by Lisa Norby
I climbed back down the rope and cut the ship’s anchor. The Hispaniola started drifting. I was right behind her in my little boat. Suddenly a strong wind came up. This was not part of my plan at all. The ship started moving faster and faster. So did my boat. We were caught in a fast current. And we were being swept around to the other side of the island.
Soon the waves were huge. I rowed with all my might. But I could not get back to shore. The big ship and the little boat kept drifting around the island. No one seemed to be sailing the Hispaniola. I wondered why Mr. Hands and the other man didn’t stop fighting and save the ship.
We drifted all night. By morning we had reached the southwest tip of Treasure Island.
By now I was very thirsty. If I stayed on my little boat I would be swept far out to sea. I would surely die. I was so tired I wanted to give up. But I knew I had to keep my wits about me. My only hope was to get on board the Hispaniola.
I began rowing toward the big ship. But just then the wind changed again. The Hispaniola began to turn around in circles. She tossed up and down on the waves. Suddenly the ship was headed right for my little boat.
The jib boom—the long pole that held one of the sails—was swinging free. When it swung right over my head, I reached up and grabbed it. I held on tight.
Seconds later I heard a loud crack. The Hispaniola had run right over the little boat. It sank quickly out of sight.
I scrambled onto the deck. The first thing I saw was one of the two sailors. He was dead, killed in last night’s fight. Israel Hands lay nearby, alive but wounded. His leg seemed to be badly hurt.
“I am taking over the ship,” I told him.
Mr. Hands looked up at me. “Very well, Captain Hawkins,” he said. “I’ll obey you. I have no choice.”
I knew there was a small cove on the north side of the island. I decided to hide the Hispaniola there. Israel Hands helped me steer the ship. He didn’t want to drift out to sea any more than I did. But soon he began to complain. “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Won’t you go below and get me something to drink?”
I went. But I did not trust Mr. Hands. Before I went below, I sneaked a look back at him. As soon as he thought I was gone, he started to walk perfectly well. He found a bloody knife lying on the deck. He hid it inside his shirt.
I pretended not to know about the knife. When I came back on deck, Mr. Hands was limping again. Together we hauled at the sails. We got the ship safely into the cove.
For a few minutes I was so busy that I almost forgot that Mr. Hands was just pretending to be badly hurt. But all of a sudden something made me turn around. He had sneaked up behind me! He pulled out the knife. Then he charged.
As quickly as I could, I jumped out of the way. I grabbed the ship’s rudder and gave it a hard shove. The rudder hit Mr. Hands in the chest. Then I remembered that I had brought two pistols with me from the fort. I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of them. I took aim and fired.
But nothing happened! The powder in the pistol was wet.
Mr. Hands began chasing me around the deck. I got a lead on him and climbed up the mast. I am a fast climber. Safe in my high perch, I had time to reload both pistols with dry powder.
But now Mr. Hands was coming after me. “Not a step closer,” I warned him.
Mr. Hands stopped cold. He had been carrying his knife in his teeth. Now he took it out and spoke. “I guess we’ll have to make a truce,” he said.
I was feeling proud of myself. I had won the fight. But at that moment Mr. Hands reached back and threw his knife. It sang through the air.
I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. At the same instant, I heard two shots. My pistols had gone off. I don’t even remember firing them.
Mr. Hands gasped and fell backward. He hit the water with a smack.
I would have fallen too, but the knife had pinned my shirt to the mast. I had killed a man! The horror of it made me feel sick inside.
I stared down at the green water. It was so clear that I could see Mr. Hands’s body lying on the bottom. Whatever happened, I didn’t want to fall into the water beside him. I pulled myself free and climbed back down to the deck.
9. Captain Silver
My shoulder was cut, but the wound was not very bad. I knew I would be all right. And the Hispaniola was safely hidden in the cove. My plan had worked after all.
By now it was night again. Quietly, I waded to shore and made my way back across the island to the fort. Without making a sound I climbed over the wall and crawled back into the little log building. I could hear my friends snoring nearby.
Just as I was lying down I hit something with my foot. It was a man’s leg. He groaned softly. Then a scream rang out.
“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!”
I would have known that voice anywhere. It was Long John Silver’s green parrot.
It was too late to run away. The pirates had taken over the fort. Two of them tackled me and held on tight. Now I was their prisoner.
Long John Silver was grinning from ear to ear. “So here’s Jim Hawkins,” he said. “Dropped in for a visit.”
“Where are my friends?” I demanded.
“Gone,” said Long John. He explained that the squire and the others had made a truce with him. They had left their supplies to the pirates and gone off into the woods. I was glad to hear that my friends were still alive. But why would they give up the fort? Had they gone mad?
Long John told me I might as well side with the pirates now. The squire and the doctor thought I had run away.
But I could see that things weren’t going well for Long John, either.
Another of the pirates had died. Counting Long John, there were only six men left in the fort. Now some of them had come down with fevers.
On top of all their other troubles, the pirates thought that Israel Hands had taken the ship and left them marooned.
Soon the pirates started to talk among themselves. “All this is the boy’s fault,” one of them said. “He’s the one who took Billy Bones’s map.” To get revenge, the pirates were going to kill me.
I knew I had to talk fast to save my life. “I was the one who found out about your plan to take over the ship,” I said bravely. “And I’m the one who took the Hispaniola. Kill me if you want. But it won’t do any good. And if you let me live, I’ll speak up for you after we’re rescued. I’ll see that you don’t hang.”
The pirates didn’t pay any attention. They were going to kill me anyway. But Long John took my side. “Kill him and you’ll have to kill me, too,” he told his crew.
The other pirates thought this might not be a bad idea. They were sick of taking orders from Long John. They went outside to talk it over.
As soon as they were gone, Long John started to bargain with me. “I’ll save my life and yours, too,” he said. “But you must do the same for me. After we’re caught, tell your friends that I stood up for you. Whatever happens, make sure they don’t hang me.”
I promised to do just that.
Soon the crew returned. One of the men stepped forward. He handed Long John a piece of paper. It was the black spot. They had decided to kill him, and me too.
But Long John didn’t seem afraid. “I’m still the captain here,” said he. “You say I made a hash of this cruise. Why, it’s you lads who sank our plan!”
Long John reminded the pirates that they were the ones who had been too greedy to wait until the treasure was dug up. He told them that they would never get along without him. Besides, he said, things weren’t so bad after all. He told them the Hispaniola was hidden safely nearby. “Jim here is our last hope,” he added. They could use me as a hostage.
Long John was smart. The pirates weren’t used to thinking for themselves. They were starting to change their minds about killing him. Then he reached inside his dirty shirt. He pulled out a piece of paper and threw it down on the floor. “I made a good bargain with the doctor,” he told them. “Look what he gave me.”
It was the
treasure map with the three X’s! The pirates were so excited that they forgot all about the black spot.
But my heart sank. Why would the doctor give the map to Long John? Now I was sure my friends had lost their minds.
10. Flint’s Treasure
The next morning Dr. Livesey came to the fort. He was carrying a flag of truce. By now several of the pirates were very sick. Even though they were his enemies, Dr. Livesey was still a doctor. He had brought medicine for them.
I needed to talk to the doctor alone. Long John decided to let me. But he made me give my word of honor that I wouldn’t try to run away.
“So, Jim, you’ve joined the pirates now,” said the doctor.
“I have not!” I answered. I explained how the pirates had captured me. I also told him where I had hidden the ship.
“The ship is safe!” Dr. Livesey was delighted. “You’ve saved us at every turn,” he said.
The doctor wanted us to make a run for it right then. But I knew we’d never get away. The pirates would shoot us down. Besides, I had made a promise to Long John. He might be a pirate and a liar, but I was not. I would not go against my word of honor.
Before the doctor left, he gave Long John a warning. “I wouldn’t go near that treasure if I were you,” he said. “You might run into trouble.”
Of course the pirates paid no attention.
I could see that none of them ever thought ahead. The little fort was a mess. When the pirates cooked breakfast, they made more food than they could possibly eat. What they didn’t finish, they threw into the fire. At that rate, it wouldn’t take them long to use up their supplies.
After breakfast the men were ready to go hunting for treasure. Long John decided to take me with them. He tied a rope around my waist. He held the other end of the rope in his mouth.
“We’ll use Jim here as a hostage,” he told the others. “Once we have the treasure, he’ll get his share.”
I knew what my share would be. I believed in keeping my promises, but Long John did not. Once the men had found the treasure, they wouldn’t be angry with him anymore. Then he meant to let them kill me.
Down on the beach, we found the lifeboats that the pirates had taken over. We got in one of them and rowed to the spot marked on the map. Then we climbed the flat-topped hill called the Spy-glass. That’s where the treasure was supposed to be buried.
The map said to look for a tall tree. But there were lots of tall trees. Which was the right one?
While we were looking around, one of the pirates gave a shout. At the foot of one very tall tree was a skeleton. The skeleton was laid out in a straight line, so that the arm bones seemed to be pointing at something. Long John checked the direction with his compass. The arms pointed east southeast by east.
“By thunder!” said Long John. “We have found Captain Flint’s pointer. This was one of the sailors who helped him bury the treasure.”
Flint was so evil that just thinking about him made the pirates nervous. “It’s lucky Flint is dead,” Long John added. “If he knew we had come for his treasure, this would be a hot spot for us.”
“Aye, he’s dead,” agreed one of the pirates. “But he died bad. If ever a spirit walked, it would be Flint!”
The pirates started to pace off the distance marked on the map. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a faint singing coming from behind one of the tall trees.
“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest. Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
The pirates stopped in their tracks. “It’s Flint!” one of them cried. “It’s Flint’s ghost!”
“Come, lads,” said Long John. “Someone is playing a trick on us.”
But the voice started up again, thin and high. “Darby, Darby McGraw,” it sang out. “Fetch the rum.”
“That fixes it!” gasped another of the pirates. “Those were Flint’s last words. No one could know that but his crew. And we six are the only ones left alive.”
“I never heard a ghost with an echo,” said Long John. “Besides, I know that voice. It’s Ben Gunn.”
The pirates had thought Ben Gunn was dead too. Still, they cheered up. “I never was afraid of Ben Gunn alive,” said one. “I’m not afraid of him dead.”
So they kept on pacing off the distance to the treasure. But when they came to the spot marked by the red X on the map, they started to groan and shout. All that was left was a big hole in the ground. There was no gold. Someone had dug it up already.
The pirates were furious. They were ready to shoot me and Long John right there. Quickly, Long John passed me one of his pistols. This time I was sure my life was over. The odds were five against two.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Three shots rang out.
I looked at Long John. He was still standing, and so was I. Neither of us had fired a shot. But two of the pirates had fallen into the empty hole. The other three turned and ran away as fast as they could.
Just then Ben Gunn came running out of the woods. With him were the doctor, the squire, and Mr. Gray. I knew then that I was safe at last.
11. The End of My Story
As soon as everyone caught his breath, Dr. Livesey told me how he had set a trap for the pirates.
While I was away from the fort, the doctor had gone to see Ben Gunn. He learned that Ben had dug up Flint’s treasure long ago. That gave the doctor an idea. He told Long John that our side was ready to make a deal. In exchange for some food, we would give up the fort and the map.
Dr. Livesey knew that when the pirates found the empty hole, they would lose their tempers. They would start to fight. With luck, they would kill each other off.
But that was before the doctor knew I was a hostage. When he found out that Long John had me with him, he knew he had to hurry and get help. In the meantime Ben Gunn ran up Spy-glass Hill. He kept the pirates busy by pretending to be Flint’s ghost.
Now I knew that Ben Gunn wasn’t crazy after all. He had saved my life. What’s more, he had been telling the truth when he told me he was rich. When we got to his cave in the side of the hill, there was Flint’s treasure. I had never seen so much gold. There were gold bars. And pieces of eight. And other kinds of gold pieces, too. Round coins. Square coins. Coins with pictures of all the kings in the world.
Captain Smollett was in the cave too. He had been wounded in the battle for the fort. But he was already feeling better. He was going to be all right.
Later that day we found the Hispaniola. For all it had been through, the ship was not in bad shape.
The next morning we started loading Flint’s treasure on the ship. There was so much gold that it took us many trips to move it all.
Long John was our prisoner now. The three pirates who ran away were still free, hiding in the forest. But they did not try to stop us. They had had their fill of fighting.
Three days went by. At last the gold was all on board. We set sail for home. We left the three pirates on the island. It was too dangerous to try to take them with us. Later we could send a navy ship to pick them up.
The adventure was over. But not for Long John Silver. Now that he was caught, he tried to change sides again. He reminded Dr. Livesey that he had kept the other pirates from killing me. He claimed that he had been trying to help us all along. “I’m with you hand and glove,” he said.
I’ll say this for Long John—he never gave up. He could outtalk the devil himself. But this time I knew better than to believe him. I couldn’t forget that he had been ready to kill me as soon as he got his hands on the gold.
We had decided to take Long John home to England to stand trial. But we had to make one stop first. We found an island where there was a small village. We left Ben Gunn on the ship to guard our prisoner. The rest of us went ashore to buy food and supplies.
When we got back to the ship, Long John was gone. And so was one small sack of gold from our treasure. Ben Gunn had helped Long John escape. We were amazed. But Ben explained that he was so afraid of Long John that he didn’t want to have him on the ship
with us. “We’re well rid of him,” he said.
The journey back to England went quickly. We were sad that poor Mr. Hunter, Mr. Joyce, and Tom Redruth had been killed. Those of us who did make it home were rich, though.
Ben Gunn spent his share of the treasure in a few weeks. Soon he was his old self again, poor but happy. The rest of us were set for life.
As for Long John Silver, we never heard what became of him and his green parrot. But somehow I don’t think he came to a good end.
Now that my story is done, I will tell you a secret. There were three X’s on Captain Flint’s map. One marked the spot where the gold was buried.
That was the treasure we found. Another marked the place where Flint had hidden his guns. The third X showed where he had buried many bars of silver.
As far as I know, the silver is still on Treasure Island. But I’m sure I will never go back to look for it. I would not return to that place for anything in the world.
Lisa Norby has written several other books, including an easy-to-read version of Kon-Tiki. When not writing, she loves to travel. She has spent time on exotic islands in many parts of the world, but has yet to find any buried treasure! She lives in Brooklyn, New York.