Treasure Island | Page 8

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?"