Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (free novels txt) đ
- Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
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Silverâs green parrot, Captain Flint! It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she, keeping better watch than any human being, who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome refrain.
I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp, clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and sprang up; and with a mighty oath, the voice of Silver cried, âWho goes?â
I turned to run, struck violently against one person, recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a second, who for his part closed upon and held me tight.
âBring a torch, Dick,â said Silver when my capture was thus assured.
And one of the men left the log-house and presently returned with a lighted brand.
PART SIXâCaptain Silver
28
In the Enemyâs Camp
HE red glare of the torch, lighting up the interior of the block house, showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized. The pirates were in possession of the house and stores: there was the cask of cognac, there were the pork and bread, as before, and what tenfold increased my horror, not a sign of any prisoner. I could only judge that all had perished, and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been there to perish with them.
There were six of the buccaneers, all told; not another man was left alive. Five of them were on their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only risen upon his elbow; he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed. I remembered the man who had been shot and had run back among the woods in the great attack, and doubted not that this was he.
The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long Johnâs shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler and more stern than I was used to. He still wore the fine broadcloth suit in which he had fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly the worse for wear, daubed with clay and torn with the sharp briers of the wood.
âSo,â said he, âhereâs Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! Dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly.â
And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask and began to fill a pipe.
âGive me a loan of the link, Dick,â said he; and then, when he had a good light, âThatâll do, lad,â he added; âstick the glim in the wood heap; and you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to! You neednât stand up for Mr. Hawkins; heâll excuse you, you may lay to that. And so, Jimââstopping the tobaccoââhere you were, and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John. I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you, but this here gets away from me clean, it do.â
To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer. They had set me with my back against the wall, and I stood there, looking Silver in the face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appearance, but with black despair in my heart.
Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great composure and then ran on again.
âNow, you see, Jim, so be as you are here,â says he, âIâll give you a piece of my mind. Iâve always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, youâve got to. Capân Smollettâs a fine seaman, as Iâll own up to any day, but stiff on discipline. âDooty is dooty,â says he, and right he is. Just you keep clear of the capân. The doctor himself is gone dead again youââungrateful scampâ was what he said; and the short and the long of the whole story is about here: you canât go back to your own lot, for they wonât have you; and without you start a third shipâs company all by yourself, which might be lonely, youâll have to jine with Capân Silver.â
So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and though I partly believed the truth of Silverâs statement, that the cabin party were incensed at me for my desertion, I was more relieved than distressed by what I heard.
âI donât say nothing as to your being in our hands,â continued Silver, âthough there you are, and you may lay to it. Iâm all for argyment; I never seen good come out oâ threatening. If you like the service, well, youâll jine; and if you donât, Jim, why, youâre free to answer noâfree and welcome, shipmate; and if fairer can be said by mortal seaman, shiver my sides!â
âAm I to answer, then?â I asked with a very tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was made to feel the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my breast.
âLad,â said Silver, âno oneâs a-pressing of you. Take your bearings. None of us wonât hurry you, mate; time goes so pleasant in your company, you see.â
âWell,â says I, growing a bit bolder, âif Iâm to choose, I declare I have a right to know whatâs what, and why youâre here, and where my friends are.â
âWotâs wot?â repeated one of the buccaneers in a deep growl. âAh, heâd be a lucky one as knowed that!â
âYouâll perhaps batten down your hatches till youâre spoke to, my friend,â cried Silver truculently to this speaker. And then, in his first gracious tones, he replied to me, âYesterday morning, Mr. Hawkins,â said he, âin the dog-watch, down came Doctor Livesey with a flag of truce. Says he, âCapân Silver, youâre sold out. Shipâs gone.â Well, maybe weâd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. I wonât say no. Leastways, none of us had looked out. We looked out, and by thunder, the old ship was gone! I never seen a pack oâ fools look fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that looked the fishiest. âWell,â says the doctor, âletâs bargain.â We bargained, him and I, and here we are: stores, brandy, block house, the firewood you was thoughtful enough to cut, and in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat, from cross-trees to kelson. As for them, theyâve tramped; I donât know whereâs they are.â
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