Seven

I GO TO BRISTOL

It was longer than Mr. Trelawney imagined before we were ready for the sea, and none of our first plans—not even Dr. Livesey's, of keeping me beside him—could be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to London for someone to carry on his work. Mr. Trelawney was hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of old Redruth, the gardener, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams about strange islands and all sorts of excitements. I sat by the hour over the map, every line of which I well remembered.

So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed to Dr. Livesey, with this added, "To be opened, in the case of his absence, by Tom Redruth, or young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found, or rather I found—for Tom was a poor hand at reading anything but print—the following important news:

Old Ship Inn,

Bristol,

March 1, 1759.

Dear Livesey,—As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or still in London, I send this in double to both places.

The ship is bought and fitted. She lies in the harbour, ready for sea. You never imagined a sweeter vessel—a child might sail her; name, Hispaniola.

I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has proved himself a surprisingly good and useful fellow. He has worked like a slave for me, and so, I may say, did everyone in Bristol, as soon as they heard the port we sailed for—treasure, I mean.

"Redruth," said I, "Dr. Livesey will not like that. Mr. Trelawney has been talking, after all."

"Well, who has a better right?" answered Tom. "It's a strange thing indeed if the master may not talk just because Dr. Livesey says so!"

At that I said no more, but read straight on:

Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and got her for a very small amount of money. There is a class of men in Bristol who are very much against Blandly. They were declaring that this honest fellow would do anything for money, that the Hispaniola belonged to him, and that he sold it to me at a very high price. Such lies disprove themselves! But none of them dare to say that the ship is not a good one.

So far there has been no sort of difficulty. The work-people, to be sure, were very slow; but they were better later on. It was the crew that troubled me.

I wanted twenty men—in case we meet natives, pirates, or the French—and I had the greatest difficulty in finding so much as half a dozen, till the most wonderful piece of good fortune brought me the very man that I required.

I was standing at the harbour-side, when, by the merest accident, I fell into talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept an inn, knew all the seamen in Bristol, had lost his health on shore, and wanted work as a cook to get to sea again. He had crept down there that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt.

I was very much moved by his story—so would you have been. Out of pure pity, I employed him to be ship's cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a point in his favour, since he lost it in his country's service. The Government did nothing for him, Livesey. What bad times we live in!

Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a few days a company of the finest old 'salts' you can imagine, not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of splendid spirit. I declare we could fight a battle-ship.

Long John even sent away two out of the six or seven I had already taken. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of fresh-water creatures we had to fear in an important and dangerous voyage.

I am in splendid health and spirits, eating like a lion, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till my ship sets sail. Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come quickly; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.

Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for a guard; and then both come full speed to Bristol.

John Trelawney.

 

Note.—I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send a ship after us if we don't return by the end of August, had found an excellent fellow for sailing-master. Long John Silver discovered a very useful man for first officer, a man named Arrow.

I forget to tell you that Silver is a man of some wealth. He leaves his wife to keep the inn; I guess that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to wandering.

J. T.

 

Note.—Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.

J. T.

You can fancy the excitement in which that letter put me. I was half mad with delight; and if ever I thought shame of a man, it was of old Tom Redruth, who could do nothing but weep and complain. Any of the other men in the place would gladly have changed places with him; but such was not the master's wish, and the master's wish was like law among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to complain.

The next morning he and I set out on foot for the "Benbow," and there I found my mother in good health and spirits. I said good-bye to mother and the bay where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old "Benbow."

In the carriage I was between Redruth and a fat old gentleman, and, in spite of the swift movement and the cold night air, I must have slept a great deal from the very first, and then slept like a log, up and down the hills, hour after hour. When I opened my eyes, I found that we were standing still before a large building in a city street, and that it was full daylight.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."

In front of a large inn stood Mr. Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea-officer, in thick blue cloth.

"Here you are," he cried, "and the doctor came last night from London. Excellent! The ship's company complete!

"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?"

"Sail!" said he. "We sail to-morrow!"