The six men stood frozen. It was the greatest shock they had ever faced.
For a moment, none of them could believe what they were seeing.
Silver felt the blow hardest, but he recovered almost at once.
His whole mind had been fixed on that treasure like a runner racing toward the finish line. Then, in a single second, everything collapsed.
But Silver did not lose control.
He quickly calmed himself, changed his plan, and acted before the others even understood what had happened.
“Jim,” he whispered, “take this. We may have trouble.”
He handed me a double-barrel pistol.
Then he quietly moved north, putting a small hollow between us and the five pirates.
He looked back at me and gave a slight nod, as if to say:
“This is a dangerous moment.”
I understood.
His expression was not friendly, and after seeing him change sides so many times, I could not stop myself from whispering:
“So you’ve changed sides again?”
But there was no chance for him to answer.
The pirates began shouting angrily.
One by one, they jumped into the pit and started digging with their hands, throwing away the wooden boards.
Suddenly, Morgan found a gold coin.
He held it up while swearing loudly.
It was only a two-guinea piece.
The coin passed from hand to hand among them for several seconds.
“Two guineas!” Merry shouted, shaking the coin at Silver.
“Is this your seven hundred thousand pounds? You’re quite a master of deals, aren’t you? You’re the man who never makes mistakes!”
“Keep digging, boys,” Silver said calmly.
“You might find some nuts down there.”
“Nuts?” Merry screamed.
“Did you hear that, mates? That man knew everything from the beginning!”
“Look at his face. You can see the truth written there!”
“Ah, Merry,” Silver said mockingly.
“Are you trying to become captain again? You certainly like giving orders.”
But this time, all the pirates stood with Merry.
They climbed out of the pit and looked at Silver with rage.
I noticed one thing that gave us hope:
They all came out on the opposite side from Silver.
Soon we were facing each other.
Silver and I stood on one side.
Five angry pirates stood on the other.
The empty pit separated us.
No one moved.
No one wanted to make the first attack.
Silver stood straight on his crutch, watching them calmly.
He looked fearless.
At last, Merry decided that a speech might help.
“Friends,” he shouted, “there are only two of them over there.”
“One is the old cripple who brought us here and ruined everything.”
“The other is that young boy. I’ll tear his heart out.”
“Now, mates—”
He raised his arm and prepared to lead the attack.
But suddenly—
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Three musket shots exploded from the bushes.
Merry fell headfirst into the pit.
The man with the bandaged face spun around and collapsed onto the ground. He was dead, though his body still twitched.
The other three pirates turned and ran as fast as they could.
Before anyone could react, Long John Silver fired both barrels of his pistol at Merry.
As Merry rolled his eyes in pain, Silver said:
“George, I think that settles things between us.”
At that moment, Dr. Livesey, Gray, and Ben Gunn came out from the trees with smoking muskets.
“Forward!” shouted the doctor.
“Quickly! We must stop them reaching the boats!”
We rushed after the fleeing pirates.
Sometimes we pushed through bushes that reached up to our chests.
Silver struggled desperately to keep up.
The effort he made with his crutch was incredible.
He jumped forward again and again until the muscles in his chest looked ready to burst.
Even the doctor later admitted that no healthy man could have done more.
Still, by the time we reached the top of the slope, Silver was thirty yards behind us and nearly exhausted.
“Doctor!” he called.
“Don’t rush!”
He was right.
There was no need.
In the open area ahead, we could see the three surviving pirates still running toward Mizzenmast Hill.
We had already reached a position between them and their boats.
So the four of us sat down to rest while Silver slowly caught up, wiping sweat from his face.
“Thank you kindly, doctor,” Silver said.
“You arrived just in time for Jim and me.”
Then he looked at Ben Gunn.
“So it’s you, Ben Gunn!”
“You’re quite a surprise.”
“I’m Ben Gunn, sir,” the maroon replied nervously.
“And… how do you do, Mr. Silver?”
“Ben, Ben,” Silver murmured.
“To think you would do this to me.”
The doctor sent Gray back to collect one of the abandoned pickaxes.
Then, as we slowly walked downhill toward the boats, he explained what had happened.
Silver listened with great interest.
The true hero of the story was Ben Gunn.
During his lonely years on the island, Ben had discovered the skeleton.
He had taken everything valuable from it.
He had found Flint’s treasure.
He had dug it up himself.
The broken handle of his pickaxe was still lying in the pit.
Then, through many exhausting journeys, he carried the treasure from the tall pine tree to his hidden cave on the two-peaked hill in the northeast of the island.
The treasure had been safely hidden there for two months before the Hispaniola arrived.
When Dr. Livesey discovered Ben’s secret during the attack, and when Ben saw the empty anchorage the next morning, he went to Silver.
He gave Silver the useless treasure map.
He gave him supplies because his own cave was full of salted goat meat.
He gave him everything he had.
All he wanted was a chance to leave the stockade safely and move to his cave, where he could escape the unhealthy air and guard the treasure.
“As for you, Jim,” the doctor said,
“it hurt me to do what I did, but I chose what seemed best for those who had stayed loyal.”
“And if you were not one of them, whose fault was that?”
That morning, when he realized I would be caught in the trap he had prepared for the pirates, he hurried back to the cave.
He left the squire guarding Captain Smollett.
Then he took Gray and Ben Gunn and crossed the island diagonally toward the pine tree.
Soon he discovered that our group had already moved ahead.
Since Ben Gunn was fast, he was sent forward alone.
Then Ben thought of frightening his former shipmates with their old superstitions.
His plan worked.
Gray and the doctor arrived and hid before the treasure hunters reached the spot.
“Ah,” Silver said.
“It was lucky for me that Hawkins was with me.”
“You would have let old John be killed, and never cared.”
“Not at all,” Dr. Livesey replied cheerfully.
By then we had reached the boats.
The doctor destroyed one of them with the pickaxe.
Then we all climbed into the other boat and sailed around the island toward North Inlet.
The journey was eight or nine miles.
Silver, although almost dead from exhaustion, took an oar like the rest of us.
Soon we were moving quickly across the calm sea.
We passed through the narrow channel and rounded the southeast corner of the island.
Four days earlier, we had towed the Hispaniola around that same place.
As we passed the two-peaked hill, we saw the dark entrance of Ben Gunn’s cave.
A man stood outside with a musket.
It was the squire.
We waved a handkerchief and cheered three times.
Silver joined in loudly with us.
Three miles farther, just inside North Inlet, we saw something unbelievable.
The Hispaniola was drifting there alone.
The last tide had lifted her.
If there had been stronger wind or currents like those at the southern anchorage, she would have been lost forever.
Luckily, only the main sail was damaged.
We prepared another anchor and dropped it into shallow water.
Then we rowed back to Rum Cove, the nearest place to Ben Gunn’s treasure cave.
Gray returned alone to the Hispaniola to guard her through the night.
A gentle slope led from the beach to the cave entrance.
At the top, the squire was waiting.
When he saw me, he was kind and friendly.
He did not criticize me or praise me for what I had done.
But when Silver politely greeted him, the squire’s face became serious.
“John Silver,” he said,
“you are a terrible villain and a great deceiver.”
“I have been told I must not punish you.”
“So I will not.”
“But the dead men you have caused will remain on your conscience forever.”
“Thank you kindly, sir,” Silver replied, saluting again.
“Do not thank me!” the squire shouted.
“It is a failure of my duty.”
“Stand back.”
Then we entered the cave.
It was large and comfortable, with a small spring and a clear pool surrounded by ferns.
The floor was covered with sand.
Near a great fire lay Captain Smollett.
In a dark corner of the cave, I saw piles of coins and blocks of gold stacked together.
It was Flint’s treasure.
The treasure we had traveled so far to find.
The treasure that had already cost seventeen men from the Hispaniola their lives.
No one knew how many lives had been lost while collecting it.
No one knew how many ships had sunk, how many brave sailors had suffered, or how much blood and cruelty had been spent for this fortune.
Yet three men on that island still remained who had taken part in those crimes:
Silver.
Old Morgan.
And Ben Gunn.
Each had dreamed of sharing the reward.
“Come in, Jim,” said Captain Smollett.
“You’re a good boy, Jim.”
“But I don’t think you and I will ever sail together again.”
“You have too much of a hero’s luck.”
Then he saw Silver.
“Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here?”
“I have returned to my duty, sir,” Silver answered.
“Ah,” said the captain.
And that was all he said.
That night, I enjoyed the greatest meal of my life.
All my friends were together.
We ate Ben Gunn’s salted goat meat, special treats, and old wine from the Hispaniola.
Never had I seen people so happy.
And there was Silver.
He sat slightly away from the firelight.
But he ate well.
Whenever anyone needed something, he quickly helped.
He even quietly joined our laughter.
He was once again the same polite, friendly, and respectful sailor who had joined us at the beginning of the voyage.