You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me.I was half beside myself with glee;and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth,who could do nothing but grumble and lament.Any of the under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him;but such was not the squire’s pleasure,and the squire’s pleasure was like law among them all.Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to grumble.
The next morning he and I set out on foot for the Admiral Benbow,and there I found my mother in good health and spirits.The captain, who had so long been a cause of so much discomfort,was gone where the wicked cease from troubling.The squire had had everything repaired,and the public rooms and the sign repainted,and had added some furniture--above all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy as an apprentice also so that she should not want help while I was gone.
It was on seeing that boy that I understood,for the first time, my situation.I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me,not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now,at sight of this clumsy stranger,who was to stay here in my place beside my mother,I had my first attack of tears.I am afraid I led that boy a dog’s life,for as he was new to the work,I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting him down,and I was not slow to profit by them.
The night passed, and the next day, after dinner,Redruth and I were afoot again and on the road.I said good-bye to Mother and the cove where I had lived since I was born,and the dear old Admiral Benbow--since he was repainted,no longer quite so dear.One of my last thoughts was of the captain,who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked hat,his sabre-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope.Next moment we had turned the corner and my home was out of sight.
The mail picked us up about dusk at the Royal George on the heath.I was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman,and in spite of the swift motion and the cold night air,I must have dozed a great deal from the very first,and then slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage after stage,for when I was awakened at last it was by a punch in the ribs,and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before a large building in a city street and that the day had already broken a long time.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Bristol,” said Tom. “Get down.”
Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors were singing at their work, in another there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider’s. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or archbishops I could not have been more delighted.
And I was going to sea myself, to sea in a schooner,with a piping boatswain and pig-tailed singing seamen,to sea, bound for an unknown island,and to seek for buried treasure!
While I was still in this delightful dream,we came suddenly in front of a large inn and met Squire Trelawney,all dressed out like a sea-officer,in stout blue cloth,coming out of the door with a smile on his face and a capital imitation of a sailor’s walk.
“Here you are,” he cried,“and the doctor came last night from London. Bravo!The ship’s company complete!”
“Oh, sir,” cried I, “when do we sail?”
“Sail!” says he. “We sail tomorrow!”
VIII At the Sign of the Spy-glass
When I had done breakfasting the squire gave me a note addressed to John Silver,at the sign of the Spy-glass,and told me I should easily find the place by following the line of the docks and keeping a bright lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for sign. I set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see some more of the ships and seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and bales, for the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern in question.
It was a bright enough little place of entertainment.The sign was newly painted;the windows had neat red curtains;the floor was cleanly sanded.There was a street on each side and an open door on both,which made the large, low room pretty clear to see in,in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke.
The customers were mostly seafaring men,and they talked so loudly that I hung at the door,almost afraid to enter.
As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room,and at a glance I was sure he must be Long John.His left leg was cut off close by the hip,and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch,which he managed with wonderful dexterity,hopping about upon it like a bird.He was very tall and strong,with a face as big as a ham--plain and pale,but intelligent and smiling. Indeed,he seemed in the most cheerful spirits,whistling as he moved about among the tables,with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder for the more favoured of his guests.
Now, to tell you the truth,from the very first mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney’s letter I had taken a fear in my mind that he might prove to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had watched for so long at the old Benbow. But one look at the man before me was enough. I had seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind man, Pew, and I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like--a very different creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.
I plucked up courage at once, crossed the threshold,and walked right up to the man where he stood,propped on his crutch, talking to a customer.
“Mr. Silver, sir?” I asked, holding out the note.
“Yes, my lad,” said he; “such is my name, to be sure. And who may you be?” And then as he saw the squire’s letter,he seemed to me to give something almost like a start.
“Oh!” said he, quite loud, and offering his hand. “I see.You are our new cabin-boy; pleased I am to see you.”
And he took my hand in his large firm grasp.
Just then one of the customers at the far side rose suddenly and made for the door. It was close by him, and he was out in the street in a moment. But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I recognized him at glance. It was the tallow-faced man, wanting two fingers, who had come first to the Admiral Benbow.
“Oh,” I cried, “stop him!It’s Black Dog!”
“I don’t care two coppers who he is,” cried Silver.“But he hasn’t paid his score. Harry, run and catch him.”
One of the others who was nearest the door leaped up and started in pursuit.
“If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his score,” cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my hand,“Who did you say he was?” he asked. “Black what?”
“Dog, sir,” said I. “Has Mr.Trelawney not told you of the buccaneers?He was one of them.”
“So?” cried Silver. “In my house!Ben, run and help Harry. One of those swabs, was he?Was that you drinking with him, Morgan?Step up here.”
The man whom he called Morgan--an old, grey-haired,mahogany-faced sailor--came forward pretty sheepishly, rolling his quid.
“Now, Morgan,” said Long John very sternly,“you never clapped your eyes on that Black--Black Dog before, did you, now?”
“Not I, sir,” said Morgan with a salute.
“You didn’t know his name, did you?”
“No, sir.”
“By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for you!” exclaimed the landlord.“If you had been mixed up with the like of that,you would never have put another foot in my house,you may lay to that. And what was he saying to you?”