Treasure Island | Page 4

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.
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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 pleas-
ant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was mis-
taken, 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 sneer-
ing, 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 ad-
ded 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.
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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