Treasure Island Part IV.2

Jim and his new buddy Ben Gunn arrive at the stockade and debate the merits of making their presence known. It could be Jim’s friends, but on the other hand, it could be pirates. Ben assures Jim that the place is not full of pirates, since the pirates would likely prefer their fancy new ship to a run down old fort. Still, probably best that Jim goes alone while Ben bravely lurks in the background, able to flee at a moment’s notice. Ben instructs Jim to tell his friends a long monologue about what a super duper guy Ben is, and then to meet him back in the woods where they first met. Cannon shots ring and Ben skedaddles back into the woods. I should note here that this is, in fact, a jungle, but as Robert Louis Stevenson has yet to see an actual jungle at this point in his life, he just refers to them as woods.

As we know from the previous account by the doctor, that is the first of many cannon shots. Jim decides that running into a field full of projectiles may be inadvisable for his health. Instead, he sneaks down to the shore to discover the Hispaniola now sporting a Jolly Roger flag. I am a bit embarrassed to admit I always thought the Jolly Roger was the name of a specific ship, and not a generic name for the classic skull & crossbones flag (or variations thereof), but here we are.

Note that the above image is not cited, as the author has graciously allowed this image to be freely used for commercial and non-commercial uses without credit or royalty. A true pirate.

Anyway, Jim sees the flag, and also discovers the pirates smashing the jolly boat (not to be confused with a Jolly Roger) to little bits. Seems like it would have been more useful to salvage it, since all it did was sink a few feet off shore, but pirates gonna pirate. This is a less than optimal plot development, as our heroes had hoped to make use of it in later chapters. On the bright side, he sees the white rock where Ben said he hid the boat he had made, so that’s a silver lining. A Long John Silver  lining, if you will.

The cannonade seems to have abated, so Jim now makes his way back to stockade. Here he regales his companions of his adventures. We are treated to another description of the stockade as well. It is built on a grassy knoll, which, as we all know, is the best place to shoot from, especially when you have a mysterious second gunman. It is bare of trees, as they were all cut down to make the fort, but the forest looms uncomfortably near. Lots of trees nearby is also ideal, but for the bad guys, which is unfortunate. Inside the outer wall of the stockade is a small cabin with shooting holes (called ‘loopholes’), a makeshift well formed by a small spring feeding into a big iron cauldron embedded in the sand, and a fireplace.

Instead of trees, they have sand. Lots of sand. Sand to the left of them, sand to the right, and there they are; stuck in the middle of sand. They have a fire going in the cabin, but the “chimney” is a small hole in the roof, so it is smokey AF. Oh, and Redruth is hanging out quietly in the corner. Not making a peep. All in all it’s a pretty depresso espresso situation.

Captain Smollett arranges a watch, and sends two men out to get firewood, two to dig a grave for Redruth, and the doctor is the cook.

Smollett: Alright guys, we are out-gunned, out-manned, out-numbered, and out-planned. We’ve got to make an all out stand. There are fifteen of them now, down from nineteen, thanks to our crack shooter from the boat. Currently they are all busy playing “Where has all the rum gone?” So it is guerilla warfare time, even though that phrase will not be in use until the Penninsular War of 1807-1814. Chances are they will pack up and leave once all the rum is finally gone.

The next morning Jim awakens to discover Long John Silver holding a flag of truce, which is in no way a trick, I am sure.

Smollett: New stockade. Who dis?

Long John Silver: Captain Silver if you please.

Smollett: Never heard of him. I know a Silver, but not a CAPTAIN Silver.

Silver: Well, the crew promoted me after you deserted them.

Smollett: That’s not how I remember it.

Silver: Well, that’s neither here nor there. Can I come in and have a cuppa while we chat?

Smollett: Ugh, fine.

So in classic Silver fashion he nimbly bimblies up the wall and hops down, but then unceremoniously plops on the sand inside the stockade wall. He picks himself up and hobbles over to the captain.

Silver: You gonna let me inside? Its a cold morning yo.

Smollett: If you were honest you could have been all comfy cozy in the galley, but then you had to go on that murder spree earlier, so it sucks to suck.

Silver: Fair enough. Look, y’all were way more capable than we gave you credit for, hence this here parlay. And I didn’t murder anyone. All me boys were dunk and rowdy but I was just tired and taking an after-mutiny nap.

Smollett: Again, sucks to suck.

Silver: Fine, let me break it down for you. We want the treasure, and killing you is an unnecessary add-on we would just as soon skip.

Smollett: And I want to be the king of all Sardinia and wear a shiny, shiny hat, but as the Rolling Stones will say a couple if hundred years from now, you can’t always get what you want.

Silver: Grumble.

Smollett: Double grumble.

The only thing left at this point is to have a staring contest, so they both pull out their pipes and smoke while they do so. Finally the silence is broken.

Silver: Okay, here’s the deal, you give us the treasure map, and we let you live. We’ll even let you tag along when you leave. Or, if you prefer, we leave you with some supplies and tell the first boat we see to come get you.

Smollett: Tempting, but here is my counter-offer. You send your men here one by one amd we will clap them in irons, take them back to England, and give them all a fair trial. All your men kind of suck at being sober and/or piloting a ship, so y’all are kind of stuck here, since you won’t be able to warp out of here. Off you go now to think on that.

Silver: Okay, that was the carrot, now I will give you the stick of my wrath when I leave here and kill you all. BTW, can y’all give me a hand up out of here?

Smollett: We could, but we won’t.

Silver: Fine, just be that way. I will hobble out in manly fashion.

After Silver leaves, Smollett turns around to find that everyone except Gray has left their guard posts to eavesdrop. Tssk, tssk. tssk. They all make a battle plan, which consists of manning the loopholes on each side of the house, and dividing the twenty muskets they have on each side for easy use. Why the house inside the stockade, you ask? Well, standing on the wall would make them easy targets for the sneaky pirates in the woods. This way they can shoot the pirates as they try to scramble over.  The captain and Jim are in the center on reload duty. Or dooty, as the book spells it. Giggle. He tells them he will record their attention to dooty in his captain’s LOG. Double giggle.

The first attack consists of seven or eight pirates on the north and a few on the other sides for distraction. Shots fired. No one is killed on either side. The next attack involves eight men leaping over the wall. Three get killed to death, one gets scared to death and scurries off, and four make good the landing. Meanwhile the other seven or eight harass them from the other sides.

One shot rings through the doorway and shatters the doctor’s rifle, and Jim gets busy reloading everyone. As the four men who made it over the wall storm into the cabin waving muskets, the rest start to clamber into the grassy knoll. A big fight scene ensues, but I always find those to the most uninteresting parts of movies. Instead I’ll just let you imagine a gunfight wherein the bad guys are terrible shots, and pause to allow the good guys time to get the upper hand as the plot requires.  Let’s just skip to the tally. All of the main characters survive, because we have too much invested in them emotionally to let them die just yet. Smollett and Hunter are wounded, and Joyce is dead. On the plus side, five pirates have been killed and the last one who made it past the wall bravely runs away. That brings the tally from seven against nineteen to sixish against eight. I say sixish since two of them are wounded and don’t really count. Who will die next? Find out in Treasure Island Part V!!!!