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06 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Library

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Chapter eleven. What I heard in the apple barrel, No not, I
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said, Silver Flint was cap'n. I was quite a master along of my
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timber leg the same side I lost my leg. Old Pew lost his daylights.
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It was a master surgeon him that amputated me out of college, and
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all Latin by their bucket and what not. But he was hanged like a
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dog and sun droid like the rest at Corso Castle. That was Robert's men,
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that was, and comed of changing names to their ships, Royal Fortune
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and so on. Now what a ship was christened? So let her stay?
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I says. So it was with the Cassandra as brought us all sat
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home from Malabar after England took the viceroy of the Indies. So it was
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with the old Walrus, Flint's old ship, as I've seen him, with
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the red blood and fit to sink with gold. Ah, cried another voice,
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that of the youngest hand on board, and evidently full of admiration.
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He was the flower of the flock, was Flint. Davis was a man
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too, by all accounts, said Silver. I never sailed alonger him,
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first with England, then with Flint. That's my story. And now here
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on my own account, in a manner o speaking, I laid by nine
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hundred safe from England in two thousand and a half to Flint. They ain't
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bad for a man before the mast, I'll safe in bank. Tain't earning
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now it's saving, does it? You made later that where's all England's men?
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Now? I dun'no, where's Flint's why most of them are board here
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and glad to get the duff being begging before that? Some of them,
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oh pure as has lust his sight and might have thought shame spelling twelve hundred
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pounds in a year like a lord in parliament whereas he now, well he's
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dead now and under hatches. But for two years before that, shiver my
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timbers, the man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and
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he cut throats and starved at that by the powers. Well it ain't much
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use after all, said the young seamen. Ta't much use for fools.
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You may lay to it that know, nothing, cried silver. But now
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you look here. You're young, you are, but you're smart as paint.
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I see that. When I set my eyes on you, and I'll
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talk to you like a man, you can imagine how I felt when I
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heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery he
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had used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that
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I would have killed him through the barrel. Meantime he ran on little,
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supposing he was overheard. Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives
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rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting cocks.
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And when a cruise is done, why it's hundreds of pounds instead of
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hundreds of fathings in their pockets. Now the most goals for rum and a
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good fling, and to see again in their shirts. But that's not the
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corse I lay. He puts it all away, some here, some there,
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and none too much anywhere, As by reason of suspicion, I'm fifty
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mark you once back from this cruise. I set up gentlemen in earnest time.
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Enough too, says you. Ah. But I've lived easy in the
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meantime, never denied myself and nothing the heart desires, and slept soft and
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ate daity all my days. But when at sea, and how did I
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begin before the mast? Like you well said the other. But all the
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other money's gone now, ain't it. You didn't show facing Bristol after this,
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Why where might you suppose it? Was, asked Silver derisively. Bristol
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in banks and places, answered his companion. It were, said the cook,
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it were when we weighed Anchor. But my old missus as it are
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by now, and the spyglasses sold leasts and goodwill and rigging, and the
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old girls off to meet me. I will tell you where, mate,
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for I trust you, but it'd make jealousy among the mates. And you
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can trust your missus, asked the other gentlemen of fortune, returned the cook
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usually trust little among themselves, And right they are. You may lay to
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it, but I have a way with me. I have when a mate
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brings a slip on his cable, one as knows me, I mean it
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won't be in the same world with old John. There were some that was
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feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint. But Flint his
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own self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud they was.
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The roughest crew of float was Flint's. The devil himself would have been
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feared to go to sea with them. Well, now I tell you I'm
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not a boasting man, and you've seen yourself how easy I keep company.
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But when I was quite a master, Lambs wasn't the word for Flint's old
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buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of yourself in old John's ship.
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Well I tell you now, replied the lad. I didn't half a quarter
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like a job till I had this talk with you John. But there's my
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hand on it now, And a brave large you were, and smart too,
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answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, And
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a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I never clapped the eyes on.
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By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms. By
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a gentleman of fortune, they plainly meant neither more nor less than a common
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pirate. And the little scene that I had overheard was the last act in
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the corruption of one of the honest hands, perhaps of the last one left
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aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved. For Silver,
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giving a little whistle, a third man's rolled up and sat down by
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the party. Dick Square said Silver, Oh, I know Dick was Square,
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returned the voice of the cocksin Israel hands. He's no fool, is
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dick. He turned his quid and spat. But look here, he went
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on, here's what I want to know, barbecue. How long are we
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are going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat. I've had almost
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enough, a Captain Smollett, He's hazed me long enough by thunder. I
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want to go into that cabin I do. I want their pickles and wines,
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and that he is. Rael said Silver. You ed ain't much a
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colt, nor never was, but you're able to hear. I reckon lest
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ways, your ears is big enough. Now he is what I say,
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your birth forehead, and you'll live hard, and you'll speak soft, and
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you'll keep sober till I give the word, and you may lead to that.
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My son. Well, I don't say no, do, I growled
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the Coxswain. What I say is when that's what I say when by the
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powers cried Silver. Well, Now, if you want to know, I'll
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tell you when the last moment I can manage. And that's when. Here's
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the first rate seaman, cap'n Smollett sails the blessed ship for us. Here's
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this squire and doctor. We are map and such. I don't know where
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it is, do I no more to you, says you. Well,
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then I mean this squire in doctor shall find the stuff and help us to
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get it aboard by the powers. Then we'll see. If I was sure
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of you, all sons a double dutchman, i'd have cap'n Smollett navigate us
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halfway back again before I struck. Why we're all seeming aboard here, I
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should think, said the lad dick. We're all folks'll hand you mean snapped
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silver. We can steer a course, but oo's to set one. That's
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what all you gentlemen spit on first and last. If I had my way,
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i'd have cap'n Smollett work us back into the trades. At least.
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Then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day. But
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I know the sort you are. I'll finish with them at the island as
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soon as the blunt's on board. And a pity it is, but you're
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never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides. I've a sick heart to
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sail with the like, say you easy all, Old John cried Israel.
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Who's a crossing of you? Why how many tall ships think? Ye n
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her voice seen laid aboard, and how many brisk lads draw in the sewn
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execution, Duck cried Silver, and all for the same. Hurry and hurry
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and hurry you hear me. I've seen a thing or two at sea.
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I have. If you would only lay your cars and a point the windward,
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you would ride in carriages, you would, But not you. I
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know you. You'll have your milk full of rum tomorrow and go hang.
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Everybody know that you was a kind of a chaplain John. But there's others
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who could hand and steer as well as you, said, Israel. They
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liked a bit of fun. They did. They wasn't so high and dry,
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nohow, but took their fling like jolly companions. Everyone so said Silver.
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Well, and where are they? Nail Pew was that sort and he
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died a beggar man, Flint was and he died of rum at Savannah.
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They was a sweet crew. They was only where are they? But asked
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Dick, when we do lay them athwart? What are we going to do
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with him? Anyhow? There is the man for me, cried the cook
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admiringly. That's what I call business. Well, what would you think put
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them ashore, look maroons that would have been England's way, or cut him
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down like that much pork that would have been flints, or billy bones.
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Billy was the man for that, said Israel. Dead men don't buy it,
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says he. Well, he's dead now hisself. He knows the long
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and short on it now. And if ever a rough hen come to port,
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it was Billy right, you are, said Silver, rough and ready.
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But mark you here. I easy man, I'm quite the gentleman,
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says you. But this time it's serious. Duty is duty, mates,
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I give my vote death when I'm in Parliament and riding in my coach,
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I don't want none of these sea lawyers in the cabin are coming home and
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look for like the devil at prayers. Wait is what I say. And
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when the time comes, why little rip John, cried the coxswains. You're
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a man, your say, so Israel, when you see said silver.
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Only one thing I claim, I claim, Trelawney, I'll wring his calf's
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head off his buddy with these hands, dick, he added, breaking off.
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You must jump up like a sweet lad and get me an apple to
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wet my pipe like you may fancy the terror I was in. I should
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have leaped out and run for it if I had found the strength, But
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my limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard Dick begin to rise,
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and then some one seemingly stopped him, and the voice of hands exclaimed,
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Oh, stow, that don't you get sucking of that bild John. Let's
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have a gar of the rum. Dick said, silver, I trust you,
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I've a gage on the keg. Mind, there's the key. You
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fill a panniken and bring it up. Terrified as I was, I could
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not help thinking to myself, then this must have been how mister Arrow got
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the strong waters that destroyed him. Dick was gone but a little while,
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and during his absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It was
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but a word or two that I could catch, and yet I gathered some
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important news. For besides, are the scraps that tended to the same purpose.
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This whole clause was audible, not another man of them all, jine.
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Hence there were still faithful men on board. When Dick returned, one
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or another of the trio took the panickin and drank one to luck another with
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a ears to old flint and silver himself sang in a kind of song,
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ears to herself and old your loff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff.
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Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and
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looking up, I found the moon had risen and was slivering the mizzen top
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and shining white on the laugh of the forcail. And almost at the same
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time, the voice on the lookout shouted and oh end of Chapter eleven,
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Chapter twelve, Council of War. There was a great rush of feet across
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the deck. I could hear people tumble up from the cabin and the forecastle
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and slipping in an instant outside my barrel. I dived behind the foresail and
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made a double toward the stern, and came out upon the open deck in
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time to join Hunter and doctor Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.
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There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted, almost
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simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the southwest of us we
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saw two low hills about a couple of miles apart, and rising behind one
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of them, a third and higher hill, whose peak was still buried in
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the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure, so much I
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saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my horrid
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fear of a minute or two before. And then I heard the voice of
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Captain Smollett issuing orders. The hispaniola was laid a couple of points nearer the
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wind, and now sailed a course that would just clear the island to the
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east. And now men, said the captain, when all was sheeted home.
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Has any one of you ever seen that land ahead? Oh? I
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ah, sir, said silver. I've watered there with the trader I was
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cooking. The anchorage is on the south behind an islet, I fancy asked
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the captain. Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were
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a main place for pirates once and a hand we had on board knowed all
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their names for it. That hill to the Norrid they caused Foremast Hill.
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There are three hills in a row running southward, four Main and Mizzen,
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Sir. But the Main that's the big un with the cloud on it.
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They usually cause the spyglass by re a look out they kept when they was
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in the anchorage cleaning, for it's there they cleaned their ships. Sir,
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ask in your pardon, I have a chart here, said Captain Smollett.
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See if that's the place. Long John's eyes burned in his head as he
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took the chart, But by the fresh look of the paper, I knew
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he was doomed to disappointment. This was not the map be found in billy
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Bone's chest, but an accurate copy, complete in all things, names and
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heights and soundings, with this single exception of the red crosses and the written
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notes. Sharp as must have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of
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mind to hide it. Yes, sir, said he, this is the
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spot, to be sure, and very prettily drawed out. Who might have
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done that? I wonder the pirates were too ignorant. I reckon. Ah.
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Here it is cap'n Kid's anchorage, just the name my shipmate called it.
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There is a strong current roads along the south and then away up Nord
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up the west coast. Right you was, sir, said he, to
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haul your wind and keep the weather of the island leastways, if such was
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your intention as to enter and carene, there ain't no better place for that
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in these waters. Thank you, my men, said Captain Smollett. I'll
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ask you later on to give us a help. You may go. I
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was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of the island,
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and I own I was half frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to myself.
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He did not know, to be sure that I had overheard his counsel
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from the apple barrel. And yet I had by this time taken such a
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horror of his cruel, duplicity and power, that I could scarce conceal a
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shudder. When he laid his hand upon my arm, AH said he this
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here is a sweet spart, this island, a sweet spot for a lad
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to get a shore on. You'll bathe, and you'll cloimb trees, and
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you'll hunt goats. You will, and you'll get alaft on them hills.
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Let a goat yourself. Why it makes me young again? I was going
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to forget my timber leg. I was. It's a pleasant thing to be
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young. And I have ten tolls you made later that when you want to
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go a bit of exploring, you ask old John and he'll put up a
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snack for you to take along. And clapping me in the friendliest way upon
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the shoulder. He hobbled off forehead and went below. Captain Smollett, the
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Squire, and Doctor Livesey were talking together on the quarter deck, and anxious
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as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly.
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While I was still casting about in my thoughts to find some probable excuse,
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doctor Livesey called me to his side. He had left his pipe below,
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and being a slave to tobacco, had meant that I should fetch it.
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But as soon as I was near enough to speak and not be overheard,
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I broke out immediately. Doctor let me speak, get the Captain and
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Squire down to the cabin, and then make some pretense to send for me.
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I have terrible news. The doctor changed countenance a little, but next
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moment he was master of himself. Thank you, Jim, said he quite
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loudly. That was all I wanted to know, as if he had asked
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me a question. And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the
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other two. They spoke together for a little and though none of them started
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or raised his voice oh so so much as whistled, it was plain enough
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that Doctor Livesey had communicated my request. For the next thing that I heard
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was the captain giving an order to Joe Anderson, and all hands were piped
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on deck. My lads, said Captain Smollett, I have a word to
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say to you. This land that we have cited is the place we have
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been sailing to. Mister Trelawney, being a very open handed gentleman, as
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we all know, has just asked me a word or two. And as
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I was able to tell him that every man on board had done his duty
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a low and aloft as I never asked to see it done better, why
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he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to drink your
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health and luck, and you'll have grog served out to you to drink our
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health and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this. I think
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it handsome, and if you think as I do, you'll give a good
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sea cheer for the gentleman that does it. The cheer followed, that was
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a matter of course, but it rang out so full and hearty that I
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confess I could hardly believe these same men were plotting for our blood. Word
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more cheer for come, Smollett, cried long John, when the first had
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subsided, and this was given with a will on the top of that.
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The three gentlemen went below, and not long after word was sent forward that
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Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin. I found them all three seated around
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the table, a bottle of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, and
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the doctor smoking away with his wig on his lap, and that I knew
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was a sign that he was agitated. The stern window was open, for
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it was a warm night, and you could see the moon shining behind on
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the ship's wake. Now, Hawkins said the Squire, you have something to
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say, Speak up. I did as I was bid, and short as
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I could make it, told the whole details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted
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me till I was done, nor did any one of the three of them
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make so much as a movement. But they kept their eyes upon my face
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from first to last. Jim said, doctor livesey, take a seat,
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And they made me sit down at a table beside them, poured me out
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a glass of wine, filled my hands with raisins, and all three,
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one after the other, and each with a bough, drank my good health
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and their service to me for my luck and courage. Now Captain said the
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Squire, you were right and I was wrong. I owned myself an ass
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and I await your orders no more an ass than I, Sir, returned
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the Captain. I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny, but
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that what signs before for any man that had an eye in his head to
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see the mischief and take steps accordingly. But this crew, he added,
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beats me, Captain, said the doctor. With your permission, that's silver
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a very remarkable man. He'd look remarkably well from a yard arm, Sir
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returned the captain. But this is talk. This don't lead to anything.
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I see three or four points, and with mister Trelawney's permission, i'll name
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them. You saw our the Captain, it is for you to speak,
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said mister Trelawney grandly. First point, began mister Smollett. We must go
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on because we can't turn back. If I gave the word to turn about,
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they would rise at once. Second point, we have time before us,
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at least until this treasure's found. Third point, there are faithful hands.
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Now, sir, it's got to come to blows sooner or later.
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And what I propose is to take time by the forelock as the saying is
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and to come to blows some fine day when they least expect it. We
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can count I take it on your own home servants, mister Trelawney, as
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upon myself, declared the squire, three reckoned the captain. Ourselves make seven
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counting hawkins there now about the honest hands. Most likely are Trelawny's own men,
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said the doctor. There's he picked up for himself before he lit on
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silver. Nay replied the squire hands was one of mine. I did think
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I could have trusted hands, added the captain, and that they're all Englishmen,
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broke out the squire. Sir, I could find it in my heart
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to blow the ship up. Well, gentlemen, said the captain. The
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best that I can say is not much. We must lay too, if
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you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's trying on a man.
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I know it would be pleasanter to come to blows, but there's no help
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for it till we know our men lay to and whistle for a wind.
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That's my view, Jim here said. The doctor can help us more than
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anyone. The men are not shy with here. Man. Jim is a
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noticing lad. Hawkins. I put prodigious faith in you, added the Squire.
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I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether helpless,
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and yet by an odd train of circumstances. It was indeed through me
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that safety came. In the meantime talk as we please eased. There were
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only seven out of the twenty six on whom we knew we could rely,
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And out of these seven, one was a boy, so that the grown
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men on our side were six to their nineteen end of Chapter twelve,