Treasure Island: Captain Silver

In the firelight Jim saw Long John Silver and six pirates, but there was no sign of his friends.Silver explained that the doctor had come the day before with a white flag, found the ship gone, and made a bargain: the pirates got the stockade, and Jim’s friends went away.Jim felt very alone, but he stood up straight and decided to tell the truth.

“It was I who hid in the apple barrel and heard your plans,” he said, “and it was I who cut the ship loose and took her where you’ll never find her.”“Kill me if you like, or spare me,” he went on, “and if you spare me, I’ll try to help you when you’re on trial for piracy.”One pirate, Tom Morgan, pulled out his knife, but Silver stopped him. “Is there anyone here who wants to fight me?” he roared, and nobody moved.

The pirates went outside to talk, and Silver quickly whispered to Jim that he would protect him, if Jim would save him from the hangman later.When the men came back, they handed Silver the black spot, cut from a page of the Bible, with one word written on it: “Deposed.”Silver just laughed at them, listed all their mistakes, and then threw something onto the floor: Flint’s map, with an X marking the treasure.

The pirates jumped on the map like cats on a mouse, and in a moment Silver was their captain again.Jim had no idea why the doctor had given the pirates the map, and it worried him.The next morning Dr. Livesey came to the stockade to treat the sick and wounded pirates, just as he had promised.

Silver let Jim speak to the doctor alone at the fence, and the doctor begged him to jump over and run away with him.But Jim said no: he had given Silver his word, and he would not break it.When Jim told him where the ship was hidden, the doctor said, “Every step, it’s you that saves our lives,” and as he left, he warned Silver: “Look out for squalls when you find it.”