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Treasure Island
Chapter 11. What I Heard in the Apple-Barrel
"No, not I," said Silver.
"Flint was captain".
I was quartermaster, with my wooden leg.
I lost my leg in the same attack where old Pew lost his eyes.
A master surgeon cut it off, he was a college man who knew Latin and more.
But he was hanged like a dog and sun-dried like the rest at Corso Castle.
Those were Roberts' men, that was, and it came from changing names to their ships - ROYAL FORTUNE and so on.
Now, whatever a ship was named, let her stay, I say.
The CASSANDRA brought us all safe home from Malabar.
This happened after England took the Viceroy of the Indies.
The same was true for the old WALRUS, Flint's ship.
I saw it covered with red blood and nearly sinking with gold.
"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on board, and clearly full of admiration.
"He was the best of the bunch, was Flint!"
"Davis was a man too, by all accounts," said Silver.
"I never sailed with him, first with England, then with Flint, that's my story, and now here on my own account, in a way of speaking."
"I saved nine hundred safe from England, and two thousand after Flint."
"That's not bad for a man before the mast - all safe in the bank."
"It's not earning now, it's saving that does it, you can be sure of that."
"Where are all England's men now?"
"I don't know."
"Where are Flint's?"
"Well, most of them are aboard here, and glad to get the duff - some of them were begging before that."
"Old Pew, who had lost his sight and should have been ashamed, spent twelve hundred pounds in a year, like a lord in Parliament."
"Where is he now?"
"Well, he's dead now and under the hatches, but for two years before that, shiver my timbers, the man was starving!"
"He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and he starved anyway, by the powers!"
"Well, it's not much use, after all," said the young seaman.
"It's not much use for fools, you can be sure of that - not that, nor anything," cried Silver.
"But now, you look here, you're young, you're, but you're as smart as paint."
"I saw that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to you like a man."
You can imagine how I felt hearing this terrible old rogue use the same flattering words on another as he'd used on me.
I think, if I had been able, I'd have killed him through the barrel.
Meanwhile, he went on, not knowing he was being overheard.
"Here it's about gentlemen of fortune."
"They live rough, and they risk hanging,"
"But they eat and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a voyage is done, well, it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in their pockets."
"Now, most of it goes for rum and a good time, and then to sea again in their shirts."
"But that's not the way I do it."
"I put it all away, some here, some there, and none too much anywhere, because of suspicion."
"I'm fifty, mark you, once back from this voyage, I'll set up as a gentleman in earnest."
"Time enough too, you say."
"Ah, but I've lived easy in the meantime, never denied myself anything my heart desires, and slept soft and ate well all my days except when at sea."
"And how did I begin?"
"Before the mast, like you!"
"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now, isn't it? You don't dare show your face in Bristol after this."
"Why, where might you suppose it's?" asked Silver mockingly.
"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.
"It was," said the cook.
"It was when we weighed anchor."
"But my old wife has it all by now."
"And the Spy-glass is sold, lease and goodwill and everything, and the old girl is off to meet me."
"I'd tell you where, because I trust you, but it would make jealousy among the mates."
"And can you trust your wife?" asked the other.
"Gentlemen of fortune," replied the cook.
"Usually don't trust each other much, and they're right, you can be sure of that."
"But I have a way with me, I do."
"When a mate makes a mistake - one who knows me, I mean - it won't be in the same world with old John."
"There were some who were afraid of Pew, and some who were afraid of Flint, but Flint himself was afraid of me."
"He was afraid, and proud."
"They were the roughest crew afloat, Flint's men, the devil himself would have been afraid to go to sea with them."
Well now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you've seen how easy I keep company, but when I was quartermaster, Flint's buccaneers weren't lambs.
"Ah, you can be sure of yourself in old John's ship."
"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad.
"I didn't like the job half as much until I had this talk with you, John, but there's my hand on it now."
"And a brave lad you were, and smart too," answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that the whole barrel shook.
"And a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I never saw."
By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms.
They clearly meant a common pirate by "gentleman of fortune."
The little scene I had overheard was the last act in the corruption of one of the honest hands.
Perhaps it was the last one left aboard.
But I was soon relieved, for Silver gave a little whistle and a third man walked up and sat by the group.
"Dick is square," said Silver.
"Oh, I knew Dick was square," replied the voice of the coxswain, Israel Hands.
"He's no fool, is Dick." And he turned his quid and spat.
"But look here,"
He went on, "Here's what I want to know, Barbecue, how long are we going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat?"
"I've had almost enough of Captain Smollett, he's pushed me around long enough, by thunder!"
"I want to go into that cabin, I do. I want their pickles and wines and that".
"Israel," said Silver.
"Your head isn't much good, and never was."
"But you're able to hear, I reckon, at least, your ears are big enough."
"Now, here's what I say, you'll sleep forward, and you'll live hard, and you'll speak soft, and you'll stay sober until I give the word,"
"And you can be sure of that, my son."
"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain.
"What I say is, when? That's what I say."
"When! By the powers!" cried Silver.
"Well now, if you want to know, I'll tell you when."
"The last moment I can manage, and that's when."
"Here's a first-rate seaman, Captain Smollett, who sails the blessed ship for us."
"Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such - I don't know where it's, do I?"
"No more do you, you say."
"Well then, I mean this squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by the powers."
"Then we'll see."
"If I was sure of you all, sons of double Dutchmen, I'd have Captain Smollett navigate us half-way back again before I struck."
"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think," said the lad Dick.
"We're all forecastle hands, you mean," snapped Silver.
"We can steer a course, but who's to set one?"
"That's what all you gentlemen fail at, first and last."
"If I had my way, I'd have Captain Smollett work us back into the trade winds at least,"
"Then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day."
"But I know the sort you're."
"I'll finish with them at the island, as soon as the money's on board, and it's a pity."
"But you're never happy until you're drunk."
"Split my sides, I've a sick heart to sail with the likes of you!"
"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel.
"Who's crossing you?"
"Why, how many tall ships, do you think, have I seen boarded? And how many brisk lads drying in the sun at Execution Dock?" cried Silver.
"And all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry."
"You hear me?"
"I've seen a thing or two at sea, I have."
"If you'd only lay your course, and a point to windward, you'd ride in carriages, you'd."
"But not you!"
"I know you."
"You'll have your mouthful of rum tomorrow, and go hang."
"Everybody knew you were a kind of a chaplain, John, but there are others who could handle and steer as well as you," said Israel.
"They liked a bit of fun, they did. They weren't so high and dry, nohow, but took their pleasure, like jolly companions every one."
"So?" says Silver.
"Well, and where are they now?"
"Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar."
"Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah."
"Ah, they were a sweet crew, they were!"
"Only, where are they?"
"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay them across, what are we to do with them, anyway?"
"There's the man for me!" cried the cook admiringly.
"That's what I call business."
"Well, what would you think?"
"Put them ashore like maroons?"
"That would have been England's way."
"Or cut them down like so much pork?"
"That would have been Flint's, or Billy Bones's."
"Billy was the man for that," said Israel.
"'Dead men don't bite,' he says."
"Well, he's dead now himself, he knows the long and short of it now, and if ever a rough hand came to port, it was Billy."
"Right you're," said Silver.
"Rough and ready."
"But mark you here, I'm an easy man - I'm quite the gentleman, you say, but this time it's serious."
"Duty is duty, mates."
"I give my vote - death."
"When I'm in Parliament and riding in my coach, I don't want any of these sea-lawyers in the cabin coming home, unexpected, like the devil at prayers."
"Wait is what I say, but when the time comes, well, let her rip!"
"John," cries the coxswain, "you're a man!"
"You'll say so, Israel, when you see," said Silver.
"Only one thing I claim - I claim Trelawney. I'll wring his calf's head off his body with these hands, Dick!" he added, breaking off.
"You just jump up, like a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."
You can imagine the terror I was in!
I'd have jumped out and run for it if I had found the strength, but my limbs and heart alike failed me.
I heard Dick begin to rise, and then someone seemed to stop him, and the voice of Hands exclaimed, "Oh, stop that!"
"Don't you start sucking on that bilge, John."
"Let's have a go of the rum."
"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the keg, mind. There's the key, you fill a cup and bring it up."
Terrified as I was, I couldn't help thinking to myself that this must have been how Mr.
Arrow got the strong drink that destroyed him.
Arrow got the strong drink that destroyed him.
Dick was gone only a little while, and during his absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear.
I could only catch a word or two, yet I gathered some important news.
Besides other scraps, this whole sentence was clear, "Not another man of them will join." So there were still faithful men on board.
Dick returned, One after another, the three took the cup and drank.
One said, "To luck." Another said, "Here's to old Flint." Silver himself sang, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your luff, plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."
Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the barrel.
I looked up and found the moon had risen.
It was silvering the mizzen-top and shining white on the luff of the fore-sail.
Almost at the same time, the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"