FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171  
172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   >>   >|  
ives of seventeen men from the _Hispaniola_. How many it had cost in the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet there were still three upon that island--Silver, and old Morgan, and Ben Gunn--who had each taken his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain to share in the reward. "Come in, Jim," said the captain. "You're a good boy in your line, Jim; but I don't think you and me'll go to sea again. You're too much of the born favourite for me.--Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here, man?" "Come back to my dooty, sir," returned Silver. "Ah!" said the captain; and that was all he said. What a supper I had of it that night, with all my friends around me; and what a meal it was, with Ben Gunn's salted goat, and some delicacies and a bottle of old wine from the _Hispaniola_. Never, I am sure, were people gayer or happier. And there was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our laughter--the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman of the voyage out. CHAPTER XXXIV AND LAST The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the _Hispaniola_, was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen. The three fellows still abroad upon the island did not greatly trouble us; a single sentry on the shoulder of the hill was sufficient to insure us against any sudden onslaught, and we thought, besides, they had had more than enough of fighting. Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while the rest, during their absences, piled treasure on the beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope's-end, made a good load for a grown man--one that he was glad to walk slowly with. For my part, as I was not much use at carrying, I was kept busy all day in the cave, packing the minted money into bread-bags. It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171  
172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Silver
 

Hispaniola

 

captain

 

island

 

Therefore

 
pushed
 
fighting
 

guineas

 
number
 

briskly


considerable

 

onslaught

 
fellows
 

workmen

 
single
 

abroad

 
greatly
 
trouble
 

sentry

 

shoulder


sudden

 

sufficient

 

insure

 

thought

 

minted

 

sorting

 

packing

 

French

 

English

 

pleasure


diversity

 
larger
 

collection

 

varied

 

strange

 
carrying
 

coinage

 
doubloons
 

absences

 
double

treasure
 

Louises

 
Portuguese
 
Spanish
 

Georges

 

slowly

 
spring
 

reward

 
crimes
 

brings