TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. TITELBLATT

2. IMPRESSUM

3. PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER

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

5. CHAPTER II. BLACK DOG APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS

6. CHAPTER III. THE BLACK SPOT

7. CHAPTER IV. THE SEA-CHEST

8. CHAPTER V. THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN

9. CHAPTER VI. THE CAPTAIN’S PAPERS

10. PART II. THE SEA-COOK

11. CHAPTER VII. I GO TO BRISTOL

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

13. CHAPTER IX. POWDER AND ARMS

14. CHAPTER X. THE VOYAGE

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

16. CHAPTER XII. COUNCIL OF WAR

17. PART III. MY SHORE ADVENTURE

18. CHAPTER XIII. HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN

19. CHAPTER XIV. THE FIRST BLOW

20. CHAPTER XV. THE MAN OF THE ISLAND

21. PART IV. THE STOCKADE

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

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

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

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

26. CHAPTER XX. SILVER’S EMBASSY

27. CHAPTER XXI. THE ATTACK

28. PART V. MY SEA ADVENTURE

29. CHAPTER XXII. HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN

30. CHAPTER XXIII. THE EBB-TIDE RUNS

31. CHAPTER XXIV. THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE

32. CHAPTER XXV. I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER

33. CHAPTER XXVI. ISRAEL HANDS

34. CHAPTER XXVII. “PIECES OF EIGHT”

35. PART VI. CAPTAIN SILVER

36. CHAPTER XXVIII. IN THE ENEMY’S CAMP

37. CHAPTER XXIX. THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN

38. CHAPTER XXX. ON PAROLE

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

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

41. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN

42. CHAPTER XXXIV. AND LAST

43. TREASURE ISLAND (ENGLISCH)

Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island / Die Schatzinsel
Zweisprachige Ausgabe
Übersetzt von Heinrich Conrad

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PART I. THE OLD BUCCANEER

TEIL I. DER ALTE FREIBEUTER

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

KAPITEL I. DER ALTE SEEHUND IM »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,

Gutsherr Trelawney, Dr. Livesey und die übrigen Herren haben mich gebeten, unsere Fahrt nach der Schatzinsel vom Anfang bis zum Ende zu beschreiben,

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

und dabei nichts zu verschweigen als die genaue Lage der Insel, und zwar auch dies nur deshalb, weil noch jetzt ungehobene Schätze dort vorhanden sind.

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,

So ergreife ich die Feder in diesem Jahre des Heils 17.. und versetze mich zurück in die Zeit, als mein Vater den Gasthof zum »Admiral Benbow« hielt,

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

und als der braungebrannte alte Seemann mit der Säbelnarbe im Gesicht zuerst unter unserem Dache Wohnung nahm.

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door,

Ich erinnere mich, wie wenn es gestern gewesen wäre, des Mannes: wie er in die Tür unseres Hauses hereinkam,

his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man;

während seine Schifferkiste ihm auf einem Schiebkarren nachgefahren wurde – ein großer, starker, schwerer, nußbrauner Mann;

his tarry pig-tail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat;

sein teeriger Zopf hing ihm im Nacken über seinen fleckigen blauen Rock herunter;

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

seine Hände waren schwielig und rissig mit abgebrochenen, schwarzen Fingernägeln, und der Säbelschmiß, der sich über die eine Wange hinzog, war von schmutzig-weißer Farbe.

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

Er sah sich im Schenkzimmer um und pfiff dabei vor sich hin,

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

und dann stimmte er das alte Schifferlied an, das er später so oft sang:

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

Fünfzehn Mann bei des Toten Kist’ –
Johoho, und ’ne Buddel, Buddel Rum!

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

in der zitterigen, hohen Stimme, die so klang, wie wenn eine Ankerwinde gedreht würde.

Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried,

Dann schlug er mit einem Knüppel, so dick wie eine Handspeiche, gegen die Tür,

and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum.

und als mein Vater erschien, verlangte er barsch ein Glas Rum.

This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly,

Als dieses ihm gebracht worden war, trank er es langsam aus,

like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

wie ein Kenner, mit der Zunge den Geschmack nachprüfend, und dabei sah er sich durch das Fenster die Strandklippen und unser Wirtsschild an. Schließlich sagte er:

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

»Das ist ’ne nette Bucht und ’ne angenehm gelegene Grogkneipe. Viel Gesellschaft, Maat?«

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

Mein Vater sagte ihm, Gesellschaft käme leider nur sehr wenig.

“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me.

»So? Na, dann ist das die richtige Stelle für mich.

Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up my chest.

Heda, Ihr, mein Mann!« rief er dem Mann zu, der den Handkarren schob: »Ladet mal meine Kiste ab und bringt sie nach oben!

I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued. “I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want,

Hier will ich ein bißchen bleiben! Ich bin ein einfacher Mann – Rum und Speck und Eier, weiter brauche ich nichts;

and that head up there for to watch ships off.

und außerdem die Klippe da draußen, um die Schiffe zu beobachten.

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

Wie Sie mich nennen könnten? Kaptein können Sie mich nennen.

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

Ach so – ich sehe schon, worauf Sie hinauswollen – da!« und er warf drei oder vier Goldstücke auf den Tisch.

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

»Wenn ich das verzehrt habe, können Sie mir Bescheid sagen!« rief er, und dabei sah er so stolz aus wie ein Admiral.

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,

Und in der Tat – so schlecht seine Kleider waren und so gemein seine Sprechweise, er sah durchaus nicht wie ein Mann aus, der vor dem Mast fuhr,

but seemed like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike.

sondern war offenbar ein Steuermann oder ein Schiffer, der gewohnt war, daß man ihm gehorchte, oder sonst gab’s Prügel.

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

Der Mann, der den Schiebkarren gefahren hatte, sagte uns, die Postkutsche hätte ihn am Tag vorher am Royal George abgesetzt;

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

er hätte sich erkundigt, was für Gasthöfe an der Küste wären, und als er gehört hätte, daß man unser Haus lobte, – und besonders, so vermute ich wenigstens,

and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence.

als man es ihm als einsam gelegen beschrieb – hätte er beschlossen, bei uns Aufenthalt zu nehmen.

And that was all we could learn of our guest.

Und das war alles, was wir über unseren Gast erfahren konnten.

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

Er war ein schweigsamer Mann. Den ganzen Tag lungerte er an der Bucht oder auf den Klippen herum und sah durch sein Messingfernrohr über See und Strand;

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

den ganzen Abend aber saß er in einer Ecke der Schenkstube ganz dicht am Feuer und trank Rum und Wasser, und zwar eine sehr steife Mischung.

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

Wenn jemand ihn anredete, antwortete er für gewöhnlich nicht, sondern sah nur plötzlich mit einem wütenden Blick auf und blies durch seine Nase wie durch ein Nebelhorn;

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

und wir und unsere Besucher merkten bald, daß man ihn dann in Ruhe lassen mußte.

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

Jeden Tag, wenn er von seinen Gängen zurückkam, fragte er, ob Seeleute auf der Landstraße vorübergekommen wären.

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

Anfangs dachten wir, er fragte, weil er sich nach Gesellschaft von Kameraden sehnte;

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

schließlich aber merkten wir, daß er im Gegenteil es zu vermeiden wünschte.

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

Wenn ein Seemann im »Admiral Benbow« einkehrte – wie es ab und zu geschah, wenn Leute auf der Küstenstraße nach Bristol gingen

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

– so sah er sich ihn durch das verhängte Fensterchen in der Tür an, bevor er die Schenkstube betrat;

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

und wenn solch ein Seemann anwesend war, verhielt er sich immer mäuschenstille.

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

Vor mir suchte er auch kein Geheimnis aus der Sache zu machen, sondern er beteiligte mich im Gegenteil gewissermaßen an seiner Unruhe.

He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month

Er hatte mich nämlich eines Tages beiseite genommen und mir versprochen: er wollte mir am Ersten jeden Monats ein silbernes Vier-Penny-Stück geben,

if I would only keep my “weather eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,”

wenn ich bloß »mein Wetterauge offen halten wollte nach einem Seemann mit nur einem Bein«,

and let him know the moment he appeared.

und wenn ich ihm, sobald der auftauchte, augenblicklich Bescheid geben wollte.

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;

Wenn nun der Monatserste da war und ich meinen Lohn von ihm verlangte, dann kam es oft genug vor, daß er nur durch die Nase blies und mich mit einem wütenden Blick ansah;

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

aber bevor die Woche zu Ende war, hatte er es sich jedesmal besser überlegt: er brachte mir das Vier-Penny-Stück

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

und wiederholte seinen Befehl, »nach dem Seemann mit dem einen Bein Ausguck zu halten«.

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

Wie dieser Seemann mich in meinen Träumen verfolgte, brauche ich kaum zu sagen.

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

In stürmischen Nächten, wenn der Wind die vier Ecken unseres Hauses schüttelte und die Brandung in der Bucht gegen die Klippen donnerte,

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

sah ich ihn in tausend Gestalten und mit tausend teuflischen Gesichtern.

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

Bald war das Bein am Knie abgenommen, bald dicht an der Hüfte;

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

dann wieder war er ein ungeheuerliches Geschöpf, das immer nur ein einziges Bein gehabt hatte, und zwar mitten unter dem Rumpf.

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

Ihn zu sehen, wie er sprang und lief und mich über Gräben und Hecken verfolgte, das war für mich der fürchterlichste Nachtmahr.

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

So mußte ich eigentlich mein monatliches Vier-Penny-Stück recht teuer bezahlen, denn ich bekam dafür diese gräßlichen Traumgesichte in den Kauf.

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

Wenn ich vor dem einbeinigen Seemann eine schreckliche Angst hatte,

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

so hatte ich dafür vor dem Kaptein selber weniger Furcht als andere, die ihn kannten.

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

An manchen Abenden nahm er mehr Rum und Wasser zu sich, als sein Kopf vertragen konnte;

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

dann saß er zuweilen, ohne sich um irgendeinen Menschen zu bekümmern, und sang seine ruchlosen alten wilden Schifferlieder;

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.

zuweilen aber bestellte er Runden und zwang die ganze zitternde Gesellschaft, seine Geschichten anzuhören oder als Chor in seine Lieder einzufallen.

Often I have heard the house shaking with “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,” all the neighbors joining in for dear life,

Oft zitterte das Haus von dem »Johoho, und ’ne Buddel, Buddel Rum«; alle Nachbarn stimmten aus voller Kehle ein,

with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.

mit einer Todesangst im Leibe, und einer sang noch lauter als der andere, damit nur der Kaptein keine Bemerkungen machte.

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

Denn wenn er diese Anfälle hatte, war er der ungemütlichste Gesellschafter von der Welt; dann schlug er mit der Faust auf den Tisch und gebot Ruhe;

he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put,

wenn irgendeine Zwischenfrage gestellt wurde, regte er sich fürchterlich auf – manchmal aber noch mehr, wenn keine Frage gestellt wurde,

and so he judged the company was not following his story.

weil er dann glaubte, die Gesellschaft hörte nicht auf seine Geschichte.

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

An solchen Abenden durfte keiner die Schenkstube verlassen, bis er selber vom Trinken schläfrig geworden war und ins Bett taumelte.

His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank,

Am meisten Angst machte er den Leuten mit seinen Geschichten. Und fürchterliche Geschichten waren es allerdings: von Hängen, über die Planke gehen lassen,

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

von Stürmen auf hoher See, und von den Schildkröteninseln, und von wilden Gefechten und Taten, und von Häfen in den westindischen Gewässern.

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

Nach seinen eigenen Berichten mußte er unter den größten Verbrechern gelebt haben, die Gott jemals zur See gehen ließ;

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

und die Worte, in denen er diese Geschichten erzählte, entsetzten unsere guten Landleute beinahe ebensosehr wie die Verbrechen, von denen sie handelten.

My father was always saying the inn would be ruined,

Mein Vater sagte fortwährend: unser Gasthof werde zugrunde gerichtet werden,

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

denn die Leute würden bald nicht mehr kommen, um sich anschnauzen und niederducken zu lassen und dann mit zitternden Gebeinen zu Bett zu gehen.

but I really believe his presence did us good.

Aber ich glaube, daß in Wirklichkeit seine Anwesenheit uns Vorteil brachte.

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

Die Leute grauelten sich allerdings, aber in der Rückerinnerung hatten sie die Geschichten eigentlich gern; es war eine angenehme Aufregung in ihrem stillen Landleben.

and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a “true sea-dog,”

Unter den jüngeren Leuten gab es sogar eine Partei, die voll Bewunderung von ihm sprach. Sie nannten ihn »einen echten Seehund«

and a “real old salt,” and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

und »eine richtige alte Teerjacke« und so ähnlich und sagten, das wären gerade die Leute, die England so gefürchtet zur See machten.

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

In einer Beziehung richtete allerdings der Kaptein uns zugrunde: er blieb eine Woche nach der anderen, und schließlich einen Monat nach dem anderen,

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

so daß die Goldstücke, die er auf den Tisch geworfen hatte, längst verrechnet waren; aber mein Vater konnte sich niemals ein Herz fassen und mehr Geld von ihm verlangen.

If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so loudly

Sobald er eine leichte Anspielung machte, blies der Kaptein so laut durch die Nase,

that you might say he roared, and stared my poor father out of the room.

daß es beinahe ein Brüllen war, und sah meinen Vater so wütend an, daß dieser die Schenkstube verließ.

I have seen him wringing his hands after such a rebuff,

Ich habe ihn nach solcher Abweisung die Hände ringen sehen,

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

und ich bin überzeugt, daß der Verdruß über seinen Gast und die Angst, worin er lebte, seinen allzu frühen unglücklichen Tod sehr beschleunigt haben.

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

Während der ganzen Zeit, daß der Kaptein bei uns wohnte, trug er immer denselben Anzug; niemals änderte er etwas daran, nur einmal kaufte er Strümpfe von einem Hausierer.

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.

Als eine von den Krempen seines Hutes sich losgelöst hatte und herunterhing, ließ er ihn so, wie er war, obwohl diese Krempe ihn bei starkem Wind sehr belästigte.

I remember the appearance of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room,

Ich sehe vor meinen Augen noch seinen Rock, auf den er selber oben in seinem Zimmer einen Flicken setzte,

and which, before the end, was nothing but patches.

sooft er das für nötig hielt; schließlich bestand der ganze Rock nur aus Flicken.

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

Niemals schrieb er einen Brief, niemals empfing er einen; er sprach mit keinem Menschen ein Wort außer mit den Nachbarn, die zu uns in die Wirtschaft kamen,

and with these, for the most part, only when drunk on rum.

auch mit diesen gewöhnlich nur, wenn er zuviel Rum getrunken hatte.

The great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open.

Seine große Schifferkiste hatte keiner von uns jemals offen gesehen.

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.

Nur ein einziges Mal wagte ein Mensch, ihm über den Mund zu fahren, und das geschah erst in der letzten Zeit, als mein armer Vater schon sehr krank und dem Tode nahe war.

Doctor Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient,

Doktor Livesey kam eines Nachmittags zu später Stunde, um noch nach dem Kranken zu sehen;

took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlor to smoke a pipe

meine Mutter setzte ihm ein bißchen zu essen vor, und dann ging er in die Schenkstube, um eine Pfeife zu rauchen,

until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old “Benbow.”

bis sein Pferd vom Dorf zurückgebracht würde; denn wir hatten im alten »Admiral Benbow« keine Stallung.

I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright,

Ich ging mit dem Doktor in die Schenkstube, und ich erinnere mich noch, daß mir der Unterschied zwischen dem sauberen, munteren Doktor mit seiner schneeweiß gepuderten Perücke, seinen hellen,

black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with

schwarzen Augen und seinem liebenswürdigen Benehmen und den plumpen Landleuten auffiel, besonders

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

aber der Gegensatz zu dem schmutzigen, zerlumpten alten Piraten, der stark angetrunken hinter seinem Tische saß und die Ellenbogen aufgestützt hatte.

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

Plötzlich begann er, der Kapitän nämlich, sein ewiges Lied zu brüllen:

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

Fünfzehn Mann bei des Toten Kist’
– Johoho, und ’ne Buddel, Buddel Rum!

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

Suff und der Teufel holten den Rest –
Johoho, und ’ne Buddel, Buddel Rum!

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

Anfangs hatte ich vermutet, »des Toten Kist’« sei die große Schifferkiste oben im Vorderzimmer,

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

und ich hatte sie in meinen Träumen mit dem einbeinigen Schiffer in Verbindung gebracht.

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

Inzwischen aber hatten wir alle schon längst aufgehört, auf sein Singen zu achten;

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

an diesem Abend war das Lied nur dem Dr. Livesey neu, und ich bemerkte, daß es auf ihn keinen angenehmen Eindruck machte;

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

denn er sah einen Augenblick ganz ärgerlich aus, bevor er in seinem Gespräch mit dem alten Gärtner Taylor fortfuhr, mit dem er sich über ein neues Mittel gegen das Gliederreißen unterhielt.

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.

Der Kapitän wurde bei seinem eigenen Lied lustig und schlug schließlich mit der Faust vor sich auf den Tisch; wir alle wußten, daß er damit den Anwesenden Schweigen befehlen wollte.

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

Alle hörten sofort auf zu sprechen – mit Ausnahme des Dr. Livesey; der sprach ruhig weiter,

and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two.

indem er zwischen jedem zweiten oder dritten Wort einen kurzen Zug aus seiner Pfeife tat.

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

Eine Weile starrte der Kaptein ihn an, schlug wieder mit der flachen Hand auf den Tisch,

glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous oath:

starrte ihn noch grimmiger an und schrie endlich mit einem gemeinen Fluch:

“Silence, there, between decks!”

»Stille da unter Deck!«

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

»Sagten Sie etwas zu mir, Herr?« sagte der Doktor.

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

Und als der Kerl mit einem neuen Fluch ihm sagte, das wäre allerdings der Fall, antwortete der Arzt:

“I have only one thing to say to you, sir, that if you keep on drinking rum,

»Ich habe Ihnen nur eins zu sagen, Herr: wenn Sie mit dem Rumtrinken so weiter machen,

the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”

wird die Welt bald von einem sehr dreckigen Schuft befreit sein!«

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

Die Wut des alten Burschen war schrecklich anzusehen. Er sprang auf, zog ein Matrosen-Klappmesser, öffnete es,

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

schwang es auf der offenen Handfläche und drohte dem Doktor, er werde ihn an die Wand spießen.

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

Der aber rührte sich nicht einmal. Er sprach wie bisher über die Schulter weg zum Kaptein und sagte mit der gleichen ruhigen Stimme,

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

ziemlich laut, so daß alle im Zimmer ihn hören konnten, aber ganz gelassen:

“If you do not put that knife this instant into your pocket,

»Wenn Ihr nicht augenblicklich das Messer in die Tasche steckt,

I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at the next assizes.”

so gebe ich Euch mein Wort darauf: nach der nächsten Gerichtssitzung hängt Ihr am Galgen!«

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.

Dann kreuzten ihre Blicke sich; aber der Kaptein gab bald klein bei, steckte seine Waffe ein und setzte sich wieder hin, wobei er wie ein geprügelter Hund knurrte.

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

»Und nun noch eins, mein Mann!« fuhr der Doktor fort: »Da ich jetzt weiß, daß solch ein Bursche in meinem Bezirk ist,

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

so könnt Ihr Euch darauf verlassen, daß ich Tag und Nacht ein Auge auf Euch haben werde.

I’m not a doctor only, I’m a magistrate;

Ich bin nicht nur Arzt, ich bin auch Beamter;

and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like to-night’s,

und wenn ich auch nur die leiseste Beschwerde über Euch höre – wär’s auch bloß wegen einer Unhöflichkeit wie heute abend –,

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

so werde ich dafür zu sorgen wissen, daß man Euch an dem Kragen nimmt und abschiebt. Und damit genug!«

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.

Bald darauf wurde Dr. Liveseys Pferd gebracht, und er ritt ab; der Kaptein aber war an diesem Abend still und tat noch viele Abende hinterher den Mund nicht auf.

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.