Treasure Island
Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade
AS soon as Ben Gunn saw the he came to a halt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down.
“Now,” said he, “there’s your friends, sure enough.”
“Far more likely it’s the mutineers,” I answered.
“That!” he cried. “Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but gen’lemen of fortune, Silver would the Jolly Roger, you don’t make no of that. No, that’s your friends. There’s been too, and I reckon your friends has had the best of it; and here they are in the old stockade, as was years and years ago by Flint. Ah, he was the man to have a headpiece, was Flint! Barring rum, his match were seen. He were of none, not he; on’y Silver—Silver was that genteel.”
“Well,” said I, “that may be so, and so be it; all the more that I should on and join my friends.”
“Nay, mate,” returned Ben, “not you. You’re a good boy, or I’m mistook; but you’re on’y a boy, all told. Now, Ben Gunn is fly. Rum wouldn’t me there, where you’re going—not wouldn’t, till I see your gen’leman and it on his word of honour. And you won’t my words; ‘A (that’s what you’ll say), a more confidence’—and then him.”
And he me the third time with the same air of cleverness.
“And when Ben Gunn is wanted, you know where to him, Jim. Just you him today. And him that comes is to have a white thing in his hand, and he’s to come alone. Oh! And you’ll say this: ‘Ben Gunn,’ says you, ‘has of his own.’”
“Well,” said I, “I I understand. You have something to propose, and you wish to see the or the doctor, and you’re to be where I you. Is that all?”
“And when? says you,” he added. “Why, from about to about six bells.”
“Good,” said I, “and now may I go?”
“You won’t forget?” he anxiously. “Precious sight, and of his own, says you. Reasons of his own; that’s the mainstay; as man and man. Well, then”—still me—“I reckon you can go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to see Silver, you wouldn’t go for to sell Ben Gunn? Wild wouldn’t it from you? No, says you. And if them ashore, Jim, what would you say but there’d be in the morning?”
Here he was by a loud report, and a came through the trees and in the not a hundred yards from where we two were talking. The next moment each of us had taken to his in a different direction.
For a good hour to come reports the island, and through the woods. I moved from hiding-place to hiding-place, always pursued, or so it to me, by these missiles. But the end of the bombardment, though still I not in the direction of the stockade, where the oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to up my again, and after a long to the east, among the shore-side trees.
The sun had just set, the sea was and in the and ruffling the surface of the anchorage; the tide, too, was out, and great of uncovered; the air, after the of the day, me through my jacket.
The Hispaniola still where she had anchored; but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger—the black flag of piracy—flying from her peak. Even as I looked, there came another red and another report that sent the clattering, and one more round-shot through the air. It was the last of the cannonade.
I for some time the which succeeded the attack. Men were something with on the beach near the stockade—the jolly-boat, I discovered. Away, near the mouth of the river, a great fire was among the trees, and that point and the ship one of the and going, the men, I had so gloomy, at the like children. But there was a in their voices which rum.
At length I I might return the stockade. I was on the low, that the to the east, and is joined at half-water to Skeleton Island; and now, as I rose to my feet, I saw, some the and from among low bushes, an rock, high, and white in colour. It to me that this might be the white of which Ben Gunn had spoken and that some day or other a might be wanted and I should know where to look for one.
Then I among the until I had the rear, or side, of the stockade, and was soon by the party.
I had soon told my and to look about me. The log-house was of of pine—roof, walls, and floor. The in places as much as a or a and a above the surface of the sand. There was a at the door, and under this the little up into an of a odd kind—no other than a great ship’s of iron, with the out, and “to her bearings,” as the captain said, among the sand.
Little had been left the of the house, but in one there was a by way of and an old iron to the fire.
The of the and all the of the had been of to the house, and we see by the what a and had been destroyed. Most of the had been away or in after the of the trees; only where the ran from the a thick of and some and little were still green among the sand. Very close around the stockade—too close for defence, they said—the still high and dense, all of on the land side, but the sea with a large of live-oaks.
The cold breeze, of which I have spoken, through every of the and the with a rain of sand. There was in our eyes, in our teeth, in our suppers, dancing in the at the of the kettle, for all the world like to boil. Our was a square in the roof; it was but a little part of the that its way out, and the about the house and us and the eye.
Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his up in a for a cut he had got in away from the and that old Tom Redruth, still unburied, along the wall, and stark, under the Union Jack.
If we had been allowed to idle, we should all have in the blues, but Captain Smollett was the man for that. All hands were called up him, and he us into watches. The doctor and Gray and I for one; the squire, Hunter, and Joyce upon the other. Tired though we all were, two were sent out for firewood; two more were set to a for Redruth; the doctor was named cook; I was put at the door; and the captain himself from one to another, up our and a hand it was wanted.
From time to time the doctor came to the door for a little air and to his eyes, which were almost out of his head, and he did so, he had a word for me.
“That man Smollett,” he said once, “is a man than I am. And when I say that it means a deal, Jim.”
Another time he came and was for a while. Then he put his on one side, and looked at me.
“Is this Ben Gunn a man?” he asked.
“I do not know, sir,” said I. “I am not very sure he’s sane.”
“If there’s any about the matter, he is,” returned the doctor. “A man who has been three years his on a island, Jim, can’t to appear as as you or me. It doesn’t in nature. Was it you said he had a for?”
“Yes, sir, cheese,” I answered.
“Well, Jim,” says he, “just see the good that comes of being in your food. You’ve my snuff-box, haven’t you? And you saw me take snuff, the being that in my snuff-box I a piece of Parmesan cheese—a in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that’s for Ben Gunn!”
Before supper was we old Tom in the and him for a while bare-headed in the breeze. A good of had been got in, but not for the captain’s fancy, and he his over it and told us we “must to this tomorrow livelier.” Then, when we had our and each had a good of grog, the three got together in a to discuss our prospects.
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It they were at their wits’ end what to do, the stores being so low that we must have been into long help came. But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the until they either their flag or ran away with the Hispaniola. From they were already to fifteen, two others were wounded, and one at least—the man the gun—severely wounded, if he were not dead. Every time we had a at them, we were to take it, saving our own lives, with the care. And that, we had two able allies—rum and the climate.
As for the first, though we were about a mile away, we them and late into the night; and as for the second, the doctor his that, where they were in the and with remedies, the of them would be on their a week.
“So,” he added, “if we are not all they’ll be to be packing in the schooner. It’s always a ship, and they can to again, I suppose.”
“First ship that I lost,” said Captain Smollett.
I was tired, as you may fancy; and when I got to sleep, which was not till after a great of tossing, I slept like a of wood.
The had long been up and had already and the of by about as much again when I was by a and the of voices.
“Flag of truce!” I someone say; and then, after, with a of surprise, “Silver himself!”
And at that, up I jumped, and my eyes, ran to a in the wall.
