Chapter: I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER


I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit when the flying jib
flapped and filled upon the other tack with a report like a gun. The
schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, the
other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again and hung idle.

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea, and now I lost no time,
crawled back along the bowsprit and tumbled headforemost on the deck.

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was
still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.
Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since
the mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken by
the neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.

Suddenly the _Hispaniola_ came right into the wind. The jibs behind me
cracked aloud; the rudder slammed to; the whole ship gave a sickening
heave and shudder; and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck.

There were the two watchmen, sure enough; Red-cap on his back, as stiff
as a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix,
and his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped
against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open before
him on the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle.

For a while the ship kept bucking and sidling like a vicious horse, the
sails filling, now on one tack, now on another, and the boom swinging to
and fro till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again,
too, there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark, and a
heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell--so much heavier weather
was made of it by this great rigged ship than by my homemade, lopsided
coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.

At every jump of the schooner, Red-cap slipped to and fro; but--what was
ghastly to behold--neither his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing
grin was any way disturbed by this rough usage. At every jump, too,
Hands appeared still more to sink into himself and settle down upon the
deck, his feet sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body canting
toward the stern, so that his face became, little by little, hid from
me; and at last I could see nothing beyond his ear and the frayed
ringlet of one whisker.

At the same time I observed, around both of them, splashes of dark blood
upon the planks, and began to feel sure that they had killed each other
in their drunken wrath.

While I was thus looking and wondering, in a calm moment when the ship
was still, Israel Hands turned partly round, and with a low moan,
writhed himself back to the position in which I had seen him first. The
moan, which told of pain and deadly weakness, and the way in which his
jaw hung open, went right to my heart. But when I remembered the talk I
had overheard from the apple barrel, all pity left me.

I walked aft until I reached the mainmast.

"Come aboard, Mr. Hands," I said, ironically.

He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to express
surprise. All he could do was to utter one word, "Brandy."

It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as it
once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down the
companion-stairs into the cabin.

It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly fancy. All the
lock-fast places had been broken open in quest of the chart. The floor
was thick with mud, where the ruffians had sat down to drink or consult
after wading in the marshes round their camp. The bulkheads, all painted
in clear white, and beaded round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty
hands. Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners to the
rolling of the ship. One of the doctor's medical books lay open on the
table, half of the leaves gutted out, I suppose, for pipe-lights. In the
midst of all this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure and brown as
umber.

I went into the cellar; all the barrels were gone, and of the bottles a
most surprising number had been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly,
since the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever have been sober.

Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy left, for Hands; and
for myself I routed out some biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch
of raisins, and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, put down
my own stock behind the rudder-head, and well out of the coxswain's
reach, went forward to the water-breaker, and had a good, deep drink of
water, and then, and not until then, gave Hands the brandy.

He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth.

"Ay," said he, "by thunder, but I wanted some o' that!"

I had sat down already in my own corner and begun to eat.

"Much hurt?" I asked him.

He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked.

"If that doctor was aboard," he said, "I'd be right enough in a couple
of turns; but I don't have no manner of luck, you see, and that's what's
the matter with me. As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is," he
added, indicating the man with the red cap. "He warn't no seaman,
anyhow. And where mought you have come from?"

"Well," said I, "I've come aboard to take possession of this ship, Mr.
Hands, and you'll please regard me as your captain until further
notice."

He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. Some of the color had
come back into his cheeks, though he still looked very sick and still
continued to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about.

"By the by," I continued, "I can't have these colors, Mr. Hands; and by
your leave I'll strike 'em. Better none than these."

And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color lines, hauled down their
cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.

"God save the king!" said I, waving my cap; "and there's an end to
Captain Silver."

He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the while on his breast.

"I reckon," he said at last--"I reckon, Cap'n Hawkins, you'll kind o'
want to get ashore, now. S'pose we talks."

"Why, yes," says I, "with all my heart, Mr. Hands. Say on." And I went
back to my meal with a good appetite.

"This man," he began, nodding feebly at the corpse--"O'Brien were his
name--a rank Irelander--this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning
for to sail her back. Well, _he's_ dead now, he is--as dead as bilge;
and who's to sail this ship, I don't see. Without I give you a hint, you
ain't that man, as far's I can tell. Now, look here, you gives me food
and drink, and a old scarf or ankercher to tie my wound up, you do; and
I'll tell you how to sail her; and that's about square all round, I take
it."

"I'll tell you one thing," says I; "I'm not going back to Captain Kidd's
anchorage. I mean to get into North Inlet, and beach her quietly there."

"To be sure you did," he cried. "Why, I ain't sich an infernal lubber,
after all. I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've
lost, and it's you has the wind of me. North Inlet? Why, I haven't no
ch'ice, not I. I'd help you sail her up to Execution Dock, by thunder!
so I would."

Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in this. We struck our
bargain on the spot. In three minutes I had the _Hispaniola_ sailing
easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good
hopes of turning the northern point ere noon, and beating down again as
far as North Inlet before high water, when we might beach her safely,
and wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land.

Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my own chest, where I got a
soft silk handkerchief of my mother's. With this, and with my aid, Hands
bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in the thigh, and after
he had eaten a little and had a swallow or two more of the brandy, he
began to pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and clearer,
and looked in every way another man.

The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed before it like a bird, the
coast of the island flashing by, and the view changing every minute.
Soon we were past the high lands and bowling beside low, sandy country,
sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, and soon we were beyond that again,
and had turned the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on the
north.

I was greatly elated with my new command, and pleased with the bright,
sunshiny weather and these different prospects of the coast. I had now
plenty of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, which had
smitten me hard for my desertion, was quieted by the great conquest I
had made. I should, I think, have had nothing left me to desire but for
the eyes of the coxswain as they followed me derisively about the deck,
and the odd smile that appeared continually on his face. It was a smile
that had in it something both of pain and weakness--a haggard, old man's
smile; but there was, besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of
treachery, in his expression as he craftily watched, and watched, and
watched me at my work.

 Jim nearly gets thrown off into the sea when the pole that is supposed to keep the sails open - the jib - flies out and almost hits him. Jim crawls up the bowsprit to the deck. There he sees the two pirate watchmen. One of them, the red-capped man , is lying stiff on his back. The other, Israel Hands, is hunched against the side of the boat. They are both surrounded by dark puddles of blood. In a still moment, Israel Hands straightens up a little bit and groans. Jim approaches him slowly. Israel asks for one thing: brandy. Jim goes quickly below deck. He sees that the captain's cabin is a total wreck, filled with empty bottles. Jim realizes that, since the mutiny began, not one of the sailors has been sober. He finds a bottle half full of brandy for Israel Hands and a bit of food for himself. Israel drinks a lot of brandy before he's ready to talk. He says that if Doctor Livesey were on board, he'd soon be healed of his wounds, but he doesn't have that kind of luck. Jim announces that he's now the captain of the Hispaniola. As the ship's new captain, he pulls down the Jolly Roger flag and throws it overboard. Israel Hands offers to help Jim sail the ship if Jim will bring him food, alcohol, and something to bandage his wound. Jim plans to sail to the North Inlet to beach the boat quietly; he doesn't want to go to Captain Kidd's anchorage, where the pirates are waiting. Israel Hands agrees. He knows he has no choice but to help Jim. Jim sets the boat sailing towards the north end of the island. Then he helps Israel Hands wrap up the stab wound on his thigh. After some more brandy, Israel Hands perks right up. Jim is happy to have captured the ship so easily. He is sure that his friends will forgive him for leaving the fort without permission. Still, Jim is a little unsettled: Israel Hands keeps watching him with a knowing, crafty smile.

