by Lisa Norby
Long John had a plain, honest face. He was a hard worker, too. He used his crutch to hop around the tavern, as lively as a bird.
And how that man could talk! “Hawkins, my lad,” he said to me, “you are smart as paint. I can see that right away. You and I should get on well.” That day he told me many stories about life at sea. Soon I had told him my story, too—all about Blind Pew and what had happened at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Long John acted shocked.
Long John treated me like a grownup. He made me feel important. Ever since my father died I had been lonely. I wanted so much to believe that Long John was really my friend!
Dr. Livesey arrived in Bristol later in the afternoon. That night we all slept on the Hispaniola. In the morning, just after sunrise, all the sailors took their places on deck. The anchor came up. The ship’s sails caught the wind. Soon we were racing out of the harbor.
Long John Silver was up on deck too. “So, ho, mates!” he cried. “We’re off.”
“Let’s have a song,” one of the men called out to him.
Long John started to sing: “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest …”
In one voice all the men answered back: “Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
That was Billy Bones’s song! It seemed strange that Long John and the crew all knew it too. Well, I thought, maybe all sailors sing that song. Anyway, it was too late to worry about that now. We were already on our way to Treasure Island.
5. The Voyage
From the beginning of the voyage Captain Smollett was unhappy. “The men know more about this cruise than I do,” he told the squire. “I don’t call that fair. They know we are going in search of treasure. They say you have a map with three red X’s on it.”
“I never told that!” the squire cried. “Not to a soul!”
I knew the squire talked too much. But I believed him when he said he never told anyone about the map. I hadn’t told Long John, either. How the men knew was a mystery.
Then one night the first mate disappeared.
“He must have fallen overboard,” said Captain Smollett. “It could have been hours ago.” It was too late to go back to look for him.
After the first mate disappeared, Long John seemed to take over. All the men looked up to him.
Long John kept the ship running smoothly. Even rough seas didn’t stop him from getting around. He strung ropes across the deck. When the Hispaniola rolled and tossed, he would hang on to the ropes and pull himself along. He never asked for help.
“He’s no common man,” one sailor told me. “He can talk like a book. And brave! A lion’s nothing alongside of him! In his younger days he could take on four men at a time.”
I spent many hours down in the ship’s kitchen, which the sailors called the galley. While Long John cooked, I kept him company. He told me lots of stories about his travels.
Long John introduced me to his pet parrot, too. “Hawkins,” he said, “this here is Cap’n Flint. This bird may be two hundred years old.”
“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!” the bird screamed. “Pieces of eight!”
Long John explained that pieces of eight were a kind of gold coin. The parrot had learned those words somewhere in her travels. “Cap’n Flint has been all over the world,” he said. “She’s seen some evil deeds. That’s why I named her after the famous pirate.”
The rest of the voyage passed quickly. The crew seemed happy. Squire Trelawney was a kind master. He was always giving out extra treats. He even kept a barrel of apples on deck so that the men could have one anytime they wanted.
Soon we were only a day or so away from Treasure Island. Before I went to bed that night, I decided to help myself to an apple. The barrel was almost empty by now, so I had to climb all the way inside it to get the fruit. It was dark inside the barrel. And quiet, too. I decided to sit there and rest for a while. The ship was rocking from side to side. Soon I started to feel sleepy. I closed my eyes.
I woke up to the sound of voices. Long John had come up on deck. With him was Dick, the youngest sailor in the crew.
Long John was telling Dick a story. “I sailed with Cap’n England, then with Flint,” I heard him saying. “It was with Flint that I lost my leg. Old Pew lost his deadlights—his eyes—at the same time.”
I was about to jump out of the barrel when I heard Long John mention Pew. The name made me tremble with fear. Now I knew the truth. Long John had never been in the navy. He was a pirate! One of Flint’s old crew!
“Where are Flint’s men now, you ask?” Long John went on. “Well, old Pew is dead. But most of them are on board here.”
“Ah,” said the young sailor. “He was the best of them all. Old Flint.”
“You are smart as paint, young fellow,” said Long John. “So I’ll talk to you like a man. I mean to come back from this voyage a gentleman of fortune.”
Long John was making friends with Dick the same way that he had made friends with me. My feelings were hurt. I was jealous. Then I remembered that I had worse things to worry about. Long John was the very man Captain Bones had been so afraid of. He had helped the squire pick the crew. And most of the men he picked were pirates, just like him. Now he was planning a mutiny. The pirates were going to take over the ship and steal the treasure.
Soon another sailor came along—a man named Israel Hands.
“Dick’s with us,” said Long John.
“I know Dick is with us,” said Israel Hands. “The question is, when are we going to make our move?”
“At the last possible minute,” said Long John. “The squire and the doctor have the treasure map. I don’t know where it is, do I? We’ll let them find the stuff and help us get it on board. Then I’ll finish them off.” He laughed. “I’ll wring Trelawney’s neck myself.”
I was terrified. Long John was going to kill us all!
Just then Long John said he was thirsty. “Jump up, lad, and get me an apple,” he told Dick.
Dick got up and came near the barrel. I was too scared to move.
Israel Hands saved my life. “Forget about apples,” he said. “Let’s have a drink of rum.”
Long John gave Dick the key to the storeroom. But he and Israel Hands stayed right where they were. I was starting to wonder how I would ever get out of the barrel without being seen. But then the lookout gave a shout: “Land ho!”
Everyone rushed to the rail. No one saw me scramble out of the barrel. The whole crew was staring at three hills on the horizon. By the light of the moon you could just see them. We had found our island. Treasure Island!
Captain Smollett took out a map and looked for a good place to land. Long John hurried to look over the captain’s shoulder. But the captain’s map was a copy. It wasn’t the one that showed where the treasure was. Long John frowned. He must have been awfully disappointed.
When no one else was listening, I asked the squire, Dr. Livesey, and Captain Smollett to meet me in the cabin. As soon as we were alone, I told them what I had heard.
“What a fool I was!” cried the squire.
“We can’t turn back now,” said Captain Smollett. “The crew will not obey me. We will have to bide our time. Silver doesn’t know we are onto him. Surprise is on our side.
“And you, Jim,” the captain added, “will be our eyes and ears.”
Counting Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth, there were seven of us in all. There were nineteen sailors in the crew, including Long John. I couldn’t see how biding our time would do any good. I was sure we would never leave the island alive.
6. My Shore Adventure
When the sun came up, I had my first good look at Treasure Island. The trees were a strange shade of green. They made me think of poison. There was no breeze at all. The air had a nasty smell, like rotting leaves. In the distance, the hills rose up. The tops of the hills were naked gray rock. Nothing seemed to grow there but a few flat-topped pine trees.
This was the island of my dreams. The place where I had hoped to get rich. But now I hated th
e very sight of it.
The crew was in an evil mood too. It was easy to guess why. Now that we had found the island, they were getting greedy. They wanted to kill us right away.
Captain Smollett came up with a plan. He would give the crew a day off. They could take the lifeboats and go ashore. Long John Silver would go along as their leader. Maybe the whole crew would go. Then we could lift anchor and sail away.
But Long John was too smart to take all the sailors with him. He left Israel Hands and five others on the ship.
Even so, we were glad to see Long John go ashore. We knew he would try to talk sense to the men. He would tell them to be patient. At least that would give us more time.
At the last minute I decided to hide under a folded sail in one of the lifeboats. Maybe I could spy on Long John and find out his plans.
As soon as we got to the beach I ran into the woods. But after a while I sneaked back to where the sailors were. Long John didn’t see me coming. From my hiding place in the trees, I could hear him talking to a sailor named Tom.
“This is your last chance,” Long John told Tom. “Join us, or else.”
Just then I heard a long, drawn-out scream. The sound was so terrible that even the birds were frightened. They rose up into the air and circled overhead.
Tom jumped. “What was that?” he asked Long John.
But Long John just smiled. “That’ll be Alan,” he said.
Suddenly I realized that we had been wrong. All the sailors had not been on Long John’s side after all. Alan had been loyal to us. And now the pirates had killed him.
Tom had figured this out too. “Alan!” he cried. “But I will do my duty. Kill me, too, if you can. I defy you.”
With that, brave Tom started to walk away. But he did not get far. Long John picked up his crutch and threw it after him. The crutch hit Tom in the back. He threw up his hands and went down. Moving like lightning, Long John hopped to where Tom was lying. He pulled out a knife and buried it deep in Tom’s back.
Suddenly the whole world swam away from me. Everything was topsy-turvy. I felt dizzy. But I knew I had to save myself. If Long John knew I was hiding nearby, he would stab me, too.
I ran away as fast as I could. Soon I came to one of the twin hills near the center of the island.
All of a sudden I realized that someone, or something, was following me. The figure ran from tree to tree. Every so often I caught a glimpse of it. It hardly looked human. It was so bent over that when it ran, its arms almost dragged along the ground. I thought about stories I had heard of wild men. And cannibals. I was even more scared of this creature than I had been of Long John Silver.
But I could not run fast enough to get away. Finally I gave up. “Who are you?” I asked in a loud voice.
“Ben Gunn,” the thing answered. “I am poor Ben Gunn.”
The creature stepped out from behind a tree. I saw that it was a man after all. A very strange-looking man. He was dressed in rags. His hair was long and tangled. His skin was so sunburned it was almost black. Even his lips had turned black.
“My name is Ben Gunn,” the man said. “I have been living on this island for three years. I eat berries and the meat of wild goats. But at night I dream of cheese—toasted cheese. Do you have any cheese with you?”
“No,” I said. “But there is plenty of cheese on my ship. Tell me, how did you get here? Were you ship-wrecked?”
“Marooned,” he answered.
I knew what that meant. That was how pirates punished members of their crew. They left them behind on a deserted island.
Ben Gunn told me how he got marooned. He had been on Captain Flint’s ship when Flint buried his treasure. A few years later he came back to the island in another ship. He told the crew about the treasure. They searched for twelve days. When they found nothing, they thought Ben had lied to them. So they left him on the island and sailed away.
“But now I am rich.” Ben Gunn laughed. “Rich.” He could not stop giggling. Then he reached out and pinched me—hard!
Ben Gunn wasn’t happy to hear that Long John was back on Treasure Island. He promised to help me and my friends. All he wanted in return was a share of Captain Flint’s treasure.
I gave my promise. But I wasn’t sure Ben Gunn would be much help. He kept giggling and pinching me. A lot of what he said made no sense. I thought he had been alone so long that he had lost his mind.
Ben Gunn offered to lend me his homemade boat so I could get back to the ship. We were on our way to the boat’s hiding place when we heard a loud noise, like thunder. It was a cannon shot!
Up ahead I saw a small fort made out of logs. This fort was marked on our treasure map. But I was surprised to see our ship’s flag flying over it.
“Your friends must be inside that fort,” Ben Gunn said. “The pirates would never fly the British flag. They would fly the pirates’ flag—the Jolly Roger.”
I could hardly wait to join my friends. But Ben Gunn refused to come along. He told me that he had a secret cave in the forest. He would feel safer there. As we said good-bye, Ben started giggling again. “If those pirates camp on shore tonight, so much the worse for them,” he said.
7. The Fight Begins
Much later Dr. Livesey told me how he and the others came to be inside the fort. When the doctor found out I had gone ashore with Long John, he was worried. He rowed to the beach and found the log fort.
The fort was not very strong. It was just a one-room cabin surrounded by a wall made of logs. But there was a spring inside the wall, and the Hispaniola was low on water. So the squire and the captain decided they would be better off at the fort.
The squire gave old Tom Redruth a pistol. Redruth stood guard over the six sailors that Long John had left on the ship. In the meantime the squire and the others made several trips to the fort. They took all the weapons off the ship, and the food, too.
When it came time for the last trip to shore, Redruth came along. So did one of the six sailors, a man named Mr. Gray. “I have had enough of this pirate business,” he said. “I will take my chances with you.”
While they were rowing to shore, the sailors on the Hispaniola got loose. They fired the ship’s cannon. That was the shot Ben and I heard. Long John and the others on shore heard the shot too. They came running, and a fight broke out. Poor Tom Redruth got killed. So did one of Long John’s men.
The pirates captured the lifeboat and some of our supplies. But except for old Tom Redruth, all my friends made it safely to the fort.
When I got to the fort, the squire and the doctor were very glad to see me. They were surprised that I was still alive. I told them all about Ben Gunn. But it was hard to see what the strange little man could do to stop Long John Silver.
The pirates’ camp was so close we could hear them. They sang pirate songs as loud as they could. It sounded as if they were having a wonderful time.
The next morning Long John Silver showed up at the fort. With him was another pirate. They were carrying a white flag, and they wanted to have a talk.
During the night someone had sneaked into the pirate camp and killed a man. Long John thought we had done it. We knew that the real killer must be Ben Gunn. But we didn’t tell Long John that.
Now Long John wanted to make a deal. “We want your map,” he said. In exchange for the treasure map, he promised to give us half the supplies. The pirates would take the treasure, but they would spare our lives. Once they were safe, they would let the British Navy know where we were. The navy would send a ship to rescue us.
We weren’t ready to give up yet. “I have a deal of my own,” said Captain Smollett. “Surrender now and we’ll see you get a fair trial.”
Long John just laughed at that. He and the other pirate turned and disappeared into the forest.
A few hours later the pirates attacked. Some hid in the trees and shot at us. Four of the bravest of them rushed the fort. They were as quick as monkeys. In a minute they were over the wall.
“
Out, lads! Fight ’em in the open,” shouted Captain Smollett. We started to obey. But one pirate was already in the cabin. Waving his sword, he took out after Dr. Livesey.
Bullets flew everywhere. Everyone was shouting. There was so much smoke that I couldn’t see who was winning the fight.
When the smoke finally cleared, five pirates were dead. But our Mr. Joyce had been killed too. And Mr. Hunter was badly wounded. A few hours later he died.
Now there were just nine pirates left. But only five of us: Dr. Livesey. Squire Trelawney. Captain Smollett. Mr. Gray, the sailor who had come over to our side. And me.
8. My Sea Adventure
After the battle ended, Dr. Livesey took the treasure map and went off to talk to Ben Gunn.
I had an idea too. I was afraid the pirates would take the Hispaniola and leave us marooned. I had a plan to stop them. It was so dangerous that I knew the others would never let me try it. So I waited until no one was watching, and I sneaked out of the fort.
Ben Gunn had told me where his little boat was hidden. It did not take me long to find it. The boat was made of wood, covered with goatskins. It was as round as a teacup. A round boat is hard to row. But I made it out to our ship.
This was my plan: I would cut the Hispaniola loose from its anchor. The ship would drift in to shore and get stuck in the sand. Later we could pull it free. But for now the pirates could not sail away and leave us marooned.
There was a rope hanging over the stern of the ship. As soon as I tied up my little boat, I climbed up the rope. Hanging from it, I was able to peer through the cabin window. Israel Hands and another pirate were inside the cabin.
The two of them had been left by Long John to guard the ship. But they had gotten into an argument. They were so busy fighting that they didn’t even see me watching them.