Twenty

SILVER'S MESSAGE

Sure enough, there were two men just outside the stockade, one of them waving a white cloth; the other, no less a person than Silver himself, standing calmly by.

"Keep inside the hut, men," said the captain. "This is probably a trick."

Then, "Who goes? Stand or we fire," he shouted.

"White flag o' peace," cried Silver.

The captain turned and spoke to us:

"Dr. Livesey, watch the north side, if you please; Jim, the east; Gray, west. All load your guns. Quickly, men, and careful."

And then he turned again to the enemy.

"And what do you want with your white flag?" he cried.

This time it was the other man who replied.

"Cap'n Silver, sir, to come on board and make terms," he shouted.

"Cap'n Silver! Don't know him. Who's he?" cried the captain. And we could hear him adding to himself: "'Cap'n,' is it? My heart, 'Captain'!"

Long John answered for himself.

"Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me captain, after you deserted the ship, sir"—laying a particular weight upon the word "deserted". "We're willing to yield, if we can come to terms. All I ask is your word, Captain Smollett, to let me safe and unharmed out of this stockade, and one minute to get out of range before a gun is fired."

"My man," said Captain Smollett, "I have not the slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to talk to me, you can come, that's all. If there's any dirty trick, it'll be on your side, and the Lord help you."

"That's enough, Cap'n," shouted Long John cheerily. "A word from you's enough. I know a gentleman."

We could see the man who carried the flag attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that wonderful, seeing how rough had been the captain's answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud. Then he advanced to the stockade, threw over his stick, and after several attempts he succeeded in climbing over and dropping safely to the other side.

I was far too much taken up with what was going on to be of the slightest use as watcher; indeed, I had already deserted my place on the east, and crept up behind the captain, who had now seated himself in the doorway, with his head in his hands, and his eyes fixed on the water, as it rose out of the spring in the sand. He was whistling to himself.

Silver had terrible hard work getting up the hill because of the steepness of the slope and the soft sand. At last he arrived before the captain. He had a huge blue coat on, hanging as low as his knees, and a fine hat set on the back of his head.

"Here you are, my man," said the captain, raising his head. "You had better sit down."

"You aren't going to let me inside, Cap'n?" complained Long John. "It's a cold morning, sir, to sit outside upon the sand."

"Why, Silver," said the captain, "if you had pleased to be an honest man, you might have been sitting in your kitchen. It's your own doing. You're either my ship's cook—and then you were treated generously—or 'Cap'n' Silver, a common pirate, and then you can go to the devil!"

"Well, well, Cap'n," replied the sea-cook, sitting down as he was told on the sand, "you'll have to give me a hand up again, that's all. A sweet pretty place you have of it here. Ah, there's Jim! The top of the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, my respects to you. Why, there you are together like a happy family."

"If you have anything to say, my man, better say it," said the captain.

"Right you are, Cap'n Smollett," replied Silver. "Duty is duty, to be sure. Well, now, you look here, that was a good piece of work of yours last night, it was; and I won't say that some of my men weren't frightened; perhaps I was myself. Perhaps that's why I'm here for terms. But listen to me, Cap'n, you won't do it twice, by thunder. We'll have to keep better watch and drink a bit less rum. You think I was drunk—but I wasn't. I was tired out, and if I'd woken a half a minute sooner, I'd have caught you in the act. He wasn't dead when I got round to him, not he."

"Well?" says Captain Smollett, as cool as can be.

All that Silver said was meaningless to him, but you would never have guessed it from his voice. As for me, I began to have an idea. Ben Gunn's last words came back to my mind. I began to suppose that he had paid the pirates a visit while they all lay drunk together round their fire, and I guessed that we had only fourteen enemies to deal with.

"Well, here it is," said Silver. "We want that treasure, and we'll have it—that's our point! You would just as soon save your lives, I guess. You have a map, haven't you?"

"That may be," replied the captain.

"Oh, well, you have; I know that," said Long John. "You needn't be so rude to a man; it doesn't help you, not one bit. What I mean is, we want your map. Now, I never meant you harm, myself."

"That won't do with me, my man," answered the captain. "We know exactly what you meant to do, and we don't care; for now, you see, you can't do it."

And the captain looked at him calmly, and proceeded to fill a pipe.

"If Abe Gray—" Silver broke out angrily.

"Stop!" cried the captain. "Gray told me nothing, and I asked him nothing."

"Well," said Silver, growing cool again, "perhaps that's so. There's no knowing what a gentleman may consider right or wrong. And seeing that you are smoking a pipe, I'll make free to do the same."

And he filled a pipe and lighted it; and the two men sat silently smoking for quite a long time. It was as good as the play to see them.

"Now," continued Silver, "here it is. You give us the map to get the treasure by, and stop shooting poor seamen and breaking their heads while they're asleep. You do that, and we'll offer you a choice. Either you come on board and I'll give you my promise to leave you somewhere safe on shore. Or you can stay here, and we'll divide stores with you; and I'll promise to send the first ship I see, to pick you up."

Captain Smollett rose from his seat, and knocked out his pipe in his left hand.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"Every last word, by thunder!" answered John. "Refuse that, and you've seen the last of me but gun-shots."

"Very good," said the captain. "Now you'll hear me. If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll promise to take you home to a fair trial in England. If you won't—my name is Alexander Smollett, I'm serving under the English flag, and I'll see you all dead here on this island. You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship—there's not a man among you fit to sail the ship. You can't fight us. Gray, there, got away from five of you. You're in a very nasty corner, Mr. Silver, and so you'll find. And these are the last good words you'll get from me. Next time I see you I'll shoot. March, my lad. Get out of this, please, double quick."

Silver's face was a picture; his eyes blazed with anger. He shook out his pipe.

"Give me a hand up!" he cried.

"Not I," replied the captain.

"Who'll give me a hand up?" he roared.

Not a man among us moved. Murmuring the foulest curses, he crept along the sand till he got hold of the wall and could lift himself up again on his stick.

"Before an hour's out, I'll break in your old log-house like a rum-bottle. Laugh!" he cried, "by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Those that die'll be the fortunate ones."

And with a dreadful curse he went off, was helped across the stockade by the man with the white flag, and disappeared in an instant afterwards among the trees.