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

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Chapter twenty one the attack. As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain,
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who had been closely watching him, turned toward the interior of the house,
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and found not a man of us at his post but Gray. It was
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the first time we had ever seen him angry quarters, he roared, and
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then as we slunk back to our places, Gray, he said, I'll
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put your name in the log. You've stood by your duty like a seaman,
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mister Trelawney. I'm surprised at you, sir, Doctor. I thought
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you had worn the king's coat. If that was how you served at Fontenoy,
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sir, you'd have been better in your berth. The Doctor's watch were
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all back at their loop holes. The rest were busy loading the spare muskets,
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and every one with a red face, you may be certain, and
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a flea in his ear. As the saying is. The captain looked on
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for a while in silence. Then he said, spoke, my lads.
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He said, I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in red hot
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on the purpose, and before the hour's out, as he said, we
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shall be boarded. We're outnumbered. I needn't tell you that, but we
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fight in shelter and minutes ago I would have said, we fought with discipline.
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I have no manner of doubt that we can drub them if you choose.
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Then he went the round and saw, as he said, that all
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was clear. On the two short sides of the house east and west.
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There were only two loopholes. On the south side, where the porch was
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two again, and on the north side five. There was a round score
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of muskets for the seven of us. The firewood had been built into four
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piles tables, you might say, one about the middle of each side.
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And on each of these tables some ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready
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to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
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Toss out the fire, said the captain. The chin is past,
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and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes. The iron fire basket was carried
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bodily out by mister Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand. Hawkins hasn't
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had his breakfast, Hawkins, help yourself and back to your post to eat
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it, continued Captain Smollett lively. Now, my lad, you'll want it
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before you're done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy to all hands.
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And while this was going on, the Captain completed in his own mind
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the plan of defense. Doctor, you will take the door, he resumed.
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See, don't expose yourself, keep within and fire through the porch.
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Hunter take the east side there, Joyce, you stand by the west,
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my man, mister Trelawney, you are the best shot. You and Gray.
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We'll take this long north side with the five loopholes. It's there.
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The danger is if they can get up to it and fire upon us through
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our own ports, things would begin to look dirty. Hawkins, neither you
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nor I are much a count at the shooting. We all stand by to
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load and bear a hand. As the Captain had said, the chill was
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pasted. As soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees.
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It fell with all its force upon the clearing and rank up the vapors at
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a draft. Soon the sand was baking and the resin melting in the logs
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of the blockhouse. Jackets and coats were flung aside. Shirts were thrown open
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at the neck and rolled up to the shoulders. And we stood there,
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each at his post, in a fever of heat and anxiety. An hour
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passed away. Hang them, said the captain. This is as dull as
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the doldrums. Gray whistle for a wind, And just at that moment came
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the first news of the attack. If you please, sir, said Joyce.
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If I see anyone, am I to fire? I told you so,
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cried the captain. Thank you, sir, returned Joyce, with the
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same quiet civility. Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set
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us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes, the musketeers with their
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pieces balanced in their hands, the captain out in the middle of the block
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house, with his mouth very tight and a frown on his face. So
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some seconds passed till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and fired. The report
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had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated from without, an scattering
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volley shot behind, shot like a string of geese, from every side of
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the enclosure. Several bullets struck the log house, but not one entered,
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And as the smoke cleared away and vanished, the stockade and the woods around
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it looked as quiet and empty as before. Not a bough waved, not
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a gleam of a musket barrel, betrayed the presence of our foes. Did
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you hit your men, asked the captain, No, sir, replied Joyce,
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I believe not, sir. Next best thing to tell the truth,
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muttered Captain Smollett, load his gun, Hawkins. How many should you saber
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on your side? A doctor? I know, precisely, said doctor Livesey.
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Three shots were fired on this side. I saw three flashes, two
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close together, one farther to the west, three, repeated the captain.
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And how many on yours, mister Trelawney. But this was not so easily
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answered. There had come many from the north, seven by the squire's computation,
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eight or nine, according to Gray, from the east and west only
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a single shot had been fired. It was plain, therefore that the attack
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would be developed from the north, and that on the other three sides we
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were only to be annoyed by a show of hostilities. But Captain Smollett made
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no change in his arrangements. If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade,
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he argued, they would take possession of any protected loophole and shoot us down
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like rats in our stronghold. Nor had we much time left to us for
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thought. Suddenly, with a loud huzzah, a little cloud of pirates leaped
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from the woods on the north side and ran straight on the stockade. At
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the same moment, the fire was once more opened from the woods, and
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a rifle ball sang through the doorway and knocked the doctor's musket into bits.
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The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkey squire, and Gray fired again,
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and yet again three men fell, one forward into the enclosure, two back
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on the outside. But of these one was evidently more frightened than hurt,
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for he was on his feet again in a crack, and instantly disappeared among
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the trees. Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had
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made good their footing inside our defenses, while from the shelter of the woods,
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seven or eight men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up
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a hot, though useless fire on the log house. The four who had
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boarded made straight before them for the building, shouting as they ran, and
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the men among the trees shouted back to encourage them. Several shots were fired,
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but such was the hurry of the marksmen that not one appeared to have
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taken effect. In a moment, the four pirates had swarmed up the mound
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and were upon us. The head of job Anderson the Bozoen, appeared at
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the middle loop hole. Em all hands, all hands, he roared in
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a voice of thunder. At the same moment, another pirate grasped Hunter's musket
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by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands, pllucked it through the loophole,
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and with one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.
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Meanwhile, a third running unharmed all round the house, appeared suddenly in
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the doorway and fell with his cutlass on the doctor. Our position was utterly
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reversed a moment, since we were firing under cover at an exposed enemy.
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Now it was we who lay uncovered and could not return a blow. The
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log house was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative safety.
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Cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol shots, and one loud
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groan rang in my ears. Out lads, out and fight em in the
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open cutlasses, cried the captain. I snatched a cutlass from the pile,
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and someone at the same time snatching another, made me a cut across the
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knuckles, which I hardly felt I dashed out of the door into the clear
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sunlight. Someone was close behind, I knew, not whom. Right in
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front, the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, and just as
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my eyes fell upon him, beat down his guard and sent him sprawling on
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his back with a great slash across his face. Rail to the house.
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Lads round to the house, cried the captain, and even in the hurly
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burly I perceived a change in his voice. Mechanically I obeyed, turned eastward,
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and with my cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house.
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Next moment I was face to face with Anderson. He roared aloud, and
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his hanger went up above his head, flashing in the sunlight. I had
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not time to be afraid, but as the blow still hung impending, let
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dinner trice upon one side, and, missing my footing in the soft sand,
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rolled headlong down the slope. When I had first salad from the door,
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the other mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade to make an end
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of us. One man in a red night cap, with his cutlass in
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his mouth, had even got upon the top and thrown a leg across well.
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So short had been the interval that when I found my feet again,
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all was in the same posture, the fellow with the red nightcap still half
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way over, another still showing his head above the top of the stockade.
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And yet in this breath of time the fight was over and the victory.
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Hours Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the big bozen ere
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he had time to recover from his lost blow. Another had been shot at
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a loophole in the very act of firing into the house, and now lay
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in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as
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I had seen the doctor, had disposed of at a blow. Of the
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four who had scaled the palisade, only one remained unaccounted for, and he,
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having left his cutlass on the field, was now clambering out again,
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with the fear of death upon him. Fire fire from the house, cried
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the doctor, and you lads back into cover, But his words were unheeded,
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no shot was fired, and the last border made good his escape and
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disappeared with the rest into the wood. In three seconds. Nothing remained of
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the attacking party but the five who had fallen, four on the inside and
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one on the outside of the palisade. The doctor and Gray and I ran
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full speed for shelter. The survivors would soon be back where they had left
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their muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence. The house was
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by this time somewhat cleared of smoke, and we saw at a glance the
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price we had paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned Joyce
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by his shot through the head, never to move again. While riot in
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the center the squire were supporting the captain, one as pale as the other.
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The captain's wounded, said mister Trelawney. Have they run, asked mister
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Smollett. All that could, You may be bound, returned the doctor.
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But there's five of them. Will never run again, five, cried the
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captain. Come, that's better. Five against three leaves us four to nine.
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That's better odds than we had at starting. We were seven to nineteen
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then, or thought we were, and that's bad to bear footnote the mutineers
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were soon only eight in number. For the man shot by mister Trelawney on
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board the schooner died that same evening of his wound, but this was of
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course not known till after By the faithful party. End of Chapter twenty one,
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Part five, My Sea Adventure. Chapter twenty two, How My Sea
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Adventure began. There was no return of the mutineers, not so much as
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another shot out of the woods. They had got their rations for that day,
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as the Captain put it, and we had the place to ourselves in
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a quiet time to overhaul the wounded and get dinner. Squire and I cooked
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outside in spite of the danger, and even outside we could hardly tell what
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we were at, for the horror of the loud groans that reached us from
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the doctor's patients. Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action,
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only three still breathed, that one of the pirates who had been shot
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at the loophole, Hunter and Captain Smollett, And of these the first two
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were as good as dead. The mutineer, indeed, died under the doctor's
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knife, and huntered do what we could. Never regained consciousness in this world.
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He lingered all day, breathing loudly like the old bucket near at home
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in his apleptic fit. But the bones of his chest had been crushed by
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the blow, and his skull fractured in falling, and some time in the
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following night, without sign nor sound, he went to his maker. As
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for the captain, his wounds were grievous, indeed, but not dangerous.
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No organ was fatally injured. Anderson's ball, for it was job that shot
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him first, had broken his shoulder blade and touched the lung, not badly.
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The second had only torn and displaced some muscles in the calf. He
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was sure to recover, the doctor said, but in the meantime, and
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for weeks to come, he must not walk, nor move his arm,
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nor so much as speak. When he could help it, my own accidental
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cart across the knuckles was a flea bite. Doctor Livesey patched it up with
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plaster, and pulled my ears for me into the bargain. After dinner,
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the Squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side, awhile in consultation,
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And when they had talked to their heart's content, it being then a little
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past noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols, girt on a
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cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket over his
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shoulder, crossed the palisade on the north side, and set off briskly through
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the trees, gray and I were sitting together at the far end of the
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block house to be out of earshot of our officers consulting, and Gray took
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his pipe out of his mouth and fairly forgot to put it back again.
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So thunderstruck was he at this occurrence. Why in the name of Davy,
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Jones, said he is doctor Livesey mad? Why no, says I.
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He's about the last of this crew. For that, I take it,
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well, shipmate, said Gray. Mad he may not be, but if
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he's not my words, I am, I take it, replied I.
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The doctor has his idea, and if I am right, he's going now
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to see Ben. I was right, as appeared later. But in the
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meantime, the house being stifling hot, and the little patch of sand inside
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the palisade ablaze with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my
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head, which was not by any means so right. What I began to
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do was to envy the doctor walking in the cool shadow of the woods,
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with the birds about him and the pleasant smell of the pines, while I
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sat grilling with my clothes stuck to the hot resin, and so much blood
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about me, and so many poor dead bodies lying all around that I took
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a disgust of that place that was almost as strong as fear. All the
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time I was washing out the blockhouse and then washing up the things from dinner,
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this disgust and envy kept growing stronger and stronger, till at last,
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being near a bread bag and no one then observing me, I took the
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first steps toward my escape and filled both pockets of my coat with biscuit.
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I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to
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do a foolish, overbold act. But I was determined to do it with
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all the precautions in my power. These biscuits, should anything before me,
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would at least keep me from starving till far on in the next day.
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The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols. As I
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already had a powder horn and bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms.
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As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a
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bad one in itself. It was to go down the sandy spit that divides
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the anchorage on the east from the open sea find the white rock I had
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observed last evening and ascertain whether it was there or not. That ben Gunn
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had hidden his boat, a thing quite worth doing, as I still believe,
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But as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the enclosure,
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my only plan was to take French leave and slip out when nobody was
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watching. And that was so bad a way of doing it, as made
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the thing itself wrong. But I was only a boy, and I hadn't
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made my mind up. Well. As things at last fell out, I
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found an admirable opportunity. The Squire and Gray were busy helping the captain with
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his bandages. The coast was clear. I made a bolt for it,
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over the stockade and into the thickest of the trees, and before my absence
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was observed, I was out of cry of my companions. This was my
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second folly, far worse than the first, as I left but two sound
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men to guard the house. But like the first, it was a help
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towards saving all of us. I took my way straight for the east coast
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of the island, for I was determined to go down the sea side of
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the spit to avoid all chance of observation from the anchorage. It was already
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late in the afternoon, although still warm and sunny, as I continued to
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thread the tall woods. I could hear from far before me not only the
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continuous thunder of the surf, but a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of
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boughs, which showed me the sea breeze set in higher than usual. Soon,
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cool drafts of air began to reach me, and a few steps farther
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I came forth into the open borders of the grove and saw the sea lying
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blue and sunny to the horizon, and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam
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along the beach. I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure Island.
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The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface
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smooth and blue. But still these great rollers would be running along all the
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external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night. And I scarce believe
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there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of earshot
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of their noise. I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till,
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thinking I was now got far enough to the south, I took the
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cover of some thick bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit
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behind me. Was the sea in front the anchorage. The sea breeze,
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as though it had the sooner blown itself out by its unusual violence, was
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already at an end. It had been succeeded by light variable airs from the
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south and southeast, carrying great banks of fog, and the anchorage under lee
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of Skeleton Island lay still and leaden, as when first we entered it.
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The Hispaniola on that unbroken mirror was exactly portrayed from the truck to the water
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line. The Jolly Roger hanging from her peak alongside lay one of the gigs
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silver in the stern sheets, him I could always recognize. While a couple
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of men were leaning over the stern bulwarks, one of them with a red
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cap, the very rogue that I had seen some hours before, stride legs
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upon the palisade. Apparently they were talking and laughing, though that that distance
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upward of a mile, I could of course hear no word of what was
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said. All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly screaming, which
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at first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice of Captain
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Flint, and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright plumage
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as she sat perched upon her master's wrist. Soon after, the jolly boat
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shoved off and pulled for shore, and the man with the red cap and
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his comrade went below by the cabin companion. Just about the same time,
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the sun had gone down behind the spyglass, and as the fog was collecting
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rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I saw I must lose
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no time if I were to find the boat that evening. The white rock
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visible enough above the brush was still some eighth of a mile farther down the
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spit, and it took me a goodish while to get up with it,
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crawling off and on all fours among the scrub. Night had almost come when
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I laid my hands on its rough sides. Right below it, there was
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an exceeding small hollow of green turf hidden by banks, and a thick understory
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about knee deep that grew there very plentifully, and in the center of the
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dell shore enough a little tent of goat skins, like what the gypsies carry
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about with them in England. I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side
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of the tent, and there was ben Gunn's boat home made, if ever
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anything was homemade. A rude, lopsided framework of tough wood, and stretched
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upon that a covering of goat skin with the hair inside. The thing was
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extremely small, even for me, and I can hardly imagine that it could
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have floated with a full sized man. There was one a thwart set as
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low as possible, a kind of stretcher in the boughs, and a double
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paddle for propulsion. I had not then seen a coracle such as the ancient
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Britons made, but I have seen one since, and can give you no
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fairer idea of ben Gunn's boat than by saying it was like the first and
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the worst coracle ever made by a man. But the great advantage of the
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coracle it certainly possessed, for it was exceedingly light and portable. Well,
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now that I had found the boat, you would have thought I had had
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enough of truancy for once. But in the meantime I had taken another notion
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and become so obstinately fond of it that I would have carried it out.
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I believe in the teeth of Captain Smollett himself this was to slip out under
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cover of the night, cut the Hispaniola adrift, and let her go ashore
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where she fancied. I had quite made up my mind that the mutineers,
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after their repulse of the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than to up
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anchor and away. To see this, I thought it would be a fine
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thing to prevent. And now that I had seen how they left their watchmen
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unprovided with a boat, I thought it might be done with little risk.
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Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a hearty meal of biscuit.
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It was a night out of ten thousand for my purpose. The fog
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had now buried all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared,
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absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island, And when at last I shouldered
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my coracle and groped my way stumblingly out of the hollow where I had supped,
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there were but two points visible on the whole anchorage. One was the
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great fire on shore, by which the defeated pirates lay carousing in the swamp.
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The other, a mere blur of light upon the darkness, indicated the
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position of the anchored ship. She had swung round to the ebb her bow
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was now toward me. The only lights on board were in the cabin,
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and what I saw was merely a reflection on the fog of the strong rays
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that flowed from the stern window. The airp had already run some time,
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and I had to wade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I
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sank several times above the ankle before I came to the edge of the retreating
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water, and, wading a little way in with some strength and dexterity,
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set my coracle keel downward on the surface. End of Chapter twenty two.