The Sea-chest

Now my mother and I decided to go to the village for help. When we arrived, the people didn’t want to return with us to the inn. They were too afraid. My mother said angrily:

‘Jim, we’ll go back. We’ll open the captain’s sea-chest s and take our money.’

So a boy from the village went to find Dr Livesey and my mother and I went back to the «Admiral Benbow». I locked the door. The dead captain was still on the floor.

‘We must find the key and open the chest,’ said my mother.

I looked at the piece of paper near his hand. There was a message on it: ‘We’re coming tonight at ten.’ I looked at the clock. It was six.

‘We’ve got four hours, mother,’ I said.

I found the key in the captain’s pocket. We went upstairs to his room and my mother opened the chest. Inside there was a packet of papers and a bag. In the bag we found a lot of money and my mother started to count it. But then I heard the sound of the blind man’s stick on the road. He tried to open the door but it was locked. Then he went away.

‘We must go, mother,’ I said. ‘He’ll tell the other men and they’ll come here.’

‘No,’ she answered. ‘It’s only seven o’clock. The captain must pay the correct money for his stay with us.’ And she continued to count the money.

But soon we heard the voices of the pirates. We took some money and the packet of papers, and we ran out of the inn. Suddenly my mother stopped.

‘My dear, I can’t run.’

‘Oh mother!’ I said angrily. ‘Why did you count all that money? Now they’re going to kill us.’

Then she fell on my shoulder. Fortunately, we were near a little bridge.

‘Come, mother,’ I said. ‘There’s a bridge. We’ll go under it and the pirates won’t see us.’

But I went back and stood behind a tree. I could see the road in front of our inn. Some men arrived. One of them was the blind man.

‘Go in!’ he shouted at the men.

They found the dead captain, and the sea-chest upstairs. One man opened the window of the captain’s room.

‘Pew! The chest is open!’ he told the blind man.

‘Is the packet of papers there?’ said Pew.

‘We can’t see it.’

‘The boy has got it!’ said Pew. ‘Look for them, you dogs! Find them and we’ll all be rich!’

‘But we can take some money and go, Pew,’ said one man.

Now the blind man was very angry. He tried to hit the other pirates with his stick. Then I heard the sound of horses. The pirates ran away very fast. In a minute there was only Pew on the road.

‘Don’t leave me, mates!’ he shouted.

Some men on horses came down the hill. Pew tried to run away but he couldn’t see. He fell down, he got up, he ran… But he ran into one of the horses and he was killed.

The men on the horses were police officers. With them was the boy from the village.

‘What did these pirates want?’ one of the officers asked.

I replied. ‘I think they wanted this.’ And I showed him the packet of papers. ‘I want to give it to Dr Livesey.’

‘Yes, he’s a good man. I’ll take you to his house.’

Dr Livesey was at the Hall, Squire Trelawney’s big house. The two men were in the library.

‘Good evening, Jim,’ said the doctor. ‘What are you doing here?’

I told them everything. Then I gave the packet of papers to the doctor and he put it in his pocket. After the officer left, he said to the squire:

‘Have you heard of a pirate called Captain Flint?’

‘Yes. A terrible man! The Spanish were very afraid of him.’

‘Did he have any money?’

‘Don’t you know the story of Flint’s treasure? Nobody knows where he buried it.

‘Very well,’ said the doctor, and he opened the packet.

There were two things in it: a book and a piece of paper. On the first page of the book was the name ‘Billy Bones, mate.’

Then there were a lot of dates and sums of money.

‘This is an account book,’ the doctor said. ‘It shows how much money that buccaneer Billy Bones got.’

Then he opened the paper. It was a map of an island, about nine miles long and five miles wide. There were two big harbours, and a hill called «The Spy-glass». There were also three crosses: two on the north part of the island and one in the south-west. Next to this one were the words: ‘A lot of the treasure here’.

‘Livesey!’ said Mr Trelawney happily. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to Bristol to buy a ship and find some men. Hawkins, you’ll be the cabin boy. You, Livesey, are the ship’s doctor. We’ll find the treasure, and we’ll all be rich!’

The doctor answered, ‘Jim and I will go with you. But the pirates also know about this paper and they want the treasure. So we mustn’t say a word about this map.’

‘Livesey, you’re right,’ said the squire. I won’t say a word.’