Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson [books for 10th graders txt] 📗
- Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Performer: 0451527046
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drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here.”
The man whom he called Morgan—an old, grey-haired,
mahogany-faced sailor—came forward pretty sheepishly,
rolling his quid.
“Now, Morgan,” said Long John very sternly, “you never
clapped your eyes on that Black—Black Dog before, did
you, now?”
“Not I, sir,” said Morgan with a salute.
“You didn’t know his name, did you?”
“No, sir.”
“By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for you!”
exclaimed the landlord. “If you had been mixed up with
the like of that, you would never have put another foot
in my house, you may lay to that. And what was he
saying to you?”
“I don’t rightly know, sir,” answered Morgan.
“Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed
dead-eye?” cried Long John. “Don’t rightly know, don’t
you! Perhaps you don’t happen to rightly know who you was
speaking to, perhaps? Come, now, what was he jawing—v’yages,
cap’ns, ships? Pipe up! What was it?”
“We was a-talkin’ of keel-hauling,” answered Morgan.
“Keel-hauling, was you? And a mighty suitable thing,
too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place
for a lubber, Tom.”
And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver added
to me in a confidential whisper that was very flattering,
as I thought, “He’s quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on’y
stupid. And now,” he ran on again, aloud, “let’s see—Black
Dog? No, I don’t know the name, not I. Yet I kind of think
I’ve—yes, I’ve seen the swab. He used to come here with a
blind beggar, he used.”
“That he did, you may be sure,” said I. “I knew that
blind man too. His name was Pew.”
“It was!” cried Silver, now quite excited. “Pew! That
were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he
did! If we run down this Black Dog, now, there’ll be
news for Cap’n Trelawney! Ben’s a good runner; few
seamen run better than Ben. He should run him down,
hand over hand, by the powers! He talked o’ keel-hauling, did he? I’LL keel-haul him!”
All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was
stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, slapping
tables with his hand, and giving such a show of
excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge
or a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been
thoroughly reawakened on finding Black Dog at the Spy-glass, and I watched the cook narrowly. But he was too
deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the
time the two men had come back out of breath and
confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd, and
been scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for
the innocence of Long John Silver.
“See here, now, Hawkins,” said he, “here’s a blessed
hard thing on a man like me, now, ain’t it? There’s
Cap’n Trelawney—what’s he to think? Here I have this
confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house
drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of
it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip
before my blessed deadlights! Now, Hawkins, you do me
justice with the cap’n. You’re a lad, you are, but
you’re as smart as paint. I see that when you first
come in. Now, here it is: What could I do, with this
old timber I hobble on? When I was an A B master
mariner I’d have come up alongside of him, hand over
hand, and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I
would; but now—”
And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw
dropped as though he had remembered something.
“The score!” he burst out. “Three goes o’ rum! Why,
shiver my timbers, if I hadn’t forgotten my score!”
And falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down
his cheeks. I could not help joining, and we laughed together,
peal after peal, until the tavern rang again.
“Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!” he said at
last, wiping his cheeks. “You and me should get on
well, Hawkins, for I’ll take my davy I should be rated
ship’s boy. But come now, stand by to go about. This
won’t do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I’ll put on my
old cockerel hat, and step along of you to Cap’n
Trelawney, and report this here affair. For mind you,
it’s serious, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me’s
come out of it with what I should make so bold as to
call credit. Nor you neither, says you; not smart—
none of the pair of us smart. But dash my buttons!
That was a good un about my score.”
And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that
though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again
obliged to join him in his mirth.
On our little walk along the quays, he made himself the
most interesting companion, telling me about the
different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage,
and nationality, explaining the work that was going
forward—how one was discharging, another taking in
cargo, and a third making ready for sea—and every now
and then telling me some little anecdote of ships or
seamen or repeating a nautical phrase till I had
learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one
of the best of possible shipmates.
When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Livesey were
seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast
in it, before they should go aboard the schooner on a
visit of inspection.
Long John told the story from first to last, with a
great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. “That
was how it were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins?” he would
say, now and again, and I could always bear him
entirely out.
The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got
away, but we all agreed there was nothing to be done,
and after he had been complimented, Long John took up
his crutch and departed.
“All hands aboard by four this afternoon,” shouted the
squire after him.
“Aye, aye, sir,” cried the cook, in the passage.
“Well, squire,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t put much
faith in your discoveries, as a general thing; but I
will say this, John Silver suits me.”
“The man’s a perfect trump,” declared the squire.
“And now,” added the doctor, “Jim may come on board
with us, may he not?”
“To be sure he may,” says squire. “Take your hat,
Hawkins, and we’ll see the ship.”
9
Powder and Arms
THE HISPANIOLA lay some way out, and we went under
the figureheads and round the sterns of many other
ships, and their cables sometimes grated underneath our
keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however,
we got alongside, and were met and saluted as we
stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. Arrow, a brown old
sailor with earrings in his ears and a squint. He and
the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon
observed that things were not the same between Mr.
Trelawney and the captain.
This last was a sharp-looking man who seemed angry with
everything on board and was soon to tell us why, for we
had hardly got down into the cabin when a sailor
followed us.
“Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,” said he.
“I am always at the captain’s orders. Show him in,”
said the squire.
The captain, who was close behind his messenger,
entered at once and shut the door behind him.
“Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All
well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?”
“Well, sir,” said the captain, “better speak plain, I
believe, even at the risk of offence. I don’t like
this cruise; I don’t like the men; and I don’t like my
officer. That’s short and sweet.”
“Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship?” inquired the
squire, very angry, as I could see.
“I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having seen her
tried,” said the captain. “She seems a clever craft;
more I can’t say.”
“Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer,
either?” says the squire.
But here Dr. Livesey cut in.
“Stay a bit,” said he, “stay a bit. No use of such
questions as that but to produce ill feeling. The
captain has said too much or he has said too little, and
I’m bound to say that I require an explanation of his
words. You don’t, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?”
“I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to
sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid
me,” said the captain. “So far so good. But now I
find that every man before the mast knows more than I
do. I don’t call that fair, now, do you?”
“No,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t.”
“Next,” said the captain, “I learn we are going after
treasure—hear it from my own hands, mind you. Now,
treasure is ticklish work; I don’t like treasure voyages
on any account, and I don’t like them, above all, when
they are secret and when (begging your pardon, Mr.
Trelawney) the secret has been told to the parrot.”
“Silver’s parrot?” asked the squire.
“It’s a way of speaking,” said the captain. “Blabbed,
I mean. It’s my belief neither of you gentlemen know
what you are about, but I’ll tell you my way of it—
life or death, and a close run.”
“That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough,”
replied Dr. Livesey. “We take the risk, but we are not
so ignorant as you believe us. Next, you say you don’t
like the crew. Are they not good seamen?”
“I don’t like them, sir,” returned Captain Smollett.
“And I think I should have had the choosing of my own
hands, if you go to that.”
“Perhaps you should,” replied the doctor. “My friend
should, perhaps, have taken you along with him; but the
slight, if there be one, was unintentional. And you
don’t like Mr. Arrow?”
“I don’t, sir. I believe he’s a good seaman, but he’s
too free with the crew to be a good officer. A mate
should keep himself to himself—shouldn’t drink with
the men before the mast!”
“Do you mean he drinks?” cried the squire.
“No, sir,” replied the captain, “only that he’s too familiar.”
“Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?”
asked the doctor. “Tell us what you want.”
“Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise?”
“Like iron,” answered the squire.
“Very good,” said the captain. “Then, as you’ve heard
me very patiently, saying things that I could not
prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting the
powder and the arms in the fore hold. Now, you have a
good place under the cabin; why not put them there?—
first point. Then, you are bringing four of your own
people with you, and they tell me some of them are to
be berthed forward. Why not give them the berths here
beside the cabin?—second point.”
“Any more?” asked Mr. Trelawney.
“One more,” said the captain. “There’s been too much
blabbing already.”
“Far too much,” agreed the doctor.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve heard myself,” continued
Captain Smollett: “that you have a map of an island,
that there’s crosses on the map to show where treasure
is, and that the island lies—”
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