Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated), Page 5

  “Livesey,” returned the squire, “you are always in the right of it. I’ll be as silent as the grave.”

  * * *

  PART II

  THE SEA-COOK

  * * *

  CHAPTER VII

  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 Doctor 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 Doctor 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 every one in Bristol, as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for — treasure, I mean.”

  “Redruth,” said I, interrupting the letter, “Doctor 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 Doctor Livesey, I should think.”

  At that I gave up all attempt 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 to 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.

  “P.S. — 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-by 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 saber-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 pig-tails, 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 officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his face, and a capital imitation of a sailor’s walk.

  “Here you are!” he cried; “and the doctor came last night from London. Bravo! — the ship’s company complete.”

  “Oh, sir,” cried I, “when do we sail?”

  “Sail!” says he. “We sail to-morrow.”

  * * *

  CHAPTER VIII

  AT THE SIGN OF THE “SPY-GLASS”

  When I had done breakfasting, the squire gave me a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the “Spy-glass,” and told me I should easily find the place by following the line of the docks, and keeping a bright lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for a sign. I set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see some more of the ships and seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and bales, for the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern in question.

  It was a bright enough little place of entertainment. The sign was newly painted; the windows had neat red curtains; the floor was cleanly sanded. There was a street on each side, and an open door on both, which made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke.

  The customers were mostly seafaring men, and they talked so loudly that I hung at the door, almost afraid to enter.

  As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, and at a glance I was sure he must be Long John. His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham — plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheerful spirits, whistling as he moved about among the tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favored of his guests.

  Now, to tell you the truth, from the very first mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney’s letter, I had taken a fear in my mind that he might prove to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so long at the old “Benbow.” But one look at the man before me was enough. I had seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind man Pew, and I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like — a very different creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.

  I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold, and walked right up to the man where he stood, propped on his crutch, talking to a customer.

  “Mr. Silver, sir?” I asked, holding out the note.

  “Yes, my lad,” said he; “such is my name, to be sure. And who may you be?” And when he saw the squire’s letter he seemed to me to give something almost like a start.

  “Oh!” said he, quite aloud, and offering his hand, “I see. You are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you.”

  And he took my hand in his large firm grasp.

  Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and made for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the street in a moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at a glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had come first to the “Admiral Benbow.”

  “Oh,” I cried, “stop him! it’s Black Dog!”

  “I don’t care two coppers who he is,” cried Silver, “but he hasn’t paid his score. Harry, run and catch him.”

  One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up and started in pursuit.

  “If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score,” cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand, “Who did you say he was?” he asked. “Black what?”

  “Dog, sir,” said I. “Has Mr. Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers? He was one of them.”

  “So?” cried Silver. “In my house! Ben, run and help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step up here.”

  The man whom he called Morgan — an old, gray-haired, mahogany-faced sailor — came forward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid.

  “Now, Morgan,” said Long John, very sternly, “you never clapped your eyes on that Black Dog before, did you, now?”

  “Now, Morgan,” said Long John, very sternly, “you never clapped your eyes on that Black — Black Dog before, did you, now?”

  “Not I, sir,” said Morgan, with a salute.

  “You didn’t know his name, did you?”

  “No, sir.”

  “By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for you!” exclaimed the landlord. “If you had been mixed up with the like of that, you would never have put another foot in my house, you may lay to that. And what was he saying to you?”

  “I don’t rightly know, sir,” answered Morgan.

  “Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or a blessed dead-eye?” cried Long John. “Don’t rightly know, don’t you? Perhaps you don’t happen to rightly know who you was speaking to, perhaps? Come, now, what was he jawing — v’yages, cap’ns, ships? Pipe up! What was it?”

  “We was a-talkin’ of keel-hauling,” answered Morgan.

  “Keel-hauling, was you? and a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place for a lubber, Tom.”

  And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, Silver added to me, in a confidential whisper, that was very flattering, as I thought:

  “He’s quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on’y stupid. And now,” he ran on again, aloud, “let’s see — Black Dog? No, I don’t know the name, not I. Yet I kind of think I’ve — yes, I’ve seen the swab. He used to come here with a blind beggar, he used.”

  “That he did, you may be sure,” said I. “I knew that blind man, too. His name was Pew.”

  “It was!” cried Silver, now quite excited. “Pew! That were his name for certain. Ah, he looked a shark, he did! If we run down this Black Dog now, there’ll be news for Cap’n Trelawney! Ben’s a good runner; few seamen run better than Ben. He should run him down, hand over hand, by the powers! He talked o’ keel-hauling, did he? I’ll keel-haul him!”

  All the time he was jerking out these phrases he was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, slapping tables with his hand, and giving such a show of excitement as would have convinced an Old Bailey judge or a Bow Street runner. My suspicions had been thoroughly reawakened on finding Black Dog at the “Spy-glass,” and I watched the cook narrowly. But he was too deep, and too ready, and too clever for me, and by the time the two men had come back out of breath, and confessed that they had lost the track in a crowd, and been scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver.

  “See here, now, Hawkins,” said he, “here’s a blessed hard thing on a man like
me, now, ain’t it? There’s Cap’n Trelawney — what’s he to think? Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman sitting in my own house, drinking of my own rum! Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights! Now, Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap’n. You’re a lad, you are, but you’re as smart as paint. I see that when you first came in. Now, here it is: What could I do, with this old timber I hobble on? When I was an A B master mariner I’d have come up alongside of him, hand over hand, and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I would; and now — ”

  And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his jaw dropped as though he had remembered something.

  “The score!” he burst out. “Three goes o’ rum! Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn’t forgotten my score!”

  And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. I could not help joining, and we laughed together, peal after peal, until the tavern rang again.

  “Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!” he said, at last, wiping his cheeks. “You and me should get on well, Hawkins, for I’ll take my davy I should be rated ship’s boy. But, come, now, stand by to go about. This won’t do. Dooty is dooty, messmates. I’ll put on my old cocked hat and step along of you to Cap’n Trelawney, and report this here affair. For, mind you, it’s serious, young Hawkins; and neither you nor me’s come out of it with what I should make so bold as to call credit. Nor you neither, says you; not smart — none of the pair of us smart. But dash my buttons! that was a good ‘un about my score.”

  And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.

  On our little walk along the quays he made himself the most interesting companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going forward — how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third making ready for sea; and every now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen, or repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly. I began to see that here was one of the best of possible shipmates.