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17 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books Library

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Chapter thirty three, The Fall of a Chieftain. There never was such an
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overturn in this world. All of these six men was as through as he
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had been struck, but with silver the blow passed almost instantly. Every thought
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of his soul had been set full stretch, like a racer on that money.
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Well, he was brought up in a single second dead, and he
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kept his head, found his temper, and changed his plan before the others
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had had time to realize the disappointment. Jim, he whispered, take that
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and stand boy for trouble. And he passed me a double barreled pistol.
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At the same time he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps
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had put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked
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at me and nodded, as much as to say, here is a narrow
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corner. As indeed I thought it was. His looks were now quite friendly,
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and I was so revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear
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whispering. So you've changed sides again. There was no time left for him
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to answer. In the buccaneers, with oaths and cries, began to leap
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one after another into the pit and to dig with their fingers, throwing the
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boards aside. As they did so, Morgan found a piece of gold.
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He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It was a two
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guinea piece, and it went from hand to hand among them for a quarter
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of a minute. Two guineas, roared Mary, shaking it at silver.
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That's your seven hundred thousand pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains,
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ain't you? You're him that never bungled nothing, You wooden headed,
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lubber dagg away boys, said silver, with the coolest insolence. Ya'll find
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some pig nuts. I shouldn't wonder pig nuts, repeated Mary in a scream.
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Mates, do you hear that? I tell you now that man there
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knew it all along. Look in the face of him, and you'll see
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it wrote there Ah, Mary remarked, silver standing for a cut, And
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again you're a pushing lad, to be sure. But this time everyone was
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entirely in Mary's favor. They began to scramble out of the excavation, darting
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furious glances behind them. One thing I observed which looked well for us.
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They all got out upon the opposite side from Silver. Well, there we
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stood, two on one side, five on the other. The pit between
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us and nobody screwed up high enough to offer the first blow. Silver never
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moved. He watched them very upright on his crutch, and looked as cool
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as ever I saw him. He was brave and no mistake. At last,
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Mary seemed to think a speech might help matters, Mates, said he,
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there's two of them alone here. One's the old cripple that brought us
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all here and blundered us down to this. The others that cub that I
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mean to have the heart of now. Mates. He was raising his arm
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and his voice and plainly meant to lead a charge. But just then,
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crack, crack, crack, three musket shots flashed out of the thicket.
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Mary tumbled head foremost into the excavation. The man with the bandage spun round
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like a teetotem and fell all his length upon his side, where he lay
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dead but still twitching. And the other three turned and ran for it with
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all their might. Before you could wink, long, John fired two barrels
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of a pistol into the struggling merry, and as the man rolled up his
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eyes at him. In the last agony, George said he, I reckon,
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I selld you. In the same moment the Doctor Gray and Ben Gunn
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joined us with smoking muskets from among the nutmeg trees. Forward, cried the
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doctor double quick, my lads, we must head him off the boats.
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And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through the bushes to
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the chest. I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with
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us. The work that man went through, leaping on his crutch till the
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muscles of his chest were fit to burst, was work no sound man ever
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equalled. And so thinks the doctor. As it was, he was already
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thirty yards behind us and on the verge of strangling. When we reached the
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brow of the slope, Doctor he hailed, see the no oh, hurry.
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Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open part of the
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plateau, we could see the three survivors still running in the same direction as
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they had started, right for mid mast Hill. We were already between them
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and the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe, while long
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John, mopping his face, came slowly up with us. Thank ye,
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kindly, doctor says he. You came in in about the nick I guess
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from me and Arkins, and so it's you, Ben Gunn. He added,
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well, you're a nice one, to be sure, I'm Ben Gunn,
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I am replied the Maroon, wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment,
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and he added, after a long pause, how do mister Silver pretty well?
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I thank ye, says you. Ben Ben murmured Silver, to think
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as you've done me. The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes
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deserted in their flight by the mutineers, and then as we proceeded leisurely downhill
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to where the boats were lying, related in a few words what had taken
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place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn,
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the half idiot Maroon was the hero from beginning to end. Ben, in
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his long lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton. It was
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he that had rifled it. He had found the treasure, He had dug
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it up. It was the haft of his pickaxe that lay broken in the
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excavation. He had carried it on his back in many weary journeys from the
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foot of the tall Pine to a cave he had on the two pointed Hill
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at the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in
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safety since two months before the arrival of the Hispaniola, when the doctor had
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wormed the secret from him on the afternoon of the attack, and when next
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morning he saw the anchorage deserted, he had gone to Silver, given him
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the chart which was now useless, given him the stores for ben Gunn's cave
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was well supplied with goat's meat salted by himself, given anything and everything to
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get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to the two pointed hill,
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there to be clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money.
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As for you, Jim, he said, it went against my heart,
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but I did what I thought best for those who had stood by their duty.
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And if you were not one of these, whose fault was it?
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That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the horrid disappointment he
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had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave,
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and, leaving squire to guard, the captain had taken Gray and the
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maroon and started making the diagonal across the island to be at hand beside the
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pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party had the start of
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him, and ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been dispatched in
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front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to him to work
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upon the superstitions of his former shipmates, and he was so far successful that
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Gray and the Doctor had come up and were already ambushed before the arrival of
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the treasure hunters. Ah said Silver, it was farch in it for me
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that I had Hearken's ear. You would have let old Lungjohn be cut to
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bits. And never a thought, Doctor, not a thought, replied Doctor
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livesey cheerily. And by this time we had reached the gigs. The Doctor
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with the pickaxe, demolished one of them. Then we all got aboard the
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other and set out to go round by the sea for north Inlet. This
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was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though he was almost
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killed already with fatigue, were set to an oar like the rest of us,
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and we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed
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out of the straits and doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which
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four days ago we had towed the Hispaniola. As we passed the two pointed
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hill, we could see the black mouth of ben Gunn's cave, and a
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figure standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the Squire,
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and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in which the voice
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of Silver joined as heartily as any. Three miles farther, just inside the
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mouth of north Inlet, what should we meet but the Hispaniola, cruising by
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herself. The last flood had lifted her, and had there been much wind
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or a strong tide current as in the southern anchorage, we should never have
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found her more, or found her stranded beyond help. As it was,
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there was little a miss beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was
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got ready and dropped in a fathom and a half of water. We all
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pulled round to rum Cove, the nearest point for ben Gunn's treasure house.
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Then Gray, single handed, returned with the gig to the Hispaniola, where
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he was to pass the night on guard. A gentle slope ran up from
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the beach to the entrance of the cave. At the top, the Squire
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met us to me. He was cordial and kind, saying nothing of my
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escapade either in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute,
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he somewhat flushed John Silver. He said, you're a prodigious villain and impostor,
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a monstrous impostor, Sir, I am told, I am not to
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prosecute you. Well, then I will not. But the dead men,
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sir, hang about your neck like Millstone's. Thank you kindly, sir,
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replied long John again, saluting, how dare you thank me? Cried the
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squire is a gross dereliction of my due stand back. And thereupon we all
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entered the cave. It was a large, airy place, with a little
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spring and a pool of clear water, overhung with ferns. The floor was
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sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett, And in a far corner,
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only duskily flitted over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin
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and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was Flint's treasure, that we
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had come so far to seek, and that had cost already the lives of
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seventeen men from the Hispaniola. How many it had cost in the amassing,
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What blood and sorrow? What good ships scuttled on the deep, What brave
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men walking the plank blindfold? What shot of cannon? What shame and lies
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and cruelty? Perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet there were still three
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upon that island, Silver and Old Morgan and ben Gunn, who had each
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taken his share in these crimes, as each yet hoped in vain to share
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in the reward. Come in, Jim, said the captain. You're a
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good boy in your line, Jim, But I don't think you and me'll
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go to sea again. You're too much of the born. Favorite for me
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is that you John Silver. What brings you here? Man? Come back
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to my duty, sir, returned Silver. Oh, said the captain,
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And that was all he said. What a supper I had of it that
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night, with all my friends around me, And what a meal it was,
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with ben Gunn's salted goat and some delicacies, and a bottle of old
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wine from the Hispaniola. Never, I am sure were people gayer or happier.
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And there was Silver, sitting back, almost out of the firelight,
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but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining
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quietly in our laughter. The same bland, obsequious seamen of the voyage out
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end of chapter thirty three, Chapter thirty four, and last the next morning
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we fell early to work for the transportation of this great mass of gold near
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a mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to
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the Hispaniola. Was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen.
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The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us. A
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single century on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to ensure us against any
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sudden onslaught, and we thought besides they had had more than enough of fighting.
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Therefore, the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and ben Gunn came
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and went with the boat, while the rest, during their absences, piled
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at treasure on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's
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end, made a good load for a grown man, one that he was
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glad to walk slowly with. For my part, I was not so much
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use at carrying. I was kept busy all day in the cave packing the
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minted money into bread bags. It was a strange collection, like billy Bone's
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hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much more
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varied than I think. I never had more pleasure than in sorting them English,
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French, Spanish, Portuguese, George's and Louises, to balloons and double
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guineas and mois doors and sequins, and pictures of all the kings of Europe
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for the last hundred years. Strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps
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of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and
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pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck.
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Nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found
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a place in that collection, And for number I am sure they were like
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autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping, and my fingers with
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sorting them out. Day after day this work went on. By every evening
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a fortune had been stowed aboard, but there was another fortune waiting for the
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morrow. And all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers.
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At last, I think it was on the third night the Doctor and I
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were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the
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Isle, when from out of the thick darkness below, the wind brought us
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a noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached our
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ears, followed by the former silence. Heaven forgive them, said the doctor
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Chios. The mutineers all drunk, Sir struck in the voice of Silver from
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behind us. Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty,
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and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once more as
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quite a privileged and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he
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bore these slights, and with what unwearying politeness he kept at trying to ingratiate
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himself with all. Yet I think none treated him better than a dog,
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unless it was ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid of his old quarter
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master, or myself, who had really something to thank him for. Although
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for that matter, I suppose I had reason to think even worse of him
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than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the
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plateau. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor answered him. Drunk
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or Raving said he right, you were, sorre replied, Silver and precious
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let lards witch to you and me. I suppose you would hardly ask me
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to call you a humane man, returned the doctor with a sneer, and
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so my feelings may surprise you, Master Silva. But if I was sure
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they were raving, as I am morally certain, one at least of them
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is down with fever, I should leave this campad and whatever risk to my
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own caccas, take them the assistance of my skill. Ask your pardon,
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sir. You would be very wrong, quoth Silver. You would lose your
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precious life, And you made late that. I'm on your sid now hand
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and glove, and I shouldn't wish for it to see the party weakened,
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let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But these
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men down there, they couldn't keep their word, no, not supposing they
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wished to. And what's more, they couldn't believe as you could. No,
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said the doctor. You're the man to keep your word. We know
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that. Well. That was about the last news we had of the three
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pirates. Only once we heard a gun shot a great way off and supposed
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them to be hunting. A council was held and it was decided that we
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must desert them on the island. To the huge glee I must say of
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ben Gunn, and with the strong approval of Gray, we left a good
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stock of powder and shot the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines
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and some other necessities, tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom
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or two of rope, and, by the particular desire of the doctor,
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a handsome present of tobacco. That was about our last doing on the island.
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Before that, we had got the treasure stowed, and had shipped enough
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water and the remainder of the goat meat in case of any distress. And
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at last, one fine morning we weighed anchor, which was about all that
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we could manage, and stood out of north Inlet. The same colors flying
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the captain had flown and fought under at the palisade. The three fellows must
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have been watching us closer than we thought, as we soon had proved for
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coming through the narrows, we had to lie very near the southern point,
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and there we saw all three of them kneeling together on a spit of sand,
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with their arms raised in supplication. It went to all our hearts,
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I think, to leave them in that wretched state, but we could not
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risk another mutiny, and to take them home for the Gibbet would have been
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a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them and told them of the
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stores we had left and where they were to find them. But they continued
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to call us by name and appeal to us for God's sake, to be
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merciful and not to leave them to die in such a place. At last,
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seeing the ship still bore on her course and was now swiftly drawing out
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of earshot, one of them, I know not which it was, leaped
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to his feet with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder,
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and sent a shot whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail. After that
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we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked out,
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they had disappeared from the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted out
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of sight in the growing distance. That was at least the end of that,
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and before noon, to my inexpressionable joy, the highest rock of Treasure
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Island had sunk into the blue round of sea. We were so short of
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men that everyone on board had to bear a hand, only the captain,
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lying on a mattress in the stern, and giving his orders, for though
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greatly recovered, he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head
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for the nearest port in South America, for we could not risk the voyage
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home without fresh hands. And as it was, what with baffling winds and
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a couple of fresh gales, we were all we all worn out before we
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reached it. It was almost sundown when we cast Anchor in a most beautiful
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land locked gulf, and were almost immediately surrounded by shore boats full of Negroes
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and Mexican Indians and half bloods, selling fruits and vegetables and offering to die
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for bits of money. The sight of so many good humored faces, especially
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the blacks, the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all the lights
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that began to shine in the town made a most charming contrast to our dark
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and bloody sojourn on the island. And the doctor and the Squire, taking
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me along with them, went ashore to pass the early part of the night.
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Here they met the captain of an english man, o War, fell
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in talk with him, went on board his ship, and in short had
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so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came alongside the Hispaniola.
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Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came on board,
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he began, and with wonderful contortions to make us a confession. Silver
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was gone. The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore boat some
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hours ago, and he now assured us that he had only done so to
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preserve our lives, which would certainly have been forfeited if that man with the
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one leg had stayed a bold. But this was not all. The sea
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cook had not gone empty handed. He had cut through a bulwalk unobserved,
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and had removed one of the sacks of coin worth perhaps three or four hundred
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guineas to help him on his further wanderings. I think we were all pleased
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to be so cheaply quit of him. Well, to make a long story
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short, we got a few hands on board, made a good cruise home,
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and the Hispaniola reached Bristol just as mister Blandy was beginning to think of
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fitting out her consort. Five men only of those who sailed returned with her
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drink, and the day had done for the rest with a vengeance. Although
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to be sure, we were not quite in so bad a case as that
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other ship. They sung about with one man of the crew alive, what
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put to sea with seventy five. All of us had an ample share of
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the treasure, and used it wisely or foolishly according to our natures. Captain
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Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray not only saved his money,
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but, being suddenly smit with the desire to rise, also studied his profession.
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And he is now mate and part owner of a fine full rigged ship,
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married besides, and the father of a family. As for Ben Gunn,
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he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks,
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or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back
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begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to keep, exactly
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as he'd feared upon the island, and he still lived. It's a great
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favorite, though, something of a butt with the country boys, and a
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notable singer in church on Sundays and Saints Days of silver. We have heard
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no more. That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean
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out of my life. But I dare say he met his old negress,
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and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to
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be hoped, so I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world
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are very small. The bar, silver and arms still lie, for all
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that I know where Flint buried them, and certainly they shall lie there for
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me. Oxen and wayn Ropes would not bring me back to that accursed island.
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And the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf
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booming about its coasts, or starting up in bed, with the sharp voice
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of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears. Pieces of eight, end of
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Chapter thirty three and end of Treasure Island