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

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Chapter fifteen, the Man of the Island. From the side of the hill,
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which was here steep and stony, A spout of gravel was dislodged and
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fell, rattling and bounding through the trees. My eyes turned instinctively in that
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direction, and I saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind the trunk of
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a pine. What it was, whether bear or man or monkey, I
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could in no wise tell. It seemed dark and shaggy. More I knew
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not, But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.
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I was now it seemed cut off upon both sides behind me, the murderers
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before me, this lurking nondescript, and immediately I began to prefer the dangers
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that I knew to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared less terrible in
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contrast with this creature of the woods, and I turned on my heel,
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and, looking sharply behind me over my shoulder, began to retrace my steps
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in the direction of the boats. Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making
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a wide circuit, began to head me off. I was tired at any
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rate, but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I could
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see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an adversary.
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From trunk to trunk. The creature flitted like a deer, running man
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like on two legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen,
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stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was, I could
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no longer be in doubt about that. I began to recall what I had
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heard of cannibals. I was with an ace of calling for help, But
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the mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured
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me, and my fear of silver began to revive in proportion. I stood
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still, therefore, and cast about for some method of escape, And as
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I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed into my mind.
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As soon as I remembered I was not defenseless, courage glowed again in my
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heart, and I set my face resolutely for this man of the island,
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and walked briskly toward him. He was concealed by this time behind another tree
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trunk, but he must have been watching me closely, for as soon as
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I began to move in his direction, he reappeared and took a step to
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meet me. Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again, and
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at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself on his knees and
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held out his clasped hands in supplication. At that I once more stopped.
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Who are you, I asked, ben Gunn? He answered, and his
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voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. I'm poor, ben
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Gunn, I am, and I haven't spoke with a Christian dec three years.
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I could now seen that he was a white man like myself, and
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that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed,
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was burned by the sun. Even his lips were black, and his fair
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eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar men
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that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He
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was clothed with tatters of old ship's canvas and old sea cloth, and this
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extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous
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fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin.
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About his waist, he wore an old brass buckled leather belt, which was
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the one thing solid in his old accouterment. Three years I cried, were
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you shipwrecked? Name? Mate? Said he marooned. I had heard that
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word, and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of punishment common enough
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among the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore with a little powder
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and shot, and left behind on some desolate and distant island. Marooned three
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years agone He continued and lived on goats since then, and berries and oysters.
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Wherever a man is, says I, A man can do for himself.
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But mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You mayn't happen
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to have a piece of cheese about you now, No, Well, many's
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the long night. I've dreamed of cheese, toasted mostly and woke up again,
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and here I were. If ever I can get aboard again, said
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I, you shall have cheese by the stone. At this time he had
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been feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my
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boots, and generally in the intervals of his speech, showing a childish pleasure
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in the presence of a fellow creature. But at my last words he poked
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up into a kind of startled slyness. If ever you get aboard again,
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says you. He repeated, why now, who's to hinder you? Not
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to you? I know? Was my reply? Oh and right you was,
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he cried, Now you, what do you call yourself? Mate,
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Jim? I told him, Jim, Jim says, he quite pleased.
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Apparently. Well, now, Jim, I've lived that rough as you'd be
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ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance, you wouldn't think I had
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had a pious mother to look at me, he asked, why. Uh
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no, not in particular, I answered, Ah, well, said he.
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But I had remarkably pious, and I was a civil, pious boy,
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and could rattle off my catechism that fast you couldn't tell one word from
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another. And here's what it come to, Jim. And it begun with
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Chuck Farthan on the blessed gravestones, That's what it begun with. And it
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went farther and that. And so my mother told me and predicted the hole.
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She did, the pious woman, for it were a providence that put
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me here. I thought it all out in this here, lonely island,
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and I'm back on piety. You can't catch me tasting rum. So much,
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but just a thimblefool for lack of course. The first chance I have,
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I'm bound. I'll be good, and I see the way too.
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And Jim, looking all around him and luring his voice to a whisper,
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I'm rich. I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in
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his souliude, and I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face,
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for he repeated the statement hotly. Rich Rich, I says, and
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I'll tell you what. I'll make a man of you. Jim, Ah,
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Jim, You'll bless your stars, you will. You was the first
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that found me. And at this there came suddenly a lowering shadow over his
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face, and he tightened his grasp upon my hand and raised a forefinger threateningly
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before my eyes. Now, Jim, you tell me true. That ain't
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Flint's ship, he asked. At this, I had a happy inspiration.
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I began to believe that I had found an ally, and I answered him
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at once It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is dead. But I'll tell
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you true. But i'll tell you true as you ask me. There are
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some of Flint's hands aboard. Worse luck for the rest of us, not
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a man with one leg. He gasped, silver, I asked, Ah,
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Silver says he that where is name? He's the cook and the ringleader
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too. He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he
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gave it quite a ring if you were sent by long John, He said,
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I'm as good as por can. I know it? But where was
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you? Do you suppose? I had made up my mind in a moment,
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and by way of answer, told him the whole story of our voyage
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and the predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest
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interest, and when I had done, he patted me on the head.
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You're a good lad, Jim, he said. And you're all in a
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clove hit, sha't you? Well? You just put your trust in ben
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Gunn. Ben Gunn's the man to do it. Would you think it likely
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now that your squire would prove a liberal mind? You wine? In case
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of help him being in a clove hitch, as you remark, I told
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him the squire was the most liberal of men. Ah. But you see,
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returned ben Gunn. I didn't mean give him me a gait to keep,
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but a suit of livery clothes and such, and that's not my mark,
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Jim. What I mean is, would he be likely to come down
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to the tune of say, one thousand pounds out of money that's as good
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as a man's own already? I'm sure he would, said I. As
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it is, all hands were to share, and a passage home, he
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added, with a look of great shrewdness. Why, I cried, the
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squire's a gentleman. And besides, if we got rid of the others,
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we should want you to help work the vessel home, ah, said he,
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So you would, And he seemed very much relieved. Now I'll tell
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you what he went on so much, I'll tell you, and no more.
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I were in flint ship when he buried the treasure. He and six
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are long, six strong seamen. They was a sure nigh on a week,
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and are standing off and on in the old Walrus. One fine day,
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upwent the signal, and he had come Flint by himself in a little
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boat, and his head done up in a blue scarf. The sun was
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getting up and mortal white. He looked about the cut water. But there
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he was, you mind, and the six all dead, dead and buried.
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How had he done it? Not a man of baldess could make out.
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It was battle, murder and sudden death. Leastways im agates six bones
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was the mate. Long Johnny was quartermaster, and they asked him where the
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treasure was. I says, you can go ashore if you like and stay,
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says, but as for the ship, she'll be up for more by
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thunder, that's what he said. Well, I was in another ship three
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years back and we sighted this island. Boys said I here's Flint's treasure.
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Let's land and find it. The captain was displeased at that, but my
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messmates were all of a mind and landed. Twelve days they looked for it,
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and every day they had the worst word for me, until one fine
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morning all hands went aboard. As for you, Benjamin Gunn says they is
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a musket, they says, and a spade and a pickaxe. You can
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stay here and find Flint's money for yourself, They says, Well, Jim,
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three years have I been here and not a bite of Christian diet from
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that day to this. But now you look here, look at me?
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Do I look like a man before the mast? No, says you,
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nor I would neither, I says, And with that he winked and pinched
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me hard. Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim, he
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went on, Nor he would neither. That's the words. Three years he
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were the man of this island, light and dark, fair and rain,
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And sometimes he would maybe think upon a prayer, says you. And sometimes
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he would maybe think of his old mother, so be as she's alive,
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you'll say. But the most part of Gun's time, this is what you'll
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say, The most part of his time was took up with another matter.
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And then you'll give him a nip like I do. And he pinched me
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again in the most confidential manner. Then he continued, Then you'll up and
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you'll say this Gun is a good man, you'll say. And he puts
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a precious sight, more confidence, a precious sight, mind that in a
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gentleman born than in these gentlemen of fortune, having been one hisself. Well,
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I said, I don't understand one word that you've been saying. But
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that's neither here nor there. For how am I to get on board?
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Ah, said he that's the hitch for sure. Well there's my boat that
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I made with my two hands. Ay keep her under the white rock.
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If the worst come to the worst, we might try that after dark.
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Hi, he broke out, what's that for? Just then, although the
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sun had still an hour or two to run, all the echoes of the
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island awoke and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. They have begun to
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fight. I cried, follow me, and I began to run toward the
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anchorage. My terrors all forgotten. While close at my side the marooned man
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and his goat skins trotted easily and lightly left. Left says he. Keep
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to your left hand, mate, Jim, under the trees with you.
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That's where I killed my first goat. They don't come down here now.
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They're all mast headed on their mountains for the fear of Benjamin gun Ah.
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There's the setter Mery cemetery. He must have meant, you see the MoU.
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I come here and prayed nows and thens when I thought maybe a Sunday
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would be about do. It weren't quite a chapel, but it seemed more
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solemn like. And then, says you, ben Gum was shorthanded, no
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chaplain or so much as a bible in a flag, says you. So
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he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving any answer. The
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cannon shot was followed, after a considerable interval by a volley of small arms.
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Another pause, and then not a quarter of a mile in front of
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me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above a wood.
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End of Chapter fifteen, Part four the Stockade. Chapter sixteen narrative continued by
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the doctor how the ship was abandoned. It was about half past one,
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three bells in the sea phrase that the two boats went ashore from the Hispaniola.
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The Captain, the Squire and I were talking matters over in the cabin.
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Had there been a breath of wind, we should have fallen on the
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six mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped our cable and away to
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sea. But the wind was wanting, and to complete our helplessness, down
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came Hunter with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was
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gone ashore with the rest. It had never occurred to us to doubt Jim
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Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men in the
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temper they were in, it seemed an even chance if we should see the
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lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch was bubbling in the seams,
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The nasty stench of the place turned me sick. If ever a man
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smelled fever and dysentery. It was in that abominable anchorage the six scoundrels were
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sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle ashore. We could see the gigs
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had made fast, and a man sitting in each hard by where the river
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runs in. One of them was whistling. Lily Ballero. Waiting was a
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strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go ashore with a
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jolly boat in quest of information. The gigs had leaned to their right,
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but Hunter and I pulled straight in in the direction of the stockade upon the
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chart. The two who were left guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at
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our appearance. Lily Ballero stopped off, and I could see the pair discussing
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what they ought to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might
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have turned out differently. But they had their orders, I suppose, and
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decided to sit quietly where they were and hark back again to Lily Balero.
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There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to
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put it between us. Even before we had landed, we had thus lost
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sight of the gigs. I jumped out and came as near running as I
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durst, with a big silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness's sake, and
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a brace of pistols ready primed for safety. I had not gone a hundred
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yards when I came on the stockade. This was how it was. A
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spring of clear water arose at the top of a knoll well on the knoll,
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and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout log house fit to
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hold two score people in a pinch and loop holed for musketry on every side.
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All around this they had cleared a wide space, and then the thing
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was completed by a paling six feet high without door or opening, too strong
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to pull down without time and labor, and too open to shelter the besiegers.
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The people in the log house had them in every way. They stood
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quiet in the shelter and shot the others like partridges. All they wanted was
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a good watch and food. For short of a complete surprise, they might
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have held the place against a regiment. What particularly took my fancy was the
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spring, for though we had a good place of it, the cabin of
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the hista Spaniola, with plenty of arms and ammunition, and things to eat
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and excellent wines. There was one thing overlooked. We had no water.
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I was thinking this over when they came ringing over the island, the cry
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of a man at the point of death. I was not new to violent
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death. I have served His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, and
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got a wound myself at Faultonoy. But I know my pulse went jot and
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carry one. Jim Hawkins is gone, was my first thought. It is
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something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been a
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doctor. There is no time to dilly dally in our work, and so
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now I made up my mind instantly, and with no time lost, returned
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to the shore and jumped on board the jolly boat. By good fortune,
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Hunter pulled a good oar. We made the water fly, and the boat
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was soon alongside, and I aboard the schooner. I found them all shaken,
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as was natural, the Squire sitting down as white as a sheet,
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thinking of the harm he had led us to the good soul. And one
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of the six forecastle hands was little better. There's a man, said Captain
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Smollett nodding towards him, new to this work, he came nigh hand fainting
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a doctor when he heard the cry and now the touch of the rudder,
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and that man would adjoin us. I told my plan to the captain,
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and between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment. We put old
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Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the forecastle, with three or four
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loaded muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat round under the
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stern port, and Joyce and I set to work loading her with powder tins,
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muskets, bags of biscuit, kegs of pork, a cast of cognac,
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and my invaluable medicine chest. In the meantime, the Squire and the
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captain stayed on the deck, and the latter hailed the Coxswain, who was
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the principal man on board, mister hands. He said, there are two
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of us with a brace of pistols each. If any one of you'll six
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make a signal of any description, that man's dead. They were a good
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deal taken back, and after a little consultation one and all tumbled down.
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The foe companion, thinking no doubt to take us on the rear. But
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when they saw Redruth waiting for them in the sparred gallery, they went about
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ship at once, and a head popped out again on deck down. Dog
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cried the captain, and the head popped back again, and we heard no
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more for the time of these six very faint hearted seamen, by this time
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tumbling things in as they came. We had the jolly boat loaded as much
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as we dared. Joyce and I got out through the stern port, and
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we made for shore again as fast as oars could take us. This second
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trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore. Lily Ballero was dropped again, and
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just before we lost sight of them behind the little point, one of them
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whipped ashore and disappeared. I had half a mind to change my plan and
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destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might be close
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to hand, and all might very well be lost by trying for too much.
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We had soon touched land in the same place as before, and set
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to work to provision the block house. All three made the first journey heavily
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laden, and tossed our stores over the palisade, then leaving Joyce to guard
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them one man, to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets,
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Hunter and I returned to the jolly boat and loaded ourselves once more. So
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we proceeded without pausing to take breath, till the whole cargo was bestowed.
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When the two servants took up their position in the block house, and I,
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with all my powder, sculled back to the Hispaniola that we should have
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risked a second boat load seems more dead than it really was. They had
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the advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the advantage of arms.
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Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and before they could
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get within range for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves. We should be able
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to give a good account of a half dozen at least. The Squire was
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waiting for me at the stern window, all his faintness gone from him.
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He caught the painter and made it fast, and we fell to loading the
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boat for our very lives. Pork, powder and biscuit was the cargo.
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With only a musket and a cutlass apiece for Squire and me, and Red
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Ruth and the captain. The rest of the arms and powder, we dropped
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overboard in two fathoms and a half of water, so that we could see
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the bright steel shining far below us in the sun on the clean sandy bottom.
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By this time the tide was beginning to ebb and the ship was swinging
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round to her anchor. Voices were heard faintly hallowing in the direction of the
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two gigs, and though this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who were
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well to the eastward, it warned our party to be off. Redruth retreated
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from his place in the gallery and dropped into the boat, which we then
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brought round to the ship's counter to be handier for Captain Smollett. Now,
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men said he, do you hear me? There was no answer from the
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forecastle. It's to you, Abraham Gray, it's to you. I am
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speaking. Still no reply, Gray resumed mister Smollett, a little louder.
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I am leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your captain.
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I know you are a good man at bottom, and I dare say not
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one of the lot of users bad as he makes out. I had my
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watch here in my hand. I give you thirty seconds to join me.
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In Come, my fine fellow, continued the captain. Don't hang so long
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in stays, I'm risking my life, and the lives of these are gooder
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gentleman. Every second there was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows,
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and outburst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the side of the cheek and
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came running to the captain like a dog to the whistle. I'm with you,
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sir, he said, And the next moment he and the captain had
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dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off and given way. We
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were clear out of the ship, but not yet ashore in our stockade.
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End of chapter sixteen.