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

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