The next morning, we started work early.
Moving the huge amount of treasure was not easy. We had to carry it almost a mile across the island to the beach, then another three miles by boat back to the Hispaniola.
There were only a few of us left to do the job.
The three pirates still hiding somewhere on the island did not worry us much. We placed one guard on the hillside, and that was enough to stop any surprise attack.
Besides, we believed they had already had more than enough fighting.
So we worked quickly.
Gray and Ben Gunn rowed back and forth with the boat.
While they were away, the rest of us carried the treasure down to the shore.
Two gold bars tied together with rope made a heavy load for one man. Even a strong person had to walk slowly while carrying them.
I was not very useful at lifting heavy things, so I was given another job.
I spent the whole day inside the cave, packing the coins into empty bread bags.
It was an incredible collection of money.
It reminded me of Billy Bones’s old treasure, but this one was much larger and far more unusual.
There were English coins, French coins, Spanish coins, Portuguese coins, gold pieces from kings of Europe, and strange foreign money from distant lands.
Some coins were round, some were square, and some even had holes in the middle so people could wear them as necklaces.
Almost every kind of money in the world seemed to be hidden in that cave.
There were so many coins that they looked like fallen autumn leaves.
By the end of each day, my back hurt from bending down, and my fingers ached from sorting them.
Day after day, the work continued.
Every evening, we had loaded a fortune onto the ship.
But every morning, another fortune was still waiting for us.
During all that time, we heard nothing from the three remaining pirates.
Then, one night—I believe it was the third night—the doctor and I were walking along the hillside overlooking the lower part of the island.
Suddenly, a strange sound came from the darkness below.
It sounded somewhere between a scream and a song.
Only a small piece of it reached our ears before everything became silent again.
“May God forgive them,” said the doctor. “Those are the pirates.”
“They are drunk, sir,” said Silver’s voice behind us.
Silver had been allowed to move around freely.
Even though everyone treated him coldly every day, he still acted as if he were a trusted friend and helper.
What surprised me was how calmly he accepted the insults.
He never lost his patience.
He kept trying to please everyone and win back their trust.
Still, nobody treated him kindly except perhaps Ben Gunn, who was still terrified of his old quartermaster, and me, because I truly owed him something.
Though, thinking about it, I probably had more reason than anyone to distrust him, because I had seen him planning another betrayal on the hilltop.
So the doctor answered him in a rough voice.
“Drunk or crazy,” said the doctor.
“Exactly right, sir,” replied Silver.
“And to you and me, there is not much difference between the two.”
“I suppose you would not expect me to call you a kind-hearted man,” said the doctor with a cold smile.
“So perhaps my feelings will surprise you, Master Silver.”
“But if I knew for certain that they were truly out of their minds—as I strongly suspect at least one of them is suffering from fever—I would leave this camp.”
“And no matter what danger it caused me, I would use my medical skills to help them.”
“You would be making a mistake, sir,” Silver said.
“You would be risking your own life.”
“I am on your side now, completely. I would not want to see our group become weaker, especially not you, because I know what I owe you.”
“But those men down there are different.”
“They could not keep their promises, even if they wanted to.”
“And worse, they would never believe that you could keep yours.”
“No,” said the doctor.
“You are certainly the man who always keeps his word.”
After that, we heard almost nothing about the three pirates.
Only once did we hear a gunshot far away, and we guessed they were hunting for food.
We held a meeting and decided to leave them behind on the island.
Ben Gunn was extremely happy about the decision, and Gray strongly agreed.
We left them supplies:
Gunpowder and bullets.
Most of the salted goat meat.
Some medicine.
Tools.
Clothes.
A spare sail.
Some rope.
And, because the doctor insisted, a generous amount of tobacco.
That was almost our final act on the island.
Before leaving, we had already stored the treasure safely aboard and taken enough water and goat meat in case we faced trouble on the journey.
Finally, one beautiful morning, we raised the anchor and sailed out of North Inlet.
The captain’s flag was still flying—the same flag he had carried and defended at the stockade.
The three pirates must have been watching us more closely than we realized.
As we passed through the narrow channel, we had to sail close to the southern point of the island.
There, we saw all three of them kneeling together on a strip of sand.
Their arms were raised toward us, begging for mercy.
The sight touched all of our hearts.
It was painful to leave them in such a miserable condition.
But we could not risk another mutiny.
And taking them home to be hanged would have been a cruel kind of kindness.
The doctor called out to them.
He told them about the supplies we had left behind and explained where they could find them.
But they continued shouting our names.
They begged us, for God’s sake, not to abandon them and let them die on that terrible island.
At last, when they saw that the ship was continuing away and we were almost too far to hear them, one of the pirates suddenly jumped up.
With a rough cry, he lifted his musket.
A shot flew over Silver’s head and tore through the main sail.
After that, we stayed below the protection of the ship’s side.
When I looked again, the pirates were gone from the sandbar.
Soon even the sandbar itself disappeared into the distance.
That was the end of Treasure Island.
Before noon, to my great joy, the highest rock of the island had vanished into the blue circle of the sea.
We had too few men aboard, so everyone had to work.
Only the captain was excused.
He lay on a mattress at the back of the ship and gave orders.
Although he had recovered greatly, he still needed rest.
We sailed toward the nearest Spanish American port.
We could not safely make the long journey home without more sailors.
Even so, because of weak winds and several strong storms, we were exhausted by the time we finally arrived.
At sunset, we dropped anchor in a beautiful sheltered bay.
Almost immediately, small boats surrounded us.
They were filled with Black traders, Mexican Indians, and people of mixed ancestry.
They sold fruits and vegetables and offered to dive into the water to collect coins.
The cheerful faces around us, especially the smiles of the Black people, the taste of fresh tropical fruit, and the lights beginning to shine in the town felt like another world.
It was a wonderful contrast to the dark and violent days we had spent on the island.
The doctor and the squire took me ashore with them.
We spent the first part of the night there.
They met the captain of an English warship, talked with him for a long time, and later went aboard his ship.
We enjoyed ourselves so much that the sun was already rising when we returned to the Hispaniola.
Ben Gunn was alone on deck.
The moment we came aboard, he began making strange movements and confessed everything.
Silver was gone.
A few hours earlier, Ben Gunn had helped him escape in a small boat.
He claimed he did it only to save our lives.
If “that one-legged man” had remained aboard, Ben said, we would certainly have been in danger.
But Silver had not left empty-handed.
The sea cook had secretly cut through part of the ship’s wall and stolen one sack of coins.
It was worth perhaps three or four hundred guineas.
He took it to support himself during his future adventures.
I think everyone was actually happy that we had lost him so cheaply.
To finish the story quickly, we found a few new sailors, completed our voyage home, and the Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was preparing to send out another ship.
Only five men who had sailed with us returned.
“Drink and the devil had taken care of the rest.”
Though, fortunately, we were not as unlucky as the ship from the old song:
“With one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five.”
Everyone received a share of the treasure.
Some used it wisely.
Others wasted it.
Everyone followed his own nature.
Captain Smollett retired from the sea.
Gray saved his money and suddenly decided to improve himself.
He studied hard, became a skilled sailor, and is now the first mate and part owner of a fine sailing ship.
He is also married and has a family.
As for Ben Gunn, he received one thousand pounds.
He spent or lost all of it in just three weeks.
To be exact, he was broke again after nineteen days and begging on the twentieth.
Later, he was given a small house to look after—the very thing he had feared would happen to him back on the island.
He still lives there, loved by everyone, though often laughed at by the village children.
He is also famous for his singing in church on Sundays and holy days.
We never heard anything more about Silver.
That dangerous one-legged sailor finally disappeared from my life.
I like to imagine that he found his old woman and is living comfortably somewhere with her and Captain Flint.
I hope that is true.
Because I doubt he will find much comfort in the next world.
The silver bars and weapons are still buried where Flint hid them.
At least, as far as I know, they remain there.
And they will stay there forever as far as I am concerned.
No amount of money could ever make me return to that cursed island.
The worst dreams I have are the ones where I hear the waves crashing against its shores.
Or when I suddenly wake up and hear Captain Flint’s voice ringing in my ears:
“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!”