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TREASURE 
 ISLAND 
 
 ROBCPT L 
 STEVENSON 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 HEN BY ALTEHU5 
 
HBNRY ALTEMUS. MANUFACTURER, 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
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! 
 
TO 
 
 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. 
 
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 beginning to the end, keeping nothing back 
 but the bearings of the island, and that only be- 
 cause 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 Ben- 
 bow" inn, and the brown old seaman, with the 
 sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof. 
 
 I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he 
 came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest fol- 
 lowing behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, 
 strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail 
 falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; 
 
6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 sign- 
 board. 
 
 "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 trun- 
 dled 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 — 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 7 
 
 there;" and he threw down three or four gold 
 pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when 
 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 appear- 
 ance of a man who sailed before the mast; but 
 seemed like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be 
 obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the 
 barrow told us the mail had set him down the 
 morning before at the "Royal George;" that he 
 had inquired what inns there were along the coast, 
 and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and 
 described as lonely, had chosen it from the others 
 for his place of residence. And that was all we 
 could learn of our guest. 
 
 He was a very silent man by custom. All day he 
 hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a 
 brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of 
 the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water 
 very strong. Mostly he would not speak when 
 spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and 
 blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we 
 and the people who came about our house soon 
 learned to let him be. Every day, when he came 
 back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring 
 men had gone by along the road? At first we 
 thought it was the want of company of his own 
 kind that made him ask this question; but at last 
 we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. 
 When a seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" 
 (as now and then some did, making by the coast 
 
8 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 road for Bristol), he would look in at him through 
 the curtained door before he entered the parlor; 
 and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse 
 when any such was present. For me, at least, 
 there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in 
 a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me 
 aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny 
 on the first of every month if I would only keep 
 my "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with 
 one leg," and let him know the moment he ap- 
 peared. Often enough, when the first of the 
 month came round, and I applied to him for my 
 wage, he would only blow through his nose at me 
 and stare me down; but before the week was out 
 he was sure to think better of it, bring me my 
 fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out 
 for "the seafaring man with one leg." 
 
 How that personage haunted my dreams, I need 
 scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind 
 shook the four corners of the house, and the surf 
 roared along the cove and up the. cliffs, I would 
 see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand 
 diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be 
 cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a 
 monstrous kind of a creature who had never had 
 but one leg, and that in the middle of his body. 
 To see him leap and run and pursue me over 
 hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. 
 And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly 
 fourpenny piece in the shape of these abominable 
 fancies. 
 
 But though I was so terrified by the idea of the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 9 
 
 seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid 
 of the captain himself than anybody else who 
 knew him. There were nights when he took a 
 deal more rum and water than his head would 
 carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing 
 his wicked, old, w T ild sea-songs, minding nobody; 
 but sometimes he would call for glasses round, 
 and force all the trembling company to listen to 
 his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often 
 I have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, 
 and a bottle of rum," all the neighbors joining in 
 for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and 
 each singing louder than the other, to avoid re- 
 mark. 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 some- 
 times 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 hang- 
 ing, 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 
 
IO TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 cease' coming there to be tyrannized over and 
 put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but 
 I really believe his presence did us good. Peo- 
 ple were frightened at the time, but on looking 
 back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement 
 in a quiet country life ; and there was even a party 
 of the younger men who pretended to admire him, 
 calling him a "true sea-dog," and a "real old salt," 
 and such like names, and saying there was the 
 sort of man that made England terrible at sea. 
 
 In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for 
 he kept on staying week after week, and at last 
 month after month, so that all the money had been 
 long exhausted, and still my father never plucked 
 up the heart to insist on having more, It ever he 
 mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose 
 so loudly, that you might say he roared, and 
 stared my poor father out of the room. I have 
 seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, 
 and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he 
 lived in must have greatly hastened his early and 
 unhappy death. 
 
 All the time he lived with us the captain made 
 no change whatever in his dress but to buy some 
 stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of 
 his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from 
 that day forth, though it was a great annoyance 
 when it blew. I remember the appearance of his 
 coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his 
 room, and which, before the end, was nothing but 
 patches. He never wrote or received a letter, and 
 he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. II 
 
 with these, for the most part, only when drunk on 
 rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever 
 seen open. 
 
 He was only once crossed, and that was towards 
 the end, when my poor father was far gone in a 
 decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late 
 one afternon to see the patient, took a bit of din- 
 ner from my mother, and went into the parlor to 
 smoke a pipe until his horse should come down 
 from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old 
 "Benbow." I followed him in, and I remember 
 observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, 
 with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, 
 black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the 
 coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, 
 heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sit- 
 ting far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. 
 Suddenly he — the captain, that is — began to pipe 
 up his eternal song: 
 
 "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest — 
 
 Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum ! 
 Drink and the devil had done for the rest — 
 
 Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" 
 
 At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" 
 to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the 
 front room, and the thought had been mingled in 
 my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafar- 
 ing man. But by this time we had all long ceased 
 to pay any particular notice to the song; it was 
 new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and 
 on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable 
 
12 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 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 
 between every word or two. The captain glared 
 at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared 
 still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, 
 low oath: "Silence, there, between decks!" 
 
 "Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doc- 
 tor; and when the ruffian had told him, with an- 
 other 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 honor, you shall 
 hang at next assizes." 
 
 Then followed a battle of looks between them ; 
 but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 3 
 
 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. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 
 
 It was not very long after this that there oc- 
 curred the first of the mysterious events that rid 
 us at last of the captain, though not, as you will 
 see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, 
 with long, hard frosts and heavy gales, and it was 
 plain from the first that my poor father was little 
 likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and my 
 mother and I had all the inn upon our hands; and 
 were kept busy enough, without paying much 
 regard to our unpleasant guest. 
 
 It was one January morning, very early — a 
 
14 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 pinching, frosty morning — the cove all gray with 
 hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, 
 the sun still low and only touching the 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 remem- 
 ber 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 indig- 
 nation, as though his mind was still running upon 
 Dr. Livesey. 
 
 Well, mother was upstairs with father, and I 
 was laying the breakfast table against the cap- 
 tain's return, when the parlor door opened, and a 
 man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes 
 before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting 
 two fingers of the left hand; and, though he wore 
 a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I 
 had always my 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 
 he motioned 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 5 
 
 "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?" 
 
 I told him he was out walking. 
 
 "Which way, sonny? Wliich 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 mis- 
 taken, even supposing he meant what he said. 
 But it was no affair of mine, I thought; and, be- 
 sides, 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 quite quick enough for his fancy, a 
 most horrible change came over his tallowy face, 
 
l6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 — dis- 
 cipline. 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 spyglass under 
 his arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and 
 me'll just go back into the parlor, sonny, and get 
 behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little sur- 
 prise — bless his 'art, I say again." 
 
 So saying, the stranger backed along with me 
 into the parlor, 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 ob- 
 serve that the stranger was certainly frightened 
 himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and 
 loosened the blade in the sheath ; and all the time 
 we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he 
 felt what we used to call a lump in the throat. 
 
 At last in strode the captain, slammed the door 
 behind him, without looking to the right or left, 
 and marched straight across the room to where 
 his breakfast awaited him. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. \J 
 
 "Bill," said the stranger, in a voice that I 
 thought he had tried to make bold and big. 
 
 The captain spun around 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 some- 
 thing worse, if anything can be; and, upon my 
 word, I felt sorry to see him, all in a moment, turn 
 so old and sick. 
 
 "Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old 
 shipmate, Bill, surely," said the stranger. 
 
 The captain made a sort of gasp. 
 
 "Black Dog!" said he. 
 
 "And who else?" returned the other, getting 
 more at his ease. "Black Dog as ever was, come 
 for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the 'Admiral 
 Benbow' inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight 
 of times, us two, since I lost them two talons," 
 holding up his mutilated hand. 
 
 "Now, look here," said the captain; "you've run 
 me down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what 
 is it?" 
 
 "That's you, Bill," returned Black Dog, "you're 
 in the right of it, Billy. I'll have a glass of rum 
 from this dear child here, as I've took such a lik- 
 ing 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. 
 
1 8 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 gab- 
 bling; but at last the voices began to grow higher, 
 and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, 
 from the captain. 
 
 "No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried 
 once. And again, "If it comes to swinging, swing 
 all, say I." 
 
 Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous 
 explosion of oaths and other noises — the chair and 
 table went over in a lump, a clash of steel followed, 
 and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw 
 Black Dog in full flight, and the captain hotly 
 pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses, and the 
 former streaming blood from the left shoulder. 
 Just at the door, the captain aimed at the fugitive 
 one last tremendous cut, which would certainly 
 have split him to the chin had it not been inter- 
 cepted 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 dis- 
 appeared over the edge of the hill in half a minute. 
 The captain, for his part, stood staring at the sign- 
 board like a bewildered man. Then he passed his 
 hand over his eyes several times, and at last turned 
 back into the house. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 19 
 
 "Jim," says he, "rum;" and as he spoke, he 
 reeled a little, and caught himself with one hand 
 against the wall. 
 
 "Are you hurt?" cried I. 
 
 "Rum," he repeated. "I must get away from 
 here. Rum! rum!" 
 
 I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by 
 all that had fallen out, and I broke one glass and 
 fouled the tap, and while I was still getting in my 
 own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlor, and 
 running in, beheld the captain lying full length 
 upon the floor. At the same instant my mother, 
 alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running 
 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 horrible 
 color. 
 
 "Dear, deary me," cried my mother, "what a 
 disgrace upon the house! And your poor father 
 sick!" 
 
 In the meantime, we had no idea what to do to 
 help the captain, nor any thought but that he had 
 got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. 
 I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down 
 his throat; but his teeth were tightly shut, and his 
 jaws as strong as iron. It was a happy relief for 
 us when the door opened and Doctor Livesey 
 came in, on his visit to my father. 
 
 "Oh, doctor," we cried, "what shall we do? 
 Where is he wounded?" 
 
 "Wounded? A fiddlestick's end !" said the doc- 
 tor. "No more wounded than you or I. The 
 
20 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now, 
 Mrs. Hawkins, just you run upstairs to your hus- 
 band, and tell him, if possible, nothing about it. 
 For my part, I must do my best to save this fel- 
 low'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 ex- 
 posed his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in 
 several places. "Here's luck," "A fair wind," 
 and "Billy Bones his fancy," were very neatly and 
 clearly executed on the forearm; and up near the 
 shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a 
 man hanging from it — done, as I thought, with 
 great spirit. 
 
 "Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this pic- 
 ture with his finger. "And now, Master Billy 
 Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a look at 
 the color of your blood. Jim," he said, "are you 
 afraid of blood?" 
 
 "No, sir," said I. 
 
 "Well, then," said he, "you hold the basin;" 
 and with that he took his lancet and opened a 
 vein. 
 
 A great deal of blood was taken before the cap- 
 tain opened his eyes and looked mistily about him. 
 First he recognized the doctor with an unmistak- 
 able frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he 
 looked relieved. But suddenly his color changed 
 and he tried to raise himself, crying: 
 
 "Where's Black Dog?" 
 
 "There is no Black Dog here," said the doctor, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 21 
 
 ''except what you have on your own back. You 
 have been drinking rum; you have had a stroke, 
 precisely as I told you; and I have just, very much 
 against my own will, dragged you headforemost 
 out of the grave. Now, Mr. Bones" 
 
 "That's not my name," he interrupted. 
 
 "Much I care," returned the doctor. "It's the 
 name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance; and I 
 call you by it for the sake of shortness, and what 
 I have to say to you is this : one glass of rum won't 
 kill you, but if you take one you'll take another 
 and another, and I stake my wig if you don't 
 break off short, you'll die — do you understand 
 that? — die, and go to your own place, like the man 
 in the Bible. Come, now, make an effort. I'll 
 help you to your bed for once." 
 
 Between us, with much trouble, we managed to 
 hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where 
 his head fell back on the pillow, as if he were 
 almost fainting. 
 
 "Now, mind you," said the doctor, "I clear my 
 conscience — the name of rum for you is death." 
 
 And with that he went off to see my father, tak- 
 ing me with him by the arm. 
 
 "This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had 
 closed the door. "I have drawm 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." 
 
22 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ex- 
 cited. 
 
 "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 Yel- 
 low 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 23 
 
 fingers fidges," he continued, in the pleading tone. 
 "I can't keep 'em still, not I. I haven't had a drop 
 this blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I tell you. 
 If I don't have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the 
 horrors; I seen some on 'em already. I seen old 
 Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as 
 print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I'm a 
 man that has lived rough, and I'll raise Cain. 
 Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't hurt 
 me. I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, 
 Jim." 
 
 He was growing more and more excited, and 
 this alarmed me for my father, who was very low 
 that day, and needed quiet; besides, I was reas- 
 sured by the doctor's words, now quoted to me, 
 and rather offended by the offer of a bribe. 
 
 "I want none of your money," said I, "but what 
 you owe my father. I'll get you one glass, and no 
 more." 
 
 When I brought it to him he seized it greedily 
 and drank it out. 
 
 "Ay ay," said he, "that's some better, sure 
 enough. And now, matey, did that doctor say 
 how long I was to lie here in this old berth?" 
 
 "A week at least," said I. 
 
 "Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do 
 that; they'd have the black spot on me by then. 
 The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me 
 this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn't keep 
 what they got, and want to nail what is another's. 
 Is that seamanly behavior, now, I want to know? 
 But I'm a saving soul. I never wasted good 
 
24 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 sit- 
 ting 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 seafar- 
 ing 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 — magistrates and sich — and he'll 
 lay 'em aboard at the 'Admiral Benbow' — all old 
 Flint's crew, man and boy, all on 'em that's left. 
 I was first mate, I was, old Flint's first mate, and 
 I'm the only one as knows the place. He gave it 
 me to Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as if I 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 25 
 
 was to now, you see. But you won't peach unless 
 they get the black spot on me, or unless you see 
 that Black Dog again, or a seafaring man with 
 one leg, Jim — him above all." 
 
 "But what is the black spot, captain?" I asked. 
 
 "That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they 
 get that. But you keep your weather-eye open, 
 Jim, and I'll share with you equals, upon my 
 honor." 
 
 He wandered a little longer, his voice growing 
 weaker; but soon after I had given him his medi- 
 cine, which he took like a child, with the remark, 
 "If ever a seaman wanted drugs, it's me," he fell at 
 last into a heavy, swoon-like sleep, in which I left 
 him. What I should have done had all gone well 
 I do not know. Probably I should have told the 
 whole story to the doctor ; for I was in mortal fear 
 lest the captain should repent of his confessions 
 and make an end of me. But as things fell out, 
 my poor father died quite suddenly that evening, 
 which put all other matters on one side. Our 
 natural distress, the visits of the neighbors, the 
 arranging of the funeral, and all the work of the 
 inn to be carried on in the meanwhile, kept me so 
 busy that I had scarcely time to think of the cap- 
 tain, 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 helped himself out of the bar, scowl- 
 ing and blowing through his nose, and no one 
 dared to cross him. On the night before the 
 
26 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 funeral he was as drunk as ever; and it was shock- 
 ing, in that house of mourning, to hear him sing- 
 ing 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 parlor to 
 the bar and back again, and sometimes put his 
 nose out of doors to smell the sea, holding on to 
 the walls as he went for support, and breathing 
 hard and fast like a man on a steep mountain. 
 He never particularly addressed me, and it is my 
 belief he had as good as forgotten his confidences; 
 but his temper was more flighty, and, allowing 
 for his bodily weakness, more violent than ever. 
 He had an alarming way now when he was drunk 
 of drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before 
 him on the table. But, with all that, he minded 
 people less, and seemed shut up in his own 
 thoughts and rather wandering. Once, for in- 
 stance, to our extreme wonder, he piped up to a 
 different air, a kind of country love-song, that he 
 must have learned in his youth before he had 
 begun to follow the sea. 
 
 So things passed until, the day after the funeral, 
 and about three o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty 
 afternoon, I was standing at the door for a mo- 
 ment, full of sad thoughts about my father, when 
 I saw some one drawing slowly near along the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 2J 
 
 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 tat- 
 tered sea-cloak with a hood, that made him ap- 
 pear positively deformed. I never saw in my life 
 a more dreadful looking figure. He stopped a 
 little from the inn, and, raising his voice in an odd 
 sing-song, addressed the air in front of him: 
 
 "Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, 
 who has lost the precious sight of his eyes in the 
 gracious 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 strug- 
 gled 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 cap- 
 tain." 
 
 "Sir," said I, "upon my word I dare not." 
 
 "Oh," he sneered, "that's it! Take me in 
 straight, or I'll break your arm." 
 
 And he gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that 
 made me cry out. 
 
 "Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The 
 
28 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 captain is not what he used to be. He sits with a 
 drawn cutlass. Another gentleman" 
 
 "Come, now, march," interrupted he; and I 
 never heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as 
 that blind man's. It cowed me more than the 
 pain; and I began to obey him at once, walking 
 straight in at the door and towards the parlor, 
 where 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 parlor door, cried out 
 the words he had ordered in a trembling voice. 
 
 The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one 
 look the rum went out of him, and left him star- 
 ing sober. The expression of his face was not so 
 much of terror as of mortal sickness. He made 
 a movement to rise, but I do not believe he had 
 enough force left in his body. 
 
 "Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. 
 "If I can't see, I can hear a finger stirring. Busi- 
 ness 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 20, 
 
 that held his stick into the palm of the captain's, 
 which closed upon it instantly. 
 
 "And now that's done," said the blind man, and 
 at the words he suddenly left hold of me, and, with 
 incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out 
 of the parlor and into the road, where, as I 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 foremost to the floor. 
 
 I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. 
 But haste was all in vain. The captain had been 
 struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curi- 
 ous thing to understand, for I had certainly never 
 liked the man, though of late I had begun to pity 
 him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead, I 
 burst into a flood of tears. It was the second 
 death I had known, and the sorrow of the first 
 was still fresh in my heart. 
 
30 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ship- 
 mates, above all the two specimens seen by me, 
 Black Dog and the blind beggar, would be in- 
 clined 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 impos- 
 sible 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 neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted 
 by approaching footsteps; and what between the 
 dead body of the captain on the parlor floor, and 
 the thought of that detestable blind beggar hover- 
 ing near at hand, and ready to return, there were 
 moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in 
 my skin for terror. Something must speedily be 
 resolved upon, and it occurred to us at last to go 
 forth together and seek help in the neighboring 
 hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bare-headed 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 31 
 
 as we were, we ran out at once in the gathering 
 evening and the frosty fog. 
 
 The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, 
 though out of view on the other side of the next 
 cove, and what greatly encouraged me, it was in 
 an opposite direction from that whence the blind 
 man had made his appearance, and whither he 
 had presumably returned. We were not many 
 minutes on the road, though we sometimes 
 stopped to lay hold of each other and hearken. 
 But there was no unusual sound — nothing but the 
 low wash of the ripple and the croaking of the 
 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— - 
 vou would have thought men would have been 
 ashamed of themselves — no soul would consent to 
 return with us to the "Admiral Benbow." The 
 more we told of our troubles, the more — man, 
 woman, and child — they clung to the shelter of 
 their houses. The name of Captain Flint, though 
 it was strange to me, was well enough known to 
 some there, and carried a great weight of terror. 
 Some of the men who had been to field-work on 
 the far side of the "Admiral Benbow," remem- 
 bered, 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 
 
32 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 that matter, any one who was a comrade of the 
 captain's was enough to frighten them to death. 
 And the short and the long of the matter was, that 
 while we could get several who were willing 
 enough to ride to Dr. Livesey's, which lay in an- 
 other 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 de- 
 clared, 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 foolhardi- 
 ness, but even then not a man would go along 
 with us. All they would do was to give me a 
 laoded pistol, lest we were attacked, and to prom- 
 ise 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 assist- 
 ance. 
 
 My heart was beating finely when we two set 
 forth in the cold night upon this dangerous ven- 
 ture. A full moon was beginning to rise and 
 peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 33 
 
 and this increased our haste, for it was plain, be- 
 fore 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 parlor. He 
 lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes 
 open, and one arm stretched out. 
 
 "Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my 
 mother; "they might come and watch outside. 
 And now," said she, when I had done so, "we have 
 to get the key off that; and who's to touch it, I 
 should like to know!" and she gave a kind of sob 
 as she said the words. 
 
 I went down on my knees at once. On the 
 floor close to his hand there was a little round of 
 paper, blackened on 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 
 said it, our old clock began striking. This sud- 
 den noise startled us shockingly; but the news 
 was good, for it was only six. 
 
34 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "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 compass, and a tinder box, were all that 
 they contained, and I began to despair. 
 
 "Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my 
 mother. 
 
 Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open 
 his shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, 
 hanging to a bit of tarry string, which I cut with 
 his own gully, we found the key. At this triumph 
 we were filled with hope, and hurried upstairs 
 without delay to the little room where he had slept 
 so long, and where his box had stood since the 
 day of his arrival. 
 
 It was like any other seaman's chest on the 
 outside, the initial "B." burned on the top of it 
 with a hot iron, and the corners somewhat 
 smashed and broken as by long, rough usage. 
 
 "Give me the key," said my mother, and though 
 the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and 
 thrown back the lid in a twinkling. 
 
 A strong smell of tobacco and tar 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. Under that the miscellany be- 
 gan — 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 35 
 
 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 wander- 
 ing, 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 
 harbor-bar. My mother pulled it up with impa- 
 tience, 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. 
 
 "Ill show these rogues that I'm an honest wo- 
 man," said my mother. "I'll have my dues, and 
 not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." 
 And she began to count over the amount of the 
 captain's score from the sailor's bag into the one 
 that I was holding. 
 
 It was a long, difficult business, for the coins 
 were of all countries and sizes — doubloons and 
 louis-d'ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight, and 
 I know not what besides, all shaken together at 
 random. The guineas, too, were about the 
 scarcest, and it was with these only that my 
 mother knew how to make her count. 
 
 When we were about half way through, I sud- 
 denly 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 
 
36 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 blind man's stick upon the frozen road. It drew 
 nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our 
 breath. Then it struck sharp on the inn door, 
 and then we could hear the handle being turned, 
 and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried 
 to enter; and then there was a long time of silence 
 both within and without. At last the tapping 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 thank- 
 ful 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 con- 
 tent 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 oft 
 upon the hill. That was enough, and more than 
 enough, for both of us. 
 
 "I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her 
 feet. 
 
 "And I'll take this to square the count," said I, 
 picking up the oilskin packet. 
 
 Next moment we were both groping down stairs, 
 leaving the candle by the empty chest; and the 
 next we had opened the door and were in full re- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 37 
 
 treat. 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 be- 
 yond 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 direc- 
 tion a light tossing to and fro, and still rapidly ad- 
 vancing, showed that one of the newcomers car- 
 ried a lantern. 
 
 "My dear," said my mother suddenly, "take the 
 money and run on; I am going to faint." 
 
 This was certainly the end for both of us, I 
 thought. How I cursed the cowardice of the 
 neighbors; how I blamed my poor mother for her 
 honesty and her greed, for her past foolhardiness 
 and present weakness! We were just at the little 
 bridge, by good fortune, and I helped her, totter- 
 ing as she was, to the edge of the bank, where, 
 sure enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my shoul- 
 der. 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 way under the arch. Further 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. 
 
38 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 posi- 
 tion 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 lan- 
 tern some paces in front. Three men ran to- 
 gether, 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 lan- 
 tern bearer following; and then I could see them 
 pause, and hear speeches passed in a lower key, 
 as if they were surprised to find the door open. 
 But the pause was brief, for the blind man again 
 issued his commands. His voice sounded louder 
 and higher, as if he were afire with eagerness and 
 rage. 
 
 "In! in! in!" he shouted, and cursed them for 
 their delay. 
 
 Four or five of them obeved at once, two re- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 39 
 
 maining 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 astonish- 
 ment arose; the window of the captain's room was 
 thrown open with a slam and a jingle of broken 
 glass; and a man leaned out into the moonlight, 
 head and shoulders, and addressed the blind beg- 
 gar on the road below him. 
 
 "Pew," he cried, "they've been before us. 
 Someone's turned the chest out alow and aloft." 
 
 "Is it there?" roared Pew. 
 
 "The money's there." 
 
 The blind man cursed the money. 
 
 "Flint's fist, I mean," he cried. 
 
 "We don't see it here nohow," returned the 
 man. 
 
 "Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the 
 blind man again. 
 
 At that another fellow, probably him who had 
 remained below to search the captain's body, 
 came to the door of the inn. "Bill's been over- 
 hauled 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, 
 
4-0 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 Pew. "They were here no time ago ; they had the 
 door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, and 
 find 'em." 
 
 "Sure enough; they left their glim here," said 
 the fellow from the window. 
 
 "Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" 
 reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the 
 road. 
 
 Then there followed a great to-do through all 
 our old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, fur- 
 niture thrown over, doors kicked in, until the very 
 rocks re-echoed, and the men came out again one 
 after another on the road and declared that we 
 were nowhere to be found. And just then the 
 same whistle that had alarmed my mother and 
 myself over the dead captain's money was once 
 more clearly audible through the night, but this 
 time twice repeated. I had thought it to be the 
 blind man's trumpet, so to speak, summoning his 
 crew to the assault; but I now found that it was a 
 signal from the hillside 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 and 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 41 
 
 two of the fellows began to look here and there 
 among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, 
 and with half an eye to their own danger all the 
 time, while the rest stood irresolute on the road. 
 
 "You have your hands on thousands, you fools, 
 and you hang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if 
 you could find it, and you know it's here, and you 
 stand there 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 
 another. "Take the Georges, Pew, and don't 
 stand here squalling." 
 
 Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose 
 so high at these objections; till at last, his passion 
 completely taking the upper hand, he struck at 
 them right and left in his blindness, and his stick 
 sounded heavily on more than one. 
 
 These in their turn cursed back at the blind 
 miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and 
 tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from 
 his grasp. 
 
 This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it 
 was still raging another sound came from the top 
 of the hill on the side of the hamlet — a tramp of 
 horses galloping. Almost at the same time a pis- 
 
42 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 tol shot, flash and report, came from the hedge 
 side. And that was plainly the last signal of dan- 
 ger, for the buccaneers turned at once and ran, 
 separating in every direction, one seaward along 
 the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on, so 
 that in half a minute not a sign of them remained 
 but Pew. Him they had deserted, whether in 
 sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words and 
 blows I know not; but there he remained behind, 
 tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and 
 groping and calling for his comrades. Finally he 
 took the wrong turn and ran a few steps past me 
 towards the hamlet, crying: 
 
 "Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, 
 "you won't leave old Pew, mates — not old Pew!" 
 
 Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, 
 and four or five riders came in sight in the moon- 
 light and swept at full gallop down the slope. 
 
 At this Pew realized 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 sec- 
 ond, and made another dash, now utterly bewil- 
 dered, right under the nearest of the coming 
 horses. 
 
 The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down 
 went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; 
 and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and 
 passed by. He fell on his side, then gently col- 
 lapsed 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 acci- 
 dent; and I soon saw what they were. One, trail- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 43 
 
 ing out behind 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 re- 
 turn 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 Su- 
 pervisor 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 support- 
 ing their horses, and in continual fear of am- 
 bushes ; so it was no great matter for surprise that 
 when they got down to the Hole the lugger was 
 already under way, though still close in. He 
 hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to keep 
 out of the moonlight or he would get some lead 
 in him, and at the same time a bullet whistled close 
 by his arm. Soon after the lugger doubled the 
 point and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, 
 as he said, "like a fish out of water," and all he 
 
 could do was to 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 
 
44 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 trod on Master Pew's corns;" for by this time he 
 had heard my story. 
 
 I went back with him to the "Admiral Ben- 
 bow," and you cannot imagine a house in such a 
 state of smash; the very clock had been thrown 
 down by these fellows in their furious hunt after 
 my mother and myself; and though nothing had 
 actually been taken away except the captain's 
 money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could 
 see at once that we were ruined. Mr. Dance 
 could make nothing of the scene. 
 
 "They got the money, you say? Well, then, 
 Hawkins, what in fortune were they after? More 
 money, I suppose." 
 
 "No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In 
 fact, sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast- 
 pocket; and, to tell you the truth, I should like to 
 get it put in safety." 
 
 "To be sure, boy; quite right," said he; "I'll 
 take it, if you like." 
 
 "I thought, perhaps, Dr. Livesey" I began. 
 
 "Perfectly right," he interrupted, very cheerily. 
 "Perfectly right — a gentleman and a magistrate. 
 And, now I come to think of it, I might as well 
 ride round there myself and report to him or 
 Squire. Master Pew's dead, when all's done; not 
 that I regret it, but he's dead, you see, and people 
 will make it out against an officer of His Majesty's 
 revenue, if make it out they can. Now, I'll tell you, 
 Hawkins, if you like I'll take you along." 
 
 I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we 
 walked back to the hamlet where the horses were. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 45 
 
 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 Dog- 
 ger'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 after- 
 noon, 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 build- 
 ings looked on either hand on great old gardens. 
 Here Mr. Dance dismounted, and, taking me 
 
46 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 along with him, was admitted at a word into the 
 house. 
 
 i he 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 proportion, and he had a bluff, rough-and- 
 ready face, all roughened and reddened and lined 
 in his long travels. His eyebrows were very 
 black and moved readily, and this gave him a look 
 of some temper — not bad, you would say, but 
 quick and high. 
 
 "Come in, Mr. Dance," 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 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 better, had taken off 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 47 
 
 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 oil- 
 skin 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 ser- 
 vice; but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to 
 sleep at my house, and, with your permission, I 
 propose we should have up the cold pie, and let 
 him sup." 
 
 "As you will, Livesey," said the Squire; "Haw- 
 kins has earned better than cold pie." 
 
 So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on 
 a side table, and I made a hearty supper, for I was 
 as hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was further 
 complimented, and at last dismissed. 
 
 "And now, Squire," said the doctor. 
 
48 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "And now, Livesey," said the Squire, in the 
 same breath. 
 
 "One at a time, one at a time/' laughed Dr. Liv- 
 esey. "You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?" 
 
 "Heard of him!" cried the Squire. "Heard of 
 him, you say? He was the bloodthirstiest buc- 
 caneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to 
 Flint. The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid 
 of him that, I tell you, sir, 1 was sometimes proud 
 he was an Englishman. I've seen his topsails 
 with these eyes, off Trinidad, and the cowardly 
 son of a rum-puncheon that I sailed with put back 
 — put back, sir, into Port of Spain." 
 
 "Well, I've heard of him myself in England," 
 said the doctor. "But the point is, had he 
 money?" 
 
 "Money!" cried the Squire. "Have you heard 
 the story? What were these villains after but 
 money? What do they care for but money? For 
 what would they risk their rascal carcasses but 
 money?" 
 
 "That we shall soon know," replied the doctor. 
 "But you are so confoundedly hot-headed and ex- 
 clamatory that I cannot get a word in. What I 
 want to know is this : Supposing that I have here 
 in my pocket some clue to where Flint buried his 
 treasure, will that treasure amount to much?" 
 
 "Amount, sir!" cried the Squire. "It will 
 amount to this : if we have the clue y ou 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 vear." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 49 
 
 "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 idleness or practice. 
 One was the same as the tattoo mark, "Billy 
 Bones his fancy;" then there was "Mr. W. Bones, 
 mate." "No more rum." "Off Palm Key he got 
 itt," and some other snatches, mostly single words 
 and unintelligible. I could not help wondering 
 who it was that had "got itt," and what "itt" was 
 that he got. A knife in his back, as like as not. 
 
 "Not much instruction there," said 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 common account books; but instead of ex- 
 planatory writing only a varying number of 
 crosses between the two. On the 12th of June, 
 1745, for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had 
 
50 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 plainly become due to someone, and there was 
 nothing but six crosses to explain the cause. In 
 a few cases, to be sure, the name of a place would 
 be added, as "Offe Caraccas," or a mere entry of 
 latitude and longitude, as "62 deg. 17 min. 20 sec, 
 19 deg. 2 min. 40 sec." 
 
 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. Liv- 
 esey. 
 
 "The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the 
 Squire. "This is the black-hearted hound's ac- 
 count book. These crosses stand for the names 
 of ships or towns that they sank or plundered. 
 The sums are the scoundrel's share, and where he 
 feared an ambiguity, you see he added something 
 clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here was 
 some unhappy vessel boarded off that coast. God 
 help the poor souls that manned her — coral long 
 ago." 
 
 "Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be 
 a traveller. Right! And the amounts increase, 
 you see, as he rose in rank." 
 
 There was little else in the volume but a few 
 bearings of places noted in the blank leaves 
 towards the end, and a table for reducing French, 
 English, and Spanish moneys to a common 
 value. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 51 
 
 "Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't 
 the one to be cheated." 
 
 "And now," said the Squire, "for the other." 
 
 The paper had been sealed in several places 
 with a thimble by way of seal — the very thimble, 
 perhaps, that I had found in the captain's pocket. 
 The doctor opened the seals with great care, and 
 there fell out the map of an island, with latitude 
 and longitude, soundings, names of hills, and 
 bays and inlets, and every particular that would 
 be needed to bring a ship to a safe anchorage 
 upon its shores. It was about nine miles long 
 and five across, shaped, you might say, like a fat 
 dragon standing up, and had two fine land-locked 
 harbors, and a hill in the centre part marked "The 
 Spyglass." There were several additions of a 
 later date, but, above all, three crosses of red ink — 
 two on the north part of the island, one in the 
 southwest, and, besides this last, in the same red 
 ink, and in a small neat hand, very different from 
 the captain's tottery characters, these words: 
 "Bulk of treasure here." 
 
 Over on the back the same hand had written 
 this further information: 
 
 "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the 
 N. of N.N.E. 
 
 "Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. 
 
 "Ten feet. 
 
 "The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by 
 the trend of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the 
 black crag with the face on it. 
 
 "The arms are easy found, in the sand hill, N. point of 
 north inlet cape, bearingE. and a quarter N. J. F." 
 
52 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 That was all; but, brief as it was, and to me in- 
 comprehensible, it filled the Squire and Dr. Liv- 
 esey 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 Red- 
 ruth, Joyce and Hunter. We'll have favorable 
 winds, a quick passage, and not the least difficulty 
 in finding the spot, and money to eat — to roll in — 
 to play duck and drake with ever after." 
 
 "Trelawney," said the doctor, "I'll go with you; 
 and, I'll go bail for it, so will Jim, and be a credit 
 to the undertaking. There's only one man I'm 
 afraid of." 
 
 "And who's that?" cried the Squire. "Name 
 the dog, sir!" 
 
 "You," replied the doctor; "for you cannot hold 
 your tongue. We are not the only men who 
 know of this paper. These fellows who attacked 
 the inn to-night — bold, desperate blades, for sure 
 — and the rest who stayed aboard that lugger, and 
 more, I dare say, not far off, are one and all, 
 through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that 
 money. We must none of us go alone till we get 
 to sea. Jim and I shall stick together in the 
 meanwhile; you'll take Joyce and Hunter when 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 53 
 
 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." 
 
54 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 at the Hall under the 
 charge of old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a 
 prisoner, but full of sea dreams and- the most 
 charming anticipations of strange islands and ad- 
 ventures. I brooded by the hour together over 
 the map, all the details of which I well remem- 
 bered. 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 Spyglass, and from the top en- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 55 
 
 joyed the most wonderful and changing prospects. 
 Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with 
 whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous 
 animals that hunted us; but in all my fancies 
 nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as 
 our actual adventures. 
 
 So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there 
 came a letter addressed to Dr. Livesey, with this 
 addition: "To be opened, in the case of his ab- 
 sence, by Tom Redruth, or young Hawkins.'' 
 Obeying this order, we found — or rather I found, 
 for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading 
 anything but print — the following important 
 news: 
 
 "Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March i, 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, His- 
 paniola. 
 
 "I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has 
 proved himself throughout the most surprising trump. 
 The admirable fellow literally slaved in my interest, and 
 so, I may say, did every one in Bristol, as soon as they 
 got wind of the port we sailed for — treasure, I mean." 
 
 ' "Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Dr. 
 Livesey will not like that. The Squire has been 
 talking, after all." 
 
 "Well, who's a better right?" growled the 
 gamekeeper. "A pretty rum go if Squire ain't to 
 talk for Dr. Livesey, I should think." 
 
5.6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, 
 and read straight on : 
 
 "Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and by the 
 most admirable management got her for the merest 
 trifle. There is a class of men in Bristol monstrously 
 prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length of de- 
 claring that this honest creature would do anything for 
 money, that the Hispaniola belonged to him, and that he 
 sold it to me absurdly high — the most transparent cal- 
 umnies. None of them dare, however, to deny the mer- 
 its 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 acci- 
 dent, I fell in talk with him. I found he was an old 
 sailor, kept a public-house, knew all the seafaring men 
 in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted a good 
 berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled down 
 there that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt. 
 
 "I was monstrously touched — so would you have been 
 — and, out of pure pity. I engaged him on the spot to be 
 ship's cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost 
 a leg; but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he 
 lost it in his country's service, under the immortal 
 Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the 
 abominable age we live in! 
 
 "Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it 
 was a crew I had discovered. Between Silver and my- 
 self we got together in a few days a company of the 
 toughest old salts imaginable — not pretty to look at, but 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 57 
 
 fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit. I 
 declare we could fight a frigate. 
 
 "Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven 
 I had already engaged. He showed me in a moment 
 that they were just the sort of fresh water swabs we had 
 to fear in an adventure of importance. 
 
 "I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating 
 like a bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a 
 moment till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the 
 capstan. Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the 
 glory of the sea that has turned my head. So now, 
 Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect 
 me. 
 
 "Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, 
 with Redruth for a guard; and then both come full speed 
 to Bristol. John Trelawney. 
 
 "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 His- 
 paniola. 
 
 "I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance ; 
 I know of my own knowledge that he has a banker's 
 account, which has never been overdrawn. He leaves 
 his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a woman of 
 color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be ex- 
 cused 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, 
 
58 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 and if ever I despised a man it was old Tom Red- 
 ruth, who could do nothing but grumble and la- 
 ment. Any of the under-gamekeepers would 
 gladly have changed places with him; but such 
 was not the Squire's pleasure, and the Squire's 
 pleasure was like law among them all. Nobody 
 but old Redruth would have dared so much as 
 even to grumble. 
 
 The next morning he and I set out on foot for 
 the "Admiral Benbow," and there I found my 
 mother in good health and spirits. The captain, 
 who had so long been a cause of so much discom- 
 fort, was gone where the wicked cease from trou- 
 bling. The Squire had had everything repaired, 
 and the public rooms and the sign repainted, and 
 had added some furniture — above all a beautiful 
 armchair for mother in the bar. He had found 
 her a boy as an apprentice also, so that she should 
 not want help while I was gone. 
 
 It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for 
 the first time, my situation. I had thought up to 
 that moment of the adventures before me, not at 
 all of the home I was leaving; and now, at sight 
 of this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in 
 my place beside my mother, I had my first attack 
 of tears,, I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life ; 
 for, as he was new to the work, I had a hundred 
 opportunities of setting him right and putting him 
 down, and I was not slow to profit by them. 
 
 The night passed, and the next day, after din- 
 ner, Redruth and I were afoot again and on the 
 road. I said good-bye to mother and the cove 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 59 
 
 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 telescope. Next moment we 
 had turned the corner, and my home was out of 
 sight. 
 
 The mail picked us up about dusk at the 
 "Royal George" on the heath. I was wedged in 
 between Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and 
 in spite of the swift motion and the cold night air, 
 I must have dozed a great deal from the very first, 
 and then slept like a log up hill and down dale 
 through stage after stage; for when I was awak- 
 ened 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 
 
60 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 arch- 
 bishops I could not have been more delighted. 
 
 And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a 
 schooner, with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed, 
 singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown 
 island, and to seek for buried treasures! 
 
 While I was still in this delightful dream we 
 came suddenly in front of a large inn and met 
 Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea-offi- 
 cer, 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 com- 
 pany 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 could easily find 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 6l 
 
 the place by following the line of the docks, and 
 keeping a bright lookout for a little tavern with a 
 large brass telescope for a sign. I set off, over- 
 joyed at this opportunity to see some more of the 
 ships and seamen, and picked my way among a 
 great cowd of people and carts and bales, for the 
 dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tav- 
 ern in question. 
 
 It was a bright enough little place of entertain- 
 ment. 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 ot 
 tobacco smoke. 
 
 The customers were mostly seafaring men ; and 
 they talked so loudly that I hung at the door, 
 almost afraid to enter. 
 
 As I was waiting a man came out of a side 
 room, and at a glance I was sure he must be Long 
 John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip, 
 and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, 
 which he managed with wonderful dexterity, 
 hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very 
 tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham — plain 
 and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he 
 seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling as 
 he moved about among the tables, with a merry 
 word or a slap on the shoulder for the more fav- 
 ored of his guests. 
 
 Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first 
 mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney's let- 
 
62 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 ter, 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 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 cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 "Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out the note. 
 
 "Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to 
 be sure. And who may you be?" And 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 mo- 
 ment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, 
 and I recognized him at a glance. It was the 
 tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had 
 come first to the "Admiral Benbow." 
 
 "Oh!" I cried, "stop him! it's Black Dog!" 
 
 "I don't care two coppers who he is," cried Sil- 
 ver. "But he hasn't paid his score. Harry, run 
 and catch him." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 63 
 
 One of the others who was nearest the door 
 leaped up and started in pursuit. 
 
 "If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his 
 score/' cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my 
 hand — "Who did you say he was?" he asked. 
 Black what?" 
 
 "Dog, sir," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not 
 told you of the buccaneers? He was one of 
 them." 
 
 "So?" cried Silver. "In my house! Ben, run 
 and help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? 
 Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step 
 up here." 
 
 The man whom he called Morgan — an old, 
 gray-haired, mahogany-faced sailor — came for- 
 ward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid. 
 
 "Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, 
 "you never clapped your eyes on that Black — 
 Black Dog before, did you, now?" 
 
 "Not I, sir," said Morgan, with a salute. 
 
 "You didn't know his name, did you?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's as good for 
 you!" exclaimed the landlord. "If you had been 
 mixed up with the like of that you would never 
 have put another foot in my house, you may lay 
 to that. And what was he saying to you?" 
 
 "I don't rightly know, sir," answered Morgan. 
 
 "Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or 
 a blessed dead-eye?" cried Long John. "Don't 
 rightly know, don't you? Perhaps you don't 
 happen to rightly know who you was speaking to, 
 
64 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 suita- 
 ble thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back 
 to your place for a lubber, Tom." 
 
 And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, 
 Silver added to me in a confidential whisper that 
 was very flattering, as I thought: 
 
 "He's quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on'y 
 stupid. And now," he ran on again, aloud, "let's 
 see — Black Dog? No, I don't know the name, 
 not I. Yet I kind of think I've — yes, I've seen 
 the swab. He used to come here with a blind 
 beggar, he used." 
 
 "That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I 
 knew that blind man, too. His name was Pew." 
 
 "It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. 
 "Pew! That were his name for certain. Ah, he 
 looked a shark, he did! If we run down this 
 Black Dog, now, there'll be news for Cap'n Tre- 
 lawney! Ben's a good runner; few seamen run 
 better than Ben. Pie 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 con- 
 vinced an Old Bailey judge or a Bow Street 
 runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly re- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 65 
 
 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, ain't 
 it? There's Cap'n Trelawney — what's he to think? 
 Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman 
 sitting in my own house, drinking of my own 
 rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; 
 and here I let him give us all the slip before my 
 blessed 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 alongside 
 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 some- 
 thing. 
 
 "The score!" he burst out. "Three goes o' 
 rum! Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn't for- 
 gotten my score!" 
 
 And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the 
 tears ran down his cheeks. I could not help join- 
 
66 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 ing; and we laughed together, peal after peal, until 
 the tavern rang again. 
 
 "Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he 
 said, at last, wiping his cheeks. "You and me 
 should get on well, Hawkins, for I'll take my davy 
 I should be rated ship's boy. But, come, now, 
 stand by to go about. This won't do. Dooty is 
 dooty, messmates. I'll put on my old cocked hat, 
 and step along of you to Cap'n Trelawney, and 
 report this here affair. For, mind you, it's seri- 
 ous, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me's 
 come out of it with what I should make so bold as 
 to call credit. Nor you neither, says you; not 
 smart — none of the pair of us smart. But dash 
 my buttons! that was a good 'un about my score." 
 
 And he began to laugh again, and that so hear- 
 tily, that though I did not see the joke as he did, I 
 was again obliged to join him in his mirth. 
 
 On our little walk along the quays, he made 
 himself the most interesting companion, telling 
 me about the different ships that we passed by, 
 their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the 
 work that was going forward — how one was dis- 
 charging, another taking in cargo, and a third 
 making ready for sea; and every now and then 
 telling me some little anecdote of ships or sea- 
 men, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had 
 learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was 
 one of the best possible shipmates. 
 
 When we got to the inn, the Squire and Dr. 
 Livesey were seated together, finishing a quart of 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 67 
 
 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, Haw- 
 kins?" he would say, now and again, and I could 
 always bear him entirely out. 
 
 The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog 
 had got away ; but we all agreed there was nothing 
 to be done, and after he had been complimented, 
 Long John took up his crutch and departed. 
 
 "All hands aboard by four this afternoon," 
 shouted the Squire after him. 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook, in the passage. 
 
 "Well, Squire," said 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 
 
68 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 many other ships, and their cables sometimes 
 grated underneath 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 ear- 
 rings in his ears and a squint. He and the Squire 
 were very thick and friendly, but I soon observed 
 that things were not the same between Mr. Tre- 
 lawney and the captain. 
 
 This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed 
 angry with everything on board, and was soon to 
 tell us why, for we had hardly got down into the 
 cabin when a sailor followed us. 
 
 "Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with 
 you," said he. 
 
 "I am always at the captain's orders. Show 
 him in," said the Squire. 
 
 The captain, w T ho was close behind his messen- 
 ger, 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." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 69 
 
 "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 captain has said too much or he has said too 
 little, and I'm bound to say that I require an ex- 
 planation of his words. You don't, you say, like 
 this cruise. Now, why?" 
 
 "I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed 
 orders, to sail this ship for that gentleman where 
 he should bid me," said the captain. "So far so 
 good. But now I find that every man before the 
 mast knows more than I do. I don't call that fair, 
 now, do you?" 
 
 "No," said 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 
 
JO TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 say you don't like the crew. Are they not good 
 seamen?" 
 
 "I don't like them, sir," returned Captain Smol- 
 lett. ''And I think I should have had the choos- 
 ing 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 uninten- 
 tional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow?" 
 
 "I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman; but 
 he's too free with the crew to be a good officer. 
 A mate should keep himself to himself — shouldn't 
 drink with the men before the mast!" 
 
 "Do you mean he drinks?" cried the squire. 
 
 "No, sir," replied the captain; "only that he's 
 too familiar." 
 
 "Well, now, and the short and long of it, cap- 
 tain?" 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 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 for- 
 ward. W T hy not give them the berths here beside 
 the cabin? — second point." 
 
 "Any more?" asked Mr. Trelawney. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. Jl 
 
 "One more," said the captain. 'There's been 
 too much blabbing already." 
 
 "Far too much," agreed the doctor. 
 
 "I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued 
 Captain Smollett: "that you have a map of an 
 island; that there's crosses on the map to show 
 
 where treasure is; and that the island lies" 
 
 And then he named the latitude and longitude 
 exactly. 
 
 "I never told that," cried the Squire, "to a 
 soul!" 
 
 "The hands know it, sir," returned the captain. 
 
 "Livesey, that must have been you or Haw- 
 kins," 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 pro- 
 testations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so 
 loose a talker; yet in this case I believe he was 
 really right, and that nobody had told the situation 
 of the island. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," continued the captain, "I 
 don't know who has this map; but I make it a 
 point, it shall be kept secret even from me and 
 Mr. Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let 
 me resign." 
 
 "I see," said the doctor. "You wish us to keep 
 this matter dark, and to make a garrison of the 
 stern part of the ship, manned with my friend's 
 own people, and provided with all the arms and 
 powder on board. In other words, you fear a 
 mutiny." 
 
72 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "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 justi- 
 fied in going to sea at all if he had ground enough 
 to say that. As for Mr. Arrow, I believe him 
 thoroughly honest; some of the men are the same; 
 all may be for what I know. But I am responsible 
 for the ship's safety and the life of every man Jack 
 aboard of her. I see things going, as I think, not 
 quite right. And I ask you to take certain pre- 
 cautions, 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 moun- 
 tain 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 mean to get discharged. 
 I had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear 
 a word." 
 
 "No more I would," cried the Squire. "Had 
 Livesey not been here I should have seen you to 
 the deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do 
 as you desire; but I think the worse of you." 
 
 "That's as you please, sir," said the captain. 
 "You'll find I do my duty." 
 
 And with that he took his leave. 
 
 "Trelawney," said the doctor, "contrary to all 
 my notions, I believe you have managed to get 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 73 
 
 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 
 already to take out the arms and powder, yo-ho- 
 ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Ar- 
 row stood by superintending. 
 
 The new arrangement was quite to my liking. 
 The whole schooner had been overhauled; six 
 berths had been made astern, out of what had been 
 the after-part of the main hold; and this set of 
 cabins was only joined to the galley and forecastle 
 by a sparred passage on the port side. It had 
 been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, 
 Hunter, Joyce, the doctor and the Squire were to 
 occupy these six berths. Now, Redruth and I 
 were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the 
 captain were to sleep on deck in the companion, 
 which had been enlarged on each side till you 
 might almost have called it a round-house. Very 
 low it was still, of course; but there was room to 
 swing two hammocks, and even the mate seemed 
 pleased with the arrangement. Even he, per- 
 haps, 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 
 
74 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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," an- 
 swers 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 sup- 
 per." 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook; and, touching 
 his forelock, he disappeared at once in the direc- 
 tion of his galley. 
 
 "That's a good man, captain," said the doctor. 
 
 "Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. 
 "Easy with that, men — easy," he ran on, to the 
 fellows who were shifting the powder; and then 
 suddenly observing me examining the swivel we 
 carried amidships, a long brass nine — "Here, you 
 ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off with you 
 to the cook and get some work." 
 
 And then, as I was hurrying off, I heard him 
 say, quite loudly, to the doctor: 
 
 "I'll have no favorites on my ship." 
 
 I assure you I was quite of the Squire's way of 
 thinking, and hated the captain deeply. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 75 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE VOYAGE. 
 
 All that night we were in a great bustle getting 
 things stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the 
 Squire's friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming 
 off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. 
 We never had a night at the ''Admiral Benbow" 
 when I had half the work; and I was dog-tired 
 when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded 
 his pipe, and the crew began to man the capstan- 
 bars. I might have been twice as weary, yet I 
 would not have left the deck; all was so new and 
 interesting to me — the brief commands, the shrill 
 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!" 
 
j6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 pip- 
 ing in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short 
 up; soon it was hanging dripping at the bows; 
 soon the sails began to draw, and the land and 
 shipping to flit by on either side; and before I 
 could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber the 
 Hispaniola had begun her voyage to the Isle of 
 Treasure. 
 
 I am not going to relate 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 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 com- 
 mand 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, stut- 
 tering 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 
 passab 1 y. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. JJ 
 
 In the meantime, we could never make out 
 where he got the drink. That was the ship's mys- 
 tery. 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, gentle- 
 men, that saves the trouble of putting him in 
 irons." 
 
 But there we were, without a mate; and it was 
 necessary, of course, to advance one of the men. 
 The boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest 
 man aboard, and, though he kept his old title, he 
 served in a way as mate. Mr. Trelawney had fol- 
 lowed the sea, and his knowledge made him very 
 useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy 
 weather. And the coxswain, Israel Hands, was 
 a careful, wily, old, experienced seaman, who 
 could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything. 
 
 He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, 
 and so the mention of his name leads me on to 
 speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men 
 called him. 
 
 Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard 
 round his neck, to have both hands as free as pos- 
 
78 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 sible. 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 another 
 man could walk. Yet some of the men who had 
 sailed with him before expressed their pity to see 
 him so reduced. 
 
 "He's no common man, Barbecue," said the 
 coxswain to me. "He had good schooling in his 
 young days, and can speak like a book when so 
 minded; and brave — a lion's nothing alongside of 
 Long John! I seen him grapple four, and knock 
 their heads together — him unarmed." 
 
 All the crew respected and even obeyed him. 
 He had a way of talking to each, and doing every- 
 body some particular service. To me he was un- 
 weariedly kind; and always glad to see me in 
 his 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 wel- 
 come 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 — 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 79 
 
 here's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our 
 v'yage. Wasn't you, cap'n?" 
 
 And the parrot would say, with great rapidity, 
 "Pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!" 
 till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or 
 till John threw his handkerchief over the cage. 
 
 "Now, that bird," he would say, "is, may be, 
 two hundred years old, Hawkins — they lives for 
 ever, mostly; and if any body's seen more wicked- 
 ness, 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 Mala- 
 bar, and Surinam, and Providence, and Porto- 
 bello. 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 board- 
 ing of the Viceroy of the Indies out of Goa, she 
 was ; and to look at her you would think she was a 
 babby. But you smelt powder — didn't you, 
 cap'n?" 
 
 "Stand by to go about," the parrot would 
 scream. 
 
 "Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook 
 would say, and give her sugar from his pocket, 
 and then the bird would peck at the bars and 
 swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. 
 "There," John would add, "you can't touch pitch 
 and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old in- 
 nocent 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 chap- 
 
80 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 lain." 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 an- 
 other. The Squire made no bones about the mat- 
 ter; he despised the captain. The captain, on his 
 part, never spoke but w T hen he was spoken to, and 
 then sharp and short and dry, and not a word 
 wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, 
 that he seemed to have been wrong about the 
 crew, that some of them were as brisk as he 
 wanted to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As 
 for the ship, he had taken a downright fancy to 
 her. "She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a 
 man has a right to expect of his own married wife, 
 sir. But," he would add, "all I say is we're not 
 home again, and I don't like the cruise." 
 
 The Squire, at this, would turn away and march 
 up and down the deck, chin in air. 
 
 "A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and 
 I should explode." 
 
 We had some heavy weather, which only proved 
 the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man on 
 board seemed w r ell 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 birth iay ; and always a barred of apples 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 8l 
 
 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 lookout day and night. It was about the 
 last day of our outward voyage, by the largest 
 computation; some time that night, or, at latest, 
 before noon of the morrow, we should sight the 
 Treasure Island. We were heading 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 watch- 
 ing the luff of the sail, and whistling away gently 
 to himself; and that was the only sound excepting 
 
82 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 the swish of the sea against the bows and around 
 the sides of the ship. 
 
 In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found 
 there was scarce an apple left; but, sitting down 
 there in the dark, what with the sound of the 
 waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I 
 had either fallen asleep, or was on the point of 
 doing so, when a heavy man sat down with rather 
 a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned 
 his shoulders against it, and I was just about to 
 jump up when the man began to speak. It was 
 Silver's voice, and, before I had heard a dozen 
 words, I would not have shown myself for all the 
 world, but lay there, trembling and listening, in 
 the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these 
 dozen words I understood that the lives of all 
 the honest men aboard depended upon me alone. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL. 
 
 "No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I 
 was quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The 
 same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his 
 deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that 
 ampytated me — out of college and all — Latin by 
 the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like 
 a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. 
 That was Roberts' men, that was, and corned of 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 83 
 
 changing names to their ships — Royal Fortune 
 and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so 
 let her stay, I says. So it was with the Cassandra, 
 as brought us all safe home from Malabar, after 
 England took the Viceroy of the Indies ; so it was 
 with the old Walrus, Flint's old ship, as I've seen 
 a-muck with the red blood and fit to sink with 
 gold." 
 
 "Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest 
 hand on board, and evidently full of admiration, 
 "he was the flower of the flock, was Flint!" 
 
 "Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said 
 Silver. "I never sailed along of him; first with 
 England, then with Flint, that's my story; and 
 now here on my own account, in a manner of 
 speaking. I laid by nine hundred safe, from Eng- 
 land, and two thousand after Flint. That ain't 
 bad for a man before the mast — all safe in bank. 
 Tain't earning now, it's saving does it, you may 
 lay to that. Where's all England's men now? I 
 dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most on 'em 
 aboard here, and glad to get the duff — been beg- 
 ging 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 starv- 
 ing. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, 
 and starved at that, by the powers!" 
 
 "Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the 
 young seaman. 
 
84 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "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 my- 
 self. I think, if I had been able, that I would have 
 killed him through the barrel. Meantime, he ran 
 on, little supposing he was overheard. 
 
 "Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They 
 lives rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat 
 and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise 
 is done, why, it's hundreds of pounds instead of 
 hundreds of farthings in their pockets. Now, the 
 most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea 
 again in their shirts. But that's not the course I 
 lay. I puts it all away; some here, some there, 
 and none too much anywheres, by reason of sus- 
 picion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this 
 cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. Time 
 enough, too, says you. Ah, but I've lived easy in 
 the meantime; never denied myself o' nothing 
 heart desires, and 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, ain't it? You daren't show 
 face in Bristol after this." 
 
 "Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked 
 Silver, derisively. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 85 
 
 "At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his 
 companion. 
 
 "It were," said the cook; "it were when we 
 weighed anchor. But my old missis has it all by 
 now. And the 'Spy-glass' is sold, lease and good- 
 will and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet 
 me. I would tell you where, for I trust you; but 
 it 'ud make jealousy among the mates." 
 
 "And 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. 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 him- 
 self 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 com- 
 pany ; but when I was quartermaster, lambs wasn't 
 the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you 
 mav be sure of yourself in old John's ship." 
 
 "Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't 
 half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with 
 you, John; but there's my hand on it now." 
 
 "And a brave lad you were, and smart, too," 
 answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all 
 
86 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 the barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for a gen- 
 tleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on." 
 
 By this time I had begun to understand the 
 meaning of their terms. By a "gentleman of for- 
 tune" 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 the last one left 
 aboard. But on this point I was soon to be re- 
 lieved, for Silver giving a little whistle, a third man 
 strolled up and sat down by the party. 
 
 "Dick's square," said Silver. 
 
 "Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the 
 voice of the coxswain, Israel Hands. "He's no 
 fool, is Dick." And he turned his quid and spat. 
 "But, look here," he went on, "here's what I want 
 to know, Barbecue ; how long are we a-going to 
 stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've 
 had a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed 
 me long enough, by thunder! I want to go into 
 that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, 
 and that." 
 
 "Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much 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 cox- 
 swain. "What I say is, when? That's what I 
 say." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 87 
 
 "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 the 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 navi- 
 gate us half-way back again before I struck." 
 
 "Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should 
 think," said the lad Dick. 
 
 "We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped 
 Silver. "We can steer a course, but who's to set 
 one? That's what all you gentlemen split on first 
 and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smol- 
 lett work us back into the trades at least; then 
 we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoon- 
 ful 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 dry- 
 ing 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, 1 
 
88 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 chap- 
 ling, 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 
 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 ma- 
 roons? 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. W'ell, 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 89 
 
 Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote — death. 
 When I'm in Parlyment, and riding in my coach, 
 I don't want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin 
 a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at 
 prayers. Wait is what I say ; out 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 Sil- 
 ver. "Only one thing I claim — I claim Trelaw- 
 ney. 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." 
 
 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 pan- 
 nikin 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 
 
90 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 whole clause was audible: "Not another man of 
 them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful men 
 on board. 
 
 When Dick returned, one after another of the 
 trio took the pannikin and drank — one "To luck;" 
 another with a "Here's to old Flint;" and Silver 
 himself, saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to our- 
 selves, 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 shin- 
 ing white on the luff of the foresail; and almost at 
 the same time the voice of the lookout shouted 
 "Land ho!" 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COUNCIL OF WAR. 
 
 There was a great rush of feet across the deck. 
 I could hear people tumbling up from the cabin 
 and the foc's'le; and, slipping in an instant outside 
 my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a 
 double towards the stern, and came out upon the 
 open deck in time to join Hunter and 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 appearance of the moon. Away to the south- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. pi 
 
 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 Cap- 
 tain Smollett issuing orders. The Hispaniola was 
 laid a couple of points nearer the wind, and now 
 sailed a course that would just clear the island on 
 the east. 
 
 "And now, men," said the captain, when all was 
 sheeted home, "has any one of you ever seen that 
 land ahead?" 
 
 "I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there 
 with a trader I was cook in." 
 
 "The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, 
 I fancy?" asked the captain. 
 
 "Yes, sir ; Skeleton Island they calls it. It were 
 a main place for pirates once, and a hand we had 
 on board knowed all their names for it. That hill 
 to the nor'ard they calls the 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 lookout they kept 
 when they was in the anchorage cleaning; for it's 
 there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking your 
 pardon." 
 
 "I have a chart here," says Captain Smollett. 
 "See if that's the place." 
 
92 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ig- 
 norant, I reckon. 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 myself. He did not know, to be sure, 
 that I had overheard his council from the apple 
 barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken such a 
 horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 93 
 
 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. 
 
 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 ex- 
 cuse, 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 over- 
 heard, 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 
 
94 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 Anderson, and all hands 
 were piped on deck. 
 
 "My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word 
 to say to you. This land that we have sighted is 
 the place we have been sailing to. Mr. Trelaw- 
 ney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we 
 all know, has just asked me a word or two, and as 
 I was able to tell him that every man on board 
 had done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask 
 to see it better done, 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 driven with a will. 
 
 On the top of that the three gentlemen went 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 95 
 
 below, and not long after, word was sent forward 
 that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the 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 
 something to say. Speak up." 
 
 I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make 
 it, told the whole details of Silver's conversation. 
 Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any 
 one of the three of them make so much as a move- 
 ment, 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 cap- 
 tain. "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 mis- 
 chief and take steps according. But this crew," 
 he added, "beats me." 
 
g6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 /'Captain," said the doctor, "with your permis- 
 sion, 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. Sec- 
 ond point, we have time before us — at least, until 
 this treasure's found. Third point, there are 
 faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to blows 
 sooner or later; and what I propose is, to take 
 time by the forelock, as the saying is, and come 
 to blows some fine day when they least expect it. 
 We can count, I take it, on your own home ser- 
 vants, 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, be- 
 fore he lit on Silver." 
 
 "Nay," replied the Squire. "Hands was one of 
 mine." 
 
 "I did think I could have trusted Ha ids, " add. J 
 the captain. 
 
 "And to think that they're all Englishmen!" 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 97 
 
 broke out the Squire. "Sir, I could find it in my 
 heart to blow the ship up." 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best 
 that I can say is not much. We must lay to, if 
 you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's try- 
 ing 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. 
 
 I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt 
 altogether helpless; and yet, by an odd train of 
 circumstances, it was indeed through me that 
 safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, 
 there were only seven out of the twenty-six on 
 whom we knew we could rely; and out of these 
 seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on 
 our side were six to their nineteen. 
 
98 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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. Al- 
 though 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 
 southeast of the low eastern coast. Grey-colored 
 woods covered a large part of the surface. This 
 even tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yel- 
 low 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 
 coloring was uniform and sad. The hills ran up 
 clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. 
 All were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass, 
 which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest 
 on the island, was likewise the strangest in config- 
 uration, running up sheer from almost every side, 
 and then suddenly cut ofT at the top like a pedestal 
 to put a statue on. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 99 
 
 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 cry- 
 ing 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 w r ork. Anderson was in com- 
 
IOO TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 mand 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 steers- 
 man 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." 
 
 W T e 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 amphi- 
 theatre, one here, one there. Two little rivers, or. 
 rather, two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as 
 you might call it, and the foliage round that part 
 of the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. 
 From the ship we could see nothing of the house 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. IOI 
 
 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 rock out- 
 side. A peculiar, stagnant smell hung over the 
 anchorage — a smell of sodden leaves and rotting 
 tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing and 
 sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg. 
 
 "I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll 
 stake my wig there's fever here." 
 
 If the conduct of the men had been alarming in 
 the boat, it became truly threatening when they 
 had come aboard. They lay about the deck 
 growling together in talk. The slightest order 
 was received with a black look, and grudgingly 
 and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands 
 must have caught the infection, for there was not 
 one man aboard to mend another. Mutiny, it 
 was plain, hung over us like a 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 him- 
 self in good advice, and as for example no man 
 could have shown a better. He fairly outstripped 
 himself in willingness and civility; he was all 
 smiles to 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 
 
102 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 anx- 
 ious 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 Red- 
 ruth were taken into our confidence, and received 
 the news with less surprise and a better spirit than 
 we had looked for; and then the captain went on 
 deck and addressed the crew. 
 
 "My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. IO3 
 
 are all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore'll 
 hurt nobody — the boats are still in the water; you 
 can take the gigs, and as many as please can go 
 ashore for the afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an 
 hour before sundown." 
 
 I believe the silly fellows must have thought 
 they would break their shins over treasure as 
 soon as they were landed, for they all came out of 
 their sulks in a moment; and gave a cheer that 
 started the echo in a faraway hill and sent the birds 
 once more flying and squalling round the an- 
 chorage. 
 
 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 un- 
 derstand the situation. It was as plain as day. 
 Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious 
 crew he had of it. The honest hands — and I was 
 soon to see it proved that there were such on 
 board — must have been very stupid fellows. Or, 
 rather, I suppose the truth was this, that all hands 
 were disaffected by the example of the ringleaders 
 — only some more, some less; and a few, being 
 good fellows in the main, could neither be.kd nor 
 driven any further. It is one thing to be idle and 
 skulk, and quite another to take a ship and mur- 
 der 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. 
 
104 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 light the 
 ship; and since only six were left, it was equally 
 plain that the cabin party had no present need of 
 my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go 
 ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side, and 
 curled up in the foresheets of the nearest boat, and 
 almost at the same moment she shoved off. 
 
 No one took notice of me, only the bow oar 
 saying, "Is that you, Jim? Keep your head 
 down." But Silver, from the other boat, looked 
 sharply over and called out to know if that were 
 me ; and from that moment I began to regret what 
 I had done. 
 
 The crews raced for the beach; but the boat I 
 was in, having some start, and being at once the 
 lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead of 
 her consort, and the bow had struck among the 
 shore-side trees and I had caught a branch and 
 swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest 
 thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hun- 
 dred yards behind. 
 
 "Jim! Jim!" I heard him shouting. 
 
 But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, 
 ducking and breaking through, I ran straight be- 
 fore my nose till I could run no longer. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. I 35 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FIRST BLOW. 
 
 I was so pleased at having given the slip to 
 Long John that I began to enjoy myself and look 
 around me with some interest on the strange land 
 that I was in. 
 
 I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, 
 bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees, and 
 I had now come out upon the skirts of an open 
 piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile 
 long, dotted with a few pines, and a great number 
 of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, 
 but pale in the foliage, like willows. Oil 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 explora- 
 tion. The isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I 
 had left behind, and nothing lived in front of me 
 but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and 
 thither among the trees. Here and there were 
 flowering plants, unknown to me ; here and there 
 I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge 
 of rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike 
 the spinning of a top. Little did I suppose that he 
 was a deadly enemy, and that the noise was the 
 famous rattle. 
 
 Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like 
 trees — live, or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterwards 
 
106 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 they should be called — which grew low along the 
 sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, 
 the foliage compact, like thatch. The thicket 
 stretched down from the top of one of the sandy 
 knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, 
 until it reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, 
 through which the nearest of the little rivers 
 soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh 
 was steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of 
 the Spy-glass trembled through the haze. 
 
 All at once there began to go a sort of bustle 
 among the bulrushes; a wild duck flew up with a 
 quack, another followed, and soon over the whole 
 surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung 
 screaming and circling in the air. I judged at 
 once that some of my shipmates must be drawing 
 near along the borders of the fen. Nor was I de- 
 ceived ; 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 recognized to be Silver's, once 
 more took up the story, and ran on for a long 
 while in a stream, only now and again interrupted 
 by the other. By the sound they must have been 
 talking earnestly, and almost fiercely; but no dis- 
 tinct word came to my hearing. 
 
 At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and 
 perhaps to have sat down; for not only did they 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. lO 1 / 
 
 cease to draw any nearer, but the birds themselves 
 began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to 
 their places in the swamp. 
 
 And now I began to feel that I was neglecting 
 my business; that since I had been so foolhardy 
 as to come ashore with these desperadoes, the 
 least I could do was to overhear them at their 
 councils; and that my plain and obvious duty was 
 to draw as close as I could manage, under the 
 favorable ambush of the crouching trees. 
 
 I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty 
 exactly, not only by the sound of their voices, but 
 by the behavior of the few birds that still hung in 
 alarm above the heads of the intruders. 
 
 Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but 
 slowly towards them; till at last, raising my head 
 to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear 
 down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and 
 closely set about with trees, where Long John Sil- 
 ver 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. 
 
 "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 
 
108 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 'uns knew it, where 'ud I be, Tom — now, tell me, 
 where 'ud I be?" 
 
 ''Silver," said the other man — and I observed 
 he was not only red in the face, but spoke as 
 hoarse as a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a 
 taut rope — "Silver," says he, "you're old, and 
 you're honest, or has the name for it; and you've 
 money, too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't; and 
 you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you tell 
 me you'll let yourself be led away with that kind 
 of a mess of swabs? not you! As sure as God 
 sees me, I'd sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin 
 my dooty" 
 
 And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by 
 a noise. I had found one of the honest hands — 
 well, here, at that same moment, came news of 
 another. Far away out in the marsh there arose, 
 all of a sudden, a sound like the cry of anger, then 
 another on the back of it; and then one horrid, 
 long-drawn scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass 
 re-echoed it a score of times ; the whole troop of 
 marsh-birds rose again, darkening heaven, with a 
 simultaneous whirr; and long after that death yell 
 was still ringing in my brain, silence had re-estab- 
 lished its empire, and only the rustle of the re- 
 descending 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, watch- 
 ing his companion like a snake about to spring. 
 
 "John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. IO9 
 
 "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 
 dootv. You've killed Alan, have you? Kill me, 
 too, if vou can. But I defies you." 
 
 And with that, this brave fellow turned his back 
 directly on the cook, and set off walking for the 
 beach. But he was not destined to go far. With 
 a cry, John seized the branch of a tree, whipped 
 the crutch out of his armpit, and sent that uncouth 
 missile 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 
 
IIO TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 as a monkey, even without leg or crutch, was on 
 the top of him next moment, and had twice buried 
 his knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body. 
 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 be- 
 fore my eyes, and all manner of bells ringing and 
 distant voices shouting in my ear. 
 
 When I came again to myself, the monster had 
 pulled himself together, his crutch under his arm, 
 his hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay- 
 motionless upon the sward; but the murderer 
 minded him not a whit, cleansing his blood- 
 stained knife the while upon a wisp of grass. 
 Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shin- 
 ing mercilessly on the steaming marsh and the tall 
 pinnacle of the mountain, and I could scarce per- 
 suade 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 instantly awoke my fears. More 
 men would be coming. I might be discovered. 
 They had already slain two of the honest people; 
 after Tom and Alan, might not I come next? 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. Ill 
 
 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 therefore of my fatal 
 knowledge? It was all over, I thought. Good-bye 
 to the Hispaniola; good-bye to the Squire, the 
 doctor, and the captain! There was nothing left 
 for me but death by starvation, or death by the 
 hands of the mutineers. 
 
 All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, 
 without taking any notice, I had drawn near to 
 the foot of the little hill with the two peaks, and 
 had got into a part of the island where the 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 
 
112 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 air, too, smelled more freshly than down beside 
 the marsh. 
 
 And here a fresh alarm brought me to a stand- 
 still with a thumping heart. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. 
 
 From the side of the hill, which was here steep 
 and stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and 
 fell rattling and bounding through the trees. My 
 eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I 
 saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind the 
 trunk of a pine. What it was, whether bear or 
 man or monkey, I could in 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; 
 behind me the murderers, before me this lurking 
 nondescript. And immediately I began to pre- 
 fer the dangers that I knew to those I knew not. 
 Silver himself appeared less terrible in contrast 
 with this creature of the woods, and I turned on 
 my heel, and, looking sharply behind me over my 
 shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the direc- 
 tion of the boats. 
 
 Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a 
 wide circuit, began to head me off. * I was tired, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 113 
 
 at any rate; but had I been as fresh as when I rose, 
 1 could see it was in vain for me to contend in 
 speed with such an adversary. From trunk to 
 trunk the creature flitted like a deer, running 
 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, there- 
 fore, 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 re- 
 membered 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 direc- 
 tion he reappeared and took a step to meet me. 
 Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward 
 again, and at last, to my wonder and confusion, 
 threw himself on his knees and held out his 
 clasped hands in supplication. 
 
 At that I once more stopped. 
 
 "Who are you?" I asked. 
 
 "Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice 
 sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. 
 
114 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "I'm poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke 
 with a Christian these three years." 
 
 I could now see that he was a white man like 
 myself, and that his features were even pleasing. 
 His skin, wherever it was exposed, was 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 to- 
 gether by a system of the most various and incon- 
 gruous 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 ship- 
 wrecked?" 
 
 "Nay, mate," said he — "marooned." 
 
 I had heard the word, and I knew it stood for a 
 horrible form 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 Chris- 
 tian 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." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 115 
 
 "If ever I can get aboard again," said I, "you 
 shall have cheese by the stone." 
 
 All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my 
 jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, 
 and generally, in the intervals of his speech, show- 
 ing 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, 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 
 
Il6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 luck, of course, the first chance I have. I'm bound 
 I'll be good, and I see the way to. And, Jim" — 
 looking all round him, and lowering his voice to a 
 whisper — "I'm rich." 
 
 I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone 
 crazy in his solitude, and I suppose I must have 
 shown the feeling in my face ; for he repeated the 
 statement hotly: 
 
 "Rich! rich! I says. And I'll tell you what: I'll 
 make a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless 
 your stars, vou 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 threaten- 
 ingly before my eyes. 
 
 "Now, Jim, you tell me true: that ain't Flint's 
 ship?" he asked. 
 
 At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to 
 believe that I had found an ally, and I answered 
 him at once. 
 
 "It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is dead; but I'll 
 tell you true, as you ask me — there are some of 
 Flint's hands aboard; worse luck for the rest of 
 us." 
 
 "Not a man — with one leg?" he gasped. 
 
 "Silver?" I asked. 
 
 "Ah, Silver!" says he; "that were his name." 
 
 "He's the cook ; and the ringleader, too." 
 
 He was still holding me by the wrist, and at 
 that he gave it quite a wring. 
 
 "If you was sent by Long John," he said. "I'm 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. WJ 
 
 as good as pork, and I know it. But where was 
 you, do you suppose?" 
 
 I had made up my mind 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 inter- 
 est, 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 close hitch, ain't you? Well, you just put 
 your trust in Ben Gunn — Ben Gunn's the man to 
 do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your 
 Squire would prove a liberal-minded one in case 
 of help — him being in a close hitch, as you 
 remark?" 
 
 I told him the Squire was the most liberal of 
 men. 
 
 "Ay, but you see," returned Benn 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 
 gr^at 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 
 verv much relieved. 
 
Il8 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "So 
 much I'll tell you, and no more. I were in Flint's 
 ship when he buried the treasure; he and six along 
 — six strong seamen. They were ashore nigh on 
 a week, and us standing off and on in the old Wal- 
 rus. 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 
 quartermaster; and they asked him where the 
 treasure was. 'Ah,' says he, 'you can go ashore, 
 if you like, and stay,' he says; 'but as for the ship, 
 she'll beat up for more, by thunder!' That's what 
 he said. 
 
 "Well, I was in another ship three years back, 
 and we sighted this island. 'Boys,' said I, 'here's 
 Flint's treasure; let's land and find it.' The cap'n 
 was displeased at that; but my messmates were all 
 of a mind, and landed. Twelve days they looked 
 for it, and every day they had the worse word for 
 me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard. 
 'As for you, Benjamin Gunn,'' says they, 'here's a 
 musket,' they says, 'and a spade, and 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 dav to this. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 10, 
 
 But now, you look here; look at me. Do I look 
 like a man before the mast? No, says you. Nor 
 I weren't, neither, I says." 
 
 And with that he winked and pinched me hard. 
 
 "Just you mention them words to your Squire, 
 Jim" — he went on: "Nor he weren't, neither — 
 that's the words. Three years he were the man 
 of this island, light and dark, fair and rain; and 
 sometimes he would, 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 confiden- 
 tial manner. 
 
 "Then," he continued — "then you'll up, and 
 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 his- 
 self." 
 
 "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?" 
 1 "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 
 
120 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 or two to run, all the echoes of the island awoke 
 and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. 
 
 "They have begun to fight!" I cried. "Follow 
 me." 
 
 And I began to run 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 consid- 
 erable interval, by a volley of small arms. 
 
 Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mVe 
 in front of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in 
 the air above a wood. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 121 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 THE STOCKADE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: HOW 
 THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED. 
 
 It was about half-past one — three bells in the 
 sea phrase — that the two boats went ashore from 
 the Hispaniola. The captain, the Squire, and I 
 were talking matters over in the cabin. Had 
 there been a breath of wind we should have fallen 
 on the six mutineers who were left aboard with us, 
 slipped our cable, and away to sea. But the wind 
 was wanting; and, to complete our helplessness, 
 down came Hunter with the news that Jim Haw- 
 kins 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 smelled fever and dysentery, it was in that 
 
122 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels were 
 sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle; 
 ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a 
 man sitting in each, hard by where the river runs 
 in. One of them was whistling "Lillibullero." 
 
 Waiting was a strain; and it was decided that 
 Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly-boat 
 in quest of information. 
 
 The gigs had leaned to their right; but Hunter 
 and I pulled straight in, in the direction of the 
 stockade upon the chart. The two who were left 
 guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our ap- 
 pearance; "Lillibullero" stopped off, and I could 
 see the pair discussing what they ought to do. 
 Had they gone and told Silver, all might have 
 turned out differently; but they had their orders, 
 I suppose, and decided to sit quietly where they 
 were and hark back again to "Lillibullero." 
 
 There was a slight bend in the coast, and I 
 steered so as to put it between us; even before we 
 landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs. I 
 jumped out, and came as near running as I durst, 
 with a big silk handkerchief under my hat for 
 coolness's 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 23 
 
 All round this they had cleared a wide space, and 
 then the thing was completed by a paling six feet 
 high, without door or opening, too strong to pull 
 down without time and labor, and too open to 
 shelter the besiegers. The people in the log- 
 house had them in every way ; they stood quiet in 
 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 ammunition, and things to eat, and ex- 
 cellent wines, there had been one thing over- 
 looked — 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 High- 
 ness the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound 
 myself at Fontenoy — but I know my pulse went 
 dot and carry one. "]im 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 along- 
 side, and I aboard the schooner. 
 
124 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, nod- 
 ding 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, w T ith 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 cox- 
 swain, 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 125 
 
 ship at once, and a head popped out again on 
 deck. 
 
 "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 roused 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 dis- 
 appeared. 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, leav- 
 ing Joyce to guard them — one man, to be sure, 
 but with half a dozen muskets — Hunter and I re- 
 turned to the jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once 
 more. So we proceeded without pausing to take 
 breath, till the whole cargo was bestowed, when 
 the two servants took up their position in the 
 block house, and I, with all my power, sculled 
 back to the Hispaniola. 
 
 That we should have risked a second boat load 
 
126 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 seems more daring than it really was. They had 
 the advantage of numbers, of course, but we had 
 the advantage of arms. Not one of the men 
 ashore had a musket, and before they could get 
 within range for pistol shooting, we flattered our- 
 selves we should be able to give a good account of 
 a half-dozen at least. 
 
 The Squire was waiting for me at the stern win- 
 dow, 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 bot- 
 tom. 
 
 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 direc- 
 tion of the two gigs; and though this reassured us 
 for Joyce and Hunter, who were well to the east- 
 ward, 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." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. \2J 
 
 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 bot- 
 tom, 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 sec- 
 ond." 
 
 There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, 
 and out burst Abraham Gray with a knife-cut on 
 the side of the cheek, and came running to the 
 captain, like a dog to the whistle. 
 
 "I'm with you, sir," said he. 
 
 And the next moment he and the captain had 
 dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off and 
 given way. 
 
 We were clear out of the ship; but not yet 
 ashore in our stockade. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 narrative continued by the doctor: the 
 jolly-boat's last trip. 
 
 This fifth trip was quite different from any of 
 the others. In the first place, the little gallipot of 
 a boat that we were in was gravely overloaded. 
 
128 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 sea- 
 ward down the straits by which we had entered in 
 the morning. Even the ripples were a danger to 
 our overloaded craft; but the worst of it was 
 that we were swept out of our true course, and 
 away from our proper landing-place behind the 
 point. If we let the current have its way we 
 should come ashore beside the gigs, where the 
 pirates might appear at any moment. 
 
 "I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," 
 said I to the captain. I was steering, while he 
 and Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars. 
 "The tide keeps washing her down. Could you 
 pull a little stronger?" 
 
 "Not without swamping the boat," said he. 
 "You must bear up, sir, if you please — bear up 
 until you see you're gaining." 
 
 I tried, and found by experiment that the tide 
 kept sweeping us westward until I had laid her 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 120, 
 
 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, be- 
 sides 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 noth- 
 ing had happened : for we had all quietly made up 
 our minds to treat him like one of ourselves. 
 
 Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I 
 thought his voice was a little changed. 
 
 "The gun!" said he. 
 
 "I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure 
 he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. 
 "They could never get the gun ashore, and if they 
 did, they could never haul it through the woods." 
 
 "Look astern, doctor," replied the captain. 
 
 We had entirely forgotten the long nine; and 
 there, to our horror, were the fives 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 
 
I30 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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. 
 
 "Who's the best shot?'' asked the captain. 
 
 "Air. 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," said 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 muz- 
 zle with the rammer, was, in consequence, the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 131 
 
 most exposed. 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 
 companions on board, but by a great number of 
 voices from the shore, and looking in that direc- 
 tion 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 
 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 cap- 
 tain. "J ac k 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 head- 
 way 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 dis- 
 closed a narrow belt of sand below the clustering 
 trees. The gig was no longer to be feared; the 
 little point had already concealed it from our eyes. 
 The ebb-tide, which had so cruelly delayed us, 
 was now making reparation, and delaying our 
 
I $2 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 re- 
 port fell in at the same instant of time. This was 
 the first that Jim heard, the sound of the Squire's 
 shot not having reached him. Where the ball 
 passed, not one of us precisely knew; but I fancy 
 it must have been over our heads, and that the 
 wind of it may have contributed to our disaster. 
 
 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 re- 
 mained 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 133 
 
 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 cutoff from the 
 stockade in our half-crippled state, but the fear 
 before us whether, if Hunter and Joyce were at- 
 tacked by half a dozen, they would have the sense 
 and conduct to stand firm. Hunter was steady, 
 that we knew — Joyce was a doubtful case — a 
 pleasant, polite man for a valet, and to brush one's 
 clothes, but not entirely fitted for a man of war. 
 
 With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as 
 fast as we could, leaving behind us the poor jolly- 
 boat, and a good half of all our powder and pro- 
 visions. 
 
 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. 
 
134 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "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, observ- 
 ing Gray to be unarmed, I handed him my cutlass. 
 It did all our hearts good to see him spit on his 
 hand, knit his brows, and make the blade sing 
 through the air. It was plain from every line of 
 his body that our new hand was worth his salt. 
 
 Forty paces further 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 Anderson, the boatswain, at their head — 
 appeared in full cry at the southwestern corner. 
 
 They paused, as if taken aback; and before they 
 recovered, not only the Squire and I, but Hunter 
 and Joyce from the block house, had time to fire. 
 The four shots came in rather a scattering volley ; 
 but they did the business : one of the enemy actu- 
 ally fell, and the rest, without hesitation, turned 
 and plunged into the trees. 
 
 After reloading, we walked down the outside of 
 the palisade to see 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, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 135 
 
 but as we had nothing to aim at, it is probable we 
 only wasted powder. Then we reloaded, and 
 turned our attention to poor Tom. 
 
 The captain and Gray were already examining 
 him ; and I saw with half an eye that all was over. 
 
 I believe the readiness of our return volley had 
 scattered the mutineers once more, for we were 
 suffered without further molestation to get the 
 poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade, 
 and carried, groaning and bleeding, into the log- 
 house. 
 
 Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of 
 surprise, complaint, fear, or even acquiescence, 
 from the very beginning of our troubles till now, 
 when we had laid him down in the log-house to 
 die. He had lain like a Trojan behind his mat- 
 tress 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 
 
I36 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ob- 
 served to be wonderfully swollen about the chest 
 and pockets, had turned out a great many various 
 stores — the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stout- 
 ish 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 colors. 
 
 This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re- 
 entered the log-house, and set about counting up 
 the stores, as if nothing else existed. But he had 
 an eye on Tom's passage for all that; and as soon 
 as all was over, came forward with another flag, 
 and reverently spread it on the body. 
 
 "Don't you take on, sir," he said, shaking the 
 Squire's hand. "All's well with him ; no fear for 
 a hand that's been shot down in his duty to captain 
 and owner. It mayn't be good divinity; but it's 
 a fact." 
 
 Then he pulled me aside. 
 
 "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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 137 
 
 neither sooner nor later. "You can calculate for 
 yourself," I said. 
 
 "Why, yes," returned the captain, scratching 
 his head, "and making a large allowance, sir, for 
 all the gifts of Providence, I should say we were 
 pretty close hauled." 
 
 "How do you mean?" I asked. 
 
 "It's a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That's 
 what I mean, replied the captain. "As for pow- 
 der and shot, we'll do. But the rations are short, 
 very short — so short, Doctor Livesey, that we're, 
 perhaps, as well without that extra mouth." 
 
 And he pointed to the dead body under the 
 flag. 
 
 Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round- 
 shot passed high above the roof of the log-house 
 and plumped far beyond us in the wood. 
 
 "Oho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've 
 little enough powder already, my lads." 
 
 At the second trial, the aim was better, and the 
 ball descended inside the stockade, scattering a 
 cloud of sand, but doing no further damage. 
 
 "Captain," said the Squire, "the house is quite 
 invisible from the ship. It must be the flag they 
 are aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it 
 in?" 
 
 "Strike ray colors!" cried the captain. "No, 
 sir, not I ;'* and, as soon as he had said the words, 
 I think we all agreed with him. For it was not 
 only a piece of stout, seamanly, good feeling; it 
 was good policy, besides, and showed our enemies 
 that we despised their cannonade. 
 
I38 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 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 for- 
 ward. Well armed, they stole out of the stock- 
 ade; but it proved a useless mission. The muti- 
 neers were bolder than we fancied, or they put 
 more trust in Israel's gunnery. For four or five 
 of them were busy carrying off our stores, and 
 wading out with them to one of the gigs that lay 
 close by, pulling an oar or so to hold her steady 
 against the current. Silver was in the stern-sheets 
 in command; and every man of them was now 
 provided with a musket from some secret maga- 
 zine of their own. 
 
 The captain sat down to his log, and here is the 
 beginning of the entry: 
 
 "Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, 
 ship's doctor; Abraham Gray, carpenter's mate; 
 John Trelawney, owner; John Hunter and Rich- 
 ard Joyce, owner's servants, landsmen — being all 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 139 
 
 that is left faithful of the ship's company — with 
 stores for ten days at short rations, came ashore 
 this day, and flew British colors on the log-house 
 in Treasure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's 
 servant, landsman, shot by the mutineers; James 
 Hawkins, cabin-boy" . : 
 
 And at the same time I was wondering over 
 poor Jim Hawkins's fate. 
 
 A hail on the land side. 
 
 "Somebody's 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 Haw- 
 kins, safe and sound, come climbing over the 
 stockade. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS: THE GAR- 
 RISON IN THE STOCKADE. 
 
 As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to 
 a halt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down. 
 
 "Now," said he, "there's your friends, sure 
 enough." 
 
 "Far more likely it's the mutineers," I an- 
 swered. 
 
 "That!" he cried. "Why, in a place like this, 
 where nobody puts in but gen'lemen of fortune, 
 
I40 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 honor. And you won't forget 
 my words: 'A precious sight (that's what you'll 
 say), a precious sight more confidence' — and then 
 nips him." 
 
 And he pinched me ':he 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 Gun,' says you, 'has 
 reasons of his own.' " 
 
 "Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You 
 have something to propose, and you wish to see 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. I4I 
 
 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. 
 "Precious sight, and reasons of his own, says you. 
 Reasons of his own; that's the mainstay; as be- 
 tween 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 were talking. The next moment 
 each of us had taken to his heels in a different di- 
 rection. 
 
 For a good hour to come frequent reports 
 shook the island, and balls kept crashing through 
 the wood. I moved from hiding-place to hiding- 
 place, always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by 
 these terrifying missiles. But towards the end of 
 the bombardment, though still I durst not ven- 
 ture 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. 
 
142 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling 
 and tumbling in the woods, and ruffling the grey 
 surface of the anchorage; the tide, too, was far out, 
 and great tracts of sand lay uncovered; the air, 
 after the heat of the day, chilled me through my 
 jacket. 
 
 The Hispaniola still lay where she had an- 
 chored; 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 clat- 
 tering, and one more round-shot whistled through 
 the air. It was the last of the cannonade. 
 
 I lay for some time, watching the bustle which 
 succeeded the attack. Men were demolishing 
 something with axes on the beach near the stock- 
 ade; the poor jolly-boat, I afterwards discovered. 
 Away, near the mouth of the river, a great fire 
 was glowing among the trees, and between that 
 point and the ship one of the gigs kept coming 
 and going, the men, whom I had seen so gloomy, 
 shouting at the oars like children. But there was 
 a sound in their voices which suggested rum. 
 
 At length I thought I might return towards the 
 stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, 
 sandy spit that incloses the anchorage to the east, 
 and is joined at half-water to Skeleton Island, and 
 now, as I rose to my feet, I saw, some distance 
 further down the spit, and rising from among low 
 bushes, an isolated rock, pretty high, and pecu- 
 liarly white in color. It occurred to me that this 
 might be the white rock of which Ben Gunn had 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 143 
 
 spoken, and that some day or other a boat might 
 be wanted, and I should know where to look for 
 one. 
 
 Then I skirted among the woods until I had 
 regained the rear, or shoreward side, of the stock- 
 ade, and was soon warmly welcomed by the faith- 
 ful 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 ket- 
 tle of iron, with the bottom knocked out, and sunk 
 "to her bearings," as the captain said, among the 
 sand. 
 
 Little had been left beside the framework of the 
 house; but in one corner there was a stone slab 
 laid down by way of hearth, and an old rusty iron 
 basket to contain the fire. 
 
 The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the 
 stockade had been cleared of timber to build the 
 house, and we could see by the stumps what a fine 
 and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the 
 soil had been washed away or buried in drift after 
 the removal of the trees ; only where the streamlet 
 ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and 
 some ferns and little creeping bushes were still 
 green among the sand. Very # close around the 
 stockade — too close for defence, they said — the 
 
144 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 break- 
 ing away from the mutineers; and that poor old 
 Tom Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, 
 stiff and stark, under the Union Jack. 
 
 If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all 
 have fallen in the blues, but Captain Smollett was 
 never the man for that. All hands were called 
 up before him, and he divided us into watches. 
 The doctor, and Gray, and I, for one; the Squire, 
 Hunter, and Joyce upon the other. Tired as we 
 all were, two were sent out for firewood; two 
 more were set to dig a grave for Redruth ; the doc- 
 tor 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 wher- 
 ever it was wanted. 
 
 From time to time the doctor came to the door 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. . 145 
 
 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, ana 
 looked at me. 
 
 "Is this Ben Gunn a man?" he asked. 
 
 "I do not know, sir," said I. "I am not very 
 sure whether's he sane." 
 
 "If there's any doubt about the matter, he is," 
 returned the doctor. "A man who has been three 
 years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can't 
 expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't 
 lie in human nature. Was it cheese you said he 
 had a fancy for?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, cheese," I answered. 
 
 "Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that 
 comes of being dainty in your food. You've seen 
 my snuff-box, haven't you? And you never saw 
 me take snuff; the reason being that in my snuff- 
 box I carry a piece of Parmesan cheese — a cheese 
 made in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that's for 
 Ben Gunn!" 
 
 Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in 
 the sand, and stood round him for a while bare- 
 headed in the breeze. A good deal of firewood 
 had been got in, but not enough for the captain's 
 fancy; and he shook his head over it, and told us 
 vve "must get back to this to-morrow rather live- 
 
I46 ' TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 Her." Then, when we had eaten our pork, and 
 each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog, the 
 three chiefs got together in a corner to discuss 
 our prospects. 
 
 It appears they were at their wits' end what to 
 do, the stores being so low that we must have been 
 starved into surrender long before help came. 
 But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off 
 the buccaneers until they either hauled down their 
 flag or ran away with the Hispaniola. From 
 nineteen they were already reduced to fifteen, two 
 others were wounded, and one, at least — the man 
 shot beside the gun — severely wounded, if he 
 were not dead. Every time we had a crack at 
 them we w r ere to take it, saving our own lives 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 sing- 
 ing 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 buccaneer- 
 ing again, I suppose." 
 
 "First ship that ever I lost," said Captain 
 Smollett. 
 
 I was dead tired, as you may fancy; and when 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 147 
 
 I got to sleep, which was not till after a great deal 
 of tossing, I slept like a log of wood. 
 
 The rest had long been up, and had already 
 breakfasted and increased the pile of firewood by 
 about half as much again, when I was awakened 
 by a bustle and the sound of voices. 
 
 "Flag of truce!" I heard some one say; and 
 then, immediately after, with a cry of surprise, 
 "Silver himself!" 
 
 And at that up I jumped and, rubbing my eyes, 
 ran to a loophole in the wall. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 silver's embassy. 
 
 Sure enough, there were two men just outside 
 the stockade, one of them waving a white cloth; 
 the other, no less a person than Silver himself, 
 standing placidly by. 
 
 It was still quite early, and the coldest morning 
 that I think I ever was abroad in; a chill that 
 pierced into the marrow. The sky was bright 
 and cloudless overhead, and the tops of the trees 
 shone rosily in the sun. " But where Silver stood 
 with his lieutenant all was still in shadow, and 
 they waded knee deep in a low, white vapor, that 
 had crawled during- the night out of the morass. 
 The chill and the vapor taken together told a poor 
 
I48 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 tale of the island. It was plainly a damp, feverish, 
 unhealthy spot. 
 
 "Keep indoors, men," said the captain. "Ten 
 to one this is a trick." 
 
 Then he hailed the buccaneer. 
 
 "Who goes? Stand, or we fire." 
 
 "Flag of truce!" cried Silver. 
 
 The captain was in the porch, keeping himself 
 carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot 
 should any be intended. He turned and spoke 
 to us: 
 
 "Doctor's watch on the lookout. 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 ad- 
 ding to himself: "Cap'n, is it? My heart, and 
 here's promotion." 
 
 Long John answered for himself. 
 
 "Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me 
 cap'n, after your desertion, sir" — laying a partic- 
 ular emphasis upon the word "desertion." "We 
 are 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. I49 
 
 stockade, and one minute to get out o' shot before 
 a gun is fired." 
 
 "My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not 
 the slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to 
 talk to me you can come, that's all. If there's 
 any treachery it'll be on your side, and the Lord 
 help you!" 
 
 "That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John, 
 cheerily. "A word from you's enough. I know 
 a gentleman, and you may lay to that." 
 
 We could see the man who carried the flag of 
 truce attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was 
 that wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the 
 captain's answer. But Silver laughed at him 
 aloud, and slapped him on the back, as if the idea 
 of alarm had been absurd. Then he advanced to 
 the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a leg up, 
 and with great vigor and skill succeeded in sur- 
 mounting 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 east- 
 ern 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 bub- 
 bled 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, 
 
I50 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ar- 
 rived 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, rais- 
 ing his head. "You had better sit down." 
 
 "You ain't a-going to let me inside, cap'n?" 
 complained Long John. "It's a main cold morn- 
 ing, 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, 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 to- 
 gether, like a happv family, in a manner of speak- 
 ing." 
 
 "If you have anything to say, my man, better 
 say it," said the captain. 
 
 "Right you are, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver. 
 "Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well, now, you look 
 here; that was a good lay of yours last night. I 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 151 
 
 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 my- 
 self; maybe that's why I'm here for terms. But 
 you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice, by thun- 
 der! We'll have to do sentry-go, and ease off a 
 point or so on the rum. Maybe you think we 
 were all a sheet in the wind's eye. But I'll tell 
 you I was sober; I was on'y dog tired; and if I'd 
 awoke a second sooner I'd a caught you at the act, 
 I would. He wasn't dead when I got round to 
 him, not he." 
 
 "Well?" says Captain Smollett, as cool as can 
 be. 
 
 All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you 
 would never have guessed it from his tone. As 
 for me, I began to have an inkling. Ben Gunn's 
 last words came back to my mind. I began to 
 suppose that he had paid the buccaneers a visit 
 while they all lay drunk together round their fire, 
 and I reckoned up with glee that we had only 
 fourteen enemies to deal with. 
 
 "Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that 
 treasure, and we'll have it — that's our point! You 
 would just as soon save your lives, I reckon; and 
 that's yours. You have a chart, haven't you?" 
 
 "That's as may be," replied the captain. 
 
 "Oh, well, you have, I know that," returned 
 Long John. "You needn't be so husky with a 
 man; there ain't a particle of service in that, and 
 you may lay to it. What I mean is, we want your 
 
152 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 chart. Now, I never meant you no harm, my- 
 self." 
 
 "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 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 was. And, seein' as how 
 you are about to take a pipe, cap'n, I'll make so 
 free as do likewise." 
 
 And he filled a pipe and lighted it ; and the two 
 men sat silently smoking for quite a while, now 
 looking each other in the face, now stopping their 
 tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. It was as 
 good as the play to see them. 
 
 "Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give 
 us the chart to get the treasure by, and drop shoot- 
 ing poor seamen, and stoving of their heads in 
 while asleep. You do that, and we'll offer you a 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 153 
 
 choice. Either you come aboard along of us, 
 once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give you 
 my aff y-davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you 
 somewhere safe ashore. Or, if that ain't to your 
 fancy, some of my hands being rough, and having 
 old scores, on account of hazing, then you can 
 stay here, you can. We'll divide stores with you, 
 man for man; and I'll give my aff y-davy, as be- 
 fore, to speak the first ship I sight, and send 'em 
 here to pick you up. Now, you'll own that's talk- 
 ing. Handsomer you couldn't look to get, not 
 you. And I 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, un- 
 armed, I'll engage 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 colors, and I'll see you all to Davy 
 Jones. You can't find the treasure. You can't 
 sail the ship — there's not a man among you fit to 
 sail the ship. You can't fight us — Gray, there, 
 got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, 
 Master Silver; you're on a lee shore, and so you'll 
 
154 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 find. I stand here and tell you so; and they're 
 the last good words you'll get from me; for, in the 
 name of heaven, I'll put a bullet in your back 
 when next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle 
 out of this, please, hand over hand, and double 
 quick." 
 
 Silver's face was a picture; his eyes started in 
 his head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his 
 pipe. 
 
 "Give me a hand up!" he cried. 
 
 "Not I," returned the captain. 
 
 "Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared. 
 
 Not a man among us moved. Growling the 
 foulest imprecations, he crawled along the sand 
 till he got hold of the porch and could hoist him- 
 self again upon his crutch. Then he spat into the 
 spring. 
 
 "There!" he cried, "that's what I think of ye. 
 Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block- 
 house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, 
 laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon 
 the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky 
 ones." 
 
 And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, 
 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 in- 
 stant afterwards among the trees. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 155 
 
 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 seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at 
 you, sir. Doctor, I thought you had worn the 
 king's coat! If that was how you served at Fon- 
 tenoy, sir, you'd have been better in your berth." 
 
 The doctor's watch were all back at their loop- 
 holes, the rest were busy loading the spare mus- 
 kets, 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 broad- 
 side. I pitched it in red-hot on purpose; and 
 before the hour's out, as he said, we shall be 
 boarded. We're outnumbered, I needn't tell you 
 that, but we fight in shelter; and, a minute ago, I 
 should have said we fought with discipline. I've 
 no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you 
 choose." 
 
I56 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 mus- 
 kets 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 defend- 
 ers. 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. Trelawney, you are the best shot — you 
 and Gray will take this long north side, with the 
 five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they 
 can get up to it, and fire in upon us through our 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 57 
 
 own ports, things would begin to look dirty. Haw- 
 kins, neither you nor I are much account at the 
 shooting; we'll stand by to load and bear a hand." 
 
 As the captain had said, the chill was past. As 
 soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of 
 trees, it fell with all its force upon the clearing, and 
 drank up the vapors at a draught. Soon the sand 
 was baking, and the resin melting in the logs of 
 *,he 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, 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 re- 
 peated from without in a scattering volley, shot 
 
158 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 
 Captain 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 Captain 
 Smollett made no change in his arrangements. 
 If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stock- 
 ade, he argued, thev would take possession of any 
 unprotected loophole, and shoot us down like rats 
 in our own stronghold. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 59 
 
 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 tire 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 mon- 
 keys. 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 frightened than hurt, for he was 
 on his feet again in a crack, and instantly disap- 
 peared 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 encour- 
 age them. Several shots were fired; but, such 
 was the hurry of the marksmen, that not one ap- 
 pears to have taken effect. In a minute 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. 
 
l6o TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 At the same moment, another pirate graspea 
 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 sense- 
 less on the floor. Meanwhile a third, running un- 
 harmed 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 confu- 
 sion, 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 assail- 
 ant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell upon 
 him, beat down his guard, and sent him sprawling 
 on his back, with a great slash across the face. 
 
 "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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. l6l 
 
 the house. Next moment I was face to face with 
 Anderson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went 
 up above his head, flashing in the sunlight. I had 
 not time to be afraid, but, as the blow still hung 
 impending, leaped in a trice upon one side, and 
 missing my footing in the soft sand, rolled head- 
 long 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 loop- 
 hole in the very act of firing into the house, and 
 now lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his 
 hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor had dis- 
 posed 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." 
 
l62 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 But his words were unheeded, no shot was 
 fired, and the last boarder made good his escape, 
 and disappeared with the rest into the wood. In 
 three seconds nothing remained of the attacking 
 party but the five who had fallen, four on the in- 
 side, and one on the outside of the palisade. 
 
 The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for 
 shelter. The survivors would soon be back where 
 they had left their muskets, and at any moment 
 the fire might recommence. 
 
 The house was by this time somewhat cleared 
 of smoke, and we saw at a glance the price we had 
 paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, 
 stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, 
 never to move again ; while right in the centre, the 
 Squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as 
 the other. 
 
 "The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney. 
 
 "Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett. 
 
 "All that could, you may be bound," returned 
 the doctor; "but there's five of them will never run 
 again." 
 
 "Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's bet- 
 ter. 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." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 163 
 
 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 cap- 
 tain put it, and we had the place to ourselves and 
 a quiet time to overhaul the wounded and get din- 
 ner. 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, Hun- 
 ter, 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 
 
164 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 blow and his skull fractured in falling, and some 
 time in the following night, without sign or sound, 
 he went to his Maker. 
 
 As for the captain, his wounds were grievous 
 indeed, but not dangerous. No organ was fatally 
 injured. Anderson's ball — for it was Job who 
 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 bar- 
 gain. 
 
 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 shoul- 
 der, 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?" 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 165 
 
 "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, / 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 
 1 Degan 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 
 disgust and envy kept growing stronger and 
 stronger, till at last, being near a bread-bag, and 
 no one then observing me, I took the first step 
 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 
 
l66 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 me, would keep me, at least, from starving till 
 far on in the next day. 
 
 The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of 
 pistols, and as I already had a powder-horn and 
 bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms. 
 
 As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not 
 a bad one in itself. 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 en- 
 closure, 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 ad- 
 mirable 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 stock- 
 ade 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 sav- 
 ing 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 167 
 
 from the anchorage. It was already late in the 
 afternoon, although still warm and sunny. As I 
 continued to thread the tall woods I could hear 
 from far before me not only the continuous thun- 
 der 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 
 without a breath, the surface smooth and blue, but 
 still these great rollers would be running along all 
 the external coast, thundering and thundering 
 by day and night; and I scarce believe there is one 
 spot in the island where a man would be out of 
 earshot of their noise. 
 
 I walked along beside the surf with great enjoy- 
 ment, till, thinking I was now got far enough to 
 the south, I took the cover of some thick bushes, 
 and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit. 
 
 Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage. 
 The sea breeze, as though it had the sooner 
 blown itself out by its unusual violence, was al- 
 ready at an end; it had been succeeded by light, 
 variable airs from the south and southeast, carry- 
 ing 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 un- 
 
1 68 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 broken mirror, was exactly portrayed from the 
 truck to the water line, the jolly Roger hanging 
 from her peak. 
 
 Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the 
 stern-sheets — him I could always recognize — 
 while a couple of men were leaning over the stern 
 bulwarks, one of them with a red cap — the very 
 rogue that I had seen some hours before stride- 
 legs upon the palisade. Apparently they were 
 talking and laughing, though at that distance — 
 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 remem- 
 bered 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 ear- 
 nest. 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 ex- 
 ceedingly small hollow of green turf, hidden by 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 1 69 
 
 banks and a thick underwood about knee-deep, 
 that grew there plentifully; and in the centre of 
 the dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins, 
 like what the gipsies carry about with them in 
 England. 
 
 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 framework of tough wood, and stretched 
 upon that a covering of goat-skin, with the hair 
 inside. The thing was extremely small, even for 
 me, and I can hardly imagine that it could have 
 floated with a full-sized man. There was one 
 thwart set as low as possible, a kind of stretcher 
 in the bows, and a double paddle for propulsion. 
 
 I had not then seen a coracle, such as the 
 ancient Britons made, but I have seen one since, 
 and I can give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's 
 boat than by saying it was like the first and worst 
 coracle ever made by man. But the great ad- 
 vantage of the coracle it certainly possessed, for it 
 was exceedingly light and portable. 
 
 Well, now that I had found the boat, you would 
 have thought I had had enough of truantry for 
 once; but, in the meantime, I had taken another 
 notion, and become so obstinately fond of it, that 
 I would have carried it out, I believe, in the teeth 
 of Captain Smollett himself. This was to slip out 
 under cover of the night, cut the Hispaniola 
 adrift, and let her go ashore where she fancied. I 
 had quite made up my mind that the mutineers, 
 after their repulse of the morning, had nothing 
 
I70 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 1 had seen how they left 
 their watchmen unprovided with a boat, 1 thought 
 it might be done with little risk. 
 
 Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a 
 hearty meal of biscuit. It was a night out of 
 ten thousand for my purpose. The fog had now 
 buried all heaven. As the last rays of daylight 
 dwindled and disappeared, absolute blackness set- 
 tled down on Treasure Island. And when, at 
 last, 1 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 an- 
 chorage. 
 
 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, in- 
 dicated 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 171 
 
 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 buoy- 
 ant 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 han- 
 dle 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, pad- 
 dle 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 some- 
 thing yet blacker than darkness, then her spars 
 and hull began to take shape, and the next 'mo- 
 ment, as it seemed (for, the further I went, the 
 brisker grew the current of the ebb), I was along- 
 side of her hawser, and had laid hold. 
 
 The hawser was as taut as a bowstring — so 
 strong she pulled upon her anchor. All round 
 
172 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 the hull, in the blackness, the rippling current 
 bubbled and chattered like a little mountain 
 stream. One cut with my sea-gully, and the His- 
 paniola would go humming down the tide. 
 
 So far so good; but it next occurred to my rec- 
 ollection that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a 
 thing as dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to 
 one, if I were so foolhardy as to cut the Hispaniola 
 from her anchor, I and the coracle would be 
 knocked clean out of the water. 
 
 This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune 
 had not again particularly favored me, I should 
 have had to abandon my design. But the light 
 airs which had begun blowing from the southeast 
 and south had hauled round after nightfall into 
 the southwest. Just while I was meditating, a 
 puff came, caught the Hispaniola, and forced her 
 up into the current; and to my great joy, I felt 
 the hawser slacken in my grasp, and the hand by 
 which I held it dip for a second under water. 
 
 With that I made my mind up, took out my 
 gully, opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand 
 after another, till the vessel 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 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 173 
 
 One I recognized for the coxswain's, Israel 
 Hands, that had been Flint's gunner in former 
 days. The other was, of course, my friend of the 
 red 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 some- 
 thing 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, dron- 
 ing 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 
 appropriate for a company that had met such 
 cruel losses in the morning. But, indeed, from 
 what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous 
 as the sea they sailed on. 
 
174 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 mo- 
 ment to be swamped; and since I found I could 
 not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved 
 straight astern. At length I was clear of my 
 dangerous neighbor; and just as I gave the last 
 impulsion, my hands came across a light cord that 
 was trailing overboard across the stern bulwarks. 
 Instantly I grasped it. 
 
 Why I should have done so I can hardly say. 
 It was at first mere instinct; but once I had it in 
 my hands and found it fast, curiosity began to get 
 the upper hand, and I determined I should have 
 one look through the cabin window. 
 
 I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, 
 when I judged myself near enough, 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 eliding pretty swiftly through the water; in- 
 deed, 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 175 
 
 above the window-sill I could not comprehend 
 why the watchmen had taken no alarm. One 
 glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only 
 one glance that I durst take from that unsteady 
 skiff. It showed me Hands and his companion 
 locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a 
 hand upon the other's throat. 
 
 I dropped upon the thwart again, none too 
 soon, for I was near overboard. I could see noth- 
 ing for the moment but these two furious, encrim- 
 soned 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 in- 
 creased. 
 
 I opened my eyes at once. All round me were 
 little ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling 
 sound and slightly phosphorescent. The Hispan- 
 
I76 TREASUPE ISLAND. 
 
 iola 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 south- 
 ward. 
 
 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 mut- 
 tering louder, it went spinning through the nar- 
 rows for the open sea. 
 
 Suddenly, the schooner in front of me gave a 
 violent yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty 
 degrees; and almost at the same moment one 
 shout followed another from on board; I could 
 hear feet pounding on the companion ladder; and 
 I knew the two drunkards had at last been inter- 
 rupted in their quarrel and awakened to a sense 
 of their disaster. 
 
 I lay flat down in the bottom of that wretched 
 skiff, and devoutly recommended my spirit to its 
 Maker. At the end of the straits, I made sure we 
 must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where 
 all my troubles would be ended speedily; and 
 though I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not 
 bear to look upon my fate as it approached. 
 
 So I must have lain for hours, continually 
 beaten to and fro upon the billows, now and again 
 wetted with flying sprays, and never ceasing to 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 177 
 
 expect death at the next plunge. Gradually wear- 
 iness 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." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 
 
 It was broad day when I awoke, and found 
 myself tossing at the southwest end of Treasure 
 Island. The sun was up, but was still hid from 
 me behind the great bulk of the Spy-glass, which 
 on this side descended almost to the sea in formid- 
 able 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 fall- 
 ing, succeeded one another from second to sec- 
 ond; and I saw myself, if I ventured nearer, 
 dashed to death upon the rough shore, or spend- 
 ing my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags. 
 
k/8 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 Nor was that all ; for crawling together on flat 
 tables of rock, or letting themselves drop into the 
 sea with loud reports, 1 beheld huge slimy mon- 
 sters — soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness 
 — two or three score of them together, making 
 the rocks to echo with their barkings. 
 
 I have understood since that they were sea- 
 lions, and entirely harmless. But the look of 
 them, added to the difficulty of the shore and the 
 high running of the surf, was more than enough 
 to disgust me of that landing-place. I felt willing 
 rather to starve at sea than to confront such perils. 
 
 In the meantime I had a better chance, as I 
 supposed, before me. North of Haulbowline 
 Head, the land runs in a long way, leaving, at 
 low tide, a long stretch of yellow sand. To the 
 north of that, again, there comes another cape — 
 Cape of the Woods, as it was marked upon the 
 chart — buried in tall green pines, which descend- 
 ed to the margin of the sea. 
 
 I remembered what Silver had said about the 
 current that sets northward along the whole west 
 coast of Treasure Island; and seeing from my po- 
 sition that I was already under its influence, I pre- 
 ferred 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 un- 
 broken. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 179 
 
 Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have 
 perished; but as it was, it is surprising how easily 
 and securely my little and light boat could ride. 
 Often, as I still lay at the bottom, and kept no 
 more than an eye above the gunwale, I would see 
 a big blue summit heaving close above me; yet 
 the coracle would but bounce a little, dance as if 
 on springs, and subside on the other side into the 
 trough as lightly as a bird. 
 
 I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat 
 up to try my skill at paddling. But even a small 
 change in the disposition of the weight will pro- 
 duce violent changes in the behavior of a coracle. 
 And I had hardly moved before the boat, giving 
 up at once her gentle dancing movement, ran 
 straight down a slope of water so steep that it 
 made me giddy, and struck her nose, with a spout 
 of spray, deep into the side of the next wave. 
 
 I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly 
 back into my old position, whereupon the coracle 
 seemed to find her head again, and led me 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 gun- 
 wale, I set myself to study how it was she man- 
 aged to slip so quietly through the rollers. 
 
 I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth 
 
l8o TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 glossy mountain it looks from shore, or from a 
 vessel's deck, was for all the world like any range 
 of hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth 
 places and valleys. The coracle, left to herself, 
 turning from side to side, threaded, so to speak, 
 her way through these lower parts, and avoided 
 the steep slopes and higher, toppling summits of 
 the wave. 
 
 "Well, now," thought I to myself, "it is plain 
 I must lie where I am, and not disturb the bal- 
 ance; 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 vis- 
 ibly gain ground; and, as we drew near the Cape 
 of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss 
 that point, I had still made some hundred yards 
 of easting. I was, indeed, close in. I could see 
 the cool, green tree-tops swaying together in the 
 breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next 
 promontory without fail. 
 
 It was high time, for I now began to be tortured 
 with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its 
 thousand fold reflection from the waves, the sea- 
 water that fell and dried upon me, caking my very 
 lips with salt, combined to make my throat burn 
 and my brain ache. The sight of the trees so 
 near at hand had almost made me sick with long- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. l8l 
 
 ing; but the current had soon carried me past the 
 point; and, as the next reach of sea opened out, I 
 beheld a sight that changed the nature of my 
 thoughts. 
 
 Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I 
 beheld the Hispaniola under sail. I made sure, 
 of course, that I should be taken; but I was so 
 distressed for want of water, that I scarce knew 
 whether to be glad or sorry at the thought; and, 
 long before I had come to a conclusion, surprise 
 had taken entire possession 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 northwest ; and I presumed the men 
 on board were going round the island on their 
 way back to the anchorage. Presently she began 
 to fetch more and more to the westward, so that I 
 thought they had sighted me and were going 
 about in chase. At last, however, she fell right 
 into the wind's eye, was taken dead aback, and 
 stood there a while helpless, with her sails shiver- 
 
 ''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 re- 
 
1 82 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 peated. To and fro, up and down, north, south, 
 east, and west, the Hispaniola sailed by swoops 
 and dashes, and at each repetition ended as she 
 had begun, with idly-flapping canvas. It became 
 plain to me that nobody was steering. And, if so, 
 where were the men Either they were dead 
 drunk, or had deserted her, I thought, and per- 
 haps if I could get on board I might return the 
 vessel to her captain. 
 
 The current was bearing coracle and schooner 
 southward at an equal rate. As for the latter's 
 sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she 
 hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly 
 gained nothing, if she did not even lose. If 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 
 another cloud of spray, but this time stuck to my 
 purpose; and set myself, with all my strength and 
 caution, to paddle after the unsteered Hispaniola. 
 Once I shipped a sea so heavy that I had to stop 
 and bale, 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 183 
 
 decks. I could not choose but suppose she was 
 deserted. If not, the men were lying drunk be- 
 low, where I might batten them down, perhaps, 
 and do what I chose with the ship. 
 
 For some time she had been doing the worst 
 thing possible for me — standing still. She 
 headed nearly due south, yawing, of course, all the 
 time. Each time she fell off her sails partly 
 filled, and these brought her, in a moment, right 
 to the wind again. I have said this was the worst 
 thing possible for me; for, helpless as she looked 
 in this situation, with the canvas cracking like 
 cannon and the blocks trundling and banging on 
 the deck, she still continued to run away from me, 
 not only with the speed of the current, but by the 
 whole amount of her leeway, which was naturally 
 great. 
 
 But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze 
 fell, for some seconds, very low, and the current 
 gradually turning her, the Hispaniola revolved 
 slowly round her 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 mainsail hung drooped like a ban- 
 ner. She was stock still but for the current. 
 
 For the last little while I had even lost; but now 
 f redoubling my efforts, I began once more to 
 overhaul the chase. 
 
 I was not a hundred yards from her when the 
 wind came again in a clap; she filled on the port 
 tack, and was off again, stooping and skimming 
 like a swallow. 
 
184 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 My first impulse was one of despair, but my 
 second was towards joy. Round she came till she 
 was broadside on to me — round still till she had 
 covered a half, and then two-thirds, and then 
 three-quarters of the distance that separated us. 
 I could see the waves boiling white under her 
 forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me from 
 my low station in the coracle. 
 
 And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. 
 I had scarce time to think — scarce time to act and 
 save myself. I was on the summit of one swell 
 when the schooner came stooping over the next. 
 The bowsprit was over my head. I sprang to my 
 feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under water. 
 With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my 
 foot was lodged between the stay and the brace; 
 and as I still clung there panting, a dull blow told 
 me that the schooner had charged down upon and 
 struck the coracle, and that I was left without re- 
 treat on the Hispaniola. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER. 
 
 I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit 
 when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the 
 other tack, with a report like a gun. The 
 schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse ; 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. [85 
 
 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 bow- 
 sprit, and tumbled head foremost on the deck. 
 
 I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the 
 mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from 
 me a certain portion of the after-deck. Not a 
 soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not 
 been swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of 
 many feet; and an empty bottle, broken by the 
 neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the 
 scuppers. 
 
 Suddenly the Hispaniola came right into the 
 wind. The jibs behind me cracked aloud; the 
 rudder slammed to ; the whole ship gave a sicken- 
 ing heave and shudder, and at the same moment 
 the main-boom swung inboard, the sheet groan- 
 ing in the blocks, and showed me the lee after- 
 deck. 
 
 There were the two watchmen, sure enough: 
 red-cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with 
 his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix, and 
 his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel 
 Hands propped against the bulwarks, his chin on 
 his chest, his hands lying open before him on the 
 deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow 
 candle. 
 
 For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling 
 like a vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one 
 tack, now on another, and the boom swinging to 
 and fro till the mast groaned aloud under the 
 
l86 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 round both of them 
 splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and began 
 to feel sure that they had killed each other in their 
 drunken wrath. 
 
 While I was thus looking and wondering, in a 
 calm moment, when the ship was still, Israel 
 Hands turned partly round, and, with a low moan, 
 writhed himself back to the position in which I 
 had seen him first. The moan, which told of pain 
 and deadly weakness, and the way in which his 
 jaw hung open, went right to my heart. But 
 when I remembered the talk I had overheard 
 from the apple-barrel, all pity left me. 
 
 I walked aft until I reached the mainmast. 
 
 "Come aboard, Mr. Hands," T said ironical) . 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 187 
 
 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 com- 
 panion-stairs into the cabin. 
 
 It was such a scene of confusion as you can 
 hardly fancy. All the lock-fast places had been 
 broken open in quest of the chart. The floor was 
 thick with mud, where ruffians had sat down to 
 drink or consult after wading in the marshes 
 round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted in 
 clear white and beaded round with gilt, bore a 
 pattern of dirty hands. Dozens of empty bottles 
 clinked together in corners to the rolling of the 
 ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open 
 on the table, half of the leaves gutted out, I sup- 
 pose 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; all the barrels were gone, 
 and of the bottles a most surprising number had 
 been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly, 
 since the mutiny began, not a man of them could 
 ever have been sober. 
 
 Foraging about, I found a bottle with some 
 brandy left, for Hands; and for myself I routed 
 out some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great 
 bunch of raisins and a piece of cheese. With 
 these I came on deck, put down my own stock 
 behind the rudder-head and well out of the cox- 
 
185 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 swain'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. "He warn't no seaman, anyhow. 
 And where mought you have come from?" 
 
 "Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take pos- 
 session of this ship, Mr. Hands ; and you'll please 
 regard me as your captain until further notice." 
 
 He looked at me sourly enough, but said 
 nothing. Some of the color had come back into 
 his cheeks, though he still looked very sick, and 
 still continued to slip out and settle down as the 
 ship banged about. 
 
 "By the bye," I continued, "I can't have these 
 colors, Mr. Hands; and, by your leave, I'll strike 
 'em. Better none than these." 
 
 And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the 
 color lines, hauled down their cursed black flag 
 and chucked it overboard. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 189 
 
 "God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; 
 "and there's an end to Captain Silver." 
 
 He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all 
 the while on his breast. 
 
 "I reckon," he said at last — "I reckon, Cap'n 
 Hawkins, you'll kind 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 Ire- 
 lander — this man and me got the canvas on her, 
 meaning for to sail her back. Well, he's dead, 
 now, he is — as dead as bilge; and who's to sail this 
 ship I don't see. Without I gives you a hint you 
 ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here ; 
 you gives me food and drink, and a old scarf or 
 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 anchorageo I mean to get 
 into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there." 
 
 "To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't 
 sich an infernal lubber, after all. I can see, can't 
 I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've lost, and 
 it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, 
 I haven't no ch'ice, not I! I'd help you sail her 
 up to Execution Dock, by thunder! so I would." 
 
 Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense 
 in this. We struck our bargain on the spot. In 
 
I90 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 three minutes I had the Hispaniola sailing easily 
 before the wind along the coast of Treasure Isl- 
 and, with good hopes of turning the northern 
 point ere noon, and beating down again as far as 
 North Inlet before high water, when we might 
 beach her safely, and wait till the subsiding tide 
 permitted us to land. 
 
 Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my 
 own chest, where I got a soft silk handkerchief of 
 my mother's. With this, and with my aid, Hands 
 bound up the great bleeding stab he had received 
 in the thigh, and after he had eaten a little and had 
 a swallow or two more of the brandy, he began to 
 pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder 
 and clearer, and looked in every way another man. 
 
 The breeze now served us admirably. We 
 skimmed before it like a bird, the coast of the isl- 
 and flashing by, and the view changing every 
 minute. Soon we were past the high lands and 
 bowling beside low, sandy country, sparsely dot- 
 ted 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 thev followed me derisively about the deck. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 191 
 
 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 de- 
 rision, a shadow of treachery, in his expression as 
 he craftily watched, and watched, and watched 
 me at my work. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 ISRAEL HANDS. 
 
 The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled 
 into the west. We could run so much the easier 
 from the northeast corner of the island to the 
 mouth of the North Inlet. Only, as we had no 
 power to anchor, and dared not beach her till the 
 tide had flowed a good deal further, time hung on 
 our hands. The coxswain told me how to lay the 
 ship to; after a good many trials I succeeded, and 
 we both sat in silence over another meal. 
 
 "Cap'n," said he at length, with that same un- 
 comfortable smile, "here's my old shipmate, 
 O'Brien; s'pose you was to heave him overboard. 
 I ain't partic'lar as a rule, and I don't take no 
 blame for settling his hash; but I don't reckon 
 him ornamental, now, do you?" 
 
 "I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the 
 job; and there he lies, for me," said I. 
 
 "This here's an unlucky ship — this Hispaniola, 
 
I92 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 here O'Brien, now — he's 
 dead, ain't he? Well, now, I'm no scholar, and 
 you're a lad as can read and figure ; and to put it 
 straight, do you take it as a dead man is dead for 
 good, or do he come alive again?" 
 
 "You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the 
 spirit; you must know that already," I replied. 
 "O'Brien there is in another world, and maybe 
 watching us." 
 
 "Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nate — -ap- 
 pears as if killing parties was a waste of time. 
 Howsomever, sperrits don't reckon for much, by 
 what I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, 
 Jim. And now, you've spoke up free, and I'd 
 take it kind if you'd step down to that there cabin 
 and get me a — well, a — shiver my timbers! I can't 
 hit the name on't; well, you get me a bottle of 
 wine, Jim; this here brandy's too strong for my 
 head." 
 
 Now the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be 
 unnatural; and as for the notion of his preferring 
 wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The 
 whole story was a pretext. He wanted me to 
 leave the deck — so much was plain ; but with what 
 purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes 
 never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, 
 up and down, now with a look to the sky, now 
 with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien. All 
 
iland 3 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 193 
 
 the time he kept smiling, and putting his tongue 
 out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner, so 
 that a child could have told that he was bent on 
 some deception. I was prompt with my answer, 
 however, for I saw where my advantage lay; and 
 that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily 
 conceal my suspicions to the end. 
 
 "Some wine?" I said. "Far better. Will you 
 have white or red?" 
 
 "Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to 
 me, shipmate," he replied; "so it's strong, and 
 plenty of it, what's the odds?" 
 
 "All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, 
 Mr. Hands. But I'll have to dig for it." 
 
 With that I scuttled down the companion with 
 all the noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran 
 quietly along the sparred gallery, mounted the 
 forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the 
 fore companion. I knew he would not expect to 
 see me there, yet I took every precaution possi- 
 ble; and certainly the worst of my suspicions 
 proved too true. 
 
 He had risen from his position to his hands and 
 knees; and, though his leg obviously hurt him 
 pretty sharply when he moved — for I could hear 
 him stifle a groan — yet it was at a good, rattling 
 rate that he trailed himself across the deck. In 
 half a minute he had reached the port scuppers, 
 and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or 
 rather a short dirk, discolored to the hilt with 
 blood. He looked upon it for a moment, thrust- 
 ing forth his under jaw, tried the point upon his 
 
194 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 hand, and then, hastily concealing it in the bosom 
 of his jacket, trundled back again into his old 
 place against the bulwark. 
 
 This was all that I required to know. Israel 
 could move about; he was now armed, and if he 
 had been at so much trouble to get rid of me, it 
 was plain that I was meant to be the victim. 
 What he would do 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 desired to have her stranded safe 
 enough, in a sheltered place, and so that when the 
 time came she could be got off again with as little 
 labor and danger as might be ; and until that was 
 done I considered that my life would certainly be 
 spared. 
 
 While I was thus turning the business over in 
 my mind I had not been idle with my body. I 
 had stolen back to the cabin, slipped once more 
 into my shoes, and laid my hand at random on a 
 bottle of wine, and now, with this for an excuse, 
 I made my reappearance on the deck. 
 
 Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together 
 in a bundle, and with his eyelids lowered, as 
 though he were too weak to bear the light. He 
 looked up, however, at my coming, knocked the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 195 
 
 neck off the bottle like a man who had done the 
 same thing often, and took a good swig, with his 
 favorite toast of "Here's luck." Then he lay quiet 
 for a little, and then, pulling out a stick of to- 
 bacco, 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 '11 likely be the last, lad; for I'm 
 for my long home, and no mistake." 
 
 "Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco; but 
 if I was you and thought myself so badly I would 
 go to my prayers, like a Christian man." 
 
 "Why?" said he. "Now, you tell me why." 
 
 "Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just 
 now about the dead. You've broken your trust; 
 you've lived in sin and lies and blood; there's a 
 man you killed lying at your feet this moment — 
 and you ask me 'Why!' For God's mercy, Mr. 
 Hands, that's why." 
 
 I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody 
 dirk he had hidden in his pocket, and designed, 
 in his ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for his 
 part, took a great draught of the wine, and spoke 
 with the most unusual solemnity. 
 
 "For thirty 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 
 
I96 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 look here," he added, suddenly changing his tone, 
 "we've had about enough of this foolery. The 
 tide's made good enough by now. You just take 
 my orders, Cap'n Hawkins, and we'll sail slap in 
 and be done with it." 
 
 All told we had scarce two miles to run ; but the 
 navigation was delicate, the entrance to this 
 northern anchorage was not only narrow and 
 shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner 
 must be nicely handled to be got in. I think I 
 was a good prompt subaltern, and I am very sure 
 that Hands was an excellent pilot; for we went 
 about and about, and dodged in, shaving the 
 banks, with a certainty and a neatness that were a 
 pleasure to behold. 
 
 Scarcely had we passed the heads before the 
 land closed around us. The shores of North In- 
 let were as thickly wooded as those of the south- 
 ern anchorage, but the space was longer and nar- 
 rower and more like, what in truth it was, the es- 
 tuary 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 flour- 
 ished, 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 197 
 
 catspaw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blow- 
 ing like a garding on that old ship." 
 
 "And once beached," I inquired, "how shall we 
 get her off again?" 
 
 "Why, so," he replied: "you take a line ashore 
 there on the other side at low water; take a turn 
 about one o' them big pines; bring it back, take a 
 turn 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. Starboard a lit- 
 tle — so — steady — starboard — larboard a little — 
 steady — steady!" 
 
 So he issued his commands, which I breath- 
 lessly 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 
 somewhat interfered with the watch I had kept 
 hitherto, sharply enough, upon the coxswain. 
 Even then I was still so much interested, waiting 
 for the ship to touch, that I had quite forgot the 
 peril that hung over my head, and stood craning 
 over the starboard bulwarks and watching the rip- 
 ples 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 
 
I98 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ter- 
 ror, his was a roar of fury like a charging bull's. 
 At the same instant he threw himself forward, and 
 I leaped sideways towards the bows. As I did so, 
 I left hold of the tiller, which sprang sharp to lee- 
 ward; 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 trig- 
 ger. The hammer fell, but there followed neither 
 flash nor sound ; the priming was useless with sea 
 water. I cursed myself for my neglect. Why 
 had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded my 
 only weapons? Then I should not have been, as 
 now, a mere fleeing sheep before this butcher. 
 
 Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast 
 he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his 
 face, and his face itself as red as a red ensign with 
 his haste and fury. I had no time to try my other 
 pistol, nor, indeed, much inclination, for I was 
 sure it would be useless. One thing I saw plainly ; 
 I must not simply retreat before him, or he would 
 speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a mo- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 199 
 
 ment 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 beat- 
 ing 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 certainly that I could spin it out for long, I 
 saw no hope of any ultimate escape. 
 
 Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the 
 Hispaniola struck, staggered, ground for an in- 
 stant in the sand, and then, swift as a blow, canted 
 over to the port side, till the deck stood at an angle 
 of forty-five degrees and about a puncheon of 
 water splashed into the scupper holes, and lay, in 
 a pool, between the deck and bulwark. 
 
 We were both of us capsized in a second, and 
 both of us rolled, almost together, into the scup- 
 pers; the dead red-cap, with his arms still spread 
 out, tumbling stiffly after us. So near were we, 
 indeed, that my head came against the coxswain's 
 
200 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 
 upward flight, and there stood Israel Hands with 
 his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a 
 perfect statue of surprise and disappointment. 
 
 Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no 
 time in changing the priming of my pistol, and 
 then, having one ready for service, and to make 
 assurance doubly sure, I proceeded to draw the 
 load of the other, and recharge it afresh from the 
 beginning. 
 
 My new employment struck Hands all of a 
 heap; he began to see the dice going against him; 
 and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled 
 himself heavily into the shrouds, and, with the 
 dirk in his teeth, began slowly and painfully to 
 mount. It cost him no end of time and groans to 
 haul his wounded leg behind him; and I had 
 quietly finished my arrangements before he was 
 much more than a third of the way up. Then, 
 with a pistol in either hand, I addressed him. 
 
 "One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 201 
 
 blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you 
 know," I added, with a chuckle. 
 
 He stopped instantly. I could see by the work- 
 ing of his face that he was trying to think, and 
 that 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 perplex- 
 ity. In order to speak he had to take the dagger 
 from his mouth, but, in all else, he remained un- 
 moved. 
 
 "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 lurch; but I don't have no luck, 
 not I; and I reckon I'll have to strike, which 
 comes hard, you see, for a master mariner to a 
 ship's younker like you, Jim." 
 
 I was drinking in his words and smiling away, 
 as conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a 
 breath, back went his right hand over his shoul- 
 der. 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 can 
 scarce say it was by my own volition, and I am 
 sure it was without a conscious aim — both my 
 pistols went off, and both escaped out of my 
 hands. They did not fall alone; with a choked 
 cry, the coxswain loosed his grasp upon the 
 shrouds, and plunged head first into the water. 
 
202 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 sur- 
 face of the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, 
 was, in consequence, nearer to the ship, and fell 
 between me and the bulwarks. He rose once to 
 the surface in a lather of foam and blood, and then 
 sank again for good. As the water settled, I 
 could see him lying huddled together on the 
 clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's 
 sides. A fish or two whipped past his body. 
 Sometimes, by the quivering of the water, he ap- 
 peared 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 
 to feel sick, faint, and terrified. The hot blood 
 was running over my back and chest. The dirk, 
 where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, 
 seemed to burn like a hot iron ; yet it was not so 
 much these real sufferings that distressed me, for 
 these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a 
 murmur; it was the horror I had upon my mind 
 of falling from the cross-trees into that still green 
 water, beside the body of the coxswain. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 203 
 
 I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and 
 I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Grad- 
 ually my mind came back again, my pulses 
 quieted down to a more natural time, and I was 
 once more in possession of myself. 
 
 It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; 
 but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me; 
 and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly 
 enough, that very shudder did the business. The 
 knife, in fact, had come the nearest in the world to 
 missing me altogether; it held me by a mere pinch 
 of skin, and this the shudder tore away. The 
 blood ran down the faster, to be sure; but I was 
 my own master again, and only tacked to the mast 
 by my coat and shirt. 
 
 These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, 
 and then regained the deck by the starboard 
 shrouds. For nothing in the world would I have 
 again ventured, shaken as I was, upon the over- 
 hanging port shrouds, from which Israel had so 
 lately fallen. 
 
 I went below, and did what I could for my 
 wound; it pained me a good deal, and still bled 
 freely; but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor 
 did it greatly gall me when I used my arm. Then 
 I looked around me, and as the ship was now, in a 
 sense my own, I began to think of clearing it from 
 its last passenger — the dead man, O'Brien. 
 
 He had pitched, as I have said, against the bul- 
 warks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly 
 sort of puppet; life-size, indeed, but how different 
 from life's color or life's comeliness! In that po- 
 
204 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 sition, 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 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 ro hcavv that I half feared to meddle. At 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 205 
 
 last, I got my knife and cut the halyards. The 
 peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose can- 
 vas floated broad upon the water; and since, pull 
 as I liked, I could not budge the downhaul, that 
 was the extent of what I could accomplish. For 
 the rest, the Hispaniola must trust to luck, like 
 myself. 
 
 By this time the whole anchorage had fallen 
 into shadow — the last rays, I remember, falling 
 through a glade of the wood, and shining bright 
 as jewels, on the flowery mantle of the wreck. It 
 began to be chill ; the tide was rapidly fleeting sea- 
 ward, the schooner settling more and more on her 
 beam-ends. 
 
 I scrambled forward and looked over. It 
 seemed shallow enough, and holding the cut haw- 
 ser in both hands for a last security, I let myself 
 drop softly overboard. The water scarcely came 
 to mv 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 nearer my fancy than to get home to 
 the stockade and boast of mv achievements. Pos- 
 sibly I might be blamed a bit for my truancy, but 
 
206 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 companions. I remembered that the most 
 easterly of the rivers which drain into Captain 
 Kidd's anchorage ran from the two-peaked hill 
 upon my left; and I bent my course in that direc- 
 tion 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 cor- 
 ner of that hill, and not long after waded to the 
 mid-calf across the water-course. 
 
 This brought me near to where I had encoun- 
 tered Ben Gunn, the maroon; and I walked more 
 circumspectly, keeping an eye on every side. The 
 dusk had come nigh hand completely, and, as I 
 opened out the cleft between the two peaks, I be- 
 came 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 
 vet I wondered, in my heart, that he should show 
 himself so careless. For if I could see this radi- 
 ance, might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself 
 where he camped upon the shore among the 
 marshes? 
 
 Gradually the nig-ht fell blacker; it was all I 
 could do to gruide mvself even rouehlv towards 
 my destination; the double hill behind m*» *"d the 
 Snv-p"1ass on mv rieht hand loomed faint a^d 
 fainter; the stars were few and pale; and in the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 20y 
 
 low ground where I wandered I kept tripping 
 among bushes and rolling into sandy pits. 
 
 Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I 
 looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had 
 alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon 
 after I saw something broad and silvery moving 
 low down behind the trees, and knew the moon 
 had risen. 
 
 With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what 
 remained to me of my journey; and, sometimes 
 walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew 
 near to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread 
 the grove that lies before it, I was not so thought- 
 less but that I slacked my pace and went a trifle 
 warily. It would have been a poor end of my ad- 
 ventures to get shot down by my own party in 
 mistake. 
 
 The moon was climbing higher and higher; its 
 light began to fall here and there in masses through 
 the more open districts of the wood; and right in 
 front of me a glow of a different color appeared 
 among the trees. It was red and hot, and now 
 and again it was a little darkened — as if 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 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 
 
208 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 embers and shed a steady, red reverberation, con- 
 trasted strongly with the mellow paleness of the 
 moon. There was not a soul stirring, nor a sound 
 beside the noises of the breeze. 
 
 I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and 
 perhaps a little terror also. It had not been our 
 way to build great fires; we were, indeed, by the 
 captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood; 
 and 1 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 1 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 to- 
 gether 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 creep- 
 ing in on them, not a soul would have seen day- 
 break. 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 200, 
 
 All was dark within, so that I could distinguish 
 nothing by the eye. As for sounds, there was the 
 steady drone of the snorers, and a small occa- 
 sional noise, a flickering or pecking that I could 
 in no way account for. 
 
 With my arms before me I walked steadily in. 
 I should lie down in my own place. (I thought, 
 with a silent chuckle) and enjoy their faces when 
 they found me in the morning. 
 
 My foot struck something yielding — it was a 
 sleeper's leg; and he turned and groaned, but 
 without awaking. 
 
 And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke 
 forth out of the darkness : 
 
 "Pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of 
 eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!" and so 
 forth, without pause or change, like the clacking 
 of a tiny mill. 
 
 Silver's green parrot, Captain Flint! It was 
 she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark ; 
 it was she, keeping better watch than any human 
 being, who thus announced my arrival with her 
 wearisome refrain. 
 
 I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp, 
 clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke 
 and sprang up, and with a mighty oath, the voice 
 of Silver cried: 
 
 "Who goes?" 
 
 I turned to run, struck violently against one 
 person, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a 
 second, who, for his part, closed upon and held 
 me tight. 
 
2IO REASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "Bring a torch, Dick," said Silver, when my 
 capture was thus assured. 
 
 And one of the men left the log-house and pres- 
 ently returned with a lighted brand. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 211 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 CAPTAIN SILVER. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 
 
 The red glare of the torch, lighting up the in- 
 terior of the block-house, showed me the worst of 
 my apprehensions realized. The pirates were in 
 possession of the house and stores: there was the 
 cask of cognac, there were the pork and bread, as 
 before; and, what tenfold increased my horror, 
 not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge 
 that all had perished, and my heart smote me 
 sorely that I had not been there to perish with 
 them. 
 
 There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not 
 another man was left alive. Five of them were 
 on their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called 
 out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth 
 had only risen upon his elbow; he was deadly pale, 
 and the blood-stained bandage round his head 
 told that he had recently been wounded, and still 
 more recently dressed. I remembered the man 
 who had been shot and had run back among the 
 
212 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 woods in the great attack, and doubted not that 
 this was he. 
 
 The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long 
 John's shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked 
 somewhat paler and more stern than I was used 
 to. He still wore the fine broadcloth suit in 
 which he had fulfilled his mission, but it was bit- 
 terly 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" — stop- 
 ping 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 ap- 
 pearance, but with black despair in my heart. 
 
 Silver took a whifY or two of his pipe with great 
 composure, and then ran on again. 
 
 "Now, you see, Jim, so be as you are here," 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 213 
 
 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 sea- 
 man, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on disci- 
 pline. '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 statement, that the cabin party were in- 
 censed at me for my desertion, I was more re- 
 lieved 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 wel- 
 come, shipmate; and if fairer can be said by mor- 
 tal seaman, shiver my sides!" 
 
 "Am I to answer, then?" I asked, with a very 
 tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk 
 I was made to feel the threat of death that over- 
 
214 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 hung 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 com- 
 pany, 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 
 knowedthat!" 
 
 "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 speaking, the whole 
 blessed boat, from cross-trees to keelson. As for 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 215 
 
 them, they've tramped; I don't know where's they 
 are." 
 
 He drew again quietly at his pipe. 
 
 "And lest you should take into that head of 
 yours," he went on, "that you was included in the 
 treaty, here's the last word that was said: 'How 
 many are you,' says I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he 
 — 'four, and one of us wounded. As for that boy, 
 I don't know where he is, confound him,' says he, 
 'nor I don't much care. We're about sick of 
 him.' These was his words." 
 
 "Is that all?" I asked. 
 
 "Well, it's all that you're to hear, my son," re- 
 turned Silver. 
 
 "And now I am to choose?" 
 
 "And now you are to choose, and you may lay 
 to that," said Silver. 
 
 "Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know 
 pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst 
 come to the worst, it's little I care. I've seen too 
 many die since I fell in with you. But there's a 
 thing or two I have to tell you," I said, and by this 
 time I was quite excited; "and the first is this: 
 here you are, in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, 
 men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; 
 and if you want to know who did it — it was I ! I 
 was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land, 
 and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, 
 and Hands, who is now at the bottom of the sea, 
 and told every word you said before the hour was 
 out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut 
 her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had 
 
2l6 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 busi- 
 ness 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 be bygones, and when you fellows are in 
 court for piracy, I'll save you all I can. It is for 
 you to choose. Kill another and do yourselves 
 no good, or spare me and keep a witness to 
 save you from the gallows." 
 
 I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, 
 and, to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but 
 all sat staring at me like as many sheep. And 
 while they were still staring I broke out again : 
 
 "And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I believe you're 
 the best man here, and if things go 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, de- 
 cide whether he were laughing at my request, or 
 had been favorably affected by my courage. 
 
 "I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany- 
 faced seaman — Morgan by name — whom I had 
 seen in Long John's public-house upon the quays 
 of Bristol. "It was him that knowed Black 
 Dog." 
 
 "Well, and see here," added the sea-cook. "I'll 
 put another again to that, by thunder! for it was 
 this same boy that faked the chart from Billy 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 217 
 
 Bones. First and last, we've split upon Jim Haw- 
 kins!" 
 
 "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, perhaps. By the powers, but I'll teach 
 you better! Cross me, and you'll go where many 
 a good man's gone before you, first and last, these 
 thirty year back — some to the yard-arm, shiver 
 my sides! and some by the board, and all to feed 
 the fishes. There's never a man looked me be- 
 tween 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 ain't 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 that dares, 
 
2l8 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 and I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, 
 before that pipe's empty." 
 
 Not a man stirred; not a man answered. 
 
 "That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning 
 his pipe to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to 
 look at, anyway. Not much worth to fight, you 
 ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's 
 English. I'm cap'n here by 'lection. I'm cap'n 
 here because I'm the best man by a long sea-mile. 
 You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; 
 then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to 
 it! I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy 
 than that. He's more a man than any pair of 
 rats of you in this here house, and what I say is 
 this: let me see him that'll lay a hand on him — 
 that's what I say, and you may lay to it." 
 
 There was a long pause after this. I stood 
 straight up against the wall, my heart still going 
 like a sledge-hammer, but with a ray of hope now 
 shining in my bosom. Silver leaned 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 not 
 towards me, it was towards Silver that they turned 
 their eyes. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 2IO, 
 
 "You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Sil- 
 ver, spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me 
 hear it, or lay to." 
 
 "Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men, 
 "you're pretty free with some of the rules; maybe 
 you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This 
 crew's dissatisfied; this crew don't vally bullying 
 a marlinspike; this crew has its rights like other 
 crews, I'll make so free as that; and by your own 
 rules, I take it we can talk together. I ax your 
 pardon, sir, acknowledging you to be capting at 
 this present; but I claim my right, and steps out- 
 side 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 disap- 
 peared out of the house. One after another, the 
 rest followed his example; each making a salute 
 as he passed; each adding some apology. "Ac- 
 cording to rules," said one. "Fo'c'sle 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 audi- 
 ble, "you're within half a plank of death and, 
 what's a long sight worse, of torture. They're 
 going to throw me off. But, you mark, I stand 
 by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to ; 
 no, not till you spoke up. I was about desperate 
 to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into the 
 
220 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I 
 says to myself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and 
 Hawkins '11 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 ring- 
 leader 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 the 
 Squire's side now. I know you've got that ship 
 safe somewheres. How you done it, I don't 
 know, but safe it is. I guess Hands and O'Brien 
 turned soft. I never much believed in neither of 
 them. Now you mark me. I ask no questions. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 221 
 
 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 
 cannikin. 
 
 "Will you taste, messmate?" he asked; and 
 when I had refused: "Well, I'll take a drain my- 
 self, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there's 
 trouble on hand. And, talking of 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 — some- 
 thing, surely, under that, Jim — bad or good." 
 
 And he took another swallow of the brandy, 
 shaking his great fair head like a man who looks 
 forward to the worst. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 
 
 The council of the buccaneers had lasted some 
 time, when one of them re-entered the house, and 
 with a repetition of the same salute, which had in 
 my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's 
 loan of the torch. Silver briefly agreed and this 
 
222 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 emissary retired again, leaving us together in the 
 dark. 
 
 'There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, 
 who had, by this time, adopted quite a friendly 
 and familiar tone. 
 
 I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked 
 out. The embers of the great fire had so far 
 burned themselves out, and now glowed so low 
 and duskily, that I understood why these conspi- 
 rators 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 colors, 
 in the moon and torchlight. The rest were all 
 somewhat stooping, as though watching the ma- 
 noeuvres of this last. I could just make out that 
 he had a book as well as a knife in his hand; and 
 still wondering how anything so incongruous had 
 come in their possession, when the kneeling figure 
 rose once more to his feet, and the whole party 
 began to move together towards the house. 
 
 "Here they come," said I ; and I returned to my 
 former position, for it seemed beneath my dig- 
 nity that they should find me watching them. 
 
 "Well, let 'em come, lad — let 'em come," said 
 Silver, cheerily. "I've still a shot in my locker." 
 
 The door opened, and the five men, standing 
 huddled together just inside, pushed one of their 
 number forward. In any other circumstances it 
 would have been comical to see his slow advance. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 223 
 
 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 ain't lucky! You've 
 gone and cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut 
 a Bible?" 
 
 "Ah, there !" said Morgan— "there ! Wot did I 
 say? No good'll come o' that, I said." 
 
 "Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," 
 continued Silver. "You'll all swing now, I reckon. 
 What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?" 
 
 "It was Dick," said one. 
 
 "Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," 
 said Silver. "He's seen his slice of luck, has Dick, 
 and you may lay to that." 
 
 But here the long man with the yellow eyes 
 struck in. 
 
 "Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This 
 crew has tipped you the black spot in full coun- 
 cil, as in dooty bound; just you turn it over, as in 
 dooty bound, and see what's wrote there. Then 
 you can talk." 
 
224 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 "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 ac- 
 count; 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 — till you outs with your griev- 
 ances, and I reply; in the meantime your black 
 spot ain't worth a biscuit. After that, we'll see." 
 
 "Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no 
 kind of apprehension; we're all square, we are. 
 First, you've made a hash of this cruise — you'll 
 be a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let 
 the enemy out o' this here trap for nothing. Why 
 did they want out? I dunno; but it's pretty plain 
 they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let us go at 
 them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, 
 John Silver; you wan't to play booty, that's what's 
 wrong with you. And then, fourth, there's this 
 here boy." 
 
 "Is that all?" asked Silver quietly. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 225 
 
 "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 His- 
 paniola 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 Execu- 
 tion Dock, by London town, it does. But who 
 done it? Why, it was Anderson, and Hands, and 
 you, George Merry! And you're the last above 
 board of that same meddling crew ; and you have 
 the Davy Jones'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, 
 wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been 
 talking with a vehemence that shook the house. 
 "Why, I give you my word, I'm sick to speak to 
 you. You've neither sense nor memory, and I 
 leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let 
 
226 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 you come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune! I 
 reckon tailors is your trade.'' 
 
 "Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to 
 the others." 
 
 "Ah, the others!" returned John. 'They're a 
 nice lot, ain't they? You say this cruise is bun- 
 gled. Ah! by gum, if you could understand how 
 bad it's bungled, you would see ! We're that near 
 the gibbet that my neck's stiff with thinking on 
 it. You've seen 'em, maybe, hanged in chains, 
 birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as they 
 go down with the tide. 'Who's that?' says one. 
 That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him 
 well,' says another. And you can hear the chains 
 a-jangle as you go about and reach for the other 
 buoy. Now, that's about where we are, every 
 mother's son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and 
 Anderson, and other ruination fools of you. And 
 if you want to know about number four, and that 
 boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn't he a hostage? 
 Are we a-going to waste a hostage? No, not us; 
 he might be our last chance, and I shouldn't won- 
 der. Kill that boy? not me, mates! And num- 
 ber three? Ah, well, there's a deal to say to num- 
 ber three. Maybe you don't count it nothing to 
 have a real college doctor come to see you every 
 day — you, John, with your head broke — or you, 
 George Merry, that had the ague shakes upon you 
 not six hours agone, and has your eyes the color 
 of lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? 
 And maybe, perhaps, you didn't know there was a 
 consort coming, either? But there is; and not so 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 227 
 
 long till then; and we'll see who'll be glad to have 
 a hostage when it comes to that. And as for num- 
 ber 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 down- 
 hearted — and you'd have starved, too, if I hadn't 
 — but that's a trifle! you look there — that's why!" 
 
 And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I 
 instantly recognized — none other than the chart 
 on yellow paper, with the three red crosses, that 
 I had found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the 
 captain's chest. Why the doctor had given it to 
 him was more than I could fancy. 
 
 But if it were inexplicable to me, the appear- 
 ance 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 accompan- 
 ied 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 him- 
 self with a hand against the wall: "Now I give 
 you warning, George," he cried. "One more 
 word of your sauce, and I'll call you down and 
 fight you. How? Why, how do I know? You 
 
22% TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 thun- 
 der! Elect whom you please to be your cap'n 
 now; I've done with it." 
 
 "Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue for ever! Bar- 
 becue for cap'n!" 
 
 "So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. 
 "George, I reckon you'll have to wait another 
 turn, friend; and lucky for you as I'm not a re- 
 vengeful 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 229 
 
 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 black- 
 ened 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 beside me at 
 this moment; but not a trace of writing now re- 
 mains beyond a single scratch, such as a man 
 might make with his thumb-nail. 
 
 That was the end of the night's business. Soon 
 after, with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, 
 and the outside of Silver's vengeance was to put 
 George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him 
 Avith death if he should prove unfaithful. 
 
 It was long ere I could close an eye, and 
 Heaven knows I had matter enough for thought 
 in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my 
 own most perilous position, and, above all, in the 
 remarkable game that I saw Silver now engaged 
 upon — keeping the mutineers together with one 
 hand, and grasping, with the other, after every 
 means, possible and impossible, to make his peace 
 and save his miserable life. He himself slept 
 peacefully, and snored aloud; yet my heart was 
 sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on the 
 dark perils than environed, and the shameful gib- 
 bet that awaited him. 
 
23O TREASURE ISLAM J. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 ON PAROLE. 
 
 I was awakened — indeed, we were all wakened, 
 for I could see even the sentinel shake himself to- 
 gether 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 
 admixture. I remembered with confusion my in- 
 subordinate and stealthy conduct; and when I 
 saw where it had brought me — among what com- 
 panions and surrounded by what dangers — I felt 
 ashamed to look him in the face. 
 
 He must have risen in the dark, for the day had 
 hardlv come; and when I ran to a loophole and 
 looked out, I saw him standing, like Silver once 
 before, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapor. 
 
 "You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, 
 sir!" cried Silver, broad awake and beaming with 
 good-nature in a moment. "Bright and early, to 
 be sure; and it's the early bird, as the saying goes, 
 that gets the rations. George, shake up your 
 timbers, son, and help Dr. Livesey over the ship's 
 side. All a-doin' well, your patients was — all well 
 and merry." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 2%l 
 
 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 
 continued. "We've a little stranger here — he! 
 he! A noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking 
 fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a supercargo, he 
 did, right alongside of John — stem to stem we 
 was, all night." 
 
 Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stock- 
 ade and pretty near the cook; and I could hear 
 the alteration in his voice as he said : 
 
 "Not Jim?" 
 
 "The very same Jim as ever was," says Silver. 
 
 The doctor stopped outright, although he did 
 not speak, and it was some seconds before he 
 seemed able to move on. . 
 
 "Well, well," he said, at last, "duty first and 
 pleasure afterwards, as you might have said your- 
 self, 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 
 apprehension, though he must have known that his 
 life, among these treacherous demons, depended 
 on a hair; and he rattled on to his patients as if 
 he were paying an ordinary professional visit in a 
 quiet English family. His manner, I suppose, 
 reacted on the men ; for they behaved to him as if 
 nothing had occurred — as if he were still the 
 
232 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 ship's doctor, and they still faithful hands before 
 the mast. 
 
 "You're doing well, my friend," he said to the 
 fellow with the bandaged head, "and if ever any 
 person had a close shave, it was you; your head 
 must be as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes 
 it? You're a pretty color, certainly; why, your 
 liver, man, is upside down. Did you take that 
 medicine? Did he take that medicine, men?" 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir, he took it, sure enough," returned 
 Morgan. 
 
 "Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doc- 
 tor, or prison doctor, as I prefer to call it," says 
 Doctor Livesey, in his pleasantest way, "I make 
 it a point of honor not to lose a man for King 
 George (God bless him!) and the gallows." 
 
 The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed 
 the home-thrust in silence. 
 
 ''Dick don't feel well, sir," said one. 
 
 "Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well, step up 
 here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I 
 should be surprised if he did; the man's tongue is 
 fit to frighten the French. Another fever." 
 
 "Ah, there," said Morgan, "that corned of 
 spi'ling Bibles." 
 
 "That coined — as you call it — of being arrant 
 asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense 
 enough to know honest air from poison, and the 
 dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough. I think 
 it most probable — though, of course, it's only an 
 opinion — that you'll all have the deuce to pay be- 
 fore you get that malaria out of your systems. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 233 
 
 Camp in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised 
 at you. You're less of a fool than many, take you 
 all around; but you don't appear to me to have 
 the rudiments of a notion of the rules of health." 
 
 ''Well," he added, after he had dosed them 
 round, and they had taken his prescriptions, with 
 really laughable humility, more like charity 
 school-children than blood-guilty mutineers and 
 pirates — "well, that's done for to-day. And now 
 I should wish to have a talk with that boy, please." 
 
 And he nodded his head in my direction care- 
 lessly. 
 
 George Merry was at the door, spitting and 
 spluttering over some bad-tasted medicine; but at 
 the first word of the doctor's proposal he swung 
 round with a deep flush, and cried "no!" and 
 swore. 
 
 Silver struck the barrel with his open hand. 
 
 "Si-lence!" he roared, and looked about him 
 positively like a lion. "Doctor," he went on, in 
 his usual tones, "I was a-thinking of that, know- 
 ing as how you had a fancy for the boy. We're 
 all humbly grateful for your kindness, and, as you 
 see, puts faith in you, and takes the drugs down 
 like that much grog. And I take it, I've found a 
 way as'll suit all. Hawkins, will you give me 
 your word of honor as a young gentleman — for a 
 young gentleman you are, although poor born — 
 your word of honor not to slip your cable?" 
 
 I readily gave the pledge required. 
 
 "Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step out- 
 side o' that stockade, and once you're there, I'll 
 
234 TREASURE ISLAND, 
 
 bring the boy down on the inside, and I reckon 
 you can yarn through the spars. Good-day to 
 you, sir, and all our dooties to the Squire and 
 Cap'n Smollett." 
 
 The explosion of disapproval, which nothing 
 but Silver's black looks had restrained, broke out 
 immediately the doctor had left the house. Sil- 
 ver 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 a 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 vou can imagine, sa'd that it was necessary I 
 should talk to the doctor, fluttered the chart in 
 their faces, asked them if they could afford to 
 break the treaty the very day they were bound 
 a-treasure-hunting. 
 
 "No, by thunder!" he cried, "it's us must break 
 the treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll 
 gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots 
 with brandy." 
 
 And then he bade them get the fire lit, and 
 stalked out upon his crutch, with his hand on my 
 shoulder, leaving them in a disarray, and silenced 
 by his volubility rather than convinced. 
 
 "Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 235 
 
 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, mayhap, to give him one good word? 
 You'll please bear in mind it's not my life only 
 now — it's that boy's into the bargain; and you'll 
 speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to 
 go on, for the sake of mercy." 
 
 Silver was a changed man, once he was out 
 there and had his back to his friends and the 
 block-house; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in r 
 his voice trembled ; never was a soul more dead in 
 earnest. 
 
 "Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Doctor 
 Livesey. 
 
 "Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I — not so 
 much!" and he snapped his fingers. "If I was I 
 wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly, I've the 
 shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good 
 man and a true ; I never seen a better man ! And 
 you'll not forget what I done good, not any more 
 than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step 
 aside — see here — and leave you and Jim alone. 
 
236 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 some- 
 times 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 break- 
 fast. 
 
 "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. "Doc- 
 tor," 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 it — but what I fear is tor- 
 ture. 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 237 
 
 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 do, though you live to 
 ninety. Oh, by Jupiter, and talking of Ben 
 Gunn! why, this is the mischief in person. Sil- 
 ver!" he cried, "Silver! — I'll give you a piece of 
 advice," he continued, as the cook drew near 
 again : "don't you be in any great hurry after that 
 treasure." 
 
 "Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," 
 said Silver. "I can only, asking your pardon. 
 
238 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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, Sil- 
 ver, 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 be- 
 yond; 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." 
 
 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 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE TREASURE HUNT — FLINT'S POINTER. 
 
 i 
 
 "Jim," said Silver, when we were alone, "if I 
 saved your life, you saved mine; and I'll not for- 
 get it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for 
 it — with the tail of my eye, I did; and I seen you 
 say no, as plain as hearing. Jim, that's one to 
 you. This is the first glint of hope I had since the 
 attack failed, and I owe it to you. And now, Jim, 
 we're to go in for this here treasure hunting, with 
 sealed orders, too, and I don't like it; and you and 
 me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll 
 save our necks in spite o' fate and fortune." 
 
 Just then a man hailed us from the fire that 
 breakfast was ready, and we were soon seated 
 here and there about the sand over biscuit and 
 fried junk. They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox, 
 and it was now grown so hot that they could only 
 approach it from the windward, and even there 
 not without precaution. In the same wasteful 
 spirit they had cooked, I suppose, three times 
 more than we could eat; and one of them, with an 
 empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire, 
 which blazed and roared again over this unusual 
 fuel. I never in my life saw men so careless of 
 the morrow ; hand to mouth is the only word that 
 can describe their way of doing; and what with 
 wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they 
 
240 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 were bold enough for a brush and be done with it, 
 I could see their entire unfitness for anything like 
 a prolonged campaign. 
 
 Even Silver, eating away with Captain Flint 
 upon his shoulder, had not a word of blame for 
 their recklessness. And this the more surprised 
 me, for I thought he had never shown himself so 
 cunning as he did then. 
 
 "Ay, mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Bar- 
 becue to think for you with this here head. I 
 got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, they 
 have the ship. Where they have it I don't know- 
 yet; but once we hit the treasure, we'll have to 
 jump about and find out. And then, mates, us 
 that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand." 
 
 Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full 
 of the hot bacon : thus he restored their hope and 
 confidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired his 
 own at the same time. 
 
 "As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last 
 talk, I guess, with them he loves so dear. I've 
 got my piece o' news, and thanky to him for that; 
 but it's over and done. I'll take him in a line 
 when we go treasure hunting, for we'll keep him 
 like so much gold, in case of accidents, you mark, 
 and in the meantime. Once we got the ship and 
 treasure both, and off to sea like jolly compan- 
 ions, why, then, we'll talk Mr. Hawkins over, we 
 will ; and we'll give him his share, to be sure, for 
 all his kindness." 
 
 It was no wonder the men were in a good hu- 
 mor now. For my part, I was horribly cast 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 2^1 
 
 down. Should the scheme he had now sketched 
 prove feasible, Silver, already a double 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 mo- 
 ment that would be when the suspicions of his 
 followers turned to certainty, and he and I should 
 have to fight for dear life — he a cripple and I a boy 
 — against five strong and active seamen! 
 
 Add to this double apprehension the mystery 
 that still hung over the behavior of my friends; 
 their unexplained desertion of the stockade; their 
 inexplicable cession of the chart; or, harder still 
 to understand, the doctor's last warning to Silver, 
 "Look out for squalls when you find it;" and you 
 will readily believe how little taste I found in my 
 breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth 
 behind my captors on the quest for treasure. 
 
 We made a curious figure, had 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 him — one before and one behind — 
 besides the great cutlass at his waist, and a pistol in 
 each pocket of his square-tailed coat. To complete 
 his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat perched 
 upon his shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of 
 purposeless sea talk. I had a line about my waist, 
 
242 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 ob- 
 served, 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 eata- 
 bles 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 traces of the drunken folly 
 of the pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in 
 their muddied and unbaled 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 an- 
 chorage. 
 
 As we pulled over there was some discussion 
 on the chart. The red cross was, of course, far 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 243 
 
 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 remem- 
 ber, 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, ad- 
 joining on the north the sloping southern shoulder 
 of theSpy-glass,and rising again towards the south 
 into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzen- 
 mast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thick- 
 ly with pine trees of varying height. Every here 
 and there one of a different species rose forty or 
 fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of 
 these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain 
 Flint could only be decided on the spot, and by 
 the readings of the compass. 
 
 Yet, although that was the case, every man on 
 board the boats had picked a favorite of his own 
 ere we were half way over, Long John alone 
 shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait 
 till they were there. 
 
 We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to 
 weary the hands prematurely; and, after quite a 
 long passage, landed at the mouth of the second 
 river — that which runs down a woody cleft of 
 
244 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 the Spy-glass. Thence, bending to our left, we 
 began to ascend the slope towards the plateau. 
 
 At the first outset heavy, miry ground and a 
 matted, 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 approach- 
 ing. 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, be- 
 sides, was fresh and stirring, and this, under the 
 sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to 
 our senses. 
 
 The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, 
 shouting and leaping to and fro. About the cen- 
 tre, and a good wav 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 back- 
 ward down the hill. 
 
 We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, 
 and were approaching the brow of the plateau, 
 when the man upon the farthest left began to cry 
 aloud, as if in terror. Shout after shout came 
 from him, and the others began to run in his di- 
 rection. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 245 
 
 "He can't 'a' found the treasure," said old Mor- 
 gan, hurrying past us from the right, "for that's 
 clean a-top." 
 
 Indeed, as we found when we, also reached the 
 spot, it was something very different. At the 
 foot of a pretty big pine, and involved in a green 
 creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the 
 smaller bones, a human skeleton lay, with a few 
 shreds of clothing, on the ground. I believe a 
 chill struck for a moment to every heart. 
 
 "He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, 
 bolder than the rest, had gone up close and was 
 examining the rags of clothing. "Leastways, 
 this is good sea-cloth." 
 
 "Ay, ay," said Silver; "like enough; you 
 wouldn't look to find a bishop here, I reckon. 
 But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 
 'Tain't in natur'." 
 
 Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossi- 
 ble to fancy that the body was in a natural posi- 
 tion. But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, 
 of the birds that had fed upon him, or of the slow 
 growing creeper that had gradually enveloped his 
 remains) the man lay perfectly straight — his feet 
 pointing in one direction, his hands, raised above 
 his head like a diver's, pointing directly in the op- 
 posite. 
 
 "I've taken a notion into my old numskull," 
 observed 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." 
 
246 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 yellow. Ay, that would 
 be Allardyce. You mind Allardyce, Tom Mor- 
 gan?" 
 
 "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 war'nt the man 
 to pick a seaman's pocket; and the birds, I guess, 
 would leave it be." 
 
 "By the powers, and that's true!" cried Silver. 
 
 "There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still 
 feeling round amoner the bones ; "not a copper doit 
 nor a baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to me." 
 
 "No, by gum! it don't," agreed Silver; "not 
 nat'ral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns! 
 messmates, but if Flint was living this would be 
 a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and 
 six are we; and bones is what they are now." 
 
 "I saw him dead with these here deadlights," 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 247 
 
 said Morgan. "Billy took me in. There he laid, 
 with penny-pieces on his eyes." 
 
 "Dead — ay, sure enough he's dead and gone 
 below," said the fellow with the bandage; "but if 
 ever sperrit walked, it would be Flint's. Dear 
 heart, but he died bad, did Flint!" 
 
 "Ay, that he did," observed another; "now he 
 raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now 
 he sang. 'Fifteen Men' were his only song, 
 mates; and, I tell you true, I never rightly liked 
 to hear it since. It was main hot and the windy 
 was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as 
 clear as clear — and the death-haul on the man 
 already." 
 
 "Come, come," said Silver, "stow this talk. 
 He's dead, and he don't walk, that I know; least- 
 ways, 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. 
 
248 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE TREASURE HUNT THE VOICE AMONG THE 
 
 TREES. 
 
 Partly from the dampening 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 com- 
 manded 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 east- 
 ern 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 preci- 
 pices. There was no sound but that of the dis- 
 tant breakers, mounting from all around, and the 
 chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a 
 man, not a sail upon the sea; the very largeness of 
 the view increased the sense of solitude. 
 
 Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his 
 compass. 
 
 "There are three 'tall trees,' " said he, "about in 
 the right line from Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass 
 Shoulder,' I take it, means that lower p'int there. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 249 
 
 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 in- 
 terrupted the silence of the wood. All of a sud- 
 den, out of the middle of the trees in front of us, 
 a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well 
 known air and words 
 
 "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest — 
 Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" 
 
 I never have seen men more dreadfully affected 
 than the pirates. The color went from their six 
 faces like enchantment; some leaped to their feet, 
 some clawed hold of others; Morgan 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 note, as though some one had laid his hand 
 
25O TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 upon the singer's mouth. Coming so far through 
 the clear, sunny atmosphere among the green 
 tree-tops, I thought it had sounded airily and 
 sweetly; and the effect on my companions was the 
 stranger. 
 
 "Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen 
 lips to get the word out, "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 color to his face along with it. Al- 
 ready the others had begun to lend an ear to this 
 encouragement, and were coming a little to them- 
 selves, when the same voice broke out again — not 
 this time singing, but in a faint, distant hail, that 
 echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy- 
 glass. 
 
 "Darby M'Graw," it wailed — for that is the 
 word that best describes the sound — "Darby 
 M'Graw! Darby M'Graw!" again and again and 
 again; and then, rising a little higher, and with an 
 oath that I leave out, "Fetch aft the rum, Darby!" 
 
 The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, 
 their eyes starting from their heads. Long after 
 the voice had died away they still stared in silence, 
 dreadfully before them. 
 
 "That fixes it!" gasped one. "Let's go." 
 
 "They was his last words," moaned Morgan; 
 "his last words above board." 
 
 Dick had his Bible out and was praying volu- 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 251 
 
 bly. He had been well brought up, had Dick, 
 before he came to sea and fell among bad com- 
 panions. 
 
 Still Silver was unconquered. I could hear 
 his teeth rattle in his head ; but he had not yet sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 "Nobody in this here island ever heard of 
 Darby," he muttered: "not one but us that's here." 
 And then, making a great effort, "Shipmates,' he 
 cried, "I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be 
 beat by man nor devil. I never was feared of 
 Flint in his life, and, by the powers, I'll face him 
 dead. There's seven hundred thousand pound 
 not a quarter of a mile from here. When did ever 
 a gentleman o' fortune show his stern to that 
 much dollars for a boozy old seaman with a blue 
 mug — and him dead, too?" 
 
 But there was no sign of 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, what's he doing with an echo to him, 
 
252 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 I should like to know? That ain't in natur', 
 surely?" 
 
 This argument seemed weak enough to me. 
 But you can never tell what will affect the super- 
 stitious, and, to my wonder, George Merry was 
 greatly relieved. 
 
 "Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head 
 upon your shoulders, John, and no mistake. 
 'Bout ship, mates! This here crew is on a wrong 
 tack, I do believe. And, come to think on it, it 
 was like Flint's voice, I grant you, but not just so 
 clear-away like it, after all. It was liker some- 
 body 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 re- 
 turned, and how the natural color had revived in 
 their faces. Soon they were chatting together, 
 with intervals of listening; and not long after, 
 hearing no further sound, they shouldered their 
 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 253 
 
 Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked 
 around him as he went with fearful glances; but 
 he found no sympathy, and Silver even joked him 
 on his precautions. 
 
 "I told you," said he — "I told you you had 
 sp'iled your Bible. If it ain't no good to swear 
 by, what do you suppose a sperrit would give for 
 it? Not that!" and he snapped his big fingers, 
 halting a moment on his crutch. 
 
 But Dick was not to be comforted; indeed, it 
 was soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick ; 
 hastened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his 
 alarm, the fever predicted by Dr. Livesey was evi- 
 dently growing 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 be- 
 tween the clumps of nutmeg and azalea wide open 
 spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking, as 
 we did, pretty near northwest across the island, 
 we drew on the one hand ever nearer under the 
 shoulders of the Spy-glass, and on the other 
 looked ever wider over that western bay where I 
 had once tossed and trembled in the coracle. 
 
 The first of the tall trees was reached, and by 
 the bearing proved the wrong one. So with the 
 second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet 
 into the air above a clump of underwood ; a giant 
 of a vegetable, with a red column as big as a cot- 
 tage, and a wide shadow around in which a com- 
 pany could have manoeuvred. It was conspicu- 
 
254 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 ous far to sea both on the east and west, and might 
 have been entered as a sailing mark upon the 
 chart. 
 
 But it was not its size that now impressed my 
 companions; it was the knowledge that seven 
 hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere 
 buried below its spreading shadow. The thought 
 of the money, as they drew nearer, swallowed up 
 their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their 
 heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their 
 whole souls were 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. Cer- 
 tainlv he took no pains to hide his thoughts; and 
 certainly I read them like print. In the immedi- 
 ate nearness of the gold, all else had been forgot- 
 ten; 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 the island and sail away 
 as he had at first intended, laden with crime and 
 riches. 
 
 Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard 
 for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treas- 
 ure hunters. Now and again I stumbled; and it 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 255 
 
 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 peace- 
 ful, must then have rung with cries, I thought; 
 and with the thought I could believe I heard it still 
 ring. 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 possessed ; and next moment he and I had 
 come also to a dead halt. 
 
 Before us was a great excavation, not very re- 
 cent, for the sides had fallen in and grass had 
 sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft 
 of a pick broken in two and the boards of several 
 packing cases strewn around. On one of these 
 boards I saw, branded with a hot iron, the name 
 Walrus — the name of Flint's ship. 
 
 All was clear to probation. The cache had 
 been found and rifled — the seven hundred thou- 
 sand pounds were gone! 
 
256 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 
 
 There never was such an overturn in this 
 world. Each of these six men was as though he 
 had been struck. But with Silver the blow passed 
 almost instantly. Every thought of his soul had 
 been set full-stretch, like a racer, on that money; 
 well, he was brought up in a single second, dead; 
 and he kept his head, found his temper, and 
 changed his plan before the others had had time 
 to realize the disappointment. 
 
 "Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by 
 for trouble." 
 
 And he passed me a double-barrelled pistol. 
 
 At the same time he began quietly moving 
 northward, and in a few steps had put the hollow 
 between us two and the other five. Then he 
 looked at me and nodded, as much as to say, 
 "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed, I thought 
 it was. His looks were now quite friendly, and I 
 was so revolted at these constant changes that I 
 could not forbear whispering, "So you've changed 
 sides again." 
 
 There was no time left for him to answer in. 
 The buccaneers, with oaths and cries, began lo 
 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 25/ 
 
 held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It was a 
 two-guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand 
 among them for a quarter of a minute. 
 
 "Two guineas!" roared Merry, shaking it at 
 Silver. ''That's your seven hundred thousand 
 pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains, ain't 
 you? You're him that never bungled nothing, 
 you wooden-headed lubber!" 
 
 "Dig away, boys," said Silver, with the coolest 
 insolence; "you'll find some pig-nuts and I 
 shouldn't wonder." 
 
 "Pig-nuts!" repeated Merry, in a scream. 
 "Mates, do you hear that? I tell you, now, that 
 man there knew it all along. Look in the face of 
 him and you'll see it wrote there." 
 
 "Ah, Merry," remarked Silver, "standing for 
 cap'n again? You're a pushing lad, to be sure." 
 
 But this time every one was entirely in Merry's 
 favor. They began to scramble out of the exca- 
 vation, darting furious glances behind them. One 
 thing I observed which looked well for us — they 
 all got out upon the opposite side from Silver. 
 
 Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on 
 the other, the pit between us, and nobody screwed 
 up high enough to offer the first blow. Silver 
 never moved; he watched them very upright on 
 his crutch, and looked as cool as ever I saw him. 
 He was brave, and no mistake. 
 
 At last Merry seemed to think a speech might 
 help matters. 
 
 "Mates," says he, "there's two of them alone 
 there; one's the old cripple that brought us all 
 
258 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 twitch- 
 ing; and the other three turned and ran for it with 
 all their might. 
 
 Before you could wink, Long John had fired 
 two barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry; 
 and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the last 
 agony, "George," said he, "I reckon I settled 
 you." 
 
 At the same moment the doctor, Gray, and Ben 
 Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from 
 among the nutmeg trees. 
 
 "Forward!" cried the doctor. "Double quick, 
 my lads. We must head 'em off the boats." 
 
 And we set off at a great pace, sometimes 
 plunging through the bushes to the chest. 
 
 I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up 
 with us. The work that man went through, leap- 
 ing 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 al- 
 ready thirty yards behind us, and on the verge of 
 strangling,' when we reached the brow of the 
 slope. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 259 
 
 "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 pick- 
 axes, 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; and Ben Gunn, 
 the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from begin- 
 ning 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 excavation) ; he had carried it on his back, 
 in many weary journeys, from the foot of a tall 
 
200 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at 
 the northeast angle of the island, and there it had 
 lain stored in safety since two months before the 
 arrival of the Hispaniola. 
 
 When the doctor had wormed this secret from 
 him, on the afternoon of the attack, and when, 
 next morning, he saw the anchorage deserted, he 
 had gone to Silver, given him the chart, which 
 was now useless — given him the stores, for Ben 
 Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats' meat 
 salted by himself — given anything and every- 
 thing to get a chance of moving in safety from the 
 stockade to the two-pointed hill, there to be clear 
 of malaria and keep a guard upon the money. 
 
 "As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my 
 heart, but I did what I thought best for those who 
 had stood by their duty ; and if you were not one 
 of these, whose fault was it?" 
 
 That morning, finding that I was to be involved 
 in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for 
 the mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave, 
 and, leaving Squire to guard the captain, had 
 taken Gray and the maroon, and started, making 
 the diagonal across the island, to be at hand be- 
 side the pine. Soon, however, 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 am- 
 bushed before the arrival of the treasure-hunters. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 26l 
 
 "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. 
 
 Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of 
 North Inlet, what should we meet but the His- 
 paniola, cruising by herself? The last flood had 
 lifted her; and had there been much wind, or a 
 strong tide current, as in the southern anchorage, 
 we should never have found her more, or found 
 her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was 
 little amiss, beyond the wreck of the mainsail. 
 Another anchor was got ready, and dropped in a 
 
262 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 fathom and a half of water. We all pulled round 
 again to Rum Cove, the nearest point for Ben 
 Gunn's treasure-house; and then Gray, single- 
 handed, returned with the gig to the Hispaniola, 
 where he was to pass the night on guard. 
 
 A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the 
 entrance of the cave. At the top, the Squire met 
 us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying noth- 
 ing 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 vil- 
 lain and impostor — a monstrous impostor, sir. I 
 am told I am not to prosecute you. Well, then, I 
 will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your 
 neck like millstones." 
 
 "Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John, 
 again saluting. 
 
 "I dare you to thank me!" cried the Squire. 
 "It is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand 
 back." 
 
 And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was 
 a large, airy place, with a little spring and a pool 
 of clear water, overhung with ferns. The floor 
 was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett; 
 and in a far corner, only duskily flickered over by 
 the blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin and quad- 
 rilaterals 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 263 
 
 ships scuttled on the deep, what brave men walk- 
 ing the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon, what 
 shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive 
 could tell. Yet there were still three upon that 
 island — Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben Gunn — 
 who had each taken his share in these crimes, as 
 each had hoped in vain to share in the reward. 
 
 "Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a 
 good boy in your line, Jim; but I don't think you 
 and me'll go to sea again. You're too much of 
 the born favorite for me. Is that you, John Sil- 
 ver? 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 for- 
 ward when anything was wanted, even joining 
 quietly in our laughter — the same bland, polite, 
 obsequious seaman of the voyage out. 
 
264 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 AND LAST, 
 
 The next morning we fell early to work, for the 
 transportation of this great mass of gold near a 
 mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles 
 by boat to the Hispaniola, was a considerable task 
 for so small a number of workmen. The three 
 fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly 
 trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder of the 
 hill was sufficient to insure us against any sudden 
 onslaught, and we thought, besides, they had had 
 more than enough of fighting. 
 
 Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. 
 Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, 
 while the rest during their absences, piled treasure 
 on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's- 
 end, made a good load for a grown man — one that 
 he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part, 
 as I was not much use at carrying, I was kept busy 
 all day in the cave, packing the minted money 
 into bread-bags. 
 
 It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's 
 hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much 
 larger and so much more varied that I think I 
 never had more pleasure than in sorting them. 
 English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, 
 and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and 
 moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 265 
 
 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 collec- 
 tion; 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 another fortune waiting for the mor- 
 row; and all this time we heard nothing of the 
 three surviving mutineers. 
 
 At last — I think it was on the third night — the 
 doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the 
 hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle, 
 when, from out the thick darkness below, the 
 wind brought us a noise between shrieking and 
 singing. It was only a snatch that reached our 
 ears, followed by the former silence. 
 
 "Heaven forgive them," said the doctor; " 'tis 
 the mutineers!" 
 
 "All drunk, sir," struck in the voice of Silver 
 from behind us. 
 
 Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire lib- 
 erty, and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to re- 
 gard himself once more as quite a privileged and 
 friendly dependant. Indeed, it was remarkable 
 how well he bore these slights, and with what un- 
 wearying politeness he kept on trying to ingra- 
 
266 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 tiate 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 sup- 
 pose, I had reason to think even worse of him than 
 anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a 
 fresh treachery upon the plateau. Accordingly, 
 it was pretty gruffly that the doctor answered him. 
 
 "Drunk or raving," said he. 
 
 "Right you were, sir," replied Silver; "and 
 precious little odds which, to you and me." 
 
 "I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you 
 a humane man," returned the doctor with a sneer, 
 "and so my feelings may surprise you, Master Sil- 
 ver. But if I were sure they were raving — as I 
 am morally certain one, at least, of them is down 
 with fever — I should leave this camp, and, at 
 whatever risk to my own carcase, 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 your- 
 self, seeing as I know what I owes you. But 
 these men down there, they couldn't keep their 
 word— no, not supposing they ^wished to; and 
 what's more, they couldn't believe as you could." 
 
 "No," said the doctor. "You're the man to 
 keep your word, we know that." 
 
 Well, that was about the last news we had of the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 267 
 
 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 ap- 
 proval of Gray. We left a good stock of powder 
 and shot, the bulk of the salt goat, a few medi- 
 cines, 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 pres- 
 ent of tobacco. 
 
 This was about our last doing on the island. 
 Before that, we had got the treasure stowed, and 
 had shipped enough water and the remainder of 
 the goat meat, in case of any distress ; and at last, 
 one fine morning, we weighed anchor, which was 
 about all that we could manage, and stood out of 
 North Inlet, the same colors flying that the cap- 
 tain had flown and fought under at the palisade. 
 
 The three fellows must have been watching us 
 closer than we thought for, as we soon had 
 proved. For, coming through the narrows, we 
 had to lie very near the southern point, and there 
 we saw all three of them kneeling together on a 
 spit of sand, with their arms raised in supplication. 
 It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in 
 that wretched state ; but we could not risk another 
 mutiny; and to take them home for the gibbet 
 would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The 
 doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we 
 had left, and where they were to find them. But 
 they continued to call us by name, and appeal to 
 
268 TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 us, for God's sake, to be merciful, and not leave 
 them to die in such a place. 
 
 At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, 
 and was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one 
 of them — I know not which it was — leaped to his 
 feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his 
 shoulder, and sent a shot whistling over Silver's 
 head and through the mainsail. 
 
 After that, we kept under cover of the bulwarks, 
 and when next I looked out they had disappeared 
 from the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted 
 out of sight in the growing distance. That was, 
 at least, the end of that; and before noon, to my 
 inexpressible joy, the highest rock of Treasure 
 Island had sunk into the blue round of sea. 
 
 We were so short of men that every one on 
 board had to bear a hand — only the captain lying 
 on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders; 
 for, though greatly recovered, he was still in want 
 of quiet. We laid her head for the nearest port 
 in Spanish America, for we could not risk the 
 voyage home without fresh hands; and as it was, 
 what with baffling winds and a couple of fresh 
 gales, we were all worn out before we reached it. 
 
 It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in 
 a most beautiful land-locked gulf, and were im- 
 mediately surrounded by shore boats full of ne- 
 groes, and Mexican Indians, and half-bloods, sell- 
 ing fruits and vegetables, and offering to dive for 
 bits of money. The sight of so many good-hu- 
 mored faces (especially the blacks), the taste of 
 the tropical fruits, and above all, the lights that 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 269 
 
 began to shine in the town, made a most charming 
 contrast to our dark and 'bloody sojourn on the 
 island; and the doctor and the Squire, taking me 
 along with them, went ashore to pass the early 
 part of the night. Here they met the captain of 
 an English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went 
 on board his ship, and, in short, had so agreeable 
 a time, that day was breaking when we came 
 alongside the Hispaniola. 
 
 Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and, as soon as 
 we came on board, he began, with wonderful con- 
 tortions, 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 
 unobserved, and had removed one of the sacks of 
 coin, worth, perhaps, three or four hundred gui- 
 neas, to help him on his further wanderings. 
 
 I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit 
 of him. 
 
 Well, to make a long story short, we got a few 
 hands on board, made a good cruise home, and 
 the Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Bland- 
 ly was beginning to think of fitting out her con- 
 sort. Five men only of those who had sailed re- 
 turned with her. "Drink and the devil had done 
 for the rest," with a vengeance; although, to be 
 
27O TREASURE ISLAND. 
 
 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 na- 
 tures. Captain Smollett is now retired from the 
 sea. Gray not only saved his money, but, being 
 suddenly smit with the desire to rise, also studied 
 his profession ; and he is now mate and part owner 
 of a fine full-rigged ship; married besides, and the 
 father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a 
 thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three 
 weeks, or, to be more exact, in nineteen days, for 
 he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he 
 was given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had 
 feared upon the island; and he still lives, a great 
 favorite, though something of a butt, with the 
 country boys, and a notable singer in church on 
 Sundays and saints' days. 
 
 Of Silver we have heard no more. That for- 
 midable 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 Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, 
 I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another 
 world are very small. 
 
 The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I 
 know, where Flint buried them; and certainly 
 they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes 
 
TREASURE ISLAND. 271 
 
 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 Cap- 
 tain Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of 
 eight! pieces of eight!"