Treasure Island: The Map

Jim and his mother knew that the captain had owed them money, so they bravely went up to his room to open his sea chest.Jim found the key on a string around the dead man’s neck, and inside, under old clothes, lay a bag of gold coins from many countries.His honest mother counted out only what they were owed, but Jim also took a small packet wrapped in oilcloth.

Suddenly they heard the tap-tap of the blind man’s stick on the frozen road, and they ran out of the back door with the money.Hiding under a little bridge, Jim watched the pirates break into the inn and turn everything upside down, looking for the packet.Then riders came galloping down the road, the pirates scattered, and the blind man, Pew, fell under the horses and did not get up again.

Jim rode to the squire’s hall, where Dr. Livesey was sitting by the fire with Squire Trelawney, and gave them the oilcloth packet.Inside was a map of an island, with hills and bays and harbours, and three crosses in red ink.Beside one of them, in small, neat writing, were the words: “Bulk of treasure here.”

“Flint’s treasure!” cried the squire, for everyone knew that Captain Flint had been the most terrible pirate who ever sailed.“Tomorrow I start for Bristol,” he said. “In three weeks I’ll have the best ship in England, and Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy.”Dr. Livesey agreed to come as the ship’s doctor, but he warned the squire about one thing.

“You are the one man I’m afraid of,” he said, “because you cannot hold your tongue.”“We are not the only men who know about this paper — the men who attacked the inn want it too.”The squire promised to be “as silent as the grave,” and Jim went to bed dreaming of strange islands and hidden gold.