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14 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter twenty seven pieces of eight. Owing to the cant of the vessel,
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the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the
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cross trees, I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay.
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Hands, who was not so far up, was, in consequence, nearer
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to the ship, and fell between me and the bulwarks. He rose once
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to the surface in a lather of foam and blood, and then sank again
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for good. As the water settled, I could see him lying huddled together
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on the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A
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fish or two whipped past his body, sometimes by the quivering of the water.
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He appeared to move a little, as if he were trying to rise,
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But he was dead enough for all that, being both shot and drowned,
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and was food for fish in the very place where he had designed my
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slaughter. I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick,
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faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and
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chest. The dirk where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast seemed to
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burn like a hot iron. Yet it was not so much these real sufferings
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that distressed me, For these it seemed to me I could bear without a
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murmur. It was the horror that I had upon my mind of falling from
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the cross tree into that still green water beside the body of the cocksin.
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I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes
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as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came back again,
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my pulses quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more
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in possession of myself. It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk,
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but either it struck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I
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desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough that very shudder did the business.
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The knife, in fact, had come the nearest in the world to missing
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me altogether. It held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this
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the shudder tore away. The blood ran down the faster, to be sure,
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but I was my own master again, and only tacked to the mast
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by my coat and shirt. These last I broke through with a sudden jerk,
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and then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. For nothing in the
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world would I have again ventured, shaken as I was upon the overhanging port
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shrouds from which Israel had so lately fallen. I went below and did what
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I could for my wound. It pained me a good deal, and still
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bled freely, but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly
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gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and
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as the ship was now in a sense my own, I began to think
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of clearing it from its last passenger, the dead man O'Brien. He had
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pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like
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some horrid, ungainly sort of puppet. Life size indeed, but how different
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from life's color or life's comeliness. In that position I could easily have my
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way with him, and as the habit of tragical adventures had worn off almost
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all my terror for the dead, I took him by the waist as if
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he'd been a sack of bran, and with one good heave tumbled him overboard.
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He went in with a sounding plunge. The red cap came off and
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remained floating on the surface, and as soon as the splash subsided, I
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could see him in Israel, lying side by side, both wavering with the
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tremulous movement of the water. Iron, though still quite a young man,
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was very bald. There he lay, with that bald head across the knees
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of the man who had killed him, and the quick fishes steering to and
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fro over both. I was now alone within the ship. The tide had
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just turned. The sun was within so few degrees of setting that already the
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shadows of the pines upon the western shore began to reach right across the anchorage
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and fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up,
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and though it was well warded off by the hill with the two peaks upon
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the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself,
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and the idle sails to rattle to and fro. I began to see a
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danger to the ship. The jibs I speedily doused and brought tumbling to the
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deck. But the mainsail was a harder matter of course, When the schooner
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canted over, the boom had swung outward, and the a cap of it
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and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought this
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made it still more dangerous. Yet the strain was so heavy that I half
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feared to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards.
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The peak dropped instantly. The great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the
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water, and since pull as I liked, I could not budge the down
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hall. That was the extent of what I could accomplish. For the rest
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the Hispaniola must trust to luck, like myself. By this time, the
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whole anchorage had fallen into shadow. The last rays I remember falling through a
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glade of the wood and shining bright as jewels on the flowery mantle of the
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wreck. It began to be chill. The tide was rapidly fleeting seaward,
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the schooner settling more and more on her beam ends. I scrambled forehead and
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looked over. It seemed shallow enough. Fan holding the cut hawser in both
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hands for a last security, I let myself drop softly overboard. The water
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scarcely reached my waist. The sand was firm and covered with ripple marks,
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and I waded ashore in great spirits, leaving the Hispaniola on her side,
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with her mainsail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay. About the same
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time, the sun went fairly down, and the breeze whistled low in the
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dusk among the tossing pines. At least and at last, I was off
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the sea. Nor had I returned thence empty handed. There lay the schooner,
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clear at last from buccaneers, and ready for our own men to board
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and get to sea again. I had nothing nearer my fancy than to get
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home to the stockade and boast of my achievements. Possibly I might be blamed
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a bit for my truanty, but the recapture of the Hispaniola was a claching
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answer, and I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost
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my time. So, thinking and in famous spirits, I began to set
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my face homeward for the block house and my companions. I remembered that the
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most easterly of the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage, ran from the
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two peaked hill upon my left, and I bent my course in that direction
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that I might pass the stream. While it was small, the wood was
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pretty open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon turned the
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corner of that hill, and not long after waded to the mid calf across
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the water course. This brought me near to where I had encountered ben Gunn
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the maroon, and I walked more circumspectully, keeping an eye on every side.
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The dusk had come nigh hand completely, and as I opened out of
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the cleft between the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against
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the sky, where as I judged the man of the island was cooking his
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supper before a roaring fire. And yet I wondered in my heart that he
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should show himself so careless, For if I could see this radiance, might
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it not reach the eye of silver himself where he camped upon the shore among
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the marshes. Gradually the night fell blacker. It was all I could do
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to guide myself, even roughly toward my destination. The double hill behind me,
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and the spyglass on my right hand loomed fainter and fainter. The stars
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were few and pale, and in the low ground where I wandered, I
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kept tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits. Suddenly a kind of brightness
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fell about me. I looked up. A pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted
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on the summit of the spyglass, And soon after I saw something broad and
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silvery, moving low down behind the trees, and knew the moon had risen.
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With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me
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of my journey, and sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew near to
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the stockade. Yet as I began to thread the grove that lies before it,
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I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went a
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trifle warily. It would have been a poor end of my adventures to get
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shot down by my own party in mistake. The moon was climbing higher and
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higher. Its light began to fall here and there in masses through the more
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open districts of the wood, and right in front of me a glow of
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a different color appeared among the trees. It was red and hot, and
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now and again it was a little darkened, as it were the embers of
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a bonfire smoldering. For the life of me, I could not think what
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it might be. At last I came right down upon the borders of the
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clearing. The western end was all ready steeped in moonshine. The rest and
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the block house itself still lay in a black shadow, checkered with long,
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silvery streaks of light. On the other side of the house, an immense
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fire had burned itself into clear embers and shared a steadily red reverberation, contrasting
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strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not a soul stirring,
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nor a sound beside the noises of that breeze. I stopped with much
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wonder in my heart, and perhaps a little terror also. It had not
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been our way to build great fires. We were, indeed, by the
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Captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood, and I began to fear that something
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had gone wrong. While I was absent, I stole round by the eastern
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end, keeping close in shadow, and at a convenient place where the darkness
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was thickest, crossed the palisade. To make assurance surer, I got upon
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my hands and knees and crawled without a sound, toward the corner of the
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house. As I drew nearer, my heart was suddenly and greatly lightened.
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It was not a pleasant noise in itself, and I have often complained of
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it in other times, but just then it was like music to hear my
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friends snoring together, so loud and peaceful in their sleep. The sea cry
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of the watch, that beautiful All's well, never fell more reassuringly on my
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ear. In the meantime. There was no doubt of one thing. They
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kept, an infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver and his lads
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that were now creeping in on them, not a soul would have seen daybreak.
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That was what it was, thought I to have the captain wounded,
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And again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that danger, with so
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fut to mount guard. By this time I had got to the door and
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stood up. All was dark within, so that I could distinguish nothing by
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the eye. As for sounds, there was the steady drone of the snorers,
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and a small occasional noise, a flickering or pecking, that I could
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in no way account for With my arms before me, I walked steadily in.
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I should lie down in my own place, I thought, with a
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silent chuckle, and enjoy their faces when they found me in the morning.
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My foot struck something yielding. It was a sleeper's leg, and he turned
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and groaned, but without awaking, And then all of a sudden a shrill
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voice broke forth out of the darkness, paces of eight, paces of eight
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pieces of eight, pieces of eight pieces of eight, and so forth,
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without paws or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill. Silver's green
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parrot, Captain Flint, It was she whom I had heard pecking at a
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piece of bark. It was she, keeping better watch than any human being,
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who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain. I had no time
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left me to recover. At the sharp clicking tone of the parrot, the
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sleepers awoke and sprang up, and with a mighty oath, the voice of
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Silver cried, who goes? I turned to run, struck violently against one
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person, recoiled and ran full into the arms of a second, who,
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for his part, closed upon and held me tight. Bring a torch,
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dick, said Silver, when my capture was thus assured, and one of
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the men left the log house and presently returned with a lighted brand. End
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of Chapter twenty seven, Part six, Captain Silver, Chapter twenty eight.
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In the enemy's camp, the bright glare of the torch lighting up the interior
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of the block house showed me the worst of my apprehensions. Realized the pirates
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were in possession of the house, toss and stores. There was the cask
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of cognac. There were the pork and bread as before, and what tenfold
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increased my horror. Not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge
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that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not
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been there to perish with them. There were six of the buccaneers, all
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told, not another man was left alive. Five of them were on their
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feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness.
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The sixth had only risen upon his elbow. He was deadly pale,
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and the blood stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded,
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and was still more recently dressed. I remembered the man who had been
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shot and ran back among the woods in the great attack, and doubted not
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that this was he. The parrot sat preening her plumage on long John's shoulder.
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He himself, I thought, he looked somewhat paler and more stern than
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I was used to. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he
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had fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly, the worse for wear,
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daubed with clay and torn with sharp briers of the wood, So said he,
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here's Jim Hawkins shiver. My timbers dropped in like eh, where come
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I take that? Friendly? And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask
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and began to fill a pipe. Give me the loan of a link,
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dick, said he. And then when he had a good light, I'll
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do my lad, he added, Stick the gleam in the wood heap.
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And you gentlemen bring yourselves to You needn't stand up for mister Hawkins. He'll
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excuse you. You may later that and sew Jim stopping the tobacco. Here
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you are, and quite a pleasant surprise for old John. I see you
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were smart when first I set my eyes on you. But this ear gets
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away from me clean it do to all this, as may be well supposed,
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I made no answer. They had set me with my back against the
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wall, and I stood there, looking silver in the face. Pluckily enough,
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I hoped to all outward appearance, but with black despair in my heart.
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Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and
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then ran on again. Now you see, Jim, so be as you
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are here, said he. I'll give you a piece of my mind.
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I've always liked you. I have for a lad of spirit and the picture
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of my own self when I was young and handsome, I always wanted to
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join and take your share and dire gentleman. And now my cock, you've
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got, cap'n smile it to find seeming as oil own up to any day.
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Bit stiff on discipline. Duty is duty, says he, and right
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he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is
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gone dead again, you ungrateful scamp, was what he said. And the
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short and the log of the old story is about here. You can't go
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back to your own lot, for they won't have you. And without you
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start a third ship's company all by yourself, which might be lonely. You'll
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have to join with cap'n Silver. So far, so good. My friends
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then were still alive. And though I partly believed the truth of Silver's statement
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that the cabin party were incensed at me for my desertion, I was more
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relieved than distressed by what I heard. I don't say nothing as to your
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being in our hands, continued Silver, though there you are, and you
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may lay do it. Oh more for argument, I never seen good come
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out of threatening. If you like the service, well you're join. And
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if you don't, Jim why you're free to answer? No, free and
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welcome, shipmate. And if fairer can be said by mortal seamen, shiver
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my sides. Am I to answer? Then, I asked, with a
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very tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was made to feel
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the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned, and my
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heart beat painfully in my breast. Lad said Silver, No one a press,
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and of you take your bearings, none of us won't hurry you,
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mate, Time goes so pleasant in your company, you see, well,
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says I, growing a bit bolder. If I'm to choose, I declare
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I have a right to know what's what and why you're here and where my
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friends are. What's what? Repeated one of the buccaneers, in a deep
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growl. I'd be a lucky one as know that you're perhaps betting down your
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hatches till you are spoken to, my friend, cried Silver truculently to the
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speaker, and then, in his first gracious tones, he replied to me.
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Yesterday morning, mister Hawkins said he in the dog watch. Down came
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doctor Livesey with a flag of truce, says he, cap'n silver, you're
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sold out. Ship's gone. Well maybe we'd been taking a glass and a
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song to help it round. I won't say no. Leastways. None of
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us had looked out. We looked out, and boy thunder, the old
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ship was gone. I never seen a pack of fools look fishy, and
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you made late that. If I tells you that I look the fishiest,
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Well, says the doctor, let's boggin. We boggined him and I and
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here we are stores brandy blockhouse. The firewood you was thoughtful enough to cut,
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and, in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat from Crosstrees
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to Kielsen. As for them, they've tramped. I don't know where they
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are. He drew again quietly at his pipe. Unlest you should take it
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into that head of yours. He went on that you was included in the
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treaty. Here's the last word that was said. How many are you?
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Says I? To leave? Four says e four, and one of us
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wounded. As for the boy, I don't know where he is. Confound
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him, says he, nor I don't much care. We're about sick of
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him. There was his words. Is that all? I asked, Well,
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it's all you're to hear. My son returned Silver, and now I
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am to choose. And no, you are to choose, and you may
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laid of that, said Silver. Well said I I am not such a
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fool, but I know pretty well what I have to look for. Let
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the worst come to the worst. It's little I care. I've seen too
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many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two
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I have to tell you, I said, And by this time I was
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quite excited. And the first is this. Here you are in a bad
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way, ship lost, treasure, lost, men, lost, your whole
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business, gone to wreck. And if you want to know who did it,
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it was I. I was in the apple barrel that night we sighted
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land and heard you John and you Dick Johnson and Hans who is now at
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the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour
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was out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her
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cable, and it was I who killed the men you had aboard her.
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And it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not
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one of you. The laughs on my side. I've had the top of
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this business from the first. I no more fear you than I fear a
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fly. Kill me if you please, or spare me, but one thing
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I'll say, and no more. If you spare me, bygones are bygones.
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And when you, fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you
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all I can. It is for you to choose kill another and do yourselves
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no good, or spare me and keep a witness to save you from the
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gallows. I stopped now, for I tell you I was out of breath,
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and to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all
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sat staring at me like as many sheep. And while they were ill staring,
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I broke out again. And now, mister Silver, I said,
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I believe you're the best man here, and if things go to the worst,
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I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way I
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took it. I'll bear it in mind, said Silver, with an accent
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so curious that I could not, for the life of me decide whether he
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was laughing at my request or had been favorably affected by my courage. Oh
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put one to that, cried the old mahogany faced seaman Morgan, by name,
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whom I had seen in long John's public house upon the keys of Bristol.
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It was him that no black dog. Well, and see, he
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added the sea cook. I'll put another to that boy thunder. It was
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this same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones. First and last we've
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split upon Jim Harkins. Then here goes, said Morgan, with an oath,
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and he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty
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A vast there cried silver. Were you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you thought
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you were captain here? Perhaps boy the power as by. I'll teach you
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better cross me and you'll go where many a good man's gone before you.
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First and last he's thirty years back, some to the yard arms shiver moist
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side, and some by the board and ought to feed the fishes. There's
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never man luck me between the eyes and seen a good day afterwards, Tom
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Morgh, And you may late that. Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur
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rose from the others. Tom's right, said one, I stood hizing loin
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af from one added another, I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you,
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John Silver, Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with
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me? Roared Silver, bending far forward from his position on the keg,
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with his pipe still glowing in his right hand, put a name on what
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you're at. You ain't dumb? I wreck him that once shall get it?
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Have I lived this many years to have a son of a rum punch
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and cockies at thwart my org or at the latter end of it? You
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know the way you're all, gentleman of fortune by your account. Well,
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I am ready take a cutlass in the dares and I'll see the color of
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his inside crutch and all before that pipe's empty. Not a man stirred.
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Not a man answered, that's your sword, is it? He added,
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returning his pipe to his mouth. Well you're a gay lot a look at
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anyway, not worth much in a foot You ain't. Perhaps you can understand
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King George's English. I am capten here by election. I'm catt here because
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I'm the best man. By alarm, sea oil. You won't fight as
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gentlemen of fortune should, then, by thunder yellow bay, and you made
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late to it. I like that boy. No I've never seen a better
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boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats of you
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in this here house. And what I say is this, let me see
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him. That'll lay a hand on him. That's what I say, and
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you may lay to it. There was a long pause after this. I
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stood straight up against the wall. My heart's still going like a sledgehammer,
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but with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom. Silver leant back
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against the wall, his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his
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mouth, as calm as though he had been in church. Yet his eye
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kept wandering furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly follower.
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They, on their part, drew gradually together toward the far end of
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the blockhouse, and the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ears continuously
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like a stream. One after another. They would look up, and the
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red light of the torch would fall for a second on their nervous faces.
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But it was not toward me. It was towards Silver that they turned their
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eyes. You seem to have a lot to say, remarked Silver, spitting
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far into the air pipe up and let me hear it, Holy too,
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Ax your pardon, sir, returned one of the men. You're pretty free
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with some of the rules. Maybe you kindly keep an eye upon the rest
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this cruise. Dissatisfied, this crew, don't valley bully in lamarlin spike.
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This crew has its rights like other crews. I'll make so free as that,
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and by your own rules are take it. We can talk together.
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I ax your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for the captain at this present,
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I claim my right and steps outside for a council, and with an
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elaborate sea salute, this fellow, a long, ill looking, yellow eyed
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man of five and thirty, stepped coolly toward the door and disappeared out of
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the house. One after another. The rest followed his example, each making
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a salute as he passed, each adding some apology. Called into rules,
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said one forlkas or counsel, said Morgan. And so with one remark or
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another, all marched out and left silver and meat alone with the torch.
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The sea cook instantly removed his pipe. Now look you here, Jim Harkins,
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he said, in a steady whisper that was no more than audible.
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You're within half a plank of death, and what's a long sight worse of
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torture. They've got to throw me off. But you, Mark, I
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stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to no, not
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till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt and
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be hanged into the baggain. But I see you as the right sword,
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I says to myself. You stand by Hawkins John, and Hawkins will stand
29:17
by you. You're his last card, and by the living thunder. Johnny's
29:21
yours back to back, says I. You save your witness, and he'll
29:26
save your neck. I began dimly to understand you mean all's lost? I
29:33
asked, aye, by gom I do? He answered, ship gone,
29:38
neck gone. That's the size of it. Once I looked into that BEI
29:42
Jim Harkins, and see no schooner. Well, I'm tough, but I
29:48
gave out. As for that lot and their counsel, mark me, they're
29:52
outright fools and cowards. I'll save your life if so be as I can
29:57
from them. See here, Jim did it for a tat you save long
30:03
John from swinging. I was bewildered. It seemed a thing so hopeless.
30:08
He was asking he the old buccaneer, the ringleader, threw out what I
30:12
can do that I'll do. I said, it's a bargain, cried long
30:18
John. You speak up, plucky and both thunder. I have a chance.
30:23
He hobbled to the torch where it stood propped among the firewood, and
30:27
took a fresh light to his pipe. Understand me, Jim, he said,
30:32
returning, I've had on my shoulders. I have him on Squire's side.
30:37
Now I know you've got that ship safe somewheres. Oh you've done it.
30:44
I don't know, but safe it is, I guess. Hands and
30:48
old Bryant turned soft. I never much believed in neither of them. No
30:53
you mark me, Oh ask no questions, nor won't let others. I
31:00
know when a game's up, I do. And I know a lad that's
31:03
storch Ah. You that's young You might You and me might have done a
31:11
power of good together. He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin
31:17
cannikin. Will you taste mess met, he asked, And when I had
31:22
refused, well, I'd take a drain myself. Jim said, he oh,
31:27
I need a corker for this trouble on hand and then, and talking
31:33
a trouble, Why did that doctor give me the chart? Jim My face
31:38
expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness of further questions. Ah
31:45
well he did, though, said he. And there was something under that,
31:49
no doubt, something surely under that, Jim bad or good. And
31:56
he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a
32:00
man who looks forward to the worst. End of Chapter twenty eight.