The red light of the torch showed me how bad things were. The pirates had the log house and all our food and brandy, and there was no sign of my friends. I thought they were all dead, and I was sorry I had not died with them.
There were six pirates, no more. Five were on their feet, red-faced and still half drunk. The sixth lay propped up on one elbow, very pale, with a bloody bandage round his head. He was the man who had been shot in the great attack and had run back into the woods.
The parrot sat on Long John’s shoulder. Silver looked paler and harder than usual, and his fine suit was dirty and torn.
“So,” he said, “here’s Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! Just dropped in, eh? Well, I take that as friendly.” He sat down on the brandy barrel and filled his pipe.
They had put me with my back against the wall. I looked Silver in the face as bravely as I could, but my heart was full of despair.
“Now, Jim,” Silver went on calmly, “since you’re here, I’ll tell you what I think. I’ve always liked you. You’re a boy with spirit, just like I was when I was young and handsome. I always wanted you to join us and take your share, and now you’ll have to. You can’t go back to your friends. The doctor is angry with you. ‘An ungrateful boy,’ he called you. So unless you start a third crew all by yourself, which might be lonely, you’ll have to join Captain Silver. But you’re free to say no, of course.”
So my friends were still alive! Under his friendly words I could feel death very close. “If I have to choose,” I said in a shaking voice, “I have a right to know why you’re here, and where my friends are.”
“This morning,” said Silver, “down came Dr. Livesey with a white flag. ‘Captain Silver,’ he said, ‘the ship has gone.’ Well, maybe we’d been drinking a little. We looked out, and the old ship was gone! ‘Well,’ said the doctor, ‘let’s make a deal.’ So here we are: food, brandy, the log house, the firewood you were kind enough to cut. As for them, they’ve gone, I don’t know where. And you weren’t part of the deal. ‘As for that boy,’ the doctor said, ‘I don’t know where he is, and I don’t much care. We’re tired of him.’ Those were his words. So now you have to choose.”
“Well,” I said, “I know what to expect. I’ve seen too many men die since I met you. But first I have something to tell you.” By now I was very excited. “You’re in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men lost. And do you want to know who did it? It was me! I was in the apple barrel the night we saw land, and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now at the bottom of the sea, and I told my friends every word. And it was I who cut the ship’s anchor rope, and I who killed the men you had on board, and I who took her where you’ll never see her again. I’m no more afraid of you than of a fly. Kill me if you like; it won’t help you. But if you let me live, I’ll forget the past, and when you’re in court for piracy, I’ll be a witness to save you from the gallows.”
I stopped, out of breath. To my surprise, nobody moved. They all stared at me like sheep.
“It was this boy who knew Black Dog,” cried old Morgan, the man I had seen in Silver’s inn in Bristol.
“And it was this same boy who took the map from Billy Bones,” said Silver. “Again and again Jim Hawkins has ruined us!”
“Then here goes!” said Morgan. He jumped up and pulled out his knife.
“Stop there!” cried Silver. “Who are you, Tom Morgan? Do you think you’re captain here?”
Morgan stopped, but the others murmured angrily. “Morgan’s right,” said one.
“Do any of you want to fight me?” roared Silver, leaning forward on his barrel, his pipe still burning in his hand. “Then take a cutlass, whoever dares, and I’ll fight him, crutch and all, before this pipe is finished.”
Not a man moved. Not a man answered.
“I thought so,” said Silver, and put his pipe back in his mouth. “You won’t fight, so you’ll obey. I’m captain here because I’m the best man by a long way. I like that boy. I never saw a better boy. He’s more of a man than any two of you rats in this house. Let me see the man who touches him!”
There was a long silence. I stood against the wall, my heart beating hard, but now with a little hope. Silver leaned back with his arms crossed, as calm as if he were in church, but his eyes kept watching his men. They went to the far end of the house and whispered together.
“Excuse me, sir,” said one of them at last, a tall man with yellow eyes. “This crew isn’t happy, and by your own rules we can talk together. So I’m going outside for a council.” He saluted and went out, and one by one the others followed him. At last Silver and I were alone with the torch.
At once Silver took the pipe from his mouth.
“Now listen, Jim Hawkins,” he whispered. “You’re very close to death. They’re going to throw me out. But I’ll stand by you, whatever happens. When I looked into that bay and saw no ship, I gave up. I was ready to lose all that gold and be hanged too. But when you spoke up, I said to myself, ‘You stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins will stand by you. You save your witness, and he’ll save your neck!’ I’ll save your life from those fools, if I can. But in return, Jim, you save Long John from hanging.”
I could not believe it. The old pirate, the leader of the mutiny, was asking me for help.
“I’ll do what I can,” I said.
“It’s a deal!” cried Long John. “Understand me, Jim. I’m on the squire’s side now. I know you’ve got that ship somewhere safe. How, I don’t know, and I won’t ask. I know when a game is over.”
He poured himself some brandy. “There’s trouble coming,” he said. “And talking of trouble, why did that doctor give me the map, Jim?”
My face showed such honest surprise that he asked no more.
“Well, he did,” he said. “And there’s something behind it, Jim, something bad or good.” He drank and shook his big fair head, like a man who expects the worst.