The next morning, we started moving the gold to the Hispaniola.
Abe Gray and Ben Gunn went back and forth with the shore boat, while the rest of us kept piling it up on the beach.
The gold was very heavy; I couldn't carry any of it, so I kept busy packing the coins into bags.
"There are so many different coins from so many different countries!" I thought.
"I think all the kings of Europe must be represented here."
For two days, the work went on,
and on the third night, as Dr. Livesey and I were walking on the beach, the wind carried a strange, shrieking noise through the darkness.
"Heaven help them," the doctor said. "It's the mutineers! They're singing."
"All drunk, sir," said Long John, who had decided to follow behind us.
"Drunk or insane," the doctor answered gruffly.
"Right you are, sir," agreed Long John, "but it hardly matters which."
"My feelings may surprise you, Mr. Silver," retorted Dr. Livesey, "but if I was certain they needed me, I'd go and help them, no matter what the risk."
"And you would be wrong, sir," Long John said. "You'd lose your life.
I'm on your side now, and I don't want to see our side weakened, let alone see you die.
Those men down there couldn't keep their word, and what's more, they wouldn't believe you would keep yours."
"Perhaps not," snapped the doctor, "though we all know how you keep your word."
That was all we heard from the pirates until, one day, a gunshot sounded a long way off.
"I suppose they are hunting," said Squire Trelawney.
"Do you think they have enough to eat?"
"It doesn't matter now," replied Captain Smollett.
"We must leave them on the island. We cannot risk taking them with us."
"Good!" exclaimed Ben Gunn.
"I agree," Gray said with a nod.
"There's a good supply of gunpowder and shot, a few pounds of salted goat meat, and medicine," noted Dr. Livesey,
"and other necessities—tools, clothing, a spare sail, and a mile or two of rope.
We can also leave them some tobacco."
Not long after, the day came for us to leave the island.
"We've stowed all the gold on board, and we have enough water and goat meat," Gray reported.
"It's a fine morning to pull up the anchor," said the squire.
"And there's the Union Jack!" shouted the captain with a smile as we sailed out of North Inlet, flying the same flag we'd fought under at the stockade.
The three pirates must have been watching for us,
because as we sailed out to sea, they knelt together on the southern strip of sand and raised their arms. "Don't abandon us!" they begged.
"It pains me to leave them, but we cannot risk another mutiny," declared the squire.
"And to take them home to be hung at Execution Dock would be a cruel sort of kindness," said Captain Smollett.
"We left food in the cave!" the doctor shouted to the pleading pirates.
"Dr. Livesey! Squire Trelawney! Captain Smollett!" they cried.
"For God's sake! Be merciful! Don't leave us here to die!"
At last, when they saw the Hispaniola wouldn't stop,
one pirate put his musket to his shoulder and sent a shot whistling over Long John Silver's head and through the mainsail.
After that, we kept our heads low, and when I looked out again, the island had melted out of sight.
We headed for the nearest South American port to hire new sailors, and anchored in a beautiful landlocked gulf after sundown.
The doctor, the squire, and I went ashore and had such fun that we didn't get back to the ship until early morning.
As soon as we returned, Ben Gunn reported, "Long John is gone.
I helped him escape in a shore boat to save your lives.
You were all in danger if that man stayed aboard."
"I suppose we should thank you," the squire said. "Is that all?"
"No," he admitted. "He didn't go empty-handed. He took a sack of gold coins."
We looked at each other.
"Actually, I'm glad we got rid of him so cheaply," said the doctor.
We hired some new men and made good time home to Bristol.
"Mr. Blandly will just be thinking of coming after us," said Squire Trelawney as we landed.
"Of all those who sailed, only five men returned," observed the captain.
Dr. Livesey nodded. "'Drink and the devil had done for the rest,' most definitely."
"Not quite as bad as that other ship they sang about," I said.
"'But one of her crew was still alive, of the ship that sailed with seventy-five.'"
All of us got an ample share of the treasure and used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures.
Captain Smollett retired from the sea. Gray saved his money, and he's now part owner of a fine ship, married, and the father of a big family.
Ben Gunn spent or lost all his money within three weeks.
He ended up in a small village and he still lives there, singing in the church every Sunday and on holidays.
We heard no more of Long John Silver.
He probably met up with his wife and perhaps still lives with her in comfort.
As I said at the beginning of my tale, there is still treasure on that island, so I won't reveal the location.
All the bars of silver that remain on Treasure Island are where Flint buried them.
But the devil himself could not drag me back to that cursed place.
I still have nightmares whenever I hear the booming of the surf on the coast,
and then I sit upright in bed with the sharp voice of the parrot ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"
[caption_out@