Part One: The Old Buccaneer - Chapter 5: The Last of the Blind Man

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear,for I could not remain where I was, but crept back tothe bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind abush of broom, I might command the road before ourdoor. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies beganto arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, theirfeet beating out of time along the road and the manwith the lantern some paces in front. Three men rantogether, hand in hand; and I made out, even throughthe mist, that the middle man of this trio was theblind beggar. The next moment his voice showed me thatI was right.

　　"Down with the door!" he cried.

　　"Aye, aye, sir!" answered two or three; and a rush wasmade upon the Admiral Benbow, the lantern-bearerfollowing; and then I could see them pause, and hearspeeches passed in a lower key, as if they weresurprised to find the door open. But the pause wasbrief, for the blind man again issued his commands.His voice sounded louder and higher, as if he wereafire with eagerness and rage.

　　"In, in, in!" he shouted, and cursed them for their delay.

　　Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remaining onthe road with the formidable beggar. There was apause, then a cry of surprise, and then a voiceshouting from the house, "Bill's dead."

　　But the blind man swore at them again for their delay.

　　"Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the restof you aloft and get the chest," he cried.

　　I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, sothat the house must have shook with it. Promptlyafterwards, fresh sounds of astonishment arose; thewindow of the captain's room was thrown open with aslam and a jingle of broken glass, and a man leaned outinto the moonlight, head and shoulders, and addressedthe blind beggar on the road below him.

　　"Pew," he cried, "they've been before us. Someone'sturned the chest out alow and aloft."

　　"Is it there?" roared Pew.

　　"The money's there."

　　The blind man cursed the money.

　　"Flint's fist, I mean," he cried.

　　"We don't see it here nohow," returned the man.

　　"Here, you below there, is it on Bill?" cried the blindman again.

　　At that another fellow, probably him who had remainedbelow to search the captain's body, came to the door ofthe inn. "Bill's been overhauled a'ready," said he;"nothin' left."

　　"It's these people of the inn--it's that boy. I wish Ihad put his eyes out!" cried the blind man, Pew."There were no time ago--they had the door bolted whenI tried it. Scatter, lads, and find 'em."

　　"Sure enough, they left their glim here," said thefellow from the window.

　　"Scatter and find 'em! Rout the house out!" reiteratedPew, striking with his stick upon the road.

　　Then there followed a great to-do through all our oldinn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture thrownover, doors kicked in, until the very rocks re-echoedand the men came out again, one after another, on theroad and declared that we were nowhere to be found.And just the same whistle that had alarmed my motherand myself over the dead captain's money was once moreclearly audible through the night, but this time twicerepeated. I had thought it to be the blind man's trumpet,so to speak, summoning his crew to the assault, but I nowfound that it was a signal from the hillside towards thehamlet, and from its effect upon the buccaneers, a signalto warn them of approaching danger.

　　"There's Dirk again," said one. "Twice! We'll have tobudge, mates."

　　"Budge, you skulk!" cried Pew. "Dirk was a fool and acoward from the first--you wouldn't mind him. Theymust be close by; they can't be far; you have yourhands on it. Scatter and look for them, dogs! Oh,shiver my soul," he cried, "if I had eyes!"

　　This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for two ofthe fellows began to look here and there among thelumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, and with half aneye to their own danger all the time, while the reststood irresolute on the road.

　　"You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and youhang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if you couldfind it, and you know it's here, and you stand thereskulking. There wasn't one of you dared face Bill, andI did it--a blind man! And I'm to lose my chance for you!I'm to be a poor, crawling beggar, sponging for rum, whenI might be rolling in a coach! If you had the pluck of aweevil in a biscuit you would catch them still."

　　"Hang it, Pew, we've got the doubloons!" grumbled one.

　　"They might have hid the blessed thing," said another."Take the Georges, Pew, and don't stand here squalling."

　　Squalling was the word for it; Pew's anger rose so highat these objections till at last, his passioncompletely taking the upper hand, he struck at themright and left in his blindness and his stick soundedheavily on more than one.

　　These, in their turn, cursed back at the blindmiscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and tried invain to catch the stick and wrest it from his grasp.

　　This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it wasstill raging, another sound came from the top of thehill on the side of the hamlet--the tramp of horsesgalloping. Almost at the same time a pistol-shot,flash and report, came from the hedge side. And thatwas plainly the last signal of danger, for thebuccaneers turned at once and ran, separating in everydirection, one seaward along the cove, one slant acrossthe hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not asign of them remained but Pew. Him they had deserted,whether in sheer panic or out of revenge for his illwords and blows I know not; but there he remainedbehind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, andgroping and calling for his comrades. Finally he tooka wrong turn and ran a few steps past me, towards thehamlet, crying, "Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and othernames, "you won't leave old Pew, mates--not old Pew!"

　　Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and fouror five riders came in sight in the moonlight and sweptat full gallop down the slope.

　　At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, andran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. Buthe was on his feet again in a second and made anotherdash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearestof the coming horses.

　　The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down wentPew with a cry that rang high into the night; and thefour hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. Hefell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his faceand moved no more.

　　I leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They werepulling up, at any rate, horrified at the accident; andI soon saw what they were. One, tailing out behind therest, was a lad that had gone from the hamlet to Dr.Livesey's; the rest were revenue officers, whom he hadmet by the way, and with whom he had had theintelligence to return at once. Some news of thelugger in Kitt's Hole had found its way to SupervisorDance and set him forth that night in our direction,and to that circumstance my mother and I owed ourpreservation from death.

　　Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, when wehad carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold waterand salts and that soon brought her back again, and shewas none the worse for her terror, though she stillcontinued to deplore the balance of the money. In themeantime the supervisor rode on, as fast as he could,to Kitt's Hole; but his men had to dismount and gropedown the dingle, leading, and sometimes supporting,their horses, and in continual fear of ambushes; so itwas no great matter for surprise that when they gotdown to the Hole the lugger was already under way,though still close in. He hailed her. A voicereplied, telling him to keep out of the moonlight or hewould get some lead in him, and at the same time abullet whistled close by his arm. Soon after, thelugger doubled the point and disappeared. Mr. Dancestood there, as he said, "like a fish out of water,"and all he could do was to dispatch a man to B---- towarn the cutter. "And that," said he, "is just aboutas good as nothing. They've got off clean, and there'san end. "Only," he added, "I'm glad I trod on MasterPew's corns," for by this time he had heard my story.

　　I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and youcannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; thevery clock had been thrown down by these fellows intheir furious hunt after my mother and myself; andthough nothing had actually been taken away except thecaptain's money-bag and a little silver from the till,I could see at once that we were ruined. Mr. Dancecould make nothing of the scene.

　　"They got the money, you say? Well, then, Hawkins, whatin fortune were they after? More money, I suppose?"

　　"No, sir; not money, I think," replied I. "In fact,sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast pocket;and to tell you the truth, I should like to get it putin safety."

　　"To be sure, boy; quite right," said he. "I'll takeit, if you like."

　　"I thought perhaps Dr. Livesey--" I began.

　　"Perfectly right," he interrupted very cheerily,"perfectly right--a gentleman and a magistrate. And,now I come to think of it, I might as well ride roundthere myself and report to him or squire. Master Pew'sdead, when all's done; not that I regret it, but he'sdead, you see, and people will make it out against anofficer of his Majesty's revenue, if make it out theycan. Now, I'll tell you, Hawkins, if you like, I'lltake you along."

　　I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we walked backto the hamlet where the horses were. By the time I hadtold mother of my purpose they were all in the saddle.

　　"Dogger," said Mr. Dance, "you have a good horse; takeup this lad behind you."

　　As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger's belt,the supervisor gave the word, and the party struck outat a bouncing trot on the road to Dr. Livesey's house.