Silver

by Andrew Motion

  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 goodbye 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 treasures!

  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 tomorrow!”

  CHAPTER VIII

  At the Sign of the “Spy Glass”

  WHEN 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 look-out for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for 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 either 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 favoured 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 then, as he saw the squire’s letter, he seemed to me to give something almost like a start.

  “Oh!” said he, quite loud, 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 recognised 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, grey-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 – 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 us
ed.”

  “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 re-awakened 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 dead-lights! 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; but 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.

  When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr Livesey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale with a toast in it, before they should go aboard the schooner on a visit of inspection.

  Long John told the story from first to last, with a great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. “That was how it were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins?” he would say, now and again, and I could always bear him entirely out.

  The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had got away; but we all agreed there was nothing to be done, and after he had been complimented, Long John took up his crutch and departed.

  “All hands aboard by four this afternoon,” shouted the squire after him.

  “Ay, ay, sir,” cried the cook, in the passage.

  “Well, squire,” said Dr Livesey, “I don’t put much faith in your discoveries as a general thing; but I will say this, John Silver suits me.”

  “The man’s a perfect trump,” declared the squire.

  “And now,” added the doctor, “Jim may come on board with us, may he not?”

  “To be sure he may,” says squire. – “Take your hat, Hawkins, and we’ll see the ship.”

  CHAPTER IX

  Power and Arms

  THE HISPANIOLA LAY some way out, and we went under the figureheads and round the sterns of many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated underneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. At last, however, we got alongside, and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr Arrow, a brown old sailor, with earrings in his ears and a squint. He and the squire were very thick and friendly, but I soon observed that things were not the same between Mr Trelawney and the captain.

  This last was a sharp-looking man, who seemed angry with everything on board, and was soon to tell us why, for we had hardly got down into the cabin when a sailor followed us.

  “Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,” said he.

  “I am always at the captain’s orders. Show him in,” said the squire.

  The captain, who was close behind his messenger, entered at once, and shut the door behind him.

  “Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?”

  “Well, sir,” said the captain, “better speak plain, I believe, even at the risk of offence. I don’t like this cruise; I don’t like the men; and I don’t like my officer. That’s short and sweet.”

  “Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship?” inquired the squire, very angry, as I could see.

  “I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having seen her tried,” said the captain. “She seems a clever craft; more I can’t say.”

  “Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, either?” says the squire.

  But here Dr Livesey cut in.

  “Stay a bit,” said he, “stay a bit. No use of such questions as that but to produce ill-feeling. The captain has said too much, or he has said too little, and I’m bound to say that I require an explanation of his words. You don’t, you say, like this cruise. Now, why?”

  “I was engaged, sir, on what we call sealed orders, to sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid me,” said the captain. “So far so good. But now I find that every man before the mast knows more than I do. I don’t call that fair, now – do you?”

  “No,” said Dr Livesey, “I don’t.”

  “Next,” said the captain, “I learn we are going after treasure – hear it from my own hands, mind you. Now, treasure is ticklish work; I don’t like treasure-voyages on any account; and I don’t like them, above all, when they are secret, and when (begging your pardon, Mr Trelawney) the secret has been told to the parrot.”

  “Silver’s parrot?” asked the squire.

  “It’s a way of speaking,” said the captain. “Blabbed, I mean. It’s my belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about; but I’ll tell you my way of it – life or death, and a close run.”

  “That is all clear, and, I daresay, true enough,” replied Dr Livesey. “We take the risk; but we are not so ignorant as you believe us. – Next, you say you don’t like the crew. Are they not good seamen?”

  “I don’t like them, sir,” returned Captain Smollett.

  “And I think I should have had the choosing of my own hands, if you go to that.”

  “Perhaps you should,” replied the doctor. “My friend should perhaps have taken you along with him; but the slight, if there be one, was unintentional. – And you don’t like Mr Arrow?”

  “I don’t, sir. I believe he’s a good seaman; but he’s too free with the crew to be a good officer. A mate should keep himself to himself – shouldn’t drink with the men before the mast!”

  “Do you mean he drinks?”
cried the squire.

  “No, sir,” replied the captain; “only that he’s too familiar.”

  “Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain?” asked the doctor. “Tell us what you want.”

  “Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise?”

  “Like iron,” answered the squire.

  “Very good,” said the captain. “Then, as you’ve heard me very patiently, saying things that I could not prove, hear me a few words more. They are putting the powder and the arms in the fore-hold. Now, you have a good place under the cabin; why not put them there? – first point. Then you are bringing four of your own people with you, and they tell me some of them are to be berthed forward. Why not give them the berths here beside the cabin? – second point.”

  “Any more?” asked Mr Trelawney.

  “One more,” said the captain. “There’s been too much blabbing already.”

  “Far too much,” agreed the doctor.

  “I’ll tell you what I’ve heard myself,” continued Captain Smollett: “that you have a map of an island; that there’s crosses on the map to show where treasure is; and that the island lies —” And then he named the latitude and longitude exactly.

  “I never told that,” cried the squire, “to a soul!”

  “The hands know it, sir,” returned the captain.

  “Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins,” cried the squire.

  “It doesn’t much matter who it was,” replied the doctor. And I could see that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to Mr Trelawney’s protestations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so loose a talker; yet in this case I believe he was really right, and that nobody had told the situation of the island.

  “Well, gentlemen,” continued the captain, “I don’t know who has this map; but I make it a point, it shall be kept secret even from me and Mr Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me resign.”