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I LOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all
that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long
before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and
dangerous position. Some of the man's money--if he had
any--was certainly due to us, but it was not likely
that our captain's shipmates, above all the two
specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the blind beggar,
would be inclined to give up their booty in payment of
the dead man's debts. The captain's order to mount at
once and ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my
mother alone and unprotected, which was not to be
thought of. Indeed, it seemed impossible for either of
us to remain much longer in the house; the fall of
coals in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the
clock, filled us with alarms. The neighbourhood, to
our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and
what between the dead body of the captain on the
parlour floor and the thought of that detestable blind
beggar hovering near at hand and ready to return, there
were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my
skin for terror. Something must speedily be resolved
upon, and it occurred to us at last to go forth
together and seek help in the neighbouring hamlet. No
sooner said than done. Bare-headed as we were, we ran
out at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.
The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away, though out
of view, on the other side of the next cove; and what
greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction
from that whence the blind man had made his appearance
and whither he had presumably returned. We were not
many minutes on the road, though we sometimes stopped
to lay hold of each other and hearken. But there was
no unusual sound--nothing but the low wash of the
ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.
It was already candle-light when we reached the hamlet,
and I shall never forget how much I was cheered to see
the yellow shine in doors and windows; but that, as it
proved, was the best of the help we were likely to get
in that quarter. For--you would have thought men would
have been ashamed of themselves--no soul would consent
to return with us to the Admiral Benbow. The more we
told of our troubles, the more--man, woman, and child--
they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name of
Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was well
enough known to some there and carried a great weight
of terror. Some of the men who had been to field-work
on the far side of the Admiral Benbow remembered,
besides, to have seen several strangers on the road,
and taking them to be smugglers, to have bolted away;
and one at least had seen a little lugger in what we
called Kitt's Hole. For that matter, anyone who was a
comrade of the captain's was enough to frighten them to
death. And the short and the long of the matter was,
that while we could get several who were willing enough
to ride to Dr. Livesey's, which lay in another
direction, not one would help us to defend the inn.
They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is,
on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when each
had said his say, my mother made them a speech. She
would not, she declared, lose money that belonged to
her fatherless boy; "If none of the rest of you dare,"
she said, "Jim and I dare. Back we will go, the way we
came, and small thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-
hearted men. We'll have that chest open, if we die for
it. And I'll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to
bring back our lawful money in."
Of course I said I would go with my mother, and of course
they all cried out at our foolhardiness, but even then
not a man would go along with us. All they would do was
to give me a loaded pistol lest we were attacked, and to
promise to have horses ready saddled in case we were
pursued on our return, while one lad was to ride forward
to the doctor's in search of armed assistance.
My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in
the cold night upon this dangerous venture. A full
moon was beginning to rise and peered redly through the
upper edges of the fog, and this increased our haste,
for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all
would be as bright as day, and our departure exposed to
the eyes of any watchers. We slipped along the hedges,
noiseless and swift, nor did we see or hear anything to
increase our terrors, till, to our relief, the door of
the Admiral Benbow had closed behind us.
I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted for
a moment in the dark, alone in the house with the dead
captain's body. Then my mother got a candle in the
bar, and holding each other's hands, we advanced into
the parlour. He lay as we had left him, on his back,
with his eyes open and one arm stretched out.
"Draw down the blind, Jim," whispered my mother; "they
might come and watch outside. And now," said she when
I had done so, "we have to get the key off THAT; and
who's to touch it, I should like to know!" and she gave
a kind of sob as she said the words.
I went down on my knees at once. On the floor close to
his hand there was a little round of paper, blackened
on the one side. I could not doubt that this was the
BLACK SPOT; and taking it up, I found written on
the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short
message: "You have till ten tonight."
"He had till ten, Mother," said I; and just as I said
it, our old clock began striking. This sudden noise
startled us shockingly; but the news was good, for it
was only six.
"Now, Jim," she said, "that key."
I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins,
a thimble, and some thread and big needles, a piece of pigtail
tobacco bitten away at the end, his gully with the crooked
handle, a pocket compass, and a tinder box were all that they
contained, and I began to despair.
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