IT was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for the sea, and none of our first plans - not even Dr Livesey's of keeping me beside him - could be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to London for a physician to take charge of his practice; the squire was hard at work a Bristol; and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea dreams and the most charming anticipations of strange island and adventures. I brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the house- keeper's room, I approached that island my fancy, from every possible direction; I explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand times to that tall hill the call the Spy-glass, and from the top enjoyed the most wonderful and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals that hunted us; but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.
So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed to Dr Livesey, with this addition, `To be opened in the case of his absence, by Tom Redruth, or young Hawkins.' Obeying this order, we found, or rather, I found - for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading anything but print - the following important news:--
`Old Anchor Inn, Bristol
`March 1, 17 - .
`DEAR LIVESEY , - As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or still in London, I send this in double to both places.
`The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea. You never imagined a sweeter schooner - a child might sail her - two hundred tons; name, Hispaniola.
`I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has proved himself throughout the most surprising trump. The admirable fellow literally slaved in my interest, and so, I may say, did everyone in Bristol, as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for - treasure, I mean.'
`Redruth,' said I, interrupting the letter, `Doctor Livesey will not like that. The squire has been talking, after all.'
`Well, who's a better right?' growled the gamekeeper. `A pretty rum go if squire ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey, I should think.'
At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and read straight on:--
`Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and by the most admirable management got her for the merest trifle. There is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly. They go the length of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money, that the Hispaniola belonged to him, and that he sold it me absurdly high - the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare, however, to deny the merits of the ship.
`So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure - riggers and what not - were most annoyingly slow; but time cured that. It was the crew that troubled me.
`I wished a round score of men - in case of natives, buccaneers, or the odious French - and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find so much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought me the very man that I required.
`I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I fell in talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public - house, knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled down there that morning, he said to get a smell of the salt.
`I was monstrously touched - so would you have been - and, out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship's cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost it in hi country's service, under the immortal Hawke. He has no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable age we live in！
`Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we go together in a few days a company of the toughest old salt imaginable - not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit. I declare we could fight frigate.
`Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven had already engaged. He showed me in a moment that the were just the sort of fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.
`I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan Seaward ho！ Hang the treasure！ It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.
`Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, wit Redruth for a guard; and then both come full speed to Bristol.
`JOHN TRELAWNEY.
`Postscript. - I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the was） is to send a consort after us if we don't turn up by the en of August, had found an admirable fellow for sailing master - a stiff man, which I regret, but, in all other respects, treasure. Long John Silver unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war fashion on boar the good ship Hispaniola.
`I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a woman of colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the health, that sends him back to roving.
`J. T.
`P.P.S. - Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.
`J. T.'
You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half beside myself with glee; and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to grumble.
The next morning he and I set out on foot for the `Admiral Benbow,' and there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The captain, who had so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the wicked cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the public rooms and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture - above all a beautiful arm-chair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy as an apprentice also, so that she should not want help while I was gone.
It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my situation. I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me, not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now, at the sight of this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I had my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life; for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.
The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were afoot again, and on the road. I said good-bye to mother and the cove where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old `Admiral Benbow' - since he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One of my last thoughts was of the captain, who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked hat, his sabre-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we had turned the corner, and my home was out of sight.
The mail picked us up about dusk at the `Royal George' on the heath. I was wedged in between Redruth and stout old gentleman, and in spite of the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage after stage; for when I was awakened at last, it was by a punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before a large building in a city street, and that the day had already broken long time.
`Where are we?' I asked.
`Bristol,' said Tom. `Get down.'
Mr Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks, to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk, and our way, to my great delight lay along the quays and beside the great multitude o ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors. were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or archbishops I could not have been more delighted.
And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner, with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown island, and to seek for buried treasures！
While I was still in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea-officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his face, and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk.
`Here you are,' he cried, `and the doctor came last night from London. Bravo！ the ship's company complete！'
`Oh, sir,' cried I, `when do we sail?'
`Sail！' says he. `We sail to-morrow！'
我们为出海做准备的时间比乡绅预想的要长些，并且我们最初的计划——甚至利弗西医生把我留在他身边的打算——一件也没照我们构想的实行。医生不得不去伦敦另找个医生来负责他的业务，乡绅在布里斯托尔紧张地忙碌着；我仍住在府第上，在猪场看守人老雷卓斯的照管下，几乎像个犯人，但是脑子里装满了航海的梦想和关于陌生岛屿与探险的最迷人的设想。我边看地图边沉思，记住了上面所有的细节。坐在管家房里的壁炉旁，我在幻想中从每个可能的方向到达了那个岛；我探索了它表层的第一亩土地；我上千次地爬上了那个他们叫做望远镜山的高山，还从山顶饱览最为瑰丽、变幻无穷的风光。有时岛上到处是野人，同我们打仗；有时又到处都是危险的动物，追赶我们；不过在我所有的幻想中，像我们实际冒险时经历的那么奇异和悲惨的事情一件也没有。这么着一周周过去了，直到有那么一天，来了封写给利弗西医生的信，附注说，“他不在的情况下，可以由汤姆·雷卓斯或小霍金斯拆阅。”遵照这个指示，我们发现了，或者毋宁说是我发现了——因为猎场看守人除了能看图画外，对阅读任何东西都无能为力——下面的重要信息：
亲爱的利弗西，
由于我不知道你是在府第还是仍在伦敦，我将这封信一式两份，分寄两处。
船已买到并装备完了。她停泊着准备远航。你再也想像不出会有比这更为漂亮的双桅船了——连个孩子都能驾驶她——两百吨；名字，伊斯班袅拉号。
我是通过我的老朋友布兰德利得到它的，他已被证实是个地地道道的大好人。这位可敬的朋友在我这件事上简直是出了大力了，因此，我可以说，只要布里斯托尔的人风闻了我们要去的港口——我指的是宝藏，每个人都会这么做的。
“雷卓斯，”我停下来说道，“利弗西医生不会喜欢那样的。乡绅毕竟说得太多了。”“好啦，谁更正确些？”猎场看守人忿忿不平地说，“要是乡绅因为利弗西医生的缘故就不讲话了，那才真怪哩，我想。”听了这话，我打消了评论的念头，照直读下去：
布兰德利本人发现了伊斯班袅拉号，并且通过最令人起敬的安排，以最少的价钱得到了它。在布里斯托尔，有一帮人对布兰德利怀着巨大的偏见。他们说得太离谱了，说这个诚实的人为了钱可以做任何事情，说那艘伊斯班袅拉号是属于他的，而他以荒唐的高价卖给了我，这是最明显的诽谤。然而，他们中的任何人都不敢否认这艘船的价值。
到现在为止，还没遇到什么麻烦。工人们，确切地说，装索具的工匠们，慢得烦死人；但是时间会挽救这个。令我头疼的是船员的问题。
我想要整整二十个人——为了防备土人、海盗或是可恨的法国人——让我犯愁的倒霉事是我至多只找到了半打人，直到那最惊人的好运给我带来了我需要的那个人。
当时我正站在船坞里，极其偶然的机会，我和他攀谈起来。我发现他是个老水手，开了问酒馆，熟知布里斯托尔的所有船员，在岸上健康状况不佳，想谋个厨子这样的好差事，再回到海上。他说那天早晨他破着脚到了那儿，是想闻闻海盐的味儿。
我被极大地触动了——你也会这样的——纯粹是出于同情，我安排他做船上的厨子。人们叫他高个子约翰·西尔弗，他少了一条腿；但是我认为那是他可取之处，因为他是在那不朽的豪克上将麾下为祖国服务的时候失去这条腿的。他没得到抚恤金，利弗西，想想我们生活的这个可恶的年代！
听着，先生，我本以为我只找到了个厨子，但是我发现我找到的是一批船员。西尔弗和我本人，我们一起在几天的时间里就集合到了一伙不可想像的最坚韧的老船员——不是徒有其表，而是从他们的脸上就可看出他们是最不屈不挠的朋友。我断言我们能和一艘快速战舰作战。
高个子约翰甚至从我已安排好的六、七个人中剔除掉了两个。他立刻向我指出，他们是那类毫无经验的嫩手，是我们在一次重要的冒险中最怕的一类人。
我健康极佳，精神矍铄，吃得像头公牛，睡下像棵树，然而只有听见我的老水手们绕着绞盘机迈步，我才能享受一番。出海。罗！管它什么宝藏！令我神魂颠倒的正是壮丽的大海。所以，现在，利弗西，赶快来吧，一小时也不要耽搁，要是你看得起我的话。
让小霍金斯马上去看望他的母亲，雷卓斯一道去，给她找个跟班；然后两人全速赶到布里斯托尔。
约翰·特里罗尼
又及——我还没向你讲那个布兰德利，他顺便提起，要是我们八月底还没返回来的话，他会派一艘船去寻找我们。他已找到了一个可尊敬的朋友来做我们的船长——一个固执的人，这点令我惋惜，不过，从其他各方面看，是个好手。高个子约翰·西尔弗找到了个相当有能力的人来担任大副，这人叫埃罗。我有个吹哨子召集水手的水手长，利弗西；这样一来，在伊斯班袅拉号船上，事情将以军舰上的方式来进行。
我忘了告诉你，西尔弗是个有资产的人；我从得来的信息中了解到，他在银行开了户头，从未透支过。他让妻子留下来经营小酒店；并且由于她是个黑人妇女，若让像你我这样的老光棍来猜测，使他重新去漂泊的原因，除健康因素外，这个老婆也是一方面，我们这样认为是可以得到谅解的。
约·特
再及——霍金斯可以同他的母亲呆上一个晚上。
约·特
于古锚旅店，布里斯托尔
一七××年三月一日
你能想像得出这封信带给我的兴奋。我高兴得忘乎所以了。可要说我曾轻视过人，那就是老汤姆·雷卓斯了，他竟在那儿一个劲儿地发牢骚和叹气。任何一个猎场看守者的下手都乐于和他换换位置。但乡绅是不会愿意这样的，而乡绅的意愿在他们中就像是法律一样，除了老雷卓斯，还没人敢这么抱怨哩。
第二天早上，他和我步行出门，到了“本葆海军上将”旅店，在那儿，我发现我的母亲身体和精神都很好。船长，曾经长时间以来一直是这么多不快事件的根源的那个人，已经进了坟墓，这恶人再也不能叨扰我们了。乡绅已派人把所有的东西都修复好了，酒吧间和招牌都重新油漆过，还添了些新家具——首先，在酒吧里为我母亲添了把漂亮的圈椅。他还给她找来了个男孩当学徒，以便我走后她不缺帮手。
只有当见到了这个男孩的时候，我才头一回懂得了我的处境。我曾经仔细想过将面临的危险，却压根儿没想过我即将离开的这个家；而现在一见到这个笨手笨脚的、就要代替我留在母亲身边的新手，我的泪水忽地涌上来。我恐怕我带给那个男孩的是艰难、屈辱的生活，因为他对这工作很生疏，使我上百次地纠正和贬低他，没有让他慢慢地适应。
夜晚过去了，第二天午饭后，雷卓斯和我又步行上路了。我辞别了母亲和自我出生以来一直居住的小海湾，还有亲爱的老“本葆海军上将”旅店——自从它被重新油漆过，不再那样亲切了。最后想到的是船长，他总是沿着海滩跨着大步往前走，我想起他的三角帽，他面颊上的刀疤，还有他的旧黄铜望远镜。不一会工夫，我们便转弯了，我的家园离开了我们的视线。
黄昏时分，我们在“乔治王”前的荒地上搭乘了邮车。我被夹在雷卓斯和一个相当肥胖的老绅士中间，车走得很快，夜气很凉，尽管如此，我无疑一上车就打起盹来，接着便熟睡得像块木头，上山头又下溪谷，过了一站又一站；最后直到肋下挨了一拳，我才醒来，睁开了眼睛，发现我们正静静地停在城市街道上一座大的建筑物前，而天已大亮了。
“我们在哪儿？”我问道。
“布里斯托尔，”汤姆说，“下车。”
特里罗尼先生已选定远远处于船坞下方的一家旅馆为落脚地，以便监督船上的工作。现在我们得到他那儿去，而令我大为开心的是，一路都是码头和大量的各种型号、帆式和国别的船只。在一艘船上，水手们唱着歌于着活；在另一艘船上，人们高悬在我上方的桅杆顶上，攀在看上去不比蛛丝粗的绳索上。尽管我一直生活在海边，在这之前却似乎从未离海这么近过，柏油和海盐的气味有种新鲜的感觉。我看到了那飘洋过海、远道而来的最奇特的船头雕饰。此外，我看到了许多老水手，耳朵上戴着耳环，蓄着绕腮的一圈大胡子，辫子上涂着柏油，迈着摇摆、笨拙的水手步；即便见到同样多的国王和大主教，我也不会这样开心。
而我本人也即将出海，乘着双桅船，和一个吹哨子的水手长以及留着辫子、唱着歌的水手们一道出海；出海，驶向一个不知名的岛，去寻找埋藏着的宝藏！当我还沉浸在这欢乐的梦想中的时候，我们突然来到了一座大旅馆的门前，正遇到了特里罗尼乡绅，他全身妆扮得像个海军军官，穿着一套结实的蓝衣服，面带微笑地从门里走出来，惟妙惟肖地学了个水手步。
“你们来啦，”他叫道，“医生昨晚从伦敦回来了。好极了！船上的人齐了！”
“噢，先生，”我叫道，“我们什么时候启航？”
“启航！”他说，“我们明天就启航！”