Treasure Island
Powder and Arms
THE Hispaniola some way out, and we under the and the of many other ships, and their sometimes our keel, and sometimes above us. At last, however, we got alongside, and were met and as we by the mate, Mr. Arrow, a old with in his ears and a squint. He and the were very thick and friendly, but I soon that were not the same Mr. Trelawney and the captain.
This last was a sharp-looking man who angry with on and was soon to tell us why, for we had got into the when a us.
“Captain Smollett, sir, to speak with you,” said he.
“I am always at the captain’s orders. Show him in,” said the squire.
The captain, who was close his messenger, entered at once and the door him.
“Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all and seaworthy?”
“Well, sir,” said the captain, “better speak plain, I believe, at the of offence. I don’t like this cruise; I don’t like the men; and I don’t like my officer. That’s and sweet.”
“Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship?” the squire, very angry, as I see.
“I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having her tried,” said the captain. “She a craft; more I can’t say.”
“Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?” says the squire.
But here Dr. Livesey cut in.
“Stay a bit,” said he, “stay a bit. No use of such questions as that but to produce feeling. The captain has said too much or he has said too little, and I’m to say that I an of his words. You don’t, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?”
“I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to sail this ship for that where he should me,” said the captain. “So so good. But now I that every man the more than I do. I don’t call that fair, now, do you?”
“No,” said Dr. Livesey, “I don’t.”
“Next,” said the captain, “I learn we are going after treasure—hear it from my own hands, mind you. Now, is work; I don’t like on any account, and I don’t like them, above all, when they are and when (begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the has been told to the parrot.”
“Silver’s parrot?” asked the squire.
“It’s a way of speaking,” said the captain. “Blabbed, I mean. It’s my neither of you know what you are about, but I’ll tell you my way of it—life or death, and a close run.”
“That is all clear, and, I say, true enough,” Dr. Livesey. “We take the risk, but we are not so as you us. Next, you say you don’t like the crew. Are they not good seamen?”
“I don’t like them, sir,” returned Captain Smollett. “And I think I should have had the of my own hands, if you go to that.”
“Perhaps you should,” the doctor. “My friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with him; but the slight, if there be one, was unintentional. And you don’t like Mr. Arrow?”
“I don’t, sir. I he’s a good seaman, but he’s too free with the to be a good officer. A should keep himself to himself—shouldn’t drink with the men the mast!”
“Do you he drinks?” the squire.
“No, sir,” the captain, “only that he’s too familiar.”
“Well, now, and the and long of it, captain?” asked the doctor. “Tell us what you want.”
“Well, gentlemen, are you to go on this cruise?”
“Like iron,” answered the squire.
“Very good,” said the captain. “Then, as you’ve me very patiently, saying that I not prove, me a more. They are the and the arms in the hold. Now, you have a good place under the cabin; why not put them there?—first point. Then, you are four of your own people with you, and they tell me some of them are to be forward. Why not give them the berths here the cabin?—second point.”
“Any more?” asked Mr. Trelawney.
“One more,” said the captain. “There’s been too much already.”
“Far too much,” the doctor.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve myself,” Captain Smollett: “that you have a map of an island, that there’s on the map to where is, and that the lies—” And then he named the and exactly.
“I told that,” the squire, “to a soul!”
“The hands know it, sir,” returned the captain.
“Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins,” the squire.
“It doesn’t much who it was,” the doctor. And I see that neither he the captain paid much to Mr. Trelawney’s protestations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so a talker; yet in this case I he was right and that nobody had told the of the island.
“Well, gentlemen,” the captain, “I don’t know who has this map; but I make it a point, it shall be from me and Mr. Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign.”
“I see,” said the doctor. “You wish us to keep this dark and to make a of the part of the ship, with my friend’s own people, and provided with all the arms and on board. In other words, you a mutiny.”
“Sir,” said Captain Smollett, “with no to take offence, I your right to put into my mouth. No captain, sir, would be in going to sea at all if he had ground to say that. As for Mr. Arrow, I him honest; some of the men are the same; all may be for what I know. But I am for the ship’s safety and the life of every man Jack of her. I see going, as I think, not right. And I ask you to take or let me my berth. And that’s all.”
“Captain Smollett,” the doctor with a smile, “did you the of the and the mouse? You’ll me, I say, but you me of that fable. When you came in here, I’ll my wig, you meant more than this.”
“Doctor,” said the captain, “you are smart. When I came in here I meant to discharged. I had no that Mr. Trelawney would a word.”
“No more I would,” the squire. “Had Livesey not been here I should have you to the deuce. As it is, I have you. I will do as you desire, but I think the of you.”
“That’s as you please, sir,” said the captain. “You’ll I do my duty.”
And with that he took his leave.
“Trelawney,” said the doctor, “contrary to all my notions, I you have managed to two men on with you—that man and John Silver.”
“Silver, if you like,” the squire; “but as for that humbug, I I think his unmanly, unsailorly, and un-English.”
“Well,” says the doctor, “we shall see.”
When we came on deck, the men had already to take out the arms and powder, yo-ho-ing at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow by superintending.
The new was to my liking. The whole had been overhauled; six berths had been out of what had been the after-part of the main hold; and this set of was only joined to the and by a passage on the port side. It had been originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, Hunter, Joyce, the doctor, and the were to these six berths. Now Redruth and I were to two of them and Mr. Arrow and the captain were to sleep on in the companion, which had been on each till you might almost have called it a round-house. Very low it was still, of course; but there was room to two hammocks, and the pleased with the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, had been as to the crew, but that is only guess, for as you shall hear, we had not long the of his opinion.
We were all hard at work, the 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 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,” one.
“Why, by the powers,” Long John, “if we do, we’ll miss the tide!”
“My orders!” said the captain shortly. “You may go below, my man. Hands will want supper.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” answered the cook, and his forelock, he at once in the direction of his galley.
“That’s a good man, captain,” said the doctor.
“Very likely, sir,” Captain Smollett. “Easy with that, men—easy,” he ran on, to the who were shifting the powder; and then me the we amidships, a long nine, “Here you, ship’s boy,” he cried, “out o’ that! Off with you to the cook and some work.”
And then as I was off I him say, loudly, to the doctor, “I’ll have no on my ship.”
I you I was of the squire’s way of thinking, and the captain deeply.
