t Tumbled stiffly after us So near were we indeed That my head came against the coxswain's foot With a crack that made my teeth rattle Blow and all I was the first to foot again For hands had got involved with the dead body The sudden canting of the ship Had made the deck no place for running on I had to find some new way of escape And that upon the instant For my foe was almost touching me Quickest thought I sprang into the mizzen shrouds Rattled up hand over hand And did not draw a breath till I was seated On the cross-trees I had been saved by being prompt The dirk had struck not a half a foot below me As I pursued my upward flight And there stood Israel hands with his mouth open And his face upturned to mine A perfect statue of surprise and disappointment Now that I had a moment to myself I lost no time in changing the priming of my pistol And then having one ready for service And to make assurance doubly sure I proceeded to draw the load of the other And recharge it afresh from the beginning My new employment struck hands all of a heap He began to see the dice going against him And after an obvious hesitation He also hauled himself heavily into the shrouds And with the dirk in his teeth Began slowly and painfully to mount It cost him no end of time And groans to haul his wounded leg behind him And I had quietly finished my arrangements Before he was much more than a third of the way up Then with a pistol in either hand I addressed him One more step, Mr. Hands, said I And I'll blow your brains out Dead men don't bite, you know I added with a chuckle He stopped instantly I could see by the working of his face That he was trying to think And the process was so slow and laborious That in my newfound security I laughed aloud At last with a swallow or two He spoke, his face still wearing A version of extreme perplexity In order to speak he had to take the dagger From his mouth, but in all else He remained unmoved Jim, says he I reckon we're fouled, you and me And we'll have to sign articles I'd have had you but for that there lurch But I don't have no luck, not I And I reckon I'll have to strike Which comes hard, you see, for a master mariner To a ship's yonker like you, Jim I was drinking in his words And smiling away as conceded As a cock upon a wall When, all in a breath, back Went his right hand over his shoulder Something sang like an arrow through the air I felt a blow and then a sharp pang And there I was, pinned by the shoulder To the mast In the hard pain and surprise of the moment I scarce can say it was by my own volition And I am sure it was without a conscious aim Both my pistols went off And both escaped out of my hands They did not fall alone But with a joked cry The coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds And plunged head-first into the water End of chapter Chapter 27 of Treasure Island This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Chapter 27, Pieces of Eight Owing to the cant of the vessel The masts hung far out over the water And from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay Hands who was not so far up Was in consequence nearer to the ship And fell between me and the bulwarks He rose once to the surface In a lather of foam and blood And then sank again for good As the water settled I could see him lying huddled together On the clean bright sand In the shadow of the vessel's sides A fish or two whipped past his body Sometimes by the quivering of the water He appeared to move a little As if he were trying to rise But he was dead enough for all that Being both shot and drowned And was food for fish in the very place Where he had designed my slaughter I was no sooner certain of this Than I began to feel sick, faint and terrified The hot blood was running over my back and chest The dirk where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast Seemed to burn like a hot iron Yet it was not so much these real sufferings That distressed me, for these it seemed to me I could bear without a murmur It was the horror I had upon my mind Of falling from the cross-trees Into that still green water Beside the body of the coxswain I clung with both hands till my nails ached And I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril Gradually my mind came back again My pulses quieted down to a more natural time And I was once more in possession of myself It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk But either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me And I desisted with a violent shutter Oddly enough that very shutter did the business The knife in fact had come the nearest in the world To missing me altogether It held me by a mere pinch of skin And this the shutter tore away The blood run down the faster to be sure But I was my own master again And only tacked to the mast by my coat and shirt These last I broke through with a sudden jerk And then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds For nothing in the world would I have again ventured Shaken as I was upon the overhanging porch shrouds From which Israel had so lately fallen I went below and did what I could for my wound It pained me a good deal and still bled freely But it was neither deep nor dangerous Nor did it greatly gall me when I used my arm Then I looked around me and as the ship was now In a sense my own, I began to think of clearing it From its last passenger, the dead man O'Brien He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks Where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet Life's eyes indeed, but how different from life's color Or life's comeliness In that position I could easily have my way with him And as the habit of tragical adventures Had worn off almost all my terror for the dead I took him by the waist as if he had been a sack of bran And with one good heave, tumbled him overboard He went in with a sounding plunge The red cap came off and remained floating on the surface And as soon as the splash subsided I could see him and Israel lying side by side Both wavering with the tremulous movement of the water O'Brien, though still quite a young man, was very bald There he lay with that bald head across the knees Of the man who had killed him and the quick fishes Steering to and fro over both I was now alone upon the ship The tide had just turned The sun was within so few degrees of setting That already the shadow of the pines upon the western shore Began to reach right across the anchorage And fall in patterns on the deck The evening breeze had sprung up And though it was well warded off by the hill With the two peaks upon the east The cordage had begun to sing a little softly to itself And the idle sails to rattle, to and fro I began to see a danger to the ship The jibs I speedily doused And brought tumbling to the deck But the mainsail was a harder matter Of course when the schooner canted over The boom and swung outboard And the cap of it and a foot or two of sail Hung even underwater I thought this made it still more dangerous Yet the strain was so heavy That I half feared to meddle At last I got my knife and cut the howards The peak dropped instantly This belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water And since, pull as I liked I could not budge the downhaul That was the extent of what I could accomplish For the rest, the Hispaniola must trust to luck Like myself By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into shadow The last rays I remember Falling through a glade of the wood And shining brightest jewels on the flowery mantle of the wreck It began to be chill The tide was rapidly fleeting seaward The schooner settling more and more on her beam ends I scrambled forward and looked over It seemed shallow enough And holding the cut hauser in both hands For a last security I let myself drop softly overboard The water scarcely reached my waist The sand was firm and covered with ripple marks And I waited ashore in great spirits Leaving the Hispaniola on her side Where their mainsail trailing wide Upon the surface of the bay About the same time I went fairly down and the breeze whistled low in the dusk Among the tossing pines At least, and at last, I was off the sea Nor had I returned thence empty-handed There lay the schooner Clear at last from buccaneers And ready for our own men to board and get to sea again I had nothing nearer my fancy than to get home to the stockade And boast of my achievements Possibly I might be blamed a bit for my true entry But the recapture of the Hispaniola was a clenching answer And I hoped that even Captain Smollett would confess I had not lost my time So thinking, and in famous spirits I began to set my face homeward for the blockhouse in my companions I remembered that the most easterly of the rivers Which drain into Captain Kidd's anchorage Ran from the two-peaked hill upon my left And I bent my course in that direction That I might pass the stream while it was small The wood was pretty open And keeping along the lower spurs In the corner of that hill And not long after waited to the mid-calf Across the water course This brought me near to where I had encountered Ben Gunn, the maroon And I walked more circumspectly, keeping an eye on every side The dusk had come nigh-hand completely And as I opened out the cleft between the two peaks I became aware of a wavering glow against the sky Where, as I judged, the man of the island Was cooking his supper before a roaring fire And wandered in my heart that he should show himself so careless For if I could see this radiance Might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself Where he camped upon the shore among the marshes? Gradually the night fell blacker It was all I could do to guide myself even roughly Towards my destination The double hill behind me And the spyglass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter The stars were few and pale And in the low ground where I wandered Tripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me I looked up, a pale glimmer of moonbeams Had alighted on the summit of the spyglass And soon after I saw something broad and silvery Moving low down behind the trees And knew the moon had risen With this to help me I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my journey And sometimes walking, sometimes running Impatiently drew near to the stockade Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies before it I was not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace And went a trifle warily It would have been a poor end of my adventures To get shot down by my own party in mistake The moon was climbing higher and higher Its light began to fall here and there In masses through the more open districts of the wood And right in front of me A glow of a different color appeared among the trees It was red and hot And now and again it was a little darkened As it were the embers of a bonfire smoldering For the life of me I could not think what it might be At last I came right down upon the borders of the clearing The western end was already steeped in moonshine The rest and the black house itself Still lay in a black shadow checkered with long silvery streaks of light On the other side of the house An immense fire had burned itself into clear embers And shed a steady red reverberation Contrasted strongly with the mellow paleness of the moon There was not a soul stirring nor a sound beside the noises of the breeze I stopped with much wonder in my heart And perhaps a little terror also It had not been our way to build great fires We were indeed by the captain's orders Somewhat niggardly a firewood And I began to fear that something had gone wrong while I was absent I stole round by the eastern end Keeping close in shadow And at a convenient place where the darkness was thickest Crossed the palisade To make assurance, sureer, I got upon my hands and knees And crawled, without a sound, towards the corner of the house As I drew nearer my heart was suddenly and greatly lightened It was not a pleasant noise in itself And I have often complained of it at other times But just then it was like music to hear my friends Snoring together so loud and peaceful in their sleep The sea cry of the watch, that beautiful all's well Never fell more reassuringly on my ear In the meantime there was no doubt of one thing That kept an infamous bad watch If it had been silver and his lads that were now creeping in on them Not a soul would have seen daybreak That was what it was, thought I, to have the captain wounded And again I blamed myself sharply for leaving them in that danger With so few to mount guard By this time I had got to the door and stood up All was dark within so that I could distinguish nothing by the eye As for sounds there was the steady drone of the snores And a small occasional noise, a flickering or pecking That I could in no way account for With my arms before me I walked steadily in I should lie down in my own place, I thought with a silent chuckle And enjoy their faces when they found me in the morning My foot struck something yielding It was a sleeper's leg and he turned and groaned But without a waking And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forth out of the darkness Pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight And so forth without pause or change Like the clacking of a tiny mill Silver's green parrot, Captain Flint It was she whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark It was she keeping better watch than any human being Who thus announced my arrival with her weary summer fraying I had no time left me to recover At the sharp clipping tone of the parrot The sleepers awoke and sprang up And with a mighty oath the voice of Silver cried Who goes? I turned to run, struck violently against one person Recoiled and ran full into the arms of a second Who for his part closed upon and held me tight Bring a torch, Dick, said Silver when my capture was thus assured And one of the men left the log house And presently returned with a lighted brand End of chapter Chapter 28 of Treasure Island This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Part 6, Captain Silver Chapter 28, In the Enemy's Camp The red glare of the torch Lighting up the interior of the block house Showed me the worst of my apprehensions realized The pirates were in possession of the house and stores There was the cask of cognac There were the pork and bread as before And what tenfold increased my horror Not a sign of any prisoner I could only judge that all had perished And my heart smoked me sorely That I had not been there to perish with them There were six of the buccaneers all told Not another man was left alive Five of them were on their feet Flushed and swollen Suddenly called out of the first sleep of drunkenness The sixth had only risen upon his elbow He was deadly pale And the blood-stained bandage round his head Told that he had recently been wounded And still more recently dressed I remembered the man who had been shot Had in rubback among the woods in the great attack And doubted not that this was he The parrot sat, printing her plumage On Long John's shoulder He himself, I thought, looked somewhat paler And more stern than I was used to He still wore the fine brog cloth suit In which he had fulfilled his mission But it was bitterly the worse for wear Dobbed with clay and torn with the sharp Briars of the wood So said he Here's Jim Hawkins shivering my timbers Dropped in like a Welcome, I take that friendly And thereupon he sat down across the brandy cask And began to fill a pipe Give me a loan of the link, Dick Said he And then when he had had a good light That'll do, lad, he added Stick the glim in the wood-heap And you gentlemen, bring yourselves too You needn't stand up for Mr. Hawkins He'll excuse you, you may lay to that And so, Jim, stopping the tobacco Here you are, and quite a pleasant surprise For poor old John I see you were smart when first I set my eyes on you But this here gets away from me clean at due To all this, as may be well-supposed I made no answer They had set me with my back against the wall And I stood there, looking silver in the face Pluckly enough, I hope, to all outward appearance But with black despair in my heart Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe With great composure and then ran on again Now you see, Jim, so be as you are here Said he I give you a piece of my mind I've always liked you, I have For a lad of spirit And your picture of my own self When I was young and handsome I always wanted you to join and take your share And die a gentleman And now, my cock, you've got to Captain Smollett's a fine seaman As I'll own up to any day But stiff on discipline Doty is Doty, says he And right he is Just you keep clear of the captain The doctor himself is gone dead again you Ungrateful scamp was what he said And the short and the long are the whole story Is about here You can't go back to your own lot For they won't have you And without you start a third ship's Company all by yourself Which might be lonely You'll have to join with Captain Silver So far so good My friends then were still alive And though I partly believed the truth Of Silver's statement That the cabin party were incensed at me For my desertion I was more relieved than distressed By what I heard I don't say nothing as to your being In our hands, continued Silver Though there you are And you may lay to it I'm all for argument I never seem good come out of threatening If you like the service, well, you'll join And if you don't, Jim, why? You're free to answer no Free and welcome, shipmate And if Farrah can be said by mortal seaman Shiver my sides Am I to answer then? I asked with a very tremulous voice Through all this sneering talk I was made to feel the threat of death That overhung me And my cheeks burned And my heart beat painfully in my breast Lad! said Silver No one's oppressing of ya Take your bearings None of us won't hurry, ya mate Time goes so pleasant in your company, ya see Well, says I, growing a bit bolder If I'm to choose I declare I have a right to know what's what And why you're here and where my friends are What's what? Repeated one of the buccaneers and a deep growl Oh, he'd be a lucky one, has known that You'll perhaps batten down your hatches Till you're spoke to, my friend Said Silver, truculently to the speaker And then in his first gracious tones He replied to me Yesterday morning, Mr. Hawkins Said he In the dog-watch Downton came Dr. Livesey with a flag of truce Says he Cat and Silver, you're sold out Ship's gone Well, maybe we'd been taken a glass And a song to help it round I won't say no Least ways none of us had looked out We looked out, and by thunder The old ship was gone I never seen a pack of fools look fishier And you may lay to that If I tell you that looked the fishiest Well, says the doctor Let's bargain We bargained him and I And here we are Stores, brandy, blockhouse The firewood you was thoughtful enough to cut And in a manner of speaking The whole blessed boat From cross-trees to kielsen As for them, they've tramped I don't know where's they are He drew again quietly at his pipe Unless you should take it into that head of yours He went on That you was included in the treaty Here's the last word that was said How many are you, says I, to leave Four, says he Four, and one of us wounded As for that boy I don't know where he is confound him Says he Nor I don't much care We're about sick of him These was his words Is that all?  Maybe you thought you was captain here Perhaps, by the powers But I'll teach you better Cross me and you'll go where many A good man's gone before you First and last, these thirty years back Some to the yard arms, shiver my timbers And some by the board And all to feed the fishes There's never a man look me between the eyes And seen a good day afterwards, Tom Morgan You may lay to that Morgan paused But a horse murmur rose from the others Tom's right Said one I stood hazing long enough from one Added another I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John Silver Did any of you gentlemen Want to have it out with me?  He added, returning his pipe to his mouth Well, you're a gay lot to look at Anyway Not much worth the fight you ate Perhaps you can understand King George's English I'm Captain here by election I'm Captain here because I'm the best man by a long seamile You won't fight As gentlemen of fortune should Then by thunder you'll obey And you may lay to it I like that boy now I never seen a better boy than that He's more a man than any pair Of rats of you in this here house And what I say is this Let me see him that'll lay a hand on him That's what I say And you may lay to it There was a long pause after this I stood straight up against the wall My heart still going like a sledgehammer But with a ray of hope now shining in my bosom Silver leaned back against the wall His arms crossed His pipe in the corner of his mouth As calm as though he had been in church Yet his eye kept wandering furtively And he kept the tail of it on his unruly followers They, on their part Drew gradually together Towards the far end of the block House and the low hiss of their whispering Sounded in my ear continuously Like a stream One after another they would look up And the red light of the torch would fall For a second on their nervous faces But it was not towards me It was towards Silver that they turned their eyes You seem to have a lot to say Remark Silver spitting far into the air Pipe up and let me hear it Or lay to Ex your pardon, sir Return one of the men You're pretty free with some of the rules Maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest This crew's dissatisfied This crew don't valley-bullying a Marlin spike This crew has its rights like other crews I'll make so free as that And by your own rules I take it we can talk together I ask your pardon, sir Acknowledging you for to be captain at this present But I claim my right And steps outside for a counsel And with an elaborate sea salute This fellow, a long, ill-looking Yellow-eyed man of five and thirty Stepped coolly towards the door And disappeared out of the house One after another the rest followed his example Each making a salute as he passed Each adding some apology According to rules Said one Forecastle counsel Said Morgan And so with one remark or another All marched out and left Silver and me Alone with the torch The sea-cook instantly removed his pipe Now look you hear Jim Hawkins He said in a steady whisper That was no more than audible You're within half a plank of death And what's alongside worse Of torture They're going to throw me off But you mark I stand by you through thick and thin I didn't mean to No, not till you smoke up I was about desperate to lose that much blunt Into the bargain But I see you was the right sort I says to myself You stand by Hawkins, John And Hawkins'll stand by you You're his last card And by the living thunder, John He's yours Back to back, says I You save his witness and he'll save your neck I began dimly to understand You mean all's lost? I asked I, by gum, I do Once the size of it Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins And seen no schooner Well, I'm tough, but I gave out As for that lot and their council Mark me, they're outright fools and cowards I'll save your life If so be as I can from them But see here, Jim Tit for tat, you save Long John From swinging I was bewildered It seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking He, the old buccaneer, the ringleader threw out What I can do, that I'll do I said It's a bargain, cried Long John You speak a plucky, and by thunder I have a chance He hobbled to the torch where it stood Propped among the firewood and took A fresh light to his pipe Understand me, Jim, he said, Returning, I've a head on my shoulders I have, I'm on Squire's side now I know you've got that ship safe Somewhere's How you done it, I don't know How safe it is I guess Hans and O'Brien turned soft I never much believed in neither of them Now you mark me I asked no questions Nor I won't let others I know when a game's up I do And I know a lad that's staunch Ah, you that's young You and me might have done a power of good Together He drew some cognac from the cask Into a tin canikin Will you taste, messmate? Well, I'll take a dream myself, Jim Said he, I need a caulker For there's trouble on hand And talking of trouble Why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim? My face expressed a wonder So unaffected that he saw The needlessness of further questions Ah, well, he did though Said he, and there's Something under that, no doubt Something surely under that, Jim Bad or good And he took another swallow of the brandy And he was doing his great fair-head Like a man who looks forward to the worst End of chapter Chapter 29 of TREASURE island This LibriVox recording is In the public domain and is Read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina TREASURE island, by Robert Louis Stevenson Chapter 29, the black spot Again, the council of buccaneers Had lasted some time When one of them re-entered the house with the repetition of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch. Silver briefly agreed and this emissary retired again, leaving us together in the dark. There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone. I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out. The embers of the great fire had so far burned themselves out, and now glowed so low and duskily that I understood why these conspirators desired a torch. About halfway down the slope to the stockade, they were collected in a group. One held the light, another was on his knees in their midst, and I saw the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colors in the moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just make out that he had a book as well as a knife in his hand and was still wondering how anything so incongruous had come in their possession when the kneeling figure rose once more to his feet and the whole party began to move together towards the house. Here they come, said I, and I returned to my former position for it seemed beneath my dignity that they should find me watching them. Well, let them come, lad, let them come, said Silver cheerily. I've still a shot in my locker. The door opened, and the five men, standing huddled together just inside, pushed one of their number forward. In any other circumstances it would have been comical to see his slow advance, hesitating as he sat down each foot, but holding his closed right hand in front of him. Step up, lad! cried Silver.  Hand it over, lover! I know the rules I do! I won't hurt a deputation! Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly, and having passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back again to his companions. The sea-cook looked at what had been given him. The black spot, I thought so, he observed. Where might you have got the paper? Why, hello?  You've gone and cut this out of a Bible!  Ah, there! said Morgan. There! What did I say? No good will come of that, I said. Well, you've about fixed it now among you. Continued Silver. You'll all swing now, I reckon. What soft-headed lover had a Bible? It was Dick, said one. Dick was it. Then Dick can get to prayers, said Silver. He's seen his slice of luck as Dick, and you may lay to that. But here the long man with the yellow eyes struck in. Belay that talk, John Silver, he said. This crew has tipped you the black spot in full council, as in duty bound. Just you turn it over, as in duty bound, and see what's wrote there. Then you can talk. Thank ye, George, replied the sea-cook. Ye always was brisk for business, and has the rules by heart, George, as I'm pleased to see. Well, what is it anyway? Ah, deposed, that's it, is it. Very pretty wrote, to be sure. Like print, I swear. Your hand to write, George? Why, you is getting quite a leading man in this here crew. You'll be catin' next, I shouldn't wonder. Just oblige me with that torch again, will you? This pipe don't draw. Come now, said George. You don't fool this crew no more.  I thought you said you knowed the rules. Return Silver, contemptuously. Least ways, if you don't, I do, and I wait here, and I'm still your cat in mind, till you outs with your grievances, and I reply.  After that, we'll see. Oh, replied George, you don't be under no kind of apprehension. We're all square, we are. First, you've made a hash of this cruise. You'll be a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let the enemy out of this here trap for nothing. Why did they want out? I don't know, but it's pretty plain they wanted it. Third, you wouldn't let us go at them upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John Silver. You want to play booty, that's what's wrong with you. And then fourth, there's this here, boy. Is that all? asked Silver quietly. Enough, too, retorted George. We'll all swing and sun-dry for your bungling. Well, now, look here. I'll answer these four points, one after another, I'll answer them. I made a hash of this cruise, did I?  Every man of us alive, and fit, and full of good plum duff, and the treasure in the hold of her by thunder. Well, who crossed me? Who forced my hand, as was the lawful captain? Who tipped me the black spot the day we landed and began this dance? Ah, it's a fine dance. I'm here with you there. And looks mighty like a hornpipe in a rope-ended execution dock by Lundantown. It does. But who done it?  Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of George and his late comrades that these words had not been said in vain. That's for number one, cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with the vehemence that shook the house.  You've neither sense nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mother's was that lets you come to see. See, gentlemen of fortune, I reckon Taylor's is your trade. Go on, John, said Morgan, speak up to the others. Ah, the others. Return, John. They're a nice lot, ain't they? You say this cruise is bungled. Ah, by gum, if you could understand how bad it's bungled you would see. We're that near the gibbet that my neck stiff with thinking on it. You've seen them, maybe, hanged in chains, birds up out them, seamen piting them out as they go down with the tide. Who's that, says one? That. Why, that's John Silver. I knowed him well, says another, and you can hear the chains that jangle as you go about and reach for the other buoy.  And if you want to know about number four and that boy, why, shiver my timbers, isn't he a hostage? Are we going to waste a hostage? No, not us. He might be our last chance, and I shouldn't wonder. Kill that boy, not me, mates. And number three. Ah, well, there's a deal to say to number three. Maybe you don't count it nothing to have a real college doctor to see you every day.  And maybe, perhaps, you didn't know there was a consort coming, either. But there is, and not so long till then. And we'll see who'll be glad to have a hostage when it comes to that. And as for number two, and why I made a bargain, well, you came a-crawlin' on your knees to me to make it. On your knees you came, you were that downhearted. And you'd have starved, too, if I hadn't. But that's a trifle. You looked there, that's why. And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I instantly recognized. None other than the chart on yellow paper were the three red crosses that I had found in the oil cloth at the bottom of the captain's chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was more than I could fancy. But if it was inexplicable to me, the appearance of the chart was incredible to the surviving mutineers.  It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from another, and by the oaths and the cries and the childish laughter with which they accompanied their examination, you would have thought not only they were fingering the very gold, but were at sea with it besides in safety. Yes, said one, that's flinch, sure enough, J, F, and a score below with a clove hitch to it, so he's done ever. Mighty pretty, said George, but how are we to get away with it and us no ship? Silver suddenly sprang up and supporting himself with a hand against the wall.  How? Why, how do I know? You had ought to tell me that. You and the rest that lost me my scooter with your interference, Bernier. But not you, you can't. You ain't got the invention of a cockroach. But civil you can speak and shout, George Mary, you may lay to that. That's fair enough, said the old man Morgan. There, I reckon so, said the sea cook. You lost the ship. I found the treasurer. Who's the better man at that? And now I resign by thunder. Elect whom you please to be your captain now. I'm done with it. Silver, they cried, barbecue forever, barbecue for captain. So, that's the tune, is it? cried the cook. George, I reckon you'll have to wait another turn, friend, and lucky for you as I'm not a revengeful man. But that was never my way.  Take much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all. It'll do to kiss the book on still, won't it? Grail Dick, who was evidently uneasy at the curse he had brought upon himself. A Bible with a bit cut out. Returned Silver derisively. Not it. It don't buy no more in a ballot book.  Well, I reckon that's worth having too. Here, Jim, here's a curiosity for you, said Silver, and he tossed me the paper. It was around about the size of a crown piece. One side was black, for it had been the last leaf. The other contained a verse or two of Revelation. These words among the rest, which struck sharply home upon my mind. Without are dogs and murderers. The printed side had been blackened with wood ash, which already began to come off and soil my fingers. On the blank side had been written with the same material, the one word, deposed. I have that curiosity beside me at this moment, but not a trace of writing now remains beyond a single scratch, such as a man might make with his thumbnail. That was the end of the night's business. Soon after, with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, and the outside of Silver's vengeance was to put George Mary up for Sentinel and threaten him with death if he should prove unfaithful. It was long ere I could close an eye, and Heaven knows I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position, and above all, in the remarkable game that I saw Silver now engaged upon, keeping the mutineers together with one hand, and grasping with the other after every means possible and impossible to make his peace and save his miserable life. He himself slept peacefully and snored aloud, yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed and the shameful gibbet that awaited him. End of chapter. Chapter 30 of Treasure Island. This leaper box recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chapter 30 on parole. I was wakened. Indeed, we were all wakened for I could see even the Sentinel shake himself together from where he had fallen against the doorpost by a clear hearty voice hailing us from the margin of the wood. Blackhouse, ahoy! it cried. Here's the doctor! And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to hear the sound, yet my gladness was not without admixture. I remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy conduct, and when I saw where it had brought me, among what companions and surrounded by what dangers, I felt ashamed to look him in the face. He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come. And when I ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw him standing, like silver once before, up to the mid leg and creeping vapor. You, doctor! Top of the morning to you, sir! cried silver, broad awake and beaming with good nature in a moment, bright and early to be sure. And it's the early bird, as the saying goes, that gets the rations. George, shake up your timber, son, and help Dr. Livesey over the ship side. All are doing well, your patience was, all well and merry. So he pattered on, standing on the hilltop with his crutch under his elbow, and one hand upon the side of the log-house, quite the old John in voice, manner, and expression. We've quite a surprise for you too, sir! he continued. We've a little stranger here. Hee-hee! A new border in lodger, sir, and look and fit and taut as a fiddle. Slept like a supercargo, he did, right alongside of John. Stem to stem we was, all night. Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stockade and pretty near the cook, and I could hear the alteration in his voice as he said, not Jim. The very same Jim as ever was, says silver. The doctor stopped outright, although he did not speak, and it was some seconds before he seemed able to move on. Well, well, he said at last. Duty first and pleasure afterwards, as you might have said yourself, silver, let us overhaul these patients of yours. A moment afterwards he had entered the blockhouse, and with one grim nod to me proceeded with his work among the sick. He seemed under no apprehension, though he must have known that his life, among these treacherous demons, depended on a hair. And he rattled on to his patients as if he were paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on the men, for they behaved to him as if nothing had occurred, as if he were still ship's doctor, and they still faithful hands before the mast. You're doing well, my friend, he said to the fellow with the bandaged head. And if ever any person had a close shave, it was you. Your head must be hard as iron. Well, George, how goes it?  Why, your liver man is upside down. Did you take that medicine? Did he take that medicine, men? Aye, aye, he took it, sure enough. Return, Morgan. Because, you see, since I am mutineer's doctor, or prison doctor, as I prefer to call it, says Dr. Livesey in his pleasantest way, I make it a point of honor not to lose a man for King George, God bless him, and the gallows. The rogues looked at each other but swallowed the home thrust in silence. Dick don't feel well, sir, said one. Don't he, replied the doctor. Well, step up here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. No, I should be surprised if he did. The man's tongue is fit to frighten the French. Another fever. Ah, there, said Morgan, that come to spoil him bibles. That comes, as you call it, of being errant asses, retorted the doctor, and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous sloth. I think it most probable, though of course it's only an opinion, that you'll all have the deuce to pay before you get that malaria out of your systems. Camp in a bog, would you? Silver, I'm surprised at you. You're less of a fool than many, take you all round, but you don't appear to me to have the rudiments of a notion of the rules of health. Well, he added after he had dosed them round, and they had taken his prescriptions, with really laughable humility, more like charity schoolchildren that had blood-guilty mutineers and pirates. Well, that's done for today, and now I should wish to have a talk with that boy, please. And he nodded his head in my direction carelessly. George Mary was at the door, spitting and spluttering over some bad-tasted medicine, but at the first word of the doctor's proposal, he swung round with a deep flush and cried, No! and swore. Silver struck the barrel with his open hand. Silence! he roared and looked about him positively like a lion. Doctor, he went on in his usual tones. I was a thinker to that, known as how you had a fancy for the boy. We're all humbly grateful for your kindness, and as you see, puts faith in you and takes the drugs down like that much grog. And I take it, I've found a way as I'll suit all. Hawkins, will you give me your word of honor as a young gentleman? For a young gentleman you are, although poor-born, your word of honor not to slip your cable? I readily gave the pledge required. Then, doctor, said Silver, you just step outside of that stockade, and once you're there I'll bring the boy down on the inside, and I reckon you can yarn through the spars. Good day to you, sir, and all our duties to the squire and captain small it. The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but Silver's black looks had restrained, broke out immediately the doctor had left the house. Silver was roundly accused of playing double, of trying to make a separate piece for himself, of sacrificing the interests of his accomplices and victims, and in one word, of the identical exact thing that he was doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, that I could not imagine how he was to turn their anger. But he was twice the man the rest were, and his last night's victory had given him a huge preponderance on their minds. He called them all the fools and dults you can imagine, said it was necessary I should talk to the doctor, flooded the chart in their faces, asked them if they could afford to break the treaty the very day they were bound to treasure hunting. No by thunder, he cried. It's us must break the treaty when the time comes, until then I'll gammon that doctor if I have to aisle his boots with brandy. And then he bade them get the firelit, and stalked out upon his crutch, with his hand on my shoulder, leaving them in a disarray, and silenced by his volubility rather than convinced. Slow lad, slow, he said, they might round upon us in a twinkle of an eye if we were seen to hurry. Very deliberately then did we advance across the sand to where the doctor awaited us on the other side of the stockade, and as soon as we were within easy speaking distance, Silver stopped. You'll make a note of this here also, doctor, says he, and the boy'll tell you how I saved his life, and were deposed for it too, and you may lay to that. Doctor, when a man steering as near the wind as me, playing Chuck Farthing with a last breath in his body like, you wouldn't think it too much, mayhap, to give him one good word? You'll please bear in mind that it's not my life only now, it's that boy's into the bargain, and you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit of hope to go on for the sake of mercy. Silver was a changed man once he was out there, and had his back to his friends in the blockhouse. His cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice trembled, never was a soul more dead in earnest. Why, John, you're not afraid, asked Doctor Livesey. Doctor, I'm no coward, no, not I, not so much. And he snapped his fingers. If I was, I wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly, I've the shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true, I've never seen a better man, and you'll not forget what I done good, not any more than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step aside, see here, and leave you and Jim alone, and you'll put that down for me too, for it's a long stretch, is that? So saying he stepped back a little way till he was out of earshot, and there sat down upon a tree stump and began to whistle, spinning round now and again upon his seat, so as to command a sight, sometimes of me and the doctor, and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they went to and fro in the sand between the fire, which they were busy rekindling, and the house, from which they brought forth pork and bread to make the breakfast. So, Jim, said the doctor sadly, here you are. As you have brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. Heaven knows I cannot find it in my heart to blame you, but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind. When captain's small it was well, you dared not have gone off, and when he was ill and couldn't help it by George, it was downright cowardly. I will own that I here began to weep. Doctor, I said, you might spare me. I have blamed myself enough. My life's forfeit anyway, and I shouldn't have been dead by now if Silver hadn't stood for me. And doctor, believe this, I can die, and I dare say I deserve it, but what I fear is torture. If they come to torture me. Jim, the doctor interrupted, and his voice was quite changed. Jim, I can't have this. Whip over and we'll run for it. Doctor, said I, I pass my word. I know, I know, he cried. We can't help that, Jim, now. I'll take it on my shoulders. Holis, bolis, blame and shame, my boy. But stay here, I cannot let you. Jump.  No, I replied. You know right well you wouldn't do the thing yourself. Neither you nor Squire nor Captain, and no more will I. Silver trusted me, I pass my word, and back I go. But doctor, you did not let me finish. If they come to torture me, I might let slip a word of where the ship is, for I got the ship, part by luck and part by risking, and she lies in north inlet on the southern beach, and just below high water, at half tide she must be high and dry. The ship, exclaimed the doctor. Rapidly I described to him my adventures, and he heard me out in silence. There is a kind of fate in this, he observed when I had done. Every step, it's you that saves our lives, and do you suppose by any chance that we are going to let you lose yours? That would be a poor return, my boy. You found out the plot, you found Ben Gunn, the best deed that ever you did, or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by Jupiter, and talking of Ben Gunn. Why, this is the mischief in person. Silver, he cried, Silver, I'll give you a piece of advice. He continued as the cook drew near again. Don't you be in any great hurry after that treasure? Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain't, said Silver. I can only, asking your pardon, save my life and the boys by seeking for that treasure, and you may lay to that. Well, Silver, replied the doctor, if that is so, I'll go one step further. Look out for squalls when you find it. Sir, said Silver, as between man and man, that's too much and too little. What you're after, why you left the blockhouse, why you given me that there chart, I don't know now, do I?  But no, this here's too much. If you won't tell me what you mean plain out, just say so, and I'll leave the helm. No, said the doctor musingly. I've no right to say more.  But I'll go as far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond, for I'll have my wig sorted by the captain, or I'm mistaken. And first, I'll give you a bit of hope. Silver, if we both get alive out of this wolf trap, I'll do my best to save you short of perjury. Silver's face was radiant. You couldn't say more, I'm sure, sir, not if you was my mother, he cried. Well, that's my first concession, added the doctor. My second is a piece of advice. Keep the boy close beside you, and when you need help, halloo! I'm off to seek it for you, and that itself will show you if I speak at random. Goodbye, Jim. And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through the stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk pace into the wood. End of chapter. Chapter 31 of Treasure Island. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chapter 31, The Treasure Hunt, Flint's Pointer. Jim, said Silver when we were alone. If I saved your life, you save mine, and I'll not forget it. I've seen the doctor waving you to run for it, with the tail of my eye I did, and I've seen you say no, as plain as herein. Jim, that's one to you. This is the first glint of hope I had since the attack failed, and I owe it you. And now, Jim, we're to go in for this here treasure-haunting, with sealed orders, too, and I don't like it, and you and me must stick close, back to back like, and we'll save our necks in spite of fate and fortune. Just then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast was ready, and we were soon seated here and there about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox, and it was now grown so hot that they could only approach it from the windward, and even there not without precaution. In the same wasteful spirit they had cooked, I suppose, three times more than we could eat, and one of them, with an empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire, which blazed and roared again over this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow, hand to mouth is the only word that can describe their way of doing, and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they were bold enough for a brush and be done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign. Even silver, eating away, with Captain Flint upon his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their recklessness, and this the more surprised me, for I thought he had never shown himself so cunning as he did then. I, mates, said he, it's lucky you have barbecue to think for you with this here head. I got what I wanted, I did. Sure enough, they have the ship. Where they have it, I don't know yet, but once we hit the treasure, we'll have to jump about and find out. And then, mates, us that has the boats, I reckon, has the upper hand.  Thus he restored their hope and confidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired his own at the same time. As for hostage, he continued, that's his last talk, I guess, with them he loves so dear. I've got my piece of news, and thank you to him for that, but it's over and done. I'll take him in a line when we go treasure hunting, for we'll keep him like so much gold in case of accidents, you mark, and in the meantime. Once we got the ship and treasure both and off to sea like jolly companions, why then we'll talk Mr. Hawkins over, we will, and we'll give him his share to be sure for all his kindness. It was no wonder the men were in such a good humor now. For my part, I was horribly cast down. Should the scheme he had now sketched prove feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not hesitate to adopt it. He had still a foot in either cap, and there was no doubt he would prefer wealth and freedom with the pirates to a bear escape from hanging, which was the best he had to hope on our side. Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then what danger lay before us? What a moment that would be when the suspicions of his followers turned to certainty and he and I should have to fight for dear life, he a cripple and I a boy, against five strong and active seamen. Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung over the behavior of my friends, their unexplained desertion of the stockade, their inexplicable session of the chart, or harder still to understand the doctor's last warning to Silver. Look out for squalls when you find it, and you will readily believe how little taste I found in my breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth behind my captors on the quest for treasure. We made a curious figure, had anyone been there to see us, all in soiled sailor clothes and all but me armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about him, one before and one behind, besides the great cutlass at his waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat. To complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk. I had a line about my waist and followed obediently after the sea-cook, who held the loose end of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his powerful teeth. For all the world, I was led like a dancing bear. The other men were variously burdened, some carrying picks and shovels, for that had been the very first necessary they had brought ashore from the Hispaniola, others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal. All the stores I observed came from our stock, and I could see the truth of Silver's words the night before. Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting. Water would have been little to their taste, a sailor is not usually a good shot, and besides all that, when they were so short of eatables, it was not likely they would be very flush of powder. Well, thus equipped we all set out, even the fellow with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in shadow, and straggled one after another to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in their muddy and unbailed condition. Both were to be carried along with us for the sake of safety, and so, with our numbers divided between them, we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. As we pulled over, there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too large to be a guide, and the terms of the note on the back, as you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity. They ran the reader may remember, thus, tall tree, spyglass shoulder, bearing a point to the north of north northeast, skeleton island, east, southeast, and by east, ten feet. A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, right before us, the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred feet high, adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the spyglass, and rising again toward the south, into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Misenmast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine trees of varying height. Every here and there, one of a different species rose four or fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of these was the particular tall tree of Captain Flint could only be decided on the spot and by the readings of the compass. Yet, although that was the case, every man on board the boats had picked a favorite of his own, ere we were halfway over, Long John alone shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there. We pulled easily, by Silver's directions, not to weary the hands prematurely, and after quite a long passage, landed at the mouth of the second river, that which runs down a woody cleft of the spyglass. Thence, bending to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards the plateau. At the first outset, heavy myri ground and a matted, marished vegetation greatly delayed our progress, but by little and little the hill began to steepen and become stony underfoot, and the wood to change its character and to grow in a more open order. It was indeed a most pleasant portion of the island that we were now approaching. A heavy scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets of green nutmeg trees were dotted here and there with the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines, and the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others. The air besides was fresh and stirring, and this under the sheer sunbeams was a wonderful refreshment to our senses. The party spread itself abroad in a fan shape, shouting and leaping to and fro, about the center and a good way behind the rest, Silver and I followed. I tethered by my rope, he plowing with deep pants along the sliding gravel. From time to time indeed I had to lend him a hand, or he must have missed his footing and followed backwards down the hill. We had thus proceeded for about half a mile and were approaching the brow of the plateau, when the man upon the farthest left began to cry aloud as if in terror. Shout after shout came from him, and the others began to run in his direction. He could have found the treasure, said old Morgan, hurrying past us from the right, for that's clean atop. Indeed, as we found when we also reached the spot, it was something very different. At the foot of a pretty big pine and involved in a green creeper, which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones, a human skeleton lay with a few shreds of clothing on the ground. I believe a chill struck for a moment to every heart. He was a seaman, said George Mary, who bolder than the rest had gone up close and was examining the rags of clothing. Laced-wise this is good sea-cloth. Aye, aye, said Silver, like enough, you wouldn't look to find a bishop here, I reckon, but what sort of a way is that for bones to lie, taint in nature? Indeed, on a second glance it seemed impossible to fancy that the body was in a natural position, but for some disarray, the work perhaps of the birds that had fed upon him were of the slow-growing creeper that had gradually enveloped his remains, the man lay perfectly straight, his feet pointing in one direction, his hands raised above his head like a diver's, pointing directly in the opposite. I've taken a notion into my old numbskull. Observe Silver, here's the compass, there's the tip-top point of Skeleton Island, sticking out like a tooth. Just take a baron, will ya, along the line of them bones. It was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of the island, and the compass read Dooley, east, southeast, and by east. I thought so, cried the cook, this here is a pointer, right up there is our line for the pole star and the jolly dollars, but by thunder, if it don't make me cold inside to think a flint. This is one of his jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six was alone here, he killed them every man, and this one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver my timbers, their long bones, and the hairs been yellow. Aye, that would be Allardyce, you mined Allardyce, Tom Morgan. Aye, aye, return Morgan, I mined him, he owed me money, he did, and took my knife ashore with him. Speak in a knives, said another, why don't we find his in line round, flint warrant a man to pick a seamen's pocket, and the birds I guess would leave it be. By the powers, and that's true, cried Silver. There ain't a thing left here, said Mary, still feeling round among the bones. Not a copper joie, nor a backy box, it don't look natural to me. No, by God, it don't. Agreed Silver, not natural, nor not nice, says you. Great guns! Mess mates, but if flint was livin', this would be a hot spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are we, and bones is what they are now. I saw him dead with these here deadlights, said Morgan. Billy took me in, there he laid with penny pieces on his eyes. Dead? Aye, sure enough, he's dead and gone below, said the fellow with the bandage, but if ever Spirit walked it would be flints. Dear heart, but he died bad, did flint. Aye, that he did, observed another. Now he raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now he sang. Fifteen men were his only songmates, and I tell you true I never rightly liked to hear it since. It was main-hot, and the windy was open, and I hear that old song comin' out as clear as clear, and the death-hall on the man already. Come, come, said Silver, stow this talk. He's dead and he don't walk, that I know. Least ways, he won't walk by day, and you may lay to that.  We started, certainly, but in spite of the hot sun and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the wood, but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath. The terror of the debb-buccaneer had fallen on their spirits. End of chapter Chapter 32 of Treasure Island This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville South Carolina. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Chapter 32 The Treasure Hunt The Voice Among the Trees Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole party sat down as soon as they had gained the brow of the assent. The plateau being somewhat tilted towards the west, this spot on which we had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the treetops, we beheld the cape of the woods fringed with surf. Behind, we not only looked down upon the anchorage and skeleton island, but saw, clear across the spit and the eastern low lands, a great field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose the spy glass, here dotted with single pines, there black with precipices. There was no sound but that of the distant breakers, mounting from all round, and the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail upon the sea, the very largeness of the view increased the sense of solitude. Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his compass. There are three tall trees, said he, about in the right line from Skeleton Island. Spyglass shoulder, I take it, means that lower point there. It's child's play to find the stuff now. I'd half a mind to dine first. I don't feel sharp, growled Morgan, thinking aflint I think it were as done me. Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars, he's dead. Sits over.  That blew in the face, too. That was how the rum took him, added Mary. Blue! Well, I reckon he was blue. That's a true word. Ever since they had found the Skeleton and got upon this train of thought, they had spoken lower and lower, and they had almost got to whispering by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly interrupted the silence of the wood.  Fifteen men on the dead man's chairs, yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates. The color went from their six faces like enchantment, some leap to their feet, some clawed hold of others, morking groveled on the ground. It's flint by! cried Mary. The song had stopped, as suddenly as it began, broken off you would have said in the middle of a note, as though someone had laid his hand upon the singer's mouth. Coming through the clear, sunny atmosphere among the green treetops, I thought it had sounded airily and sweetly, and the effect of my companions was the stranger. Come! said Silver, struggling with his ash and lips to get the word out, this won't do! Stand by to go about! This is a rum start and I can't name the voice, but it's someone sky-larking, someone that's flesh in blood and you may lay to that. His courage had come back, as he spoke, and some of the color to his face along with it. Already the others had begun to lend an ear to this encouragement, and were coming a little to themselves when the same voice broke out again, not this time singing, but in a faint distant hail that echoed yet fainter among the cliffs of the spyglass. Darby McGraw! It wailed, for that is the word that best describes the sound. Darby McGraw! Darby McGraw! Again and again and again, and then rising a little higher, and with an oath that I leave out, fetch after-rom, Darby! The buccaneers remain rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from their heads. Long after the voice had died away they still stared in silence dreadfully before them. That fixes it, gassed one. Let's go! They were his last words, moaned Morgan, his last words above board.  He had been well brought up, had Dick, before he came to see and fell among bad companions. Still Silver was unconquered. I could hear his teeth rattle in his head, but he had not yet surrendered. Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby. He muttered, not one but us the tear. And then, making a great effort, Shipmates! he cried. I'm here to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat by man or devil. I never was feared of Flint in his life, and by the powers I'll face him dead. There's seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a mile from here. When did ever a gentleman of fortune show his stern to that much dollars for a boozy old semen with a blue mug, and him dead too? But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers, rather, indeed, of growing terror at the irreverence of his words. Belay there, John, said Mary. Don't you cross a spirit? And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They would have run away severally had they dared, but fear kept them together and kept them close by John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his part, had pretty well fought his weakness down. Spirit! Well, maybe, he said. But there's one thing not clear to me. There was an echo. Now, no man ever seen a spirit with a shadow. Well, then, what's he doing with an echo to him I should like to know. That ain't in nature, surely? This argument seemed weak enough to me, but you can never tell what will affect the superstitious, and to my wonder, George Mary was greatly relieved. Well, that's so, he said. You've a head upon your shoulders John, and no mistake. Bout ship, mates. This here crew is on a wrong tack, I do believe, and come to think on it, it was like Flint's voice, I grant you, but not just so clear away like it after all. It was like her somebody's else's voice now. It was like her by the powers, Ben Gunn, roared Silver. Aye, and so it were, cried Morgan, springing on his knees. Ben Gunn, it were. It don't make much odds, do it now. Ask Dick, Ben Gunn's not here in the body any more in Flint. But the older hands greeted this remark with scorn. Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn, cried Mary, dead or alive, nobody minds him. It was extraordinary how their spirits had returned, and how the natural color had revived in their faces. Soon they were chatting together with intervals of listening, and not long after, hearing no further sound, they shouldered the tools and set forth again, Mary walking first with Silver's compass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton Island. He had said the truth, dead or alive, nobody minded Ben Gunn. Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around him as he went with fearful glances, but he found no sympathy, and Silver even choked him on his precautions.  If it ain't no good to swear by, what do you suppose a spirit would give for it? Not that. And he snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his crutch. But Dick was not to be comforted, indeed it was soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick, hastened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm, the fever, predicted by Dr. Livesey, was evidently growing swiftly higher. It was fine open walking here upon the summit. Our way lay a little down hill, for as I have said, the plateau tilted towards the west, the pines great and small grew wide apart, and even between the clumps of nutmeg and azalea, wide open spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking as we did, pretty near northwest across the island, we drew on the one hand ever nearer under the shoulders of the spyglass, and on the other, looked ever wider over that western bay where I had once tossed and trembled in the coracle. The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the wrong one. So with the second, the third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a clump of underwood, a giant of a vegetable, with a red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a company could have maneuvered. It was conspicuous far to see, both on the east and west, and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon the chart. But it was not its size that now impressed my companions. It was the knowledge that seven hundred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below its spreading shadow. The thought of the money, as they drew nearer, swallowed up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads. Their feet grew speedier and lighter. Their whole soul was found up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure that lay waiting there for each of them. Silver hobbled grunting on his crutch. His nostril stood out and quivered. He cursed like a madman when the flies settled on his hot and shiny countenance. He plucked furiously at the line that held me to him, and from time to time turned his eyes upon me with a deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts, and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate nearness of the gold all else had been forgotten. His promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the past, and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the treasure, find and board the Hispaniola under cover of night, cut every honest throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and riches. Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treasure hunters. Now and again I stumbled, and it was then that silver plucked so roughly at the rope and launched at me his murderous glances. Dick, who had dropped behind us and now brought up the rear, was babbling to himself both prayers and curses as his fever kept rising. This also added to my wretchedness, and to crown all, I was haunted by the thought of the tragedy that had once been acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue face, he who died at Savanna, singing and shouting for drink, had there, with his own hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove that was now so peaceful must then have rung with cries, I thought, and even with the thought, I could believe I heard it ringing still. We were now at the margin of the thicket. Huzzah, mates, all together, shouted Mary, and the foremost broke into a run. And suddenly, not ten yards further, we beheld them stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch like one possessed, and next moment he and I had come also to a dead halt. Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft of a pick broken in two, and the boards of several packing cases strewn around. On one of these boards I saw, branded with a hot iron, the name Walrus, the name of Flint's ship. All was clear to probation. The cache had been found and rifled, the seven hundred thousand pounds were gone. End of chapter. Chapter 33 of Treasure Island. This Leapervox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chapter 33 The Fall of a Chieftain There never was such an overturn in this world. Each of these six men was as though he had been struck, but with silver the blow passed almost instantly. Every thought of his soul had been set full stretch like a racer on that money. Well, he was brought up in a single second, dead, and he kept his head, found his temper, and changed his plan before the others had had time to realize the disappointment. Jim, he whispered, take that and stand by for trouble, and he passed me a double-barreled pistol. At the same time he began quietly moving northward, and in a few steps had put the hollow between us two and the other five. Then he looked at me and nodded as much as to say, here is a narrow corner. As indeed I thought it was. His looks were not quite friendly and I was so revolted at these constant changes that I could not forbear whispering, so you've changed sides again. There was no time left for him to answer in. The buccaneers with oaths and cries began to leap one after another into the pit and to dig with their fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. Morgan found a piece of gold. He held it up with a perfect spout of oaths. It was a two-ginny piece and it went from hand to hand among them for a quarter of a minute. Two-ginnies! roared Mary, shaking at its over. That's your 700,000 pounds, is it? You're the man for bargains, ain't you? You're him that never bungled nothing, you wooden-headed lubber. Dig away, boys, said Silver with the coolest insolence. You'll find some pig-nuts and I shouldn't wander. Pig-nuts! repeated Mary in a scream. Mates, do you hear that? I tell you now that man there knew it all along. Look in the face of him and you'll see it rope there. Ah, Mary. Remark, Silver. Stand in for Captain again.  But this time everyone was entirely in Mary's favor. They began to scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them. One thing I observed, which looked well for us, they all got out upon the opposite side from Silver. Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the other, the pit between us, and nobody screwed up high enough to offer the first blow. Silver never moved. He watched them, very upright on his crutch, and looked as cool as ever I saw him. He was brave and no mistake. At last Mary seemed to think a speech might help matters. Mates, says he, there's two of them alone there. One's the old cripple that brought us all here and blundered us down to this. The other's that cub that I mean to have the heart of. Now, Mates. He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead a charge. But just then, crack, crack, crack. Three musket shots flashed out of the thicket. Mary tumbled head foremost into the excavation.  And the other three turned and ran for it with all their might. Before you could wink, Long John had fired two barrels of a pistol into the struggling Mary, and as the man rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, George, said he, I reckon I settled you. At the same moment, the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn joined us with smoking muskets from among the nutmeg trees. Forward, cried the doctor, double quick, my lads, we must head him off the boats. And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plunging through the bushes to the chest. I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with us. The work that man went through, leaping on his crutch till the muscles of his chest were fit to burst, was work no sell man ever equaled, and so thinks the doctor. As it was, he was already thirty yards behind us and on the verge of strangling when we reached the brow of the slope. Doctor, he hailed, see there, no hurry. Sure enough, there was no hurry. In a more open part of the plateau, we could see the three survivors still running in the same direction as they had started, right from Misenmast Hill. We were already between them and the boats, and so we four sat down to breathe, while Long John, mopping his face, came slowly up with us. Thank you kindly, doctor, says he. You came in about the nick, I guess, for me and Hawkins. And so it's you, Ben Gunn, he added.  I'm Ben Gunn, I am, replied the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment, and he added after a long pause. How do, Mr. Silver? Pretty well, I thank you, says you. Ben, Ben, murmured Silver, to thank as you've done me. The doctor sent back gray for one of the pickaxes deserted in their flight by the mutineers, and then as we proceeded leisurely downhill to where the boats were lying, related in a few words what had taken place. It was a story that profoundly interested Silver, and Ben Gunn, the half-idiot maroon, was the hero from beginning to end. Ben, in his long lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton. It was he that had rifled it, he had found the treasure, he had dug it up, it was the half of his pickaxe that lay broken in the excavation. He carried it on his back in many weary journeys from the foot of the tall pine, to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in safety since two months before the arrival of the Hispaniola. When the doctor had wormed this secret from him on the afternoon of the attack, and when next morning he saw the anchorage deserted, he had gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now useless, given him the stores, for Ben Gunn's cave was well supplied with goatsmeat salted by himself, given anything and everything to get a chance of moving in safety from the stockade to the two-pointed hill, there to be clear of malaria and keep a guard upon the money. As for you, Jim, he said, it went against my heart, but I did what I thought best for those who had stood by their duty, and if you were not one of these, whose fault was it? That morning, finding that I was to be involved in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for the mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave, and leaving the squire to guard the captain, had taken Gray and the maroon and started, making the diagonal across the island to be at hand beside the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party had the start of him, and Ben Gunn, being fleet of foot, had been dispatched in front to do his best alone. Then it had occurred to him to work upon the superstitions of his former shipmates, and he was so far successful that Gray and the Doctor had come up, and were already ambushed before the arrival of the treasure hunters. Ah, said Silver, it were fortunate for me that I had Hawkins here. You would have let old John be cut to bits, and never given it a thought, Doctor. Not a thought, replied Doctor Livesey cheerily, and by this time we had reached the gigs. The Doctor, with the pickaxe, demolished one of them, and then we all got aboard the other, and set out to go round by sea for North Inlet. This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, though he was almost killed already with fatigue, was set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we passed out of the straits and doubled the southeast corner of the island, round which, four days ago, we had towed the Hispaniola. As we passed the two-pointed hill, we could see the black mouth of Ben Gunn's cave, and a figure standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the squire, and we waved a handkerchief and gave him three cheers, in which the voice of Silver joined as heartily as any. Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of North Inlet, what should we meet but the Hispaniola cruising by herself? The last flood had lifted her, and had there been much wind or a strong tide current, as in the southern anchorage, we should never have found her more, or found her stranded beyond help. As it was, there was little amiss beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor was got ready, and dropped in a fathom and a half of water. We all pulled round again to Rum Cove, the nearest point for Ben Gunn's treasure house, and then Gray, single-handed, returned with a gig to the Hispaniola, where he was to pass the night on guard. A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of the cave. At the top, the squire met us. To me, he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of my escapade, either in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute, he somewhat flushed.  I am told I am not to prosecute you, well then, I will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like millstones. Thank you kindly, sir, replied Long John, again saluting. I dare you to thank me, cried the squire. It is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back. And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a large airy place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water overhung with ferns. The floor was sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett, and in a far corner, only duskly flickered over by the blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals built of bars of gold. That was Flint's treasure that we had come so far to seek, and that it cost already the lives of seventeen men from the Hispaniola. How many it had cost in the amassing! What blood and sorrow! What good ships scuttled on the deep! What brave men walking the plank blindfold! What shot of cannon!  Perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet there were still three upon that island, Silver and Old Morgan and then Gun, who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain to share in the reward. Come in, Jim, said the Captain. You're a good boy and you're lying, Jim, but I don't think you and me will go to sea again. You're too much of the born favorite for me. Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here, man? Come back to my duty, sir, returned Silver. Ah, said the Captain, and that was all he said. What a supper I had of it that night, with all my friends around me, and what a meal it was, with Ben Gun's salted goat and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the Hispaniola. Never I am sure were people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter, the same bland, polite, obsequious semen of the voyage out. End of chapter. Chapter 34 The Final Chapter of Treasure Island This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chapter 34 And Last The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the Hispaniola, was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us. A single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to insure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought besides, they had had more than enough of fighting. Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while the rest during their absences piled treasure on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's end, made a good load for a grown man, one that he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part, as I was not much use at carrying, I was kept busy all day in the cave, packing the minted money into bread bags. It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied, that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moyadors and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years. Strange oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck. Nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection, and for number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out. Day after day this work went on, by every evening a fortune had been stowed aboard, but there was another fortune waiting for the morrow, and all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving mutineers. At last, I think it was on the third night, the doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle, when, from out of the thick darkness below, the wind brought us a noise between shrieking and singing. It was only a snatch that reached our ears, followed by the former silence. Heaven forgive them, said the doctor, tis the mutineers. All drunk, sir, struck in the voice of Silver from behind us. Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, and in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard himself once more as quite a privileged and friendly dependent. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he bore these slights and with what unwearing politeness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all. Yet I think none treated him better than a dog, unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster, or myself, who had really something to thank him for. Although for that matter, I suppose, I had reason to think even worse of him than anybody else, for I had seen him meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau. Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor answered him. Drunk or raving, said he. Right you were, sir, replied Silver, and precious little odd's which to you and me. I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you a humane man, return the doctor with a sneer, and so my feelings may surprise you, Master Silver. But if I were sure they were raving, as I am morally certain one at least of them is down with fever, I should leave this camp, and at whatever risk to my own carcass take them the assistance of my skill. Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong, quote Silver.  I'm on your side now, hand in glove, and I shouldn't wish for to see the party weakened, let alone yourself, seeing as I know what I owes you. But these men down there, they couldn't keep their word. No, not supposing they wished to, and what's more, they couldn't believe as you could. No, said the doctor. You're the man to keep your word, we know that. Well, that was about the last news we had of the three pirates, only once we heard a gunshot a great way off, and suppose them to be hunting. A council was held, and it was decided that we must desert them on the island, to the huge glee, I must say, of Ben Gunn, and with a strong approval of Gray. We left a good stock of powder in shot, the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines, and some other necessaries, tools, clothing, a spare sail, a fathom or two of rope, and by the particular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of tobacco. That was about our last doing on the island. Before that, we had got the treasure stowed and had shipped enough water and the remainder of the goat meat, in case of any distress. And at last, one fine morning, we weighed anchor, which was about all that we could manage, and stood out of North Inlet, the same colors flying that the captain had flown and fought under at the palisade. The three fellows must have been watching as closer than we thought for, as we soon had proved. For coming through the narrows, we had to lie very near the southern point, and there we saw all three of them kneeling together on a spit of land, with their arms raised in supplication. It went to all our hearts, I think, to leave them in that wretched state, but we could not risk another mutiny, and to take them home for the gibbet would have been a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them and told them of the stores we had left and where they were to find them, but they continued to call us by name and appeal to us, for God's sake, to be merciful and not leave them to die in such a place. At last, seeing the ship still bore on our course and was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of them, I know not which it was, leaped to his feet with a horse cry, whipped his musket to his shoulder, and sent a shot whistling over Silver's head and through the mainsail. After that, we kept under cover of the bulwarks, and when next I looked out, they had disappeared from the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted out of sight in the growing distance. That was at least the end of that, and before noon, to my inexpressible joy, the highest rock of Treasure Island had sunk into the blue round of sea. We were so short of men that everyone on board had to bear a hand, only the captain lying on a mattress in the stern and giving his orders, for though greatly recovered, he was still in want of quiet. We laid her head for the nearest port in Spanish America, for we could not risk the voyage home without fresh hands, and as it was, what with baffling winds and a couple of fresh scales, we were all worn out before we reached it. It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful landlocked gulf, and were immediately surrounded by shoreboats full of Negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods selling fruits and vegetables and offering to dive for bits of money. The sight of so many good-humored faces, especially the blacks, the taste of the tropical fruits, and above all the lights that began to shine in the town, made a most charming contrast to our dark and bloody sojourn on the island, and the doctor in the squire, taking me along with them, went ashore to pass the early part of the night. Here they met the captain of an English man of war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came alongside the Hispaniola. Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came on board, he began with wonderful contortions to make us a confession. Silver was gone. The maroon had connived at his escape in a shoreboat some hours ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to preserve our lives, which would certainly have been forfeit if that man with a one leg had stayed aboard, and this was not all. The sea cook had not gone empty-handed. He had cut through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed one of the sacks of coin, worth perhaps three or four hundred guineas, to help him on his further wanderings. I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit of him. Well, to make a long story short, we got a few hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blanley was beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five men only of those who had sailed returned with her. Drink and the devil had done for the rest with a vengeance, although to be sure, we were not quite in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about. With one man of her crew alive, what put the sea was seventy-five. All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures. Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray not only saved his money, but being suddenly smitten with the desire to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate and part owner of a fine, full-rigged ship, married besides, and the father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks, or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to keep exactly as he had feared upon the island, and he still lives a great favorite, though something of a but with the country boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and Saints' days. Of silver, we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean out of my life, but I dare say he met his old Negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small. The bar's silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint buried them, and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wane-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island, and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts, or start upright in bed with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears, Peace is a mate, peace is a mate! End of chapter. End of book. Thank you for listening.


The paper reviews the recent applications of piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and repair conducted by the authors. First, commonly used piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and structure repair are introduced. The analysis of plain piezoelectric sensors and actuators and interdigital transducer and their applications and beam, plate and pipe structures for damage detection are reviewed in detail. Second, an overview is presented on the recent advances in the applications of piezoelectric materials in structural repair. In addition, the basic principle and the current development of the technique are examined. This article was authored by Sir Tong Quek, Quan Wang, and Wenhui Duan.


We demonstrate a new substrate cleaning and buffer growth scheme in beta GA-203 epitaxial thin films. Using metal organic vapor phase epitaxy MOVP, we show the potential of designing C-doped beta GA-203 channels with exceptional transport properties. These channels show record high electron mobility in the range of 196 to 85 cm2 slash vs. This article was authored by Arkabatacharya, Carl Peterson, Takiki Ito, and others.