Treasure Island

‘I see,’ said the doctor. ‘You wish us to keep this matter dark, and to make a garrison of the stern part of the ship, manned with my friend’s own people, and provided with all the arms and powder on board. In other words, you fear a mutiny.’

‘Sir,’ said Captain Smollett, ‘with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be justified in going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say that. As for Mr Arrow, I believe him thoroughly honest; some of the men are the same; all may be for what I know. But I am responsible for the ship’s safety and the life of every man Jack aboard of her. I see things going, as I think, not quite right. And I ask you to take certain precautions, or let me resign my berth. And that’s all.’

‘Captain Smollett,’ began the doctor, with a smile, ‘did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the mouse? You’ll excuse me, I daresay, but you remind me of that fable. When you came in here I’ll stake my wig you meant more than this.’

‘Doctor,’ said the captain, ‘you are smart. When I came in here I meant to get discharged. I had no thought that Mr Trelawney would hear a word.’

‘No more I would,’ cried the squire. ‘Had Livesey not been here I should have seen you to the deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do as you desire; but I think the worse of you.’

‘That’s as you please, sir,’ said the captain. ‘You’ll find I do my duty.’

And with that he took his leave.

‘Trelawney,’ said the doctor, ‘contrary to all my notions, I believe you have managed to get two honest men on board with you – that man and John Silver.’

‘Silver, if you like,’ cried the squire; ‘but as for that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-English.’

‘Well,’ says the doctor, ‘we shall see.’

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!’ says he, ‘what’s this?’

‘We’re a-changing of 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 gun 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 favourites on my ship.’

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

CHAPTER 10 The Voyage (#ulink_fbcbb3db-97b7-5ff4-a0b5-959e82c6baa2)

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 note 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 that 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 amongst 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.