TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. PAGE TITRE

2. ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER

3. TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

4. PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER

5. CHAPTER I. THE OLD SEA-DOG AT THE “ADMIRAL BENBOW”

6. CHAPTER II. BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS

7. CHAPTER III. THE BLACK SPOT

8. CHAPTER IV. THE SEA-CHEST

9. CHAPTER V. THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN

10. CHAPTER VI. THE CAPTAIN’S PAPERS

11. PART II. THE SEA-COOK

12. CHAPTER VII. I GO TO BRISTOL

13. CHAPTER VIII. AT THE SIGN OF THE “SPY-GLASS”

14. CHAPTER IX. POWDER AND ARMS

15. CHAPTER X. THE VOYAGE

16. CHAPTER XI. WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARREL

17. CHAPTER XII. COUNCIL OF WAR

18. PART III. MY SHORE ADVENTURE

19. CHAPTER XIII. HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN

20. CHAPTER XIV. THE FIRST BLOW

21. CHAPTER XV. THE MAN OF THE ISLAND

22. PART IV. THE STOCKADE

23. CHAPTER XVI. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR — HOW THE SHIP WAS ABANDONED

24. CHAPTER XVII. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR — THE JOLLY-BOAT’S LAST TRIP

25. CHAPTER XVIII. NARRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR — END OF THE FIRST DAY’S FIGHTING

26. CHAPTER XIX. NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS — THE GARRISON IN THE STOCKADE

27. CHAPTER XX. SILVER’S EMBASSY

28. CHAPTER XXI. THE ATTACK

29. PART V. MY SEA ADVENTURE

30. CHAPTER XXII. HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN

31. CHAPTER XXIII. THE EBB-TIDE RUNS

32. CHAPTER XXIV. THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE

33. CHAPTER XXV. I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER

34. CHAPTER XXVI. ISRAEL HANDS

35. CHAPTER XXVII. “PIECES OF EIGHT”

36. PART VI. CAPTAIN SILVER

37. CHAPTER XXVIII. IN THE ENEMY’S CAMP

38. CHAPTER XXIX. THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN

39. CHAPTER XXX. ON PAROLE

40. CHAPTER XXXI. THE TREASURE-HUNT — FLINT’S POINTER

41. CHAPTER XXXII. THE TREASURE-HUNT — THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES

42. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN

43. CHAPTER XXXIV. AND LAST

44. TREASURE ISLAND (ANGLAIS)

Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island / L’Île au trésor
Edition bilingue
Traduction par Théo Varlet

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TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

À L’ACHETEUR HÉSITANT

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons
And Buccaneers and buried Gold,

Si des marins les contes et refrains,
Tempêtes, aventures, par chaleurs ou par froidures,
Goélettes, îles, et marins abandonnés,
Corsaires et trésors cachés ;

And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of to-day:

Si tout ancien roman, redit
Dans le style d’autrefois,
Peut plaire encore
Aux jeunes gens instruits de nos jours,
Comme il me plaisait jadis,

— So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,

Eh bien, soit ! Écoutez. Sinon,
Si la jeunesse studieuse
Oublie ses goûts d’autrefois :
Kingston, Ballantyne le brave,

Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

Cooper des flots et des bois,
Ainsi soit-il ! Et s’il le faut
Mes pirates et moi bientôt
Nous partagerons leur tombeau.

PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER

PREMIÈRE PARTIE. LE VIEUX FLIBUSTIER

CHAPTER I. THE OLD SEA-DOG AT THE “ADMIRAL BENBOW”

I. LE VIEUX LOUP DE MER DE L’AMIRAL BENBOW

SQUIRE Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen

C’est sur les instances de M. le chevalier Trelawney, du docteur Livesey et de tous ces messieurs en général,

having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end,

que je me suis décidé à mettre par écrit tout ce que je sais concernant l’île au trésor, depuis A jusqu’à Z,

keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted,

sans rien excepter que la position de l’île, et cela uniquement parce qu’il s’y trouve toujours une partie du trésor.

I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the “Admiral Benbow” Inn,

Je prends donc la plume en cet an de grâce 17…, et commence mon récit à l’époque où mon père tenait l’auberge de l’Amiral Benbow,

and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.

en ce jour où le vieux marin, au visage basané et balafré d’un coup de sabre, vint prendre gîte sous notre toit.

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow;

Je me le rappelle, comme si c’était d’hier. Il arriva d’un pas lourd à la porte de l’auberge, suivi de sa cantine charriée sur une brouette.

a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pig-tail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat;

C’était un grand gaillard solide, aux cheveux très bruns tordus en une queue poisseuse qui retombait sur le collet d’un habit bleu malpropre ;

his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.

il avait les mains couturées de cicatrices, les ongles noirs et déchiquetés, et la balafre du coup de sabre, d’un blanc sale et livide, s’étalait en travers de sa joue.

I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so,

Je me le rappelle comme si c’était d’hier, s’arrêtant pour regarder tout autour de la baie en sifflotant entre ses dents ;

and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

puis, fredonnant cette vieille chanson de mer qu’il devait si souvent nous faire entendre, hélas !

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”

Nous étions quinze sur le coffre du mort…
Yo-ho-ho ! et une bouteille de rhum !

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars.

Il chantait d’une voix aigre et cassée qui semblait s’être usée à l’accompagnement du cabestan.

Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum.

Après quoi, de son bâton, une sorte d’anspect, il heurta contre la porte et, à mon père qui s’empressait, commanda brutalement un verre de rhum.

This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

Aussitôt servi, il le but posément et le dégusta en connaisseur, sans cesser d’examiner tour à tour les falaises et notre enseigne.

“This is a handy cove,” says he, at length; “and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?”

— Voilà une crique commode, dit-il à la fin, et un cabaret agréablement situé. Beaucoup de clientèle, camarade ?

My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

Mon père lui répondit négativement : très peu de clientèle ; si peu que c’en était désolant.

“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow;

— Eh bien ! alors, reprit-il, je n’ai plus qu’à jeter l’ancre… Hé ! l’ami, cria-t-il à l’homme qui poussait la brouette,

“bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued.

accostez ici et aidez à monter mon coffre… Je resterai ici quelque temps, continua-t-il.

“I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off.

Je ne suis pas difficile : du rhum et des œufs au lard, il ne m’en faut pas plus, et cette pointe là-haut pour regarder passer les bateaux.

What you mought call me? You mought call me captain.

Comment vous pourriez m’appeler ? Vous pourriez m’appeler capitaine…

Oh, I see what you’re at — there”; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold.

Ah ! je vois ce qui vous inquiète… Tenez ! (Et il jeta sur le comptoir trois ou quatre pièces d’or.)

“You can tell me when I’ve worked through that,” said he, looking as fierce as a commander.

Vous me direz quand j’aurai tout dépensé, fit-il, l’air hautain comme un capitaine de vaisseau.

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man

Et à la vérité, en dépit de ses piètres effets et de son rude langage, il n’avait pas du tout l’air d’un homme

who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike.

qui a navigué à l’avant : on l’eût pris plutôt pour un second ou pour un capitaine qui ne souffre pas la désobéissance.

The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the “Royal George”;

L’homme à la brouette nous raconta que la malle-poste l’avait déposé la veille au Royal George,

that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of,

et qu’il s’était informé des auberges qu’on trouvait le long de la côte. On lui avait dit du bien de la nôtre,

I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

je suppose, et pour son isolement il l’avait choisie comme gîte. Et ce fut là tout ce que nous apprîmes de notre hôte.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope;

Il était ordinairement très taciturne. Tout le jour il rôdait alentour de la baie, ou sur les falaises, muni d’une lunette d’approche en cuivre ;

all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong.

toute la soirée il restait dans un coin de la salle, auprès du feu, à boire des grogs au rhum très forts.

Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn;

La plupart du temps, il ne répondait pas quand on s’adressait à lui, mais vous regardait brusquement d’un air féroce, en soufflant par le nez telle une corne d’alarme ; ainsi, tout comme ceux

and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be.

qui fréquentaient notre maison, nous apprîmes vite à le laisser tranquille.

Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road.

Chaque jour, quand il rentrait de sa promenade, il s’informait s’il était passé des gens de mer quelconques sur la route.

At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question;

Au début, nous crûmes qu’il nous posait cette question parce que la société de ses pareils lui manquait ;

but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them.

mais à la longue, nous nous aperçûmes qu’il préférait les éviter.

When a seaman put up at the “Admiral Benbow” (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol),

Quand un marin s’arrêtait à l’Amiral Benbow — comme faisaient parfois ceux qui gagnaient Bristol par la route de la côte

he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlor;

— il l’examinait à travers le rideau de la porte avant de pénétrer dans la salle

and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present.

et, tant que le marin était là, il ne manquait jamais de rester muet comme une carpe.

For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.

Mais pour moi il n’y avait pas de mystère dans cette conduite, car je participais en quelque sorte à ses craintes.

He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my

Un jour, me prenant à part, il m’avait promis une pièce de dix sous à chaque premier de mois, si je voulais

“weather eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,” and let him know the moment he appeared.

« veiller au grain » et le prévenir dès l’instant où paraîtrait « un homme de mer à une jambe ».

Often enough when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage,

Le plus souvent, lorsque venait le premier du mois et que je réclamais mon salaire au capitaine,

he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down;

il se contentait de souffler par le nez et de me foudroyer du regard ;

but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece,

mais la semaine n’était pas écoulée qu’il se ravisait et me remettait ponctuellement mes dix sous,

and repeat his orders to look out for “the seafaring man with one leg.”

en me réitérant l’ordre de veiller à « l’homme de mer à une jambe ».

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you.

Si ce personnage hantait mes songes, il est inutile de le dire.

On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs,

Par les nuits de tempête où le vent secouait la maison par les quatre coins tandis que le ressac mugissait dans la crique et contre les falaises,

I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions.

il m’apparaissait sous mille formes diverses et avec mille physionomies diaboliques.

Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip;

Tantôt la jambe lui manquait depuis le genou, tantôt dès la hanche ;

now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but one leg, and that in the middle of his body.

d’autres fois c’était un monstre qui n’avait jamais possédé qu’une seule jambe, située au milieu de son corps.

To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch, was the worst of nightmares.

Le pire de mes cauchemars était de le voir s’élancer par bonds et me poursuivre à travers champs.

And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

Et, somme toute, ces abominables imaginations me faisaient payer bien cher mes dix sous mensuels.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg,

Mais, en dépit de la terreur que m’inspirait l’homme de mer à une jambe,

I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him.

j’avais beaucoup moins peur du capitaine en personne que tous les autres qui le connaissaient.

There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry;

À certains soirs, il buvait du grog beaucoup plus qu’il n’en pouvait supporter ;

and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody;

et ces jours-là il s’attardait parfois à chanter ses sinistres et farouches vieilles complaintes de matelot, sans souci de personne.

but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing.

Mais, d’autres fois, il commandait une tournée générale, et obligeait l’assistance intimidée à ouïr des récits ou à reprendre en chœur ses refrains.

Often I have heard the house shaking with “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,”

Souvent j’ai entendu la maison retentir du « Yo-ho-ho ! et une bouteille de rhum ! »,

all the neighbors joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.

alors que tous ses voisins l’accompagnaient à qui mieux mieux pour éviter ses observations.

For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all around;

Car c’était, durant ces accès, l’homme le plus tyrannique du monde : il claquait de la main sur la table pour exiger le silence,

he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story.

il se mettait en fureur à cause d’une question, ou voire même si l’on n’en posait point, car il jugeait par là que l’on ne suivait pas son récit.

Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.

Et il n’admettait point que personne quittât l’auberge avant que lui-même, ivre mort, se fût traîné jusqu’à son lit.

His stories were what frightened people worst of all.

Ce qui effrayait surtout le monde, c’étaient ses histoires.

Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea,

Histoires épouvantables, où il n’était question que d’hommes pendus ou jetés à l’eau, de tempêtes en mer,

and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.

et des îles de la Tortue, et d’affreux exploits aux pays de l’Amérique espagnole.

By his own account, he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea;

De son propre aveu, il devait avoir vécu parmi les pires sacripants auxquels Dieu permît jamais de naviguer.

and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described.

Et le langage qu’il employait dans ses récits scandalisait nos braves paysans presque à l’égal des forfaits qu’il narrait.

My father was always saying the inn would be ruined,

Mon père ne cessait de dire qu’il causerait la ruine de l’auberge,

for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down and sent shivering to their beds;

car les gens refuseraient bientôt de venir s’y faire tyranniser et humilier, pour aller ensuite trembler dans leurs lits ;

but I really believe his presence did us good.

mais je croirais plus volontiers que son séjour nous était profitable.

People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life;

Sur le moment, les gens avaient peur, mais à la réflexion ils ne s’en plaignaient pas, car c’était une fameuse distraction dans la morne routine villageoise.

and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him,

Il y eut même une coterie de jeunes gens qui affectèrent de l’admirer,

calling him a “true sea-dog,” and a “real old salt,” and such like names,

l’appelant « un vrai loup de mer », « un authentique vieux flambart », et autres noms semblables,

and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

ajoutant que c’étaient les hommes de cette trempe qui font l’Angleterre redoutable sur mer.

In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month,

Dans un sens, à la vérité, il nous acheminait vers la ruine, car il ne s’en allait toujours pas : des semaines s’écoulèrent, puis des mois,

so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more.

et l’acompte était depuis longtemps épuisé, sans que mon père trouvât jamais le courage de lui réclamer le complément.

If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared,

Lorsqu’il y faisait la moindre allusion, le capitaine soufflait par le nez, avec un bruit tel qu’on eût dit un rugissement,

and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff,

et foudroyait du regard mon pauvre père, qui s’empressait de quitter la salle. Je l’ai vu se tordre les mains après l’une de ces rebuffades,

and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.

et je ne doute pas que le souci et l’effroi où il vivait hâtèrent de beaucoup sa fin malheureuse et anticipée.

All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker.

De tout le temps qu’il logea chez nous, à part quelques paires de bas qu’il acheta d’un colporteur, le capitaine ne renouvela en rien sa toilette.

One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew.

L’un des coins de son tricorne s’étant cassé, il le laissa pendre depuis lors, bien que ce lui fût d’une grande gêne par temps venteux.

I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches.

Je revois l’aspect de son habit, qu’il rafistolait lui-même dans sa chambre de l’étage et qui, dès avant la fin, n’était plus que pièces.

He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbors,

Jamais il n’écrivit ni ne reçut une lettre, et il ne parlait jamais à personne qu’aux gens du voisinage,

and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.

et cela même presque uniquement lorsqu’il était ivre de rhum. Son grand coffre de marin, nul d’entre nous ne l’avait jamais vu ouvert.

He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off.

On ne lui résista qu’une seule fois, et ce fut dans les derniers temps, alors que mon pauvre père était déjà gravement atteint de la phtisie qui devait l’emporter.

Doctor Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother,

Le docteur Livesey, venu vers la fin de l’après-midi pour visiter son patient, accepta que ma mère lui servît un morceau à manger,

and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old “Benbow.”

puis, en attendant que son cheval fût ramené du hameau — car nous n’avions pas d’écurie au vieux Benbow — il s’en alla fumer une pipe dans la salle.

I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat,

Je l’y suivis, et je me rappelle encore le contraste frappant

bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk,

que faisait le docteur, bien mis et allègre, à la perruque poudrée à blanc, aux yeux noirs et vifs, au maintien distingué, avec les paysans rustauds,

and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, with his arms on the table.

et surtout avec notre sale et blême épouvantail de pirate, avachi dans l’ivresse et les coudes sur la table.

Suddenly he — the captain, that is — began to pipe up his eternal song:

Soudain, il se mit — je parle du capitaine — à entonner son sempiternel refrain :

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest —
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Nous étions quinze sur le coffre du mort…
Yo-ho-ho ! et une bouteille de rhum !

Drink and the devil had done for the rest —
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”

La boisson et le diable ont expédié les autres,
Yo-ho-ho ! et une bouteille de rhum !

At first I had supposed “the dead man’s chest” to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room,

Au début, j’avais cru que « le coffre du mort » était sa grande cantine de là-haut dans la chambre de devant,

and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man.

et cette imagination s’était amalgamée dans mes cauchemars avec celle de l’homme de mer à une jambe.

But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song;

Mais à cette époque nous avions depuis longtemps cessé de faire aucune attention au refrain ;

it was new, that night, to nobody but Doctor Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect,

il n’était nouveau, ce soir-là, que pour le seul docteur Livesey, et je m’aperçus qu’il produisait sur lui un effet rien moins qu’agréable,

for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for rheumatics.

car le docteur leva un instant les yeux avec une véritable irritation avant de continuer à entretenir le vieux Taylor, le jardinier, d’un nouveau traitement pour ses rhumatismes.

In the meantime the captain gradually brightened up at his own music,

Cependant, le capitaine s’excitait peu à peu à sa propre musique,

and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean — silence.

et il finit par claquer de la main sur sa table, d’une manière que nous connaissions tous et qui exigeait le silence.

The voices stopped at once, all but Doctor Livesey’s; he went on as before,

Aussitôt, chacun se tut, sauf le docteur Livesey qui poursuivit comme devant,

speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two.

d’une voix claire et courtoise, en tirant une forte bouffée de sa pipe tous les deux ou trois mots.

The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder,

Le capitaine le dévisagea un instant avec courroux, fit claquer de nouveau sa main, puis le toisa d’un air farouche,

and at last broke out with a villainous oath: “Silence, there, between decks!”

et enfin lança avec un vil et grossier juron : — Silence, là-bas dans l’entrepont !

“Were you addressing me, sir?” said the doctor;

— Est-ce à moi que ce discours s’adresse, monsieur ? fit le docteur.

and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, replied,

Et quand le butor lui eut déclaré, avec un nouveau juron, qu’il en était ainsi :

“I have only one thing to say to you, sir, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”

— Je n’ai qu’une chose à vous dire, monsieur, répliqua le docteur, c’est que si vous continuez à boire du rhum de la sorte, le monde sera vite débarrassé d’un très ignoble gredin !

The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp-knife,

La fureur du vieux drôle fut terrible. Il se dressa d’un bond, tira un coutelas de marin qu’il ouvrit,

and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.

et le balançant sur la main ouverte, s’apprêta à clouer au mur le docteur.

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him, as before, over his shoulder, and in the same tone of voice, rather high,

Celui-ci ne broncha point. Il continua de lui parler comme précédemment, par-dessus l’épaule, et du même ton, un peu plus élevé peut-être,

so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady:

pour que toute la salle entendît, mais parfaitement calme et posé :

“If you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket, I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at the next assizes.”

— Si vous ne remettez à l’instant ce couteau dans votre poche, je vous jure sur mon honneur que vous serez pendu aux prochaines assises.

Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.

Ils se mesurèrent du regard ; mais le capitaine céda bientôt, remisa son arme, et se rassit, en grondant comme un chien battu.

“And now, sir,” continued the doctor, “since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district,

— Et maintenant, monsieur, continua le docteur, sachant désormais qu’il y a un tel personnage dans ma circonscription,

you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night.

vous pouvez compter que j’aurai l’œil sur vous nuit et jour.

I’m not a doctor only, I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like to-night’s,

Je ne suis pas seulement médecin, je suis aussi magistrat ; et s’il m’arrive la moindre plainte contre vous, fût-ce pour un esclandre comme celui de ce soir,

I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice.”

je prendrai les mesures efficaces pour vous faire arrêter et expulser du pays. Vous voilà prévenu.

Soon after Doctor Livesey’s horse came to the door and he rode away,

Peu après on amenait à la porte le cheval du docteur Livesey, et celui-ci s’en alla ;

but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.

mais le capitaine se tint tranquille pour cette soirée-là et nombre de suivantes.

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons
And Buccaneers and buried Gold,

And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of to-day:

— So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,

Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER

CHAPTER I. THE OLD SEA-DOG AT THE “ADMIRAL BENBOW”

SQUIRE Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the “Admiral Benbow” Inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pig-tail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

“This is a handy cove,” says he, at length; “and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?”

My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued. “I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at — there”; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. “You can tell me when I’ve worked through that,” said he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the “Royal George”; that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the “Admiral Benbow” (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlor; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.

He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my “weather eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,” and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for “the seafaring man with one leg.”

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch, was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,” all the neighbors joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all around; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.

His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account, he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life; and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a “true sea-dog,” and a “real old salt,” and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.

All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbors, and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.

He was only once crossed, and that was toward the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Doctor Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old “Benbow.” I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he — the captain, that is — began to pipe up his eternal song:

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest —
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest —
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”

At first I had supposed “the dead man’s chest” to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody but Doctor Livesey, and on him I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for rheumatics. In the meantime the captain gradually brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to mean — silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Doctor Livesey’s; he went on as before, speaking clear and kind, and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous oath: “Silence, there, between decks!”

“Were you addressing me, sir?” said the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, replied, “I have only one thing to say to you, sir, that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”

The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him, as before, over his shoulder, and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady:

“If you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket, I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at the next assizes.”

Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.

“And now, sir,” continued the doctor, “since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m not a doctor only, I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like to-night’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice.”

Soon after Doctor Livesey’s horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.