Latest / Adventure Books Library / 14 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

Transcript

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

0:00
Chapter twenty seven pieces of eight. Owing to the cant of the vessel,
0:05
the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the
0:10
cross trees, I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay.
0:15
Hands, who was not so far up, was, in consequence, nearer
0:19
to the ship, and fell between me and the bulwarks. He rose once
0:24
to the surface in a lather of foam and blood, and then sank again
0:29
for good. As the water settled, I could see him lying huddled together
0:35
on the clean, bright sand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A
0:39
fish or two whipped past his body, sometimes by the quivering of the water.
0:45
He appeared to move a little, as if he were trying to rise,
0:48
But he was dead enough for all that, being both shot and drowned,
0:54
and was food for fish in the very place where he had designed my
0:58
slaughter. I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick,
1:03
faint, and terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and
1:07
chest. The dirk where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast seemed to
1:12
burn like a hot iron. Yet it was not so much these real sufferings
1:18
that distressed me, For these it seemed to me I could bear without a
1:22
murmur. It was the horror that I had upon my mind of falling from
1:26
the cross tree into that still green water beside the body of the cocksin.
1:34
I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut my eyes
1:38
as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came back again,
1:44
my pulses quieted down to a more natural time, and I was once more
1:49
in possession of myself. It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk,
1:56
but either it struck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I
2:00
desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough that very shudder did the business.
2:06
The knife, in fact, had come the nearest in the world to missing
2:09
me altogether. It held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this
2:15
the shudder tore away. The blood ran down the faster, to be sure,
2:21
but I was my own master again, and only tacked to the mast
2:24
by my coat and shirt. These last I broke through with a sudden jerk,
2:30
and then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. For nothing in the
2:35
world would I have again ventured, shaken as I was upon the overhanging port
2:40
shrouds from which Israel had so lately fallen. I went below and did what
2:47
I could for my wound. It pained me a good deal, and still
2:51
bled freely, but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly
2:55
gall me when I used my arm. Then I looked around me, and
3:00
as the ship was now in a sense my own, I began to think
3:04
of clearing it from its last passenger, the dead man O'Brien. He had
3:09
pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like
3:14
some horrid, ungainly sort of puppet. Life size indeed, but how different
3:20
from life's color or life's comeliness. In that position I could easily have my
3:25
way with him, and as the habit of tragical adventures had worn off almost
3:30
all my terror for the dead, I took him by the waist as if
3:35
he'd been a sack of bran, and with one good heave tumbled him overboard.
3:40
He went in with a sounding plunge. The red cap came off and
3:46
remained floating on the surface, and as soon as the splash subsided, I
3:51
could see him in Israel, lying side by side, both wavering with the
3:57
tremulous movement of the water. Iron, though still quite a young man,
4:01
was very bald. There he lay, with that bald head across the knees
4:06
of the man who had killed him, and the quick fishes steering to and
4:11
fro over both. I was now alone within the ship. The tide had
4:16
just turned. The sun was within so few degrees of setting that already the
4:21
shadows of the pines upon the western shore began to reach right across the anchorage
4:27
and fall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze had sprung up,
4:31
and though it was well warded off by the hill with the two peaks upon
4:35
the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself,
4:41
and the idle sails to rattle to and fro. I began to see a
4:46
danger to the ship. The jibs I speedily doused and brought tumbling to the
4:49
deck. But the mainsail was a harder matter of course, When the schooner
4:56
canted over, the boom had swung outward, and the a cap of it
5:00
and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought this
5:04
made it still more dangerous. Yet the strain was so heavy that I half
5:10
feared to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards.
5:15
The peak dropped instantly. The great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the
5:20
water, and since pull as I liked, I could not budge the down
5:25
hall. That was the extent of what I could accomplish. For the rest
5:30
the Hispaniola must trust to luck, like myself. By this time, the
5:34
whole anchorage had fallen into shadow. The last rays I remember falling through a
5:40
glade of the wood and shining bright as jewels on the flowery mantle of the
5:45
wreck. It began to be chill. The tide was rapidly fleeting seaward,
5:50
the schooner settling more and more on her beam ends. I scrambled forehead and
5:57
looked over. It seemed shallow enough. Fan holding the cut hawser in both
6:01
hands for a last security, I let myself drop softly overboard. The water
6:09
scarcely reached my waist. The sand was firm and covered with ripple marks,
6:13
and I waded ashore in great spirits, leaving the Hispaniola on her side,
6:18
with her mainsail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay. About the same
6:24
time, the sun went fairly down, and the breeze whistled low in the
6:28
dusk among the tossing pines. At least and at last, I was off
6:33
the sea. Nor had I returned thence empty handed. There lay the schooner,
6:40
clear at last from buccaneers, and ready for our own men to board
6:44
and get to sea again. I had nothing nearer my fancy than to get
6:48
home to the stockade and boast of my achievements. Possibly I might be blamed
6:54
a bit for my truanty, but the recapture of the Hispaniola was a claching
6:59
answer, and I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost
7:03
my time. So, thinking and in famous spirits, I began to set
7:08
my face homeward for the block house and my companions. I remembered that the
7:14
most easterly of the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage, ran from the
7:17
two peaked hill upon my left, and I bent my course in that direction
7:23
that I might pass the stream. While it was small, the wood was
7:27
pretty open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I had soon turned the
7:30
corner of that hill, and not long after waded to the mid calf across
7:35
the water course. This brought me near to where I had encountered ben Gunn
7:41
the maroon, and I walked more circumspectully, keeping an eye on every side.
7:47
The dusk had come nigh hand completely, and as I opened out of
7:51
the cleft between the two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glow against
7:57
the sky, where as I judged the man of the island was cooking his
8:01
supper before a roaring fire. And yet I wondered in my heart that he
8:05
should show himself so careless, For if I could see this radiance, might
8:11
it not reach the eye of silver himself where he camped upon the shore among
8:16
the marshes. Gradually the night fell blacker. It was all I could do
8:22
to guide myself, even roughly toward my destination. The double hill behind me,
8:26
and the spyglass on my right hand loomed fainter and fainter. The stars
8:33
were few and pale, and in the low ground where I wandered, I
8:37
kept tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits. Suddenly a kind of brightness
8:43
fell about me. I looked up. A pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted
8:48
on the summit of the spyglass, And soon after I saw something broad and
8:54
silvery, moving low down behind the trees, and knew the moon had risen.
9:01
With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me
9:03
of my journey, and sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew near to
9:09
the stockade. Yet as I began to thread the grove that lies before it,
9:16
I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went a
9:20
trifle warily. It would have been a poor end of my adventures to get
9:26
shot down by my own party in mistake. The moon was climbing higher and
9:31
higher. Its light began to fall here and there in masses through the more
9:35
open districts of the wood, and right in front of me a glow of
9:39
a different color appeared among the trees. It was red and hot, and
9:43
now and again it was a little darkened, as it were the embers of
9:48
a bonfire smoldering. For the life of me, I could not think what
9:52
it might be. At last I came right down upon the borders of the
9:56
clearing. The western end was all ready steeped in moonshine. The rest and
10:01
the block house itself still lay in a black shadow, checkered with long,
10:05
silvery streaks of light. On the other side of the house, an immense
10:09
fire had burned itself into clear embers and shared a steadily red reverberation, contrasting
10:16
strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon. There was not a soul stirring,
10:22
nor a sound beside the noises of that breeze. I stopped with much
10:26
wonder in my heart, and perhaps a little terror also. It had not
10:31
been our way to build great fires. We were, indeed, by the
10:35
Captain's orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood, and I began to fear that something
10:41
had gone wrong. While I was absent, I stole round by the eastern
10:46
end, keeping close in shadow, and at a convenient place where the darkness
10:52
was thickest, crossed the palisade. To make assurance surer, I got upon
10:56
my hands and knees and crawled without a sound, toward the corner of the
11:01
house. As I drew nearer, my heart was suddenly and greatly lightened.
11:07
It was not a pleasant noise in itself, and I have often complained of
11:11
it in other times, but just then it was like music to hear my
11:16
friends snoring together, so loud and peaceful in their sleep. The sea cry
11:22
of the watch, that beautiful All's well, never fell more reassuringly on my
11:28
ear. In the meantime. There was no doubt of one thing. They
11:31
kept, an infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver and his lads
11:37
that were now creeping in on them, not a soul would have seen daybreak.
11:43
That was what it was, thought I to have the captain wounded,
11:46
And again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that danger, with so
11:52
fut to mount guard. By this time I had got to the door and
11:54
stood up. All was dark within, so that I could distinguish nothing by
12:00
the eye. As for sounds, there was the steady drone of the snorers,
12:05
and a small occasional noise, a flickering or pecking, that I could
12:09
in no way account for With my arms before me, I walked steadily in.
12:15
I should lie down in my own place, I thought, with a
12:18
silent chuckle, and enjoy their faces when they found me in the morning.
12:24
My foot struck something yielding. It was a sleeper's leg, and he turned
12:28
and groaned, but without awaking, And then all of a sudden a shrill
12:33
voice broke forth out of the darkness, paces of eight, paces of eight
12:39
pieces of eight, pieces of eight pieces of eight, and so forth,
12:43
without paws or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill. Silver's green
12:48
parrot, Captain Flint, It was she whom I had heard pecking at a
12:52
piece of bark. It was she, keeping better watch than any human being,
12:58
who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain. I had no time
13:03
left me to recover. At the sharp clicking tone of the parrot, the
13:07
sleepers awoke and sprang up, and with a mighty oath, the voice of
13:11
Silver cried, who goes? I turned to run, struck violently against one
13:18
person, recoiled and ran full into the arms of a second, who,
13:22
for his part, closed upon and held me tight. Bring a torch,
13:28
dick, said Silver, when my capture was thus assured, and one of
13:33
the men left the log house and presently returned with a lighted brand. End
13:39
of Chapter twenty seven, Part six, Captain Silver, Chapter twenty eight.
13:46
In the enemy's camp, the bright glare of the torch lighting up the interior
13:52
of the block house showed me the worst of my apprehensions. Realized the pirates
13:58
were in possession of the house, toss and stores. There was the cask
14:01
of cognac. There were the pork and bread as before, and what tenfold
14:07
increased my horror. Not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge
14:13
that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not
14:18
been there to perish with them. There were six of the buccaneers, all
14:22
told, not another man was left alive. Five of them were on their
14:26
feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness.
14:33
The sixth had only risen upon his elbow. He was deadly pale,
14:37
and the blood stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded,
14:41
and was still more recently dressed. I remembered the man who had been
14:46
shot and ran back among the woods in the great attack, and doubted not
14:50
that this was he. The parrot sat preening her plumage on long John's shoulder.
14:58
He himself, I thought, he looked somewhat paler and more stern than
15:01
I was used to. He still wore his fine broadcloth suit in which he
15:07
had fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly, the worse for wear,
15:11
daubed with clay and torn with sharp briers of the wood, So said he,
15:18
here's Jim Hawkins shiver. My timbers dropped in like eh, where come
15:26
I take that? Friendly? And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask
15:31
and began to fill a pipe. Give me the loan of a link,
15:37
dick, said he. And then when he had a good light, I'll
15:41
do my lad, he added, Stick the gleam in the wood heap.
15:46
And you gentlemen bring yourselves to You needn't stand up for mister Hawkins. He'll
15:52
excuse you. You may later that and sew Jim stopping the tobacco. Here
16:00
you are, and quite a pleasant surprise for old John. I see you
16:04
were smart when first I set my eyes on you. But this ear gets
16:10
away from me clean it do to all this, as may be well supposed,
16:15
I made no answer. They had set me with my back against the
16:19
wall, and I stood there, looking silver in the face. Pluckily enough,
16:23
I hoped to all outward appearance, but with black despair in my heart.
16:29
Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure, and
16:33
then ran on again. Now you see, Jim, so be as you
16:37
are here, said he. I'll give you a piece of my mind.
16:44
I've always liked you. I have for a lad of spirit and the picture
16:48
of my own self when I was young and handsome, I always wanted to
16:52
join and take your share and dire gentleman. And now my cock, you've
16:59
got, cap'n smile it to find seeming as oil own up to any day.
17:04
Bit stiff on discipline. Duty is duty, says he, and right
17:10
he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is
17:15
gone dead again, you ungrateful scamp, was what he said. And the
17:22
short and the log of the old story is about here. You can't go
17:26
back to your own lot, for they won't have you. And without you
17:30
start a third ship's company all by yourself, which might be lonely. You'll
17:37
have to join with cap'n Silver. So far, so good. My friends
17:42
then were still alive. And though I partly believed the truth of Silver's statement
17:48
that the cabin party were incensed at me for my desertion, I was more
17:52
relieved than distressed by what I heard. I don't say nothing as to your
17:59
being in our hands, continued Silver, though there you are, and you
18:03
may lay do it. Oh more for argument, I never seen good come
18:08
out of threatening. If you like the service, well you're join. And
18:15
if you don't, Jim why you're free to answer? No, free and
18:19
welcome, shipmate. And if fairer can be said by mortal seamen, shiver
18:26
my sides. Am I to answer? Then, I asked, with a
18:32
very tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was made to feel
18:37
the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned, and my
18:41
heart beat painfully in my breast. Lad said Silver, No one a press,
18:48
and of you take your bearings, none of us won't hurry you,
18:53
mate, Time goes so pleasant in your company, you see, well,
19:00
says I, growing a bit bolder. If I'm to choose, I declare
19:04
I have a right to know what's what and why you're here and where my
19:08
friends are. What's what? Repeated one of the buccaneers, in a deep
19:14
growl. I'd be a lucky one as know that you're perhaps betting down your
19:22
hatches till you are spoken to, my friend, cried Silver truculently to the
19:27
speaker, and then, in his first gracious tones, he replied to me.
19:33
Yesterday morning, mister Hawkins said he in the dog watch. Down came
19:40
doctor Livesey with a flag of truce, says he, cap'n silver, you're
19:45
sold out. Ship's gone. Well maybe we'd been taking a glass and a
19:52
song to help it round. I won't say no. Leastways. None of
19:57
us had looked out. We looked out, and boy thunder, the old
20:02
ship was gone. I never seen a pack of fools look fishy, and
20:07
you made late that. If I tells you that I look the fishiest,
20:11
Well, says the doctor, let's boggin. We boggined him and I and
20:18
here we are stores brandy blockhouse. The firewood you was thoughtful enough to cut,
20:26
and, in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat from Crosstrees
20:30
to Kielsen. As for them, they've tramped. I don't know where they
20:36
are. He drew again quietly at his pipe. Unlest you should take it
20:41
into that head of yours. He went on that you was included in the
20:47
treaty. Here's the last word that was said. How many are you?
20:52
Says I? To leave? Four says e four, and one of us
20:57
wounded. As for the boy, I don't know where he is. Confound
21:03
him, says he, nor I don't much care. We're about sick of
21:07
him. There was his words. Is that all? I asked, Well,
21:12
it's all you're to hear. My son returned Silver, and now I
21:18
am to choose. And no, you are to choose, and you may
21:22
laid of that, said Silver. Well said I I am not such a
21:27
fool, but I know pretty well what I have to look for. Let
21:30
the worst come to the worst. It's little I care. I've seen too
21:34
many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two
21:38
I have to tell you, I said, And by this time I was
21:41
quite excited. And the first is this. Here you are in a bad
21:47
way, ship lost, treasure, lost, men, lost, your whole
21:51
business, gone to wreck. And if you want to know who did it,
21:53
it was I. I was in the apple barrel that night we sighted
21:57
land and heard you John and you Dick Johnson and Hans who is now at
22:03
the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour
22:07
was out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her
22:11
cable, and it was I who killed the men you had aboard her.
22:14
And it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not
22:18
one of you. The laughs on my side. I've had the top of
22:22
this business from the first. I no more fear you than I fear a
22:26
fly. Kill me if you please, or spare me, but one thing
22:30
I'll say, and no more. If you spare me, bygones are bygones.
22:34
And when you, fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you
22:37
all I can. It is for you to choose kill another and do yourselves
22:42
no good, or spare me and keep a witness to save you from the
22:47
gallows. I stopped now, for I tell you I was out of breath,
22:52
and to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all
22:55
sat staring at me like as many sheep. And while they were ill staring,
23:00
I broke out again. And now, mister Silver, I said,
23:04
I believe you're the best man here, and if things go to the worst,
23:08
I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way I
23:11
took it. I'll bear it in mind, said Silver, with an accent
23:18
so curious that I could not, for the life of me decide whether he
23:22
was laughing at my request or had been favorably affected by my courage. Oh
23:26
put one to that, cried the old mahogany faced seaman Morgan, by name,
23:32
whom I had seen in long John's public house upon the keys of Bristol.
23:37
It was him that no black dog. Well, and see, he
23:41
added the sea cook. I'll put another to that boy thunder. It was
23:47
this same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones. First and last we've
23:52
split upon Jim Harkins. Then here goes, said Morgan, with an oath,
24:00
and he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty
24:03
A vast there cried silver. Were you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you thought
24:10
you were captain here? Perhaps boy the power as by. I'll teach you
24:15
better cross me and you'll go where many a good man's gone before you.
24:21
First and last he's thirty years back, some to the yard arms shiver moist
24:26
side, and some by the board and ought to feed the fishes. There's
24:33
never man luck me between the eyes and seen a good day afterwards, Tom
24:37
Morgh, And you may late that. Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur
24:44
rose from the others. Tom's right, said one, I stood hizing loin
24:49
af from one added another, I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you,
24:55
John Silver, Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with
25:00
me? Roared Silver, bending far forward from his position on the keg,
25:04
with his pipe still glowing in his right hand, put a name on what
25:10
you're at. You ain't dumb? I wreck him that once shall get it?
25:15
Have I lived this many years to have a son of a rum punch
25:19
and cockies at thwart my org or at the latter end of it? You
25:25
know the way you're all, gentleman of fortune by your account. Well,
25:30
I am ready take a cutlass in the dares and I'll see the color of
25:36
his inside crutch and all before that pipe's empty. Not a man stirred.
25:41
Not a man answered, that's your sword, is it? He added,
25:48
returning his pipe to his mouth. Well you're a gay lot a look at
25:52
anyway, not worth much in a foot You ain't. Perhaps you can understand
25:57
King George's English. I am capten here by election. I'm catt here because
26:04
I'm the best man. By alarm, sea oil. You won't fight as
26:10
gentlemen of fortune should, then, by thunder yellow bay, and you made
26:15
late to it. I like that boy. No I've never seen a better
26:21
boy than that. He's more a man than any pair of rats of you
26:26
in this here house. And what I say is this, let me see
26:30
him. That'll lay a hand on him. That's what I say, and
26:33
you may lay to it. There was a long pause after this. I
26:38
stood straight up against the wall. My heart's still going like a sledgehammer,
26:42
but with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom. Silver leant back
26:47
against the wall, his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his
26:51
mouth, as calm as though he had been in church. Yet his eye
26:55
kept wandering furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly follower.
27:00
They, on their part, drew gradually together toward the far end of
27:03
the blockhouse, and the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ears continuously
27:10
like a stream. One after another. They would look up, and the
27:15
red light of the torch would fall for a second on their nervous faces.
27:18
But it was not toward me. It was towards Silver that they turned their
27:22
eyes. You seem to have a lot to say, remarked Silver, spitting
27:29
far into the air pipe up and let me hear it, Holy too,
27:34
Ax your pardon, sir, returned one of the men. You're pretty free
27:40
with some of the rules. Maybe you kindly keep an eye upon the rest
27:44
this cruise. Dissatisfied, this crew, don't valley bully in lamarlin spike.
27:51
This crew has its rights like other crews. I'll make so free as that,
27:55
and by your own rules are take it. We can talk together.
28:00
I ax your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for the captain at this present,
28:04
I claim my right and steps outside for a council, and with an
28:10
elaborate sea salute, this fellow, a long, ill looking, yellow eyed
28:14
man of five and thirty, stepped coolly toward the door and disappeared out of
28:18
the house. One after another. The rest followed his example, each making
28:23
a salute as he passed, each adding some apology. Called into rules,
28:29
said one forlkas or counsel, said Morgan. And so with one remark or
28:34
another, all marched out and left silver and meat alone with the torch.
28:40
The sea cook instantly removed his pipe. Now look you here, Jim Harkins,
28:45
he said, in a steady whisper that was no more than audible.
28:48
You're within half a plank of death, and what's a long sight worse of
28:53
torture. They've got to throw me off. But you, Mark, I
28:59
stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to no, not
29:03
till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt and
29:07
be hanged into the baggain. But I see you as the right sword,
29:12
I says to myself. You stand by Hawkins John, and Hawkins will stand
29:17
by you. You're his last card, and by the living thunder. Johnny's
29:21
yours back to back, says I. You save your witness, and he'll
29:26
save your neck. I began dimly to understand you mean all's lost? I
29:33
asked, aye, by gom I do? He answered, ship gone,
29:38
neck gone. That's the size of it. Once I looked into that BEI
29:42
Jim Harkins, and see no schooner. Well, I'm tough, but I
29:48
gave out. As for that lot and their counsel, mark me, they're
29:52
outright fools and cowards. I'll save your life if so be as I can
29:57
from them. See here, Jim did it for a tat you save long
30:03
John from swinging. I was bewildered. It seemed a thing so hopeless.
30:08
He was asking he the old buccaneer, the ringleader, threw out what I
30:12
can do that I'll do. I said, it's a bargain, cried long
30:18
John. You speak up, plucky and both thunder. I have a chance.
30:23
He hobbled to the torch where it stood propped among the firewood, and
30:27
took a fresh light to his pipe. Understand me, Jim, he said,
30:32
returning, I've had on my shoulders. I have him on Squire's side.
30:37
Now I know you've got that ship safe somewheres. Oh you've done it.
30:44
I don't know, but safe it is, I guess. Hands and
30:48
old Bryant turned soft. I never much believed in neither of them. No
30:53
you mark me, Oh ask no questions, nor won't let others. I
31:00
know when a game's up, I do. And I know a lad that's
31:03
storch Ah. You that's young You might You and me might have done a
31:11
power of good together. He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin
31:17
cannikin. Will you taste mess met, he asked, And when I had
31:22
refused, well, I'd take a drain myself. Jim said, he oh,
31:27
I need a corker for this trouble on hand and then, and talking
31:33
a trouble, Why did that doctor give me the chart? Jim My face
31:38
expressed a wonder so unaffected that he saw the needlessness of further questions. Ah
31:45
well he did, though, said he. And there was something under that,
31:49
no doubt, something surely under that, Jim bad or good. And
31:56
he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a
32:00
man who looks forward to the worst. End of Chapter twenty eight.