 CHAPTER 9 POWDER AND ARMS The Hispaniola lay some way out, and we went under the figureheads and around the sterns of many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated beneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however, we swung alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears, and a squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon observed that things were not the same between Mr. Trelawney and the captain. This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry with everything on board, and was soon to tell us why, for we had hardly got down into the cabin when a sailor followed us. Captain Smolitzer, axing to speak with you, said he. I am always at the captain's orders, show him in, said the squire. The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and shut the door behind him. Well, Captain Smolitzer, what have you to say? All well, I hope, all ship-shape and sea-worthy. Well, sir, said the captain, better speak plain, I believe, at the risk of a fence. I don't like this cruise. I don't like the men, and I don't like my officer. That's short and sweet. But sir, you don't like the ship, inquired the squire, very angry as I could see. I can't speak to that, sir, not having seen her tried, said the captain. She seems a clever craft, more I can't say. Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either, said the squire, but here Dr. Livesey cut in. Stay a bit, said he, stay a bit. No use of such questions as that, but to produce ill feeling. The captain has said too much, or he has said too little. And I am bound to say that I require an explanation of his words. You don't, you say, like this cruise. Now why? I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid me, said the captain, so far so good. But now I find that every man before the mast knows more than I do. I don't call that fair, now do you? Now, said Dr. Livesey, I don't. Next, said the captain, I learn that we are going after treasure. Hear it from my own hands, mind you. Now treasure is ticklish work. I don't like treasure voyages on any account, and I don't like them above all when they are secret, and when, begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney, the secret has been told to the parrot. Silver's parrot? asked the squire. It's a way of speaking, said the captain, blabbed, I mean. It's my belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about, but I'll tell you my way of it, life or death, and a close run. That is all clear, and I daresay true enough, replied Dr. Livesey. We take the risk, but we are not so ignorant as you believe us. Next you say you don't like the crew. Are they not good seamen? I don't like them, sir, returned Captain Smollett. And I think I should have had the choosing of my own hands, if you go to that. Perhaps you should, replied the doctor. My friends should, perhaps, have taken you along with him. But the slight if there be one was unintentional. And you don't like Mr. Arrow? I don't, sir. I believe he's a good seamen, but he's too free with the crew to be a good officer. A mate should keep himself to himself, shouldn't drink with the men before the mast. Do you mean he drinks? cried the squire. No, sir, replied the captain, only that he's too familiar. Well now, and the shorter the longer it, Captain, asked the doctor, tell us what you want. Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise? Back iron, answered the squire. Very good, said the captain, then, as you've heard me very patiently, saying things that I could not prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting the powder and arms in the forehold. Now, you have a good place under the cabin. Why not put them there? First point. Second, you are bringing four of your own people with you, and they tell me some of them are to be birthed forward. Why not give them the births here, besides the cabin? Second point. Any more? asked Mr. Trelawney. One more, said the captain. There's been too much blabbing already. Far too much, agreed the doctor. I'll tell you what I have heard myself, continued Captain Smollett, that you have a map of an island, that there's crosses on the map to show where treasure is, and that the island lies, and then he named the latitude and longitude exactly. I never told that, cried the squire, to a soul. The hands know it, sir, returned the captain. Livesey, that must have been your Hawkins, cried the squire. It doesn't much matter who it was, replied the doctor, and I could see that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney's protestations. Neither did I, to be sure. He was so loose a talker. Yet, in this case, I believe he was really right, and that nobody had told the situation of the island. Well, gentlemen, continued the captain, I don't know who has this map, but I make it a point it shall be kept secret, even from me and Mr. Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign. I see, said the doctor, you wish us to keep this matter dark, and to make a garrison of the stern part of the ship, manned with my friend's own people, and provided with all the arms and powder on board. In other words, you fear a mutiny. Sir, said Captain Smollett, with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in going to sea at all, if he had ground enough to say that. As for Mr. Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest. Some of the men are the same, all may be for what I know, but I am responsible for the ship's safety and the life of every man jack-abaldiver. I see things going, as I think not quite right, and I ask you to take certain precautions, or let me resign my birth, and that's all. Captain Smollett began the doctor with a smile. Did you ever hear the fable of the mountain and the mouse? You'll excuse me, I daresay, but you remind me of that fable. When you came in here, I'll stake my wig you meant more than this. Doctor, said the captain, you are smart. When I came in here, I meant to get discharged. I had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a word. No more I would, cried the squire. Had 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 worst of you. That's as you please, sir," said the captain. You'll find I do my duty. And with that he took his leave. Trelawney, said the doctor, contrary to all my notions, I believe you have managed to get two honest men on board with you—that man and John Silver. Silver, if you like," cried the squire, but as for that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unseilerly, and downright un-English. Well, said the doctor, we shall see. When we came on deck, the men had begun already to take out the arms and powder, yo-ho-ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood by superintending. The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The whole schooner had been overhauled. Six berths had been made a stern out of what had been the after-part of the main hold, and this set of cabins was only joined to the galley and folks all by a spared passage on the port's side. It had been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Red Ruth and I were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep on deck in the companion, which had been enlarged on either side till you might almost have called it a roundhouse. Very low it was still, of course, but there was room to swing two hammocks, and even the mate seemed pleased with the arrangement. Even he perhaps had been doubtful as to the crew, but that is only guess, for, as you shall hear, we had not long the benefit of his opinion. We were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths, when the last man or two and Long John, along with them, came off in a shoreboat. The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness, and as soon as he saw what was doing, so-ho mates said he, What's this? We're a-changing the powder, Jack, answers one. Why, by the powers, cried Long John, If we do we'll miss the morning tide. My orders, said the captain, shortly, You may go below, my man, hands will want supper. Aye, aye, sir, answered the cook, and, touching his forelock, he disappeared at once in the direction of his galley. That's a good man, captain, said the doctor. Very likely, sir, replied Captain Smollett, Easy with that men, easy! He ran on to the fellows who were shifting the powder, and then, suddenly, observing me examining the swivel we carried amidst ships, a long brass nine, Hear you, ships-boy! he cried, Out of that, off with you to the cook and get some work. And then, as I was hurrying off, I heard him say quite loudly to the doctor, I'll have no favourites on my ship. I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking, and hated the captain deeply. CHAPTER X The voyage. All that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their place, and boat-falls of the squire's friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had a night at the Admiral Bemboe when I had half the work, and I was dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boson sounded his pipe, and the crew began to man the capstan-bars. I might have been twice as weary, yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and interesting to me. The brief commands, the shrill notes of the whistle, the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns. Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave, cried one voice. The old one cried another. Oi, oi, mate! said Long John, who was standing by with his crutch on his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so well. Fifteen men on a dead man's chest! And then the whole crew bore chorus, Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum! And at the third ho drove the bars before them with a will. Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old Admiral Bemboe in a second, and I seemed to hear the voice of the captain piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up, soon it was hanging dripping at the bowels, soon the sails began to draw and the land and shipping to flit by on either side, and before I could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber the Hispaniola began her voyage to the Isle of Treasure. I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a good ship, and 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 required to be known. The arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than the captain had feared. He had no command among the men, and people did what they pleased with him. But that was by no means the worst of it, for after a day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time after time he was ordered below in disgrace. Once he fell and cut himself, sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the companion. Sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and attend to his work at least passably. In the meantime we could never make out where he got the drink. That was the ship's mystery. Watch him as we pleased. We could do nothing to solve it, and when we asked him to his face he would only laugh if he were drunk, and if he were sober deny solemnly that he ever tasted anything but water. He was not only useless as an officer and a bad influence among the men, but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself outright, so nobody was much surprised nor very sorry when, one dark night, with a head sea, he disappeared entirely and was seen no more. Overboard, said the captain, well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble of putting him in irons. And there we were without a mate, and it was necessary of course to advance one of the men. The boson, Joe Anderson, was the likeliest man aboard, and though he kept his old title he served in a way as mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him very useful, for often he took a watch himself in easy weather. And the coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily old, experienced seaman who could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything. He was a great confidant of long John Silver, and so the mention of his name leads me on to speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men called him. A board ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard around his neck to have both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him wedge the foot of the crutch against the bulkhead, and propped against it, yielding to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like someone safe ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to help him across the widest spaces. Long John's earrings they were called, and he would hand himself from one place to another, now using the crutch, now trailing it alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see him so reduced. He's no common man, Barbecue, said the coxswain to me. He had a good schooling in his young days, and can speak like a book when he so minded, and brave, a lion's nothing alongside of Long John. I've seen him grapple four and knock their heads together, him unarmed. All the crew respected, and even obeyed him. He had a way of talking to each, and doing everybody some particular service. To me he was unwaveredly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept as clean as a new pin. The dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot in a cage in the corner. Come away, young Hawkins! he would say. Come and have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the news. Here's Captain Flint! I caused my parrot Captain Flint after the famous buccaneer. Here's Captain Flint predicting success to our voyage, wasn't you, Captain? And the parrot would say, with great rapidity, pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight, till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage. Now that bird, he would say, is maybe two hundred years old Hawkins. They live forever, mostly, and if anybody see more wickedness, it must be the devil himself. She sailed with England, the great Captain England, the pirate. He's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Suriname, 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 off of Hawkins. She was at the boarding of the voice-roy of the Indies, out of Goa she was. And to look at her, you would think she was a babby. But you smelt powder, didn't you, Captain? Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream. Ah! She's 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 pitch and not be mucked, lad. There is the poor old innocent bird of mine, swearing blue fire and none the wiser you may later that. She would swear the same in a manner of speaking before the chaplain. And John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had that made me think he was the best of men. In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the matter. He despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke but when he was spoken to and then sharp and short and dry, and not a word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have been wrong about the crew, that some of them were as brisk as he wanted to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a downright fancy to her. She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man as the 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 crews. The squire at this would turn away and march up and down the deck, chin in air. A trifle more of that man, he would say, and I should explode. We had some heavy weather which only proved the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man on board seemed well content, and he must have been hard to please, if they had been otherwise, for it is my belief that there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to see. Double Grog was going at the least excuse. There was duff on odd days, as, for instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday, and all was a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist for anyone to help himself that had a fancy. Never knew good to come of it yet, the captain said to Dr. Livesey, spoil folks' hands, make devils, that's my belief. But good did come of the apple-barrel, as usual here, 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 wind of the island we were after. I am not allowed to be more plain, and now we were running down for it with a bright look-out day and night. It was about the last day of our outward voyage by the last computation. Some time that night, or latest before noon of the morrow, we should sight the treasure-island. We were heading south-west, and had a steady breeze-of-beam and a quiet sea. The Hispaniola rolled steadily, dipping her bow-sprit now and then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing a low and a loft. Everyone was in the bravest spirit, 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 birth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. I ran on deck. The watch was all forad, looking out for the island. The man at the helm was watching the laugh of the sale, and whistling away gently to himself, and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea against the bowels, and around the sides of the ship. In I got bodily into the apple-barrel, and found there was scarce an apple left, but sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of the waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either fallen asleep or was on the point of doing so when a heavy man sat down with rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to speak. It was Silver's voice, and before I had heard a dozen words, I would not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there trembling and listening in the extreme of fear and curiosity, for from these dozen words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended upon me alone. CHAPTER X 11. What I Heard in the Apple Barrel No, not I, said Silver. Flint was Captain. I was quite a master along with my timbering leg. The same side I lost my leg, old Pew lost his daylights. It was a master surgeon, him that amputated me, out of college and all, lattened by their bucket and what not, but he was hanged like a dog, and sun droid like the rest at Corso Castle. That was Robert's men that was, and combed 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 amuck with the red blood and fit to sink with gold. Ah! cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and evidently full of admiration. He was the flower of the flock, was Flint. Dave, this was a man, too, by all accounts, said Silver. I never sailed along a hymn. First with England, then with Flint. That's my story. And now here are my own account in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine hundred safe from England, and two thousand after Flint. They ain't bad for a man before the mast. All safe in bank. Ain't earning now. It's saving, does it? You may later that. Where's all England's men now, I don't know. Where's Flint's? Why, most of them are bored here, and glad to get the duff. Been begging before that, some of them. Oh, pure as has lost his sight, and might have thought shame, spend twelve hundred pounds in a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now, and under hatches. But for two years before that, shiver my timbers, the man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that by the powers. Well, ain't much use after all, said the young seaman. Ain't much use for fools you may later it. That no nothing, cried Silver. But now you look here. You're young you are, but you're 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 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 live rough, and they risk swinging. But they eat, and drink like fightin' cocks, and when a cruise is done, why, it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and a sea again in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay. I put it all away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres by reason of suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you. Back from this cruise I set up gentlemen in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. I bet I've lived easy in the meantime. Never did I myself a nothin' the heart desires, and slept soft, and ate deity all my days but when at sea. And how did I begin before the mass like you? Well, said the other. But all the other money's gone now, didn't it? You didn't show face in Bristol after this. Why, where might you suppose it was? asked Silver derisively. Bristol in banks and places, answered his companion. It were, said the cook, it were when we weighed anchor, but my old missus, as it all by now, and the spy-glasses sold, leasts and goodwill and rigging, and the old girls off to meet me. I will tell you where, mate, for I trust you. But it'd make jealousy among the mates. And you can trust your missus, asked the other. Gentlemen of fortune, return the cook, usually trust little among themselves, and right they are you may lay to it. But I have a way with me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable, one as knows me, I mean. It won't be in the same world with old John. There were some that was feared of pew, and some that was feared of flint. But flint his own self was feared of me, feared he was, and proud. There 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've seen yourself how easy I keep company. But when I was quite a master, lambs wasn't the word for flint's, old buccaneers. You may be sure of yourself in old John's ship. Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, I didn't half a quarter like a 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 hand so heartily that all the barrels shook, and a finer figure ed 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 Square,' said Silver. "'Oh, I know Dick was Square,' returned the voice of the coxswain, Israel hands. "'He's no fool, he's Dick.' He turned his quid and spat. "'But look here,' he went on. "'Here's what I want to know, barbecue. How long are we going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've had almost enough, a captain's smollet. He's hazed me long enough by thunder. "'I want to go into that cabin I do. I want their pickles and wines and that.' "'Israel,' said Silver. "'You're ain't much a count nor never was. But you're able to hear, I reckon. Blessed ways your ears is big enough. "'Here is what I say. You'll berth farad, and you'll live hard, and you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober till I give the word. And you may lay to that, my son.' "'Well, I don't say no, do I?' growled the coxswain. "'What I said is, when?' "'That's what I say.' "'When?' "'By the powers!' cried Silver. "'Well, now, if you want to know, I'll tell you when. "'The last moment I can manage. And that's when.' "'Here is the first rate, seamen captain's smollet. Sales the blessed ship for us. Here is the squire and doctor. We are 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. She'll find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard by the powers. Then we'll see. "'If I was sure of you all, son's a double Dutchman, I'd have captain's smollet and navigate us half way back again before I struck.' "'Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think,' said the land-dick. "'Well, folks will hand you a mean, snapped Silver. We can steer a course, but who's to set one? That's what all you gentlemen spit on first and last. If I had my way, I'd have captain's smollet workers back into the trades at least. Then we'd have no blessed miscalculations in a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort you are. I'll finish with them at the island, as soon as the blunts on board, and a pity it is. But you're never happy till your drunk split my sides. I've a sick heart to sail with, and likes a you.' "'Easy all, long John,' cried Israel. "'Who's a crossing of you?' "'Why, how many tall ships think ye now have I seen later board? And how many brisk lads droid in the sun-execution duck?' cried Silver. "'And all for this same hurry, and hurry, and hurry. You hear me? I've seen a thing or two at sea, I have. If you would only lay your course, and a point of windward you would ride in carriages you would. But not you. I know you. You'll have your milk for the rum to-morrow, and go hang. Everybody know'd how you was a kind of a chaplain, John. But there's others who could hand and steer as well as you,' said Israel. "'They liked a bit of fun, they did. They wasn't so high and dry, know how, but took their fling like jolly companions every one.' "'So,' said Silver, "'well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and he doid a beggar-man flint was, and he doid a rum at Savannah. They was a sweet crew they was. Only where are they?' "'But,' asked Dick, "'when we do lay them a thwart, what are we going to do with them, anyhow?' "'There is the man for me,' cried the cook, admiringly, "'that's what I call business. Well, what would you think? Put them ashore like maroons? That would have been England's way, or cut them down like that much pork. That would have been flints, or billy-bones.' "'Billy was the man for that,' said Israel. "'Dead men, don't buy it,' says he. "'Well, he's dead now, his self. He knows the long and short on it now, and if ever a rough hand come to port it was billy. Right you are,' said Silver, "'rough and ready. But, Mark, you hear, I'm a easy man. I'm quite the gentleman,' says you. But this time it's serious. Duty is duty, mates. I give my vote. Death. When I'm in Parliament, and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin, a coming home, and look for her like the devil at prayers. Wait is what I say. And when the time comes, why, little rip.' "'John,' cried the coxswain, "'you're a man.' "'You'll say so, Israel, when you see,' said Silver. "'Only one thing I claim. I claim Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his buddy with these hands. "'Dick,' he added, breaking off, "'you must jump up. Like a sweet lad, and get me a apple to wet my pipe-like.' "'You may fancy the terror,' I was in. I should have leapt out and run for it, if I had found the strength. But my limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard Dick begin to rise, and then someone seemingly stopped him, and the voice of hands exclaimed, "'Oh, stow that. Don't you get sucking of that bilge, John? Let's have a go of the rum.' "'Dick,' said Silver, "'I trust you. I have a gauge on the keg, mind. There's the key. You fill a panic, and bring it up.' Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself, than this must have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him. Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I could catch, and yet I gathered some important news. For, besides other scraps that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was audible. Not another man of him will jine. Hence there were still faithful men on board. When Dick returned, one or another of the trio took the panic in and drank, one to luck, another with a ears-to-all flint. And Silver himself, saying in a kind of song, ears-to-all self and all your love, plenty of praises and plenty of duff. Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and looking up I found the moon had risen, and was slivering the mizzen top, and shining white on the laugh of the fossil, and almost at the same time the voice on the look-out shouted, End of CHAPTER XI. 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 folksal, and slipping in an instant outside my barrel. I dived behind the fossil, and made a double toward the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush for the weather-bow. There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted almost simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the south-west of us we saw two low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and rising behind one of them a third and higher hill, whose peak was still buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure. So much I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or two before, and then I heard the voice of Captain Smollett issuing orders. The Hispaniola was laid a couple of points nearer the wind, and now sailed a course that would just clear the island to 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 watered there with a trader I was cooking. 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 note all their names for it. The hill to the north, they calls Formast Hill. There are three hills in a row running southward, for Maine and Misenzer. But the Maine, that's the big one, with the cloud on it, they usually calls the spy-glass. By reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the anchorage cleaning. For it's there they clean their ships, sir, asking your pardon. I have a chart here, said Captain Smollett. See if that's the place. Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but by the fresh look of the paper I knew he was doomed to disappointment. This was not the map we found in Billy-Bone's chest, but an accurate copy complete in all things, names and heights and soundings, with the single exception of the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it. Yes, sir, said he, this is the spot to be sure, and very prettily drawn out. Who might have done that, I wonder? The pirates were too ignorant, I reckon. Ah, here it is, Captain Kid's Anchorage. Just the name my shipmate called it. There is a strong current round along the south, and then a way up Norrid up the west coast. Right you was, sir, said he, to haul your wind and keep the weather of the island. Least ways, if such was your intention as to enter and careen, there ain't no better place for that in these waters. Thank you, my man, said Captain Smollett. I'll ask you later on to give us a help. You may go. I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of the island, and I own I was half frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to myself. He did not know to be sure that I had overheard his counsel from the apple-barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken such a horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power that I could scarce conceal a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm. Ah, said he, this here is a sweet spot this island, a sweet spot for a lad to get a shore on. You'll bathe in your cloying trees, and you'll hunt goats, you will, and you'll get a laugh on them hills like a goat yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber leg I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young, and I have ten toes you may later that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you ask, old John, and he'll put up a snack for you to take along. And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off ford and went below. Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were talking together on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about in my thoughts to find some probable excuse, Dr. Livesey called me to his side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave to tobacco, had meant that I should fetch it. But as soon as I was near enough to speak and not be overheard, I broke out immediately. Dr., let me speak. Get the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make some pretence to send for me. I have terrible news. The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he was master of himself. Thank you, Jim! said he quite loudly. That was all I wanted to know, as if he had asked me a question. And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the other two. They spoke together for a little, and though none of them started or raised his voice or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Dr. Livesey had communicated my request for the next thing that I heard was the captain giving an order to Joe Manderson, and all hands were piped on deck. My lads, said Captain Smollett, I have a word to say to you. This land that we have sited is the place we have been sailing to. Mr. Trelawney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, has just asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man on board had done his duty, alo and aloft, as I never asked to see it done better. Why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to drink your health and luck, and you'll have grog served out to you to drink our health and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this. I think it handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good sea-cheer for the gentleman that does it. The cheer followed. That was a matter of course. But it rang out so full and hearty that I confess I could hardly believe these same men were plotting for our blood. One more cheer for Captain Smollett! cried Longjohn when the first had subsided, and this was given with a will. On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and not long after word was sent forad that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin. I found them all three seated around the table, a bottle of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away with his wig on his lap, and that I knew was a sign that he was agitated. The stern window was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon shining behind on the ship's wake. Now Hawkins, said the squire, you'll have something to say, speak up. I did as I was bid, and short as I could make it, told the whole details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any one of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they kept their eyes upon my face from first to last. Jim, said Dr. Livesey, take a seat, and they made me sit down at a table beside them, poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands with raisins, and all three one after the other, and each with a bow drank my good health, and their service to me for my luck and courage. Now, Captain, said the squire, you were right, and I was wrong. I owned 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 that what signs before, for any man that had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps accordingly. But this crew, he added, beats me. Captain, said the doctor, with your permission, that's Silver, a very remarkable man. He'd look remarkably well from a yard arm, sir, returned the captain, but this is talk, this don't lead to anything. I see three or four points, and with Mr. Trelawney's permission I'll name him. You, sir, are the captain, it is for you to speak, said Mr. Trelawney grandly. First point, began Mr. Smollett. We must go on because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to turn about, they would rise at once. Second point, we have time before us, at least until this treasure's found. Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to blows sooner or later, and what I propose is to take time by the forelock, as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when they least expect it. We can count I take it on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney, as upon myself, declared the squire. Three, reckoned the captain. Our selves make seven counting Hawkins there. Now, about the honest hands? Most likely are Trelawney's own men, said the doctor. Those he picked up for himself before he lit on silver. Nay, replied the squire. Hands was one of mine. I did think I could have trusted hands, added the captain, and to think that they're all Englishmen, broke out the squire. Sir, I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up. Well, gentlemen, said the captain, the best that I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright look out. It's trying on a man I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to and whistle for a wind. That's my view. Jim here, said the doctor, can help us more than any one. The men are not shy with him, and Jim is a noticing lad. Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you, added the squire. 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 the seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were six to their nineteen. CHAPTER XIII. HOW MY SURE ADVENTURE BEGAN The appearance of the island when I came on deck next morning was altogether changed. Although the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had made a great deal of way during the night, and were now lying becalmed about half a mile to the south-east of the low eastern coast. Gray-coloured woods covered a large part of the surface. This even tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands, and by many tall trees of the pine family out-topping the others, some singly, some in clumps. But the general colouring was uniform and sad. The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All were strangely shaped, and the spy-glass, which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest on the island, was likewise the strangest in configuration, running up sheer from almost every side, and then suddenly cut off at the top, like a pedestal to put a statue on. The Hispaniola was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks. The rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufacturing. 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 quarm or two, above all in the morning on an empty stomach. Perhaps it was this, perhaps it was the look of the island with its gray melancholy woods and wild stone spires and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach, at least although the sun shone bright and hot and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea my heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots. And from that first look onward I hated the very thought of Treasure Island. We had a dreary morning's work before us, and there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one of the boats, where I had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command of my boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order he grumbled as loud as the worst. Well, he said, with an oath, it's not forever. I thought this was a very bad sign, for up to that day the men had gone briskly and willingly about their business, but the very sight of the island had relaxed the cords of discipline. All the way in Longjohn stood by the steersmen and conned the ship. He knew the passage like the palm of his hand, and though the man in the chains got everywhere more water than was down on the chart, John never hesitated once. There is a strong scour with the ebb, he said, and this ear passage has been dug out in a manner of speaking with a spade. We brought up just where the anchor was on the chart, about a third of a mile from each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on the other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up clouds of birds wheeling and crying over the woods, but in less than a minute they were down again, and all was once more silent. The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods. The trees coming right down to high watermark, the shores mostly flat, and the hilltop 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 around that part of the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could see nothing of the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among trees, and if it had not been for the chart on the companion, we might have been the first that ever anchored there since the islands arose out of the seas. There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage, a smell of sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg. I don't know about treasure, he said, but I'll stick my wig, there's fever here. If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became truly threatening when they had come aboard. They lay about the deck, growling together in torque. The slightest order was received with a black look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands must have caught the infection, for there was not one man aboard to mend another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thunder cloud. And it was not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger. Long John was hard at work going from group to group, spending himself in good advice, and, as for example, no man could have shown her better. He fairly outstripped himself in willingness and civility. He was all smiles to everyone. If an order were given, John would be on his crutch in an instant, with the cheeriest aye-aye-zer in the world. And when there was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if to conceal the discontent of the rest. Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John appeared the worst. We held a council in the cabin. Sir, said the captain, if I risk another order, the whole ship will come about our ears by the run. You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough answer, do I not? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two shakes. If I don't, Silver will see there's something under that, and the game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on. And who's 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 him out of it if he had the chance. And what I propose to do is to give him the chance. Let's allow the men an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why? We'll fight the ship. If they none of them go, well then, we hold the cabin, and God defend the right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver will bring them aboard again, as mild as lambs. It was so decided. Loaded pistols were served out to all the shoremen. Hunter, Joyce and Redruth were taken into our confidence, and received the news with no less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for, and then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew. My lads, said he, we've had a hot day, and are all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore will hurt nobody. The boats are still in the water. You can take the gigs, and as many as please can go ashore for the afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an hour before sundown. I believe the silly fellows must have thought that they would break their shins over treasure as soon as they were landed, for they all came out of their socks in a moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a faraway hill, and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round the anchorage. The captain was too bright to be in the way. He whipped out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party, and I fancy it was as well he did so. Had he been on deck, he could no longer so much as have pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain as day. Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The honest hands, and I was soon to see it proved that there were such on board, must have been very stupid fellows. Or rather, I suppose the truth was this, that all hands were disaffected by the example of the ringleaders, only some more, some less. And a few, being good fellows in the main, could neither be led nor driven any farther. It is one thing to be idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship, and murder a number of innocent men. At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay on board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver, began to embark. Then it was that there came into my head the first of the mad notions that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men were left by Silver, it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship, and since only six were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had no present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side, and curled up in the four sheets of the nearest boat, and almost at the same moment she shoved off. No one took notice of me, only the bow or 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, and in the boat I was in, having some start and being at once the lighter and the better man, shot far ahead of her consort, and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, and I had caught a branch, and swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards away. 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. End of Chapter 13 Chapter 14 The First Blow I was so pleased at having given the slip to Longjohn, that I began to enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land that I was in. I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bullrushes, and odd, outlandish swampy trees, and now had come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines, and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint craggy peaks shining vividly in the sun. I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The isle was uninhabited, but my shipmates I have left behind, and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and fouls. I turned hither and thither among the trees. Here and there were flowering plants unknown to me. Here and there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of rock, and hisstapped me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did I suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and the noise was the famous rattle. Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like trees, live or evergreen oaks I heard afterward they should be called, which grew low along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage compact like thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it reached the margin of the broad reedy fen through which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh was streaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the spy-glass trembled through the haze. All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among the bulrushes. A wild duck flew up with a quack, another followed, and soon over the whole surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and circling in the air. I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be drawing near along the borders of the fen, nor was I deceived, for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which as I continued to give ear grew steadily louder and nearer. This put me in great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest live oak, and squatted there, harkening, as silent as a mouse. Another voice answered, and then the first voice, which I now recognize to be silvers, once more took up the story and ran on for a long while in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound they must have been talking earnestly and almost fiercely, but no distinct word came to my hearing. At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps to have sat down, for not only did they cease to draw any nearer, but the birds themselves began to grow more quiet and to settle a game into their places in the swamp. And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business, that since I had been so foolhardiest to come ashore with these desperados, the least I could do was to overhear them at their councils, and that my plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage under the favorable ambush of the crouching trees. I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly, not only by the sound of their voices, but by the behaviour of the few birds that still hung an alarm above the heads of the intruders. Crawling on all fours I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at last raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to face in conversation. The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat beside him on the ground, and his great smooth blonde face, all shining with heat, was lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal. Mate, he was saying, that's because I think's gold dust of you, gold dust, and you may later that, and 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 no mend, it's the saviour neck that I must speak in, and if one of the wildens knew it, where it I be, Tom? Now tell me, where it I be? Silver said the other man, and I observed he was not only red in the face, but spoke as horse as a crow, and his voice shook too like a taut rope. Silver, says he, you're old, and you're honest, or has the name of it, and you've money too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't, and you're brave or are mistook, and will you tell me you'll let yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you, as sure as God sees me, I'd sooner lose my hand, if I turn again my duty. And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I'd found one of the honest hands. Well, here at that same moment came news of another. Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound like the cry of anger, then another on the back of it, and then one horrid, long-drawn scream. The rocks of the spy-glass re-echoed at a score of times, the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again, darkening heaven with a simultaneous whir, and long after that death-yell was still ringing in my brain, silence had re-established its empire, and only the rustle of the re-descending birds, and the boom of the distant surges disturbed the langer of the afternoon. Tom had leapt at the sound, like a horse at the spur, but Silver had not winked an eye. He stood where he was, resting lightly on his crutch, watching his companion like a snake about to spring. John, said the sailor, stretching out his hand, ends off, cried Silver, leaping back a yard as it seemed to me with the speed and security of a trained gymnast. And off, if you like, John Silver, said the other. It's a black conscience that can make you fear of me, but in Heaven's name tell me what was that? That! returned Silver, smiling away, but wearier than ever, his eye a mere pinpoint in his big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass. That! Oh, I reckon that I be Alan! And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero. Alan! he cried, then rested his soul for a true semen, and as for you, John Silver, long you've been a mate of mine, but you're a mate of mine no longer. If I die like a dog, I'll die in my duty. You've killed Alan, have you? Kill me too if you can, but I defies you. And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook, and set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through the air. It struck poor Tom point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between the shoulders in the middle of his back. His hands flew up, and he gave a sort of gasp, and fell. Whether he was injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like enough to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment, and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body. From my place of ambush I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows. I do not know what it rightly is to faint, but I do know that for the next little while the whole world swam away from before me in a whirling mist. Silver and the birds, and the tall spy-glass hilltop going round and round, and topsy-turvy before my eyes, and all manner of bells ringing, and distant voices shouting in my ear. When I came again to myself the monster had pulled himself together, his crutch under his arm, his hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay motionless upon the sword, but the murderer minded him not a witt, cleansing his blood-stained knife the while upon a wisp of grass. Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly upon the steaming marsh, and the tall pinnacle of the mountain. And I could scarcely persuade myself that the murder had actually been done, and a human life cruelly cut shorter moment since, before my eyes. And now John put his hand in his pocket, brought out a whistle, and blew upon it several modulated blasts that rang far across the heated air. I could not tell, of course, the meaning of the signal, but it instantly awoke my fears. More men would be coming. I might be discovered. They had already slain two of the honest people. After Tom and Alan, might not I come next? Instantly I began to extricate myself, and crawl back again, with what speed and silence I could manage to the more open portion of the wood. And as I did so I could hear Hale's coming and going between the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings. As soon as I was clear of the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce minding the direction of my flight, so long as it led me from the murderers, and as I ran fear grew and grew upon me, until it turned into a kind of frenzy. Indeed, could anyone be more entirely lost than I? When the gun fired, how should I dare to go down to the boats among those fiends, still smoking from their crime? Would not the first of them who saw me ring my neck like a snipe? Would not my absence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm, and therefore of my fatal knowledge? It was all over, I thought. Goodbye to the Hispaniola, goodbye to the squire, the doctor and the captain. There was nothing left for me but death by starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers. All this while, as I say, I was still running, and without taking any notice, I had drawn near to the foot of the little hill with the two peaks, and had got into a part of the island where the wild oaks grew more widely apart, and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing and dimensions. Mingled with these, there were a few scattered pines, some fifty, some near a seventy feet high. The air, too, smelled more fresh than down beside the marsh, and here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with a thumping heart. CHAPTER XV THE MAN OF THE ISLAND From the side of the hill, which was here steep and stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and fell rattling and bounding through the trees. My eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether bear, or man, or monkey, I could in no wise tell. It seemed dark and shaggy more I knew not, but the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand. I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides, behind me the murderers, before me this lurking nondescript, and immediately I began to prefer the dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared less terrible in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I turned on my heel, and looking sharply behind me over my shoulder began to retrace my steps in the direction of the boats. Instantly the figure reappeared, and making a wide circuit began to head me off. I was tired. At any rate, but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an adversary. From trunk to trunk the creature flitted like a deer, running man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was, I could no longer be in doubt about that. I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I was with an ace of calling for help, but the mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured me, and my fear of silver began to revive in proportion. I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of escape, and as I was so thinking the recollection of my pistol flashed into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not defenceless, courage glowed again in my heart, and I set my face resolutely for this man of the island, and walked briskly toward him. He was concealed by this time behind another tree-trunk, but he must have been watching me closely, for as soon as I began to move in his direction he reappeared and took a step to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again, and at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself on his knees and held out his clasped hands in supplication. At that I once more stopped. Who are you? I asked. Ben Gunn! he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. I'm poor Ben Gunn I am, and I haven't spoke with a Christian these three years. I could now see that he was a white man like myself, and that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was burned by the sun, even his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so darker face. Of all the beggar men that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old ship's canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of the most various and 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 old accoutrement. Three years, I cried, were you shipwrecked? Nay, mate, said he, marooned. I had heard that word, and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of punishment, common enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore with a little powder and shot, and left behind on some desolate and distant island. Marooned three years ago, 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 may and have to have a piece of cheese about you now? No, well, men is the long night I have 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. At this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, and generally in the intervals of his speech, showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow creature. But at my last words he perked up into a kind of startled slidus. If ever you get aboard again, says you, he repeated. Why now, who's to hinder you? Not you, I know, was my reply. Oh, and right you was, he cried. Now you, what do you call yourself, mate? Jim, I told him. Jim, Jim, says he, quite pleased apparently. Well now, Jim, I've lived that rough as you'd be ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance, you wouldn't think I had had a pious mother to look at me, he asked. Why, no, not in particular, I answered. Ah, well, said he. But I had remarkably pious, and I was a civil pious boy, and could rattle off my catechism. That fast you couldn't tell one word from another, and here's what it come to, Jim, and it begun with Chuck Farthern on the blessed gravestones. That's what it begun with, and it went farther in that, and so my mother told me and predicted the whole she did the pious woman, for it were a 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 thimble-full 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 luring his voice to a whisper, I'm rich. I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face, for he repeated the statement hotly. Rich, rich, I says, and I'll tell you what. I'll make a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, your 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, but I'll tell you true, as you ask me. There are some of Flint's hands aboard, worst 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 ring. If you were 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 up my mind in a moment, and by way of answer told him the whole story of our voyage, and the predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard me with a 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 wine in case of help, him being in a clove hitch, as you remark? I told him the squire was the most liberal of men. Ah, but you see, returned Ben Gunn. I didn't mean give him me a gate to keep, but 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 tune of, say, one thousand pounds out of money that's as good as a man's own already? I'm sure he would, said I, as it is 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. Oh, said he, so you would. And he seemed very much relieved. Now, I'll tell you what, he went on. So much I'll tell you and no more. I were in Flintship when he buried the treasure. He and six along, six strong seamen. They was a sure night on a week, and I standing off and on in the old walrus. One fine day up went the signal, and he had come flimped by himself in a little boat, and his head done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal white he looked about the cup water. But there he was, you mind, and the six all dead, dead and buried. How had he done it? Not a man of boulders could make out. It was battle, murder, and sudden death, least ways, immigrate six. Billy Bones was the mate. Long Johnny was called a master, and they asked him where the treasure was. Ah, he says, you can go ashore if you like and stay, he says. But as for the ship, she'll be up for more by thunder. That's what he said. Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we sighted this island. Byes said I, ear's flinch treasure, lest land and find it. The captain 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 worst word for me. Until one fine morning all hands went aboard. As for you, Benjamin Gunn says they is a musket, they says, and a spade and a pickaxe. You can stay here and find flint's money for yourself, they says. Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. But now you look here, look at me. Do I look like a man before the mast? No, says you. Nor I would, neither, I says. And with that he winked and pinched me hard. Just you mentioned them words to your squire, Jim, he went on. Nor he would, neither. That's the words. Three years he were the man of this island, light and dark, fair and rain, and sometimes he would maybe think upon a prayer, says you, and sometimes he would maybe think of his old mother. So be as she's alive, you'll say. But the most part of Gunn's time, this is what you'll say, the most part of his time was took up with another matter. And then you'll give him a nip, like I do. And he pinched me again in the most confidential manner. Then, he continued, then you'll up and you'll say this. Gunn is a good man, you'll say, and he puts a precious sight more confidence, a precious sight mind that, in a gentleman born, than in these gentlemen of fortune, having been one himself. Well, I said, I don't understand one word that you've been saying, but that's neither here nor there. For how am I to get on board? Ah, said he. That's the hitch for sure. Well, there's my boat that I made with my two hands. I keep her under the white rock. If the worse come to the worst, we might try that after dark. Hey, 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 and his goat's skins trotted easily and lightly. Left, left, says he. Keep your left hand, mate, Jim, under the trees with you. That's where I killed my first goat. They don't come down here now. They're all moustheaded on their mountains for the fear of Benjamin Gunn. Ah, there's the setamerry. Cemetery, he must have meant. You see the mounds. I come here and pray nows and thens, when I thought maybe a Sunday would be about due. It weren't quite a chapel, but it seemed more solemn-like. And then, says you, Ben Gunn was shorthanded. No chaplain or so much as a Bible and a flag, says you. So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving any answer. The cannon-shot was followed after a considerable interval by a volley of small arms. Another pause, and then not a quarter of a mile in front of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above a wood. End of Chapter 15. Part 4 The Stockade Chapter 16 Narrative continued by the doctor, how the ship was abandoned. It was about half-past one, three bells in the sea-phrase, that the two boats went ashore from the Hispaniola. The captain, the squire and I were talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped our cable, and away to sea. But the wind was wanting, and to complete our helplessness, down came Hunter with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat, and was gone ashore with the rest. It had never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men in the temper they were in, it seemed an even chance if we should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch was bubbling in the seams. The nasty stench of the place turned me sick. If ever a man smelled fever and dysentery, it was in that abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail in the folksle. As sure we could see the gigs had made fast, and a man sitting in each, hard by where the river runs in. One of them was whistling Lily Balero, waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly boat in quest of information. The gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I pulled straight in, in the direction of the stockade upon the chart. The two who were left guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance. Lily Balero 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 Lily Balero. There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to put it between us. Even before we had landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out and came as near running as I durced, with a big silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness's sake, and a brace of pistols ready primed for safety. I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade. This was how it was. A spring of clear water arose at the top of a knoll. Well on the knoll, and in closing the spring, they had clapped a stout log-house, fit to hold two score people in a pinch, and loop-hold for musket-tree 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 labour, and too open to shelter the besiegers. The people in the log-house had them in every way. They stood quiet in the shelter, and shot the others like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food, for short of a complete surprise, they might have held the place against a regiment. What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For though we had a good place of it, the cabin of the Hispaniola with plenty of arms and ammunition, and things to eat and excellent wines, there was one thing overlooked. We had no water. I was thinking this over when they came ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of death. I was not new to violent death. I have served his Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound myself at Fountainoy, but I know my pulse went jot and carry one. Jim Hawkins is gone, was my first thought. It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been a doctor. There is no time to dilly-dally in our work, and so now I made up my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned to the shore and jumped on board the jolly-boat. By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We made the water fly and the boat was soon alongside and I aboard the schooner. I found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire was sitting down as white as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us to the good soul, and one of the six folks' hands was little better. There's a man, said Captain Smollett nodding towards him, new to this work. He came, nigh-hand-fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry, another touch of the rudder, and that man would join us. I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment. We put old Red Ruth in the gallery between the cabin and the folksle, with three or four loaded muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat round under the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work loading her with powder, tins, muskets, bags of biscuit, kegs of pork, a cast of cognac, and my invaluable medicine-chest. In the meantime the squire and the captain stayed on the deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, who was the principal man aboard. Mr. Hands, he said, there 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 back, and after a little consultation one and all tumbled down the four companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us on the rear. But when they saw Red Ruth 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 sure again as fast as oars could take us. This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. Lily Bolero was dropped again, and just before we lost sight of them behind the little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a mind to change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might be close to hand, and all might very well be lost by trying for too much. We had soon touched land in the same place as before, and set to work to provision the blockhouse. All three made the first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to guard them, one man to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets, Hunter and I returned to the jolly boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So we proceeded without pausing to take breath till the whole cargo was bestowed, when the two servants took up their position in the blockhouse, and I, with all my powder, sculled back to the Hispaniola. That we should have risked a second boat load seems more daring than it really was. They had the advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the advantage of arms. Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and before they could get within range for pistol shooting we flattered ourselves, we should be able to give a good account of a half dozen at least. The squire was waiting for me at the stern window, all his faintness gone from him. He caught the painter, and made it fast, and we fell to loading the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and biscuit was the cargo, with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for squire and me, and Red Ruth 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 hallowing in the direction of the two gigs, and though this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who were well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off. Red Ruth 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 folksle. It's to you, Abraham Gray, it's to you I am speaking. Still no reply. Gray, presumed Mr Smollett, a little louder, I am leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your captain. I know you are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of users bad as he makes out. I have my watch here in my hand. I give you thirty seconds to join me in. Come, my fine fellow, continued the captain, don't hang so long in stays. I am risking my life and the lives of these good gentlemen every second. There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and outburst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the side of the cheek, and came running to the captain like a dog to the whistle. I am with you, sir, he said, 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.