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

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three, The Fall of a Chieftain. There never
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Speaker 1: was such an overturn in this world. All of these
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Speaker 1: six men was as through as he had been struck,
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Speaker 1: but with silver the blow passed almost instantly. Every thought
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Speaker 1: of his soul had been set full stretch, like a
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Speaker 1: racer on that money. Well, he was brought up in
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Speaker 1: a single second dead, and he kept his head, found
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Speaker 1: his temper, and changed his plan before the others had
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Speaker 1: had time to realize the disappointment. Jim, he whispered, take
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Speaker 1: that and stand boy for trouble. And he passed me
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Speaker 1: a double barreled pistol. At the same time he began
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Speaker 1: quietly moving northward, and in a few steps had put
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Speaker 1: the hollow between us two and the other five. Then
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Speaker 1: he looked at me and nodded, as much as to say,
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Speaker 1: here is a narrow corner. As indeed I thought it was.
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Speaker 1: His looks were now quite friendly, and I was so
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Speaker 1: revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering.
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Speaker 1: So you've changed sides again. There was no time left
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Speaker 1: for him to answer. In the buccaneers, with oaths and cries,
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Speaker 1: began to leap one after another into the pit and
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Speaker 1: to dig with their fingers, throwing the boards aside. As
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Speaker 1: they did so, Morgan found a piece of gold. He
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Speaker 1: held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It
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Speaker 1: was a two guinea piece, and it went from hand
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Speaker 1: to hand among them for a quarter of a minute.
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Speaker 1: Two guineas, roared Mary, shaking it at silver. That's your
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Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains,
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Speaker 1: ain't you? You're him that never bungled nothing, You wooden headed,
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Speaker 1: lubber dagg away boys, said silver, with the coolest insolence.
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Speaker 1: Ya'll find some pig nuts. I shouldn't wonder pig nuts,
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Speaker 1: repeated Mary in a scream. Mates, do you hear that?
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Speaker 1: I tell you now that man there knew it all along.
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Speaker 1: Look in the face of him, and you'll see it
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Speaker 1: wrote there Ah, Mary remarked, silver standing for a cut,
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Speaker 1: And again you're a pushing lad, to be sure. But
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Speaker 1: this time everyone was entirely in Mary's favor. They began
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Speaker 1: to scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them.
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Speaker 1: One thing I observed which looked well for us. They
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Speaker 1: all got out upon the opposite side from Silver. Well,
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Speaker 1: there we stood, two on one side, five on the other.
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Speaker 1: The pit between us and nobody screwed up high enough
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Speaker 1: to offer the first blow. Silver never moved. He watched
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Speaker 1: them very upright on his crutch, and looked as cool
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Speaker 1: as ever I saw him. He was brave and no mistake.
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Speaker 1: At last, Mary seemed to think a speech might help matters, Mates,
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Speaker 1: said he, there's two of them alone here. One's the
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Speaker 1: old cripple that brought us all here and blundered us
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Speaker 1: down to this. The others that cub that I mean
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Speaker 1: to have the heart of now. Mates. He was raising
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Speaker 1: his arm and his voice and plainly meant to lead
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Speaker 1: a charge. But just then, crack, crack, crack, three musket
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Speaker 1: shots flashed out of the thicket. Mary tumbled head foremost
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Speaker 1: into the excavation. The man with the bandage spun round
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Speaker 1: like a teetotem and fell all his length upon his side,
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Speaker 1: where he lay dead but still twitching. And the other
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Speaker 1: three turned and ran for it with all their might.
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Speaker 1: Before you could wink, long, John fired two barrels of
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Speaker 1: a pistol into the struggling merry, and as the man
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Speaker 1: rolled up his eyes at him. In the last agony,
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Speaker 1: George said he, I reckon, I selld you. In the
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Speaker 1: same moment the Doctor Gray and Ben Gunn joined us
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Speaker 1: with smoking muskets from among the nutmeg trees. Forward, cried
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Speaker 1: the doctor double quick, my lads, we must head him
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Speaker 1: off the boats. And we set off at a great pace,
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Speaker 1: sometimes plunging through the bushes to the chest. I tell you,
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Speaker 1: but Silver was anxious to keep up with us. The
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Speaker 1: work that man went through, leaping on his crutch till
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Speaker 1: the muscles of his chest were fit to burst, was
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Speaker 1: work no sound man ever equalled. And so thinks the doctor.
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Speaker 1: As it was, he was already thirty yards behind us
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Speaker 1: and on the verge of strangling. When we reached the
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Speaker 1: brow of the slope, Doctor he hailed, see the no oh, hurry.
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Speaker 1: Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open
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Speaker 1: part of the plateau, we could see the three survivors
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Speaker 1: still running in the same direction as they had started,
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Speaker 1: right for mid mast Hill. We were already between them
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Speaker 1: and the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe,
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Speaker 1: while long John, mopping his face, came slowly up with us.
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Speaker 1: Thank ye, kindly, doctor says he. You came in in
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Speaker 1: about the nick I guess from me and Arkins, and
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Speaker 1: so it's you, Ben Gunn. He added, well, you're a
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Speaker 1: nice one, to be sure, I'm Ben Gunn, I am
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Speaker 1: replied the Maroon, wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment,
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Speaker 1: and he added, after a long pause.
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Speaker 2: How do mister Silver pretty well? I thank ye, says you.
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Speaker 2: Ben Ben murmured Silver, to think as you've done me.
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Speaker 2: The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pickaxes
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Speaker 2: deserted in their flight by the mutineers, and then as
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Speaker 2: we proceeded leisurely downhill to where the boats were lying,
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Speaker 2: related in a few words what had taken place. It
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Speaker 2: was a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn,
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Speaker 2: the half idiot Maroon was the hero from beginning to end. Ben,
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Speaker 2: in his long lonely wanderings about the island, had found
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Speaker 2: the skeleton. It was he that had rifled it. He
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Speaker 2: had found the treasure, He had dug it up. It
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Speaker 2: was the haft of his pickaxe that lay broken in
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Speaker 2: the excavation. He had carried it on his back in
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Speaker 2: many weary journeys from the foot of the tall Pine
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Speaker 2: to a cave he had on the two pointed Hill
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Speaker 2: at the northeast angle of the island, and there it
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Speaker 2: had lain stored in safety since two months before the
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Speaker 2: arrival of the Hispaniola, when the doctor had wormed the
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Speaker 2: secret from him on the afternoon of the attack, and
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Speaker 2: when next morning he saw the anchorage deserted, he had
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Speaker 2: gone to Silver, given him the chart which was now useless,
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Speaker 2: given him the stores for ben Gunn's cave was well
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Speaker 2: supplied with goat's meat salted by himself, given anything and
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Speaker 2: everything to get a chance of moving in safety from
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Speaker 2: the stockade to the two pointed hill, there to be
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Speaker 2: clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money.
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Speaker 2: As for you, Jim, he said, it went against my heart,
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Speaker 2: but I did what I thought best for those who
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Speaker 2: had stood by their duty. And if you were not
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Speaker 2: one of these, whose fault was it? That morning, finding
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Speaker 2: that I was to be involved in the horrid disappointment
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Speaker 2: he had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all
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Speaker 2: the way to the cave, and, leaving squire to guard,
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Speaker 2: the captain had taken Gray and the maroon and started
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Speaker 2: making the diagonal across the island to be at hand
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Speaker 2: beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party
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Speaker 2: had the start of him, and ben Gunn, being fleet
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Speaker 2: of foot, had been dispatched in front to do his
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Speaker 2: best alone. Then it had occurred to him to work
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Speaker 2: upon the superstitions of his former shipmates, and he was
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Speaker 2: so far successful that Gray and the Doctor had come
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Speaker 2: up and were already ambushed before the arrival of the
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Speaker 2: treasure hunters.
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Speaker 1: Ah said Silver, it was farch in it for me
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Speaker 1: that I had Hearken's ear. You would have let old
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Speaker 1: Lungjohn be cut to bits. And never a thought, Doctor,
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Speaker 1: not a thought, replied Doctor livesey cheerily. And by this
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Speaker 1: time we had reached the gigs. The Doctor with the pickaxe,
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Speaker 1: demolished one of them. Then we all got aboard the
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Speaker 1: other and set out to go round by the sea
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Speaker 1: for north Inlet. This was a run of eight or
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Speaker 1: nine miles. Silver, though he was almost killed already with fatigue,
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Speaker 1: were set to an oar like the rest of us,
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Speaker 1: and we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea.
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Speaker 1: Soon we passed out of the straits and doubled the
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Speaker 1: southeast corner of the island, round which four days ago
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Speaker 1: we had towed the Hispaniola. As we passed the two
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Speaker 1: pointed hill, we could see the black mouth of ben
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Speaker 1: Gunn's cave, and a figure standing by it, leaning on
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Speaker 1: a musket. It was the Squire, and we waved a
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Speaker 1: handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in which the voice
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Speaker 1: of Silver joined as heartily as any. Three miles farther,
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Speaker 1: just inside the mouth of north Inlet, what should we
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Speaker 1: meet but the Hispaniola, cruising by herself. The last flood
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Speaker 1: had lifted her, and had there been much wind or
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Speaker 1: a strong tide current as in the southern anchorage, we
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Speaker 1: should never have found her more, or found her stranded
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Speaker 1: beyond help. As it was, there was little a miss
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Speaker 1: beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was got
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Speaker 1: ready and dropped in a fathom and a half of water.
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Speaker 1: We all pulled round to rum Cove, the nearest point
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Speaker 1: for ben Gunn's treasure house. Then Gray, single handed, returned
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Speaker 1: with the gig to the Hispaniola, where he was to
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Speaker 1: pass the night on guard. A gentle slope ran up
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Speaker 1: from the beach to the entrance of the cave. At
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Speaker 1: the top, the Squire met us to me. He was
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Speaker 1: cordial and kind, saying nothing of my escapade either in
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Speaker 1: the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute,
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Speaker 1: he somewhat flushed John Silver. He said, you're a prodigious
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Speaker 1: villain and impostor, a monstrous impostor, Sir, I am told,
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Speaker 1: I am not to prosecute you. Well, then I will not.
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Speaker 1: But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like Millstone's.
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Speaker 1: Thank you kindly, sir, replied long John again, saluting, how
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Speaker 1: dare you thank me? Cried the squire is a gross
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Speaker 1: dereliction of my due stand back. And thereupon we all
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Speaker 1: entered the cave. It was a large, airy place, with
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Speaker 1: a little spring and a pool of clear water, overhung
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Speaker 1: with ferns. The floor was sand. Before a big fire
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Speaker 1: lay Captain Smollett, And in a far corner, only duskily
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Speaker 1: flitted over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps of
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Speaker 1: coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was
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Speaker 1: Flint's treasure, that we had come so far to seek,
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Speaker 1: and that had cost already the lives of seventeen men
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Speaker 1: from the Hispaniola. How many it had cost in the amassing,
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Speaker 1: What blood and sorrow? What good ships scuttled on the deep,
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Speaker 1: What brave men walking the plank blindfold? What shot of cannon?
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Speaker 1: What shame and lies and cruelty? Perhaps no man alive
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Speaker 1: could tell. Yet there were still three upon that island,
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Speaker 1: Silver and Old Morgan and ben Gunn, who had each
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Speaker 1: taken his share in these crimes, as each yet hoped
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Speaker 1: in vain to share in the reward. Come in, Jim,
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Speaker 1: said the captain. You're a good boy in your line, Jim,
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Speaker 1: But I don't think you and me'll go to sea again.
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Speaker 1: You're too much of the born. Favorite for me is
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Speaker 1: that you John Silver. What brings you here? Man? Come
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Speaker 1: back to my duty, sir, returned Silver. Oh, said the captain,
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Speaker 1: And that was all he said. What a supper I
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Speaker 1: had of it that night, with all my friends around me,
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Speaker 1: And what a meal it was, with ben Gunn's salted
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Speaker 1: goat and some delicacies, and a bottle of old wine
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Speaker 1: from the Hispaniola. Never, I am sure were people gayer
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Speaker 1: or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back, almost out
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Speaker 1: of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward
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Speaker 1: when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter.
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Speaker 1: The same bland, obsequious seamen of the voyage out end
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Speaker 1: of chapter thirty three, Chapter thirty four, and last the
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Speaker 1: next morning we fell early to work for the transportation
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Speaker 1: of this great mass of gold near a mile by
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Speaker 1: land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat
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Speaker 1: to the Hispaniola. Was a considerable task for so small
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Speaker 1: a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon
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Speaker 1: the island did not greatly trouble us. A single century
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Speaker 1: on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to ensure
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Speaker 1: us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought besides they
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Speaker 1: had had more than enough of fighting. Therefore, the work
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Speaker 1: was pushed on briskly. Gray and ben Gunn came and
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Speaker 1: went with the boat, while the rest, during their absences,
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Speaker 1: piled at treasure on the beach. Two of the bars,
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Speaker 1: slung in a rope's end, made a good load for
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Speaker 1: a grown man, one that he was glad to walk
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Speaker 1: slowly with. For my part, I was not so much
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Speaker 1: use at carrying. I was kept busy all day in
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Speaker 1: the cave packing the minted money into bread bags. It
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Speaker 1: was a strange collection, like billy Bone's hoard for the
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Speaker 1: diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much
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Speaker 1: more varied than I think. I never had more pleasure
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Speaker 1: than in sorting them English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, George's and Louises,
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Speaker 1: to balloons and double guineas and mois doors and sequins,
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Speaker 1: and pictures of all the kings of Europe for the
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Speaker 1: last hundred years. Strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked
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Speaker 1: like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round
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Speaker 1: pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle,
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Speaker 1: as if to wear them round your neck. Nearly every
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Speaker 1: variety of money in the world must, I think, have
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Speaker 1: found a place in that collection, And for number I
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Speaker 1: am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my
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Speaker 1: back ached with stooping, and my fingers with sorting them out.
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Speaker 1: Day after day this work went on. By every evening
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Speaker 1: a fortune had been stowed aboard, but there was another
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Speaker 1: fortune waiting for the morrow. And all this time we
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Speaker 1: heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers. At last, I
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Speaker 1: think it was on the third night the Doctor and
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Speaker 1: I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where
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Speaker 1: it overlooks the lowlands of the Isle, when from out
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Speaker 1: of the thick darkness below, the wind brought us a
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Speaker 1: noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch
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Speaker 1: that reached our ears, followed by the former silence. Heaven
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Speaker 1: forgive them, said the doctor Chios. The mutineers all drunk,
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Speaker 1: Sir struck in the voice of Silver from behind us. Silver,
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Speaker 1: I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and, in
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Speaker 1: spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once more
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Speaker 1: as quite a privileged and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was
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Speaker 1: remarkable how well he bore these slights, and with what
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Speaker 1: unwearying politeness he kept at trying to ingratiate himself with all.
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Speaker 1: Yet I think none treated him better than a dog,
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Speaker 1: unless it was ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid
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Speaker 1: of his old quarter master, or myself, who had really
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Speaker 1: something to thank him for. Although for that matter, I
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Speaker 1: suppose I had reason to think even worse of him
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Speaker 1: than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a
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Speaker 1: fresh treachery upon the plateau. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly
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Speaker 1: that the doctor answered him. Drunk or Raving said he right,
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Speaker 1: you were, sorre replied, Silver and precious let lards witch
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Speaker 1: to you and me. I suppose you would hardly ask
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Speaker 1: me to call you a humane man, returned the doctor
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Speaker 1: with a sneer, and so my feelings may surprise you,
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Speaker 1: Master Silva. But if I was sure they were raving,
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Speaker 1: as I am morally certain, one at least of them
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Speaker 1: is down with fever, I should leave this campad and
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Speaker 1: whatever risk to my own caccas, take them the assistance
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Speaker 1: of my skill. Ask your pardon, sir. You would be
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Speaker 1: very wrong, quoth Silver. You would lose your precious life,
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Speaker 1: And you made late that. I'm on your sid now
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Speaker 1: hand and glove, and I shouldn't wish for it to
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Speaker 1: see the party weakened, let alone yourself, seeing as I
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Speaker 1: know what I owes you. But these men down there,
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Speaker 1: they couldn't keep their word, no, not supposing they wished to.
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Speaker 1: And what's more, they couldn't believe as you could. No,
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Speaker 1: said the doctor. You're the man to keep your word.
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Speaker 1: We know that. Well. That was about the last news
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Speaker 1: we had of the three pirates. Only once we heard
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Speaker 1: a gun shot a great way off and supposed them
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Speaker 1: to be hunting. A council was held and it was
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Speaker 1: decided that we must desert them on the island. To
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Speaker 1: the huge glee I must say of ben Gunn, and
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Speaker 1: with the strong approval of Gray, we left a good
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Speaker 1: stock of powder and shot the bulk of the salt goat,
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Speaker 1: a few medicines and some other necessities, tools, clothing, a
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Speaker 1: spare sail, a fathom or two of rope, and, by
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Speaker 1: the particular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco.
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Speaker 1: That was about our last doing on the island. Before that,
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Speaker 1: we had got the treasure stowed, and had shipped enough
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Speaker 1: water and the remainder of the goat meat in case
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Speaker 1: of any distress. And at last, one fine morning we
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Speaker 1: weighed anchor, which was about all that we could manage,
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Speaker 1: and stood out of north Inlet. The same colors flying
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Speaker 1: the captain had flown and fought under at the palisade.
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Speaker 1: The three fellows must have been watching us closer than
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Speaker 1: we thought, as we soon had proved for coming through
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Speaker 1: the narrows, we had to lie very near the southern point,
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Speaker 1: and there we saw all three of them kneeling together
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Speaker 1: on a spit of sand, with their arms raised in supplication.
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Speaker 1: It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave
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Speaker 1: them in that wretched state, but we could not risk
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Speaker 1: another mutiny, and to take them home for the Gibbet
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Speaker 1: would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor
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Speaker 1: hailed them and told them of the stores we had
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Speaker 1: left and where they were to find them. But they
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Speaker 1: continued to call us by name and appeal to us
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Speaker 1: for God's sake, to be merciful and not to leave
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Speaker 1: them to die in such a place. At last, seeing
19:53
Speaker 1: the ship still bore on her course and was now
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Speaker 1: swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of them, I know
19:59
Speaker 1: not which it was, leaped to his feet with a
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Speaker 1: hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent
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Speaker 1: a shot whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail.
20:10
Speaker 1: After that we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and
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Speaker 1: when next I looked out, they had disappeared from the spit,
20:17
Speaker 1: and the spit itself had almost melted out of sight
20:20
Speaker 1: in the growing distance. That was at least the end
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Speaker 1: of that, and before noon, to my inexpressionable joy, the
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Speaker 1: highest rock of Treasure Island had sunk into the blue
20:31
Speaker 1: round of sea. We were so short of men that
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Speaker 1: everyone on board had to bear a hand, only the captain,
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Speaker 1: lying on a mattress in the stern, and giving his orders,
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Speaker 1: for though greatly recovered, he was still in want of quiet.
20:46
Speaker 1: We laid her head for the nearest port in South America,
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Speaker 1: for we could not risk the voyage home without fresh hands.
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Speaker 1: And as it was, what with baffling winds and a
20:57
Speaker 1: couple of fresh gales, we were all we all worn
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Speaker 1: out before we reached it. It was almost sundown when
21:04
Speaker 1: we cast Anchor in a most beautiful land locked gulf,
21:07
Speaker 1: and were almost immediately surrounded by shore boats full of
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Speaker 1: Negroes and Mexican Indians and half bloods, selling fruits and
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Speaker 1: vegetables and offering to die for bits of money. The
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Speaker 1: sight of so many good humored faces, especially the blacks,
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Speaker 1: the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all the
21:26
Speaker 1: lights that began to shine in the town made a
21:29
Speaker 1: most charming contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on
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Speaker 1: the island. And the doctor and the Squire, taking me
21:37
Speaker 1: along with them, went ashore to pass the early part
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Speaker 1: of the night. Here they met the captain of an
21:43
Speaker 1: english man, o War, fell in talk with him, went
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Speaker 1: on board his ship, and in short had so agreeable
21:50
Speaker 1: a time that day was breaking when we came alongside
21:53
Speaker 1: the Hispaniola. Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as
21:58
Speaker 1: soon as we came on board, he began, and with
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Speaker 1: wonderful contortions to make us a confession. Silver was gone.
22:06
Speaker 1: The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore
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Speaker 1: boat some hours ago, and he now assured us that
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Speaker 1: he had only done so to preserve our lives, which
22:15
Speaker 1: would certainly have been forfeited if that man with the
22:19
Speaker 1: one leg had stayed a bold. But this was not all.
22:24
Speaker 1: The sea cook had not gone empty handed. He had
22:27
Speaker 1: cut through a bulwalk unobserved, and had removed one of
22:30
Speaker 1: the sacks of coin worth perhaps three or four hundred
22:33
Speaker 1: guineas to help him on his further wanderings. I think
22:37
Speaker 1: we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him. Well,
22:42
Speaker 1: to make a long story short, we got a few
22:44
Speaker 1: hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the
22:47
Speaker 1: Hispaniola reached Bristol just as mister Blandy was beginning to
22:52
Speaker 1: think of fitting out her consort. Five men only of
22:56
Speaker 1: those who sailed returned with her drink, and the day
23:00
Speaker 1: had done for the rest with a vengeance. Although to
23:04
Speaker 1: be sure, we were not quite in so bad a
23:06
Speaker 1: case as that other ship. They sung about with one
23:10
Speaker 1: man of the crew alive, what put to sea with
23:13
Speaker 1: seventy five. All of us had an ample share of
23:17
Speaker 1: the treasure, and used it wisely or foolishly according to
23:21
Speaker 1: our natures. Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea.
23:25
Speaker 1: Gray not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit
23:29
Speaker 1: with the desire to rise, also studied his profession. And
23:33
Speaker 1: he is now mate and part owner of a fine
23:36
Speaker 1: full rigged ship, married besides, and the father of a family.
23:42
Speaker 1: As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which
23:45
Speaker 1: he spent or lost in three weeks, or to be
23:48
Speaker 1: more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging
23:52
Speaker 1: on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to keep,
23:56
Speaker 1: exactly as he'd feared upon the island, and he still lived.
24:00
Speaker 1: It's a great favorite, though, something of a butt with
24:02
Speaker 1: the country boys, and a notable singer in church on
24:06
Speaker 1: Sundays and Saints Days of silver. We have heard no more.
24:12
Speaker 1: That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last
24:16
Speaker 1: gone clean out of my life. But I dare say
24:20
Speaker 1: he met his old negress, and perhaps still lives in
24:24
Speaker 1: comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to be hoped,
24:28
Speaker 1: so I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another
24:31
Speaker 1: world are very small. The bar, silver and arms still lie,
24:36
Speaker 1: for all that I know where Flint buried them, and
24:39
Speaker 1: certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wayn
24:43
Speaker 1: Ropes would not bring me back to that accursed island.
24:47
Speaker 1: And the worst dreams that ever I have are when
24:50
Speaker 1: I hear the surf booming about its coasts, or starting
24:54
Speaker 1: up in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain Flint
24:57
Speaker 1: still ringing in my ears. Pieces of eight, end of
25:04
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three and end of Treasure Island