鄉紳特裏羅尼，利弗西醫生，還有其餘的那些先生們，早就要我從頭至尾、毫 無保留地寫下有關寶島的全部詳情——衹除掉它的方位，而那不過是至今那裏仍有 未被取出的寶藏的緣故。我在公元一七××年提起了筆，思緒回到了當年我父親開 “本葆海軍上將”旅店的時候，當時那個棕色皮膚、帶刀疤的老海員第一次到我們 屋頂下來投宿。
我回想起他恍惚就在昨天，當他步履沉重地來到旅店門口時，他的航海用的大 木箱擱在他身後的雙輪手推車上。這是個高大。強壯、魁梧、有着慄色皮膚的人， 粘乎乎的辮子耷拉在髒兮兮的藍外套的肩部，粗糙的手上疤痕纍纍，指甲烏青而殘 缺不全，一道骯髒的鉛灰色刀疤橫貫一側面頰。我記得他一面環顧着小海灣，一面 徑自吹着口哨，接着嘴裏突然冒出了那支水手老調，日後他也經常地唱：
十五個漢子扒上了死人胸——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶！
那高亢、蒼老、顫動的嗓音仿佛匯入了絞盤機起錨時衆人合唱出的破調門。接着， 他用一根自帶的像鐵頭手杖似的木棍子重重地敲門。當我父親出來後，他又粗聲大 氣地要來杯郎姆酒。酒送到後，他慢慢地啜飲，像個鑒定傢似的，一面細細地品味， 一面還繼續打量着四周的峭壁，擡頭審視我們的招牌。
“這是個挺便利的小海灣，”最後他說，“而且酒店的位置也很討人喜歡。客 人多嗎，夥計？”
我父親告訴他不多，客人非常少，實在遺憾。
“那麽好吧，”他說，“這是給我預備的好住處。過來，夥計，”他衝着推手 推車的人喊道，“把車子靠邊兒，幫我卸下箱子，我要在這兒住上一小段兒。”接 着他又說，“我是個簡樸的人，有郎姆酒、鹹肉和雞蛋就成，這就可以對着海灣看 船下海了。你們該怎麽稱呼我？你們可以叫我船長。噢，我懂你的意思——瞧這兒！” 說着他把三四枚金幣拋在了門檻上，“用光的時候告訴我。”他說，神情嚴厲得像 個司令官。
說真的，雖然他破衣爛衫，言語粗魯，風度卻一點兒也不像個在桅桿前幹活的 水手，倒像個慣於發號施令的大副或船長。那個推手推車的人告訴我們，他是那天 早晨被郵車送到‘喬治王”旅店門前的，在那兒，他打聽了沿岸的小旅店。我猜想 他是聽說了我們這裏不錯，被描繪得挺僻靜，於是由於它所處的位置而挑中了它。 關於我們這位房客，我們就知道這麽多了。
照常說他是個挺沉默的人。他整天帶着架黃銅望遠鏡在小海灣一帶轉悠，要不 就在峭壁上遊蕩；整晚坐在客房火爐旁的角落裏，拼命地灌郎姆酒和水。大多數時 候，別人和他說話他都不予理睬，衹是猛然擡頭瞪人一眼，像吹霧角似的哼一 下鼻子。我們和到我們這裏來的人們很快便學會讓他自取其便了。每天，當他巡遊 回來的時候，他都會問是否有什麽船員路過。起初我們以為他問這個問題是尋找夥 伴，後來我們纔開始明白他是想避開他們。每當一個船員到“本葆海軍上將”旅店 來投宿（時不時地有一些人來，要沿海邊大道去布裏斯托爾），他在進餐廳之前總 會透過門簾窺探一番，一旦有一個這樣的人在裏面，他必定會像衹耗子似的不聲不 響。這事對我來說至少已不是什麽秘密了，因為，從某種意義上說，我得算他這種 戒備心理的分擔者。有一天他曾把我拉到一邊，並且答應我，衹要我幫他“留神一 個獨腿水手”，並且一旦那個人出現就嚮他通風報信，這樣每月月初他就付給我一 枚四便士銀幣。有好多回，當月初到來，我嚮他申請報酬的時候，他便會對我嗤之 以鼻，還瞪得我低下了頭；但是不等一周過完，他肯定好好考慮考慮，給我那四便 士，同時重申他那個要我監視“獨腿水手”的命令。
那個人物怎樣攪得我不得安眠，那是不必多說了。在暴風雨的夜晚，當大風撼 動着房子的四角，碎浪咆哮着衝過海岸、躍上懸崖，我就會在一千種形象、一千種 的表情中看到他。一會兒是腿被齊膝砍斷，一會兒是齊臀部；一會兒他又是個 什麽都沒有，衹有一條長在身體中央的腿的奇形怪狀的傢夥。看他單腿跑跳着追趕 我，越過籬笆和水溝，是最壞的惡夢了。總之，為了我那每月的四便士，這些想像 出來的形狀令我付出了相當昂貴的代價。
不過，儘管我一想到那個獨腿的海員就那麽恐懼，但還遠遠比不上其他認識船 長的人對他本人怕得厲害。有些晚上，在他喝了他的腦袋支撐不住的過量的郎姆酒 和水後，有時他就會坐下來唱他那些個、古老、粗野的水手歌麯，旁若無人； 但有時他會嚷着輪流幹杯，還逼着所有戰戰兢兢的房客們聽他講故事，或者和他一 起合唱。我常常聽見房子和“喲—嗬—嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶”的歌聲一起顫動； 鄰居們全都為了寶貴的性命、懷着對死亡的恐懼加入到這歌聲裏來，而且一個比一 個唱得響亮，生怕引起他的註意。因為在這些他發作起來的場合下，他就成了個最 肆無忌憚的人。他會用手拍着桌子要全體肅靜；他會勃然大怒，暴跳如雷，有時是 因為一個問題，有時則是因為沒人提問題，於是他斷定大傢沒好好聽他的故事。在 他喝得醉醺醺的、搖搖晃晃地上床之前，他不準任何一個人離開這個旅店。
他的故事嚇壞了所有的人。那些可怕的故事淨是關於絞刑。走木板、海上 風暴和幹托吐加群島以及拉丁美洲大陸的蠻荒地區和野蠻風俗的。照他的說法，他 一定是活在被上帝放逐到海上的一些最的人們中間的。他講這些故事所用的語 言，就像他所描述的那些罪惡一樣，大大震動了我們淳樸的村民。我的父親總說這 小旅店會被毀掉的，因為人們不堪忍受暴虐、壓製以及戰戰兢兢上床的滋味，他們 很快將不復光顧這裏。但是我倒確信他的存在對我們有好處。人們當時是受了驚嚇， 可回過頭來看，他們相當喜歡這樣。在安靜的鄉村生活中，這是很好的興奮劑。這 裏甚至有一群年輕人聲稱崇拜他，稱他是“貨真價實的船員”、“真正的老水手”， 以及諸如此類的稱呼，還說正是因為有他這樣的人，英格蘭纔稱雄海上。
從某方面講，說真的，他很有可能毀掉我們；因為他一周復一周，最後一月接 一月地住下來，以致於他付的那些錢已經全部用光了，而我的父親從不敢壯起膽子 堅持要他加錢。如果一旦對他提及錢的事，船長就會用可以說是咆哮的那麽大的聲 音哼他的鼻子，並且直瞪得我可憐的父親倒着退出房門。我曾看到父親在經歷了這 樣的一次奚落後絞着雙手，我相信一定是這種煩惱和恐懼大大加速了他不幸的早逝。
在船長和我們住在一起的全部時間裏，除了從一個貨郎那裏買些襪子外，他的 穿着絲毫未變。他的三角帽的一角耷拉下來了，自那時起，他就讓它那麽耷拉着， 儘管這給他帶來了極大的不便。我記得他外套的樣子，就是他躲在樓上屋子裏自己 打補丁的那件，到後來，那件衣服上就滿是補丁了。他從未寫、也從未接到過一封 信，他也從不和鄰居以外的任何人說話，即使和他們交談，也大多是在喝酒的時候。 那個航海用的大木箱，我們誰也沒見他打開過。
他衹碰了一次釘子，那是事情接近尾聲的時候，那時我可憐的父親的病情正每 況愈下。利弗西醫生在一個傍晚來看望病人，用了點我母親準備的晚餐後走進了客 廳，想袖口煙，等人把他的馬從小村子裏牽過來，因為我們的老“本葆海軍上將” 旅店沒有馬廄。我跟着他走進了客廳，我記得我看到這位幹淨利整的醫生，發套上 搽着雪白的發粉，他的明亮的黑眼睛和翩翩的風度，同那些輕佻的鄉下人，特別是 同那個猥褻、笨拙、醉眼惺忪的我們心目中的海盜，形成了鮮明的對照。他正喝得 爛醉，胳膊擱在桌子上。突然，他——也就是船長——開始唱起了他常唱的那個歌 兒：
十五個漢子扒上了死人胸——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶！
酗酒和惡魔使其餘的人都喪了命——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來他郎姆酒一大瓶！
起初，我把“死人胸”想成了同一概念的他樓上前屋裏的那衹大箱子，而這想法又 和我惡夢中的獨腿水手攪和到了一塊兒。但是，到了這會兒，我們對這支歌都不怎 麽特別在意了，這個晚上，它衹對醫生來說是新鮮的，而我察覺到，就是醫生，對 它也毫無贊賞的表示，因為在他同花匠老泰勒談話的過程中，他很憤怒地擡頭望了 一下，接着就又談論起關於治療風濕病的新藥方來。同時，船長逐漸被自己的歌鼓 動起情緒來，最後他玩起了我們都知道的那一套，用手拍面前的桌子——安靜。聲 音立刻平息下去，衹有利弗西醫生一如既往地講着，聲音清晰悅耳，在每一句話間 還輕鬆地抽一口煙斗。船長盯着他瞅了一會兒，又拍了一遍桌子，更為嚴厲地瞪着 他，最後用惡狠狠、低沉的聲音咒駡起來：“安靜，上下甲板都給我安靜！”
“你是在關照我嗎，先生？”醫生說道，而當那個惡漢用另外一聲詛咒告訴他 是這樣時，“我衹對你說一件事，先生，”醫生回答說，“這就是，如果你繼續酗 酒的話，這世上很快將減少一個骯髒無比的惡棍！”
這個老傢夥的暴怒是可怕的。他跳了起來，拔出並打開了一把水手用的摺叠式 小刀，攤開在他的手掌上，好像是恐嚇醫生，要把他紮到墻上去。
醫生巋然不動。他轉過頭來，用和剛纔一樣的聲調侃侃而談，聲音略微高些， 以使全屋的人都能聽見，口氣卻相當平靜而嚴肅：“如果你不立刻將刀子送回你的 口袋，我以我的名譽發誓，你將在下一次的巡回審判中被絞死。”
接着，在他們之間展開了一場目光的對峙戰。但是船長很快便屈服了，放下了 他的武器，退回到座位上，像衹挨了打的狗似地咕噥着。
“現在，你聽着，先生，”醫生繼續說道，“既然現在我知道在我的轄區內有 這麽個人物，你將考慮我會時時刻刻都用一隻眼睛盯着你。我不僅僅是個醫生，我 還是一名地方法官，如果我聽到一句對你的控告，哪怕衹是像今晚這樣的一次無禮， 我都將為此而采取有效措施，追捕並找出你。我想話說到這兒已經足夠了。”
不久，利弗西醫生的馬便被牽到了門前，他就上馬離開了。但是那天整個晚上 船長都保持沉默，並且後來許多晚上也是這樣。
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
"This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at-- there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander.
And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg" and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the seafaring man with one leg."
How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were--about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.
He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he--the captain, that is--began to pipe up his eternal song:
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey's; he went on as before speaking clear and kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, low oath, "Silence, there, between decks!"
"Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you, sir," replies the doctor, "that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!"
The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.
The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: "If you do not put that knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes."
Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.
"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know there's such a fellow in my district, you may count I'll have an eye upon you day and night. I'm not a doctor only; I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like tonight's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice."
Soon after, Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.
我回想起他恍惚就在昨天，當他步履沉重地來到旅店門口時，他的航海用的大 木箱擱在他身後的雙輪手推車上。這是個高大。強壯、魁梧、有着慄色皮膚的人， 粘乎乎的辮子耷拉在髒兮兮的藍外套的肩部，粗糙的手上疤痕纍纍，指甲烏青而殘 缺不全，一道骯髒的鉛灰色刀疤橫貫一側面頰。我記得他一面環顧着小海灣，一面 徑自吹着口哨，接着嘴裏突然冒出了那支水手老調，日後他也經常地唱：
十五個漢子扒上了死人胸——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶！
那高亢、蒼老、顫動的嗓音仿佛匯入了絞盤機起錨時衆人合唱出的破調門。接着， 他用一根自帶的像鐵頭手杖似的木棍子重重地敲門。當我父親出來後，他又粗聲大 氣地要來杯郎姆酒。酒送到後，他慢慢地啜飲，像個鑒定傢似的，一面細細地品味， 一面還繼續打量着四周的峭壁，擡頭審視我們的招牌。
“這是個挺便利的小海灣，”最後他說，“而且酒店的位置也很討人喜歡。客 人多嗎，夥計？”
我父親告訴他不多，客人非常少，實在遺憾。
“那麽好吧，”他說，“這是給我預備的好住處。過來，夥計，”他衝着推手 推車的人喊道，“把車子靠邊兒，幫我卸下箱子，我要在這兒住上一小段兒。”接 着他又說，“我是個簡樸的人，有郎姆酒、鹹肉和雞蛋就成，這就可以對着海灣看 船下海了。你們該怎麽稱呼我？你們可以叫我船長。噢，我懂你的意思——瞧這兒！” 說着他把三四枚金幣拋在了門檻上，“用光的時候告訴我。”他說，神情嚴厲得像 個司令官。
說真的，雖然他破衣爛衫，言語粗魯，風度卻一點兒也不像個在桅桿前幹活的 水手，倒像個慣於發號施令的大副或船長。那個推手推車的人告訴我們，他是那天 早晨被郵車送到‘喬治王”旅店門前的，在那兒，他打聽了沿岸的小旅店。我猜想 他是聽說了我們這裏不錯，被描繪得挺僻靜，於是由於它所處的位置而挑中了它。 關於我們這位房客，我們就知道這麽多了。
照常說他是個挺沉默的人。他整天帶着架黃銅望遠鏡在小海灣一帶轉悠，要不 就在峭壁上遊蕩；整晚坐在客房火爐旁的角落裏，拼命地灌郎姆酒和水。大多數時 候，別人和他說話他都不予理睬，衹是猛然擡頭瞪人一眼，像吹霧角似的哼一 下鼻子。我們和到我們這裏來的人們很快便學會讓他自取其便了。每天，當他巡遊 回來的時候，他都會問是否有什麽船員路過。起初我們以為他問這個問題是尋找夥 伴，後來我們纔開始明白他是想避開他們。每當一個船員到“本葆海軍上將”旅店 來投宿（時不時地有一些人來，要沿海邊大道去布裏斯托爾），他在進餐廳之前總 會透過門簾窺探一番，一旦有一個這樣的人在裏面，他必定會像衹耗子似的不聲不 響。這事對我來說至少已不是什麽秘密了，因為，從某種意義上說，我得算他這種 戒備心理的分擔者。有一天他曾把我拉到一邊，並且答應我，衹要我幫他“留神一 個獨腿水手”，並且一旦那個人出現就嚮他通風報信，這樣每月月初他就付給我一 枚四便士銀幣。有好多回，當月初到來，我嚮他申請報酬的時候，他便會對我嗤之 以鼻，還瞪得我低下了頭；但是不等一周過完，他肯定好好考慮考慮，給我那四便 士，同時重申他那個要我監視“獨腿水手”的命令。
那個人物怎樣攪得我不得安眠，那是不必多說了。在暴風雨的夜晚，當大風撼 動着房子的四角，碎浪咆哮着衝過海岸、躍上懸崖，我就會在一千種形象、一千種 的表情中看到他。一會兒是腿被齊膝砍斷，一會兒是齊臀部；一會兒他又是個 什麽都沒有，衹有一條長在身體中央的腿的奇形怪狀的傢夥。看他單腿跑跳着追趕 我，越過籬笆和水溝，是最壞的惡夢了。總之，為了我那每月的四便士，這些想像 出來的形狀令我付出了相當昂貴的代價。
不過，儘管我一想到那個獨腿的海員就那麽恐懼，但還遠遠比不上其他認識船 長的人對他本人怕得厲害。有些晚上，在他喝了他的腦袋支撐不住的過量的郎姆酒 和水後，有時他就會坐下來唱他那些個、古老、粗野的水手歌麯，旁若無人； 但有時他會嚷着輪流幹杯，還逼着所有戰戰兢兢的房客們聽他講故事，或者和他一 起合唱。我常常聽見房子和“喲—嗬—嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶”的歌聲一起顫動； 鄰居們全都為了寶貴的性命、懷着對死亡的恐懼加入到這歌聲裏來，而且一個比一 個唱得響亮，生怕引起他的註意。因為在這些他發作起來的場合下，他就成了個最 肆無忌憚的人。他會用手拍着桌子要全體肅靜；他會勃然大怒，暴跳如雷，有時是 因為一個問題，有時則是因為沒人提問題，於是他斷定大傢沒好好聽他的故事。在 他喝得醉醺醺的、搖搖晃晃地上床之前，他不準任何一個人離開這個旅店。
他的故事嚇壞了所有的人。那些可怕的故事淨是關於絞刑。走木板、海上 風暴和幹托吐加群島以及拉丁美洲大陸的蠻荒地區和野蠻風俗的。照他的說法，他 一定是活在被上帝放逐到海上的一些最的人們中間的。他講這些故事所用的語 言，就像他所描述的那些罪惡一樣，大大震動了我們淳樸的村民。我的父親總說這 小旅店會被毀掉的，因為人們不堪忍受暴虐、壓製以及戰戰兢兢上床的滋味，他們 很快將不復光顧這裏。但是我倒確信他的存在對我們有好處。人們當時是受了驚嚇， 可回過頭來看，他們相當喜歡這樣。在安靜的鄉村生活中，這是很好的興奮劑。這 裏甚至有一群年輕人聲稱崇拜他，稱他是“貨真價實的船員”、“真正的老水手”， 以及諸如此類的稱呼，還說正是因為有他這樣的人，英格蘭纔稱雄海上。
從某方面講，說真的，他很有可能毀掉我們；因為他一周復一周，最後一月接 一月地住下來，以致於他付的那些錢已經全部用光了，而我的父親從不敢壯起膽子 堅持要他加錢。如果一旦對他提及錢的事，船長就會用可以說是咆哮的那麽大的聲 音哼他的鼻子，並且直瞪得我可憐的父親倒着退出房門。我曾看到父親在經歷了這 樣的一次奚落後絞着雙手，我相信一定是這種煩惱和恐懼大大加速了他不幸的早逝。
在船長和我們住在一起的全部時間裏，除了從一個貨郎那裏買些襪子外，他的 穿着絲毫未變。他的三角帽的一角耷拉下來了，自那時起，他就讓它那麽耷拉着， 儘管這給他帶來了極大的不便。我記得他外套的樣子，就是他躲在樓上屋子裏自己 打補丁的那件，到後來，那件衣服上就滿是補丁了。他從未寫、也從未接到過一封 信，他也從不和鄰居以外的任何人說話，即使和他們交談，也大多是在喝酒的時候。 那個航海用的大木箱，我們誰也沒見他打開過。
他衹碰了一次釘子，那是事情接近尾聲的時候，那時我可憐的父親的病情正每 況愈下。利弗西醫生在一個傍晚來看望病人，用了點我母親準備的晚餐後走進了客 廳，想袖口煙，等人把他的馬從小村子裏牽過來，因為我們的老“本葆海軍上將” 旅店沒有馬廄。我跟着他走進了客廳，我記得我看到這位幹淨利整的醫生，發套上 搽着雪白的發粉，他的明亮的黑眼睛和翩翩的風度，同那些輕佻的鄉下人，特別是 同那個猥褻、笨拙、醉眼惺忪的我們心目中的海盜，形成了鮮明的對照。他正喝得 爛醉，胳膊擱在桌子上。突然，他——也就是船長——開始唱起了他常唱的那個歌 兒：
十五個漢子扒上了死人胸——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來郎姆酒一大瓶！
酗酒和惡魔使其餘的人都喪了命——
喲——嗬——嗬，再來他郎姆酒一大瓶！
起初，我把“死人胸”想成了同一概念的他樓上前屋裏的那衹大箱子，而這想法又 和我惡夢中的獨腿水手攪和到了一塊兒。但是，到了這會兒，我們對這支歌都不怎 麽特別在意了，這個晚上，它衹對醫生來說是新鮮的，而我察覺到，就是醫生，對 它也毫無贊賞的表示，因為在他同花匠老泰勒談話的過程中，他很憤怒地擡頭望了 一下，接着就又談論起關於治療風濕病的新藥方來。同時，船長逐漸被自己的歌鼓 動起情緒來，最後他玩起了我們都知道的那一套，用手拍面前的桌子——安靜。聲 音立刻平息下去，衹有利弗西醫生一如既往地講着，聲音清晰悅耳，在每一句話間 還輕鬆地抽一口煙斗。船長盯着他瞅了一會兒，又拍了一遍桌子，更為嚴厲地瞪着 他，最後用惡狠狠、低沉的聲音咒駡起來：“安靜，上下甲板都給我安靜！”
“你是在關照我嗎，先生？”醫生說道，而當那個惡漢用另外一聲詛咒告訴他 是這樣時，“我衹對你說一件事，先生，”醫生回答說，“這就是，如果你繼續酗 酒的話，這世上很快將減少一個骯髒無比的惡棍！”
這個老傢夥的暴怒是可怕的。他跳了起來，拔出並打開了一把水手用的摺叠式 小刀，攤開在他的手掌上，好像是恐嚇醫生，要把他紮到墻上去。
醫生巋然不動。他轉過頭來，用和剛纔一樣的聲調侃侃而談，聲音略微高些， 以使全屋的人都能聽見，口氣卻相當平靜而嚴肅：“如果你不立刻將刀子送回你的 口袋，我以我的名譽發誓，你將在下一次的巡回審判中被絞死。”
接着，在他們之間展開了一場目光的對峙戰。但是船長很快便屈服了，放下了 他的武器，退回到座位上，像衹挨了打的狗似地咕噥着。
“現在，你聽着，先生，”醫生繼續說道，“既然現在我知道在我的轄區內有 這麽個人物，你將考慮我會時時刻刻都用一隻眼睛盯着你。我不僅僅是個醫生，我 還是一名地方法官，如果我聽到一句對你的控告，哪怕衹是像今晚這樣的一次無禮， 我都將為此而采取有效措施，追捕並找出你。我想話說到這兒已經足夠了。”
不久，利弗西醫生的馬便被牽到了門前，他就上馬離開了。但是那天整個晚上 船長都保持沉默，並且後來許多晚上也是這樣。
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
"This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at-- there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander.
And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg" and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the seafaring man with one leg."
How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were--about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.
He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he--the captain, that is--began to pipe up his eternal song:
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey's; he went on as before speaking clear and kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, low oath, "Silence, there, between decks!"
"Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you, sir," replies the doctor, "that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!"
The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.
The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: "If you do not put that knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes."
Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.
"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know there's such a fellow in my district, you may count I'll have an eye upon you day and night. I'm not a doctor only; I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like tonight's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice."
Soon after, Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.
這件事過去不久，就發生了第一樁神秘的事件，那使我們最終擺脫掉了船長， 儘管就像你們將會看到的那樣，這還並未使我們擺脫掉和他有關的事情。那是個頗 為寒冷的鼕天，長久地下着嚴霜，颳着暴風。一看而知，我的可憐的父親沒有多少 希望再看到春天了。他一天天衰弱下去，我和母親挑起了經營旅店的全副擔子，忙 個不停，再也無心留意那個令人不快的客人了。
那是一月裏的一個早晨，很早——一個折磨人的下霜的早晨——海灣覆着白霜， 灰蒙蒙的，波浪輕輕拍打着岩石，太陽低低地懸在山尖上，照亮了一海面。船 長比往常起得早，出發到海邊去了，他那把水手用的短刀在舊藍外套的寬寬的下襬 上晃悠着，黃銅望遠鏡夾在胳膊底下，帽子在頭上嚮右斜歪着。我記得當他大步走 開時，他呼出的哈氣好像煙霧一般地繚繞在身後，而我聽到他發出的最後的聲音， 是在他轉過大石頭時，氣憤憤地哼了一下鼻子，好像仍對利弗西醫生耿耿於懷似的。
那會兒，母親正同父親一起呆在樓上，我正往餐桌上擺放早餐，等船長回來。 這時客廳的門打開了，一個我從未見過的人走了進來。他是個面色蒼白、脂肪過多 的傢夥，左手少了兩個手指。雖然他也帶着把水手用的短刀，看上去卻不像個好鬥 的人。我一直留意着水手們是一條腿還是兩條腿，可這個人卻使我納悶。他不像個 水手，然而身上還帶有海上的氣味。
我問他要點什麽，他說他要郎姆酒。但當我要走出房間去取酒時，他在餐桌旁 坐下來，打手勢要我過去。我手裏拿着餐巾停在那裏。
“到這兒來，孩子，”他說，“走近些。”
我走近了一步。
“這張餐桌是我同伴比爾的嗎？”他問道，不懷好意地眨了眨眼睛。
我告訴他我不認識他的同伴比爾，而這張桌子是給住在我們這裏的一個我們叫 做“船長”的人的。
“好啦，”他說，“我的同伴比爾也可能被叫做‘船長’，這很有可能。他的 臉上有一道疤，嗜酒如命，我的同伴比爾就是這樣。為信服起見，我可以指出，你 們的‘船長’臉上有一道刀疤——我們還可以指出，如果你想知道的話，那道刀疤 是在右半邊臉上。噢，好啦！我都告訴你了。現在，我的同伴比爾是住在這所房子 裏吧？”
我告訴他，船長到外面散步去了。
“哪條路，孩子？他走的是哪條路？”
我指出了那塊岩石，還告訴他船長就快要回來了，並且還回答了幾個其他的問 題。“噢，”他說，“這對於我的同伴比爾來說將和喝酒一樣適合。”
當他說這些話的時候，他臉上的表情卻一點也不愉快，於是我就掂量着這陌生 人是弄錯了人，即使他有意說那樣的話。但這不關我的事，我想，而且，此外我也 想不出該怎麽辦。這個陌生人一直守候在旅店的門邊，盯着那個角落，就像貓在等 耗子出現似的。一旦我嚮外面走出一步，他就立刻召喚我回來。要是我的動作比他 要求的慢了一拍的話，他的脂肪過多的臉就變得特別可怕起來，他用足以讓我跳起 來的咒駡命令我進來。衹要我一回來，他就又恢復了常態，半是巴結、半是諷消地 拍拍我的肩膀，說我是個好孩子，而他特別喜歡我。“我有個兒子，”他說，“和 你就像一個模子裏出來的，他是我最大的驕傲。但是對孩子們來說，最要緊的是聽 話，孩子——聽話。嗯，如果你跟着比爾航行過，你就不需要站在那兒讓比爾對你 說兩遍——你肯定不會。那不是比爾的作風，也不是和他一起航海的人的作風。啊， 這肯定是我的同伴比爾，胳膊底下夾個望遠鏡，哎呀，真的，你和我得回到客廳裏 去，孩子，到門後邊去，我們要讓比爾驚奇一下，啊，我再說一遍。”
說着，陌生人和我一起退回到客廳裏，把我藏在他後面的角落裏，以便我們兩 個都能藏到開着的門後面。我非常的不安和驚慌，你可以想像得出來，而當我註意 到陌生人自己也相當地恐懼時，我的恐懼就又重了一層。他擦了擦短刀的柄，又活 動了一下鞘裏的刀身，在我們等待的時間裏，他不斷地咽口水，就好像我們通常說 的有什麽東西卡在喉嚨裏似的。
終於，船長大步走進來，砰地一聲關掉他身後的門，既不嚮右看，也不嚮左看， 徑直穿過房間，嚮給他預備好的早餐走過去。
“比爾。”陌生人叫道，用那種在我看來是竭力為自己壯膽的聲調。
船長旋轉腳跟，面嚮我們。他棕色的臉孔一下子變了色，連鼻子都青了，他看 那個人的樣子就像見了鬼或者的東西，或者這世上能有的什麽更壞的東西。而 我，說實話，看到他在剎那間變得既蒼老又衰弱，感到有些歉疚。
“來，比爾，你是認得我的，你認得老船友的，比爾，這是肯定的。”陌生人 說道。
船長發出一聲喘息。
“‘黑狗’！”他說。
“還能是誰呢？”另一個回答說，變得輕鬆了一些。“‘黑狗’和從前一樣， 看他的老船友比爾來了，在‘本葆海軍上將’旅店。噢，比爾，比爾，我們經歷了 很多事情，我們兩個，自從我失去了兩根指頭。”他舉起了他殘廢的手。
“喂，聽着，”船長說，“既然你找到了我，我就在此地，那麽好吧，說，有 何貴幹？”
“有你的，比爾，”“黑狗”答道，“你說得對，比爾。我得讓這個可愛的孩 子上杯郎姆酒，因為我已有了這麽個嗜好。你樂意的話，我們坐下來，像老船友似 地好好談談。”
當我端來郎姆酒的時候，他們已經分坐在船長早餐桌的兩邊——“黑狗”靠近 門斜坐着，以便盯着老船長，另一方面，我想，也是為了給自己留個退路。
他命令我出去，同時讓房門開着。“甭想從你的鑰匙孔裏探聽我些什麽，小傢 夥。”他說。於是我撇下他們倆，退回到酒吧間裏去。
很長一段時間，儘管我竭力地聽，卻除了低低的嘰哩咕嚕聲之外什麽也聽不清， 但是聲音終於開始大了起來，我能聽到一句兩句了，多半是船長的咒駡。
“不，不，不，不，到此為止吧！”他叫道，並且又重複了一遍，“如果要上 絞架，就統統都上，我就是這麽說的。”
接着就是突如其來的咒駡和其他什麽聲音的大爆發——椅子和桌子倒在了一塊 兒，跟着是金屬的撞擊聲，然後是一聲痛苦的嘶喊，接下來我看到“黑狗”拼命逃 竄，而船長窮追不捨，兩人都拔出了水手用的短刀，前者左肩淌着血。就在門口， 船長給了那個亡命徒有力的一刀，要不是我們“本葆海軍上將”的大招牌擋着， 能將他一劈到底，至今你還可以看到下邊的那個缺口哩。
這是那場戰鬥的最後一擊。“黑狗”儘管受了傷，一旦他跑到了路上，卻顯示 出令人叫絶的腳力來，不到半分鐘就消失在小丘邊上。船長這邊卻怔怔地直盯着招 牌，像個木頭人似的。然後他揉了幾把眼睛，最後返身回屋了。
“吉姆，”他說，“酒！”當他說話的時候，他有點兒搖晃，於是用一隻手扶 住墻支撐着身體。
“你受傷了嗎？”我叫道。
“酒，”他重複着，“我必須離開這裏。酒！酒！”
我飛奔着去取酒，但發生的這一切使我心煩意亂，我打碎了一個杯子，碰壞了 一個活嘴兒，而當我返回來的時候，我聽到客廳裏有重物倒地的聲音，跑進去時， 衹見船長仰面躺在地板上。這時，母親已被叫聲和打鬥聲驚動了，跑下樓來幫助我。 我們合力搬起了他的腦袋，他的呼吸非常重濁和吃力，眼睛閉着，臉色十分難看。
“哎呀，乖乖，”母親叫道，“這屋子怎麽這麽倒黴呀！你可憐的爸爸還在病 着！”
這會兒，至於究竟怎樣才能幫助船長，我們都沒了主意，除了想到他是在同陌 生人的混戰中得了這個致命傷外，簡直想不到別的。我甚至拿來了酒，試着往他的 喉嚨裏灌；但是他牙關緊閉，下顎像鐵一樣僵硬。當門打開、利弗西醫生走進來時， 我們大喜過望。他是來看望我父親的。
“噢，大夫，”我們叫道，“該怎麽辦哪？他傷在哪兒啦？”
“傷了？亂彈琴！”醫生說，“和你我一樣完好。這個人是中風了，就像我警 告過他的那樣。現在，霍金斯太太，可能的話，你趕緊跑到樓上你丈夫那兒，告訴 他沒什麽事。至於我這方面，一定會盡力輓救這個傢夥毫無價值的生命。吉姆，給 我拿個盆來。”
當我取來盆時，醫生已招起了船長的衣袖，露出了他粗壯的胳膊，上面有幾處 刺花。前臂上精巧、清晰地刺着“好運在此”、“順風”以及“比爾·彭斯的愛物”， 而上頭挨近肩膀的地方則刺着個一個人吊在絞刑架上的草圖。刺這些畫，照我看， 是費了好大的功夫。
“是個預言，”醫生邊用手指觸摸着這幅畫邊說。“現在，比爾·彭斯船長— —如果這是你的名字的話，我們來看看你血液的顔色。吉姆，”他說，“你怕血嗎？”
“不，先生。”我說。
“那麽好吧，”他說，“你端着盆。”說着他拿起刺血針刺穿了一條靜脈。
在放了大量的血之後，船長睜開了眼睛，迷迷糊糊地望着四周。他先是認出了 醫生，明顯地皺了皺眉，然後他的目光又掃嚮我，看上去就放鬆了些。但是猛然間 他的臉色就變了，掙紮着要起來，叫道：“‘黑狗’在哪兒？”“這兒沒什麽‘黑 狗’，”醫生說，“衹有你躺在這裏。你一直酗酒，已經中風，就像我曾明白地告 訴過你的那樣。而巳剛剛，我違反了我的意願，搶先把你從墳墓裏拖了出來。現在， 彭斯先生——”
“那不是我的名字。”他打斷道。
“我當然明白。”醫生回答說。
“這是我知道的一個海盜的名字。我這樣稱呼你是方便起見，而我不得不對你 說的是：一杯酒不會要你的命，但是如果你喝了一杯，你就會接二連三地喝下去， 我以我法官的假發來打賭，要是你惡習不改，你會送命——你明白這個意思嗎？— —送命，並且去你該去的地方，像《聖經》裏的那個人。現在，來，努把力，我來 幫你回到床上去。”
我們倆費了九牛二虎之力，設法把他擡到了樓上，放倒在床上，使他的腦袋靠 在了枕頭上，好像他快要昏迷過去了。
“現在，我提醒你，”醫生說，“好讓我問心無愧——‘酒’這個字眼對你而 言即是死亡。”
說完，他就拉着我的胳膊去看我的父親。
“不礙事，”當他關上門的時候說道，“我給他放掉的血足以使他安靜一會。 他會在那兒躺上一個星期——對他對你來說最好不過，但是再來一次中風的話，他 就沒救了。”
It was one January morning, very early--a pinching, frosty morning--the cove all grey with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him as he turned the big rock was a loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey.
Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying the breakfast-table against the captain's return when the parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand, and though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.
I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but as I was going out of the room to fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my hand.
"Come here, sonny," says he. "Come nearer here."
I took a step nearer.
"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked with a kind of leer.
I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who stayed in our house whom we called the captain.
"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek--and we'll put it, if you like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my mate Bill in this here house?"
I told him he was out walking.
"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other questions, "Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."
The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of mine, I thought; and besides, it was difficult to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the road, but he immediately called me back, and as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I was back again he returned to his former manner, half fawning, half sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy and he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he, "as like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride of my 'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny--discipline. Now, if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twice--not you. That was never Bill's way, nor the way of sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and me'll just go back into the parlour, sonny, and get behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little surprise--bless his 'art, I say again."
So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlour and put me behind him in the corner so that we were both hidden by the open door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.
At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room to where his breakfast awaited him.
"Bill," said the stranger in a voice that I thought he had tried to make bold and big.
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 a man who sees a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, 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 shipmate, Bill, surely," said the stranger.
The captain made a sort of gasp.
"Black Dog!" said he.
"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at his ease. "Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the Admiral Benbow inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I lost them two talons," holding 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 rum from this dear child here, as I've took such a liking to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square, like old shipmates."
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 shipmate and one, as I thought, on his retreat.
He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of your keyholes for me, sonny," he said; and I left them together and retired into the bar.
"For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could hear nothing but a low gattling; 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 comes to swinging, swing 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 former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut, which would certainly have split him to the chine had it not been intercepted by our big signboard of Admiral Benbow. You may see the notch on the lower side of the frame to this day.
That blow was 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 minute. The captain, for his part, stood staring at the signboard 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, "rum"; and as he spoke, he reeled a little, and caught himself with one hand against the wall.
"Are you hurt?" cried I.
"Rum," he repeated. "I must get 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 in my own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlour, and running in, beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor. At the same instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head. He was breathing very loud and hard, but his eyes were closed and his face a horrible colour.
"Dear, deary me," cried my mother, "what a disgrace 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 him, if possible, nothing about it. For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life; Jim, you get me a basin."
When I got 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 forearm; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from it--done, as I thought, with great 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 mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with an unmistakable frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked relieved. But suddenly his colour changed, and he tried to raise himself, crying, "Where's Black Dog?"
"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 much against my own will, dragged you headforemost out of the grave. 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 stake my wig if 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 much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow as if he were almost fainting.
"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 my father, taking me with him by the arm.
"This is nothing," 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 week where he is--that is the best thing for him and you; but another stroke would settle him."
那是一月裏的一個早晨，很早——一個折磨人的下霜的早晨——海灣覆着白霜， 灰蒙蒙的，波浪輕輕拍打着岩石，太陽低低地懸在山尖上，照亮了一海面。船 長比往常起得早，出發到海邊去了，他那把水手用的短刀在舊藍外套的寬寬的下襬 上晃悠着，黃銅望遠鏡夾在胳膊底下，帽子在頭上嚮右斜歪着。我記得當他大步走 開時，他呼出的哈氣好像煙霧一般地繚繞在身後，而我聽到他發出的最後的聲音， 是在他轉過大石頭時，氣憤憤地哼了一下鼻子，好像仍對利弗西醫生耿耿於懷似的。
那會兒，母親正同父親一起呆在樓上，我正往餐桌上擺放早餐，等船長回來。 這時客廳的門打開了，一個我從未見過的人走了進來。他是個面色蒼白、脂肪過多 的傢夥，左手少了兩個手指。雖然他也帶着把水手用的短刀，看上去卻不像個好鬥 的人。我一直留意着水手們是一條腿還是兩條腿，可這個人卻使我納悶。他不像個 水手，然而身上還帶有海上的氣味。
我問他要點什麽，他說他要郎姆酒。但當我要走出房間去取酒時，他在餐桌旁 坐下來，打手勢要我過去。我手裏拿着餐巾停在那裏。
“到這兒來，孩子，”他說，“走近些。”
我走近了一步。
“這張餐桌是我同伴比爾的嗎？”他問道，不懷好意地眨了眨眼睛。
我告訴他我不認識他的同伴比爾，而這張桌子是給住在我們這裏的一個我們叫 做“船長”的人的。
“好啦，”他說，“我的同伴比爾也可能被叫做‘船長’，這很有可能。他的 臉上有一道疤，嗜酒如命，我的同伴比爾就是這樣。為信服起見，我可以指出，你 們的‘船長’臉上有一道刀疤——我們還可以指出，如果你想知道的話，那道刀疤 是在右半邊臉上。噢，好啦！我都告訴你了。現在，我的同伴比爾是住在這所房子 裏吧？”
我告訴他，船長到外面散步去了。
“哪條路，孩子？他走的是哪條路？”
我指出了那塊岩石，還告訴他船長就快要回來了，並且還回答了幾個其他的問 題。“噢，”他說，“這對於我的同伴比爾來說將和喝酒一樣適合。”
當他說這些話的時候，他臉上的表情卻一點也不愉快，於是我就掂量着這陌生 人是弄錯了人，即使他有意說那樣的話。但這不關我的事，我想，而且，此外我也 想不出該怎麽辦。這個陌生人一直守候在旅店的門邊，盯着那個角落，就像貓在等 耗子出現似的。一旦我嚮外面走出一步，他就立刻召喚我回來。要是我的動作比他 要求的慢了一拍的話，他的脂肪過多的臉就變得特別可怕起來，他用足以讓我跳起 來的咒駡命令我進來。衹要我一回來，他就又恢復了常態，半是巴結、半是諷消地 拍拍我的肩膀，說我是個好孩子，而他特別喜歡我。“我有個兒子，”他說，“和 你就像一個模子裏出來的，他是我最大的驕傲。但是對孩子們來說，最要緊的是聽 話，孩子——聽話。嗯，如果你跟着比爾航行過，你就不需要站在那兒讓比爾對你 說兩遍——你肯定不會。那不是比爾的作風，也不是和他一起航海的人的作風。啊， 這肯定是我的同伴比爾，胳膊底下夾個望遠鏡，哎呀，真的，你和我得回到客廳裏 去，孩子，到門後邊去，我們要讓比爾驚奇一下，啊，我再說一遍。”
說着，陌生人和我一起退回到客廳裏，把我藏在他後面的角落裏，以便我們兩 個都能藏到開着的門後面。我非常的不安和驚慌，你可以想像得出來，而當我註意 到陌生人自己也相當地恐懼時，我的恐懼就又重了一層。他擦了擦短刀的柄，又活 動了一下鞘裏的刀身，在我們等待的時間裏，他不斷地咽口水，就好像我們通常說 的有什麽東西卡在喉嚨裏似的。
終於，船長大步走進來，砰地一聲關掉他身後的門，既不嚮右看，也不嚮左看， 徑直穿過房間，嚮給他預備好的早餐走過去。
“比爾。”陌生人叫道，用那種在我看來是竭力為自己壯膽的聲調。
船長旋轉腳跟，面嚮我們。他棕色的臉孔一下子變了色，連鼻子都青了，他看 那個人的樣子就像見了鬼或者的東西，或者這世上能有的什麽更壞的東西。而 我，說實話，看到他在剎那間變得既蒼老又衰弱，感到有些歉疚。
“來，比爾，你是認得我的，你認得老船友的，比爾，這是肯定的。”陌生人 說道。
船長發出一聲喘息。
“‘黑狗’！”他說。
“還能是誰呢？”另一個回答說，變得輕鬆了一些。“‘黑狗’和從前一樣， 看他的老船友比爾來了，在‘本葆海軍上將’旅店。噢，比爾，比爾，我們經歷了 很多事情，我們兩個，自從我失去了兩根指頭。”他舉起了他殘廢的手。
“喂，聽着，”船長說，“既然你找到了我，我就在此地，那麽好吧，說，有 何貴幹？”
“有你的，比爾，”“黑狗”答道，“你說得對，比爾。我得讓這個可愛的孩 子上杯郎姆酒，因為我已有了這麽個嗜好。你樂意的話，我們坐下來，像老船友似 地好好談談。”
當我端來郎姆酒的時候，他們已經分坐在船長早餐桌的兩邊——“黑狗”靠近 門斜坐着，以便盯着老船長，另一方面，我想，也是為了給自己留個退路。
他命令我出去，同時讓房門開着。“甭想從你的鑰匙孔裏探聽我些什麽，小傢 夥。”他說。於是我撇下他們倆，退回到酒吧間裏去。
很長一段時間，儘管我竭力地聽，卻除了低低的嘰哩咕嚕聲之外什麽也聽不清， 但是聲音終於開始大了起來，我能聽到一句兩句了，多半是船長的咒駡。
“不，不，不，不，到此為止吧！”他叫道，並且又重複了一遍，“如果要上 絞架，就統統都上，我就是這麽說的。”
接着就是突如其來的咒駡和其他什麽聲音的大爆發——椅子和桌子倒在了一塊 兒，跟着是金屬的撞擊聲，然後是一聲痛苦的嘶喊，接下來我看到“黑狗”拼命逃 竄，而船長窮追不捨，兩人都拔出了水手用的短刀，前者左肩淌着血。就在門口， 船長給了那個亡命徒有力的一刀，要不是我們“本葆海軍上將”的大招牌擋着， 能將他一劈到底，至今你還可以看到下邊的那個缺口哩。
這是那場戰鬥的最後一擊。“黑狗”儘管受了傷，一旦他跑到了路上，卻顯示 出令人叫絶的腳力來，不到半分鐘就消失在小丘邊上。船長這邊卻怔怔地直盯着招 牌，像個木頭人似的。然後他揉了幾把眼睛，最後返身回屋了。
“吉姆，”他說，“酒！”當他說話的時候，他有點兒搖晃，於是用一隻手扶 住墻支撐着身體。
“你受傷了嗎？”我叫道。
“酒，”他重複着，“我必須離開這裏。酒！酒！”
我飛奔着去取酒，但發生的這一切使我心煩意亂，我打碎了一個杯子，碰壞了 一個活嘴兒，而當我返回來的時候，我聽到客廳裏有重物倒地的聲音，跑進去時， 衹見船長仰面躺在地板上。這時，母親已被叫聲和打鬥聲驚動了，跑下樓來幫助我。 我們合力搬起了他的腦袋，他的呼吸非常重濁和吃力，眼睛閉着，臉色十分難看。
“哎呀，乖乖，”母親叫道，“這屋子怎麽這麽倒黴呀！你可憐的爸爸還在病 着！”
這會兒，至於究竟怎樣才能幫助船長，我們都沒了主意，除了想到他是在同陌 生人的混戰中得了這個致命傷外，簡直想不到別的。我甚至拿來了酒，試着往他的 喉嚨裏灌；但是他牙關緊閉，下顎像鐵一樣僵硬。當門打開、利弗西醫生走進來時， 我們大喜過望。他是來看望我父親的。
“噢，大夫，”我們叫道，“該怎麽辦哪？他傷在哪兒啦？”
“傷了？亂彈琴！”醫生說，“和你我一樣完好。這個人是中風了，就像我警 告過他的那樣。現在，霍金斯太太，可能的話，你趕緊跑到樓上你丈夫那兒，告訴 他沒什麽事。至於我這方面，一定會盡力輓救這個傢夥毫無價值的生命。吉姆，給 我拿個盆來。”
當我取來盆時，醫生已招起了船長的衣袖，露出了他粗壯的胳膊，上面有幾處 刺花。前臂上精巧、清晰地刺着“好運在此”、“順風”以及“比爾·彭斯的愛物”， 而上頭挨近肩膀的地方則刺着個一個人吊在絞刑架上的草圖。刺這些畫，照我看， 是費了好大的功夫。
“是個預言，”醫生邊用手指觸摸着這幅畫邊說。“現在，比爾·彭斯船長— —如果這是你的名字的話，我們來看看你血液的顔色。吉姆，”他說，“你怕血嗎？”
“不，先生。”我說。
“那麽好吧，”他說，“你端着盆。”說着他拿起刺血針刺穿了一條靜脈。
在放了大量的血之後，船長睜開了眼睛，迷迷糊糊地望着四周。他先是認出了 醫生，明顯地皺了皺眉，然後他的目光又掃嚮我，看上去就放鬆了些。但是猛然間 他的臉色就變了，掙紮着要起來，叫道：“‘黑狗’在哪兒？”“這兒沒什麽‘黑 狗’，”醫生說，“衹有你躺在這裏。你一直酗酒，已經中風，就像我曾明白地告 訴過你的那樣。而巳剛剛，我違反了我的意願，搶先把你從墳墓裏拖了出來。現在， 彭斯先生——”
“那不是我的名字。”他打斷道。
“我當然明白。”醫生回答說。
“這是我知道的一個海盜的名字。我這樣稱呼你是方便起見，而我不得不對你 說的是：一杯酒不會要你的命，但是如果你喝了一杯，你就會接二連三地喝下去， 我以我法官的假發來打賭，要是你惡習不改，你會送命——你明白這個意思嗎？— —送命，並且去你該去的地方，像《聖經》裏的那個人。現在，來，努把力，我來 幫你回到床上去。”
我們倆費了九牛二虎之力，設法把他擡到了樓上，放倒在床上，使他的腦袋靠 在了枕頭上，好像他快要昏迷過去了。
“現在，我提醒你，”醫生說，“好讓我問心無愧——‘酒’這個字眼對你而 言即是死亡。”
說完，他就拉着我的胳膊去看我的父親。
“不礙事，”當他關上門的時候說道，“我給他放掉的血足以使他安靜一會。 他會在那兒躺上一個星期——對他對你來說最好不過，但是再來一次中風的話，他 就沒救了。”
It was one January morning, very early--a pinching, frosty morning--the cove all grey with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual and set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him as he turned the big rock was a loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey.
Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying the breakfast-table against the captain's return when the parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand, and though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.
I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but as I was going out of the room to fetch it, he sat down upon a table and motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was, with my napkin in my hand.
"Come here, sonny," says he. "Come nearer here."
I took a step nearer.
"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked with a kind of leer.
I told him I did not know his mate Bill, and this was for a person who stayed in our house whom we called the captain.
"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one cheek and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like, that your captain has a cut on one cheek--and we'll put it, if you like, that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my mate Bill in this here house?"
I told him he was out walking.
"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"
And when I had pointed out the rock and told him how the captain was likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other questions, "Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."
The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of mine, I thought; and besides, it was difficult to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the road, but he immediately called me back, and as I did not obey quick enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy face, and he ordered me in with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I was back again he returned to his former manner, half fawning, half sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy and he had taken quite a fancy to me. "I have a son of my own," said he, "as like you as two blocks, and he's all the pride of my 'art. But the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny--discipline. Now, if you had sailed along of Bill, you wouldn't have stood there to be spoke to twice--not you. That was never Bill's way, nor the way of sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is my mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure. You and me'll just go back into the parlour, sonny, and get behind the door, and we'll give Bill a little surprise--bless his 'art, I say again."
So saying, the stranger backed along with me into the parlour and put me behind him in the corner so that we were both hidden by the open door. I was very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.
At last in strode the captain, slammed the door behind him, without looking to the right or left, and marched straight across the room to where his breakfast awaited him.
"Bill," said the stranger in a voice that I thought he had tried to make bold and big.
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 a man who sees a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, 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 shipmate, Bill, surely," said the stranger.
The captain made a sort of gasp.
"Black Dog!" said he.
"And who else?" returned the other, getting more at his ease. "Black Dog as ever was, come for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the Admiral Benbow inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I lost them two talons," holding 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 rum from this dear child here, as I've took such a liking to; and we'll sit down, if you please, and talk square, like old shipmates."
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 shipmate and one, as I thought, on his retreat.
He bade me go and leave the door wide open. "None of your keyholes for me, sonny," he said; and I left them together and retired into the bar.
"For a long time, though I certainly did my best to listen, I could hear nothing but a low gattling; 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 comes to swinging, swing 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 former streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just at the door the captain aimed at the fugitive one last tremendous cut, which would certainly have split him to the chine had it not been intercepted by our big signboard of Admiral Benbow. You may see the notch on the lower side of the frame to this day.
That blow was 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 minute. The captain, for his part, stood staring at the signboard 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, "rum"; and as he spoke, he reeled a little, and caught himself with one hand against the wall.
"Are you hurt?" cried I.
"Rum," he repeated. "I must get 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 in my own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlour, and running in, beheld the captain lying full length upon the floor. At the same instant my mother, alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his head. He was breathing very loud and hard, but his eyes were closed and his face a horrible colour.
"Dear, deary me," cried my mother, "what a disgrace 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 him, if possible, nothing about it. For my part, I must do my best to save this fellow's trebly worthless life; Jim, you get me a basin."
When I got 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 forearm; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from it--done, as I thought, with great 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 mistily about him. First he recognized the doctor with an unmistakable frown; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked relieved. But suddenly his colour changed, and he tried to raise himself, crying, "Where's Black Dog?"
"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 much against my own will, dragged you headforemost out of the grave. 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 stake my wig if 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 much trouble, we managed to hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where his head fell back on the pillow as if he were almost fainting.
"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 my father, taking me with him by the arm.
"This is nothing," 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 week where he is--that is the best thing for him and you; but another stroke would settle him."