Treasure Island
The Sea-chest
I LOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and position. Some of the man’s money—if he had any—was to us, but it was not likely that our captain’s shipmates, above all the two by me, Black Dog and the beggar, would be to give up their in payment of the man’s debts. The captain’s order to at once and for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone and unprotected, which was not to be of. Indeed, it for either of us to much longer in the house; the of in the grate, the very of the clock, us with alarms. The neighbourhood, to our ears, by footsteps; and what the of the captain on the and the of that near at hand and to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror. Something must be upon, and it to us at last to go together and help in the hamlet. No sooner said than done. Bare-headed as we were, we ran out at once in the and the fog.
The not many hundred yards away, though out of view, on the other of the next cove; and what me, it was in an opposite direction from that the man had his and he had returned. We were not many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped to of each other and hearken. But there was no sound—nothing but the low wash of the and the of the of the wood.
It was already candle-light when we the hamlet, and I shall how much I was to see the yellow in doors and windows; but that, as it proved, was the best of the help we were likely to in that quarter. For—you would have men would have been of themselves—no would to return with us to the Admiral Benbow. The more we told of our troubles, the more—man, woman, and child—they to the of their houses. The name of Captain Flint, though it was to me, was well to some there and a great weight of terror. Some of the men who had been to field-work on the of the Admiral Benbow remembered, besides, to have on the road, and taking them to be smugglers, to have away; and one at least had a little in what we called Kitt’s Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a of the captain’s was to them to death. And the and the long of the was, that while we who were to to Dr. Livesey’s, which in another direction, not one would help us to the inn.
They say is infectious; but then is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother them a speech. She would not, she declared, money that to her boy; “If none of the of you dare,” she said, “Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and small thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men. We’ll have that open, if we die for it. And I’ll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to our money in.”
Of I said I would go with my mother, and of they all out at our foolhardiness, but then not a man would go along with us. All they would do was to give me a pistol we were attacked, and to promise to have in case we were on our return, while one was to to the doctor’s in search of assistance.
My was when we two set in the cold night upon this venture. A full moon was to and through the upper of the fog, and this our haste, for it was plain, we came again, that all would be as as day, and our to the of any watchers. We along the hedges, noiseless and swift, did we see or anything to our terrors, till, to our relief, the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed us.
I the at once, and we and for a moment in the dark, alone in the house with the captain’s body. Then my mother got a in the bar, and each other’s hands, we into the parlour. He as we had left him, on his back, with his open and one arm out.
“Draw the blind, Jim,” my mother; “they might come and watch outside. And now,” said she when I had done so, “we have to the key off that; and who’s to touch it, I should like to know!” and she gave a of as she said the words.
I on my at once. On the close to his hand there was a little of paper, on the one side. I not that this was the black spot; and taking it up, I on the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this message: “You have till ten tonight.”
“He had till ten, Mother,” said I; and just as I said it, our old clock striking. This noise us shockingly; but the news was good, for it was only six.
“Now, Jim,” she said, “that key.”
I in his pockets, one after another. A small coins, a thimble, and some and big needles, a piece of tobacco away at the end, his with the handle, a pocket compass, and a box were all that they contained, and I to despair.
“Perhaps it’s his neck,” my mother.
Overcoming a repugnance, I open his shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, to a of string, which I cut with his own gully, we the key. At this we were with and without to the little room where he had slept so long and where his box had since the day of his arrival.
It was like any other seaman’s on the outside, the “B” on the top of it with a iron, and the and as by long, usage.
“Give me the key,” said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff, she had it and the in a twinkling.
A of tobacco and rose from the interior, but nothing was to be on the top a of very good clothes, and folded. They had been worn, my mother said. Under that, the began—a quadrant, a canikin, of tobacco, two of very pistols, a piece of silver, an old Spanish watch and some other of little value and mostly of make, a pair of with brass, and five or six West Indian shells. I have often since why he should have about these with him in his wandering, guilty, and life.
In the meantime, we had nothing of any value but the and the trinkets, and neither of these were in our way. Underneath there was an old boat-cloak, with sea-salt on many a harbour-bar. My mother it up with impatience, and there us, the last in the chest, a up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, and a that gave forth, at a touch, the of gold.
“I’ll these rogues that I’m an woman,” said my mother. “I’ll have my dues, and not a over. Hold Mrs. Crossley’s bag.” And she to count over the amount of the captain’s score from the sailor’s into the one that I was holding.
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It was a long, difficult business, for the were of all and sizes—doubloons, and d’ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know not what besides, all together at random. The guineas, too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother how to make her count.
When we were about half-way through, I put my hand upon her arm, for I had in the air a that my into my mouth—the tap-tapping of the man’s upon the road. It nearer and nearer, while we sat our breath. Then it on the door, and then we the being and the as the being to enter; and then there was a long time of and without. At last the recommenced, and, to our and gratitude, died slowly away again until it to be heard.
“Mother,” said I, “take the whole and let’s be going,” for I was sure the door must have and would the whole hornet’s about our ears, though how I was that I had it, none tell who had met that terrible man.
But my mother, as she was, would not to take a more than was to her and was to be with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; she her and she would have them; and she was still with me when a little low a good way off upon the hill. That was enough, and more than enough, for of us.
“I’ll take what I have,” she said, jumping to her feet.
“And I’ll take this to square the count,” said I, up the packet.
Next moment we were downstairs, the by the empty chest; and the next we had opened the door and were in full retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The was dispersing; already the moon clear on the high ground on either side; and it was only in the exact of the and the door that a thin still to the steps of our escape. Far less than half-way to the hamlet, very little the of the hill, we must come into the moonlight. Nor was this all, for the of came already to our ears, and as we looked in their direction, a light to and and still that one of the a lantern.
“My dear,” said my mother suddenly, “take the money and on. I am going to faint.”
This was the end for of us, I thought. How I the of the neighbours; how I my mother for her and her greed, for her past and present weakness! We were just at the little bridge, by good fortune; and I helped her, as she was, to the of the bank, where, sure enough, she gave a and on my shoulder. I do not know how I the to do it at all, and I am it was done, but I managed to her the bank and a little way under the arch. Farther I not move her, for the was too low to let me do more than it. So there we had to stay—my mother almost and of us of the inn.
