Part 1 (2/2)
So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlour and put me behind him in the corner so that ere both hidden by the open door I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to htened himself He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the ti as if he felt e used to call a lump in the throat
At last in strode the captain, slaht or left, and ht across the room to where his breakfast awaited hiht he had tried to
The captain spun round on his heel and fronted us; all the brown had gone out of his face, and even his nose was blue; he had the look of aworse, if anything can be; and upon my word, I felt sorry to see him all in a moment turn so old and sick
”Come, Bill, you know me; you know an old shi+per
The captain !” said he
”And who else?” returned the other, gettingas ever was, come for to see his old shi+pmate Billy, at the Adht of ti up his mutilated hand
”Now, look here,” said the captain; ”you've run me down; here I am; well, then, speak up; what is it?”
”That's you, Bill,” returned Black Dog, ”you're in the right of it, Billy I'll have a glass of ru to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square, like old shi+pmates”
When I returned with the rum, they were already seated on either side of the captain's breakfast-table--Black Dog next to the door and sitting sideways so as to have one eye on his old shi+po and leave the door wide open ”None of your keyholes for ether and retired into the bar
”For a long tih I certainly did ; but at last the voices began to grow higher, and I could pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the captain
”No, no, no, no; and an end of it!” he cried once And again, ”If it co all, say I”
Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous explosion of oaths and other noises--the chair and table went over in a lump, a clash of steel followed, and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw Black Dog in full flight, and the captain hotly pursuing, both with drawn cutlasses, and the for blood from the left shoulder Just at the door the captain aiitive one last tremendous cut, which would certainly have split hinboard of Admiral Benbow You may see the notch on the lower side of the frame to this day
That bloas the last of the battle Once out upon the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a wonderful clean pair of heels and disappeared over the edge of the hill in half a nboard like a bewildered man Then he passed his hand over his eyes several times and at last turned back into the house
”Jim,” says he, ”ruht hiainst the wall
”Are you hurt?” cried I
”Ruet away from here Rum! Rum!”
I ran to fetch it, but I was quite unsteadied by all that had fallen out, and I broke one glass and fouled the tap, and while I was still getting inin, beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor At the sa, ca downstairs to helpvery loud and hard, but his eyes were closed and his face a horrible colour
”Dear, deary race upon the house! And your poor father sick!”
In the meantime, we had no idea what to do to help the captain, nor any other thought but that he had got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down his throat, but his teeth were tightly shut and his jaws as strong as iron It was a happy relief for us when the door opened and Doctor Livesey came in, on his visit to my father
”Oh, doctor,” we cried, ”what shall we do? Where is he wounded?”
”Wounded? A fiddle-stick's end!” said the doctor ”No more wounded than you or I The man has had a stroke, as I warned him Now, Mrs Hawkins, just you run upstairs to your husband and tell hi about it For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life; Jiot back with the basin, the doctor had already ripped up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm It was tattooed in several places ”Here's luck,” ”A fair wind,” and ”Billy Bones his fancy,” were very neatly and clearly executed on the forearallows and a reat spirit
”Prophetic,” said the doctor, touching this picture with his finger ”And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a look at the colour of your blood Jim,” he said, ”are you afraid of blood?”
”No, sir,” said I
”Well, then,” said he, ”you hold the basin”; and with that he took his lancet and opened a vein
A great deal of blood was taken before the captain opened his eyes and looked nized the doctor with an unlance fell upon ed, and he tried to raise hi?”
”There is no Black Dog here,” said the doctor, ”except what you have on your own back You have been drinking rum; you have had a stroke, precisely as I told you; and I have just, very ed you headforerave Now, Mr Bones--”
”That's not my name,” he interrupted
”Much I care,” returned the doctor ”It's the name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance; and I call you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I have to say to you is this; one glass of rum won't kill you, but if you take one you'll take another and another, and I stakeif you don't break off short, you'll die-- do you understand that?--die, and go to your own place, like the man in the Bible Come, now, make an effort I'll help you to your bed for once”
Between us, with ed to hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow as if he were al
”Now, mind you,” said the doctor, ”I clear my conscience--the name of rum for you is death”
And with that he went off to see,” he said as soon as he had closed the door ”I have drawn blood enough to keep him quiet awhile; he should lie for a here he is--that is the best thing for him and you; but another stroke would settle him”
3
The Black Spot
ABOUT noon I stopped at the captain's door with so very her, and he seemed both weak and excited
”Ji, and you know I've been always good to you Never a iven you a silver fourpenny for yourself And now you see, mate, I' in of ruan
But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily ”Doctors is all swabs,” he said; ”and that doctor there, hat do he know about seafaringround with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earthquakes--what to the doctor know of lands like that?--and I lived on rum, I tell you It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I'm not to have my rum now I'm a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood'll be on you, Jiain for a while with curses ”Look, Ji tone ”I can't keep 'em still, not I I haven't had a drop this blessed day That doctor's a fool, I tell you If I don't have a drain o' rum, Jim, I'll have the horrors; I seen some on 'em already I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen hih, and I'll raise Cain Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn't hurt in, Ji more and more excited, and this alarmed me for my father, as very low that day and needed quiet; besides, I was reassured by the doctor's words, now quoted to me, and rather offended by the offer of a bribe
”I want none of your et you one glass, and no reedily and drank it out
”Aye, aye,” said he, ”that's soh And now,I was to lie here in this old berth?”