‘I must get my money from the captain’s box,’ my mother said.
‘It’s our money.’
We opened the box. There were some
old coats and shirts and a
bag of money. My mother began to take the money.
‘Quickly!’ I said. ‘It’s nearly ten o’clock.’
It was a cold night, and very quiet. Suddenly, I heard a sound
on the road. Then I heard someone stop outside the inn. We
waited, but then everything was quiet again. Nothing moved.
‘Quickly, mother!’ I said. ‘Take all the captain’s money.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t want it all.’
Then we heard someone
again, outside the front door.
‘Let’s go without the money,’ my mother said.
I took an envelope from the captain’s box. ‘I’m going to take
this,’ I said.
We left the inn very quietly through the back door. We heard
men running along the road to the inn.
We stopped behind some trees and watched the men. There
were seven or eight of them, all pirates.
They broke down the
door of the inn and ran inside.
‘Bill’s dead!’ someone said.
‘Open his box!’ a second man said.
‘The money’s here!’
‘Flint’s map! Where’s Flint’s map?’
‘We can’t find it!’
‘It’s not here!’
‘It’s those people at the inn - it’s that boy! The boy’s got the
map. Find them, boys!’
The men moved quickly. They looked into every room in the
inn.
‘Listen!’ one of them said. ‘Someone’s coming! We must run!’
‘No, find the boy! He’s near here somewhere, I know.’
Then I heard a gun.
The pirates heard it too, and began to run
6
away. We waited for a minute or two and then we went back to
the inn.
‘What did the pirates want?’ a man from the village asked me.
‘Did they find the captain’s money?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But I think they wanted this.’ I showed him the
envelope. ‘I think there’s a map inside it.’
‘You must take it to Mr Trelawney,’ he told me.
♦
When I arrived at Mr Trelawney’s house, Dr Livesey was there.
‘Hello Jim, what is it?’ he asked.
I told him about the pirates.
‘Let’s
see that map,’ the doctor said. ‘But first, Mr Trelawney,
what do you know about Captain Flint?’
‘Flint?’ said Mr Trelawney. ‘He was a famous pirate and a very
bad man. Everybody was afraid of Captain Flint. But he’s dead
now.’
‘Did he have any money?’ asked the doctor.
‘Money!’ said Mr Trelawney. ‘He was the richest pirate in the
West Indies.’
‘Then perhaps this map shows where Captain Flint’s
treasure
is,’ said the doctor.
‘What?’ said Mr Trelawney. ‘Then I must buy a ship and we
can all go and look for the treasure.’
The doctor opened the map very carefully. It was a map of an
island. There was some writing on the map. It said: ‘Treasure
here’.
Mr Trelawney and the doctor were excited. ‘Livesey!’ said Mr
Trelawney. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to Bristol. I’m
going to buy a
ship and find sailors. Jim, you and Dr Livesey are going to come
with me to look for the treasure!’
♦
8
Treasure Island 1750
The next day Mr Trelawney left for Bristol. I stayed at home and
waited. At last, weeks later, Dr Livesey got a letter from Bristol.
Dear Livesey,
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