Latest / Adventure Books Library / 03 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
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- Chapter five, The last of the blind Man. My curiosity in a sense was stronger than my fear, for I could not remain where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our door. I was scarcely in position. Ere my enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, their feet beating out of time along the road, and the man with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran together hand in hand, and I made out, even through the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the blind beggar. The next moment, his voice showed me I was right down with the door. He cried, ay ay, Sir answered two or three, and a rush was made upon the admiral benbow, the lantern bearer following. And then I could see them and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were surprised to find the door open. But the pause was brief, for the blind man again issued his commands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as if he were afire with eagerness and rage in in in he shouted and cursed them for their delay. Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the formidable beggar. There was a pause, then a cry of surprise, then a voice shouting from the house. Bill's dead. But the blind man swore at them again for their delay, search him. Some of you shrink in lubbers, and the rest of you loft and get the chest. He cried. I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that the house must have shook with it. Promptly afterwards, fresh sounds of astonishment are rose. The window of the captain's room was thrown open with a slam and a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaning out into the moonlight, head and shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the road below him. Pew, he cried, they've been before us. Someone's turned the chest out a loud and alaft is it there? Roared pew. The money's there. The blind man cussed the money flint's fist. I mean, he cried, I don't see it here. Nohow, returned the man. Here you below, there is it on? Bill, cried the blind man again. At that another fellow, probably he who had remained below to search. The captain's body. Came to the door of the inn. Bill's been overhauled already, he said, nothing left. It's these people of the inn. It's that boy. I wish I had put his eyes out, cried the blind man. Pew. They were here no time ago. They had the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads and find them. Sure enough they left their glim here, said the fellow from the window. Scatter and find them. Rout the house out, reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the road. Then there followed a great to do through all our old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture all thrown over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks re echoed, and the men came out again, one after another on the road, and declared that we were nowhere to be found. And just then the same whistle that had alarmed my mother and myself over the good Captain's money was once more clearly audible through the night, but this time twice repeated. I had thought it to be the blind Man's trumpet, so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault, But I now found that it was a signal from the hillside toward the hamlet, and from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them of approaching danger. There's Dirk, again, said one twice. We'll have to budge mates, Budge you, skulk, cried pew. Dirk was a fool and a coward from the first. You wouldn't mind him. They must be close by, they can't be far. You have your hands on it, scatterer, and look for him, dogs or shiver my soul, he cried. If I had eyes. This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows began to look here and there among the timber, but half heartedly, I thought, and with half an eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest stood irres on the road. You have your hands on thousands new fools, and you hang a leg. You'll be as rich as kings if you could find it. And you stand there skulking. There wasn't one of you, dead face Bill, and I did it a blind man, and I'm to lose my chance for you. I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar sponging for rum when I might be rolling in a coach. If you had the pluck of a weavil in a biscuit. You would catch them. Still, hang it, Pew, We've got the do balloons, grumbled one. They might have hid the blessed thing, said another. Take the George's pew, and don't stand there squawling. Squawling was the word for it. Pew's anger rose so high at these objections till at last his passion completely taking the upper hand. He's struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his sticks sounded heavily on more than one. These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from his grasp. This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it was still raging, another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the hamlet, the tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the same time, a pistol shot, flash and report came from the hedge side, and that was plainly the last signal of danger. For the buccaneers turned at once and ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not a sign of them remained, but Pew him they had deserted. Whether in sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words and blows, I know not. But there he remained behind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy and groping and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn and ran a few steps past me towards the hamlet, crying Johnny, black Dog, Dirk and other names. You won't leave, old Pew, mate, not old Pew. Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight, and swept at full gallop down the slope. At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream and ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. But he was on his feet again in a second and made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night, and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed. He fell on his side then gently collapsed upon his face and moved no more. I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were pulling up at any rate, horrified at the accident, and I soon saw what they were. One trailing out behind the rest was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to doctor Livesey's. The rest were revenue officers, whom he had met by the way, and with whom he had had the intelligence to return at once. Some news of the lugger in Kit's hole had found its way to Supervisor Dance, and set him forth that night in our direction, And to that circumstance, my mother and I owed our preservation from death. Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother when we carried her up to the hamlet. A little cold water and some salts very soon brought her back again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still continued to deplore the balance of the money. In the meantime, the Supervisor rode on as fast as he could to Kit's hole, but his men had to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading and sometimes supporting their horses, and in continual fear of ambushes, so it was no great matter for surprise that when they got down to the hole, the lugger was already under way, though still close in. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to keep out of the moonlight or he would get some lead in him, and at the same time a bullet whistled close by his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled the point and disappeared. Mister Dance stood there, as he said, like a fish out of water. And all he could do was to dispatch a man to bur to warn the cutter. And that, he said, is just about as good as nothing. They've got clean off. And there's an end only, he added, I am glad I trod upon Master Pew's corns. By this time he had heard my story. I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow. And you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash. The very clerk had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself. And though nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's money bag and a little silver, from the till I could see at once that we were ruined. Mister Dance could make nothing of the scene. They got the money. You say, well, then, Hawkins, what in fortune were they after more money? I suppose no, certain, not money, I think, replied I. In fact, sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast pocket, and to tell you the truth, I should like to get it put in safety to be sure. Boy quite right, said he. I'll take it if you like. I thought, perhaps doctor livesey, I began, perfectly right, he interrupted, very cheerily, perfectly right, a gentleman and a magistrate. And now I come to think of it, I might as well ride round there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's dead when all's done. Not that I regret it, but he's dead, you see, and people will make it out against an officer of his Majesty's revenue. If make it out they can. Now I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll take you along. I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back to the hamlet where the horses were. By the time I had told my mother of my purpose, they were all in the saddle. Dogger said, mister Dance, you have a good horse. Take up this lad behind you as soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck out at a bouncing trot on the road to doctor Livesey's house and of Chapter five, Chapter six the Captain's papers. We rode hard all the way till we drew up before Doctor Libsey's door. The house was all dark to the front. Mister Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door was opened almost at once by a maid. Is doctor Livesey in? I asked no. She said he had come home in the afternoon, but had gone up to the hall to dine and pass the evening with the squire. So there we go, boys, said mister Dance. This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but ran with Dogger's stirrup leather to the lodge gates and up the long leafless moonlit avenue to where the white line of the hall buildings looked on either hand on great old gardens. There mister Dance dismounted and take me along with him, was admitted at a word into the house. The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed us at the end into a great library, all lined with bookcases and busts on top of them, where the Squire and Doctor Livesey sat pipe in hand, on either side of a bright fire. I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He was a tall man, over six feet high, and broad in proportion, and he had a bluff, rough and ready face, all roughened and reddi and lined in his long travels. His eyebrows were very black and moved readily, and this gave him a look of some temper, not bad, you would say, but quick and high. Come in, mister Dance, said he, very stately and condescending. Good evening, Dance, said the doctor, with a nod. And good evening to you, old friend Jim. What good wit to bring jul here? The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and told his story like a lesson. But you should have seen how the two gentlemen leaned forward and looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their surprise and interest. When they heard how my mother went back to the inn. Doctor Livesey fair slapped his thigh, and the Squire cried bravel and broke his long pipe against the grate. Long before it was done, a mister Trelawney, that you will remember was the squire's name, had got up from his seat and was striding about the room, and the doctor, as if to hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig and sat there looking very strange, indeed with his own close cropped black pole. At last, mister Dance finished the story. Mister Dance said the squire, you are a very noble fellow. And as for riding down that black atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue, sir, like stamping on a crockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump, I perceive, Hawkins, will you ring that bell? Mister Dance must have some ale, and so Jim said the doctor. You have the thing that they were after. Have you here it is, sir, said I, and gave him the oilskin packet. The doctor looked it all over as if his fingers were itching to open it, but instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the pocket of his coat. Squire said he, when Dance has had his ale, he must of course be off on his Majesty's service. But I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house. And with your permission, I propose we should have up the cold pie and let him sup as you will, Livesey, said the Squire. Hawkins has earned better than cold pie. So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a side table, and I made a hearty supper, for I was as hungry as a hawk, while mister Dance was further complimented and at last dismissed. And now, Squire, said the doctor. And now lives ere, said the Squire, in the same breath. One at a time, one at a time, laughed doctor Livesey. You have heard of this Flint, I suppose heard of him, cried the Squire. Heard of him? You say he was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him, that I tell you, Sir, I was sometimes proud that he was an Englishman. I have seen his topsail with these eyes off Trinidad, and the cowardly son of a rum puncheon that I sailed with put back, put back, Sir, into the port of Spain. Well, I've heard of him myself in England, said the doctor. But the point is, had he money? Money? Cried the squire. Have you heard the story? What were these villains after but money? What did they care for but money? For? What would they risk their rascal carcasses? But money that we shall soon know, replied the doctor. But you are so confoundedly hot headed and exclamatory that I cannot get a word in. What I want to know is this suppose that I have here in my pocket some clue to where Flint buried his treasure? Will that treasure amount to munych a mountzer, cried the squire. It will amount to this. If we have the clue you talk about, I'll fit out a ship in Bristol dock and take you and Hawkins here along, and we'll have that treasure if I search for a year. Very well, said the doctor. Now, then, if Jim is agreeable, we'll open the packet, and he laid it before him on the table. The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out his instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors. It contained two things, a book and a sealed paper. First, of all, we'll try the book, observed the doctor. The Squire and I were both peering over his shoulder as he opened it. For Doctor Livesey had kindly motioned to me to come round from the side table where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. On the first page there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or practice. One was the same as the tattoo mark Billy Bones his fancy. Then there was mister w Bone's mate no more rum off, palm key he got it, and some other snatches, most single words and unintelligible. But I could not help wondering who it was that had got it and what it was he got a knife in his back. As likely as not, not much instruction there, said Doctor Livesey as he passed on. The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious series of entries. There was a date at one end of the line, and at the other end a sum of money, as in common account books, but instead of explanatory writing, only a varying number of crosses between the two. On the twelfth of June seventeen forty five. For instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become due to someone, and there was nothing but six crosses to explain the cause. In a few cases, to be sure, the name of a place would be added as of off Caracas, or a mere entry of latitude or longitude as sixty two degrees seventeen minutes twenty seconds nineteen degrees two minutes forty seconds. The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the amount of the separate entries growing larger as time went on, and at the end a grand total had been maned out after five or six row editions. And these words appended bones his pile, iiconmic head or tail of this, said doctor lives. The thing is as clear as noonday, cried the squire. This is the black hearted hound's account book. These crosses stand for the names of ships or towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are the scoundrels share. And where he filled an ambiguity, you see he added something clearer, off Carackers. Now you see here was some unhappy vessel boarded off that coast. God help the poor souls. That man her coral long ago right, said the doctor, see what it is to be a traveler, right, and the amounts increase, you see, as he rose in rank. There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of places noted in the blank leaves towards the end, and a table for reducing French, English and Spanish moneys to a common value. Thrifty men, cried the doctor. He wasn't the one to be cheated, and now said the squire for the other. The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble by way of seal, the very thimble, perhaps that I had found in the captain's pocket. The doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell out the map of an island, with latitude and longitude soundings, names of hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that would be needed to bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine miles long and file of across, shaped you might say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbors and a hill in the center park marked the spyglass. There were several additions of a later date, but above all three crosses of red ink, two on the north part of the island wine in the southwest. And besides this last in the same red ink, and in a small neat hand very different from the Captain's tottery characters, these words bulk of treasure. Here over the back the same hand had written this further information tall tree, spyglass shoulder bearing a point to the north of nor Nor East Skeleton Island south south east by east ten feet. The bar silver is in the north Cash. You can find it by the trend of the east hummock ten fathoms south of the Black Crag with a face on it. The arms are easy found in the sand hill north point of north Inlet Cape, bearing east and a quarter north j f. That was all but brief as it was, and to me incomprehensible. It filled the Squire and doctor Livesey with delight. Livesey said the Squire, you will give up this wretched practice at once. Tomorrow I start for Bristol. In three weeks time. Three weeks, two weeks, ten days. We'll have the best ship, Sir, and the choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin boy. You'll make a famous cabin boy, Hawkins. You'll livesey our ship's doctor. I am Admiral. We'll take our Redruth, Joyce and Hunter. We'll have favorable winds, a quick passage, and not the least difficulty in finding the spot, and money to eat, to roll in to play duck and drake with ever after true Lornie said the doctor. I'll go with you, and I'll go bail for it. So with Jim, and be a credit to the undertaking. There's only one man I'm afraid of. And who's that? Cried the squire. Name the dogs are you, replied the doctor, for you cannot hold your tongue. We are not the the only men who know of this paper. These fellows who attack the inn tonight, bold desperate blades, to be sure, and the rest who stayed aboard that lugger and more, I dare say not far off, are one and all through, thick and thin bound, that they will get that money. We must none of us go alone till we get to see. Jim and I shall stick together in the meantime, and you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol. And from first to last, not one of us must breathe our word of what we've found Livesey returned the Squire. You are always in the right of it. I'll be silent as the grave. End of Chapter six