When we came on deck the men had begun already to take out the arms and
powder, yo-ho-ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow stood
by superintending.

The new arrangement was quite to my liking. The whole schooner had been
overhauled; six berths had been made astern, out of what had been the
after-part of the main hold, and this set of cabins was only joined to
the galley and forecastle by a sparred passage on the port side. It had
been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the
doctor, and the squire were to occupy these six berths. Now Redruth and
I were to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep
on deck in the companion, which had been enlarged on each side till you
might almost have called it a round-house. Very low it was still, of
course, but there was room to swing two hammocks, and even the mate
seemed pleased with the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, had been doubtful
as to the crew, but that is only guess, for, as you shall hear, we had
not long the benefit of his opinion.

We were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths, when the
last man or two, and Long John along with them, came off in a
shore-boat.

The cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness, and, as soon as
he saw what was doing, "So ho, mates!" said he, "what's this!"

"We're a-changing the powder, Jack," answers one.

"Why, by the powers," cried Long John, "if we do, we'll miss the morning
tide!"

"My orders!" said the captain, shortly. "You may go below, my man. Hands
will want supper."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the cook; and, touching his forelock, he
disappeared at once in the direction of his galley.

"That's a good man, captain," said the doctor.

"Very likely, sir," replied Captain Smollett. "Easy with that,
men--easy," he ran on, to the fellows who were shifting the powder; and
then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a
long brass nine--"Here, you ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off
with you to the cook and get some work."

And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite loudly, to the
doctor:

"I'll have no favorites on my ship."

I assure you I was quite of the squire's way of thinking, and hated the
captain deeply.




CHAPTER X

THE VOYAGE


All that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their
place, and boatfuls of the squire's friends, Mr. Blandly and the like,
coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had a
night at the "Admiral Benbow" when I had half the work; and I was
dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe,
and the crew began to man the capstan bars. I might have been twice as
weary, yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and
interesting to me--the brief commands, the shrill notes of the whistle,
the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns.

"Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave," cried one voice.

"The old one," cried another.

"Ay, ay, mates," said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch
under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so
well:

    "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest"--

And then the whole crew bore chorus:

    "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.

Even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old "Admiral
Benbow" in a second, and I seemed to hear the voice of the captain
piping in the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up; soon it was
hanging dripping at the bows; soon the sails began to draw, and the land
and shipping to flit by on either side, and before I could lie down to
snatch an hour of slumber the _Hispaniola_ had begun her voyage to the
Isle of Treasure.

I am not going to relate the voyage in detail. It was fairly prosperous.
The ship proved to be a good ship, the crew were capable seamen, and the
captain thoroughly understood his business. But before we came the
length of Treasure Island, two or three things had happened which
require to be known.

Mr. Arrow, first of all, turned out even worse than the captain had
feared. He had no command among the men, and people did what they
pleased with him. But that was by no means the worst of it; for after a
day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye, red cheeks,
stuttering tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time after time he
was ordered below in disgrace. Sometimes he fell and cut himself;
sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the
companion; sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and
attend to his work at least passably.

In the meantime we could never make out where he got the drink. That was
the ship's mystery. Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to
solve it, and when we asked him to his face, he would only laugh, if he
were drunk, and if he were sober, deny solemnly that he ever tasted
anything but water.

He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad influence among the
men, but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself
outright, so nobody was much surprised, nor very sorry, when one dark
night, with a head sea, he disappeared entirely and was seen no more.

"Overboard!" said the captain. "Well, gentlemen, that saves the trouble
of putting him in irons."

But there we were, without a mate, and it was necessary, of course, to
advance one of the men. The boatswain, Job Anderson, was the likeliest
man aboard, and though he kept his old title, he served in a way as
mate. Mr. Trelawney had followed the sea, and his knowledge made him
very useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy weather. And the
coxswain, Israel Hands, was a careful, wily, old, experienced seaman,
who could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything.

He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, and so the mention of his
name leads me on to speak of our ship's cook, Barbecue, as the men
called him.

[Illustration: _It was something to see him get on with his cooking like
someone safe ashore_ (Page 71)]

Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck, to have
both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him wedge the
foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped against it, yielding
to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like someone safe
ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather
cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to help him across the
widest spaces--Long John's earrings, they were called--and he would hand
himself from one place to another, now using the crutch, now trailing it
alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some
of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see
him so reduced.

"He's no common man, Barbecue," said the coxswain to me. "He had good
schooling in his young days, and can speak like a book when so minded;
and brave--a lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him grapple
four and knock their heads together--him unarmed."

All the crew respected and even obeyed him. He had a way of talking to
each, and doing everybody some particular service. To me he was
unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept
as clean as a new pin; the dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot
in a cage in the corner.

"Come away, Hawkins," he would say; "come and have a yarn with John.
Nobody more welcome than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the
news. Here's Cap'n Flint--I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the
famous buccaneer--here's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our v'yage.
Wasn't you, Cap'n?"

And the parrot would say, with great rapidity: "Pieces of eight! pieces
of eight! pieces of eight!" till you wondered that it was not out of
breath or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.

"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, may be, two hundred years old,
Hawkins--they live forever mostly, and if anybody's seen more wickedness
it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England--the great Cap'n
England, the pirate. She's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and
Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was at the fishing up of
the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of eight,' and
little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em, Hawkins! She was
at the boarding of the _Viceroy of the Indies_ out of Goa, she was, and
to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you smelt
powder--didn't you, cap'n?"

"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.

"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give her
sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars and
swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John would
add, "you can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old
innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire and none the wiser, you may lay
to that. She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before the
chaplain." And John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had,
that made me think he was the best of men.

In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty
distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the
matter; he despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke
but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have
been wrong about the crew; that some of them were as brisk as he wanted
to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a
downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man
has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would add,
"all I say is, we're not home again, and I don't like the cruise."

The squire, at this, would turn away and march up and down the deck,
chin in air.

"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I should explode."

We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the
_Hispaniola_. Every man on board seemed well content, and they must have
been hard to please if they had been otherwise, for it is my belief
there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea.
Double grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff on odd days,
as, for instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday; and
always a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist, for anyone to
help himself that had a fancy.

"Never knew good to come of it yet," the captain said to Doctor Livesey.
"Spoil foc's'le hands, make devils. That's my belief."

But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall hear, for if it had
not been for that we should have had no note of warning and might all
have perished by the hand of treachery.

This is how it came about.

We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after--I
am not allowed to be more plain--and now we were running down for it
with a bright lookout day and night. It was about the last day of our
outward voyage, by the largest computation; some time that night, or, at
latest, before noon of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure Island.
We were heading south-southwest, and had a steady breeze abeam and a
quiet sea. The _Hispaniola_ rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now
and then with a whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and aloft; everyone
was in the bravest spirits, because we were now so near an end of the
first part of our adventure.

Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over and I was on my way
to my berth, it occurred to me that I should like an apple. I ran on
deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at
the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away gently to
himself, and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea
against the bows and around the sides of the ship.

In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found there was scarce an
apple left; but, sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of
the waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had either fallen
asleep, or was on the point of doing so, when a heavy man sat down with
rather a clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders
against it, and I was just about to jump up when the man began to speak.
It was Silver's voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I would
not have shown myself for all the world, but lay there, trembling and
listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these dozen
words I understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard depended
upon me alone.




CHAPTER XI

WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL


"No, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was quartermaster, along
of my timber leg. The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his
deadlights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me--out of
college and all--Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged
like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was
Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names to their
ships--_Royal Fortune_ and so on. Now, what a ship was christened, so
let her stay, I says. So it was with the _Cassandra_, as brought us all
safe home from Malabar, after England took the _Viceroy of the Indies_;
so it was with the old _Walrus_, Flint's old ship, as I've seen a-muck
with the red blood and fit to sink with gold."

"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and
evidently full of admiration, "he was the flower of the flock, was
Flint!"

"Davis was a man, too, by all accounts," said Silver. "I never sailed
along of him; first with England, then with Flint, that's my story; and
now here on my own account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine
hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after Flint. That ain't bad
for a man before the mast--all safe in bank. 'Tain't earning now, it's
saving does it, you may lay to that. Where's all England's men now? I
dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most of 'em aboard here, and glad to get
the duff--been begging before that, some of 'em. Old Pew, as had lost
his sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred pounds in
a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is he now? Well, he's dead now
and under hatches; but for two years before that, shiver my timbers! the
man was starving. He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and
starved at that, by the powers!"

"Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the young seaman.

"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it--that, nor nothing,"
cried Silver. "But now, you look here; you're young, you are, but you're
as smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk
to you like a man."

You can imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue
addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to
myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him
through the barrel. Meantime he ran on, little supposing he was
overheard.

"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and they risk
swinging, but they eat and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise
is done, why it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in
their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea
again in their shirts. But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all
away, some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by reason of
suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back from this cruise I set up
gentleman in earnest. Time enough, too, says you. Ah, but I've lived
easy in the meantime; never denied myself o' nothing heart desires, and
slept soft and ate dainty all my days, but when at sea. And how did I
begin? Before the mast, like you!"

"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now, ain't it?
You daren't show face in Bristol after this."

"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked Silver, derisively.

"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.

"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed anchor. But my old
missis has it all by now. And the 'Spy-glass' is sold, lease and good
will and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet me. I would tell you
where, for I trust you; but it 'ud make jealousy among the mates."

"And you can trust your missis?" asked the other.

"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually trust little among
themselves, and right they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way with
me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable--one as knows me, I
mean--it won't be in the same world with old John. There was some that
was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his own
self was feared of me. Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest
crew afloat, was Flint's; the devil himself would have been feared to go
to sea with them. Well, now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you
seen yourself how easy I keep company; but when I was quartermaster,
_lambs_ wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure
of yourself in old John's ship."

"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half a quarter like
the job till I had this talk with you, John, but there's my hand on it
now."

"And a brave lad you were, and smart, too," answered Silver, shaking
hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for
a gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on."

By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms. By a
"gentleman of fortune" they plainly meant neither more nor less than a
common pirate, and the little scene that I had overheard was the last
act in the corruption of one of the honest hands--perhaps of the last
one left aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved, for,
Silver giving a little whistle, a third man strolled up and sat down by
the party.

"Dick's square," said Silver.

"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice of the coxswain,
Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick." And he turned his quid and spat.
"But, look here," he went on, "here's what I want to know, Barbecue--how
long are we a-going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've had
a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed me long enough, by thunder!
I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines, and
that."

"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account, nor never was. But
you're able to hear, I reckon; leastways your ears is big enough. Now,
here's what I say--you'll berth forward, and you'll live hard, and
you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober, till I give the word; and you
may lay to that, my son."

"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain. "What I say is,
when? That's what I say."

"When! by the powers!" cried Silver. "Well, now, if you want to know,
I'll tell you when. The last moment I can manage; and that's when.
Here's a first-rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for
us. Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such--I don't know
where it is, do I? No more do you, says you. Well, then, I mean this
squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by
the powers! Then we'll see. If I was sure of you all, sons of double
Dutchmen, I'd have Cap'n Smollett navigate us halfway back again before
I struck."

"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think," said the lad Dick.

"We're all foc's'le hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We can steer a
course, but who's to set one? That's what all you gentlemen split on,
first and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back
into the trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and
a spoonful of water a day. But I know the sort you are. I'll finish with
'em at the island, as soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But
you're never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a sick heart
to sail with the likes of you!"

"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin' of you?"

"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I seen laid aboard? and
how many brisk lads drying in the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver;
"and all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me? I seen a
thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay your course, and a
p'int to windward, you would ride in carriages, you would. But not you!
I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go hang."

"Everybody know'd you was a kind of a chapling, John; but there's others
as could hand and steer as well as you," said Israel. "They liked a bit
o' fun, they did. They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their
fling, like jolly companions, everyone."

"So?" said Silver. "Well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and
he died a beggar-man. Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah,
they was a sweet crew, they was! on'y, where are they?"

"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay 'em athwart, what are we to do with
'em, anyhow?"

"There's the man for me!" cried the cook, admiringly. "That's what I
call business. Well, what would you think? Put 'em ashore like maroons?
That would have been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that much pork?
That would have been Flint's or Billy Bones's."

"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead men don't bite,' says
he. Well, he's dead now, hisself; he knows the long and short on it now;
and if ever a rough hand come to port, it was Billy."

"Right you are," said Silver, "rough and ready. But mark you here: I'm
an easy man--I'm quite the gentleman, says you; but this time it's
serious. Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote--death. When I'm in
Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these
sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at
prayers. Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why let her rip!"

"John," cried the coxswain, "you're a man!"

"You'll say so, Israel, when you see," said Silver. "Only one thing I
claim--I claim Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his body with
these hands. Dick!" he added, breaking off, "you must jump up, like a
sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."

You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have leaped out and run for
it, if I had found the strength; but my limbs and heart alike misgave
me. I heard Dick begin to rise, and then some one seemingly stopped him,
and the voice of Hands exclaimed:

"Oh, stow that! Don't you get sucking of that bilge, John. Let's have a
go of the rum."

"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the keg, mind.
There's the key; you fill a pannikin and bring it up."

Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself that this must
have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong waters that destroyed him.

Dick was gone but a little while, and during his absence Israel spoke
straight on in the cook's ear. It was but a word or two that I could
catch, and yet I gathered some important news; for, besides other scraps
that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was audible: "Not
another man of them'll jine." Hence there were still faithful men on
board.

When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took the pannikin and
drank--one "To luck"; another with a "Here's to old Flint," and Silver
himself saying, in a kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your
luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."

Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel, and, looking
up, I found the moon had risen, and was silvering the mizzen-top and
shining white on the luff of the foresail, and almost at the same time
the voice on the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"




CHAPTER XII

COUNCIL OF WAR


There was a great rush of feet across the deck. I could hear people
tumbling up from the cabin and the foc's'le; and slipping in an instant
outside my barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double towards
the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and
Doctor Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.

There all hands were already congregated. A belt of fog had lifted
almost simultaneously with the appearance of the moon. Away to the
southwest of us we saw two low hills, about a couple of miles apart, and
rising behind one of them a third and higher hill, whose peak was still
buried in the fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure.

So much I saw almost in a dream, for I had not yet recovered from my
horrid fear of a minute or two before. And then I heard the voice of
Captain Smollett issuing orders. The _Hispaniola_ was laid a couple of
points nearer the wind, and now sailed a course that would just clear
the island on the east.

"And now, men," said the captain, when all was sheeted home, "has any
one of you ever seen that land ahead?"

"I have, sir," said Silver. "I've watered there with a trader I was cook
in."

"The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, I fancy?" asked the
captain.

"Yes, sir, Skeleton Island they calls it. It were a main place for
pirates once, and a hand we had on board knowed all their names for it.
That hill to the nor'ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are three
hills in a row running south'ard--fore, main, and mizzen, sir. But the
main--that's the big 'un, with the cloud on it--they usually calls the
Spy-glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they was in the
anchorage cleaning; for it's there they cleaned their ships, sir, asking
your pardon."

"I have a chart here," said Captain Smollett. "See if that's the place."

Long John's eyes burned in his head as he took the chart, but, by the
fresh look of the paper, I knew he was doomed to disappointment. This
was not the map we found in Billy Bones's chest, but an accurate copy,
complete in all things--names, and heights, and soundings--with the
single exception of the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as must
have been his annoyance, Silver had the strength of mind to hide it.

"Yes, sir," said he, "this is the spot, to be sure, and very prettily
drawed out. Who might have done that, I wonder? The pirates were too
ignorant, I reckon. Ay, here it is: 'Captain Kidd's Anchorage'--just the
name my shipmate called it. There's a strong current runs along the
south, and then away nor'ard up the west coast. Right you was, sir,"
said he, "to haul your wind and keep the weather of the island.
Leastways, if such was your intention as to enter and careen, and there
ain't no better place for that in these waters."

"Thank you, my man," said Captain Smollett. "I'll ask you, later on, to
give us a help. You may go."

I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of
the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw him drawing
nearer to myself. He did not know, to be sure, that I had overheard his
council from the apple barrel, and yet I had, by this time, taken such a
horror of his cruelty, duplicity, and power, that I could scarce conceal
a shudder when he laid his hand upon my arm.

"Ah," said he, "this here is a sweet spot, this island--a sweet spot for
a lad to get ashore on. You'll bathe, and you'll climb trees, and you'll
hunt goats, you will, and you'll get aloft on them hills like a goat
yourself. Why, it makes me young again. I was going to forget my timber
leg, I was. It's a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes, and
you may lay to that. When you want to go a bit of exploring, you just
ask old John and he'll put up a snack for you to take along."

And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the shoulder, he hobbled off
forward and went below.

Captain Smollett, the squire, and Doctor Livesey were talking together
on the quarter-deck, and anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst
not interrupt them openly. While I was still casting about in my
thoughts to find some probable excuse, Doctor Livesey called me to his
side. He had left his pipe below, and being a slave to tobacco, had
meant that I should fetch it; but as soon as I was near enough to speak
and not be overheard, I broke out immediately: "Doctor, let me speak.
Get the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then make some
pretense to send for me. I have terrible news."

The doctor changed countenance a little, but next moment he was master
of himself.

"Thank you, Jim," said he, quite loudly; "that was all I wanted to
know," as if he had asked me a question.

And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined the other two. They
spoke together for a little, and though none of them started, or raised
his voice, or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that Doctor
Livesey had communicated my request, for the next thing that I heard was
the captain giving an order to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on
deck.

"My lads," said Captain Smollett, "I've a word to say to you. This land
that we have sighted is the place we have been sailing to. Mr.
Trelawney, being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all know, has just
asked me a word or two, and as I was able to tell him that every man on
board had done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask to see it done
better, why, he and I and the doctor are going below to the cabin to
drink _your_ health and luck, and you'll have grog served out for you to
drink _our_ health and luck. I'll tell you what I think of this: I think
it handsome. And if you think as I do, you'll give a good sea cheer for
the gentleman that does it."

The cheer followed--that was a matter of course--but it rang out so full
and hearty, that I confess I could hardly believe these same men were
plotting for our blood.

"One more cheer for Cap'n Smollett!" cried Long John, when the first had
subsided.

And this also was given with a will.

On the top of that the three gentlemen went below, and not long after,
word was sent forward that Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin.

I found them all three seated around the table, a bottle of Spanish wine
and some raisins before them, and the doctor smoking away, with his wig
on his lap, and that, I knew, was a sign that he was agitated. The stern
window was open, for it was a warm night, and you could see the moon
shining behind on the ship's wake.

"Now, Hawkins," said the squire, "you have something to say. Speak up."

I did as I was bid, and, as short as I could make it, told the whole
details of Silver's conversation. Nobody interrupted me till I was done,
nor did anyone of the three of them make so much as a movement, but they
kept their eyes upon my face from first to last.

"Jim," said Doctor Livesey, "take a seat."

And they made me sit down at a table beside them, poured me out a glass
of wine, filled my hands with raisins, and all three, one after the
other, and each with a bow, drank my good health, and their service to
me, for my luck and courage.

"Now, captain," said the squire, "you were right and I was wrong. I own
myself an ass, and I await your orders."

"No more an ass than I, sir," returned the captain. "I never heard of a
crew that meant to mutiny but what showed signs before, for any man that
had an eye in his head to see the mischief and take steps according. But
this crew," he added, "beats me."

"Captain," said the doctor, "with your permission, that's Silver. A very
remarkable man."

"He'd look remarkably well from a yardarm, sir," returned the captain.
"But this is talk; this don't lead to anything. I see three or four
points, and with Mr. Trelawney's permission I'll name them."

"You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak," said Mr. Trelawney,
grandly.

"First point," began Mr. Smollett, "we must go on because we can't turn
back. If I gave the word to turn about, they would rise at once. Second
point, we have time before us--at least until this treasure's found.
Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, sir, it's got to come to
blows sooner or later, and what I propose is to take time by the
forelock, as the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when they
least expect it. We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr.
Trelawney?"

"As upon myself," declared the squire.

"Three," reckoned the captain; "ourselves make seven, counting Hawkins
here. Now, about the honest hands?"

"Most likely Trelawney's own men," said the doctor; "those he picked up
for himself before he lit on Silver."

"Nay," replied the squire, "Hands was one of mine."

"I did think I could have trusted Hands," added the captain.

"And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir,
I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up."

"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, "the best that I can say is not
much. We must lay to, if you please, and keep a bright lookout. It's
trying on a man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to blows. But
there's no help for it till we know our men. Lay to and whistle for a
wind; that's my view."

"Jim here," said the doctor, "can help us more than anyone. The men are
not shy with him and Jim is a noticing lad."

"Hawkins, I put prodigious faith in you," added the squire.

I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt altogether
helpless; and yet, by an odd train of circumstances, it was indeed
through me that safety came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there
were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we knew we could rely, and
out of these seven one was a boy, so that the grown men on our side were
six to their nineteen.




PART III

MY SHORE ADVENTURE




CHAPTER XIII

HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN


The appearance of the island when I came on deck next morning was
altogether changed. Although the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had
made a great deal of way during the night and were now lying becalmed
about half a mile to the southeast of the low eastern coast.
Gray-colored woods covered a large part of the surface. This even tint
was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand-break in the lower lands
and by many tall trees of the pine family, out-topping the others--some
singly, some in clumps; but the general coloring was uniform and sad.
The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All
were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass, which was by three or four
hundred feet the tallest on the island, was likewise the strangest in
configuration, running up sheer from almost every side and then suddenly
cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a statue on.

The _Hispaniola_ was rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The
booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and
the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had
to cling tight to the backstay and the world turned giddily before my
eyes; for though I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, this
standing still and being rolled about like a bottle was a thing I never
learned to stand without a qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an
empty stomach.

Perhaps it was this--perhaps it was the look of the island, with its
gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we
could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach--at
least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were
fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone
would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart
sank, as the saying is, into my boots, and from that first look onward I
hated the very thought of Treasure Island.

We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any
wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped
three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow
passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island. I volunteered for one of
the boats, where I had, of course, no business. The heat was sweltering
and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. Anderson was in command
of my boat, and instead of keeping the crew in order he grumbled as loud
as the worst.

"Well," he said, with an oath, "it's not forever."

I thought this was a very bad sign, for, up to that day, the men had
gone briskly and willingly about their business, but the very sight of
the island had relaxed the cords of discipline.

All the way in, Long John stood by the steersman and conned the ship. He
knew the passage like the palm of his hand; and though the man in the
chains got everywhere more water than was down in the chart, John never
hesitated once.

"There's a strong scour with the ebb," he said, "and this here passage
has been dug out, in a manner of speaking, with a spade."

We brought up just where the anchor was in the chart, about a third of a
mile from each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on
the other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of our anchor sent up
clouds of birds wheeling and crying over the woods, but in less than a
minute they were down again, and all was once more silent.

The place was entirely landlocked, buried in woods, the trees coming
right down to high-water mark, the shores mostly flat, and the hill-tops
standing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, one here, one
there. Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this
pond, as you might call it and the foliage round that part of the shore
had a kind of poisonous brightness. From the ship we could see nothing
of the house or stockade, for they were quite buried among trees; and if
it had not been for the chart on the companion, we might have been the
first that had ever anchored there since the islands arose out of the
seas.

There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf
booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the rocks
outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage--a smell of
sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed the doctor sniffing
and sniffing, like someone tasting a bad egg.

"I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's
fever here."

If the conduct of the men had been alarming in the boat, it became truly
threatening when they had come aboard. They lay about the deck,
growling together in talk. The slightest order was received with a black
look, and grudgingly and carelessly obeyed. Even the honest hands must
have caught the infection, for there was not one man aboard to mend
another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thundercloud.

And it was not only we of the cabin party who perceived the danger. Long
John was hard at work going from group to group, spending himself in
good advice, and as for example no man could have shown a better. He
fairly outstripped himself in willingness and civility; he was all
smiles to everyone. If an order were given, John would be on his crutch
in an instant, with the cheeriest "Ay, ay, sir!" in the world; and when
there was nothing else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if
to conceal the discontent of the rest.

Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy afternoon, this obvious
anxiety on the part of Long John appeared the worst.

We held a council in the cabin.

"Sir," said the captain, "if I risk another order, the whole ship'll
come about our ears by the run. You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough
answer, do I not? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in two
shakes; if I don't, Silver will see there's something under that, and
the game's up. Now, we've only one man to rely on."

"And who is that?" asked the squire.

"Silver, sir," returned the captain; "he's as anxious as you and I to
smother things up. This is a tiff; he'd soon talk 'em out of it if he
had the chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the chance.
Let's allow the men an afternoon ashore. If they all go, why, we'll
fight the ship. If they none of them go, well, then, we hold the cabin,
and God defend the right. If some go, you mark my words, sir, Silver'll
bring 'em aboard again as mild as lambs."

It was so decided; loaded pistols were served out to all the sure men.
Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were taken into our confidence, and received
the news with less surprise and a better spirit than we had looked for,
and then the captain went on deck and addressed the crew.

"My lads," said he, "we've had a hot day, and are all tired and out of
sorts. A turn ashore'll hurt nobody; the boats are still in the water;
you can take the gigs, and as many as please can go ashore for the
afternoon. I'll fire a gun half an hour before sundown."

I believe the silly fellows must have thought they would break their
shins over treasure as soon as they were landed; for they all came out
of their sulks in a moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in a
far-away hill, and sent the birds once more flying and squalling round
the anchorage.

The captain was too bright to be in the way. He whipped out of sight in
a moment, leaving Silver to arrange the party, and I fancy it was as
well he did so. Had he been on deck he could no longer so much as have
pretended not to understand the situation. It was as plain as day.
Silver was the captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. The
honest hands--and I was soon to see it proved that there were such on
board--must have been very stupid fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the
truth was this, that all hands were disaffected by the example of the
ringleaders--only some more, some less; and a few, being good fellows in
the main, could neither be led nor driven any farther. It is one thing
to be idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and murder a
number of innocent men.

At last, however, the party was made up. Six fellows were to stay on
board, and the remaining thirteen, including Silver, began to embark.

Then it was that there came into my head the first of the mad notions
that contributed so much to save our lives. If six men were left by
Silver, it was plain our party could not take and fight the ship; and
since only six were left, it was equally plain that the cabin party had
no present need of my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go
ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side and curled up in the
foresheets of the nearest boat, and almost at the same moment she shoved
off.

No one took notice of me, only the bow oar saying, "Is that you, Jim?
Keep your head down." But Silver, from the other boat, looked sharply
over and called out to know if that were me; and from that moment I
began to regret what I had done.

The crews raced for the beach, but the boat I was in, having some start,
and being at once the lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead of
her consort, and the bow had struck among the shore-side trees, and I
had caught a branch and swung myself out, and plunged into the nearest
thicket, while Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards behind.

"Jim, Jim!" I heard him shouting.

But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, ducking, and breaking
through, I ran straight before my nose, till I could run no longer.




CHAPTER XIV

THE FIRST BLOW


I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John, that I began to
enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land
that I was in. I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes,
and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and had now come out upon the skirts
of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted
with a few pines, and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the
oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of
the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks, shining
vividly in the sun.

I now felt for the first time the joy of exploration. The isle was
uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and nothing lived in front
of me but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and thither among the
trees. Here and there were flowering plants, unknown to me; here and
there I saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of rock and
hissed at me with a noise not unlike the spinning of a top. Little did I
suppose that he was a deadly enemy, and that the noise was the famous
rattle.

Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-like trees--live, or
evergreen, oaks, I heard afterward they should be called--which grew low
along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage
compact, like thatch. The thicket stretched down from the top of one of
the sandy knolls, spreading and growing taller as it went, until it
reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through which the nearest of
the little rivers soaked its way into the anchorage. The marsh was
steaming in the strong sun, and the outline of the Spy-glass trembled
through the haze.

All at once there began to go a sort of bustle among the bulrushes; a
wild duck flew up with a quack, another followed, and soon over the
whole surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung screaming and
circling in the air. I judged at once that some of my shipmates must be
drawing near along the borders of the fen. Nor was I deceived, for soon
I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which, as I
continued to give ear, grew steadily louder and nearer.

This put me in great fear, and I crawled under cover of the nearest
live-oak, and squatted there, hearkening, as silent as a mouse.

Another voice answered; and then the first voice, which I now recognized
to be Silver's, once more took up the story, and ran on for a long while
in a stream, only now and again interrupted by the other. By the sound
they must have been talking earnestly, and almost fiercely, but no
distinct word came to my hearing.

At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and perhaps to have sat
down, for not only did they cease to draw any nearer, but the birds
themselves began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to their places
in the swamp.

And now I began to feel that I was neglecting my business; that since I
had been so foolhardy as to come ashore with these desperadoes, the
least I could do was to overhear them at their councils, and that my
plain and obvious duty was to draw as close as I could manage, under
the favorable ambush of the crouching trees.

I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty exactly, not only by
the sound of their voices, but by the behavior of the few birds that
still hung in alarm above the heads of the intruders.

Crawling on all-fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at
last, raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear
down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about
with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to
face in conversation.

The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown his hat beside him on the
ground, and his great, smooth, blonde face, all shining with heat, was
lifted to the other man's in a kind of appeal.

"Mate," he was saying, "it's because I thinks gold dust of you--gold
dust, and you may lay to that! If I hadn't took to you like pitch, do
you think I'd have been here a-warning of you? All's up--you can't make
nor mend; it's to save your neck that I'm a-speaking, and if one of the
wild 'uns knew it, where 'ud I be, Tom--now tell me, where 'ud I be?"

"Silver," said the other man--and I observed he was not only red in the
face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a
taut rope--"Silver," says he, "you're old, and you're honest, or has the
name for it; and you've money, too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't;
and you're brave, or I'm mistook. And will you tell me you'll let
yourself be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs? Not you! As sure
as God sees me, I'd sooner lose my hand. If I turn agin my dooty--"

And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a noise. I had found one
of the honest hands--well, here, at that same moment, came news of
another. Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a sudden, a sound
like the cry of anger, then another on the back of it, and then one
horrid, long-drawn scream. The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a
score of times; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again, darkening
heaven with a simultaneous whir; and long after that death-yell was
still ringing in my brain, silence had re-established its empire, and
only the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant
surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.

Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the spur; but Silver had
not winked an eye. He stood where he was, resting lightly on his crutch,
watching his companion like a snake about to spring.

"John!" said the sailor, stretching out his hand.

"Hands off!" cried Silver, leaping back a yard, as it seemed to me, with
the speed and security of a trained gymnast.

"Hands off, if you like, John Silver," said the other. "It's a black
conscience that can make you feared of me. But, in heaven's name, tell
me what was that?"

"That?" returned Silver, smiling away, but warier than ever, his eye a
mere pin-point in his big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass.
"That? Oh, I reckon that'll be Alan."

And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.

"Alan!" he cried. "Then rest his soul for a true seaman! And as for you,
John Silver, long you've been a mate of mine, but you're mate of mine no
more. If I die like a dog I'll die in my dooty. You've killed Alan,
have you? Kill me, too, if you can. But I defies you."

And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook and
set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a
cry John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his
armpit, and sent that uncouth missile hurling through the air. It struck
poor Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between the
shoulders in the middle of his back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort
of gasp and fell.

Whether he was injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like
enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he
had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even
without leg or crutch, was on the top of him next moment, and had twice
buried his knife up to the hilt in that defenseless body. From my place
of ambush I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.