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

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three. The Ebb Tide runs the Coracle, as
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Speaker 1: I had ample reason to know before I was done
0:09
Speaker 1: with her, was a very safe boat for a person
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Speaker 1: in my height and weight, both buoyant and clever in
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Speaker 1: a seaway. But she was the most cross grained, lop
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Speaker 1: sided craft to manage. Do as you pleased. She always
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Speaker 1: made more leeway than anything else, and turning round and
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Speaker 1: round was the maneuver she was best at. Even ben
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Speaker 1: Gunn himself has admitted that she was queer to handle
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Speaker 1: till you knew her way. Certainly I did not know
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Speaker 1: her way. She turned in every direction but the one
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Speaker 1: I was bound to go. The most part of the
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Speaker 1: time we were broadside on, and I am very sure
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Speaker 1: I never should have made the ship at all, but
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Speaker 1: for the tide. By good fortune paddlers, I pleased. The
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Speaker 1: tide was still sweeping me down, and there lay the
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Speaker 1: Hispaniola right in the fairway, hardly to be missed. First
1:06
Speaker 1: she loomed before me like a blot of something yecked
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Speaker 1: blacker than darkness. Then her spars and hull began to
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Speaker 1: shake shape, and the next moment, as it seemed for
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Speaker 1: the further I went the brisker grew the current of
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Speaker 1: the ebb. I was alongside of her hawser and had
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Speaker 1: laid hold. The hawser was as taut as a bowstring,
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Speaker 1: and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor
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Speaker 1: all round the hull. In the blackness. The rippling current
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Speaker 1: bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream. One cut
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Speaker 1: with my sea gully, and the Hispaniola would go humming
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Speaker 1: down the tide. So far, so good. But it next
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Speaker 1: occurred to my recollection that a tight hawser suddenly cut
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Speaker 1: is a thing as dangerous as a kicking horse ten
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Speaker 1: to one. If I was so foolhardy as to cut
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Speaker 1: the Hispaniola from her anchor, I and the coracle would
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Speaker 1: be knocked clean out of the water. This brought me
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Speaker 1: to a full stop, and if fortune had not again
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Speaker 1: particularly favored me, I should have had to abandon my design.
2:14
Speaker 1: But the light airs, which had begun blowing from the
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Speaker 1: southeast and south, had hauled round after nightfall into the southwest.
2:22
Speaker 1: Just while I was meditating, a puff came caught the
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Speaker 1: Hispaniola and forced her up into the current, And to
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Speaker 1: my great joy, I felt the haws a slacken in
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Speaker 1: my grasp and the hand by which I held it
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Speaker 1: dip for a second underwater. With that I made my
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Speaker 1: mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth,
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Speaker 1: and cut one strand after another, till the vessel swung
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Speaker 1: only by two. Then I lay quiet, waiting to sever
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Speaker 1: these last when the strain should be once more lightened
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Speaker 1: by a breath of wind. At this time I had
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Speaker 1: heard the sound of loud voices from the cabin. But
3:04
Speaker 1: to say the truth, my mind had been so entirely
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Speaker 1: taken up with other thoughts that I had scarcely given
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Speaker 1: ear Now, however, when I had nothing else to do,
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Speaker 1: I began to pay more heed. One I recognized, for
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Speaker 1: the coxswains Israel hands that had been Flint's gunner in
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Speaker 1: former days. The other was, of course, my friend of
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Speaker 1: the red nightcap. Both men were plainly the worst of drink,
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Speaker 1: and they were still drinking for even while I was listening.
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Speaker 1: One of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern
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Speaker 1: window and threw out something which I divined to be
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Speaker 1: an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy, it
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Speaker 1: was plain that they were furiously angry. Oaths flew like hailstones,
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Speaker 1: and every now and then there came forth such an explosion,
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Speaker 1: as I thought, was sure to end in blows. But
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Speaker 1: each time the quarrel passed off, and the voices grumbled
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Speaker 1: lower for a while, until the next crisis came and
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Speaker 1: in its turn passed away without result. On shore, I
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Speaker 1: could see the glow of the great campfire burning warmly
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Speaker 1: through the shore side trees. Someone was singing a dull,
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Speaker 1: old droning sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver
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Speaker 1: at the end of each verse, and seemingly no end
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Speaker 1: to it all but the patience of the singer. I
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Speaker 1: had heard it on the voyage more than once and
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Speaker 1: remembered these words. But one man of the crew were
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Speaker 1: live what put to shee whiz seventy five? And I
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Speaker 1: thought it was a ditty, rather too dolefully appropriate for
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Speaker 1: a company that had met such cruel losses in the morning.
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Speaker 1: But indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were
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Speaker 1: as callous as the sea they sailed on. At last,
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Speaker 1: the breeze came, the schooner sidled and drew nearer in
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Speaker 1: the dark. I felt the hars aslacken once more, and
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Speaker 1: with a good tough effort cut the last fibers through
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Speaker 1: the breeze had but little action on the coracle, and
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Speaker 1: I was almost instantly swept against the boughs of this spaniola.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, the schooner began to turn upon
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Speaker 1: her heel, spinning slowly end for end across the current.
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Speaker 1: I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every moment
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Speaker 1: to be swamped. And since I found I could not
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Speaker 1: push the coracle directly off, I now shoved straight astern
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Speaker 1: at length. I was clear of my dangerous neighbor, and
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Speaker 1: just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came
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Speaker 1: across a light cord that was trailing overboard across the
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Speaker 1: stern bulwarks. Instantly I grasped it. Why I should have
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Speaker 1: done so, I can hardly say it was at first
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Speaker 1: mere instinct, But once I had it in my hand
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Speaker 1: and found it fast, curiosity began to get the upper hand,
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Speaker 1: and I determined I should have one look through the
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Speaker 1: cabin window. I pulled in hand over hand on the cord,
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Speaker 1: and when I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite
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Speaker 1: risk to about half my height, and thus commanded the
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Speaker 1: roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin
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Speaker 1: by this time, the schooner and her little consort were
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Speaker 1: gliding pretty swiftly through the water. Indeed, we had already
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Speaker 1: fetched up level with the camp fire. The ship was talking,
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Speaker 1: as sailors say, loudly, treading the immeasurable ripples with an incessant,
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Speaker 1: weltering splash. And until I got my eye above the window,
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Speaker 1: still I could not comprehend why the watchman had taken
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Speaker 1: no alarm. One glance, however, was sufficient, and it was
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Speaker 1: only one glance that I durst take from that unsteady skiff.
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Speaker 1: It showed me hands and his companion locked together in
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Speaker 1: deadly wrestle, each with a hand on the other's throat.
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Speaker 1: I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, for
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Speaker 1: I was near overboard. I could see nothing for the
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Speaker 1: moment but these two furious and crimsoned faces swaying together
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Speaker 1: under the smoky lamp, and I shut my eyes to
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Speaker 1: let them grow once more familiar with the darkness. The
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Speaker 1: endless ballad had come to an end at last, and
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Speaker 1: the whole diminished company about the camp fire had broken
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Speaker 1: into the chorus I had heard so often, fifty men
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Speaker 1: on the dead man's chest, YOOO, and.
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Speaker 2: A bottle of rum drink and a devil love and
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Speaker 2: further rest yom.
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Speaker 1: I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil
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Speaker 1: were at that very moment in the cabin of Hispaniola,
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Speaker 1: when I I was surprised by a sudden lurch of
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Speaker 1: the coracle. At the same moment she yawed sharply and
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Speaker 1: seemed to change her course. The speed in the meantime
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Speaker 1: had strangely increased. I opened my eyes at once. All
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Speaker 1: around me were little ripples combing over with a sharp
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Speaker 1: bristling sound and slightly phosphorescent. The Hispaniola herself, a few
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Speaker 1: yards in whose wake I was still being whirled along,
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Speaker 1: seemed to stagger in her course, and I saw her
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Speaker 1: spars toss a little against the blackness of the night. Nay,
8:36
Speaker 1: As I looked longer, I made sure she also was
8:40
Speaker 1: wheeling to the southward. I glanced over my shoulder, and
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Speaker 1: my heart jumped against my ribs. There right behind me
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Speaker 1: was the glow of the camp fire. The current had
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Speaker 1: turned at right angles, sweeping round along with it the
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Speaker 1: tall schooner and the little dancing coracle. Ever quickening, ever
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Speaker 1: bubbling high, ever muttering louder. It went spinning through the
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Speaker 1: narrows for the open sea. Suddenly the schooner in front
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Speaker 1: of me gave a violent yaw, turning perhaps through twenty degrees,
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Speaker 1: and almost at the same moment, one shout followed another
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Speaker 1: from on board. I could hear feet pounding on the
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Speaker 1: companion ladder, and I knew that the two drunkards had
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Speaker 1: at last been interrupted in their quarrel and awakened to
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Speaker 1: a sense of their disaster. I laid down flat in
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Speaker 1: the bottom of that wretched skiff and devoutly recommended my
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Speaker 1: spirit to its maker. At the end of the straits,
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Speaker 1: I had made sure we must fall into some bar
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Speaker 1: of raging breakers, where all of my troubles would be
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Speaker 1: ended speedily. And though I could perhaps bear to die,
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Speaker 1: I could not bear to look upon my fate as
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Speaker 1: it approached. So I must have lain for hours, continually
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Speaker 1: beaten to and fro upon the billows, now and again,
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Speaker 1: wetted with flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect death
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Speaker 1: of the next plunge. Gradually, weariness grew upon me, A numbness,
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Speaker 1: an occasional stupor fell upon my mind even in the
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Speaker 1: midst of my terrors, until sleep at last intervened, and
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Speaker 1: in my sea tossed coracle. I lay and dreamed of
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Speaker 1: home and the old Admiral Benbo end of Chapter twenty three,
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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four, The Crews of the Coracle. It was
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Speaker 1: broad day when I awoke and found myself tossing at
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Speaker 1: the southwest end of Treasure Island. The sun was up,
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Speaker 1: but was still hid from me behind the great bulk
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Speaker 1: of the spyglass, which on this side descended almost to
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Speaker 1: the sea. In formidable cliffs. Hall Bowline Head and Mizzenmass
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Speaker 1: Hill were at my elbow, the hill bare and dark,
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Speaker 1: the head bound with cliffs forty or fifty feet high
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Speaker 1: and fringed with great masses of fallen rock. I was
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Speaker 1: scarcely a quarter of a mile to seaward, and it
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Speaker 1: was my first thought to paddle in and land. That
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Speaker 1: notion was soon given over among the fallen rocks. The
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Speaker 1: breakers spouted and bellowed, loud reverberations, heavy sprays, flying and
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Speaker 1: falling succeeded one another from second to second, and I
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Speaker 1: saw myself if I ventured nearer dashed to death upon
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Speaker 1: the rough shore, or spending my strength in vain to
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Speaker 1: scale the beetling crags, nor was that all four crawling
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Speaker 1: together on flat tables of rock, or letting themselves drop
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Speaker 1: into the sea with loud reports. I beheld huge, slimy monsters,
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Speaker 1: soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness, two or
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Speaker 1: three score of them together, making the rocks to echo
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Speaker 1: their barkings. I have understood since that they were sea
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Speaker 1: lions and entirely harmless. But the look of them added
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Speaker 1: to the difficulty of the shore and the high running
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Speaker 1: of the surf, and was more than enough to disgust
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Speaker 1: me of that landing place. I felt willing rather to
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Speaker 1: starve at sea than to confront such perils. In the meantime,
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Speaker 1: I had a better chance stair, as I supposed before me.
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Speaker 1: North of hall Bowling Head, the land runs in a
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Speaker 1: long way, leaving at low tide a long stretch of
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Speaker 1: yellow sand. To the north of that again there comes
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Speaker 1: another cape, cape of the woods, as it was marked
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Speaker 1: upon the chart, buried in tall green pines, which descended
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Speaker 1: to the margin of the sea. I remembered what Silver
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Speaker 1: had said about the current that sets northward along the
12:52
Speaker 1: whole west coast of Treasure Island, And seeing from my
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Speaker 1: position that I was already under its influence. I prefer
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Speaker 1: to leave hall bowling Head behind me and reserve my
13:04
Speaker 1: strength for an attempt to land upon the kindlier looking
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Speaker 1: cape of the woods. There was a great smooth swell
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Speaker 1: upon the sea, the wind blowing steadily and gentle from
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Speaker 1: the south. There was no contrarity between that and the current,
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Speaker 1: and the billows rose and fell unbroken. Had it been otherwise,
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Speaker 1: I must long ago have perished. But as it was,
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Speaker 1: it is surprising how easily and securely my little and
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Speaker 1: light boat could ride. Often, as I lay still at
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Speaker 1: the bottom and kept no more than an eye above
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Speaker 1: the gunwale, I would see a big blue summit heaving
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Speaker 1: close above me. Yet the coracle would but bounce a
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Speaker 1: little dance, as if on springs, and subside on the
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Speaker 1: other side into the trough as lightly as a bird.
13:52
Speaker 1: I began, after a little to grow very bold, and
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Speaker 1: sat up to try my skill at paddling. But even
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Speaker 1: a small chairge in the disposition of the weight will
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Speaker 1: produce violent changes in the behavior of a coracle, and
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Speaker 1: I had hardly moved before the boat giving up at
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Speaker 1: once her gentle dancing movement ran straight down a slope
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Speaker 1: of water so steep that it made me giddy, and
14:17
Speaker 1: struck her nose with a spout of spray deep into
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Speaker 1: the side of the next wave. I was drenched and terrified,
14:27
Speaker 1: and fell instantly back into my old position, whereupon the
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Speaker 1: Coracle seemed to find her head again and led me
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Speaker 1: softly as before among the billows. It was plain she
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Speaker 1: was not to be interfered with, and at any rate,
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Speaker 1: since I could in no way influence her course, what
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Speaker 1: hope had I of reaching land? I began to be
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Speaker 1: horribly frightened, but I kept my head for all that first,
14:53
Speaker 1: moving with all care, I gradually baled out the coracle
14:57
Speaker 1: with my sea cap. Then, getting my eye once more
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Speaker 1: above the gunwale, I set myself to study how it
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Speaker 1: was she managed to slip so quietly through the rollers.
15:09
Speaker 1: I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, glossy
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Speaker 1: mountain it looks from the shore or from a vessel's deck,
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Speaker 1: was for all the world like any range of hills
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Speaker 1: on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth places
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Speaker 1: and valleys. The Coracle left to herself, turning from side
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Speaker 1: to side, threaded so to speak, her way through these
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Speaker 1: lower parts, and avoided the steep slopes and higher toppling
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Speaker 1: summits of the wave. Well, now, thought I to myself.
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Speaker 1: It is plain I must lie where I am and
15:43
Speaker 1: not disturb the balance. But it is plain also that
15:47
Speaker 1: I can put the paddle over the side, and from
15:49
Speaker 1: time to time, in smooth paces, give her a shove
15:53
Speaker 1: or two towards land. No sooner thought upon than done.
15:58
Speaker 1: There I lay on my elbow in the most trying attitude,
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Speaker 1: and every now and again gave a weak stroke or
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Speaker 1: two to turn her head to shore. It was very
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Speaker 1: tiring and slow work. Yet I did visibly gain ground,
16:13
Speaker 1: And as we drew near the cape of the woods,
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Speaker 1: though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I
16:19
Speaker 1: had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was
16:23
Speaker 1: indeed close in. I could see the cool green tree
16:27
Speaker 1: tops swaying together in the breeze, and I felt sure
16:32
Speaker 1: I should make the next promontory without fail. It was
16:36
Speaker 1: high time for I now began to be tortured with thirst.
16:40
Speaker 1: The glow of the sun from above, its thousandfold reflection
16:45
Speaker 1: from the waves, The sea water that fell and dried
16:48
Speaker 1: upon me, caking my very lips with salt, combined to
16:52
Speaker 1: make my throat burn, and my brain ache. The sight
16:57
Speaker 1: of the trees so near at hand had almost made
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Speaker 1: me sick with longing. But the current had soon carried
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Speaker 1: me past the point, and as the next reach of
17:06
Speaker 1: sea opened out, I beheld a sight that changed the
17:10
Speaker 1: nature of my thoughts. Right in front of me, not
17:14
Speaker 1: half a mile away, I beheld the Hispaniola under sail.
17:19
Speaker 1: I made sure, of course, that I should be taken,
17:22
Speaker 1: but I was so distressed for want of water that
17:25
Speaker 1: I scarcely knew whether to be glad or sorry at
17:28
Speaker 1: the thought. And long before I had come to the conclusion,
17:32
Speaker 1: surprise had taken possession of my mind, and I could
17:35
Speaker 1: do nothing but stare and wonder. The Hispaniola was under
17:40
Speaker 1: her mainsail and two jibs, and the beautiful white canvas
17:44
Speaker 1: shone in the sun like snow or silver. When I
17:47
Speaker 1: first sighted her, all her sails were drawing. She was
17:51
Speaker 1: laying a course about northwest, and I presumed the men
17:54
Speaker 1: on board were going round the island on their way
17:57
Speaker 1: back to the anchorage. Presently, she began to fetch more
18:01
Speaker 1: and more to the westward, so that I thought they
18:04
Speaker 1: had sighted me and were going about in chase. At last, however,
18:09
Speaker 1: she fell right into the wind's eye, was taken dead
18:12
Speaker 1: aback and stood there awhile, helpless, with her sails shivering.
18:17
Speaker 1: Clumsy Fellows said I they must be still drunk as owls,
18:22
Speaker 1: and I thought how Captain Smollett would have set them skipping. Meanwhile,
18:27
Speaker 1: the schooner gradually fell off and filled again upon another tack,
18:32
Speaker 1: sailed swiftly for a minute or so, and brought up
18:35
Speaker 1: once more dead in the wind's eye. Again and again
18:39
Speaker 1: this was repeated to and fro up and down, north,
18:43
Speaker 1: southeast and west. The Hispaniola sailed by swoops and dashes,
18:48
Speaker 1: and at each repetition ended as she had begun, with
18:53
Speaker 1: widely flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody
18:58
Speaker 1: was steering, and if so, where were the men. Either
19:02
Speaker 1: they were dead, drunk, or had deserted her, I thought,
19:06
Speaker 1: and perhaps if I could get on board, I might
19:09
Speaker 1: return the vessel to her captain. The current was bearing
19:13
Speaker 1: coracle and schooner southward at an equal rate. As for
19:17
Speaker 1: the latter's sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and
19:21
Speaker 1: she hung each time so long in irons that she
19:24
Speaker 1: certainly gained nothing, if she did not even lose. If
19:28
Speaker 1: I only dared to sit up and paddle. I made
19:32
Speaker 1: sure that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an
19:35
Speaker 1: air of adventure that inspired me, and the thought of
19:38
Speaker 1: the water breaker beside the foe companion doubled my growing courage.
19:43
Speaker 1: Up I got was welcomed almost instantly by another cloud
19:47
Speaker 1: of spray, But this time stuck to my purpose and
19:50
Speaker 1: set myself with all my strength and caution to paddle
19:54
Speaker 1: after the unsteered hispaniola. Once I shipped to sea so
19:58
Speaker 1: heavy that I had to stop and bale, with my
20:01
Speaker 1: heart fluttering like a bird. But gradually I got into
20:05
Speaker 1: the way of the thing and guided my coracle among
20:07
Speaker 1: the waves with only now and then a blow upon
20:11
Speaker 1: her bows and a dash of foam in my face.
20:15
Speaker 1: I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner. I could
20:18
Speaker 1: see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged about,
20:22
Speaker 1: and still no soul appeared upon her decks. I could
20:26
Speaker 1: not choose, but suppose she was deserted. If not, the
20:30
Speaker 1: men were lying drunk below, where I might batten them down,
20:33
Speaker 1: perhaps and do what I chose with the ship. For
20:36
Speaker 1: some time she had been doing the worst thing possible
20:39
Speaker 1: for me, standing still she headed nearly due south, yawing,
20:44
Speaker 1: of course all the time. Each time she fell off,
20:48
Speaker 1: her sails partly filled, and these brought her in a
20:51
Speaker 1: moment right to the wind again. I have said this
20:54
Speaker 1: was the worst thing possible for me. For helpless as
20:57
Speaker 1: she looked in this situation, with the camp of us
21:00
Speaker 1: crackling like cannon, and the blocks trundling and banging on
21:03
Speaker 1: the deck, she still continued to run away from me,
21:07
Speaker 1: not only with the speed of the current, but by
21:10
Speaker 1: the whole amount of her leeway, which was naturally great.
21:14
Speaker 1: But now at last I had my chance. The breeze
21:17
Speaker 1: fell for some seconds very low, and the current gradually
21:22
Speaker 1: turning her. The hispaniola revolved slowly around her center and
21:27
Speaker 1: at last presented me her stern, with the cabin windows
21:30
Speaker 1: still gaping open, and the lamp over the table still
21:34
Speaker 1: burning on into the day. The mainsail hung drooped like
21:38
Speaker 1: a banner. She was stock still but for the current.
21:42
Speaker 1: For the last little while I had even lost. But
21:45
Speaker 1: now redoubling my efforts, I began once more to overhaul
21:48
Speaker 1: the chase. I was not a hundred yards from her
21:52
Speaker 1: when the wind came again in a clap. She filled
21:55
Speaker 1: on the port tack, and was off again, stooping and
21:58
Speaker 1: skimming like a swallow. My first impulse was one of despair,
22:02
Speaker 1: but my second was towards joy. Round she came till
22:07
Speaker 1: she was broadside on to me, round still, till she
22:11
Speaker 1: had covered a half, and then two thirds, and then
22:14
Speaker 1: three quarters of the distance that separated us. I could
22:17
Speaker 1: see the waves boiling white under her fore foot. Immensely tall,
22:22
Speaker 1: she looked to me from my low station in the coracle,
22:26
Speaker 1: and then of a sudden I began to comprehend. I
22:29
Speaker 1: had scarce time to think, scarce time to act and
22:33
Speaker 1: save myself. I was on the summit of one swell
22:37
Speaker 1: when the schooner came swooping over the next. The bowsprit
22:40
Speaker 1: was over my head. I sprang on my feet and leapt,
22:44
Speaker 1: stamping the coracle under water with one hand. I caught
22:48
Speaker 1: the jiboom while my foot was lodged between the stay
22:51
Speaker 1: and the brace. And as I still clung there, panting,
22:55
Speaker 1: a dull blow told me that the schooner had charged
22:58
Speaker 1: down upon and struck the coracle, and that I was
23:02
Speaker 1: left without retreat on the Hispaniola. End of Chapter twenty
23:07
Speaker 1: four