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

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