Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson (beach read book TXT) đ
- Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Book online «Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson (beach read book TXT) đ». Author Robert Louis Stevenson
âAy, ay,â returned Morgan, âI mind him; he owed me money, he did, and took my knife ashore with him.â
âSpeaking of knives,â said another, âwhy donât we find hisân lying round? Flint warnât the man to pick a seamanâs pocket; and the birds, I guess, would leave it be.â
âBy the powers and thatâs true!â cried Silver.
âThere ainât a thing left here,â said Merry, still feeling round among the bones; ânot a copper doit nor a baccy box. It donât look natâral to me.â
âNo, by gum, it donât,â agreed Silver; ânot natâral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns, messmates, but if Flint was living this would be a hot spot for you and me! Six they were, and six are we; and bones is what they are now.â
âI saw him dead with these here deadlights,â said Morgan. âBilly took me in. There he laid, with penny-pieces on his eyes.â
âDeadâ âay, sure enough heâs dead and gone below,â said the fellow with the bandage; âbut if ever sperrit walked it would be Flintâs. Dear heart, but he died bad, did Flint!â
âAy, that he did,â observed another; ânow he raged and now he hollered for the rum, and now he sang. âFifteen Menâ were his only song, mates; and I tell you true, I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main hot and the windy was open, and I hear that old song cominâ out as clear as clearâ âand the death-haul on the man already.â
âCome, come,â said Silver, âstow this talk. Heâs dead, and he donât walk, that I know; leastways he wonât walk by day, and you may lay to that. Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons.â
We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of the dead buccaneer had fallen on their spirits.
XXXII The Treasure-Huntâ âThe Voice Among the TreesPartly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained the brow of the ascent.
The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the west, this spot on which we had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the treetops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed with surf; behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but sawâ âclear across the spit and the eastern lowlandsâ âa great field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the Spy-glass, here dotted with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but that of the distant breakers mounting from all around, and the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail upon the sea; the very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude.
Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass.
âThere are three âtall trees,âââ said he, âabout in the right line from Skeleton Island. âSpy-glass Shoulder,â I take it, means that lower pâint there. Itâs childâs play to find the stuff now. Iâve half a mind to dine first.â
âI donât feel sharp,â growled Morgan. âThinkinâ oâ Flintâ âI think it wereâ âas done me.â
âAh, well, my son, you praise your stars heâs dead,â said Silver.
âHe was an ugly devil,â cried a third pirate, with a shudder; âthat blue in the face, too!â
âThat was how the rum took him,â added Merry. âBlue! well I reckon he was blue. Thatâs a true word.â
Ever since they had found the skeleton and got upon this train of thought, they had spoken lower and lower, and they had almost got to whispering by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted the silence of the wood. All of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees in front of us, a thin, high, trembling voice struck up the well-known air and words:
âFifteen men on the dead manâs chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!â
I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. The color went from their six faces like enchantment; some leaped to their feet, some clawed hold of others; Morgan groveled on the ground.
âItâs Flint, by âž»!â cried Merry.
The song had stopped as suddenly as it beganâ âbroken off, you would have said, in the middle of a note, as though someone had laid his hand upon the singerâs mouth. Coming so far through the clear, sunny atmosphere among the green treetops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly, and the effect on my companions was the stranger.
âCome,â said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to get the word out, âthat wonât do. Stand by to go about. This is a rum start, and I canât name the voice, but itâs someone skylarkingâ âsomeone thatâs flesh and blood, and you may lay to that.â
His courage had come back as he spoke, and some of the color to his face along with it. Already the others had begun to lend an ear to this encouragement, and were coming a little to themselves, when the same voice broke out againâ ânot this time singing, but in a faint, distant hail, that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of the Spy-glass.
âDarby MâGraw,â it wailedâ âfor that is the word that best describes the soundâ ââDarby MâGraw! Darby MâGraw!â again and again and again; and then rising a
Comments (0)