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01 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Chapter one, at the Admiral Benbow, Squirelawney, doctor Livesey, and
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Speaker 1: the rest of these gentlemen, having asked me to write
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Speaker 1: down the whole particulars about Treasure Island from the beginning
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Speaker 1: to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of
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Speaker 1: the island, and that only because there is still treasure
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Speaker 1: not yet lifted. I take up my pen in the
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Speaker 1: year of Grace seventeen m and go back to the
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Speaker 1: time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn, and
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Speaker 1: the brown old seaman with the saber cut first took
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Speaker 1: up his lodging under a roof. I remember him as
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Speaker 1: if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the
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Speaker 1: inn door, his sea chest following behind him in a
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Speaker 1: hand barrow, A tall, strong, heavy nut brown man, his
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Speaker 1: tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat,
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Speaker 1: his hands ragged and scarred with dirty broken nails, and
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Speaker 1: the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
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Speaker 1: I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to
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Speaker 1: himself as he did so, and then breaking out in
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Speaker 1: that old sea song that he sang so often afterwards.
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Speaker 1: Fifty men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho,
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Speaker 1: and a bottle of rum in the high, old tottering
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Speaker 1: voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at
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Speaker 1: the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with
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Speaker 1: a bit of a stick like a hand spike that
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Speaker 1: he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for
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Speaker 1: a glass of rum. This when it was brought to him,
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Speaker 1: he drank slowly like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste,
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Speaker 1: and still looking about him at the cliffs and up
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Speaker 1: at our sign board. This is a handy cove, says
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Speaker 1: he at length, and a pleasant cityated grog shop. Much company, mate,
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Speaker 1: my father told him, non, very little company. The more
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Speaker 1: was the pity. Well, then, says he, this is the
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Speaker 1: berth for me. Here, you matey, he cried to the
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Speaker 1: man who trundled the barrow, Bring up a longside and
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Speaker 1: help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit, he continued.
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Speaker 1: I'm a plain man. Rum and bacon and eggs is
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Speaker 1: what I want. And that head up there to watch
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Speaker 1: ships off? What you monk called me? You munk called
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Speaker 1: me captain. Oh, I see what you're at there, And
2:40
Speaker 1: he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold.
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Speaker 1: You can tell me when I've worked through that, said he,
2:48
Speaker 1: looking as fierce as a commander, and indeed bad as
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Speaker 1: his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke. He had
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Speaker 1: none of the appearance of a man who sailed before
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Speaker 1: the mast, but see seemed like a mate or a skipper,
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Speaker 1: accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who
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Speaker 1: came with the barrow told us the male had set
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Speaker 1: him down the morning before at the Royal George, that
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Speaker 1: he had inquired what inns were along the coast, and
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Speaker 1: hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely,
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Speaker 1: had chosen it from the others for his place of residence.
3:25
Speaker 1: And that was all we could learn of our guest.
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Speaker 1: He was a very silent man by custom. All day
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Speaker 1: he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with
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Speaker 1: a brass telescope. All evening he sat in the corner
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Speaker 1: of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and
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Speaker 1: water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to,
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Speaker 1: only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his
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Speaker 1: nose like a fog horn. And we and the people
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Speaker 1: who came about our house soon learned to let him be.
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Speaker 1: Every day when he came back from his stroll, he
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Speaker 1: would ask if any sea ferry man had gone by
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Speaker 1: along the road. At first we thought it was the
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Speaker 1: want of company of his own kind that made him
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Speaker 1: ask this question, but at last we began to see
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Speaker 1: he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put
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Speaker 1: up the admiral benbow, and now and then some did
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Speaker 1: making by the coast road for Bristol. He would look
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Speaker 1: in at him through the curtained door before he entered
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Speaker 1: the parlor, and he was always sure to be as
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Speaker 1: silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me,
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Speaker 1: at least, there was no secret about the matter, for
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Speaker 1: I was, in a way a sharer in his alarms.
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Speaker 1: He had taken me aside one day and promised me
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Speaker 1: a silver forpenny on the first of every month, if
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Speaker 1: I would only keep my whever eye open for a
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Speaker 1: seafery man with one leg and let him know the moment.
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Speaker 1: He appeared often enough. When the first of the month
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Speaker 1: came round and I applied to him for my wage,
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Speaker 1: he would own only blow through his nose at me
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Speaker 1: and stare me down. But before the week was out
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Speaker 1: he was sure to think better of it, bring me
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Speaker 1: my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out
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Speaker 1: for the sea fairy man with one leg. How that
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Speaker 1: personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On
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Speaker 1: stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of
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Speaker 1: the house, and the surf roared along the cove and
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Speaker 1: up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand
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Speaker 1: forms and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg
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Speaker 1: would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip.
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Speaker 1: Now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who
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Speaker 1: never had but one leg, and that in the middle
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Speaker 1: of his body. To see him leap and run and
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Speaker 1: pursue me over the hedge and ditch was the worst
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Speaker 1: of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my
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Speaker 1: monthly fourpenny piece in the shape of these ubmable fantasies.
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Speaker 1: But though I was so terrified by the idea of
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Speaker 1: the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less
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Speaker 1: afraid of the Captain himself than anybody else who knew him.
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Speaker 1: There were nights when he took a great deal more
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Speaker 1: rum and water than his head would carry, and then
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Speaker 1: he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old wild
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Speaker 1: sea songs, minding nobody. But sometimes he would call for
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Speaker 1: glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen
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Speaker 1: to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing.
6:34
Speaker 1: Often I have heard the house shaking with yo, ho ho,
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Speaker 1: and a bottle of rum, all the neighbors joining in
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Speaker 1: for dear life, with the fear of death upon them,
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Speaker 1: and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.
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Speaker 1: For in these fits he was the most overriding companion
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Speaker 1: ever known. He would slap his hand on the table
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Speaker 1: for silence all around. He would fly up in a
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Speaker 1: passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none
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Speaker 1: was put, and so he judged the company was not
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Speaker 1: following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave
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Speaker 1: the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled
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Speaker 1: off to bed. His stories were what frightened people worst
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Speaker 1: of all dreadful stories. They were about hanging and walking
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Speaker 1: the plank, and storms at sea, and the dry tortugas,
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Speaker 1: and wild deeds and places on the Spanish main. By
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Speaker 1: his own account, he must have lived his life among
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Speaker 1: some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon
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Speaker 1: the sea, and The language in which he told these
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Speaker 1: stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as
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Speaker 1: the crimes that he described. My father was always saying
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Speaker 1: the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease
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Speaker 1: coming there to be tyrannized over and put down and
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Speaker 1: sent shivering to their beds. But I really believe his
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Speaker 1: presence did us good. People were frightened at the time,
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Speaker 1: but on looking back, they rather liked it. It was
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Speaker 1: a fine excitement in a quiet country life. And there
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Speaker 1: was even a party of the younger men who pretended
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Speaker 1: to admire him, calling him a true sea dog and
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Speaker 1: a real old salt, and such like names, and saying
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Speaker 1: there was the sort of man that made England terrible
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Speaker 1: at sea. In one way, indeed, he bad fair to
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Speaker 1: ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week,
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Speaker 1: and at last month after month, so that all the
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Speaker 1: money had been long exhausted, and still my father never
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Speaker 1: plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If
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Speaker 1: ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose
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Speaker 1: so loudly that you might say that he roared and
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Speaker 1: stared my poor father out of the room. I have
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Speaker 1: seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and
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Speaker 1: I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived
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Speaker 1: in must have greatly hated his early and unhappy death.
9:03
Speaker 1: All the time he lived with us, the captain made
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Speaker 1: no change whatever in his dress, but to buy some
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Speaker 1: stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his
9:11
Speaker 1: hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that
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Speaker 1: day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew.
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Speaker 1: I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched
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Speaker 1: himself upstairs in his room, and which before the end
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Speaker 1: was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
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Speaker 1: and he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and
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Speaker 1: with these for the most part, only when drunk on rum,
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Speaker 1: the great sea chest none of us had ever seen open.
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Speaker 1: He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end,
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Speaker 1: when my father was far gone in a decline that
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Speaker 1: took him off. Doctor Livesey came late one afternoon to
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Speaker 1: see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother,
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Speaker 1: and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until
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Speaker 1: his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we
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Speaker 1: had no stabling at the old Benbo. I followed him in,
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Speaker 1: and I remember observing the contrast the neat bright doctor,
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Speaker 1: with his powder as white as snow, and his bright
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Speaker 1: black eyes and pleasant manners made with the Coltish country folk,
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Speaker 1: and above all that filthy, heavy bleared scarecrow of a
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Speaker 1: pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum with his
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Speaker 1: arms on the table. Suddenly he, the Captain, that is,
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Speaker 1: began to pipe his eternal song, fifteen men on a
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Speaker 1: dead man's chest, Yo ho, and a bottle of rum drink,
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Speaker 1: and the devil have done further rest yoo, and a
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Speaker 1: bottle love rum. At first I had supposed the dead
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Speaker 1: man's chest to be that identical big box of his
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Speaker 1: upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been
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Speaker 1: mingled in my nightmares with that of the one legged
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Speaker 1: seafaring man. But by this time we had all long
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Speaker 1: ceased to pay any particular notice to the song. It
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Speaker 1: was new that night to nobody but doctor Livesey, and
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Speaker 1: on him I observe it did not produce an agreeable effect,
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Speaker 1: for he looked up for a moment quite angrily, before
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Speaker 1: he went on with his talk to Old Taylor the
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Speaker 1: gardener on a new cure for roematics. In the meantime,
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Speaker 1: the Captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and
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Speaker 1: at last flapped his hand upon the table before him,
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Speaker 1: in a way we all knew to mean silence. The
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Speaker 1: voices stopped at once, all but Doctor Livesey's. He went
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Speaker 1: on as before, speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly
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Speaker 1: at his pipe. Between every word or two, the captain
11:52
Speaker 1: glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again,
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Speaker 1: glared still harder, and at last broke out with a
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Speaker 1: villainous oath. Silence there between decks. You were addressing me, sar,
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Speaker 1: said the doctor. And when the Ruffian had told him
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Speaker 1: with another oath that this was so, replied, I have
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Speaker 1: only one thing to say to you, sir, that if
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Speaker 1: you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be
12:19
Speaker 1: quit of a very dirty scoundrel. The old fellow's fury
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Speaker 1: was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened
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Speaker 1: a sailor's clasp knife, and, balancing it open on the
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Speaker 1: palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to
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Speaker 1: the wall. The doctor never so much as moved. He
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Speaker 1: spoke to him as before, over his shoulder, and in
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Speaker 1: the same tone of voice, rather high so that all
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Speaker 1: the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady. If
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Speaker 1: you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket,
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Speaker 1: I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at the
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Speaker 1: next assizes. Then followed a battle of looks between them,
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Speaker 1: but the Captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon,
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Speaker 1: and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog. And now, Sir,
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Speaker 1: continued the doctor, since I now know there's such a
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Speaker 1: fellow in my district, you may count I'll have an
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Speaker 1: eye upon you day and night. I'm not a doctor, only,
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Speaker 1: I'm a magistrate. And if I catch a breath of
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Speaker 1: complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of
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Speaker 1: incivility like to nights, I'll take effectual means to have
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Speaker 1: you hunted down and routed out of this let that suffice.
13:46
Speaker 1: Soon after, doctor Livesey's horse came to the door, and
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Speaker 1: he rode away. But the Captain held his peace that
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Speaker 1: evening and for many evenings to come. And of chapter one,
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Speaker 1: Chapter two, black Dog appears and disappears. It was not
14:07
Speaker 1: very long after this that there occurred the first of
14:10
Speaker 1: the mysterious events that rid us at last of the Captain,
14:14
Speaker 1: though not as you will see of his affairs. It
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Speaker 1: was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and
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Speaker 1: heavy gales, and it was plain from the first that
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Speaker 1: my poor father was little likely to see the spring.
14:30
Speaker 1: He sank daily, and my mother and I had all
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Speaker 1: the inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough
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Speaker 1: without paying much regard to our unpleasant guest. It was
14:40
Speaker 1: one January morning, very early, a pinching frosty morning, the
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Speaker 1: cove all gray with hoar frost, the ripple lapping softly
14:50
Speaker 1: on the stones, the sun still low and only touching
14:54
Speaker 1: the hilltops and shining far to seaward. The Captain had
14:58
Speaker 1: risen earlier than you usual, and sat out down the beach,
15:02
Speaker 1: his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old
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Speaker 1: blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat
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Speaker 1: tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging
15:14
Speaker 1: like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and
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Speaker 1: the last sound I heard of him as he turned
15:19
Speaker 1: the big rock was a loud snort of indignation, as
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Speaker 1: though his mind was still running upon doctor livesey Well.
15:28
Speaker 1: Mother was upstairs with father, and I was laying the
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Speaker 1: breakfast table against the Captain's return, when the parlor door
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Speaker 1: opened and a man stepped in on whom I had
15:39
Speaker 1: never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature,
15:44
Speaker 1: wanting two fingers of the left hand, and though he
15:48
Speaker 1: wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter.
15:52
Speaker 1: I had always my eyes open for seafaring men with
15:55
Speaker 1: one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me.
16:00
Speaker 1: He was not sailory, and yet he had a smack
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Speaker 1: of the sea about him too. I asked him what
16:07
Speaker 1: was for his service, and he said he would take rum.
16:11
Speaker 1: But as I was going out of the room to
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Speaker 1: fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned
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Speaker 1: to me to draw near. I paused where I was
16:20
Speaker 1: with my napkin in my hand. Come here, Sanny said
16:25
Speaker 1: he Come nearer. Here. I took a step nearer. Is
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Speaker 1: this tire table for my mate Bill, he asked, with
16:34
Speaker 1: a kind of leer. I told him I did not
16:37
Speaker 1: know his mate, Bill, and this was for a person
16:40
Speaker 1: who stayed at our house, whom we called the Captain. Well,
16:46
Speaker 1: said he, My mate Bill would be called the Captain
16:49
Speaker 1: like as not. He has a cut on one cheek
16:53
Speaker 1: and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink.
16:57
Speaker 1: As my mate Bill, we'll put it for argument, like
17:02
Speaker 1: that your captain has a cut on one cheek, and
17:06
Speaker 1: we'll put it if you like that that cheek's the
17:10
Speaker 1: right one. Ah, well, I told you. Now is my
17:15
Speaker 1: mate Bill in this here house. I told him he
17:18
Speaker 1: was out walking? Which way, sonny, which way is he gone?
17:24
Speaker 1: And when I pointed out the rock and told him
17:26
Speaker 1: how the captain was likely to return and how soon,
17:30
Speaker 1: and answered a few other questions, ah said he this
17:35
Speaker 1: will be as good as drink to my mate Bill.
17:39
Speaker 1: The expression of his face as he said these words
17:42
Speaker 1: was not at all pleasant, And I had my own
17:45
Speaker 1: reasons for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing
17:49
Speaker 1: he meant what he said. But it was no affair
17:52
Speaker 1: of mine, I thought, And besides it was difficult to
17:55
Speaker 1: know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about just
17:59
Speaker 1: inside the in door, peering round the corner like a
18:03
Speaker 1: cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself
18:07
Speaker 1: into the road, but he immediately called me back, And
18:11
Speaker 1: as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy,
18:14
Speaker 1: a most horrible change came over his tallowy face, and
18:18
Speaker 1: he ordered me in with an oath that made me
18:21
Speaker 1: jump As soon as I was back again. He returned
18:24
Speaker 1: to his former manner, half fawning, half sneering, patted me
18:29
Speaker 1: on the shoulder and told me I was a good boy,
18:32
Speaker 1: and he had taken quite a fancy to me. I
18:35
Speaker 1: have a son of my own, said, he as like
18:39
Speaker 1: to you as two blocks, and he's all the pride
18:42
Speaker 1: of my heart. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny, discipline. Now,
18:51
Speaker 1: if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have
18:54
Speaker 1: stood there to be spoke to twice, not you. That
18:58
Speaker 1: was never Bill's way, nor the way of sitchers sailed
19:02
Speaker 1: with him. And here sure enough is my mate Bill
19:07
Speaker 1: with a spyglass under his arm, bless his old art.
19:11
Speaker 1: To be sure, you and me just go back into
19:14
Speaker 1: the parlor, sonny, and get behind the door, and we'll
19:18
Speaker 1: give bit a little surprise. Blesses he, I say again,
19:23
Speaker 1: so saying, the stranger backed along with me into the
19:26
Speaker 1: parlor and put me behind him into the corner, so
19:30
Speaker 1: that we were both hidden by the open door. I
19:33
Speaker 1: was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, but
19:36
Speaker 1: it rather added to my fears to observe that the
19:39
Speaker 1: stranger was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt of
19:43
Speaker 1: his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath. And
19:47
Speaker 1: all the time we were waiting there, he kept swallowing,
19:50
Speaker 1: as if he felt what we used to call a
19:52
Speaker 1: lump in the throat. At last, instrode the captain slammed
19:57
Speaker 1: the door behind him, without looking to the right or left,
20:00
Speaker 1: and marched straight across the room to where his breakfast
20:03
Speaker 1: waited him. Bill said the stranger, in a voice that
20:08
Speaker 1: I thought he had tried to make bald and big.
20:11
Speaker 1: The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us.
20:15
Speaker 1: All the brown had gone out of his face, and
20:18
Speaker 1: even his nose was blue, and he had the look
20:21
Speaker 1: of a man who sees a ghost, or the evil one,
20:24
Speaker 1: or something worse, if anything can be. And upon my word,
20:29
Speaker 1: I felt sorry to see him all in a moment
20:31
Speaker 1: turn so old and sick. Come Bill, you know me,
20:38
Speaker 1: You know an old shipmate, Bill surely, said the stranger.
20:43
Speaker 1: The captain made a sort of gasp, black Dog said he,
20:48
Speaker 1: and who else returned the other getting more at his ease.
20:52
Speaker 1: Black Dog, as ever, was comfort to seize old shipmate
20:57
Speaker 1: Billy at the admiral benbow inn. Oh Bill, Bill, we
21:02
Speaker 1: have seen a sight of times us too since I
21:05
Speaker 1: lost them two talons holding up his mutilated hand. Now
21:10
Speaker 1: look here, said the captain. You've rum me down here.
21:14
Speaker 1: I am well, then speak up. What is it that's you?
21:19
Speaker 1: Bill returned black Dog. You're in the right of it, Billy.
21:23
Speaker 1: I'll have a glass of rum from this dear child here,
21:27
Speaker 1: as I've took such a lik into, and we'll sit
21:30
Speaker 1: down if you please, and talk square like old shipmates.
21:35
Speaker 1: When I returned with the rum, they were already seated
21:38
Speaker 1: on either side of the captain's breakfast table, black Dog
21:42
Speaker 1: next to the door and sitting sideways so as to
21:45
Speaker 1: have one eye on his shipmate and one as I
21:47
Speaker 1: thought on his retreat. He bade me go and leave
21:51
Speaker 1: the door wide open. None of your key holes for me, Sanny,
21:55
Speaker 1: he said, And I left them together and retired into
21:58
Speaker 1: the bar. A long time. Though I certainly did my
22:02
Speaker 1: best to listen, I could hear nothing but low gabbling,
22:06
Speaker 1: And at last the voices began to grow higher, and
22:09
Speaker 1: I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths
22:12
Speaker 1: from the captain. No no, no, no, and an end
22:17
Speaker 1: of it, he cried, once and again. If it comes
22:20
Speaker 1: to swing in swing, oh, say I. Then all of
22:24
Speaker 1: a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and
22:28
Speaker 1: other noises. The chair and table went over in a lump.
22:32
Speaker 1: A clash of steel followed, and then a cry of pain.
22:36
Speaker 1: And the next instant I saw black Dog in full
22:39
Speaker 1: flight and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses,
22:44
Speaker 1: and the former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just
22:49
Speaker 1: at the door, the captain aimed at the fugitive one
22:52
Speaker 1: last tremendous cut, which would certainly have split him to
22:56
Speaker 1: the chin had it not been intercepted by our big
22:59
Speaker 1: sign board of Admiral Benbow. You may see the notch
23:04
Speaker 1: on the lower side of the frame to this day.
23:07
Speaker 1: That blow was the last of the battle. Once out
23:11
Speaker 1: upon the road, black Dog, in spite of his wound,
23:13
Speaker 1: showed a wonderful clean pair of heels and disappeared over
23:17
Speaker 1: the edge of the hill in half a minute. The Captain,
23:21
Speaker 1: for his part, stood staring at the sign board like
23:23
Speaker 1: a bewildered man. Then he passed his hand over his
23:27
Speaker 1: eyes several times, and at last turned back into the house.
23:32
Speaker 1: Jim says, he rum and as he spoke he reeled
23:36
Speaker 1: a little and caught himself with one hand against the wall.
23:41
Speaker 1: Are you hurt, cried I, rum, he repeated, I must
23:45
Speaker 1: get away from here, Rum Rum. I ran to fetch it,
23:50
Speaker 1: but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen out,
23:53
Speaker 1: and I broke one glass and fowled the tap. And
23:56
Speaker 1: while I was still getting in my own way, I
23:59
Speaker 1: heard a loud fall in the parlor, and running in
24:02
Speaker 1: beheld the Captain lying full length upon the floor. At
24:07
Speaker 1: the same instant, my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting,
24:11
Speaker 1: came running downstairs to help me. Between us we raised
24:15
Speaker 1: his head. He was breathing very loud and hard, but
24:18
Speaker 1: his eyes were closed and his face was a horrible color. Dear,
24:24
Speaker 1: deary me, cried my mother, What a disgrace upon the house,
24:29
Speaker 1: and your poor father's sick. In the meantime, we had
24:34
Speaker 1: no idea what to do to help the captain, nor
24:37
Speaker 1: any other thought but that he had got his death
24:39
Speaker 1: hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. I got the rum,
24:43
Speaker 1: to be sure, and try to put it down his throat,
24:46
Speaker 1: but his teeth were tightly shut and his jaws as
24:50
Speaker 1: strong as iron. It was a happy relief to us
24:54
Speaker 1: when the door opened, and Doctor Livesey came in on
24:57
Speaker 1: his visit to my father. Oh doctor, we cried, what
25:01
Speaker 1: shall we do? Where is he wounded? Wounded a fiddlestick's end,
25:06
Speaker 1: said the doctor. No more wounded than your eye. The
25:10
Speaker 1: man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now,
25:13
Speaker 1: missus Hawkins, just you run up stairs to your husband
25:16
Speaker 1: and tell him, if possible, nothing about it. For my part,
25:21
Speaker 1: I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly
25:24
Speaker 1: worthless life. And Jim, you get me a basin. When
25:28
Speaker 1: I got back with the basin, the doctor had already
25:31
Speaker 1: ripped up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm.
25:35
Speaker 1: It was tattooed in several places. Here's luck, a fair wind,
25:41
Speaker 1: and Billy Bones his fancy were very neatly and clearly executed.
25:46
Speaker 1: On the forearm, and up near the shoulder there was
25:49
Speaker 1: a sketch of the gallows and a man hanging from it.
25:52
Speaker 1: Done as I thought, with great spirit prophetic, said the doctor,
25:58
Speaker 1: touching this picture with his finger. And now, master Billy Bones,
26:01
Speaker 1: if that be your name, we'll have a look at
26:04
Speaker 1: the color of your blood. Jim, he said, are you
26:08
Speaker 1: afraid of blood? No? Sir, said I well, then said
26:13
Speaker 1: he you hold the basin, And with that he took
26:16
Speaker 1: his lancet and opened a vein. A great deal of
26:20
Speaker 1: blood was taken before the captain opened his eyes and
26:23
Speaker 1: looked mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with
26:27
Speaker 1: an unmistakable frown. Then his glance fell upon me, and
26:31
Speaker 1: he looked relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he
26:35
Speaker 1: tried to raise himself, crying, where's black dog. There's no
26:40
Speaker 1: black dog here, said the doctor, except what you have
26:44
Speaker 1: on your own back. You have been drinking rum. You
26:48
Speaker 1: have had a stroke precisely as I told you, and
26:52
Speaker 1: I have just very much against my own will, dragged
26:55
Speaker 1: you head foremost out of the grave. Now, mister Bones,
27:00
Speaker 1: that's not my name, he interrupted, much I care, returned
27:05
Speaker 1: the doctor. It's the name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance,
27:08
Speaker 1: and I'll call you by it for the sake of shortness.
27:11
Speaker 1: But what I have to say to you is this.
27:14
Speaker 1: One glass of rum won't kill you, But if you
27:17
Speaker 1: take one, you'll take another and another, and I'll stake
27:20
Speaker 1: my wig. If you don't break off short you'll die.
27:24
Speaker 1: Do you understand that? Die? And go to your own place,
27:28
Speaker 1: like the man in the Bible. Come now make an effort.
27:33
Speaker 1: I'll help you to your bed, For once, between us,
27:36
Speaker 1: with much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs and
27:40
Speaker 1: laid him on his bed, where his head fell back
27:43
Speaker 1: on the pillow, as if he was almost fainting. Now
27:47
Speaker 1: mind you, said the doctor. I clear my conscience. The
27:51
Speaker 1: name of Rum for you is death. And with that
27:55
Speaker 1: he went off to see my father, taking me with
27:58
Speaker 1: him by the arm. This is nothing, he said, as
28:02
Speaker 1: soon as he had closed the door. I have drawn
28:05
Speaker 1: blood enough to keep him quiet a while. He should
28:08
Speaker 1: lie for a week where he is. That is the
28:11
Speaker 1: best thing for him and you. But another stroke would
28:15
Speaker 1: settle him. End of Chapter two.