Treasure Island
At the Sign of the Spy-glass
WHEN I had done the gave me a note to John Silver, at the of the Spy-glass, and told me I should easily the place by the line of the and a for a little with a large for sign. I set off, at this opportunity to see some more of the ships and seamen, and my way among a great of people and and bales, for the was now at its busiest, until I the in question.
It was a little place of entertainment. The was newly painted; the had red curtains; the was sanded. There was a on each and an open door on both, which the large, low room clear to see in, in of clouds of tobacco smoke.
The were mostly men, and they talked so that I at the door, almost to enter.
As I was waiting, a man came out of a room, and at a I was sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left he a crutch, which he managed with dexterity, about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a as big as a ham—plain and pale, but and smiling. Indeed, he in the most spirits, as he moved about among the tables, with a word or a on the for the more of his guests.
Now, to tell you the truth, from the very mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney’s I had taken a in my mind that he might prove to be the very one-legged I had for so long at the old Benbow. But one look at the man me was enough. I had the captain, and Black Dog, and the man, Pew, and I I what a was like—a very different creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.
I up at once, the threshold, and walked right up to the man where he stood, on his crutch, talking to a customer.
“Mr. Silver, sir?” I asked, out the note.
“Yes, my lad,” said he; “such is my name, to be sure. And who may you be?” And then as he saw the squire’s letter, he to me to give something almost like a start.
“Oh!” said he, loud, and his hand. “I see. You are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you.”
And he took my hand in his large grasp.
Just then one of the at the rose and for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the in a moment. But his had my notice, and I him at glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had come to the Admiral Benbow.
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“Oh,” I cried, “stop him! It’s Black Dog!”
“I don’t two who he is,” Silver. “But he hasn’t paid his score. Harry, and catch him.”
One of the others who was nearest the door up and started in pursuit.
“If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score,” Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand, “Who did you say he was?” he asked. “Black what?”
“Dog, sir,” said I. “Has Mr. Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers? He was one of them.”
“So?” Silver. “In my house! Ben, and help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? Was that you with him, Morgan? Step up here.”
The man he called Morgan—an old, grey-haired, mahogany-faced sailor—came sheepishly, his quid.
“Now, Morgan,” said Long John very sternly, “you your on that Black—Black Dog before, did you, now?”
“Not I, sir,” said Morgan with a salute.
“You didn’t know his name, did you?”
“No, sir.”
“By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for you!” the landlord. “If you had been mixed up with the like of that, you would have put another in my house, you may to that. And what was he saying to you?”
“I don’t know, sir,” answered Morgan.
“Do you call that a on your shoulders, or a dead-eye?” Long John. “Don’t know, don’t you! Perhaps you don’t to know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now, what was he jawing—v’yages, cap’ns, ships? Pipe up! What was it?”
“We was a-talkin’ of keel-hauling,” answered Morgan.
“Keel-hauling, was you? And a thing, too, and you may to that. Get to your place for a lubber, Tom.”
And then, as Morgan rolled to his seat, Silver added to me in a that was very flattering, as I thought, “He’s an man, Tom Morgan, on’y stupid. And now,” he ran on again, aloud, “let’s see—Black Dog? No, I don’t know the name, not I. Yet I of think I’ve—yes, I’ve the swab. He used to come here with a beggar, he used.”
“That he did, you may be sure,” said I. “I that man too. His name was Pew.”
“It was!” Silver, now excited. “Pew! That were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he did! If we this Black Dog, now, there’ll be news for Cap’n Trelawney! Ben’s a good runner; than Ben. He should him down, hand over hand, by the powers! He talked o’ keel-hauling, did he? I’ll keel-haul him!”
All the time he was out these phrases he was up and the on his crutch, tables with his hand, and such a of as would have an Old Bailey judge or a Bow Street runner. My had been reawakened on Black Dog at the Spy-glass, and I the cook narrowly. But he was too deep, and too ready, and too for me, and by the time the two men had come out of and that they had the in a crowd, and been like thieves, I would have gone for the of Long John Silver.
“See here, now, Hawkins,” said he, “here’s a hard thing on a man like me, now, ain’t it? There’s Cap’n Trelawney—what’s he to think? Here I have this son of a Dutchman in my own house of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the my deadlights! Now, Hawkins, you do me with the cap’n. You’re a lad, you are, but you’re as as paint. I see that when you come in. Now, here it is: What I do, with this old I on? When I was an A B master I’d have come up alongside of him, hand over hand, and him to in a of old shakes, I would; but now—”
And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his as though he had something.
“The score!” he out. “Three goes o’ rum! Why, my timbers, if I hadn’t my score!”
And on a bench, he laughed until the ran his cheeks. I not help joining, and we laughed together, after peal, until the again.
“Why, what a old sea-calf I am!” he said at last, his cheeks. “You and me should on well, Hawkins, for I’ll take my I should be rated ship’s boy. But come now, by to go about. This won’t do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I’ll put on my old hat, and step along of you to Cap’n Trelawney, and report this here affair. For mind you, it’s serious, Hawkins; and neither you me’s come out of it with what I should make so as to call credit. Nor you neither, says you; not smart—none of the pair of us smart. But my buttons! That was a good un about my score.”
And he to laugh again, and that so heartily, that though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again to join him in his mirth.
On our little walk along the quays, he himself the most companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, the work that was going forward—how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third making for sea—and every now and then telling me some little of ships or or a phrase till I had learned it perfectly. I to see that here was one of the best of possible shipmates.
When we got to the inn, the and Dr. Livesey were seated together, a of with a toast in it, they should go the on a visit of inspection.
Long John told the from to last, with a great of and the most perfect truth. “That was how it were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins?” he would say, now and again, and I always him out.
The two that Black Dog had got away, but we all there was nothing to be done, and after he had been complimented, Long John took up his and departed.
“All hands by four this afternoon,” the after him.
“Aye, aye, sir,” the cook, in the passage.
“Well, squire,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t put much in your discoveries, as a thing; but I will say this, John Silver me.”
“The man’s a perfect trump,” the squire.
“And now,” added the doctor, “Jim may come on with us, may he not?”
“To be sure he may,” says squire. “Take your hat, Hawkins, and we’ll see the ship.”