Treasure Island: The Attack

When Ben Gunn saw the British flag above the stockade, he said, “There’s your friends, sure enough,” but he would not go with Jim.“If they want to see Ben Gunn, you know where to find him,” he said, and he slipped away among the trees.Jim climbed over the fence into the stockade, and his friends welcomed him warmly and listened to his whole story.

The next morning a man came out of the woods waving a white cloth, and behind him came Long John Silver himself.Silver sat down in the sand outside the log-house and offered a deal: “We want your chart.”If they gave him the map, he promised, the pirates would carry them safely home, or leave them on the island with food and send a ship for them.

Captain Smollett calmly smoked his pipe, and then he gave his answer.“You can’t find the treasure. You can’t sail the ship. You can’t fight us,” he said, “and they’re the last good words you’ll get from me.”Silver’s face turned dark with anger, and when no one would help him up, he crawled across the sand and pulled himself up on his crutch.

“Before an hour’s out,” he shouted, “I’ll smash your old block house like a barrel of rum!” and he stumbled off into the trees.The captain put every man at a loophole with loaded muskets, and they waited in the heat.Suddenly the pirates rushed out of the woods and poured over the fence, and the log-house filled with smoke and noise.

Jim grabbed a cutlass and ran outside with the doctor and Gray, and after a short, wild fight, the pirates who could still run fled back into the woods.But the victory had a price: Joyce was dead, Hunter was badly hurt, and the captain himself was wounded.Still, five pirates had fallen, and the captain said, “That’s better odds than we had at starting.”