Treasure Island
The Ebb-tide Runs
THE coracle—as I had to know I was done with her—was a very safe for a person of my and weight, and in a seaway; but she was the most cross-grained, lop-sided to manage. Do as you pleased, she always more than anything else, and and was the she was best at. Even Ben Gunn himself has that she was “queer to till you her way.”
Certainly I did not know her way. She in every direction but the one I was to go; the most part of the time we were on, and I am very sure I should have the ship at all but for the tide. By good fortune, as I pleased, the was still me down; and there the Hispaniola right in the fairway, to be missed.
First she me like a of something yet than darkness, then her and to take shape, and the next moment, as it (for, the I went, the the of the ebb), I was alongside of her and had hold.
The was as as a bowstring, and the so she upon her anchor. All the hull, in the blackness, the and like a little stream. One cut with my sea-gully and the Hispaniola would go the tide.
So so good, but it next to my that a hawser, cut, is a thing as as a kicking horse. Ten to one, if I were so as to cut the Hispaniola from her anchor, I and the would be clean out of the water.
This me to a full stop, and if had not again particularly me, I should have had to my design. But the light which had from the south-east and south had after into the south-west. Just while I was meditating, a came, the Hispaniola, and her up into the current; and to my great joy, I the in my grasp, and the hand by which I it for a second under water.
With that I my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth, and cut one after another, till the only by two. Then I quiet, waiting to these last when the should be once more by a of wind.
All this time I had the of loud voices from the cabin, but to say truth, my mind had been so taken up with other that I had ear. Now, however, when I had nothing else to do, I to pay more heed.
One I for the coxswain’s, Israel Hands, that had been Flint’s in days. The other was, of course, my friend of the red night-cap. Both men were the of drink, and they were still drinking, for while I was listening, one of them, with a cry, opened the window and out something, which I to be an empty bottle. But they were not only tipsy; it was plain that they were angry. Oaths like hailstones, and every now and then there came such an as I was sure to end in blows. But each time the passed off and the voices for a while, until the next came and in its turn passed away without result.
On shore, I see the of the great camp-fire through the shore-side trees. Someone was singing, a dull, old, sailor’s song, with a and a at the end of every verse, and no end to it at all but the patience of the singer. I had it on the more than once and these words:
“But one man of her alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five.”
And I it was a too for a company that had met such in the morning. But, indeed, from what I saw, all these were as as the sea they on.
At last the came; the and nearer in the dark; I the once more, and with a good, effort, cut the last through.
The had but little action on the coracle, and I was almost against the of the Hispaniola. At the same time, the to turn upon her heel, slowly, end for end, across the current.
I like a fiend, for I every moment to be swamped; and since I I not push the directly off, I now astern. At length I was clear of my neighbour, and just as I gave the last impulsion, my hands came across a light that was across the bulwarks. Instantly I it.
Why I should have done so I can say. It was at instinct, but once I had it in my hands and it fast, to the upper hand, and I I should have one look through the window.
I in hand over hand on the cord, and when I myself near enough, rose at to about my and thus the and a slice of the of the cabin.
By this time the and her little were through the water; indeed, we had already up level with the camp-fire. The ship was talking, as say, loudly, the with an splash; and until I got my above the window-sill I not why the had taken no alarm. One glance, however, was sufficient; and it was only one that I take from that skiff. It me Hands and his locked together in wrestle, each with a hand upon the other’s throat.
0223m
I upon the again, none too soon, for I was near overboard. I see nothing for the moment but these two furious, together under the lamp, and I my to let them once more familiar with the darkness.
The had come to an end at last, and the whole company about the camp-fire had into the I had so often:
“Fifteen men on the man’s chest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the had done for the rest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
I was just how drink and the were at that very moment in the of the Hispaniola, when I was by a of the coracle. At the same moment, she and to her course. The speed in the meantime had increased.
I opened my at once. All me were little ripples, over with a sharp, and phosphorescent. The Hispaniola herself, a yards in wake I was still being along, to in her course, and I saw her a little against the of the night; nay, as I looked longer, I sure she also was to the southward.
I over my shoulder, and my jumped against my ribs. There, right me, was the of the camp-fire. The had at right angles, along with it the tall and the little dancing coracle; quickening, higher, louder, it through the for the open sea.
Suddenly the in of me gave a yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty degrees; and almost at the same moment one another from on board; I on the and I that the two had at last been in their and to a of their disaster.
I in the of that and my to its Maker. At the end of the straits, I sure we must into some of breakers, where all my would be ended speedily; and though I could, perhaps, to die, I not to look upon my as it approached.
So I must have for hours, to and upon the billows, now and again with sprays, and to death at the next plunge. Gradually upon me; a numbness, an occasional stupor, upon my mind in the of my terrors, until sleep at last and in my sea-tossed I and of home and the old Admiral Benbow.
