■ : ^'^%.^r ' UNIVERSITY OF^a AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://archive.org/details/treasureislandstev 
 
"OUR LITTLE WALK ALONG THE QUAYS." - PAGE 40 
 
PEASUPE SLAND 
 
 BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 M c LOUGHLIN BROTHERS 
 
Robert Louis Stevenson. Page 2 Treasure Island 
 
Treasure. Island 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE OLD SKA DOG AT THE ADMIRAL BENBOW 
 
 QUIRE TRELAWXEY and Doctor Livesey 
 having asked me to write down the particulars 
 about Treasure Island, keeping nothing hack hut 
 the hearings of the island, and that only because 
 there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my 
 pen in the year of grace 17 — , and go back to the 
 time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow 
 Inn, and the brown old seaman 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 following behind him in a hand-barrow; 
 a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pig-tail falling over 
 the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, 
 with black, broken nails, and the saber-cut across one cheek, a dirty, 
 livid white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling 
 to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song 
 that he sung so often afterward: 
 
 "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 
 bi-oken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door, and when 
 my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This he drank 
 slowly, still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard. 
 "This is a handy cove," said he, at length. "Much company, 
 
4 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 mate?" — My father told him no, the more the pity. — "Well, then," 
 said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the 
 man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my 
 chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum 
 and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to 
 watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me 
 captain. Oh, I see what you're at — there"; and he threw down three 
 or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've 
 worked through that," said he, looking as fierce as a commander. 
 
 He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the 
 cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope. 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. He took me aside 
 one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every 
 month if I would keep my "weather eye open for a seafaring man 
 with one leg," and let him know the moment he appeared. How that 
 personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. 
 
 But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man 
 with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody 
 else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more 
 rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would some- 
 times sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; 
 but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the 
 trembling company to bear a chorus to his singing. Nor would he 
 allow any one to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and 
 reeled off to bed. My father was always sa3 r ing the inn would be 
 ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over 
 and sent shivering to their beds ; but his presence did us good. People 
 were frightened at the time ; but on looking back they rather liked it ; 
 it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 5 
 
 All the time he lived with us the captain made no change what- 
 ever 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, and which, before 
 the end, was nothing but patches. lie never wrote or received a letter, 
 and he never spoke with any hot the neighbors, and with these only 
 when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen 
 open. 
 
 He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end, when 
 my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Doctor 
 Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of 
 dinner, and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe. 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 man- 
 ners, made with the coltish country folk, and, above all, with that 
 filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone 
 in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly the captain 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!" 
 
 and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a w r ay we 
 all knew to mean — silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Doctor 
 Livesey's; he went on 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, and broke out with a low oath: 
 "Silence, there, between decks!" — "Were you addressing me, sir?" said 
 the doctor; and when the ruffian told him, with another oath, that this 
 was so, replied: "I have only one thing to say to you, sir, that if you 
 
6 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 oj^ened 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 over his shoulder, and in the 
 same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but 
 perfectly calm and steady: "If you do not put that knife this instant 
 into your pocket, I promise you shall hang at the next assizes." 
 
 Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain 
 soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grum- 
 bling 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 means to have you hunted down and 
 routed out of this." 
 
 Soon after Doctor Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode 
 away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many even- 
 ings to come. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS 
 
 It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of 
 the mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not 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. 
 
 It was one January morning, very early — a pinching, frosty 
 
TREASURE ISLAND / 
 
 morning — the cove all gray with hoar frost, the ripple lapping softly 
 on the stones, the sun still low, and only touching the hill-tops and 
 shining far to seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual, and 
 set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of 
 the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back 
 upon his head. 
 
 Well, mother was up-stairs with father, and I was laying the 
 breakfast table, when the parlor door opened and a man stepped in 
 on whom I had never set eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy crea- 
 ture, wanting two fingers of the left hand. I had always my eyes 
 open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one 
 puzzled me. I asked him what was for his service, and he said he 
 would take rum, but as I was going out to fetch it he sat down upon 
 a table and motioned to me to draw near. I paused where I Avas with 
 my napkin in my hand. 
 
 "Come here, sonny," said he. "Come nearer here." I took a step 
 nearer. "Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked, with a kind of 
 leer. I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person 
 who stayed at our house, whom we called the captain. "Well," said 
 he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain. He has a cut on one 
 cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has 
 my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like, that your captain has 
 a cut on one cheek. Now, is my mate Bill in this here house?" 
 
 I told him he was out walking. — "Which way, sonny? Which 
 way is he gone?" ' And when I had pointed out the rock and told him 
 how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few 
 other questions, "Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate 
 Bill." 
 
 The expression of his face as he said these words was not pleasant, 
 and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was mistaken. 
 But it was no affair of mine, and, besides, it was difficult to know what 
 to do. The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, 
 
8 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I 
 stepped out myself into the road, but he called me back, and, as I did 
 not obey quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over 
 his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. 
 
 As soon as I was back again he returned to his former manner, 
 half -fawning, half -sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I 
 was a good boy, and he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son 
 of my own," said he, "as like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride 
 of my 'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny — dis- 
 cipline. Xow t , if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have 
 stood there to be spoken to twice — not you. And here, sure enough, 
 is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old 'art, to 
 be sure. You and me'll just go back into the parlor, sonny, and get 
 behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little surprise — bless his 'art, I say 
 again." 
 
 So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlor, and 
 put me behind him in the corner, so that we were both hidden by the 
 open door. I was very alarmed, and it rather added to my fears to 
 observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself. 
 
 At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, with- 
 out looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room 
 to where his breakfast awaited him. "Bill," said the stranger, in a 
 voice that I thought he had tried to make bold and big. The captain 
 spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had gone out of 
 his face, and even his nose was blue; he had the look of a man who 
 sees a ghost, and I felt sorry to see him 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 ship- 
 mate. 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Page . 
 
10 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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, and we'll sit 
 down and talk square, like old shipmates." 
 
 When I returned with the rum they were already seated on either 
 side of the tahle — Black Dog next to the door, and sitting sideways, 
 so as to have one eye on his old shipmate and one, as I thought, on his 
 retreat. He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of 
 your keyholes for me, sonny," he said, and I left them together and 
 retired into the bar. 
 
 For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could 
 hear nothing but a low gabbling ; but at last the voices began to grow 
 higher, and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the 
 captain. "No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried once. And 
 again, "If it comes to swinging, swing all, say I." 
 
 Then all of a sudden there was an explosion of oaths; 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. Just at the 
 door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut, which 
 would certainly have split him to the chine had it not been intercepted 
 by our big signboard of Admiral Benbow. 
 
 That blow was the last of the battle. Once out upon the road, 
 Black Dog showed a wonderful clean pair of heels, and disappeared 
 over the edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain stood staring 
 at the signboard like a bewildered man. Then he passed his hand 
 over his eyes and turned back into the house. "Jim," says he, "rum"; 
 and as he spoke he reeled a little, and caught himself with one hand 
 against the wall. — "Are you hurt?" cried I. — "Rum," he repeated, "I 
 must get away from here. Rum ! rum !" 
 
 I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen 
 out, and while I was still getting in my own way, I heard a loud fall in 
 
TREASURE ISLAND I I 
 
 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, and his face was a 
 horrible color. "Dear, deary me!" cried my mother, "what a disgrace 
 upon the house. And your poor father sick." 
 
 In the meantime we had no idea what to do to help the captain, 
 nor any other thought but that he had got his death-hurt in the 
 scuffle with the stranger. I got the rum, 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!" said the doctor. "No more wounded than you or I. 
 The man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins, 
 just you run up-stairs to your husband and tell him, if possible, nothing 
 about it. Jim here will get me a basin." 
 
 When I got back with the basin the doctor had already ripped 
 up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm. It was 
 tattooed in several places. "Here's luck," "A fair wind," and "Billy 
 Bones, his fancy," were very neatly executed on the forearm; and 
 up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hang- 
 ing from it — done, as I thought, with great spirit. 
 
 "Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this picture with his finger. 
 "And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a 
 look at the color of your blood. Jim," he said, "are you afraid of 
 blood?"— "No, sir," said I.— "Well, then," said he, "you hold the 
 basin," and with that he took his lancet and opened a vein. 
 
 A great deal of blood was taken before the captain opened his 
 eyes and looked mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor 
 with a frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked relieved. 
 But suddenly his color changed, and he tried to raise himself, crying: 
 
12 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 "Where's Black Dog?" — "There is no Black Dog here," said the doc- 
 tor, "except what you have on your own back. You have been drinking 
 rum; you have had a stroke, as I told you; and I have just 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, we managed to hoist him up-stairs, and laid him on 
 his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow. "Now, mind you," 
 said the doctor, "I clear my conscience — the name of rum for you is 
 death." And with that he went off to see my father, taking me with 
 him by the arm. "This is nothing," he said, as soon as he had closed 
 the door. "I have drawn blood enough to keep him quiet awhile; he 
 should lie for a week where he is — that is the best thing for him and 
 you, but another stroke would settle him." 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BLACK SPOT 
 
 About noon I stopped at the captain's door with some cooling 
 drinks and medicines. He was lying very much as we had left him, 
 and he seemed both weak and excited. "Jim," he said, "you're the 
 only one here that's worth anything; and you know I've always been 
 good to you. And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low, and Jim, you'll 
 bring me one noggin of rum, now won't you, matey?" — "The doc- 
 tor — " I began. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 13 
 
 But he broke in cursing the doctor. "Doctors is all swabs," he 
 said; "and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring 
 men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with 
 yellow jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earth- 
 quakes — 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. 
 Look, Jim," he continued in the pleading tone, "I haven't had a drop 
 this blessed day. 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'll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't hurt me. 
 I'll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim." 
 
 He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me, 
 for my father, who was very low that day, needed quiet ; besides, I was 
 reassured by the doctor's words. "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 a 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 sea- 
 manly behavior, now, I want to know? But I'm a saving soul. I 
 never wasted good money of mine, and I'll trick 'em again. I'll shake 
 out another reef, matey, and daddle 'em again." 
 
 As he was speaking, he had risen from bed with great difficulty, 
 holding my shoulder with a grip that almost made me cry out, and 
 moving his legs like so much dead weight. He paused when he had got 
 into a sitting position on the edge. "That doctor's done me," he mur- 
 mured. "My ears is singing. Lay me back." Before I could do much 
 
14 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 to help him he had fallen back again to his former place, where he lay 
 for awhile silent. 
 
 "Jim," he said, at length, "you saw that seafaring man to-day?" 
 — "Black Dog?" I asked. — "Ah! Black Dog," said he. "He's a bad 
 'un; but there's worse that put him on. Now, if I can't get away 
 nohow, and they tip me the black spot, mind you, it's my old sea-chest 
 they're after; you get on a horse — you can, can't you? Well, then, 
 you get on a horse and go to — to that eternal doctor swab, and tell him 
 to pipe all hands — magistrates and sich — and he'll lay 'em aboard at 
 the Admiral Benbow — all old Flint's crew, man and boy, all on 'em 
 that's left. I was first mate, I was, old Flint's first mate, and I'm the 
 on'y one as knows the place. He gave it me to Savannah, when he 
 lay a-dying. But you won't peach unless they get the black spot on 
 me, or unless you see that Black Dog again, or a seafaring man with 
 one leg, Jim — him above all." — "But what is the black spot, captain?" 
 I asked. — "That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that. 
 But you keep your weather-eye open, Jim, and I'll share with you 
 equals, upon my honor." 
 
 He wandered a little longer, his voice growing weaker; but soon 
 after I had given him his medicine, he fell into a heavy sleep, in which 
 I left him. What I should have done had all gone well I do not 
 know. But as things fell out, my poor father died quite suddenly 
 that evening, which put all other matters on one side. Our natural 
 distress, the visits of the neighbors, the arranging of the funeral, and 
 all the work of the inn to be carried on in the meanwhile, kept me so 
 busy that I had scarcely time to think of the captain, far less to be 
 afraid of him. 
 
 He got down-stairs next morning, and had his meals as usual, 
 though he eat little, and had more, I am afraid, than his usual supply 
 of rum, for he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing 
 through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. Weak as he was, 
 we were all in fear of death for him, and the doctor was suddenly 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 15 
 
 taken up with a case many miles away, and was never near the house 
 after my father's death. The captain was weak, and seemed rather 
 to grow weaker than to regain his strength. He clambered up and 
 down-stairs, and went from the parlor to the bar and back again, and 
 sometimes put his nose out-of-doors to smell the sea. He never 
 addressed me, 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 
 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, when I saw some one drawing slowly near along the road. He 
 w T as plainly blind, for he tapped before him with a stick, and wore a 
 great green shade over his eyes and nose; and he was hunched, as if 
 with age or weakness, and wore a huge old tattered sea-cloak with a 
 hood that made him appear deformed. He stopped a little from the 
 inn, and raising his voice in an old sing-song, addressed the air in 
 front of him. "Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, who 
 has lost the precious sight of his eyes in the gracious defense of his 
 native country, England, and God bless King George! — where or in 
 what part of this country he may now be?" — "You are at the Admiral 
 Benbow, Black Hill Cove," 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 f 
 
 I held out my hand, and the horrible eyeless creature gripped it in 
 a moment like a vise. I was so much startled that I struggled to with- 
 draw, but the blind man pulled me close up to him with a single action 
 of his arm. "Now, boy," he said, "take me in to the captain." — "Sir," 
 said I, "upon my word I dare not." — "Oh," lie sneered, "that's it! 
 
16 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Take me in straight, or I'll break your arm." He gave it, as he 
 spoke, a wrench that made me cry out. 
 
 "Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The captain is not what 
 he used to be. He sits with a drawn cutlass. Another gentleman " 
 
 "Come, now, march," interrupted he, and I never heard a voice 
 so cruel, and cold, and ugly, as that blind man's. I began to obey him 
 at once, walking straight in at the door and toward the parlor, where 
 the sick old buccaneer was sitting, dazed with rum. The blind man 
 clung close to me, holding me in one iron fist. — "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. I was so terrified by the blind 
 beggar that I forgot my terror of the captain, and as I opened the 
 parlor door, cried out the words he had ordered in a trembling voice. 
 
 The captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum went out of 
 him and left him staring sober. He made a movement to rise, but I 
 do not believe he had enough force left in his body. — "Now, Bill, sit 
 where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can hear a finger 
 stirring. Business is business. Hold out your left band. Boy. take 
 his left hand by the wrist and bring it near to my right." We both 
 obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the hollow 
 of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's, which 
 closed upon it instantly. 
 
 "And now that's done," said the blind man, and at the words he 
 suddenly left hold of me, and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness, 
 skipped out of the parlor and into the road, where, as I stood motion- 
 less, I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance. 
 
 It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to gather 
 our senses; but at length, and about the same moment, I released his 
 wrist, which I was still holding, and he drew in his hand, and looked 
 sharply into the palm. "Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours! We'll 
 do them yet!" and be sprang to his feet. Even as he did so, he reeled. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 17 
 
 put his hand to his throat, stood swaying- for a moment, and then, with 
 a peculiar sound, fell face foremost to the floor. I ran to him, calling 
 my mother. But haste was all in vain. The captain had heen struck 
 dead by apoplexy. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SEA-CHEST 
 
 I lost no time in telling my mother all that I knew, and we saw 
 ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the 
 man's money was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our cap- 
 tain's shipmates would be inclined to give up their booty in payment 
 of the dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at once and 
 ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone and unpro- 
 tected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed impossible 
 for either of us to remain much longer in the house ; the fall of coals 
 in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, filled us with alarm. 
 
 The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching 
 footsteps ; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor 
 floor and the thought of that blind beggar hovering near at hand, there 
 were moments when I jumped in my skin for terror. Something must 
 speedily be resolved upon, and it occurred to us to seek help in the 
 neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bareheaded as we 
 were, we ran out in the gathering evening and the frosty fog. 
 
 The hamlet lay some hundred yards away on the other side of the 
 next cove, 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 
 harken. 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 
 
18 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 help we were 
 likely to get in that quarter. For no soul would consent to return 
 with us. The more we told of our troubles, the more they clung to the 
 shelter of their houses. The name of Captain Flint was well enough 
 known to some there, and carried a great weight of terror. Some of 
 the men remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on the 
 road, and, taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one 
 at least had seen a little lugger in what we call Kitt's Hole. And 
 the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could get sev- 
 eral who were willing enough to ride to Doctor Livesey's, not one 
 would help us to defend the inn. 
 
 They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is a great 
 emboldener; and so when each had his say, my mother made them a 
 speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that belonged to her 
 fatherless bo}\ "If none of the rest of you dare," said she, "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 f oolhardiness ; but all they would do was to give 
 me a loaded pistol, and to promise to have horses ready saddled, in 
 case we were pursued on our return ; while one lad was to ride forward 
 to the doctor's in search of armed assistance. My heart was beating 
 fiercely when we set forth. A full moon was beginning to rise, and 
 it was plain, before we came forth again, thai all would be bright as 
 day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We 
 slipped along the hedges, nor did we see or hear anything 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 19 
 
 Page 30. 
 
20 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 mother got a candle and 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 clown 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." I went down on my knees at once. On the 
 floor close to his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened on 
 one side. I could not doubt that this was the black spot; and, taking 
 it up, I found written on the other side, "You have till ten to-night." 
 "He had till ten, mother," said I; and, just as I said it, our old clock 
 began striking. It was only six. — "Now, Jim," she said, "that key!" 
 I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble, 
 and some thread and needles, a piece of pigtail tobacco, a pocket com- 
 pass, and a tinder-box, were all that they contained, and I began to 
 despair. — "Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother. I 
 tore open his shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging to a 
 bit of tarry string, we found the key. At this triumph we were filled 
 with hope, and hurried up-stairs to the little room where his box had 
 stood since the day of his arrival. 
 
 "Give me the key," said my mother, and though the lock was very 
 stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling. A 
 strong smell of tobacco and tar arose from the interior, but nothing 
 was to be seen on the top except a suit of very good clothes, carefully 
 brushed and folded. Under that the miscellany, began — a quadrant, 
 several sticks of tobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a piece 
 of bar silver, and some trinkets of little value, a pair of compasses 
 mounted with brass, and five or six curious West Indian shells. Un- 
 derneath there was an old boat-cloak, whitened with sea-salt on many 
 a harbor-bar. My mother pulled it up with impatience, and there 
 lay before us, a bundle tied up in oil-cloth, and looking like papers, 
 and a canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold. 
 
 "I'll show those rogues that I'm an honest woman," said my 
 mother. "I'll have my dues and not a farthing over. Hold Mrs, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 21 
 
 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. 
 
 When we were about half-way through, I suddenly put my hand 
 upon her arm, for I had heard in the silent air a sound that brought 
 my heart into my mouth — the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick 
 upon the frozen road. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat hold- 
 ing our breath. Then it struck sharp on the inn door, and then we 
 coidd 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. At last the tapping recommenced, and to ou.r joy, died slowly 
 away again. 
 
 "Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going." But my 
 mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a fraction 
 more than was due to her. It was not yet seven, she said, and she was 
 still arguing with me, when a little low whistle sounded a good way 
 off upon the hill. That was enough, and more than enough, for both 
 of us. "I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet. — "And 
 I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin packet. 
 
 Next moment we were both groping down-stairs, leaving the 
 candle by the empty chest; and the next we had opened the door and 
 were in full retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The 
 fog was rapidly dispersing ; already the moon shone quite clear on the 
 high ground on either side,. and it was only in the exact bottom of the 
 dell and round the tavern door that a thin veil still hung. Far less 
 than half-way to the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill, 
 we must come forth into the moonlight. Nor was this all; for the 
 sound of several footsteps running came to our ears, and as we looked 
 back, a light, rapidly advancing, showed that one of the newcomers 
 carried a lantern. 
 
 "My dear," said my mother suddenly, "take the money and run 
 on. I am going to faint." We were just at the little bridge, and I 
 helped her to the edge of the bank, where, sure enough, she fell on my 
 
22 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do it, but I 
 managed to drag her down the bank and a little way under the arch. 
 Farther I could not move her; so there we had to stay — my mother 
 almost entirely exposed, and both of us within ear-shot of the inn. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE EAST OF THE BLIND MAN 
 
 My curiosity was stronger than my fear; for I could not remain 
 where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence I might com- 
 mand the road before our door. I was scarcely in position ere my 
 enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, the 
 man with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran together, 
 hand in hand ; and I made out that the middle man of this trio was the 
 blind beggar. The next moment his voice showed me that I was right. 
 "Down with the door!" he cried. — "Ay, ay, sir!" answered two or 
 three; and a rush was made upon the Admiral Benbow, the lantern- 
 bearer following; and then I could see them pause, as if they were 
 surprised to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the 
 blind man again issued his commands. His voice sounded louder and 
 higher, as if he were afire with eagerness and rage. "In, in, in!" he 
 shouted, and cursed them for their delay. 
 
 Four or five of them obeyed at once. There was a pause, then 
 a cry of surprise, and then a voice shouting from the house: "Bill's 
 dead!" But the blind man swore at them again for their delay. 
 "Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft 
 and get the chest," he cried. 
 
 I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that the house 
 must have shook with it. Promptly afterward fresh sounds of aston- 
 ishment arose; the window of the captain's room was thrown open 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 23 
 
 with a slam, and a man leaned out into the moonlight, head and shoul- 
 ders, and addressed the Wind beggar on the road below him. "Pew!" 
 he cried, "they've been before us. Some one's turned the chest out 
 alow and aloft." — "Is it there?" roared Pew. — "The money's there." 
 — The blind man cursed the money. "Flint's fist, I mean," he cried. 
 • — "We don't see it here, nohow," returned the man. — "Here, you 
 below here, 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 overhauled a'ready," 
 said he, "nothin' left." — "It's these people of the inn — it's that boy. 
 I wish I had put his eyes out!" cried the blind man. "They were here 
 no time ago — they had the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, 
 and find 'em." — "Sure enough, they left their glim here," said the 
 fellow from the window. — "Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house 
 out!" reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the road. 
 
 Then there followed a great to-do through all our old inn, heavy 
 feet pounding to and fro, furniture all thrown over, doors kicked in, 
 until the very rocks re-echoed, and the men came out again, one after 
 another, on the road, and declared that we were nowhere to be found. 
 Just then the same whistle that had alarmed my mother and myself 
 was clearly audible through the night, but this time twice repeated. I 
 had thought it to be the blind man summoning his crew to the assault ; 
 but I now found that it was a signal from the hillside toward the 
 hamlet, and from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them 
 of approaching danger. — "There's Dirk again," said one. — "Twice! 
 We'll have to budge, mates." — "Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. 
 "Dirk was a fool and a coward from the first — you wouldn't mind 
 him. They must be close by; scatter and look for them, dogs. Oh, 
 shiver my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!" 
 
 This apjieal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows 
 began to look here and there among the lumber, but half-heartedly, 
 and with half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest 
 
24 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 he struck at them right and left in his blindness, 
 and his stick sounded heavily on more than one. These, in their turn, 
 threatened him in horrid terms, and tried to catch the stick and wrest 
 it from his grasp. 
 
 This quarrel was the saving of us; for while it was still raging, 
 another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the hamlet 
 — the tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the same time a pistol- 
 shot came from the hedge-side. And that was plainly the last signal 
 of danger, for the buccaneers turned at once and ran, 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, 
 and there he remained, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, 
 and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn, and 
 ran a few steps past me, toward 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, and swept down the slope. At this Pew saw his 
 error, turned with a scream, and ran straight for the ditch, into which 
 he rolled. But he was on his feet again in a second, and made another 
 dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 25 
 
 horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew, 
 and the four hoofs trampled him and passed by. He fell on his side, 
 and moved no more. I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. 
 They were pulling up, and I soon saw what they were. One was a 
 lad that had gone from the hamlet to Doctor Livesey's ; the rest were 
 revenue officers, whom he had met by the way. Some news of the 
 lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance, and 
 sent him forth that night in our direction, and to. that circumstance 
 my mother and I owed our preservation from death. 
 
 Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we had 
 carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water and salts very soon 
 brought her back again, and she was none the worse for her terror, 
 though she still continued to deplore the balance of the money. 
 
 In the meantime the supervisor rode on to Kitt's Hole; but his 
 men had to dismount and grope down the dingle, in continual fear 
 of ambushers; so it was no great matter for surprise that when we 
 got down the lugger was already under way; 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. All 
 
 he could do was to dispatch a man to B to warn the cutter. "And 
 
 that," said he, "is just about as good as nothing. They've got off 
 clean, and there's an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad I trod on 
 Master Pew's corns," — for by this time he had heard my story. 
 
 I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you can not 
 imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been 
 thrown down in the furious hunt, 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 
 
26 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 money, I think," replied I. — "I believe I have the thing in my breast- 
 pocket; and, to tell yon the truth, I should like to get it put in safety." 
 -"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take it, if you like." — 
 "I thought, perhaps, Doctor Livesey — " I began. — "Perfectly right," 
 he interrupted, "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 for the offer, and we walked back to the hamlet where 
 the horses were. By the time I had told mother of my purpose they 
 were all in the saddle. 
 
 "Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse; take up 
 this lad behind you." As soon as I was mounted, the supervisor gave 
 the word, and the party struck out at a bouncing trot on the road to 
 Doctor Livesey's house. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS 
 
 We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before Doctor Livesey's 
 door. The house was all dark in front. Dance told me to jump 
 down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The 
 door was opened by the maid. "Is Doctor Livesey in?" I asked. — 
 "No," she said. He 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 to 
 the lodge gates, and up the long, moonlit avenue to where the white 
 line of the Hall buildings looked on either hand on great old gardens. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 11 
 
 Here Dance dismounted, and taking me along with him, was admitted 
 at a word into the house. 
 
 The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed us at the 
 end into a great library, all lined with book-cases, where the squire 
 and Doctor Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of the bright fire. 
 I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall man, over 
 six feet high, and he had a bluff face, all roughened and lined in his 
 long travels. His eyebrows were very black, and moved readily, and 
 this gave him a look of some temper, not bad, you would say, but quick 
 and high. "Come in, Mr. Dance," said he, very stately and con- 
 descending. "Good-evening, Dance," said the doctor, with a nod. 
 "And good-evening to you, friend Jim. What good wind brings you 
 here?" 
 
 The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and told his story like 
 a lesson; and you should have seen how the two gentlemen leaned 
 forward and looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their interest. 
 When they heard how my mother went back to the inn, Doctor Live- 
 sey fairly slapped his thigh, and the squire cried "Bravo." Long 
 before it was done, Mr. Trelawney (that was the squire's name) had 
 got up from his seat, and was striding about the room, and the doctor, 
 as if to hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, 
 looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped, black poll. 
 At last Dance finished the story. 
 
 "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? 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 1, and gave him the oil- 
 skin packet. The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were itch- 
 ing to open it; but, instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the 
 
28 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 pocket of his coat. — "Squire," said he, "when Dance has had his ale he 
 must, of course, he off on his majesty's service ; but I mean to keep Jim 
 Hawkins here to sleep at my house, and, with your permission, I pro- 
 pose we should have up the cold pie, and let him sup." — "As you will, 
 Livesey," said the squire; "Hawkins has earned better than cold pie." 
 So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a side-table, and I made 
 a hearty supper, for I was as hungry as a hawk, while Dance was 
 further complimented, and at last dismissed. 
 
 "And now, squire," said the doctor. — "And now, Livesey," said 
 the squire, in the same breath. — "One at a time," laughed Doctor 
 Livesey. "You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?" — "Heard of 
 him!" cried the squire. "He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that 
 sailed. The Spaniards were so afraid of him that I was sometimes 
 proud he was an Englishman." — "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 confound- 
 edly hot-headed and exclamatory that I can not get a word in. What 
 I want to know is this: Supposing that I have here in my pocket 
 some clew 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 clew you talk about, I fit out a ship in Bristol dock, and 
 take you and Hawkins here along, and I'll have that treasure if I 
 search a year." — "Very well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if Jim 
 is agreeable, we'll open the packet," and he laid it before him on the 
 table. 
 
 The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 29 
 
 Page 25. 
 
30 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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," and some other 
 snatches, mostly single words. — "Not much instruction there," said 
 Doctor Livesey, as he passed on. 
 
 .The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious series 
 of entries. There was a date at one end of the line and at the other a 
 sum of money, as in common account-books; but instead of explana- 
 tory writing, only a varying number of crosses between the two. On 
 the 12th of June, 1745, for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had 
 plainly become due to some one, and there was nothing but six crosses 
 to explain the cause. In a few cases, to be sure, the name of a place 
 would be added, as "Offe Caraccas"; or a mere entry of latitude and 
 longitude, as "62 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, and these words appended, "Bones his pile." 
 
 "I can't make head or tail of this," said Doctor Livesey. — "The 
 thing is as clear as noonday," cried the squire. "This is the black- 
 hearted hound's account-book. These crosses stand for the names of 
 ships or towns that they sunk or plundered. The sums are the scoun- 
 drel's share, and where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added some- 
 thing clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see here was some unhappy 
 vessel boarded off that coast." — "Right!" said the doctor. "See what 
 it is to be a traveler. Right! And the amounts increase, you see, as 
 he rose in rank." There was little else in the volume but a few bear- 
 ings of places noted in the blank leaves toward the end, and a table for 
 reducing French, English, and Spanish moneys to a common value. 
 "Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the one to be cheated." 
 ■ — "And now," said the squire, "for the other." 
 
 The paper had been sealed in several places. The doctor opened 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 31 
 
 the seals with great care, and there fell out the map of an island, with 
 latitude and longitude, soundings, names of hills and hays 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, and had two fine land-locked harbors, and a hill in the center 
 marked "The Spy-glass." There were several additions of a later 
 date; but, above all, three crosses of red ink, two on the north part of 
 the island, one in the southwest, and, beside this last, in the same red 
 ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the captain's tot- 
 tery characters, these words: "Bulk of treasure here." Over on the 
 back the same hand had written this further information: 
 
 "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of 
 N. N. E. 
 
 "Skeleton Island E. S. E. and by E. 
 
 "Ten feet. 
 
 "The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the trend 
 of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black crag with the 
 face on it. 
 
 "The arms are easy found, in the sandhill, N. point of north inlet 
 cape, bearing E. and a quarter N. J. F." 
 
 That was all, but brief as it was, it filled the squire and Doctor 
 Livesey with delight. "Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up 
 this wretched practice at once. To-morrow I start for Bristol. In 
 three weeks' time — three weeks! — two weeks — ten days — we'll have 
 the best ship, sir, and the choicest crew in England. Hawkins shalli 
 come as cabin-boy. You'll make a famous cabin-boy, Hawkins. You, 
 Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am admiral. We'll take Redruth, Joyce, 
 and Hunter. We'll have favorable winds and 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." — 
 
32 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 "And who is that?" cried the squire. "Name the dog, sir!" — "You," 
 replied the doctor, "for you can not 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 are one and all bound that they'll get that money. 
 We must none of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I shall stick 
 together in the meanwhile', you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you 
 ride to Bristol, and, from first to last, not one of us must breathe a 
 word of what we've found." — "Livesey," returned the squire, "you 
 are always in the right of it. I'll be as silent as the grave." 
 
 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 could be carried out as we intended. 
 The doctor had to go to London for a physician to take charge of his 
 practice; the squire was hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the 
 Hall under the charge of old Redruth, the game-keeper. One fine 
 day there came a letter addressed to Doctor Livesey, with this addition, 
 "To be opened in the case of his absence, by Tom Redruth or Young 
 Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found, or rather I found — for 
 the game-keeper was a poor hand at reading anything but print — the 
 following important news: 
 
 "Old Anchorage Inn, at Bristol, March 1, 17 — . 
 
 "Dear Livesey: As I do not know whether you are at the Hall 
 or still in London, I send this in double to both places. 
 
 "The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea. 
 You never imagined a sweeter schooner, two hundred tons; name, 
 Hispaniola. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 33 
 
 "I got her through my old friend. Blandly, who has proved him- 
 self 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. 
 
 "Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and by the most admir- 
 able management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of 
 men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go 
 the length of declaring that this honest creature would do anything 
 for money ; that the Hispaniola belonged to him and that he sold it to 
 me absurdly high — the most transparent calumnies. None of them 
 dare, however, to deny the merits of the ship. So far there was not a 
 hitch. The work-people, 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 to find so 
 much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune 
 brought me the very man I required. I was standing on the deck, 
 when, by the merest accident, I fell in talk with him. I found he was 
 an old sailor, kept a public house, knew all the seafaring men in Bris- 
 tol, 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 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 abom- 
 inable age we live in ! 
 
 "Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew 
 I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a 
 few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable — not pretty 
 to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit. I 
 declare we could fight a frigate. Long John even got rid of two out 
 of the six or seven I had already engaged. He showed me in a moment 
 that they were just the sort of fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an 
 adventure of importance. 
 
 "I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, yet I shall not 
 
34 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 j:>ost. 
 
 "Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth 
 for a guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol. 
 
 "Jojtn Trelawney." 
 
 "P. S. — I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to 
 send a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had 
 found an admirable fellow for sailing-master — a stiff man, which I 
 regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver un- 
 earthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. 
 
 "I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of 
 my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never 
 been overdrawn. J. 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. The next morning I set out on foot 
 for the Admiral Benbow, and there I found my mother in good health 
 and spirits. The squire had had everything repaired, and had added 
 some furniture — above all, a beautiful arm-chair for mother in the 
 bar. He had found her a boy as an apprentice, also, so that she 
 should not want help while I was gone. 
 
 It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my 
 situation. I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before 
 me, not at all of the home that I was leaving ; and now at sight of this 
 clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, 
 I had my first attack of tears. The night passed, and the next day 
 Redruth and I were afoot again. I had said good-by to mother and 
 the cove where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old Admiral 
 Benbow. Next moment we had turned the corner, and my home was 
 out of sight. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 35 
 
 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 
 slept like a log up hill and down dale, through stage after stage; for 
 when I was awakened at last, I opened my eyes to find that we were 
 standing before a large building in a city street. "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. And I 
 was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner, with a piping boatswain, 
 and pig-tailed singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown island, 
 and to seek for buried treasure. 
 
 While I was in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front 
 of a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea 
 officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his 
 face, and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk. "Here you are!" he 
 cried; "and the doctor came last night from London. Bravo! — the 
 ship's company complete." — "Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?" — - 
 "Sail!" says he. "We sail to-morrow." 
 
36 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AT THE SIGN OF THE SPY-GLASS 
 
 When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave me a note ad- 
 dressed to John Silver, at the sign of the Spy-glass, and told me I 
 should easily find the place by following the line of the docks, and 
 keeping a lookout for a little tavern with a brass telescope for a sign. 
 I set off, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and 
 carts and bales, until I found the tavern in question. 
 
 It was a bright enough little place of entertainment. The sign 
 was newly painted; the windows had neat red curtains; the floor was 
 cleanly sanded. 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. 
 
 Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first mention of Long 
 John in Squire Trelawney's letter, I had taken a fear in my mind that 
 he might prove to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched 
 for so long at the old Benbow. But one look at the man before me 
 was enough. I had seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind 
 man Pew, and I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like — a very 
 different creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant- 
 tempered landlord. I plucked up courage at once, crossed the thresh- 
 old, and walked right up to the man where he stood, propped on his 
 crutch, talking to a customer. "Mr. Silver, sir?" I asked, holding out 
 the note. — "Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to be sure. And 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 37 
 
 who may you be?" And when he saw the squire's letter he seemed to 
 me to give something almost like a start. 
 
 "Oh!" said he, quite aloud, and offering his hand, "I see. You 
 are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you." And he took my 
 hand in his large, firm grasp. 
 
 Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and 
 made for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the street 
 in a moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recog- 
 nized him at a glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two 
 fingers, who had come first to the Admiral Benbow. "Oh," I cried, 
 "stop him! it's Black Dog!" — "I don't care two coppers who he is," 
 cried Silver, "but he hasn't paid his score. Harry, run and catch him." 
 One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up and started in 
 pursuit. 
 
 "If he were Admiral Hawke, he shall pay his score," cried Silver; 
 and then, relinquishing my hand, "Who did you say he was?" he asked. 
 "Black what?" — "Dog, sir," said I. "Has Mr. Trelawney not told 
 you of the buccaneers? He was one of them." — "So?" cried Silver. 
 "In my house! Ben, run and help Harry. One of those swabs, was 
 he? Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here." 
 
 The man whom he called Morgan — an old, gray-haired, mahog- 
 any-faced sailor — came forward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid. 
 "Now, Morgan," said Long John, very sternly, "you never clapped 
 your eyes on that Black — Black Dog 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 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 speak- 
 
38 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 ing to, perhaps? Come now, what was he jawin — v'yages, cap'ns, 
 ships? Pipe up. What was it?" — "We was a-talkin' of keel-haul- 
 ing," answered Morgan. — "Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suit- 
 able 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 know that blind man, too. His name was Pew." — 
 "It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew! That were his name 
 for certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he did! If we run down this 
 Black Dog, now, there'll be news for Cap'n Trelawney ! Ben's a good 
 runner. He should run him down. 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, and giving such a show of excite- 
 ment as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge. My suspicions 
 had been thoroughly re-awakened on finding Black Dog at the Spy- 
 glass, and I watched the cook narrowly. But he was too deep, and too 
 ready, and too clever for me, and by the time the two men had come 
 back out of breath, and confessed that they had lost the track in a 
 crowd, 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 ! 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 39 
 
 Page 37. 
 
40 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 master mariner I'd have come up alongside of him, hand over hand, 
 
 and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I would ; and now " 
 
 And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw dropped as though 
 he had remembered something. "The score!" he burst out. "Three 
 goes o' rum! Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn't forgotten my 
 score!" And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down 
 his cheeks. I could not help joining, and we laughed together, peal 
 after peal, until the tavern rang again. 
 
 "Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!" he said, at last, wiping 
 his cheeks. "But, come, now, stand by to go about. I'll put on my 
 old cocked hat and step along of you to Cap'n Trelawney, and report 
 this here affair." 
 
 On our little walk along the quays he made himself the most inter- 
 esting companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed 
 by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was 
 going forward and every now and then telling me some little anecdote 
 of seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly. 
 I began to see that here was one of the best of possible shipmates. 
 When we got to the inn, the squire and Doctor Livesey were seated 
 together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they should 
 go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection. 
 
 Long John told the story from first to last, with a great deal of 
 spirit and the most perfect truth. "That was how it were, now, 
 weren't it, Hawkins?" he would say, now and again, and I could 
 always bear him entirely out. The two gentlemen regretted that 
 Black Dog had got away, but we all agreed there was nothing to be 
 done, and after he had been complimented, Long John took up his 
 crutch and departed. 
 
 "All hands aboard by four this afternoon!" shouted the squire 
 after him. — "Ay, ay, sir," cried the cook in the passage. — "Well, 
 squire," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't put much faith in your discov- 
 eries, as a general thing, but I will say this — John Silver suits me." — 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 41 
 
 "That man's a perfect trump," declared the squire. — "And now," 
 added the doctor, "Jim may come on board with us, may he not?" — "To 
 be sure he may," said the squire. "Take your hat, Hawkins, and we'll 
 see the ship." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 POWDER AND ARMS 
 
 The Hispaniola lay some way out, and we went under the figure- 
 heads and around the sterns of many other shijjs. At last we swung 
 alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, 
 Mr. Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears and a squint. 
 He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon observed 
 that things were not the same between Trelawney and the captain. 
 
 This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry with every- 
 thing on board, and was soon to tell us why, for we had hardly got 
 down into the cabin when a sailor followed us. 
 
 "Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you," said he. — "I 
 am always at the captain's orders. Show him in," said the squire. 
 The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and 
 shut the door behind. him. "Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak 
 plain, I believe, at the risk of offense. I don't like this cruise; I don't 
 like the men; and I don't like my officer. That's short and sweet." — 
 "Perhaps, sir, you don't like the ship?" inquired the squire, very angry, 
 as I could see. — "I can't speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried," 
 said the captain. "She seems a clever craft ; more I can't say." — "Pos- 
 sibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?" said the squire. 
 
 But here Doctor Livesey cut in. "Stay a bit," said he, "stay a 
 bit. No use of such questions as that but to produce ill-feeling. The 
 captain has said too much or he has said too little, and I'm bound to 
 say that I require an explanation of his words. You don't, you say, 
 like this cruise. Now, why?" — "I was engaged, sir, on what we call 
 
42 • TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 sealed orders, to sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid 
 me," said the captain. "So far so good. But now I find that every 
 man before the mast knows more than I do. I don't call that fair, 
 now, do you?" — "No," said Doctor Livesey, "I don't." — "Next," said 
 the captain, "I learn we are going after treasure — hear it from my own 
 hands, mind you. Now, treasure is ticklish work ; I don't like treasure 
 voyages on any account; and I don't like them, above all, when they 
 are secret, and when the secret has been told to the parrot. It's my 
 belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about; but I'll tell 
 you my way of it — life or death, and a close run." 
 
 "That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough," replied Doctor 
 Livesey. "We take the risk, but we are not so ignorant as you believe 
 us. Next, you say you don't like the crew. Are they not good sea- 
 men?" — "I don't like them, sir," returned Captain Smollett. "And I 
 think I should have had the choosing of my own hands, if you go to 
 that." — "Perhaps you should," replied the doctor, "but the slight, if 
 there be one, was unintentional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow?" — 
 "I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seaman, but he's too free with the 
 crew to be a good officer. A mate should keep himself to himself." — 
 "Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?" asked the doctor. 
 "Tell us what you want." — "Well, gentlemen, are you determined 
 to go on this cruise?" — "Like iron," answered the squire. — "Very 
 good," said the captain. "Then, as you've heard me very patiently, 
 saying things that I could not prove, hear me a few words more. 
 They are putting the powder and the arms in the fore-hold. Now, 
 you have a good place under the cabin ; why not put them there ? — first 
 point. Then you are bringing four of your own people with you, and 
 they tell me some of them are to be berthed forward. Why not give 
 them the berths here beside the cabin? — second point." — "Any more?" 
 asked Trelawney. — "One more," said the captain. "There's been too 
 much blabbing already." — "Far too much," agreed the doctor. — "I'll 
 tell you what I've heard myself," continued Captain Smollett; "that 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 43 
 
 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 heen you or Hawkins," cried the squire. — 
 "It doesn't much matter who it was," replied the doctor. And I coidd 
 see that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to Trelawney's 
 protestations. — "Well, gentlemen," continued the captain, "I don't 
 know who has this map, hut I make it a point it shall he kept secret 
 even from me and Mr. Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me 
 resign." 
 
 "I see," said the doctor. "You wish 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 
 hoard. In other words, you fear a mutiny." — "Sir," said Captain 
 Smollett, "with no intention to take offense, I deny your right to put 
 words into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in going to 
 sea at all if he had ground enough for that. As for Mr. Arrow, I 
 believe him thoroughly honest ; some of the men are the same ; all may 
 be, for what I know. But I am responsible for the ship's safety and 
 the life of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going, as I 
 think, not quite right ; and I ask you to take certain precautions, or let 
 me resign my berth. And that's all." 
 
 "Captain Smollett," began the doctor, w T ith a smile, "when you 
 came in here I'll stake my wig you meant more than this." — "Doctor," 
 said the captain, "you are smart. When I came in here I meant to 
 get discharged. I had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a 
 word." — "Xo 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. 
 
44 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 
 Arrow stood by superintending. The new arrangement was quite to 
 my liking. The whole schooner had been overhauled; six berths had 
 been made astern, out of what had been the afterpart 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, 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 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. 
 
 We were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths, 
 when the last man or two, and Long John along with them, came off 
 in a shore-boat. The cook came up the side like a monkey for clever- 
 ness, and, as soon as he saw what was doing, "So ho, mates!" said he, 
 "what's this!" — "We're a-changing the powder, Jack," answered one. 
 — "Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we do, we'll miss the 
 morning tide!" — "My orders!" said the captain, shortly. "You may 
 go below, my man. Hands will want supper." — "Ay, ay, sir," an- 
 swered the cook; and, touching his forelock, he disappeared at once in 
 the direction of his galley. 
 
 "That's a good man, captain," said the doctor. — "Very likely, 
 sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy with that, men — easy," he ran 
 on, to the fellows who were shifting the powder; and then suddenly 
 observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships. "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 ' 45 
 
 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 coming off to wish him 
 a good voyage and a safe return, and I was dog-tired when, a little 
 before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe, and the crew began to 
 man the capstan-bars. I might have been twice as weary, yet I would 
 not have left the deck, all was so new and interesting to me — the brief 
 commands, the shrill notes of the whistle, the men bustling to their 
 places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns. 
 
 I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was fairly pros- 
 perous. 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. 
 
 Arrow turned out even worse than the captain had feared. He 
 had no command among the men, and people did what they pleased 
 with him. But that was by no means the worst of it; for after a day 
 or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, stuttering 
 tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Sometimes he fell and cut 
 himself. In the meantime we could never make out where he got the 
 drink. Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to solve it. He 
 was not only useless as an officer, but had a bad influence among the 
 men, but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself outright, 
 so nobody was much surprised, when one dark night, with a head sea, 
 he disappeared entirely and was seen no more. "Overboard!" said the 
 captain. "Well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble of putting him in 
 irons." 
 
 But there we were, without a mate, and it was necessarv, of course, 
 
46 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge 
 made him very useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy 
 Aveather. And the cockswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, 
 experienced seaman, who could be trusted at a pinch with almost any- 
 thing. He was a great confident of Long John Silver, and so the 
 mention of his name leads me on to speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, 
 as the men called him. 
 
 Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck, to 
 have both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him 
 wedge the foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against 
 it, yielding to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like 
 some one safe ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the 
 heaviest of weather cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up 
 to help him across the widest spaces, and he would hand himself from 
 one place to another, 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 cock- 
 swain 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 along- 
 side of Long John! I see him grapple four and knock their heads 
 together — him unarmed." 
 
 All the crew respected and obeyed him. He had a way of talking 
 to each and doing everybody some particular service. To me he was 
 unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he 
 kept as clean as a new pin. "Come away, Hawkins," he would say; 
 "come and have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than your- 
 self, my son. Sit you down and hear the news. Here's Cap'n Flint — I 
 calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the famous buccaneer — here's Cap'n 
 Flint predicting success to our v'yage. Wasn't you, cap'n?" And 
 , the parrot would say, with great rapidity: "Pieces of eight! pieces of 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 47 
 
 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, maybe, two hundred years 
 old, Hawkins — they live forever mostly, and if anybody's seen more 
 wickedness it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England — 
 the great Cap'n England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar, and 
 at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was 
 at the fishing up of the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 
 'Pieces of eight,' and little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand 
 of 'em, Hawkins! But you smelled powder — didn't you, cap'n?" — 
 "Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream. 
 
 "Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give 
 her sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars 
 and swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John 
 would add, "you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this 
 poor old innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire, and none the wiser, 
 you may lay to that." And John would touch his forelock with a 
 solemn way he had, that made me think be was the best of men. 
 
 In the meantime, squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty 
 distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the 
 matter ; he despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke 
 but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not 
 a word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed 
 to have been wrong about the crew, that some of them were as brisk as 
 he wanted to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he 
 had taken a downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the 
 wind than a man has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. 
 But," he would add, "all I say is, we're not home again, and I don't 
 like the cruise." 
 
 The 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." 
 
48 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of 
 the Hispaniola. Every man on board seemed well content, and they 
 must have been hard to please if they had been otherwise ; for it is my 
 belief there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to 
 sea. Double grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff on 
 odd days, and always a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist, 
 for any one to help himself that had a fancy. "Never knew good to 
 come of it yet," the captain said to Doctor Livesey. "Spoil fok's'le 
 hands, make devils. That's my belief." But good did come of the 
 apple barrel, as you shall hear, for if it had not been for that we should 
 have had no note of warning and might all have perished by the hand 
 of treachery. 
 
 This is how it came about. We had run up the trades to get the 
 wind of the island we were after, and now we were running down for 
 it with a bright lookout day and night. It was about the last day of 
 our outward voyage, by the largest computation ; some time that night, 
 or, at latest, before noon of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure 
 Island. • We were heading south-southwest, and had a steady breeze 
 abeam and a quiet sea. Every one was in the bravest spirits, because 
 we were now so near an end of the first part of our adventure. 
 
 Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over and I was 
 on my way to my berth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. 
 I ran on deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. 
 The man at the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling 
 away gently to himself. 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 mvself for 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 49 
 
 Page 56. 
 
50 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 all the world, but lay there, trembling in the extreme of fear and 
 curiosity ; for from these dozen words I understood that the lives of all 
 the honest men aboard depended upon me alone. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL 
 
 "No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, 
 along of my timber leg. The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew 
 lost his deadlights. That come of changing names to their ships — 
 Royal Fortune, and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so let 
 her stay, I says. So it was with the Cassandra, as brought us all safe 
 home from Malabar, after England took the Viceroy of the Indies; 
 so it was with the old Walrus, Flint's old ship, as I've seen a-muck with 
 red blood and fit to sink with gold." — "All!" cried another voice, that 
 of the youngest hand on board, "he was the flower of the flock, was 
 Flint!" — "Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said Silver. "I 
 never sailed along of him; first with England, then with Flint, that's 
 my story ; and now here on my own account, in a manner of speaking. 
 I laid by nine hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after 
 Flint. That ain't bad for a man before the mast — all safe in bank. 
 'Tain't earning now ; it's saving does it, you may lay to that. Where's 
 all England's men now? I dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most on 
 'em aboard here, and glad to get the duff — been begging before that, 
 some on 'em. Old Pew, where is he now? Well, he's dead now and 
 under the hatches; but for two years before that, shiver my timbers! 
 that man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, 
 and starved at that, by the powers!" — "Well, it ain't much use, after 
 all," said the young seaman. — "Tain't much use for fools, you may lay 
 to it — that, nor nothing," cried Silver. "But now, you look here; 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 51 
 
 you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I see that when 
 I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you like a man." 
 
 You can imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old 
 rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had 
 used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed 
 him through the barrel. Meantime he ran on, little supposing he was 
 overheard. 
 
 "Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and 
 they risk swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting-cocks. But 
 that's not the course I lay. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this 
 cruise I set up gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. 
 Ah, but I've lived easy in the meantime; never denied myself o' nothing 
 heart desires, and slept soft and eat 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? You daren't 
 show face in Bristol after this." — "Why, where might you suppose it 
 was?" asked Silver, derisively. — "At Bristol, in banks and places," 
 answered his companion. — "It were," said the cook; "it were when we 
 weighed anchor. But my old missis has it all by now. And the Spy- 
 glass is sold, lease and good-will and rigging; and the old girl's off to 
 meet me. I would tell you where, for I trust you; but it 'ud make 
 jealousy among the mates." — "And you can trust your missis?" asked 
 the other. 
 
 "Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually trust little 
 among themselves, but I have a way with me, I have. There was seme 
 that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint ; but Flint 
 his own self was feared of me. They was the roughest crew afloat, was 
 Flint's; the devil himself would have been feared to go to sea with 
 them. Well, now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you seen 
 yourself how easy I keep company; but when I was quartermaster, 
 lambs wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be 
 sure of yourself in old John's ship." — "Well, I tell you now," replied 
 
52 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 the lad, "I didn't half like the job till I had this talk with you, John, 
 but there's my hand on it now." — "And a brave lad you were, and 
 smart, too," answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all the 
 barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I 
 never clapped my eyes on." 
 
 By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their 
 terms. By a "gentleman of fortune" they plainly meant neither more 
 nor less than a common pirate, and the little scene that I had overheard 
 was the last act in the corruption of one of the honest hands — perhaps 
 of the last one left aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved, 
 for Silver, giving a little whistle, a third man strolled up and sat down 
 by the party. 
 
 "Dick's square," said Silver. — "Oh, I know'd Dick was square," 
 returned the voice of the cockswain, Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is 
 Dick. 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 
 bum-boat? I've had a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett. I want to go 
 into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and that." 
 
 "Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account, nor never 
 was. But here's what I say — you'll berth forward, 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 cockswain. "What 
 I say is, when? That's what I say." — "When! by the powers!" cried 
 Silver. "The last moment I can manage; and that's when. Here's a 
 first-rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for us. Here's 
 this squire and doctor with a map and such — I don't know where it is, 
 do I? No more do you, says you. Well, then, I mean this squire and 
 doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard. Then we'll 
 see. If I was sure of you all, I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate us 
 halfway back again before I struck." 
 
 "Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think," said the lad 
 Dick. — "We're all fok's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 53 
 
 can steer a course, but who's to set one? If I had my way, I'd have 
 Cap'n Smollett work us back into the trades at least. 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!" — "Kas) r 
 all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin' of you?"- "Why, 
 how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I see laid aboard? and how 
 many brisk lads drying in the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver; 
 "and all for this same hurry, hurry. You hear me? I seen a thing or 
 two at sea, I have. But you ! You'll have your mouthful of rum 
 to-morrow, and go hang." 
 
 "Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling, John; but 
 there's others as could hand and steer as well as you," said Israel. 
 "They liked a bit o' fun, they did."— "So?" said Silver. "Well, and 
 where are they now? Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. 
 Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they was a sweet 
 crew, they was! on'y, where are they?" — "But," asked Dick, "when we 
 do lay 'em athwart, what are we to do with 'em, anyhow?" — "There's 
 the man for me!" cried the cook, admiringly. "That's what I call 
 business. Well, what would you think? Put 'em ashore like maroons? 
 That would have been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that 
 much pork? That would have been Flint's or Billy Bones'." — "Billy 
 was the man for that," said Israel. " 'Dead men don't bite,' says he." 
 — "Right you are," said Silver, "dooty is dooty, mates. I give my 
 vote death. When I'm in Pailyment, and riding in my coach, I don't 
 want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked 
 for. Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why, let her rip!" 
 — "John," cried the cockswain, "you're a man!" — "You'll say so, 
 Israel, when you see," said Silver. "Only one thing I claim — I claim 
 Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his body with these hands. 
 Dick!" he added, breaking off, "you must jump up, like a sweet lad, 
 and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like." 
 
54 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 You may fancy the terror I was in ! I should have leaped out and 
 run for it, if I had found the strength; hut 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! 
 Let's have a go of the rum." — "Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've 
 a gauge on the keg, mind. There's the key; you fill a pannikin and 
 bring it up." Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself 
 that this must have been how Arrow got the strong waters that 
 destroyed him. 
 
 Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence Israel 
 spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I 
 could catch, and yet I gathered some important news; for, besides 
 other scraps that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was 
 audible: "Not another man of them'll jine." Hence there were still 
 faithful men on board. 
 
 When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pamii- 
 kin and drank — one "To luck"; another with a "Here's to old Flint," 
 and Silver himself saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and 
 hold your luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff." Just then a sort 
 of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and, looking up, I found the 
 moon had risen, and almost at the same time the voice on the lookout 
 shouted, "Land ho!" 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 55 
 
 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 fok's'le; and, slipping in 
 an instant outside my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, and came out 
 upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and Doctor Livesey in the 
 rush for the weather bow. Away to the southwest of us we saw two 
 low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and rising behind one of them a 
 third and higher hill, whose peak was still buried in the fog. So much 
 I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my horrid 
 fear. And then I heard the voice of Captain Smollett issuing orders. 
 The Hispaniola was laid a couple of points nearer the wind, and now 
 sailed a course that would just clear the island on the east. 
 
 "And now, men," said the captain, when all was sheeted home, 
 "has any one of you ever seen that land ahead?" — "I have, sir," said 
 Silver. "I've watered there with a trader I was cook in." — "The 
 anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I fancy?" asked the captain. 
 — "Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a main place for 
 pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed all their names for it. 
 That hill to the nor'ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are three 
 hills in a row running south'ard — fore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the 
 main — that's the big 'un, with the cloud on it — they usually calls the 
 Spy-glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the 
 anchorage cleaning." — "I have a chart here," said Captain Smollett. 
 "See if that's the place." 
 
 Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but, by 
 the fresh look of the paper, I knew he was doomed to disappointment. 
 This was not the map we found in Billy Bones' chest, but an accurate 
 copy, complete in all things — names, and heights, and soundings — with 
 
56 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 the single exception of the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp 
 as must have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to 
 hide it. 
 
 "Yes, sir," said he, "this is the spot, to be sure, and very prettily 
 drawed out. Who might have done that, I wonder? The pirates 
 were too ignorant, I reckon. Ay, here it is; 'Captain Kidd's anchor- 
 age' — 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." — 
 "Thank you, my man," said Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you, later on, 
 to give us a help. You may go." 
 
 I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his 
 knowledge of the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw 
 him drawing nearer to myself. 
 
 Captain Smollett, the squire, and Doctor Livesey were talking 
 together on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them my 
 story, I dared not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting 
 about in my thoughts to find some probable excuse. Doctor Livesey 
 called me to his side. He had left his pipe below, and had meant that 
 I should fetch it ; but as soon as I was near enough to speak and not be 
 overheard, I broke out immediately: "Doctor, let me speak. Get the 
 captain and squire down into the cabin, and then make some pretense to 
 send for me. I have terrible news." The doctor changed counte- 
 nance a little, but next moment he was master of himself. "Thank 
 you, Jim," said he, quite loudly; "that was all I wanted to know," as if 
 he had asked me a question. And with that he turned on his heel and 
 rejoined the other two. They spoke together for a little, and though 
 none of them started, or raised his voice, or so much as whistled, it Avas 
 plain enough that Doctor Livesey had communicated my request, for 
 the next thing that I heard was the captain giving an order to Job 
 Anderson, and all hands were piped on deck. 
 
 "My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say to you. 
 This land that we have sighted is the place we have been sailing to. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 57 
 
 Mr. Trelawney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, 
 has just asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that 
 every man on board had done his duty, as I never ask to see it done 
 better, why, he and I and the doctor are going below to drink your 
 health and luck, and you'll have grog served out for you to drink our 
 health and luck. I think it handsome. And if you think as I do, 
 you'll give a good sea-cheer for the gentleman that does it." The 
 cheer followed — that was a matter of course — but it rang out so full 
 and hearty, that I confess I could hardly believe these same men were 
 plotting' for our blood. — -"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett!" cried 
 Long John, when the* first had subsided. And this also was given 
 with a will. On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and 
 not long after word was sent forward that Jim Hawkins was wanted 
 in the cabin. 
 
 I found them all three seated round the table, a bottle of Spanish 
 wine and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away, with 
 his wig on his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. 
 "Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something to say. Speak 
 up." I did as I was bid, and told the whole details of Silver's con- 
 versation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any one 
 of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they kept their 
 eyes upon my face from first to last. — "Jim," said Doctor Livesey, 
 "take a seat." And they made me sit down at a table beside them, 
 poured me out a glass of wine, and all three drank my good health for 
 my luck and courage. 
 
 "Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right and I was wrong. 
 I own myself an ass, and I await your orders." — "No more an ass 
 than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a crew that meant 
 to mutiny but what showed signs before. But this crew beats me." — 
 "Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission, that's Silver. A 
 very remarkable man." — "He'd look remarkably well from a yard- 
 arm, sir," returned the captain. "But this is talk; this don't lead to 
 
58 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 anything. I see three or four points, and with Mr. Trelawney's per- 
 mission I'll name them." — "You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to 
 speak," said Trelawney. 
 
 "First point," began Smollett, "we must go on because we can't 
 turn back. If I give the word to turn about they would rise at once. 
 Second point, we have time before us — at least until this treasure's 
 found. Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to 
 come to blows sooner or later, and what I propose is to take time by the 
 forelock, and come to blows some fine day when they least expect it. 
 We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney?" 
 — "As upon myself," declared the squire. — "Three," reckoned the cap- 
 tain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins here. Now about the 
 honest hands?" — "Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor; 
 "those he picked up himself before he lit on Silver." — "Nay," replied 
 the squire, "Hands was one of mine." — "I did think I could have 
 trusted Hands," added the captain. — "And to think that they're all 
 Englishmen!" broke out the squire. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "we must lay to, if you 
 please, and keep a bright lookout. It's trying on a man, I know. It 
 would be pleasanter to come to blows. But there's no help for it till 
 we know our men. Lay to and whistle for a wind; that's my view." — 
 "Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than any one. The 
 men are not shy with him, and Jim is a noticing lad."- "Hawkins, I 
 put prodigious faitli 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 59 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE 
 
 The appearance of the island when I came on deck next morning 
 was altogether changed. We were lying becalmed about half a mile 
 to the southeast of the low eastern coast. Gray-colored woods covered 
 a large part of the surface, broken up by streaks of yellow sandbrcak 
 in the lower lands, but the general coloring was uniform and sad. The 
 hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. The 
 Spy-glass, which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest on the 
 island, was the strangest in configuration, running up sheer from 
 almost every side and then suddenly cut off at the top like a pedestal 
 to put a statue on. 
 
 The Hispaniola was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. 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. We had a dreary morning's 
 work before us, for there was no sign of any wind and the boats hail to 
 be got out and the ship warped round the corner of the island and up 
 the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volun- 
 teered for one of the boats, where I had of course no business. The 
 heat was sweltering and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 
 Anderson was in command of my boat, and instead of keeping the 
 crew in order he grumbled as loud as the worst. "Well," he said, with 
 an oath, "it's not forever." I thought this was a very bad sign, for, 
 up to that day, the men had gone briskly and willingly about their busi- 
 ness, but the very sight of the island had relaxed the cords of discipline. 
 
 All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and conned the 
 ship. He knew the passage like the palm of his hand. We brought 
 
60 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 ujj 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 place was entirely land-locked, buried in woods, the trees 
 coming right down to high-water mark, the shores mostly flat, and the 
 hill-tops standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, one 
 here, one there. Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out 
 into this pond, as you might call it; and the foliage round that part of 
 the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could 
 see nothing of the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among 
 trees. There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of 
 the surf booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the 
 rocks outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage — 
 a smell of sodden leaves and rotten tree-trunks. I observed the doctor 
 sniffing and sniffing, like some one tasting a bad egg. "I don't know 
 about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's fever here." 
 
 If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became 
 truly threatening when they had come aboard. The slightest order was 
 received with a black look. Even the honest hands must have caught 
 the infection, for there was not one man aboard to mend another. 
 Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thundercloud. And it was 
 not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger. Long John 
 was hard at work going from group to group, spending himself in 
 good advice. 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 there was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after 
 another, as if to conceal the discontent of the iest. Of all the gloomy 
 features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious anxiety on the part of 
 Long John appeared the worst. 
 
 We held a council in the cabin. "Sir," said the captain, "if I risk 
 another order, the whole ship'll come about our ears by the run. You 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 61 
 
 Page 66. 
 
62 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 see, sir, here it is. I get a rough answer, do I not? Well, if I speak 
 back, pikes will be going in two shakes ; if I don't, Silver will see there's 
 something under that, and the game's up. Now, we've only one man 
 to rely on." — "And who is that?" asked the squire. — "Silver, sir," 
 returned the captain; "he's as anxious as you and I to smother things 
 up. This is a tiff ; he'd soon talk 'em out of it if he had the chance, and 
 what I propose to do is to give him the chance. Let's allow the men 
 an afternoon ashore. You mark my words, sir, Silver'll bring 'em 
 aboard again as mild as lambs." 
 
 It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all the sure 
 men. Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were taken into our confidence, 
 and received the news with less surprise and a better spirit than we had 
 looked for, and then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew. 
 "My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are all tired. 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 sun-down." I believe the silly fellows must 
 have thought they would break their shins over the treasure as soon as 
 they were landed ; for they all came out of their sulks in a moment, and 
 gave a cheer that started the echo in a far-away hill. 
 
 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 well he did so. Had he been on deck he could no longer so much 
 as have pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain as 
 day. Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. 
 At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay 
 on board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver, began to 
 embark. 
 
 Then it was that there came into my head the first of the mad 
 notions that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men were 
 left by Silver, it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship; 
 and since only six were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 63 
 
 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 hoat, 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, and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, and I had 
 caught a branch and swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest 
 thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind. 
 "Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting. But you may suppose I paid no 
 heed; jumping, ducking, and breaking through, I ran straight before 
 my nose, till I could run no longer. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE FIKST 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. Here and there were flowering plants, un- 
 known to me ; here and there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from 
 a ledge of rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of 
 a top. Then I came to a long thicket of oak-like trees, which stretched 
 down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, until it reached the mar- 
 gin of the broad, reedy fen. 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 ; 
 
64 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 a wild duck flew up with a quack, and soon over the whole surface of 
 the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming in the air. I judged 
 at once that some of my shipmates were drawing near; nor was I 
 deceived, for soon I heard the distant tones of a human voice, which 
 grew steadily louder and nearer. This put me in great fear, and I 
 crawled under cover of the nearest live-oak, and squatted there, heark- 
 ening, as silent as a mouse. Another voice answered; and the first 
 voice, which I now recognized to be Silver's, once more took up the 
 story, and ran on for a long while in a stream, only now and again 
 interrupted by the other. At last the speakers seemed to have paused, 
 and perhaps to have sat down, for the birds began 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. Crawling 
 on all fours, I made steadily but slowly toward 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 
 Lone John Silver and another of the crew stood face to face in con- 
 versation. 
 
 The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat beside 
 him on the ground, and his great, smooth, blond face was lifted to the 
 other man's in a kind of appeal. "Mate," he was saying, "it's because 
 I thinks gold-dust of you — gold-dust, and you may lay to that ! If I 
 hadn't took to you like pitch, do you think I'd have been here 
 a-warning of you? All's up — you can't make nor mend; it's to save 
 your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of the wild 'uns knew it, 
 where 'ud I be, Tom?" — "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 honest, or 
 has the name for it; and you've money, too, and you're brave, or I'm 
 mistook. And will you tell me you'll let yourself be led away with 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 65 
 
 that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure as God sees me, I'd 
 sooner lose my hand. If I turn again 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. 
 
 Tom had leaped to the sound, like a horse at the spur; but Silver 
 had not winked an eye. He stood where he was, resting lightly on his 
 crutch, watching his companion like a snake about to spring. "John!" 
 said the sailor, stretching out his hand. — "Hands off!" cried Silver, 
 leaping back a yard, as it seemed to me, with the speed and security of 
 a trained gymnast. — "Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the 
 other. "It's a black conscience that can make you feared of me. But, 
 in heaven's name, tell me what was that?" — "That," returned Silver, 
 smiling away, but warier than ever; "that? Oh, I reckon that'll be 
 Alan." — And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero. "Alan!" he 
 cried. "Then rest his soul for a true seaman! And as for you, John 
 Silver, long you've been a mate of mine, but you're mate of mine no 
 more. If I die like a dog I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan, 
 have you? Kill me too, if you can. But I defies you." 
 
 And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the 
 cook and set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to 
 go far. With a cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the 
 crutch out of his armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through 
 the air. It struck Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, 
 right between the shoulders in the middle of his back. He gave a sort 
 of gasp and fell. Whether he was injured much or little, none could 
 ever tell. Like enough to judge from the sound, his back was broken 
 on the spot. But he had no time given him to recover. Silver was on 
 the top of him next moment, and had twice buried his knife up to the 
 hilt in that defenseless body. 
 
66 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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. 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. Everything else was 
 unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly upon the steaming marsh 
 and the tall pinnacle of the mountain. 
 
 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 jieople; after 
 Tom and Alan, might not I come next? Instantly I began to extri- 
 cate 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. I ran as I never 
 ran before, and as I ran, fear 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? It was all over, I 
 thought. Good-by to the Hispaniola, good-by to the squire, the doc- 
 tor, and the captain. There was nothing left for me but death by 
 starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers. 
 
 All this while I was running, and got into a part of the island 
 where the wild oaks grew more widely apart. Mingled with these 
 were a few scattered pines. The air, too, smelled more freshly than 
 down beside the marsh. And here a fresh alarm brought me to a 
 standstill with a thumping heart. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 67 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE MAX 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 hear, or man, or monkey, I could in no wise tell. 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. I began to prefer the dangers that I 
 knew to those I knew not, and I turned on my heel, and, looking 
 sharply behind me over my shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the 
 direction of the boats. 
 
 Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a wide circuit, 
 began to head me off. I was tired, but had I been as fresh as when I 
 rose, I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an 
 adversary. From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer, run- 
 ning man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, 
 stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was; I could no longer 
 be in doubt about that. I began to recall what I had heard of canni- 
 bals. I was within an ace of calling for help. But the mere fact 
 that he was a man had somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver 
 began to revive in proportion. I stood still and cast about for some 
 method of escape, and as I was so thinking, the recollection of my 
 pistol flashed into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not 
 defenseless I set my face resolutely for this man of the island, and 
 walked briskly toward him. 
 
 He was concealed by this time behind another tree-trunk, but as 
 soon as I began to move in his direction he reappeared and took a step 
 
68 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again, and 
 at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself on his knees and 
 held out his clasped hands in supplication. At that I once more 
 stopped. "Who are you?" I asked. — "Ben Gunn," he answered, and 
 his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. "I'm poor 
 Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven't spoke with a Christian these three 
 years." 
 
 I could now see that he was a white man like myself, and that his 
 features were even pleasing. He was clothed with tatters of old 
 ship's canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork was 
 all held together by a system of the most incongruous fastenings, brass 
 buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist he 
 wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid 
 in his whole accouterment. 
 
 "Three years!" I cried. "Were you shipwrecked?" — "Nay, 
 mate," said he, "marooned." I had heard the word and I knew it 
 stood for a horrible kind of punishment common enough among the 
 buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore with a little powder 
 and shot and left behind on some desolate and distant island. "Ma- 
 rooned three years agone," he continued, "and lived on goats since 
 then, and berries and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can 
 do for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You 
 mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now! No? 
 Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese — toasted, mostly — 
 and woke up again, and here I were." — "If ever I can get aboard 
 again," said I, "you shall have cheese by the stone." 
 
 All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smooth- 
 ing my hands, looking at my boots, and generally, in the intervals of 
 his speech, showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow 
 creature. But at my last words he perked up into a kind of startled 
 slyness. "If ever you get aboard again, says you?" he repealed. 
 "Why, now, who's to hinder you?" — "Not you, I know," was my 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 69 
 
 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 you'd be 
 ashamed to a 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 par- 
 ticular," 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. But it were Providence that put me here. I've thought it all 
 out in this here lonely island and I'm back on piety. You can't catch 
 me tasting rum so much, but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, the 
 first chance I have. I'm bound I'll be good, and I see the way to. 
 And, Jim" — looking all round him and lowering his voice to a whisper 
 — "I'm rich — rich — rich! I says — and I'll tell you what, I'll make 
 a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless your stars, you will, you 
 was the first that found me!" 
 
 And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow over his face 
 and he tightened his grasp upon my hand and raised a forefinger 
 threateningly before my eyes. "Now, Jim, you tell me true; that ain't 
 Flint's ship?" he asked. At this I had a happy inspiration. I began 
 to believe that I had found an ally, and I answered him at once. "It's 
 not Flint's ship and Flint is dead, but I'll tell you true, as you ask me 
 — there are some of Flint's hands aboard; worse luck for the rest of 
 us." — "Not a man — -with — one — leg?" he gasped. — "Silver?" I asked. 
 — "Ah, Silver!" says he, "that were his name." — "He's the cook, and 
 the ringleader, too." He was still holding me by the wrist, and at 
 that he gave it quite a wring. — "If you was sent by Long John," he 
 said, "I'm as good as pork and I know it. But where was you, do you 
 suppose?" 
 
 I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told 
 him the whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which we 
 
70 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I 
 had done he patted me on the head. "You're a good lad, Jim," he 
 said, "and you're all in a clove hitch, ain't you? Well, you just put 
 your trust in Ben Gunn — Ben Gunn's the man to do it. Would you 
 think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a liberal-minded 
 one in case of help — him being in a clove hitch, as you remark?" I 
 told him the squire was the most liberal of men. 
 
 "Ay, but you see," returned Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean giving 
 me a gate to keep and a suit of livery clothes, and such ; that's not my 
 mark, Jim. What I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the 
 toon of, say one thousand pounds out of money that's as good as a 
 man's own already?" — "I am sure he would," said I. "As it was, all 
 hands were to share." — "And a passage home?" he added, with a look 
 of great shrewdness. — "Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. 
 And, besides, if we got rid of the others, we should want you to help 
 work the vessel home." — "Ah," said he, "so you would." And he 
 seemed very much relieved. 
 
 "Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "I were in Flint's ship 
 when he buried the treasure. 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 words for me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard. 
 'As for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,' they bays, 
 'and a spade, and pick-ax. You can stay here and find Flint's 
 money for yourself,' they says. Well, Jim, three years have I been 
 here, and not a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. But now, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 7! 
 
 Page 79 
 
72 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 look you 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. "Hi!" he broke out, "what's that?" 
 For just then, although the sun had still an hour or two to run, all the 
 echoes of the island awoke and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. 
 
 "They have begun to fight!" I cried. "Follow me!" And I 
 began to run toward the anchorage, my terrors all forgotten; while, 
 close at my side, the marooned man in his goatskins, trotted easily and 
 lightly. "Left, left," says he; "keep to your left hand, mate Jim! 
 Under the trees with you! There's where I killed my first goat." 
 The cannon-shot was followed, after a considerable interval, by a 
 volley of small arms. Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a 
 mile in front of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above 
 a wood. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR HOW THE SHIP WAS 
 
 ABANDONED 
 
 It was about half -past one — three bells in the sea phrase — that 
 the two boats went ashore from the Hispaniola. The captain, the 
 squire, and I were talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been 
 a breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six mutineers who were 
 left aboard with us, slipped our cable, and away to sea. But the wind 
 was wanting; and, to complete our helplessness, down came Hunter 
 with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was gone 
 ashore with the rest. We ran on deck. The six scoundrels were sit- 
 ting 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 "Lullibullero." Waiting was 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 73 
 
 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 appear- 
 ance; "'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 dared, and I had 
 not gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade. 
 
 This was how it was: A spring of clear water arose at the top of 
 a knoll. Well on the knoll, and inclosing the spring, they had clapped 
 a stout log-house, fit to hold two score people on a pinch, and loop- 
 holed for musketry on every side. All around this they had cleared 
 a wide space, and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet 
 high, without door or opening, too strong to pull down without time 
 and labor, and too open to shelter the besiegers. 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, 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, but I know my pulse went dot and carry one. "'Jim 
 Hawkins is gone," was my first thought. 
 
 It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have 
 been a doctor. 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 
 
74 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 fly, and the boat was soon alongside and I aboard the schooner. I 
 found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire was sitting down, 
 as white as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us to, the good 
 soul! and one of the six forecastle hands was little better. "There's 
 a man," said Captain Smollett, nodding toward him, "new to this 
 work. He came nigh-hand fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. 
 Another touch of the rudder, and that man would join us." I told 
 my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details of its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the 
 forecastle, with three or four loaded muskets and a mattress for pro- 
 tection. Hunter brought the boat round under the stem port, rmd 
 Joyce and I set to work loading her with powder, tins, muskets, bags 
 of biscuit, 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 cockswain, who was the principal man aboard. 
 "Hands," he said, "here are two of us with a brace of pistols each. If 
 any one of you six make a signal of any description, that man's dead." 
 They were a good deal taken aback; and, after a little consultation, 
 one and all tumbled down the fore companion, thinking, no doubt, to 
 take us on the rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting for them 
 in the sparred gallery, they went about ship at once, and a head popped 
 out again on deck. "Down, dog!" cried the captain. And the head 
 popped back again, and we heard no more for the time of these six 
 very faint-hearted seamen. 
 
 By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we had the jolly- 
 boat loaded as much as we dared. Joyce and I got out through the 
 stern port, and we made for shore again, as fast as oars could take us. 
 This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. "Lulli- 
 bullero" was dropped again, and just before we lost sight of them 
 behind the little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. 
 
 We had soon touched land in the same place as before and set to 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 75 
 
 provision the block-house. All three made the first journey, heavily 
 laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce 
 to guard them, Hunter and I returned to the jolly-boat, and loaded 
 ourselves once more. So we proceeded, without pausing to take 
 breath, till the whole cargo was bestowed, when the two servants took 
 up their position in the block-house, and I, with all my power, sculled 
 back to the Hispaniola. That we should have risked a second boat- 
 load seems more daring than it really was. They had the advantage 
 of numbers, of course, but we had the advantage of arms. Not one of 
 the men ashore had a musket, and before they could get within range 
 for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves we should be able to giv r e a 
 good account of a half dozen at least. 
 
 The squire was waiting for me at the sterzi window, all his faint- 
 ness gone from him. He caught the painter and made it fast, and 
 we fell to loading the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and 
 biscuit was the cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for 
 squire and me and Redruth and the captain. The rest of the arms- 
 and powder we dropped overboard in two fathoms and a half of water, 
 so that we could see the bright steel shining far below us in the sun 
 on the clean, sandy bottom. By this time the tide was beginning to 
 ebb, and the ship was swinging round to her anchor. Voices were 
 heard faintly halloaing in the direction of the two gigs; and though 
 this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who were well to the 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, Abra- 
 ham Gray — it's to you I am speaking." 
 
 Still no reply. "Gray," resumed Smollett, a little louder, "I am 
 leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your captain. I know you 
 are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of you's 
 
76 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 as bad as he makes out. I have my watch here in my hand; I give 
 you thirty seconds to join me in." There Avas a pause. "Come, my 
 fine fellow," continued the captain, "don't hang so long in stays. I'm 
 risking my life and the lives of these good gentlemen every second." 
 There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out burst Abraham 
 Gray with a knife-cut dn 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 
 
 THE JOLLY-BOAT S LAST TRIP 
 
 This fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In 
 the first place, the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was 
 gravely overloaded. Five grown men was already more than she was 
 meant to cany. Add to that the powder, pork, and the bread-bags. 
 The gunwale was lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little 
 water, and my breeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet 
 before we had gone a hundred yards. The captain made us trim the 
 boat, and we got her to lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were 
 afraid to breathe. 
 
 In the second place, the ebb was now making — a strong, rippling 
 current running westward through the basin. "I can not 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 with- 
 out swamping the boat," said he. "You must bear up, sir, if you 
 please — bear up until you see you're gaining." 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 77 
 
 I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept sweeping us 
 westward until I had laid her head due east, or just about right angles 
 to the way we ought to go. "We'll never get ashore at this rate," said 
 I. — "If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it," 
 returned the captain. "We must keep up stream. You see, sir," he 
 went on, "if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it's 
 hard to say where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being 
 boarded by the gigs ; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken, 
 and then we can dodge back along the shore."- "The current's less 
 a'ready, sir," said the man Gray, who was sitting in the fore-sheets; 
 "you can ease her off a bit." "Thank you, my man," said I, quite as 
 if nothing had happened, for we had all quietly made up our minds 
 to treat him like one of ourselves. 
 
 Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his voice 
 was a little changed. "The gun!" said he. — "I have thought of that," 
 said I, for I made sure he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. 
 "They could never get the gun ashore, and if they did, they could never 
 haul it through the woods." — "Look astern, doctor," replied the 
 captain. 
 
 We had entirely forgotten the long nine ; and there, to our horror, 
 were the five rogues busy about her, getting off her jacket, as they 
 called the stout tarpaulin cover under which she sailed. Not only 
 that, but it flashed into my mind at the same moment that the round 
 shot and the powder for the gun had been left behind, and a stroke 
 with an ax would put it all into the possession of the evil ones aboard. 
 "Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray, hoarsely. 
 
 At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the landing-place. 
 By this time we had got so far out of the run of the current that we 
 kept steerage-way even at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and 
 I could keep her steady for the goal. But the worst of it was, that 
 with the course I now held, we turned our broadside instead of our 
 stern to the Hispaniola, and offered a target like a barn door. I could 
 
78 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced rascal, Israel Hands, plumping 
 down a round shot on the deck. "Who's the best shot?" asked the 
 captain. — "Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I. — "Mr. Trelawney, 
 will you please pick me off one of those men, sir? Hands, if possible," 
 said the captain. Trelawney was as cold as steel. He looked to the 
 priming of his gun. "Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, 
 sir, or you'll swamp the boat. All hands stand by to trim her when he 
 aims." The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leaned 
 over to the other side to keep the balance, and all was so nicely contrived 
 that we did not ship a drop. They had the gun, by this time, slewed 
 around upon the swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle, with the 
 rammer, was, in consequence, the most exposed. However, we had 
 no luck; for just as Trelawney fired, down he stooped, the ball whist- 
 ling over him, and it was one of the other four who fell. 
 
 The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his companions on.board, 
 but by a great number of voices from the shore, and looking in that 
 direction I saw the other pirates trooping out from among the 
 trees and tumbling into their places in the boats. "Here come the 
 gigs, sir," said I. — "Give way, then," said the captain. "We mustn't 
 mind if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore, all's up." — "Only 
 one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added; "the crew of the other 
 is most likely going round by shore to cut us off." — "They'll have a 
 hot run, sir," returned the captain. "It's not them I mind; it's the 
 round shot. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, and we'll hold 
 water." 
 
 In the meantime we had been making headway at a good pace 
 for a boat so overloaded, and we had shipped but little water in the 
 process. We were now close in; thirty or forty strokes and we should 
 beach her, for the ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sand below 
 the clustering trees. The gig was no longer to be feared. The one 
 source of danger was the gun. "If I dared," said the captain, "I'd 
 stop and pick off another man." But it was plain that they meant 
 
TREASURE ISLAND ?9 
 
 nothing should delay their shot. They had never so much as looked 
 at their fallen comrade. — "Ready!" cried the squire. — "Hold!" cried 
 the captain, quick as an echo. And he and Redruth hacked with a 
 great heave that sent her stern bodily under water. The report fell 
 in at the same instant of time. When the ball passed, not one of us 
 precisely knew, but I fancy it must have been over our heads. At any 
 rate, the boat sunk by the stern 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 only two guns out of five remained in a state for service. Mine I 
 had snatched from my knees, and held over my head, by a sort of 
 instinct. As for the captain, he had carried his over his shoulder by 
 a bandoleer, and lock uppermost. The other three had gone down 
 with the boat. To add to our concern, we heard voices already draw- 
 ing near us in the woods along shore ; and we had not only the danger 
 of being cut off from the stockade in our half-crippled state, but the 
 fear before us whether, if Hunter and Joyce were attacked by half a 
 dozen, they would have the sense and conduct to stand firm. With 
 all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast as we could, leaving 
 behind us the poor jolly-boat, and a good half of all our powder and 
 provisions. 
 
80 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 END OF THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHTING 
 
 t 
 
 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. I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest, and 
 looked to my priming. "Captain," said I, "Trelawney is the dead 
 shot. Give him your gun; his own is useless." They exchanged 
 guns, and Trelawney, silent and cool, as he had been since the begin- 
 ning of the bustle, hung a moment on his heel to see that all was fit 
 for service. At the same time, observing Gray to be unarmed, I 
 handed him my cutlass. 
 
 Forty paces farther, we came to the edge of the wood and saw 
 the stockade in front of us. We struck the inclosure about the middle 
 of the south side, and, almost at the same time, seven mutineers — Job 
 Anderson, the boatswain, at their head — appeared in full cry at the 
 southwestern corner. They paused, as if taken aback, and before 
 they recovered, not only the squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce from 
 the block-house, had time to fire. The four shots came in rather a 
 scattering volley, but they did the business; one of the enemy actually 
 fell, and the rest, without hesitation, turned and jmmged into the 
 trees. After reloading we walked down the outside of the palisade 
 to see to the fallen enemy. He was stone dead, shot through the 
 heart. 
 
 We began to rejoice over our good success, when just at that 
 moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a ball whistled close past my ear, 
 and poor Tom Redruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. 
 Both the squire and I returned the shot, but as we had nothing to aim 
 at, it is probable we only wasted powder. I believe the readiness of 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 81 
 
 Page 97. 
 
82 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 into the log-house. Poor fel- 
 low! he had not uttered one word of complaint, fear, or even acquies- 
 cence, from the very beginning of our troubles till now, when we laid 
 him down in the log-hotise to die. He had followed every order 
 silently and well; he was the oldest of our party by a score of years; 
 and now it was he that was to die. The squire dropped down beside 
 him on his knees and kissed his hand, crying like a child. "Tom," 
 said the squire, "say you forgive me, won't you?" — "Would that be 
 respectful like, from me to you, squire?" was the answer. "Howso- 
 ever, so be it, amen!" After a little while of silence he said he thought 
 somebody might read a prayer. "It's the custom, sir," he added, apol- 
 ogetically. And not long after, without another word, he passed 
 away. 
 
 In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed to be wonder- 
 fully swollen about the chest and pockets, had turned out a great man}' 
 various stores — the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, pen, 
 ink, the log-book, and pounds of tobacco. He had found a longish 
 fir-tree lying felled and cleared in the inclosure, and with the help of 
 Hunter, he had set it up at the corner of the log-house where the trunks 
 crossed and made an angle. Then, climbing on the roof, he had ivith 
 his own hand bent and run up the colors. This seemed mightily to 
 relieve him. He re-entered the log-house and set about counting up 
 the stores, as if nothing else existed. But he had an eye on Tom's 
 passage for all that, and as soon as all was over came forward with 
 another flag and reverently spread it on the body. "Don't you take 
 on, sir," he said, shaking the squire's hand. "All's well with him; no 
 fear for a hand that's been shot down in his duty to captain and 
 owner. It mayn't be good divinity, but it's a fact." 
 
 Then he pulled me aside. "Doctor Livesey," he said, "in how 
 many weeks do you and squire expect the consort?" — I told him it was 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 83 
 
 a question, not of weeks, but of months; that if we were not back by 
 the end of August, Blandly was to send to find us, but neither sooner 
 nor later. "You can calculate for yourself," I said.— -"Why, yes," 
 returned the captain, scratching his head, "and making a large allow- 
 ance, sir, for all the gifts of Providence, I should say we were pretty 
 close-hauled." — "How do you mean?" I asked. — "It's a pity, sir, we 
 lost that second load. That's what I mean," replied the captain. "As 
 for powder and shot, we'll do. But the rations are short, very short- 
 so short, Doctor Livesey, that we're perhaps as well without that extra 
 mouth." And he pointed to the dead body under the flag. 
 
 Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round shot passed high 
 above the roof of the log-house, and plumped far beyond us in the 
 wood. "O-ho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've little 
 enough powder already, my lads." At the second trial the aim was 
 better and the ball descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud 
 of sand, but doing no further damage. — "Captain," said the squire, 
 "the house is quite invisible from the ship. It must be the flag they 
 are aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it in?" — "Strike my 
 colors!" cried the captain. "No, sir, not I," and as soon as he had 
 said the words I think we all agreed with him. For it was not only a 
 piece of stout, seamanly good feeling; it was good policy besides, and 
 showed our enemies that we despised their cannonade. 
 
 All through the evening they kept thundering away. Ball after 
 ball flew over or fell short, or kicked up the sand in the inclosure 
 but they had to fire so high that the shot fell dead and buried itself 
 in the soft sand. "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. Yolunteers to 
 go and bring in pork." 
 
 Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. Well armed, 
 they stole out of the stockade, but it proved a useless mission. The 
 mutineers were bolder than we fancied, or they put more trust in 
 
84 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Israel's gunnery, for four or five of them were busy carrying off our 
 stores and wading out with them to one of the gigs that lay close by, 
 pulling an oar or so to hold her steady against the current. Silver 
 was in the stern-sheets in command, and every man of them was now 
 provided with a musket from some secret magazine of their own. 
 
 The captain sat down to his log, and here is the beginning of the 
 entry : 
 
 "Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, ship's doctor; 
 Abraham Gray, carpenter's mate; John Trelawney, owner; John 
 Hunter anfl Richard Joyce, owner's servants, landsmen — being all 
 that is left faithful of the ship's company — with stores for ten days 
 at short rations, came ashore this day and flew British colors on the 
 log-house in Treasure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's servant, 
 landsman, shot by the mutineers; James Hawkins, cabin-boy " 
 
 And at the same time I was wondering over poor Jim Hawkins' 
 fate. A hail on the land side. "Somebody hailing us," said Hunter, 
 who was on guard. — "Doctor! squire! captain! Hallo, Hunter, is that 
 you?" came the cries. And I ran to the door in time to see Jim 
 Hawkins, safe and sound, come climbing over the stockade. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS THE GARRISON AT THE 
 
 STOCKADE 
 
 As soon as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a halt, stopped me 
 by the arm and sat down. "Now," said he, "there's your friends, sure 
 enough." — "Far more likely it's the mutineers," I answered. — "That!" 
 he cried. "Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but gen'le- 
 raen of fortune, Silver would fly the Jolly Roger, you don't make no 
 doubt of that. No, that's your friends. There's been blows, too, 
 and I reckon your friends has had the best of it, and here they a>re 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 85 
 
 ashore in the old stockade, as was made years ago by Flint. Ah, he 
 was the man to have a head-piece, was Flint ! Barring rum, his match 
 was never seen. He were afraid of none, not he; on'y Silver — Silver 
 was that genteel." — "Well," said I, "that may be so, and so be it; all 
 the more reason that I should hurry on and join my friends." — "Nay, 
 mate," returned Ben, "not you. You're a good boy, or I'm mistook; 
 but you're on'y a boy, all told. Xow 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. 
 
 "And when Ben Gunn is wanted you know where to find him, 
 Jim. Just where you found him to-day. And him that comes is to 
 have a white thing in his hand; and he's to come alone. Oh! and you'll 
 say this: 'Ben Gunn,' says you, 'has reasons of his own.' " — "Well," 
 said I, "I believe I understand. You have something to propose, and 
 you wish to see the squire or the doctor, and you're to be found where 
 I found you. Is that all?" — "And when? says you," he added. 
 "Why from about noon observation to about six bells." — "Good," 
 says I, "and now may I go?" — "You won't forget?" he inquired, 
 anxiously. "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? And if them pirates came ashore, Jim, what would you 
 say but there'd be widders in the morning?" 
 
 Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannon-ball came 
 tearing through the trees and pitched in the sand, not a hundred yards 
 from where we two were talking. The next moment each of us had 
 taken to our heels in a different direction. For a good hour balls kept 
 crashing through the woods, I moved from hiding-place to hiding- 
 place ; but toward the end of the bombardment, I had begun to pluck 
 up my heart again; and after a long detour to the east, crept down 
 among the shore-side trees. 
 
 The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling in the woods, 
 
86 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 and ruffling the gray surface of the anchorage ; the tide, too, was far 
 out; the air, after the heat of the day, chilled me through my jacket. 
 The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored; hut, sure enough, 
 there was the Jolly Roger — the black flag of piracy — flying from her 
 peak. I lay for some time, watching the bustle which succeeded the 
 attack. Men were demolishing something with axes on the beach 
 near the stockade^the poor jolly-boat, I afterward 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 shouting at the oars like children. But there was a 
 sound in their voices which suggested rum. 
 
 At length I thought I might return toward the stockade. As I 
 rose to my feet, I saw, some distance farther down the spit, and rising 
 from the low bushes, an isolated rock pretty high, and peculiarly white 
 in color. It occurred to me that this might be the white rock of which 
 Ben Gunn had spoken, and that some day or other a boat might be 
 wanted, and I should know where to look for one. Then I skirted 
 among the woods until I had regained the rear of the stockade, and 
 was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful party. 
 
 I had soon told my story, and began to look about me. The log- 
 house was made of unsquared trunks of pine — roof, walls, and floor. 
 There was a porch at the door, and under this porch the little spring 
 welled up into an artificial basin — a great ship's kettle of iron, with 
 the bottom knocked out, and sunk "to her bearings," as the captain 
 said, among the sand. Little had been left beside the frame-work 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 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 
 
. TREASURE ISLAND 87 
 
 sand. The cold evening breeze 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. 
 
 If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all have fallen in 
 the blues, but Captain Smollett was never the man for that. All hands 
 were called up before him, and he divided us into watches. The doctor, 
 and Gray, and I, for one; the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon the 
 other. Tired as we all were, two were sent out for firewood, two more 
 were sent to dig a grave for Redruth, the doctor was named cook, I 
 was put sentry at the door, and the captain himself went from one to 
 another, keeping up our spirits and lending a hand wherever it was 
 wanted. From time to time the doctor came to the door for a little 
 air and to rest his eyes, and whenever he did so, he had a word for me. 
 "That man Smollett," he said once, "is a better man than I am. And 
 when I say that it means a deal, Jim." Another time he came and 
 was silent for a while. Then he put his head on one side, and looked 
 at me. "Is this Ben Gunn a man?" he asked. — "I do not know, sir," 
 said I. "I am not very sure whether he's sane." — "If there's any 
 doubt about the matter, he is," returned the doctor. "A man who 
 has been three years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can't 
 expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human 
 nature. Was it cheese you said he had a fancy for?" — "Yes, sir, 
 cheese," I answered. — "Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that 
 comes of being dainty in your food. You've seen my snuff-box, 
 haven't you? And vou never saw me take snuff: the reason beine 1 
 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!" 
 
88 TREASURE ISLAND • 
 
 Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the sand, and 
 stood round him for a while bareheaded in the breeze. Then, when 
 we had eaten our pork, and each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog, 
 the three chiefs got together in a corner to discuss our prospects. 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 buc- 
 caneers until they either hauled down their flag or ran away with the 
 Hispaniola. From nineteen they were already reduced to fifteen, 
 two others were wounded, and one, at least — the man shot beside the 
 gun — severely wounded, if he were not dead. Every time we had a 
 crack at them, we were to take it, saving our own lives, with the 
 extremest care. And, besides that, we had two able allies — rum and 
 the climate. 
 
 As for the first, though we were about half a mile away, we could 
 hear them roaring and singing late into the night; and as for the 
 second, the doctor staked his wig that, camped where they were in the 
 marsh, and unprovided with remedies, the half of them would be on 
 their backs before a week. "So," he added, "if we are not all shot 
 down first they'll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It's always 
 a ship, and they can get to buccaneering again, I suppose." — "First 
 ship that I ever lost," said Captain Smollett. 
 
 I was dead tired, as you may fancy, and when I got to sleep, 
 which was not till after a great deal of tossing, I slept like a log of 
 wood. The rest had long been up, and had already breakfasted 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 sur- 
 prise, "Silver himself!" And, at that, up I jumped, and rubbing my 
 eyes, ran to a loop-hole in the wall. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 89 
 
 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. 
 
 "Keep indoors, men," said the captain. "Ten to one this is a 
 trick." Then he hailed the buccaneer. "Who goes? Stand, or we 
 fire." — "Flag of truce!" cried Silver. The captain was in the porch, 
 keeping himself carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot, should 
 any be intended. He turned and spoke to us. 
 
 "Doctor's watch on the lookout. Doctor Livesey, take the north 
 side, if you please; Jim the east; Gray, west. The watch below, all 
 hands to load muskets. Lively, men, and careful." And then he 
 turned again to the mutineers. "And what do you want with your 
 flag of truce?" he cried. — This time it was the other man who replied. 
 "Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms," he shouted. — 
 "Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried the captain. 
 And we could hear him adding to himself: "Cap'n, is it? Isly heart, 
 and here's promotion!" 
 
 Long John answered for himself. "Me, sir. These poor lads 
 have chosen me cap'n, after your desertion, sir" — laying a particular 
 emphasis upon the word "desertion." "We're willing to submit, if 
 we can come to terms, and no bones about it. All I ask is your word, 
 Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and sound out of this here stockade, and 
 one minute to get out o' shot before a gun is fired." — "My man," said 
 Captain Smollett, "I have not the slightest desire to talk to you. If 
 you wish to talk to me, you can come, that's all. If there's any 
 treachery, it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you." — "That's 
 enough, cap'n," shouted Long John, cheerily. "A word from you's 
 
9U TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 enough. I know a gentleman, and you may lay to that." Then he 
 advanced to the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a leg up, and with 
 great vigor and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and drop- 
 ping safely to the other side. 
 
 Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. What with 
 the steepness of the incline, the thick tree-stumps, and the soft sand, 
 he and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays. But lie stuck to 
 it like a man in silence, and at last arrived before the captain, whom he 
 saluted in the handsomest style. "Here you are, my man," said the 
 captain, raising his head. "You had better sit down." — "You ain't 
 a-going to let me inside, cap'n?" complained 'Long John. "It's a 
 main cold morning, to be sure, to sit outside upon the sand." — "Why, 
 Silver," said the captain, "if you had pleased to be an honest man you 
 might have been sitting in your galley. It's your own doing. You're 
 either my ship's cook — and then you were treated handsome — or Cap'n 
 Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!" 
 
 "Well, well, cap'n," returned the sea-cook, sitting down as he was 
 bidden on the sand, "you'll have to give me a hand up again, that's all. 
 A sweet, pretty place you have of it here. All, there's Jim! The 
 top of the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service. Why, 
 there you all are together like a happy family, in a manner of 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 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. But you mark me, cap'n, it won't 
 do twice, by thunder! We'll have to do sentry go, and ease off a 
 point or so on the rum. 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. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 91 
 
 Page UK 
 
92 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 four- 
 teen enemies to deal with. 
 
 "Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure, and 
 we'll have it — that's our point! You would just as soon save your 
 lives, I reckon; and that's yours. You have a chart, haven't you?" — 
 "That's as may be," replied the captain. — "Oh, well, you have, I know 
 that," returned Long John. "You needn't be so husky with a man; 
 there ain't a particle of service in that, and you may lay to it. What I 
 mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant you no harm, 
 myself." — "That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the captain. 
 "We know exactly what you meant to do, and we don't care; for now, 
 you see, you can't do it." And the captain looked at him calmly, and 
 proceeded to fill a pipe. 
 
 "If Abe Gray " Silver broke out. — "Avast there!" cried 
 
 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. — "Like enough," said he. "I would set no limits to what gen- 
 tlemen might consider ship-shape, or might not, as the case were. 
 And, seein' as how you are about to take a pipe, cap'n, I'll make so 
 free as to do likewise." And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the 
 two men sat silently smoking for quite a while, now looking each other 
 in the face, now stopping their tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. 
 It was as good as the play to see them. 
 
 "Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give us the chart to get 
 the treasure by, and drop shooting poor seamen, and stoving of their 
 heads in while asleep, and we'll offer you a choice. Either you come 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 93 
 
 aboard along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give you 
 my affy-davy, upon my word of honor, to clap you somewhere safe 
 ashore. Or, if that ain't to your fancy, then you can stay here, you 
 can. We'll divide stores with you, man for man; and I'll give my 
 affy-davy, as before, to speak the first ship I sight and send 'em here 
 to pick you up. Now you'll own that's talking. 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 3^ou all in irons, and to take you home to a 
 fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander Smollett, 
 I've flown my sovereign's colors, and I'll see you all to Davy Jones. 
 You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship. You can't fight 
 us — Gray, there, got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, 
 Master Silver; you're on a lee-shore, and so you'll find. I stand here 
 and tell you so, and they're the last good words you'll get from me; 
 I'll put a bullet in your back when next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. 
 Bundle out of this, 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 impre- 
 cations, he crawled along the sand till he got hold of the porch and 
 could hoist himself again upon his crutch. And he stumbled off, 
 plowed down the sand, was helped across the stockade by the man with 
 a flag of truce, and disappeared in an instant afterward among the 
 trees. 
 
94 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE ATTACK 
 
 As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had been closely 
 watching him, turned toward the interior of the house, and found not 
 a man of us at his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever 
 seen him angry. "Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we 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 sur- 
 prised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought you had worn the king's coat!" 
 The doctor's watch were all back at their loop-holes, the rest were busy 
 loading the spare muskets, and every one with a red face. 
 
 The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he spoke. 
 "My lads," he said, "I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in 
 red-hot on purpose; and before the hour's out, as he said, Ave 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 dis- 
 cipline. I've no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you 
 choose." Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, that all was 
 clear. 
 
 On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were 
 only two loop-holes ; on the south side where the porch was, two again ; 
 and on the north side, five. There was a round score of muskets for 
 the seven of us; the firewood had been built into four piles — tables, 
 you might say — one about the middle of each side, and on each of these 
 tables some ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready to 
 the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged. 
 
 "Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is past, and we 
 mustn't have smoke in our eyes." The iron fire-basket was carried 
 bodily out by Trelawney, and th.2 embers smothered among sand. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 95 
 
 "Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and 
 back to your post to eat it," continued Captain Smollett. "Hunter, 
 serve out a round of brandy to all hands." And while this was going 
 on, the captain completed, in his own mind, the plan of the defense. 
 "Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See and don't expose 
 yourself; keep within, and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the 
 east side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Tre- 
 lawney, you are the best shot — you and Gray will take this long north 
 side, with the five loop-holes; it's there the danger is. If they can get 
 up to it, and fire in upon us through our own ports, things would begin 
 to look dirty. Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account at the 
 shooting; we'll stand by to load and bear a hand." 
 
 An hour passed away. "Hang them!" said the captain. "This 
 is as dull as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind." 
 
 Some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket 
 and fired. The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated 
 and repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot from 
 every side of the inclosure. Several bullets struck the log-house, but 
 not one entered ; and, as the smoke cleared away, the woods looked as 
 empty as before. 
 
 "Did you hit your man?" asked the captain. — "No, sir," replied 
 Joyce. "I believe not, sir." — "Next best thing to tell the truth," 
 muttered Smollett. "Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should 
 you say there were on your side, doctor?" — "I know precisely," said 
 Doctor Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this side. 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, there- 
 fore, 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 hostili- 
 
96 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 ties. But Smollet made no change in his arrangements. If the 
 mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would 
 take possession of any unprotected loop-hole, and shoot us down like 
 rats in our own stronghold. 
 
 Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a 
 loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north 
 side, and ran straight on the stockade. The hoarders swarmed over 
 the fence like monkeys. Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; 
 three men fell, one forward into the inclosure, two back on the outside. 
 But of these, one was evidently more frightened than hurt, for he was 
 on his feet again in a crack, and disappeared among the trees. Two 
 had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing inside 
 our defenses; while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, 
 each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot fire on the 
 log-house. 
 
 The four who had boarded made straight before them for the 
 building. In a moment the four pirates had swarmed up the mound 
 and were upon us. The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, ap- 
 peared at the middle loop-hole. "At 'em, all hands — all hands!" he 
 roared, in a voice of thunder. At the same moment another pirate 
 grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands, 
 plucked it through the loop-hole, and, with one stunning blow, laid the 
 poor fellow senseless 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. 
 
 The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our com- 
 parative safety. "Out, lads, out! and fight 'em in the open! Cut- 
 lasses!" cried the captain. I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and 
 dashed out of the door. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his 
 assailant down the hill, and, just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down 
 his guard, and sent him sprawling on his back, with a great slash across 
 his face. "Round the house, lads! round the house!" cried the captain, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 97 
 
 and even in the hurly-burly 1 perceived a change in his voice. Me- 
 chanically I obeyed, turned eastward, and, with my cutlass raised, ran 
 round the corner of the house. Next moment I was face to face with 
 Anderson. His hanger went up above his head, flashing in the sun- 
 light. I had not time to be afraid, but, as the blow still hung impend- 
 ing, leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my foot in the soft 
 sand, rolled headlong down the slope. 
 
 When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers had 
 been already swarming up the palisade to make an end of us. One 
 man, in a red night-cap, with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon 
 the top and thrown a leg across. Well, so short had been the interval, 
 that when I found my feet again all was in the same posture, the fellow 
 with the red night-cap still halfway over, another still just showing his 
 head above the top of the stockade. And yet, in this breath of time, 
 the fight was over, and the victory ours. Gray, following close behind 
 us, 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. 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." But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, 
 and the last boarder made good his escape. In three seconds nothing 
 remained of the attacking party but the five who had fallen, four on 
 the inside and one on the outside of the palisade. The doctor and 
 Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. 
 
 The 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 loop-hole, stunned; Joyce, by his, shot through the head, never to 
 move again, while right in the center the squire was supporting the 
 captain, one as pale as the other. "The captain's wounded," said 
 
98 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Trelawney. — "Have they run?" asked Smollett. — "All that could, 
 you may be bound," returned the doctor; "but there's five of them will 
 never run again." — "Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. 
 Five against three leaves us four to nine. That's better odds than we 
 had at starting. We were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, 
 and that's as bad to bear," 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE 
 
 There was no return of the mutineers — not so much as another 
 shot out of the woods. They had "got their rations for that day," as 
 the captain put it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet time 
 to overhaul the wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked out- 
 side, in spite of the danger, and even outside we could hardly tell what 
 we were at, for the groans that reached us from the doctor's patients. 
 
 Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action only three still 
 breathed, and of these, two were as good as dead ; the mutineer, indeed, 
 died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter never recovered conscious- 
 ness in this world. As for the captain, his wounds were grievous 
 indeed, but not dangerous. Anderson's ball 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 or 
 move his arm, nor so much as speak when he could help it. 
 
 After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side 
 while in consultation; and when they had talked to their hearts' con- 
 tent, the doctor took up his hat and pistols, girt on a cutlass, put the 
 chart in his pocket, and with a musket over his shoulder, crossed the 
 palisade on the north side and set off briskly through the trees. Gray 
 and I were sitting together at the far end of the block-house, and 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 99 
 
 Gray took his pipe out of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it hack 
 again, .so thunderstruck he was at this occurrence. "Why, in the name 
 of Davy Jones," said he, "is Doctor Livesey mad?" — "Why, no," 
 says I. "He's about the last of this crew for that, I take it." — "Well, 
 shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be, but if he's not, mark my 
 words, I am." — "I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea, and if 
 I am right, he's going now to see Ben Gunn." 
 
 I was right; but in the meantime, the house being stifling hot, 
 and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday 
 sun, I began to get another thought into my head. What I began to 
 do was to envy the doctor, walking in the cool shadow of the woods, 
 with the birds about him and the pleasant smell of the pines. All the 
 time I was washing out the block-house, and then washing up the 
 things from dinner, this envy kept growing stronger, till at last, being 
 near a bread-bag, and no one then observing me, I took the first step 
 toward my escapade and filled both pockets of my coat with biscuit. 
 The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, and as I already 
 had a powder-horn and bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms. 
 
 As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad one in itself. 
 It was to go down the sandy pit that divides the anchorage on the 
 east from the open sea, find the white rock I had observed last even- 
 ing, and ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had 
 hidden his boat — a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe. But 
 as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the inclosure, my only 
 plan was to take French leave and slip out when nobody was watching. 
 
 Well, as things at last fell out, I found an opportunity. The 
 squire and Gray were busy helping the captain with his bandages ; the 
 coast was clear; I made a bolt for it over the stockade and into the 
 thickest of the trees, and before my absence was observed I was out 
 of cry of companions. This was my second folly, far worse than the 
 first, as I left but two sound men to guard the house; but, like the 
 first, it was a help toward saving all of us. 
 
,00 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 I took my way straight for the east coast of the island, to avoid 
 all chance of observation from the anchorage. 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 sunn3 r 
 to the horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam along the 
 beach. I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, 
 thinking I was now got far enough to the south, I took the cover of 
 some thick bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit. 
 
 Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage. The sea breeze 
 had been succeeded by light, variable airs from the south and south- 
 east, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage, under lee of 
 Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden. The Hispaniola, in that un- 
 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. Soon the gig shoved off and pulled 
 for shore, and the man with the red cap and his comrade went below. 
 
 Just about the same time the sun had gone down behind the Spy- 
 glass, and as the fog was collecting rapidly, it began to grow dark in 
 earnest. I saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that 
 evening. The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still 
 some eighth of a mile farther down the spit, and it took me a goodish 
 while to get up with it, crawling, often on all fours, among the scrub. 
 Night had almost come when I laid my hand on its rough sides. 
 Right below it there was an exceedingly small hollow of green turf, 
 hidden by banks and a thick underwood ; and in the center of the dell, 
 sure enough, a little tent of goat-skins. 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 101 
 
 r .„'•*?■;:".-" — : t; 
 
 ■ 
 
 "The CoxfWAihf loojed tfif o^p upo/i 
 3|£ Sm^udj,Md plunged Head F/tfr Mm the tme% > 
 
 Page 118 
 
102 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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. 
 
 Well, now that I had found the boat, or coracle, I might call it, 
 you would have thought I had had enough of truantry for once; but 
 in the meantime I had taken another notion, and become so obstinately 
 fond of it that I would have carried it out, I believe, in the teeth of 
 Captain Smollett himself. This was to slip out under cover of the 
 night, cut the Hispaniola adrift, and let her go ashore where she 
 fancied. I had quite made up my mind that the mutineers, after 
 their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than to 
 up anchor and away to sea ; this, I thought, it would be a fine thing to 
 prevent, and now that I had seen how they left their watchman un- 
 provided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little risk. 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 disap- 
 peared, absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And 
 when, at last, I shouldered the coracle, and groped my way stum- 
 blingly out of the hollow, there were but two points visible on the whole 
 anchorage. 
 
 One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated pirates lay 
 carousing in the swamp. The other, a mere blur of light upon the 
 darkness, indicated by the position of the anchored ship. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 103 
 
 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, 
 but she was the most cross-grained, lop-sided craft to manage. Even 
 Ben Gunn himself has admitted that she was "queer to handle till you 
 knew her way." Certainly I did not know her way- She turned in 
 every direction but the one I was bound to go; the most part of the 
 time we were broadside on, and I am very sure I never should have 
 made the ship at all but for the tide. By good fortune, paddle as I 
 pleased, the tide was still sweeping me down; and there lay the His- 
 paniola right in the fair way, hardly to be missed. First she loomed 
 before me like a blot of something yet blacker than darkness, then her 
 spars and hull began to take shape, and the next moment, as it seemed, 
 I was alongside of her hawser, and had laid hold. The hawser was as 
 taut as a bowstring — so strong she pulled upon her anchor. One cut 
 with my sea gully, and the Hispaniola would go humming down the 
 tide. 
 
 So far so good; but it next occurred to my recollection that a taut 
 hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as dangerous as a kicking horse. 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 
 air which had begun blowing from the southeast and south had hauled 
 round after nightfall into the southwest. Just while I was medi- 
 tating, a puff came, caught the Hispaniola, and forced her up into 
 the current; and, to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my 
 grasp, and the hand by which I held it dip for a second under water. 
 With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my 
 teeth, and cut one strand after another, till the vessel swung by two. 
 
104 • TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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. 
 One I recognized for the cockswain'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. 
 
 On shore, I could see the glow of the great camp-fire burning 
 warmly through the shore-side trees. Some one was singing a dull, 
 old, droning sailors' song, with a droop and quaver at the end of every 
 verse, and seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. 
 
 At last the breeze came ; the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the 
 dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more, and with a good, tough 
 effort cut the last fibers through. The breeze had but little action on 
 the coracle, and I was almost instantly swept against the bows of the 
 Hispaniola. At the same time the schooner began to turn upon her 
 heel, spinning slowly, end for end, across the current. I wrought like 
 a fiend, for I expected every moment to be swamped; and since I 
 found I could not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved straight 
 astern. At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbor, and just 
 as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord that 
 was trailing overboard across the stern bulwarks. Instantly I 
 grasped it. 
 
 Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It was at first 
 mere instinct, but once I had it in my hands and found it fast, curiosity 
 began to get the upper hand, and I determined I should have one 
 look through the cabin Avindow. I pulled in hand over hand on the 
 cord, and, when I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to 
 about half my height, and thus commanded the roof and a slice of the 
 interior of the cabin. By this time the schooner and her little consort 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 105 
 
 were gliding pretty swiftly through the water; indeed, we had already 
 fetched up level with the camp-fire. The ship was talking, as sailors 
 say, loudly, treading the innumerable ripples with an incessant welter- 
 ing splash; and until I got my eye above the window-sill I could not 
 comprehend why the watchmen had taken no alarm. One glance, 
 however, was sufficient; and it was only one glance that I dared 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. 
 
 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 — " 
 
 I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil were at that very 
 moment in the cabin of the Hispaniola, when I was surprised by a 
 sudden lurch of the coracle. At the same moment she yawed sharply 
 and seemed to change her course. The speed in the meantime had 
 strangely increased. I opened my eyes at once. The Hispaniola her- 
 self seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her spars toss a little 
 against the blackness of the night; nay, as I looked longer, I made 
 sure she also was wheeling to the southward. I glanced over my 
 shoulder and my heart jumped against my ribs. There, right behind 
 me, was the glow of the camp-fire. The current had turned at right 
 angles, sweeping round along with it the tall schooner and the little 
 dancing coracle ; ever quickening, ever muttering louder, it went spin- 
 ning through the narrows for the open sea. 
 
 Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a violent yaw, turn- 
 ing, perhaps, through twenty degrees ; and almost at the same moment 
 one shout followed another from on board. I coidd hear feet 
 pounding on the companion ladder and I knew that the two 
 
106 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 drunkards had at last been interrupted in their quarrel and awakened 
 to a sense of their disaster. I lay down flat in the bottom of that 
 wretched skiff and devoutly recommended my spirit to its Maker. 
 At the end of the straits I made sure we must fall into some bar of 
 raging breakers, where all my troubles would be ended speedily. Sc 
 I must have lain for hours, continually beaten to and fro upon the. 
 billows, and never ceasing to expect death at the next plunge. Grad- 
 ually weariness grew upon me, until sleep at last intervened, and in 
 my sea-tossed coracle I lay and dreamed of home and the old Admiral 
 Benbow. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE 
 
 It was broad day when I awoke and found myself tossing at the 
 southwest end of Treasure Island. The sun was up, but was still hid 
 from me behind the great bulk of the Spy-glass, which on this side 
 descended almost to the sea in formidable cliffs. 
 
 Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at my elbow, the 
 hill bare and dark, the head bound with cliffs forty or fifty feet high 
 and fringed with great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter 
 of a mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to paddle in and land. 
 That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen rocks the break- 
 ers spouted and bellowed; and I saw myself, if I ventured nearer, 
 dashed to death upon the rough shore. 
 
 I had a better chance before me. North of Haulbowline Head 
 the land runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a long stretch of 
 yellow sand. To the north of that again, there comes another cape — 
 Cape of the Woods, as it was marked upon the chart — buried in tall 
 green pines, which descended to the margin of the sea. I remembered 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 107 
 
 what Silver had said ahont the current that sets northward along the 
 whole west coast of Treasure Island; and seeing from my position that 
 I was already under its influence, I preferred to reserve my strength 
 for an attempt to land upon the Cape of the Woods. There was a 
 great, smooth swell upon the sea. The wind blowing steady and gen- 
 tle from the south, there was no contrariety between that and the cur- 
 rent, and the billows rose and fell unbroken. Had it been otherwise, 
 I must long ago have perished; I began after a little to grow very 
 bold, and set up to try my skill at paddling. But even a small change 
 in the disposition of the weight will produce violent changes in the 
 behavior of a coracle. And I had hardly moved before the boat, giv- 
 ing 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 
 terrified, and fell back into my old position, whereupon the coracle 
 seemed to find her head again, and led me softly as before among the 
 billows. It was plain she was not to be interfered with, and at that 
 rate what hope had I left of reaching land ? 
 
 I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my head. First, 
 moving with all care, I gradually bailed out the coracle with my sea- 
 cap ; then getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself to 
 study how it was she managed to slip so quietly through the rollers. 
 I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, glossy mountain it 
 looks from shore, or from a vessel's deck, was for all the world like 
 any range of hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth places and 
 valleys. The coracle, left to herself, turning from side to side, avoided 
 the steep slopes and higher toppling summits of the wave. "Well, 
 now," thought I to myself, "it is plain I must lie where I am, and not 
 disturb the balance ; but it is plain, also, that I can put the paddle over 
 the side, and from time to time, in smooth places, give her a shove or 
 two toward land." No sooner thought than done. It was very tiring 
 and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground ; and, as we drew near the 
 
108 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Cape of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I 
 was 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 
 sight of the trees so near at hand had almost made me sick with long- 
 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. 
 
 She was under her mainsail and two jibs, and the beautiful white 
 canvas shone in the sun like snow. When I first sighted her, all her 
 sails were draAving, she was lying a course about northwest, and I pre- 
 sumed the men on board were going round the island on their way 
 back to the anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more and more 
 to the westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were 
 going about in chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's 
 eye, was taken dead aback, and stood there a while helpless, with her 
 sails shivering. "Clumsy fellows," said I, "they must still be drunk as 
 owls." And I thought how Captain Smollett would have set them 
 skipping. 
 
 Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off, and filled again upon 
 another tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or so, and brought up once 
 more dead in the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. It 
 became plain to me that nobody was steering. And if so, where were 
 the men? Either they were dead drunk, or had deserted her, I 
 thought, and perhaps if I could get on board I might return the vessel 
 to her captain. The current was bearing coracle and schooner north- 
 ward at an equal rate. As for the latter's sailing, it was so wild and 
 intermittent, 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 over- 
 haul her. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 109 
 
 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 to paddle after the unsteered Hispaniola. I gained rapidly 
 on the schooner. I could see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged 
 about. 
 
 At last I had my chance. The breeze fell, for some seconds, very 
 low, and the current gradually turning her, the Hispaniola revolved 
 slowly round her center and at last presented me her stern. The 
 mainsail hung drooped like a banner. She was stock-still but for the 
 current. I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came 
 again in a clap ; she rilled on the port tack and was off again, stooping 
 and skimming like a swallow. 
 
 My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was toward 
 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. And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. 
 I was on the summit of one swell when the schooner came stooping 
 over the next. The bowsprit was over my head. I sprung to my 
 feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under water. With one hand 
 I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged between the stay and 
 the brace, and as I still clung there panting, a dull blow told me that 
 the schooner had charged down upon and struck the coracle, and that 
 I was left without retreat on the Hispaniola. 
 
10 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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. 
 This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now 1 lost no time, 
 crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled headforemost on the 
 deck. I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which 
 was still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after- 
 deck. Not a soul was to be seen. 
 
 Suddenly the Hispaniola came right into the wind. The jibs 
 behind me cracked aloud ; the rudder slammed to ; the whole ship gave 
 a heave, and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard, and 
 showed me the lee after-deck. There were the two watchmen, sure 
 enough; Red-cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike; Israel Hands 
 propped against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his face as white as 
 a tallow candle. At the same time I observed, around both of them, 
 splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and began to feel sure that 
 they had killed each other. 
 
 While I was looking and wondering, in a calm moment when the 
 ship was still, Israel Hands turned partly round, with a low moan. 
 The moan went right to my heart; but when I remembered the talk I 
 had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me. I walked aft 
 until I reached the mainmast. "Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, 
 ironically. He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone 
 to express surprise. All he could do was to utter one word : "Brandy!" 
 It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as 
 it once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down the 
 companion-stairs into the cabin, 
 
 I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles 
 
TREASURE ISLAND \ I ] 
 
 "a most surprising' number had been drank 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, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, 
 deep drink of water, and not until then, gave Hands the brandy. 
 
 He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his 
 mouth. "Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"- 
 "Mueh 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. And where mought you have come 
 from?"- "Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this 
 ship, Hands, and you'll please regard me as your captain until further 
 notice. By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors," and, 
 again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines, hauled down their 
 cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard. "God save the king!" 
 said I, waving my cap; "and there's an end to Captain Silver." 
 
 He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while on his 
 breast. "I reckon," he said at last, "you'll kind o' want to get ashore, 
 now. S'pose we talks." — "Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, 
 Hands. Say on." — "This man," he began, nodding feebly at the 
 corpse, "this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning for to sail 
 her back. Well, he's dead now, he is, and who's to sail this ship, I 
 don't see. Without I give you a hint, you ain't that man, as far's I 
 can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food and drink, and a old 
 ankecher to tie my wound up, you do; and I'll tell you how to sail her; 
 and that's about square all round, I take it." — "I'll tell you one thing," 
 says I, "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's anchorage. I mean 
 to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there." — "To be sure 
 you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber, after all. 
 
112 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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, we struck our bargain on the spot. In three minutes I had 
 the Hispaniola sailings easily before the wind along the coast of 
 Treasure Island, with good hopes of turning the northern point ere 
 noon. Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, 
 where I got a soft silk handkerchief. With this, and with my aid, 
 Hands bound up the great stab he had received in the thigh, and after 
 he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he 
 began to pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer, 
 and looked in every way another man. 
 
 The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a 
 bird, the coast of the island flashing by, and the view changing every 
 minute. Soon we 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. 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 to desire but for the eyes of 
 the cockswain as they followed me derisively about the deck, and the 
 odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile that 
 had in it a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery, as he craftily 
 watched and watched me at my work. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 113 
 
 Page 119. 
 
i 14 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 ISRAEL HANDS 
 
 t 
 
 The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. We 
 could run so much the easier from the northwest corner of the island 
 to the mouth of the North Inlet. Only, as we dared not beach her 
 until the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our hands. 
 The cockswain told me how to lay the ship to ; after a good many trials 
 I succeeded, and we both sat in silence, over another meal. 
 
 "Cap'n," said he, at length, with that same uncomfortable smile, 
 "I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin and get me 
 a — well, a — shiver my timbers ! I can't hit the name on't. Well, you 
 get me a bottle of wine, Jim — this here brandy's too strong for my 
 head." 
 
 Now the cockswain'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. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my 
 advantage lay. "Some wine?" I said. "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, Hands. But I'll have to 
 dig for it." With that I scuttled down the companion with all the 
 noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the sparred 
 gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the 
 fore companion. I knew he would not expect to see me there, yet I 
 took every precaution possible, and certainly the worst of my sus- 
 picions proved too true. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 115 
 
 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 he trailed himself across the deck. In 
 half a minute he had reached the port scujipers, and picked out of a 
 coil of rope a long knife, or rather a short dirk. He looked upon it 
 for a moment, tried the point upon his hand, and then hastily conceal- 
 ing 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 it was plain that I was 
 meant to be the victim. Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one 
 point, since in that our interests jumped together, and that was in the 
 disposition of the schooner. We both desired to have her stranded 
 safe in a sheltered place, and until that was done, I considered that my 
 life would be spared. 
 
 While I was thus turning the business over in my mind, 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 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, and took a good swig, with 
 his favorite toast of "Here's luck!" Then he lay quiet for a little, 
 and then, pulling out a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid. 
 "Cut me a junk o' that," says he, "for I haven't no knife, and hardly 
 strength enough, so be as I had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I've missed 
 stays! Cut me a quid as'll likely be the last, lad; for I'm for my long 
 home, and no mistake." 
 
 "Look here," he added, suddenly changing his tone, "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 
 
116 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely 
 handled to be got in. Scarcely had we passed the head before the 
 land closed around us. The shores of North Inlet were as thickly 
 wooded as those of the southern anchorage, but the space was longer 
 and narrower, and more like, what in truth it was, the estuary of a 
 river. "Now," said Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for to beach 
 a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a catspaw, trees all around of it and 
 flowers a-blowing like a garding." He issued his commands, which 
 I breathlessly obeyed; till, all of a sudden, he cried: "Now, my hearty, 
 luff!" And I put the helm hard up and the Hispaniola swung round 
 rapidly and ran stem on for the low-wooded shore. 
 
 The excitement of these last maneuvers had somewhat interfered 
 with the watch I had kept hitherto upon the cockswain, and I stood 
 watching the ripples spreading out before the bows. I might have 
 fallen without a struggle had not a sudden disquietude seized upon 
 me and made me turn my head. Sure enough, when I looked around, 
 there was Hands, already halfway toward me, with the dirk in his 
 right hand. At the same instant, he threw himself forward and I 
 leaped sideways toward the bows. As I did so I left hold of the tiller, 
 which sprung sharp to leeward ; and I think this saved my life, for it 
 struck Hands across the chest, and stopped him, for the moment, dead. 
 Before he could recover I was safe out of the corner where he had me 
 trapped, with all the deck to dodge about. Just forward of the main- 
 mast I stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim and 
 drew the trigger. The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash 
 nor sound; the priming was useless with sea-water. I cursed myself 
 for my neglect. Why had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded 
 my only weapons ? 
 
 Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move. 
 One thing I saw plainly; I must not simply retreat before him, or he 
 would speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment since 
 he had so nearly boxed me in the stem. Once so caught, and nine 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 1 1 7 
 
 or ten inches of the 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. 
 
 Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the Ilispaniola struck, 
 staggered, ground for an instant in the sand, and then, swift as a 
 blow, canted over to the port side, till the deck stood at an angle of 
 forty-five degrees. We were both of us capsized in a second, and both 
 of us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers, but I was the first afoot 
 again. The sudden canting of the ship had made the deck no place 
 for running on; I had to find some new way of escape. Quick as 
 thought, I sprung 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 recharged 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, 
 Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out!" 
 
 He stopped instantly. I could see by the workings of his face 
 that he was trying to think. At last, with a swallow or two, he spoke, 
 
118 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 his face still wearing the expression of perplexity. In order to speak 
 he had to take the dagger from his mouth, but, in all else, he remained 
 unmoved. "Jim," says he, "I reckon we're fouled, you and me, and 
 we'll have to sign articles. I'd have had you but for that there lurch; 
 but I don't have no luck, not I ; and I reckon I'll have to strike, which 
 comes hard, you see, for a master mariner to a ship's younker like 
 you, Jim." 
 
 I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a 
 cock upon a walk, when, all in a breath, back went his right hand over 
 his shoulder. Something sung 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 both my 
 pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They did not 
 fall alone; with a choked cry the cockswain loosed his grasp upon the 
 shrouds, and plunged head first into the water. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 'pieces of eight" 
 
 Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the 
 water, and from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me 
 but the surface of the bay. As the water settled, I could see him lying 
 huddled together on the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's 
 sides, food for fish in the very place where he had designed my 
 slaughter. I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick, 
 faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and 
 chest. The dirk, where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed 
 to burn like a hot iron. Gradually, however, my pulses quieted down 
 to a more natural time, and I was once more in possession of myself. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND I 19 
 
 It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk; hut either it 
 stuck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I desisted with a violent 
 shudder. Oddly enough, that very shudder did the business. The 
 knife, in fact, had come the nearest in the world to missing me alto- 
 gether; it held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this the shudder tore 
 away. The blood ran down the faster, to be sure, but I was nty 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. 
 
 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 danger- 
 ous, 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 against the bulwarks, 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. 
 
 I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just turned. The 
 sun was within a few degrees of setting. The evening breeze had 
 sprung up, and though it was well warded off by the hill with the two 
 peaks upon the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to 
 itself and the idle sails to rattle to and fro. I began to see a danger to 
 the ship. The jibs I speedily doused and brought tumbling to the 
 deck, but the mainsail was a harder matter. Of course, when the 
 schooner canted over, the boom had swung outboard, and the cap of it 
 and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought this made 
 it still more dangerous, yet the strain was so heavy that I half feared 
 to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak 
 
120 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad npon 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 His- 
 paniola 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. It began 
 to be chill, the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling 
 more and more on her beam-ends. I scrambled fonvard and looked 
 over. It seemed shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both 
 hands for a last security, I let myself drop softly overboard. The 
 water scarcely reached my waist; the sand was firm and covered with 
 ripple-marks, and I waded ashore in great spirits, leaving the His- 
 paniola on her side, with her mainsail trailing wide upon the surface 
 of the bay. About the same time the sun went fairly down, and the 
 breeze whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines. 
 
 At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I returned thence 
 empty-handed. There lay the schooner, clear at last from buccaneers 
 and ready for our own men to board and get to sea again. I had 
 nothing nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade and boast 
 of my achievements. Possibly, I might be blamed a bit for my tru- 
 antry, but the recapture of the Ilispaniola was a clinching answer, and 
 I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my 
 time. So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set my face 
 homeward for the block-house and my companions. 
 
 The wood was pretty open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I 
 had soon turned the corner of the hill, and not long after waded to the 
 mid-calf across the water-course. This brought me nearer to where 
 I had encountered Ben Gunn, the maroon, and I walked more cir- 
 cumspectly, keeping an eye on every side. Gradually the night fell 
 blacker; it was all I could do to guide myself even roughly toward my 
 destination; the double hill behind me and the Spy-glass on my right 
 hand loomed faint and fainter, the stars were few and pale, and in 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 121 
 
 the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among bushes and 
 rolling into sandy pits. 
 
 Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked up; a 
 pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy- 
 glass, and soon after I saw something broad and silvery moving low 
 down behind the trees, and knew the moon had risen. With this to 
 help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my journey; 
 and, sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew near 
 to the stockade. Yet, as I began to tread the grove that lies before it, 
 I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went a trifle 
 warily. It would have been a poor end of my adventures to get shot 
 down by my own party in mistake. 
 
 The moon was climbing higher and higher; its light began to fall 
 here and there in masses through the more open districts of the wood, 
 and right in front of me a glow of a different color appeared among 
 the trees. It was red and hot, and now and again it was little dark- 
 ened — as it were the embers of a bonfire smoldering. For the life of 
 me I could not think what it might be. At last I came right down 
 upon the borders of the clearing. The western end was already 
 steeped in moonshine; the rest, and the block-house itself, still lay in 
 a black shadow, checkered with long, silvery streaks of light. On 
 the other side of the house an immense fire had burned itself into clear 
 embers and shed a steady, red reverberation, contrasting strongly with 
 the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not a soul stirring, nor 
 a sound beside the noises of the breeze. 
 
 I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and perhaps a little 
 terror also. It had not been our way to build great fires; we were, 
 indeed, by the captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood, and 
 I began to fear that something had gone wrong while I was absent. 
 
 I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in shadow, and at 
 a convenient place, where the darkness was thickest, crossed the pali- 
 sade. To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and knees, and 
 
122 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 crawled toward the corner of the house. As I drew nearer, my heart 
 was suddenly and greatly lightened. It was not a pleasant noise in 
 itself, and I have often complained of it at other times, but just then 
 it was like music to hear my friends snoring together so loud and 
 peaceful in their sleep. The sea-cry of the watch, that beautiful 
 "All's well," never fell more reassuringly on my ears. 
 
 By this time I had got to the door and stood up. All was dark 
 within, so that I could distinguish nothing by the eye. As for sounds, 
 there was the steady drone of the snorers, and a small occasional noise, 
 a flickering or pecking that I could in no way account for. With my 
 arms before me I walked steadily in. I should lie down in my own 
 place 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 sprung up, and with a mighty oath 
 the voice of Silver cried: "Who goes?" I turned to run, struck vio- 
 lently against one person, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a 
 second, who, for his part, closed upon and held me tight. "Bring a 
 torch, Dick," said Silver, when my capture was thus assured. And 
 one of the men left the log-house, and presently returned with a lighted 
 brand. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 123 
 
 Patre 134. 
 
124 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP 
 
 The red glare of the torch lighting up the interior of the block- 
 house, showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized. The pirates 
 were in possession of the house and stores ; there was a 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. The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's 
 shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more 
 stern. "So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! 
 dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly." And there- 
 upon he sat down across the brandy-cask, and began to fill a pipe. 
 "Give me the loan of a link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had a 
 good light, "That'll do, my lad," he added, "stick the glim in the wood 
 heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to! — you needn't stand up 
 for Mr. Hawkins; he'll excuse you, you may lay to that. And so, 
 Jim, here you are, and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I 
 see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you, but this here gets 
 away from me clean, it do." 
 
 To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They 
 had set me with my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking 
 Silver in the face, pluckily enough, to all outward appearance, but 
 with black despair in my heart. 
 
 Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and 
 then ran on again: "Now, you see, Jim, so be you are here," says he, 
 "I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 125 
 
 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. The doctor himself 
 is gone dead aginjyou — the '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 incensed at me for my desertion, 
 I was "more relieved than distressed by what I heard. 
 
 "I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued 
 Silver, "though there you are, and you may lay to it. I'm all for 
 argument; I never seen good come out o' threatening. If you like 
 the service, well, you'll jine; and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free 
 to answer no — free and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said 
 by mortal seaman, shiver my sides;" — "Am I to answer, then?" I 
 asked, with a very tremulous voice. — "Lad," said Silver, "no one's 
 a-pressing of you. Take your bearings. None of us won't hurry 
 you, mate." — "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 buc- 
 caneers, in a deep growl. "Ah, he'd be a lucky one as knowed that!" 
 — "You'll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till you're spoke, my 
 friend," cried Silver, truculently, to this speaker. "Yesterday morn- 
 ing, Mr. Hawkins," said he, "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. 
 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. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, him 
 and I, and here we are; stores, brandy, block-house, and the firewood 
 
526 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 you was thoughtful enough to cut. As for them, they've tramped; 
 I don't know where's they are." He drew again quietly at his pipe. 
 "And lest you should take it into that head of yours," he went on, "that 
 you was included in the treaty, here's the last word that was said : 'How 
 many are you,' says I, 'to leave?' 'Four,' says he — 'four, and one of 
 us wounded. As for that boy, I don't know where he is, confound 
 him,' says he, 'nor I don't much care. We're about sick of him.' 
 These was his words." 
 
 "Is that all?" I asked. — "Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," 
 returned Silver. — "And now I am to choose?" — "And now you are 
 to choose, and you may lay to that," said Silver. — "Well," said I, 
 "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I have to look for. 
 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 ajmle barrel the night we 
 sighted land, and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and 
 Hands, who is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every word you 
 said before the hour was out. And as for the schooner, it was I who 
 cut her cable, and it was I who killed the men you had aboard of her, 
 and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one 
 of you. The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business 
 from the first. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing 
 I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, by-gones are by-gones, and 
 when you fellows are in court for piracy I'll save you all I can. It is 
 for you to choose. Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare 
 me and keep a witness to save you from the gallows." 
 
 I stopped, for I was out of breath, and, to my wonder, not a man 
 of them moved, but all sat staring at me like as many sheep. And 
 while they were still staring I broke out again: "And now, Mr. Silver," 
 I said, "I believe you're the best man here, and if things go to the 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 127 
 
 worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way I took it." 
 "I'll hear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so curious that I 
 could not, for the life of me, decide whether he were laughing at my 
 request or had heen favorably affected by my courage. 
 
 "I'll put one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced seaman — 
 Morgan by name. "It was him that knowed Black Dog." -"Well, 
 and see here," added the sea-cook, "I'll put another again to that, by 
 thunder! for it was this same boy that faked the chart from Billy 
 Bones. First and last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!" — "Then here 
 goes!" said Morgan, with an oath. And he sprung up, drawing his 
 knife as if he had been twenty. 
 
 "Avast, there!" cried Silver. "AVho are you, Tom Morgan? 
 Maybe you thought you were captain here, perhaps. By the powers, 
 but I'll teach you better! There's never a man looked me between the 
 eyes and seen a good day a'terward, Tom Morgan, you may lay to 
 that." Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others. — 
 "Tom's right," said one. — "I stood hazing long enough from one," 
 added another. "I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John Silver." 
 — "Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with rnel" roared 
 Silver, bending forward, 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. You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' for- 
 tune, by your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass him that 
 dares and I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, before that 
 pipe's empty." 
 
 Not a man stirred ; not a man answered. "That's your sort', is it?" 
 he added, returning his pipe to his mouth. "Not worth much to fight, 
 you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm 
 cap'n here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a 
 long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should; then, 
 by thunder, you'll obey. I like that boy now. He's more a man than 
 
128 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 any pair of rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: Let 
 me see him as'll lay a hand on him — that's what I say." 
 
 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 bis mouth, as calm as though 
 he had been in church; yet his eye kept wandering furtively, and he 
 kept the tail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, drew 
 gradually together toward the far end of the block-house, and the low 
 hiss of their whispering sounded in my ears continuously, like a stream. 
 One after another they would look up, but it was not toward me, it was 
 toward Silver that they turned their eyes. 
 
 "You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into 
 the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to." — "Ax your pardon, 
 sir," returned one of the men; "you're pretty free with some of the 
 rules, maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew's 
 dissatisfied; this crew has its rights like other crews, and by your own 
 rules I take it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir, acknowl- 
 edging you for to be capting at this present, but I claim my right and 
 steps outside for a council." And with an elaborate sea-salute, this 
 fellow stepped coolly toward the door and disappeared out of the 
 house. One after another, the rest followed his example, each making 
 a salute as he passed, each adding some apology. 
 
 The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe. "Now look you here, 
 Jim Hawkins," he said in a steady whisper that was no more than 
 audible, "you're within half a plank of death, and what's a long sight 
 worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But you mark, 
 I stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to; no, not till 
 you spoke up. 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 129 
 
 began dimly to understand. "You mean all is lost?" I asked. — "Ay, 
 by gum, I do!" be 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 gave out. As for that lot and their 
 council, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save your 
 life — if so be as I can — from them. But see here, Jim, tit for tat— 
 you save Long John from swinging." 
 
 I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking — 
 he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout. "What I can do, 
 that I'll do," I said. — "It's a bargain!" cried Long John. He hob- 
 bled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and took 
 a fresh light to his pipe. 
 
 "Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a head on my 
 shoulders, I have. I'm on squire's side now. I know you've got that 
 ship safe somewheres. How you done it I don't know, but safe it is. 
 Now you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won't let others. I 
 know when a game's up, I do; and I know a lad that's stanch. All, 
 you that's young — you and me might have done a power of good 
 together!" He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin. 
 "Will you taste, messmate?" he asked, and when I had refused, "Well, 
 I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there's 
 trouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give 
 me the chart, Jim?" My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that 
 he saw the needlessness of further questions. "Ah, well, he did, 
 though," said he. "And there's something under that, no doubt — 
 something, surely, under that, Jim — bad or good." And he took 
 another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a man 
 who looks forward to the worst. 
 
130 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN 
 
 t 
 
 The council of the buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of 
 them re-entered the house, and with a repetition of the same salute, 
 which had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of 
 the torch. Silver briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again, 
 leaving us together in the dark. "There's a breeze coining, Jim," said 
 Silver, who had by this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone. 
 
 I turned to the loop-hole nearest me and looked out. The embers 
 of the great fire had so far burned themselves out, and now glowed 
 so low and duskily, that I understood why these conspirators desired a 
 torch. About halfway down the slope to the stockade they were col- 
 lected 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. I could 
 just make out that he had a book as well as a knife, and was still won- 
 dering how anything so incongruous had come in their possession, 
 when the kneeling figure rose once more to his feet, and the whole 
 party began to move together toward the house. "Here they come," 
 said I, and I returned to my former position, for it seemed beneath my 
 dignity that they should find me watching them. — "Well, let 'em 
 come, lad — let 'em come," said Silver, cheerily. "I've still a shot in 
 my locker." 
 
 The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled together 
 just inside, pushed one of their number forward. In any other cir- 
 cumstances it would have been comical to see his slow advances, hesi- 
 tating 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 131 
 
 having passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet 
 more smartly back again to his companions. 
 
 The sea-cook looked at what had been given him. "The black 
 spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where might you have got the 
 paper? Why, hello! look here, now; this ain't lucky! You've gone 
 and cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"— "All, 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-head 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 a long man with yellow eyes struck in. "Belay that 
 talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew has tipped you the black spot 
 in full council ; just you turn it over, and see what's wrote there. Then 
 you can talk." — "Thanky, George," replied the sea-cook. "You 
 always was brisk for business, and has the rides by heart, George, as 
 I am pleased to see. Ah! 'Deposed' — that's it, is it? Very prettjr 
 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 over, now, and you'll maybe step down off that barrel, and help 
 vote." — "I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned Silver, 
 contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do; and I wait here — 
 and I'm still your cap'n, mind — till you outs with your grievances, and 
 I reply; in the meantime, your black spot ain't worth a biscuit. After 
 that we'll see." 
 
 "Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of apprehen- 
 sion; 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 
 
132 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 enemy out o' this here trap for nothing. Third, you wouldn't let us 
 go at them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver; 
 you want to play booty, that's what's wrong with you. And then, 
 fourth, there's this here boy." — "Is that all?" asked Silver, quietly. — 
 "Enough, too," retorted George. — "Well, now, look here, I'll answer 
 these four p'ints; one after another. I made a hash o' this cruise, did 
 I? Well, now, you all know what I wanted; and you all know, if 
 that had been done, that we'd 'a' been aboard the Hispaniola this night 
 as ever was, every man of us alive and fit, and the treasure in the bold 
 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? Why, it was Anderson and Hands and 
 you, George Merry! And you're the last above board of that same 
 meddling crew; you, that sunk the lot of us! By the powers! but 
 this tops the stiff est yarn to nothing." 
 
 Silver paused, and I ctxild 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 to let you 
 come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune! I reckon tailors is your 
 trade." — "Go on, John," said Morgan. "Speak up to the others." — 
 "Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice lot, ain't they? 
 You say this cruise is bungled. Ah ! We're that near the gibbet that 
 my neck's stiff with thinking on it. You've see 'em, maybe, hanged in 
 chains, birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as they go down with 
 the tide. 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. And if you want to know about number four, and 
 that boy, why, shiver my timbers! isn't he a hostage? Are we going 
 to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 133 
 
 Page 145. 
 
134 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy? not me, mates ! And number three? 
 Ah, well, there's a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don't 
 count it nothing to have a real college doctor come to see you every 
 day — you, John, with your head broke — or you, George Merry, that 
 had the ague shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes 
 the color of lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? And maybe, 
 perhaps, you didn't know there was a consort coming, either? But 
 there is, and not so long till then; and we'll see who'll be glad to have a 
 hostage when it comes to that. And as for number two, and why I 
 made a bargain — well, you 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 appearance of the chart was 
 incredible to the surviving mutineers. They leaped upon it like cats 
 upon a mouse. It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from an- 
 other; and by the oaths and cries and the childish laughter with 
 which they accompanied their examination, you would have thought, 
 not only they were fingering the very gold, but were at sea with it, 
 besides, in safety. "Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F. 
 and a score below, with a clove hitch to it, so he done ever." — "Mighty 
 pretty," said George. "But how are we to get away with it, and us 
 no ship?" 
 
 Silver suddenly sprung up, and supporting himself with a hand 
 against the wall: "Now, I give you warning, George," he cried. 
 "One more word of your sauce, and I'll call you down and fight you. 
 How? Why, how do I know? You had ought to tell me that — you 
 and the rest that lost me my schooner, with your interference, burn 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 135 
 
 you! But not you, you can't; you ain't got the invention of a cock- 
 roach. But civil you can speak, and shall, George Merry, you may 
 lay to that." — "That's fair now," said the old man Morgan. — "Fair! 
 I reckon so," said the sea-cook. "You lost the ship; I found the 
 treasure. Who's the hetter man at that? And now I resign, by 
 thunder! Elect whom you please to be your cap'n now; I'm done 
 with it." — "Silver!" they cried. "Barbecue forever! Barbecue for 
 cap'n!" — "So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George, I reckon 
 you'll have to wait another turn, friend, and lucky for you as I'm not 
 a revengeful man. But that was never my way. And now, ship- 
 mates, this black spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed 
 his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all. Here, Jim — 
 here's a cur'osity for>you," and he tossed me the paper. 
 
 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 ven- 
 geance was to put George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him 
 with death if he should prove unfaithful. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 ON PAROLE 
 
 I w T as awakened by a clear, hearty voice hailing us f rom Jthe 
 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 felt ashamed to 
 look him in the face. 
 
 "You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried Silver, 
 broad awake and beaming with good-nature in a moment. "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 
 
136 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 Doctor Livesey over the ship's side. All a-doin' well, your patients 
 was — all well and merry. We've quite a surprise for you, too, sir," 
 he continued. "We've a little stranger here. A noo boarder and 
 lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut as a riddle ; sle'p like a supercargo, 
 he did, right alongside of John." 
 
 Doctor Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty 
 near the cook, and I could hear the alteration in his voice as he said: 
 "Not Jim?" — "The very same Jim as ever was," said 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 afterward, as you might have said your- 
 self, Silver. Let us overhaul these patients of yours." A moment 
 afterward he had entered the block-house, and with one grim nod to 
 me, proceeded with his work among the sick. He seemed to me under 
 no apprehension, though he must have known that his life, among 
 these treacherous demons, depended on a hair, and he rattled on to his 
 patients as if he .were paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet 
 English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on the men, for 
 they behaved to him as if nothing had occurred — as if he were still 
 ship's doctor, and they still faithful hands before the mast. 
 
 "You're doing well, my friend," he said to the fellow with the 
 bandaged head, "and if ever any person had a close shave, it was you ; 
 your head must be as hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it? 
 You're a pretty color, certainly ; why, your liver, man, is upside down. 
 Did he take that medicine, men?" — "Ay, ay, sir, he took it sure 
 enough," returned Morgan. — "Because, you see, since I am mutineers' 
 doctor, or prison doctor, as I prefer to call it," says Doctor Livesey, 
 in his pleasantest way, "I make it a point of honor not to lose a man 
 for King George (God bless him!) and the gallows." The rogues 
 looked at each other, but swallowed the home-thrust in silence. 
 
 "Dick don't feel well, sir," said one. — "Don't he?" replied the 
 doctor. "Well, step up here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 137 
 
 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 
 o' sp'iling Bibles." — "That corned — as you call it — of being arrant 
 asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to know 
 honest air from poison. You'll all have the deuce to pay before you 
 get that malaria out of your systems. Camp in a bog, would you? 
 Silver, I'm surprised at you. Well," he added, after he had dosed 
 them round, and they had taken his prescriptions, more like charity 
 school-children than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates, "well, that's 
 done for to-day. And now I should wish to have a talk with that boy, 
 please." And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly." 
 
 George Merry was at the door, spitting and spluttering over 
 some bad-tasted medicine; but at the first word of the doctor's pro- 
 posal he swung round with a deep flush, and cried, "IS T o!" and swore. 
 Silver struck the barrel with his open hand. — "Si-lence!" he roared. 
 "Doctor," he went on, in his usual tones, "I was thinking of that, 
 knowing as how you had a fancy for the boy. 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 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 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. But he was twice the man the rest were, and his last night's 
 victory had given him a huge preponderance on their minds. He 
 called them all the fools and dolts you can imagine, said it was neces- 
 sary 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 
 
138 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 doctor, if I have to ile his boots with brandy." And then he bade 
 them get the fire lighted, and stalked out upon his crutch, with his 
 hand on my shoulder, leaving them silenced by his volubility rather 
 than convinced. "Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round 
 upon us in a twinkle of an eye if we was seen to hurry." 
 
 Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the sand to where 
 the doctor waited us on the other side of the stockade, and as soon 
 as we were within easy speaking distance, Silver stopped. "You'll 
 make a note of this here also, doctor," said he, "and the boy'll tell you 
 how I saved his life, and were deposed for it, too. Doctor, when a 
 man's steering as near to the wind as me — playing chuck-farthing with 
 the last breath in his body, like — you wouldn't think it too much, 
 mayhap, to give him one good word! You'll please bear in mind it's 
 not my life only now — it's that boy 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 bis friends and the block-house; his cheeks seemed to have 
 fallen in, his voice trembled ; never was a soul more dead in earnest. 
 
 "Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Doctor Livesey. — "Doc- 
 tor, I'm no coward; no, not I — not so much!" and he snapped his 
 fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly I've the 
 shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true; I 
 never seen a better man! And you'll not forget what I done 
 good, not any more than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step 
 aside — see here — and leave you and Jim alone. And you'll put that 
 down for me, too, for it's a long stretch, is that!" So saying, he 
 stepped back a little way till he was out of ear-shot, and there sat 
 down upon a tree-stump and began to whistle, spinning round now 
 and again upon his seat so as to command a sight sometimes of me 
 and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they went to 
 and fro in the sand, between the fire and the house, from which they 
 brought forth pork and bread to make the breakfast. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 139 
 
 "So, Jim," said the doctor, sadly, "here you are. As you have 
 brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. Heaven knows I can not find it 
 in my heart to blame you; but this much I will say, be it kind or un- 
 kind, when Captain Smollett was well you dared not have gone off, 
 and when he was ill, and couldn't help it, by George, it was downright 
 cowardly!" I will own that I here began to weep. — "Doctor," I 
 said, "you might spare me. I have blamed myself enough; my life's 
 forfeit any way, and I should have been dead now if Silver hadn't 
 stood for me; and, doctor, believe this, I can die — and I dare say I 
 deserve it — but what I fear is torture. If they come to torture 
 
 me " — "Jim," the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite 
 
 changed, "Jim, I can't have this. Whip over, and we'll run for it." — 
 "Doctor," said I, "I passed my word." — "I know, I know," he cried. 
 "We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it on my shoulders, my boy; 
 but stay here, I can not let you. Jump! One jump and you're out, 
 and we'll run for it like antelopes." — "No," I replied, "you knoAV 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. You found out the 
 plot; you found Ben Gunn — the best deed that you ever did, or will 
 do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter! and talking of Ben 
 Gunn, why, this is the mischief in person. Silver!" he cried, "Silver! 
 — I'll give you a piece of advice," he continued, as the cook drew near 
 again; "don't you be in any great hurry after that treasure." 
 
 "Why, sir," said Silver, "I can only, asking your pardon, save 
 
140 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 my life and the boy's by seeking for that treasure; and you may lay to 
 that." — "Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go one 
 step farther; look out for squalls when you find it!" — "Sir," said Silver^ 
 "as between man and man, that's too much and too little. What 
 you're after, why you left the block-house, why you given me that 
 there chart, I don't know, now, do I? and yet I done your bidding with 
 my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here's too much. 
 If you won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so, and I'll 
 leave the helm." 
 
 "No," said the doctor, musingly, "I've no right to say more; it's 
 not my secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you my word, I'd tell it to 
 you. But I'll go as far with you as I dare go. And first, I'll give 
 you a bit of hope; Silver, if we both get out alive out of this wolf 
 trap, I'll do my best to save you, short of perjury." Silver's face was 
 radiant.— "You couldn't say more, I am sure, sir, not if you was my 
 mother," he cried.— "Well, that's my first concession," added the doc- 
 tor. "My second is a piece of advice. Keep the boy close beside you, 
 and when you need help, halloo. I'm off to seek it for you, and that 
 itself will show you if I speak at random. Good-by, Jim." And 
 Doctor Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to 
 Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood. 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 141 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE TREASURE-HUNT — FLINT'S POINTER 
 
 "Jim," said Silver, when we were alone, "if I saved your life, you 
 saved mine, and I'll not forget it. I seen the doctor waving you to 
 run for it — with the tail of my eye, I did — and I seen you say no as 
 plain as hearing. Jim, that's one to you. And now, Jim, 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 about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. 
 They had lighted a fire, fit to roast an ox ; 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; and what with 
 wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they were bold enough for a 
 brush and be done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything 
 like a jirolonged campaign. Even Silver, eating away, with Captain 
 Flint upon his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their recklessness. 
 
 "Ay, mates," said he, "it's lucky you have Barbecue to think for 
 you with this here head. I got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, 
 they have the ship. Where they have it, I don't know yet; but once 
 we hit the treasure, we'll have to jump about and find out. And then, 
 mates, us that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand. 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. Once we got the ship and treasure both, and off 
 to sea like jolly companions, why, then we'll talk Hawkins over, we 
 will, and we'll give him his share, to be sure, for all his kindness." 
 
 It was no wonder the men were in a good humor now. For my 
 
142 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 part, I was horribly cast down. Should the scheme he had now 
 sketched prove feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not 
 hesitate to adopt it. Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was 
 forced to keep his faith with Doctor Livesey, even then what danger 
 lay before us! What a moment that would be when the suspicions of 
 his followers turned to certainty, and he and I should have to fight for 
 dear life — he, a cripple, and I, a boy — against five strong and active 
 seamen ! Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung 
 over the behavior of my friends; their unexplained desertion of the 
 stockade; their inexplicable cession of the chart; or, harder still to 
 understand, the doctor's last warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls 
 when you find it" ; and you will readily believe how lfttle 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 gabbled odds and ends of purposeless 
 sea-talk. I had a line about my waist, and followed obediently after 
 the sea-cook, who held the loose end of the rope. For all the world, I 
 was led like a dancing bear. The other men were variously burdened ; 
 some carrying picks and shovels — for that had been the very first 
 necessary they brought ashore from the Hispaniola — others laden with 
 pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal. Well, thus equipped, 
 we all set out and straggled, one after another, to the beach, where 
 the two gigs awaited us. Both were to be carried along with us, for 
 the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers divided between them, we 
 set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. 
 
 As we pulled over there was some discussion on the chart. The 
 red cross was, of course, far to large to be a guide; and the terms of 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 143 
 
 Page 151. 
 
144 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 the note on the hack, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. 
 They ran, the reader may remember, thus: 
 
 "Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the ]\ T . of 
 N. N. E. 
 
 "Skeleton Island E. S. E. and by E. 
 "Ten feet." 
 
 A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right before us, 
 the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred 
 feet high, adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the 
 Spy-glass, and rising again toward the south into the rough, cliffy 
 eminence called the Mizzen-mast Hill. The top of the plateau was 
 dotted thickly with pine trees of varying height. Every here and 
 there, one of a different species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its 
 neighbors, and which of these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain 
 Flint could only be decided on the spot, and by the readings of the 
 compass. Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the 
 boats had picked a favorite of his own ere we were halfway over, Long 
 John alone shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they 
 were there. 
 
 We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary the hands 
 prematurely ; and landed at the mouth of the second river — that which 
 runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass. Thence, bending to our 
 left, we began to ascend the slope toward the plateau. The party 
 spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to and fro. 
 About the center, and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I followed 
 -I tethered by my rope, he plowing, with deep pants, among the 
 sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, 
 or he must have missed his footing and fallen backward down the hill. 
 
 We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, and were approach- 
 ing 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 145 
 
 the others began to run in his direction. "Pie can't have found the 
 treasure," said old Morgan, hurrying past us from the right, "for that's 
 clean a-top." Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it 
 was something very different. At the foot of a pretty big pine, and 
 involved in a green creeper, a human skeleton lay, with a few shreds of 
 clothing, on the ground. — "He was a seaman," said George Merry, 
 who, bolder than the rest, had gone up close, and was examining the 
 rags of clothing. "Leastways, this is good sea-cloth." — "Ay, ay," said 
 Silver, "like enough; you wouldn't look to find a bishop here, I 
 reckon. But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't in 
 natur'." Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy 
 that the body was in a natural position. 
 
 The man lay perfectly straight — his feet pointing in one direc- 
 tion, his hands raised above his head like a diver's, pointing directly 
 in the opposite. 
 
 "I've taken a notion into my old numskull," observed Silver. 
 "Here's the compass; there's the tip-top p'int of Skeleton Island, 
 stickin' out like a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the 
 line of them bones." It was done. The body pointed straight in 
 the direction of the island, and the compass read duly E. S. E. by E. 
 "I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there 
 is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly dollars. But by thunder! 
 if it don't make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of his 
 jokes, and no mistake. Come, come," he continued, "he's dead, and 
 he don't walk, that I know; leastways he won't walk by day, and you 
 may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons." 
 
 We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and the staring 
 daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the 
 wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror 
 of the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits. 
 
146 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE TREASURE-HUNT — THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES 
 
 Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest 
 Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had 
 gained the brow of the ascent. Before us, over the tree-tops, we 
 beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf; behind, we not 
 only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but saw — 
 clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands — a great field of open 
 sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted 
 with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound 
 but that of the distant breakers mounting from all around, and the 
 chirp of countless insects in the brush. Xot a man, not a sail upon 
 the sea; the very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude. 
 
 Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass. "There 
 are three 'tall trees,' " said he, "about in the right line from Skeleton 
 Island. 'Spy-glass Shoulder,' I take it, means that lower p'int there. 
 It's child's play to find the stuff now. I've half a mind to dine first." 
 
 All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees in front of us, a 
 thin, high, and trembhng voice struck up the well-known air and 
 words : 
 
 "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest — 
 Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" 
 
 I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. 
 The color went from their six faces like enchantment; some leaped to 
 their feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan groveled on the 
 ground. 
 
 "It's Flint, by !" cried Merry. — "Come," said Silver, strug- 
 gling with his ashen lips to get the word out, "that won't do. Stand 
 by to go about. This is a rum start, and I can't name the voice, but 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 147 
 
 it's some one sky-larking — 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. Already 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 McGraw," it wailed, "Darby McGraw! Darby 
 McGraw!" again and again; and then rising a little higher, and with 
 an oath, "Fetch aft the rum, Darby!" 
 
 The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes start- 
 ing from their heads. Long after the voice had died away they still 
 stared in silence, dreadfully, before them. "That fixes it!" gasped 
 one. — "Let's go." — "They was his last words," moaned Morgan, "his 
 last words above-board." Dick had his Bible out and was praying 
 volubly. He had been well brought up, had Dick, before he came to 
 sea and fell among bad companions. 
 
 Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth rattle in 
 his head, but he had not yet surrendered. "Nobody in this here island 
 ever heard of Darby," he muttered; "not one but us that's here. 
 Shipmates," he cried, "I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat 
 by man or devil. I never was feared of Flint in his life, and, by the 
 powers, I'll face him dead. There's seven hundred thousand pound 
 not a quarter of a mile from here. When did ever a gentleman o' 
 fortune show his stern to that much dollars for a boozy old seaman 
 with a blue mug; — and him dead, too?" But there was no sign of 
 reawakening courage in his followers; rather, indeed, of growing 
 terror at the irreverence of his words. 
 
 "Belay there, John!" said Merry. "Don't you cross a sperrit." 
 And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They would have run 
 away severalty had they dared, but fear kept them together, and kept 
 them close by John. He, on his part, had pretty well fought his 
 weakness down. 
 
148 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 "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, I should 
 like to know? That ain't in natur', surely." This argument seemed 
 weak enough to me. But you can never tell what will affect the 
 superstitious, and, to my wonder, George Merry was greatly relieved. 
 — "Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head upon your shoulders, 
 John, and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates! And come to think on it, 
 it was like Flint's voice, I grant you, but not just so clear away like it,, 
 
 after all. It was liker somebody else's voice now — it was liker " 
 
 — "By the powers, Ben Gunn!" roared Silver. — "Ay, and so it were," 
 cried Morgan, springing on his knees. "Ben Gunn it were!" — "It 
 don't make much odds, do it, npw?" asked Dick. "Ben Gunn's not 
 here in the body, any more'n Flint." But the older hands greeted 
 this remark with scorn. — "Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn," cried 
 Merry; "dead or alive, nobody minds him!" 
 
 It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned, and how the 
 natural color had revived in their faces. Soon they were chatting 
 together, with intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing no 
 further sound, they shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry 
 walking first with Silver's compass to keep them on the right line with 
 Skeleton Island. He had said the truth ; dead or alive, nobody minded 
 Ben Gunn. 
 
 It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our way lay 
 a little downhill, for the plateau tilted toward the west. The pines, 
 great and small, grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of 
 nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. 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. 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 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 149 
 
 spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they drew nearer, 
 swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their 
 heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was bound 
 up in that fortune that lay waiting there for each of them. 
 
 Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils stood out 
 and quivered; he plucked furiously at the line that held me to him, 
 and, from time to time, turned his eyes upon me with a deadlj r look. 
 Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts. In the immediate 
 nearness of the gold, all else had been forgotten; and I could not doubt 
 that he hoped to seize the treasure, find the Hispaniola, cut every 
 honest throat about that island, and sail away as he bad at first 
 intended, laden with crimes and riches. Shaken as I was with these 
 alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the 
 treasure-hunters. Now and again I tumbled, and it was then that 
 Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me his murder- 
 ous glances. 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 farther, we beheld them stop. A 
 low cry arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging away with the foot 
 of his crutch like one possessed, and next moment he and I had come 
 also to a dead halt. Before us was a great excavation, not very 
 recent, for the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on the 
 bottom. In this were the shaft of a pick broken in two and the boards 
 of several packing cases strewn round. On one of these boards I 
 saw branded with a hot iron the name "Walrus" — the name of Flint's 
 ship. All was clear to probation. The cache had been found and 
 rifled — the seven hundred thousand pounds were gone! 
 
150 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 lie 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 disap- 
 pointment. "Jim," he whispered, "take that, and stand by for 
 trouble." And he passed me a double-barreled pistol. At the same 
 time he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps had put 
 the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked at me 
 and nodded, as much as to say: "Here is a narrow corner," as, indeed, 
 I thought it was. His looks were now quite friendly, and I was so 
 revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering : 
 "So you've changed sides again."' 
 
 There was no time left for him to answer in. The buccaneers, 
 with oaths and cries, began to leap, one after another, into the pit, and 
 to dig with their fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. 
 Morgan found a piece of gold. He held it up with a perfect spout 
 of oaths. It was a two-guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand 
 among them for a quarter of a minute. "Two guineas!" roared 
 Merry, shaking it at Silver. "That's your seven hundred thousand 
 pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains, ain't you? You're him 
 that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber!" — "Dig away, 
 boys," said Silver, with the coolest insolence; "you'll find some pig- 
 nuts, and I shouldn't wonder." — "Pig-nuts!" repeated Merry, in a 
 scream. "Mates, do you hear that? I tell you now, that man there 
 knew it all along. Look in the face of him, and you'll see it wrote 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 151 
 
 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 here and blundered us down to this; the 
 other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, mates " 
 
 He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead 
 a charge. But just then — crack! crack! crack! — three musket-shots 
 flashed out of the thicket. Merry tumbled headforemost into the 
 excavation; the man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum, and 
 fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, 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. 
 At the same moment the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with 
 smoking muskets, from among the nutmeg-trees. "Forward!" cried 
 the doctor. "Double quick, my lads. We must head 'em off the 
 boats." And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through 
 the bushes to the chest. 
 
 I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us. The work 
 that man went through, leaping on his crutch till the muscles of his 
 chest were fit to burst, was work no sound man ever equaled; and so 
 thinks the doctor. As it was, he was already thirty yards behind us, 
 and on the verge of strangling, when we reached the brow of the 
 slope. "Doctor," he hailed, "see there! no hurry!" Sure enough 
 
152 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 
 downhill to where the boats were lying, related, in a few words, what 
 had taken place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver, 
 and Ben Gunn, the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning 
 to end. Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had 
 found the skeleton. It was he that had rifled it; he had found the 
 treasure ; he had dug it up ; he had carried it on his back, in many weary 
 journeys, from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two- 
 pointed hill at the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain 
 stored in safety. 
 
 When the doctor had wormed this secret from him, on the after- 
 noon of the attack, and when, next morning, he saw the anchorage 
 deserted, he had gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now 
 useless; given him the stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied 
 with goats' meat salted by himself; given anything and everything to 
 get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to the two-pointed 
 hill, there to be clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money. 
 "As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart, but I did what 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 153 
 
 Page 157 
 
154 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 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 disap- 
 pointment he had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way 
 to the cave, and, leaving squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray 
 and the maroon, and started, making the diagonal across the island, 
 to be at hand beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party 
 had the start of him; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been 
 dispatched in front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to him 
 to work upon the superstitions of his former shipmates; and he was 
 so far successful that Gray and the doctor had come up and were 
 already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure-hunters. 
 
 "Ah," said Silver, "it was fortunate for me that I had Hawkins 
 here. You would have let old John be cut to bits, and never given it 
 a thought, doctor." — "Not a thought," replied Doctor Livesey, 
 cheerily. 
 
 And by this time we had reached the gigs. The doctor, with the 
 pick-axe, demolished one of them, and then we all got aboard the 
 other, and set out to go round by the sea for North Inlet. This was 
 a run of eight or nine miles. Soon we passed out of the straits and 
 doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which, four days 
 ago, we had towed the Hispaniola. As we passed the two-pointed hill 
 we could see the black mouth of Ben Gunn's cave, and a figure stand- 
 ing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the squire, and we waved a 
 handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in which the voice of Silver 
 joined as heartily as any. 
 
 Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of North Inlet, what 
 should we meet but the Hispaniola, cruising by herself. The last 
 flood had lifted her, and had there been much wind, or a strong tide 
 current, as in the southern anchorage, we should never have found her 
 more, or found her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was little 
 amiss, beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was got 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 155 
 
 ready, and dropped in a fathom and a half of water. We all pulled 
 round again to Rum Cove, the nearest point for Benn Gunn's treasure- 
 house; and then Gray, single-handed, returned with the gig to the 
 Hispaniola, where he was to pass the night on guard. 
 
 A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of the cave. 
 At the top, the squire met us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying 
 nothing of my escapade, either in the way of blame or praise. At 
 Silver's polite salute he somewhat flushed. "John Silver," he said, 
 "you're a prodigious villain and imposter — a monstrous imposter, 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. — "How dare you 
 to thank me!" cried the squire. "If 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, over- 
 hung with ferns. The floor was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain 
 Smollett ; and in a far corner, only duskily flickered over by the blaze, 
 I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. 
 That was Flint's treasure that we had come so far to seek, and that 
 had cost already the lives of seventeen men from the Hispaniola. How 
 many it had cost in the amassing, perhaps no man alive could tell. 
 Yet there were still three upon that island — Silver, and old Morgan, 
 and Ben Gunn — who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each 
 had hoped in vain to share in the reward. — "Come in, Jim," said the 
 captain. "You're a good boy in your line, Jim; but I don't think you 
 and me'll go to sea again. You're too much of the born favorite for 
 me. Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here, man?" — 
 "Come back to do my dooty, sir," returned Silver. — "All!" 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 
 
156 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 sure, were people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting 
 back almost out of the fire-light, but eating heartily, prompt to spring 
 forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our 
 laughter — the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 AND LAST 
 
 The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of 
 tliis 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 absence 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 of carrying, I was kept 
 busy all day in the cave, packing the minted money into bread-bags. 
 
 It was a strange collection; English, French, Spanish, Portu- 
 guese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moi- 
 dores, and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last 
 hundred years, strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked like 
 wisps of strings or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, 
 and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your 
 neck — nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have 
 found a place in that collection, and for number, I am sure they were 
 like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 157 
 
 * 
 
 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 morrow ; and all this time we heard nothing of 
 the three surviving mutineers. 
 
 At last — I think it was on the third night — the doctor and I were 
 strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of 
 the isle, when, from out the thick darkness below, the wind brought us 
 a noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that 
 reached our ears, followed by the former silence. "Heaven forgive 
 them," said the doctor; " 'tis the mutineers!" — "All drunk, sir," struck 
 in the voice of Silver from behind us. 
 
 Well, that was about the last news we had of the three pirates. 
 Only once we heard a gunshot a great way off, and supposed them to 
 be hunting. A council was held and it was decided that we must 
 desert them on the island — to the huge glee, I must say, of Ben Gunn, 
 and with the strong approval of Gray. We left a good stock of 
 powder and shot, the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines and some 
 other necessaries, tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope, 
 and, by the particular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of 
 tobacco. 
 
 That was about our last doing on the island. Before that we 
 had got the treasure stowed and had shipped enough water and the 
 remainder of the goat meat, in case of any distress; and at last, one 
 fine morning, we weighed anchor, and stood out of North Inlet, the 
 same colors flying that the captain had flown and fought under at the 
 palisade. 
 
 The three fellows must have been watching us closer than we 
 thought; for coming through the narrows we had to lie very near the 
 southern point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling together 
 on a spit of sand with their arms raised in supplication. The doctor 
 hailed them and told them of the stores we had left, and where they 
 were to find them, but they continued to call us by name and appeal to 
 
158 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 ear-shot, 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. 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, 
 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 immediately surrounded by shore-boats 
 full of negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods, selling fruits 
 and vegetables. The sight of so many good-humored faces, the taste 
 of the tropical fruits, and, above all, the lights that began to shine in 
 the town, made a most charming contrast to our sojourn on the island; 
 and the doctor and the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore 
 to pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an 
 English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and, 
 in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came 
 alongside the Hispaniola. 
 
 Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and, as soon as we came on board, 
 he began, with wonderful contortions, to make us a confession. Silver 
 was gone. The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore-boat 
 some hours ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to preserve 
 our lives, which would certainly have been forfeited if "that man with 
 the one leg had stayed aboard." But this was not all. The sea-cook 
 
TREASURE ISLAND 159 
 
 had not gone empty-handed. He had cut through a bulkhead unob- 
 served, and had removed one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three 
 or four hundred guineas, to help him on his further wanderings. 
 
 I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him. 
 
 Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands on hoard, 
 made a good cruise home, and the Hispaniola reached Bristol just as 
 Mr. Blandly was beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five 
 men only of those who had sailed returned with her. "Drink and the 
 devil had done for the rest," with a vengeance; although, to be sure, 
 we were not quite in so bad a case as that other ship they sung about: 
 
 "With one man of the crew alive 
 What put to sea with seventy-five." 
 
 All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and used it wisely 
 or foolishly, according to our natures. Captain Smollett is now 
 retired from the sea. Gray not only saved his money, but, being sud- 
 denly 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 fared upon the island; 
 and he still lives, a great favorite, though something of a butt, with 
 the country boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and 
 saints' days. 
 
 Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring 
 man with one leg has at last gone clean out of my life; but I dare say 
 he met his old negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and 
 Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of 
 comfort in another world are very small. 
 
 The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where 
 Flint buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen 
 
160 
 
 TREASURE ISLAND 
 
 and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; 
 and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf boom- 
 ing about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of 
 Captain Flint still ringing in my ears, "Pieces of eight! pieces of 
 eight!" 
 
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