11

What I Heard in the Apple Barrel

"NO, not I," said Silver. "Flint was cap'n; I was
quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The same
broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights.
It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me--out of
college and all--Latin by the bucket, and what not; but
he was hanged like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest,
at Corso Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was, and
comed of changing names to their ships--ROYAL
FORTUNE and so on. Now, what a ship was christened,
so let her stay, I says. So it was with the CASSANDRA,
as brought us all safe home from Malabar,
after England took the viceroy of the Indies; so it was
with the old WALRUS, Flint's old ship, as I've seen
amuck with the red blood and fit to sink with gold."

"Ah!" cried another voice, that of the youngest hand on
board, and evidently full of admiration. "He was the
flower of the flock, was Flint!"

"Davis was a man too, by all accounts," said Silver.
"I never sailed along of him; first with England, then
with Flint, that's my story; and now here on my own
account, in a manner of speaking. I laid by nine
hundred safe, from England, and two thousand after
Flint. That ain't bad for a man before the mast--all
safe in bank. 'Tain't earning now, it's saving does
it, you may lay to that. Where's all England's men
now? I dunno. Where's Flint's? Why, most on 'em
aboard here, and glad to get the duff--been begging
before that, some on 'em. Old Pew, as had lost his
sight, and might have thought shame, spends twelve
hundred pound in a year, like a lord in Parliament.
Where is he now? Well, he's dead now and under hatches;
but for two year before that, shiver my timbers, the
man was starving! He begged, and he stole, and he cut
throats, and starved at that, by the powers!"

"Well, it ain't much use, after all," said the
young seaman.

"'Tain't much use for fools, you may lay to it--that,
nor nothing," cried Silver. "But now, you look here:
you're young, you are, but you're as smart as paint. I
see that when I set my eyes on you, and I'll talk to
you like a man."

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old
rogue addressing another in the very same words of flattery
as he had used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that
I would have killed him through the barrel. Meantime, he ran
on, little supposing he was overheard.

"Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives
rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat and drink
like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise is done, why,
it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of
farthings in their pockets. Now, the most goes for rum
and a good fling, and to sea again in their shirts.
But that's not the course I lay. I puts it all away,
some here, some there, and none too much anywheres, by
reason of suspicion. I'm fifty, mark you; once back
from this cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. Time
enough too, says you. Ah, but I've lived easy in the
meantime, never denied myself o' nothing heart desires,
and slep' soft and ate dainty all my days but when at
sea. And how did I begin? Before the mast, like you!"

"Well," said the other, "but all the other money's gone now,
ain't it? You daren't show face in Bristol after this."

"Why, where might you suppose it was?" asked Silver derisively.

"At Bristol, in banks and places," answered his companion.

"It were," said the cook; "it were when we weighed anchor.
But my old missis has it all by now. And the Spy-glass is
sold, lease and goodwill and rigging; and the old girl's off
to meet me. I would tell you where, for I trust you, but
it'd make jealousy among the mates."

"And can you trust your missis?" asked the other.

"Gentlemen of fortune," returned the cook, "usually
trusts little among themselves, and right they are, you may
lay to it. But I have a way with me, I have. When a mate
brings a slip on his cable--one as knows me, I mean--it
won't be in the same world with old John. There was some
that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint;
but Flint his own self was feared of me. Feared he was, and
proud. They was the roughest crew afloat, was Flint's; the
devil himself would have been feared to go to sea with them.
Well now, I tell you, I'm not a boasting man, and you seen
yourself how easy I keep company, but when I was quartermaster,
LAMBS wasn't the word for Flint's old buccaneers. Ah, you may
be sure of yourself in old John's ship."

"Well, I tell you now," replied the lad, "I didn't half
a quarter like the job till I had this talk with you,
John; but there's my hand on it now."

"And a brave lad you were, and smart too," answered
Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all the barrel
shook, "and a finer figurehead for a gentleman of
fortune I never clapped my eyes on."

By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of
their terms. By a "gentleman of fortune" they plainly
meant neither more nor less than a common pirate, and
the little scene that I had overheard was the last act
in the corruption of one of the honest hands--perhaps of
the last one left aboard. But on this point I was soon
to be relieved, for Silver giving a little whistle, a
third man strolled up and sat down by the party.

"Dick's square," said Silver.

"Oh, I know'd Dick was square," returned the voice of the
coxswain, Israel Hands. "He's no fool, is Dick." And he
turned his quid and spat. "But look here," he went on,
"here's what I want to know, Barbecue: how long are we
a-going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat? I've
had a'most enough o' Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed me long
enough, by thunder! I want to go into that cabin, I do.
I want their pickles and wines, and that."

"Israel," said Silver, "your head ain't much account,
nor ever was. But you're able to hear, I reckon;
leastways, your ears is big enough. Now, here's what I
say: you'll berth forward, and you'll live hard, and
you'll speak soft, and you'll keep sober till I give
the word; and you may lay to that, my son."

"Well, I don't say no, do I?" growled the coxswain.
"What I say is, when? That's what I say."

"When! By the powers!" cried Silver. "Well now, if
you want to know, I'll tell you when. The last moment
I can manage, and that's when. Here's a first-rate
seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for us.
Here's this squire and doctor with a map and such--I
don't know where it is, do I? No more do you, says
you. Well then, I mean this squire and doctor shall
find the stuff, and help us to get it aboard, by the
powers. Then we'll see. If I was sure of you all,
sons of double Dutchmen, I'd have Cap'n Smollett
navigate us half-way back again before I struck."

"Why, we're all seamen aboard here, I should think,"
said the lad Dick.

"We're all forecastle hands, you mean," snapped Silver. "We
can steer a course, but who's to set one? That's what all you
gentlemen split on, first and last. If I had my way, I'd have
Cap'n Smollett work us back into the trades at least; then we'd
have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day.
But I know the sort you are. I'll finish with 'em at the
island, as soon's the blunt's on board, and a pity it is. But
you're never happy till you're drunk. Split my sides, I've a
sick heart to sail with the likes of you!"

"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin'
of you?"

"Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have I seen
laid aboard? And how many brisk lads drying in the sun
at Execution Dock?" cried Silver. "And all for this
same hurry and hurry and hurry. You hear me? I seen a
thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay
your course, and a p'int to windward, you would ride in
carriages, you would. But not you! I know you. You'll
have your mouthful of rum tomorrow, and go hang."

"Everybody knowed you was a kind of a chapling, John;
but there's others as could hand and steer as well as
you," said Israel. "They liked a bit o' fun, they did.
They wasn't so high and dry, nohow, but took their
fling, like jolly companions every one."

"So?" says Silver. "Well, and where are they now? Pew
was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. Flint was,
and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they was a sweet
crew, they was! On'y, where are they?"

"But," asked Dick, "when we do lay 'em athwart, what
are we to do with 'em, anyhow?"

"There's the man for me!" cried the cook admiringly.
"That's what I call business. Well, what would you
think? Put 'em ashore like maroons? That would have
been England's way. Or cut 'em down like that much
pork? That would have been Flint's, or Billy Bones's."

"Billy was the man for that," said Israel. "'Dead men
don't bite,' says he. Well, he's dead now hisself; he
knows the long and short on it now; and if ever a rough
hand come to port, it was Billy."

"Right you are," said Silver; "rough and ready. But
mark you here, I'm an easy man--I'm quite the
gentleman, says you; but this time it's serious. Dooty
is dooty, mates. I give my vote--death. When I'm in
Parlyment and riding in my coach, I don't want none of
these sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked
for, like the devil at prayers. Wait is what I say;
but when the time comes, why, let her rip!"

"John," cries the coxswain, "you're a man!"

"You'll say so, Israel when you see," said Silver.
"Only one thing I claim--I claim Trelawney. I'll wring
his calf's head off his body with these hands, Dick!"
he added, breaking off. "You just jump up, like a
sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like."

You may fancy the terror I was in! I should have
leaped out and run for it if I had found the strength,
but my limbs and heart alike misgave me. I heard Dick
begin to rise, and then someone seemingly stopped him,
and the voice of Hands exclaimed, "Oh, stow that!
Don't you get sucking of that bilge, John. Let's have
a go of the rum."

"Dick," said Silver, "I trust you. I've a gauge on the
keg, mind. There's the key; you fill a pannikin and
bring it up."

Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to myself
that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got the strong
waters that destroyed him.

Dick was gone but a little while, and during his
absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook's ear. It
was but a word or two that I could catch, and yet I
gathered some important news, for besides other scraps
that tended to the same purpose, this whole clause was
audible: "Not another man of them'll jine." Hence
there were still faithful men on board.

When Dick returned, one after another of the trio took
the pannikin and drank--one "To luck," another with a
"Here's to old Flint," and Silver himself saying, in a
kind of song, "Here's to ourselves, and hold your luff,
plenty of prizes and plenty of duff."

Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the
barrel, and looking up, I found the moon had risen and
was silvering the mizzen-top and shining white on the
luff of the fore-sail; and almost at the same time the
voice of the lookout shouted, "Land ho!"