I LOST no time, of course, in
telling my mother all that I knew,
and perhaps should have told her
long before, and we saw ourselves at
once in a difficult and dangerous
position. Some of the man's money—if
he had any—was certainly due to us,
but it was not likely that our
captain's shipmates, above all the
two specimens seen by me, Black Dog
and the blind beggar, would be
inclined to give up their booty in
payment of the dead man's debts. The
captain's order to mount at once and
ride for Doctor Livesey would have
left my mother alone and
unprotected, which was not to be
thought of. Indeed, it seemed
impossible for either of us to
remain much longer in the house; the
fall of coals in the kitchen grate,
the very ticking of the clock,
filled us with alarms. The
neighbourhood, to our ears, seemed
haunted by approaching footsteps;
and what between the dead body of
the captain on the parlour floor and
the thought of that detestable blind
beggar hovering near at hand and
ready to return, there were moments
when, as the saying goes, I jumped
in my skin for terror. Something
must speedily be resolved upon, and
it occurred to us at last to go
forth together and seek help in the
neighbouring hamlet. No sooner said
than done. Bare-headed as we were,
we ran out at once in the gathering
evening and the frosty fog.
The hamlet lay not many hundred
yards away, though out of view, on
the other side of the next cove; and
what greatly encouraged me, it was
in an opposite direction from that
whence the blind man had made his
appearance and whither he had
presumably returned. We were not
many minutes on the road, though we
sometimes stopped to lay hold of
each other and hearken. But there
was no unusual sound—nothing but the
low wash of the ripple and the
croaking of the inmates of the wood.
It was already candle-light when we
reached the hamlet, and I shall
never forget how much I was cheered
to see the yellow shine in doors and
windows; but that, as it proved, was
the best of the help we were likely
to get in that quarter. For—you
would have thought men would have
been ashamed of themselves—no soul
would consent to return with us to
the Admiral Benbow. The more we told
of our troubles, the more—man,
woman, and child—they clung to the
shelter of their houses. The name of
Captain Flint, though it was strange
to me, was well enough known to some
there and carried a great weight of
terror. Some of the men who had been
to field-work on the far side of the
Admiral Benbow remembered, besides,
to have seen several strangers on
the road, and taking them to be
smugglers, to have bolted away; and
one at least had seen a little
lugger in what we called Kitt's
Hole. For that matter, anyone who
was a comrade of the captain's was
enough to frighten them to death.
And the short and the long of the
matter was, that while we could get
several who were willing enough to
ride to Dr. Livesey's, which lay in
another direction, not one would
help us to defend the inn.
They say cowardice is infectious;
but then argument is, on the other
hand, a great emboldener; and so
when each had said his say, my
mother made them a speech. She would
not, she declared, lose money that
belonged to her fatherless boy; "If
none of the rest of you dare," she
said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will
go, the way we came, and small
thanks to you big, hulking,
chicken-hearted men. We'll have that
chest open, if we die for it. And
I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs.
Crossley, to bring back our lawful
money in."
Of course I said I would go with my
mother, and of course they all cried
out at our foolhardiness, but even
then not a man would go along with
us. All they would do was to give me
a loaded pistol lest we were
attacked, and to promise to have
horses ready saddled in case we were
pursued on our return, while one lad
was to ride forward to the doctor's
in search of armed assistance.
My heart was beating finely when we
two set forth in the cold night upon
this dangerous venture. A full moon
was beginning to rise and peered
redly through the upper edges of the
fog, and this increased our haste,
for it was plain, before we came
forth again, that all would be as
bright as day, and our departure
exposed to the eyes of any watchers.
We slipped along the hedges,
noiseless and swift, nor did we see
or hear anything to increase our
terrors, till, to our relief, the
door of the Admiral Benbow had
closed behind us.
I slipped the bolt at once, and we
stood and panted for a moment in the
dark, alone in the house with the
dead captain's body. Then my mother
got a candle in the bar, and holding
each other's hands, we advanced into
the parlour. He lay as we had left
him, on his back, with his eyes open
and one arm stretched out.
"Draw down the blind, Jim,"
whispered my mother; "they might
come and watch outside. And now,"
said she when I had done so, "we
have to get the key off THAT; and
who's to touch it, I should like to
know!" and she gave a kind of sob as
she said the words.
I went down on my knees at once. On
the floor close to his hand there
was a little round of paper,
blackened on the one side. I could
not doubt that this was the BLACK
SPOT; and taking it up, I found
written on the other side, in a very
good, clear hand, this short
message: "You have till ten
tonight."
"He had till ten, Mother," said I;
and just as I said it, our old clock
began striking. This sudden noise
startled us shockingly; but the news
was good, for it was only six.
"Now, Jim," she said, "that key."
I felt in his pockets, one after
another. A few small coins, a
thimble, and some thread and big
needles, a piece of pigtail tobacco
bitten away at the end, his gully
with the crooked handle, a pocket
compass, and a tinder box were all
that they contained, and I began to
despair.
"Perhaps it's round his neck,"
suggested my mother.
Overcoming a strong repugnance, I
tore open his shirt at the neck, and
there, sure enough, hanging to a bit
of tarry string, which I cut with
his own gully, we found the key. At
this triumph we were filled with
hope and hurried upstairs without
delay to the little room where he
had slept so long and where his box
had stood since the day of his
arrival.
It was like any other seaman's chest
on the outside, the initial "B"
burned on the top of it with a hot
iron, and the corners somewhat
smashed and broken as by long, rough
usage.
"Give me the key," said my mother;
and though the lock was very stiff,
she had turned it and thrown back
the lid in a twinkling.
A strong smell of tobacco and tar
rose from the interior, but nothing
was to be seen on the top except a
suit of very good clothes, carefully
brushed and folded. They had never
been worn, my mother said. Under
that, the miscellany began—a
quadrant, a tin canikin, several
sticks of tobacco, two brace of very
handsome pistols, a piece of bar
silver, an old Spanish watch and
some other trinkets of little value
and mostly of foreign make, a pair
of compasses mounted with brass, and
five or six curious West Indian
shells. I have often wondered since
why he should have carried about
these shells with him in his
wandering, guilty, and hunted life.
In the meantime, we had found
nothing of any value but the silver
and the trinkets, and neither of
these were in our way. Underneath
there was an old boat-cloak,
whitened with sea-salt on many a
harbour-bar. My mother pulled it up
with impatience, and there lay
before us, the last things in the
chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth,
and looking like papers, and a
canvas bag that gave forth, at a
touch, the jingle of gold.
"I'll show these rogues that I'm an
honest woman," said my mother. "I'll
have my dues, and not a farthing
over. Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag." And
she began to count over the amount
of the captain's score from the
sailor's bag into the one that I was
holding.
It was a long, difficult business,
for the coins were of all countries
and sizes—doubloons, and louis d'ors,
and guineas, and pieces of eight,
and I know not what besides, all
shaken together at random. The
guineas, too, were about the
scarcest, and it was with these only
that my mother knew how to make her
count.
When we were about half-way through,
I suddenly put my hand upon her arm,
for I had heard in the silent frosty
air a sound that brought my heart
into my mouth—the tap-tapping of the
blind man's stick upon the frozen
road. It drew nearer and nearer,
while we sat holding our breath.
Then it struck sharp on the inn
door, and then we could hear the
handle being turned and the bolt
rattling as the wretched being tried
to enter; and then there was a long
time of silence both within and
without. At last the tapping
recommenced, and, to our
indescribable joy and gratitude,
died slowly away again until it
ceased to be heard.
"Mother," said I, "take the whole
and let's be going," for I was sure
the bolted door must have seemed
suspicious and would bring the whole
hornet's nest about our ears, though
how thankful I was that I had bolted
it, none could tell who had never
met that terrible blind man.
But my mother, frightened as she
was, would not consent to take a
fraction more than was due to her
and was obstinately unwilling to be
content with less. It was not yet
seven, she said, by a long way; she
knew her rights and she would have
them; and she was still arguing with
me when a little low whistle sounded
a good way off upon the hill. That
was enough, and more than enough,
for both of us.
"I'll take what I have," she said,
jumping to her feet.
"And I'll take this to square the
count," said I, picking up the
oilskin packet.
Next moment we were both groping
downstairs, leaving the candle by
the empty chest; and the next we had
opened the door and were in full
retreat. We had not started a moment
too soon. The fog was rapidly
dispersing; already the moon shone
quite clear on the high ground on
either side; and it was only in the
exact bottom of the dell and round
the tavern door that a thin veil
still hung unbroken to conceal the
first steps of our escape. Far less
than half-way to the hamlet, very
little beyond the bottom of the
hill, we must come forth into the
moonlight. Nor was this all, for the
sound of several footsteps running
came already to our ears, and as we
looked back in their direction, a
light tossing to and fro and still
rapidly advancing showed that one of
the newcomers carried a lantern.
"My dear," said my mother suddenly,
"take the money and run on. I am
going to faint."
This was certainly the end for both
of us, I thought. How I cursed the
cowardice of the neighbours; how I
blamed my poor mother for her
honesty and her greed, for her past
foolhardiness and present weakness!
We were just at the little bridge,
by good fortune; and I helped her,
tottering as she was, to the edge of
the bank, where, sure enough, she
gave a sigh and fell on my shoulder.
I do not know how I found the
strength to do it at all, and I am
afraid it was roughly done, but I
managed to drag her down the bank
and a little way under the arch.
Farther I could not move her, for
the bridge was too low to let me do
more than crawl below it. So there
we had to stay—my mother almost
entirely exposed and both of us
within earshot of the inn. |
