious that, in my new-found security,
I laughed aloud. At last , with a swallow or two , he
spoke , his face still wearing the same expression of
extreme perplexity. In order to speak he had to take
the dagger from his mouth, but, in all else, he remained
unmoved.
"Jim ," says he , " I reckon we're fouled , you and
me , and we'll have to sign articles. I'd have had you
but for that there lurch : but I don't have no luck, not
I; and I reckon I'll have to strike , which comes hard,
you see , for a master mariner to a ship's younker like
you, Jim."
I was drinking in his words and smiling away, aз
conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath,
back went his right hand over his shoulder. Something
sang like an arrow through the air ; I felt a blow and
then a sharp pang , and there I was pinned by the
shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and surprise
of the moment I scarce can say it was by my own
volition , and I am sure it was without a conscious aim
-both my pistols went off, and both escaped out of
my hands. They did not fall alone ; with a choked
cry, the coxsward loosed his grasp upon the shrouds,
and plunged head first into the water.
 "PIECES OF EIGHT." 215

CHAPTER XXVII.
"PIECES OF EIGHT."

OWING to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far

out over the water , and from my perch on the cross-
trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the
bay. Hands , who was not so far up , was , in con-
sequence , nearer to the ship , and fell between me and
the bulwarks. He rose once to the surface in a lather
of foam and blood, and then sank again for good. As
the water settled , I could see him lying huddled to-
gether on the clean , bright sand in the shadow of the
vessel's sides. A fish or two whipped past his body.
Sometimes, by the quivering of the water, he appeared
to move a little , as if he were trying to rise. But he
was dead enough , for all that , being both shot and
drowned, and was food for fish in the very place where
he had designed my slaughter.
I was no sooner certain of this than I began to
feel sick , faint, and terrified. The hot blood was run-
ning over my back and chest. The dirk, where it had
pinned my shoulder to the mast , seemed to burn like
a hot iron ; yet it was not so much these real sufferings
that distressed me , for these, it seemed to me , I could
bear without a murmur; it was the horror I had upon
216 TREASURE ISLAND.

my mind of falling from the cross-trees into that still

green water, beside the body of the coxswain.
I clung with both hands till my nails ached , and I
shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually
my mind came back again, my pulses quieted down to
a more natural time, and I was once more in possession
of myself.
It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk;
but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me;
and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough,
that very shudder did the business. The knife, in fact,
had come the nearest in the world to missing me alto-
gether; it held me by a mere pinch of skin , and this
the shudder tore away. The blood ran down the faster,
to be sure; but I was my own master again, and only
tacked to the mast by my coat and shirt.
These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and
then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. For
nothing in the world would I have again ventured,
shaken as I was , upon the overhanging port shrouds,
from which Israel had so lately fallen.
I went below, and did what I could for my wound ;
it pained me a good deal , and still bled freely ; but it
was neither deep nor dangerous , nor did it greatly
gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around 4

me , and as the ship was now, in a sense , my own, I

began to think of clearing it from its last passenger-
the dead man, O'Brien.
He had pitched , as I have said , against the bul
 "PIECES OF EIGHT." 217

warks , 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. He went in with a sounding plunge ;
the red cap came off, and remained floating on the
surface; and as soon as the splash subsided , I could
see him and Israel lying side by side , both wavering
with the tremulous movement of the water. O'Brien,
though still quite a young man, was very bald. There
he lay, with that bald head across the knees of the man
who had killed him , and the quick fishes steering to
and fro over both.
I was now alone upon the ship ; the tide had just
turned. The sun was within so few degrees of setting
that already the shadow of the pines upon the western
shore began to reach right across the anchorage , and
fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had
sprung up , and though it was well warded off by the
hill with the two peaks upon the east, the cordage had
begun to sing a little softly to itself and the idle sails
to rattle to and fro.
I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I
speedily doused and brought tumbling to the deck ;
but the main-sail was a harder matter. Of course,
when the schooner canted over , the boom had swung
218 TREASURE ISLAND.

out-board , and the cap of it and a foot or two of sail

hung even under water. I thought this made it still
more dangerous ; yet the strain was so heavy that I
half feared to meddle. At last, I got my knife and
cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great
belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water; and
since , pull as I liked , I could not budge the downhall;
that was the extent of what I could accomplish. For
the rest, the Hispaniola must trust to luck, like myself.
By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into
shadow- the last rays , I remember , falling through a
glade of the wood, and shining bright as jewels, on the
flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill ; the
tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling
more and more on her beam-ends.
I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed
shallow enough , and holding the cut hawser in both
hands for a last security , I let myself drop softly over-
board. The water scarcely reached my waist; the
sand was firm and covered with ripple marks , and I
waded ashore in great spirits , leaving the Hispaniola
on her side , with her main-sail trailing wide upon the
surface of the bay. About the same time the sun went
fairly down , and the breeze whistled low in the dusk
among the tossing pines.
At least, and at last , I was off the sea , nor had I
returned thence empty handed . There lay the schooner,
clear at last from buccaneers and ready for our own
men to board and get to sea again. I had nothing
 "PIECES OF EIGHT." 219

nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade and

boast of my achievements. Possibly I might be blamed
a bit for my truantry, but the recapture of the Hispaniola
was a clenching answer, and I hoped that even Captain
Smollett would confess I had not lost my time.
So thinking , and in famous spirits , I began to set
my face homeward for the block-house and my com-
panions. I remembered that the most easterly of the
rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran
from the two-peaked hill upon my left; and I bent my
course in that direction that I might pass the stream
while it was small. The wood was pretty open , and
keeping along the lower spurs , I had soon turned the
corner of that hill , and not long after waded to the
mid-calf across the water-course.
This brought me near to where I had encountered
Ben Gunn , the maroon ; and I walked more circum-
spectly, keeping an eye on every side. The dusk had
come nigh hand completely , and , as I opened out the
cleft between the two peaks , I became aware of a
wavering glow against the sky , where , as I judged, the
man of the island was cooking his supper before a
roaring fire. And yet I wondered , in my heart , that
he should show himself so careless. For if I could
see this radiance , might it not reach the 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;
220 TREASURE ISLAND.

the double hill behind me and the Spy-glass on my

right hand loomed faint and fainter; the stars were few
and pale ; and in the low ground where I wandered
I kept tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy
pits.
Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I
looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted
on the summit of the Spy-glass , and soon after I saw
something broad and silvery moving low down behind
the trees, and knew the moon had risen.
With this to help me , I passed rapidly over what
remained to me of my journey ; and , sometimes walk-
ing , sometimes running , impatiently drew near to the
stockade. Yet , as I began to thread the grove that
lies before it, I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked
my pace and went a trifle warily. It would have been
a poor end of my adventures to get shot down by my
own party in mistake.
The moon was climbing higher and higher ; its
light began to fall here and there in masses through
the more open districts of the wood ; and right in front
of me a glow of a different colour appeared among the
trees. It was red and hot , and now and again it was
a little darkened- as it were the embers of a bonfire
smouldering.
For the life of me, I could not think what it
might be.
At last I came right down upon the borders of
the clearing. The western end was already steeped in
 "PIECES OF EIGHT. ‫وو‬
" 221

moonshine ; the rest, and the block-house itself, still

lay in a black shadow , chequered with long , silvery
streaks of light. On the other side of the house an
immense fire had burned itself into clear embers and
shed a steady, red reverberation , contrasted strongly
with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not
a soul stirring, nor a sound beside the noises of the
breeze.
I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and per-
haps a little terror also. It had not been our way to
build great fires ; we were , indeed , by the captain's
orders , somewhat niggardly of firewood ; and I began
to fear that something had gone wrong while I was
absent.
I stole round by the eastern end , keeping close in
shadow, and at a convenient place , where the darkness
was thickest, crossed the palisade.
To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and
knees , and crawled , without a sound, towards the
corner of the house. As I drew nearer, my heart was
suddenly and greatly lightened. It is not a pleasant
noise in itself, and I have often complained of it at
other times ; but just then it was like music to hear my
friends snoring together so loud and peaceful in their
sleep. The sea cry of the watch, that beautiful "All's
well," never fell more reassuringly on my ear.
In the meantime , there was no doubt of one thing;
they kept an infamous bad watch. If it had been
Silver and his lads that were now creeping in on them,
222 TREASURE ISLAND.

not a soul would have seen daybreak. That was what

it was , thought I, to have the captain wounded ; and
again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that
danger with so few to mount guard.
By this time I had got to the door and stood up.
All was dark within , so that I could distinguish no-
thing by the eye. As for sounds, there was the steady
drone of the snorers , and a small occasional noise , a
flickering or pecking that I could in no way account for.
With my arms before me I walked steadily in . I
should lie down in my own place (I thought , with a
silent chuckle) and enjoy their faces when they found
me in the morning.
My foot struck something yielding - it was a
sleeper's leg ; and he turned and groaned , but without
awaking.
And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forth
out of the darkness :
"Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight ! pieces of eight!
pieces of eight ! pieces of eight !" and so forth, without
pause or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill.
Silver's green parrot , Captain Flint ! It was she
whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was
she, keeping better watch than any human being, who
thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain.
I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp ,
clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and
sprang up; and with a mighty oath, the voice of Silver
cried : -
 " PIECES OF EIGHT." 223

"Who goes?"
I turned to run, struck violently against one person,
recoiled , and ran full into the arms of a second , who,
for his part, closed upon and held me tight.
"Bring a torch, Dick," said Silver, when my capture
was thus assured.
And one of the men left the log-house , and pre-
sently returned with a lighted brand.
 PART VI.
CAPTAIN SILVER.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP.

THE red glare of the torch, lighting up the interior

of the block-house, showed me the worst of my appre-
hensions realised . The pirates were in possession of
the house and stores : there was the cask of cognac,
there were the pork and bread, as before ; and, what
tenfold increased my horror, not a sign of any prisoner.
I could only judge that all had perished, and my heart
smote me sorely that I had not been there to perish
with them .
There were six of the buccaneers , all told ; not
another man was left alive. Five of them were on
their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of
the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only
risen upon his elbow : he was deadly pale , and the
blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had
recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed.
I remembered the man who had been shot and had
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 225

run back among the woods in the great attack, and

doubted not that this was he.
The parrot sat , preening her plumage , on Long
John's shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked some-
what paler and more stern than I was used to. He
still wore the fine broadcloth suit in which he had
fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly the worse for
wear, daubed with clay and torn with the sharp briers
of the wood.
"So," said he , "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my
timbers ! dropped in, like, eh ? Well, come, I take that
friendly."
And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask,
and began to fill a pipe.
"Give me a loan of the link, Dick," said he ; and
then, when he had a good light, "That'll do, lad," he
added; "stick the glim in the wood heap ; and you,
gentlemen, bring yourselves to ! -you needn't stand up
for Mr. Hawkins ; he'll excuse you, you may lay to that.
And so, Jim"-stopping the tobacco- "here you were,
and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I see
you were smart when first I set my eyes on you ; but
this here gets away from me clean, it do."
To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no
answer. They had set me with my back against the
wall ; and I stood there , looking Silver in the face,
pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but
with black despair in my heart.
Treasure Island. 15
226 TREASURE ISLAND.

Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great

composure, and then ran on again.
"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you are here," says
he, " I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always
liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of
my own self when I was young and handsome. I
always wanted you to jine and take your share, and die
a gentleman, and now, my cock, you've got to. Cap'n
Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day,
but stiff on discipline . ' Dooty is dooty," says he, and
right he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The
doctor himself is gone dead again you-' ungrateful
scamp ' was what he said ; and the short and the long
of the whole story is about here : you can't go back to
your own lot, for they won't have you ; and, without
you start a third ship's company all by yourself, which
might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'n Silver."
So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive,
and though I partly believed the truth of Silver's state-
ment, that the cabin party were incensed at me for my
desertion, I was more relieved than distressed by what
I heard.
"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands,"
continued Silver, "though there you are, and you may
lay to it. I'm all for argyment ; I never seen good come
out o' threatening. If you like the service, well, you'll
jine ; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer
no-free and welcome, shipmate ; and if fairer can be
said by mortal seaman, shiver my sides !"
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 227

"Am I to answer, then ?" I asked , with a very

tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was
made to feel the threat of death that overhung me, and
my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my
breast.
"Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pressing of you.
Take your bearings . None of us won't hurry you,
mate; time goes so pleasant in your company, you see."
"Well," says I, growing a bit bolder, " if I'm to
choose, I declare I have a right to know what's what,
and why you're here, and where my friends are."
"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers, in
a deep growl. "Ah, he'd be a lucky one as knowed
that!"
"You'll, perhaps , batten down your hatches till
you're spoke, my friend," cried Silver truculently to
this speaker. And then, in his first gracious tones, he
replied to me : "Yesterday morning , Mr. Hawkins,"
said he, " in the dog-watch, down came Doctor Livesey
with a flag of truce. Says he, ' Cap'n Silver, you're
sold out. Ship's gone.' Well, maybe we'd been taking
a glass, and a song to help it round. I won't say no.
Leastways, none of us had looked out. We looked out,
and, by thunder ! the old ship was gone. I never seen
a pack o' fools look fishier; and you may lay to that,
if I tells you that looked the fishiest. ' Well ,' says the
doctor, ' let's bargain.' We bargained, him and I, and
here we are : stores, brandy, block-house, the firewood
you was thoughtful enough to cut, and, in a manner of
15 *
228 TREASURE ISLAND .

speaking, the whole blessed boat , from cross-trees to

kelson. As for them, they've tramped ; I don't know
where's they are.”
He drew again quietly at his pipe.
"And lest you should take it into that head of
yours," he went on, "that you was included in the
treaty, here's the last word that was said : ' How many
are you,' says I, ' to leave ?' ' Four,' says he—‘ four,
and one of us wounded. As for that boy, I don't know
where he is, confound him,' says he, ' nor I don't much
care. We're about sick of him.' These was his words."
"Is that all? ”
"Well, it's all that you're to hear, my son," returned
Silver.
"And now I am to choose?"
"And now you are to choose, and you may lay to
that," said Silver.
"Well," said I, " I am not such a fool but I know
pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst
come to the worst, it's little I care. I've seen too
many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing
or two I have to tell you," I said, and by this time I
was quite excited ; " and the first is this : here you are,
in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men lost; your
whole business gone to wreck ; and if you want to
know who did it- it was I ! I was in the apple barrel
the night we sighted land, and I heard you, John, and
you , Dick Johnson , and Hands , who is now at the
bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 229

the hour was out. And as for the schooner, it was I

who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men
you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her
where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The
laugh's on my side ; I've had the top of this business
from the first ; I no more fear you than I fear a fly.
Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing I'll
say, and no more ; if you spare me, bygones are by-
gones, and when you fellows are in court for piracy,
I'll save you all I can. It is for you to choose. Kill
another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and
keep a witness to save you from the gallows."
I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and,
to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all sat
staring at me like as many sheep. And while they
were still staring, I broke out again:-
"And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're
the best man here, and if things go the worst, I'll take
it kind of you to let the doctor know the way I took it."
"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent {
so curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide
whether he were laughing at my request, or had been
favourably affected by my courage.
"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-
faced seaman- Morgan by name-whom I had seen in
Long John's public-house upon the quays of Bristol.
"It was him that knowed Black Dog."
"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook. "I'll
put another again to that, by thunder ! for it was this
230 TREASURE ISLAND.

same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones. First
and last, we've split upon Jim Hawkins ! "
"Then here goes ! " said Morgan, with an oath.
And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had
been twenty.
"Avast, there !" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom
Morgan? Maybe you thought you was cap'n here, per-
haps. By the powers, but I'll teach you better ! Cross
me, and you'll go where many a good man's gone be-
fore you, first and last, these thirty year back—some
to the yard-arm, shiver my sides ! and some by the
board, and all to feed the fishes. There's never a man
looked me between the eyes and seen a good day
a'terwards, Tom Morgan, you may lay to that."
Morgan paused ; but a hoarse murmur rose from
the others.
"Tom's right," said one.
"I stood hazing long enough from one," added
another. "I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John
Silver."
"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out
with me?" roared Silver, bending far forward from his
position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his
right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you aint
dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I
lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon
cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it?
You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune, by
your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 231

that dares, and I'll see the colour of his inside, crutch
and all, before that pipe's empty."
Not a man stirred ; not a man answered.
" That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his
pipe to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to look at,
anyway. Not much worth to fight, you aint. P'r'aps
you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n
here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best
man by a long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen
o' fortune should; then, by thunder, you'll obey, and
you may lay to it ! I like that boy, now; I never seen
a better boy than that. He's more a man than any
pair of rats of you in this here house, and what I say is
this : let me see him that'll lay a hand on him— that's
what I say, and you may lay to it."
There was a long pause after this. I stood straight
up against the wall, my heart still going like a sledge-
hammer, but with a ray of hope now shining in my
bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms
crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm
as though he had been in church; yet his eye kept
wandering furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his
unruly followers. They, on their part, drew gradually
together towards the far end of the block-house, and
the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ear
continuously, like a stream . One after another, they
would look up, and the red light of the torch would
fall for a second on their nervous faces ; but it was
232 TREASURE ISLAND.

not towards me, it was towards Silver that they turned

.their eyes.
"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver,
spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it,
or lay to."
“Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men,
"you're pretty free with some of the rules; maybe you'll
kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew's dis-
satisfied ; 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. I ax your pardon , sir , acknowledging
you for to be capting at this present ; but I claim my
right, and steps outside for a council."
And with an elaborate sea-salute, this fellow, a long,
ill-looking , yellow-eyed man of five and thirty, stepped
coolly towards the door and disappeared out of the
house. One after another, the rest followed his ex-
ample ; each making a salute as he passed ; each adding
some apology. "According to rules," said one. "Fo'c's'le
council," said Morgan. And so with one remark or an-
other , all marched out , and left Silver and me alone
with the torch.
The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe.
"Now, look you here , Jim Hawkins ," he said , in a
steady whisper, that was no more than audible, "you're
within half a plank of death , and , what's a long sight
worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But,
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 233

you mark, I stand by you through thick and thin. I

didn't mean to; no, not till you spoke up. I was about
desperate to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into
the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says
to myself: You stand by Hawkins , John , and Hawkins
'll stand by you. You're his last card, and , by the
living thunder, John, he's yours ! Back to back, says I.
You save your witness, and he'll save your neck ! "
I began dimly to understand.
"You mean all's lost ?" I asked.
"Ay, by gum , I do ! " he answered. "Ship gone,
neck gone-that's the size of it. Once I looked into
that bay, Jim Hawkins , and seen no schooner— well,
I'm tough , but I gave out. As for that lot and their
council , mark me , they're outright fools and cowards.
I'll save your life—if so be as I can -from them. But,
see here, Jim- tit for tat-you save Long John from
swinging."
I was bewildered ; it seemed a thing so hopeless
he was asking- he , the old buccaneer, the ringleader
throughout.
"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.
"It's a bargain ! " cried Long John. "You speak up
plucky, and, by thunder! I've a chance."
He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped
among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his pipe.
"Understand me , Jim," he said , returning. "I've
a head on my shoulders, I have. I'm on squire's side
now. I know you've got that ship safe somewheres.
234 TREASURE ISLAND .

How you done it, I don't know, but safe it is. I guess
Hands and O'Brien turned soft. I never much be-
lieved in neither of them. Now you mark me. I ask
no questions , nor I won't let others. I know when a
game's up , I do ; and I know a lad that's staunch.
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
canikin.
"Will you taste , messmate ? " he asked ; and when
I had refused : "Well , I'll take a drain myself, Jim,"
said he. "I need a caulker , for there's trouble on
hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor
give me the chart, Jim?"
My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he
saw the needlessness of further questions.
"Ah, well, he did, though," said he. " And there's
something under that , no doubt - something , surely,
under that, Jim-bad or good."
And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking
his great fair head like a man who looks forward to the
worst.
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 237

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN.

THE Council of the buccaneers had lasted some

time, when one of them re-entered the house, and with
a repetition of the same salute , which had in my eyes
an ironical air , begged for a moment's loan of the
torch. Silver briefly agreed ; and this emissary retired
again, leaving us together in the dark.
"There's a breeze coming , Jim ," said Silver, who
had, by this time, adopted quite a friendly and familiar
tone.
I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out.
The embers of the great fire had so far burned them-
selves out , and now glowed so low and duskily, that
I understood why these conspirators desired a torch.
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. The rest were all some-
what stooping , as though watching the manoeuvres of
this last. I could just make out that he had a book
as well as a knife in his hand ; and was still wondering
how anything so incongruous had come in their pos-
 TREASURE ISLAND.

session, when the kneeling figure rose once more to his

feet , and the whole party began to move together to-
wards the house.
"Here they come ," said I ; and I returned to my
former position, for it seemed beneath my dignity that
they should find me watching them.
"Well, let ' em come, lad-let ' em come," said Silver,
cheerily. " I've still a shot in my locker."
The door opened , and the five men , standing
huddled together just inside, pushed one of their num-
ber forward. In any other circumstances it would have
been comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he
set down each foot , but holding his closed right hand
in front of him.
"Step up , lad ," cried Silver. " I won't eat you.
Hand it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do ; I won't
hurt a depytation."
Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth more
briskly, and having passed something to Silver , from
hand to hand , slipped yet more smartly back again to
his companions.
The sea-cook looked at what had been given him.
"The black spot ! I thought so ," he observed.
"Where might you have got the paper? Why, hillo !
look here , now: this aint lucky ! You've gone and cut
this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible ?"
"Ah, there!" said Morgan-"there ! Wot did I say?
No good'll come o' that, I said."
"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," con-
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 237

tinued Silver. "You'll all swing now, I reckon. What

soft-headed lubber had a Bible ?"
"It was Dick," said one.
"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers,"
said Silver. "He's seen his slice of luck , has Dick,
and you may lay to that."
But here the long man with the yellow eyes
struck in.
"Belay that talk , John Silver," he said. "This
crew has tipped you the black spot in full council , as
in dooty bound; just you turn it over , as in dooty
bound, and see what's wrote there. Then you can
talk."
"Thanky, George ," replied the sea-cook. "You
always was brisk for business , and has the rules by
heart, George, as I'm pleased to see. Well, what is it,
anyway? Ah ! ' Deposed ' -that's it, is it ? Very pretty
wrote , to be sure ; like print , I swear. Your hand o'
write , George? Why, you was gettin' quite a leadin'
man in this here crew. You'll be cap'n next, I shouldn't
wonder. Just oblige me with that torch again, will you?
this pipe don't draw."
"Come, now," said George , "you don't fool this
crew no more. You're a funny man , by your account ;
but you're over now, and you'll maybe step down off
that barrel, and help vote."
"I thought you said you knowed the rules ," re-
turned Silver, contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't,
I do; and I wait here - and I'm still your cap'n , mind
238 TREASURE ISLAND.

-till you outs with your grievances, and I reply, in the

meantime, your black spot aint worth a biscuit. After
that, we'll see."
"Oh,” replied George, "you don't be under no kind
of apprehension; we're all square, we are. First, you've
made a hash of this cruise-you'll be a bold man to
say no to that. Second, you let the enemy out o' this
here trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I
dunno; but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third,
you wouldn't let us go at them upon the march. Oh,
we see through you, John Silver; you want to play
booty, that's what's wrong with you. And then, fourth,
there's this here boy."
"Is that all?" asked Silver, quietly.
"Enough, too," retorted George. " We'll all swing
and sun-dry for your bungling."
"Well, now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints ;
one after another I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o'
this cruise , did I ? Well , now, you all know what I
wanted ; and you all know, if that had been done, that
we'd ' a' been aboard the Hispaniola this night as ever
was , every man of us alive , and fit, and full of good
plum- duff, and the treasure in the hold of her, by
thunder ! Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand,
as was the lawful cap'n ?" Who tipped me the black
spot the day we landed , and began this dance ? Ah,
it's a fine dance-I'm with you there—and looks mighty
like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by
London town, it does. But who done it? Why, it was
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 239

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."
Silver paused , and I could see by the faces of
George and his late comrades that these words had
not been said in vain.
"That's for number one ," cried the accused , wip-
ing the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking
with a vehemence that shook the house. "Why, I
give you my word , I'm sick to speak to you. You've
neither sense nor memory, and I leave it to fancy
where your mothers was that let you come to sea.
Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune ! I reckon tailors is your
trade."
"Go on, John," said Morgan. " Speak up to the
others."
"Ah, the others ! " returned John. "They're a nice
lot, aint they ? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah!
by gum, if you could understand how bad it's bungled,
you would see! We're that near the gibbet that my
neck's stiff with thinking on it. You've seen ' em, may-
be, hanged in chains, birds about ' em, seamen p'inting
'em out as they go down with the tide. 'Who's that?'
says one. That ! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed
him well,' says another. And you can hear the chains
a-jangle as you go about and reach for the other buoy.
240 TREASURE ISLAND.

Now, that's about where we are , every mother's son of

us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other
ruination fools of you. And if you want to know about
number four, and that boy, why, shiver my timbers !
isn't he a hostage ? Are we a-going to waste a hostage?
No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I should'nt
wonder. Kill that boy? not me , mates ! And number
three? Ah, well, there's a deal to say to number three.
Maybe you don't count it nothing to have a real college
doctor come to see you every day-you , John , with
your head broke—or you , George Merry, that had the
ague shakes upon you not six hours agone , and has
your eyes the colour of lemon peel to this same
moment on the clock? And may be , perhaps , you
didn't know there was a consort coming, either? But
there is ; and not so long till then ; and we'll see who'll
be glad to have a hostage when it comes to that. And
as for number two , and why I made a bargain— well,
you came crawling on your knees to me to make it—
on your knees you came , you was that downhearted—
and you'd have starved , too , if I hadn't— but that's a
trifle ! you look there-that's why!"
And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I in-
stantly recognised- none other than the chart on yellow
paper , with the three red crosses , that I had found in
the oilcloth at the bottom of the captain's chest. Why
the doctor had given it to him was more than I could
fancy.
But if it were inexplicable to me , the appearance
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 241

of the chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers.

They leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse. It went
from hand to hand , one tearing it from another ; and
by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter
with which they accompanied their examination , you
would have thought , not only they were fingering the
very gold, but were at sea with it, besides, in safety.
"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F.,
and a score below, with a clove hitch to it ; so he done
ever."
"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to
get away with it, and us no ship?"
Silver suddenly sprang up , and supporting himself
with a hand against the wall : "Now I give you warn-
ing, George," he cried. "One more word of your
sauce , and I'll call you down and fight you. How?
Why, how do I know? You had ought to tell me that
-you and the rest , that lost me my schooner, with
your interference , burn you ! But not you , you can't ;
you hain't got the invention of a cockroach. But civil
you can speak, and shall, George Merry, you may lay
to that."
"That's fair enow," said the old man Morgan.
"Fair! I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost
the ship; I found the treasure. Who's the better man
at that? And now I resign, by thunder! Elect whom
you please to be your cap'n now, I'm done with it."
"Silver!" they cried. " Barbecue for ever ! Barbecue
for cap'n!"
Treasure Island. 16
242 TREASURE ISLAND.

"So that's the toon, is it ?" cried the cook. "George,

I reckon you'll have to wait another turn , friend ; and
lucky for you as I'm not a revengeful man. But that
was never my way. And now, shipmates , this black
spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed
his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all.”
"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it? " growled
Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse he had
brought upon himself.
"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver,
derisively. "Not it. It don't bind no more'n a ballad
book."
"Don't it, though?" cried Dick, with a sort of joy.
"Well, I reckon that's worth having, too."
"Here, Jim- here's a cur'osity for you," said Silver;
and he tossed me the paper.
It was a round about the size of a crown piece.
One side was blank , for it had been the last leaf; the
other contained a verse or two of Revelation- these
words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon
my mind : " Without are dogs and murderers." The
printed side had been blackened with wood ash, which
already began to come off and soil my fingers ; on the
blank side had been written with the same material
the one word "Depposed." I have that curiosity be-
side me at this moment; but not a trace of writing now
remains beyond a single scratch, such as a man might
make with his thumb-nail.
That was the end of the night's business. Soon
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 243

after , with a drink all round , we lay down to sleep,

and the outside of Silver's vengeance was to put George
Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him with death if
he should prove unfaithful.
It was long ere I could close an eye , and Heaven
knows I had matter enough for thought in the man
whom I had slain that afternoon , in my own most
perilous position , and , above all, in the remarkable
game that I saw Silver now engaged upon- keeping
the mutineers together with one hand , and grasping,
with the other, after every means, possible and impos-
sible , to make his peace and save his miserable life.
He himself slept peacefully, and snored aloud ; yet my
heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on
the dark perils that environed, and the shameful gibbet
that awaited him.

16*
244 TREASURE ISLAND .

CHAPTER XXX.
ON PAROLE.

I WAS wakened- indeed , we were all wakened , for

I could see even the sentinel shake himself together
from where he had fallen against the door-post- by a
clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the
wood :-
"Block-house, ahoy! " it cried. "Here's the doctor."
And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to
hear the sound , yet my gladness was not without ad-
mixture. I remembered with confusion my insub-
ordinate and stealthy conduct ; and when I saw where
it had brought me-among what companions and sur-
rounded by what dangers- I felt ashamed to look him
in the face.
He must have risen in the dark , for the day had
hardly come; and when I ran to a loophole and looked
out, I saw him standing , like Silver once before, up to
the mid-leg in creeping vapour.
"You , doctor! Top o' the morning to you , sir!"
cried Silver, broad awake and beaming with good
nature in a moment. " Bright and early , to be sure;
and it's the early bird , as the saying goes , that gets
the rations. George, shake up your timbers , son, and
 ON PAROLE. 245

help Dr. Livesey over the ship's side. All a-doin' well,
your patients was --all well and merry."
So he pattered on, standing on the hill-top , with
his crutch under his elbow, and one hand upon the
side of the log-house-quite the old John in voice,
manner, and expression.
"We've quite a surprise for you , too , sir ," he con-
tinued. "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."
Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stockade
and pretty near the cook; and I could hear the altera-
tion in his voice as he said :-
"Not Jim?"
"The very same Jim as ever was ," says Silver.
The doctor stopped outright , although he did not
speak, and it was some seconds before he seemed able
to move on.
"Well , well ," he said , at last, "duty first and plea-
sure afterwards, as you might have said yourself, Silver.
Let us overhaul these patients of yours."
A moment afterwards he had entered the block-
house, and, with one grim nod to me , proceeded with
his work among the sick. He seemed under no appre-
hension , though he must have known that his life,
among these treacherous demons , depended on a hair;
and he rattled on to his patients as if he were paying
an ordinary professional visit in a quiet English family.
246 TREASURE ISLAND.

His manner , I suppose , reacted on the men; for they

behaved to him as if nothing had occurred—as if he
were still ship's doctor , and they still faithful hands
before the mast.
"You're doing well , my friend ," he said to the
fellow with the bandaged head , “ and if ever any per-
son had a close shave , it was you ; your head must be
as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it? You're a
pretty colour, certainly ; why, your liver, man, is upside
down. Did you take that medicine? Did he take that
medicine , men ?”
"Ay, ay, sir, he took it, sure enough," returned
Morgan.
"Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doctor, or
prison doctor, as I prefer to call it ," says Doctor Live-
sey, 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."
The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed
the home-thrust in silence.
"Dick don't feel well, sir," said one.
"Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well , step up
here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I should
be surprised if he did ! the man's tongue is fit to
frighten the French. Another fever."
"Ah , there," said Morgan , "that comed of sp'iling
Bibles."
"That comed- as you call it-of being arrant
asses ," retorted the doctor , "and not having sense
 ON PAROLE. 247

enough to know honest air from poison , and the dry

land from a vile , pestiferous slough. I think it most
probable—though, of course, it's only an opinion — that
you'll all have the deuce to pay before you get that
malaria out of your systems. Camp in a bog , would
you ? Silver, I'm surprised at you. You're less of a
fool than many , take you all round ; but you don't ap-
pear to me to have the rudiments of a notion of the
rules of health.
"Well," he added, after he had dosed them round,
and they had taken his prescriptions, with really laugh-
able humility, more like charity school-children than
blood-guilty mutineers and pirates-" well , that's done
for to-day. And now I should wish to have a talk
with that boy, please."
And he nodded his head in my direction care-
lessly.
George Merry was at the door, spitting and splutter-
ing over some bad-tasted medicine ; but at the first
word of the doctor's proposal he swung round with a
deep flush , and cried " No !" and swore.
Silver struck the barrel with his open hand.
"Si-lence !" he roared , and looked about him posi-
tively like a lion. "Doctor ," he went on , in his usual
tones , " I was a-thinking of that , knowing as how you
had a fancy for the boy. We're all humbly grateful
for your kindness , and , as you see , puts faith in you,
and takes the drugs down like that much grog. And
I take it I've found a way as 'll suit all. Hawkins,
248 TREASURE ISLAND.

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.
"Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step outside
o' that stockade , and once you're there , I'll bring the
boy down on the inside , and I reckon you can yarn
through the spars. Good day to you , sir, and all our
dooties to the squire and Cap'n Smollett."
The explosion of disapproval , which nothing but
Silver's black looks had restrained , broke out imme-
diately the doctor had left the house. Silver was
roundly accused of playing double-of trying to make
a separate peace for himself—of sacrificing the interests
of his accomplices and victims ; and , in one word , of
the identical, exact thing that he was doing. It seemed
to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not imagine
how he was to turn their anger. But he was twice
the man the rest were ; and his last night's victory had
given him a huge preponderance on their minds. He
called them all the fools and dolts you can imagine,
said it was necessary I should talk to the doctor, flut-
tered the chart in their faces, asked them if they could
afford to break the treaty the very day they were bound
a-treasure-hunting.
"No , by thunder! " he cried , " it's us must break
the treaty when the time comes ; and till then I'll
gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with
brandy."
 ON PAROLE. 249

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 volu-
bility rather than convinced.
"Slow, lad , slow," he said. "They might round
upon us in a twinkle of an eye , if we was seen to
hurry."
Very deliberately, then , did we advance across the
sand to where the doctor awaited us on the other side
of the stockade , and as soon as we were within easy
speaking distance , Silver stopped.
"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," 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.
Doctor, when a man's steering as near the wind as
me -playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in
his body, like-you wouldn't think it too much , may-
hap, to give him one good word? You'll please bear
in mind it's not my life only now- it's that boy's into
the bargain ; and you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give
me a bit o' hope to go on, for the sake of mercy."
Silver was a changed man , once he was out there
and had his back to his friends and the block- house ;
his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice trembled ;
never was a soul more dead in earnest.
"Why, John , you're not afraid?" asked Doctor
Livesey.
"Doctor, I'm no coward ; no , not I - not so much ! "
and he snapped his fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say
250 TREASURE ISLAND.

it. But I'll own up fairly , I've the shakes upon me

for the gallows. You're a good man and a true ; I
never seen a better man ! And you'll not forget what
I done good , not any more than you'll forget the bad,
I know. And I step aside-see here—and leave you
and Jim alone. And you'll put that down for me , too,
for it's a long stretch , is that!"

So saying, he stepped back a little way, till he was

out of earshot , and there sat down upon a tree-stump
and began to whistle ; spinning round now and again
upon his seat so as to command a sight , sometimes of
me and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians
as they went to and fro in the sand, between the fire—
which they were busy rekindling-and the house, from
which they brought forth pork and bread to make the
breakfast.

"So , Jim ," said the doctor, sadly, "here you are.
As you have brewed , so shall you drink, my boy.
Heaven knows , I cannot find it in my heart to blame
you; but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind :
when Captain Smollett was well , you dared not have
gone off; and when he was ill, and couldn't help it, by
George, it was downright cowardly ! "
I will own that I here began to weep. "Doctor,"
I said, "you might spare me. I have blamed myself
enough; my life's forfeit anyway, and I should have
been dead by now, if Silver hadn't stood for me ; and
doctor, believe this, I can die-and I daresay I deserve
 ÓN PAROLE. 251

it-but what I fear is torture. If they come to torture

me ""

"Jim ," the doctor interrupted , and his voice was

quite changed, "Jim I can't have this. Whip over, and
we'll run for it."
"Doctor," said I, "I passed my word."
"I know, I know ," he cried. "We can't help that,
Jim , now. I'll take it on my shoulders , holus bolus,
blame and shame , my boy; but stay here, I cannot let
you. Jump ! One jump, and you're out, and we'll run
for it like antelopes ."
"No," I replied, " you know right well you wouldn't
do the thing yourself; neither you , nor squire , nor
captain; and no more will I. Silver trusted me; I
passed my word, and back I go. But, doctor, you did
not let me finish. If they come to torture me, I might
let slip a word of where the ship is; for I got the ship,
part by luck and part by risking, and she lies in North
Inlet, on the southern beach, and just below high water.
At half tide she must be high and dry."
"The ship ! " exclaimed the doctor.
Rapidly I described to him my adventures , and he
heard me out in silence.
"There is a kind of fate in this ," he observed ,
when I had done. "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. You found out the plot; you found
Ben Gunn- the best deed that ever you did , or will
252 TREASURE ISLAND.

do , though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter , and

talking of Ben Gunn ! why, this is the mischief in per-
son. Silver ! " he cried, " Silver ! -I'll give you a piece
of advice ," he continued , as the cook drew near
again ; " don't you be in any great hurry after that
treasure."
"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that aint ," said
Silver. "I can only, asking your pardon , save my life
and the boy's by seeking for that treasure ; and you
may lay to that.”
"Well , Silver ," replied the doctor , "if that is so,
I'll go one step further : look out for squalls when you
find it."
"Sir," said Silver, " as between man and man, that's
too much and too little. What you're after, why you
left the 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. If you won't tell me what
you mean plain out, just say so , and I'll leave the
helm."
"No," said the doctor , musingly, " I've no right to
say more ; it's not my secret , you see , Silver, or I give
you my word , I'd tell it you. But I'll go as far with
you as I dare go, and a step beyond ; for I'll have my
wig sorted by the captain or I'm mistaken ! And, first,
I'll give you a bit of hope : Silver, if we both get alive
out of this wolf-trap , I'll do my best to save you, short
of perjury."
 ON PAROLE. 253

Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more,

I'm sure, sir, not if you was my mother," he cried.
"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor.
"My second is a piece of advice : Keep the boy close
beside you , and when you need help , halloo. I'm off
to seek it for you , and that itself will show you if I
speak at random. Good-bye, Jim."
And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through the
stockade , nodded to Silver , and set off at a brisk pace
into the wood.
254 TREASURE ISLAND.

CHAPTER XXXI.
THE TREASURE HUNT- FLINT'S POINTER.

"JIM," said Silver, when we were alone, " if I saved

your life, you saved mine ; and I'll not forget it. I seen
the doctor waving you to run for it- with the tail of
my eye, I did; and I seen you say no, as plain as hear-
ing. Jim , that's one to you. This is the first glint of
hope I had since the attack failed , and I owe it you.
And now, Jim , we're to go in for this here treasure
hunting, with sealed orders , too , and I don't like it ;
and you and me must stick close , back to back like,
and we'll save our necks in spite o' fate and fortune."
Just then a man hailed us from the fire that break-
fast was ready, and we were soon seated here and
there about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. 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 wind-
ward , and even there not without precaution. In the
same wasteful spirit, they had cooked, I suppose, three
times more than we could eat; and one of them , with
an empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire,
which blazed and roared again over this unusual fuel.
I never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow;
hand to mouth is the only word that can describe their
 THE TREASURE HUNT- FLINT'S POINTER. 255

way of doing; and what with wasted food and sleeping

sentries, though they were bold enough for a brush and
be done with it , I could see their entire unfitness for
anything like a prolonged campaign.
Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon
his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their reck-
lessness. And this the more surprised me, for I thought
he had never shown himself so cunning as he did
then.

"Ay, mates," said he, " its lucky you have Barbecue
to think for you with this here head. I got what I
wanted , I did. Sure enough, they have the ship.
Where they have it, I don't know yet; but once we hit
the treasure , we'll have to jump about and find out.
And then, mates , us that has the boats , I reckon , has
the upper hand.”

Thus he kept running on , with his mouth full of

the hot bacon : thus he restored their hope and con-
fidence, and , I more than suspect, repaired his own at
the same time.
"As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last talk,
I guess, with them he loves so dear. I've got my piece
o' news , and thanky to him for that ; but it's over and
done. I'll take him in a line when we go treasure-
hunting, for we'll keep him like so much gold , in case
of accidents , you mark, and in the meantime. Once
we got the ship and treasure both , and off to sea like
jolly companions , why, then , we'll talk Mr. Hawkins
256 TREASURE ISLAND.

over, we will, and we'll give him his share , to be sure,

for all his kindness."
It was no wonder the men were in a good humour
now. For my part, I was horribly cast down. Should
the scheme he had now sketched prove feasible, Silver,
already doubly a traitor , would not hesitate to adopt
it. He had still a foot in either camp, and there was
no doubt he would prefer wealth and freedom with the
pirates to a bare escape from hanging, which was the
best he had to hope on our side.
Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was
forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then
what danger lay before us ! What a moment that would
be when the suspicions of his followers turned to cer-
tainty, 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 un-
explained desertion of the stockade ; their inexplicable
cession of the chart; or, harder still to understand, the
doctor's last warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls
when you find it ; " and you will readily believe how
little taste I found in my breakfast, and with how uneasy
a heart I set forth behind my captors on the quest for
treasure.
We made a curious figure, had any one been there
to see us; all in soiled sailor clothes, and all but me
armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about
 THE TREASURE HUNT- FLINT'S POINTER. 257

him-one before and one behind- besides the great

cutlass at his waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his
square-tailed coat. To complete his strange appear-
ance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his shoulder and
gabbling odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk. I had
a line about my waist, and followed obediently after
the sea-cook, who held the loose end of the rope, now
in his free hand, now between his powerful teeth. For
all the world, I was led like a dancing bear.
The other men were variously burthened ; some
carrying picks and shovels- for that had been the very
first necessary they brought ashore from the Hispaniola
-others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the
midday meal. All the stores, I observed, came from
our stock; and I could see the truth of Silver's words
the night before. Had he not struck a bargain with
the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship,
must have been driven to subsist on clear water and
the proceeds of their hunting. Water would have been
little to their taste ; a sailor is not usually a good
shot; and, besides all that, when they were so short of
eatables, it was not likely they would be very flush of
powder.
Well, thus equipped, we all set out—even the fellow
with the broken head, who should certainly have kept
in shadow- and straggled, one after another, to the
beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these
bore trace of the drunken folly of the pirates, one in
a broken thwart, and both in their muddied and un-
Treasure Island. 17
258 TREASURE ISLAND .

bailed condition . Both were to be carried along with

us, for the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers
divided between them, we set forth upon the bosom
of the anchorage.
As we pulled over, there was some discussion on
the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large
to be a guide ; and the terms of the note on the back,
as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They
ran, the reader may remember, thus :-
"Tall-tree , Spy-glass shoulder , bearing a point to the N. of
N.N.E.
"Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
"Ten feet."

A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now,

right before us , the anchorage was bounded by a
plateau from two to three hundred feet high, adjoining
on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-
glass, and rising again towards the south into the rough,
cliffy eminence called the Mizzen-mast Hill. The top
of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine trees of
varying height. Every here and there, one of a different
species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neigh-
bours, and which of these was the particular "tall tree"
of Captain Flint could only be decided on the spot,
and by the readings of the compass.
Yet, although that was the case, every man on
board the boats had picked a favourite of his own
ere we were half way over, Long John alone shrugging
his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there.
 THE TREASURE HUNT- FLINT'S POINTER. 259

We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary

the hands prematurely ; and, after quite a long passage,
landed at the mouth of the second river-that which
runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass. Thence,
bending to our left, we began to ascend the slope to-
wards the plateau.
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. It was, indeed, a
most pleasant portion of the island that we were now
approaching. A heavy-scented broom and many flower-
ing shrubs had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets
of green nutmeg trees were dotted here and there with
the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines ;
and the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the
others. The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and
this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful re-
freshment to our senses.
The party spread itself abroad , in a fan shape,
shouting and leaping to and fro. 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. From time to time,
indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or he must have
missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill.
We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, and
were approaching the brow of the plateau, when the
17 *
260 TREASURE ISLAND.

man upon the farthest left began to cry aloud, as if in

terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the others
began to run in his direction.
"He can't ' a' found the treasure," said old Morgan,
hurrying past us from the right, "for that's clean
a-top ."
Indeed , as we found when we also reached the
spot , it was something very different. At the foot of
a pretty big pine , and involved in a green creeper,
which had even partly lifted some of the smaller
bones , a human skeleton lay , with a few shreds of
clothing, on the ground. I believe a chill struck for a
moment to every heart.
"He was a seaman," said George Merry, who,
bolder than the rest , had gone up close , and was
examining the rags of clothing. "Leastways, this is
good seacloth."
"Ay, ay," said Silver , " like enough ; you wouldn't
look to find a bishop here , I reckon. But what sort
of a way is that for bones to lie? "Tain't in natur'."
Indeed , on a second glance , it seemed impossible
to fancy that the body was in a natural position. But
for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the birds that
had fed upon him, or of the slow-growing creeper that
had gradually enveloped his remains) the man lay per-
fectly straight- his feet pointing in one direction , his
hands , raised above his head like a diver's , pointing
directly in the opposite.
"I've taken a notion into my old numskull ," ob-
 THE TREASURE HUNT- FLINT'S POINTER. 261

served Silver. " Here's the compass ; there's the tip-top

p'int o' Skeleton Island , stickin' out like a tooth. Just
take a bearing, will you, along the line of them bones."
It was done. The body pointed straight in the
direction of the island , and the compass read duly
E.S.E. and by E.
"I thought so ," cried the cook; "this here is a
p'inter. Right up there is our line for the Pole Star
and the jolly dollars. But , by thunder ! if it don't
make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of
his jokes , and no mistake. Him and these six was
alone here ; he killed ' em, every man ; and this one he
hauled here and laid down by compass , shiver my
timbers! They're long bones, and the hair's been yel-
low. Ay, that would be Allardyce. You mind Al-
lardyce, Tom Morgan? "
"Ay, ay," returned Morgan , " I mind him; he
owed me money , he did , and took my knife ashore
with him."
"Speaking of knives ," said another, "why don't
we find his'n lying round ? Flint warn't the man to
pick a seaman's pocket; and the birds , I guess , would
leave it be."
"By the powers, and that's true ! " cried Silver.
"There aint a thing left here ," said Merry , still
feeling round among the bones, " not a copper doit nor
a baccy box . It don't look nat'ral to me."
"No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; " not natʼral,
nor not nice, says you. Great guns! messmates, but if
262 TREASURE ISLAND.

Flint was living , this would be a hot spot for you and
me. Six they were , and six are we ; and bones is
what they are now."
"I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said
Morgan. "Billy took me in. There he laid , with
penny-pieces on his eyes."
"Dead- ay, sure enough he's dead and gone be-
low," said the fellow with the bandage ; "but if ever
sperrit walked , it would be Flint's. Dear heart , but
he died bad, did Flint !"
"Ay, that he did ," observed another; " now he
raged , and now he hollered for the rum , and now he
sang. 'Fifteen Men ' were his only song , mates ; and
I tell you true , I never rightly liked to hear it since.
It was main hot , and the windy was open , and I hear
that old song comin' out as clear as clear— and the
death-haul on the man already."
"Come, come," said Silver, "stow this talk. He's
dead , and he don't walk , that I know; leastways , he
won't walk by day , and you may lay to that. Care
killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons."
We started , certainly; but in spite of the hot sun
and the staring daylight , the pirates no longer ran
separate and shouting through the wood, but kept side
by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of
the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
 THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES. 263

CHAPTER XXXII.
THE TREASURE HUNT- THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES.

PARTLY from the damping influence of this alarm,

partly to rest Silver and the sick folk , the whole party
sat down as soon as they had gained the brow of the
ascent.
The plateau being somewhat tilted towards the
west, this spot on which we had paused commanded
a wide prospect on either hand. Before us , over the
tree-tops , we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed
with surf; behind , we not only looked down upon the
anchorage and Skeleton Island , but saw- clear across
the spit and the eastern lowlands- a great field of open
sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass,
here dotted with single pines , there black with pre-
cipices. There was no sound but that of the distant
breakers , mounting from all round , and the chirp of
countless insects in the brush. Not a man , not a sail 1
upon the sea; the very largeness of the view increased
the sense of solitude.
Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his
compass.
"There are three ' tall trees ' " said he, " about in the
right line from Skeleton Island. ' Spy-glass Shoulder,'
264 TREASURE ISLAND.

I take it, means that lower p'int there. It's child's

play to find the stuff now. I've half a mind to dine
first."
"I don't feel sharp ," growled Morgan. "Thinkin'
o' Flint- I think it were- as done me."
“ Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he's dead,”
said Silver.
"He 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.
"Blue ! well , I reckon he was blue. That's a true
word."
Ever since they had found the skeleton and got
upon this train of thought , they had spoken lower and
lower , and they had almost got to whispering by now,
so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted the
silence of the wood. All of a sudden, out of the
middle of the trees in front of us , a thin , high , trem-
bling voice struck up the well-known air and words :-
:-
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum ! "
I never have seen men more dreadfully affected
than the pirates. The colour went from their six
faces like enchantment ; some leaped to their feet,
some clawed hold of others ; Morgan grovelled on the
ground.
"It's Flint, by--!" cried Merry.
The song had stopped as suddenly as it began-
broken off, you would have said , in the middle of a
 THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES. 265

note , as though some one had laid his hand upon the
singer's mouth. Coming so far through the clear,
sunny atmosphere among the green tree-tops, I thought
it had sounded airily and sweetly; and the effect on
my companions was the stranger.
66
'Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips
to get the word out , "this won't do. Stand by to go
about. This is a rum start , and I can't name the
voice : but it's some one skylarking-some one that's
flesh and blood, and you may lay to that."
His courage had come back as he spoke, and some
of the colour to his face along with it. Already the
others had begun to lend an ear to this encourage-
ment , and were coming a little to themselves , when
the same voice broke out again—not this time singing,
but in a faint distant hail , that echoed yet fainter
among the clefts of the Spy-glass.
"Darby M'Graw ," it wailed-for that is the word
that best describes the sound- "Darby M'Graw ! Darby
M'Graw!" again and again and again ; and then rising
a little higher , and with an oath that I leave out,
"Fetch aft the rum, Darby!"
The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground,
their eyes starting from their heads. Long after the
voice had died away they still stared in silence, dread-
fully, before them.
"That fixes it !" gasped one. "Let's go ."
"They was his last words ," moaned Morgan , "his
last words above board,"
266 TREASURE ISLAND.

Dick had his Bible out , and was praying volubly.

He had been well brought up , had Dick, before he
came to sea and fell among bad companions.
Still, Silver was unconquered . I could hear his teeth
rattle in his head ; but he had not yet surrendered .
"Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby,"
he muttered ; "not one but us that's here." And then,
making a great effort, " Shipmates," he cried, "I'm here
to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man nor devil.
I never was feared of Flint in his life , and , by the
powers, I'll face him dead. There's seven hundred
thousand pound not a quarter of a mile from here.
When did ever a gentleman o' fortune show his stern
to that much dollars , for a boosy old seaman with a
blue mug- and him dead, too?"
But there was no sign of re-awakening courage in
his followers; rather , indeed , of growing terror at the
irreverence of his words.
"Belay there, John ! " said Merry. " Don't you cross
a sperrit."
And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They
would have run away severally had they dared ; but
fear kept them together, and kept them close by John,
as if his daring helped them. He , on his part , had
pretty well fought his weakness down.
"Sperrit? Well, maybe ," he said. " But there's
one thing not clear to me. There was an echo. Now,
no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow; well , then,
 THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES. 267

what's he doing with an echo to him, I should like to

know? That aint in natur', surely?"
This argument seemed weak enough to me. But
you can never tell what will affect the superstitious, and,
to my wonder, George Merry was greatly relieved.
"Well , that's so ," he said. "You've a head upon
your shoulders , John , and no mistake. 'Bout ship,
mates ! This here crew is on a wrong tack , I do be-
lieve. And come to think on it , it was like Flint's
voice , I grant you , but not just so clear-away like it,
after all. It was liker somebody else's voice now- it
was liker- ""
"By the powers, Ben Gunn ! " roared Silver.
"Ay, and so it were ," cried Morgan , springing on
his knees. "Ben Gunn it were!"
"It don't make much odds , do it , now? " asked
Dick. "Ben Gunn's not here in the body, any more'n
Flint."
But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn.
"Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn ," cried Merry;
"dead or alive, nobody minds him ."
It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned,
and how the natural colour had revived in their faces.
Soon they were chatting together , with intervals of
listening; and not long after, hearing no further sound,
they shouldered the tools and set forth again , Merry
walking first with Silver's compass to keep them on the
right line with Skeleton Island . He had said the truth :
dead or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.
268 TREASURE ISLAND .

Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around

him as he went , with fearful glances ; but he found no
sympathy, and Silver even joked him on his precau-
tions.
"I told you," said he " I told you, you had sp'iled
your Bible. If it aint no good to swear by, what do
you suppose a sperrit would give for it? Not that!"
and he snapped his big fingers , halting a moment on
his crutch.
But Dick was not to be comforted ; indeed, it was
soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick; hastened
by heat , exhaustion , and the shock of his alarm , the
fever, predicted by Doctor Livesey, was evidently grow-
ing swiftly higher.
It was fine open walking here , upon the summit ;
our way lay a little down-hill, for , as I have said , the
plateau tilted towards the west. The pines , great and
small, grew wide apart ; and even between the clumps
of nutmeg and azalea , wide open spaces baked in the
hot sunshine. Striking, as we did , pretty near 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 coracle.
The first of the tall trees was reached , and by the
bearing, proved the wrong one. So with the second.
The third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air
above a clump of underwood ; a giant of a vegetable,
with a red column as big as a cottage , and a wide
 THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES. 269

shadow around in which a company could have ma-

nœuvred. It was conspicuous far to sea both on the
east and west , and might have been entered as a sail-
ing mark upon the chart.
But it was not its size that now impressed my com-
panions; it was the knowledge that seven hundred
thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below
its spreading shadow. The thought of the money , as
they drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors.
Their eyes burned in their heads ; their feet grew
speedier and lighter; their whole soul was bound up in
that fortune , that whole lifetime of extravagance and
pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of them.
Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils
stood out and quivered ; he cursed like a madman when
the flies settled on his hot and shiny countenance ; he
plucked furiously at the line that held me to him, and,
from time to time , turned his eyes upon me with a
deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his
thoughts ; and certainly I read them like print. In the
immediate nearness of the gold , all else had been for-
gotten; his promise and the doctor's warning were both
things of the past; and I could not doubt that he hoped
to seize upon the treasure, find and board the Hispaniola
under cover of night, cut every honest throat about that
island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden
with crimes and riches.
Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for
me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treasure-
270 TREASURE ISLAND.

hunters. Now and again I stumbled ; and it was then

that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched
at me his murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped
behind us, and now brought up the rear, was babbling
to himself both prayers and curses , as his fever kept
rising. This also added to my wretchedness , and , to
crown all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy
that had once been acted on that plateau , when that
ungodly buccaneer with the blue face -he who died
at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink- had there,
with his own hand, cut down his six accomplices . This
grove , that was now so peaceful , must then have rung
with cries , I thought; and even with the thought I
could believe I heard it ringing still.
We were now at the margin of the thicket.
"Huzza , mates , all together! " shouted Merry ; and
the foremost broke into a run.
And suddenly, not ten yards further , we beheld
them stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his pace,
digging away with the foot of his crutch like one pos-
sessed; and next moment he and I had come also to
a dead halt.
Before us was a great excavation , not very recent,
for the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on
the bottom. In this were the shaft of a pick broken
in two and the boards of several packing-cases strewn
around. On one of these boards I saw, branded with
a hot iron , the name Walrus- the name of Flint's
ship.
 THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 271

All was clear to probation. The cache had been

found and rifled : the seven hundred thousand pounds
were gone !

CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN.

THERE never was such an overturn in this world.

Each of these six men was as though he had been
struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost in-
stantly. Every thought of his soul had been set full-
stretch, like a racer , on that money ; well , he was
brought up in a single second , dead ; and he kept his
head, found his temper, and changed his plan be-
fore the others had had time to realise the disappoint-
ment.
"Jim ," he whispered , " take that , and stand by for
trouble."
And he passed me a double-barrelled pistol.
At the same time he began quietly moving north-
ward , and in a few steps had put the hollow between
us two and the other five. Then he looked at me and
nodded, as much as to say, "Here is a narrow corner,"
as, indeed, I thought it was. His looks were now quite
friendly; and I was so revolted at these constant changes,
that I could not forbear whispering, "So you've changed
sides again,"
272 TREASURE ISLAND .

There was no time left for him to answer in. The

buccaneers , with oaths and cries , began to leap, one
after another, into the pit, and to dig with their fingers,
throwing the boards aside as they did so. Morgan
found a piece of gold. He held it up with a perfect
spout of oaths. It was a two-guinea piece, and it went
from hand to hand among them for a quarter of a
minute.
"Two guineas !" roared Merry, shaking it at Silver.
"That's your seven hundred thousand pounds , is it?
You're the man for bargains , aint you ? You're him
that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!"
"Dig away, boys ," said Silver, with the coolest in-
solence ; "you'll find some pig-nuts and I shouldn't
wonder."
"Pig-nuts !" repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates,
do you hear that? I tell you , now, that man there
knew it all along. Look in the face of him, and you'll
see it wrote there."
"Ah, Merry," remarked Silver , " standing for cap'n
again ? You're a pushing lad, to be sure."
But this time every one was entirely in Merry's
favour. They began to scramble out of the excavation,
darting furious glances behind them. One thing I ob-
served, which looked well for us : they all got out upon
the opposite side from Silver.
Well , there we stood , two on one side , five on the
other, the pit between us, and nobody screwed up high
enough to offer the first blow. Silver never moved ; he
 THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 273

watched them, very upright on his crutch , and looked

as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave , and no
mistake.
At last, Merry seemed to think a speech might help
matters.
"Mates," says he, "there's two of them alone there ;
one's the old cripple that brought us all here and
blundered us down to this ; the other's that cub that I
mean to have the heart of. Now, mates-
He was raising his arm and his voice , and plainly
meant to lead a charge. But just then- crack ! crack !
crack ?-three musket-shots flashed out of the thicket.
Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the
man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum, and
fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, but
still twitching; and the other three turned and ran for
it with all their might.
Before you could wink , Long John had fired two
barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry; and as the
man rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, "George,"
said he, "I reckon I settled you."
At the same moment the doctor , Gray, and Ben
Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from among the
nutmeg trees.
"Forward !" cried the doctor. "Double quick, my
lads. We must head 'em off the boats."
And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging
through the bushes to the chest.
I tell you , but Silver was anxious to keep up with
Treasure Island. 18
274 TREASURE ISLAND .

us. The work that man went through, leaping on his

crutch till the muscles of his chest were fit to burst,
was work no sound man ever equalled ; and so thinks
the doctor. As it was, he was already thirty yards be-
hind us , and on the verge of strangling, when we
reached the brow of the slope.
"Doctor," he hailed, "see there ! no hurry!"
Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open
part of the plateau , we could see the three survivors
still running in the same direction as they had started,
right for Mizzen-mast Hill. We were already between
them and the boats ; and so we four sat down to
breathe , while Long John , mopping his face , came
slowly up with us.
"Thank ye kindly, doctor," says he. "You came
in in about the nick , I guess , for me and Hawkins.
And so it's you, Ben Gunn ! " he added . " Well, you're
a nice one to be sure."
"I'm Ben Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling
like an eel in his embarrassment. " And ," he added,
after a long pause , " how do , Mr. Silver? Pretty well,
I thank ye, says you."
"Ben, Ben," murmured Silver , "to think as you've
done me !"
The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes,
deserted, in their flight, by the mutineers ; and then as
we proceeded leisurely down hill to where the boats
were lying, related , in a few words , what had taken
place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver ;
 THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 275

and Ben Gunn , the half-idiot maroon , was the hero

from beginning to end.
Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island,
had found the skeleton- it was he that had rifled it;
he had found the treasure ; he had dug it up (it was
the haft of his pickaxe that lay broken in the excava-
tion) ; he had carried it on his back, in many weary
journeys , from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he
had on the two-pointed hill at the north-east angle of
the island , and there it had lain stored in safety since
two months before the arrival of the Hispaniola.
When the doctor had wormed this secret from him,
on the afternoon of the attack, and when, next morning
he saw the anchorage deserted , he had gone to Silver,
given him the chart, which was now useless —given
him the stores , for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied
with goats' meat salted by himself-given anything and
everything to get a chance of moving in safety from the
stockade to the two-pointed hill , there to be clear of
malaria and keep a guard upon the money.
"As for you , Jim ," he said , " it went against my
heart, but I did what I thought best for those who had
stood by their duty; and if you were not one of these,
whose fault was it?"
That morning, finding that I was to be involved in
the horrid disappointment he had prepared for the
mutineers , he had run all the way to the cave , and,
leaving squire to guard the captain , had taken Gray
and the maroon, and started, making the diagonal across.
18 *
276 TREASURE ISLAND.

the island, to be at hand beside the pine. Soon, how-

ever, he saw that our party had the start of him ; and
Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot , had been despatched in
front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to
him to work upon the superstitions of his former ship-
mates; and he was so far successful that Gray and the
doctor had come up and were already ambushed before
the arrival of the treasure-hunters.
"Ah," said Silver, " it were fortunate for me that I
had Hawkins here. You would have let old John be
cut to bits, and never given it a thought, doctor."
"Not a thought," replied Doctor Livesey, cheerily.
And by this time we had reached the gigs. The
doctor, with the pickaxe, demolished one of them, and
then we all got aboard the other, and set out to go
round by sea for North Inlet.
This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver,
though he was almost killed already with fatigue, was
set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we were soon
skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed
out of the straits and doubled the south-east corner of
the island, round which, four days ago, we had towed
the Hispaniola.
As we passed the two-pointed hill, we could see
the black mouth of Ben Gunn's cave, and a figure
standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the squire;
and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three
cheers, in which the voice of Silver joined as heartily
as any .
 THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 277

Three miles, farther, just inside the mouth of North

Inlet , what should we meet but the Hispaniola , cruis-
ing by herself? The last flood had lifted her ; and
had there been much wind , or a strong tide current,
as in the southern anchorage , we should never have
found her more , or found her stranded beyond help.
As it was , there was little amiss , beyond the wreck of
the mainsail. Another anchor was got ready, and
dropped in a fathom and a half of water. We all
pulled round again to Rum Cove, the nearest point for
Ben Gunn's treasure-house ; and then Gray, single-
handed, returned with the gig to the Hispaniola, where
he was to pass the night on guard.
A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the en-
trance of the cave. At the top, the squire met us. Το
me he was cordial and kind , saying nothing of my
escapade , either in the way of blame or praise . At
Silver's polite salute he somewhat flushed.
"John Silver," he said , " you're a prodigious villain
and impostor-a monstrous impostor, sir. I am told
I am not to prosecute you. Well , then , I will not.
But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like mill-
stones."
"Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John , again
saluting.
"I dare you to thank me ! " cried the squire . " It
is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back."
And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a
large , airy place , with a little spring and a pool of
278 TREASURE ISLAND.

clear water , overhung with ferns. The floor was sand.

Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett ; and in a far
corner, only duskily flickered over by the blaze , I
beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of
bars of gold. That was Flint's treasure that we had
come so far to seek , and that had cost already the
lives of seventeen men from the Hispaniola. How
many it had cost in the amassing , what blood and
sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep , what
brave men walking the plank blindfold , what shot of
cannon, what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no
man alive could tell. Yet there were still three upon
that island- Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben Gunn-
who had each taken his share in these crimes , as each
had hoped in vain to share in the reward.
"Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good
boy in your line, Jim; but I don't think you and me'll
go to sea again. You're too much of the born favourite
for me. Is that you , John Silver ? What brings you
here, man?"
"Come back to my dooty, sir," returned Silver.
"Ah !" said the captain ; and that was all he said.
What a supper I had of it that night , with all my
friends around me ; and what a meal it was , with Ben
Gunn's salted goat , and some delicacies and a bottle
of old wine from the Hispaniola. Never , I am sure,
were people gayer or happier. And there was Silver,
sitting back almost out of the firelight , but eating
heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was
 AND LAST. 279

wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter-the same

bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out,

CHAPTER XXXIV.
AND LAST.

THE next morning we fell early to work, for the

transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile
by land to the beach , and thence three miles by boat
to the Hispaniola, was a considerable task for so small
a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad
upon the Island did not greatly trouble us ; a single
sentry on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to in-
sure us against any sudden onslaught , and we thought,
besides, they had had more than enough of fighting.
Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray
and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while
the rest during their absences , piled treasure on the
beach. Two of the bars , slung in a rope's-end , made
a good load for a grown man -one that he was glad
to walk slowly with. For my part , as I was not much
use at carrying , I was kept busy all day in the cave,
packing the minted money into bread-bags.
It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard
for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so
much more varied that I think I never had more
pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish,
280 TREASURE ISLAND .

Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double

guineas and moidores and sequins , the pictures of all
the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange
Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of
string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square
pieces , and pieces bored through the middle , as if to
wear them round your neck -nearly every variety of
money in the world must , I think , have found a place
in that collection ; and for number, I am sure they were
like autumn leaves , so that my back ached with stoop-
ing and my fingers with sorting them out.
Day after day this work went on ; by every evening
a fortune had been stowed aboard , but there was an-
other fortune waiting for the morrow; and all this time
we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
At last-I think it was on the third night- the
doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill
where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle , when,
from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought
us a noise between shrieking and singing. Is was only
a snatch that reached our ears , followed by the former
silence.
"Heaven forgive them ," said the doctor; "'tis the
mutineers!"
"All drunk , sir," struck in the voice of Silver from
behind us.
Silver , I should say , was allowed his entire liberty,
and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself
once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependant.
 AND LAST. 281

Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights,

and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying
to ingratiate himself with all. Yet, I think, none treated
him better than a dog; unless it was Ben Gunn , who
was still terribly afraid of his old quarter-master , or
myself, who had really something to thank him for;
although for that matter , I suppose , I had reason to
think even worse of him than anybody else , for I had
seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau.
Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor an-
swered him.
"Drunk or raving," said he.
"Right you were, sir," replied Silver; " and precious
little odds which, to you and me.”
"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a
humane man ," returned the doctor , with a sneer, "and
so my feelings may surprise you , Master Silver. But
if I were sure they were raving—as I am morally cer-
tain one, at least, of them is down with fever-I should
leave this camp , and , at whatever risk to my own car-
case, take them the assistance of my skill."
""
"Ask your pardon , sir , you would be very wrong,'
quoth Silver. "You would lose your precious life, and
you may lay to that. I'm on your side now, hand and
glove ; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened ,
let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you.
But these men down there , they couldn't keep their
word-no , not supposing they wished to ; and what's
more, they couldn't believe as you could."
782 TREATRE BAR.

"No," said the doctor. Txz de nu

your word, we know that"
Well , that was about the last sevs we had ofte
three pirates. Only once we heard a gusic 1 gre
way off, and supposed them to be king
was held, and it was decided that we must jesen tien
on the island to the huge glee, I must say, of Bea
Gun, and with the strong approval of Gray. Wel
a good stock of powder and shot , the bulk of the sat
goat , a few medicines , and some other necessaries,
tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope,
and, by the particular desire of the doctor, a handsome
present of tobacco.
That was about our last doing on the island. Be-
fore 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
Rame colours flying that the captain had flown and
fought under at the palisade.
The three fellows must have been watching us closer
than we thought for, as we soon had proved. For,
coming through the narrows , we had to lie very near
the southern point, and there we saw all three of them
kneeling together on a spit of sand , with their arms
raised in supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think,
to leave them in that wretched state ; but we could not
risk another mutiny; and to take them home for the
 AND LAST. 283

gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness . The

doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we had
left, and where they were to find them. But they con-
tinued to call us by name, and appeal to us, for God's
sake, to be merciful, and not leave them to die in such
a place.
At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, and
was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of them-
I know not which it was- 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.
After that , we kept under cover of the bulwarks,
and when next I looked out they had disappeared from
the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted out of
sight in the growing distance. That was , at least , the
end of that ; and before noon, to my inexpressible joy,
the highest rock of Treasure Island had sunk into the
blue round of sea.
We were so short of men , that every one on board
had to bear a hand -only the captain lying on a mat-
tress in the stern and giving his orders ; for , though
greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We
laid her head for the nearest port in Spanish America,
for we could not risk the voyage home without fresh
hands; and as it was , what with baffling winds and a
couple of fresh gales , we were all worn out before we
reached it.
It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a
28+ TREASURE ISLAND.

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. The sight of
so many good humoured faces (especially the blacks,
the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all, the lights
that began to shine in the town , made a most charm-
ing contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the
island ; and the doctor and the squire, taking me along
with them , went ashore to pass the early part of the
night. Here they met the captain of an English man-
of war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship,
and, in short, had so agreeable a time , that day was
breaking when we came alongside the Hispaniola.
Ben Gun was on deck alone, and, as soon as we
came on board, he began, with wonderful contortions,
to make us a confession. Silver was gone. The maroon
had connived at his escape in a shore boat some hours
ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to
preserve our lives, which would certainly have been
forfeit if "that man with the one leg had stayed aboard.”
But this was not all. The sea-cook had not gone
empty handed. He had cut through a bulkhead un-
observed, and had removed one of the sacks of coin,
worth, perhaps, three or four hundred guineas, to help
him on his further wanderings.
I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit
of him .
Well, to make a long story short , we got a few
 AND LAST. 285

hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the

Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was
beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five
men only of those who had sailed returned with her.
"Drink and the devil had done for the rest," with a
vengeance ; although, to be sure, we were not quite in
so bad a case as that other ship they sang about :
"With one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five."
All of us had an ample share of the treasure , and
used it wisely or foolishly , according to our natures.
Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray
not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit
with the desire to rise, also studied his profession ; and
he is now mate and part owner of a fine full-rigged
ship ; married besides, and the father of a family. As
for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he
spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more exact, in
nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth.
Then he was given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had
feared upon the island ; and he still lives, a great
favourite, though something of a butt, with the country
boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and
saints' days.
Of Silver we have heard no more. That formid-
able seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean
out of my life ; but I daresay he met his old negress,
and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Cap-
286 TREASURE ISLAND.

tain Flint. It is to be hoped so , I suppose , for his

chances of comfort in another world are very small.
The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I
know, where Flint buried them ; and certainly they shall
lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not
bring me back again to that accursed island ; and the
worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf
booming about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with
the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my
ears : "Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight!"

THE END.
PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
280 TREASURE ISLAND .

Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double

guineas and moidores and sequins , the pictures of all
the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange
Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of
string or bits of spider's web , round pieces and square
pieces , and pieces bored through the middle , as if to
wear them round your neck- nearly every variety of
money in the world must , I think , have found a place
in that collection ; and for number, I am sure they were
like autumn leaves , so that my back ached with stoop-
ing and my fingers with sorting them out.
Day after day this work went on; by every evening
a fortune had been stowed aboard , but there was an-
other fortune waiting for the morrow; and all this time
we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
At last- I think it was on the third night- the
doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill
where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle , when,
from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought
us a noise between shrieking and singing. Is was only
a snatch that reached our ears , followed by the former
silence.
"Heaven forgive them ," said the doctor; "'tis the
mutineers!"
"All drunk , sir ," struck in the voice of Silver from
behind us.
Silver , I should say , was allowed his entire liberty,
and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself
once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependant.
 AND LAST. 281

Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights,

and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying
to ingratiate himself with all. Yet, I think, none treated
him better than a dog ; unless it was Ben Gunn , who
was still terribly afraid of his old quarter-master, or
myself, who had really something to thank him for;
although for that matter, I suppose , I had reason to
think even worse of him than anybody else , for I had
seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau.
Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor an-
swered him.
"Drunk or raving," said he.
"Right you were, sir,” replied Silver; " and precious
little odds which, to you and me."
"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a
humane man ," returned the doctor , with a sneer, "and
so my feelings may surprise you , Master Silver. But
if I were sure they were raving -as I am morally cer-
tain one, at least, of them is down with fever-I should
leave this camp , and , at whatever risk to my own car-
case, take them the assistance of my skill."
"Ask your pardon , sir , you would be very wrong,"
quoth Silver. " You would lose your precious life, and
you may lay to that. I'm on your side now, hand and
glove ; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened,
let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you.
But these men down there , they couldn't keep their
word- no , not supposing they wished to; and what's
more, they couldn't believe as you could."
 282 TREASURE ISLAND.

ļ "No ," said the doctor. "You're the man to keep

your word, we know that."
Well , that was about the last news we had of the
three pirates. Only once we heard a gunshot a great
way off, and supposed them to be hunting. A council
was held, and it was decided that we must desert them
on the island- to the huge glee , I must say, of Ben
Gunn , and with the strong approval of Gray. We left
a good stock of powder and shot , the bulk of the salt
goat, a few medicines , and some other necessaries,
tools , clothing , a spare sail , a fathom or two of rope,
and, by the particular desire of the doctor, a handsome
present of tobacco.
That was about our last doing on the island . Be-
fore 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.
The three fellows must have been watching us closer
than we thought for, as we soon had proved. For,
coming through the narrows , we had to lie very near
the southern point, and there we saw all three of them
kneeling together on a spit of sand , with their arms
raised in supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think,
to leave them in that wretched state ; but we could not
risk another mutiny; and to take them home for the
 AND LAST. 283

gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The

doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we had
left, and where they were to find them. But they con-
tinued to call us by name, and appeal to us, for God's
sake, to be merciful, and not leave them to die in such
a place.
At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, and
was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of them—
I know not which it was- 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.
After that, we kept under cover of the bulwarks,
and when next I looked out they had disappeared from
the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted out of
sight in the growing distance. That was , at least , the
end of that; and before noon, to my inexpressible joy,
the highest rock of Treasure Island had sunk into the
blue round of sea.
We were so short of men , that every one on board
had to bear a hand- only the captain lying on a mat-
tress in the stern and giving his orders ; for , though
greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We
laid her head for the nearest port in Spanish America,
for we could not risk the voyage home without fresh
hands ; and as it was , what with baffling winds and a
couple of fresh gales , we were all worn out before we
reached it.
It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a
284 TREASURE ISLAND.

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. The sight of
so many good-humoured faces (especially the blacks),
the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all, the lights
that began to shine in the town , made a most charm-
ing contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the
island ; and the doctor and the squire, taking me along
with them , went ashore to pass the early part of the
night. Here they met the captain of an English man-
of-war , fell in talk with him , went on board his ship,
and , in short , had so agreeable a time , that day was
breaking when we came alongside the Hispaniola.
Ben Gun was on deck alone, and, as soon as we
came on board, he began, with wonderful contortions,
to make us a confession. Silver was gone. The maroon
had connived at his escape in a shore boat some hours
ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to
preserve our lives, which would certainly have been
forfeit if "that man with the one leg had stayed aboard."
But this was not all. The sea-cook had not gone
empty handed. He had cut through a bulkhead un-
observed, and had removed one of the sacks of coin,
worth, perhaps, three or four hundred guineas, to help
him on his further wanderings .
I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit
of him .
Well , to make a long story short , we got a few
 AND LAST. 285

hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the

Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was
beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five
men only of those who had sailed returned with her.
"Drink and the devil had done for the rest," with a
vengeance; although, to be sure, we were not quite in
so bad a case as that other ship they sang about :
"With one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five."
All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and
used it wisely or foolishly , according to our natures.
Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray
not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit
with the desire to rise, also studied his profession ; and
he is now mate and part owner of a fine full-rigged
ship ; married besides, and the father of a family. As
for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he
spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more exact, in
nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth.
Then he was given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had
feared upon the island ; and he still lives, a great
favourite, though something of a butt, with the country
boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and
saints' days.
Of Silver we have heard no more. That formid-
able seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean
out of my life ; but I daresay he met his old negress,
and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Cap-
286 TREASURE ISLAND.

tain Flint. It is to be hoped so , I suppose , for his

chances of comfort in another world are very small.
The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I
know, where Flint buried them; and certainly they shall
lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not
bring me back again to that accursed island ; and the
worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf
booming about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with
the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my
ears : "Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight ! "

THE END.
PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
 June 1894.

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