Jim Hawkins Continues the Story

When Ben Gunn saw the Union Jack, he stopped. ‘That’s Flint’s old stockade,’ he said. ‘Are your friends there?’

‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Perhaps it’s the pirates.’

‘No. Their flag is the Jolly Roger. It’s your friends.’ ‘Good! Now I can go to them,’ I said. ‘Are you coining with me?’

‘No, mate. Old Ben Gunn isn’t stupid! First, you must tell the squire about me, and he must promise to help me. Tell him to come and find me.’

‘All right. I’m going now.’ in different directions.

For an hour a lot of cannon balls fell. I was very frightened and stayed in the woods. In the evening I arrived at the beach and I saw the Hispaniola with the black Jolly Roger — the pirates’ flag!

The bombardment stopped. I waited for a while, and then I decided to go to the stockade. When I stood up, I saw a high, white rock in some trees near the sea. ‘That’s Ben Gunn’s white rock,’ I thought. ‘Now I know where his boat is.’ Then I ran to the stockade.

I told my story to my friends in the cabin. When I finished, it was evening and the wind was cold. I was very tired, but the captain gave us all some work. Two men went to find wood for the fire and the doctor cooked some food. I was a guard at the door. After a while, the doctor talked to me about Ben Gunn. He wanted to know where he was.

He said, ‘I’ve got a piece of Italian Parmesan cheese. It’s very good. I’d like to give it to Ben Gunn.’

After our dinner, we talked.

There was only a little food, so we knew that we must kill the pirates quickly. We could hear them. They were sitting by the river about half a mile away. They were singing round a fire. I was very tired and I fell asleep. When I woke up there were voices.

‘Look! It’s Long John Silver!’ somebody said. ‘He’s coming here with a white flag. He wants to talk.’

The captain said, ‘Stay here, men! Guns ready!’ Then he called to the pirate. ‘What do you want?’

‘Cap’n Silver wants to speak to you,’ said John Silver. ‘Captain Silver? I don’t know him. Who’s he?’

‘The men said I’m cap’n now — after you left the ship, sir. Can we talk?’

‘I don’t want to talk with you, Silver. You can come in if you want, but don’t try to do anything stupid.’

‘I give you my word, sir.’

So Silver threw his crutch over the wall. He only had one leg but he climbed into the stockade very well. Then he came up the small hill and arrived at the cabin. The captain told him to sit down.

‘On the sand?’ Silver said.

‘Yes, on the sand, Silver. You can’t come into the cabin. Now, what do you want to say?’

Long John sat down. ‘You did very well last night, cap’n. My men and I were very surprised. You came and killed one of them. He was full of rum and he was asleep. But you won’t do it again, cap’n!’

The captain didn’t understand this. But I remembered Ben Gunn. Did he kill one of the pirates last night? Well, now there were only thirteen of them. Silver continued: ‘You’ve got the map. We want it, cap’n.’

The captain smoked his pipe calmly. ‘We know that, my man. But you can’t have it.’

Long John was angry. But he smoked his pipe too.

‘Now, here’s my idea, cap’n,’ he said. ‘You give us the map. When we get the treasure on the ship you can sail with us. I give you my word that you’ll be safe. But if you don’t like that idea, you can stay here and we’ll give you some of our food. When I see a ship. I’ll tell the captain to come here. What do you say, Cap’n Smollett?’

‘Is that all?’ the captain said. ‘Now you listen to me, Silver. You must come here with all your pirates — and without any guns. I promise I’ll take you to England for a fair trial. If you don’t do this, we’ll kill you — all of you! Now go — quickly!’

Silver was furious. He stood up with his crutch.

‘You dogs! You’re laughing now, but I’m coming back with my men! We’ll kill you all!’

Alter he went out of the stockade, the captain spoke to us.

‘In an hour Silver will come back with his men,’ he said. ‘There are thirteen of them; we are six — and Jim. But we can beat them! Hawkins, eat your breakfast. Hunter, brandy for everyone. Trelawney, put out the fire. Doctor, you will be at the door. Hunter, you will be on the east side of the cabin. Joyce, west. Trelawney, you and Gray go to the north side. Hawkins, you and I will load the guns.’

An hour passed. We waited nervously. Then Joyce suddenly saw the pirates and fired his gun. The pirates fired at us; then they stopped. All was quiet again.

‘How many shots did you see, doctor?’ asked the captain.

‘Three.’

‘Mr Trelawney?’

‘About seven.’

‘So they’re attacking from the north.’

The captain was right. A few minutes later, a lot of pirates came out of the woods to the north. They ran towards the stockade and climbed over the wall. The squire and Gray fired their guns. They killed two pirates. But four of them ran toward us. One pirate attacked the doctor.

The captain shouted, ‘Fight them outside the cabin with cutlasses!’

Quickly I took a cutlass and ran out of the cabin. Gray was behind me. The doctor killed his attacker. I ran to the left and I saw a pirate. Suddenly I fell. The pirate was going to kill me. But Gray ran from behind me and killed him. Now four pirates were dead. The other one ran away and escaped. The doctor, Gray and I ran back quickly to the cabin.

Hunter was dead, and Joyce died later. The captain was wounded.

‘How many of them are dead?’ he asked the doctor.

‘Five, including the pirate last night.’

‘That’s good! Now there are four of us against eight of them.’