Treasure Island

Treasure Island

When I was a boy, my parents kept a small inn called the Admiral Benbow right beside the sea. One cold day, an old sailor arrived carrying a heavy sea chest. A scar ran across his cheek, and there always seemed to be a storm in his voice.

He called himself the captain, though he never gave his real name. Every evening he sat by the window, watched the road, and asked whether anyone had seen a one-legged sailor. He paid me a few coins to keep watch as well.

Yet what the captain feared most was not storms or the sea, but people from his past.

One day, a stranger called Black Dog came to the inn. After the two men quarreled, the captain became seriously ill. Not long afterward, a blind old pirate brought him the black spot, a warning that his former shipmates were coming for his chest.

That same night, the captain died. My mother and I knew the pirates would arrive at any moment. We had no wish to take anything that was not ours, but the captain owed us money for his stay. We opened the chest, took exactly what he owed, and were about to flee when I noticed a packet wrapped in cloth.

I grabbed it because I had once heard the captain say that this was what his enemies were really hunting for.

We barely had time to hide. The pirates turned the inn upside down, but they did not find the packet.

I took it to Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney. Inside was a map of an island marked with three red crosses and a note about the treasure of the famous pirate Flint.

The squire caught fire with excitement at once.

“We’ll find a ship, hire a crew, and sail for the treasure!”

And so our voyage aboard the Hispaniola began. The ship’s captain was the stern and honest Mr. Smollett. Our cook was a tall one-legged sailor named Long John Silver. He was cheerful and clever, joked easily with the men, and moved skillfully on his crutch. I immediately decided he could not possibly be the frightening one-legged sailor the old captain had feared.

I was wrong.

During the voyage, Silver became almost a friend to me. He told sea stories, showed me knots, and taught me how to tell different ships apart. But one evening I climbed into the apple barrel to find a piece of fruit. There were hardly any apples left, so I slipped down inside. At that very moment, Silver sat nearby.

I was about to climb out when I heard his voice.

He was talking to several sailors about a mutiny.

Silver had served under Flint himself. Many men in our crew were former pirates too. They planned to wait until we found the treasure and then seize the ship.

I sat in the darkness, hardly daring to breathe. As soon as I could escape unnoticed, I told Doctor Livesey, Squire Trelawney, and Captain Smollett everything.

When the island appeared on the horizon, we all knew that the real danger was only beginning.

Part of the crew went ashore. Foolishly, I jumped into one of the boats with them and then ran away into the forest. There I met a strange man dressed in rags. His name was Ben Gunn. Three years earlier, his companions had abandoned him on the island after a failed search for Flint’s gold.

“I know more about this island than they think,” he said mysteriously. “If your friends are honest men, tell the doctor that Ben Gunn may be useful to them.”

Meanwhile, the doctor, the squire, and the loyal sailors took shelter in an old wooden stockade. The pirates surrounded it, and several clashes followed. I returned to my friends, but I could not stay quietly in one place for long.

Ben Gunn showed me a tiny boat hidden among the bushes. That night I launched it and reached the Hispaniola, which the pirates had left at anchor. I managed to cut the ship loose so the current carried her away from the anchorage. Later I climbed aboard and, after a dangerous struggle with the pirate Israel Hands, succeeded in bringing the ship into a quiet bay.

I was very proud of myself until I returned to the stockade.

The pirates were there instead of my friends.

They captured me, and Long John Silver had once again become their leader. He was a dangerous man. One day he might smile at you, and the next he might join whoever seemed stronger. But this time he would not let the other pirates harm me.

“The boy stays alive,” Silver said. “He may still be useful.”

I did not know whether he was protecting me or merely protecting himself.

The strangest thing was that Silver now had the treasure map. Doctor Livesey himself had given it to the pirates, together with the stockade. It seemed like madness, but the doctor had a reason he was keeping to himself.

The next morning, Silver and his men took me with them to search for the treasure. We marched through the forest, following the marks on the map. The pirates quarreled one moment and dreamed aloud about their shares of gold the next.

Suddenly a voice rang out among the trees, sounding like the voice of Flint, who had been dead for years. The sailors went pale and stopped. Only Silver realized it might be an ordinary trick.

And indeed it was Ben Gunn, who had decided to frighten his old acquaintances.

At last we reached the great tree near which, according to the map, the treasure should have been buried.

But instead of chests, we found an empty pit.

Someone had already dug up the gold.

The pirates flew into a rage and turned against Silver. At that moment Doctor Livesey, Ben Gunn, and our friends appeared from hiding. After a brief struggle, we escaped the trap.

Then the doctor explained everything.

Ben Gunn had found Flint’s treasure long before we arrived. For months he had secretly carried the coins and bars of gold to his cave. Once the doctor learned the truth, the old map was no longer valuable. That was why he had given it to the pirates without fear.

We spent many days loading the treasure onto the Hispaniola. Even after all our adventures, there was more gold than I could have imagined.

Long John Silver joined our side again when he understood that the pirates had no chance of winning. The doctor did not trust him, and neither did Captain Smollett, but everyone remembered that he had saved my life. On the voyage home, Silver disappeared one day at a port, taking a small part of the money with him. No one went after him.

We returned to England. Each of us received a share of the treasure. Ben Gunn, who had dreamed of riches for years, spent his money quickly, but at least he was living among people again and was no longer alone on the island. Captain Smollett retired. The squire and the doctor returned to their ordinary lives.

As for me, I realized that I never wanted to search for buried gold again.

Sometimes I still dream of that island: the pine trees, the surf, the dark bay, and the distant cry of Silver’s parrot. But when someone asks whether more treasure might still be hidden there, I always give the same answer:

“Let it stay there. One adventure was enough to teach me that gold may carry a person across an ocean, but it cannot make them brave or honest. Those are choices each person has to make for themselves.”

“Let it stay there. One adventure was enough to teach me that gold may carry a person across an ocean, but it cannot make them brave or honest. Those are choices each person has to make for themselves.”