Latest / Children's Stories Collection / Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson Part 1
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter one, at the Admiral Benbow, Squirelawney, Doctor Livesey, and
- 0:06Speaker 1: the rest of these gentlemen, having asked me to write
- 0:10Speaker 1: down the whole particulars about Treasure Island from the beginning
- 0:13Speaker 1: to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of
- 0:17Speaker 1: the island, and that only because there is still treasure
- 0:20Speaker 1: not yet lifted. I take up my pen in the
- 0:23Speaker 1: year of Grace seventeen HM, and go back to the
- 0:27Speaker 1: time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn, and
- 0:31Speaker 1: the brown old seaman with the saber cut first took
- 0:35Speaker 1: up his lodging under our roof. I remember him as
- 0:39Speaker 1: if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the
- 0:42Speaker 1: inn door, his sea chest following behind him in a
- 0:45Speaker 1: hand barrow, A tall, strong, heavy nut brown man, his
- 0:51Speaker 1: tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat,
- 0:55Speaker 1: his hands ragged and scarred with dirty broken nails, and
- 1:00Speaker 1: the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
- 1:06Speaker 1: I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to
- 1:09Speaker 1: himself as he did so, and then breaking out in
- 1:12Speaker 1: that old sea song that he sang so often afterwards.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Fifty men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho,
- 1:23Speaker 1: and a bottle of rum in the high, old tottering
- 1:28Speaker 1: voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at
- 1:31Speaker 1: the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with
- 1:34Speaker 1: a bit of a stick like a hand spike that
- 1:37Speaker 1: he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for
- 1:41Speaker 1: a glass of rum. This when it was brought to him,
- 1:44Speaker 1: he drank slowly like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste,
- 1:49Speaker 1: and still looking about him at the cliffs and up
- 1:52Speaker 1: at our signboard. This is a handy cove, says he
- 1:57Speaker 1: at length, and a pleasant cityated grog shop. Much company, mate,
- 2:03Speaker 1: my father told him, non, very little company. The more
- 2:07Speaker 1: was the pity. Well, then, says he, this is the
- 2:12Speaker 1: berth for me. Here, you matey, he cried to the
- 2:15Speaker 1: man who trumbled the barrow, Bring up a longside and
- 2:19Speaker 1: help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit, he continued.
- 2:24Speaker 1: I'm a plain man. Rum and bacon and eggs is
- 2:27Speaker 1: what I want. And that head up there to watch
- 2:30Speaker 1: ships off? What you monk called me? You munk called
- 2:35Speaker 1: me captain. Oh, I see what you're at there, And
- 2:40Speaker 1: he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold.
- 2:44Speaker 1: You can tell me when I've worked through that, said he,
- 2:48Speaker 1: looking as fierce as a commander, and indeed bad as
- 2:52Speaker 1: his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke. He had
- 2:55Speaker 1: none of the appearance of a man who sailed before
- 2:58Speaker 1: the mast, but see seemed like a mate or a skipper,
- 3:02Speaker 1: accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who
- 3:06Speaker 1: came with the barrow told us the male had set
- 3:09Speaker 1: him down the morning before at the Royal George, that
- 3:12Speaker 1: he had inquired what inns were along the coast, and
- 3:16Speaker 1: hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely,
- 3:21Speaker 1: had chosen it from the others for his place of residence.
- 3:25Speaker 1: And that was all we could learn of our guest.
- 3:28Speaker 1: He was a very silent man by custom. All day
- 3:32Speaker 1: he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with
- 3:34Speaker 1: a brass telescope. All evening he sat in the corner
- 3:38Speaker 1: of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and
- 3:42Speaker 1: water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to,
- 3:47Speaker 1: only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his
- 3:50Speaker 1: nose like a fog horn. And we and the people
- 3:53Speaker 1: who came about our house soon learned to let him
- 3:56Speaker 1: be every day when he came back from his stroll,
- 4:00Speaker 1: he would ask if any sea ferry man had gone
- 4:03Speaker 1: by along the road. At first we thought it was
- 4:06Speaker 1: the want of company of his own kind that made
- 4:08Speaker 1: him ask this question, but at last we began to
- 4:11Speaker 1: see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman
- 4:15Speaker 1: put up the admiral benbow, and now and then some
- 4:19Speaker 1: did making by the coast road for Bristol. He would
- 4:22Speaker 1: look in at him through the curtained door before he
- 4:25Speaker 1: entered the parlor, and he was always sure to be
- 4:28Speaker 1: as silent as a mouse when any such was present.
- 4:31Speaker 1: For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter,
- 4:34Speaker 1: for I was, in a way a sharer in his alarms.
- 4:38Speaker 1: He had taken me aside one day and promised me
- 4:41Speaker 1: a silver forpenny on the first of every month, if
- 4:45Speaker 1: I would only keep my whever eye open for a
- 4:48Speaker 1: seafery man with one leg and let him know the moment.
- 4:52Speaker 1: He appeared often enough. When the first of the month
- 4:56Speaker 1: came round and I applied to him for my wage,
- 4:59Speaker 1: he would ow only blow through his nose at me
- 5:02Speaker 1: and stare me down. But before the week was out
- 5:05Speaker 1: he was sure to think better of it, bring me
- 5:07Speaker 1: my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out
- 5:11Speaker 1: for the sea fairy man with one leg. How that
- 5:16Speaker 1: personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On
- 5:21Speaker 1: stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of
- 5:24Speaker 1: the house, and the surf roared along the cove and
- 5:27Speaker 1: up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand
- 5:30Speaker 1: forms and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg
- 5:36Speaker 1: would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip.
- 5:40Speaker 1: Now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who
- 5:43Speaker 1: never had but one leg, and that in the middle
- 5:46Speaker 1: of his body. To see him leap and run and
- 5:49Speaker 1: pursue me over the hedge and ditch was the worst
- 5:52Speaker 1: of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my
- 5:56Speaker 1: monthly fourpenny piece in the shape of these uble fantasies.
- 6:02Speaker 1: But though I was so terrified by the idea of
- 6:04Speaker 1: the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less
- 6:08Speaker 1: afraid of the Captain himself than anybody else who knew him.
- 6:12Speaker 1: There were nights when he took a great deal more
- 6:14Speaker 1: rum and water than his head would carry, And then
- 6:17Speaker 1: he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked old wild
- 6:21Speaker 1: sea songs, minding nobody. But sometimes he would call for
- 6:26Speaker 1: glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen
- 6:30Speaker 1: to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing.
- 6:34Speaker 1: Often I have heard the house shaking with yo, ho ho,
- 6:37Speaker 1: and a bottle of rum, all the neighbors joining in
- 6:41Speaker 1: for dear life, with the fear of death upon them,
- 6:45Speaker 1: and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.
- 6:49Speaker 1: For in these fits he was the most overriding companion
- 6:53Speaker 1: ever known. He would slap his hand on the table
- 6:56Speaker 1: for silence all around. He would fly up in a
- 7:00Speaker 1: passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none
- 7:04Speaker 1: was put, and so he judged the company was not
- 7:06Speaker 1: following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave
- 7:11Speaker 1: the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled
- 7:14Speaker 1: off to bed. His stories were what frightened people worst
- 7:18Speaker 1: of all dreadful stories. They were about hanging and walking
- 7:23Speaker 1: the plank, and storms at sea, and the dry ortugas,
- 7:27Speaker 1: and wild deeds and places on the Spanish main. By
- 7:31Speaker 1: his own account, he must have lived his life among
- 7:34Speaker 1: some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon
- 7:37Speaker 1: the sea, and the language in which he told these
- 7:40Speaker 1: stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as
- 7:44Speaker 1: the crimes that he described. My father was always saying
- 7:48Speaker 1: the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease
- 7:51Speaker 1: coming there, to be tyrannized over and put down and
- 7:55Speaker 1: sent shivering to their beds. But I really believe his
- 7:58Speaker 1: presence did us good. People were frightened at the time,
- 8:03Speaker 1: but on looking back, they rather liked it. It was
- 8:06Speaker 1: a fine excitement in a quiet country life. And there
- 8:10Speaker 1: was even a party of the younger men who pretended
- 8:12Speaker 1: to admire him, calling him a true sea dog and
- 8:16Speaker 1: a real old salt, and such like names, and saying
- 8:20Speaker 1: there was the sort of man that made England terrible
- 8:24Speaker 1: at sea. In one way, indeed, he bad fair to
- 8:28Speaker 1: ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week,
- 8:32Speaker 1: and at last month after month, so that all the
- 8:35Speaker 1: money had been long exhausted, and still my father never
- 8:39Speaker 1: plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If
- 8:42Speaker 1: ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose
- 8:45Speaker 1: so loudly that you might say that he roared and
- 8:48Speaker 1: stared my poor father out of the room. I have
- 8:52Speaker 1: seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and
- 8:55Speaker 1: I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived
- 8:58Speaker 1: in must have greatly hated his early and unhappy death.
- 9:03Speaker 1: All the time he lived with us, the captain made
- 9:05Speaker 1: no change whatever in his dress, but to buy some
- 9:08Speaker 1: stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his
- 9:11Speaker 1: hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that
- 9:15Speaker 1: day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew.
- 9:18Speaker 1: I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched
- 9:22Speaker 1: himself upstairs in his room, and which before the end
- 9:25Speaker 1: was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter,
- 9:30Speaker 1: and he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and
- 9:33Speaker 1: with these for the most part, only when drunk on
- 9:36Speaker 1: rum the great sea chest none of us had ever
- 9:40Speaker 1: seen open. He was only once crossed, and that was
- 9:45Speaker 1: toward the end, when my father was far gone in
- 9:48Speaker 1: a decline that took him off. Doctor Livesey came late
- 9:52Speaker 1: one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of
- 9:54Speaker 1: dinner from my mother, and went into the parlor to
- 9:57Speaker 1: smoke a pipe until his horse should come from the hamlet,
- 10:01Speaker 1: for we had no stabling at the old benbo. I
- 10:04Speaker 1: followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the
- 10:08Speaker 1: neat bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow,
- 10:12Speaker 1: and his bright black eyes and pleasant manners made with
- 10:16Speaker 1: the Coltish country folk, and above all that filthy, heavy
- 10:21Speaker 1: bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone
- 10:25Speaker 1: in rum with his arms on the table. Suddenly he,
- 10:30Speaker 1: the Captain, that is, began to pipe his eternal song,
- 10:34Speaker 1: fifteen men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho, and
- 10:39Speaker 1: a bottle of rum drink, and the devil have done
- 10:44Speaker 1: further rest yoo, and a bottle love rum. At first
- 10:51Speaker 1: I had supposed the dead man's chest to be that
- 10:55Speaker 1: identical big box of his upstairs in the front room,
- 10:59Speaker 1: and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with
- 11:01Speaker 1: that of the one legged seafaring man. But by this
- 11:05Speaker 1: time we had all long ceased to pay any particular
- 11:08Speaker 1: notice to the song. It was new that night to
- 11:11Speaker 1: nobody but Doctor Livesey, and on him I observe it
- 11:15Speaker 1: did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up
- 11:18Speaker 1: for a moment quite angrily, before he went on with
- 11:21Speaker 1: his talk to Old Taylor the gardener on a new
- 11:24Speaker 1: cure for roematics. In the meantime, the Captain gradually brightened
- 11:30Speaker 1: up at his own music, and at last flapped his
- 11:33Speaker 1: hand upon the table before him, in a way we
- 11:36Speaker 1: all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped at once,
- 11:41Speaker 1: all but Doctor Livesey's. He went on as before, speaking
- 11:45Speaker 1: clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe. Between
- 11:49Speaker 1: every word or two, the captain glared at him for
- 11:53Speaker 1: a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and
- 11:57Speaker 1: at last broke out with a villainous oath. Silence there
- 12:02Speaker 1: between decks, you were addressing me, sar, said the doctor.
- 12:07Speaker 1: And when the Ruffian had told him with another oath
- 12:10Speaker 1: that this was so, replied, I have only one thing
- 12:13Speaker 1: to say to you, sir, that if you keep on
- 12:16Speaker 1: drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a
- 12:20Speaker 1: very dirty scoundrel. The old fellow's fury was awful. He
- 12:27Speaker 1: sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor's clasp knife, and,
- 12:32Speaker 1: balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened
- 12:35Speaker 1: to pin the doctor to the wall. The doctor never
- 12:38Speaker 1: so much as moved. He spoke to him as before,
- 12:41Speaker 1: over his shoulder, and in the same tone of voice,
- 12:45Speaker 1: rather high so that all the room might hear, but
- 12:49Speaker 1: perfectly calm and steady, if you do not put that
- 12:54Speaker 1: knife this instant into your pocket, I promise upon my honor,
- 12:59Speaker 1: you shall hang at the next assizes. Then followed a
- 13:04Speaker 1: battle of looks between them, but the Captain soon knuckled under,
- 13:09Speaker 1: put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like
- 13:13Speaker 1: a beaten dog. And now, Sir, continued the doctor, since
- 13:18Speaker 1: I now know there's such a fellow in my district,
- 13:21Speaker 1: you may count I'll have an eye upon you day
- 13:24Speaker 1: and night. I'm not a doctor, only, I'm a magistrate.
- 13:29Speaker 1: And if I catch a breath of complaint against you,
- 13:33Speaker 1: if it's only for a piece of incivility like to nights,
- 13:37Speaker 1: I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and
- 13:41Speaker 1: routed out of this let that suffice. Soon after, doctor
- 13:47Speaker 1: Livesey's horse came to the door, and he rode away.
- 13:51Speaker 1: But the Captain held his peace that evening and for
- 13:54Speaker 1: many evenings to come. And of chapter one, Chapter two,
- 14:02Speaker 1: black Dog appears and disappears. It was not very long
- 14:07Speaker 1: after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious
- 14:11Speaker 1: events that rid us at last of the Captain, though
- 14:14Speaker 1: not as you will see of his affairs. It was
- 14:19Speaker 1: a bitter cold winter with long, hard frosts and heavy gales,
- 14:24Speaker 1: and it was plain from the first that my poor
- 14:27Speaker 1: father was little likely to see the spring. He sank daily,
- 14:31Speaker 1: and my mother and I had all the inn upon
- 14:33Speaker 1: our hands, and were kept busy enough without paying much
- 14:37Speaker 1: regard to our unpleasant guest. It was one January morning,
- 14:42Speaker 1: very early, a pinching frosty morning, the cove all gray
- 14:47Speaker 1: with hoar frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones,
- 14:51Speaker 1: the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and
- 14:55Speaker 1: shining far to seaward. The Captain had risen earlier than
- 14:59Speaker 1: you usual, and sat out down the beach, his cutlass
- 15:03Speaker 1: swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat,
- 15:07Speaker 1: his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back
- 15:10Speaker 1: upon his head. I remember his breath hanging like smoke
- 15:14Speaker 1: in his wake as he strode off, and the last
- 15:17Speaker 1: sound I heard of him as he turned the big
- 15:20Speaker 1: rock was a loud snort of indignation, as though his
- 15:24Speaker 1: mind was still running upon doctor livesey Well. Mother was
- 15:29Speaker 1: upstairs with father, and I was laying the breakfast table
- 15:32Speaker 1: against the Captain's return, when the parlor door opened and
- 15:36Speaker 1: a man stepped in on whom I had never set
- 15:40Speaker 1: my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting
- 15:45Speaker 1: two fingers of the left hand, and though he wore
- 15:48Speaker 1: a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter.
- 15:52Speaker 1: I had always my eyes open for seafaring men with
- 15:55Speaker 1: one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me.
- 16:00Speaker 1: He was not sailory, and yet he had a smack
- 16:04Speaker 1: of the sea about him too. I asked him what
- 16:07Speaker 1: was for his service, and he said he would take rum.
- 16:11Speaker 1: But as I was going out of the room to
- 16:13Speaker 1: fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned
- 16:17Speaker 1: to me to draw near. I paused where I was
- 16:20Speaker 1: with my napkin in my hand. Come here, Sanny said
- 16:25Speaker 1: he Come nearer.
- 16:27Speaker 2: Here.
- 16:28Speaker 1: I took a step nearer. Is this tire table for
- 16:32Speaker 1: my mate Bill, he asked, with a kind of leer.
- 16:36Speaker 1: I told him I did not know his mate Bill,
- 16:39Speaker 1: and this was for a person who stayed at our house,
- 16:42Speaker 1: whom we called the Captain. Well said he. My mate
- 16:47Speaker 1: Bill would be called the Captain like as not. He
- 16:51Speaker 1: has a cut on one cheek and a mighty pleasant
- 16:55Speaker 1: way with him, particularly in drink. As my mate Bill,
- 17:00Speaker 1: we'll put it for argument like that. Your captain has
- 17:04Speaker 1: a cut on one cheek, and we'll put it if
- 17:07Speaker 1: you like that. That cheek's the right one. Ah, well,
- 17:12Speaker 1: I told you. Now, is my mate Bill in this
- 17:16Speaker 1: here house. I told him he was out walking? Which way, sonny?
- 17:22Speaker 1: Which way is he gone? And when I pointed out
- 17:25Speaker 1: the rock and told him how the captain was likely
- 17:27Speaker 1: to return and how soon, and answered a few other questions,
- 17:32Speaker 1: ah said he this will be as good as drink
- 17:36Speaker 1: to my mate Bill. The expression of his face as
- 17:40Speaker 1: he said these words was not at all pleasant, And
- 17:44Speaker 1: I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger
- 17:47Speaker 1: was mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But
- 17:51Speaker 1: it was no affair of mine, I thought, And besides,
- 17:54Speaker 1: it was difficult to know what to do. The stranger
- 17:57Speaker 1: kept hanging about just inside the in door, peering round
- 18:02Speaker 1: the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once
- 18:06Speaker 1: I stepped out myself into the road, but he immediately
- 18:09Speaker 1: called me back, and as I did not obey quick
- 18:12Speaker 1: enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over
- 18:16Speaker 1: his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an
- 18:20Speaker 1: oath that made me jump. As soon as I was
- 18:23Speaker 1: back again, he returned to his former manner, half fawning,
- 18:27Speaker 1: half sneering, patted me on the shoulder and told me
- 18:30Speaker 1: I was a good boy, and he had taken quite
- 18:33Speaker 1: a fancy to me. I have a son of my own, said,
- 18:37Speaker 1: he as like to you as two blocks, and he's
- 18:41Speaker 1: all the pride of my heart. But the great thing
- 18:45Speaker 1: for boys is discipline, sonny, discipline. Now, if you had
- 18:52Speaker 1: sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to
- 18:55Speaker 1: be spoke to twice, not you. That was never Bill's way,
- 19:00Speaker 1: nor the way of sitchers sailed with him. And here,
- 19:04Speaker 1: sure enough is my mate Bill with a spyglass under
- 19:09Speaker 1: his arm, bless his old art. To be sure, you
- 19:13Speaker 1: and me just go back into the parlor, sonny, and
- 19:16Speaker 1: get behind the door, and we'll give bit a little surprise.
- 19:20Speaker 1: Blesses he, I say again, so saying, the stranger backed
- 19:25Speaker 1: along with me into the parlor and put me behind
- 19:28Speaker 1: him into the corner, so that we were both hidden
- 19:31Speaker 1: by the open door. I was very uneasy and alarmed,
- 19:34Speaker 1: as you may fancy, but it rather added to my
- 19:37Speaker 1: fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself.
- 19:42Speaker 1: He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the
- 19:45Speaker 1: blade in the sheath. And all the time we were
- 19:47Speaker 1: waiting there, he kept swallowing, as if he felt what
- 19:51Speaker 1: we used to call a lump in the throat. At last,
- 19:55Speaker 1: in Strode, the captain slammed the door behind him, without
- 19:58Speaker 1: looking to the right, ord left, and marched straight across
- 20:02Speaker 1: the room to where his breakfast waited him. Bill, said
- 20:06Speaker 1: the stranger, in a voice that I thought he had
- 20:08Speaker 1: tried to make bald and big. The captain spun round
- 20:12Speaker 1: on his heel and fronted us. All the brown had
- 20:16Speaker 1: gone out of his face, and even his nose was blue,
- 20:20Speaker 1: and he had the look of a man who sees
- 20:22Speaker 1: a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, if
- 20:26Speaker 1: anything can be. And upon my word, I felt sorry
- 20:30Speaker 1: to see him all in a moment turn so old
- 20:33Speaker 1: and sick. Come Bill, you know me, You know an
- 20:38Speaker 1: old shipmate, Bill, surely, said the stranger. The captain made
- 20:44Speaker 1: a sort of gasp, black Dog said he, and who
- 20:49Speaker 1: else returned the other, getting more at his ease. Black Dog,
- 20:53Speaker 1: as ever, was comfort to seize our shipmate Billy at
- 20:58Speaker 1: the Admiral benbow inn. Oh Bill, Bill, we have seen
- 21:02Speaker 1: a sight of times us too, since I lost them
- 21:06Speaker 1: two talons, holding up his mutilated hand. Now look here,
- 21:11Speaker 1: said the captain. You've rum me down here, I am well,
- 21:15Speaker 1: then speak up. What is it that's you? Bill returned
- 21:20Speaker 1: black Dog. You're in the right of it, Billy. I'll
- 21:23Speaker 1: have a glass of rum from this dear child here,
- 21:27Speaker 1: as I've took such a lik into, and we'll sit
- 21:30Speaker 1: down if you please, and talk square like old shipmates.
- 21:35Speaker 1: When I returned with the rum, they were already seated
- 21:38Speaker 1: on either side of the captain's breakfast table, black Dog
- 21:42Speaker 1: next to the door and sitting sideways so as to
- 21:45Speaker 1: have one eye on his shipmate and one as I
- 21:47Speaker 1: thought on his retreat. He bade me go and leave
- 21:51Speaker 1: the door wide open. None of your key holes for me, Sanny,
- 21:55Speaker 1: he said, And I left them together and retired into
- 21:58Speaker 1: the bar. A long time. Though I certainly did my
- 22:02Speaker 1: best to listen, I could hear nothing but low gabbling,
- 22:06Speaker 1: And at last the voices began to grow higher, and
- 22:09Speaker 1: I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths
- 22:12Speaker 1: from the captain. No no, no, no, and an end
- 22:17Speaker 1: of it, he cried, once and again. If it comes
- 22:20Speaker 1: to swing in swing, oh say I then all of
- 22:24Speaker 1: a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and
- 22:28Speaker 1: other noises. The chair and table went over in a lump.
- 22:32Speaker 1: A clash of steel followed, and then a cry of pain.
- 22:36Speaker 1: And the next instant I saw black Dog in full
- 22:39Speaker 1: flight and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses,
- 22:44Speaker 1: and the former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just
- 22:49Speaker 1: at the door, the captain aimed at the fugitive one
- 22:52Speaker 1: last tremendous cut, which would certainly have split him to
- 22:56Speaker 1: the chin had it not been intercepted by our big
- 22:59Speaker 1: sign board of Admiral Benbow. You may see the notch
- 23:04Speaker 1: on the lower side of the frame to this day.
- 23:07Speaker 1: That blow was the last of the battle. Once out
- 23:11Speaker 1: upon the road, black Dog, in spite of his wound,
- 23:13Speaker 1: showed a wonderful clean pair of heels and disappeared over
- 23:17Speaker 1: the edge of the hill in half a minute. The Captain,
- 23:21Speaker 1: for his part, stood staring at the sign board like
- 23:23Speaker 1: a bewildered man. Then he passed his hand over his
- 23:27Speaker 1: eyes several times, and at last turned back into the house.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Jim says, he rum and as he spoke he reeled
- 23:36Speaker 1: a little and caught himself with one hand against the wall.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Are you hurt? Cried I rum, he repeated, I must
- 23:45Speaker 1: get away from here, Rum Rum. I ran to fetch it,
- 23:50Speaker 1: but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen out,
- 23:53Speaker 1: and I broke one glass and fowled the tap. And
- 23:56Speaker 1: while I was still getting in my own way, I
- 23:59Speaker 1: heard a loud fall in the parlor, and running in
- 24:02Speaker 1: beheld the Captain lying full length upon the floor. At
- 24:07Speaker 1: the same instant, my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting,
- 24:11Speaker 1: came running downstairs to help me. Between us we raised
- 24:15Speaker 1: his head. He was breathing very loud and hard, but
- 24:18Speaker 1: his eyes were closed and his face was a horrible color. Dear,
- 24:24Speaker 1: deary me, cried my mother, What a disgrace upon the house,
- 24:29Speaker 1: and your poor father's sick. In the meantime, we had
- 24:34Speaker 1: no idea what to do to help the captain, nor
- 24:37Speaker 1: any other thought but that he had got his death
- 24:39Speaker 1: hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. I got the
- 24:43Speaker 1: rum to be sure, and try to put it down
- 24:45Speaker 1: his throat, but his teeth were tightly shut and his
- 24:49Speaker 1: jaws as strong as iron. It was a happy relief
- 24:53Speaker 1: to us when the door opened and doctor Livesey came
- 24:56Speaker 1: in on his visit to my father. Oh doctor, we cried, what.
- 25:01Speaker 3: Shall we do?
- 25:02Speaker 1: Where is he wounded? Wounded a fiddlestick's end, said the doctor.
- 25:07Speaker 1: No more wounded than your eye. The man has had
- 25:11Speaker 1: a stroke, as I warned him. Now, missus Hawkins, just
- 25:14Speaker 1: you run up stairs to your husband and tell him,
- 25:17Speaker 1: if possible, nothing about it. For my part, I must
- 25:21Speaker 1: do my best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life.
- 25:25Speaker 1: And Jim, you get me a basin. When I got
- 25:28Speaker 1: back with the basin, the doctor had already ripped up
- 25:31Speaker 1: the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm. It
- 25:36Speaker 1: was tattooed in several places. Here's luck, a fair wind,
- 25:41Speaker 1: and Billy Bones his fancy were very neatly and clearly executed.
- 25:46Speaker 1: On the forearm, and up near the shoulder there was
- 25:49Speaker 1: a sketch of the gallows and a man hanging from it.
- 25:52Speaker 1: Done as I thought, with great spirit prophetic, said the doctor,
- 25:58Speaker 1: touching this picture with his finger. And now, master Billy Bones,
- 26:01Speaker 1: if that be your name, we'll have a look at
- 26:04Speaker 1: the color of your blood. Jim, he said, are you
- 26:08Speaker 1: afraid of blood? No, sir, said I well, then, said he,
- 26:13Speaker 1: you hold the basin, And with that he took his
- 26:17Speaker 1: lancet and opened a vein. A great deal of blood
- 26:20Speaker 1: was taken before the captain opened his eyes and looked
- 26:23Speaker 1: mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with an
- 26:27Speaker 1: unmistakable frown. Then his glance fell upon me, and he
- 26:31Speaker 1: looked relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he tried
- 26:35Speaker 1: to raise himself, crying, where's black dog. There's no black
- 26:41Speaker 1: dog here, said the doctor, except what you have on
- 26:44Speaker 1: your own back. You have been drinking rum. You have
- 26:48Speaker 1: had a stroke precisely as I told you, and I
- 26:52Speaker 1: have just very much against my own will, dragged you
- 26:56Speaker 1: head foremost out of the grave. Now, mister Bones, that's
- 27:00Speaker 1: not my name, he interrupted, much I care, returned the doctor.
- 27:06Speaker 1: It's the name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance, and
- 27:08Speaker 1: I'll call you by it for the sake of shortness.
- 27:11Speaker 1: But what I have to say to you is this.
- 27:14Speaker 1: One glass of rum won't kill you. But if you
- 27:17Speaker 1: take one, you'll take another and another, and I'll stake
- 27:20Speaker 1: my wig. If you don't break off short you'll die.
- 27:24Speaker 1: Do you understand that? Die and go to your own
- 27:27Speaker 1: place like the man in the Bible. Come now, make
- 27:32Speaker 1: an effort. I'll help you to your bed. For once
- 27:36Speaker 1: between us, with much trouble, we managed to hoist him
- 27:39Speaker 1: upstairs and laid him on his bed, where his head
- 27:42Speaker 1: fell back on the pillow, as if he was almost fainting.
- 27:46Speaker 1: Now mind you, said the doctor. I clear my conscience.
- 27:51Speaker 1: The name of Rum for you is death. And with
- 27:55Speaker 1: that he went off to see my father, taking me
- 27:58Speaker 1: with him by the arm. This is nothing, he said,
- 28:02Speaker 1: as soon as he had closed the door. I have
- 28:05Speaker 1: drawn blood enough to keep him quiet a while. He
- 28:08Speaker 1: should lie for a week where he is. That is
- 28:11Speaker 1: the best thing for him and you. But another stroke
- 28:15Speaker 1: would settle him. End of Chapter two, Chapter three, The
- 28:21Speaker 1: Black Spot. About noon I stopped at the Captain's door
- 28:26Speaker 1: with some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying very
- 28:29Speaker 1: much as we had left him, only a little higher,
- 28:32Speaker 1: and he seemed both weak and excited. Jim, he said,
- 28:38Speaker 1: you're the only one here that's worth anything. And you
- 28:42Speaker 1: know I've always been good to you, never a month,
- 28:45Speaker 1: but I've given you a silver fourpenny for yourself. And
- 28:49Speaker 1: now you see, mate, I'm pretty low and deserted by all,
- 28:54Speaker 1: and Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now,
- 28:58Speaker 1: won't you? Matey the doctor, I began, but he broke in,
- 29:03Speaker 1: cursing the doctor in a feeble voice. But heartily, doctors
- 29:07Speaker 1: is all swabs, he said. And that doctor there, why
- 29:12Speaker 1: what does he know about seafaring men. I've been in
- 29:16Speaker 1: places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with yellow jack,
- 29:22Speaker 1: and the blessed land are heaving like the sea with earthquakes?
- 29:27Speaker 1: What do the doctor know of lands like that? And
- 29:30Speaker 1: I've lived on rum. I can tell you It's been
- 29:34Speaker 1: meat and drink and man and wife to me. And
- 29:37Speaker 1: if I'm not to have my rum now I'm a
- 29:40Speaker 1: poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood'll be
- 29:44Speaker 1: on you. Jim Man that doctor swab And he ran
- 29:48Speaker 1: on again for a while with curses. Look, Jim, how
- 29:53Speaker 1: my fingers fidgies, he continued, in the pleading tone. I
- 29:58Speaker 1: can't keep him still not I. I haven't had a drop
- 30:02Speaker 1: this blessed day. That doctor's a fool. I tell you,
- 30:06Speaker 1: if I don't have a drain a rum, Jim, I'll
- 30:09Speaker 1: have the horrors. I seen some on em already. I
- 30:13Speaker 1: seen old flint in the corner there behind you, plain
- 30:17Speaker 1: as print. I've seen him, and if I get the horrors,
- 30:21Speaker 1: I'm a man that has lived rath and I'll raise caine.
- 30:26Speaker 1: Your doctor isself said one glass wouldn't hurt me. I'll
- 30:30Speaker 1: give you a golden guinea for a nogin Jim. He
- 30:34Speaker 1: was growing more and more excited, and this alarmed me,
- 30:37Speaker 1: for my father, who was very low that day, needed quiet. Besides,
- 30:42Speaker 1: I was reassured by the doctor's words now quoted to me,
- 30:46Speaker 1: and rather offended by the offer of a bribe. I
- 30:49Speaker 1: want none of your money, said I. But what you
- 30:53Speaker 1: owe my father, I'll get you one glass and no more.
- 30:57Speaker 1: When I brought it to him, he seized it reedily
- 31:00Speaker 1: and drank it out. Ah Ay, said he. That's some better,
- 31:06Speaker 1: sure enough. And now, Matie, did that doctor say how
- 31:10Speaker 1: long I was to lie here in this old berth?
- 31:13Speaker 1: A week at least, said I thunder. He cried, a week.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I can't do that. They'd have the black spot on
- 31:22Speaker 1: me by then. The lobbers is going to get the
- 31:25Speaker 1: wind of me. This blessed moment. Lobbers as couldn't keep
- 31:29Speaker 1: what they got, and what to nail? What is another's
- 31:33Speaker 1: is that seemingly behavior. Now I want to know. But
- 31:36Speaker 1: I'm a saving soul. I never wasted good money of mine,
- 31:40Speaker 1: nor lost it neither, And I'll trick em again. I'm
- 31:44Speaker 1: not afraid on them. I'll shake out another reef Matie
- 31:48Speaker 1: and dandle them again. As he was thus speaking, he
- 31:52Speaker 1: had risen from bed with great difficulty, holding to my
- 31:55Speaker 1: shoulder with a grip that almost made me cry out,
- 31:58Speaker 1: and moving his legs like so much dead weight. His words,
- 32:03Speaker 1: spirited as they were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the
- 32:06Speaker 1: weakness of the voice in which they were uttered. He paused,
- 32:10Speaker 1: when he had got into a sitting position on the edge.
- 32:13Speaker 1: That doctor's done me, he murmured. My ears is singing.
- 32:18Speaker 1: Lay me back. Before I could do much to help him,
- 32:22Speaker 1: he had fallen back again to his former place, where
- 32:25Speaker 1: he lay for a while silent. Jim, he said, at length,
- 32:31Speaker 1: you saw that seafiry man today, black Dog? I asked, ah.
- 32:37Speaker 1: Black Dog said he he's Abbaddon, but there's worse that
- 32:42Speaker 1: put him on ne far. Can't get away no how,
- 32:46Speaker 1: And they tipped me the black spot. Mind you, it's
- 32:49Speaker 1: my old sea chest. Thereafter you get on a horse,
- 32:54Speaker 1: you can can't you. Well, then you get on a
- 32:57Speaker 1: horse and go to Well, yes, I will to that
- 33:01Speaker 1: eternal doctor Swab and tell him to pipe all hands,
- 33:05Speaker 1: magistrates and sitch, and he'll lay them aboard at the
- 33:09Speaker 1: Admiral Benbo all Old Flint's crew man and boy all
- 33:14Speaker 1: on them that's left. I was first mate. I was
- 33:18Speaker 1: Old Flint's first mate, and I'm the only one as
- 33:22Speaker 1: knows the place he gave it, me to Savannah when
- 33:26Speaker 1: he lay a dine like as if I was to
- 33:29Speaker 1: now you see, but you won't peach unless they got
- 33:32Speaker 1: the black spot on me, or unless you see that
- 33:35Speaker 1: black dog again, or a seafaring man with one leg.
- 33:39Speaker 1: Jim him above all. But what is the black spot? Captain?
- 33:45Speaker 1: I asked, That's a summon's mate. I'll tell you if
- 33:49Speaker 1: they get that. But you'll keep your weather eye open, Jim,
- 33:53Speaker 1: and I'll share with you equals upon my honor. He
- 33:57Speaker 1: wandered a little longer, his voice growing we But soon
- 34:01Speaker 1: after I had given him his medicine, which he took
- 34:04Speaker 1: like a child, with the remark, if ever a seaman
- 34:07Speaker 1: wanted drugs, it's me. He fell at last into a
- 34:11Speaker 1: heavy swoon like sleep, in which I left him. What
- 34:15Speaker 1: I should have done had all gone well, I do
- 34:18Speaker 1: not know. Probably I should have told the whole story
- 34:21Speaker 1: to the doctor, for I was in mortal fear lest
- 34:24Speaker 1: the captain should repent of his confessions and make an
- 34:27Speaker 1: end of me. But as things fell out, my poor
- 34:31Speaker 1: father died quite suddenly that evening, which put all other
- 34:35Speaker 1: matters on one side. Our natural distress, the visits of
- 34:39Speaker 1: the neighbors, the arranging of the funeral, and all the
- 34:42Speaker 1: work of the inn to be carried on in the
- 34:44Speaker 1: meanwhile kept me so busy that I had scarcely time
- 34:48Speaker 1: to think of the captain, far less to be afraid
- 34:50Speaker 1: of him. He got downstairs next morning, to be sure,
- 34:54Speaker 1: and had his meals as usual, though he ate little
- 34:57Speaker 1: and had more, i'm afraid, than his usual supple of rum.
- 35:01Speaker 1: For he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and
- 35:04Speaker 1: blowing through his nose, and no one dared to cross him.
- 35:08Speaker 1: On the night before the funeral, he was as drunk
- 35:10Speaker 1: as ever, and it was shocking in that house of
- 35:13Speaker 1: mourning to hear him singing away his ugly old sea song.
- 35:17Speaker 1: But weak as he was, we were all in fear
- 35:20Speaker 1: of death for him and the doctor was suddenly taken
- 35:23Speaker 1: up with a case many miles away, and was never
- 35:26Speaker 1: near the house after my father's death. I have said
- 35:29Speaker 1: the captain was weak, and indeed he seemed rather to
- 35:32Speaker 1: grow weaker than to regain his strength. He clambered up
- 35:35Speaker 1: and downstairs, and went from the parlor to the bar
- 35:38Speaker 1: and back again, and sometimes put his nose out of
- 35:41Speaker 1: door to smell the sea, holding onto the walls as
- 35:44Speaker 1: he went for support, and breathing hard and fast like
- 35:48Speaker 1: a man on a steep mountain. He never particularly addressed me,
- 35:53Speaker 1: and it is my belief that he had as good
- 35:55Speaker 1: as forgotten his confidences. But his temper was more flighty, and,
- 35:59Speaker 1: allowing for his bodily weaknesses, more violent than ever. He
- 36:05Speaker 1: had an alarming way now when he was drunk, of
- 36:07Speaker 1: drawing his cutlass and laying it bare before him on
- 36:11Speaker 1: the table. But with all that, he minded people less,
- 36:15Speaker 1: and seemed shut up in his own thoughts, and rather wandering. Once,
- 36:20Speaker 1: for instance, to our extreme wonder, he piped up to
- 36:24Speaker 1: a very different air, a kind of country love song
- 36:27Speaker 1: that he must have learned in his youth, before he
- 36:30Speaker 1: had begun to follow the sea. So things passed until
- 36:35Speaker 1: the day after the funeral, and about three o'clock of
- 36:39Speaker 1: a bitter, foggy, frosty afternoon, I was standing at the
- 36:43Speaker 1: door for a moment, full of sad thoughts about my father,
- 36:47Speaker 1: when I saw some one drawing slowly near along the road.
- 36:52Speaker 1: He was plainly blind, for he tapped before him with
- 36:55Speaker 1: a stick, and wore a great green shade over his
- 36:58Speaker 1: eyes and nose. And he was hunched as if with
- 37:02Speaker 1: age or weakness, and wore a huge, old, tattered sea
- 37:06Speaker 1: cloak with a hood that made him appear positively deformed.
- 37:10Speaker 1: I never saw in my life a more dreadful looking figure.
- 37:15Speaker 1: He stopped a little from the earn, and, raising his
- 37:18Speaker 1: voice in an old sing song, addressed the air in
- 37:21Speaker 1: front of him. Will any kind friend inform a poor
- 37:26Speaker 1: blind man who has lost the precious sight of his
- 37:29Speaker 1: eyes in the gracious defense of his native country England,
- 37:33Speaker 1: and God bless King George. Where or in what part
- 37:37Speaker 1: of this country he may now be? You're at the
- 37:41Speaker 1: Admiral benbo Black. He'll cove, my good man, said I.
- 37:46Speaker 1: I hear a voice, said he, a young voice. Will
- 37:50Speaker 1: you give me your hand, my kind young friend, and
- 37:55Speaker 1: lead me in. I held out my hand, and the horrible,
- 38:00Speaker 1: soft spoken, eyeless creature gripped it in a moment like
- 38:04Speaker 1: a vice. I was so much startled that I struggled
- 38:08Speaker 1: to withdraw, but the blind man pulled me close to
- 38:11Speaker 1: him with a single action of his arm. Now, boy,
- 38:15Speaker 1: he said, take me into the captain, Sir said, I,
- 38:21Speaker 1: upon my word, I dare not. Ah, he sneered, that's it.
- 38:27Speaker 1: Take me in straight, or I'll break your arm. He
- 38:32Speaker 1: gave it as he spoke, a wrench that made me
- 38:35Speaker 1: cry out. Sir said, I it is for yourself. I mean,
- 38:40Speaker 1: the captain is not what he used to be. He
- 38:42Speaker 1: sits with a drawn cutlass. Another gentleman, come now, march
- 38:47Speaker 1: interrupted he and I never heard a voice so cruel
- 38:51Speaker 1: and cold and ugly as that blind man's. It cowed
- 38:56Speaker 1: me more than the pain, and I began to obey
- 38:58Speaker 1: him at once, walking straight in at the door and
- 39:01Speaker 1: towards the parlor with a sick old buccaneer was sitting,
- 39:05Speaker 1: dazed with rum. The blind man clung close to me,
- 39:09Speaker 1: holding me in one iron fist and leaning almost more
- 39:13Speaker 1: of his weight on me than I could carry. Lead
- 39:16Speaker 1: me straight up to him, And when I'm in view
- 39:20Speaker 1: cry out, here's a friend for you, Bill. If you don't,
- 39:25Speaker 1: I'll do this. And with that he gave me a
- 39:28Speaker 1: twitch that I thought would have made me faint. Between
- 39:32Speaker 1: this and that, I was so utterly terrified by the
- 39:35Speaker 1: blind beggar that I forgot my terror of the captain,
- 39:39Speaker 1: And as I opened the parlor door, cried out the
- 39:42Speaker 1: words he had ordered in a trembling voice. The poor
- 39:45Speaker 1: captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum
- 39:49Speaker 1: went out of him and left him staring sober. The
- 39:53Speaker 1: expression of his face was not so much of terror
- 39:56Speaker 1: as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise,
- 40:01Speaker 1: but I do not believe he had enough force left
- 40:03Speaker 1: in his body. Now Bill, sit where you are, said
- 40:08Speaker 1: the beggar. If I can't see, I can hear a
- 40:12Speaker 1: finger stirring. Business is business. Hold out your left hand, boy,
- 40:18Speaker 1: take his left hand by the wrist, and bring it
- 40:22Speaker 1: near to my right. We both obeyed him to the letter,
- 40:26Speaker 1: and I saw him pass something from the hollow of
- 40:28Speaker 1: the hand that held his stick into the palm of
- 40:31Speaker 1: the captain's, which closed upon it instantly. And now that's done,
- 40:37Speaker 1: said the blind man, And at the words he suddenly
- 40:40Speaker 1: left hold of me, and with incredible accuracy and nimbleness,
- 40:44Speaker 1: skipped out of the parlor and into the road. Where
- 40:47Speaker 1: as I stood motionless, I could hear his stick go
- 40:50Speaker 1: tap tap tapping into the distance. It was some time
- 40:55Speaker 1: before either I or the captain seemed to gather our senses,
- 40:58Speaker 1: but at length, and about the same moment, I released
- 41:02Speaker 1: his wrist, which I was still holding, and he drew
- 41:05Speaker 1: in his hand and looked sharply into the palm ten o'clock.
- 41:10Speaker 1: He cried, six hours, we'll do him yet, and he
- 41:15Speaker 1: sprang to his feet. Even as he did so, he reeled,
- 41:19Speaker 1: put his hand to his throat, stood swaying for a moment,
- 41:22Speaker 1: and then, with a peculiar sound, fell from his whole height,
- 41:27Speaker 1: face foremost to the floor. I ran to him at once,
- 41:31Speaker 1: calling to my mother, but haste was all in vain.
- 41:34Speaker 1: The Captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It
- 41:39Speaker 1: is a curious thing to understand, for I had certainly
- 41:42Speaker 1: never liked the man, though of late I had begun
- 41:45Speaker 1: to pity him. But soon as I saw that he
- 41:48Speaker 1: was dead, I burst into a flood of tears. It
- 41:52Speaker 1: was the second death I had known, and the sorrow
- 41:56Speaker 1: of the first was still fresh in my heart. End
- 42:00Speaker 1: of chapter three, Chapter four, the Sea Chest. I lost
- 42:06Speaker 1: no time, of course, in telling my mother all that
- 42:09Speaker 1: I knew, and perhaps should have told her long before.
- 42:12Speaker 1: And we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and
- 42:15Speaker 1: dangerous position. Some of the man's money, if he had any,
- 42:19Speaker 1: was certainly due to us. But it was not likely
- 42:22Speaker 1: that our captain's shipmates, above all the two specimens seen
- 42:26Speaker 1: by me, black Dog and the Blind Beggar, would be
- 42:29Speaker 1: inclined to give up their booty in payment of the
- 42:32Speaker 1: dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at once
- 42:37Speaker 1: and ride for doctor Livesey would have left my mother
- 42:40Speaker 1: alone and unprotected, which was not to be thought of. Indeed,
- 42:44Speaker 1: it seemed impossible for either of us to remain much
- 42:47Speaker 1: longer in the house. The fall of coals in the
- 42:50Speaker 1: kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock filled us
- 42:54Speaker 1: with alarm. The neighborhood, to our ears seemed haunted by
- 42:58Speaker 1: approaching footsteps, and what between the dead body of the
- 43:02Speaker 1: captain on the parlor floor and the thought of that
- 43:05Speaker 1: detestable blind beggar hovering near at hand and ready to return,
- 43:10Speaker 1: there were moments, when, as the saying goes, I jumped
- 43:13Speaker 1: in my skin for terror. Something must speedily be resolved upon.
- 43:18Speaker 1: And it occurred to us at last to go forth
- 43:21Speaker 1: together and seek help in the neighboring hamlet, no sooner
- 43:25Speaker 1: said than done. Bareheaded as we were, we ran out
- 43:28Speaker 1: at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.
- 43:32Speaker 1: The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out
- 43:35Speaker 1: of view, on the other side of the next cove,
- 43:38Speaker 1: And what greatly encouraged me it was in an opposite
- 43:41Speaker 1: direction from that whence the old blind man had made
- 43:44Speaker 1: his appearance, and whether he had presumably returned. We were
- 43:49Speaker 1: not many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped
- 43:52Speaker 1: to lay hold of each other and hearken. But there
- 43:55Speaker 1: was no unusual sound, nothing but the low wash of
- 43:59Speaker 1: the ripple and croaking of the inmates of the wood.
- 44:03Speaker 1: It was already candle light when we reached the hamlet,
- 44:06Speaker 1: and I shall never forget how much I was cheered
- 44:10Speaker 1: to see the yellow shine in doors and windows. But that,
- 44:14Speaker 1: as it proved, was the best help we were likely
- 44:17Speaker 1: to get in that quarter. For you would have thought
- 44:20Speaker 1: men would have been ashamed of themselves. No soul would
- 44:23Speaker 1: consent to return with us to the Admiral Benbow. The
- 44:27Speaker 1: more we told of our troubles, the more man, woman
- 44:30Speaker 1: and child they clung to the shelter of their houses.
- 44:34Speaker 1: The name of Captain Flint, though it was strange to me,
- 44:37Speaker 1: was well enough known to sum there, and carried a
- 44:40Speaker 1: great weight of terror. Some of the men who had
- 44:44Speaker 1: been to field work on the far side of the
- 44:46Speaker 1: Admiral Benbow remembered, besides, to have seen several strangers on
- 44:50Speaker 1: the road, and, taking them to be smugglers, to have
- 44:53Speaker 1: bolted away, And one at least had seen a little
- 44:57Speaker 1: lugger in what we called Kit's hole. For that matter,
- 45:01Speaker 1: anyone who was a comrade of the captains was enough
- 45:04Speaker 1: to frighten them to death. And the short and the
- 45:06Speaker 1: long of the matter was that while we could get
- 45:09Speaker 1: several who were willing to ride to doctor Livesey's, which
- 45:12Speaker 1: lay in another direction, not one would help us to
- 45:15Speaker 1: defend the inn. They say, cowardice is infectious, but then
- 45:20Speaker 1: argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener. And
- 45:24Speaker 1: so when each had said his say, my mother made
- 45:27Speaker 1: them a speech she would not She declared lose money
- 45:30Speaker 1: that belonged to her fatherless boy. If none of the
- 45:34Speaker 1: rest of you dare, she said, Jim and I dare back,
- 45:38Speaker 1: we will go the way we came, and small thanks
- 45:41Speaker 1: to you, big, hulking, chickenhearted men. We'll have that chest
- 45:45Speaker 1: open if we die for it, and I'll thank you
- 45:48Speaker 1: for that bag, missus Crossley, to bring back our lawful money.
- 45:51Speaker 1: In of course, I said I would go with my mother,
- 45:54Speaker 1: And of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness.
- 45:58Speaker 1: But even then not a man would go along with us.
- 46:01Speaker 1: All they would do was to give me a loaded
- 46:03Speaker 1: pistol lest we were attacked, and to promise to have
- 46:06Speaker 1: horses ready saddled in case we were pursued on our return,
- 46:10Speaker 1: while one lad was to ride forward to the doctors
- 46:13Speaker 1: in search of armed assistance. My heart was beating fiercely.
- 46:17Speaker 1: When we two set forth in the cold night upon
- 46:20Speaker 1: this dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning to rise
- 46:24Speaker 1: and peered redly through the upper edges of the fog,
- 46:27Speaker 1: and this increased our haste, for it was plain before
- 46:31Speaker 1: we came forth again that all would be bright as day,
- 46:34Speaker 1: and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers.
- 46:39Speaker 1: We slipped along the hedges noiseless and swift, nor did
- 46:43Speaker 1: we see anything to increase our terrors, till to our
- 46:46Speaker 1: huge relief, the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed
- 46:50Speaker 1: behind us. I slipped the bolt at once, and we
- 46:53Speaker 1: stood and panted for a moment in the dark, alone
- 46:56Speaker 1: in the house with the dead captain's body. Then my
- 46:59Speaker 1: mother got a candle in the bar, and holding each
- 47:02Speaker 1: other's hands, we advanced into the parlor. He lay as
- 47:05Speaker 1: we had left him, on his back, with his eyes
- 47:08Speaker 1: open and one arm stretched out draw down the blind.
- 47:13Speaker 1: Jim whispered my mother they might come and watch outside.
- 47:18Speaker 1: And now said she, when I had done so, we
- 47:21Speaker 1: have to get the key off that, and who's to
- 47:24Speaker 1: touch it? I should like to know? And she gave
- 47:27Speaker 1: a kind of sob as she said the words. I
- 47:30Speaker 1: went down on my knees at once. On the floor,
- 47:32Speaker 1: close to his hand there was a little round of
- 47:35Speaker 1: paper blackened on one side. I could not doubt that
- 47:39Speaker 1: this was the black spot. And taking it up I
- 47:42Speaker 1: found written on the other side, in a very good
- 47:44Speaker 1: clear hand, this short message you have till ten to night.
- 47:51Speaker 1: He had till ten, mother, said I, And just as
- 47:54Speaker 1: I said it, our old clock began striking. This sudden
- 47:58Speaker 1: noise startled us shockingly, but the news was good, for
- 48:02Speaker 1: it was only six now, Jim. She said that key
- 48:07Speaker 1: I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few
- 48:10Speaker 1: small coins, a thimble, and some threadned big needles, A
- 48:14Speaker 1: piece of pig tail tobacco bitten away at the end
- 48:18Speaker 1: his gully with the crooked handle, A pocket compass, and
- 48:21Speaker 1: a tinder box were all that they contained. And I
- 48:24Speaker 1: began to despair. Perhaps it's round his neck, suggested my mother.
- 48:30Speaker 1: Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at
- 48:33Speaker 1: the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging to a bit
- 48:37Speaker 1: of tarry string, which I cut with his own gully,
- 48:40Speaker 1: we found the key. At this triumph, we were filled
- 48:44Speaker 1: with hope, and hurried downstairs without delay to the little
- 48:47Speaker 1: room where he had slept so long, and where his
- 48:50Speaker 1: box had stood since the day of his arrival. It
- 48:53Speaker 1: was like any other seaman's chest. On the outside, the
- 48:56Speaker 1: initial b burned on top of it with a hot iron,
- 49:00Speaker 1: and the corners somewhat smashed and broken, as by long
- 49:04Speaker 1: rough usage. Give me the key, said my mother, And
- 49:08Speaker 1: though the lock was very stiff, she had turned it
- 49:11Speaker 1: and thrown back the lid in a twinkling. A strong
- 49:14Speaker 1: smell of tobacco and tar arose from the interior, but
- 49:18Speaker 1: nothing was to be seen on the top except a
- 49:20Speaker 1: suit of very good clothes, carefully brushed and folded. They
- 49:24Speaker 1: had never been worn. My mother said under that the
- 49:28Speaker 1: miscellany began a quadrant, a tin cannikin, several sticks of tobacco,
- 49:34Speaker 1: two brace of very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver,
- 49:38Speaker 1: an old Spanish watch, and some other trinkets of little
- 49:41Speaker 1: value and mostly foreign make. A pair of compasses mounted
- 49:45Speaker 1: with brass, and five or six curious West Indian shells.
- 49:50Speaker 1: I've often wondered since why he should have carried about
- 49:53Speaker 1: those shells with him in his wandering, guilty and hunted life.
- 49:59Speaker 1: In the meantime, we found nothing of any value but
- 50:01Speaker 1: the silver and the trinkets, and neither of these were
- 50:04Speaker 1: in our way. Underneath there was an old boat cloak
- 50:08Speaker 1: whitened with sea salt on many a harbour bar. My
- 50:12Speaker 1: mother pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before
- 50:15Speaker 1: us the last things in the chest, a bundle tied
- 50:18Speaker 1: up in an oilcloth and looking like papers, and a
- 50:22Speaker 1: canvas bag that gave forth at a touch the jingle
- 50:26Speaker 1: of gold. I'll show these rogues that I am an
- 50:29Speaker 1: honest woman, said my mother. I'll have my dew and
- 50:33Speaker 1: not a farthing. Over hold missus Crusty's bag, and she
- 50:37Speaker 1: began to count over the amount of the captain's score
- 50:40Speaker 1: from the sailor's bag into the one that I was holding.
- 50:44Speaker 1: It was a long difficult business, for the coins were
- 50:47Speaker 1: of all countries and sizes, to bloons and luid'ou, and
- 50:51Speaker 1: guineas and pieces of eight, and I know not what besides,
- 50:55Speaker 1: all shaken together at random. The guineas, too, were about
- 50:59Speaker 1: the scarcest, and it was with these only that my
- 51:02Speaker 1: mother knew how to make her count. When we were
- 51:05Speaker 1: about half way through, I suddenly put my hand under
- 51:08Speaker 1: her arm, for I had heard, in the silent, frosty
- 51:10Speaker 1: air a sound that brought my heart into my mouth,
- 51:15Speaker 1: the tip tapping of the blind man's stick upon the
- 51:18Speaker 1: fozen road. It drew nearer and nearer while we sat
- 51:22Speaker 1: holding our breath. Then it struck sharp at the inn door,
- 51:26Speaker 1: and then we could hear the handle being turned and
- 51:28Speaker 1: the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter.
- 51:32Speaker 1: And then there was a long time of silence, both
- 51:35Speaker 1: within and without. At last the tapping recommenced, and, to
- 51:40Speaker 1: our indescribable joy and gratitude, died slowly away again till
- 51:45Speaker 1: it ceased to be heard. Mother said, I take the
- 51:50Speaker 1: hole and let's be going, for I was sure the
- 51:53Speaker 1: bolted door must have seemed suspicious and would bring the
- 51:56Speaker 1: whole hornet's nest about our ears. Though how thankful I
- 52:00Speaker 1: was that I had bolted it, none could tell, who
- 52:04Speaker 1: had never met that terrible blind man. But my mother,
- 52:08Speaker 1: frightened as she was, would not consent to take a
- 52:11Speaker 1: fraction more than it was her due, and was obstinately
- 52:14Speaker 1: unwilling to be content with less. It was not yet seven,
- 52:18Speaker 1: she said, by a long way. She knew her rights
- 52:21Speaker 1: and she would have them. And she was still arguing
- 52:24Speaker 1: with me when a little low whistle sounded a good
- 52:27Speaker 1: way off upon the hill. That was enough and more
- 52:30Speaker 1: than enough for both of us. I'll take what I have,
- 52:34Speaker 1: she said, jumping to her feet, and I'll take this
- 52:37Speaker 1: to square, the count said, I, picking up the oilskin packet.
- 52:42Speaker 1: Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the candle
- 52:45Speaker 1: by the empty chest, and the next we had opened
- 52:48Speaker 1: the door and were in full retreat. We had not
- 52:51Speaker 1: started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly dispersing.
- 52:55Speaker 1: Already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground
- 52:58Speaker 1: on either side, and it was only in the exact
- 53:01Speaker 1: bottom of the dell and round the tavern door, that
- 53:04Speaker 1: a thin veil still hung, unbroken, to conceal the first
- 53:08Speaker 1: steps of our escape. Far less than half way to
- 53:12Speaker 1: the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill
- 53:15Speaker 1: we must come forth into the moonlight. Nor was this all,
- 53:20Speaker 1: for the sound of several footsteps running came already to
- 53:23Speaker 1: our ears, and as we looked back in their direction,
- 53:26Speaker 1: a light, tossing to and fro, and still rapidly advancing,
- 53:31Speaker 1: showed that one of the newcomers carried a lantern. My
- 53:35Speaker 1: dear said, my mother, suddenly take the money and run on.
- 53:40Speaker 1: I am going to faint. This was certainly the end
- 53:43Speaker 1: for both of us. I thought, how I cursed the
- 53:46Speaker 1: cowardice of the neighbors. How I blamed my poor mother
- 53:50Speaker 1: for her honesty and her greed, for her past full
- 53:53Speaker 1: hardiness and present weakness. We were just at the little
- 53:57Speaker 1: bridge by a good fortune, and I helped tur tottering
- 54:00Speaker 1: as she was, to the edge of the bank, where
- 54:03Speaker 1: sure enough she gave a sigh and fell on my shoulder.
- 54:08Speaker 1: I do not know how I found the strength to
- 54:10Speaker 1: do it all, and I am afraid it was roughly done,
- 54:13Speaker 1: but I managed to drag her down the bank and
- 54:16Speaker 1: a little way under the arch father. I could not
- 54:19Speaker 1: move her, for the bridge was too low to let
- 54:22Speaker 1: me do more than crawl below it. So there we
- 54:25Speaker 1: had to stay, my mother almost entirely exposed, and both
- 54:30Speaker 1: of us within ear shot of the inn. End of
- 54:35Speaker 1: chapter four, Chapter five, the last of the Blind Man.
- 54:41Speaker 1: My curiosity in a sense was stronger than my fear,
- 54:44Speaker 1: for I could not remain where I was, but crept
- 54:47Speaker 1: back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind
- 54:51Speaker 1: a bush of broom, I might command the road before
- 54:54Speaker 1: our door. I was scarcely in position. Ere my enemies
- 54:59Speaker 1: began to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard,
- 55:03Speaker 1: their feet beating out of time along the road, and
- 55:06Speaker 1: the man with the lantern some paces in front. Three
- 55:10Speaker 1: men ran together, hand in hand, and I made out,
- 55:14Speaker 1: even through the mist, that the middle man of this
- 55:17Speaker 1: trio was the blind Beggar. The next moment his voice
- 55:22Speaker 1: showed me I was right down with the door. He cried, Aye, aye,
- 55:27Speaker 1: sir answered two or three, and a rush was made
- 55:30Speaker 1: upon the admiral benbow, the lantern bearer following. And then
- 55:35Speaker 1: I could see them pause and hear speeches passed in
- 55:38Speaker 1: a lower key, as if they were surprised to find
- 55:41Speaker 1: the door open. But the pause was brief, for the
- 55:44Speaker 1: blind Man again issued his commands. His voice sounded louder
- 55:50Speaker 1: and higher, as if he were afire with eagerness and
- 55:54Speaker 1: rage in in in he shouted and cursed them for
- 56:00Speaker 1: their delay. Four or five of them obeyed at once,
- 56:03Speaker 1: two remaining on the road with the formidable beggar. There
- 56:07Speaker 1: was a pause, then a cry of surprise, then a
- 56:10Speaker 1: voice shouting from the house Bill's dead. But the blind
- 56:15Speaker 1: Man swore at them again for their delay search him.
- 56:19Speaker 1: Some of you shrink in lubbers, and the rest of
- 56:22Speaker 1: you loft and get the chest, he cried. I could
- 56:26Speaker 1: hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so that
- 56:30Speaker 1: the house must have shook with it. Promptly afterwards, fresh
- 56:35Speaker 1: sounds of astonishment arose. The window of the Captain's room
- 56:39Speaker 1: was thrown open with a slam and a jingle of
- 56:42Speaker 1: broken glass, and a man leaned out into the moonlight,
- 56:46Speaker 1: head and shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the
- 56:49Speaker 1: road below him. Pew, he cried, they've been before us.
- 56:55Speaker 1: Some one's turned the chest out to lou and aloft
- 56:59Speaker 1: is it there? Roared Pew. The money's there. The blind
- 57:04Speaker 1: man cussed the money flint's fist. I mean, he cried,
- 57:10Speaker 1: I don't see it here. Nohow, returned the man. Here
- 57:14Speaker 1: you below, there is it on? Bill, cried the blind
- 57:18Speaker 1: man again. And that's another fellow, probably, he who had
- 57:22Speaker 1: remained below to search the captain's body, came to the
- 57:25Speaker 1: door of the inn. Bill's been overhauled already, he said,
- 57:30Speaker 1: nothing left. It's these people of the inn. It's that
- 57:36Speaker 1: boy I wish I had put his eyes out, cried
- 57:40Speaker 1: the blind man. Pew, they were here no time ago.
- 57:44Speaker 1: They had the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter
- 57:47Speaker 1: lads and find them. Sure enough they left their glim here,
- 57:52Speaker 1: said the fellow from the window. Scatter and find them.
- 57:56Speaker 1: Rout the house out, reiterated Pew, racking with his stick
- 58:01Speaker 1: upon the road. Then there followed a great to do
- 58:04Speaker 1: through all our old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro,
- 58:09Speaker 1: furniture all thrown over, doors kicked in, until the very
- 58:13Speaker 1: rocks re echoed, and the men came out again, one
- 58:17Speaker 1: after another on the road and declared that we were
- 58:21Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. And just then the same whistle
- 58:24Speaker 1: that had alarmed my mother and myself over the good
- 58:28Speaker 1: Captain's money was once more clearly audible through the night,
- 58:33Speaker 1: but this time twice repeated. I have thought it to
- 58:36Speaker 1: be the blind man's trumpet, so to speak, summoning his
- 58:40Speaker 1: crew to the assault. But I now found that it
- 58:43Speaker 1: was a signal from the hillside toward the hamlet, and
- 58:46Speaker 1: from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn
- 58:50Speaker 1: them of approaching danger. There's Dirk, again, said one twice.
- 58:56Speaker 1: We'll have to budge mates, Budge you skulk, cried pew.
- 59:01Speaker 1: Dirk was a fool and a coward from the first.
- 59:05Speaker 1: You wouldn't mind him. They must be close by, they
- 59:10Speaker 1: can't be far. You have your hands on it. Scatter
- 59:13Speaker 1: and look for him, dogs or shiver my soul, he cried,
- 59:19Speaker 1: if I had eyes. This appeal seemed to produce some effect,
- 59:25Speaker 1: for two of the fellows began to look here and
- 59:28Speaker 1: there among the timber But half heartedly, I thought, and
- 59:31Speaker 1: with half an eye to their own danger all the time,
- 59:34Speaker 1: while the rest stood irresolute on the road. You have
- 59:38Speaker 1: your hands on thousands new fools, and you hang a leg,
- 59:43Speaker 1: you'll be as rich as kings if you could find it.
- 59:46Speaker 1: And you stand there skulking, There wasn't one of you,
- 59:50Speaker 1: dead face Bill, And I did it a blind man,
- 59:55Speaker 1: and I'm to lose my chance for you. I'm to
- 59:59Speaker 1: be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging farrahm. When I might
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: be rolling in a coach. If you had the pluck
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: of a weavil in a biscuit, you would catch them. Still,
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: hang it, Pew, we've got the do balloons, grumbled one.
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: They might have hid the blessed thing, said another. Take
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: the georgy's pew, and don't stand there squawling. Squawling was
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: the word for it. Pew's anger rose so high at
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: these objections till at last, his passion completely taking the
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: upper hand, he struck at them right and left in
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: his blindness, and his sticks sounded heavily on more than one. These,
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: in their turn, cursed back at the blind miscreant, threatened
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: him in horrid terms, and tried in vain to catch
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: the stick and wrest it from his grasp. This quarrel
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: was the saving of us, for while it was still raging,
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: another sound came from the top of the hill on
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: the side of the hamlet, the tramp of horses galloping.
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: Almost at the same time a pistol shot, flash and
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: report came from the hedge side, and that was plainly
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: the last signal of danger. For the buccaneers turned at
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: once and ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on,
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: so that in half a minute not a sign of
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: them remained but pew him. They had deserted. Whether in
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: and blows, I know not. But there he remained behind,
- 1:01:40Speaker 1: tapping up and down the road in a frenzy and
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: groping and calling for his comrades. Finally he took the
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: wrong turn and ran a few steps past me towards
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: the hamlet, crying Johnny, black Dog, Dirk and other names.
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: You won't leave, old pew Mate, not old pew Oo.
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: Just then the noise of horses topped the eyes, and
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: and swept at full gallop down the slope. At this
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: Pew saw his error, turned with a scream and ran
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. But he
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: was on his feet again in a second and made
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: in vain down went Pew with a cry that rang
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: high into the night, and the four hoofs trampled and
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side,
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: then gently collapsed upon his face and moved no more.
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: were pulling up at any rate, horrified at the accident,
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: and I soon saw what they were. One trailing out
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: behind the rest was a lad that had gone from
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: the hamlet to doctor Livesey's. The rest were revenue officers,
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: whom he had met by the way, and with whom
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: he had had the intelligence to return at once. Some
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: news of the lugger in KITT's hole had found its
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: way to Supervisor Dance, and set him forth that night
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: in our direction, and to that circumstance, my mother and
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: I owed our preservation from death. Pew was dead, stone dead,
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: as for my mother when we carried her up to
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: the hamlet. A little cold water and some salts very
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: soon brought her back again, and she was none the
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: worse for her terror, though she still continued to deplore
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: the balance of the money. In the meantime, the supervisor
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: rode on as fast as he could to KITT's hole,
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: but his men had to dismount and grope down the dingle,
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: leading and sometimes supporting their horses, and in continual fear
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: of ambushes. So it was no great matter for surprise
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: that when they got down to the hole, the lugger
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: was already under way, though still close in. He hailed her.
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: A voice replied telling him to keep out of the
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: moonlight or he would get some lead in him, and
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: at the same time a bullet whistled close by his arm.
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: Soon after, the lugger doubled the point and disappeared. Mister
- 1:04:17Speaker 1: Dance stood there, as he said, like a fish out
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: of water, and all he could do was to dispatch
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: a man to bur to warn the cutter. And that,
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: he said, is just about as good as nothing. They've
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: got clean off, and there's an end only, he added,
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: I'm glad I trod upon Master Pew's corns. By this
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: time he had heard my story. I went back with
- 1:04:43Speaker 1: him to the Admiral Benbow. And you cannot imagine a
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: house in such a state of smash. The very clerk
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: hunt after my mother and myself. And though nothing had
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: actually been taken away except the captain's money bag and
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: a little silver, from the till I could see at
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: once that we were ruined. Mister Dance could make nothing
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: of the scene. They got the money. You say, well, then, Hawkins,
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: what in fortune were they after more money? I suppose no, certain,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: not money, I think, replied I. In fact, sir, I
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: believe I have the thing in my breast pocket, and
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: to tell you the truth, I should like to get
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: it put in safety to be sure. Boy quite right,
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: said he, I'll take it if you like, I thought,
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: perhaps doctor Livesey, I began, perfectly right, he interrupted, very cheerily,
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: perfectly right, a gentleman and a magistrate. And now I
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: come to think of it, I might as well ride
- 1:05:48Speaker 1: round there myself and report to him or Squire. Master
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: Pew's dead when all's done. Not that I regret it,
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: but he's dead, you see, and people will make it
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: out against Officer of His Majesty's revenue. If make it out,
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: they can. Now I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like,
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: I'll take you along. I thanked him heartily for the offer,
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: and we walked back to the hamlet where the horses were.
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: By the time I had told my mother of my purpose,
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: they were all in the saddle. Dogger said, mister Dance,
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: you have a good horse. Take up this lad behind you.
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: As soon as I was mounted, holding onto Dogger's belt,
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: the supervisor gave the word and the party struck out
- 1:06:32Speaker 1: at a bouncing trot on the road to doctor Livesey's
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: house and of Chapter five, Chapter six the Captain's Papers.
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: We rode hard all the way till we drew up
- 1:06:47Speaker 1: before doctor Libsey's door. The house was all dark to
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: the front. Mister Dance told me to jump down and knock,
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: door was opened all my most at once by a maid.
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: Is doctor Livesey in? I asked, no, she said he
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: had come home in the afternoon, but had gone up
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: to the hall to dine and pass the evening with
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: the Squire. So there we go, boys, said mister Dance.
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount,
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: but ran with doggers stirrup leather to the lodge gates
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: and up the long leafless moonlit avenue to where the
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: white line of the hall buildings looked on either hand
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: on great old gardens. There mister Dance dismounted, and taking
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: me along with him, was admitted at a word into
- 1:07:39Speaker 1: the house. The servant led us down a matted passage
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: and showed us at the end into a great library,
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: all lined with bookcases and busts on top of them,
- 1:07:50Speaker 1: where the Squire and Doctor Livesey sat pipe in hand,
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: on either side of a bright fire. I had never
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: seen the Squire so near at hand. He was a
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: tall man, over six feet high, and broad in proportion,
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: and he had a bluff, rough and ready face, all
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: roughened and reddied and lined in his long travels. His
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: eyebrows were very black and moved readily, and this gave
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: him a look of some temper, not bad, you would say,
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: but quick and high. Come in, mister Dance said he,
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: very stately and condescending. Good evening, Dance, said the doctor
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: with a nod, And good evening to you, ol friend Jim,
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: what good wind brings you here? The supervisor stood up
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: straight and stiff and told his story like a lesson.
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: But you should have seen how the two gentlemen leaned
- 1:08:47Speaker 1: forward and looked at each other and forgot to smoke
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: in their surprise and interest when they heard how my
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: mother went back to the inn. Doctor Livesey fair slapped
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: his thigh, and the squire c bra vo and broke
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: his long pipe against the grate. Long before it was done,
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: a mister Trelawney, that you will remember was the squire's name,
- 1:09:10Speaker 1: had got up from his seat and was striding about
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: the room, and the doctor, as if to hear the better,
- 1:09:17Speaker 1: had taken off his powdered wig and sat there looking
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: very strange, indeed with his own close cropped black pole.
- 1:09:26Speaker 1: At last, mister Dance finished the story. Mister Dance said
- 1:09:31Speaker 1: the squire, you are a very noble fellow. And as
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: for riding down that black atrocious miscreant, I regarded as
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: an act of virtue, sir, like stamping on a crockroach.
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: This lad Hawkins is a trump. I perceive, Hawkins, will
- 1:09:49Speaker 1: you ring that bell? Mister Dance must have some ale,
- 1:09:53Speaker 1: And so Jim said the doctor. You have the thing
- 1:09:58Speaker 1: that they were after. Have you here it is, sir,
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: said I, and gave him the oilskin packet. The doctor
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: looked it all over as if his fingers were itching
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: to open it, but instead of doing that, he put
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: it quietly in the pocket of his coat. Squire said he.
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: When Dance has had his ale, he must of course
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: be off on his Majesty's service. But I mean to
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at my house. And
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: with your permission, I propose we should have up the
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: cold pie and let him sup as you will. Livesey,
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: said the Squire. Hawkins has earned better than cold pie.
- 1:10:44Speaker 1: So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: on a side table, and I made a hearty supper,
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: for I was as hungry as a hawk, while mister
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: Dance was further complimented and at last dismissed. And now Squire,
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: said the doctor. And now lives here, said the Squire
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: in the same breath. One at a time, one at
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: a time, laughed doctor Livesey. You've heard of this Flint.
- 1:11:14Speaker 1: I suppose heard of him, cried the squire. Heard of him?
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: You say he was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed Blackbeard
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: was a child to Flint. The Spaniards were so prodigiously
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: afraid of him that, I tell you, Sir, I was
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: sometimes proud that he was an Englishman. I have seen
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: his topsails with these eyes off Trinidad, and the cowardly
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: son of a rum puncheon that I sailed with put back,
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: put back, sir, into the port of Spain. Well, I've
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: heard of him myself in England, said the doctor. But
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: the point is, had he money? Money? Cried the squire.
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: Have you heard the story? What were these villains after
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: but money? What do they care for but money?
- 1:12:06Speaker 4: For?
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: What would they risk their rascal carcasses? But money that
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: we shall soon know, replied the doctor. But you are
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: so confoundedly hot headed an exclamatory that I cannot get
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: a word in. What I want to know is this
- 1:12:25Speaker 1: suppose that I have here in my pocket some clue
- 1:12:30Speaker 1: to where Flinter buried his treasure? Will that treasure amount
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: too much? Amount? Sir, cried the squire. It will amount
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: to this if we have the clue you talk about,
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: I'll fill out a ship in Bristol dock and take
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: you and Hawkins here along, and we'll have that treasure
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: if I search for a year. Very well, said the doctor. Now,
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: then if Jim is agreeable, we'll open the packet, and
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: he laid it before him on the table. The bundle
- 1:13:05Speaker 1: was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: his instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors.
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: It contained two things, a book and a sealed paper.
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: First of all, we'll try the book, observed the doctor.
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: The Squire and I were both peering over his shoulder
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: as he opened it. For Doctor Livesey had kindly motioned
- 1:13:29Speaker 1: to me to come round from the side table where
- 1:13:32Speaker 1: I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search.
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: On the first page, there were only some scraps of writing,
- 1:13:40Speaker 1: such as a man with a pen in his hand
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: might make for idleness or practice. One was the same
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: as the tattoo mark Billy Bones his fancy. Then there
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: was mister w Bone's mate no more rum off palm
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: key he got it, and some other snatches most single
- 1:14:03Speaker 1: words and unintelligible, but I could not help wondering who
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: it was that had got it and what it was
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: He got a knife in his back. As likely as not,
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: not much instruction there, said doctor Livesey as he passed on.
- 1:14:22Speaker 1: The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: curious series of entries. There was a date at one
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: end of the line, and at the other end a
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: sum of money, as in common account books, but instead
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: of explanatory writing, only a varying number of crosses between
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: the two. On the twelfth of June seventeen forty five,
- 1:14:43Speaker 1: for instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: due to someone, and there was nothing but six crosses
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: to explain the cause. In a few cases, to be sure,
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: the name of a place would be added as of
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: off Caracas, or a mere entry of latitude or longitude
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: as sixty two degrees seventeen minutes twenty seconds nineteen degrees
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: two minutes forty seconds. The record lasted over nearly twenty years,
- 1:15:16Speaker 1: the amount of the separate entries growing larger as time
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: went on, and at the end a grand total had
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: been made out. After five or six row editions and
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: these words appended bones his pile. I can't make head
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: or tail of this, said doctor Livesey. The thing is
- 1:15:37Speaker 1: as clear as noonday, cried the squire. This is the
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: black hearted hound's account book. These crosses stand for the
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: names of ships or towns that they sank or plundered.
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: The sums are the scoundrels share. And where he filled
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: an ambiguity, you see, he added something clearer off carackers.
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: Now you see here was some unhappy vessel boarded off
- 1:16:02Speaker 1: that coast. God helped the poor souls that man her
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: coral long ago. Right, said the doctor. See what it
- 1:16:11Speaker 1: is to be a traveler? Right, And the amounts increase,
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: you'll see as he rose in rank. There was little
- 1:16:19Speaker 1: else in the volume, but a few bearings of places
- 1:16:21Speaker 1: noted in the blank leaves towards the end, and a
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: table for reducing French, English and Spanish moneys to a
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: common value. Thrifty men, cried the doctor. He wasn't the
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: one to be cheated. And now said the squire, for
- 1:16:38Speaker 1: the other. The paper had been sealed in several places
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: with a thimble by way of seal, the very thimble,
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: perhaps that I had found in the captain's pocket. The
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell
- 1:16:53Speaker 1: out the map of an island, with latitude and longitude soundings,
- 1:16:58Speaker 1: names of hills and bays, inlets, and every particular that
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: would be needed to bring a ship to a safe
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine miles long,
- 1:17:09Speaker 1: file of across, shaped you might say, like a fat
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: dragon standing up, and had two fine landlocked harbors and
- 1:17:17Speaker 1: a hill in the center park marked the spyglass. There
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: were several editions of a later date, but above all
- 1:17:26Speaker 1: three crosses of red ink, two on the north part
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: of the island, wine in the southwest, and besides this
- 1:17:33Speaker 1: last in the same red ink, and in a small
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: neat hand very different from the captain's tottery characters, these
- 1:17:41Speaker 1: words bulk of treasure. Here over the back. The same
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: hand had written this further information. Tall tree, spyglass shoulder
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: bearing a point to the north of nor Nor East
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: Skeleton Island south south east by east ten feet. The
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: bar silver is in the north cash. You can find
- 1:18:07Speaker 1: it by the trend of the east hummock ten fathoms
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: south of the black crag with a face on it.
- 1:18:12Speaker 1: The arms are easy found in the sand hill, north
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: point of North Inlet Cape, bearing east and a quarter
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: north j F. That was all but brief as it was,
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: and to me incomprehensible. It filled the Squire and Doctor
- 1:18:30Speaker 1: Livesey with delight. Livesey said the Squire, you will give
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: up this wretched practice at once tomorrow I start for
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: Bristol in three weeks time, three weeks, two weeks, ten days.
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: We'll have the best ship, Sir, and the choicest crew
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin boy. You'll make
- 1:18:53Speaker 1: our famous cabin boy Hawkins. You'll Livesey our ship's doctor.
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: I am Admiral. We'll take our read Ruth, Joyce and Hunter.
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: We'll have favorable winds, a quick passage, and not the
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: least difficulty in finding the spot, and money to eat,
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: to roll in to play duck and drake with ever
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: after true Lornie, said the doctor. I'll go with you,
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: and I'll go bail for it. So with Jim, and
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: be a credit to the undertaking. There's only one man
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: I am afraid of. And who's that, cried the Squire.
- 1:19:28Speaker 1: Name the dogs are you, replied the doctor, for you
- 1:19:33Speaker 1: cannot hold your tongue. We are not the only men
- 1:19:37Speaker 1: who know of this paper. These fellows who attack the
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: inn tonight, bold desperate blades, to be sure, and the
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: rest who stayed aboard that lugger and more, I dare say,
- 1:19:48Speaker 1: not far off, are one and all through, thick and
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: thin bound, that they will get that money. We must
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: none of us go alone till we get to see
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: Jim and I shall stick together in the meantime, and
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: you'll take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol.
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: And from first to last, not one of us must
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: breathe our word of what we've found. Lives Ere returned
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: the Squire. You are always in the right of it.
- 1:20:18Speaker 1: I'll be silent as the grave. End of chapter six,
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: Part two, The Sea Cook. Chapter seven. I go to Bristol.
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: It was longer than the Squire imagined. Ere we were
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: ready for the sea, and none of our first plans,
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: not even Doctor Livesey's of keeping me beside him, could
- 1:20:42Speaker 1: be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: go to London for a physician to take charge of
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: his practice. The Squire was hard at work at Bristol,
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: and I lived on at the hall under the charge
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: of Old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: of sea dreams and the most charming anticipations of strange
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: islands and adventures. I brooded by the hour together over
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: the map, all the details of which I well remembered,
- 1:21:13Speaker 1: sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room. I approached
- 1:21:17Speaker 1: that island in my fancy from every possible direction. I
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: explored every acre of its surface. I climbed a thousand
- 1:21:26Speaker 1: times to that tall hill they called the Spyglass, and
- 1:21:30Speaker 1: from the top enjoyed the most wonderful and changing prospects.
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought,
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: sometimes full of dangerous animals that hunted us. But in
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and
- 1:21:46Speaker 1: tragic as our actual adventures. So the weeks passed on
- 1:21:51Speaker 1: till one fine day there came a letter addressed to
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: doctor Livesey, with this addition, to be opened in the
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: case of his absence by Tom Redruth or Young Hawkins.
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: Obeying this order, we found, or rather I found, for
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading anything but
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: print the following important news Old Anchor Inn, Bristol March one, seventeen, HM,
- 1:22:19Speaker 1: dear livese ere As I do not know whether you're
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: at the Hall or still in London. I send this
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: in double to both places. The ship is bought and fitted.
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: She lies at anchor, ready for sea. You never imagined
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: a sweeter schooner a child might sail her two hundred
- 1:22:37Speaker 1: tons name Hispaniola. I got her through my friend Blandly,
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: who has proved himself throughout the most surprising trump. The
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: admirable fellow literally slaved in my interest, And so I
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: may say, did everyone in Bristol as soon as they
- 1:22:54Speaker 1: got wind of the port we sailed for treasure? I
- 1:22:58Speaker 1: mean red, said I, interrupting the letter. Doctor Livesey will
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: not like that the Squire has been talking. After all, Well,
- 1:23:08Speaker 1: who's a better right, growled the gamekeeper, A pretty rom go.
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: If squire ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey, I should
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: think at that. I gave up all attempt at commentary
- 1:23:20Speaker 1: and read straight on. Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: by the most admirable management, got her for the merest trifle.
- 1:23:30Speaker 1: There is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: against Blandly. They go the length of declaring that this
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: honest creature would do anything for money, that this Spaniola
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: belonged to him, and that he sold it to me
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: absurdly high the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare, however,
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: to deny the merits of the ship. So far there
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure, riggers
- 1:23:56Speaker 1: and what not, were most annoyingly slow. But time cured
- 1:24:00Speaker 1: that it was the crew that troubled me. I wished
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: to round up a score of men in case of
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: Navy's buccaneers or the odious French, and I had the
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: worry of the deuce itself to find so much as
- 1:24:13Speaker 1: half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune
- 1:24:17Speaker 1: brought me the very man that I required. I was
- 1:24:21Speaker 1: standing on the dark when by the merest accident I
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: fell into talk with him. I found he was an
- 1:24:27Speaker 1: old sailor, kept a public house, knew all the seafaring
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: a good berth as cook to get to sea again.
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: He had hobbled down there that morning, he said, to
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: get a smell of the salt. I was monstrously touched
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: so would you have been, And out of pure pity,
- 1:24:48Speaker 1: I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook.
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: Long John Silver he is called and has lost a leg,
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: it in his country's service under the immortal Hawk. He
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: has no pension livesey imagine the abominable age we live in. Well, Sir,
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: I thought I had only found a cook, but it
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: was a crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself,
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: we got together in a few days a company of
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: the toughest old salts, imaginable, not pretty to look at,
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: but fellows by their faces of the most indomitable spirit.
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: I declare we could fight a frigate Long John even
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: got rid of two out of the six or seven
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: I had already engaged. He showed me in a moment
- 1:25:36Speaker 1: that they were of just the sort of freshwater swabs
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: we had to fear in an adventure of importance. I
- 1:25:43Speaker 1: am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: a bull, sleeping like a tree. Yet I shall not
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: enjoy a moment till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: around the capstan Sea. Would Hoe hang the treasure it's
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
- 1:26:01Speaker 1: So now livesey, come post, do not lose an hour.
- 1:26:04Speaker 1: If you respect me. Let young Hawkins go at once
- 1:26:07Speaker 1: to see his mother, with Red Ruth for a guard,
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: and then both come full speed to Bristol. John Trelaudy
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: p s. I did not tell you that Blandly, who,
- 1:26:19Speaker 1: by the way, is to send a consort after us
- 1:26:22Speaker 1: if we don't turn up by the end of August,
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: had found an admirable fellow for sailing master, a stiff man,
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: which I regret, but in all other respects a treasure.
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: Long John Silver unearthed a very competent man for a mate,
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: a man called Arrow. I have a bozen who pipes livesey.
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: So things shall go man o war fashion on board
- 1:26:43Speaker 1: the good ship Hispaniola. I've got to tell you that
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: Silver is a man of substance. I know of my
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: own knowledge that he has a banker's account which has
- 1:26:52Speaker 1: never been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn,
- 1:26:56Speaker 1: and as she is a woman of color, a pair
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: of old bachelors like you and I may be excused
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: for guessing that is the wife. Quite as much as
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: the health that sends him back to roving j T. P. P. S.
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: Hawkins may stay one night with his mother. J T.
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: You con fancied the excitement into which that letter put me.
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: I was half beside myself with glee. And if ever
- 1:27:23Speaker 1: I despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, who
- 1:27:26Speaker 1: could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
- 1:27:30Speaker 1: under gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him, but
- 1:27:34Speaker 1: such was not the Squire's pleasure, And the squire's pleasure
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: was like law among them more nobody but Old Redruth
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: would have dared so much as even to grumble. The
- 1:27:45Speaker 1: next morning he and I set out on foot for
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: the admiral Benbow, and there I found my mother in
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: good health and spirits. The captain, who had so long
- 1:27:54Speaker 1: been the cause of so much discomfort, was gone, where
- 1:27:57Speaker 1: the wicked cease from troubling. The Squire had had everything repaired,
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: and the public rooms and the sign repainted, and had
- 1:28:03Speaker 1: added some furniture, above all a beautiful arm chair for
- 1:28:07Speaker 1: my mother in the bar. He had found her a
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: boy as an apprentice, also so that she should not
- 1:28:13Speaker 1: want help when I was gone. It was on seeing
- 1:28:16Speaker 1: that boy that I understood for the first time my situation.
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: I had thought up to that moment of the adventures
- 1:28:24Speaker 1: before me, not at all of the home that I
- 1:28:26Speaker 1: was leaving, And now at sight of this clumsy stranger
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: who was to stay here in my place beside my mother,
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: I had my first attack of tears. I am afraid
- 1:28:37Speaker 1: I led that boy a dog's life, for he was
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: new to the work. I had a hundred opportunities for
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: setting him right and putting him down, and I was
- 1:28:46Speaker 1: not slow to profit by them. The night passed, and
- 1:28:49Speaker 1: the next day, after dinner, Read Ruth and I were
- 1:28:52Speaker 1: afoot again, and on the road I said good bye
- 1:28:55Speaker 1: to my mother and the cove where I had lived
- 1:28:57Speaker 1: since I was born, and the dear old abomeral Benbow,
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: since he was repainted not longer quite so dear. One
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: of my thoughts was of the captain who had so
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: often strode along the beach with his cocked hat, his
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: saber cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: we had turned the corner and my home was out
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: of sight. The mail picked us up about dusk at
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: the Royal George on the heath. I was wedged in
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: between Redruth and a stout old gentleman. And in spite
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: of the swift motion and the cold night air, I
- 1:29:30Speaker 1: must have dozed a great deal from the very first,
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: and then slept like a log up hill and down
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: Dale through stage after stage. But when I was awakened
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: at last, it was by a punch in the ribs,
- 1:29:43Speaker 1: and I opened my eyes to find that we were
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: standing still before a large building in a city street,
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: and that the day had already broken a long time.
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: Where are we, I asked Bristol, said Tom, get down.
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: Mister Trelawney had taken up residence at an inn far
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: down the docks to superintend the work upon the schooner.
- 1:30:05Speaker 1: Thither we had now to walk, and our way to
- 1:30:08Speaker 1: my great delight lay upon the quays, and besides the
- 1:30:11Speaker 1: great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations.
- 1:30:16Speaker 1: In one sailors were singing at their work. In another
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: there were men aloft high over my head, hanging to
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's. Though I
- 1:30:26Speaker 1: had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed
- 1:30:30Speaker 1: never to have been near the sea till then. The
- 1:30:33Speaker 1: smell of tar and salt was something new I saw
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: the most wonderful figureheads that had all been far over
- 1:30:41Speaker 1: the ocean. I saw besides many old sailors with rings
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails,
- 1:30:50Speaker 1: and their swaggering, clumsy sea walk. And if I had
- 1:30:53Speaker 1: seen as many kings or archbishops, I could not have
- 1:30:57Speaker 1: been more delighted. And I was going to see myself,
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: to see in a schooner and a piping bowzin and
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: pig tailed singing seamen, to see bound for an unknown island,
- 1:31:09Speaker 1: and to seek for buried treasure. While I was still
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: a large inn and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: like a sea officer in stout blue cloth, coming out
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: of the door with a smile on his face and
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: a capital imitation of a sailor's walk. Here you are,
- 1:31:30Speaker 1: he cried, And the doctor came last night from London.
- 1:31:34Speaker 1: Bravao the ship's company complete, Oh, sir, cried I, when
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: do we sail? Sail? Says he we sail to morrow.
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: End of Chapter seven, Chapter eight, at the sign of
- 1:31:53Speaker 1: the spyglass. When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: me a note addressed to John's silver at the sign
- 1:32:01Speaker 1: of the spyglass, and he told me I should easily
- 1:32:04Speaker 1: find the place by following the line of the docks
- 1:32:07Speaker 1: and keeping a bright lookout for a little tavern with
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: a large brass telescope for a sign. I set off,
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: overjoyed at this opportunity to see some more of the
- 1:32:16Speaker 1: ships and seamen, and picked my way among a great
- 1:32:19Speaker 1: crowd of people and carts and bales, for the dock
- 1:32:23Speaker 1: was now at its busiest until I found the tavern
- 1:32:26Speaker 1: in question. It was a bright enough little place of entertainment.
- 1:32:30Speaker 1: The sign was newly painted, the windows had neat red curtains,
- 1:32:34Speaker 1: the floor was cleanly sanded. There was a street on
- 1:32:37Speaker 1: either side and an open door on both, which made
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: the large, low room pretty clear to see in in
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: spite of clouds of tobacco smoke. The customers were mostly
- 1:32:48Speaker 1: seafaring men, and they talked so loudly that I hung
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: at the door, almost afraid to enter. As I was waiting,
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: a man came out of a side room, and at
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: a glance I was sure he must be long John.
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: His leg was cut off close by the hip and
- 1:33:04Speaker 1: under the left shoulder. He carried a crutch, which he
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: managed with a wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like
- 1:33:11Speaker 1: a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a
- 1:33:14Speaker 1: face as big as a ham plain, and pale, but
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits,
- 1:33:24Speaker 1: whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the
- 1:33:29Speaker 1: more favored of his guests. Now, to tell you the truth,
- 1:33:34Speaker 1: from the very first mention of long John in Squire
- 1:33:37Speaker 1: Trelorney's letter, I had taken a fear in my mind
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: that he might prove to be the very one legged
- 1:33:43Speaker 1: sailor whom I had watched for so long at the
- 1:33:46Speaker 1: old Benbow. But one look at the man before me
- 1:33:49Speaker 1: was enough. I had seen the captain and black dog
- 1:33:53Speaker 1: and the blind man pew, and I thought I knew
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: what a buccaneer was like, a very different creature, according
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: to me, from this clean and pleasant tempered landlord. I
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: plucked up courage at once crossed the threshold and walked
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: right up to the man, where he stood propped on
- 1:34:11Speaker 1: his crutch, talking to a customer, mister Silver, Sir, I asked,
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: holding out the note. Yes, moy lad, said he. Such
- 1:34:21Speaker 1: is my name, to be sure, and who may you be?
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: And when he saw the Squire's letter, he seemed to
- 1:34:27Speaker 1: me to give something almost like a start. Oh, said
- 1:34:31Speaker 1: he quite aloud, and offering his hand. I see you
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: are a new cabin boy. Please do I am to
- 1:34:39Speaker 1: see you. And he took my hand in his large,
- 1:34:42Speaker 1: firm grasp. Just then one of the customers of the
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: far side rose suddenly and made for the door. It
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: was close by him, and he was out in the
- 1:34:51Speaker 1: street in a moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice,
- 1:34:56Speaker 1: and I recognized him at a glance. It was the
- 1:34:58Speaker 1: tallow faced man and wanting two fingers who had come
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: first to the Admiral Benbow. Oh, I cried, stop him.
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: It's black dog. I don't care two coppers who he is,
- 1:35:13Speaker 1: cried Silver, But he hasn't paid his score. Erry, run
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: and catch him. One of the others, who was nearest
- 1:35:20Speaker 1: the door, leaped up and started in pursuit. If he
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: were Admiral Hawke, he shall play his score, said Silver,
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: and then, relinquishing my hand. Who did you say? He was,
- 1:35:33Speaker 1: he asked, black What black dog said? I has mister
- 1:35:38Speaker 1: Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers. He was one
- 1:35:41Speaker 1: of them, so cried silver in my house, Ben run
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: and help Harry. One of those swabs? Was he was?
- 1:35:49Speaker 1: That you'd drink him with him? Morgan? Step up here,
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: The man whom he called Morgan, an old, gray haired,
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: mahogany faced sailor, came forward, pretty she bishly, rolling his quid. Nil, Morgan,
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: said long John, very sternly. You never clapped your eyes
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: on that black black dog before, did you? Now? No, sir,
- 1:36:13Speaker 1: said Morgan, with a salute. You didn't know his name,
- 1:36:16Speaker 1: did you, No, sir? By the powers Tom Morgan. It's
- 1:36:20Speaker 1: good for you, exclaimed the landlord. If you had been
- 1:36:24Speaker 1: mixed up with the like of that, you would never
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: put another foot in my house. You may lay to that.
- 1:36:30Speaker 1: And what was he saying to you? I don't rightly know, sir,
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: answered Morgan. Do you call that ahead on your shoulders?
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: Are a blessed dead eye? Cried long John. Don't rightly know,
- 1:36:43Speaker 1: don't you? Perhaps you don't happen to rightly know who
- 1:36:47Speaker 1: you were speaking to? Perhaps come now? What was he jarring? Voyages,
- 1:36:52Speaker 1: cap'n ships pie up? What was it? He was a
- 1:36:56Speaker 1: talking of keel hauling, answered Morgan. Keel all him was
- 1:37:02Speaker 1: you and a mighty suitable thing too, And you made
- 1:37:05Speaker 1: later that get back to your place for a lubber, Tom.
- 1:37:10Speaker 1: And then as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver
- 1:37:13Speaker 1: added to me in a confidential whisper that was very flattering,
- 1:37:17Speaker 1: as I thought, he's quite an honest man, Tom Morgan,
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: only stupid. And now he ran on again loud, let's
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: see black dog. No, I don't know that name, not
- 1:37:30Speaker 1: I yeah, I kind of think, yes, yes, I've seen
- 1:37:35Speaker 1: the swab he used to come here with a blowing
- 1:37:38Speaker 1: beggary used that he did, You may be sure, said
- 1:37:42Speaker 1: I I knew that blind man too. His name was Pew,
- 1:37:46Speaker 1: it was cried Silver, now quite excited. Pew that was
- 1:37:52Speaker 1: his name for a certain ah. He looked as shark
- 1:37:55Speaker 1: he did. And if we run down this black dog now,
- 1:37:59Speaker 1: then I'll be news for cap'n Trelawney. Ben's a good runner.
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: Few seamen run better than Ben. He should have run
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: him down hand over a hand by their powers. He
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: talked to keel Allan, did he I'll keel all him
- 1:38:16Speaker 1: all the time he was jerking out these phrases, he
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch,
- 1:38:22Speaker 1: slapping tables with his hand, and giving such a show
- 1:38:25Speaker 1: of excitement as with a convinced an old Bailey judge
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: or a bow street runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: reawakened on finding black Dog at the spyglass. And I
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: watched the cook narrowly, but he was too deep, and
- 1:38:39Speaker 1: too ready, and too clever for me. And by the
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: time the two men had come back out of breath
- 1:38:44Speaker 1: and confessed that they had lost the track in a
- 1:38:47Speaker 1: crowd and been scolded like thieves, I would have gone
- 1:38:51Speaker 1: bail for the innocence of long John Silver. No. See here,
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: Hawkins said he. Here is a blessed hard thing on
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: a man like me, now, ain't it. There's cap'n Trelawney.
- 1:39:04Speaker 1: What's he to think? Here? I have this confounded son
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: of a Dutchman sitting here in my own house, drinking
- 1:39:11Speaker 1: of my own rum. Here you comes and tells me
- 1:39:14Speaker 1: of it plain, and here I let him give us,
- 1:39:18Speaker 1: oh the slip before my blessed dead lights. Now, Harkins,
- 1:39:23Speaker 1: you do me justice with the Captain. You're a lad,
- 1:39:26Speaker 1: you are, but you're as smart as paint. I see
- 1:39:29Speaker 1: that when you first came in now here. It is
- 1:39:33Speaker 1: What could I do with this old timberoy hobble on?
- 1:39:37Speaker 1: When I was a a b master mariner, I'd have
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: come along beside him, hand overhand and broached him into
- 1:39:44Speaker 1: a brace of old shakes. I would and now, and
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: then all of a sudden he stopped, and his jaw dropped,
- 1:39:52Speaker 1: as though he had remembered something. The score, he burst out,
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: three goes a rub boy, shiver my timber, if I
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: hadn't forgotten my score, And falling on a bench, he
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks. I could
- 1:40:09Speaker 1: not help joining, and we laughed together. Peel laughed appeal
- 1:40:12Speaker 1: till the tavern rang again. Why what a precious old
- 1:40:17Speaker 1: sea calf I am, he said, at last, wiping his cheeks.
- 1:40:22Speaker 1: You and me should get on well, Hawkins, for I'll
- 1:40:25Speaker 1: take my davy. I should be rated ship's boy. But
- 1:40:29Speaker 1: come now stand by to go about this? Won't do?
- 1:40:33Speaker 1: Dooty is dooty, messmates. I'll put on my old cocked
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: hat and step along you to Captain Trelawney and report
- 1:40:42Speaker 1: this here affair. For mind you, it's serious, young Harkins.
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: And neither you nor me's come out of it with
- 1:40:49Speaker 1: what I should make so bold as it called credit,
- 1:40:53Speaker 1: nor you neither says you not smart, none of the
- 1:40:56Speaker 1: pair of us smart, but dash my buttons that were
- 1:41:00Speaker 1: a good about my score. And he began to laugh again,
- 1:41:04Speaker 1: and that so heartily that though I did not see
- 1:41:07Speaker 1: the joke as he did, I was again obliged to
- 1:41:10Speaker 1: join him in his mirth. On our little walk along
- 1:41:13Speaker 1: the keys, he made himself the most interesting companion, telling
- 1:41:17Speaker 1: me about the different ships that we passed by their
- 1:41:20Speaker 1: rig tonnage nationality, explaining the work that was going forward,
- 1:41:25Speaker 1: how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: third making ready for sea, and every now and then
- 1:41:31Speaker 1: telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen, or
- 1:41:35Speaker 1: repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly.
- 1:41:39Speaker 1: I began to see that here was one of the
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: best of possible shipmates. When we got to the inn,
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: the Squire and Doctor Livesey were seated together, finishing a
- 1:41:49Speaker 1: quarter of ale with a toast in it, before they
- 1:41:52Speaker 1: should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: Long John told the story from first to last with
- 1:41:58Speaker 1: a great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth
- 1:42:02Speaker 1: that was how it were? Now? Weren't it? Hawkins? He
- 1:42:05Speaker 1: would say now and again, and I could always bear
- 1:42:08Speaker 1: him entirely out. The two gentlemen regretted that black Dog
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: had got away, but we all agreed that there was
- 1:42:15Speaker 1: nothing to be done. And after he had been complimented,
- 1:42:19Speaker 1: Long John took up his crutch and departed. All hands
- 1:42:23Speaker 1: are board for for this afternoon, shouted the squire after him.
- 1:42:27Speaker 1: Aye aye, Sir, cried the cook in the passage. Well,
- 1:42:32Speaker 1: Squire said, doctor Livesey. I don't put much faith in
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: your discoveries as a general thing, but I will say this,
- 1:42:41Speaker 1: John Silver suits me. That man's a perfect trump, declared
- 1:42:46Speaker 1: the Squire, and now added the doctor. Jim may come
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: on board with us. May he not? To be sure?
- 1:42:54Speaker 1: He may, said the squire. Take your hat, Hawkins, and
- 1:42:58Speaker 1: we'll see the ship. End of Chapter eight, Chapter nine,
- 1:43:05Speaker 1: Powder and Arms. The Hispaniola lay some way out, and
- 1:43:11Speaker 1: we went under the figureheads and around the sterns of
- 1:43:14Speaker 1: many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated beneath our keel,
- 1:43:18Speaker 1: and sometimes swung above us. At last, however, we swung
- 1:43:23Speaker 1: alongside and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard
- 1:43:26Speaker 1: by the mate, mister Arrow, a brown old sailor with
- 1:43:30Speaker 1: ear rings in his ears and a squint. He and
- 1:43:33Speaker 1: the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon
- 1:43:36Speaker 1: observed that things were not the same between mister Trelawney
- 1:43:40Speaker 1: and the captain. This last was a sharp looking man
- 1:43:44Speaker 1: who seemed angry with everything on board, and was soon
- 1:43:47Speaker 1: to tell us why. For we had hardly got down
- 1:43:50Speaker 1: into the cabin when a sailor followed us. Captain Smollett, Sir,
- 1:43:54Speaker 1: axing to speak with you, said he. I am always
- 1:43:57Speaker 1: at the Captain's orders. Show him in, said the squire.
- 1:44:02Speaker 1: The Captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at
- 1:44:05Speaker 1: once and shut the door behind him. Well, Captain Smollett,
- 1:44:10Speaker 1: what have you to say? All? Well, I hope all
- 1:44:13Speaker 1: ship shape and sea worthy. Well, sir, said the captain,
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: Better speak plain, I believe, at the risk of a fence,
- 1:44:22Speaker 1: I don't like this cruise. I don't like the men,
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: and I don't like my officer. That's short and sweet. Perhaps, sir,
- 1:44:32Speaker 1: you don't like the ship, inquired the squire very angry
- 1:44:35Speaker 1: as I could see. I can't speak to that, sir,
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: not having seen her tried, said the captain. She seems
- 1:44:43Speaker 1: a clever craft more I can't say possibly, sir. You
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: may not like your employer either, said the squire. But
- 1:44:52Speaker 1: here doctor Livesey cut in. Stay a bit, said he,
- 1:44:56Speaker 1: stay a bit. No use of such questions as that,
- 1:45:00Speaker 1: but to produce ill feeling. The Captain has said too much,
- 1:45:04Speaker 1: or he has said too little, and I'm bound to
- 1:45:08Speaker 1: say that I require an explanation of his words. You
- 1:45:12Speaker 1: don't you say, like this cruise? Now? Why I was engaged, sir,
- 1:45:18Speaker 1: on what we call sealed orders to sail this ship
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: for that gentleman where he should bid me, said the captain.
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: So far, so good. But now I find that every
- 1:45:33Speaker 1: man before the mast knows more than I do. I
- 1:45:37Speaker 1: don't call that fear, now, do you now, said Doctor Livesey.
- 1:45:42Speaker 1: I don't, next, said the Captain. I learn that we
- 1:45:48Speaker 1: are going after treasure. Hear it from my own hands.
- 1:45:52Speaker 1: Mind you, now, treasure is ticklish work. I don't like
- 1:45:57Speaker 1: treasure voyages on any account, and I I don't like
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: them above all when they are secret and when begging
- 1:46:04Speaker 1: your pardon, mister Trelawney. The secret has been told to
- 1:46:08Speaker 1: the parrot. Silver's parrot, asked the squire. It's a way
- 1:46:14Speaker 1: of speaking, said the captain, blabed. I mean it's my belief.
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: Neither of you, gentlemen, know what you are about. But
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: I'll tell you my way of it. Life or death
- 1:46:27Speaker 1: and a close run. That is all clear, And I
- 1:46:31Speaker 1: dare say true enough, replied doctor Livesey. We take the risk,
- 1:46:35Speaker 1: but we are not so ignorant as you believe us. Next,
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: you say you don't like the crew. Are they not
- 1:46:43Speaker 1: good seamen? I don't like them, sir, returned Captain Smollett.
- 1:46:48Speaker 1: And I think I should have had the choosing of
- 1:46:51Speaker 1: my own hands. If you go to that, perhaps you should,
- 1:46:56Speaker 1: replied the doctor. My friend should perhaps have taken you
- 1:47:00Speaker 1: were along with him. But the slight, if there be one,
- 1:47:03Speaker 1: was unintentional. And you don't like mister Arrow, I don't, sir.
- 1:47:09Speaker 1: I believe he's a good seaman, but he's too free
- 1:47:13Speaker 1: with the crew to be a good officer. A mate
- 1:47:16Speaker 1: should keep himself to himself, shouldn't drink with the men
- 1:47:20Speaker 1: before the mast. Do you mean he drinks? Cried the squire, No, sir,
- 1:47:27Speaker 1: replied the captain, only that he's too familiar. Well now
- 1:47:32Speaker 1: and the short of the long of it, captain asked
- 1:47:35Speaker 1: the doctor, tell us what you want, well, gentlemen, or
- 1:47:40Speaker 1: you determined to go on this cruise like iron? Answered
- 1:47:46Speaker 1: the squire. Very good, said the Captain. Then, as you've
- 1:47:51Speaker 1: heard me very patiently saying things that I could not prove,
- 1:47:56Speaker 1: hear me a few words more. They are putting the
- 1:47:59Speaker 1: power and arms in the foe hold. Now you have
- 1:48:04Speaker 1: a good place under the cabin. Why not put them there?
- 1:48:08Speaker 1: First point? Then you are bringing four of your own
- 1:48:13Speaker 1: people with you, and they tell me some of them
- 1:48:16Speaker 1: are to be berthed forward, why not give them the
- 1:48:20Speaker 1: berths here besides the cabin? Second point anymore, asked mister Trelawney.
- 1:48:29Speaker 1: One more, said the captain. There's been too much a
- 1:48:33Speaker 1: blabbing already, far too much, agreed the doctor. I'll tell
- 1:48:39Speaker 1: you what I have heard myself, continued Captain Smollett. That
- 1:48:43Speaker 1: you have a map of an island, that there's crosses
- 1:48:47Speaker 1: on the map to show where treasure is, and that
- 1:48:50Speaker 1: the island lies. And then he named the latitude and
- 1:48:54Speaker 1: longitude exactly. I never told that cried the squire, to
- 1:48:59Speaker 1: a Oh, the hands know it, Sir, returned the Captain. Livesey.
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: That must have been your Hawkins, cried the squire. It
- 1:49:10Speaker 1: doesn't much matter who it was, replied the doctor. And
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: I could see that neither he nor the Captain paid
- 1:49:18Speaker 1: much regard to mister Trelawney's protestations. Neither did I to
- 1:49:22Speaker 1: be sure he was so loose a talker. Yet in
- 1:49:26Speaker 1: this case I believe he was really right, and that
- 1:49:29Speaker 1: nobody had told the situation of the island Well, gentlemen,
- 1:49:34Speaker 1: continued the Captain. I don't know who has this map,
- 1:49:38Speaker 1: but I make it a point it shall be kept secret,
- 1:49:41Speaker 1: even from me and mister Arrow. Otherwise I would ask
- 1:49:46Speaker 1: you to let me resign. I see, said the doctor.
- 1:49:50Speaker 1: You wish us to keep this matter dark, and to
- 1:49:53Speaker 1: make a garrison of the stern part of the ship,
- 1:49:57Speaker 1: manned with my friend's own people, and provided with all
- 1:50:01Speaker 1: the arms and powder on board. In other words, you'll
- 1:50:05Speaker 1: fear a mutiny, sir, said Captain Smollett, with no intention
- 1:50:11Speaker 1: to take offence. I deny your right to put words
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: into my mouth. No, Captain, Sir, would be justified in
- 1:50:19Speaker 1: going to sea at all if he had ground enough
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: to save that. As for mister Arrow, I believe him
- 1:50:28Speaker 1: thoroughly honest. Some of the men are the same, or
- 1:50:32Speaker 1: maybe for what I know. But I am responsible for
- 1:50:36Speaker 1: the ship's safety and the life of every man jack
- 1:50:41Speaker 1: aboard of her. I see things going as I think
- 1:50:45Speaker 1: not quite right, and I ask you to take certain precautions,
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: or let me resign my birth. And that's all, Captain Smollett,
- 1:50:57Speaker 1: began the doctor with a smile. Did you ever hear
- 1:51:00Speaker 1: the fable of the Mountain and the mouse. You'll excuse me,
- 1:51:04Speaker 1: I dare say, but you remind me of that fable.
- 1:51:08Speaker 1: When you came in here. I'll stake my wig. You
- 1:51:11Speaker 1: meant more than this, doctor, said the captain. You are smart.
- 1:51:17Speaker 1: When I came in here, I meant to get discharged.
- 1:51:21Speaker 1: I had no thought that mister Trelawney would hear a word.
- 1:51:26Speaker 1: No more, I would cried the squire. Had Livesey not
- 1:51:30Speaker 1: been here, I should have seen you to the deuce.
- 1:51:33Speaker 1: As it is, I have heard you. I will do
- 1:51:37Speaker 1: as you desire, but I think the worst of you.
- 1:51:40Speaker 1: That's as you please, sir, said the captain. You'll find
- 1:51:45Speaker 1: I do my duty and with that he took his
- 1:51:48Speaker 1: leave trolawn ear, said the doctor. Contrary to all my notions,
- 1:51:55Speaker 1: I believe you have managed to get two honest men
- 1:51:58Speaker 1: on board with you, that man and John Silver Silver,
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: if you like, cried the Squire. But as for that
- 1:52:07Speaker 1: intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly
- 1:52:13Speaker 1: and downright un English. Well, said the doctor. We shall
- 1:52:18Speaker 1: see when we came on deck. The men had begun
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: all ready to take out the arms and powder yohoeing
- 1:52:25Speaker 1: at their work, while the Captain and mister Arrow stood
- 1:52:28Speaker 1: by superintending. The new arrangement was quite to my liking.
- 1:52:33Speaker 1: The whole schooner had been overhauled. Six berths had been
- 1:52:36Speaker 1: made astern out of what had been the after part
- 1:52:39Speaker 1: of the main hold, and this set of cabins was
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: only joined to the galley and forecastle by a sparred
- 1:52:45Speaker 1: passage on the port side. It had been originally meant
- 1:52:48Speaker 1: that the Captain, mister Arrow, Hunter Joyce, the Doctor, and
- 1:52:52Speaker 1: the Squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth
- 1:52:56Speaker 1: and I were to get two of them, and mister
- 1:52:59Speaker 1: Arrow and the Captain were to sleep on deck in
- 1:53:01Speaker 1: the companion, which had been enlarged on either side till
- 1:53:05Speaker 1: you might almost have called it a round house. Very
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: low it was, still, of course, but there was room
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: to swing to hammocks, and even the mate seemed pleased
- 1:53:14Speaker 1: with the arrangement. Even he perhaps had been doubtful as
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: to the crew, but that is only guess, for as
- 1:53:21Speaker 1: you shall hear, we had not long the benefit of
- 1:53:24Speaker 1: his opinion. We were all hard at work changing the
- 1:53:28Speaker 1: powder and the berths when the last man or two,
- 1:53:31Speaker 1: and Long John along with them, came off in a
- 1:53:34Speaker 1: shore boat. The cook came up the side like a
- 1:53:37Speaker 1: monkey for cleverness, and as soon as he saw what
- 1:53:40Speaker 1: was doing so home mates said he what's this? We're
- 1:53:45Speaker 1: a change in the powder? Jack answers one. Why by
- 1:53:50Speaker 1: the powers, cried Long John. If we do well miss
- 1:53:54Speaker 1: the mourning tide, my orders, said the captain. Shortly you
- 1:53:59Speaker 1: may go below. My man hands will want supper. Aye aye, sir,
- 1:54:05Speaker 1: answered the cook, and touching his forelock, he disappeared at
- 1:54:09Speaker 1: once in the direction of his galley. That's a good man,
- 1:54:12Speaker 1: the captain, said the doctor. Very likely, Sir, replied Captain Smollett.
- 1:54:19Speaker 1: Easy with that, men, easy He ran on to the
- 1:54:23Speaker 1: fellows who were shifting the powder, and then suddenly observing
- 1:54:26Speaker 1: me examining the swivel, we carried amidships a long brass nine.
- 1:54:31Speaker 1: Here you ship's boy, he cried out, Are that off
- 1:54:35Speaker 1: with you to the cook and get some work. And
- 1:54:39Speaker 1: then as I was hurrying off, I heard him say,
- 1:54:42Speaker 1: quite loudly to the doctor, I'll have no favorites on
- 1:54:45Speaker 1: my ship, I assure you. I was quite of the
- 1:54:48Speaker 1: Squire's way of thinking, and hated the captain deeply. End
- 1:54:53Speaker 1: of chapter nine, Chapter ten. The voyage all that night
- 1:55:00Speaker 1: in a great bustle, getting things stowed in their place,
- 1:55:03Speaker 1: and boatfuls of the Squire's friends, mister Blandly and the
- 1:55:06Speaker 1: like coming off to wish him a good voyage and
- 1:55:09Speaker 1: a safe return. We never had a night at the
- 1:55:12Speaker 1: admiral Benbow when I had half the work, and I
- 1:55:15Speaker 1: was dog tired. When a little before dawn the bowsun
- 1:55:19Speaker 1: sounded his pipe and the crew began to man the
- 1:55:21Speaker 1: capstan bars. I might have been twice as weary, yet
- 1:55:26Speaker 1: I would not have left the deck, or was so
- 1:55:29Speaker 1: new and interesting to me the brief commands, the shrill
- 1:55:33Speaker 1: notes of the whistle, the men bustling to their places.
- 1:55:36Speaker 1: In the glimmer of the ship's lanterns now barbecue tip us,
- 1:55:40Speaker 1: a stave cried one voice, the old one cried another.
- 1:55:45Speaker 1: Aye aye, mates, said long John, who was standing by
- 1:55:49Speaker 1: with his crutch under his arm, and at once broke
- 1:55:52Speaker 1: out in the air and words I knew so well.
- 1:55:56Speaker 1: Fifteen men on a dead man's chest. And then the
- 1:56:00Speaker 1: whole crew bore chorus, Yo, ho ho, and a bottle
- 1:56:05Speaker 1: of rum, and at the third hoe drove the bars
- 1:56:10Speaker 1: before them with a will. Even at that exciting moment,
- 1:56:13Speaker 1: it carried me back to the old admiral benbow in
- 1:56:16Speaker 1: a second, and I seemed to hear the voice of
- 1:56:18Speaker 1: the captain piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor
- 1:56:22Speaker 1: was short up. Soon it was hanging, dripping at the bows.
- 1:56:26Speaker 1: Soon the sails began to draw, and the land and
- 1:56:29Speaker 1: shipping to flit by on either side. And before I
- 1:56:32Speaker 1: could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber, the
- 1:56:35Speaker 1: Hispaniola began her voyage to the Isle of Treasure. I
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It
- 1:56:42Speaker 1: was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a good ship,
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: and the crew were capable seamen, and the captain thoroughly
- 1:56:49Speaker 1: understood his business. But before we came the length of
- 1:56:52Speaker 1: Treasure Island, two or three things had happened which require
- 1:56:56Speaker 1: to be known. Mister Arrow, first of all, turned out
- 1:56:59Speaker 1: even worse than the captain had feared. He had no
- 1:57:02Speaker 1: command among the men, and people did what they pleased
- 1:57:06Speaker 1: with him. But that was by no means the worst
- 1:57:08Speaker 1: of it. For after a day or two at sea,
- 1:57:11Speaker 1: he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks,
- 1:57:15Speaker 1: stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time after time
- 1:57:20Speaker 1: he was ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and
- 1:57:24Speaker 1: cut himself. Sometimes he lay all day long in his
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: little bunk at one side of the companion. Sometimes for
- 1:57:30Speaker 1: a day or two he would be almost sober and
- 1:57:33Speaker 1: attend to his work at least passably. In the meantime,
- 1:57:37Speaker 1: we could never make out where he got the drink.
- 1:57:40Speaker 1: That was the ship's mystery. Watch him as we pleased,
- 1:57:44Speaker 1: we could do nothing to solve it. And when we
- 1:57:46Speaker 1: asked him to his face, he would only laugh if
- 1:57:49Speaker 1: he were drunk, and if he were sober, deny solemnly
- 1:57:53Speaker 1: that he ever tasted anything but water. He was not
- 1:57:56Speaker 1: only useless as an officer, and a bad influence among
- 1:58:00Speaker 1: the men, but it was plain that at this rate
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: he must soon kill himself outright. So nobody was much
- 1:58:05Speaker 1: surprised nor very sorry, when one dark night, with a
- 1:58:09Speaker 1: head sea, he disappeared entirely and was seen no more
- 1:58:14Speaker 1: Overbold said the captain, Well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble
- 1:58:19Speaker 1: of putting him in irons. And there we were without
- 1:58:23Speaker 1: a mate, and it was necessary, of course to advance
- 1:58:26Speaker 1: one of the men, the bo'sun job Anderson was the
- 1:58:30Speaker 1: likeliest man aboard, and though he kept his old title,
- 1:58:34Speaker 1: he served in a way as mate. Mister Trelawney had
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: followed the sea, and his knowledge made him very useful,
- 1:58:40Speaker 1: for often he took a watch himself in easy weather
- 1:58:43Speaker 1: and the Coxs and israel Hands was a careful, wily,
- 1:58:47Speaker 1: old experienced seaman who could be trusted at a pinch
- 1:58:51Speaker 1: with almost anything. He was a great confidante of long
- 1:58:55Speaker 1: John Silver. And so the mention of his name leads
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: me on to speak of our ship, cook Barbecue, as
- 1:59:02Speaker 1: the men called him. Aboard ship. He carried his crutch
- 1:59:06Speaker 1: by a lanyard around his neck to have both hands
- 1:59:09Speaker 1: as free as possible. It was something to see him
- 1:59:11Speaker 1: wedge the foot of the crutch against the bulkhead and
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: propped against it, yielding to every movement of the ship,
- 1:59:18Speaker 1: get on with his cooking like someone safe ashore. Still
- 1:59:22Speaker 1: more strange was it to see him, in the heaviest
- 1:59:24Speaker 1: of weather cross the deck. He had a line or
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: two rigged up to help him across the widest spaces
- 1:59:30Speaker 1: Long John's ear rings, they were called, and he would
- 1:59:33Speaker 1: hand himself from one place to another, now using the crutch,
- 1:59:37Speaker 1: now trailing it alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as
- 1:59:41Speaker 1: another man could walk. Yet some of the men who
- 1:59:43Speaker 1: had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see
- 1:59:47Speaker 1: him so reduced. He's no common man barbecue, said the
- 1:59:51Speaker 1: coxswain to me. He had a good schooling in his
- 1:59:54Speaker 1: young days, and can speak like a book when he's
- 1:59:57Speaker 1: so minded and brave. A lions nothing alongside of Long John.
- 2:00:03Speaker 1: I've seen him grapple four and knock their heads together
- 2:00:07Speaker 1: him unarmed. All the crew respected and even obeyed him.
- 2:00:12Speaker 1: He had a way of talking to each and doing
- 2:00:14Speaker 1: everybody some particular service. To me, he was unweariedly kind
- 2:00:19Speaker 1: and always glad to see me. In the galley, which
- 2:00:22Speaker 1: he kept as clean as a new pin, the dishes
- 2:00:25Speaker 1: hanging up burnished, and his parrot in a cage in
- 2:00:28Speaker 1: the corner. Come away, young Haarkins, he would say, Come
- 2:00:33Speaker 1: and have a yarn with John. Nobody more welcome than yourself,
- 2:00:38Speaker 1: my son. Sit you down and hear the news. Here's
- 2:00:42Speaker 1: cap'n Flint. I cause my parrot cap'n Flint, after the
- 2:00:47Speaker 1: famous buccaneer, here's cap'n Flint, predicting success to her voyage,
- 2:00:53Speaker 1: wasn't your cap'n And the parrot would say, with great rapidity,
- 2:00:57Speaker 1: pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight, till
- 2:01:00Speaker 1: you wondered that it was not out of breath, or
- 2:01:03Speaker 1: till John threw his handkerchief over the cage. Now that bird,
- 2:01:09Speaker 1: he would say, is maybe two hundred years old, Hawkins.
- 2:01:13Speaker 1: They live forever mostly, and if anybody see more wickedness,
- 2:01:18Speaker 1: it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England,
- 2:01:23Speaker 1: the Great cop in England the Pirate. She's been at Madagascar,
- 2:01:28Speaker 1: and at Malabar, and Suriname, and Providence and Port of Bellow.
- 2:01:34Speaker 1: She was at the fishing up of the wrecked plate ships.
- 2:01:37Speaker 1: It's there she learned pieces of eight and little wonder
- 2:01:41Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty thousand off of markins. She was
- 2:01:45Speaker 1: at the boarding of the Vostroy of the Indies out
- 2:01:48Speaker 1: of Goa. She was, and to look at her you
- 2:01:52Speaker 1: would think she was a babby. But you smelt powder,
- 2:01:56Speaker 1: didn't you. Captain stand by to go about. The parrot
- 2:01:59Speaker 1: would ah, she's antsome, craft she is, the cook would say,
- 2:02:05Speaker 1: and give her sugar from his pocket, And then the
- 2:02:08Speaker 1: bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on,
- 2:02:11Speaker 1: passing belief for wickedness. There, John would add, you can't
- 2:02:17Speaker 1: pitch a nut be mucked. Lad, here's the poor old
- 2:02:21Speaker 1: innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire, and Nune the
- 2:02:25Speaker 1: wiser you made later that she would swear the same
- 2:02:28Speaker 1: in a manner o speaking before the chaplain, and John
- 2:02:32Speaker 1: would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had
- 2:02:35Speaker 1: that made me think he was the best of men.
- 2:02:38Speaker 1: In the meantime, the Squire and Captain Smollett were still
- 2:02:41Speaker 1: on pretty distant terms with one another. The Squire made
- 2:02:45Speaker 1: no bones about the matter. He despised the captain. The captain,
- 2:02:49Speaker 1: on his part, never spoke, but when he was spoken to,
- 2:02:53Speaker 1: and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
- 2:02:55Speaker 1: word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that
- 2:02:59Speaker 1: he seemed to have been wrong about the crew, that
- 2:03:02Speaker 1: some of them were as brisk as he wanted to see,
- 2:03:05Speaker 1: and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship,
- 2:03:08Speaker 1: he had taken a downright fancy to her. She'll lie
- 2:03:12Speaker 1: a point nearer the wind than a man, as the
- 2:03:15Speaker 1: right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But
- 2:03:19Speaker 1: he would add, all I say is we're not home again,
- 2:03:23Speaker 1: and I don't like the cruise. The squire at this
- 2:03:28Speaker 1: would turn away and march up and down the deck,
- 2:03:30Speaker 1: chin in air. A trifle more of that man, he
- 2:03:34Speaker 1: would say, and I should explode. We had some heavy weather,
- 2:03:39Speaker 1: which only proved the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man
- 2:03:43Speaker 1: on board seemed well content, and he must have been
- 2:03:46Speaker 1: hard to please if they had been otherwise. For it
- 2:03:49Speaker 1: is my belief that there was never a ship's company
- 2:03:52Speaker 1: so spoiled. Since Noah put to sea, double grog was
- 2:03:57Speaker 1: going at the least excuse there was duff on odd days,
- 2:04:00Speaker 1: as for instance, if the squire heard it was any
- 2:04:03Speaker 1: man's birthday, and all was a barrel of apples standing
- 2:04:07Speaker 1: broached in the waist for anyone to help himself that
- 2:04:09Speaker 1: had a fancy never knew good to come of it.
- 2:04:13Speaker 1: Yet the captain said to doctor livesey, spoil forecastle, hands
- 2:04:18Speaker 1: make devils, that's my belief. But good did come of
- 2:04:23Speaker 1: the apple barrel, as you shall hear. For if it
- 2:04:26Speaker 1: had not been for that, we should have had no
- 2:04:28Speaker 1: note of warning, and might all have perished by the
- 2:04:31Speaker 1: hand of treachery. This is how it came about. We
- 2:04:37Speaker 1: had run up the trades to get wind of the
- 2:04:39Speaker 1: island we were after. I am not allowed to be
- 2:04:42Speaker 1: more plain, And now we were running down for it
- 2:04:44Speaker 1: with a bright lookout day and night. It was about
- 2:04:48Speaker 1: the last day of her outward voyage. By the last computation,
- 2:04:52Speaker 1: some time that night, or latest before noon of the morrow,
- 2:04:56Speaker 1: we should sight the treasure Island. We were heading south
- 2:05:00Speaker 1: west and had a steady breeze abeam and a quiet sea.
- 2:05:04Speaker 1: The Hispaniola rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and then
- 2:05:08Speaker 1: with a whiff of spray. All was drawing a low
- 2:05:12Speaker 1: and aloft. Everyone was in the bravest spirits because we
- 2:05:16Speaker 1: were now so near an end of the first part
- 2:05:18Speaker 1: of our adventure. Now, just after sundown, when all my
- 2:05:22Speaker 1: work was over and I was on my way to
- 2:05:24Speaker 1: my berth, it occurred to me that I should like
- 2:05:27Speaker 1: an apple. I ran on deck. The watch was all forehead,
- 2:05:31Speaker 1: looking out for the island. The man at the helm
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away
- 2:05:37Speaker 1: gently to himself, and that was the only sound, excepting
- 2:05:41Speaker 1: the swish of the sea against the boughs and around
- 2:05:44Speaker 1: the sides of the ship. In I got bodily into
- 2:05:47Speaker 1: the apple barrel and found there was scarce an apple left.
- 2:05:50Speaker 1: But sitting down there in the dark, what with the
- 2:05:53Speaker 1: sound of the waters and the rocking movement of the ship,
- 2:05:56Speaker 1: I had either fallen asleep or was on the point
- 2:05:58Speaker 1: of doing so, when a heavy man sat down with
- 2:06:01Speaker 1: rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he
- 2:06:05Speaker 1: leaned his shoulders against it, and I was just about
- 2:06:08Speaker 1: to jump up when the man began to speak. It
- 2:06:11Speaker 1: was Silver's voice, and before I had heard a dozen words,
- 2:06:15Speaker 1: I would not have shown myself for all the world,
- 2:06:18Speaker 1: but lay there, trembling and listening in the extreme of
- 2:06:22Speaker 1: fear and curiosity. For from these dozen words I understood
- 2:06:27Speaker 1: that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended
- 2:06:30Speaker 1: upon me alone. End of chapter ten, chapter eleven. What
- 2:06:40Speaker 1: I heard in the apple barrel, no nay said silver
- 2:06:47Speaker 1: Flint was capt'n I was quite a master along of
- 2:06:51Speaker 1: my timbre leg the same side I lost my leg,
- 2:06:55Speaker 1: old pew Lust his daylights. It was a master, Sir Jennim,
- 2:07:00Speaker 1: that amputated me out of college, and all Latin by
- 2:07:04Speaker 1: their bucket and what not. But he was hanged like
- 2:07:08Speaker 1: a dog and sun droid like the rest at Corso Castle.
- 2:07:13Speaker 1: That was Robert's men, that was, and comed of changing
- 2:07:17Speaker 1: names to their ships, Royal Fortune and so on. Now
- 2:07:22Speaker 1: what a ship was christened? So let her stay, he says.
- 2:07:27Speaker 1: So it was with the Cassandra as brought us all
- 2:07:31Speaker 1: saate home from Malabar after England took the viceroy of
- 2:07:36Speaker 1: the Indies. So it was with the old Warrus Flint's
- 2:07:40Speaker 1: old ship, as I've seen him up with the red
- 2:07:44Speaker 1: blood and fit to sink with gold. Ah, cried another voice,
- 2:07:51Speaker 1: that of the youngest hand on board, and evidently full
- 2:07:54Speaker 1: of admiration. He was the flower of the flock, was
- 2:07:58Speaker 1: Flint Davy was a man too, boy all accounts, said Silver.
- 2:08:04Speaker 1: I never sailed along o him, first with England, then
- 2:08:08Speaker 1: with Flint. That's my story, and now here on my
- 2:08:12Speaker 1: own account. In a manner of speaking, I laid by
- 2:08:16Speaker 1: nine hundred safe from England in two thousand and half
- 2:08:20Speaker 1: to Flint. That ain't bad for a man before the mast,
- 2:08:24Speaker 1: all safe in bank. Ain't earning now it's saving, does it?
- 2:08:30Speaker 1: You made later that where's all England's men? Now? I
- 2:08:34Speaker 1: don't know where's Flint's why most of em are board
- 2:08:39Speaker 1: here and glad to get the duff been begging before that.
- 2:08:44Speaker 1: Some of em old pew As has lost his sight
- 2:08:47Speaker 1: and might have thought shame spells twelve hundred pounds in
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: a year, like a lord in parliament whereas he now,
- 2:08:56Speaker 1: well he's dead now and under hatches. But for two
- 2:09:00Speaker 1: years before that, shiver my timbers. The man was starving.
- 2:09:06Speaker 1: He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats and
- 2:09:09Speaker 1: starved at that by the powers. Well, it ain't much
- 2:09:13Speaker 1: use after all, said the young seamen. Tain't much use
- 2:09:18Speaker 1: for fools. You made lay to it, that know nothing,
- 2:09:21Speaker 1: cried Silver. But now you look here. You're young, you are,
- 2:09:27Speaker 1: but you're smart as paint. I see that when I
- 2:09:31Speaker 1: set my eyes on you and I'll talk to you
- 2:09:34Speaker 1: like a man. You can imagine how I felt when
- 2:09:38Speaker 1: I heard this abominable old rogue addressing another in the
- 2:09:42Speaker 1: very same words of flattery he had used to myself.
- 2:09:46Speaker 1: I think, if I had been able, that I would
- 2:09:49Speaker 1: have killed him through the barrel. Meantime he ran on
- 2:09:52Speaker 1: little supposing he was overheard. Here it is about gentlemen
- 2:09:57Speaker 1: of fortune. They lives rough and they risk swinging, but
- 2:10:02Speaker 1: they eat and drink like fighting cocks. And when a
- 2:10:06Speaker 1: cruise is done, why it's hundreds of pounds instead of
- 2:10:09Speaker 1: hundreds of fathings in their pockets. Now the most goes
- 2:10:13Speaker 1: for rum and a good fling and to see again
- 2:10:16Speaker 1: in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay.
- 2:10:21Speaker 1: He puts it all away, some here, some there, and
- 2:10:25Speaker 1: none too much anywhere. Is by reason of suspicion. I'm
- 2:10:29Speaker 1: fifty mark you once back from this cruise. I set
- 2:10:33Speaker 1: up gentlemen in earnest time. Enough too, says you. Ah.
- 2:10:39Speaker 1: But I've lived easy in the meantime, never denied myself
- 2:10:43Speaker 1: and nothing the heart desires, and slept soft and ate
- 2:10:47Speaker 1: daity all my days. But when at sea, and how
- 2:10:50Speaker 1: did I begin before the mast like you? Well, said
- 2:10:55Speaker 1: the other. But all the other money's gone now, ain't it?
- 2:10:59Speaker 1: You showfacing Bristol after this? Why where might you suppose it?
- 2:11:05Speaker 1: Was asked Silver derisively. Bristol in banks and places, answered
- 2:11:12Speaker 1: his companion. It were, said the cook, it were when
- 2:11:17Speaker 1: we weighed Anchor. But my old missus as it are
- 2:11:20Speaker 1: by now, and the spyglasses sold leasts and good will
- 2:11:25Speaker 1: and rigging, and the old girls off to meet me.
- 2:11:28Speaker 1: I will tell you where a mate, for I trust you,
- 2:11:32Speaker 1: but it'd make jealousy among the mates, And you can
- 2:11:36Speaker 1: trust your missus, asked the other gentlemen of fortune, returned
- 2:11:42Speaker 1: the cook usually trust little among themselves, and right they are.
- 2:11:47Speaker 1: You may lay to it, But I have a way
- 2:11:50Speaker 1: with me. I have when a mate brings a slip
- 2:11:54Speaker 1: on his cable, one as knows me, I mean it
- 2:11:57Speaker 1: won't be in the same world with old John. There
- 2:12:01Speaker 1: were some that was feared of Pew, and some that
- 2:12:05Speaker 1: was feared of Flint. But Flint his own self was
- 2:12:11Speaker 1: feared of me. Feared he was, and proud they was.
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: The roughest crew of float was Flint's. The devil himself
- 2:12:21Speaker 1: would have been feared to go to sea with them. Well,
- 2:12:25Speaker 1: now I tell you I'm not a boasting man, and
- 2:12:29Speaker 1: you've seen yourself how easy I keep company. But when
- 2:12:34Speaker 1: I was quite a master, lambs wasn't the word for
- 2:12:38Speaker 1: Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of yourself
- 2:12:42Speaker 1: in old John's ship. Well I tell you now, replied
- 2:12:47Speaker 1: the lad. I didn't half a quarter like a job
- 2:12:51Speaker 1: till I had this talk with you, John. But there's
- 2:12:54Speaker 1: my hand on it now, And a brave large you were,
- 2:12:58Speaker 1: and smart too, answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that
- 2:13:04Speaker 1: all the barrel shook, and a finer figure head for
- 2:13:07Speaker 1: a gentleman of fortune, I never clap the eye's arm.
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: By this time I had begun to understand the meaning
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: of their terms. By a gentleman of fortune, they plainly
- 2:13:20Speaker 1: meant neither more nor less than a common pirate. And
- 2:13:23Speaker 1: the little scene that I had overheard was the last
- 2:13:26Speaker 1: act in the corruption of one of the honest hands,
- 2:13:29Speaker 1: perhaps of the last one left aboard. But on this
- 2:13:32Speaker 1: point I was soon to be relieved. For Silver, giving
- 2:13:35Speaker 1: a little whistle, a third man strolled up and sat
- 2:13:39Speaker 1: down by the party. Dick Square said, Silver, Oh, I
- 2:13:44Speaker 1: know Dick was square, returned the voice of the coxswain
- 2:13:48Speaker 1: Israel hands. He's no fool, is Dick. He turned his
- 2:13:52Speaker 1: quid and spat. But look here, he went on, here's
- 2:13:57Speaker 1: what I want to know, Barbecue. How longer we are
- 2:14:01Speaker 1: going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat.
- 2:14:05Speaker 1: I've had almost enough, a Captain Smollett, He's hazed me
- 2:14:10Speaker 1: long enough. By thunder. I want to go into that cabin.
- 2:14:14Speaker 2: I do.
- 2:14:14Speaker 1: I want their pickles and wines. And that is ral
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: said Silver. You head ain't much a count, nor never was,
- 2:14:24Speaker 1: but you're able to hear I reckon blest ways. Your
- 2:14:27Speaker 1: ears is big enough.
- 2:14:29Speaker 4: Now he is what I say, your birth forehead, and
- 2:14:33Speaker 4: you'll live hard, and you'll speak soft, and you'll keep
- 2:14:38Speaker 4: sober till I give the word, and you may lead
- 2:14:42Speaker 4: to that. My son.
- 2:14:44Speaker 1: Well, I don't say no, do, I growled the cockswain.
- 2:14:48Speaker 1: What I say is when that's what I say when
- 2:14:53Speaker 1: by the.
- 2:14:54Speaker 2: Powers cried Silver. Well, now if you want to know,
- 2:14:58Speaker 2: I'll tell you when the last moment I can manage,
- 2:15:03Speaker 2: and that's when. Here is the first rate seamen. Captain
- 2:15:08Speaker 2: Smollett sails the blessed ship for us. Here's this squire
- 2:15:13Speaker 2: and doctor. We are map and such. I don't know
- 2:15:17Speaker 2: where it is? Do I no more to you?
- 2:15:20Speaker 1: Says you? Well they know I mean this squiring doctor
- 2:15:24Speaker 1: shall find the stuff and help us to get it
- 2:15:27Speaker 1: aboard by the powers. Then we'll see. If I was
- 2:15:32Speaker 1: sure of you, all sons a double Dutchman, we'd have
- 2:15:36Speaker 1: cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back again before I struck
- 2:15:42Speaker 1: why we're all seeming aboard here, I should think, said
- 2:15:45Speaker 1: the lad dick. We're all Folks'll hand your mean snapped silver.
- 2:15:51Speaker 1: We can steer a car suppose to set one. That's
- 2:15:55Speaker 1: why you gentlemen spit on first and last. If I
- 2:15:59Speaker 1: had more, i'd have Captain Smollett workers back into the trades.
- 2:16:04Speaker 1: At least. Then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a
- 2:16:08Speaker 1: spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort
- 2:16:12Speaker 1: you are. He'll finish with them at the island as
- 2:16:16Speaker 1: soon as the blunt's on board. And a pity it is,
- 2:16:20Speaker 1: but you're never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides.
- 2:16:24Speaker 1: I have a sick heart to sail with the likes
- 2:16:26Speaker 1: of you. Easy Lord John cried Israel, who's a crossing
- 2:16:31Speaker 1: of you? Why? How many tall ships think ye? Now?
- 2:16:37Speaker 1: Have I seen laid aboard? And how many brisk lads
- 2:16:41Speaker 1: draw in the sewn execution? Duck cried silver, and all
- 2:16:46Speaker 1: for the same. Hurry and hurry and hurry you hear me.
- 2:16:51Speaker 1: I've seen a thing or two at sea. I have
- 2:16:54Speaker 1: if you would only lay your course and a point
- 2:16:57Speaker 1: the windward, you would ridly carry your would.
- 2:17:00Speaker 2: But not you.
- 2:17:02Speaker 1: I know you. You'll have your milk full of rum
- 2:17:06Speaker 1: tomorrow and go hang. Everybody know that you was a
- 2:17:10Speaker 1: kind of a chaplain John. But there's others who could
- 2:17:14Speaker 1: hand and steer as well as you, said, Israel. They
- 2:17:18Speaker 1: liked a bit of fun, they did. They wasn't so
- 2:17:22Speaker 1: high and dry, nohow, but took their fling like jolly companions.
- 2:17:26Speaker 1: Everyone so said silver, Well, and where are they? Nail
- 2:17:33Speaker 1: Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar man.
- 2:17:37Speaker 1: Flint was and he died of rum at Savannah. They
- 2:17:42Speaker 1: was a sweet crew. They was, only where are they?
- 2:17:47Speaker 1: But asked Dick, when we do lay them athwart? What
- 2:17:51Speaker 1: are we going to do with him? Anyhow? There is
- 2:17:54Speaker 1: the man for me, cried the cook, admiringly. That's what
- 2:17:58Speaker 1: I call business. Well what would you think put them ashore?
- 2:18:03Speaker 1: Look maroons that would have been England's way, or cut
- 2:18:07Speaker 1: him down like that much pork that would have been
- 2:18:11Speaker 1: flints or billy bones. Billy was the man for that,
- 2:18:16Speaker 1: said Israel. Dead men don't buy it, says he. Well,
- 2:18:20Speaker 1: he's dead now hisself. He knows the long and short
- 2:18:24Speaker 1: on it now. And if ever a rough hen come
- 2:18:27Speaker 1: to port, it was Billy right, you are, said silver,
- 2:18:33Speaker 1: rough and ready. But mark you here. I'm an easy man,
- 2:18:39Speaker 1: I'm quite the gentleman, says you. But this time it's serious.
- 2:18:44Speaker 1: Duty is duty, mates, I give my vote death when
- 2:18:50Speaker 1: I'm in Parliament and riding in my coach, I don't
- 2:18:54Speaker 1: want none of these sea lawyers in the cabin a
- 2:18:58Speaker 1: coming home and look for like the devil at prayers.
- 2:19:01Speaker 1: Wait is what I say. And when the time comes,
- 2:19:06Speaker 1: why little rip John, cried the Coxswain. You're a man,
- 2:19:13Speaker 1: you say, soul Israel when you see said silver. Only
- 2:19:18Speaker 1: one thing I claim, I claim, Trilorney, I'll wring his
- 2:19:25Speaker 1: calf's head off his buddy with these hands, dick, he added,
- 2:19:31Speaker 1: breaking off. You must jump up like a sweet lad,
- 2:19:34Speaker 1: and get me an apple to wet my pipe like
- 2:19:38Speaker 1: you may fancy the terror I was in, I should
- 2:19:41Speaker 1: have leapt out and run for it if I had
- 2:19:43Speaker 1: found the strength, But my limbs and heart alike misgave me.
- 2:19:48Speaker 1: I heard Dick begin to rise, and then someone seemingly
- 2:19:52Speaker 1: stopped him, and the voice of hands exclaimed, Oh, stow,
- 2:19:56Speaker 1: that don't you get sucking of that bild John, Let's
- 2:20:00Speaker 1: have agar of the rum. Dick said, silver, I trust you.
- 2:20:06Speaker 1: I've a gauge on the keg. Mind, there's the key.
- 2:20:10Speaker 1: You fill a panikin and bring it up. Terrified as
- 2:20:14Speaker 1: I was, I could not help thinking to myself, then
- 2:20:17Speaker 1: this must have been how mister Arrow got the strong
- 2:20:19Speaker 1: waters that destroyed him. Dick was gone but a little while,
- 2:20:23Speaker 1: and during his absence Israel spoke straight on in the
- 2:20:27Speaker 1: cook's ear. It was but a word or two that
- 2:20:30Speaker 1: I could catch, and yet I gathered some important news.
- 2:20:34Speaker 1: For besides other scraps that tended to the same purpose,
- 2:20:37Speaker 1: this whole clause was audible. Not another man of them
- 2:20:41Speaker 1: will jine. Hence there were still faithful men on board.
- 2:20:46Speaker 1: When Dick returned, one or another of the trio took
- 2:20:49Speaker 1: the panickin and drank one to luck another with a
- 2:20:54Speaker 1: earsed to old flint and silver, himself saying in a
- 2:20:58Speaker 1: kind of song years to herself an older loff, plenty
- 2:21:03Speaker 1: of prizes and plenty of duff. Just then a sort
- 2:21:06Speaker 1: of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and looking up,
- 2:21:09Speaker 1: I found the moon had risen and was slivering the
- 2:21:12Speaker 1: mizzen top and shining white on the laugh of the Forcil.
- 2:21:16Speaker 1: And almost at the same time the voice on the
- 2:21:18Speaker 1: lookout shouted and o end of Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve,
- 2:21:30Speaker 1: Council of War. There was a great rush of feet
- 2:21:34Speaker 1: across the deck. I could hear people tumbling up from
- 2:21:38Speaker 1: the cabin and the forecastle and slipping in an instant
- 2:21:41Speaker 1: outside my barrel. I dived behind the forcil and made
- 2:21:45Speaker 1: a double toward the stern, and came out upon the
- 2:21:48Speaker 1: open deck in time to join Hunter and doctor Livesey
- 2:21:52Speaker 1: in the rush for the weather bow. There all hands
- 2:21:55Speaker 1: were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted almost
- 2:22:00Speaker 1: simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the
- 2:22:03Speaker 1: southwest of us, we saw two low hills about a
- 2:22:07Speaker 1: couple of miles apart, and rising behind one of them,
- 2:22:11Speaker 1: a third and higher hill, whose peak was still buried
- 2:22:15Speaker 1: in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure,
- 2:22:21Speaker 1: So much I saw almost in a dream, for I
- 2:22:24Speaker 1: had not yet recovered from my horrid fear of a
- 2:22:28Speaker 1: minute or two before. And then I heard the voice
- 2:22:31Speaker 1: of Captain Smollett issuing orders. The hispaniola was laid a
- 2:22:35Speaker 1: couple of points nearer the wind, and now sailed a
- 2:22:39Speaker 1: course that would just clear the island to the east.
- 2:22:43Speaker 1: And now men, said the captain, when all was sheeted home.
- 2:22:47Speaker 1: Has any one of you ever seen that land ahead?
- 2:22:52Speaker 4: Oh?
- 2:22:53Speaker 1: I ave, sir, said silver. I watered there with a trader.
- 2:22:58Speaker 1: I was cooking. The anchorage is on the south, behind
- 2:23:03Speaker 1: an islet, I fancy asked the captain. Yes, sir, Skeleton
- 2:23:09Speaker 1: Island they calls it. It were a main place for
- 2:23:13Speaker 1: pirates once and a hand we had on board knowed
- 2:23:17Speaker 1: all their names for it. That hill to the Norrid
- 2:23:21Speaker 1: they caused Foremast Hill. There are three hills in a
- 2:23:25Speaker 1: row running southward, four Main and Mizzen, Sir. But the
- 2:23:30Speaker 1: Main that's the big un with the cloud on it.
- 2:23:34Speaker 1: They usually cause the spy glass by reason of a lookout.
- 2:23:38Speaker 1: They kept when they was in the anchorage cleaning, for
- 2:23:43Speaker 1: it's there they cleaned their ships, Sir, asking your pardon,
- 2:23:47Speaker 1: I have a chart here, said Captain Smollett, see if
- 2:23:51Speaker 1: that's the place. Long John's eyes burned in his head
- 2:23:56Speaker 1: as he took the chart, but by the fresh look
- 2:23:59Speaker 1: of the paper, I knew he was doomed to disappointment.
- 2:24:03Speaker 1: This was not the map be found in billy Bone's chest,
- 2:24:06Speaker 1: but an accurate copy, complete in all things, names and
- 2:24:10Speaker 1: heights and soundings, with this single exception of the red
- 2:24:14Speaker 1: crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must have been
- 2:24:18Speaker 1: his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it. Yes, sir,
- 2:24:25Speaker 1: said he, this is the spot, to be sure, and
- 2:24:29Speaker 1: very prettily drawed out. Who might have done that? I
- 2:24:34Speaker 1: wonder the pirates were too ignorant, I reckon. Ah, Here
- 2:24:38Speaker 1: it is cap'n Kid's anchorage, just the name my shipmate
- 2:24:43Speaker 1: called it. There is a strong current roads along the
- 2:24:47Speaker 1: south and then away up Nord up the west coast.
- 2:24:52Speaker 1: Right you was, sir, said he, to haul your wind
- 2:24:56Speaker 1: and keep the weather of the island least wh if
- 2:25:00Speaker 1: such was our intention as to enter and kreene, there
- 2:25:03Speaker 1: ain't no better place for that in these waters. Thank you,
- 2:25:09Speaker 1: my man, said Captain Smollett. I'll ask you later on
- 2:25:13Speaker 1: to give us a help. You may go. I was
- 2:25:18Speaker 1: surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge
- 2:25:21Speaker 1: of the island, and I own I was half frightened
- 2:25:24Speaker 1: when I saw him drawing nearer to myself. He did
- 2:25:28Speaker 1: not know to be sure that I had overheard his
- 2:25:31Speaker 1: counsel from the apple barrel. And yet I had by
- 2:25:34Speaker 1: this time taken such a horror of his cruelty, toupelicity,
- 2:25:39Speaker 1: and power that I could scarce conceal a shudder. When
- 2:25:43Speaker 1: he laid his hand upon my arm, AH said he
- 2:25:49Speaker 1: this here is a sweet spart, this island, a sweet
- 2:25:53Speaker 1: spot for a lad to get ashore on. Y'a'll bathe
- 2:25:57Speaker 1: and you'll cloimb trees, and you'll hunt golts. You will,
- 2:26:02Speaker 1: and you'll get a laught on them heels. Lay a
- 2:26:05Speaker 1: goat yourself. Why it makes me young again? I was
- 2:26:10Speaker 1: going to forget my timber leg, I was. It's a
- 2:26:14Speaker 1: pleasant thing to be young and have ten tolls. You
- 2:26:17Speaker 1: may later that when you want to go a bit
- 2:26:20Speaker 1: of exploring, you ask old John and he'll put up
- 2:26:24Speaker 1: a snack for you to take along, and clapping me
- 2:26:28Speaker 1: in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off
- 2:26:31Speaker 1: forehead and went below. Captain Smollett, the Squire, and Doctor
- 2:26:36Speaker 1: Livesey were talking together on the quarter deck, and anxious
- 2:26:40Speaker 1: as I was to tell them my story, I durst
- 2:26:43Speaker 1: not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about
- 2:26:47Speaker 1: in my thoughts to find some probable excuse, Doctor Livesey
- 2:26:51Speaker 1: called me to his side. He had left his pipe below,
- 2:26:55Speaker 1: and being a slave to tobacco, had meant that I
- 2:26:57Speaker 1: should fetch it. But as soon as I was near
- 2:27:00Speaker 1: enough to speak and not be overheard, I broke out immediately.
- 2:27:04Speaker 1: Doctor let me speak, get the Captain and Squire down
- 2:27:08Speaker 1: to the cabin, and then make some pretense to send
- 2:27:11Speaker 1: for me. I have terrible news. The doctor changed countenance
- 2:27:16Speaker 1: a little, but next moment he was master of himself.
- 2:27:20Speaker 1: Thank you, Jim, said he quite loudly. That was all
- 2:27:24Speaker 1: I wanted to know, as if he had asked me
- 2:27:27Speaker 1: a question. And with that he turned on his heel
- 2:27:30Speaker 1: and rejoined the other two. They spoke together for a
- 2:27:33Speaker 1: little and though none of them started or raised his voice,
- 2:27:37Speaker 1: oh so much as whistled, it was plain enough that
- 2:27:40Speaker 1: doctor Livesey had communicated my request for the next thing
- 2:27:44Speaker 1: that I heard was the captain giving an order to
- 2:27:46Speaker 1: Joe Anderson, and all hands were piped on deck. My lads,
- 2:27:52Speaker 1: said Captain Smollett, I have a word to say to you.
- 2:27:55Speaker 1: This land that we have cited is the place we
- 2:27:59Speaker 1: have been sailing to. Mister Trelawney, being a very open
- 2:28:03Speaker 1: handed gentleman, as we all know, has just asked me
- 2:28:08Speaker 1: a word or two. And as I was able to
- 2:28:11Speaker 1: tell him that every man on board had done his
- 2:28:14Speaker 1: duty a low and aloft as I never asked to
- 2:28:18Speaker 1: see it done better, why he and I and the
- 2:28:21Speaker 1: doctor are going below to the cabin to drink your
- 2:28:25Speaker 1: health and luck, and you'll have grog served out to
- 2:28:29Speaker 1: you to drink our health and luck. I'll tell you
- 2:28:32Speaker 1: what I think of this. I think it handsome, and
- 2:28:37Speaker 1: if you think as I do, you'll give a good
- 2:28:40Speaker 1: sea cheer for the gentleman that does it. The chair
- 2:28:43Speaker 1: followed that was a matter of course, but it rang
- 2:28:47Speaker 1: out so full and hearty that I confess I could
- 2:28:50Speaker 1: hardly believe these same men were plotting for our blood.
- 2:28:55Speaker 1: One more cheer for come, Smollett, cried long John, when
- 2:29:00Speaker 1: the first had subsided, and this was given with a will.
- 2:29:04Speaker 1: On the top of that, the three gentlemen went below,
- 2:29:07Speaker 1: and not long after word was sent forward that Jim
- 2:29:11Speaker 1: Hawkins was wanted in the cabin. I found them all
- 2:29:15Speaker 1: three seated around the table, a bottle of Spanish wine
- 2:29:18Speaker 1: and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away
- 2:29:22Speaker 1: with his wig on his lap, and that I knew
- 2:29:25Speaker 1: was a sign that he was agitated. The stern window
- 2:29:28Speaker 1: was open, for it was a warm night, and you
- 2:29:31Speaker 1: could see the moon shining behind on the ship's wake. Now, Hawkins,
- 2:29:36Speaker 1: said the squire, who will have something to say, speak up.
- 2:29:40Speaker 1: I did as I was bid, and short as I
- 2:29:43Speaker 1: could make it, told the whole details of Silver's conversation.
- 2:29:49Speaker 1: Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any
- 2:29:52Speaker 1: one of the three of them make so much as
- 2:29:54Speaker 1: a movement. But they kept their eyes upon my face
- 2:29:58Speaker 1: from first to last. Jim said, doctor Livesey, take a seat,
- 2:30:04Speaker 1: and they made me sit down at a table beside them,
- 2:30:07Speaker 1: poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands
- 2:30:10Speaker 1: with raisins, and all three, one after the other, and
- 2:30:14Speaker 1: each with a bow, drank my good health, and their
- 2:30:17Speaker 1: service to me for my luck and courage. Now, Captain,
- 2:30:22Speaker 1: said the squire, you were right and I was wrong.
- 2:30:27Speaker 1: I owned myself an ass and I await your orders
- 2:30:32Speaker 1: no more an ass than I, Sir, returned the Captain.
- 2:30:36Speaker 1: I never heard of a crew that meant to mutiny,
- 2:30:39Speaker 1: but that what signs before for any man that had
- 2:30:43Speaker 1: an eye in his head to see the mischief and
- 2:30:46Speaker 1: take steps accordingly. But this crew, he added, beats me, Captain,
- 2:30:53Speaker 1: said the doctor. With your permission, that's silver a very
- 2:30:58Speaker 1: remarkable man. He'd looked remarkably well from a yard arm.
- 2:31:03Speaker 1: Sir returned the captain. But this is talk. This don't
- 2:31:08Speaker 1: lead to anything. I see three or four points, and
- 2:31:13Speaker 1: with mister Trelawney's permission, I'll name them. You saw are
- 2:31:18Speaker 1: the captain. It is for you to speak, said mister
- 2:31:21Speaker 1: Trelawney grandly. First point, began mister Smollett. We must go
- 2:31:27Speaker 1: on because we can't turn back. If I gave the
- 2:31:31Speaker 1: word to turn about, they would rise at once. Second point,
- 2:31:36Speaker 1: we have time before us, at least until this treasure's found.
- 2:31:41Speaker 1: Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got
- 2:31:46Speaker 1: to come to blows. Sooner or later. And what I
- 2:31:50Speaker 1: propose is to take time by the forelock, as the
- 2:31:54Speaker 1: saying is, and come to blows some fine day when
- 2:31:58Speaker 1: they least expect it. We can count I take it
- 2:32:02Speaker 1: on your own home servants, mister Trelawney, as upon myself,
- 2:32:08Speaker 1: declared the squire, three reckoned the captain. Ourselves make seven
- 2:32:14Speaker 1: counting hawkins there now about the honest hands most likely
- 2:32:20Speaker 1: are Trelawny's own men, said the doctor. Those he picked
- 2:32:24Speaker 1: up for himself before he lit on silver. Nay, replied
- 2:32:28Speaker 1: the squire hands was one of mine. I did think
- 2:32:33Speaker 1: I could have trusted hands, added the captain. And to
- 2:32:37Speaker 1: think that they're all englishmen, broke out the squire, Sir,
- 2:32:41Speaker 1: I could find it in my heart to blow the
- 2:32:44Speaker 1: ship up. Well, gentlemen, said the captain. The best that
- 2:32:49Speaker 1: I can say is not much. We must lay too,
- 2:32:53Speaker 1: if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's trying
- 2:32:58Speaker 1: on a man I know would be pleasanter to come
- 2:33:01Speaker 1: to blows, but there's no help for it till we
- 2:33:05Speaker 1: know our men lay to and whistle for a wind.
- 2:33:08Speaker 1: That's my view, Jim here said, the doctor can help
- 2:33:13Speaker 1: us more than anyone. The men are not shy with
- 2:33:16Speaker 1: here man Jim is a noticing lad Hawkins. I put
- 2:33:21Speaker 1: prodigious faith in you, added the squire. I began to
- 2:33:24Speaker 1: feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether helpless,
- 2:33:29Speaker 1: and yet by an odd train of circumstances, it was
- 2:33:32Speaker 1: indeed through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk
- 2:33:37Speaker 1: as we pleased. There were only seven out of the
- 2:33:41Speaker 1: twenty six on whom we knew we could rely, and
- 2:33:45Speaker 1: out of these seven, one was a boy, so that
- 2:33:48Speaker 1: the grown men on our side were six to their nineteen.
- 2:33:54Speaker 1: End of chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen, how am I sure
- 2:34:00Speaker 1: adventure began. The appearance of the island when I came
- 2:34:04Speaker 1: on deck next morning, was altogether changed. Although the breeze
- 2:34:09Speaker 1: had now utterly ceased, we had made a great deal
- 2:34:12Speaker 1: of whey during the night, and were now lying becalmed
- 2:34:15Speaker 1: about half a mile to the southeast of the low
- 2:34:18Speaker 1: eastern coast. Gray colored woods covered a large part of
- 2:34:22Speaker 1: the surface. This even tint was indeed broken up by
- 2:34:27Speaker 1: streaks of yellow sand break in the lower lands, and
- 2:34:30Speaker 1: by many tall trees of the pine family out topping
- 2:34:34Speaker 1: the others, some singly, some in clumps, but the general
- 2:34:38Speaker 1: coloring was uniform and sad. The hills ran up clear
- 2:34:43Speaker 1: above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All were
- 2:34:48Speaker 1: strangely shaped, and the spyglass, which was by three or
- 2:34:53Speaker 1: four hundred feet the tallest on the island, was likewise
- 2:34:56Speaker 1: the strangest in configuration, running up sheer from almost every
- 2:35:01Speaker 1: side and then suddenly cut off at the top like
- 2:35:04Speaker 1: a pedestal to put a statue on the Hispaniola was
- 2:35:09Speaker 1: rolling scuppers under in the ocean's swell. The booms were
- 2:35:13Speaker 1: tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro,
- 2:35:17Speaker 1: and the whole ship creaking, groaning and jumping like a manufactory.
- 2:35:23Speaker 1: I had to cling tight to the back stay, and
- 2:35:26Speaker 1: the world turned giddily before my eyes. For though I
- 2:35:30Speaker 1: was a good enough sailor when there was way on this,
- 2:35:33Speaker 1: standing still and being rolled about like a bottle was
- 2:35:36Speaker 1: a thing I never learned to stand without a qualm
- 2:35:39Speaker 1: or two. Above all in the morning on an empty stomach.
- 2:35:44Speaker 1: Perhaps it was this, Perhaps it was the look of
- 2:35:47Speaker 1: the island, with its gray, melancholy woods and wild stone spires,
- 2:35:53Speaker 1: and the surf that we could both see and hear,
- 2:35:55Speaker 1: foaming and thundering on the steep beach at least, so
- 2:36:00Speaker 1: the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds
- 2:36:02Speaker 1: were fishing and crying all around us, and you would
- 2:36:06Speaker 1: have thought anyone would have been glad to get to
- 2:36:08Speaker 1: land after being so long at sea. My heart sank
- 2:36:13Speaker 1: as the saying is into my boots, and from that
- 2:36:16Speaker 1: first look onward I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.
- 2:36:22Speaker 1: We had a dreary morning's work before us, and there
- 2:36:25Speaker 1: was no sign of any wind, and the boats had
- 2:36:28Speaker 1: to be got out and manned, and the ship warped
- 2:36:31Speaker 1: three or four miles round the corner of the island
- 2:36:34Speaker 1: and up the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island.
- 2:36:39Speaker 1: I volunteered for one of the boats, where I had,
- 2:36:42Speaker 1: of course no business. The heat was sweltering, and the
- 2:36:46Speaker 1: men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command
- 2:36:50Speaker 1: of my boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order,
- 2:36:53Speaker 1: he grumbled as loud as the worst well, he said,
- 2:36:58Speaker 1: with an oath, it's not forever. I thought this was
- 2:37:02Speaker 1: a very bad sign, for up to that day the
- 2:37:05Speaker 1: men had gone briskly and willingly about their business, but
- 2:37:09Speaker 1: the very sight of the island had relaxed the cords
- 2:37:12Speaker 1: of discipline all the way in long John stood by
- 2:37:16Speaker 1: the steersman and conned the ship. He knew the passage
- 2:37:19Speaker 1: like the palm of his hand. And though the man
- 2:37:22Speaker 1: in the chains got everywhere more water than was down
- 2:37:25Speaker 1: on the chart, John never hesitated. Once. There's a strong
- 2:37:31Speaker 1: score with the ebb, he said, And this ere passage
- 2:37:36Speaker 1: has been dug out in a manner of speaking with
- 2:37:39Speaker 1: a spade. We brought up just where the anchor was
- 2:37:43Speaker 1: on the chart, about a third of a mile from
- 2:37:46Speaker 1: each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island
- 2:37:50Speaker 1: on the other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge
- 2:37:54Speaker 1: of our anchor sent up clouds of birds, wheeling and
- 2:37:58Speaker 1: crying over the woods, but in less than a minute
- 2:38:01Speaker 1: they were down again, and all was once more silent.
- 2:38:05Speaker 1: The place was entirely land locked, buried in woods, the
- 2:38:09Speaker 1: trees coming right down to high water mark, the shores
- 2:38:13Speaker 1: mostly flat, and the hill tops standing round at a
- 2:38:16Speaker 1: distance in a sort of amphitheater one here one there.
- 2:38:21Speaker 1: Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into
- 2:38:25Speaker 1: this pond, as you might call it, and the foliage
- 2:38:28Speaker 1: around that part of the shore had a kind of
- 2:38:31Speaker 1: poisonous brightness. From the ship. We could see nothing of
- 2:38:35Speaker 1: the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among trees.
- 2:38:40Speaker 1: And if it had not been for the chart on
- 2:38:42Speaker 1: the companion, we might have been the first that ever
- 2:38:45Speaker 1: anchored there, since the islands arose out of the seas.
- 2:38:49Speaker 1: There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound,
- 2:38:52Speaker 1: but that of the surf booming half a mile away
- 2:38:56Speaker 1: along the beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar,
- 2:39:01Speaker 1: stagnant smell hung over the anchorage, a smell of sodden
- 2:39:05Speaker 1: leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing
- 2:39:11Speaker 1: and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg. I don't
- 2:39:16Speaker 1: know about treasure, he said, but I'll stick my wig.
- 2:39:19Speaker 1: There's fever here. If the conduct of the men had
- 2:39:23Speaker 1: been alarming in the boat, it became truly threatening when
- 2:39:26Speaker 1: they had come aboard. They lay about the deck, growling
- 2:39:31Speaker 1: together in talk. The slightest order was received with a
- 2:39:35Speaker 1: black look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest
- 2:39:40Speaker 1: hands must have caught the infection, for there was not
- 2:39:43Speaker 1: one man aboard to mend another mutiny. It was plain
- 2:39:48Speaker 1: hung over us like a thunder cloud. And it was
- 2:39:51Speaker 1: not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger.
- 2:39:55Speaker 1: Long John was hard at work, going from group to group,
- 2:39:59Speaker 1: spending himself good advice and and as for example, no
- 2:40:04Speaker 1: man could have shown a better He fairly outstripped himself
- 2:40:08Speaker 1: in willingness and civility. He was all smiles to everyone.
- 2:40:13Speaker 1: If an order were given, John would be on his
- 2:40:15Speaker 1: crutch in an instant, with the cheeriest aye aye, sir
- 2:40:20Speaker 1: in the world. And when there was nothing else to do,
- 2:40:24Speaker 1: he kept up one song after another, as if to
- 2:40:27Speaker 1: conceal the discontent of the rest. Of all the gloomy
- 2:40:31Speaker 1: features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious anxiety on the
- 2:40:36Speaker 1: part of long John appeared the worst we held a
- 2:40:40Speaker 1: council in the cabin, Sir, said the captain. If I
- 2:40:45Speaker 1: risk another order, the whole ship will come about our
- 2:40:50Speaker 1: ears by the run. You see, sir, here it is
- 2:40:54Speaker 1: I get a rough answer, Do I not? Well? If
- 2:40:59Speaker 1: I speak back, pikes will be going in two shakes.
- 2:41:03Speaker 1: If I don't, Silver will see there's something under that
- 2:41:08Speaker 1: and the game's up. Now we've only one man to
- 2:41:12Speaker 1: rely on. And who's that? Asked the Squire Silver, Sir
- 2:41:18Speaker 1: returned the captain. He's as anxious as you and I
- 2:41:23Speaker 1: to some other things up. This is a tiff. He'd
- 2:41:27Speaker 1: soon talk him out of it if he had the chance.
- 2:41:31Speaker 1: And what I propose to do is to give him
- 2:41:34Speaker 1: the chance. Let's allow the men an afternoon. Sure. If
- 2:41:40Speaker 1: they all go, why we'll fight the ship. If they
- 2:41:45Speaker 1: none of them go, well then we hold the cabin
- 2:41:49Speaker 1: and God defend the right. If some go, you mark
- 2:41:54Speaker 1: my words, Sir Silver'll bring them aboard again as mild
- 2:41:59Speaker 1: as it was so decided, loaded pistols were served out
- 2:42:04Speaker 1: to all the shore men. Hunter Joyce and Redruth were
- 2:42:09Speaker 1: taken into our confidence and received the news with no
- 2:42:12Speaker 1: less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for.
- 2:42:15Speaker 1: And then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.
- 2:42:19Speaker 1: My lads said he, we've had a hot day and
- 2:42:23Speaker 1: are all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore
- 2:42:28Speaker 1: will hurt nobody. The boats are still in the water.
- 2:42:32Speaker 1: You can take the gigs and as many as please
- 2:42:35Speaker 1: can go ashore for the afternoon. I'll fire a gun
- 2:42:40Speaker 1: half an hour before sundown. I believe the silly fellows
- 2:42:44Speaker 1: must have thought that they would break their shins over
- 2:42:46Speaker 1: treasure as soon as they were landed, For they all
- 2:42:50Speaker 1: came out of their salts in a moment and gave
- 2:42:53Speaker 1: a cheer that started the echo in a far away hill,
- 2:42:56Speaker 1: and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round
- 2:43:00Speaker 1: the anchorage. The captain was too bright to be in
- 2:43:03Speaker 1: the way. He whipped out of sight in a moment,
- 2:43:06Speaker 1: leaving Silver to arrange the party, And I fancy it
- 2:43:10Speaker 1: was as well he did so. Had he been on deck,
- 2:43:13Speaker 1: he could no longer so much as have pretended not
- 2:43:17Speaker 1: to understand the situation. It was as plain as day.
- 2:43:21Speaker 1: Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew. He
- 2:43:25Speaker 1: had of it the honest hands, and I was soon
- 2:43:29Speaker 1: to see it proved that there were such on board
- 2:43:32Speaker 1: must have been very stupid fellows. Or rather, I suppose
- 2:43:36Speaker 1: the truth was this, that all hands were disaffected by
- 2:43:40Speaker 1: the example of the ringleaders. Only some more, some less,
- 2:43:44Speaker 1: and a few, being good fellows in the main, could
- 2:43:47Speaker 1: neither be led nor driven any farther. It is one
- 2:43:51Speaker 1: thing to be idle and skulk, and quite another to
- 2:43:55Speaker 1: take a ship and murder a number of innocent men.
- 2:43:58Speaker 1: At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows
- 2:44:01Speaker 1: were to stay on board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver,
- 2:44:05Speaker 1: began to embark. Then it was that there came into
- 2:44:09Speaker 1: my head the first of the mad notions that contributed
- 2:44:12Speaker 1: so much to save our lives. If six men were
- 2:44:16Speaker 1: left by Silver, it was plain our party could not
- 2:44:20Speaker 1: take and fight the ship, And since only six were left,
- 2:44:24Speaker 1: it was equally plain that the cabin party had no
- 2:44:27Speaker 1: present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at
- 2:44:30Speaker 1: once to go ashore. In a jiffy. I had slipped
- 2:44:33Speaker 1: over the side and curled up in the four sheets
- 2:44:36Speaker 1: of the nearest boat, and almost at the same moment
- 2:44:39Speaker 1: she shoved off. No one took notice of me, only
- 2:44:43Speaker 1: the bow or saying is that you, Jim, keep your
- 2:44:47Speaker 1: head down. But Silver from the other boat looked sharply
- 2:44:52Speaker 1: over and called out to know if that were me,
- 2:44:56Speaker 1: And from that moment I began to regret what I
- 2:44:59Speaker 1: had done. The crews raced for the beach, and in
- 2:45:02Speaker 1: the boat I was in, having some start and being
- 2:45:05Speaker 1: at once the lighter and the better manned shot far
- 2:45:08Speaker 1: ahead of her consort, and the bough had struck among
- 2:45:11Speaker 1: the shore side trees, and I had caught a branch
- 2:45:14Speaker 1: and swung myself out and plunged into the nearest thicket,
- 2:45:18Speaker 1: while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards away.
- 2:45:22Speaker 1: Jim Jim, I heard him shouting, but you may suppose
- 2:45:27Speaker 1: I paid no heed. Jumping, ducking, and breaking through, I
- 2:45:32Speaker 1: ran straight before my nose till I could run no longer.
- 2:45:38Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen, the first blow. I
- 2:45:45Speaker 1: was so pleased at having given the slip to long
- 2:45:48Speaker 1: John that I began to enjoy myself and look around
- 2:45:51Speaker 1: me with some interest on the strange land that I
- 2:45:54Speaker 1: was in. I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes,
- 2:45:59Speaker 1: and odd outlandish swampy trees, and now had come out
- 2:46:03Speaker 1: upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating sandy
- 2:46:07Speaker 1: country about a mile long, dotted with a few pines
- 2:46:11Speaker 1: and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the
- 2:46:14Speaker 1: oak in growth, but pale in the foliage like willows.
- 2:46:19Speaker 1: On the far side of the open stood one of
- 2:46:21Speaker 1: the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks shining vividly in
- 2:46:26Speaker 1: the sun. I now felt for the first time the
- 2:46:29Speaker 1: joy of exploration. The isle was uninhabited, but my shipmates
- 2:46:34Speaker 1: I have left behind, and nothing lived in front of
- 2:46:37Speaker 1: me but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and
- 2:46:41Speaker 1: thither among the trees. Here and there were flowering plants
- 2:46:45Speaker 1: unknown to me. Here and there I saw snakes, And
- 2:46:48Speaker 1: one raised his head from a ledge of rock and
- 2:46:50Speaker 1: hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning
- 2:46:53Speaker 1: of a top. Little did I suppose that he was
- 2:46:56Speaker 1: a deadly enemy, and the noise was the famous rattle.
- 2:47:00Speaker 1: Then I came to a long thicket of these oak
- 2:47:03Speaker 1: like trees live or evergreen oaks, I heard afterward they
- 2:47:07Speaker 1: should be called, which grew low along the sand like brambles.
- 2:47:12Speaker 1: The boughs curiously twisted, the foliage compact like thatch. The
- 2:47:17Speaker 1: thickets stretched down from the top of one of the
- 2:47:20Speaker 1: sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until
- 2:47:25Speaker 1: it reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen through
- 2:47:28Speaker 1: which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way
- 2:47:30Speaker 1: into the anchorage. The marsh was streaming in the strong sun,
- 2:47:35Speaker 1: and the outline of the spyglass trembled through the haze.
- 2:47:39Speaker 1: All at once there began to go a sort of
- 2:47:41Speaker 1: bustle among the bulrushes, a wild duck flew up with
- 2:47:45Speaker 1: a quack. Another followed, and soon over the whole surface
- 2:47:50Speaker 1: of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung, screaming
- 2:47:54Speaker 1: and circling in the air. I judged at once that
- 2:47:57Speaker 1: some of my shipmates must be drawing near along the
- 2:48:00Speaker 1: or of the fen. Nor was I deceived, for soon
- 2:48:03Speaker 1: I heard the very distant and low tones of a
- 2:48:06Speaker 1: human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew
- 2:48:09Speaker 1: steadily louder and nearer. This put me in great fear,
- 2:48:14Speaker 1: and I crawled under cover of the nearest live oak
- 2:48:17Speaker 1: and squatted there, hearkening as silent as a mouse. Another
- 2:48:21Speaker 1: voice answered, and then the first voice, which I now
- 2:48:24Speaker 1: recognized to be Silver's, once more, took up the story
- 2:48:28Speaker 1: and ran on for a long while in a stream,
- 2:48:31Speaker 1: only now and again interrupted by the other by the sound.
- 2:48:35Speaker 1: They must have been talking earnestly and almost fiercely, but
- 2:48:39Speaker 1: no distinct word came to my hearing. At last, the
- 2:48:43Speaker 1: speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps to have sat down,
- 2:48:46Speaker 1: for not only did they cease to draw any nearer,
- 2:48:49Speaker 1: but the birds themselves began to grow more quiet and
- 2:48:52Speaker 1: to settle again into their places in the swamp. And
- 2:48:56Speaker 1: now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business.
- 2:48:59Speaker 1: But since I had been so foolhardy as to come
- 2:49:02Speaker 1: ashore with these desperadoes, the least I could do was
- 2:49:05Speaker 1: to overhear them at their councils, and that my plain
- 2:49:08Speaker 1: and obvious duty was to draw as close as I
- 2:49:11Speaker 1: could manage. Under the favorable ambush of the crouching trees.
- 2:49:16Speaker 1: I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly,
- 2:49:19Speaker 1: not only by the sound of their voices, but by
- 2:49:22Speaker 1: the behavior of the few birds that still hung in
- 2:49:25Speaker 1: alarm above the heads of the intruders. Crawling on all fours,
- 2:49:29Speaker 1: I made steadily bar slowly towards them, till at last,
- 2:49:34Speaker 1: raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I
- 2:49:37Speaker 1: could see clear down into a little green dell beside
- 2:49:41Speaker 1: the marsh, and closely set about with trees, where long
- 2:49:45Speaker 1: John Silver and another of the crew stood face to
- 2:49:49Speaker 1: face in conversation. The sun beat full upon them. Silver
- 2:49:54Speaker 1: had thrown his hat beside him on the ground, and
- 2:49:57Speaker 1: his great smooth blonde face, all shining with heat, was
- 2:50:01Speaker 1: lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal. Mate.
- 2:50:07Speaker 1: He was saying, that's because I thinks gold dust of
- 2:50:11Speaker 1: you gold dust, and you may late that. And if
- 2:50:15Speaker 1: I hadn't took to you like pitch, do you think
- 2:50:18Speaker 1: I'd have been here a warning of you? All's up?
- 2:50:22Speaker 1: You can't make no amend. It's the savior neck that
- 2:50:27Speaker 1: I must speaking. And if one of the wild uns
- 2:50:30Speaker 1: knew it, where it'd I be? Tom, Now tell me
- 2:50:33Speaker 1: where it'd I be? Silver said the other man, And
- 2:50:37Speaker 1: I observed he was not only red in the face,
- 2:50:39Speaker 1: but spoke as hoarse as a crow, and his voice
- 2:50:42Speaker 1: shook too, like a taut rope. Silver says he you're old,
- 2:50:48Speaker 1: and you're honest, or has the name of it? And
- 2:50:52Speaker 1: you've money too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't, And
- 2:50:56Speaker 1: you're brave or are mistook? And will you tell me
- 2:51:00Speaker 1: you'll let yourself be led away with that kind of
- 2:51:03Speaker 1: a mess of swabs, not you. As sure as God
- 2:51:07Speaker 1: seized me, I'd sooner lose my hand if I turn
- 2:51:11Speaker 1: again my duty. And then all of a sudden he
- 2:51:15Speaker 1: was interrupted by a noise. I'd found one of the
- 2:51:18Speaker 1: honest hands. Well here. At that same moment came news
- 2:51:22Speaker 1: of another far away out in the marsh there arose
- 2:51:26Speaker 1: all of a sudden, a sound like the cry of anger,
- 2:51:30Speaker 1: then another on the back of it, and then one horrid,
- 2:51:34Speaker 1: long drawn scream. The rocks of the spyglass re echoed
- 2:51:38Speaker 1: it a score of times. The whole troop of marsh
- 2:51:42Speaker 1: birds rose again, darkening heaven with a simultaneous whir, And
- 2:51:47Speaker 1: long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain.
- 2:51:51Speaker 1: Silence had re established its empire, and only the rustle
- 2:51:55Speaker 1: of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant
- 2:51:59Speaker 1: surges herb, the languor of the afternoon Tom had leaped
- 2:52:04Speaker 1: at the sound like a horse at the spur, but
- 2:52:07Speaker 1: Silver had not winked an eye. He stood where he was,
- 2:52:11Speaker 1: resting lightly on his crutch, watching his companion like a
- 2:52:15Speaker 1: snake about the spring. John said the sailor, stretching out
- 2:52:20Speaker 1: his hand, ends off, cried Silver, leaping back a yard,
- 2:52:25Speaker 1: as it seemed to me, with the speed and security
- 2:52:28Speaker 1: of a trained gymnast. Ends off. If you like John,
- 2:52:32Speaker 1: Silver said the other. It's a black conscience that can
- 2:52:36Speaker 1: make you fear of me. But in Eaven's name, tell
- 2:52:39Speaker 1: me what was that? That? Returned Silver, smiling away, but
- 2:52:46Speaker 1: warier than ever, his eye a mere pinpoint in his
- 2:52:49Speaker 1: big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass. That, oh,
- 2:52:55Speaker 1: I reckon that I'll be allen. And at this poor
- 2:52:58Speaker 1: Tom flashed out like a hero. Allan, he cried, Then
- 2:53:03Speaker 1: rest your soul for a true seaman. And as for you,
- 2:53:06Speaker 1: John silver Long, you've been a mate of mine, but
- 2:53:09Speaker 1: you're a mate of mine no longer. If I die
- 2:53:12Speaker 1: like a dog, I'll die in my duty. You've killed Allan,
- 2:53:17Speaker 1: Have you kill me too? If you can? But I
- 2:53:20Speaker 1: defies you. And with that this brave fellow turned his
- 2:53:24Speaker 1: back directly on the cook and set off walking for
- 2:53:27Speaker 1: the beach. But he was not destined to go far.
- 2:53:31Speaker 1: With a cry, John seized the branch of a tree,
- 2:53:34Speaker 1: whipped the crutch out of his armpit, and sent that
- 2:53:37Speaker 1: uncouth missile hurling through the air. It struck poor Tom
- 2:53:42Speaker 1: point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between the shoulders
- 2:53:47Speaker 1: in the middle of his back. His hands flew up,
- 2:53:50Speaker 1: and he gave a sort of gasp and fell. Whether
- 2:53:53Speaker 1: he was injured much or little, none could ever tell,
- 2:53:56Speaker 1: like enough to judge from the sound his back was
- 2:54:00Speaker 1: broken on the spot, but he had no time given
- 2:54:03Speaker 1: him to recover. Silver agile as a monkey, even without
- 2:54:07Speaker 1: leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment,
- 2:54:11Speaker 1: and had twice buried his knife up to their hilt
- 2:54:15Speaker 1: in that defenseless body. From my place of ambush, I
- 2:54:19Speaker 1: could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.
- 2:54:23Speaker 1: I do not know what it rightly is to faint,
- 2:54:26Speaker 1: but I do know that for the next little while
- 2:54:29Speaker 1: the whole world swam away from before me in a
- 2:54:32Speaker 1: whirling mist, silver and the birds, and the tall spyglass
- 2:54:37Speaker 1: hilltop going round and round and topsy turvy before my eyes,
- 2:54:42Speaker 1: and all manner of bells ringing, and distant voices shouting
- 2:54:47Speaker 1: in my ear. When I came again to myself, the
- 2:54:50Speaker 1: monster had pulled himself together, his crutch under his arm,
- 2:54:54Speaker 1: his hat upon his head. Just before him, Tom lay
- 2:54:58Speaker 1: motionless upon the sward, but murderer minded him not a whit,
- 2:55:02Speaker 1: cleansing his blood stained knife the while upon a wisp
- 2:55:06Speaker 1: of grass. Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining
- 2:55:11Speaker 1: mercilessly upon the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of
- 2:55:15Speaker 1: the mountain, and I could scarcely persuade myself that the
- 2:55:19Speaker 1: murder had actually been done, and a human life cruelly
- 2:55:22Speaker 1: cut shorter moment since before my eyes. And now John
- 2:55:28Speaker 1: put his hand into his pocket, brought out a whistle
- 2:55:31Speaker 1: and blew upon it several modulated blasts that rang far
- 2:55:35Speaker 1: across the heated air. I could not tell, of course,
- 2:55:39Speaker 1: the meaning of the signal, but it instantly awoke my fears.
- 2:55:43Speaker 1: More men would be coming. I might be discovered they
- 2:55:46Speaker 1: had already slain two of the honest people, after Tom
- 2:55:50Speaker 1: and Allen. Might not I come next? Instantly I began
- 2:55:54Speaker 1: to extricate myself and crawled back again, with what speed
- 2:55:59Speaker 1: and silence I I could manage to the more open
- 2:56:02Speaker 1: portion of the wood. And as I did so, I
- 2:56:04Speaker 1: could hear hails coming and going between the old buccaneer
- 2:56:08Speaker 1: and his comrades, And this sound of danger lent me wings.
- 2:56:12Speaker 1: As soon as I was clear of the thicket, I
- 2:56:14Speaker 1: ran as I never ran before, scarce minding the direction
- 2:56:18Speaker 1: of my flight so long as it led me from
- 2:56:21Speaker 1: the murderers. And as I ran, fear grew and grew
- 2:56:24Speaker 1: upon me, until it turned into a kind of frenzy. Indeed,
- 2:56:29Speaker 1: could any one be more entirely lost than I? When
- 2:56:33Speaker 1: the gun fired, how should I dare to go down
- 2:56:37Speaker 1: to the boats among those fiends still smoking from their crime,
- 2:56:43Speaker 1: would not the first of them who saw me wring
- 2:56:46Speaker 1: my neck like a snipe's, would not my absence itself
- 2:56:51Speaker 1: be in evidence to them of my alarm, and therefore
- 2:56:54Speaker 1: of my fatal knowledge. It was all over. I thought,
- 2:56:58Speaker 1: goodbye to the hispanis Paniola, goodbye to the Squire, the doctor,
- 2:57:02Speaker 1: and the captain. There was nothing left for me but
- 2:57:05Speaker 1: death by starvation, or death by the hands of the mutineers.
- 2:57:11Speaker 1: All this while, as I say, I was still running,
- 2:57:14Speaker 1: and without taking any notice, I had drawn near to
- 2:57:17Speaker 1: the foot of the little hill with the two peaks,
- 2:57:19Speaker 1: and had got into a part of the island where
- 2:57:21Speaker 1: the wild oaks grew more widely apart, and seemed more
- 2:57:25Speaker 1: like forest trees in their bearing and dimensions. Mingled with these,
- 2:57:30Speaker 1: there were a few scattered pines, some fifty some nearer
- 2:57:34Speaker 1: seventy feet high. The air, too, smelled more fresh than
- 2:57:39Speaker 1: down beside the marsh, and here a fresh alarm brought
- 2:57:43Speaker 1: me to a standstill with a thumping heart. End of
- 2:57:50Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen, The Man of the Island from
- 2:57:57Speaker 1: the side of the hill which was here steep and stony.
- 2:58:00Speaker 1: A spout of gravel was dislodged and fell, rattling and
- 2:58:05Speaker 1: bounding through the trees. My eyes turned instinctively in that direction,
- 2:58:10Speaker 1: and I saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind
- 2:58:14Speaker 1: the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether bear
- 2:58:18Speaker 1: or man or monkey, I could in no wise tell.
- 2:58:22Speaker 1: It seemed dark and shaggy. More I knew not, But
- 2:58:26Speaker 1: the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.
- 2:58:30Speaker 1: I was now it seemed cut off upon both sides
- 2:58:34Speaker 1: behind me, the murderers before me, this lurking nondescript, And
- 2:58:39Speaker 1: immediately I began to prefer the dangers that I knew
- 2:58:43Speaker 1: to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared less terrible
- 2:58:47Speaker 1: in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I
- 2:58:51Speaker 1: turned on my heel, and, looking sharply behind me over
- 2:58:54Speaker 1: my shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the direction
- 2:58:58Speaker 1: of the boats. Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a
- 2:59:02Speaker 1: wide circuit, began to head me off. I was tired
- 2:59:06Speaker 1: at any rate, but had I been as fresh as
- 2:59:09Speaker 1: when I rose, I could see it was in vain
- 2:59:11Speaker 1: for me to contend in speed with such an adversary.
- 2:59:15Speaker 1: From trunk to trunk. The creature flitted like a deer,
- 2:59:18Speaker 1: running man like on two legs, but unlike any man
- 2:59:22Speaker 1: that I had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran.
- 2:59:26Speaker 1: Yet a man it was, I could no longer be
- 2:59:29Speaker 1: in doubt about that. I began to recall what I
- 2:59:32Speaker 1: had heard of cannibals. I was with an ace of
- 2:59:35Speaker 1: calling for help, But the mere fact that he was
- 2:59:38Speaker 1: a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured me, and my
- 2:59:42Speaker 1: fear of silver began to revive in proportion. I stood still, therefore,
- 2:59:48Speaker 1: and cast about for some method of escape. And as
- 2:59:51Speaker 1: I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed
- 2:59:54Speaker 1: into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was
- 2:59:58Speaker 1: not defenseless, courage glue again in my heart, and I
- 3:00:01Speaker 1: set my face resolutely for this man of the island,
- 3:00:05Speaker 1: and walked briskly toward him. He was concealed by this
- 3:00:09Speaker 1: time behind another tree trunk, but he must have been
- 3:00:12Speaker 1: watching me closely, for as soon as I began to
- 3:00:14Speaker 1: move in his direction, he reappeared and took a step
- 3:00:17Speaker 1: to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again,
- 3:00:22Speaker 1: and at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself
- 3:00:26Speaker 1: on his knees and held out his clasped hands in supplication.
- 3:00:32Speaker 1: At that I once more stopped. Who are you, I asked,
- 3:00:37Speaker 1: ben Gunn? He answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward,
- 3:00:43Speaker 1: like a rusty lock. I'm poor, ben Gunn, I am,
- 3:00:48Speaker 1: and I haven't spoke with a Christian these three years.
- 3:00:53Speaker 1: I could now seen that he was a white man
- 3:00:55Speaker 1: like myself, and that his features were even pleasing. His skin,
- 3:01:00Speaker 1: wherever it was exposed, was burned by the sun. Even
- 3:01:04Speaker 1: his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked quite
- 3:01:07Speaker 1: startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar
- 3:01:11Speaker 1: men that I had seen or fancied, he was the
- 3:01:14Speaker 1: chief of raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old
- 3:01:18Speaker 1: ship's canvas and old sea cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork
- 3:01:23Speaker 1: was all held together by a system of the most
- 3:01:26Speaker 1: various and incongruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and
- 3:01:31Speaker 1: loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist, he wore an
- 3:01:35Speaker 1: old brass buckled leather belt, which was the one thing
- 3:01:39Speaker 1: solid in his old accouterment. Three years I cried, were
- 3:01:44Speaker 1: you shipwrecked? Nay, mate, said he marooned. I had heard
- 3:01:50Speaker 1: that word, and I knew it stood for a horrible
- 3:01:54Speaker 1: kind of punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which
- 3:01:58Speaker 1: the offender is put ashore with a little powder and shot,
- 3:02:01Speaker 1: and left behind on some desolate and distant island. Marooned
- 3:02:08Speaker 1: three years agone, he continued and lived on goats since then,
- 3:02:14Speaker 1: and berries and oysters wherever a man is, says I.
- 3:02:18Speaker 1: A man can do for himself. But mate, my heart
- 3:02:22Speaker 1: is sore for Christian diet. You mayn't happen to have
- 3:02:26Speaker 1: a piece of cheese about you now, No, Well, many's
- 3:02:30Speaker 1: the long night. I have dreamed of cheese, toasted mostly
- 3:02:34Speaker 1: and woke up again, and here I were. If ever
- 3:02:38Speaker 1: I can get aboard again, said I, you shall have
- 3:02:41Speaker 1: cheese by the stone. At this time he had been
- 3:02:44Speaker 1: feeling the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my hands, looking
- 3:02:48Speaker 1: at my boots, and generally, in the intervals of his speech,
- 3:02:51Speaker 1: showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow creature.
- 3:02:55Speaker 1: But at my last words he poked up into a
- 3:02:58Speaker 1: kind of startled sligh us. If ever you get aboard again,
- 3:03:03Speaker 1: says you. He repeated, why now who's to hinder you?
- 3:03:09Speaker 1: Not to you, I know, was my reply. Oh and
- 3:03:13Speaker 1: right you was, he cried, Now you, what do you
- 3:03:18Speaker 1: call yourself? Mate, Jim, I told him, Jim, Jim says,
- 3:03:25Speaker 1: he quite pleased. Apparently. Well, now, Jim, I've lived that
- 3:03:30Speaker 1: rough as you'd be ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance,
- 3:03:35Speaker 1: you wouldn't think I had had a pious mother to
- 3:03:38Speaker 1: look at me, he asked. Why. Uh no, not in particular,
- 3:03:44Speaker 1: I answered, ah, well, said he. But I had remarkably pious,
- 3:03:51Speaker 1: And I was a civil pious boy, and could rattle
- 3:03:55Speaker 1: off my catechism that fast you couldn't tell one word
- 3:03:59Speaker 1: from another. And here's what it come to, Jim. And
- 3:04:03Speaker 1: it begun with chuck farthing on the blessed gravestones, That's
- 3:04:08Speaker 1: what it begun with. And it went farther than that.
- 3:04:11Speaker 1: And so my mother told me and predicted the hole.
- 3:04:15Speaker 1: She did, the pious woman, for it were a providence
- 3:04:18Speaker 1: that put me here. I've thought it all out in
- 3:04:22Speaker 1: this here lonely island, and I'm back on piety. You
- 3:04:28Speaker 1: can't catch me tasting rum so much, but just a
- 3:04:32Speaker 1: thimbleful for lack of course. The first chance I have
- 3:04:36Speaker 1: I'm bound. I'll be good, and I see the way too,
- 3:04:41Speaker 1: And Jim, looking all round him and luring his voice
- 3:04:45Speaker 1: to a whisper, I'm rich. I now felt sure that
- 3:04:49Speaker 1: the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and
- 3:04:52Speaker 1: I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face,
- 3:04:55Speaker 1: for he repeated the statement hotly. Rich Rich, I said,
- 3:05:00Speaker 1: and I'll tell you what. I'll make a man of you. Jim, Ah, Jim,
- 3:05:05Speaker 1: You'll bless your stars, you will. You was the first
- 3:05:09Speaker 1: that found me. And at this there came suddenly a
- 3:05:13Speaker 1: lowering shadow over his face, and he tightened his grasp
- 3:05:16Speaker 1: upon my hand and raised a forefinger threateningly before my eyes. Now, Jim,
- 3:05:23Speaker 1: you tell me true. That ain't Flint's ship, he asked.
- 3:05:29Speaker 1: At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to
- 3:05:32Speaker 1: believe that I had found an ally, and I answered
- 3:05:35Speaker 1: him at once It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is dead.
- 3:05:39Speaker 1: But I'll tell you true. But I'll tell you true
- 3:05:42Speaker 1: as you ask me. There are some of Flint's hands aboard.
- 3:05:46Speaker 1: Worse luck for the rest of us. Not a man
- 3:05:50Speaker 1: with one leg. He gasped. Silver, I asked, Ah, Silver,
- 3:05:57Speaker 1: says he that where is name. He's the cook and
- 3:06:01Speaker 1: the ringleader too. He was still holding me by the wrist,
- 3:06:05Speaker 1: and at that he gave it quite a ring if
- 3:06:08Speaker 1: you were sent by long John, he said, I'm as
- 3:06:12Speaker 1: good as poor can I know it? But where was you?
- 3:06:16Speaker 1: Do you suppose? I've made up my mind in a moment,
- 3:06:20Speaker 1: and by way of answer, told him the whole story
- 3:06:23Speaker 1: of our voyage and the predicament in which we found ourselves.
- 3:06:27Speaker 1: He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I
- 3:06:30Speaker 1: had done, he patted me on the head. You're a
- 3:06:32Speaker 1: good lad, Jim, he said. And you're all in a
- 3:06:36Speaker 1: clove hit, sha't you? Well? You just put your trust
- 3:06:41Speaker 1: in ben Gunn. Ben Gunn's the man to do it.
- 3:06:45Speaker 1: Would you think it likely now that your squire would
- 3:06:49Speaker 1: prove a liberal minded whine in case of help him
- 3:06:53Speaker 1: being in a clove hitch, as you remark, I told
- 3:06:57Speaker 1: him the squire was the most liberal of me. Ah,
- 3:07:02Speaker 1: But you see, returned ben Gunn. I didn't mean give
- 3:07:07Speaker 1: him me a gait to keep, but a suit of
- 3:07:09Speaker 1: livery clothes and such. That's not my mark, Jim. What
- 3:07:14Speaker 1: I mean is, would he be likely to come down
- 3:07:18Speaker 1: to the tune of say, one thousand pounds out of money.
- 3:07:22Speaker 1: That's as good as a man's own already, I'm sure
- 3:07:26Speaker 1: he would, said I. As it is, all hands were
- 3:07:30Speaker 1: to share, and a passage home, he added, with a
- 3:07:35Speaker 1: look of great shrewdness. Why, I cried, the squire's a gentleman.
- 3:07:40Speaker 1: And besides, if we got rid of the others, we
- 3:07:43Speaker 1: should want you to help work the vessel home, Ah,
- 3:07:48Speaker 1: said he, So you would, and he seemed very much relieved.
- 3:07:53Speaker 1: Now I'll tell you what he went on so much,
- 3:07:58Speaker 1: I'll tell you no more. I were in flint ship
- 3:08:02Speaker 1: when he buried the treasure. He and six a long,
- 3:08:05Speaker 1: six strong seamen. They was a sure nigh on a week,
- 3:08:10Speaker 1: and us standing off and on in the old Walrus.
- 3:08:14Speaker 1: One fine day, upwent the signal. And he had come
- 3:08:18Speaker 1: Flint by himself in a little boat, and his head
- 3:08:22Speaker 1: done up in a blue scarf. The sun was getting
- 3:08:26Speaker 1: up and mortal white. He looked about the cut water.
- 3:08:31Speaker 1: But there he was, you mind, and the six all dead,
- 3:08:36Speaker 1: dead and buried. How had he done it? Not a
- 3:08:41Speaker 1: man of baldess could make out. It was battle, murder
- 3:08:46Speaker 1: and sudden death. Leastways him Agates, six billy bones was
- 3:08:52Speaker 1: the mate long journey was quartermaster, and they asked him
- 3:08:59Speaker 1: where the treasure was. I says, you can go ashore
- 3:09:05Speaker 1: if you like and stay, says, But as for the ship,
- 3:09:10Speaker 1: she'll be up for more by thunder, that's what he said. Well,
- 3:09:17Speaker 1: I was in another ship three years back and we
- 3:09:21Speaker 1: sighted this island. Boys said I here's Flint's treasure. Let's
- 3:09:26Speaker 1: land and find it. The captain was displeased at that,
- 3:09:31Speaker 1: but my messmates were all of a mind. Landed twelve
- 3:09:36Speaker 1: days they looked for it, and every day they had
- 3:09:40Speaker 1: the worst word for me, until one fine morning all
- 3:09:45Speaker 1: hands went aboard. As for you, Benjamin Gunn, says they.
- 3:09:51Speaker 1: Here's a musket, they says, and a spade and a pickaxe.
- 3:09:56Speaker 1: You can stay here and find Flint's money for yourself.
- 3:10:01Speaker 1: They says. Well, Jim, three years have I been here,
- 3:10:06Speaker 1: and not a bite of Christian diet from that day
- 3:10:09Speaker 1: to this. But now you look here, look at me?
- 3:10:13Speaker 1: Do I look like a man before the mast? No,
- 3:10:17Speaker 1: says you, Nor I would neither, I says, And with
- 3:10:23Speaker 1: that he winked and pinched me hard. Just you mention
- 3:10:27Speaker 1: them words to your squire, Jim, he went on. Nor
- 3:10:32Speaker 1: he would neither. That's the words. Three years he were
- 3:10:37Speaker 1: the men of this island, light and dark, fair and rain.
- 3:10:42Speaker 1: And sometimes he would maybe think upon a prayer, says you.
- 3:10:47Speaker 1: And sometimes he would maybe think of his old mother,
- 3:10:52Speaker 1: so be as she's alive, you'll say. But the most
- 3:10:57Speaker 1: part of Gun's time, this is what you'll say, The
- 3:11:01Speaker 1: most part of his time was took up with another matter.
- 3:11:06Speaker 1: And then you'll give him a nip like I do.
- 3:11:10Speaker 1: And he pinched me again in the most confidential manner.
- 3:11:14Speaker 1: Then he continued, Then you'll up and you'll say. This
- 3:11:19Speaker 1: Gun is a good man, You'll say. And he puts
- 3:11:22Speaker 1: a precious sight more confidence, a precious sight. Mind that
- 3:11:27Speaker 1: in a gentleman born than in these gentlemen of fortune,
- 3:11:32Speaker 1: having been one hisself. Well, I said, I don't understand
- 3:11:37Speaker 1: one word that you've been saying. But that's neither here
- 3:11:40Speaker 1: nor there. For how am I to get on board? Ah?
- 3:11:45Speaker 1: Said he that's the hitch for sure. Well, there's my
- 3:11:49Speaker 1: boat that I made with my two hands. Ah, keep
- 3:11:53Speaker 1: her under the white rock. If the worst come to
- 3:11:56Speaker 1: the worst, we might try that. After hi, he broke out,
- 3:12:02Speaker 1: what's that for? Just then, although the sun had still
- 3:12:07Speaker 1: an hour or two to run. All the echoes of
- 3:12:09Speaker 1: the island awoke and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon.
- 3:12:13Speaker 1: They have begun to fight, I cried, follow me, and
- 3:12:17Speaker 1: I began to run toward the anchorage. My terrors all forgotten.
- 3:12:22Speaker 1: While close at my side the marooned man and his
- 3:12:25Speaker 1: goat skins trotted easily and lightly left. Left says he,
- 3:12:30Speaker 1: keep your left hand, mate, Jim, under the trees with you.
- 3:12:34Speaker 1: That's where I killed my first goat. They don't come
- 3:12:38Speaker 1: down here now. They're all mast headed on them mountains.
- 3:12:43Speaker 1: For the fear of Benjamin gun Ah. And there's the
- 3:12:47Speaker 1: Setter Mary Cemetery. He must have meant you see the mounds.
- 3:12:52Speaker 1: I come here and prayed nows and thens. When I
- 3:12:56Speaker 1: thought maybe a Sunday would be about do it a
- 3:13:00Speaker 1: quire chapel, But it seemed more sulemn like. And then
- 3:13:04Speaker 1: says you, Ben Gum was shorthanded. No chaplain or so
- 3:13:09Speaker 1: much as a bible in a flag, says you. So
- 3:13:13Speaker 1: he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving
- 3:13:16Speaker 1: any answer. The cannon shot was followed, after a considerable interval,
- 3:13:21Speaker 1: by a volley of small arms. Another pause, and then
- 3:13:25Speaker 1: not a quarter of a mile in front of me,
- 3:13:27Speaker 1: I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above
- 3:13:30Speaker 1: a wood. End of Chapter fifteen, Part four The Stockade.
- 3:13:39Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen narrative continued by the doctor how the ship
- 3:13:44Speaker 1: was abandoned. It was about half past one, three bells
- 3:13:48Speaker 1: in the sea phrase that the two boats went ashore
- 3:13:51Speaker 1: from the Hispaniola. The Captain, the Squire and I were
- 3:13:54Speaker 1: talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a
- 3:13:57Speaker 1: breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six
- 3:14:00Speaker 1: mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped our cable
- 3:14:03Speaker 1: and away to sea. But the wind was wanting, and
- 3:14:07Speaker 1: to complete our helplessness, down came Hunter with the news
- 3:14:11Speaker 1: that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was
- 3:14:14Speaker 1: gone ashore with the rest. It had never occurred to
- 3:14:17Speaker 1: us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for
- 3:14:20Speaker 1: his safety. With the men in the temper they were in,
- 3:14:23Speaker 1: it seemed an even chance if we should see the
- 3:14:26Speaker 1: lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch was bubbling
- 3:14:29Speaker 1: in the seams. The nasty stench of the place turned
- 3:14:33Speaker 1: me sick. If ever a man smelled fever and dysentery,
- 3:14:37Speaker 1: It was in that abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels were
- 3:14:41Speaker 1: sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle. Ashore. We
- 3:14:45Speaker 1: could see the gigs had made fast, and a man
- 3:14:48Speaker 1: sitting in each hard by where the river runs in.
- 3:14:52Speaker 1: One of them was whistling. Lily Ballero. Waiting was a strain,
- 3:14:57Speaker 1: and it was decided that Hunter and I should go
- 3:14:59Speaker 1: ashore with the Jolly boat in quest of information. The
- 3:15:03Speaker 1: Gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I
- 3:15:06Speaker 1: pulled straight in in the direction of the stockade upon
- 3:15:09Speaker 1: the chart. The two who were left guarding their boats
- 3:15:12Speaker 1: seemed in a bustle at our appearance. Lily Ballero stopped off,
- 3:15:17Speaker 1: and I could see the pair discussing what they ought
- 3:15:19Speaker 1: to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might
- 3:15:22Speaker 1: have turned out differently. But they had their orders, I suppose,
- 3:15:27Speaker 1: and decided to sit quietly where they were and hark
- 3:15:30Speaker 1: back again to Lily Balero. There was a slight bend
- 3:15:33Speaker 1: in the coast, and I steered so as to put
- 3:15:36Speaker 1: it between us. Even before we had landed. We had
- 3:15:39Speaker 1: thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out and
- 3:15:42Speaker 1: came as near running as I durst with a big
- 3:15:45Speaker 1: silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness's sake, and a
- 3:15:49Speaker 1: brace of pistols ready primed for safety. I had not
- 3:15:53Speaker 1: gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade.
- 3:15:56Speaker 1: This was how it was. A spring of clear water
- 3:16:00Speaker 1: arose at the top of a knoll well on the knoll,
- 3:16:04Speaker 1: and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout log
- 3:16:07Speaker 1: house fit to hold two score people in a pinch
- 3:16:11Speaker 1: and loop holed for musketry on every side. All around
- 3:16:15Speaker 1: this they had cleared a wide space, and then the
- 3:16:17Speaker 1: thing was completed by a paling six feet high without
- 3:16:21Speaker 1: door or opening, too strong to pull down without time
- 3:16:24Speaker 1: and labor, and too open to shelter the besiegers. The
- 3:16:28Speaker 1: people in the log house had them in every way.
- 3:16:32Speaker 1: They stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
- 3:16:35Speaker 1: like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food,
- 3:16:39Speaker 1: for short of a complete surprise, they might have held
- 3:16:42Speaker 1: the place against a regiment. What particularly took my fancy
- 3:16:47Speaker 1: was the spring, For though we had a good place
- 3:16:50Speaker 1: of it, the cabin of the Hispaniola, with plenty of
- 3:16:53Speaker 1: arms and ammunition and things to eat and excellent wines,
- 3:16:56Speaker 1: there was one thing overlooked. We had no water. I
- 3:17:00Speaker 1: was thinking this over when they came ringing over the island,
- 3:17:04Speaker 1: the cry of a man at the point of death.
- 3:17:07Speaker 1: I was not new to violent death. I have served
- 3:17:10Speaker 1: His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, and got a
- 3:17:13Speaker 1: wound myself at Faultonoy. But I know my pulse went
- 3:17:17Speaker 1: jot and carry one. Jim Hawkins is gone, was my
- 3:17:22Speaker 1: first thought. It is something to have been an old soldier,
- 3:17:26Speaker 1: but more still to have been a doctor. There is
- 3:17:29Speaker 1: no time to dilly dally in our work, and so
- 3:17:32Speaker 1: now I made up my mind instantly, and with no
- 3:17:35Speaker 1: time lost, returned to the shore and jumped on board
- 3:17:38Speaker 1: the jolly boat. By good fortune, Hunter pulled a good oar.
- 3:17:42Speaker 1: We made the water fly, and the boat was soon alongside,
- 3:17:46Speaker 1: and I aboard the schooner. I found them all shaken,
- 3:17:49Speaker 1: as was natural. The Squire was sitting down as white
- 3:17:52Speaker 1: as a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led
- 3:17:55Speaker 1: us to the good soul. And one of the six
- 3:17:58Speaker 1: Forecastle hands was little better. There's a man, said Captain Smollett,
- 3:18:04Speaker 1: nodding towards him. New to this work. He came nigh
- 3:18:08Speaker 1: hand fainting. A doctor when he heard the cry and
- 3:18:12Speaker 1: now the touch of the rudder, and that man would
- 3:18:16Speaker 1: adjoin us. I told my plan to the captain, and
- 3:18:19Speaker 1: between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment.
- 3:18:23Speaker 1: We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin
- 3:18:27Speaker 1: and the forecastle, with three or four loaded muskets and
- 3:18:30Speaker 1: a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat round under
- 3:18:34Speaker 1: the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work
- 3:18:37Speaker 1: loading her with powder tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs
- 3:18:42Speaker 1: of pork, a cast of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest.
- 3:18:47Speaker 1: In the meantime, the Squire and the Captain stayed on
- 3:18:49Speaker 1: the deck, and the latter hailed the Coxswain, who was
- 3:18:53Speaker 1: the principal man on board, mister hands. He said, there.
- 3:18:57Speaker 3: Are two of us with a brace of pistols each.
- 3:19:01Speaker 3: If any one of you'll six make a signal of
- 3:19:03Speaker 3: any description, that man's dead. They were a good deal
- 3:19:08Speaker 3: taken back, and after a little consultation one and all
- 3:19:11Speaker 3: tumbled down the fore companion, thinking no doubt to take
- 3:19:15Speaker 3: us on the rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting
- 3:19:18Speaker 3: for them in the sparred gallery, they went about ship
- 3:19:21Speaker 3: at once, and a head popped out again on deck down.
- 3:19:24Speaker 1: Dog cried the captain, and the head popped back again,
- 3:19:28Speaker 1: and we heard no more for the time of these
- 3:19:31Speaker 1: six very faint hearted seamen, by this time tumbling things
- 3:19:36Speaker 1: in as they came wear The jolly Boat loaded as
- 3:19:39Speaker 1: much as we dared, Joyce and I got out through
- 3:19:42Speaker 1: the stern port, and we made for shore again as
- 3:19:44Speaker 1: fast as oars could take us. This second trip fairly
- 3:19:48Speaker 1: aroused the watchers along shore. Lily Ballero was dropped again,
- 3:19:53Speaker 1: and just before we lost sight of them behind a
- 3:19:56Speaker 1: little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I
- 3:20:00Speaker 1: had half a mind to change my plan and destroy
- 3:20:02Speaker 1: their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others
- 3:20:05Speaker 1: might be close to hand, and all might very well
- 3:20:08Speaker 1: be lost by trying for too much. We had soon
- 3:20:12Speaker 1: touched land in the same place as before, and set
- 3:20:15Speaker 1: to work to provision the block house. All three made
- 3:20:18Speaker 1: the first journey heavily laden, and tossed our stores over
- 3:20:22Speaker 1: the palisade, then leaving Joyce to guard them one man
- 3:20:26Speaker 1: to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets, Hunter
- 3:20:30Speaker 1: and I returned to the jolly Boat and loaded ourselves
- 3:20:33Speaker 1: once more. So we proceeded without pausing to take breath,
- 3:20:37Speaker 1: till the whole cargo was bestowed. When the two servants
- 3:20:41Speaker 1: took up their position in the block house, and I,
- 3:20:43Speaker 1: with all my powder, sculled back to the Hispaniola. That
- 3:20:48Speaker 1: we should have risked a second boat load seems more
- 3:20:51Speaker 1: daring than it really was. They had the advantage of numbers,
- 3:20:55Speaker 1: of course, but we had the advantage of arms. Not
- 3:20:59Speaker 1: one of the men a shureed or had a musket,
- 3:21:01Speaker 1: and before they could get within range for pistol shooting,
- 3:21:04Speaker 1: we flattered ourselves. We should be able to give a
- 3:21:07Speaker 1: good account of a half dozen at least. The Squire
- 3:21:11Speaker 1: was waiting for me at the stern window, all his
- 3:21:13Speaker 1: faintness gone from him. He caught the painter and made
- 3:21:17Speaker 1: it fast, and we fell to loading the boat for
- 3:21:20Speaker 1: our very lives. Pork, powder and biscuit was the cargo.
- 3:21:24Speaker 1: With only a musket and a cutlass apiece for Squire
- 3:21:26Speaker 1: and me, and Red Ruth and the captain. The rest
- 3:21:30Speaker 1: of the arms and powder. We dropped overboard in two
- 3:21:33Speaker 1: fathoms and a half of water, so that we could
- 3:21:36Speaker 1: see the bright steel shining far below us. In the
- 3:21:39Speaker 1: sun on the clean sandy bottom. By this time the
- 3:21:43Speaker 1: tide was beginning to ebb and the ship was swinging
- 3:21:46Speaker 1: round to her anchor. Voices were heard faintly hallowing in
- 3:21:50Speaker 1: the direction of the two gigs, and though this reassured
- 3:21:54Speaker 1: us for Joyce and Hunter, who were well to the eastward,
- 3:21:57Speaker 1: it warned our party to be off. Redruth retreated from
- 3:22:01Speaker 1: his place in the gallery and dropped into the boat,
- 3:22:04Speaker 1: which we then brought round to the ship's counter to
- 3:22:07Speaker 1: be handier for Captain Smollett. Now, men said he, do
- 3:22:12Speaker 1: you hear me? There was no answer from the forecastle.
- 3:22:16Speaker 1: It's to you, Abraham Gray, It's to you. I am speaking.
- 3:22:22Speaker 1: Still no reply, Gray resumed mister Smollett, a little louder.
- 3:22:27Speaker 1: I am leaving this ship, and I order you to
- 3:22:30Speaker 1: follow your captain. I know you are a good man
- 3:22:34Speaker 1: at bottom, and I dare say not one of the
- 3:22:37Speaker 1: lot of users bad as he makes out. I had
- 3:22:40Speaker 1: my watch here in my hand. I give you thirty
- 3:22:44Speaker 1: seconds to join me. In Come, my fine fellow, continued
- 3:22:49Speaker 1: the captain, don't hang so long, in stays. I'm risking
- 3:22:53Speaker 1: my life, and the lives of these are good. A gentleman.
- 3:22:56Speaker 1: Every second there was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows,
- 3:23:00Speaker 1: and outburst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the
- 3:23:04Speaker 1: side of the cheek, and came running to the captain
- 3:23:07Speaker 1: like a dog to the whistle arm with you, sir,
- 3:23:11Speaker 1: he said, And the next moment he and the captain
- 3:23:14Speaker 1: had dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off
- 3:23:17Speaker 1: and given way. We were clear out of the ship,
- 3:23:20Speaker 1: but not yet ashore in our stockade. End of chapter sixteen.
- 3:23:27Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen narrative continued by the Doctor the Jolly Boat's
- 3:23:33Speaker 1: last trip. This fifth trip was quite different from any
- 3:23:37Speaker 1: of the others. In the first place, the little galley
- 3:23:40Speaker 1: part of a boat that we were in was gravely
- 3:23:43Speaker 1: overloaded five grown men, and three of them Trelawney read Ruth,
- 3:23:48Speaker 1: and the captain, over six feet high, was already more
- 3:23:52Speaker 1: than she was meant to carry. Add to that the
- 3:23:55Speaker 1: powder pork and the bread bags. The gunles were lipping.
- 3:23:59Speaker 1: At several times we shipped a little water, and my
- 3:24:03Speaker 1: breeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet.
- 3:24:06Speaker 1: Before we had got a hundred yards. The captain made
- 3:24:10Speaker 1: us trim the boat, and we got it to lie
- 3:24:12Speaker 1: a little more evenly. All the same, we were afraid
- 3:24:15Speaker 1: to breathe. In the second place, the EBB was now
- 3:24:18Speaker 1: making a strong rippling current, running westward through the basin,
- 3:24:23Speaker 1: and then southered and seaward down the straits by which
- 3:24:26Speaker 1: we had entered in the morning. Even the ripples were
- 3:24:29Speaker 1: a danger to our overloaded craft. But the worst of
- 3:24:33Speaker 1: it was that we were swept out of our true
- 3:24:35Speaker 1: course and away from our proper landing place behind the point.
- 3:24:40Speaker 1: If we let the current have its way, we should
- 3:24:42Speaker 1: come ashore beside the gigs, where the pirates might appear
- 3:24:45Speaker 1: at any moment. I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir,
- 3:24:50Speaker 1: said I to the captain I was steering while he
- 3:24:53Speaker 1: and Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars. The
- 3:24:57Speaker 1: tide keeps washing her down. Could you a little stronger,
- 3:25:01Speaker 1: not without swamping the boat, said he. You must bear up, sir,
- 3:25:06Speaker 1: If you please bear up until you see you're gaining
- 3:25:12Speaker 1: I tried, and found by experiment that the side kept
- 3:25:15Speaker 1: sweeping us westward till I had laid her head due east,
- 3:25:19Speaker 1: or just about right angles to the way we ought
- 3:25:22Speaker 1: to go. We'll never get ashore at this rate. Said I.
- 3:25:26Speaker 1: If it's the only course we can lie, sir, we
- 3:25:30Speaker 1: must even lie, it, returned the Captain. We must keep upstream,
- 3:25:36Speaker 1: you see, sir, He went on, if once we dropped
- 3:25:39Speaker 1: to leeward of the landing place, it's hard to say
- 3:25:43Speaker 1: where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being
- 3:25:47Speaker 1: boarded by the gigs. Whereas the way we go the
- 3:25:51Speaker 1: current must slacken, and then we can dodge back along
- 3:25:56Speaker 1: the shore. The current's lesser. Ready, sir, said the man Gray,
- 3:26:01Speaker 1: who was sitting in the fore sheets. You can ease
- 3:26:04Speaker 1: her off a bit. Thank you, my man, said I,
- 3:26:07Speaker 1: as if nothing had happened, for we had all quietly
- 3:26:11Speaker 1: made up our minds to treat him like one of ourselves.
- 3:26:15Speaker 1: Suddenly the Captain spoke up again, and I thought his
- 3:26:18Speaker 1: voice was a little changed. The gun said he I
- 3:26:24Speaker 1: have thought of that, said I, for I made sure
- 3:26:27Speaker 1: he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. They
- 3:26:30Speaker 1: could never get the gun ashore, and if they did,
- 3:26:33Speaker 1: they could never haul it through the woods. Look, astern doctor,
- 3:26:38Speaker 1: replied the captain. We had entirely forgotten the Long nine.
- 3:26:43Speaker 1: And there, to our horror, were the five rogues busy
- 3:26:46Speaker 1: about her getting off her jacket, as they called the
- 3:26:49Speaker 1: stout top hole in cover under which she sailed. Not
- 3:26:53Speaker 1: only that, but it flashed into my mind at the
- 3:26:55Speaker 1: same moment that the round shot and the powder for
- 3:26:58Speaker 1: the gun had been left behind, and the stroke of
- 3:27:01Speaker 1: an axe would put it all into the possession of
- 3:27:03Speaker 1: the evil ones aboard. Israel was Flint's gunner, said Gray hoarsely.
- 3:27:10Speaker 1: At any risk, we put the boat's head directly for
- 3:27:13Speaker 1: the landing place. By this time we had got so
- 3:27:16Speaker 1: far out of the run of the current that we
- 3:27:19Speaker 1: kept steerage way even at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing,
- 3:27:23Speaker 1: and I could keep her steady for the goal. But
- 3:27:26Speaker 1: the worst of it was that, with the course I
- 3:27:29Speaker 1: now held, we turned our broadside instead of our stern
- 3:27:33Speaker 1: to the Hispaniola and offered a target like a barn door.
- 3:27:37Speaker 1: I could hear as well as see that brandy faced
- 3:27:41Speaker 1: rascal Israel Hands plumping down a round shot on the deck.
- 3:27:46Speaker 1: Who's the best shot, asked the captain, mister Trelawney, out
- 3:27:51Speaker 1: and away, said I, mister Trelawney, will you please pick
- 3:27:56Speaker 1: me off one of those men, Sir hands, if a possible,
- 3:28:00Speaker 1: said the captain Trelawney, was as cold as steel. He
- 3:28:05Speaker 1: looked to the priming of his gun. Now cried the captain.
- 3:28:09Speaker 1: Easy with that gun, sir, or y'll swamp the boat.
- 3:28:13Speaker 1: All hands stand by to trim her. When he aims.
- 3:28:18Speaker 1: The squire raised his gun. The rowing ceased, and we
- 3:28:22Speaker 1: leaned over to the other side to keep the balance.
- 3:28:24Speaker 1: And all was so nicely contrived that we did not
- 3:28:28Speaker 1: ship a drop. They had the gun by this time
- 3:28:31Speaker 1: slewed around upon the swivel, and Hans, who was at
- 3:28:35Speaker 1: the muzzle with the rammer, was in consequence the most exposed. However,
- 3:28:40Speaker 1: we had no luck, for just as Trelawney fired down,
- 3:28:44Speaker 1: he stooped, the ball whistling over him, and it was
- 3:28:47Speaker 1: one of the other four who fell. The cry he
- 3:28:50Speaker 1: gave was echoed not only by his companions on board,
- 3:28:54Speaker 1: but by a great number of voices from the shore.
- 3:28:57Speaker 1: And looking out in that direction, I saw the other
- 3:29:00Speaker 1: the pirates trooping out from among the trees and tumbling
- 3:29:03Speaker 1: into their places in the boats. Here come the gigs, sir, said,
- 3:29:08Speaker 1: I give way. Then said the captain, we mustn't mind
- 3:29:13Speaker 1: if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore,
- 3:29:16Speaker 1: all's up. Only one of the gigs is being manned, Sir,
- 3:29:21Speaker 1: I added. The crew of the other is most likely
- 3:29:24Speaker 1: going around by shore to cut us off. They'll have
- 3:29:27Speaker 1: a hot run, Sir returned the captain jack ashore. You know,
- 3:29:32Speaker 1: if it's not near my mind, it's the round shot
- 3:29:36Speaker 1: carpet bowls. My lady's maid couldn't miss. Tell us, squire,
- 3:29:41Speaker 1: when you see the match, and we'll hold water. In
- 3:29:45Speaker 1: the meantime, we had been making headway at a good
- 3:29:47Speaker 1: pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had shipped
- 3:29:50Speaker 1: but little water in the process. We were now close
- 3:29:54Speaker 1: in thirty or forty strokes, and we should beat her,
- 3:29:57Speaker 1: for the ebb had already disclosed, and now arrow belt
- 3:30:00Speaker 1: of sand below the clustering trees. The gig was no
- 3:30:04Speaker 1: longer to be feared. The little point had already concealed
- 3:30:08Speaker 1: it from our eyes. The ebb tide, which had so
- 3:30:11Speaker 1: cruelly delayed us, was now making reparation and delaying our assailants.
- 3:30:17Speaker 1: The one source of danger was the gun. If I durst,
- 3:30:21Speaker 1: said the Captain, I'd stop and pick off another man.
- 3:30:26Speaker 1: It was plain that they meant nothing should delay their shot.
- 3:30:29Speaker 1: They had never so much as looked at their fallen comrade,
- 3:30:32Speaker 1: though he was not dead, and I could see him
- 3:30:35Speaker 1: trying to crawl away. Ready cried the Squire. Hold cried
- 3:30:40Speaker 1: the Captain quick as an echo, and he and Redruth
- 3:30:44Speaker 1: backed with a great heave that sent her astern bodily
- 3:30:48Speaker 1: under water. The report fell into the same instant of time.
- 3:30:53Speaker 1: This was the first that Jim heard the sound of
- 3:30:56Speaker 1: the Squire's shot, not having reached him. When the bull passed.
- 3:31:00Speaker 1: Not one of us precisely knew, but I fancy it
- 3:31:03Speaker 1: must have been over our heads, and that the wind
- 3:31:06Speaker 1: of it may have contributed to our disaster. At any rate,
- 3:31:10Speaker 1: the boats sunk by the stern quite gently in three
- 3:31:13Speaker 1: feet of water, leaving the Captain and myself facing each
- 3:31:17Speaker 1: other on our feet. The other three took complete headers
- 3:31:20Speaker 1: and came up again, drenched and bubbling. So far there
- 3:31:24Speaker 1: was no great harm, no lives were lost, and we
- 3:31:27Speaker 1: could wade ashore in safety. But there were all our
- 3:31:30Speaker 1: stores at the bottom, and to make things worse, only
- 3:31:34Speaker 1: two guns out of five remained in a state for service.
- 3:31:38Speaker 1: Mine I had snatched from my knees and held over
- 3:31:40Speaker 1: my head by a sort of instinct. As for the Captain,
- 3:31:44Speaker 1: he had carried his over his shoulder by a bandolier,
- 3:31:48Speaker 1: and like a wise man, lock uppermost. The other three
- 3:31:52Speaker 1: had gone down with the boat. To add to our concern,
- 3:31:55Speaker 1: we heard voices already drawing nearer to us in the
- 3:31:58Speaker 1: wood along the shore, and we had only the danger
- 3:32:01Speaker 1: of being cut off from the stockade in our half
- 3:32:04Speaker 1: crippled state. But the fear before us whether if Hunter
- 3:32:08Speaker 1: and Joyce were attacked by half a dozen they would
- 3:32:10Speaker 1: have the sense and conduct to stand firm. Hunter was steady,
- 3:32:15Speaker 1: that we knew. Joyce was a doubtful case, a pleasant
- 3:32:19Speaker 1: polite man for a valet and to brush one's clothes,
- 3:32:23Speaker 1: but not entirely fitted for a man of war. With
- 3:32:27Speaker 1: all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast
- 3:32:30Speaker 1: as we could, leaving behind us the poor jolly boat
- 3:32:34Speaker 1: and a good half of all our powder and provisions.
- 3:32:38Speaker 1: End of Chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen narrative continued by the
- 3:32:44Speaker 1: doctor end of the first day's fighting. We made our
- 3:32:50Speaker 1: best speed across the strip of wood that now divided
- 3:32:53Speaker 1: us from the stockade, and at every step we took
- 3:32:56Speaker 1: the voices of the buccaneers rang nearer. Soon we could
- 3:33:00Speaker 1: hear their footfalls as they ran and the cracking of
- 3:33:02Speaker 1: the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket.
- 3:33:06Speaker 1: I began to see we should have a brush for
- 3:33:09Speaker 1: it in earnest and looked to my priming Captain, said I,
- 3:33:14Speaker 1: Trelawny is the dead shot. Give him your gun. His
- 3:33:18Speaker 1: own is useless. They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and
- 3:33:23Speaker 1: cool as he had been since the beginning of the bustle,
- 3:33:26Speaker 1: hung a moment on his heel to see that all
- 3:33:29Speaker 1: was fit for service. At the same time, observing Gray
- 3:33:33Speaker 1: to be unarmed, I handed him my cutlass. It did
- 3:33:37Speaker 1: all our hearts good to see him spit in his hand,
- 3:33:40Speaker 1: knit his brows, and make the blade sing through the air.
- 3:33:44Speaker 1: It was plain from every line of his body that
- 3:33:47Speaker 1: our new hand was worth his salt. Forty paces farther,
- 3:33:51Speaker 1: we came to the edge of the wood and saw
- 3:33:54Speaker 1: the stockade in front of us. We struck the enclosure
- 3:33:57Speaker 1: about the middle of the south side, and almost at
- 3:34:00Speaker 1: the same time, seven mutineers Job Anderson, the Bowswain at
- 3:34:04Speaker 1: their head, appeared in full cry at the southwestern corner.
- 3:34:09Speaker 1: They paused as if taken aback, and before they recovered,
- 3:34:13Speaker 1: not only the squire and I, but Hunter and Joyce
- 3:34:16Speaker 1: from the block house had time to fire. The four
- 3:34:19Speaker 1: shots came in rather a scattering volley, but they did
- 3:34:23Speaker 1: the business. One of the enemy actually fell, and the rest,
- 3:34:27Speaker 1: without hesitation, turned and plunged into the trees. After reloading,
- 3:34:32Speaker 1: we walked down the outside of the palisade to see
- 3:34:35Speaker 1: the fallen enemy. He was stone dead, shot through the heart.
- 3:34:40Speaker 1: We began to rejoice over our good success, when just
- 3:34:44Speaker 1: at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush and
- 3:34:47Speaker 1: a ball whistled close past my ear, and poor Tom
- 3:34:51Speaker 1: Redruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. Both
- 3:34:55Speaker 1: the Squire and I returned the shot, but as we
- 3:34:58Speaker 1: had nothing to aim at, it was probably we only
- 3:35:00Speaker 1: wasted powder. Then we reloaded and turned our attention to
- 3:35:04Speaker 1: poor Tom. The Captain and Gray were already examining him,
- 3:35:09Speaker 1: and I saw with half an eye that all was over.
- 3:35:13Speaker 1: I believe the readiness of our returned volley had scattered
- 3:35:16Speaker 1: the mutineers once more, for we were suffered without further molestation.
- 3:35:20Speaker 1: To get the poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade
- 3:35:24Speaker 1: and carried, groaning and bleeding into the log house. Poor
- 3:35:29Speaker 1: old fellow, he had not uttered one word of surprise, complaint,
- 3:35:33Speaker 1: to fear, or even acquiescence, from the very beginning of
- 3:35:36Speaker 1: our troubles till now, when we had laid him down
- 3:35:39Speaker 1: on the log house to die. He had lain like
- 3:35:42Speaker 1: a trojan behind his mattress in the gallery. He had
- 3:35:46Speaker 1: followed every order silently, doggedly and well. He was the
- 3:35:50Speaker 1: oldest of our party by a score of years, and
- 3:35:54Speaker 1: now sullen, old, serviceable servant. It was he that was
- 3:35:58Speaker 1: to die. The Squire dropped down beside him on his
- 3:36:02Speaker 1: knees and kissed his hand, crying like a child. Be
- 3:36:06Speaker 1: I going doctor, he asked tom My Man said, I
- 3:36:12Speaker 1: you're going home. I wish I had had a liquet
- 3:36:16Speaker 1: em with the gun first, he replied, tom said, the
- 3:36:21Speaker 1: Squire say you forgive me, won't you? Would that be
- 3:36:25Speaker 1: respectful like from me to you, Squire? Was the answer,
- 3:36:30Speaker 1: howsoever it be amen. After a little while of silence,
- 3:36:35Speaker 1: he said he thought somebody might read a prayer. It's
- 3:36:39Speaker 1: the custom, sir, he added apologetically, and not long after,
- 3:36:44Speaker 1: without another word, he passed away. In the meantime, the captain,
- 3:36:49Speaker 1: whom I had observed to be wonderfully swollen about the
- 3:36:52Speaker 1: chest and pockets had turned out a great many various stores,
- 3:36:56Speaker 1: the British colors, a bible, a coil of Stetish rope,
- 3:37:01Speaker 1: pen ink, the log book, and pounds of tobacco. He
- 3:37:05Speaker 1: had found a longish fir tree lying felled and cleared
- 3:37:09Speaker 1: in the enclosure, and with the help of Hunter, he
- 3:37:12Speaker 1: had set it up at the corner of the log
- 3:37:14Speaker 1: house where the trunks crossed and made an angle. Then,
- 3:37:18Speaker 1: climbing up on the roof, he had with his own
- 3:37:21Speaker 1: hand bent and run up the colors. This seemed mightily
- 3:37:25Speaker 1: to relieve him. He re entered the log house and
- 3:37:28Speaker 1: set about counting up the stores as if nothing else existed.
- 3:37:33Speaker 1: But he had an eye on Tom's passage for all that,
- 3:37:36Speaker 1: And as soon as all was over, came forward with
- 3:37:39Speaker 1: another flag and reverently spread it on the body. Don't
- 3:37:44Speaker 1: you take on, sir, he said, shaking the squire's hand.
- 3:37:48Speaker 1: All's well with him, No fear for a hand that's
- 3:37:52Speaker 1: been shot down in his duty to captain named owner.
- 3:37:57Speaker 1: It mayn't be good, divinity, but it's a fact. Then
- 3:38:01Speaker 1: he pulled me aside, Doctor Livesey, he said, in how
- 3:38:06Speaker 1: many weeks do you and Squire expect the consort. I
- 3:38:11Speaker 1: told him it was a question not of weeks, but
- 3:38:14Speaker 1: of months, that if we were not back by the
- 3:38:17Speaker 1: end of August, Blandly was to send to find us.
- 3:38:21Speaker 1: But neither sooner nor later. You can calculate for yourself,
- 3:38:25Speaker 1: I said, why, yes, returned the captain, scratching his head
- 3:38:31Speaker 1: and making a large allowance. Sir, for all the gifts
- 3:38:35Speaker 1: of providence, I should say, we were pretty close hauled.
- 3:38:40Speaker 1: How do you mean, I asked. It's a pity, sir,
- 3:38:44Speaker 1: we lost that second load. That's what I mean, replied
- 3:38:49Speaker 1: the captain. As for powder and shot, we'll do. But
- 3:38:54Speaker 1: the rations are short, very short, so short, Doctor livesey
- 3:38:59Speaker 1: that we're perhaps as well without that extra mouth, and
- 3:39:04Speaker 1: he pointed to the dead body under the flag. Just then,
- 3:39:08Speaker 1: with a roar and a whistle, a round shot passed
- 3:39:11Speaker 1: high above the roof of the log house and plumped
- 3:39:14Speaker 1: far beyond us in the wood. Oho, said the captain,
- 3:39:19Speaker 1: Blaze away, you've litten enough powder already, my lads. At
- 3:39:25Speaker 1: the second trial, the aim was better, and the ball
- 3:39:28Speaker 1: descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud of sand, but
- 3:39:32Speaker 1: doing no further damage, Captain, said the squire. The house
- 3:39:37Speaker 1: is quite invisible from the ship. It must be the
- 3:39:39Speaker 1: flag they're aiming at. Would it not be wiser to
- 3:39:42Speaker 1: take it in strike? My colors cried the captain, No, sir,
- 3:39:48Speaker 1: not i, And as soon as he had said the word,
- 3:39:52Speaker 1: I think we all agreed with him, for it was
- 3:39:54Speaker 1: not only a piece of stout seemingly good feeling, it
- 3:39:58Speaker 1: was a good policy besides, and showed our enemies that
- 3:40:02Speaker 1: we despised their cannonade. All through the evening they kept
- 3:40:07Speaker 1: thundering away. Ball after ball flew over, or fell short,
- 3:40:12Speaker 1: or kicked up the sand in the enclosure, but they
- 3:40:15Speaker 1: had to fire so high that the shot fell dead
- 3:40:18Speaker 1: and buried itself in the soft sand. We had no
- 3:40:21Speaker 1: ricochet to fear, and though one popped in through the
- 3:40:24Speaker 1: roof of the log house and out again through the floor,
- 3:40:28Speaker 1: we soon got used to that sort of horseplay and
- 3:40:31Speaker 1: minded it no more than cricket. There is one good
- 3:40:34Speaker 1: thing about all this, observed the captain. The wood in
- 3:40:39Speaker 1: front of us is likely clear. The EBB has made
- 3:40:43Speaker 1: a good while our stores should be uncovered. Volunteers to
- 3:40:49Speaker 1: go and bring in pork. Gray and Hunter were the
- 3:40:52Speaker 1: first to come forward. Well armed, They stole out of
- 3:40:56Speaker 1: the stockade, but it proved a useless mission. The mutineers
- 3:41:00Speaker 1: were bolder than we fancied, or they put more trust
- 3:41:04Speaker 1: in Israel's gunnery. For four or five of them were
- 3:41:07Speaker 1: busy carrying off our stores and wading out with them
- 3:41:10Speaker 1: to one of the gigs that lay close by, pulling
- 3:41:13Speaker 1: an oar or so to hold her steady against the current.
- 3:41:17Speaker 1: Silver was in the stern sheets in command, and every
- 3:41:20Speaker 1: man of them was now provided with a musket from
- 3:41:23Speaker 1: some secret magazine of their own. The captain sat down
- 3:41:28Speaker 1: to his log, and here is the beginning of the entry.
- 3:41:33Speaker 1: Alexander Swollett, Master, David Livesey, ship's doctor, Abraham Gray, carpenter's mate,
- 3:41:41Speaker 1: John Trelawney, Owner, John Hunter, and Richard Joyce, owner's servants landsmen,
- 3:41:49Speaker 1: being all that is left faithful of the ship's company,
- 3:41:52Speaker 1: with stores for ten days at short rations, came ashore
- 3:41:56Speaker 1: this day and flew British colours on the loghouse in
- 3:42:00Speaker 1: Treasure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner's servant landsman, shot by the mutineers.
- 3:42:08Speaker 1: James Hawkins, cabin boy. And at the same time I
- 3:42:12Speaker 1: was wondering over poor Jim Hawkins. Fate a hail on
- 3:42:16Speaker 1: the land side. Somebody hailing us, said Hunter, who was
- 3:42:21Speaker 1: on guard, Doctor Squire, Captain Halloo. Hunter, is that you
- 3:42:26Speaker 1: came the cries, and I ran to the door in
- 3:42:30Speaker 1: time to see Jim Hawkins, safe and sound, come climbing
- 3:42:34Speaker 1: over the stockade. End off Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen. Narrative
- 3:42:41Speaker 1: resumed by Jim Hawkins the garrison in the stockade. As
- 3:42:47Speaker 1: soon as ben Gunn saw the colors, he came to
- 3:42:49Speaker 1: a halt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down.
- 3:42:53Speaker 1: Now says he, there's your friends, sure enough, far more
- 3:43:00Speaker 1: it's the mutineers. I answered that. He cried, why in
- 3:43:06Speaker 1: a place like this, where nobody puts him but gentlemen
- 3:43:10Speaker 1: of fortune, silver would fly the jolly roger. You don't
- 3:43:14Speaker 1: make no doubt of that. Nah, that's your friends. There's
- 3:43:19Speaker 1: been blows too, and I reckon, your friend has had
- 3:43:23Speaker 1: the best of it. And here they are ashore in
- 3:43:25Speaker 1: the old stockade that has made years and years ago
- 3:43:29Speaker 1: by flint. He was the man to have a headpiece,
- 3:43:33Speaker 1: was flint barring rum. His match was never seen. He
- 3:43:39Speaker 1: were afraid of none, not he only silver silver? Was
- 3:43:44Speaker 1: that genteel well said I that may be so, and
- 3:43:50Speaker 1: so be it all the more reason that I should
- 3:43:52Speaker 1: hurry on and join my friends. Nay mate, returned Ben
- 3:43:58Speaker 1: not you. You're a good boy or I'm mistook, but
- 3:44:02Speaker 1: you're only a boy, all told. Now Ben Gunn is
- 3:44:07Speaker 1: fly Rum wouldn't bring me there where you're going. Now,
- 3:44:12Speaker 1: Ram wouldn't till I see your born gentleman and gets
- 3:44:16Speaker 1: it on his word of honor. And you won't forget
- 3:44:20Speaker 1: my words. A precious sight, that's what you'll say, A
- 3:44:24Speaker 1: precious sight more confidence, and then nips him and he
- 3:44:29Speaker 1: pinched me the third time with the same air of cleverness.
- 3:44:33Speaker 1: And when ben gunn Is wanted, you know where to
- 3:44:36Speaker 1: find him, Jim, just where you found him today. And
- 3:44:40Speaker 1: him that comes is to have a white thing in
- 3:44:43Speaker 1: his hand, and he's to come alone. Oh and you'll
- 3:44:46Speaker 1: say this, Ben Gunn says you has reasons of his own. Well,
- 3:44:53Speaker 1: said I I believe, I understand you have something to propose,
- 3:44:57Speaker 1: and you wish to see the squire or the dot,
- 3:45:00Speaker 1: and you're to be found where I found you. Is
- 3:45:03Speaker 1: that all? And when says you, he added, why from
- 3:45:08Speaker 1: about noon observation to about six bells, good says I,
- 3:45:14Speaker 1: And now may I go. You won't forget, he inquired
- 3:45:18Speaker 1: anxiously precious sight, and reasons of his own, says you.
- 3:45:24Speaker 1: Reasons of his own. That's the main stay as between
- 3:45:27Speaker 1: man and man. Well, then, still holding me, I reckon,
- 3:45:33Speaker 1: you can go, Jim, And Jim, if you was to
- 3:45:36Speaker 1: see silver, you wouldn't go for the cell bend gun
- 3:45:41Speaker 1: wild orses wouldn't draw it from you, no, says you.
- 3:45:46Speaker 1: And if them pirates came ashore, Jim, what would you say?
- 3:45:50Speaker 1: But there'd be widders in the morning. Here he was
- 3:45:53Speaker 1: interrupted by a loud report, and a cannonball came tearing
- 3:45:58Speaker 1: through the trees and pitched it in the sand, and
- 3:46:00Speaker 1: not one hundred yards from where we two were talking.
- 3:46:03Speaker 1: The next moment, each of us had taken to our
- 3:46:05Speaker 1: heels in a different direction. For a good hour to come,
- 3:46:10Speaker 1: frequent reports shook the island, and balls kept crashing through
- 3:46:14Speaker 1: the woods. I moved from hiding place to hiding place,
- 3:46:17Speaker 1: always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these
- 3:46:21Speaker 1: terrifying missiles. But toward the end of the bombardment, though
- 3:46:26Speaker 1: still I durst not venture in the direction of the
- 3:46:28Speaker 1: stockade where the balls fell oftenest I had begun in
- 3:46:32Speaker 1: a manner to pluck up my heart again, and after
- 3:46:35Speaker 1: a long detour in the east, crept down among the
- 3:46:39Speaker 1: shore side trees. The sun had just set. The sea
- 3:46:43Speaker 1: breeze was rustling and tumbling in the woods, and ruffling
- 3:46:46Speaker 1: the gray surface of the anchorage, and tied too was
- 3:46:49Speaker 1: far out, and great tracks of sand lay uncovered the air.
- 3:46:54Speaker 1: After the heat of the day chilled me through my jacket.
- 3:46:58Speaker 1: The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored, but sure
- 3:47:01Speaker 1: enough there was the Jolly Roger, the black flag of
- 3:47:05Speaker 1: piracy flying from her peak. Even as I looked, there
- 3:47:09Speaker 1: came another red flash, and another report that sent the
- 3:47:13Speaker 1: echoes clattering, and one more round shot whistled through the air.
- 3:47:17Speaker 1: It was the last of the cannonade. I lay for
- 3:47:20Speaker 1: some time watching the bustle which succeeded. The attack men
- 3:47:24Speaker 1: were demolishing something with axes on the beach near the stockade,
- 3:47:29Speaker 1: the poor jolly boat. I afterwards discovered anyway, near the
- 3:47:33Speaker 1: mouth of the river, a great fire was glowing among
- 3:47:36Speaker 1: the trees, and between that point and the ship, one
- 3:47:39Speaker 1: of the gigs kept coming and going. The men whom
- 3:47:42Speaker 1: I had seen so gloomy, shouting at the oars like children,
- 3:47:47Speaker 1: but there was a sound in their voices which suggested rum.
- 3:47:51Speaker 1: At length, I thought I might return towards the stockade.
- 3:47:54Speaker 1: I was pretty far down on the low sandy spit
- 3:47:57Speaker 1: that enclosed the anchorage to the east and is joined
- 3:48:00Speaker 1: at half water to Skeleton Island. And now, as I
- 3:48:03Speaker 1: rose to my feet, I saw some distance farther down
- 3:48:07Speaker 1: the spit, and rising from among low bushes, an isolated rock,
- 3:48:12Speaker 1: pretty high and particularly white in color. It occurred to
- 3:48:16Speaker 1: me that this might be the white rock of which
- 3:48:19Speaker 1: Ben Gunn had spoken, and that some day or other
- 3:48:22Speaker 1: a boat might be wanted, and I should know where
- 3:48:24Speaker 1: to look for one. Then I skirted among the woods
- 3:48:28Speaker 1: till I had regained the rear or shoreward side of
- 3:48:31Speaker 1: the stockade, and was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful party.
- 3:48:35Speaker 1: I had soon told my story and began to look
- 3:48:38Speaker 1: about me. The log house was made of unsquared trunks
- 3:48:42Speaker 1: of pine, roof, walls and floor. The latter stood in
- 3:48:46Speaker 1: several places as much as a foot or a foot
- 3:48:49Speaker 1: and a half above the surface of the sand. There
- 3:48:52Speaker 1: was a porch at the door, and under this porch
- 3:48:55Speaker 1: the little spring welled up into an artificial basin of
- 3:48:59Speaker 1: a rather odd kind, no other than a great ship's
- 3:49:02Speaker 1: kettle of iron, with the bottom knocked out and sunk
- 3:49:06Speaker 1: to her bearings. As the captain said, among the sand,
- 3:49:10Speaker 1: little had been left beside the framework of the house,
- 3:49:13Speaker 1: but in one corner there was a stone slab laid
- 3:49:16Speaker 1: down by way of a hearth, and an old, rusty
- 3:49:19Speaker 1: iron bucket to contain the fire. The slopes of the
- 3:49:24Speaker 1: knoll and all the inside of the stockade had been
- 3:49:27Speaker 1: cleared of timber to build the house, and we could
- 3:49:30Speaker 1: see by the stumps what a fine and lofty grove
- 3:49:33Speaker 1: had been destroyed. Most of the soil had been washed
- 3:49:36Speaker 1: away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees.
- 3:49:40Speaker 1: Only where the streamlet ran down from the kettle, a
- 3:49:44Speaker 1: thick bed of moss, and some ferns and little creeping
- 3:49:47Speaker 1: bushes were still green among the sand. Very close around
- 3:49:52Speaker 1: the stockade, too close for defense, they said. The wood
- 3:49:56Speaker 1: still flourished high and dense, all of fur on the
- 3:50:00Speaker 1: land side, but toward the sea, with a large admixture
- 3:50:04Speaker 1: of live oaks. The cold evening breeze of which I
- 3:50:08Speaker 1: have spoken whistled through every chink of the rude building,
- 3:50:12Speaker 1: and sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand.
- 3:50:16Speaker 1: There was sand in our eyes, sand in our teeth,
- 3:50:19Speaker 1: sand in our suppers, sand dancing in the spring at
- 3:50:23Speaker 1: the bottom of the kettle for all the world like
- 3:50:25Speaker 1: porridge beginning to boil. Our chimney was a square hole
- 3:50:29Speaker 1: in the roof, But it was but a little part
- 3:50:32Speaker 1: of the smoke that found its way out, and the
- 3:50:34Speaker 1: rest edded about the house and kept us coughing and
- 3:50:37Speaker 1: piping the eye. Add to this that Gray, the new Man,
- 3:50:41Speaker 1: had his face tied up in a bandage for a
- 3:50:44Speaker 1: cut he had got in breaking away from the mutineers,
- 3:50:47Speaker 1: And that poor old Tom Redruth, still unburied, lay along
- 3:50:52Speaker 1: the wall, stiff and stark under the union jack. If
- 3:50:56Speaker 1: we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all
- 3:50:58Speaker 1: have fallen into the blues. But Captain Smollett was never
- 3:51:02Speaker 1: the man for that. All hands were called up before him,
- 3:51:06Speaker 1: and he divided us into watches, the Doctor and Gray
- 3:51:10Speaker 1: and I for one, the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon
- 3:51:14Speaker 1: the other. Tired as we were, two men were sent
- 3:51:18Speaker 1: out for firewood. Two more were sent to dig a
- 3:51:21Speaker 1: gray for Redruth. The doctor was named Cook. I was
- 3:51:25Speaker 1: put sentry at the door, and the Captain himself went
- 3:51:28Speaker 1: from one to another, keeping up our spirits and lending
- 3:51:32Speaker 1: a hand wherever it was wanted. From time to time
- 3:51:35Speaker 1: the doctor came to the door for a little air
- 3:51:37Speaker 1: and to rest his eyes, which were almost smoked out
- 3:51:41Speaker 1: of his head. And whenever he did so, he had
- 3:51:44Speaker 1: a word for me. That man's smollet, he said once,
- 3:51:49Speaker 1: is a better man than I am. And when I
- 3:51:52Speaker 1: see that, it means a great deal. Jim. Another time
- 3:51:56Speaker 1: he came and was silent for a while. Then he
- 3:51:59Speaker 1: put his head off one side and looked at me.
- 3:52:02Speaker 1: Is this ben gunn a man? He asked? I do
- 3:52:08Speaker 1: not know, Sir said I I am not very sure
- 3:52:11Speaker 1: whether he's sane. If there's any doubt about the matter,
- 3:52:15Speaker 1: he is returned the doctor, a man who has been
- 3:52:19Speaker 1: three years biting his nails on a desert island. Jim
- 3:52:22Speaker 1: can't expect to appear as sane as you or me.
- 3:52:26Speaker 1: It doesn't lie in human nature. Was it, Cheese? You
- 3:52:30Speaker 1: said he had a fancy for Yes, Sir, Cheese, I answered, well,
- 3:52:35Speaker 1: Jim says he just you see the good that comes
- 3:52:40Speaker 1: of being dainty in your food. You've seen my snuff box,
- 3:52:43Speaker 1: haven't you, And you never saw me take snuff, the
- 3:52:46Speaker 1: reason being that in my snuff box I carry a
- 3:52:50Speaker 1: piece of Parmesan cheese, a cheese made in Italy, very nutitious.
- 3:52:56Speaker 1: Well that's for ben Gunn. Before supper was eaten, we
- 3:53:00Speaker 1: buried old Tom in the sand and stood round him
- 3:53:03Speaker 1: for a while, bare headed. In the breeze. A good
- 3:53:07Speaker 1: deal of firewood had been got in, but not enough
- 3:53:10Speaker 1: for the captain's fancy, and he shook his head over
- 3:53:12Speaker 1: it and told us we must get back to this tomorrow,
- 3:53:17Speaker 1: rather livelier then. When we had eaten our pork and
- 3:53:21Speaker 1: each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog, the
- 3:53:25Speaker 1: three chiefs got together in a corner to discuss our prospects.
- 3:53:30Speaker 1: It appears that they were at their wits end what
- 3:53:32Speaker 1: to do, the stores being so low that we must
- 3:53:35Speaker 1: have been starved into surrender long before help came. But
- 3:53:39Speaker 1: our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off
- 3:53:42Speaker 1: the buccaneers until they either hauled down their flag or
- 3:53:46Speaker 1: ran away with the Hispaniola. From nineteen they were already
- 3:53:50Speaker 1: reduced to fifteen two others were wounded, and one at
- 3:53:54Speaker 1: least the man shot beside the gun severely wounded if
- 3:53:58Speaker 1: he were not dead. Every time we had a crack
- 3:54:01Speaker 1: at them we were to take it, saving our own
- 3:54:04Speaker 1: lives with the extremest care. And besides that, we had
- 3:54:08Speaker 1: two able allies, rum and the climate. As for the first,
- 3:54:13Speaker 1: though we were about half a mile away, we could
- 3:54:16Speaker 1: hear them roaring and singing late into the night. And
- 3:54:20Speaker 1: as for the second, the doctor staked his wig that
- 3:54:24Speaker 1: camped where they were in the marsh, and unprovided with remedies,
- 3:54:28Speaker 1: half of them would be on their backs before a week.
- 3:54:32Speaker 1: So he added, if we are not all shot down first,
- 3:54:38Speaker 1: they'll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It's
- 3:54:41Speaker 1: always a ship, and they can get to buccaneering again.
- 3:54:45Speaker 1: I suppose first ship that I ever lost, said Captain Smollett.
- 3:54:52Speaker 1: I was dead, tired as you may fancy, and when
- 3:54:54Speaker 1: I got to sleep, which was not after a great
- 3:54:56Speaker 1: deal of tossing, I slept like a log of wood.
- 3:55:00Speaker 1: The rest had long been up and had already breakfasted
- 3:55:04Speaker 1: and increased the pile of firewood by about half as much. Again,
- 3:55:08Speaker 1: when I was awakened by a bustle and the sound
- 3:55:10Speaker 1: of voices flag of truce, I heard some one say,
- 3:55:15Speaker 1: and then immediately after, with a cry of surprise, Silver himself.
- 3:55:20Speaker 1: And at that I jumped up, and, rubbing my eyes,
- 3:55:23Speaker 1: ran to a loop hole in the wall and of
- 3:55:27Speaker 1: chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty Silver's embassy. Sure enough, there were
- 3:55:35Speaker 1: two men just outside the stockade, one of them waving
- 3:55:39Speaker 1: a white cloth, the other no lesser person than Silver himself,
- 3:55:43Speaker 1: standing placidly by, who was still quite early and the
- 3:55:48Speaker 1: coldest morning that I think I was ever abroad, in
- 3:55:52Speaker 1: a chill that pierced into the marrow. The sky was
- 3:55:56Speaker 1: bright and cloudless overhead, and the tops of the tree
- 3:56:00Speaker 1: shone Rosalie in the sun. Where Silver stood with his
- 3:56:04Speaker 1: lieutenant Or was still in shadow, and they waded knee
- 3:56:07Speaker 1: deep in a low white vapor that had crawled during
- 3:56:10Speaker 1: the night out of the morass. The chair and the vapor,
- 3:56:14Speaker 1: taken together, told a poor tale of the island. It
- 3:56:18Speaker 1: was plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy spot. Keep indoors, men,
- 3:56:25Speaker 1: said the captain ten to one. This is a trick.
- 3:56:29Speaker 1: Then he hailed the buccaneer, who goes stand or we
- 3:56:34Speaker 1: fire flag of truce, cried Silver. The captain was in
- 3:56:40Speaker 1: the porch, keeping himself carefully out of the way of
- 3:56:43Speaker 1: a treacherous shot should any be intended. He turned and
- 3:56:47Speaker 1: spoke to us, doctor's watch on the lookout, Doctor Livesey,
- 3:56:52Speaker 1: take the north side, if you please, Jim in the east,
- 3:56:56Speaker 1: gray west, the watch below. All hands till, load, muskets,
- 3:57:01Speaker 1: lively men and care for And then he turned to
- 3:57:05Speaker 1: the mutineers. And what do you want with your flag
- 3:57:09Speaker 1: of truce?
- 3:57:09Speaker 2: Sir?
- 3:57:10Speaker 1: He cried? This time it was the other man who replied,
- 3:57:14Speaker 1: cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms,
- 3:57:18Speaker 1: he shouted, Captain Silver, don't know him? Who's he cried
- 3:57:23Speaker 1: the captain, and we could hear him adding to himself,
- 3:57:27Speaker 1: cap'n is it my heart? And here's promotion? Long John
- 3:57:33Speaker 1: answered for himself, me, sir, These poor lads have chosen me,
- 3:57:39Speaker 1: cap'n for your desertion, sir, laying a particular emphasis upon
- 3:57:44Speaker 1: the word desertion. We're willing to submit if we can
- 3:57:48Speaker 1: come to terms and make no bones about it. All
- 3:57:52Speaker 1: I ask is your word, cap'n Smollett, to let me
- 3:57:56Speaker 1: safe and sailed out of this ere stockade and minute
- 3:58:00Speaker 1: to go get out a shot before a gun is fired,
- 3:58:04Speaker 1: my man, said Captain Smollett, I have not the slightest
- 3:58:09Speaker 1: desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk
- 3:58:12Speaker 1: to me, you can come, That's all. If there's any treachery,
- 3:58:17Speaker 1: it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you.
- 3:58:22Speaker 1: That's enough, copt'n, shouted Long John, cheerily. A word from
- 3:58:27Speaker 1: you's enough, I know, a gentleman. And you may later
- 3:58:30Speaker 1: that we could see the man who carried the flag
- 3:58:33Speaker 1: of truce attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that wonderful,
- 3:58:38Speaker 1: seeing how cavalier had been the captain's answer. But Silver
- 3:58:42Speaker 1: laughed at him aloud and slapped him on the back,
- 3:58:45Speaker 1: as if the idea of alarm had been absurd. Then
- 3:58:48Speaker 1: he advanced to the stockade, threw over his crutch, got
- 3:58:52Speaker 1: a leg up, and with great vigor and skill, succeeded
- 3:58:55Speaker 1: in surmounting the fence and dropping safely to the other side.
- 3:59:00Speaker 1: I will confess that I was far too much taken
- 3:59:03Speaker 1: up with what was going on to be of the
- 3:59:05Speaker 1: slightest use as sentry. Indeed, I had already deserted my
- 3:59:09Speaker 1: eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had
- 3:59:13Speaker 1: now seated himself on the threshold, with his elbows on
- 3:59:16Speaker 1: his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes
- 3:59:19Speaker 1: fixed on the water as it bubbled out of the
- 3:59:22Speaker 1: old iron kettle in the sand. He was whistling to himself,
- 3:59:26Speaker 1: cumlasses and lads silver. Had terrible hard work in getting
- 3:59:31Speaker 1: up the knoll, what with the steepness of the incline
- 3:59:34Speaker 1: and the thick tree stumps and the soft sand. He
- 3:59:38Speaker 1: and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays.
- 3:59:41Speaker 1: But he stuck to it like a man in silence,
- 3:59:45Speaker 1: and at last arrived before the captain, whom he saluted
- 3:59:48Speaker 1: in the handsomest style. He was tricked out in his
- 3:59:52Speaker 1: best an immense blue coat, thick with brass buttons, hung
- 3:59:57Speaker 1: as low as to his knees, and a fine lace