TREASURE ISLAND

by Robert Louis Stevenson

TREASURE ISLAND

To S.L.O., an American gentleman in accordance with whose classic taste the following narrative has been designed, it is now, in return for numerous delightful hours, and with the kindest wishes, dedicated by his affectionate friend, the author.

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes, Storm and adventure, heat and cold, If schooners, islands, and maroons, And buccaneers, and buried gold, And all the old romance, retold Exactly in the ancient way, Can please, as me they pleased of old, The wiser youngsters of today:

--So be it, and fall on! If not, If studious youth no longer crave, His ancient appetites forgot, Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave, Or Cooper of the wood and wave: So be it, also! And may I And all my pirates share the grave Where these and their creations lie!

CONTENTS

PART ONE The Old Buccaneer

I. THE OLD SEA-DOG AT THE ADMIRAL BENBOW . . . . 11 II. BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS . . . . . . 17 III. THE BLACK SPOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 IV. THE SEA-CHEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 V. THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN . . . . . . . . . . 36 VI. THE CAPTAIN’S PAPERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

PART TWO The Sea Cook

VII. I GO TO BRISTOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 VIII. AT THE SIGN OF THE SPY-GLASS . . . . . . . 54 IX. POWDER AND ARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 X. THE VOYAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 XI. WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE-BARREL . . . . . . 70 XII. COUNCIL OF WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

PART THREE My Shore Adventure

XIII. HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVENTURE . . . . . . 82 XIV. THE FIRST BLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 XV. THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. . . . . . . . . . . . 93

PART FOUR The Stockade

XVI. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED . . . . . . . . 100 XVII. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: THE JOLLY-BOAT’S LAST TRIP . . . . . . . . 105 XVIII. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: END OF THE FIRST DAY’S FIGHTING . . . . . 109 XIX. NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS: THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE . . . . . . . 114 XX. SILVER’S EMBASSY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 XXI. THE ATTACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

PART FIVE My Sea Adventure

XXII. HOW I BEGAN MY SEA ADVENTURE . . . . . . . 132 XXIII. THE EBB-TIDE RUNS . . . . . . . . . . . 138 XXIV. THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE . . . . . . . . 143 XXV. I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER . . . . . . . . . 148 XXVI. ISRAEL HANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 XXVII. “PIECES OF EIGHT” . . . . . . . . . . . 161

PART SIX Captain Silver

XXVIII. IN THE ENEMY’S CAMP . . . . . . . . . . 168 XXIX. THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN . . . . . . . . . . . 176 XXX. ON PAROLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 XXXI. THE TREASURE-HUNT--FLINT’S POINTER . . . . 189 XXXII. THE TREASURE-HUNT--THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 XXXIII. THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN . . . . . . . . 201 XXXIV. AND LAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

TREASURE ISLAND

PART ONE--The Old Buccaneer

I The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow

Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof.

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

“This is a handy cove,” says he at length; “and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?”

My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued. “I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at--there”; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. “You can tell me when I’ve worked through that,” says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

Chapter 1

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