Part Five: My Sea Adventure - Chapter 27: "Pieces of Eight"

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far outover the water, and from my perch on the cross-trees Ihad nothing below me but the surface of the bay.Hands, who was not so far up, was in consequence nearerto the ship and fell between me and the bulwarks. Herose once to the surface in a lather of foam and bloodand then sank again for good. As the water settled, Icould see him lying huddled together on the clean, brightsand in the shadow of the vessel's sides. A fish or twowhipped past his body. Sometimes, by the quivering of thewater, he appeared to move a little, as if he were tryingto rise. But he was dead enough, for all that, being bothshot and drowned, and was food for fish in the very placewhere he had designed my slaughter.

　　I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feelsick, faint, and terrified. The hot blood was runningover my back and chest. The dirk, where it had pinnedmy shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn like a hotiron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings thatdistressed me, for these, it seemed to me, I could bearwithout a murmur; it was the horror I had upon my mindof falling from the cross-trees into that still greenwater, beside the body of the coxswain.

　　I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and I shut myeyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind cameback again, my pulses quieted down to a more natural time,and I was once more in possession of myself.

　　It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk, buteither it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me, and Idesisted with a violent shudder. Oddly enough, thatvery shudder did the business. The knife, in fact, hadcome the nearest in the world to missing me altogether;it held me by a mere pinch of skin, and this theshudder tore away. The blood ran down the faster, tobe sure, but I was my own master again and only tackedto the mast by my coat and shirt.

　　These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, and thenregained the deck by the starboard shrouds. Fornothing in the world would I have again ventured,shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds fromwhich Israel had so lately fallen.

　　I went below and did what I could for my wound; it painedme a good deal and still bled freely, but it was neitherdeep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall me when I usedmy arm. Then I looked around me, and as the ship was now,in a sense, my own, I began to think of clearing it fromits last passenger--the dead man, O'Brien.

　　He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks,where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet,life-size, indeed, but how different from life's colouror life's comeliness! In that position I could easilyhave my way with him, and as the habit of tragicaladventures had worn off almost all my terror for thedead, I took him by the waist as if he had been a sackof bran and with one good heave, tumbled him overboard.He went in with a sounding plunge; the red cap came offand remained floating on the surface; and as soon as thesplash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying sideby side, both wavering with the tremulous movement ofthe water. O'Brien, though still quite a young man, wasvery bald. There he lay, with that bald head across theknees of the man who had killed him and the quick fishessteering to and fro over both.

　　I was now alone upon the ship; the tide had justturned. The sun was within so few degrees of settingthat already the shadow of the pines upon the westernshore began to reach right across the anchorage andfall in patterns on the deck. The evening breeze hadsprung up, and though it was well warded off by thehill with the two peaks upon the east, the cordage hadbegun to sing a little softly to itself and the idlesails to rattle to and fro.

　　I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs Ispeedily doused and brought tumbling to the deck, butthe main-sail was a harder matter. Of course, when theschooner canted over, the boom had swung out-board, andthe cap of it and a foot or two of sail hung even underwater. I thought this made it still more dangerous;yet the strain was so heavy that I half feared tomeddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards.The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loosecanvas floated broad upon the water, and since, pull asI liked, I could not budge the downhall, that was theextent of what I could accomplish. For the rest, theHispaniola must trust to luck, like myself.

　　By this time the whole anchorage had fallen intoshadow--the last rays, I remember, falling through aglade of the wood and shining bright as jewels on theflowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be chill; thetide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schoonersettling more and more on her beam-ends.

　　I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed shallowenough, and holding the cut hawser in both hands for alast security, I let myself drop softly overboard. Thewater scarcely reached my waist; the sand was firm andcovered with ripple marks, and I waded ashore in greatspirits, leaving the Hispaniola on her side, with hermain-sail trailing wide upon the surface of the bay.About the same time, the sun went fairly down and thebreeze whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines.

　　At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had Ireturned thence empty-handed. There lay the schooner,clear at last from buccaneers and ready for our own mento board and get to sea again. I had nothing nearer myfancy than to get home to the stockade and boast of myachievements. Possibly I might be blamed a bit for mytruantry, but the recapture of the Hispaniola was aclenching answer, and I hoped that even CaptainSmollett would confess I had not lost my time.

　　So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to setmy face homeward for the block house and my companions.I remembered that the most easterly of the rivers whichdrain into Captain Kidd's anchorage ran from the two-peakedhill upon my left, and I bent my course in that directionthat I might pass the stream while it was small. The woodwas pretty open, and keeping along the lower spurs, I hadsoon turned the corner of that hill, and not long afterwaded to the mid-calf across the watercourse.

　　This brought me near to where I had encountered BenGunn, the maroon; and I walked more circumspectly,keeping an eye on every side. The dusk had come nighhand completely, and as I opened out the cleft betweenthe two peaks, I became aware of a wavering glowagainst the sky, where, as I judged, the man of theisland was cooking his supper before a roaring fire.And yet I wondered, in my heart, that he should showhimself so careless. For if I could see this radiance,might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself where hecamped upon the shore among the marshes?

　　Gradually the night fell blacker; it was all I could doto guide myself even roughly towards my destination;the double hill behind me and the Spy-glass on my righthand loomed faint and fainter; the stars were few andpale; and in the low ground where I wandered I kepttripping among bushes and rolling into sandy pits.

　　Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I lookedup; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on thesummit of the Spy-glass, and soon after I saw somethingbroad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, andknew the moon had risen.

　　With this to help me, I passed rapidly over whatremained to me of my journey, and sometimes walking,sometimes running, impatiently drew near to thestockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove thatlies before it, I was not so thoughtless but that Islacked my pace and went a trifle warily. It wouldhave been a poor end of my adventures to get shot downby my own party in mistake.

　　The moon was climbing higher and higher, its lightbegan to fall here and there in masses through the moreopen districts of the wood, and right in front of me aglow of a different colour appeared among the trees.It was red and hot, and now and again it was a littledarkened--as it were, the embers of a bonfire smouldering.

　　For the life of me I could not think what it might be.

　　At last I came right down upon the borders of theclearing. The western end was already steeped in moon-shine; the rest, and the block house itself, still layin a black shadow chequered with long silvery streaksof light. On the other side of the house an immensefire had burned itself into clear embers and shed asteady, red reverberation, contrasted strongly with themellow paleness of the moon. There was not a soulstirring nor a sound beside the noises of the breeze.

　　I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and perhaps alittle terror also. It had not been our way to buildgreat fires; we were, indeed, by the captain's orders,somewhat niggardly of firewood, and I began to fearthat something had gone wrong while I was absent.

　　I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close inshadow, and at a convenient place, where the darknesswas thickest, crossed the palisade.

　　To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and kneesand crawled, without a sound, towards the corner of thehouse. As I drew nearer, my heart was suddenly andgreatly lightened. It is not a pleasant noise initself, and I have often complained of it at othertimes, but just then it was like music to hear myfriends snoring together so loud and peaceful in theirsleep. The sea-cry of the watch, that beautiful "All'swell," never fell more reassuringly on my ear.

　　In the meantime, there was no doubt of one thing; theykept an infamous bad watch. If it had been Silver andhis lads that were now creeping in on them, not a soulwould have seen daybreak. That was what it was,thought I, to have the captain wounded; and again Iblamed myself sharply for leaving them in that dangerwith so few to mount guard.

　　By this time I had got to the door and stood up. Allwas dark within, so that I could distinguish nothing bythe eye. As for sounds, there was the steady drone ofthe snorers and a small occasional noise, a flickeringor pecking that I could in no way account for.

　　With my arms before me I walked steadily in. I shouldlie down in my own place (I thought with a silent chuckle)and enjoy their faces when they found me in the morning.

　　My foot struck something yielding--it was a sleeper'sleg; and he turned and groaned, but without awaking.

　　And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke forthout of the darkness:

　　"Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! and so forth, withoutpause or change, like the clacking of a tiny mill.

　　Silver's green parrot, Captain Flint! It was she whomI had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was she,keeping better watch than any human being, who thusannounced my arrival with her wearisome refrain.

　　I had no time left me to recover. At the sharp,clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke andsprang up; and with a mighty oath, the voice of Silvercried, "Who goes?"

　　I turned to run, struck violently against one person,recoiled, and ran full into the arms of a second, whofor his part closed upon and held me tight.

　　"Bring a torch, Dick," said Silver when my capture wasthus assured.

　　And one of the men left the log-house and presentlyreturned with a lighted brand.