Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 08 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, the Man of the Island. From the side
- 0:05Speaker 1: of the hill, which was here steep and stony, A
- 0:09Speaker 1: spout of gravel was dislodged and fell, rattling and bounding
- 0:14Speaker 1: through the trees. My eyes turned instinctively in that direction,
- 0:19Speaker 1: and I saw a figure leap with great rapidity behind
- 0:22Speaker 1: the trunk of a pine. What it was, whether bear
- 0:26Speaker 1: or man or monkey, I could in no wise tell.
- 0:30Speaker 1: It seemed dark and shaggy. More I knew not, But
- 0:34Speaker 1: the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.
- 0:39Speaker 1: I was now it seemed cut off upon both sides
- 0:43Speaker 1: behind me, the murderers before me, this lurking nondescript, and
- 0:48Speaker 1: immediately I began to prefer the dangers that I knew
- 0:51Speaker 1: to those I knew not. Silver himself appeared less terrible
- 0:56Speaker 1: in contrast with this creature of the woods, and I
- 0:59Speaker 1: turned on my heel, and, looking sharply behind me over
- 1:02Speaker 1: my shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the direction
- 1:06Speaker 1: of the boats. Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a
- 1:11Speaker 1: wide circuit, began to head me off. I was tired
- 1:15Speaker 1: at any rate, but had I been as fresh as
- 1:17Speaker 1: when I rose, I could see it was in vain
- 1:20Speaker 1: for me to contend in speed with such an adversary.
- 1:23Speaker 1: From trunk to trunk. The creature flitted like a deer,
- 1:27Speaker 1: running man like on two legs, but unlike any man
- 1:30Speaker 1: that I had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Yet a man it was, I could no longer be
- 1:37Speaker 1: in doubt about that. I began to recall what I
- 1:40Speaker 1: had heard of cannibals. I was with an ace of
- 1:43Speaker 1: calling for help, But the mere fact that he was
- 1:46Speaker 1: a man, however wild, had somewhat reassured me, and my
- 1:51Speaker 1: fear of silver began to revive in proportion. I stood still, therefore,
- 1:56Speaker 1: and cast about for some method of escape, And as
- 2:00Speaker 1: I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol flashed
- 2:03Speaker 1: into my mind. As soon as I remembered I was
- 2:06Speaker 1: not defenseless, courage glowed again in my heart, and I
- 2:10Speaker 1: set my face resolutely for this man of the island,
- 2:13Speaker 1: and walked briskly toward him. He was concealed by this
- 2:17Speaker 1: time behind another tree trunk, but he must have been
- 2:20Speaker 1: watching me closely, for as soon as I began to
- 2:23Speaker 1: move in his direction, he reappeared and took a step
- 2:26Speaker 1: to meet me. Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again,
- 2:30Speaker 1: and at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself
- 2:35Speaker 1: on his knees and held out his clasped hands in supplication.
- 2:40Speaker 1: At that I once more stopped. Who are you, I asked,
- 2:46Speaker 1: ben Gunn? He answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward,
- 2:51Speaker 1: like a rusty lock. I'm poor, ben Gunn, I am,
- 2:56Speaker 1: and I haven't spoke with a Christian dec three years.
- 3:02Speaker 1: I could now seen that he was a white man
- 3:04Speaker 1: like myself, and that his features were even pleasing. His skin,
- 3:08Speaker 1: wherever it was exposed, was burned by the sun. Even
- 3:12Speaker 1: his lips were black, and his fair eyes looked quite
- 3:15Speaker 1: startling in so dark a face. Of all the beggar
- 3:19Speaker 1: men that I had seen or fancied, he was the
- 3:23Speaker 1: chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old
- 3:27Speaker 1: ship's canvas and old sea cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork
- 3:31Speaker 1: was all held together by a system of the most
- 3:34Speaker 1: various and incongruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and
- 3:39Speaker 1: loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist, he wore an
- 3:43Speaker 1: old brass buckled leather belt, which was the one thing
- 3:47Speaker 1: solid in his old accouterment. Three years I cried, were
- 3:52Speaker 1: you shipwrecked? Name? Mate? Said he marooned. I had heard
- 3:59Speaker 1: that word, and I knew it stood for a horrible
- 4:02Speaker 1: kind of punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which
- 4:06Speaker 1: the offender is put ashore with a little powder and shot,
- 4:10Speaker 1: and left behind on some desolate and distant island. Marooned
- 4:16Speaker 1: three years agone He continued and lived on goats since then,
- 4:22Speaker 1: and berries and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I,
- 4:26Speaker 1: A man can do for himself. But mate, my heart
- 4:31Speaker 1: is sore for Christian diet. You mayn't happen to have
- 4:34Speaker 1: a piece of cheese about you now, No, Well, many's
- 4:38Speaker 1: the long night. I've dreamed of cheese, toasted mostly and
- 4:42Speaker 1: woke up again, and here I were. If ever I
- 4:46Speaker 1: can get aboard again, said I, you shall have cheese
- 4:50Speaker 1: by the stone. At this time he had been feeling
- 4:53Speaker 1: the stuff of my jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at
- 4:56Speaker 1: my boots, and generally in the intervals of his speech,
- 4:59Speaker 1: showing a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow creature.
- 5:04Speaker 1: But at my last words he poked up into a
- 5:07Speaker 1: kind of startled slyness. If ever you get aboard again,
- 5:12Speaker 1: says you. He repeated, why now, who's to hinder you?
- 5:17Speaker 1: Not to you? I know? Was my reply? Oh and
- 5:21Speaker 1: right you was, he cried, Now you, what do you
- 5:26Speaker 1: call yourself? Mate, Jim? I told him, Jim, Jim says,
- 5:33Speaker 1: he quite pleased. Apparently. Well, now, Jim, I've lived that
- 5:39Speaker 1: rough as you'd be ashamed to hear of. Now, for instance,
- 5:43Speaker 1: you wouldn't think I had had a pious mother to
- 5:46Speaker 1: look at me, he asked, why. Uh no, not in particular,
- 5:52Speaker 1: I answered, Ah, well, said he. But I had remarkably pious,
- 5:59Speaker 1: and I was a civil, pious boy, and could rattle
- 6:03Speaker 1: off my catechism that fast you couldn't tell one word
- 6:07Speaker 1: from another. And here's what it come to, Jim. And
- 6:11Speaker 1: it begun with Chuck Farthan on the blessed gravestones, That's
- 6:16Speaker 1: what it begun with. And it went farther and that.
- 6:20Speaker 1: And so my mother told me and predicted the hole.
- 6:23Speaker 1: She did, the pious woman, for it were a providence
- 6:27Speaker 1: that put me here. I thought it all out in
- 6:31Speaker 1: this here, lonely island, and I'm back on piety. You
- 6:36Speaker 1: can't catch me tasting rum. So much, but just a
- 6:40Speaker 1: thimblefool for lack of course. The first chance I have,
- 6:44Speaker 1: I'm bound. I'll be good, and I see the way too.
- 6:49Speaker 1: And Jim, looking all around him and luring his voice
- 6:53Speaker 1: to a whisper, I'm rich. I now felt sure that
- 6:57Speaker 1: the poor fellow had gone crazy in his souliude, and
- 7:01Speaker 1: I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face,
- 7:04Speaker 1: for he repeated the statement hotly. Rich Rich, I says,
- 7:09Speaker 1: and I'll tell you what. I'll make a man of you. Jim, Ah, Jim,
- 7:14Speaker 1: You'll bless your stars, you will. You was the first
- 7:17Speaker 1: that found me. And at this there came suddenly a
- 7:21Speaker 1: lowering shadow over his face, and he tightened his grasp
- 7:24Speaker 1: upon my hand and raised a forefinger threateningly before my eyes. Now, Jim,
- 7:31Speaker 1: you tell me true. That ain't Flint's ship, he asked.
- 7:37Speaker 1: At this, I had a happy inspiration. I began to
- 7:40Speaker 1: believe that I had found an ally, and I answered
- 7:43Speaker 1: him at once It's not Flint's ship, and Flint is dead.
- 7:47Speaker 1: But I'll tell you true. But i'll tell you true
- 7:50Speaker 1: as you ask me. There are some of Flint's hands aboard.
- 7:54Speaker 1: Worse luck for the rest of us, not a man
- 7:58Speaker 1: with one leg. He gasped, silver, I asked, Ah, Silver
- 8:05Speaker 1: says he that where is name? He's the cook and
- 8:10Speaker 1: the ringleader too. He was still holding me by the wrist,
- 8:13Speaker 1: and at that he gave it quite a ring if
- 8:17Speaker 1: you were sent by long John, He said, I'm as
- 8:20Speaker 1: good as por can. I know it? But where was you?
- 8:24Speaker 1: Do you suppose? I had made up my mind in
- 8:28Speaker 1: a moment, and by way of answer, told him the
- 8:30Speaker 1: whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which
- 8:33Speaker 1: we found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest,
- 8:37Speaker 1: and when I had done, he patted me on the head.
- 8:40Speaker 1: You're a good lad, Jim, he said. And you're all
- 8:44Speaker 1: in a clove hit, sha't you? Well? You just put
- 8:48Speaker 1: your trust in ben Gunn. Ben Gunn's the man to
- 8:53Speaker 1: do it. Would you think it likely now that your
- 8:56Speaker 1: squire would prove a liberal mind? You wine? In case
- 9:00Speaker 1: of help him being in a clove hitch, as you remark,
- 9:05Speaker 1: I told him the squire was the most liberal of men. Ah.
- 9:10Speaker 1: But you see, returned ben Gunn. I didn't mean give
- 9:15Speaker 1: him me a gait to keep, but a suit of
- 9:18Speaker 1: livery clothes and such, and that's not my mark, Jim.
- 9:22Speaker 1: What I mean is, would he be likely to come
- 9:26Speaker 1: down to the tune of say, one thousand pounds out
- 9:30Speaker 1: of money that's as good as a man's own already?
- 9:34Speaker 1: I'm sure he would, said I. As it is, all
- 9:38Speaker 1: hands were to share, and a passage home, he added,
- 9:43Speaker 1: with a look of great shrewdness. Why, I cried, the
- 9:47Speaker 1: squire's a gentleman. And besides, if we got rid of
- 9:51Speaker 1: the others, we should want you to help work the
- 9:53Speaker 1: vessel home, ah, said he, So you would, And he
- 9:59Speaker 1: seemed very much relieved. Now I'll tell you what he
- 10:05Speaker 1: went on so much, I'll tell you, and no more.
- 10:08Speaker 1: I were in flint ship when he buried the treasure.
- 10:12Speaker 1: He and six are long, six strong seamen. They was
- 10:16Speaker 1: a sure nigh on a week, and are standing off
- 10:20Speaker 1: and on in the old Walrus. One fine day, upwent
- 10:24Speaker 1: the signal, and he had come Flint by himself in
- 10:28Speaker 1: a little boat, and his head done up in a
- 10:31Speaker 1: blue scarf. The sun was getting up and mortal white.
- 10:37Speaker 1: He looked about the cut water. But there he was,
- 10:41Speaker 1: you mind, and the six all dead, dead and buried.
- 10:47Speaker 1: How had he done it? Not a man of baldess
- 10:50Speaker 1: could make out. It was battle, murder and sudden death.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Leastways im agates six bones was the mate. Long Johnny
- 11:03Speaker 1: was quartermaster, and they asked him where the treasure was.
- 11:10Speaker 1: I says, you can go ashore if you like and stay, says,
- 11:16Speaker 1: but as for the ship, she'll be up for more
- 11:20Speaker 1: by thunder, that's what he said. Well, I was in
- 11:26Speaker 1: another ship three years back and we sighted this island.
- 11:31Speaker 1: Boys said I here's Flint's treasure. Let's land and find it.
- 11:37Speaker 1: The captain was displeased at that, but my messmates were
- 11:41Speaker 1: all of a mind and landed. Twelve days they looked
- 11:46Speaker 1: for it, and every day they had the worst word
- 11:49Speaker 1: for me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard.
- 11:56Speaker 1: As for you, Benjamin Gunn says they is a musket,
- 12:01Speaker 1: they says, and a spade and a pickaxe. You can
- 12:05Speaker 1: stay here and find Flint's money for yourself, They says, Well, Jim,
- 12:12Speaker 1: three years have I been here and not a bite
- 12:15Speaker 1: of Christian diet from that day to this. But now
- 12:19Speaker 1: you look here, look at me? Do I look like
- 12:23Speaker 1: a man before the mast? No, says you, nor I
- 12:28Speaker 1: would neither, I says, And with that he winked and
- 12:33Speaker 1: pinched me hard. Just you mention them words to your squire, Jim,
- 12:38Speaker 1: he went on, Nor he would neither. That's the words.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Three years he were the man of this island, light
- 12:48Speaker 1: and dark, fair and rain, And sometimes he would maybe
- 12:53Speaker 1: think upon a prayer, says you. And sometimes he would
- 12:57Speaker 1: maybe think of his old mother, so be as she's alive,
- 13:03Speaker 1: you'll say. But the most part of Gun's time, this
- 13:07Speaker 1: is what you'll say, The most part of his time
- 13:11Speaker 1: was took up with another matter. And then you'll give
- 13:16Speaker 1: him a nip like I do. And he pinched me
- 13:19Speaker 1: again in the most confidential manner. Then he continued, Then
- 13:25Speaker 1: you'll up and you'll say this Gun is a good man,
- 13:29Speaker 1: you'll say. And he puts a precious sight, more confidence,
- 13:33Speaker 1: a precious sight, mind that in a gentleman born than
- 13:37Speaker 1: in these gentlemen of fortune, having been one hisself. Well,
- 13:43Speaker 1: I said, I don't understand one word that you've been saying.
- 13:47Speaker 1: But that's neither here nor there. For how am I
- 13:50Speaker 1: to get on board? Ah, said he that's the hitch
- 13:55Speaker 1: for sure. Well there's my boat that I made with
- 13:59Speaker 1: my two hands. Ay keep her under the white rock.
- 14:03Speaker 1: If the worst come to the worst, we might try
- 14:07Speaker 1: that after dark. Hi, he broke out, what's that for?
- 14:12Speaker 1: Just then, although the sun had still an hour or
- 14:16Speaker 1: two to run, all the echoes of the island awoke
- 14:19Speaker 1: and bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. They have
- 14:22Speaker 1: begun to fight. I cried, follow me, and I began
- 14:26Speaker 1: to run toward the anchorage. My terrors all forgotten. While
- 14:31Speaker 1: close at my side the marooned man and his goat
- 14:33Speaker 1: skins trotted easily and lightly left. Left says he. Keep
- 14:39Speaker 1: to your left hand, mate, Jim, under the trees with you.
- 14:43Speaker 1: That's where I killed my first goat. They don't come
- 14:47Speaker 1: down here now. They're all mast headed on their mountains
- 14:51Speaker 1: for the fear of Benjamin gun Ah. There's the setter
- 14:55Speaker 1: Mery cemetery. He must have meant, you see the MoU.
- 15:00Speaker 1: I come here and prayed nows and thens when I
- 15:04Speaker 1: thought maybe a Sunday would be about do. It weren't
- 15:08Speaker 1: quite a chapel, but it seemed more solemn like. And then,
- 15:12Speaker 1: says you, ben Gum was shorthanded, no chaplain or so
- 15:17Speaker 1: much as a bible in a flag, says you. So
- 15:21Speaker 1: he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving
- 15:24Speaker 1: any answer. The cannon shot was followed, after a considerable
- 15:28Speaker 1: interval by a volley of small arms. Another pause, and
- 15:33Speaker 1: then not a quarter of a mile in front of me,
- 15:35Speaker 1: I beheld the Union Jack flutter in the air above
- 15:39Speaker 1: a wood. End of Chapter fifteen, Part four the Stockade.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen narrative continued by the doctor how the ship
- 15:52Speaker 1: was abandoned. It was about half past one, three bells
- 15:57Speaker 1: in the sea phrase that the two boats went ashore
- 16:00Speaker 1: from the Hispaniola. The Captain, the Squire and I were
- 16:03Speaker 1: talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been a
- 16:06Speaker 1: breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six
- 16:08Speaker 1: mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped our cable
- 16:12Speaker 1: and away to sea. But the wind was wanting, and
- 16:15Speaker 1: to complete our helplessness, down came Hunter with the news
- 16:19Speaker 1: that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was
- 16:22Speaker 1: gone ashore with the rest. It had never occurred to
- 16:25Speaker 1: us to doubt Jim Hawkins, but we were alarmed for
- 16:28Speaker 1: his safety. With the men in the temper they were in,
- 16:32Speaker 1: it seemed an even chance if we should see the
- 16:34Speaker 1: lad again. We ran on deck. The pitch was bubbling
- 16:38Speaker 1: in the seams, The nasty stench of the place turned
- 16:41Speaker 1: me sick. If ever a man smelled fever and dysentery.
- 16:45Speaker 1: It was in that abominable anchorage the six scoundrels were
- 16:49Speaker 1: sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle ashore. We
- 16:54Speaker 1: could see the gigs had made fast, and a man
- 16:56Speaker 1: sitting in each hard by where the river runs in.
- 17:00Speaker 1: One of them was whistling. Lily Ballero. Waiting was a strain,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and it was decided that Hunter and I should go
- 17:07Speaker 1: ashore with a jolly boat in quest of information. The
- 17:11Speaker 1: gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I
- 17:14Speaker 1: pulled straight in in the direction of the stockade upon
- 17:17Speaker 1: the chart. The two who were left guarding their boats
- 17:21Speaker 1: seemed in a bustle at our appearance. Lily Ballero stopped off,
- 17:25Speaker 1: and I could see the pair discussing what they ought
- 17:27Speaker 1: to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might
- 17:31Speaker 1: have turned out differently. But they had their orders, I suppose,
- 17:35Speaker 1: and decided to sit quietly where they were and hark
- 17:38Speaker 1: back again to Lily Balero. There was a slight bend
- 17:41Speaker 1: in the coast, and I steered so as to put
- 17:44Speaker 1: it between us. Even before we had landed, we had
- 17:47Speaker 1: thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out and
- 17:51Speaker 1: came as near running as I durst, with a big
- 17:54Speaker 1: silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness's sake, and a
- 17:57Speaker 1: brace of pistols ready primed for safety. I had not
- 18:01Speaker 1: gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade.
- 18:05Speaker 1: This was how it was. A spring of clear water
- 18:09Speaker 1: arose at the top of a knoll well on the knoll,
- 18:12Speaker 1: and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout log
- 18:16Speaker 1: house fit to hold two score people in a pinch
- 18:19Speaker 1: and loop holed for musketry on every side. All around
- 18:23Speaker 1: this they had cleared a wide space, and then the
- 18:26Speaker 1: thing was completed by a paling six feet high without
- 18:29Speaker 1: door or opening, too strong to pull down without time
- 18:33Speaker 1: and labor, and too open to shelter the besiegers. The
- 18:37Speaker 1: people in the log house had them in every way.
- 18:40Speaker 1: They stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
- 18:43Speaker 1: like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food.
- 18:48Speaker 1: For short of a complete surprise, they might have held
- 18:51Speaker 1: the place against a regiment. What particularly took my fancy
- 18:55Speaker 1: was the spring, for though we had a good place
- 18:58Speaker 1: of it, the cabin of the hista Spaniola, with plenty
- 19:01Speaker 1: of arms and ammunition, and things to eat and excellent wines.
- 19:05Speaker 1: There was one thing overlooked. We had no water. I
- 19:09Speaker 1: was thinking this over when they came ringing over the island,
- 19:12Speaker 1: the cry of a man at the point of death.
- 19:15Speaker 1: I was not new to violent death. I have served
- 19:18Speaker 1: His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, and got a
- 19:21Speaker 1: wound myself at Faultonoy. But I know my pulse went
- 19:26Speaker 1: jot and carry one. Jim Hawkins is gone, was my
- 19:30Speaker 1: first thought. It is something to have been an old soldier,
- 19:34Speaker 1: but more still to have been a doctor. There is
- 19:38Speaker 1: no time to dilly dally in our work, and so
- 19:41Speaker 1: now I made up my mind instantly, and with no
- 19:43Speaker 1: time lost, returned to the shore and jumped on board
- 19:46Speaker 1: the jolly boat. By good fortune, Hunter pulled a good oar.
- 19:51Speaker 1: We made the water fly, and the boat was soon alongside,
- 19:54Speaker 1: and I aboard the schooner. I found them all shaken,
- 19:57Speaker 1: as was natural, the Squire sitting down as white as
- 20:01Speaker 1: a sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us
- 20:04Speaker 1: to the good soul. And one of the six forecastle
- 20:07Speaker 1: hands was little better. There's a man, said Captain Smollett
- 20:12Speaker 1: nodding towards him, new to this work, he came nigh
- 20:17Speaker 1: hand fainting a doctor when he heard the cry and
- 20:20Speaker 1: now the touch of the rudder, and that man would
- 20:24Speaker 1: adjoin us. I told my plan to the captain, and
- 20:28Speaker 1: between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment.
- 20:32Speaker 1: We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin
- 20:35Speaker 1: and the forecastle, with three or four loaded muskets and
- 20:38Speaker 1: a mattress for protection. Hunter brought the boat round under
- 20:42Speaker 1: the stern port, and Joyce and I set to work
- 20:45Speaker 1: loading her with powder tins, muskets, bags of biscuit, kegs
- 20:50Speaker 1: of pork, a cast of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest.
- 20:55Speaker 1: In the meantime, the Squire and the captain stayed on
- 20:58Speaker 1: the deck, and the latter hailed the Coxswain, who was
- 21:01Speaker 1: the principal man on board, mister hands. He said, there.
- 21:06Speaker 2: Are two of us with a brace of pistols each.
- 21:09Speaker 2: If any one of you'll six make a signal of
- 21:11Speaker 2: any description, that man's dead. They were a good deal
- 21:16Speaker 2: taken back, and after a little consultation one and all
- 21:20Speaker 2: tumbled down. The foe companion, thinking no doubt to take
- 21:23Speaker 2: us on the rear. But when they saw Redruth waiting
- 21:26Speaker 2: for them in the sparred gallery, they went about ship
- 21:29Speaker 2: at once, and a head popped out again on deck down.
- 21:33Speaker 2: Dog cried the captain, and the head popped back again,
- 21:37Speaker 2: and we heard no more for the time of these
- 21:39Speaker 2: six very faint hearted seamen, by this time tumbling things
- 21:44Speaker 2: in as they came. We had the jolly boat loaded
- 21:47Speaker 2: as much as we dared. Joyce and I got out
- 21:50Speaker 2: through the stern port, and we made for shore again
- 21:53Speaker 2: as fast as oars could take us. This second trip
- 21:56Speaker 2: fairly aroused the watchers along shore. Lily Ballero was dropped again,
- 22:02Speaker 2: and just before we lost sight of them behind the
- 22:04Speaker 2: little point, one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I
- 22:08Speaker 2: had half a mind to change my plan and destroy
- 22:11Speaker 2: their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others
- 22:13Speaker 2: might be close to hand, and all might very well
- 22:16Speaker 2: be lost by trying for too much. We had soon
- 22:20Speaker 2: touched land in the same place as before, and set
- 22:23Speaker 2: to work to provision the block house. All three made
- 22:27Speaker 2: the first journey heavily laden, and tossed our stores over
- 22:30Speaker 2: the palisade.
- 22:32Speaker 1: Then leaving Joyce to guard them one man, to be sure,
- 22:35Speaker 1: but with half a dozen muskets, Hunter and I returned
- 22:39Speaker 1: to the jolly boat and loaded ourselves once more. So
- 22:43Speaker 1: we proceeded without pausing to take breath, till the whole
- 22:46Speaker 1: cargo was bestowed. When the two servants took up their
- 22:49Speaker 1: position in the block house, and I, with all my powder,
- 22:53Speaker 1: sculled back to the Hispaniola that we should have risked
- 22:57Speaker 1: a second boat load seems more dead than it really was.
- 23:02Speaker 1: They had the advantage of numbers, of course, but we
- 23:04Speaker 1: had the advantage of arms. Not one of the men
- 23:08Speaker 1: ashore had a musket, and before they could get within
- 23:11Speaker 1: range for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves. We should be
- 23:14Speaker 1: able to give a good account of a half dozen
- 23:17Speaker 1: at least. The Squire was waiting for me at the
- 23:20Speaker 1: stern window, all his faintness gone from him. He caught
- 23:25Speaker 1: the painter and made it fast, and we fell to
- 23:27Speaker 1: loading the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder and
- 23:30Speaker 1: biscuit was the cargo. With only a musket and a
- 23:33Speaker 1: cutlass apiece for Squire and me, and Red Ruth and
- 23:36Speaker 1: the captain. The rest of the arms and powder, we
- 23:40Speaker 1: dropped overboard in two fathoms and a half of water,
- 23:44Speaker 1: so that we could see the bright steel shining far
- 23:46Speaker 1: below us in the sun on the clean sandy bottom.
- 23:50Speaker 1: By this time the tide was beginning to ebb and
- 23:53Speaker 1: the ship was swinging round to her anchor. Voices were
- 23:56Speaker 1: heard faintly hallowing in the direction of the two gigs,
- 24:01Speaker 1: and though this reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who
- 24:04Speaker 1: were well to the eastward, it warned our party to
- 24:07Speaker 1: be off. Redruth retreated from his place in the gallery
- 24:11Speaker 1: and dropped into the boat, which we then brought round
- 24:14Speaker 1: to the ship's counter to be handier for Captain Smollett. Now,
- 24:18Speaker 1: men said he, do you hear me? There was no
- 24:22Speaker 1: answer from the forecastle. It's to you, Abraham Gray, it's
- 24:27Speaker 1: to you. I am speaking. Still no reply, Gray resumed
- 24:33Speaker 1: mister Smollett, a little louder. I am leaving this ship,
- 24:37Speaker 1: and I order you to follow your captain. I know
- 24:41Speaker 1: you are a good man at bottom, and I dare
- 24:44Speaker 1: say not one of the lot of users bad as
- 24:47Speaker 1: he makes out. I had my watch here in my hand.
- 24:51Speaker 1: I give you thirty seconds to join me. In Come,
- 24:55Speaker 1: my fine fellow, continued the captain. Don't hang so long
- 24:59Speaker 1: in stays, I'm risking my life, and the lives of
- 25:03Speaker 1: these are gooder gentleman. Every second there was a sudden scuffle,
- 25:07Speaker 1: a sound of blows, and outburst Abraham Gray with a
- 25:11Speaker 1: knife cut on the side of the cheek and came
- 25:14Speaker 1: running to the captain like a dog to the whistle.
- 25:18Speaker 1: I'm with you, sir, he said, And the next moment
- 25:21Speaker 1: he and the captain had dropped aboard of us, and
- 25:24Speaker 1: we had shoved off and given way. We were clear
- 25:27Speaker 1: out of the ship, but not yet ashore in our stockade.
- 25:33Speaker 1: End of chapter sixteen.