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13 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter fifteen, I strike the Jolly Roger. I had scarce gained a position
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on the bowsprit when the flying jib flapped and filled on the other tack with
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a report like a gun. The schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse.
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But the next moment the other sails, still drawing, the jib flapped
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back again and hung idle. This had nearly tossed me off into the sea,
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and now I lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled
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head foremost on the deck. I was on the lee side of the forecastle,
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and the mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed me from a certain
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portion of the after deck. Not a soul was to be seen. The
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planks, which had not been swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of
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many feet, and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to
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and fro like a live thing in the scuppers. Suddenly the Hispaniola came right
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into the wind. The jibs behind me cracked aloud. The rudder slammed too.
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The whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder, and at the same
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moment the main boom swung in board, the sheet groaning in the blocks,
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and showed me the lee after deck there were the two watchmen, sure enough,
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Red Cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his
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arms stretched out like those of a crucifix, and his teeth showing through his
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open lips. Israel hands propped against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest,
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his hands lying open before him on the deck, his face as white
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under his tan as a tallow candle. For a while the ship kept bucking
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and sidling like a vicious horse, the sails filling now on one tack,
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now on another, and the boom swinging to and fro, till the mast
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groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again too there would come a cloud
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of light sprays under the bulwark at a heavy blow of the ship's boughs against
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the swell, So much heavier weather was made of it by this great rigged
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ship than by my homemade lopsided coracle, now gone to the bottom of the
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sea. At every jump of the schooner, Red Cap slipped to and fro.
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But what was ghastly to behold, neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth
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disclosing Grin was in any way disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump,
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too, Hands appeared still more to sink into himself, and settled down
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upon the deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole
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body canting toward the stern, so that his face became little by little hid
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from me, and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the
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frayed ringlet of one whisker. At the same time I observed around both of
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them splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and began to feel sure that
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they had killed each other in their drug and wrath. While I was thus
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looking and wondering, in a calm moment, when the ship was still Israel,
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Hands turned partly round, and, with a low moan, writhed himself
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back to the position in which I had seen him first. The moan,
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which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his jaw
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hung open, went right to my heart. But when I remembered the talk
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I had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me. I walked
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aft until I reached the mainmast. Come aboard, mister Hans, I said,
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ironically. He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was far too
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gone to expressed surprise. All he could do was utter one word, brandy.
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It occurred to me that there was no time to lose, and dodging
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the boom as it once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and
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down the companion stairs into the cabin. It was such a scene of confusion
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as you can hardly fancy. All the lockfast places had been broken open in
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quest of the chart. The floor was thick with mud where the Ruffians had
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sat down to drink or consult after wading in the marshes round their camp.
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The bulkheads, all painted in clear white and beaded round with gilt, bore
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a pattern of dirty hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to
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the rolling of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open on
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the table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose for pipe lights.
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In the midst of all this, the lamp still cast a smoky glow,
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obscure and brown. As umber I went into the cellar, all the
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barrels were gone, and of the bottle as a most surprising number had been
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drunk out and thrown away. Certainly, since the mutiny began, not a
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man of them could ever have been sober. Foraging about, I found a
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bottle with brandy left for hands and for myself. I routed out some biscuit,
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some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, and a piece of
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cheese. With these, I came on deck, put down my own stock
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behind the rudderhead, and well out of the cocksin's reach, went forward to
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the water breaker and had a good deep drink of water, and then,
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not until then, gave hands the brandy. He must have drunk a chill
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before he took the bottle from his mouth, ay said he by thunder,
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But I wanted some of that, And he sat down already in my corner
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and began to eat. Much hurt, I asked him. He grunted,
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or rather I might say he barked. If that doctor was aboard, he
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said, I'd be right enough in a couple of turns. But I don't
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have no manner of luck, you see. That's what's the matter with me.
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And for that swab he's good and dead, he is, he added,
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indicating the man with the red cap. He weern't no seamen anyhow,
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and where moret you've come from? Well, said I. I have come
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aboard to take possession of the ship, mister Hans, and you'll please regard
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me as your captain until further notice. He looked at me sourly enough,
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but said nothing. Some of the color had come back into his cheeks,
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though he still looked very sick, and still continued to slip out and settle
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down. As the ship banged about by the bye, I continued, I
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can't have these colors, mister Hans, and by your leave, i'll strike
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em better none than these, And again, dodging the boom, I ran
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to the color lines and hauled down their cursed black flag and chucked it overboard.
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God save the King, said I, waving my cap, and there's
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an end, Captain Silver. He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin
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all the while on his breast. I reckon, he said, at last,
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I reckon, Captain Hawkins, you kinda want to get ashore? Now
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suppose we talks? Why, Yes, says I, with all my heart,
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mister Hans, say on, And I went back to my meal with
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a good appetite. This man, he began nodding feebly at the corpse.
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O'Brien was his name, A rank islander. This man and me got the
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canvas on her, meaning for to sailor a back. Well, he's dead
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now, he is as dead as bilge. And who's to sail this ship?
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I don't see without I'll give you a hint. You ain't that man,
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as far as I can tell. Now. Look here you gives me
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food and drink and an old scarf handkerchief to tie my wound up. You
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do, and I'll tell you how to sail her. And that's about square
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all round, I take it. I'll tell you one thing, says I.
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I'm not going back to Captain Kid's anchorage. I mean to get into
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north Inlet and beach her quietly there to be sure you did. He cried,
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Why I ain't such an infernal lubber, After all I can see,
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can't I. I've tried, my fling, I have, and I've lost.
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And it's you as the wind of me north Inlet. Why I haven't
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no choice, not I I'd to help you sailor up to execution dock by
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thunder, so I would, well, as it seemed to me, there
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was some sense in this we struck our bargain on the spot. In three
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minutes, I had the Hispaniola sailing easily before the wind along the coast of
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Treasure Island, with good hopes of turning the northern point ere noon and beating
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down again as far as north Inlet before high water, when we might beach
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her safely and wait until the subsiding tide permitted us to land. Then I
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lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got a
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soft silk handkerchief of my mother's. With this and with my aid hands,
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bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, And after
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he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy,
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he began to pick up visibly, sat straighter, up, spoke louder
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and clearer, and looked in every way another man. The breeze served us
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admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, the coast of the island
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flashing by, and the view changing every minute. Soon we were past the
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highlands and bowling beside low sandy country, sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, And
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soon we were beyond that again and had turned the corner of the rocky hill
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that ends the Eye Island on the north. I was greatly elated with my
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new command, and pleased with the bright sunshiny weather, and these different prospects
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of the coast. I now had plenty of water and good things to eat.
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And my conscience, which had smitten me hard for my desertion, was
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quieted by the great conquest I had made. I should, I think,
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have had nothing left me to desire but for the eyes of the cocks,
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and as they followed me derisively about the deck, and the odd smile that
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appeared continually on his face. It was a smile that had in it something
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both of pain and weakness, a haggard old man's smile. But there was
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besides that a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery in his expression,
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as he craftily watched and watched and watched me at my work. End of
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chapter twenty five. Chapter twenty six, Israel hands the wind, serving us
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to a desire. Now hauled into the west, we could run so much
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easier from the northeast corner of the island to the mouth of the North Inlet.
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Only as we had no power to anchor, and dared not beach her
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until the tide had flowed A good deal farther time hung on our hands the
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cox and told me how to lay the ship too. After a good many
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trials, I succeeded, and we both sat in silence over another meal.
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Cap'n said he at length, with that same uncomfortable smile. Here is my
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old shipmate, O'Brian. Suppose you was to leave him overboard. I ate
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particular as a rule, and I don't take no blame for settling his hash.
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But I don't reckon him ornamental, now do you. I'm not strong
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enough and I don't like the job. And there he lies for me,
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said I. He is an unlucky ship. The Hispaniola Jim. He went
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on blinking. There's a power of men being killed on this Ispaniola. A
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sight, O poor seamen, dead and gone. Since you and me took
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this ship to Bristol, I never seen such dirty luck, not I there
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was this here, O'Brien. Now he's dead, ain't he? Well?
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Now I'm no scholar, and you're a ladders can read and figure. And
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to put it straight, do you take it as a dead man? He
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is dead for good, or do he come alive again? You can kill
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the body, mister Hans, but not the spirit. You must know that
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already, I replied, O'Brien, there is in another world and maybe watching
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us, Ah says he. Well, that's unfortunate. Appears as if killing
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parties was a waste of time. Howso ever, spirits don't reckon for much,
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by what I've seen. I'll chance it with the spirits, Jim.
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And now you spoke up free and I'll take it kind if you'll step down
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into that deer cabin and get me a well shiver my timbers. I can't
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hit the name on well, you can get me a butler of wine,
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Jim. This here, Brandy's too strong for my head. Now. The
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Coxin's hesitation seemed to be unnatural. And as for the notion of his preferring
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wine to Brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story was a pretext.
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He wanted me to leave the deck, so much was plain. But
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with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes never met mine,
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and they kept wandering to and fro, up and down. Now with
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a look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien.
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All the time, he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in a
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most guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child could have told that he
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was bent on some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however,
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for I saw where my advantage lay, and that with a fellow so densely
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stupid, I could easily conceal my suspicions to the end. Some wine,
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I said, far better? Will you have white or red? Well,
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I reckon, it's about the blessed same to me, shipmate, he replied,
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so it's stronger, plenty of it. What's the odds? All right?
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I answered, I'll bring you port, mister Hans, but I'll have
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to dig for it. And with that I scuttled down the companion with all
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the noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the sparred
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gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the fore
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companion. I knew he would not expect to see me there, yet I
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took every precaution possible, and certainly the worst of my suspicions proved too true.
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He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though
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his leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply when he moved, for I could hear
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him stifle a groan, yet it was at a good rattling rate that he
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trailed himself across the deck. In half a minute he had reached the port
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scuppers and picked up a coil of rope with a long knife, or rather
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a short dirk, discolored to the hilt with blood. He looked upon it
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for a moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried the point upon his
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hand, and then, hastily concealing it in the bosom of his jacket,
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trembled back again into his old place against the bulwark. This was all that
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I required to know. Israel could move about. He was now armed,
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and if he had been at so much trouble to get rid of me,
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it was plain that I was meant to be the victim. What would he
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do afterward? Whether he would try to crawl right across the island from north
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Inlet to the camp among the swamps, or whether he would fire long tom
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trusting that his own comrades might first come to help him, was of course
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more than I could say. Yet I felt sure that I could trust him
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in one point, since in that our interests jumped together, and that was
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the disposition of the schooner. We both desired to have her stranded safe enough
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in a sheltered place, so that when the time came, she could be
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got off again with as little labor and danger as might be. And until
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that was done, I considered that my life would certainly be spared. While
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I was thus turning the business over in my mind, I had not been
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idle with my body. I had stolen back to the cabin, slipped once
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more into my shoes, and laid my hand at random on a bottle of
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wine. And now, with this for an excuse, I made my reappearance
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on the deck, hands layers, I had left him all fallen together in
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a bundle, and with his eyes my lids lowered, as though he were
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too weak to bear the light. He looked up, however, at my
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coming, knocked the neck off the bottle like a man who had done the
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same thing often, and took a good swig with his favorite toast of is
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luck. Then he lay quiet for a little, and then, pulling out
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a stick of tobacco, begged me to cut him a quid. Cut me
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a junker, that says he, for I haven't no knife and hardly the
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strength enough, so be as I had ah Jim Jim, I reckon I've
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missed stays. Cut me a quid as likely to be the last lad,
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For I'm for my long home and no mistake, Well said I, I'll
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cut you some tobacco. But if I was you and thought myself so badly,
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I would go to my prayers like a Christian man, Why said he?
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Nay, you tell me why? Why? I cried? You were
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asking me just now about the dead. You've broken your trust, You've lived
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in sin and lies and blood. There's a man you killed lying at your
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feet this very moment, and you asked me why. For God's mercy,
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mister Hans, That's why I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the
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bloody dirk he had hidden in his pocket and designed in his ill thoughts to
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end me with. He, for his part, took a great draft of
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the wine and spoke with the most unusual solemnity. For thirty years, he
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said, I've sailed the seas and seen good and bad, better and worse,
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fair weather and foul provisions running out knives going and what not. Well,
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now I tell you I never seen good come out of goodness. Yet
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him as strikes first is my fancy dead men. Don't buy them's my views.
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Amen, so be it. And now you look here, he added,
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suddenly changing his tone. We've had enough for this foolery. The tides
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made good enough by now you just take my orders, Captain Hawkins, and
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we'll sail, slap in and be done with it. All told, we
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had scarce two miles to run, but the navigation was delicate. The entrance
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to this northern anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east and
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west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled to be got in.
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I think I was a good prompt subaltern, and I am sure that Hans
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was an excellent pilot. For we went about and about and dodged in,
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shaving the banks with a certainty and a neatness that were a pleasure to behold.
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Scarcely had we passed the head before the land closed around us. The
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shores of North Inlet were as thickly wooded as those of the southern anc achorage,
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but the space was longer and narrower, and more like what. In
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truth, it was the estuary of a river. Right before us, at
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the southern end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages
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of dilapidation. It had been a great vessel of three masts, but had
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lain so long exposed to the injuries of the weather that it was hung about
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with great webs of dripping seaweed. And on the decks of its shore bushes
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had taken root and now flourished thick with flowers. It was a sad sight,
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but it showed us that the anchorage was calm. Now, said Hans,
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Look there there's a pet bit for to beach a ship in fine flat
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sand, never a cat's pour. Trees all around of it, and flowers
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are blowing like a guard in on that old ship. And once beached,
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I inquired, how shall we get her off again? Why so he replied,
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you take a line ashore there on the other side, at low water,
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take a turn about one of them big pines, bring it back,
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take a turn around the capstan, and lie to for the tide. Come
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high water, all hands, take a pull upon the line, and off
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she comes, as sweet as nature. And now, boy, you stand
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by, we've hit the bit now, and she's too much way on her
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starboard a little so stair d starboard larbered, a little stair d stair d.
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So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly obeyed, till all of
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a sudden he cried, now, my hearty laugh, and they put the
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helm hard up, and the Hispaniola swung round rapidly, and ran stem on
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for the low wooded shore. The excitement of these last maneuvers had somewhat interfered
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with the watch I had kept here the two sharply enough upon the coxswain.
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Even then I was still so much interested waiting for the ship to touch that
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I had quite forgotten the peril that hung over my head, and stood craning
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over the starboard bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide before the boughs. I
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might have fallen without a struggle for my life, had not a sudden disquietude
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seized upon me and made me turn my head. Perhaps I had heard a
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creak, or seen his shadow moving with the tail of my eye. Perhaps
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it was an instinct like a cat's, But sure enough, when I looked
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round, there was hands already half way toward me with the dirk in his
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right hand. We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes met,
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But while mine was the shrill cry of terror, his was a roar of
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fury, like a charging bull's. At the same instant, he threw himself
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forward, and I leaped ways toward the boughs. As I did so,
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I let go of the tiller, which sprung sharp to leeward, and I
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think this shaved my life, for it struck hands across the chest and stopped
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him for the moment dead. Before he could recover, I was safe out
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of the corner where he had me trapped, with all the deck to dodge,
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about just forward of the main mast, I stopped, drew a pistol
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from my pocket, took a cool aim, though he had already turned and
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was once more coming directly after me, and drew the trigger. The hammer
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fell, but there followed neither flash nor sound. The priming was useless with
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sea water. I cursed myself for my neglect. Why had I not long
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before reprimed and reloaded my only weapons, then I should not have been as
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now a mere fleeing sheep before this butcher. Wounded as he was, it
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was wonderful, how fast he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his
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face, and his face itself as rad as a red ensign. With his
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haste and fury, I had no time to try my other pistol, nor
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indeed much inclination, for I was sure it would be useless. One thing
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I saw plainly, I must not simply retreat before him, or he would
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speedily hold me boxed in the boughs as a moment, since he had so
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neatly boxed me in the stern once so caught, and nine or ten inches
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of the blood stained dirk would be my last experience on this side of eternity.
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I placed my palms against the mainmast, which was of a goodish bigness,
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and waited every nerve upon the stretch. Seeing that I meant to dodge,
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he also paused, and a moment or two passed in feints on his
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part and corresponding movements upon mine. It was such a game as I had
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often played at home about the rocks of black Hill Cove, but never before,
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you may be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as now still
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as I say it. It was a boy's game, and I thought I
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could hold my own at it against an elderly seaman with a wounded thigh.
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Indeed, my courage had began to rise so high that I allowed myself a
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few darting thoughts on what would be the end of the affair. And while
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I saw certainly that I could spin it out for long, I saw no
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hope in any ultimate escape. Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the
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Hispaniola struck staggered ground for an instant in the sand, and then, swift
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as a blow, canted over to the port side, till the deck stood
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at an angle of forty five degrees, and about a puncheon of water splashed
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into the scupper holes and lay in a pool between the deck and the bulwark.
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We were both of us capsized in a second, and both of us
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rolled almost together into the scuppers, the dead red cap with his arms still
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spread out, tumbling stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed,
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that my head came against the coxswin's foot with a crack that made my teeth
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rattle below, And awe, I was the first a foot again, for
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hands had got involved with the dead body. The sudden canting of the ship
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had made the deck no place for running on. I had found some new
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way of escape, and that upon the instant for my foe was almost touching
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me. Quick as thought, I sprang into the mizzen shrouds, rattled up
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hand over hand, and did not draw a breath till I was seated on
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the cross trees. I had been saved by being prompt. The dirk had
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struck not half a foot below me as I pursued my upward flight, and
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there stood Israel hands with his mouth open and his face upturned to mine a
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perfect statue of surprise and disappointment. Now that I had a moment to myself,
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I lost no time in changing the priming of my pistol, and then,
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having one ready for service, and to make assurance doubly sure, I
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proceeded to draw the load of the other and recharge it afresh. From the
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beginning my new employment struck hands all of a heap. He began to see
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the dice going against him, and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled
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himself heavily into the shrouds, and with the dirk in his teeth, began
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slowly and painfully to mount. It cost him no end of time and groans
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to haul his wounded leg behind him, and I had quietly finished my arrangements
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before he was much more than a third of the way up. Then,
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with a pistol in either hand, I addressed him one more step, mister
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hands, said I, and I'll blow your brains out. Dead men don't
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bite you, know, I added, with a chuckle. He stopped instantly.
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I could see by the workings of his face that he was trying to
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think, and the process was so slow and laborious that in my when you
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found security, I laughed out loud. At last, with a swallow or
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two, he spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme perplexity.
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In order to speak, he had to take the dagger from his mouth,
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but in all else he remained unmoved. Jim says he, I reckon,
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we're fouled, you and me, and we'll have to sign articles.
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I'd have had you but for that there lurch. But I don't have no
28:30
luck, not I and I reckon. I'll have to strike, which comes
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hard, you see, for a master mariner to a ship's yunker like you.
28:40
Jim. I was drinking in his words, and smiling away as conceited
28:44
as a cock. Upon a walk, when all in a breath, back
28:48
went his right hand over his shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the
28:52
air. I felt a blow, and then a sharp pang, and there
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I was pinned by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and
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surprise of the moment, I scarce can say it was by my own volition,
29:06
and I am sure it was without a conscious aim. Both of my
29:10
pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They did not
29:15
fall alone. With a choked cry, the Coxswain loosed his grasp upon the
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shrouds and plunged head first into the water. And of Chapter twenty six