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Treasure Island
Chapter 28. In the Enemy's Camp
The red light of the torch, shining inside the block house, showed me my worst fears had come true.
The pirates were in control of the house and the supplies.
There was the barrel of brandy, there were the pork and bread, just as before.
But what made my horror ten times worse was that there was no sign of any prisoner.
I could only guess that everyone had died, and my heart hurt me badly that I hadn't been there to die with them.
There were six of the pirates in total.
Not another man was left alive, Five of them were standing, red-faced and swollen, suddenly woken from their first drunken sleep.
The sixth had only raised himself on his elbow.
He was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage around his head showed that he had been wounded recently, and even more recently treated.
I remembered the man who had been shot and had run back into the woods during the big attack.
And I had no doubt that this was him.
The parrot sat on Long John's shoulder, cleaning its feathers.
He himself, I thought, looked a bit paler and more serious than I was used to.
He still wore the fine suit of broadcloth in which he had done his mission.
But it was much the worse for wear, covered with mud and torn by the sharp bushes of the wood.
"So," he said, "here's Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! Dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly."
And then he sat down across the brandy barrel and began to fill a pipe.
"Give me a loan of the torch, Dick," he said.
And then, when he had a good light, "That'll do, lad," he added.
"Stick the light in the wood pile."
"You, gentlemen, make yourselves comfortable! You don't need to stand up for Mr. Hawkins. He'll excuse you, you can be sure of that. And so, Jim."
- stopping the tobacco - "here you're, and quite a pleasant surprise for poor old John."
"I saw you were smart when I first set my eyes on you, but this here gets away from me completely, it does".
To all this, as you can imagine, I made no answer.
They had put me with my back against the wall.
And I stood there, looking Silver in the face, bravely enough, I hope, on the outside, but with black despair in my heart.
Silver took a puff or two of his pipe very calmly and then went on.
"Now, you see, Jim, since you ARE here,"
He said, "I'll give you a piece of my mind."
"I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and you remind me of my younger self."
"I always wanted you to join and take your share, and die a gentleman."
"And now, my friend, you've got to."
"Captain Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll admit any day, but stiff on discipline, 'Duty is duty,' he says, and he's right."
"Just keep clear of captain, doctor called you 'ungrateful scamp', they won't take you back, so you'll have to join Captain Silver".
So far so good, My friends, then, were still alive.
I partly believed Silver's statement that the cabin party were angry at me for my desertion.
Still, I felt more relieved than upset by what I heard.
"I don't say nothing as to your being in our hands," continued Silver.
"Though there you're, and you can be sure of it."
"I'm all for argument."
"I never seen good come out of threatening."
"If you like the service, well, you'll join."
"And if you don't, Jim, why, you're free to answer no - free and welcome, shipmate."
"And if fairer can be said by any mortal seaman, shiver my sides!"
"Am I to answer, then?" I asked with a very shaky voice.
Through this sneering talk, I felt death's threat, my cheeks burned and my heart pounded painfully.
"Lad," said Silver, "no one's pressing you. Take your bearings. None of us will hurry you, mate. Time goes so pleasant in your company, you see."
"Well," I said, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm to choose, I declare I have a right to know what's what, and why you're here, and where my friends are."
"What's what?" repeated one of the pirates in a deep growl.
"Ah, he'd be a lucky one who knew that!"
"You'll perhaps shut your mouth till you're spoken to, my friend," cried Silver angrily to this speaker.
And then, in his first friendly tones, he replied to me.
"Yesterday morning, Mr. Hawkins,"
He said, "in the dog-watch, down came Doctor Livesey with a flag of truce."
"He said, 'Captain Silver, you're sold out. Ship's gone.' Well, maybe we'd been having a drink, and a song to help it along."
"I won't say no. At least, none of us had looked out. We looked out, and by thunder, the old ship was gone! I never seen a pack of fools look fishier."
"And you can be sure of that, if I tell you that I looked the fishiest."
"'Well,' said the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, him and I, and here we're, stores, brandy, block house, the firewood you was thoughtful enough to cut, and in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat,"
"From cross-trees to keelson. As for them, they've tramped. I don't know where they're."
He drew again quietly at his pipe.
"And lest you should take it into that head of yours,"
"He went on, "that you was included in the treaty, here's the last word that was said.
"'How many are you,' I said, 'to leave?'" 'Four,' he said.
Four, and one of us wounded, he added, in a rough, coughing voice.
As for that boy, I don't know where he's, confound him,' he said, 'and I don't much care.
"We're about sick of him.' These was his words."
"Is that all?" I asked.
"Well, it's all that you're going to hear, my son," replied Silver.
"And now I'm to choose?"
"And now you're to choose, and you can be sure of that," said Silver.
"Well," I said, "I'm not such a fool that I don't know pretty well what I have to expect."
"Let the worst come to the worst, I don't care much. I've seen too many die since I fell in with you."
"But there's a thing or two I have to tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited.
"And the first is this, here you're, in a bad way - ship lost, treasure lost, men lost, your whole business gone to ruin."
"And if you want to know who did it - it was I!"
"I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land."
"I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who's now at the bottom of the sea."
"I told every word you said before the hour was out."
"I cut the schooner's cable."
"I killed the men you had aboard her."
"I brought her where you'll never see her again."
"The laugh's on my side."
"I've had the top of this business from the first."
"I no more fear you than I fear a fly."
"Kill me, if you please, or spare me."
"But one thing I'll say, and no more, if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and when you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you all I can."
"It's for you to choose."
"Kill another and do yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a witness to save you from the gallows."
I stopped, because, I tell you, I was out of breath.
And to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all sat staring at me like so many sheep.
And while they were still staring, I broke out again.
"And now, Mr. Silver,"
"I said, "You're the best man here, if things go worst, I'd be grateful if you tell the doctor how I acted.
"I'll bear it in mind," said Silver.
His accent was so strange that I couldn't decide if he was laughing at my request.
Or if my courage had favorably affected him.
"I'll add one to that," cried the old mahogany-faced seaman - Morgan by name - whom I had seen in Long John's public house on the docks of Bristol.
"It was him that knew Black Dog."
"Well, and see here," added the sea-cook.
"I'll add another to that, by thunder!"
"For it was this same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones."
"First and last, we've split upon Jim Hawkins!"
"Then here goes!" said Morgan with an oath.
And he jumped up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty years old.
"Avast, there!" cried Silver.
"Who are you, Tom Morgan?"
"Maybe you thought you was captain here, perhaps."
"By the powers, but I'll teach you better!"
"Cross me, and you'll go where many a good man has gone before you."
"Some have gone to the yard-arm, shiver my timbers."
"Others have gone overboard, and all to feed the fishes."
"There's never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day afterwards, Tom Morgan, you can be sure of that."
Morgan paused, but a hoarse murmur rose from the others.
"Tom's right," said one.
"I've stood being bullied long enough from one," added another.
"I'll be hanged if I'll be bullied by you, John Silver."
"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with ME?"
Roared Silver, bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his right hand.
"Put a name on what you're at."
"You aren't dumb, I reckon."
"He who wants it shall get it."
"Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum barrel cock his hat across my path at the end of it?"
"You know the way."
"You're all gentlemen of fortune, by your account."
"Well, I'm ready."
"Take a cutlass, he who dares, and I'll see the color of his insides, crutch and all, before that pipe's empty."
Not a man stirred, Not a man answered.
"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth.
"Well, you're a fine lot to look at, anyway."
"Not much worth fighting, you aren't."
"Maybe you can understand King George's English."
"I'm captain here by election."
"I'm captain here because I'm the best man by a long sea-mile."
"You won't fight, as gentlemen of fortune should."
"Then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you can be sure of it!"
"I like that boy, now."
"I never seen a better boy than that."
"He's more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house."
"And what I say is this, let me see him that'll lay a hand on him - that's what I say, and you can be sure of it."
There was a long pause after this.
I stood straight up against the wall, my heart still going like a sledge-hammer, but with a ray of hope now shining in my chest.
Silver leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, as calm as though he had been in church.
Yet his eye kept wandering secretly, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly followers.
They drew together to the far end of the block house, the hiss of their whispering sounding in my ear like a stream.
One after another, they'd look up, and the red light of the torch would fall for a second on their nervous faces.
But it wasn't towards me, it was towards Silver that they turned their eyes.
"You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the air.
"Speak up and let me hear it, or be quiet."
"Ask your pardon, sir," replied one of the men.
"You're pretty free with some of the rules."
"Maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest."
"This crew's dissatisfied."
"This crew don't value bullying with a marlin-spike."
"This crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that."
"And by your own rules, I take it we can talk together."
"I ask your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for to be captain at this present."
"But I claim my right, and steps outside for a council."
With an elaborate sea-salute, this long, ill-looking, yellow-eyed man of thirty-five stepped towards the door and disappeared out of the house.
One after another the rest followed his example, each making a salute as he passed, each adding some apology.
"According to rules," said one.
"Forecastle council," said Morgan.
And so with one remark or another all marched out and left Silver and me alone with the torch.
The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe, staring at me with nervous, determined eyes.
"Now, look here, Jim Hawkins," he said in a steady whisper that was barely audible.
"You're within half a plank of death, and what's a long sight worse, of torture."
"They're going to throw me off."
"But, you mark, I stand by you through thick and thin."
"I didn't mean to."
"No, not till you spoke up."
"I was about desperate to lose that much money, and be hanged into the bargain."
"But I saw you was the right sort."
"I said to myself, you stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins'll stand by you."
"You're his last card, and by the living thunder, John, he's yours!"
"Back to back, I said."
"You save your witness, and he'll save your neck!"
Slowly, and with some confusion, I began dimly to understand what he meant.
"You mean all's lost?" I asked.
"Aye, by gum, I do!" he answered.
"Ship gone, neck gone - that's the size of it."
"Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no schooner - well, I'm tough, but I gave out."
"As for that lot and their council, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards."
"I'll save your life - if so be as I can - from them."
"But, see here, Jim - tit for tat - you save Long John from swinging."
I was bewildered, it seemed such a hopeless thing he was asking - he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout.
"What I can do, that I'll do," I said.
"It's a bargain!" cried Long John.
"You speak up bravely, and by thunder, I've a chance!"
He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his pipe.
"Understand me, Jim," he said, returning.
"I've a head on my shoulders, I have."
"I'm on the squire's side now."
"I know you've got that ship safe somewhere."
"How you done it, I don't know, but safe it's."
"I guess Hands and O'Brien turned soft."
"I never much believed in either of THEM."
"Now you mark me."
"I ask no questions, and I won't let others."
"I know when a game's up, I do."
"And I know a lad that's loyal."
"Ah, you that's young - you and me might have done a power of good together!"
He drew some brandy from the barrel into a tin cup.
"Will you taste, messmate?" he asked.
And when I had refused, "Well, I'll take a drink myself, Jim," he said.
"I need a strong one, because there's trouble on hand. And talking of trouble, why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim?"
My face expressed such genuine wonder that he saw there was no need for further questions.
"Ah, well, he did, though," he said.
"And there's something behind that, no doubt - something, surely, behind that, Jim - bad or good."
And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his big fair head like a man who expects the worst.