About noon I took the captain some medicine. He lay in bed, weak but excited.
“Jim,” he said, “bring me one glass of rum, won’t you, mate? Look how my fingers shake. I’ve already seen old Flint’s ghost, there in the corner behind you. Your doctor said one glass wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a gold guinea for it.”
“I don’t want your money,” I said, “only what you owe my father. I’ll get you one glass, and no more.”
He drank it greedily. “How long did the doctor say I must lie here?”
“A week at least.”
“A week! I can’t. They’ll give me the black spot before then.” He tried to get up, but he was too weak, and he fell back on the bed.
“Jim,” he said at last, “you saw Black Dog today. He’s a bad one, but there are worse behind him. Listen. If they give me the black spot, it’s my sea chest they want. Then you get on a horse and ride to that doctor, and tell him to bring men and catch them here, all old Flint’s crew that’s left. I was Flint’s first mate, and I’m the only one who knows the place. Flint told me when he was dying. But don’t tell anyone unless they give me the black spot, or you see Black Dog again, or a sailor with one leg, Jim. Him above all.”
“But what is the black spot, captain?”
“It’s a message, mate. I’ll tell you if they give me one. Keep your eyes open, Jim, and I’ll share with you, on my honor.”
Soon he fell asleep. That evening my poor father died quite suddenly, and with the neighbors’ visits, the funeral and the work of the inn, I had no time to think about the captain.
The captain came downstairs again and drank more rum than ever, and nobody dared to stop him. He grew weaker, not stronger, and when he was drunk, he put his cutlass on the table in front of him.
The day after the funeral, on a cold, foggy afternoon, I was standing at the door, thinking sadly about my father, when I saw someone coming slowly along the road. He was blind, for he tapped in front of him with a stick and wore a green shade over his eyes. He was bent, in a huge old sea cloak with a hood, and I never saw a more terrible figure in my life.
“Will any kind friend tell a poor blind man, who lost his eyes fighting for his country—and God bless King George!—where he is now?” he called out in a strange singing voice.
“You are at the Admiral Benbow, Black Hill Cove,” I said.
“I hear a young voice. Will you give me your hand, my kind young friend, and lead me in?”
I held out my hand, and the blind man held it tight at once and pulled me close to him.
“Now, boy, take me in to the captain.”
“Sir, I don’t dare.”
“Take me in now, or I’ll break your arm.” He twisted it so hard that I cried out.
I never heard a voice as cruel and cold as his. It frightened me more than the pain, and I obeyed. I led him to the main room, where the sick captain sat with his rum.
“When he can see me, call out, ‘Here’s a friend for you, Bill,’” the blind man said, and he twisted my arm again. I opened the door and called out the words.
The captain looked up, and at once he was sober. He looked deathly sick. He tried to stand, but he had no strength left.
“Now, Bill, sit where you are,” said the blind man. “I can’t see, but I can hear a finger move. Business is business. Hold out your left hand. Boy, take his left hand by the wrist and bring it near my right.”
We both obeyed, and I saw him put something into the captain’s hand. The captain closed his fingers on it at once.
“And now that’s done,” said the blind man. He let go of me and ran out onto the road with surprising speed, and I heard his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance.
I let go of the captain’s wrist, and he looked into his hand.
“Ten o’clock!” he cried. “Six hours. We can still beat them!” He jumped to his feet.
But even as he did so, he swayed, put his hand to his throat and fell heavily to the floor.
I ran to him, calling for my mother, but it was no use. The captain was dead. I had never liked the man, though lately I had begun to feel sorry for him. But as soon as I saw that he was dead, I burst into tears. It was the second death I had known, and the sadness of the first was still fresh in my heart.