I HAD scarce gained a position on
the bowsprit when the flying jib
flapped and filled upon the other
tack, with a report like a gun. The
schooner trembled to her keel under
the reverse, but next moment, the
other sails still drawing, the jib
flapped back again and hung idle.
This had nearly tossed me off into
the sea; and now I lost no time,
crawled back along the bowsprit, and
tumbled head foremost on the deck.
I was on the lee side of the
forecastle, and the mainsail, which
was still drawing, concealed from me
a certain portion of the after-deck.
Not a soul was to be seen. The
planks, which had not been swabbed
since the mutiny, bore the print of
many feet, and an empty bottle,
broken by the neck, tumbled to and
fro like a live thing in the
scuppers.
Suddenly the HISPANIOLA came right
into the wind. The jibs behind me
cracked aloud, the rudder slammed
to, the whole ship gave a sickening
heave and shudder, and at the same
moment the main-boom swung inboard,
the sheet groaning in the blocks,
and showed me the lee after-deck.
There were the two watchmen, sure
enough: red-cap on his back, as
stiff as a handspike, with his arms
stretched out like those of a
crucifix and his teeth showing
through his open lips; Israel Hands
propped against the bulwarks, his
chin on his chest, his hands lying
open before him on the deck, his
face as white, under its tan, as a
tallow candle.
For a while the ship kept bucking
and sidling like a vicious horse,
the sails filling, now on one tack,
now on another, and the boom
swinging to and fro till the mast
groaned aloud under the strain. Now
and again too there would come a
cloud of light sprays over the
bulwark and a heavy blow of the
ship's bows against the swell; so
much heavier weather was made of it
by this great rigged ship than by my
home-made, lop-sided coracle, now
gone to the bottom of the sea.
At every jump of the schooner,
red-cap slipped to and fro, but—what
was ghastly to behold—neither his
attitude nor his fixed
teeth-disclosing grin was anyway
disturbed by this rough usage. At
every jump too, Hands appeared still
more to sink into himself and settle
down upon the deck, his feet sliding
ever the farther out, and the whole
body canting towards the stern, so
that his face became, little by
little, hid from me; and at last I
could see nothing beyond his ear and
the frayed ringlet of one whisker.
At the same time, I observed, around
both of them, splashes of dark blood
upon the planks and began to feel
sure that they had killed each other
in their drunken wrath.
While I was thus looking and
wondering, in a calm moment, when
the ship was still, Israel Hands
turned partly round and with a low
moan writhed himself back to the
position in which I had seen him
first. The moan, which told of pain
and deadly weakness, and the way in
which his jaw hung open went right
to my heart. But when I remembered
the talk I had overheard from the
apple barrel, all pity left me.
I walked aft until I reached the
main-mast.
"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said
ironically.
He rolled his eyes round heavily,
but he was too far gone to express
surprise. All he could do was to
utter one word, "Brandy."
It occurred to me there was no time
to lose, and dodging the boom as it
once more lurched across the deck, I
slipped aft and down the companion
stairs into the cabin.
It was such a scene of confusion as
you can hardly fancy. All the
lockfast places had been broken open
in quest of the chart. The floor was
thick with mud where ruffians had
sat down to drink or consult after
wading in the marshes round their
camp. The bulkheads, all painted in
clear white and beaded round with
gilt, bore a pattern of dirty hands.
Dozens of empty bottles clinked
together in corners to the rolling
of the ship. One of the doctor's
medical books lay open on the table,
half of the leaves gutted out, I
suppose, for pipelights. In the
midst of all this the lamp still
cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown
as umber.
I went into the cellar; all the
barrels were gone, and of the
bottles a most surprising number had
been drunk out and thrown away.
Certainly, since the mutiny began,
not a man of them could ever have
been sober.
Foraging about, I found a bottle
with some brandy left, for Hands;
and for myself I routed out some
biscuit, some pickled fruits, a
great bunch of raisins, and a piece
of cheese. With these I came on
deck, put down my own stock behind
the rudder head and well out of the
coxswain's reach, went forward to
the water-breaker, and had a good
deep drink of water, and then, and
not till then, gave Hands the
brandy.
He must have drunk a gill before he
took the bottle from his mouth.
"Aye," said he, "by thunder, but I
wanted some o' that!"
I had sat down already in my own
corner and begun to eat.
"Much hurt?" I asked him.
He grunted, or rather, I might say,
he barked.
"If that doctor was aboard," he
said, "I'd be right enough in a
couple of turns, but I don't have no
manner of luck, you see, and that's
what's the matter with me. As for
that swab, he's good and dead, he
is," he added, indicating the man
with the red cap. "He warn't no
seaman anyhow. And where mought you
have come from?"
"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to
take possession of this ship, Mr.
Hands; and you'll please regard me
as your captain until further
notice."
He looked at me sourly enough but
said nothing. Some of the colour had
come back into his cheeks, though he
still looked very sick and still
continued to slip out and settle
down as the ship banged about.
"By the by," I continued, "I can't
have these colours, Mr. Hands; and
by your leave, I'll strike 'em.
Better none than these."
And again dodging the boom, I ran to
the colour lines, handed down their
cursed black flag, and chucked it
overboard.
"God save the king!" said I, waving
my cap. "And there's an end to
Captain Silver!"
He watched me keenly and slyly, his
chin all the while on his breast.
"I reckon," he said at last, "I
reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind
of want to get ashore now. S'pose we
talks."
"Why, yes," says I, "with all my
heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I
went back to my meal with a good
appetite.
"This man," he began, nodding feebly
at the corpse "—O'Brien were his
name, a rank Irelander—this man and
me got the canvas on her, meaning
for to sail her back. Well, HE'S
dead now, he is—as dead as bilge;
and who's to sail this ship, I don't
see. Without I gives you a hint, you
ain't that man, as far's I can tell.
Now, look here, you gives me food
and drink and a old scarf or
ankecher to tie my wound up, you do,
and I'll tell you how to sail her,
and that's about square all round, I
take it."
"I'll tell you one thing," says I:
"I'm not going back to Captain
Kidd's anchorage. I mean to get into
North Inlet and beach her quietly
there."
"To be sure you did," he cried.
"Why, I ain't sich an infernal
lubber after all. I can see, can't
I? I've tried my fling, I have, and
I've lost, and it's you has the wind
of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't
no ch'ice, not I! I'd help you sail
her up to Execution Dock, by
thunder! So I would."
Well, as it seemed to me, there was
some sense in this. We struck our
bargain on the spot. In three
minutes I had the HISPANIOLA sailing
easily before the wind along the
coast of Treasure Island, with good
hopes of turning the northern point
ere noon and beating down again as
far as North Inlet before high
water, when we might beach her
safely and wait till the subsiding
tide permitted us to land.
Then I lashed the tiller and went
below to my own chest, where I got a
soft silk handkerchief of my
mother's. With this, and with my
aid, Hands bound up the great
bleeding stab he had received in the
thigh, and after he had eaten a
little and had a swallow or two more
of the brandy, he began to pick up
visibly, sat straighter up, spoke
louder and clearer, and looked in
every way another man.
The breeze served us admirably. We
skimmed before it like a bird, the
coast of the island flashing by and
the view changing every minute. Soon
we were past the high lands and
bowling beside low, sandy country,
sparsely dotted with dwarf pines,
and soon we were beyond that again
and had turned the corner of the
rocky hill that ends the island on
the north.
I was greatly elated with my new
command, and pleased with the
bright, sunshiny weather and these
different prospects of the coast. I
had now plenty of water and good
things to eat, and my conscience,
which had smitten me hard for my
desertion, was quieted by the great
conquest I had made. I should, I
think, have had nothing left me to
desire but for the eyes of the
coxswain as they followed me
derisively about the deck and the
odd smile that appeared continually
on his face. It was a smile that had
in it something both of pain and
weakness—a haggard old man's smile;
but there was, besides that, a grain
of derision, a shadow of treachery,
in his expression as he craftily
watched, and watched, and watched me
at my work. |
