[adapted]

by
Robert Louis Stevenson

Chapter I.
The Old Sea-Dog at the “Admiral Benbow”

Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and other gentlemen asked me to write the true story of Treasure Island. I will tell everything from the beginning to the end. Only the exact place of the island will stay secret, because treasure still lies there. I write this many years later, but I remember clearly the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn.

One day an old sailor came to our door. A man pushed a barrow behind him with a large sea-chest. The sailor was tall and strong. His skin was dark from the sun. His coat was old and dirty. His hands were rough and scarred. A long cut crossed one cheek.

He looked around the quiet cove and began to sing in a rough voice:

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

Then he knocked on the door with a stick. When my father came out, the man asked for a glass of rum. He drank it slowly and looked at the sea and the cliffs.

“This is a good place,” he said. “A quiet cove. Not many people here?”

My father said we had very few guests.

“Good,” said the sailor. “This place will suit me. Bring my chest inside. I will stay here for a time. You can call me Captain.”

He threw some gold coins on the floor and told us to inform him when the money was finished.

The captain stayed at the inn after that. He spoke very little. During the day he walked along the cliffs with a brass telescope and watched the sea. In the evening he sat by the fire and drank rum mixed with water.

Every day he asked the same question.

“Have any seafaring men passed along the road?”

At first we thought he wanted company. Later we understood he wished to avoid sailors.

One day he took me aside. He promised to give me a silver coin each month if I watched for a seafaring man with one leg and told him at once if such a man appeared.

The thought of this man frightened me. At night I often dreamed about a one-legged sailor chasing me across fields and hills. Still, the captain always paid me and repeated the same order.

The captain often drank too much rum. When he was drunk, he forced everyone in the inn to listen to his songs and stories. Many nights the house shook with his loud voice and the chorus:

“Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”

His stories were terrible. He spoke about pirates, storms, fights, and cruel acts at sea. The villagers feared him, but they also listened with excitement.

The captain stayed many weeks and then many months. His gold money was long finished, but my father was afraid to ask for more. When my father spoke about payment, the captain only stared at him and made a loud noise through his nose. The worry caused my father great stress while he was already very ill.

The captain lived in a strange way. He never received letters. He spoke little to anyone except when drunk. His great sea-chest always stayed closed in his room.

One evening Dr. Livesey came to visit my sick father. After dinner the doctor sat in the parlour and spoke calmly with a gardener. The captain sat nearby drinking rum.

Soon he began singing again:
“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!”

After a time the captain struck the table with his hand. Everyone knew this meant silence. All the voices stopped except Dr. Livesey’s. The doctor continued speaking calmly.

The captain became angry. He shouted and pulled out a sailor’s knife.

Dr. Livesey did not move. He spoke in a calm voice so everyone could hear.

“If you do not put that knife away at once, I promise you will hang for it.”

The captain glared at him. After a moment he slowly put the knife back in his pocket and sat down again.

Dr. Livesey continued speaking.

“I am not only a doctor,” he said. “I am also a magistrate. If I hear one complaint about you, I will see that you are punished.”

Soon the doctor’s horse arrived, and he rode away. After that evening the captain was quiet for many days.

Chapter II.
Black Dog Appears and Disappears

Not long after this, strange events began. It was a very cold winter. My father grew weaker every day, and my mother and I had to run the inn alone.

One cold morning the captain went out early for his walk along the beach. Soon after he left, a stranger came into the inn.

The man looked pale and unhealthy. Two fingers were missing from his left hand. He carried a cutlass, but he did not look like a strong fighter.

He asked for a glass of rum. When I turned to get it, he called me back.

“Come here, boy,” he said. “Is this table for my friend Bill?”

I told him we had a man staying with us called the captain.

“Ah,” said the stranger. “Your captain may be my friend Bill. Does he have a cut on one cheek?”

I said yes.

“Good,” said the man. “Then I will wait for him.”

He stood near the door and watched the road carefully. Sometimes he looked nervous, as if he feared someone might see him.

Soon the captain returned. He walked into the room and went toward his breakfast.

“Bill,” said the stranger.

The captain turned quickly. When he saw the man, his face became pale.

“Black Dog!” he cried.

“Yes,” said the stranger. “Black Dog himself. Your old shipmate.”

The two men sat down and asked for rum. Black Dog told me to leave the door open and go away.

I went into the bar but tried to listen. At first they spoke quietly. Soon their voices grew louder.

“No,” the captain shouted once. “And that is the end of it!”