جستجوی گنجینه

CHAPTER NINE

The Treasure Hunt

‘Jim,’ said Silver. ‘I heard the doctor when he said, “Jump over the wall and run.” You didn’t do it. You saved my life and I won’t forget it. But now we must look for the treasure. I don’t like treasure hunts. They’re dangerous. You must stay very close to me.’

When we ate a breakfast of bacon and biscuits with the other pirates, Silver said to them:

‘Mates, you’re lucky because you’ve got old John and he thinks a lot. The others have got the ship and we don’t know where it is. When we get the treasure, we’ll find the ship. We’ve got the boats and we’ve got our hostage here.

But when we get the ship and the treasure, we’ll kill him and the others.’

I was frightened and I couldn’t eat my breakfast. Why did my friends leave the stockade? I thought. Why did they give Silver the map? Why did the doctor say, ‘There will be problems when you find the treasure’? I couldn’t find any answers to these questions.

So the treasure hunt began. Silver had two guns, a big cutlass and two pistols in the pockets of his coat. His parrot sat on his shoulder and talked. And I walked behind him with a rope round my neck.

First we went to the beach and got into the two boats. Silver looked at the map. On the back were these words:

Tall tree, Spy-glass hill.

Points to the north-east.

Skeleton Island south-east.

‘First we must find a tall tree,’ said Silver.

We went along the coast and after a while we saw a high plateau near Spy-glass hill with a lot of trees on it. Some of the trees were very tall, so when we saw a good place to stop, we got out of the boats and began to climb towards the plateau. We went up slowly. Suddenly one of the men in front of us shouted. We ran towards him.

‘Has he found the treasure?’ said Morgan.

‘No,’ said another man. ‘He’s very frightened.’

Then we saw a human skeleton under a big tree and we all became cold with terror.

‘He was a seaman,’ said George Merry.

‘Look at the arms and hands and feet,’ said Silver. ‘They aren’t in a natural position.’

He was right. The skeleton’s feet pointed in one direction. The arms and the hands pointed in the opposite direction.

‘I think I understand,’ said Silver. ‘Look, it’s pointing south-east - at Skeleton Island! Cap’n Flint killed him and put him here - as a compass.’

Morgan said, ‘It’s Allardyce. He took my knife with him. I remember now.’

‘Well, the knife isn’t here now. Where is it?’ asked George.

‘Maybe Flint took it,’ Morgan said. ‘Maybe he’s still alive!’

‘No, he’s dead,’ said George.

‘Well, maybe it’s his ghost!’ Morgan cried.

‘Stop this talk!’ shouted Silver. ‘Flint is dead and there isn’t a ghost. Come, let’s go.’

So we continued walking. On the plateau we sat down to rest. We could see the Cape of the Woods in front of us. Behind us was the harbour and Skeleton Island. Above us was Spy-glass hill.

‘There are only three tall trees in the direction of Skeleton Island,’ Silver said. ‘It will be easy now. Come on boys, let’s go!’

But suddenly a voice began to sing:

Fifteen men on The Dead Man’s Chest - Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

It was a strange, high voice, and it came from the trees. The men’s faces went white. They stood up quickly.

‘Oh God, it’s Flint!’ said George.

The voice stopped. Silver’s face was very white too. But he said, ‘Come on, boys, don’t be frightened! Someone is playing a game with us.’

The voice suddenly began again. It didn’t sing this time.

‘Darby M’Graw!’ it shouted, from far away. ‘Darby M’Graw! Bring the rum. Darby!’

The buccaneers didn’t move; they didn’t speak.

‘I know those words,’ Morgan said. ‘They were Flint’s last words!’

Silver was very frightened too. He said quietly: ‘Who knows the name Darby M’Graw on this island? Only us, Flint’s men.’ Then he said in a loud voice, ‘Mates, I want that treasure and nobody will stop me. It is very near here and I’m going to find it!’

‘It’s Flint’s ghost, John!’ said Morgan.

‘Ghost? Well, that voice had an echo and a ghost’s voice doesn’t have an echo - am I right, mates?’

‘Yes, that’s true,’ George Merry said. ‘You’re an intelligent man,

John. Courage, mates! I’m not sure that the voice was Flint’s. It was. it was like.’

‘Ben Gunn’s voice, by God!’ shouted Silver.

‘Who is frightened of Ben Gunn?’

Merry asked. ‘Not me!’

The buccaneers weren’t frightened now, and the colour returned to their faces. They began to laugh and talk. Then we continued walking and we arrived at the first of the tall trees. But it wasn’t the right one. We went to the second tree; it wasn’t Flint’s. But the third tree was very tall, about two hundred feet high. We all knew that in the ground under that tree was the treasure!

My companions ran towards it and Silver followed them on his crutch. Sometimes he pulled me with the rope; sometimes he looked at me with terrible eyes that said, ‘I’m going to put the treasure on the Hispaniola, and then I’m going to kill you and all your friends,’

Suddenly the men stopped. There was a cry of surprise. In front of us was a very big hole in the ground. It wasn’t recent because there was grass in it. There were some pieces of wood with ‘Walrus’ on them - the name of Flint’s ship. But there wasn’t any treasure in the hole. It was empty.

The buccaneers couldn’t believe their eyes. They just stood and looked at the hole. But John Silver s surprise passed quickly. He said to me quietly:

‘Are you ready, Jim?’ And he gave me a pistol.

Then quietly he began to move to one side of the hole. Now it was between us and the buccaneers. He looked at me and smiled. The others jumped into the hole and tried to dig with their fingers. Morgan found a piece of money and gave it to his companions.

‘Two pounds!’ Merry shouted at Silver. ‘You knew that the hole was empty!’

‘Do you want to be Cap’n, Merry?’ Silver answered.

But this time all the pirates were with Merry. And they were all very angry. They began to climb out of the hole. Then we all stood there: two on one side of the hole, five on the other. Silver watched them with a calm expression. Nobody spoke. Then Merry said:

‘Mates, there are only two of them. Silver has got one leg and Hawkins is only a boy. Now, mates -‘

But he didn’t finish. There were three shots from the trees - crack! crack! crack! - and Merry fell dead into the hole. Another pirate fell dead too. The other three ran away. Just then the doctor, Gray and Ben Gunn came out of the trees with their guns.

‘Quick, boys!’ shouted the doctor. ‘To the boats! Before the pirates get there!’

And we all ran into the trees. Silver ran very fast on his crutch. Then he shouted:

‘It’s all right, doctor! Look, they aren’t going to the boats!’ So we all sat down to rest.

Soon we went down the hill towards the boats. And Ben Gunn told us his story.

‘I found the skeleton of Allardyce a long time ago, and I took his knife. And then two months ago I found the treasure. I took it to a cave in a hill on the north-east of the island. It’s there now.’

Then the doctor told us his story.

‘When I left the stockade, I went to find Ben Gunn,’ he said, ‘and he told me his story. Well, the next morning I saw that the ship wasn’t there. So I went to Silver and gave him the map because now I knew that it didn’t show where the treasure was. Then the squire, the captain and I went to Ben’s cave.

I didn’t want to leave you with the pirates, Jim, but you ran away so what could I do?

Then I saw you at the stockade and you told me your story. I knew that your situation was very dangerous, so I ran back to the cave. Gray, Ben and I took our guns.

We wanted to arrive at the big tree before you and the pirates. But you were a long way in front of us. So Ben tried to stop the pirates. He shouted in Captain Flint’s voice and the pirates stopped. So we arrived at the tree first and we waited for you.’

When we found the boats, the doctor destroyed one of them and we all got into the other. Then we went towards North Inlet. We passed Ben Gunn’s hill and saw his cave. We continued for three miles, and then we suddenly saw the Hispaniola! She wasn’t on the beach in North Inlet.

‘The sea came in and carried her away,’ the doctor said. ‘But she’s all right. Gray, you can stay on her tonight and guard her.’

So we got out of the boat on the beach at Rum Bay, near Ben’s cave, and Gray went to the Hispaniola. When we arrived at the cave the squire met us.

‘John Silver,’ he said. ‘You’re a very bad man. But the doctor told me that we mustn’t arrest you. You’re a lucky man, Silver.’

‘Thank you very much, sir,’ said Long John.

‘Don’t thank me, my man! I wanted to arrest you!’

We went into the cave. Captain Smollett was near a big fire. And then I saw Flint’s treasure in a corner - lots and lots of gold!

For dinner that night we had Ben’s goat and some wine from the Hispaniola. We were all very happy. And Silver sat with us. He talked and laughed.

Early next morning, we took all the treasure to the beach. Then Gray and Ben Gunn took it by boat to the Hispaniola. There was lots of it and we worked all day for three days.

On the third night the doctor and I walked on the hill. We heard some voices far away in the night.

‘It’s the three pirates,’ said the doctor.

‘They’re all drunk, sir,’ said John Silver behind us.

The doctor didn’t answer and he didn’t look at Silver. The buccaneer was always polite to us now and he always tried to do a lot of things for us. But nobody liked him.

We didn’t hear the pirates again and we decided to leave them on the island. We left some food for them. Then we went to the Hispaniola and sailed her away. The three pirates watched us from the island.

‘Don’t leave us here!’ they shouted.

But we didn’t take them. They were dangerous and we didn’t want any problems. Soon the island was far away; and then there was only the sea. I was very happy.

With only six men we couldn’t sail the ship to England, so we went to a port in Spanish America. Lots of Indians came to our ship to sell fruit and vegetables. That night we went to the town and we met an English captain. He took us to his ship for dinner and it was very late when we arrived back on the Hispaniola. Ben Gunn was on board.

He told us that John Silver wasn’t there. ‘He went away in a boat a few hours ago,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. You see, I helped him. But I did it to save your lives. I’m sure he wanted to kill you all. He took some of the treasure with him - about 500 pounds.’

‘Well,’ said the captain with a smile. ‘I think that’s cheap. Only 500 pounds and we won’t see Silver again!’

I’ll finish my story quickly. We found some seamen and sailed to England. When the Hispaniola arrived at Bristol, we divided the treasure between us.

Now Captain Smollett doesn’t work. Gray saved his money and now he has his own business. Ben Gunn got 1000 pounds and he lost it in three weeks!

I don’t know where John Silver is now. Perhaps he’s living happily with his parrot Captain Flint. Sometimes I dream about Silver and Treasure Island. Then I wake up suddenly with the voice of Captain Flint in my ears: ‘Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!’