Treasure Island: The Apple Barrel

The voyage went well, and the crew loved Silver, whom they called “Barbecue,” and his green parrot, Captain Flint, who screamed “Pieces of eight!” all day long.One night, near the end of the voyage, Jim wanted an apple and climbed right into the big apple barrel on deck, because only a few were left at the bottom.Sitting there in the dark, rocked by the ship, he was almost asleep when a heavy man sat down against the barrel.

It was Silver, and before he had said a dozen words, Jim was shaking with fear.Silver was telling young Dick, one of the honest sailors, that he had been Flint’s quartermaster, and that most of the crew had sailed with Flint too.“Gentlemen of fortune,” he called them, and he promised Dick a share of the treasure if he joined them.

Dick agreed, and then another voice joined them: Israel Hands, the coxswain, who wanted to act at once.“We wait,” said Silver firmly. “We let the squire and the doctor find the treasure and help us get it aboard, and then we’ll see.”Jim understood that the pirates meant to take the ship, and that his friends were in terrible danger.

Then Silver said, “Dick, jump up like a good lad and get me an apple,” and Jim’s heart almost stopped.He heard Dick stand up, and he was sure that in a moment a hand would reach into the barrel and find him.But Hands said, “Oh, never mind apples — let’s have some rum,” and Dick went to fetch that instead.

Just then the moon rose, and a voice from the lookout shouted, “Land ho!”Everyone ran to the side of the ship, and Jim slipped out of the barrel and joined them, unseen.There, in the moonlight, lay the island from the map, with the tall Spy-glass Hill rising in the middle.