Treasure Island...................................................................................................................................................1

Robert Louis Stevenson...........................................................................................................................1

SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the

whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings

of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace

17__ and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his seachest following behind

him in a handbarrowa tall, strong, heavy, nutbrown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his

soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a

dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped

on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly

for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the

"This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grogshop. Much company, mate?"

"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," says he, looking as fierce as a

And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who

sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who

came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had

inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as

lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope;

all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he

would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a foghorn;

and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back

from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the

want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous

to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the

coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and

he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret

about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me

a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my "weathereye open for a seafaring

man with one leg" and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month

came round and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me

down, but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, and

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the

four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand

forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip;

now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his

body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And

altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain

himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than

his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild seasongs, minding

nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his

stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with "Yohoho, and a bottle of

rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder

than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would

slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or

sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he

allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.

His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they wereabout hanging, and

walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.

By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed

upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as

much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would

soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really

believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it;

it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended

to admire him, calling him a "true seadog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was

In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after

month, so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist

on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he

roared, and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and

I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.

All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings

from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it

was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself

upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,

and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum.

He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that

took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and

went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no

stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor,

with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish

country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in

rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly hethe captain, that isbegan to pipe up his eternal song:

At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room,

and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the onelegged seafaring man. But by this

time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody but Dr.

Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite

angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for the rheumatics. In the

meantime, the captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table

before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey's; he went

on as before speaking clear and kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The captain

glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous,

"Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that

this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you, sir," replies the doctor, "that if you keep on drinking rum,

The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor's claspknife, and balancing

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of

voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: "If you do not put that knife

this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes."

Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and

"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 tonight's, I'll take effectual means to have you

Soon after, Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that

IT was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the

captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and heavy

gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor father was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily, and

my mother and I had all the inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough without paying much regard to

It was one January morning, very earlya pinching, frosty morningthe cove all grey with hoarfrost, the

ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward.

The captain had risen earlier than usual and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad

skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I remember his

breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him as he turned the big

rock was a loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey.

Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying the breakfasttable against the captain's return when

the parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale,

tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand, and though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much

like a fighter. I had always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one

puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but as I was going out of the room to

fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my

I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who stayed in our house whom we called

"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek and a

mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like, that

your captain has a cut on one cheekand we'll put it, if you like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I

And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and

answered a few other questions, "Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."

The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons for

thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of mine, I

thought; and besides, it was difficult to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn

door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the road, but he

immediately called me back, and as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came

over his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I was back again he

returned to his former manner, half fawning, half sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good

boy and he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he, "as like you as two blocks, and

he's all the pride of my 'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonnydiscipline. Now, if you had

sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twicenot you. That was never Bill's way,

nor the way of sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spyglass under his

arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and me'll just go back into the parlour, sonny, and get behind the door,

So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlour and put me behind him in the corner so that we

were both hidden by the open door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to

my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and

loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he felt what

At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without looking to the right or left, and marched

"Bill," said the stranger in a voice that I thought he had tried to make bold and big.

The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had gone out of his face, and even his nose

was blue; he had the look of a man who sees a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, if anything can be;

"Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shipmate, Bill, surely," said the stranger.

"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at his ease. "Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his old

shipmate Billy, at the Admiral Benbow inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I lost

"Now, look here," said the captain; "you've run me down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what is it?"

"That's you, Bill," returned Black Dog, "you're in the right of it, Billy. I'll have a glass of rum from this dear

child here, as I've took such a liking to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square, like old shipmates."

When I returned with the rum, they were already seated on either side of the captain's

breakfasttableBlack Dog next to the door and sitting sideways so as to have one eye on his old shipmate

He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of your keyholes for me, sonny," he said; and I left them

"For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could hear nothing but a low gattling; but at last

the voices began to grow higher, and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the captain.

"No, no, no, no; and an end of it!" he cried once. And again, "If it comes to swinging, swing all, say I."

Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and other noisesthe chair and table went

over in a lump, a clash of steel followed, and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw Black Dog in full

flight, and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses, and the former streaming blood from the left

shoulder. Just at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut, which would certainly

have split him to the chine had it not been intercepted by our big signboard of Admiral Benbow. You may see

That blow was the last of the battle. Once out upon the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a

wonderful clean pair of heels and disappeared over the edge of the hill in half a minute. The captain, for his

part, stood staring at the signboard like a bewildered man. Then he passed his hand over his eyes several

"Jim," says he, "rum"; and as he spoke, he reeled a little, and caught himself with one hand against the wall.

I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen out, and I broke one glass and fouled the tap,

and while I was still getting in my own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlour, and running in, beheld the

captain lying full length upon the floor. At the same instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting,

came running downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head. He was breathing very loud and hard,

"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

deathhurt in the scuffle with the stranger. I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down his throat, but his

teeth were tightly shut and his jaws as strong as iron. It was a happy relief for us when the door opened and

"Wounded? A fiddlestick's end!" said the doctor. "No more wounded than you or I. The man has had a

stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. Hawkins, just you run upstairs to your husband and tell him, if possible,

nothing about it. For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life; Jim, you get me a

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 and clearly executed on the forearm; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and

"Prophetic," said the doctor, touching this picture with his finger. "And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be

your name, we'll have a look at the colour of your blood. Jim," he said, "are you afraid of blood?"

"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 an unmistakable frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked relieved. But

suddenly his colour changed, and he tried to raise himself, crying, "Where's Black Dog?"

"There is no Black Dog here," said the doctor, "except what you have on your own back. You have been

drinking rum; you have had a stroke, precisely as I told you; and I have just, very much against my own will,

"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

Between us, with much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his head

"Now, mind you," said the doctor, "I clear my consciencethe name of rum for you is death."

"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 isthat is the best thing for him and you; but another stroke would

ABOUT noon I stopped at the captain's door with some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying very

much as we had left him, only a little higher, and he seemed both weak and excited.

"Jim," he said, "you're the only one here that's worth anything, and you know I've been always good to you.

Never a month but I've given you a silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low, and

deserted by all; and Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey?"

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily. "Doctors is all swabs," he said; "and that

doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping

round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land aheaving like the sea with earthquakeswhat to the doctor

know of lands like that?and I lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me;

and if I'm not to have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood'll be on you, Jim, and that

doctor swab"; and he ran on again for a while with curses. "Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges," he continued

in the pleading tone. "I can't keep 'em still, not I. I haven't had a drop this blessed day. That doctor's a fool, I

tell you. If I don't have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors; I seen some on 'em already. I seen old Flint

in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I'm a man that has lived

rough, and I'll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't hurt me. I'll give you a golden guinea

He was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me for my father, who was very low that day and

needed quiet; besides, I was reassured by the doctor's words, now quoted to me, and rather offended by the

"I want none of your money," said I, "but what you owe my father. I'll get you one glass, and no more."

"Aye, aye," said he, "that's some better, sure enough. And now, matey, did that doctor say how long I was to

"Thunder!" he cried. "A week! I can't do that; they'd have the black spot on me by then. The lubbers is going

about to get the wind of me this blessed moment; lubbers as couldn't keep what they got, and want to nail

what is another's. Is that seamanly behaviour, now, I want to know? But I'm a saving soul. I never wasted

good money of mine, nor lost it neither; and I'll trick 'em again. I'm not afraid on 'em. I'll shake out another

As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed with great difficulty, holding to my shoulder with a grip that

almost made me cry out, and moving his legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited as they were in

meaning, contrasted sadly with the weakness of the voice in which they were uttered. He paused when he had

Before I could do much to help him he had fallen back again to his former place, where he lay for a while

"Ah! Black Dog," says he. "HE'S a bad un; but there's worse that put him on. Now, if I can't get away nohow,

and they tip me the black spot, mind you, it's my old seachest they're after; you get on a horseyou can,

can't you? Well, then, you get on a horse, and go to well, yes, I will!to that eternal doctor swab, and tell

him to pipe all handsmagistrates and sichand he'll lay 'em aboard at the Admiral Benbowall 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 at Savannah, when he lay adying, like as if I was to now, you see.

But you won't peach unless they get the black spot on me, or unless you see that Black Dog again or a

"That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that. But you keep your weathereye open, Jim, and I'll share

He wandered a little longer, his voice growing weaker; but soon after I had given him his medicine, which he

took like a child, with the remark, "If ever a seaman wanted drugs, it's me," he fell at last into a heavy,

swoonlike sleep, in which I left him. What I should have done had all gone well I do not know. Probably I

should have told the whole story to the doctor, for I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of his

confessions and make an end of me. But as things fell out, my poor father died quite suddenly that evening,

which put all other matters on one side. Our natural distress, the visits of the neighbours, the arranging of the

funeral, and all the work of the inn to be carried on in the meanwhile kept me so busy that I had scarcely time

He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and had his meals as usual, though he ate little and had more, I

am afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blowing through

his nose, and no one dared to cross him. On the night before the funeral he was as drunk as ever; and it was

shocking, in that house of mourning, to hear him singing away at his ugly old seasong; but weak as he was,

we were all in the fear of death for him, and the doctor was suddenly taken up with a case many miles away

and was never near the house after my father's death. I have said the captain was weak, and indeed he seemed

rather to grow weaker than regain his strength. He clambered up and down stairs, and went from the parlour

to the bar and back again, and sometimes put his nose out of doors to smell the sea, holding on to the walls as

he went for support and breathing hard and fast like a man on a steep mountain. He never particularly

addressed me, and it is my belief he had as good as forgotten his confidences; but his temper was more

flighty, and allowing for his bodily weakness, more violent than ever. He had an alarming way now when he

was drunk of drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before him on the table. But with all that, he minded

people less and seemed shut up in his own thoughts and rather wandering. Once, for instance, to our extreme

wonder, he piped up to a different air, a king of country lovesong that he must have learned in his youth

So things passed until, the day after the funeral, and about three o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty afternoon, I

was standing at the door for a moment, full of sad thoughts about my father, when I saw someone drawing

slowly near along the road. He was plainly blind, for he tapped before him with a stick and wore a great green

shade over his eyes and nose; and he was hunched, as if with age or weakness, and wore a huge old tattered

seacloak with a hood that made him appear positively deformed. I never saw in my life a more

dreadfullooking figure. He stopped a little from the inn, and raising his voice in an odd singsong,

addressed the air in front of him, "Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, who has lost the precious

sight of his eyes in the gracious defence of his native country, Englandand God bless King

"I hear a voice," said he, "a young voice. Will you give me your hand, my kind young friend, and lead me

I held out my hand, and the horrible, softspoken, eyeless creature gripped it in a moment like a vise. I was

so much startled that I struggled to withdraw, but the blind man pulled me close up to him with a single

"Sir," said I, "it is for yourself I mean. The captain is not what he used to be. He sits with a drawn cutlass.

"Come, now, march," interrupted he; and I never heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that blind

man's. It cowed me more than the pain, and I began to obey him at once, walking straight in at the door and

towards the parlour, where our sick old buccaneer was sitting, dazed with rum. The blind man clung close to

me, holding me in one iron fist and leaning almost more of his weight on me than I could carry. "Lead me

straight up to him, and when I'm in view, cry out, 'Here's a friend for you, Bill.' If you don't, I'll do this," and

with that he gave me a twitch that I thought would have made me faint. Between this and that, I was so

utterly terrified of the blind beggar that I forgot my terror of the captain, and as I opened the parlour door,

The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum went out of him and left him staring sober. The

expression of his face was not so much of terror as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, but I do

"Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can hear a finger stirring. Business is

business. Hold out your left hand. Boy, take his left hand by the wrist and bring it near to my right."

We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the hollow of the hand that held his

"And now that's done," said the blind man; and at the words he suddenly left hold of me, and with incredible

accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of the parlour and into the road, where, as I still stood motionless, I

It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to gather our senses, but at length, and about at the

same moment, I released his wrist, which I was still holding, and he drew in his hand and looked sharply into

"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours. We'll do them yet," and he sprang to his feet.

Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat, stood swaying for a moment, and then, with a peculiar

I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste was all in vain. The captain had been struck dead by

thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man, though of

late I had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead, I burst into a flood of tears. It was the

second death I had known, and the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart.

I LOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long before,

and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man's moneyif he had

anywas certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our captain's shipmates, above all the two specimens

seen by me, Black Dog and the blind beggar, would be inclined to give up their booty in payment of the dead

man's debts. The captain's order to mount at once and ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother

alone and unprotected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed, it seemed impossible for either of us to

remain much longer in the house; the fall of coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, filled us

with alarms. The neighbourhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and what between

the dead body of the captain on the parlour floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near

at hand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror.

Something must speedily be resolved upon, and it occurred to us at last to go forth together and seek help in

the neighbouring hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bareheaded as we were, we ran out at once in the

The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out of view, on the other side of the next cove; and

what greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his

appearance and whither he had presumably returned. We were not many minutes on the road, though we

sometimes stopped to lay hold of each other and hearken. But there was no unusual soundnothing but the

It was already candlelight when we reached the hamlet, and I shall never forget how much I was cheered to

see the yellow shine in doors and windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely to

get in that quarter. Foryou would have thought men would have been ashamed of themselvesno soul

would consent to return with us to the Admiral Benbow. The more we told of our troubles, the moreman,

woman, and child they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of Captain Flint, though it was

strange to me, was well enough known to some there and carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men

who had been to fieldwork on the far side of the Admiral Benbow remembered, besides, to have seen

several strangers on the road, and taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one at least had seen

a little lugger in what we called Kitt's Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a comrade of the captain's was

enough to frighten them to death. And the short and the long of the matter was, that while we could get

several who were willing enough to ride to Dr. Livesey's, which lay in another direction, not one would help

They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when

each had said his say, my mother made them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose money that

belonged to her fatherless boy; "If none of the rest of you dare," she said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go,

the way we came, and small thanks to you big, hulking, chickenhearted men. We'll have that chest open, if

we die for it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to bring back our lawful money in."

Of course I said I would go with my mother, and of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness, but even

then not a man would go along with us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol lest we were

attacked, and to promise to have horses ready saddled in case we were pursued on our return, while one lad

My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in the cold night upon this dangerous venture. A full

moon was beginning to rise and peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our haste,

for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would be as bright as day, and our departure exposed to

the eyes of any watchers. We slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear anything to

increase our terrors, till, to our relief, the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed behind us.

I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a moment in the dark, alone in the house with the dead

captain's body. Then my mother got a candle in the bar, and holding each other's hands, we advanced into the

parlour. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes open and one arm stretched out.

"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they might come and watch outside. And now," said she

when I had done so, "we have to get the key off THAT; and who's to touch it, I should like to know!" and she

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened

on the one side. I could not doubt that this was the BLACK SPOT; and taking it up, I found written on the

other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message: "You have till ten tonight."

"He had till ten, Mother," said I; and just as I said it, our old clock began striking. This sudden noise startled

I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble, and some thread and big needles, a piece

of pigtail tobacco bitten away at the end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and a tinder

Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging to a bit of

tarry string, which I cut with his own gully, we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with hope and

hurried upstairs without delay to the little room where he had slept so long and where his box had stood since

It was like any other seaman's chest on the outside, the initial "B" burned on the top of it with a hot iron, and

"Give me the key," said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the

A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the interior, but nothing was to be seen on the top except a suit of

very good clothes, carefully brushed and folded. They had never been worn, my mother said. Under that, the

miscellany begana quadrant, a tin canikin, several sticks of tobacco, two brace of very handsome pistols, a

piece of bar silver, an old Spanish watch and some other trinkets of little value and mostly of foreign make, a

pair of compasses mounted with brass, and five or six curious West Indian shells. I have often wondered

since why he should have carried about these shells with him in his wandering, guilty, and hunted life.

In the meantime, we had found nothing of any value but the silver and the trinkets, and neither of these were

in our way. Underneath there was an old boatcloak, whitened with seasalt on many a harbourbar. My

mother pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before us, the last things in the chest, a bundle tied up in

oilcloth, and looking like papers, and a canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.

"I'll show these rogues that I'm an honest woman," said my mother. "I'll have my dues, and not a farthing

over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And she began to count over the amount of the captain's score from the

It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all countries and sizesdoubloons, and louis d'ors, and

guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know not what besides, all shaken together at random. The guineas, too,

were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother knew how to make her count.

When we were about halfway through, I suddenly put my hand upon her arm, for I had heard in the silent

frosty air a sound that brought my heart into my mouththe taptapping of the blind man's stick upon the

frozen road. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then it struck sharp on the inn door,

and then we could hear the handle being turned and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter; and

then there was a long time of silence both within and without. At last the tapping recommenced, and, to our

indescribable joy and gratitude, died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.

"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going," for I was sure the bolted door must have seemed

suspicious and would bring the whole hornet's nest about our ears, though how thankful I was that I had

But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a fraction more than was due to her and was

obstinately unwilling to be content with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; she knew her

rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing with me when a little low whistle sounded a good

"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin packet.

Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the candle by the empty chest; and the next we had

opened the door and were in full retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly

dispersing; already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground on either side; and it was only in the exact

bottom of the dell and round the tavern door that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal the first steps of

our escape. Far less than halfway to the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill, we must come

forth into the moonlight. Nor was this all, for the sound of several footsteps running came already to our ears,

and as we looked back in their direction, a light tossing to and fro and still rapidly advancing showed that one

"My dear," said my mother suddenly, "take the money and run on. I am going to faint."

This was certainly the end for both of us, I thought. How I cursed the cowardice of the neighbours; how I

blamed my poor mother for her honesty and her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We

were just at the little bridge, by good fortune; and I helped her, tottering as she was, to the edge of the bank,

where, sure enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my shoulder. I do not know how I found the strength to do it

at all, and I am afraid it was roughly done, but I managed to drag her down the bank and a little way under

the arch. Farther I could not move her, for the bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl below it. So

there we had to staymy mother almost entirely exposed and both of us within earshot of the inn.

MY curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear, for I could not remain where I was, but crept back to the

bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our door.

I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, their feet

beating out of time along the road and the man with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran together,

hand in hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the blind beggar.

"Aye, aye, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush was made upon the Admiral Benbow, the lanternbearer

following; and then I could see them pause, and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were

surprised to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the blind man again issued his commands. His

Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the formidable beggar. There was a

pause, then a cry of surprise, and then a voice shouting from the house, "Bill's dead."

"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft and get the chest," he cried.

I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that the house must have shook with it. Promptly

afterwards, fresh sounds of astonishment arose; the window of the captain's room was thrown open with a

slam and a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned out into the moonlight, head and shoulders, and

"Pew," he cried, "they've been before us. Someone's turned the chest out alow and aloft."

At that another fellow, probably him who had remained below to search the captain's body, came to the door

"It's these people of the innit's that boy. I wish I had put his eyes out!" cried the blind man, Pew. "There

were no time agothey had the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."

"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the road.

Then there followed a great todo through all our old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture thrown

over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks reechoed and the men came out again, one after another, on the

road and declared that we were nowhere to be found. And just the same whistle that had alarmed my mother

and myself over the dead captain's money was once more clearly audible through the night, but this time

twice repeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's trumpet, so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault,

but I now found that it was a signal from the hillside towards the hamlet, and from its effect upon the

"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool and a coward from the firstyou wouldn't mind him. They

must be close by; they can't be far; you have your hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs! Oh, shiver my

This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows began to look here and there among the

lumber, but halfheartedly, I thought, and with half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest

"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you hang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if you could

find it, and you know it's here, and you stand there skulking. There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, and I

did ita 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."

"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another. "Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here

Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so high at these objections till at last, his passion completely

taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left in his blindness and his stick sounded heavily on more

These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in vain to

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 hamletthe tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the same time a pistolshot, flash and

report, came from the hedge side. And that was plainly the last signal of danger, for the buccaneers turned at

once and ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on,

so that in half a minute not a sign of them remained but Pew. Him they had deserted, whether in sheer panic

or out of revenge for his ill words and blows I know not; but there he remained behind, tapping up and down

the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades. Finally he took a wrong turn and ran a few

steps past me, towards the hamlet, crying, "Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you won't leave old

Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight and swept

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 rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four

hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face and

I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were pulling up, at any rate, horrified at the accident; and I

soon saw what they were. One, tailing out behind the rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to Dr.

Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he had met by the way, and with whom he had had the

intelligence to return at once. Some news of the lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance

and set him forth that night in our direction, and to that circumstance my mother and I owed our preservation

Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we had carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water

and salts and that soon brought her back again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still

continued to deplore the balance of the money. In the meantime the supervisor rode on, as fast as he could, to

Kitt's Hole; but his men had to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading, and sometimes supporting, their

horses, and in continual fear of ambushes; so it was no great matter for surprise that when they got down to

the Hole the lugger was already under way, though still close in. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to

keep out of the moonlight or he would get some lead in him, and at the same time a bullet whistled close by

his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the point and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, as he said, "like a

fish out of water," and all he could do was to 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

cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in

their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and though nothing had actually been taken away except the

captain's moneybag and a little silver from the till, I could see at once that we were ruined. Mr. Dance could

"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, what in fortune were they after? More money, I

"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact, sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast pocket; and to tell

"Perfectly right," he interrupted very cheerily, "perfectly righta gentleman and a magistrate. And, now I

come to think of it, I might as well ride round there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's dead,

when all's done; not that I regret it, but he's dead, you see, and people will make it out against an officer of his

Majesty's revenue, if make it out they can. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll take you along."

I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back to the hamlet where the horses were. By the time I

As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck out

WE rode hard all the way till we drew up before Dr. Livesey's door. The house was all dark to the front.

Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door was

No, she said, he had come home in the afternoon but had gone up to the hall to dine and pass the evening with

This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but ran with Dogger's stirrupleather to the lodge gates

and up the long, leafless, moonlit avenue to where the white line of the hall buildings looked on either hand

on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted, and taking me along with him, was admitted at a word

The servant led us down a matted passage and showed us at the end into a great library, all lined with

bookcases and busts upon the top of them, where the squire and Dr. Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side

I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall man, over six feet high, and broad in proportion, and

he had a bluff, roughandready face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels. His eyebrows

were very black, and moved readily, and this gave him a look of some temper, not bad, you would say, but

"Good evening, Dance," says the doctor with a nod. "And good evening to you, friend Jim. What good wind

The supervisor stood up straight and stiff and told his story like a lesson; and you should have seen how the

two gentlemen leaned forward and looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise and interest.

When they heard how my mother went back to the inn, Dr. Livesey fairly slapped his thigh, and the squire

cried "Bravo!" and broke his long pipe against the grate. Long before it was done, Mr. Trelawney (that, you

will remember, was the squire's name) had got up from his seat and was striding about the room, and the

doctor, as if to hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig and sat there looking very strange indeed with

"Mr. Dance," said the squire, "you are a very noble fellow. And as for riding down that black, atrocious

miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue, sir, like stamping on a cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump, I

"And so, Jim," said the doctor, "you have the thing that they were after, have you?"

The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were itching to open it; but instead of doing that, he put it

"Squire," said he, "when Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be off on his Majesty's service; but I mean

to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house, and with your permission, I propose we should have up the

"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 sidetable, and I made a hearty supper, for I was as hungry as

"One at a time, one at a time," laughed Dr. Livesey. "You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?"

"Heard of him!" cried the squire. "Heard of him, you say! He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed.

Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him that, I tell you, sir, I was

sometimes proud he was an Englishman. I've seen his topsails with these eyes, off Trinidad, and the

cowardly son of a rumpuncheon that I sailed with put backput back, sir, into Port of Spain."

"Well, I've heard of him myself, in England," said the doctor. "But the point is, had he money?"

"Money!" cried the squire. "Have you heard the story? What were these villains after but money? What do

they care for but money? For what would they risk their rascal carcasses but money?"

"That we shall soon know," replied the doctor. "But you are so confoundedly hotheaded and exclamatory

that I cannot get a word in. What I want to know is this: Supposing that I have here in my pocket some clue

"Amount, sir!" cried the squire. "It will amount to this: If we have the clue you talk about, I fit out a ship in

Bristol dock, and take you and Hawkins here along, and I'll have that treasure if I search a year."

"Very well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if Jim is agreeable, we'll open the packet"; and he laid it before him

The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out his instrument case and cut the stitches with his

The squire and I were both peering over his shoulder as he opened it, for Dr. Livesey had kindly motioned me

to come round from the sidetable, where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. On the first page

there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or

practice. One was the same as the tattoo mark, "Billy Bones his fancy"; then there was "Mr. W. Bones, mate,"

"No more rum," "Off Palm Key he got itt," and some other snatches, mostly single words and unintelligible. I

could not help wondering who it was that had "got itt," and what "itt" was that he got. A knife in his back as

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 accountbooks, but instead of explanatory writing, only

a varying number of crosses between the two. On the 12th of June, 1745, for instance, a sum of seventy

pounds had plainly become due to someone, and there was nothing but six crosses to explain the cause. In a

few cases, to be sure, the name of a place would be added, as "Offe Caraccas," or a mere entry of latitude and

The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the amount of the separate entries growing larger as time went on,

and at the end a grand total had been made out after five or six wrong additions, and these words appended,

"The thing is as clear as noonday," cried the squire. "This is the blackhearted hound's accountbook. These

crosses stand for the names of ships or towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are the scoundrel's share,

and where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something clearer. 'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here

was some unhappy vessel boarded off that coast. God help the poor souls that manned hercoral long ago."

"Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be a traveller. Right! And the amounts increase, you see, as he rose

There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of places noted in the blank leaves towards the end and

The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble by way of seal; the very thimble, perhaps, that I

had found in the captain's pocket. The doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell out the map of

an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings, names of hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that

would be needed to bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine miles long and five

across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbours, and a

hill in the centre part marked "The Spyglass." There were several additions of a later date, but above all,

three crosses of red inktwo on the north part of the island, one in the southwestand beside this last, in

the same red ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the captain's tottery characters, these words:

That was all; but brief as it was, and to me incomprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr. Livesey with delight.

"Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up this wretched practice at once. Tomorrow I start for Bristol. In

three weeks' timethree weeks!two weeksten dayswe'll have the best ship, sir, and the choicest

crew in England. Hawkins shall come as cabinboy. You'll make a famous cabinboy, Hawkins. You,

Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am admiral. We'll take Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter. We'll have favourable winds,

a quick passage, and not the least difficulty in finding the spot, and money to eat, to roll in, to play duck and

"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

"You," replied the doctor; "for you cannot hold your tongue. We are not the only men who know of this

paper. These fellows who attacked the inn tonight bold, desperate blades, for sureand the rest who

stayed aboard that lugger, and more, I dare say, not far off, are, one and all, through thick and thin, bound that

they'll get that money. We must none of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim and I shall stick together in the

meanwhile; you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, and from first to last, not one of us must

"Livesey," returned the squire, "you are always in the right of it. I'll be as silent as the grave."

IT was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for the sea, and none of our first plansnot even

Dr. Livesey's, of keeping me beside himcould 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 gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of seadreams and the

most charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures. I brooded by the hour together over the map,

all the details of which I well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I approached that

island in my fancy from every possible direction; I explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand

times to that tall hill they call the Spyglass, and from the top enjoyed the most wonderful and changing

prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought, sometimes full of dangerous

animals that hunted us, but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual

So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed to Dr. Livesey, with this addition, "To

be opened, in the case of his absence, by Tom Redruth or young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found, or

rather I foundfor the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading anything but printthe following important

"Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Dr. Livesey will not like that. The squire has been talking, after all."

"Well, who's a better right?" growled the gamekeeper. "A pretty rum go if squire ain't to talk for Dr. Livesey,

You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half beside myself with glee; and if ever I

despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the

undergamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such was not the squire's pleasure, and

the squire's pleasure was like law among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as

The next morning he and I set out on foot for the Admiral Benbow, and there I found my mother in good

health and spirits. The captain, who had so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the

wicked cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the public rooms and the sign

repainted, and had added some furnitureabove all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found

her a boy as an apprentice also so that she should not want help while I was gone.

It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my situation. I had thought up to that moment of

the adventures before me, not at all of the home 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. I am afraid I led that boy a

dog's life, for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting him

The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were afoot again and on the road. I said

goodbye to Mother and the cove where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old Admiral

Benbowsince he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One of my last thoughts was of the captain, who

had so often strode along the beach with his cocked hat, his sabrecut cheek, and his old brass telescope.

The mail picked us up about dusk at the Royal George on the heath. I was wedged in between Redruth and a

stout old gentleman, and in spite of the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal

from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage after stage, for when I was

awakened at last it was by a punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before

a large building in a city street and that the day had already broken a long time.

Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks to superintend the work upon the

schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the

great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors were singing at their work, in another

there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's. Though I

had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt

was something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw,

besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their

swaggering, clumsy seawalk; and if I had seen as many kings or archbishops I could not have been more

And I was going to sea myself, to sea in a schooner, with a piping boatswain and pigtailed singing seamen,

While I was still in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of a large inn and met Squire Trelawney,

all dressed out like a seaofficer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his face and a

"Here you are," he cried, "and the doctor came last night from London. Bravo! The ship's company

WHEN I had done breakfasting the squire gave me a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the

Spyglass, and told me I should easily find the place by following the line of the docks and keeping a bright

lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for sign. I set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see

some more of the ships and seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and bales,

It was a bright enough little place of entertainment. The sign was newly painted; the windows had neat red

curtains; the floor was cleanly sanded. There was a street on each side and an open door on both, which made

the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke.

The customers were mostly seafaring men, and they talked so loudly that I hung at the door, almost afraid to

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

hamplain and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling as

he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favoured of his

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 onelegged 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 likea very different creature, according to me,

I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold, and walked right up to the man where he stood, propped

"Yes, my lad," said he; "such is my name, to be sure. And who may you be?" And then as he saw the squire's

"Oh!" said he, quite loud, and offering his hand. "I see. You are our new cabinboy; pleased I am to see you."

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 recognized him at glance. It

was the tallowfaced man, wanting two fingers, who had come first to the Admiral Benbow.

"I don't care two coppers who he is," cried Silver. "But he hasn't paid his score. Harry, run and catch him."

"If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score," cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand, "Who did

"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

The man whom he called Morganan old, greyhaired, mahoganyfaced sailorcame forward pretty

"Now, Morgan," said Long John very sternly, "you never clapped your eyes on that BlackBlack Dog

"By the powers, Tom Morgan, it's as good for you!" exclaimed the landlord. "If you had been mixed up with

the like of that, you would never have put another foot in my house, you may lay to that. And what was he

"Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed deadeye?" cried Long John. "Don't rightly know,

don't you! Perhaps you don't happen to rightly know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now, what

"Keelhauling, was you? And a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place

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 seeBlack Dog? No, I don't know the name, not I. Yet I kind of think I'veyes, I've seen the

"That he did, you may be sure," said I. "I knew that blind man too. His name was Pew."

"It was!" cried Silver, now quite excited. "Pew! That were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he

did! If we run down this Black Dog, now, there'll be news for Cap'n Trelawney! Ben's a good runner; few

seamen run better than Ben. He should run him down, hand over hand, by the powers! He talked o'

All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, slapping

tables with his hand, and giving such a show of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge or a

Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly reawakened on finding Black Dog at the Spyglass,

and I watched the cook narrowly. But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the time

the two men had come back out of breath and confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd, and been

scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.

"See here, now, Hawkins," said he, "here's a blessed hard thing on a man like me, now, ain't it? There's Cap'n

Trelawneywhat's he to think? Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house

drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip

before my blessed deadlights! Now, Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap'n. You're a lad, you are, but

you're as smart as paint. I see that when you first come in. Now, here it is: What could I do, with this old

timber I hobble on? When I was an A B master mariner I'd have come up alongside of him, hand over hand,

And 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

"Why, what a precious old seacalf I am!" he said at last, wiping his cheeks. "You and me should get on

well, Hawkins, for I'll take my davy I should be rated ship's boy. But come now, stand by to go about. This

won't do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I'll put on my old cockerel hat, and step along of you to Cap'n

Trelawney, and report this here affair. For mind you, it's serious, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me's

come out of it with what I should make so bold as to call credit. Nor you neither, says you; not smart none

of the pair of us smart. But dash my buttons! That was a good un about my score."

And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again

On our little walk along the quays, he made himself the most interesting companion, telling me about the

different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going

forwardhow one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third making ready for seaand every

now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen or repeating a nautical phrase till I had

learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one of the best of possible shipmates.

When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Livesey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast

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

The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got away, but we all agreed there was nothing to be done,

"Well, squire," said Dr. Livesey, "I don't put much faith in your discoveries, as a general thing; but I will say

"To be sure he may," says squire. "Take your hat, Hawkins, and we'll see the ship."

THE HISPANIOLA lay some way out, and we went under the figureheads and round the sterns of many

other ships, and their cables sometimes grated underneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last,

however, we got alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown

old sailor with earrings in his ears and a squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon

This last was a sharplooking man who seemed angry with everything on board and was soon to tell us why,

The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once and shut the door behind him.

"Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?"

"Well, sir," said the captain, "better speak plain, I believe, even at the risk of offence. I don't like this cruise; I

"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

"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

"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

"Next," said the captain, "I learn we are going after treasurehear 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."

"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 dare say, 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

"Perhaps you should," replied the doctor. "My friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with him; but the

"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

"Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?" asked the doctor. "Tell us what you want."

"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

"I'll tell you what I've heard myself," continued Captain Smollett: "that you have a map of an island, that

there's crosses on the map to show where treasure is, and that the island lies" And then he named the

"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

"Sir," said Captain Smollett, "with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.

No captain, sir, would be justified in going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As for Mr.

Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest; some of the men are the same; all may be for what I know. But I am

responsible for the ship's safety and the life of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going, as I think,

not quite right. And I ask you to take certain precautions or let me resign my berth. And that's all."

"Captain Smollett," began the doctor with a smile, "did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the

mouse? You'll excuse me, I dare say, but you remind me of that fable. When you came in here, I'll stake my

"Doctor," said the captain, "you are smart. When I came in here I meant to get discharged. I had no thought

"No more I would," cried the squire. "Had Livesey not been here I should have seen you to the deuce. As it

"Trelawney," said the doctor, "contrary to all my notions, I believed you have managed to get two honest

"Silver, if you like," cried the squire; "but as for that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct

When we came on deck, the men had begun already to take out the arms and powder, yohoing at their

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, Mr.

Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth and I were to

get two of them and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep on deck in the companion, which had been

enlarged on each side till you might almost have called it a 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

We were all hard at work, changing the powder and the berths, when the last man or two, and Long John

The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness, and as soon as he saw what was doing, "So ho,

"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

"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy with that, meneasy," he ran on, to the fellows who were

shifting the powder; and then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a long

brass nine, "Here you, ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off with you to the cook and get some work."

And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite loudly, to the doctor, "I'll have no favourites on my

I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking, and hated the captain deeply.

ALL that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the squire's

friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had a

night at the Admiral Benbow when I had half the work; and I was dogtired when, a little before dawn, the

boatswain sounded his pipe and the crew began to man the capstanbars. I might have been twice as weary,

yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and interesting to methe brief commands, the shrill note

of the whistle, the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns.

"Aye, aye, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke

Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old Admiral Benbow in a second, and I seemed to hear

the voice of the captain piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up; soon it was hanging dripping

at the bows; soon the sails began to draw, and the land and shipping to flit by on either side; and before I

could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber the HISPANIOLA had begun her voyage to the Isle of Treasure.

I am not going to relate that voyage in detail. It was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a good ship, the

crew were capable seamen, and the captain thoroughly understood his business. But before we came the

length of Treasure Island, two or three things had happened which require to be known.

Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than the captain had feared. He had no command among the

men, and people did what they pleased with him. But that was by no means the worst of it, for after a day or

two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks, stuttering tongue, and other marks of

drunkenness. Time after time he was ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut himself;

sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the companion; sometimes for a day or two he

In the meantime, we could never make out where he got the drink. That was the ship's mystery. Watch him as

we pleased, we could do nothing to solve it; and when we asked him to his face, he would only laugh if he

were drunk, and if he were sober deny solemnly that he ever tasted anything but water.

He was not only useless as an officer and a bad influence amongst the men, but it was plain that at this rate he

must soon kill himself outright, so nobody was much surprised, nor very sorry, when one dark night, with a

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

boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest man aboard, and though he kept his old title, he served in a way as

mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him very useful, for he often took a

watch himself in easy weather. And the coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, experienced seaman

He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and so the mention of his name leads me on to speak of our

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 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 spacesLong 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 good schooling in his young days and

can speak like a book when so minded; and bravea lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him

All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He had a way of talking to each and doing everybody some

particular service. To me he was unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept as

clean as a new pin, the dishes hanging up burnished and his parrot in a cage in one corner.

"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; "come and have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than

yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the news. Here's Cap'n FlintI calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the

famous buccaneerhere's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our v'yage. Wasn't you, cap'n?"

And the parrot would say, with great rapidity, "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!" till you

wondered that it was not out of breath, or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.

"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, maybe, two hundred years old, Hawkinsthey 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! She was at the boarding of the viceroy of the Indies out of

Goa, she was; and to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you smelt powder didn't you,

"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and then the

bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John would add,

"you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old innocent bird o' mine swearing blue fire,

and none the wiser, you may lay to that. She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before

chaplain." And John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had that made me think he was the best

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 has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would add,

The squire, at this, would turn away and march up and down the deck, chin in air.

We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the HISPANIOLA. Every man on board

seemed well content, and they must have been hard to please if they had been otherwise, for it is my belief

there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea. Double grog was going on the least

excuse; there was duff on odd days, as, for instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday, and always

a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist for anyone to help himself that had a fancy.

"Never knew good come of it yet," the captain said to Dr. Livesey. "Spoil forecastle hands, make devils.

But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall hear, for if it had not been for that, we should have had no

We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were afterI am not allowed to be more

plainand now we were running down for it with a bright lookout day and night. It was about the last day of

our outward voyage by the largest computation; some time that night, or at latest before noon of the morrow,

we should sight the Treasure Island. We were heading S.S.W. and had a steady breeze abeam and a quiet sea.

The HISPANIOLA rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing

alow and aloft; everyone was in the bravest spirits because we were now so near an end of the first part of our

Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred to me

that I should like an apple. I ran on deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at

the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away gently to himself, and that was the only sound

excepting the swish of the sea against the bows and around the sides of the ship.

In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there was scarce an apple left; but sitting down there in the

dark, what with the sound of the waters and 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

"NO, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The same broadside I

lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated meout of college and

allLatin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like a dog, and sundried like the rest, at Corso

Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names to their shipsROYAL 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

"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 mastall 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 duffbeen begging before that, some on 'em. Old

Pew, as had lost his sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred pound in a year, like a lord

in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now and under hatches; but for two year before that, shiver

my timbers, the man was starving! He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the

"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to itthat, nor nothing," cried Silver. "But now, you look here:

you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the very same

words of flattery as he had used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him through the

"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat and drink like

fightingcocks, and when a cruise is done, why, it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in

their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea again in their shirts. But that's not the

course I lay. I puts it all away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of suspicion.

I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. Time enough too, says you. Ah,

but I've lived easy in the meantime, never denied myself o' nothing heart desires, and slep' soft and ate dainty

"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now, ain't it? You daren't show face in Bristol after

"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed anchor. But my old missis has it all by now. And the

Spyglass is sold, lease and goodwill and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you where,

"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually trusts little among themselves, and right they are, you

may lay to it. But I have a way with me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cableone as knows me, I

meanit won't be in the same world with old John. There was some that was feared of Pew, and some that

was feared of Flint; but Flint his own self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest

crew afloat, was Flint's; the devil himself would have been feared to go to sea with them. Well now, I tell

you, I'm not a boasting man, and you seen yourself how easy I keep company, but when I was quartermaster,

LAMBS wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of yourself in old John's ship."

"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with you, John;

"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 handsperhaps 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.

"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice of the coxswain, Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick."

And he turned his quid and spat. "But look here," he went on, "here's what I want to know, Barbecue: how

long are we agoing to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've had a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett;

he's hazed me long enough, by thunder! I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and

"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account, nor ever was. But you're able to hear, I reckon;

leastways, your ears is big enough. Now, here's what I say: you'll berth forward, and you'll live hard, and

you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober till I give the word; and you may lay to that, my son."

"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain. "What I say is, when? That's what I say."

"When! By the powers!" cried Silver. "Well now, if you want to know, I'll tell you when. The last moment I

can manage, and that's when. Here's a firstrate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for us. Here's

this squire and doctor with a map and suchI don't know where it is, do I? No more do you, says you. Well

then, I mean this squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by the powers. Then we'll

see. If I was sure of you all, sons of double Dutchmen, I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back

"We're all forecastle hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We can steer a course, but who's to set one? That's

what all you gentlemen split on, first and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back into the

trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort

you are. I'll finish with 'em at the island, as soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But you're never happy

till you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a sick heart to sail with the likes of you!"

"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I seen laid aboard? And how many brisk lads drying in the

sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver. "And all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me? I seen

a thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay your course, and a p'int to windward, you would ride in

carriages, you would. But not you! I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum tomorrow, and go hang."

"Everybody knowed you was a kind of a chapling, John; but there's others as could hand and steer as well as

you," said Israel. "They liked a bit o' fun, they did. They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their fling,

"So?" says Silver. "Well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and he died a beggarman. 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

"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead men don't bite,' says he. Well, he's dead now hisself; he

knows the long and short on it now; and if ever a rough hand come to port, it was Billy."

"Right you are," said Silver; "rough and ready. But mark you here, I'm an easy manI'm quite the

gentleman, says you; but this time it's serious. Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my votedeath. When I'm in

Parlyment and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these sealawyers in the cabin acoming home,

unlooked for, like the devil at prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why, let her rip!"

"You'll say so, Israel when you see," said Silver. "Only one thing I claimI claim Trelawney. I'll wring his

calf's head off his body with these hands, Dick!" he added, breaking off. "You just jump up, like a sweet lad,

You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have leaped out and run for it if I had found the strength, but my

limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard Dick begin to rise, and then 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

"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the keg, mind. There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring

Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong

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

When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pannikin and drankone "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,

Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and looking up, I found the moon had risen and was

silvering the mizzentop and shining white on the luff of the foresail; and almost at the same time the voice

THERE was a great rush of feet across the deck. I could hear people tumbling up from the cabin and the

forecastle, and slipping in an instant outside my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double towards

the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush for the weather

There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted almost simultaneously with the appearance

of the moon. 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. All three seemed sharp and

So much I saw, almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or two before.

And then I heard the voice of Captain Smollett issuing orders. The HISPANIOLA was laid a couple of points

nearer the wind and now sailed a course that would just clear the island on the east.

"And now, men," said the captain, when all was sheeted home, "has any one of you ever seen that land

"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'ardfore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the mainthat's the big un, with the cloud on

itthey usually calls the Spyglass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the anchorage

Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but by the fresh look of the paper I knew he was

doomed to disappointment. This was not the map we found in Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy,

complete in all thingsnames and heights and soundingswith 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. Aye, here it is: 'Capt. Kidd's Anchorage'just the name my

shipmate called it. There's a strong current runs along the south, and then away nor'ard up the west coast.

Right you was, sir," says he, "to haul your wind and keep the weather of the island. Leastways, if such was

your intention as to enter and careen, and there ain't no better place for that in these waters."

"Thank you, my man," says Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you later on to give us a help. You may go."

I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of the island, and I own I was

halffrightened when I saw him drawing nearer to myself. He did not know, to be sure, that I had overheard

his council from the apple barrel, and yet I had by this time taken such a horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and

"Ah," says he, "this here is a sweet spot, this island a sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe,

and you'll climb trees, and you'll hunt goats, you will; and you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat yourself.

Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber leg, I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young

and have ten toes, and you may lay to that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you just ask old John, and

And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off forward and went below.

Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were talking together on the quarterdeck, and anxious as I was

to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about in my thoughts to find

some probable excuse, Dr. Livesey called me to his side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave to

tobacco, had meant that I should fetch it; but as soon as I was near enough to speak and not to be overheard, I

broke immediately, "Doctor, let me speak. Get the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make some

The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he was master of himself.

"Thank you, Jim," said he quite loudly, "that was all I wanted to know," as if he had asked me a question.

And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the other two. They spoke together for a little, and though

none of them started, or raised his voice, or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Dr. Livesey had

communicated my request, for the next thing that I heard was the captain giving an order to Job Anderson,

"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 for. Mr. Trelawney, being a very openhanded gentleman, as we all know, has just asked

me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man on board had done his duty, alow and aloft, as

I never ask to see it done better, why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to drink YOUR

health and luck, and you'll have grog served out for you to drink OUR health and luck. I'll tell you what I

think of this: I think it handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good seacheer for the gentleman

The cheer followedthat was a matter of course; but it rang out so full and hearty that I confess I could

"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett," cried Long John when the first had subsided.

On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and not long after, word was sent forward that Jim

I found them all three seated round the table, a bottle of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, and the

doctor smoking away, with his wig on his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The stern

window was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon shining behind on the ship's wake.

I did as I was bid, and as short as I could make it, told the whole details of Silver's conversation. Nobody

interrupted me till I was done, nor did any one of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they

And they made me sit down at table beside them, poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands with raisins,

and all three, one after the other, and each with a bow, drank my good health, and their service to me, for my

"Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right, and I was wrong. I own myself an ass, and I await your

"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny but what

showed signs before, for any man that had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps according.

"Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission, that's Silver. A very remarkable man."

"He'd look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir," returned the captain. "But this is talk; this don't lead to

anything. I see three or four points, and with Mr. Trelawney's permission, I'll name them."

"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," says Mr. Trelawney grandly.

"First point," began Mr. Smollett. "We must go on, because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to go

about, they would rise at once. Second point, we have time before usat 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

"Three," reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins here. Now, about the honest

"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor; "those he had picked up for himself before he lit on

"And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir, I could find it in my heart to blow the

"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you please, and

keep a bright lookout. It's 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 anyone. The men are not shy with him, and Jim is a

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 twentysix on whom we knew we could rely; and out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown

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 southeast of the low eastern coast. Greycoloured woods covered a large

part of the surface. This even tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sandbreak in the lower lands,

and by many tall trees of the pine family, outtopping the otherssome 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 Spyglass, 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

The HISPANIOLA was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks, the

rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had

to cling tight to the backstay, and the world turned giddily before my eyes, for though I was a good enough

sailor when there was way on, this standing still and being rolled about like a bottle was a thing I never

learned to stand without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an empty stomach.

Perhaps it was thisperhaps it was the look of the island, with its grey, melancholy woods, and wild stone

spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beachat 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 the first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.

We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out

and manned, and the ship warped three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow passage

to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one of the boats, where I had, of course, no business.

The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command of my

boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order, he grumbled as loud as the worst.

I thought this was a very bad sign, for up to that day the men had gone briskly and willingly about their

All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and conned the ship. He knew the passage like the palm of

his hand, and though the man in the chains got everywhere more water than was down in the chart, John

"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he said, "and this here passage has been dug out, in a manner of

We brought up just where the anchor was in 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

The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods, the trees coming right down to highwater mark, the

shores mostly flat, and the hilltops standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheatre, one here, one there.

Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as you might call it; and the foliage round

that part of the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could see nothing of the house or

stockade, for they were quite buried among trees; and if it had not been for the chart on the companion, we

might have been the first that had ever anchored there since the island arose out of the seas.

There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf booming half a mile away along the

beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchoragea smell of sodden

leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.

"I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's fever here."

If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became truly threatening when they had come

aboard. They lay about the deck growling together in talk. The slightest order was received with a black look

and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands must have caught the infection, for there was

not one man aboard to mend another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a 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, and as for example no man could have shown a 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, sir!" in the world; and when there was

nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if to conceal the discontent of the rest.

Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John appeared

"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another order, the whole ship'll come about our ears by the run. You see, sir,

here it is. I get a rough answer, do I not? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two shakes; if I don't,

Silver will see there's something under that, and the game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on."

"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's as anxious as you and I to smother things up. This is a tiff; he'd soon

talk 'em out of it if he had the chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the chance. Let's allow the men

an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why we'll fight the ship. If they none of them go, well then, we hold the

cabin, and God defend the right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll bring 'em aboard again as mild

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

"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day and are all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody the

boats are still in the water; you can take the gigs, and as many as please may go ashore for the afternoon. I'll

I believe the silly fellows must have thought they would break their shins over treasure as soon as they were

landed, for they all came out of their sulks in a moment and gave a cheer that started the echo in a faraway

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 handsand I was soon to see it proved that there were such on

boardmust have been very stupid fellows. Or rather, I suppose the truth was this, that all hands were

disaffected by the example of the ringleadersonly some more, some less; and a few, being good fellows in

the main, could neither be led nor driven any further. It is one thing to be idle and skulk and quite another to

At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay on board, and the remaining thirteen,

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 foresheets of the nearest boat,

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

The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in, having some start and being at once the lighter and the

better manned, shot far ahead of her consort, and the bow had struck among the shoreside trees and I had

caught a branch and swung myself out and plunged into the nearest thicket while Silver and the rest were still

But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, ducking, and breaking through, I ran straight before my nose

I WAS so pleased at having given the slip to Long John that I began to enjoy myself and look around me with

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now

come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few

pines and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows.

On the far side of the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks shining vividly in the sun.

I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind,

and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and thither among the trees. Here

and there were flowering plants, unknown to me; here and there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a

ledge of rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did I suppose that he was a

Then I came to a long thicket of these oaklike trees live, or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterwards they should

be calledwhich grew low along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage compact,

like thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller

as it went, until it reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of the little rivers

soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh was steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the

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

This put me in a great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest liveoak and squatted there, hearkening,

Another voice answered, and then the first voice, which I now recognized to be Silver's, once more took up

the story and ran on for a long while in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound

they must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely; but no distinct word came to my hearing.

At last the speakers seemed to have paused and perhaps to have sat down, for not only did they cease to draw

any nearer, but the birds themselves began to grow more quiet and to settle again to their places in the

And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business, that since I had been so foolhardy as to come

ashore with these desperadoes, the least I could do was to overhear them at their councils, and that my plain

and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage, under the favourable ambush of the crouching

I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly, not only by the sound of their voices but by the

behaviour of the few birds that still hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders.

Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at last, raising my head to an 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,

blond face, all shining with heat, was lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal.

"Mate," he was saying, "it's because I thinks gold dust of yougold dust, and you may lay to that! If I hadn't

took to you like pitch, do you think I'd have been here awarning of you? All's upyou can't make nor

mend; it's to save your neck that I'm aspeaking, and if one of the wild uns knew it, where'd I be, Tom

"Silver," said the other manand I observed he was not only red in the face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow,

and his voice shook too, like a taut rope"Silver," says he, "you're old, and you're honest, or has the name

for it; and you've money too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't; and you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you

tell me you'll let yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure as God sees me,

And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I had found one of the honest handswell, 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, longdrawn scream. The rocks of the

Spyglass reechoed it a score of times; the whole troop of marshbirds rose again, darkening heaven, with a

simultaneous whirr; and long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain, silence had reestablished its

redescending birds and the boom of the distant surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.

Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the spur, but Silver had not winked an eye. He stood where he

was, resting lightly on his crutch, watching his companion like a snake about to spring.

"Hands off!" cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it seemed to me, with the speed and security of a trained

"Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other. "It's a black conscience that can make you feared of me.

"That?" returned Silver, smiling away, but warier than ever, his eye a mere pinpoint in his big face, but

"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

And with that, this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook and set off walking for the beach. But he

was not destined to go far. With a cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his armpit,

and sent that uncouth missile hurtling through the air. It struck poor Tom, point foremost, and with stunning

violence, right between the shoulders in the middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, and

Whether he were injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like enough, to judge from the sound, his back

was broken on the spot. But he had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey even without leg

or crutch, was on the top of him next 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 Spyglass hilltop, going round and

round and topsyturvy 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 sward; but the murderer minded him not a whit,

cleansing his bloodstained knife the while upon a wisp of grass. Everything else was unchanged, the sun

still shining mercilessly on the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the mountain, and I could scarce

persuade myself that murder had been actually done and a human life cruelly cut short a moment since before

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

Instantly I began to extricate myself and crawl back again, with what speed and silence I could manage, to the

more open portion of the wood. As I did so, I could hear hails coming and going between the old buccaneer

and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings. As soon as I was clear of the thicket, I ran as I

never ran before, scarce minding the direction of my flight, so long as it led me from the murderers; and as I

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 wring my

neck like a snipe's? Would not my absence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm, and therefore of my

fatal knowledge? It was all over, I thought. 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

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 liveoaks grew more widely apart

and seemed more like forest trees in their bearing and dimensions. Mingled with these were a few scattered

pines, some fifty, some nearer seventy, feet high. The air too smelt more freshly than down beside the marsh.

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

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 manlike on two legs, but unlike any

man that I had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was, I could no longer be in doubt

I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. I was within an ace of calling for help. But the mere fact that

he was a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver began to revive in

proportion. I stood still, therefore, and cast about for some method of escape; and as I was so thinking, the

recollection of my pistol flashed into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was not defenceless, courage

glowed again in my heart and I set my face resolutely for this man of the island and walked briskly towards

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

"Ben Gunn," he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. "I'm poor Ben Gunn,

I could now see that he was a white man like myself and that his features were even pleasing. His skin,

wherever it was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked quite

startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggarmen that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness.

He was clothed with tatters of old ship's canvas and old seacloth, 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 brassbuckled leather belt, which was the one thing

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

"Marooned three years agone," he continued, "and lived on goats since then, and berries, and oysters.

Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You

mightn't happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well, many's the long night I've dreamed of

All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, and

generally, in the intervals of his speech, showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow creature. But

"If ever you can get aboard again, says you?" he repeated. "Why, now, who's to hinder you?"

"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 motherto look at me?" he asked.

"Ah, well," said he, "but I hadremarkable pious. And I was a civil, pious boy, and could rattle off my

catechism that fast, as you couldn't tell one word from another. And here's what it come to, Jim, and it begun

with chuckfarthen on the blessed gravestones! That's what it begun with, but it went further'n that; and so

my mother told me, and predicked the whole, she did, the pious woman! But it were Providence that put me

here. I've thought it all out in this here lonely island, and I'm back on piety. You don't catch me tasting rum so

much, but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, the first chance I have. I'm bound I'll be good, and I see the

way to. And, Jim"looking all round him and lowering his voice to a whisper"I'm rich."

I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and I suppose I must have shown the

feeling in my face, for he repeated the statement hotly: "Rich! Rich! I says. And I'll tell you what: I'll make a

man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you'll bless your stars, 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

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 methere are some of Flint's hands

"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

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told him the whole story of our voyage and the

predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he

"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 GunnBen Gunn's the man to do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a

"Aye, but you see," returned Ben Gunn, "I didn't mean giving me a gate to keep, and a suit of livery clothes,

and such; that's not my mark, Jim. What I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the toon of, say one

"Why," I cried, "the squire's a gentleman. And besides, if we got rid of the others, we should want you to help

"Now, I'll tell you what," he went on. "So much I'll tell you, and no more. I were in Flint's ship when he

buried the treasure; he and six alongsix strong seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week, and us standing

off and on in the old WALRUS. One fine day up went the signal, and here come Flint by himself in a little

boat, and his head done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal white he looked about the

cutwater. But, there he was, you mind, and the six all deaddead and buried. How he done it, not a man

aboard us could make out. It was battle, murder, and sudden death, leastwayshim against six. Billy Bones

was the mate; Long John, he was quartermaster; and they asked him where the treasure was. 'Ah,' says he,

'you can go ashore, if you like, and stay,' he says; 'but as for the ship, she'll beat up for more, by thunder!'

"Well, I was in another ship three years back, and we sighted this island. 'Boys,' said I, 'here's Flint's treasure;

let's land and find it.' The cap'n was displeased at that, but my messmates were all of a mind and landed.

Twelve days they looked for it, and every day they had the worse word for me, until one fine morning all

hands went aboard. 'As for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,' they says, 'and a spade, and

"Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and not a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. But now, you

look here; look at me. Do I look like a man before the mast? No, says you. Nor I weren't, neither, I says."

"Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim," he went on. "Nor he weren't, neitherthat'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

"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 confidencea precious sight, mind thatin a gen'leman born than in these gen'leman of

"Well," I said, "I don't understand one word that you've been saying. But that's neither here nor there; for how

"Ah," said he, "that's the hitch, for sure. Well, there's my boat, that I made with my two hands. I keep her

under the white rock. If the worst come to the worst, we might try that after dark. Hi!" he broke out. "What's

For just then, although the sun had still an hour or two to run, all the echoes of the island awoke and bellowed

And I began to run towards the anchorage, my terrors all forgotten, while close at my side the marooned man

"Left, left," says he; "keep to your left hand, mate Jim! Under the trees with you! Theer's where I killed my

first goat. They don't come down here now; they're all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of

Benjamin Gunn. Ah! And there's the cetemery" cemetery, he must have meant. "You see the mounds? I

come here and prayed, nows and thens, when I thought maybe a Sunday would be about doo. It weren't quite

a chapel, but it seemed more solemn like; and then, says you, Ben Gunn was shorthandedno chapling, nor

The cannonshot 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

IT was about half past onethree bells in the sea phrasethat 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

It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men in the temper

they were in, it seemed an even chance if we should see the lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch was

bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick; if ever a man smelt fever and dysentery,

it was in that abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail 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

Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go ashore with the jollyboat in quest of

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; "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

There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to put it between us; even before we landed we had

thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out and came as near running as I durst, with a big silk handkerchief

This was how it was: a spring of clear water rose almost at the top of a knoll. Well, on the knoll, and

enclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout loghouse fit to hold two score of people on a pinch and

loopholed for musketry on either side. All round this they had cleared a wide space, and then the thing was

completed by a paling six feet high, without door or opening, too strong to pull down without time and labour

and too open to shelter the besiegers. The people in the loghouse had them in every way; they stood quiet in

shelter and shot the others like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food; for, short of a

What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For though we had a good enough place of it in the cabin of

the HISPANIOLA, with plenty of arms and ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, there had

been one thing overlookedwe 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 deathI have served his Royal

Highness the Duke of Cumberland, and got a wound myself at Fontenoy but I know my pulse went dot and

It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been a doctor. There is no time to

dillydally in our work. And so now I made up my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned to the shore

By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We made the water fly, and the boat was soon alongside and I

I found them all shaken, as was natural. The squire was sitting down, as white as a sheet, thinking of the harm

he had led us to, the good soul! And one of the six forecastle hands was little better.

"There's a man," says Captain Smollett, nodding towards him, "new to this work. He came nighhand

fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. Another touch of the rudder and that man would join us."

I told my plan to the captain, and between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment.

We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the forecastle, with three or four loaded muskets and

a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat round under the sternport, and Joyce and I set to work

loading her with powder tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs of pork, a cask of cognac, and my invaluable

In the meantime, the squire and the captain stayed on deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, who was the

"Mr. Hands," he said, "here are two of us with a brace of pistols each. If any one of you six make a signal of

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 galley, they went about ship at once, and a head popped out again on deck.

And the head popped back again; and we heard no more, for the time, of these six very fainthearted seamen.

By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we had the jollyboat loaded as much as we dared. Joyce and I

got out through the sternport, and we made for shore again as fast as oars could take us.

This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. "Lillibullero" was dropped again; and just before we

lost sight of them behind the little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a mind to

change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might be close at hand, and all

We had soon touched land in the same place as before and set to provision the block house. All three made

the first journey, heavily laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving Joyce to guard

themone man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets Hunter and I returned to the jollyboat 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

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

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 the 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

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

Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery and dropped into the boat, which we then brought round to the

"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, "I am leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your captain. I

know you are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not one of the lot of you's as bad as he makes out. I have

"Come, my fine fellow," continued the captain; "don't hang so long in stays. I'm risking my life and the lives

There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and out burst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the side of the

And the next moment he and the captain had dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off and given way.

THIS fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In the first place, the little gallipot of a boat that we

were in was gravely overloaded. Five grown men, and three of themTrelawney, Redruth, and the

captainover six feet high, was already more than she was meant to carry. Add to that the powder, pork, and

breadbags. The gunwale was lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little water, and my breeches and

The captain made us trim the boat, and we got her to lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were afraid to

In the second place, the ebb was now makinga strong rippling current running westward through the basin,

and then south'ard and seaward down the straits by which we had entered in the morning. Even the ripples

were a danger to our overloaded craft, but the worst of it was that we were swept out of our true course and

away from our proper landingplace behind the point. If we let the current have its way we should come

"I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," said I to the captain. I was steering, while he and Redruth, two

fresh men, were at the oars. "The tide keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"

"Not without swamping the boat," said he. "You must bear up, sir, if you pleasebear up until you see

I tried and found by experiment that the tide kept sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due east, or

"If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it," returned the captain. "We must keep

upstream. You see, sir," he went on, "if once we dropped to leeward of the landingplace, 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

"The current's less a'ready, sir," said the man Gray, who was sitting in the foresheets; "you can ease her off a

"Thank you, my man," said I, quite as if nothing had happened, for we had all quietly made up our minds to

Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his voice was a little changed.

"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."

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 roundshot and the powder for the gun had been left behind, and a

stroke with an axe would put it all into the possession of the evil ones abroad.

At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for the landingplace. 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

I could hear as well as see that brandyfaced rascal Israel Hands plumping down a roundshot on the deck.

"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one of these men, sir? Hands, if possible," said the captain.

"Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, sir, or you'll swamp the boat. All hands stand by to trim her

The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, and all

They had the gun, by this time, slewed round upon the swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle with the

rammer, was in consequence the most exposed. However, we had no luck, for just as Trelawney fired, down

he stooped, the ball whistled over him, and it was one of the other four who fell.

The cry he gave was echoed not only by his companions on board but by a great number of voices from the

shore, and looking in that direction I saw the other pirates trooping out from among the trees and tumbling

"Give way, then," cried the captain. "We mustn't mind if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore, all's up."

"Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added; "the crew of the other most likely going round by shore

"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain. "Jack ashore, you know. It's not them I mind; it's the

roundshot. Carpet bowls! My lady's maid couldn't miss. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, and we'll

In the meanwhile we had been making headway at a good pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had shipped

but little water in the process. We were now close in; thirty or forty strokes and we should beach her, for the

ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sand below the clustering trees. The gig was no longer to be

feared; the little point had already concealed it from our eyes. The ebbtide, which had so cruelly delayed us,

was now making reparation and delaying our assailants. The one source of danger was the gun.

But it was plain that they meant nothing should delay their shot. They had never so much as looked at their

fallen comrade, though he was not dead, and I could see him trying to crawl away.

And he and Redruth backed with a great heave that sent her stern bodily under water. The report fell in at the

same instant of time. This was the first that Jim heard, the sound of the squire's shot not having reached him.

Where the ball passed, not one of us precisely knew, but I fancy it must have been over our heads and that the

At any rate, the boat sank by the stern, quite gently, in three feet of water, leaving the captain and myself,

facing each other, on our feet. The other three took complete headers, and came up again drenched and

So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost, and we could wade ashore in safety. But there were all our

stores at the bottom, and to make things worse, only two guns out of five remained in a state for service.

Mine I had snatched from my knees and held over my head, by a sort of instinct. As for the captain, he had

carried his over his shoulder by a bandoleer, and like a wise man, lock uppermost. The other three had gone

To add to our concern, we heard voices already drawing near us in the woods along shore, and we had not

only the danger of being cut off from the stockade in our halfcrippled state but the fear before us whether, if

Hunter and Joyce were attacked by half a dozen, they would have the sense and conduct to stand firm. Hunter

was steady, that we knew; Joyce was a doubtful casea pleasant, polite man for a valet and to brush one's

With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast as we could, leaving behind us the poor jollyboat and a

WE made our best speed across the strip of wood that now divided us from the stockade, and at every step we

took the voices of the buccaneers rang nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran and the cracking

I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest and looked to my priming.

"Captain," said I, "Trelawney is the dead shot. Give him your gun; his own is useless."

They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and cool as he had been since the beginning of the bustle, hung

a moment on his heel to see that all was fit for service. At the same time, observing Gray to be unarmed, I

handed him my cutlass. It did all our hearts good to see him spit in his hand, knit his brows, and make the

blade sing through the air. It was plain from every line of his body that our new hand was worth his salt.

Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the wood and saw the stockade in front of us. We struck the

enclosure about the middle of the south side, and almost at the same time, seven mutineersJob Anderson,

They paused as if taken aback, and before they recovered, not only the squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce

from the block house, had time to fire. The four shots came in rather a scattering volley, but they did the

business: one of the enemy actually fell, and the rest, without hesitation, turned and plunged into the trees.

After reloading, we walked down the outside of the palisade to see to the fallen enemy. He was stone

We began to rejoice over our good success when just at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a ball

whistled close past my ear, and poor Tom Redruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. Both the squire

and I returned the shot, but as we had nothing to aim at, it is probable we only wasted powder. Then we

The captain and Gray were already examining him, and I saw with half an eye that all was over.

I believe the readiness of our return volley had scattered the mutineers once more, for we were suffered

without further molestation to get the poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade and carried, groaning

Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of surprise, complaint, fear, or even acquiescence from the very

beginning of our troubles till now, when we had laid him down in the loghouse to die. He had lain like a

Trojan behind his mattress in the gallery; he had followed every order silently, doggedly, and well; he was

the oldest of our party by a score of years; and now, sullen, old, serviceable servant, it was he that was to die.

The squire dropped down beside him on his knees and kissed his hand, crying like a child.

"Would that be respectful like, from me to you, squire?" was the answer. "Howsoever, so be it, amen!"

After a little while of silence, he said he thought somebody might read a prayer. "It's the custom, sir," he

In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed to be wonderfully swollen about the chest and pockets,

had turned out a great many various storesthe British colours, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, pen, ink, the

logbook, and pounds of tobacco. He had found a longish firtree lying felled and trimmed in the enclosure,

and with the help of Hunter he had set it up at the corner of the loghouse where the trunks crossed and made

an angle. Then, climbing on the roof, he had with his own hand bent and run up the colours.

This seemed mightily to relieve him. He reentered the loghouse 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

"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."

"Dr. Livesey," he said, "in how many weeks do you and squire expect the consort?"

I told him it was a question not of weeks but of months, that if we were not back by the end of August

Blandly was to send to find us, but neither sooner nor later. "You can calculate for yourself," I said.

"Why, yes," returned the captain, scratching his head; "and making a large allowance, sir, for all the gifts of

"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, Dr. Livesey, that we're perhaps as well without that

Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a roundshot passed high above the roof of the loghouse and plumped

"Oho!" said the captain. "Blaze away! You've little enough powder already, my lads."

At the second trial, the aim was better, and the ball descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud of sand

"Captain," said the squire, "the house is quite invisible from the ship. It must be the flag they are aiming at.

"Strike my colours!" cried the captain. "No, sir, not I"; and as soon as he had said the words, I think we all

agreed with him. For it was not only a piece of stout, seamanly, good feeling; it was good policy besides and

All through the evening they kept thundering away. Ball after ball flew over or fell short or kicked up the

sand in the enclosure, but they had to fire so high that the shot fell dead and buried itself in the soft sand. We

had no ricochet to fear, and though one popped in through the roof of the loghouse and out again through

the floor, we soon got used to that sort of horseplay and minded it no more than cricket.

"There is one good thing about all this," observed the captain; "the wood in front of us is likely clear. The ebb

has made a good while; our stores should be uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring in pork.

Gray and hunter were the first to come forward. Well armed, they stole out of the stockade, but it proved a

useless mission. The mutineers were bolder than we fancied or they put more trust in Israel's 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 sternsheets in

command; and every man of them was now provided with a musket from some secret magazine of their own.

And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Hawkins, safe and sound, come climbing over the stockade.

AS soon as Ben Gunn saw the colours he came to a halt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down.

"That!" he cried. "Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but gen'lemen of fortune, Silver would fly

the Jolly Roger, you don't make no doubt of that. No, that's your friends. There's been blows too, and I reckon

your friends has had the best of it; and here they are ashore in the old stockade, as was made years and years

ago by Flint. Ah, he was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! Barring rum, his match were never seen. He

"Well," said I, "that may be so, and so be it; all the more reason that I should hurry on and join my friends."

"Nay, mate," returned Ben, "not you. You're a good boy, or I'm mistook; but you're on'y a boy, all told. Now,

Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn't bring me there, where you're goingnot rum wouldn't, till I see your born

gen'leman and gets it on his word of honour. And you won't forget my words; 'A precious sight (that's what

"And when Ben Gunn is wanted, you know where to find him, Jim. Just wheer you found him today. 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

"Well," said I, "I believe I understand. You have something to propose, and you wish to see the squire or the

"And when? says you," he added. "Why, from about noon observation to about six bells."

"You won't forget?" he inquired anxiously. "Precious sight, and reasons of his own, says you. Reasons of his

own; that's the mainstay; as between man and man. Well, then"still holding me"I reckon you can go,

Jim. And, Jim, if you was to see Silver, you wouldn't go for to sell Ben Gunn? Wild horses wouldn't draw it

from you? No, says you. And if them pirates camp ashore, Jim, what would you say but there'd be widders in

Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannonball came tearing through the trees and pitched in the

sand not a hundred yards from where we two were talking. The next moment each of us had taken to his heels

For a good hour to come frequent reports shook the island, and balls kept crashing through the woods. I

moved from hidingplace to hidingplace, always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying

missiles. But towards the end of the bombardment, though still I durst not venture in the direction of the

stockade, where the balls fell oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my heart again, and after a long

The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling and tumbling in the woods and ruffling the grey surface of

the anchorage; the tide, too, was far out, and great tracts of sand lay uncovered; the air, after the heat of the

The HISPANIOLA still lay where she had anchored; but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Rogerthe black

flag of piracy flying from her peak. Even as I looked, there came another red flash and another report that

sent the echoes clattering, and one more roundshot whistled through the air. It was the last of the cannonade.

I lay for some time watching the bustle which succeeded the attack. Men were demolishing something with

axes on the beach near the stockadethe poor jollyboat, I afterwards discovered. Away, near the mouth of

the river, a great fire was glowing among the trees, and between that point and the ship one of the gigs kept

coming and going, the men, whom I had seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like children. But there was a

At length I thought I might return towards the stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, sandy spit that

encloses the anchorage to the east, and is joined at halfwater to Skeleton Island; and now, as I rose to my

feet, I saw, some distance further down the spit and rising from among low bushes, an isolated rock, pretty

high, and peculiarly white in colour. It occurred to me that this might be the white rock of which Ben Gunn

had spoken and that some day or other a boat might be wanted and I should know where to look for one.

Then I skirted among the woods until I had regained the rear, or shoreward side, of the stockade, and was

I had soon told my story and began to look about me. The loghouse was made of unsquared trunks of

pine roof, walls, and floor. The latter stood in several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above

the surface of the sand. There was a porch at the door, and under this porch the little spring welled up into an

artificial basin of a rather odd kindno other than a great ship's kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out,

Little had been left besides the framework of the house, but in one corner there was a stone slab laid down by

The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the stockade had been cleared of timber to build the house, and

we could see by the stumps what a fine and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the soil had been washed

away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a

thick bed of moss and some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green among the sand. Very close

around the stockadetoo close for defence, they saidthe wood still flourished high and dense, all of fir on

The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, whistled through every chink of the rude building and

sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand. There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand in

our suppers, sand dancing in the spring at the bottom of the kettle, for all the world like porridge beginning to

boil. Our chimney was a square hole in the roof; it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way out,

Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face tied up in a bandage for a cut he had got in breaking away

from the mutineers and that poor old Tom Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and stark, under the

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 though we all were, two were sent out for

firewood; two more were set to dig a grave for Redruth; the doctor was named cook; I was put sentry at the

door; and the captain himself went from one to another, keeping up our spirits and lending a hand wherever it

From time to time the doctor came to the door for a little air and to rest his eyes, which were almost smoked

"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.

"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

"Well, Jim," says he, "just see the good that comes of being dainty in your food. You've seen my snuffbox,

haven't you? And you never saw me take snuff, the reason being that in my snuffbox I carry a piece of

Parmesan cheesea cheese made in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that's for Ben Gunn!"

Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the sand and stood round him for a while bareheaded in the

breeze. A good deal of firewood had been got in, but not enough for the captain's fancy, and he shook his

head over it and told us we "must get back to this tomorrow rather livelier." Then, when we had eaten our

pork and each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog, the three chiefs got together in a corner to discuss our

It appears they were at their wits' end what to do, the stores being so low that we must have been starved into

surrender long before help came. But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the buccaneers until they

either hauled down their flag or ran away with the HISPANIOLA. From nineteen they were already reduced

to fifteen, two others were wounded, and one at least the man shot beside the gunseverely 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

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

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

The rest had long been up and had already breakfasted and increased the pile of firewood by about half as

"Flag of truce!" I heard someone say; and then, immediately after, with a cry of surprise, "Silver himself!"

SURE enough, there were two men just outside the stockade, one of them waving a white cloth, the other, no

It was still quite early, and the coldest morning that I think I ever was abroad ina chill that pierced into the

marrow. The sky was bright and cloudless overhead, and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the sun. But

where Silver stood with his lieutenant, all was still in shadow, and they waded kneedeep in a low white

vapour that had crawled during the night out of the morass. The chill and the vapour taken together told a

The captain was in the porch, keeping himself carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot, should any be

intended. He turned and spoke to us, "Doctor's watch on the lookout. Dr. Livesey take the north side, if you

please; Jim, the east; Gray, west. The watch below, all hands to load muskets. Lively, men, and careful."

"Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried the captain. And we could hear him adding to himself,

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

"My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not the slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk to me, you

can come, that's all. If there's any treachery, it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you."

"That's enough, cap'n," shouted Long John cheerily. "A word from you's enough. I know a gentleman, and

We could see the man who carried the flag of truce attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that wonderful,

seeing how cavalier had been the captain's answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud and slapped him on the

back as if the idea of alarm had been absurd. Then he advanced to the stockade, threw over his crutch, got a

leg up, and with great vigour and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping safely to the other

I will confess that I was far too much taken up with what was going on to be of the slightest use as sentry;

indeed, I had already deserted my eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had now seated

himself on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes fixed on the water

as it bubbled out of the old iron kettle in the sand. He was whistling "Come, Lasses and Lads."

Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. What with the steepness of the incline, the thick tree

stumps, and the soft sand, he and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it like a man in

silence, and at last arrived before the captain, whom he saluted in the handsomest style. He was tricked out in

his best; an immense blue coat, thick with brass buttons, hung as low as to his knees, and a fine laced hat was

"Here you are, my man," said the captain, raising his head. "You had better sit down."

"You ain't agoing to let me inside, cap'n?" complained Long John. "It's a main cold morning, to be sure, sir,

"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 cookand then you were treated handsomeor Cap'n

"Well, well, cap'n," returned the seacook, sitting down as he was bidden on the sand, "you'll have to give me

a hand up again, that's all. A sweet pretty place you have of it here. Ah, there's Jim! The top of the morning to

you, Jim. Doctor, here's my service. Why, there you all are together like a happy family, in a manner of

"Right you were, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver. "Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well now, you look here, that

was a good lay of yours last night. I don't deny it was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a

handspikeend. And I'll not deny neither but what some of my people was shookmaybe all was shook;

maybe I was shook myself; maybe that's why I'm here for terms. But you mark me, cap'n, it won't do twice,

by thunder! We'll have to do sentrygo and ease off a point or so on the rum. Maybe you think we were all a

sheet in the wind's eye. But I'll tell you I was sober; I was on'y dog tired; and if I'd awoke a second sooner, I'd

'a caught you at the act, I would. He wasn't dead when I got round to him, not he."

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

"Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure, and we'll have itthat's our point! You would just as

soon save your lives, I reckon; and that's yours. You have a chart, haven't you?"

"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

"That won't do with me, my man," interrupted the captain. "We know exactly what you meant to do, and we

"Avast there!" cried Mr. Smollett. "Gray told me nothing, and I asked him nothing; and what's more, I would

see you and him and this whole island blown clean out of the water into blazes first. So there's my mind for

This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver down. He had been growing nettled before, but now he

"Like enough," said he. "I would set no limits to what gentlemen might consider shipshape, or might not, as

the case were. And seein' as how you are about to take a pipe, cap'n, I'll make so free as do likewise."

And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men sat silently smoking for quite a while, now looking each

other in the face, now stopping their tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. It was as good as the play to see

"Now," resumed Silver, "here it is. You give us the chart to get the treasure by, and drop shooting poor

seamen and stoving of their heads in while asleep. You do that, and we'll offer you a choice. Either you come

aboard along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then I'll give you my affydavy, upon my word of honour,

to clap you somewhere safe ashore. Or if that ain't to your fancy, some of my hands being rough and having

old scores on account of hazing, then you can stay here, you can. We'll divide stores with you, man for man;

and I'll give my affydavy, as before to speak the first ship I sight, and send 'em here to pick you up. Now,

you'll own that's talking. Handsomer you couldn't look to get, now you. And I hope"raising his voice

"that all hands in this here block house will overhaul my words, for what is spoke to one is spoke to all."

Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand.

"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John. "Refuse that, and you've seen the last of me but

"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear me. If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to

clap you all in irons and take you home to a fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander

Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colours, and I'll see you all to Davy Jones. You can't find the treasure.

You can't sail the shipthere's not a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can't fight us Gray, there, got

away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Master Silver; you're on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand

here and tell you so; and they're the last good words you'll get from me, for in the name of heaven, I'll put a

bullet in your back when next I meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, and

Silver's face was a picture; his eyes started in his head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe.

Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he got hold of

the porch and could hoist himself again upon his crutch. Then he spat into the spring.

"There!" he cried. "That's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block house like a

rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that

And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, ploughed down the sand, was helped across the stockade, after four

or five failures, by the man with the flag of truce, and disappeared in an instant afterwards among the trees.

AS soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had been closely watching him, turned towards the interior

of the house and found not a man of us at his post but Gray. It was the first time we had ever seen him angry.

"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we all slunk back to our places, "Gray," he said, "I'll put your name in the

log; you've stood by your duty like a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought you

had worn the king's coat! If that was how you served at Fontenoy, sir, you'd have been better in your berth."

The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and

everyone with a red face, you may be certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.

"My lads," said he, "I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in redhot on purpose; and before the hour's

out, as he said, we shall be boarded. We're outnumbered, I needn't tell you that, but we fight in shelter; and a

minute ago I should have said we fought with discipline. I've no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if

On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were only two loopholes; on the south side where the

porch was, two again; and on the north side, five. There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us; the

firewood had been built into four pilestables, you might sayone 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.

"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is past, and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes."

The iron firebasket was carried bodily out by Mr. Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand.

"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and back to your post to eat it," continued Captain

Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad; you'll want it before you've done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy to all

And while this was going on, the captain completed, in his own mind, the plan of the defence.

"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See, and don't expose yourself; keep within, and fire through

the porch. Hunter, take the east side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you are the

best shotyou and Gray will take this long north side, with the five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they

can get up to it and fire in upon us through our 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."

As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell

with all its force upon the clearing and drank up the vapours at a draught. Soon the sane was baking and the

resin melting in the logs of the block house. Jackets and coats were flung aside, shirts thrown open at the

neck and rolled up to the shoulders; and we stood there, each at his post, in a fever of heat and anxiety.

"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind."

Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set us all on the alert, straining ears and eyesthe

musketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands, the captain out in the middle of the block house with his

So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and fired. The report had scarcely died

away ere it was repeated and repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string of

geese, from every side of the enclosure. Several bullets struck the loghouse, but not one entered; and as the

smoke cleared away and vanished, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet and empty as before.

Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musketbarrel betrayed the presence of our foes.

"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain Smollett. "Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should say

"I know precisely," said Dr. Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this side. I saw the three flashestwo close

But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the northseven by the squire's

computation, eight or nine according to Gray. From the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It was

plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed from the north and that on the other three sides we were

only to be annoyed by a show of hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangements. If the

mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take possession of any unprotected

Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped

from the woods on the north side and ran straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the fire was once

more opened from the woods, and a rifle ball sang through the doorway and knocked the doctor's musket into

The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys. Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men

fell, one forwards into the enclosure, two back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently more

frightened than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack and instantly disappeared among the trees.

Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing inside our defences, while from the

shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though

The four who had boarded made straight before them for the building, shouting as they ran, and the men

among the trees shouted back to encourage them. Several shots were fired, but such was the hurry of the

marksmen that not one appears to have taken effect. In a moment, the four pirates had swarmed up the mound

At the same moment, another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands,

plucked it through the loophole, and with one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.

Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all around the house, appeared suddenly in the doorway and fell with

Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we were firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy; now it

The loghouse was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative safety. Cries and confusion, the flashes

I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut across the

knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight. Someone was close behind, I

knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, and just as my eyes fell

upon him, beat down his guard and sent him sprawling on his back with a great slash across the face.

"Round the house, lads! Round the house!" cried the captain; and even in the hurlyburly, I perceived a

Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastwards, and with my cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house. Next

moment I was face to face with Anderson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head, flashing

in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but as the blow still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one

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 nightcap, 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 nightcap 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 was ours.

Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his last

blow. Another had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony, the

pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who

had scaled the palisade, one only remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on the field, was

But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and the last boarder made good his escape and disappeared

with the rest into the wood. In three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who had

The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. The survivors would soon be back where they had left

The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke, and we saw at a glance the price we had paid for

victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to move again;

while right in the centre, the squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as the other.

"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."*

*The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner

died that same evening of his wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by the faithful party.

THERE was no return of the mutineersnot so much as another shot out of the woods. They had "got their

rations for that day," as the captain put it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the

wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked outside in spite of the danger, and even outside we could hardly

tell what we were at, for horror of the loud groans that reached us from the doctor's patients.

Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action, only three still breathedthat one of the pirates who had

been shot at the loophole, Hunter, and Captain Smollett; and of these, the first two were as good as dead; the

mutineer indeed died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter, do what we could, never recovered consciousness

in this world. He lingered all day, breathing loudly like the old buccaneer at home in his apoplectic fit, but the

bones of his chest had been crushed by the blow and his skull fractured in falling, and some time in the

As for the captain, his wounds were grievous indeed, but not dangerous. No organ was fatally injured.

Anderson's ballfor it was Job that shot him first had broken his shoulderblade and touched the lung,

not badly; the second had only torn and displaced some muscles in the calf. He was sure to recover, the

doctor said, but in the meantime, and for weeks to come, he must not walk nor move his arm, nor so much as

My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a fleabite. Doctor Livesey patched it up with plaster and

After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side awhile in consultation; and when they had

talked to their hearts' content, it being then a little past noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols, girt on a

cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket over his shoulder crossed the palisade on the north side

Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of the block house, to be out of earshot of our officers

consulting; and Gray took his pipe out of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunderstruck

"Well, shipmate," said Gray, "mad he may not be; but if HE'S not, you mark my words, I am."

"I take it," replied I, "the doctor has his idea; and if I am right, he's going now to see Ben Gunn."

I was right, as appeared later; but in the 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, which was not by

any means so right. What I began to do was to envy the doctor walking in the cool shadow of the woods with

the birds about him and the pleasant smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, with my clothes stuck to the hot

resin, and so much blood about me and so many poor dead bodies lying all around that I took a disgust of the

All the time I was washing out the block house, and then washing up the things from dinner, this disgust and

envy kept growing stronger and stronger, till at last, being near a breadbag, and no one then observing me, I

took the first step towards my escapade and filled both pockets of my coat with biscuit.

I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to do a foolish, overbold act; but I was determined to do it

with all the precautions in my power. These biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me, at least,

The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, and as I already had a powderhorn and bullets, I felt

As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a bad one in itself. I was to go down the sandy spit that divides

the anchorage on the east from the open sea, find the white rock I had observed last evening, and ascertain

whether it was there or not that Ben Gunn had hidden his boat, a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe.

But as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the enclosure, my only plan was to take French leave

and slip out when nobody was watching, and that was so bad a way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong.

Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admirable opportunity. The squire and Gray were busy helping the

captain with his bandages, the coast was clear, I made a bolt for it over the stockade and into the thickest of

the trees, and before my absence was observed I was out of cry of my companions.

This was my second folly, far worse than the first, as I left but two sound men to guard the house; but like the

I took my way straight for the east coast of the island, for I was determined to go down the sea side of the spit

to avoid all chance of observation from the anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon, although still

warm and sunny. As I continued to thread the tall woods, I could hear from far before me not only the

continuous thunder of the surf, but a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs which showed me the

sea breeze had set in higher than usual. Soon cool draughts of air began to reach me, and a few steps farther I

came forth into the open borders of the grove, and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the horizon and the

I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island. The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a

breath, the surface smooth and blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the external coast,

thundering and thundering by day and night; and I scarce believe there is one spot in the island where a man

I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, thinking I was now got far enough to the south, I

took the cover of some thick bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit.

Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage. The sea breeze, as though it had the sooner blown itself out by

its unusual violence, was already at an end; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from the south and

southeast, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage, under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden

as when first we entered it. The HISPANIOLA, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly portrayed from the truck

Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the sternsheets him I could always recognizewhile a couple of

men were leaning over the stern bulwarks, one of them with a red capthe very rogue that I had seen some

hours before stridelegs upon the palisade. Apparently they were talking and laughing, though at that

distanceupwards of a mileI could, of course, hear no word of what was said. All at once there began the

most horrid, unearthly screaming, which at first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice

of Captain Flint and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright plumage as she sat perched upon

Soon after, the jollyboat shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man with the red cap and his comrade

Just about the same time, the sun had gone down behind the Spyglass, and as the fog was collecting rapidly,

it began to grow dark in earnest. I saw I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that evening.

The white rock, visible enough above the brush, was still some eighth of a mile further down the spit, and it

took me a goodish while to get up with it, crawling, often on all fours, among the scrub. Night had almost

come when I laid my hand on its rough sides. Right below it there was an exceedingly small hollow of green

turf, hidden by banks and a thick underwood about kneedeep, that grew there very plentifully; and in the

centre of the dell, sure enough, a little tent of goat skins, like what the gipsies carry about with them in

I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of the tent, and there was Ben Gunn's boathomemade if ever

anything was homemade; a rude, lopsided framework of tough wood, and stretched upon that a covering of

goatskin, with the hair inside. The thing was extremely small, even for me, and I can hardly imagine that it

could have floated with a fullsized man. There was one thwart set as low as possible, a kind of stretcher in

I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient Britons made, but I have seen one since, and I can give you

no fairer idea of Ben Gunn's boat than by saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever made by man.

But the great advantage of the coracle it certainly possessed, for it was exceedingly light and portable.

Well, now that I had found the boat, you would have thought I had had enough of truantry for once, but in the

meantime I had taken another notion and become so obstinately fond of it that I would have carried it out, I

believe, in the teeth of Captain Smollett himself. This was to slip out under cover of the night, cut the

HISPANIOLA adrift, and let her go ashore where 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 watchmen

Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty meal of biscuit. It was a night out of ten thousand for my

purpose. The fog had now buried all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared, absolute

blackness settled down on Treasure Island. And when, at last, I shouldered the coracle and groped my way

stumblingly out of the hollow where I had supped, there were but two points visible on the whole anchorage.

One was the great fire on shore, by which the defeated pirates lay carousing in the swamp. The other, a mere

blur of light upon the darkness, indicated the position of the anchored ship. She had swung round to the

ebb her bow was now towards methe only lights on board were in the cabin, and what I saw was merely

The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I sank

several times above the ankle, before I came to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little way in,

with some strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downwards, on the surface.

THE coracleas I had ample reason to know before I was done with herwas a very safe boat for a person

of my height and weight, both buoyant and clever in a seaway; but she was the most crossgrained, lopsided

craft to manage. Do as you pleased, she always made more leeway than anything else, and turning round and

round was the manoeuvre she was best at. Even Ben Gunn himself has admitted that she was "queer to handle

Certainly I did not know her way. She turned in every direction but the one I was bound to go; the most part

of the time we were broadside on, and I am very sure I never should have made the ship at all but for the tide.

By good fortune, paddle as I pleased, the tide was still sweeping me down; and there lay the HISPANIOLA

First she loomed before me like a blot of something yet blacker than darkness, then her spars and hull began

to take shape, and the next moment, as it seemed (for, the farther I went, the brisker grew the current of the

The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All round the

hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream. One cut with

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. Ten to one, if I were so foolhardy as to cut the HISPANIOLA from her anchor,

This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had not again particularly favoured me, I should have had to

abandon my design. But the light airs which had begun blowing from the southeast and south had hauled

round after nightfall into the southwest. Just while I was meditating, a puff came, caught the HISPANIOLA,

and forced her up into the current; and to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my grasp, and the hand by

With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand after another,

till the vessel swung only by two. Then I lay quiet, waiting to sever these last when the strain should be once

All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices from the cabin, but to say truth, my mind had been so

entirely taken up with other thoughts that I had scarcely given ear. Now, however, when I had nothing else to

One I recognized for the coxswain's, Israel Hands, that had been Flint's gunner in former days. The other was,

of course, my friend of the red nightcap. Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they were still

drinking, for even while I was listening, one of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern window and threw

out something, which I divined to be an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy; it was plain that they

were furiously angry. Oaths flew like hailstones, and every now and then there came forth such an explosion

as I thought was sure to end in blows. But each time the quarrel passed off and the voices grumbled lower for

On shore, I could see the glow of the great campfire burning warmly through the shoreside trees. Someone

was singing, a dull, old, droning sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and

seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. I had heard it on the voyage more than once and

And I thought it was a ditty rather too dolefully appropriate for a company that had met such cruel losses in

the morning. But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on.

At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more,

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,

I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment to be swamped; and since I found I could not push the

coracle directly off, I now shoved straight astern. At length I was clear of my dangerous neighbour, and just

as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light cord that was trailing overboard across the stern

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

I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and when I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to about

half my height and thus commanded the roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin.

By this time the schooner and her little consort were gliding pretty swiftly through the water; indeed, we had

already fetched up level with the campfire. The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading the

innumerable ripples with an incessant weltering splash; and until I got my eye above the windowsill I could

not comprehend why the watchmen had taken no alarm. One glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only

one glance that I durst take from that unsteady skiff. It showed me Hands and his companion locked together

I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, for I was near overboard. I could see nothing for the moment

but these two furious, encrimsoned faces swaying together under the smoky lamp, and I shut my eyes to let

The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the whole diminished company about the campfire had

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

I opened my eyes at once. All round me were little ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling sound and

slightly phosphorescent. The HISPANIOLA herself, a few yards in whose wake I was still being whirled

along, seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her spars toss a little against the blackness of the night; nay,

I glanced over my shoulder, and my heart jumped against my ribs. There, right behind me, was the glow of

the campfire. The current had turned at right angles, sweeping round along with it the tall schooner and the

little dancing coracle; ever quickening, ever bubbling higher, ever muttering louder, it went spinning through

Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a violent yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty degrees; and

almost at the same moment one shout followed another from on board; I could hear feet pounding on the

companion ladder and I knew that the two drunkards had at last been interrupted in their quarrel and

I lay down flat in the bottom of that wretched skiff and devoutly recommended my spirit to its Maker. At the

end of the straits, I made sure we must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where all my troubles would be

ended speedily; and though I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as it

So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten to and fro upon the billows, now and again wetted with

flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect death at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew upon me; a

numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst of my terrors, until sleep at last

supervened and in my seatossed coracle I lay and dreamed of home and the old Admiral Benbow.

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 Spyglass, which on this side descended almost

Haulbowline Head and Mizzenmast 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

That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud

reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw

myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore or spending my strength in vain to scale

Nor was that all, for crawling together on flat tables of rock or letting themselves drop into the sea with loud

reports I beheld huge slimy monsterssoft snails, as it were, of incredible bignesstwo or three score of

I have understood since that they were sea lions, and entirely harmless. But the look of them, added to the

difficulty of the shore and the high running of the surf, was more than enough to disgust me of that

landingplace. I felt willing rather to starve at sea than to confront such perils.

In the meantime I had a better chance, as I supposed, before me. North of Haulbowline Head, the land runs in

a long way, leaving at low tide a long stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, again, there comes another

capeCape of the Woods, as it was marked upon the chartburied in tall green pines, which descended to

I remembered what Silver had said about 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 leave

Haulbowline Head behind me and reserve my strength for an attempt to land upon the kindlierlooking Cape

There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, there was

no contrariety between that and the current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.

Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have perished; but as it was, it is surprising how easily and securely

my little and light boat could ride. Often, as I still lay at the bottom and kept no more than an eye above the

gunwale, I would see a big blue summit heaving close above me; yet the coracle would but bounce a little,

dance as if on springs, and subside on the other side into the trough as lightly as a bird.

I began after a little to grow very bold and sat up to try my skill at paddling. But even a small change in the

disposition of the weight will produce violent changes in the behaviour of a coracle. And I had hardly moved

before the boat, giving up at once her gentle dancing movement, ran straight down a slope of water so steep

that it made me giddy, and struck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the side of the next wave.

I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly back into my old position, whereupon the coracle seemed to

find her head again and led me as softly as before among the billows. It was plain she was not to be interfered

with, and at that rate, since I could in no way influence her course, what hope had I left of reaching land?

I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my head, for all that. First, moving with all care, I gradually

baled out the coracle with my seacap; then, getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself to

I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth glossy mountain it looks from shore or from a vessel's deck,

was for all the world like any range of hills on dry land, full of peaks and smooth places and valleys. The

coracle, left to herself, turning from side to side, threaded, so to speak, her way through these lower parts and

"Well, now," thought I to myself, "it is plain I must lie where I am and not disturb the balance; but it is plain

also that I can put the paddle over the side and from time to time, in smooth places, give her a shove or two

towards land." No sooner thought upon than done. There I lay on my elbows in the most trying attitude, and

It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and as we drew near the Cape of the Woods,

though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was, indeed,

close in. I could see the cool green treetops swaying together in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its thousandfold

reflection from the waves, the seawater that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt, combined

to make my throat burn and my brain ache. The sight of the trees so near at hand had almost made me sick

with longing, but the current had soon carried me past the point, and as the next reach of sea opened out, I

Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the HISPANIOLA under sail. I made sure, of course, that

I should be taken; but I was so distressed for want of water that I scarce knew whether to be glad or sorry at

the thought, and long before I had come to a conclusion, surprise had taken entire possession of my mind and

The HISPANIOLA was under her mainsail and two jibs, and the beautiful white canvas shone in the sun

like snow or silver. When I first sighted her, all her sails were drawing; she was lying a course about

northwest, and I presumed the men on board were going round the island on their way back to the anchorage.

Presently she began to fetch more and more to the westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were

going about in chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's eye, was taken dead aback, and stood

"Clumsy fellows," said I; "they must still be drunk as owls." And I thought how Captain Smollett would have

Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off and filled again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or

so, and brought up once more dead in the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and

down, north, south, east, and west, the HISPANIOLA sailed by swoops and dashes, and at each repetition

ended as she had begun, with idly flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steering. And if so,

where were the men? Either they were dead drunk or had deserted her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get

The current was bearing coracle and schooner southward at an equal rate. As for the latter's sailing, it was so

wild and intermittent, and she hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if she did

not even lose. If only I dared to sit up and paddle, I made sure that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an

air of adventure that inspired me, and the thought of the water breaker beside the fore companion doubled my

Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by another cloud of spray, but this time stuck to my purpose and set

myself, with all my strength and caution, to paddle after the unsteered HISPANIOLA. Once I shipped a sea

so heavy that I had to stop and bail, with my heart fluttering like a bird, but gradually I got into the way of the

thing and guided my coracle among the waves, with only now and then a blow upon her bows and a dash of

I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner; I could see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged about, and

still no soul appeared upon her decks. I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. If not, the men were

lying drunk below, where I might batten them down, perhaps, and do what I chose with the ship.

For some time she had been doing the worse thing possible for mestanding still. She headed nearly due

south, yawing, of course, all the time. Each time she fell off, her sails partly filled, and these brought her in a

moment right to the wind again. I have said this was the worst thing possible for me, for helpless as she

looked in this situation, with the canvas cracking like cannon and the blocks trundling and banging on the

deck, she still continued to run away from me, not only with the speed of the current, but by the whole

But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze fell for some seconds, very low, and the current gradually

turning her, the HISPANIOLA revolved slowly round her centre and at last presented me her stern, with the

cabin window still gaping open and the lamp over the table still burning on into the day. The mainsail hung

For the last little while I had even lost, but now redoubling my efforts, I began once more to overhaul the

I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came again in a clap; she filled on the port tack and was

My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was towards joy. Round she came, till she was broadside

on to meround still till she had covered a half and then two thirds and then three quarters of the distance

that separated us. I could see the waves boiling white under her forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me

And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I had scarce time to thinkscarce time to act and save

myself. I was on the summit of one swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was

over my head. I sprang to my feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under water. With one hand I caught the

jibboom, 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

I HAD scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other tack,

with a report like a gun. The schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, the other sails

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea; and now I lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit, and

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from me a certain

portion of the afterdeck. Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since the

mutiny, bore the print of many feet, and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live

Suddenly the HISPANIOLA came right into the wind. The jibs behind me cracked aloud, the rudder slammed

to, the whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder, and at the same moment the mainboom swung

There were the two watchmen, sure enough: redcap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his arms

stretched out like those of a crucifix and his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped

against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open before him on the deck, his face as white,

For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one tack, now on

another, and the boom swinging to and fro till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again too

there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark and a heavy blow of the ship's bows against the

swell; so much heavier weather was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsided

At every jump of the schooner, redcap slipped to and fro, butwhat was ghastly to beholdneither his

attitude nor his fixed teethdisclosing grin was anyway disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump too,

Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon the deck, his feet sliding ever the farther

out, and the whole body canting towards the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid from me; and at

At the same time, I observed, around both of them, splashes of dark blood upon the planks and began to feel

While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm moment, when the ship was still, Israel Hands turned

partly round and with a low moan writhed himself back to the position in which I had seen him first. The

moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his jaw hung open went right to my

heart. But when I remembered the talk I had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me.

He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to express surprise. All he could do was to utter one

It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the deck, I

It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy. All the lockfast places had been broken open in

quest of the chart. The floor was thick with mud where ruffians had sat down to drink or consult after wading

in the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted in clear white and beaded round with gilt, bore a

pattern of dirty hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to the rolling of the ship. One of

the doctor's medical books lay open on the table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose, for pipelights. In the

I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles a most surprising number had been drunk

out and thrown away. Certainly, since the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have been sober.

Foraging about, I found a bottle with some brandy left, for Hands; and for myself I routed out some biscuit,

some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down my

own stock behind the rudder head and well out of the coxswain's reach, went forward to the waterbreaker,

and had a good deep drink of water, and then, and not till then, gave Hands the brandy.

"If that doctor was aboard," he said, "I'd be right enough in a couple of turns, but I don't have no manner of

luck, you see, and that's what's the matter with me. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," he added,

indicating the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman anyhow. And where mought you have come

"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this ship, Mr. Hands; and you'll please regard me as

He looked at me sourly enough but said nothing. Some of the colour had come back into his cheeks, though

he still looked very sick and still continued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about.

"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colours, Mr. Hands; and by your leave, I'll strike 'em. Better none

And again dodging the boom, I ran to the colour lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and chucked it

"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap. "And there's an end to Captain Silver!"

"I reckon," he said at last, "I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind of want to get ashore now. S'pose we talks."

"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I went back to my meal with a good

"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse " O'Brien were his name, a rank Irelanderthis man

and me got the canvas on her, meaning for to sail her back. Well, HE'S dead now, he isas dead as bilge;

and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I gives you a hint, you ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now,

look here, you gives me food and drink and a old scarf or ankecher to tie my wound up, you do, and I'll tell

"I'll tell you one thing," says I: "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's anchorage. I mean to get into North

"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my

fling, I have, and I've lost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no ch'ice, not I! I'd

Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this. We struck our bargain on the spot. In three minutes I

had the HISPANIOLA sailing easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good hopes of

turning the northern point ere noon and beating down again as far as North Inlet before high water, when we

Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got a soft silk handkerchief of my mother's.

With this, and with my aid, Hands bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after he

had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he began to pick up visibly,

sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer, and looked in every way another man.

The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, the coast of the island flashing by and the

view changing every minute. Soon we were past the high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country,

sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that again and had turned the corner of the rocky

I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright, sunshiny weather and these different

prospects of the coast. I had now plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had

smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I had made. I should, I think, have had

nothing left me to desire but for the eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the deck and

the odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile that had in it something both of pain and

weaknessa haggard old man's smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery,

in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and watched me at my work.

THE wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. We could run so much the easier from the

northeast corner of the island to the mouth of the North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to anchor and dared

not beach her till the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our hands. The coxswain told me how

to lay the ship to; after a good many trials I succeeded, and we both sat in silence over another meal.

"Cap'n," said he at length with that same uncomfortable smile, "here's my old shipmate, O'Brien; s'pose you

was to heave him overboard. I ain't partic'lar as a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling his hash, but I

"I'm not strong enough, and I don't like the job; and there he lies, for me," said I.

"This here's an unlucky ship, this HISPANIOLA, Jim," he went on, blinking. "There's a power of men been

killed in this HISPANIOLAa sight o' poor seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship to Bristol. I

never seen sich dirty luck, not I. There was this here O'Brien nowhe's dead, ain't he? Well now, I'm no

scholar, and you're a lad as can read and figure, and to put it straight, do you take it as a dead man is dead for

"You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit; you must know that already," I replied. "O'Brien there

"Ah!" says he. "Well, that's unfort'nateappears as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsomever,

sperrits don't reckon for much, by what I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now, you've spoke

up free, and I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin and get me awell, ashiver my

timbers! I can't hit the name on 't; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jimthis here brandy's too strong for

Now, the coxswain's hesitation seemed to be unnatural, and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy,

I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deckso much was plain;

but with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro,

up and down, now with a look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien. All the time he

kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child could have

told that he was bent on some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my

advantage lay and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily conceal my suspicions to the end.

"Well, I reckon it's about the blessed same to me, shipmate," he replied; "so it's strong, and plenty of it, what's

"All right," I answered. "I'll bring you port, Mr. Hands. But I'll have to dig for it."

With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along

the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the fore companion. I knew he

would not expect to see me there, yet I took every precaution possible, and certainly the worst of my

He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply

when he movedfor I could hear him stifle a groanyet it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed himself

across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the port scuppers and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long

knife, or rather a short dirk, discoloured to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it for a moment, thrusting

forth his under jaw, tried the point upon his hand, and then, hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket,

This was all that I required to know. Israel could move about, he was now armed, and if he had been at so

much trouble to get rid of me, it was plain that I was meant to be the victim. What he would do afterwards

whether he would try to crawl right across the island from North Inlet to the camp among the swamps or

whether he would fire Long Tom, trusting that his own comrades might come first to help himwas, of

Yet I felt sure that I could trust him in one point, since in that our interests jumped together, and that was in

the disposition of the schooner. We both desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a sheltered place, and so

that, when the time came, she could be got off again with as little labour and danger as might be; and until

While I was thus turning the business over in my mind, I had not been idle with my body. I had stolen back to

the cabin, slipped once more into my shoes, and laid my hand at random on a bottle of wine, and now, with

Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together in a bundle and with his eyelids lowered as though he were too

weak to bear the light. He looked up, however, at my coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a man who

had done the same thing often, and took a good swig, with his favourite toast of "Here's 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

"Well," said I, "I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I was you and thought myself so badly, I would go to my

"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now about the dead. You've broken your trust; you've lived in sin

and lies and blood; there's a man you killed lying at your feet this moment, and you ask me why! For God's

I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk he had hidden in his pocket and designed, in his ill

thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, took a great draught of the wine and spoke with the most unusual

"For thirty years," he said, "I've sailed the seas and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and

foul, provisions running out, knives going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o'

goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my viewsamen, so be it. And

now, you look here," he added, suddenly changing his tone, "we've had about enough of this foolery. The

tide's made good enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap'n Hawkins, and we'll sail slap in and be done

All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern

anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled

to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot, for

we went about and about and dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a neatness that were a

Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land closed around us. The shores of North Inlet were as thickly

wooded as those of the southern anchorage, but the space was longer and narrower and more like, what in

truth it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us, at the southern end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last

stages of dilapidation. It had been a great vessel of three masts but had lain so long exposed to the injuries of

the weather that it was hung about with great webs of dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes

had taken root and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed us that the anchorage

"Now," said Hands, "look there; there's a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees

"Why, so," he replied: "you take a line ashore there on the other side at low water, take a turn about one of

them big pines; bring it back, take a turn around the capstan, and lie to for the tide. Come high water, all

hands take a pull upon the line, and off she comes as sweet as natur'. And now, boy, you stand by. We're near

the bit now, and she's too much way on her. Starboard a littlesosteadystarboardlarboard a

So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly obeyed, till, all of a sudden, he cried, "Now, my hearty,

luff!" And I put the helm hard up, and the HISPANIOLA swung round rapidly and ran stem on for the low,

The excitement of these last manoeuvres had somewhat interfered with the watch I had kept hitherto, sharply

enough, upon the coxswain. Even then I was still so much interested, waiting for the ship to touch, that I had

quite forgot the peril that hung over my head and stood craning over the starboard bulwarks and watching the

ripples spreading wide before the bows. I might have fallen without a struggle for my life had not a sudden

disquietude seized upon me and made me turn my head. Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his shadow

moving with the tail of my eye; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat's; but, sure enough, when I looked round,

We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes met, but while mine was the shrill cry of terror, his was a

roar of fury like a charging bully's. At the same instant, he threw himself forward and I leapt sideways

towards the bows. As I did so, I let go of the tiller, which sprang sharp to leeward, and I think this saved my

life, for it struck Hands across the chest and stopped him, for the moment, dead.

Before he could recover, I was safe out of the corner where he had me trapped, with all the deck to dodge

about. Just forward of the mainmast I stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool aim, though he

had already turned and was once more coming directly after me, and drew the trigger. The hammer fell, but

there followed neither flash nor sound; the priming was useless with seawater. I cursed myself for my

neglect. Why had not I, long before, reprimed and reloaded my only weapons? Then I should not have been

Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face, and

his face itself as red as a red ensign with his haste and fury. I had no time to try my other pistol, nor indeed

much inclination, for I was sure it would be useless. One thing I saw plainly: I must not simply retreat before

him, or he would speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment since he had so nearly boxed me in the

stern. Once so caught, and nine or ten inches of the bloodstained 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

Seeing that I meant to dodge, he also paused; and a moment or two passed in feints on his part and

corresponding movements upon mine. It was such a game as I had often played at home about the rocks of

Black Hill Cove, but never before, you may be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as now. Still, as I say, it

was a boy's game, and I thought I could hold my own at it against an elderly seaman with a wounded thigh.

Indeed my courage had begun to rise so high that I allowed myself a few darting thoughts on what would be

the end of the affair, and while I saw certainly that I could spin it out for long, I saw no hope of any ultimate

Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the HISPANIOLA struck, staggered, ground for an instant in the

sand, and then, swift as a blow, canted over to the port side till the deck stood at an angle of fortyfive

degrees and about a puncheon of water splashed into the scupper holes and lay, in a pool, between the deck

We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers, the dead

redcap, with his arms still spread out, tumbling stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that my head came

against the coxswain's foot with a crack that made my teeth rattle. Blow and all, I was the first afoot again,

for Hands had got involved with the dead body. The sudden canting of the ship had made the deck no place

for running on; I had to find some new way of escape, and that upon the instant, for my foe was almost

touching me. Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up hand over hand, and did not draw

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

Now that I had a moment to myself, I lost no time in changing the priming of my pistol, and then, having one

ready for service, and to make assurance doubly sure, I proceeded to draw the load of the other and recharge

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

"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know," I added

He stopped instantly. I could see by the working of his face that he was trying to think, and the process was

so slow and laborious that, in my newfound security, I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow or two, he

spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme perplexity. In order to speak he had to take the

"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

I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath, back

went his right hand over his shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow and then a

sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the

momentI scarce can say it was by my own volition, and I am sure it was without a conscious aim both

my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They did not fall alone; with a choked cry, the

coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds and plunged head first into the water.

OWING to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the

crosstrees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, was in

consequence nearer to the ship and fell between me and the bulwarks. He rose once to the surface in a lather

of foam and blood and then sank again for good. As the water settled, I could see him lying huddled together

on the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A fish or two whipped past his body. Sometimes,

by the quivering of the water, he appeared to move a little, as if he were trying to rise. But he was dead

enough, for all that, being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish in the very place where he had

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; yet

it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me, for these, it seemed to me, I could bear without a

murmur; it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling from the crosstrees into that still green water,

I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind

came back again, my pulses quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more in possession of

It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk, but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I

desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough, that very shudder did the business. The knife, in fact, had

come the nearest in the world to missing me altogether; it held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this the

shudder tore away. The blood ran down the faster, to be sure, but I was my own master again and only tacked

These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. For

nothing in the world would I have again ventured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds from

I went below and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good deal and still bled freely, but it was

neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and as

the ship was now, in a sense, my own, I began to think of clearing it from its last passengerthe dead man,

He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet,

lifesize, indeed, but how different from life's colour or life's comeliness! In that position I could easily have

my way with him, and as the habit of tragical adventures had worn off almost all my terror for the dead, I

took him by the waist as if he had been a sack of bran and with one good heave, tumbled him overboard. He

went in with a sounding plunge; the red cap came off and remained floating on the surface; and as soon as the

splash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying side by side, both wavering with the tremulous movement of

the water. O'Brien, though still quite a young man, was very bald. There he lay, with that bald head across the

knees of the man who had killed him and the quick fishes steering to and fro over both.

I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had just turned. The sun was within so few degrees of setting that

already the shadow of the pines upon the western shore began to reach right across the anchorage and fall in

patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up, and though it was well warded off by the hill with

the two peaks upon the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself and the idle sails to rattle to

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

dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water, and since, pull as I liked, I

could not budge the downhall, that was the extent of what I could accomplish. For the rest, the HISPANIOLA

By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into shadowthe last rays, I remember, falling through a glade

of the wood and shining bright as jewels on the flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill; the tide was

I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both hands

for a last security, I let myself drop softly 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 HISPANIOLA on her side,

with her mainsail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay. About the same time, the sun went fairly down

At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I returned thence emptyhanded. 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 truantry, but the recapture of the HISPANIOLA was a clenching answer, and I hoped that even Captain

So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set my face homeward for the block house and my companions.

I remembered that the most easterly of the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran from the

twopeaked hill upon my left, and I bent my course in that direction that I might pass the stream while it was

small. The wood was pretty open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon turned the corner of that hill,

This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben Gunn, the maroon; and I walked more circumspectly,

keeping an eye on every side. The dusk had come nigh hand completely, and as I opened out the cleft

between the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against the sky, where, as I judged, the man of

the island was cooking his supper before a roaring fire. And yet I wondered, in my heart, that he should show

himself so careless. For if I could see this radiance, might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself where he

Gradually the night fell blacker; it was all I could do to guide myself even roughly towards my destination;

the double hill behind me and the Spyglass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter; the stars were few

and pale; and in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits.

Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the

summit of the Spyglass, and soon after I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the

With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my journey, and sometimes walking,

sometimes running, impatiently drew near to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies before

it, I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went a trifle warily. It would have been a poor end

The moon was climbing higher and higher, its light began to fall here and there in masses through the more

open districts of the wood, and right in front of me a glow of a different colour appeared among the trees. It

was red and hot, and now and again it was a little darkenedas it were, the embers of a bonfire smouldering.

At last I came right down upon the borders of the clearing. The western end was already steeped in

moonshine; the rest, and the block house itself, still lay in a black shadow chequered with long silvery streaks

of light. On the other side of the house an immense fire had burned itself into clear embers and shed a steady,

red reverberation, contrasted strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not a soul stirring nor

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

I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in shadow, and at a convenient place, where the darkness was

To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and knees and crawled, without a sound, towards the corner of

the house. As I drew nearer, my heart was suddenly and greatly lightened. It is not a pleasant noise in itself,

and I have often complained of it at other times, but just then it was like music to hear my friends snoring

together so loud and peaceful in their sleep. The seacry of the watch, that beautiful "All's well," never fell

In the meantime, there was no doubt of one thing; they kept an infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver and

his lads that were now creeping in on them, not a soul would have seen daybreak. That was what it was,

thought I, to have the captain wounded; and again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that danger

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

With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I should lie down in my own place (I thought with a silent

My foot struck something yieldingit was a sleeper's leg; and he turned and groaned, but without awaking.

"Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! and so forth, without pause

Silver's green parrot, Captain Flint! It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she,

keeping better watch than any human being, who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain.

I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp, clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and sprang up;

I turned to run, struck violently against one person, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a second, who for

And one of the men left the loghouse and presently returned with a lighted brand.

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 the cask of cognac,

there were the pork and bread, as before, and what tenfold increased my horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I

could only judge that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there to perish with

There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was left alive. Five of them were on their feet,

flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only risen upon his

elbow; he was deadly pale, and the bloodstained bandage round his head told that he had recently been

wounded, and still more recently dressed. I remembered the man who had been shot and had run back among

The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long John's shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler

and more stern than I was used to. He still wore the fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his mission,

but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay and torn with the sharp briers of the wood.

"So," said he, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! Dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that

"Give me a loan of the link, Dick," said he; and then, when he had a good light, "That'll do, lad," he added;

"stick the glim in the wood heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to! You needn't stand up for Mr.

Hawkins; HE'LL excuse you, you may lay to that. And so, Jim"stopping the tobacco"here you were,

and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you, but this

To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set me with my back against the wall, and I

stood there, looking Silver in the face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black

Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure and then ran on again.

"Now, you see, Jim, so be as you ARE here," says he, "I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always liked

you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always

wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you've got to. Cap'n

Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right

he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone dead again you'ungrateful scamp' was

what he said; and the short and the long of the whole story is about here: you can't go back to your own lot,

for they won't have you; and without you start a third ship's company all by yourself, which might be lonely,

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

"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued Silver, "though there you are, and you may lay

to it. I'm all for argyment; I never seen good come out o' threatening. If you like the service, well, you'll jine;

and if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer nofree and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said

"Am I to answer, then?" I asked with a very tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was made to

feel the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my breast.

"Lad," said Silver, "no one's apressing of you. Take your bearings. None of us won't hurry you, mate; time

"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

"Wot's wot?" repeated one of the buccaneers in a deep growl. "Ah, he'd be a lucky one as knowed that!"

"You'll perhaps batten down your hatches till you're spoke to, my friend," cried Silver truculently to this

speaker. And then, in his first gracious tones, he replied to me, "Yesterday morning, Mr. Hawkins," said he,

"in the dogwatch, down came Doctor Livesey with a flag of truce. Says he, 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out.

Ship's gone.' Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. I won't say no. Leastways,

none of us had looked out. We looked out, and by thunder, the old ship was gone! I never seen a pack o' fools

look fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that looked the fishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's

bargain.' We bargained, him and I, and here we are: stores, brandy, block house, the firewood you was

thoughtful enough to cut, and in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat, from crosstrees to kelson. As

"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

"Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst come to the

worst, it's little I care. I've seen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two I have to tell

you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited; "and the first is this: here you are, in a bad wayship lost,

treasure lost, men lost, your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did itit was I! I

was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land, and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands,

who is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour was out. And as for the

schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who

brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this

business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing

I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and when you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll

save you all I can. It is for you to choose. Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a

I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all sat staring

at me like as many sheep. And while they were still staring, I broke out again, "And now, Mr. Silver," I said,

"I believe you're the best man here, and if things go to the worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor know

"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver with an accent so curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide whether

"I'll put one to that," cried the old mahoganyfaced seamanMorgan by namewhom I had seen in Long

John's publichouse upon the quays of Bristol. "It was him that knowed Black Dog."

"Well, and see here," added the seacook. "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!"

"Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you thought you was cap'n here, perhaps.

By the powers, but I'll teach you better! Cross me, and you'll go where many a good man's gone before you,

first and last, these thirty year backsome to the yardarm, shiver my timbers, and some by the board, and

all to feed the fishes. There's never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terwards, Tom

"I stood hazing long enough from one," added another. "I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John Silver."

"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with ME?" roared Silver, bending far forward from his

position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't

dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock

his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune, by your

account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and I'll see the colour of his inside, crutch and all,

"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to look at, anyway.

Not much worth to fight, you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n here by

'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long seamile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune

should; then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy

than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: let me see

There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall, my heart still going like a

sledgehammer, but with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom. Silver leant back against the wall, his arms

crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he had been in church; yet his eye kept

wandering furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, drew gradually

together towards the far end of the block house, and the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ear

continuously, like a stream. One after another, they would look up, and the red light of the torch would fall

for a second on their nervous faces; but it was not towards me, it was towards Silver that they turned their

"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay

"Ax your pardon, sir," returned one of the men; "you're pretty free with some of the rules; maybe you'll

kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew's dissatisfied; this crew don't vally bullying a marlinspike; this

crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that; and by your own rules, I take it we can talk

together. I ax your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for to be captaing at this present; but I claim my right, and

And with an elaborate seasalute, this fellow, a long, illlooking, yelloweyed man of five and thirty,

stepped coolly towards 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. "According to rules," said one.

"Forecastle council," said Morgan. And so with one remark or another all marched out and left Silver and me

"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. I was about desperate

to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into the bargain. But I see you was the right sort. I says to myself, you

stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll stand by you. You're his last card, and by the living thunder, John,

he's yours! Back to back, says I. You save your witness, and he'll save your neck!"

"Aye, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck gone that's the size of it. Once I looked into that bay,

Jim Hawkins, and seen no schoonerwell, I'm tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and their council, mark

me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll save your lifeif so be as I canfrom them. But, see here,

I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was askinghe, the old buccaneer, the ringleader

"It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up plucky, and by thunder, I've a chance!"

He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his pipe.

"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning. "I've a head on my shoulders, I have. I'm on squire's side now. I

know you've got that ship safe somewheres. How you done it, I don't know, but safe it is. I guess Hands and

O'Brien turned soft. I never much believed in neither of THEM. Now you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I

won't let others. I know when a game's up, I do; and I know a lad that's staunch. Ah, you that's young you

"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,

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 doubtsomething, surely, under

And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a man who looks forward to the

THE council of buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of them reentered the house, and with a

repetition of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch.

Silver briefly agreed, and this emissary retired again, leaving us together in the dark.

"There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone.

I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out. The embers of the great fire had so far burned 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 collected in a group; one held the light, another was on

his knees in their midst, and I saw the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colours in the

moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though watching the manoeuvres of this last. I

could just make out that he had a book as well as a knife in his hand, and was still wondering how anything

so incongruous had come in their possession when the kneeling figure rose once more to his feet and the

"Here they come," said I; and I returned to my former position, for it seemed beneath my dignity that they

"Well, let 'em come, ladlet 'em come," said Silver cheerily. "I've still a shot in my locker."

The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled together just inside, pushed one of their number

forward. In any other circumstances it would have been comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he set

"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

Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly, and having passed something to Silver, from

"The black spot! I thought so," he observed. "Where might you have got the paper? Why, hillo! Look here,

now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?"

"Ah, there!" said Morgan. "There! Wot did I say? No good'll come o' that, I said."

"Well, you've about fixed it now, among you," continued Silver. "You'll all swing now, I reckon. What

"Dick, was it? Then Dick can get to prayers," said Silver. "He's seen his slice of luck, has Dick, and you may

"Belay that talk, John Silver," he said. "This crew has tipped you the black spot in full council, as in dooty

bound; just you turn it over, as in dooty bound, and see what's wrote there. Then you can talk."

"Thanky, George," replied the seacook. "You always was brisk for business, and has the rules by heart,

George, as I'm pleased to see. Well, what is it, anyway? Ah! 'Deposed'that's it, is it? Very pretty wrote, to

be sure; like print, I swear. Your hand o' write, George? Why, you was gettin' quite a leadin' man in this here

crew. You'll be cap'n next, I shouldn't wonder. Just oblige me with that torch again, will you? This pipe don't

"Come, now," said George, "you don't fool this crew no more. You're a funny man, by your account; but

"I thought you said you knowed the rules," returned Silver contemptuously. "Leastways, if you don't, I do;

and I wait hereand I'm still your cap'n, mindtill you outs with your grievances and I reply; in the

"Oh," replied George, "you don't be under no kind of apprehension; WE'RE all square, we are. First, you've

made a hash of this cruiseyou'll be a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let the enemy out o' this here

trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I dunno, but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let

us go at them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty, that's what's

"Well now, look here, I'll answer these four p'ints; one after another I'll answer 'em. I made a hash o' this

cruise, did I? Well now, you all know what I wanted, and you all know if that had been done that we'd 'a been

aboard the HISPANIOLA this night as ever was, every man of us alive, and fit, and full of good plumduff,

and the treasure in the hold of her, by thunder! Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as was the

lawful cap'n? Who tipped me the black spot the day we landed and began this dance? Ah, it's a fine

danceI'm with you thereand looks mighty like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London

town, it does. But who done it? Why, it was Anderson, and Hands, and you, George Merry! And you're the

last above board of that same meddling crew; and you have the Davy Jones's insolence to up and stand for

cap'n over meyou, that sank the lot of us! By the powers! But this tops the stiffest yarn to nothing."

Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George and his late comrades that these words had not been

"That's for number one," cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with a

vehemence that shook the house. "Why, I give you my word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense

nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o'

"Ah, the others!" returned John. "They're a nice lot, ain't they? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah! By gum, if

you could understand how bad it's bungled, you would see! We're that near the gibbet that my neck's stiff

with thinking on it. You've seen 'em, maybe, hanged in chains, birds about 'em, seamen p'inting 'em out as

they go down with the tide. 'Who's that?' says one. 'That! Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him well,' says

another. And you can hear the chains ajangle as you go about and reach for the other buoy. Now, that's about

where we are, every mother's son of us, thanks to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other ruination fools of

you. And if you want to know about number four, and that boy, why, shiver my timbers, isn't he a hostage?

Are we agoing to waste a hostage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, and I 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 to see you every dayyou, John, with your head brokeor

you, George Merry, that had the ague shakes upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the colour of

lemon peel to this same moment on the clock? And 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 bargainwell, you came crawling on your knees to

me to make iton your knees you came, you was that downheartedand you'd have starved too if I

And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly recognizednone 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

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 another; and by the

oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with which they accompanied their examination, you would have

thought, not only they were fingering the very gold, but were at sea with it, besides, in safety.

"Yes," said one, "that's Flint, sure enough. J. F., and a score below, with a clove hitch to it; so he done ever."

"Mighty pretty," said George. "But how are we to get away with it, and us no ship."

Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself with a hand against the wall: "Now I give you 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 thatyou and the rest, that lost me my schooner, with your interference,

burn you! But not you, you can't; you hain't got the invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and

"Fair! I reckon so," said the seacook. "You lost the ship; I found the treasure. Who's the better man at that?

And now I resign, by thunder! Elect whom you please to be your cap'n now; I'm done with it."

"So that's the toon, is it?" cried the cook. "George, I reckon you'll have to wait another turn, friend; and lucky

for you as I'm not a revengeful man. But that was never my way. And now, shipmates, this black spot? 'Tain't

much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all."

"It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it?" growled Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse he had

"A Bible with a bit cut out!" returned Silver derisively. "Not it. It don't bind no more'n a balladbook."

"Don't it, though?" cried Dick with a sort of joy. "Well, I reckon that's worth having too."

It was around about the size of a crown piece. One side was blank, for it had been the last leaf; the other

contained a verse or two of Revelationthese words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon my

mind: "Without are dogs and murderers." The printed side had been blackened with wood ash, which already

began to come off and soil my fingers; on the blank side had been written with the same material the one

word "Depposed." I have that curiosity beside me at this moment, but not a trace of writing now remains

That was the end of the night's business. Soon after, with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, and the

outside of Silver's vengeance was to put George Merry up for sentinel and threaten him with death if he

It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I

had slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position, and above all, in the remarkable game that I saw

Silver now engaged uponkeeping the mutineers together with one hand and grasping with the other after

every means, possible and impossible, to make his peace and save his miserable life. He himself slept

peacefully and snored aloud, yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that

I WAS wakenedindeed, we were all wakened, for I could see even the sentinel shake himself together

from where he had fallen against the doorpostby a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the

And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear the sound, yet my gladness was not without admixture. I

remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy conduct, and when I saw where it had brought

meamong what companions and surrounded by what dangersI felt ashamed to look him in the face.

He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come; and when I ran to a loophole and looked out, I

"You, doctor! Top o' the morning to you, sir!" cried Silver, broad awake and beaming with good nature in a

moment. "Bright and early, to be sure; and it's the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations. George,

shake up your timbers, son, and help Dr. Livesey over the ship's side. All adoin' well, your patients

So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop with his crutch under his elbow and one hand upon the side of the

"We've quite a surprise for you too, sir," he continued. "We've a little stranger herehe! he! A noo boarder

and lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a supercargo, he did, right alongside of

Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty near the cook, and I could hear the alteration in

The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak, and it was some seconds before he seemed able to

"Well, well," he said at last, "duty first and pleasure afterwards, as you might have said yourself, Silver. Let

A moment afterwards he had entered the block house and with one grim nod to me proceeded with his work

among the sick. He seemed under no apprehension, though he must have known that his life, among these

treacherous demons, depended on a hair; and he rattled on to his patients as if he were paying an ordinary

professional visit in a quiet English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on the men, for they behaved to

him as if nothing had occurred, as if he were still 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 colour,

certainly; why, your liver, man, is upside down. Did you take that medicine? Did he take that medicine,

"Because, you see, since I am mutineers' doctor, or prison doctor as I prefer to call it," says Doctor Livesey in

his pleasantest way, "I make it a point of honour not to lose a man for King George (God bless him!) and the

"Don't he?" replied the doctor. "Well, step up here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I should be

surprised if he did! The man's tongue is fit to frighten the French. Another fever."

"That comesas you call itof being arrant asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to

know honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough. I think it most probable

though of course it's only an opinionthat you'll all have the deuce to pay before you get that malaria out of

your systems. Camp in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised at you. You're less of a fool than many, take

you all round; but you don't appear to me to have the rudiments of a notion of the rules of health.

"Well," he added after he had dosed them round and they had taken his prescriptions, with really laughable

humility, more like charity schoolchildren than bloodguilty mutineers and pirates"well, that's done for

George Merry was at the door, spitting and spluttering over some badtasted medicine; but at the first word

of the doctor's proposal he swung round with a deep flush and cried "No!" and swore.

"Silence!" he roared and looked about him positively like a lion. "Doctor," he went on in his usual tones, "I

was athinking of that, knowing as how you had a fancy for the boy. We're all humbly grateful for your

kindness, and as you see, puts faith in you and takes the drugs down like that much grog. And I take it I've

found a way as'll suit all. Hawkins, will you give me your word of honour as a young gentlemanfor a

young gentleman you are, although poor bornyour word of honour not to slip your cable?"

"Then, doctor," said Silver, "you just step outside o' that stockade, and once you're there I'll bring the boy

down on the inside, and I reckon you can yarn through the spars. Good day to you, sir, and all our dooties to

The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but Silver's black looks had restrained, broke out immediately

the doctor had left the house. Silver was roundly accused of playing doubleof trying to make a separate

peace for himself, of sacrificing the interests of his accomplices and victims, and, in one word, of the

identical, exact thing that he was doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not imagine

how he was to turn their anger. But he was twice the man the rest were, and his last night's victory had given

him a huge preponderance on their minds. He called them all the fools and dolts you can imagine, said it was

necessary I should talk to the doctor, fluttered the chart in their faces, asked them if they could afford to break

"No, by thunder!" he cried. "It's us must break the treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll gammon that

And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked out upon his crutch, with his hand on my shoulder, leaving

"Slow, lad, slow," he said. "They might round upon us in a twinkle of an eye if we was seen to hurry."

Very deliberately, then, did we advance across the sand to where the doctor awaited us on the other side of

the stockade, and as soon as we were within easy speaking distance Silver stopped.

"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," says he, "and the boy'll tell you how I saved his life, and were

deposed for it too, and you may lay to that. Doctor, when a man's steering as near the wind as me playing

chuckfarthing with the last breath in his body, likeyou 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 nowit's that boy's into the bargain; and

you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to go on, for the sake of mercy."

Silver was a changed man once he was out there and had his back to his friends and the block house; his

cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice trembled; never was a soul more dead in earnest.

"Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not Inot 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

asidesee hereand leave you and Jim alone. And you'll put that down for me too, for it's a long stretch, is

So saying, he stepped back a little way, till he was out of earshot, and there sat down upon a treestump 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 firewhich

they were busy rekindlingand the house, from which they brought forth pork and bread to make the

"So, Jim," said the doctor sadly, "here you are. As you have brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. Heaven

knows, I cannot find it in my heart to blame you, but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind: when Captain

Smollett was well, you dared not have gone off; and when he was ill and couldn't help it, by George, it was

I will own that I here began to weep. "Doctor," I said, "you might spare me. I have blamed myself enough;

my life's forfeit anyway, and I should have been dead by now if Silver hadn't stood for me; and doctor,

believe this, I can dieand I dare say I deserve itbut 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

"I know, I know," he cried. "We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it on my shoulders, holus bolus, blame and

shame, my boy; but stay here, I cannot let you. Jump! One jump, and you're out, and we'll run for it like

"No," I replied; "you know right well you wouldn't do the thing yourselfneither 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

"There is a kind of fate in this," he observed when I had done. "Every step, it's you that saves our lives; and

do you suppose by any chance that we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy.

You found out the plot; you found Ben Gunnthe best deed that ever you did, or will do, though you live to

ninety. Oh, by Jupiter, and talking of Ben Gunn! Why, this is the mischief in person. 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

"Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't," said Silver. "I can only, asking your pardon, save my life and

"Well, Silver," replied the doctor, "if that is so, I'll go one step further: look out for squalls when you find it."

"Sir," said Silver, "as between man and man, that's too much and too little. What you're after, why you left

the block house, why you given me that there chart, I don't know, now, do I? And yet I done your bidding

with my eyes shut and never a word of hope! But no, this here's too much. If you won't tell me what you

"No," said the doctor musingly; "I've no right to say more; it's not my secret, you see, Silver, or, I give you

my word, I'd tell it you. But I'll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have my wig sorted

by the captain or I'm mistaken! And first, I'll give you a bit of hope; Silver, if we both get alive out of this

Silver's face was radiant. "You couldn't say more, I'm sure, sir, not if you was my mother," he cried.

"Well, that's my first concession," added the doctor. "My second is a piece of advice: keep the boy close

beside you, and when you need help, halloo. I'm off to seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I speak

And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into

"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 itwith the tail of my eye, I did; and I seen you say no, as plain as hearing.

Jim, that's one to you. This is the first glint of hope I had since the attack failed, and I owe it you. And now,

Jim, we're to go in for this here treasurehunting, with sealed orders too, and I don't like it; and you and me

must stick close, back to back like, and we'll save our necks in spite o' fate and fortune."

Just then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast was ready, and we were soon seated here and there

about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox, and it was now grown so hot

that they could only approach it from the windward, and even there not without precaution. In the same

wasteful spirit, they had cooked, I suppose, three times more than we could eat; and one of them, with an

empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and roared again over this unusual fuel. I never

in my life saw men so careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word that can describe their way of

doing; and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they were bold enough for a brush and be

done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign.

Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their

recklessness. And this the more surprised me, for I thought he had never shown himself so cunning as he did

"Aye, 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."

Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of the hot bacon; thus he restored their hope and confidence,

"As for hostage," he continued, "that's his last talk, I guess, with them he loves so dear. I've got my piece o'

news, and thanky to him for that; but it's over and done. I'll take him in a line when we go treasurehunting,

for we'll keep him like so much gold, in case of accidents, you mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the

ship and treasure both and off to sea like jolly companions, why then we'll talk Mr. Hawkins over, we will,

It was no wonder the men were in a good humour now. For my part, I was horribly cast down. Should the

scheme he had now sketched prove feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate to adopt it.

He had still a foot in either camp, and there was no doubt he would prefer wealth and freedom with the

pirates to a bare escape from hanging, which was the best he had to hope on our side.

Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then what

danger lay before us! What a moment that would be when the suspicions of his followers turned to certainty

and he and I should have to fight for dear lifehe a cripple and I a boyagainst five strong and active

Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung over the behaviour of my friends, their

unexplained desertion of the stockade, their inexplicable cession of the chart, or harder still to understand, the

doctor's last warning to Silver, "Look out for squalls when you find it," and you will readily believe how little

taste I found in my breakfast and with how uneasy a heart I set forth behind my captors on the quest for

We made a curious figure, had anyone been there to see usall in soiled sailor clothes and all but me armed

to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about himone before and one behindbesides the great cutlass at

his waist and a pistol in each pocket of his squaretailed coat. To complete his strange appearance, Captain

Flint sat perched upon his shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless seatalk. I had a line about my

waist and followed obediently after the seacook, who held the loose end of the rope, now in his free hand,

now between his powerful teeth. For all the world, I was led like a dancing bear.

The other men were variously burthened, some carrying picks and shovelsfor that had been the very first

necessary they brought ashore from the HISPANIOLA others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the

midday meal. All the stores, I observed, came from our stock, and I could see the truth of Silver's words the

night before. Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must

have been driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting. Water would have been little to

their taste; a sailor is not usually a good shot; and besides all that, when they were so short of eatables, it was

Well, thus equipped, we all set outeven the fellow with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in

shadowand straggled, one after another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace

of the drunken folly of the pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in their muddy and unbailed condition.

Both were to be carried along with us for the sake of safety; and so, with our numbers divided between them,

As we pulled over, there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large to be a

guide; and the terms of the note on the back, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran, the

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 Spyglass and

rising again towards the south into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzenmast Hill. The top of the

plateau was dotted thickly with pinetrees of varying height. Every here and there, one of a different species

rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours, and which of these was the particular "tall tree" of Captain

Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the boats had picked a favourite 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 after quite a long passage,

landed at the mouth of the second riverthat which runs down a woody cleft of the Spyglass. Thence,

At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a matted, marish vegetation greatly delayed our progress; but by

little and little the hill began to steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood to change its character

and to grow in a more open order. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of the island that we were now

approaching. A heavyscented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass.

Thickets of green nutmegtrees were dotted here and there with the red columns and the broad shadow of the

pines; and the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others. The air, besides, was fresh and stirring,

The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to and fro. About the centre, and a good

way behind the rest, Silver and I followedI tethered by my rope, he ploughing, with deep pants, among the

sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or he must have missed his footing and

We had thus proceeded for about half a mile and were approaching the brow of the plateau when the man

upon the farthest left began to cry aloud, as if in terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the others

"He can't 'a found the treasure," said old Morgan, hurrying past us from the right, "for that's clean atop."

Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it was something very different. At the foot of a pretty

big pine and involved in a green creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human

skeleton lay, with a few shreds of clothing, on the ground. I believe a chill struck for a moment to every heart.

"He was a seaman," said George Merry, who, bolder than the rest, had gone up close and was examining the

"Aye, aye," said Silver; "like enough; you wouldn't look to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what sort of a

Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body was in a natural position. But for

some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the birds that had fed upon him or of the slowgrowing creeper that had

gradually enveloped his remains) the man lay perfectly straighthis feet pointing in one direction, his hands,

"I've taken a notion into my old numbskull," observed Silver. "Here's the compass; there's the tiptop p'int o'

Skeleton Island, stickin' out like a tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line of them bones."

It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of the island, and the compass read duly E.S.E. and by

"I thought so," cried the cook; "this here is a p'inter. Right up there is our line for the Pole Star and the jolly

dollars. But, by thunder! If it don't make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one of HIS jokes, and no

mistake. Him and these six was alone here; he killed 'em, every man; and this one he hauled here and laid

down by compass, shiver my timbers! They're long bones, and the hair's been yellow. Aye, that would be

"Aye, aye," returned Morgan; "I mind him; he owed me money, he did, and took my knife ashore with him."

"Speaking of knives," said another, "why don't we find his'n lying round? Flint warn't the man to pick a

"There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy

"No, by gum, it don't," agreed Silver; "not nat'ral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns! Messmates, but if Flint

was living, this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are

"I saw him dead with these here deadlights," said Morgan. "Billy took me in. There he laid, with pennypieces

"Deadaye, sure enough he's dead and gone below," said the fellow with the bandage; "but if ever sperrit

"Aye, that he did," observed another; "now he raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now he sang.

'Fifteen Men' were his only song, mates; and I tell you true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main

hot, and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as clear as clearand the deathhaul on the

"Come, come," said Silver; "stow this talk. He's dead, and he don't walk, that I know; leastways, he won't

walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons."

We started, certainly; but in spite of the hot sun and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate

and shouting through the wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of the dead

PARTLY from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat

The plateau being somewhat tilted towards the west, this spot on which we had paused commanded a wide

prospect on either hand. Before us, over the treetops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf;

behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but sawclear across the spit and

the eastern lowlandsa great field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spyglass, here dotted

with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but that of the distant breakers, mounting

from all round, and the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail, upon the sea; the very

"There are three 'tall trees'" said he, "about in the right line from Skeleton Island. 'Spyglass 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."

"I don't feel sharp," growled Morgan. "Thinkin' o' FlintI think it wereas done me."

"He were an ugly devil," cried a third pirate with a shudder; "that blue in the face too!"

"That was how the rum took him," added Merry. "Blue! Well, I reckon he was blue. That's a true word."

Ever since they had found the skeleton and got upon this train of thought, they had spoken lower and lower,

and they had almost got to whispering by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted the silence of

the wood. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up

I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. The colour went from their six faces like

enchantment; some leaped to their feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan grovelled on the ground.

The song had stopped as suddenly as it beganbroken off, you would have said, in the middle of a note, as

though someone had laid his hand upon the singer's mouth. Coming through the clear, sunny atmosphere

among the green treetops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly; and the effect on my companions was

"Come," said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to get the word out; "this won't do. Stand by to go about.

This is a rum start, and I can't name the voice, but it's someone skylarkingsomeone that's flesh and blood,

His courage had come back as he spoke, and some of the colour to his face along with it. Already the others

had begun to lend an ear to this encouragement and were coming a little to themselves, when the same voice

broke out againnot this time singing, but in a faint distant hail that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of

"Darby M'Graw," it wailedfor that is the word that best describes the sound"Darby M'Graw! Darby

M'Graw!" again and again and again; and then rising a little higher, and with an oath that I leave out: "Fetch

The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from their heads. Long after the voice had

Dick had his Bible out and was praying volubly. He had been well brought up, had Dick, before he came to

Still Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth rattle in his head, but he had not yet surrendered.

"Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby," he muttered; "not one but us that's here." And then, making

a great effort: "Shipmates," he cried, "I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man 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

But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers, rather, indeed, of growing terror at the

And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They would have run away severally had they dared; but fear kept

them together, and kept them close by John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his part, had pretty well

"Sperrit? Well, maybe," he said. "But there's one thing not clear to me. There was an echo. Now, no man ever

seen a sperrit with a shadow; well then, what's he doing with an echo to him, I should like to know? That ain't

This argument seemed weak enough to me. But you can never tell what will affect the superstitious, and to

"Well, that's so," he said. "You've a head upon your shoulders, John, and no mistake. 'Bout ship, mates! This

here crew is on a wrong tack, I do believe. And come to think on it, it was like Flint's voice, I grant you, but

not just so clearaway like it, after all. It was liker somebody else's voice nowit was liker"

"Aye, and so it were," cried Morgan, springing on his knees. "Ben Gunn it were!"

"It don't make much odds, do it, now?" asked Dick. "Ben Gunn's not here in the body any more'n Flint."

It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned and how the natural colour had revived in their faces. Soon

they were chatting together, with intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing no further sound, they

shouldered the tools and set forth again, Merry walking first with Silver's compass to keep them on the right

line with Skeleton Island. He had said the truth: dead or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn.

Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around him as he went, with fearful glances; but he found no

"I told you," said he"I told you you had sp'iled your Bible. If it ain't no good to swear by, what do you

suppose a sperrit would give for it? Not that!" and he snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his crutch.

But Dick was not to be comforted; indeed, it was soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick; hastened by

heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm, the fever, predicted by Dr. Livesey, was evidently growing

It was fine open walking here, upon the summit; our way lay a little downhill, for, as I have said, the plateau

tilted towards the west. The pines, great and small, grew wide apart; and even between the clumps of nutmeg

and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking, as we did, pretty near northwest across the

island, we drew, on the one hand, ever nearer under the shoulders of the Spyglass, and on the other, looked

ever wider over that western bay where I had once tossed and trembled in the oracle.

The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the wrong one. So with the second. The

third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a clump of underwooda giant of a vegetable, with a

red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a company could have manoeuvred. It

was conspicuous far to sea both on the east and west and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon the

But it was not its size that now impressed my companions; it was the knowledge that seven hundred thousand

pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they drew

nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads; their feet grew speedier and

lighter; their whole soul was found up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure, that

Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch; his nostrils stood out and quivered; he cursed like a madman when

the flies settled on his hot and shiny countenance; he plucked furiously at the line that held me to him and

from time to time turned his eyes upon me with a deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his

thoughts, and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had been

forgotten: his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the past, and I could not doubt that he

hoped to seize upon the treasure, find and board the HISPANIOLA under cover of night, cut every honest

throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and riches.

Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treasurehunters.

Now and again I stumbled, and it was then that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me his

murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped behind us and now brought up the rear, was babbling to himself

both prayers and curses as his fever kept rising. This also added to my wretchedness, and to crown all, I was

haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer

with the blue face he who died at Savannah, singing and shouting for drink had there, with his own

hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove that was now so peaceful must then have rung with cries, I

And suddenly, not ten yards further, we beheld them stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging

away with the foot of his crutch like one possessed; and next moment he and I had come also to a dead halt.

Before us was a great excavation, not very 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 packingcases strewn around.

On one of these boards I saw, branded with a hot iron, the name WALRUSthe name of Flint's ship.

All was clear to probation. The CACHE had been found and rifled; the seven hundred thousand pounds were

THERE never was such an overturn in this world. Each of these six men was as though he had been struck.

But with Silver the blow passed almost instantly. Every thought of his soul had been set fullstretch, like a

racer, on that money; well, he was brought up, in a single second, dead; and he kept his head, found his

temper, and changed his plan before the others had had time to realize the disappointment.

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 not quite friendly, and I was so revolted at these constant changes

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 twoguinea piece, and it went from hand to

"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 woodenheaded lubber!"

"Dig away, boys," said Silver with the coolest insolence; "you'll find some pignuts and I shouldn't wonder."

"Pignuts!" repeated Merry, in a scream. "Mates, do you hear that? I tell you now, that man there knew it all

"Ah, Merry," remarked Silver, "standing for cap'n again? You're a pushing lad, to be sure."

But this time everyone was entirely in Merry's favour. They began to scramble out of the excavation, darting

furious glances behind them. One thing I observed, which looked well for us: they all got out upon the

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

"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 thencrack! crack!

crack! three musketshots flashed out of the thicket. Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the

man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, but

still twitching; and the other three turned and ran for it with all their might.

Before you could wink, Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry, and as the man

rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, "George," said he, "I reckon I settled you."

At the same moment, the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from among the

"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 equalled; 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

Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open part of the plateau, we could see the three survivors still

running in the same direction as they had started, right for Mizzenmast 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

"Thank ye kindly, doctor," says he. "You came in in about the nick, I guess, for me and Hawkins. And so it's

"I'm Ben Gunn, I am," replied the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment. "And," he added, after

The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes 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 halfidiot maroon, was the hero from

Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeletonit was he that had rifled it; he

had found the treasure; he had dug it up (it was the haft of his pickaxe that lay broken in the excavation); he

had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the

twopointed hill at the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in safety since two months

When the doctor had wormed this secret from him on the afternoon of the attack, and when next morning he

saw the anchorage deserted, he had gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now uselessgiven him

the stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goats' meat salted by himselfgiven anything and

everything to get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to the twopointed hill, there to be clear of

"As for you, Jim," he said, "it went against my heart, but I did what I thought best for those who had stood by

That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for the

mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave, and leaving the squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray and

the maroon and started, making the diagonal across the island to be at hand beside the pine. 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

"Ah," said Silver, "it were fortunate for me that I had Hawkins here. You would have let old John be cut to

And by this time we had reached the gigs. The doctor, with the pickaxe, demolished one of them, and then

This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though he was almost killed already with fatigue, was set to an

oar, like the rest of us, and we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed out of the

straits and doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which, four days ago, we had towed the

As we passed the twopointed hill, we could see the black mouth of Ben Gunn's cave and a figure standing

by it, leaning on a musket. It was the squire, and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in

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 ready and dropped in a

fathom and a half of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, the nearest point for Ben Gunn's

treasurehouse; and then Gray, singlehanded, returned with the gig to the HISPANIOLA, where he was to

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

"John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain and impostera 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."

"I dare you to thank me!" cried the squire. "It is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back."

And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large, airy place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water,

overhung with ferns. The floor was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett; and in a far corner, only

duskily flickered over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That

was Flint's treasure that we had come so far to seek and that had cost already the lives of seventeen men from

the HISPANIOLA. How many it had cost in the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled

on the deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and

cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet there were still three upon that islandSilver, and old Morgan,

and Ben Gunnwho had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain to share in the

"Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good boy in your line, Jim, but I don't think you and me'll go to

sea again. You're too much of the born favourite for me. Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here,

What a supper I had of it that night, with all my friends around me; and what a meal it was, with Ben Gunn's

salted goat and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the HISPANIOLA. Never, I am sure, were

people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily,

prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughterthe same bland,

THE next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land

to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the HISPANIOLA, was a considerable task for so small a

number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us; a single sentry

on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to ensure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought, besides,

Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while the rest

during their absences piled treasure on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's end, made a good load for

a grown manone that he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part, as I was not much use at carrying, I

It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so

much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish,

Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of

all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like

wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle,

as if to wear them round your necknearly 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

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 lastI think it was on the third nightthe 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.

Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself

once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these

slights and with what unwearying politeness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all. Yet, I think, none

treated him better than a dog, unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster,

or myself, who had really something to thank him for; although for that matter, I suppose, I had reason to

think even worse of him than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau.

"Right you were, sir," replied Silver; "and precious little odds which, to you and me."

"I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man," returned the doctor with a sneer, "and so my

feelings may surprise you, Master Silver. But if I were sure they were ravingas I am morally certain one, at

least, of them is down with feverI should leave this camp, and at whatever risk to my own carcass, take

"Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong," quoth Silver. "You would lose your precious life, and you

may lay to that. I'm on your side now, hand and glove; and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened, let

alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But these men down there, they couldn't keep their word

no, not supposing they wished to; and what's more, they couldn't believe as you could."

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

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, which was about all that we could manage, and stood out of North Inlet, the same colours

The three fellows must have been watching us closer than we thought for, as we soon had proved. For coming

through the narrows, we had to lie very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling

together on a spit of sand, with their arms raised in supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave

them in that wretched state; but we could not risk another mutiny; and to take them home for the gibbet

would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we had left, and

where they were to find them. But they continued to call us by name and appeal to us, for God's sake, to be

At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course and was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of themI

know not which it wasleapt to his feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent a

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

We were so short of men that everyone on board had to bear a handonly the captain lying on a mattress in

the stern and giving his orders, for though greatly recovered he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head for

the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could not risk the voyage home without fresh hands; and as it

was, what with baffling winds and a couple of fresh gales, we were all worn out before we reached it.

It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful landlocked gulf, and were immediately

surrounded by shore boats full of Negroes and Mexican Indians and halfbloods selling fruits and vegetables

and offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many goodhumoured faces (especially the blacks),

the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all the lights that began to shine in the town made a most charming

contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island; and the doctor and the squire, taking me along with

them, went ashore to pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an English manofwar, fell

in talk with him, went on board his ship, and, in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when

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

forfeit if "that man with the one leg had stayed aboard." But this was not all. The seacook had not gone

emptyhanded. He had cut through a bulkhead unobserved and had removed one of the sacks of coin, worth

Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the

HISPANIOLA reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five men

only of those who had sailed returned with her. "Drink and the devil had done for the rest," with a vengeance,

although, to be sure, we were not quite in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about:

All of us had an ample share of the treasure and used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures. Captain

Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray not only saved his money, but being suddenly smit with the desire

to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate and part owner of a fine fullrigged ship, married

besides, and the father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in

three weeks, or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he was

given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he still lives, a great favourite, though

something of a butt, with the country boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and saints' days.

Of Silver we have heard no more. That 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 and wainropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and the worst

dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts or start upright in bed with the

sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"