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Treasure Island - The Last of the Blind Man

1. Dedicated

2. The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

3. Black Dog Appears and Disappears

4. The Black Spot

5. The Sea-chest

6. The Last of the Blind Man

7. The Captain's Papers

8. I Go to Bristol

9. At the Sign of the Spy-glass

10. Powder and Arms

11. The Voyage

12. What I Heard in the Apple Barrel

13. Council of War

14. How My Shore Adventure Began

15. The First Blow

16. The Man of the Island

17. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship Was Abandoned

18. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat's Last Trip

19. Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day's Fighting

20. Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade

21. Silver's Embassy

22. The Attack

23. How My Sea Adventure Began

24. The Ebb-tide Runs

25. The Cruise of the Coracle

26. I Strike the Jolly Roger

27. Israel Hands

28. "Pieces of Eight"

29. In the Enemy's Camp

30. The Black Spot Again

31. On Parole

32. The Treasure-hunt--Flint's Pointer

33. The Treasure-hunt--The Voice Among the Trees

34. The Fall of a Chieftain

35. And Last







5

The Last of the Blind Man

MY curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear,
for I could not remain where I was, but crept back to
the bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a
bush of broom, I might command the road before our
door. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began
to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, their
feet beating out of time along the road and the man
with the lantern some paces in front. Three men ran
together, hand in hand; and I made out, even through
the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the
blind beggar. The next moment his voice showed me that
I was right.

"Down with the door!" he cried.

"Aye, aye, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush was
made upon the Admiral Benbow, the lantern-bearer
following; and then I could see them pause, and hear
speeches passed in a lower key, as if they were
surprised to find the door open. But the pause was
brief, for the blind man again issued his commands.
His voice sounded louder and higher, as if he were
afire with eagerness and rage.

"In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their delay.

Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining on
the road with the formidable beggar. There was a
pause, then a cry of surprise, and then a voice
shouting from the house, "Bill's dead."

But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.

"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest
of you aloft and get the chest," he cried.

I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, so
that the house must have shook with it. Promptly
afterwards, fresh sounds of astonishment arose; the
window of the captain's room was thrown open with a
slam and a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned out
into the moonlight, head and shoulders, and addressed
the blind beggar on the road below him.

"Pew," he cried, "they've been before us. Someone's
turned the chest out alow and aloft."

"Is it there?" roared Pew.

"The money's there."

The blind man cursed the money.

"Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.

"We don't see it here nohow," returned the man.

"Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blind
man again.

At that another fellow, probably him who had remained
below to search the captain's body, came to the door of
the inn. "Bill's been overhauled a'ready," said he;
"nothin' left."

"It's these people of the inn--it's that boy. I wish I
had put his eyes out!" cried the blind man, Pew.
"There were no time ago--they had the door bolted when
I tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."

"Sure enough, they left their glim here," said the
fellow from the window.

"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiterated
Pew, striking with his stick upon the road.

Then there followed a great to-do through all our old
inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture thrown
over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks re-echoed
and the men came out again, one after another, on the
road and declared that we were nowhere to be found.
And just the same whistle that had alarmed my mother
and myself over the dead captain's money was once more
clearly audible through the night, but this time twice
repeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's trumpet,
so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault, but I now
found that it was a signal from the hillside towards the
hamlet, and from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signal
to warn them of approaching danger.

"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have to
budge, mates."

"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool and a
coward from the first--you wouldn't mind him. They
must be close by; they can't be far; you have your
hands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs! Oh,
shiver my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!"

This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two of
the fellows began to look here and there among the
lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and with half an
eye to their own danger all the time, while the rest
stood irresolute on the road.

"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you
hang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if you could
find it, and you know it's here, and you stand there
skulking. There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, and
I did it--a blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you!
I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when
I might be rolling in a coach! If you had the pluck of a
weevil in a biscuit you would catch them still."

"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled one.

"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another.
"Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."

Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so high
at these objections till at last, his passion
completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them
right and left in his blindness and his stick sounded
heavily on more than one.

These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind
miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried in
vain to catch the stick and wrest it from his grasp.

This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it was
still raging, another sound came from the top of the
hill on the side of the hamlet--the tramp of horses
galloping. Almost at the same time a pistol-shot,
flash and report, came from the hedge side. And that
was plainly the last signal of danger, for the
buccaneers turned at once and ran, separating in every
direction, one seaward along the cove, one slant across
the hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not a
sign of them remained but Pew. Him they had deserted,
whether in sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill
words and blows I know not; but there he remained
behind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and
groping and calling for his comrades. Finally he took
a wrong turn and ran a few steps past me, towards the
hamlet, crying, "Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other
names, "you won't leave old Pew, mates--not old Pew!"

Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and four
or five riders came in sight in the moonlight and swept
at full gallop down the slope.

At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and
ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. But
he was on his feet again in a second and made another
dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest
of the coming horses.

The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went
Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the
four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He
fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face
and moved no more.

I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They were
pulling up, at any rate, horrified at the accident; and
I soon saw what they were. One, tailing out behind the
rest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to Dr.
Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he had
met by the way, and with whom he had had the
intelligence to return at once. Some news of the
lugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to Supervisor
Dance and set him forth that night in our direction,
and to that circumstance my mother and I owed our
preservation from death.

Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when we
had carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water
and salts and that soon brought her back again, and she
was none the worse for her terror, though she still
continued to deplore the balance of the money. In the
meantime the supervisor rode on, as fast as he could,
to Kitt's Hole; but his men had to dismount and grope
down the dingle, leading, and sometimes supporting,
their horses, and in continual fear of ambushes; so it
was no great matter for surprise that when they got
down to the Hole the lugger was already under way,
though still close in. He hailed her. A voice
replied, telling him to keep out of the moonlight or he
would get some lead in him, and at the same time a
bullet whistled close by his arm. Soon after, the
lugger doubled the point and disappeared. Mr. Dance
stood there, as he said, "like a fish out of water,"
and all he could do was to dispatch a man to B---- to
warn the cutter. "And that," said he, "is just about
as good as nothing. They've got off clean, and there's
an end. Only," he added, "I'm glad I trod on Master
Pew's corns," for by this time he had heard my story.

I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you
cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the
very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in
their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and
though nothing had actually been taken away except the
captain's money-bag and a little silver from the till,
I could see at once that we were ruined. Mr. Dance
could make nothing of the scene.

"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, what
in fortune were they after? More money, I suppose?"

"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact,
sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast pocket;
and to tell you the truth, I should like to get it put
in safety."

"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll take
it, if you like."

"I thought perhaps Dr. Livesey--" I began.

"Perfectly right," he interrupted very cheerily,
"perfectly right--a gentleman and a magistrate. And,
now I come to think of it, I might as well ride round
there myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew's
dead, when all's done; not that I regret it, but he's
dead, you see, and people will make it out against an
officer of his Majesty's revenue, if make it out they
can. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'll
take you along."

I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked back
to the hamlet where the horses were. By the time I had
told mother of my purpose they were all in the saddle.

"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse; take
up this lad behind you."

As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt,
the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck out
at a bouncing trot on the road to Dr. Livesey's house.




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