“Jim,” Silver said when we were alone, “if I saved your life, then you saved mine. I won’t forget that.”
“I saw the doctor waving at you, telling you to run away. I only caught it from the corner of my eye, but I saw it.”
“And I saw you refuse. You made your choice clear.”
“Jim, that counts for something. Since the attack failed, this is the first bit of hope I’ve had. I owe that to you.”
“Now we’re going treasure hunting together, but with secret instructions from the other side. I don’t like it.”
“You and I need to stay close. We must stand together, back to back if we have to. That’s the only way we’ll survive.”
Just then, one of the pirates shouted from the fire that breakfast was ready.
Soon we were all sitting around on the sand, eating biscuits and fried salt pork.
The pirates had built a fire large enough to roast an entire ox. It was burning so fiercely that they could only go near it from the side where the wind blew away the heat.
Even then, they had to be careful.
They had cooked far more food than they could possibly eat.
When they finished, one pirate laughed foolishly and threw the leftovers into the flames.
The fire roared even louder as it swallowed the food.
I had never seen men who cared so little about tomorrow.
They lived only for the moment.
They wasted supplies, neglected their guards, and acted without thinking.
They might be brave enough for a quick fight, but they were clearly not prepared for a long struggle.
Even Silver, sitting there eating with Captain Flint on his shoulder, said nothing against their careless behavior.
That surprised me.
I thought he had never looked smarter or more dangerous than he did at that moment.
“Aye, mates,” Silver said, “it’s lucky you’ve got Barbecue here to do the thinking for you.”
“I got what I wanted.”
“They have the ship, that’s certain. I don’t know where they’ve hidden her yet, but once we find the treasure, we’ll have to hurry and deal with that.”
“And remember, mates, we have the boats. That means we still hold the advantage.”
He kept talking while stuffing his mouth with hot bacon.
His words gave the pirates new confidence.
I suspected he was also using them to rebuild his own confidence.
“As for the hostage,” Silver continued, “that’s the last conversation he’ll have with the people he loves.”
“I got my information from him, and I thank him for it. But that’s finished.”
“When we go after the treasure, I’ll keep Jim close. He’ll be worth more than gold if anything goes wrong.”
“Later, when we have the ship and the treasure and are sailing away as happy companions, we’ll talk things over with young Hawkins.”
“We’ll give him his share too, of course. After all, he’s been kind to us.”
No wonder the pirates were cheerful after hearing this.
But I felt miserable.
If Silver’s plan worked, he would betray everyone again without hesitation.
He already had one foot in each camp.
He would much rather escape with treasure and freedom alongside the pirates than return to our side and face the punishment waiting for him.
And even if he was forced to keep his promise to Dr. Livesey, we were still in great danger.
What would happen when his followers finally realized he had betrayed them?
What would happen when Silver and I had to fight for our lives?
He was a cripple.
I was only a boy.
And we would be facing five strong and experienced sailors.
Then there was the mystery surrounding my friends.
Why had they abandoned the stockade?
Why had they given away the map?
And most confusing of all was the doctor’s final warning to Silver:
“Be careful of trouble when you find it.”
With all these worries weighing on me, I had little appetite for breakfast.
Soon I followed my captors toward the treasure.
We must have looked like a strange group if anyone had been watching us.
We were all dressed in dirty sailor clothes.
Everyone except me was armed.
Silver carried two guns, one hanging in front and one behind him.
He also wore a large cutlass at his waist and had a pistol in each pocket of his coat.
To make him look even stranger, Captain Flint sat on his shoulder, loudly repeating meaningless pirate phrases.
A rope was tied around my waist.
I followed behind Silver like a trained animal, while he held the other end of the rope in his hand or sometimes between his strong teeth.
I felt like a dancing bear being led through the forest.
The other pirates carried different supplies.
Some carried picks and shovels because those had been the first tools they brought ashore from the Hispaniola.
Others carried pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal.
I noticed that all their supplies came from our own stores.
Then I understood that Silver had been telling the truth the night before.
If he had not made a deal with the doctor, he and his pirates would have been abandoned with only fresh water and whatever they could hunt.
Water alone would never satisfy sailors like them.
Most sailors were poor hunters.
And with so little food left, they probably would not have had much gunpowder either.
So, fully equipped, we all set out.
Even the pirate with the injured head came along, though he should have stayed hidden.
One by one, we reached the beach where two small boats were waiting.
Even the boats showed signs of the pirates’ careless behavior.
One had a broken seat.
Both were full of mud and had not been properly emptied of water.
Still, they decided to take both boats for safety.
We divided ourselves between them and rowed across the bay.
During the crossing, the pirates argued about the map.
The red cross on it was far too large to guide them exactly.
The words written on the back were also unclear.
They read:
“Tall tree, Spy-glass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E.
Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E.
Ten feet.”
The main clue was the tall tree.
The shore ahead of us was bordered by a high plateau, two or three hundred feet above the sea.
To the north was the lower slope of Spy-glass Hill.
To the south rose the rough cliffs of Mizzenmast Hill.
The top of the plateau was covered with pine trees of many different heights.
Here and there, one tree rose far above the others.
Which one was Captain Flint’s “tall tree” could only be discovered after reaching land and checking the compass.
Yet before we had even crossed halfway, every pirate had already chosen his own favorite tree.
Only Silver ignored their guesses.
He simply shrugged.
“Wait until we get there,” he told them.
Following Silver’s orders, we rowed slowly so we would not waste our strength too early.
After a long journey, we landed near the mouth of the second river, the one that flowed through a wooded valley of Spy-glass Hill.
From there, we turned left and began climbing toward the plateau.
At first, the ground was wet and muddy, covered with thick swamp plants that slowed us down.
But gradually the slope became steeper.
The ground turned rocky.
The forest became more open.
The place we were entering was surprisingly beautiful.
Sweet-smelling bushes and flowering plants replaced much of the grass.
Green nutmeg trees grew among tall pines with red trunks and wide shadows.
Their different scents mixed together in the warm air.
The sunlight was strong, but the fresh breeze made the climb pleasant.
The pirates spread out like a fan across the hillside.
They shouted, ran around, and searched everywhere.
Silver and I stayed near the center, far behind the others.
My rope kept me tied to him.
Silver struggled upward, breathing heavily as he pushed through the loose gravel.
Several times, I had to help him, or he would have slipped and fallen backward down the hill.
We had gone about half a mile and were nearing the top of the plateau when the pirate on the far left suddenly cried out.
His voice sounded terrified.
He shouted again and again.
The others ran toward him.
“He hasn’t found the treasure,” old Morgan said as he hurried past us.
“It’s impossible. We’re not even at the top yet.”
When we reached the spot, we saw what had frightened him.
It was not treasure.
At the bottom of a large pine tree, covered partly by green vines, lay a human skeleton.
Some small bones had even been lifted by the growing plants.
A few pieces of old clothing still clung to the remains.
For a moment, every man stood frozen.
“He was a sailor,” George Merry said after examining the scraps of cloth.
“At least this is sailor’s clothing.”
“Aye, likely enough,” said Silver.
“You wouldn’t expect to find a bishop lying here.”
“But tell me something.”
“How did these bones end up like this?”
“It doesn’t seem natural.”
Looking closer, we saw he was right.
The body had not fallen naturally.
Except for some movement caused by birds or the vines growing around it, the skeleton lay perfectly straight.
Its feet pointed one way.
Its raised hands pointed directly in the opposite direction.
“I’ve got a thought in this old head of mine,” Silver said.
“Here’s the compass.”
“Over there is the highest point of Skeleton Island.”
“Take a bearing along the line of these bones.”
The pirates did as he ordered.
The skeleton pointed directly toward the island’s peak.
The compass showed exactly E.S.E. and by E.
“I knew it!” Silver shouted.
“This is a marker.”
“It points us straight toward the treasure.”
“But I tell you something.”
“Thinking about Flint still gives me a cold feeling.”
“This was one of his tricks.”
“He and these six men were alone here.”
“He killed every one of them.”
“And this poor fellow, he dragged here and placed with a compass direction.”
“Shiver me timbers!”
“These are long bones, and his hair was yellow.”
“This must have been Allardyce.”
“Do you remember Allardyce, Tom Morgan?”
“Aye,” Morgan answered.
“I remember him.”
“He owed me money, and he took my knife ashore with him.”
“Speaking of knives,” another pirate said, “why don’t we find his knife anywhere?”
“Flint wasn’t the kind of man who would steal a sailor’s knife.”
“And birds wouldn’t carry it away.”
“By heaven, that’s true!” Silver said.
“There’s nothing here,” Merry said, searching among the bones.
“Not a coin.”
“Not even a tobacco box.”
“This doesn’t feel right.”
“No,” Silver agreed.
“It isn’t natural.”
“And it isn’t pleasant either.”
“Great guns, mates.”
“If Flint were alive, this would be a dangerous place for us.”
“There were six of them.”
“Now there are only bones.”
“I saw him dead myself,” Morgan said.
“Billy was there too.”
“He lay there with coins over his eyes.”
“He’s dead,” said the injured pirate.
“Dead and buried.”
“But if any spirit ever walked the earth, it would be Flint’s.”
“He died horribly.”
“Aye, he did,” another pirate said.
“He screamed.”
“He shouted for rum.”
“He sang.”
“‘Fifteen Men’ was the only song he ever sang.”
“I never liked hearing it after that.”
“One night the weather was hot, the window was open, and I heard that old song coming from him.”
“Clear as day.”
“And he was already close to death.”
“Enough,” Silver interrupted.
“Stop talking about ghosts.”
“He’s dead, and he isn’t walking around.”
“At least not during the day.”
“Now move forward.”
“The treasure is waiting.”
We continued onward.
But something had changed.
Even under the bright sun, the pirates no longer ran around shouting.
They stayed close together.
They spoke quietly.
The fear of the dead pirate Flint had entered their hearts.