I ran and ran. ‘How can I get back to the ship?’ I thought. ‘The
pirates are going to kill me, too.’
I climbed the hill. Suddenly I saw a man. Who’s this?’ I
thought. ‘He isn’t one of our men. Nobody lives on this island.’
I began to run back to the beach, but I was tired and the man
ran very quickly. I stopped and took out my gun.
The man carefully came out of the trees. ‘Who are you?’ I
asked.
‘I’m Ben Gunn,’ he said. ‘I live here.
The pirates left me on this
island three years ago. What’s your name?’
‘Jim,’ I told him.
‘Well, Jim,’ he said, ‘I’m a very rich man. But tell me, who
came in that ship? Is it Flint’s ship?’
‘No, it isn’t. Flint is dead,’ I said. ‘But some of his men are on
the ship.’
‘Not. . . not a man with one leg?’
‘Silver?’ I asked.
‘Yes, Silver,’ he said. ‘Are you a friend of his?’
‘No, I’m not,’ I answered. And I told him everything.
‘Is Mr Trelawney a good man?’ Ben asked. ‘Perhaps I can help
him.’
‘Yes, he’s very good. And I think he can help you, too.’
‘Good,’ said Ben Gunn.
‘But can you help me
now?’ I asked. ‘I
must get back to the
ship.’
‘I’ve got a little boat,’ he said. ‘You can use it tonight.’
Suddenly we heard the sound of guns. ‘Listen! they’re
fighting!’ I said.
We ran to the beach. We heard more guns, then everything
was quiet and a flag went up above the trees.
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Chapter 2 Dr Livesey’s Story
At half-past one in the afternoon two
small boats went from the
ship to the island. We looked for Jim Hawkins on the
Hispaniola,
but he was not there.
We waited on the ship. There were six pirates with us. Then
Hunter and I took a boat and went to the island. I wanted to see
the house on the island.
The house was strong and it was in a good place. ‘We can stay
here,’ I thought. ‘There’s water, and we can bring food and guns
from the ship.’
Then I heard the pirates fighting in the trees. ‘They’re
killing
someone,’ I thought. ‘Perhaps Jim Hawkins is dead.’
Hunter and I went back to the
Hispaniola. I told the captain
about the house, and we started to put food into the small boat.
The pirates on the ship did not hear us.
Joyce and I carried the food from the beach to the house. Joyce
stayed in the house with his gun and I went back to the ship. We
put more food and our guns into the
small boat and dropped all
the other guns into the sea. Then Mr Trelawney’s men Redruth
and Hunter, Mr Trelawney, the captain and I left the ship. There
were five of us in a small boat and we moved very slowly.
Then we saw the pirates on the
Hispaniola. They
had the big
gun on the ship.
‘They’re going to shoot at us,’ somebody said.
We tried to go faster. Mr Trelawney shot at the men on the ship.
He hit one of them.
Then the pirates on the island ran out of the trees. They began
to run along the beach.
18
‘Quickly!’ said the captain. ‘They’re going to catch us.
Leave
the boat.’
We heard the big gun on the
Hispaniola behind us; we jumped
on to the beach and ran. Most of our food and our guns went
down into the sea with the small boat.
We heard the pirates running along the beach behind us, but we
ran quickly through the trees to the house.
We arrived at the house
and turned to shoot at the pirates.
We hit one of the pirates, and the other men ran away. Then one
of the pirates turned and shot Redruth through the head.
Captain Smollett said sadly: ‘Now there are only five of us and
we have food for ten days. What are we going to do?’
Suddenly we heard somebody outside. ‘Dr Livesey,’ said Jim
Hawkins, ‘it’s me, Jim. I’m here.’
So then there were six of us.
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