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Chapter 4
The Sea-chest
I LOST no time, of course, in telling my
mother all that I knew, and perhaps should
have told her long before, and we saw
ourselves at once in a difficult and
dangerous position.
Some of the man's money--if he had any--was
certainly due to us, but it was not likely
that our captain's shipmates, above all the
two specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the
blind beggar, would be inclined to give up
their *** in payment of the dead man's
debts.
The captain's order to mount at once and
ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my
mother alone and unprotected, which was not
to be thought of.
Indeed, it seemed impossible for either of
us to remain much longer in the house; the
fall of coals in the kitchen grate, the
very ticking of the clock, filled us with
alarms.
The neighbourhood, to our ears, seemed
haunted by approaching footsteps; and what
between the dead body of the captain on the
parlour floor and the thought of that
detestable blind beggar hovering near at
hand and ready to return, there were
moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped
in my skin for terror.
Something must speedily be resolved upon,
and it occurred to us at last to go forth
together and seek help in the neighbouring
hamlet.
No sooner said than done.
Bare-headed as we were, we ran out at once
in the gathering evening and the frosty
fog.
The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away,
though out of view, on the other side of
the next cove; and what greatly encouraged
me, it was in an opposite direction from
that whence the blind man had made his
appearance and whither he had presumably
returned.
We were not many minutes on the road,
though we sometimes stopped to lay hold of
each other and hearken.
But there was no unusual sound--nothing but
the low wash of the ripple and the croaking
of the inmates of the wood.
It was already candle-light when we reached
the hamlet, and I shall never forget how
much I was cheered to see the yellow shine
in doors and windows; but that, as it
proved, was the best of the help we were
likely to get in that quarter.
For--you would have thought men would have
been ashamed of themselves--no soul would
consent to return with us to the Admiral
Benbow.
The more we told of our troubles, the more-
-man, woman, and child--they clung to the
shelter of their houses.
The name of Captain Flint, though it was
strange to me, was well enough known to
some there and carried a great weight of
terror.
Some of the men who had been to field-work
on the far side of the Admiral Benbow
remembered, besides, to have seen several
strangers on the road, and taking them to
be smugglers, to have bolted away; and one
at least had seen a little lugger in what
we called Kitt's Hole.
For that matter, anyone who was a comrade
of the captain's was enough to frighten
them to death.
And the short and the long of the matter
was, that while we could get several who
were willing enough to ride to Dr.
Livesey's, which lay in another direction,
not one would help us to defend the inn.
They say cowardice is infectious; but then
argument is, on the other hand, a great
emboldener; and so when each had said his
say, my mother made them a speech.
She would not, she declared, lose money
that belonged to her fatherless boy; "If
none of the rest of you dare," she said,
"Jim and I dare.
Back we will go, the way we came, and small
thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted
men.
We'll have that chest open, if we die for
it.
And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs.
Crossley, to bring back our lawful money
in."
Of course I said I would go with my mother,
and of course they all cried out at our
foolhardiness, but even then not a man
would go along with us.
All they would do was to give me a loaded
pistol lest we were attacked, and to
promise to have horses ready saddled in
case we were pursued on our return, while
one lad was to ride forward to the doctor's
in search of armed assistance.
My heart was beating finely when we two set
forth in the cold night upon this dangerous
venture.
A full moon was beginning to rise and
peered redly through the upper edges of the
fog, and this increased our haste, for it
was plain, before we came forth again, that
all would be as bright as day, and our
departure exposed to the eyes of any
watchers.
We slipped along the hedges, noiseless and
swift, nor did we see or hear anything to
increase our terrors, till, to our relief,
the door of the Admiral Benbow had closed
behind us.
I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood
and panted for a moment in the dark, alone
in the house with the dead captain's body.
Then my mother got a candle in the bar, and
holding each other's hands, we advanced
into the parlour.
He lay as we had left him, on his back,
with his eyes open and one arm stretched
out.
"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my
mother; "they might come and watch outside.
And now," said she when I had done so, "we
have to get the key off THAT; and who's to
touch it, I should like to know!" and she
gave a kind of sob as she said the words.
I went down on my knees at once.
On the floor close to his hand there was a
little round of paper, blackened on the one
side.
I could not doubt that this was the BLACK
SPOT; and taking it up, I found written on
the other side, in a very good, clear hand,
this short message: "You have till ten
tonight."
"He had till ten, Mother," said I; and just
as I said it, our old clock began striking.
This sudden noise startled us shockingly;
but the news was good, for it was only six.
"Now, Jim," she said, "that key."
I felt in his pockets, one after another.
A few small coins, a thimble, and some
thread and big needles, a piece of pigtail
tobacco bitten away at the end, his gully
with the crooked handle, a pocket compass,
and a tinder box were all that they
contained, and I began to despair.
"Perhaps it's round his neck," suggested my
mother.
Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open
his shirt at the neck, and there, sure
enough, hanging to a bit of tarry string,
which I cut with his own gully, we found
the key.
At this triumph we were filled with hope
and hurried upstairs without delay to the
little room where he had slept so long and
where his box had stood since the day of
his arrival.
It was like any other ***'s chest on the
outside, the initial "B" burned on the top
of it with a hot iron, and the corners
somewhat smashed and broken as by long,
rough usage.
"Give me the key," said my mother; and
though the lock was very stiff, she had
turned it and thrown back the lid in a
twinkling.
A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from
the interior, but nothing was to be seen on
the top except a suit of very good clothes,
carefully brushed and folded.
They had never been worn, my mother said.
Under that, the miscellany began--a
quadrant, a tin canikin, several sticks of
tobacco, two brace of very handsome
pistols, a piece of bar silver, an old
Spanish watch and some other trinkets of
little value and mostly of foreign make, a
pair of compasses mounted with brass, and
five or six curious West Indian shells.
I have often wondered since why he should
have carried about these shells with him in
his wandering, guilty, and hunted life.
In the meantime, we had found nothing of
any value but the silver and the trinkets,
and neither of these were in our way.
Underneath there was an old boat-cloak,
whitened with sea-salt on many a harbour-
bar.
My mother pulled it up with impatience, and
there lay before us, the last things in the
chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and
looking like papers, and a canvas bag that
gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.
"I'll show these rogues that I'm an honest
woman," said my mother.
"I'll have my dues, and not a farthing
over.
Hold Mrs. Crossley's bag."
And she began to count over the amount of
the captain's score from the sailor's bag
into the one that I was holding.
It was a long, difficult business, for the
coins were of all countries and sizes--
doubloons, and louis d'ors, and guineas,
and pieces of eight, and I know not what
besides, all shaken together at random.
The guineas, too, were about the scarcest,
and it was with these only that my mother
knew how to make her count.
When we were about half-way through, I
suddenly put my hand upon her arm, for I
had heard in the silent frosty air a sound
that brought my heart into my mouth--the
tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon
the frozen road.
It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat
holding our breath.
Then it struck sharp on the inn door, and
then we could hear the handle being turned
and the bolt rattling as the wretched being
tried to enter; and then there was a long
time of silence both within and without.
At last the tapping recommenced, and, to
our indescribable joy and gratitude, died
slowly away again until it ceased to be
heard.
"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's
be going," for I was sure the bolted door
must have seemed suspicious and would bring
the whole hornet's nest about our ears,
though how thankful I was that I had bolted
it, none could tell who had never met that
terrible blind man.
But my mother, frightened as she was, would
not consent to take a fraction more than
was due to her and was obstinately
unwilling to be content with less.
It was not yet seven, she said, by a long
way; she knew her rights and she would have
them; and she was still arguing with me
when a little low whistle sounded a good
way off upon the hill.
That was enough, and more than enough, for
both of us.
"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping
to her feet.
"And I'll take this to square the count,"
said I, picking up the oilskin packet.
Next moment we were both groping
downstairs, leaving the candle by the empty
chest; and the next we had opened the door
and were in full retreat.
We had not started a moment too soon.
The fog was rapidly dispersing; already the
moon shone quite clear on the high ground
on either side; and it was only in the
exact bottom of the dell and round the
tavern door that a thin veil still hung
unbroken to conceal the first steps of our
escape.
Far less than half-way to the hamlet, very
little beyond the bottom of the hill, we
must come forth into the moonlight.
Nor was this all, for the sound of several
footsteps running came already to our ears,
and as we looked back in their direction, a
light tossing to and fro and still rapidly
advancing showed that one of the newcomers
carried a lantern.
"My dear," said my mother suddenly, "take
the money and run on.
I am going to faint."
This was certainly the end for both of us,
I thought.
How I cursed the cowardice of the
neighbours; how I blamed my poor mother for
her honesty and her greed, for her past
foolhardiness and present weakness!
We were just at the little bridge, by good
fortune; and I helped her, tottering as she
was, to the edge of the bank, where, sure
enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my
shoulder.
I do not know how I found the strength to
do it at all, and I am afraid it was
roughly done, but I managed to drag her
down the bank and a little way under the
arch.
Farther I could not move her, for the
bridge was too low to let me do more than
crawl below it.
So there we had to stay--my mother almost
entirely exposed and both of us within
earshot of the inn.