Treasure Island: Ben Gunn

At first Jim was so pleased to have escaped Long John that he enjoyed exploring the strange island, with its marshes, sandy hills and strange trees.Then he heard voices, and he crept under a tree to listen.It was Silver, talking seriously with Tom, one of the honest sailors, and trying to win him over to the pirates’ side.

Suddenly a long, terrible scream came from far across the marsh, and then everything was silent.“That’ll be Alan,” Silver said calmly, and Tom understood that another honest sailor had been killed.“Kill me too, if you can,” said Tom bravely, “but I won’t join you,” and he turned his back and walked away.

Silver threw his heavy crutch at Tom’s back, knocked him down, and killed him.Jim felt the whole world spin, and when he came to himself, he ran as he had never run before.Now he knew that Silver would kill him too if he were caught, and he could never go back to the ship.

As he ran, a strange figure leaped quickly behind a tree, and Jim stopped in fear: was it a bear, a monkey, or a man?It was a man, burned by the sun and dressed in rags of old sailcloth and goatskin, and he fell on his knees before Jim.“I’m poor Ben Gunn,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to a living soul for three years.”

His shipmates had marooned him three years ago, and he had lived on goats ever since, yet he told Jim, with a strange look, that he was rich.“You don’t have a piece of cheese with you, do you?” he asked. “Many a long night I’ve dreamed of cheese.”Just then a cannon boomed from the ship, and soon Jim saw the British flag flying above a wood: his friends were fighting.