w. The more we told of our troubles, the more - man, woman, and
child -  they clung  to the shelter  of  their houses. The  name of  Captain
Flint, though it was strange to me,  was well enough known to some there and
carried a great weight of terror. Some of the men who had been to field-work
on  the far  side of the  Admiral  Benbow remembered, besides, to  have seen
several strangers  on the  road, and  taking  them  to be smugglers, to have
bolted  away;  and one at least had seen a  little lugger  in what we called
Kitt's Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a comrade of the captain's  was
enough to frighten them to death. And the short  and  the long of the matter
was, that while we could get several who were willing enough  to ride to Dr.
Livesey's, which  lay in another direction, not one would help us to  defend
the inn.
     They say cowardice  is infectious; but  then argument  is, on the other
hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had  said his say, my mother made
them a speech. She would not, she  declared, lose money that belonged to her
fatherless boy; "If none  of  the rest of  you  dare," she said, "Jim and  I
dare. Back  we will  go, the  way  we  came,  and small  thanks to you  big,
hulking, chicken-hearted men. We'll have that chest open, if we die for  it.
And  I'll thank you for that bag,  Mrs. Crossley,  to  bring back our lawful
money in."
     Of course I  said  I would go with  my mother,  and of course  they all
cried out at our foolhardiness, but even then not a man would go along  with
us. All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol lest  we were attacked,
and to promise to have horses ready  saddled in case we were pursued on  our
return, while one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's in search of armed
assistance.
     My  heart was beating finely when we two set forth  in the  cold  night
upon this  dangerous venture. A full moon was beginning  to rise  and peered
redly through the upper  edges of the fog, and this increased our haste, for
it was plain, before we  came forth again,  that all would  be as  bright as
day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. We slipped along
the hedges, noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear anything to increase
our terrors, till, to our relief, the  door of the Admiral Benbow had closed
behind us.
     I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for a moment in the
dark,  alone in the house with the dead captain's body. Then my mother got a
candle  in the  bar,  and holding each other's hands, we  advanced  into the
parlour. He lay as we had left him, on his back, with his eyes  open and one
arm stretched out.
     "Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they  might  come and
watch  outside.  And now," said she when I  had done so, "we have to get the
key off THAT; and who's to touch it, I should  like to know!" and she gave a
kind of sob as she said the words.
     I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close  to  his hand there
was a little  round of paper,  blackened on the  one side. I could not doubt
that this was the BLACK SPOT; and taking it up, I found written on the other
side, in a very  good, clear  hand, this  short message:  "You have till ten
tonight."
     "He had till ten, Mother," said I; and just as I said it, our old clock
began striking.  This sudden noise startled us shockingly; but  the news was
good, for it was only six.
     "Now, Jim," she said, "that key."
     I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble,
and some thread and big needles,  a piece of pigtail  tobacco bitten away at
the end, his gully with the crooked  handle, a  pocket compass, and a tinder
box were all that they contained, and I began to despair.
     "Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my mother.
     Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his shirt at the neck,  and
there, sure  enough, hanging to a bit of  tarry string, which I cut with his
own  gully,  we found the key. At this triumph we were filled with hope  and
hurried upstairs without delay to the little room where he had slept so long
and where his box had stood since the day of his arrival.
     It was  like any  other seaman's chest on the outside, the initial  "B"
burned on the  top of it  with a hot iron, and the corners somewhat  smashed
and broken as by long, rough usage.
     "Give  me the key," said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff,
she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.
     A  strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the interior, but  nothing
was to  be  seen on the  top  except a suit of very good clothes,  carefully
brushed  and  folded. They had  never been worn, my mother said. Under that,
the miscellany began - a quadrant, a tin canikin, several sticks of tobacco,
two brace  of very handsome pistols, a  piece of bar  silver, an old Spanish
watch and some other trinkets of little value and mostly of foreign make,  a
pair of compasses mounted with brass, and  five or six  curious West  Indian
shells. I have often  wondered since why  he should have carried about these
shells with him in his wandering, guilty, and hunted life.
     In  the meantime,  we had found nothing of any value but the silver and
the trinkets, and neither of these were in our way. Underneath  there was an
old boat-cloak, whitened  with sea-salt  on many  a  harbour-bar. My  mother
pulled it up with impatience, and  there  lay before us, the last things  in
the chest, a bundle  tied up in oilcloth,  and  looking like  papers,  and a
canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.
     "I'll  show these  rogues that I'm  an honest  woman,"  said my mother.
"I'll have my dues, and  not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And
she  began to count over the amount of the captain's score from the sailor's
bag into the one that I was holding.
     It was a long, difficult business, for  the coins were of all countries
and sizes - doubloons,  and louis  d'ors, and  guineas, and pieces of eight,
and  I know not  what besides,  all  shaken together at random. The guineas,
too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother knew
how to make her count.
     When we were  about  half-way through,  I suddenly put my hand upon her
arm, for I had heard in the silent frosty air a  sound that brought my heart
into my mouth -  the tap-tapping  of the blind man's stick  upon  the frozen
road. It drew nearer and  nearer, while we  sat holding our  breath. Then it
struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could hear the handle being turned
and the bolt rattling as  the wretched being tried to enter; and then  there
was a  long time  of  silence both  within  and without. At last the tapping
recommenced, and, to our indescribable joy  and  gratitude, died slowly away
again until it ceased to be heard.
     "Mother," said I, "take  the whole and let's  be going," for I was sure
the  bolted  door must have  seemed suspicious and  would  bring  the  whole
hornet's nest about  our ears, though how thankful I  was that I had  bolted
it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.
     But my mother,  frightened  as  she was, would  not  consent  to take a
fraction  more than  was  due  to  her  and was obstinately unwilling to  be
content with less. It was not yet  seven, she said, by a long way; she  knew
her rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing with me when a
little  low whistle sounded a good way  off  upon the hill. That was enough,
and more than enough, for both of us.
     "I'll take what I have,"  she said, jumping to her feet. "And I'll take
this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin packet.
     Next moment we were both groping downstairs, leaving the  candle by the
empty chest; and  the next we had opened the  door and were in full retreat.
We had  not  started a  moment  too  soon.  The fog  was rapidly dispersing;
already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground on either side; and it
was only in the exact  bottom of  the dell and round the tavern  door that a
thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal  the first steps of our escape. Far
less than half-way to the hamlet, very little beyond the bottom of the hill,
we must come forth into the moonlight.  Nor was this all,  for the  sound of
several footsteps running came already to our ears, and as we looked back in
their direction,  a light tossing  to and fro  and  still  rapidly advancing
showed that one of the newcomers carried a lantern.
     "My dear," said  my mother suddenly, "take the money  and run on.  I am
going to faint."
     This  was certainly the end for both of us, I thought. How I cursed the
cowardice of the neighbours; how I blamed my poor mother for her honesty and
her greed, for her past foolhardiness and present weakness! We  were just at
the little bridge, by good  fortune; and I helped her, tottering as she was,
to the edge of the bank, where, sure  enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my
shoulder. I do not know how  I found the strength to  do it at all, and I am
afraid it was roughly done, but I managed to  drag her  down  the bank and a
little way under the arch. Farther  I could not move her, for the bridge was
too low to let me do more than  crawl below it. So there we had to stay - my
mother almost entirely exposed and both of us within earshot of the inn.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     5. The Last of the Blind Man
     MY curiosity, in a sense,  was stronger  than my fear, for I could  not
remain where I was, but crept back  to the bank again, whence, sheltering my
head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our door. I was
scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them,
running hard, their feet beating out of time along the road and the man with
the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran together, hand in hand; and I
made  out, even through  the mist, that the middle man of this  trio was the
blind beggar. The next moment his voice showed me that I was right.
     "Down with the door!" he cried.
     "Aye, aye, sir!" answered two  or three; and  a rush  was made upon the
Admiral  Benbow,  the lantern-bearer following; and then I  could  see  them
pause, and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were surprised to
find the door open. But  the pause was brief, for the blind man again issued
his commands. His voice sounded louder and higher, as  if he were afire with
eagerness and rage.
     "In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their delay.
     Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on the road with the
formidable  beggar. There was a pause, then a cry of  surprise,  and then  a
voice shouting from the house, "Bill's dead."
     But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.
     "Search him,  some of  you  shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft
and get the chest," he cried.
     I could hear  their feet rattling up  our old stairs, so that the house
must  have shook with it. Promptly afterwards, fresh sounds  of astonishment
arose; the window  of  the  captain's room was thrown open with a slam and a
jingle  of broken glass,  and a man leaned out into  the moonlight, head and
shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the road below him.
     "Pew,"  he cried,  "they've been before us. Someone's turned the  chest
out alow and aloft."
     "Is it there?" roared Pew.
     "The money's there."
     The blind man cursed the money.
     "Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.
     "We don't see it here nohow," returned the man.
     "Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blind man again.
     At that another fellow,  probably him who had remained below  to search
the  captain's  body, came to the door  of  the inn. "Bill's been overhauled
a'ready," said he; "nothin' left."
     "It's these  people  of the inn - it's that boy.  I wish I had  put his
eyes out!" cried the blind man, Pew.
     "There  were here no time ago  - they had the door bolted  when I tried
it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."
     "Sure enough, they left  their  glim  here,"  said the fellow from  the
window.
     "Scatter and find 'em!  Rout the  house out!"  reiterated Pew, striking
with his stick upon the road.
     Then there followed a  great to-do through all our old  inn, heavy feet
pounding to and fro, furniture thrown over, doors  kicked in, until the very
rocks re-echoed and the men came  out again,  one after another, on the road
and declared that we were nowhere to be found.
     And  just the same whistle that had alarmed  my  mother and myself over
the dead  captain's money  was once more clearly audible through  the night,
but  this time twice  repeated. I had  thought  it to  be  the  blind  man's
trumpet,  so  to speak,  summoning his  crew to the assault, but I now found
that  it  was  a  signal from the hillside  towards the hamlet, and from its
effect upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them of approaching danger.
     "There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have to budge, mates."
     "Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk  was a  fool and a coward from the
first - you wouldn't mind him. They must be close by; they can't be far; you
have your hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs! Oh, shiver my soul,"
he cried, "if I had eyes!"
     This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of the fellows began
to look here  and there among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and
with half  an  eye to their  own danger all the time,  while  the rest stood
irresolute on the road.
     "You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you hang a leg! You'd
be as rich as kings if  you could find it, and  you know it's here,  and you
stand there skulking. There wasn't one of you dared face  Bill, and I did it
- a blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you! I'm to be a poor, crawling
beggar, sponging for rum, when I might be rolling in a coach! If you had the
pluck of a weevil in a biscuit you would catch them still."
     "Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled one.
     "They might have hid the blessed thing," said another.
     "Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."
     Squalling  was  the  word for it;  Pew's  anger  rose so high at  these
objections till at  last, his passion completely  taking the  upper hand, he
struck at them right and left in his blindness and his stick sounded heavily
on more than one.
     These, in their turn, cursed  back at  the blind miscreant,  threatened
him in horrid terms, and  tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from
his grasp. This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it was still raging,
another sound came from the top of the hill on  the side of the hamlet - the
tramp of horses galloping. Almost at the  same time a pistol-shot, flash and
report,  came from the hedge  side.  And that was plainly the last signal of
danger,  for  the buccaneers turned at once  and ran,  separating  in  every
direction, one seaward along the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on,
so that in half a minute  not a sign  of them remained but Pew. Him they had
deserted, whether in sheer  panic  or out of  revenge for his  ill words and
blows I know not; but there he remained behind, tapping up and down the road
in  a frenzy,  and groping and calling for his  comrades.  Finally he took a
wrong turn and ran a few steps past me, towards the hamlet, crying, "Johnny,
Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you won't leave old Pew, mates - not old
Pew!"
     Just then  the noise of horses topped the rise, and four or five riders
came in sight in the moonlight and swept at full gallop down the slope.
     At this  Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and ran straight  for
the ditch, into which he rolled.  But he was on his feet  again in a  second
and made  another dash, now utterly  bewildered, right under  the nearest of
the coming horses.
     The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that
rang  high into the night; and the four  hoofs trampled and  spurned him and
passed by. He fell  on his side, then  gently  collapsed  upon his  face and
moved no more.
     I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were pulling up, at any
rate, horrified at the accident; and I soon saw what they were. One, tailing
out  behind the rest,  was  a  lad  that had gone  from  the  hamlet to  Dr.
Livesey's; the  rest were revenue officers, whom he had met by the way,  and
with whom he  had had the  intelligence to return at  once. Some news of the
lugger in Kitt's  Hole had found its way  to Supervisor  Dance  and set  him
forth that night in  our direction, and to that circumstance my mother and I
owed our preservation from death.
     Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we  had carried her up
to the hamlet,  a little cold water and salts and that soon brought her back
again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still continued
to deplore the balance of the money. In the meantime the supervisor rode on,
as fast as  he could, to Kitt's Hole; but his men  had to dismount and grope
down the dingle,  leading, and sometimes  supporting, their  horses,  and in
continual fear of ambushes; so it was no great matter for surprise that when
they got down  to the Hole  the lugger was already under  way,  though still
close  in. He hailed her.  A voice replied, telling him to keep  out  of the
moonlight or he  would get  some lead in him,  and at the same time a bullet
whistled close  by his arm.  Soon  after, the  lugger doubled the  point and
disappeared. Mr. Dance stood  there, as he said, "like a fish out of water,"
and all he  could do was to dispatch a man to B - to  warn  the cutter. "And
that," said he,  "is just  about as  good as nothing. They've got off clean,
and there's an end."  "Only," he  added, "I'm glad  I trod  on Master  Pew's
corns," for by this time he had heard my story. I went back with him  to the
Admiral Benbow, and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the
very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after
my mother and myself; and though nothing had actually been taken away except
the  captain's money-bag and a little  silver from the till, I could see  at
once that we were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing of the scene.
     "They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, what in fortune were
they after? More money, I suppose?"
     "No,  sir; not money, I  think," replied I. "In fact, sir, I  believe I
have the thing in my breast pocket; and to tell you the truth, I should like
to get it put in safety."
     "To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take it, if you like."
     "I thought perhaps Dr. Livesey - " I began.
     "Perfectly right," he interrupted  very cheerily, "perfectly right  - a
gentleman and a magistrate. And, now I  come to think of it, I might as well
ride round there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's dead, when
all's done; not that I  regret it,  but he's  dead, you see, and people will
make it out against an officer of his Majesty's revenue, if make it out they
can. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll take you along."
     I thanked him heartily for the offer,  and we walked back to the hamlet
where the horses were. By the time I had told mother of my purpose they were
all in the saddle.
     "Dogger," said  Mr. Dance,  "you have  a good  horse; take  up this lad
behind you."
     As soon as I was mounted,  holding on to Dogger's belt, the  supervisor
gave  the word, and the party  struck  out at a bouncing trot on the road to
Dr. Livesey's house.
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     6. The Captain's Papers
     WE rode hard all the way till we drew up before Dr. Livesey's door. The
house was all dark to the front. Mr. Dance told me  to jump down and  knock,
and Dogger  gave me a stirrup to descend by.  The  door was opened almost at
once by the maid.
     "Is Dr. Livesey in?" I asked.
     "No," she said, "he had come home in the afternoon  but had gone  up to
the hall to dine and pass the evening with the squire."
     "So there we go, boys," said Mr. Dance.
     This  time,  as  the distance was short, I did not mount,  but ran with
Dogger's stirrup-leather  to  the lodge  gates and  up  the long,  leafless,
moonlit  avenue  to where  the  white line of the hall buildings  looked  on
either hand on great old  gardens. Here Mr.  Dance dismounted, and taking me
along with him, was admitted at a word into the house.
     The servant led  us down a matted passage and showed us at the end into
a great library, all lined with  bookcases  and busts upon  the top of them,
where the  squire and  Dr. Livesey sat, pipe  in hand, on either side  of  a
bright fire.
     I had never seen the squire  so near at hand.  He was a tall  man, over
six  feet high, and broad in proportion, and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready
face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels. His eyebrows
were very black, and moved readily, and this gave him a look of some temper,
not bad, you would say, but quick and high.
     "Come in, Mr. Dance," says he, very stately and condescending.
     "Good evening, Dance," says the doctor with a nod.
     "And good evening to you, friend Jim. What good wind brings you here?"
     The  supervisor stood up straight  and stiff and  told his story like a
lesson; and you should have seen how the two  gentlemen  leaned  forward and
looked  at each  other, and forgot to smoke in  their surprise and interest.
When  they heard  how my mother  went  back to the inn,  Dr.  Livesey fairly
slapped his thigh,  and the squire  cried  "Bravo!" and  broke his long pipe
against the  grate. Long before it  was done, Mr. Trelawney (that,  you will
remember, was the squire's  name) had got up from his  seat and was striding
about the room, and the doctor,  as if to hear the better, had taken off his
powdered  wig  and sat  there  looking  very strange  indeed  with  his  own
close-cropped black poll.
     At last Mr. Dance finished the story.
     "Mr. Dance,"  said the squire, "you are a very noble fellow. And as for
riding  down  that  black, atrocious  miscreant,  I regard  it as an act  of
virtue,  sir,  like stamping on a  cockroach. This lad Hawkins is a trump, I
perceive. Hawkins, will you ring that bell? Mr. Dance must have some ale."
     "And so,  Jim," said  the doctor, "you  have the thing  that  they were
after, have you?"
     "Here it is, sir," said I, and gave him the oilskin packet.
     The doctor looked it  all over,  as if his fingers were itching to open
it; but instead of doing that, he put it quietly in the pocket of his coat.
     "Squire," said he,  "when  Dance has had his ale he must, of course, be
off on his Majesty's  service; but I mean  to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep
at my house, and with your permission, I  propose we should have up the cold
pie and let him sup."
     "As you  will, Livesey," said  the squire; "Hawkins  has  earned better
than cold pie."
     So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a sidetable, and I made a
hearty supper, for I was  as hungry  as a hawk, while Mr. Dance  was further
complimented and at last dismissed.
     "And now, squire," said the doctor.
     "And now, Livesey," said the squire in the same breath.
     "One at a time, one at a time," laughed Dr. Livesey.
     "You have heard of this Flint, I suppose?"
     "Heard of  him!" cried  the squire. "Heard of him, you say! He was  the
bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child  to Flint. The
Spaniards  were so prodigiously  afraid of him that, I tell you,  sir, I was
sometimes proud  he was an Englishman.  I've  seen his top-sails  with these
eyes,  off  Trinidad, and  the cowardly son of a rum-puncheon that  I sailed
with put back - put back, sir, into Port of Spain."
     "Well, I've heard of him myself, in England," said the doctor. "But the
point is, had he money?"
     "Money!"  cried the squire.  "Have you heard the story? What were these
villains after but money? What do  they care for but  money? For what  would
they risk their rascal carcasses but money?"
     "That  we  shall  soon  know," replied the  doctor.  "But  you  are  so
confoundedly  hot-headed and exclamatory that I cannot get a word in. What I
want to know is this: Supposing that I have here  in  my pocket some clue to
where Flint buried his treasure, will that treasure amount to much?"
     "Amount,  sir!" cried  the squire. "It will amount to this: If  we have
the clue you talk about, I fit  out a ship in Bristol dock, and take you and
Hawkins here along, and I'll have that treasure if I search a year."
     "Very  well," said the doctor. "Now, then, if  Jim is  agreeable, we'll
open the packet"; and he laid it before him on the table.
     The bundle  was  sewn together, and  the  doctor  had to  get  out  his
instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors. It contained
two things - a book and a sealed paper.
     "First of all we'll try the book," observed the doctor.
     The  squire and I were both peering over  his shoulder as he opened it,
for Dr. Livesey had  kindly motioned me to come round  from the  side-table,
where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the search. On the first page
there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man with a pen in his hand
might make  for idleness or  practice. One was the same as the tattoo  mark,
"Billy Bones his fancy"; then there was "Mr. W. Bones, mate," "No more rum,"
"Off Palm Key he got itt," and some other snatches, mostly single  words and
unintelligible.  I  could  not help wondering who it was that had "got itt,"
and what "itt" was that he got. A knife in his back as like as not.
     "Not much instruction there," said Dr. Livesey as he passed on.
     The next  ten or twelve  pages were  filled  with a  curious  series of
entries. There was a date at  one end  of the line and at the other a sum of
money, as in common account-books, but  instead of explanatory writing, only
a varying  number of crosses between the two. On the 12th of June, 1745, for
instance,  a sum of  seventy pounds had plainly become  due to  someone, and
there was nothing but six crosses  to explain the cause. In a few cases,  to
be sure, the name of  a place would be  added, as "Offe Caraccas," or a mere
entry of latitude and longitude, as "62o 17' 20", 19o 2' 40"."
     The record lasted over nearly twenty years,  the amount of the separate
entries growing larger  as time went on, and  at the end a  grand  total had
been made out  after five or six wrong additions, and these words  appended,
"Bones, his pile."
     "I can't make head or tail of this," said Dr. Livesey.
     "The  thing is as clear  as noonday,"  cried the  squire. "This  is the
black-hearted hound's  account-book.  These crosses  stand for the names  of
ships  or towns  that  they sank or plundered. The sums are  the scoundrel's
share, and where he feared an ambiguity, you see he added something clearer.
'Offe Caraccas,' now; you see, here was some unhappy vessel boarded off that
coast. God help the poor souls that manned her - coral long ago."
     "Right!" said the doctor. "See what it is to be a traveller. Right! And
the amounts increase, you see, as he rose in rank."
     There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of  places noted
in the  blank  leaves  towards the  end  and  a  table for  reducing French,
English, and Spanish moneys to a common value.
     "Thrifty man!" cried the doctor. "He wasn't the one to be cheated."
     "And now," said the squire, "for the other."
     The paper had been sealed  in several places with a  thimble  by way of
seal; the very thimble, perhaps,  that I  had found in the captain's pocket.
The doctor opened  the seals with great care, and there fell out  the map of
an island,  with latitude and longitude, soundings,  names of hills and bays
and inlets, and every particular that would  be needed to bring a  ship to a
safe anchorage  upon its shores.  It  was  about nine miles  long  and  five
across, shaped, you might say, like a  fat dragon  standing up, and had  two
fine  land-locked  harbours,  and a  hill in  the  centre part  marked  "The
Spy-glass."  There were several  additions of a  later date, but above  all,
three crosses of  red ink - two on the north part of  the island, one in the
southwest - and beside this last, in the same red ink, and in  a small, neat
hand, very different  from the  captain's  tottery  characters, these words:
"Bulk of  treasure here." Over  on the  back  the same hand had written this
further information:
     Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
     Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
     Ten feet.
     The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find  it by the  trend of
the east hummock, ten fathoms south  of the black crag with the face  on it.
The arms are easy found, in  the  sand-hill, N. point of  north inlet  cape,
bearing E. and a quarter N.
        J.F.
     That  was  all; but  brief as  it was, and to me  incomprehensible,  it
filled the squire and Dr. Livesey with delight.
     "Livesey," said the squire, "you will give up this wretched practice at
once. Tomorrow I  start for Bristol. In  three weeks' time -  three weeks! -
two weeks - ten days - we'll have the best ship, sir, and  the choicest crew
in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy. You'll make a famous cabin-boy,
Hawkins. You, Livesey, are ship's doctor; I am admiral.  We'll take Redruth,
Joyce, and Hunter. We'll have favourable winds, a quick passage, and not the
least difficulty in finding the  spot, and money to eat, to roll in, to play
duck and drake with ever after."
     "Trelawney," said the  doctor, "I'll go with  you; and I'll go bail for
it, so  will Jim, and be a credit to  the undertaking. There's only  one man
I'm afraid of."
     "And who's that?" cried the squire. "Name the dog, sir!"
     "You," replied the doctor; "for you cannot hold your tongue. We are not
the  only men who  know of  this  paper.  These fellows who attacked the inn
tonight - bold, desperate blades,  for sure - and the rest who stayed aboard
that lugger, and  more, I dare say, not far off, are,  one  and all, through
thick and  thin, bound that they'll  get  that money. We must none  of us go
alone till we get to sea. Jim  and I shall stick together in the  meanwhile;
you'll take Joyce and  Hunter when you  ride  to Bristol, and from first  to
last, not one of us must breathe a word of what we've found."
     "Livesey," returned  the squire, "you are always  in  the right of  it.
I'll be as silent as the grave."
     =======================================================================

        PART TWO
     The Sea-cook
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------
     7. I Go to Bristol
     IT was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for  the  sea,
and none of our first plans - not even  Dr. Livesey's, of  keeping me beside
him  - could be carried out as we intended. The doctor  had to  go to London
for a physician to take charge of his practice; the squire was  hard at work
at Bristol; and I lived on at the hall under the  charge of old Redruth, the
gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams and the most  charming
anticipations  of  strange  islands  and  adventures. I brooded by the  hour
together over the map, all the  details of which I well remembered.  Sitting
by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I approached that island in my  fancy
from  every possible direction; I  explored  every acre  of  its  surface; I
climbed a thousand times to that tall hill they call the Spy-glass, and from
the  top  enjoyed the most  wonderful and changing  prospects. Sometimes the
isle  was  thick  with savages, with  whom  we  fought,  sometimes  full  of
dangerous animals that hunted us, but in all my fancies nothing  occurred to
me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.
     So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed
to Dr.  Livesey, with  this  addition, "To  be  opened, in the case  of  his
absence, by Tom Redruth or young Hawkins." Obeying  this order, we found, or
rather I found - for the gamekeeper  was a poor hand at reading anything but
print - the following important news:
     "Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17 - Dear Livesey - As I do not know
whether you are  at  the hall  or still in London, I send this in  double to
both places.
     The ship is bought and fitted. She lies  at anchor, ready for sea.  You
never  imagined a sweeter  schooner  - a child might sail her -  two hundred
tons; name, HISPANIOLA.
     I  got  her  through  my  old  friend, Blandly,  who has proved himself
throughout the most surprising  trump. The admirable fellow literally slaved
in  my interest, and so, I may say, did everyone in Bristol, as soon as they
got wind of the port we sailed for - treasure, I mean."
     "Redruth," said I, interrupting  the letter, "Dr. Livesey will not like
that. The squire has been talking, after all."
     "Well, who's a better right?" growled the gamekeeper.
     "A  pretty  rum  go if squire  ain't to talk for Dr.  Livesey, I should
think."
     At that I gave up all attempts at commentary and read straight on:
     "Blandly  himself found  the HISPANIOLA,  and  by  the  most  admirable
management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of men in Bristol
monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length of declaring that
this  honest  creature  would  do  anything  for  money, that the HISPANIOLA
belonged to him, and that he sold it me absurdly high - the most transparent
calumnies. None of them dare, however, to deny the merits of the ship.
     So far there was not a hitch. The  workpeople, to be sure - riggers and
what not -  were most annoyingly slow; but time cured that. It  was the crew
that troubled me.
     I wished a round score of men - in case  of natives, buccaneers, or the
odious French -  and I had the  worry of the deuce itself to find so much as
half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought me the very
man that I required.
     I was standing on  the dock, when,  by  the  merest accident, I fell in
talk with  him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public-house, knew  all
the seafaring men in Bristol, had  lost his health ashore, and wanted a good
berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled  down  there that morning,
he said, to  get a smell of the salt. I was  monstrously touched  - so would
you have been - and, out  of pure pity, I engaged  him  on  the  spot  to be
ship's cook. Long John Silver,  he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I
regarded as a  recommendation,  since  he  lost it in his country's service,
under the immortal Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable
age we live in!
     Well, sir, I thought  I had only found a cook, but it  was a crew I had
discovered. Between  Silver and myself we  got  together  in a  few  days  a
company of the  toughest old salts imaginable - not  pretty to look  at, but
fellows, by their faces, of the most  indomitable spirit. I declare we could
fight a frigate.
     Long  John even got rid of two  out  of the six or  seven I had already
engaged.  He  showed me  in  a  moment  that  they were  just  the  sort  of
fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.
     I am in the  most magnificent health and spirits, eating  like a  bull,
sleeping like a  tree, yet I shall not enjoy  a moment  till I hear  my  old
tarpaulins  tramping round the capstan. Seaward, ho! Hang the treasure! It's
the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come post; do
not lose an hour, if you respect me. Let young Hawkins go at once to see his
mother, with Redruth for a guard; and then both come full speed to Bristol.
     John Trelawney
     Postscript -  I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the  way, is  to
send a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had  found
an admirable fellow for sailing master - a stiff man, which I regret, but in
all other respects a  treasure. Long John Silver  unearthed a very competent
man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so
things shall go man-o'-war fashion on board the good ship HISPANIOLA.
     I  forgot to tell you that  Silver is  a man of substance; I know of my
own  knowledge  that  he  has  a  banker's account,  which  has  never  been
overdrawn. He  leaves his  wife to manage the inn; and  as she is a woman of
colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and  I may be excused for  guessing
that it is the wife, quite as much  as  the  health,  that sends him back to
roving.
        J. T.
     P.P.S. - Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.
        J. T."
     You can fancy  the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
beside myself  with  glee; and if  ever  I despised a  man, it  was old  Tom
Redruth,  who  could  do  nothing  but  grumble  and  lament.  Any   of  the
under-gamekeepers would gladly  have changed  places with him; but  such was
not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law among them
all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to grumble.
     The next morning he and I  set out  on foot for the Admiral Benbow, and
there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The  captain, who had so
long  been a  cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the  wicked  cease
from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the public rooms
and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture - above all a beautiful
armchair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy as an apprentice also
so that she should not want help while I was gone.
     It was on seeing  that  boy that I understood, for the  first time,  my
situation. I had thought up to that  moment of the adventures before me, not
at  all of the home that I was leaving; and now, at  sight  of  this  clumsy
stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside  my mother, I had my first
attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life, for  as he was new
to the work, I had a  hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting
him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.
     The night passed, and  the next  day, after dinner, Redruth  and I were
afoot again and on  the road. I said good-bye to Mother and the cove where I
had lived since I was born,  and the dear old Admiral  Benbow - since he was
repainted,  no  longer  quite  so  dear. One  of my last thoughts was of the
captain,  who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked  hat,  his
sabre-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we had turned  the
corner and my home was out of sight.
     The mail  picked us up about dusk at the  Royal George  on the heath. I
was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of the
swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal from the
very first, and then  slept like a  log up hill and down dale  through stage
after stage,  for when I was awakened at last it was by a punch in the ribs,
and I opened my eyes  to find  that we were  standing still  before a  large
building in a city street and that the day had already broken a long time.
     "Where are we?" I asked.
     "Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."
     Mr.  Trelawney  had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks
to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now  to  walk, and
our way, to my  great  delight,  lay along  the  quays  and beside the great
multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and  nations. In one,  sailors were
singing  at their work, in another there were men  aloft, high over my head,
hanging  to  threads that  seemed no thicker  than a spider's.  Though I had
lived  by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have  been near  the  sea
till then.  The smell  of tar and salt was  something  new. I  saw the  most
wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, besides,
many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets,
and tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen
as many kings or archbishops I could not have been more delighted.
     And I  was  going to  sea myself, to sea in a schooner, with  a  piping
boatswain  and  pig-tailed  singing  seamen, to  sea, bound  for an  unknown
island,  and  to  seek  for  buried  treasure!  While  I  was still  in this
delightful  dream, we came suddenly  in front of a large  inn and met Squire
Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea-o