Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) đ
- Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Performer: 0451527046
Book online «Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) đ». Author Robert Louis Stevenson
This time it was the other man who replied.
âCapân Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms,â
he shouted.
âCapân Silver! Donât know him. Whoâs he?â cried the
captain. And we could hear him adding to himself,
âCapân, is it? My heart, and hereâs promotion!â
Long John answered for himself. âMe, sir. These poor
lads have chosen me capân, after your desertion, sirââ
laying a particular emphasis upon the word âdesertion.â
âWeâre willing to submit, if we can come to terms, and
no bones about it. All I ask is your word, Capân
Smollett, to let me safe and sound out of this here
stockade, and one minute to get out oâ shot before a
gun is fired.â
âMy man,â said Captain Smollett, âI have not the slightest
desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk to me, you can
come, thatâs all. If thereâs any treachery, itâll be on
your side, and the Lord help you.â
âThatâs enough, capân,â shouted Long John cheerily. âA
word from youâs enough. I know a gentleman, and you
may lay to that.â
We could see the man who carried the flag of truce
attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that
wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the captainâs
answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud and slapped
him on the back as if the idea of alarm had been
absurd. Then he advanced to the stockade, threw over
his crutch, got a leg up, and with great vigour and
skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping
safely to the other side.
I will confess that I was far too much taken up with
what was going on to be of the slightest use as sentry;
indeed, I had already deserted my eastern loophole and
crept up behind the captain, who had now seated himself
on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his
head in his hands, and his eyes fixed on the water as
it bubbled out of the old iron kettle in the sand. He
was whistling âCome, Lasses and Lads.â
Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll.
What with the steepness of the incline, the thick tree
stumps, and the soft sand, he and his crutch were as
helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to it like a
man in silence, and at last arrived before the captain,
whom he saluted in the handsomest style. He was
tricked out in his best; an immense blue coat, thick
with brass buttons, hung as low as to his knees, and a
fine laced hat was set on the back of his head.
âHere you are, my man,â said the captain, raising his
head. âYou had better sit down.â
âYou ainât a-going to let me inside, capân?â complained
Long John. âItâs a main cold morning, to be sure, sir,
to sit outside upon the sand.â
âWhy, Silver,â said the captain, âif you had pleased to
be an honest man, you might have been sitting in your
galley. Itâs your own doing. Youâre either my shipâs
cookâand then you were treated handsomeâor Capân Silver,
a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!â
âWell, well, capân,â returned the sea-cook, sitting
down as he was bidden on the sand, âyouâll have to give
me a hand up again, thatâs all. A sweet pretty place
you have of it here. Ah, thereâs Jim! The top of the
morning to you, Jim. Doctor, hereâs my service. Why,
there you all are together like a happy family, in a
manner of speaking.â
âIf you have anything to say, my man, better say it,â
said the captain.
âRight you were, Capân Smollett,â replied Silver.
âDooty is dooty, to be sure. Well now, you look here,
that was a good lay of yours last night. I donât deny
it was a good lay. Some of you pretty handy with a
handspike-end. And Iâll not deny neither but what some
of my people was shookâmaybe all was shook; maybe I
was shook myself; maybe thatâs why Iâm here for terms.
But you mark me, capân, it wonât do twice, by thunder!
Weâll have to do sentry-go and ease off a point or so
on the rum. Maybe you think we were all a sheet in the
windâs eye. But Iâll tell you I was sober; I was onây
dog tired; and if Iâd awoke a second sooner, Iâd âa
caught you at the act, I would. He wasnât dead when I
got round to him, not he.â
âWell?â says Captain Smollett as cool as can be.
All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you would
never have guessed it from his tone. As for me, I
began to have an inkling. Ben Gunnâs last words came
back to my mind. I began to suppose that he had paid
the buccaneers a visit while they all lay drunk
together round their fire, and I reckoned up with glee
that we had only fourteen enemies to deal with.
âWell, here it is,â said Silver. âWe want that
treasure, and weâll have itâthatâs our point! You
would just as soon save your lives, I reckon; and
thatâs yours. You have a chart, havenât you?â
âThatâs as may be,â replied the captain.
âOh, well, you have, I know that,â returned Long John.
âYou neednât be so husky with a man; there ainât a
particle of service in that, and you may lay to it.
What I mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant
you no harm, myself.â
âThat wonât do with me, my man,â interrupted the
captain. âWe know exactly what you meant to do, and we
donât care, for now, you see, you canât do it.â
And the captain looked at him calmly and proceeded
to fill a pipe.
âIf Abe Grayââ Silver broke out.
âAvast there!â cried Mr. Smollett. âGray told me
nothing, and I asked him nothing; and whatâs more, I
would see you and him and this whole island blown clean
out of the water into blazes first. So thereâs my mind
for you, my man, on that.â
This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver down.
He had been growing nettled before, but now he pulled
himself together.
âLike enough,â said he. âI would set no limits to what
gentlemen might consider shipshape, or might not, as
the case were. And seeinâ as how you are about to take
a pipe, capân, Iâll make so free as do likewise.â
And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men sat
silently smoking for quite a while, now looking each other
in the face, now stopping their tobacco, now leaning forward
to spit. It was as good as the play to see them.
âNow,â resumed Silver, âhere it is. You give us the
chart to get the treasure by, and drop shooting poor
seamen and stoving of their heads in while asleep. You
do that, and weâll offer you a choice. Either you come
aboard along of us, once the treasure shipped, and then
Iâll give you my affy-davy, upon my word of honour, to
clap you somewhere safe ashore. Or if that ainât to
your fancy, some of my hands being rough and having old
scores on account of hazing, then you can stay here,
you can. Weâll divide stores with you, man for man;
and Iâll give my affy-davy, as before to speak the
first ship I sight, and send âem here to pick you up.
Now, youâll own thatâs talking. Handsomer you couldnât
look to get, now you. And I hopeââraising his voiceâ
âthat all hands in this here block house will overhaul
my words, for what is spoke to one is spoke to all.â
Captain Smollett rose from his seat and knocked out the
ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand.
âIs that all?â he asked.
âEvery last word, by thunder!â answered John. âRefuse
that, and youâve seen the last of me but musket-balls.â
âVery good,â said the captain. âNow youâll hear me.
If youâll come up one by one, unarmed, Iâll engage to
clap you all in irons and take you home to a fair trial
in England. If you wonât, my name is Alexander
Smollett, Iâve flown my sovereignâs colours, and Iâll
see you all to Davy Jones. You canât find the
treasure. You canât sail the shipâthereâs not a man
among you fit to sail the ship. You canât fight usâ
Gray, there, got away from five of you. Your shipâs in
irons, Master Silver; youâre on a lee shore, and so
youâll find. I stand here and tell you so; and theyâre
the last good words youâll get from me, for in the name
of heaven, Iâll put a bullet in your back when next I
meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle out of this, please,
hand over hand, and double quick.â
Silverâs face was a picture; his eyes started in his
head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe.
âGive me a hand up!â he cried.
âNot I,â returned the captain.
âWhoâll give me a hand up?â he roared.
Not a man among us moved. Growling the foulest
imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he got
hold of the porch and could hoist himself again upon
his crutch. Then he spat into the spring.
âThere!â he cried. âThatâs what I think of ye. Before
an hourâs out, Iâll stove in your old block house like
a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an
hourâs out, yeâll laugh upon the other side. Them that
dieâll be the lucky ones.â
And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, ploughed down
the sand, was helped across the stockade, after four or
five failures, by the man with the flag of truce, and
disappeared in an instant afterwards among the trees.
21
The Attack
AS soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had
been closely watching him, turned towards the interior
of the house and found not a man of us at his post but
Gray. It was the first time we had ever seen him angry.
âQuarters!â he roared. And then, as we all slunk back
to our places, âGray,â he said, âIâll put your name in
the log; youâve stood by your duty like a seaman. Mr.
Trelawney, Iâm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought
you had worn the kingâs coat! If that was how you served
at Fontenoy, sir, youâd have been better in your berth.â
The doctorâs watch were all back at their loopholes,
the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and
everyone with a red face, you may be certain, and a
flea in his ear, as the saying is.
The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then
he spoke.
âMy lads,â said he, âIâve given Silver a broadside. I
pitched it in red-hot on purpose; and before the hourâs
out, as he said, we shall be boarded. Weâre
outnumbered, I neednât tell you that, but we fight in
shelter; and a minute ago I should have said we fought
with discipline. Iâve no manner of doubt that we can
drub them, if you choose.â
Then he went the rounds and saw, as he said, that all
was clear.
On the two short sides of the house, east and west,
there were only two loopholes; on the south side where
the porch was, two again; and on the north side, five.
There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us;
the firewood had been built
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