Flint and Silver: A Prequel to Treasure Island

Chapter 28

Flint stood at the door of his cabin and saw Silver sitting at ease with an arm around Selena's shoulders, and the girl nestled up against him with every sign of being well content. Emotions washed over Flint like the three tides over a hanged and gibbeted pirate at Execution Dock, Wapping. First there was disbelief that the girl could give herself to a cripple. Then there was fierce, wounding envy that the cripple had obviously done the thing that he was forever incapable of doing. And finally there was poisonous hatred.

Flint snarled, drew a knife, and stepped forward. Silver drew a pistol and levelled it at Flint.

"What?" said Flint. "Will you murder me? Me with my priming soaked?" He gestured at his own pistols, drenched by the storm, and the two men faced each other, neither moving, eyes locked and limbs shaking with rage. But neither made a move, while Selena, the seeming object of this final outright break between the two men, stared in amazement.

"Come on then!" said Flint.

"Whenever you choose, Cap'n," said Silver. But still they didn't move. Selena looked at the hard faces and tensed hands.

They were a split second from coming to blows, but something was stopping them.

They're afraid, she thought. Afraid of each other. That's why it's gone on so long. She'd spotted something nobody else had noticed. But even so, she'd only got part of the truth. Even she never realised that both men would, even now, have healed the breach if only they could, despite the fact that the whole world could see it was past healing. The most painful time of a broken friendship is the time when old friends are making ever more futile and extravagant attempts to compromise, and make allowances, and are steadfastly refusing to face the truth.

Then Billy Bones came thundering down from the quarterdeck and barged into the cabin crying out as he came.

"All secured, Cap'n," he said. "Permission to stand down the larboard watch, and issue…" He blinked at the blade and the pistol. He had nowhere near Selena's insight, and simply saw danger to the man he worshipped like a god.

"Uh!" he grunted and instantly stumped forward, unarmed as he was, to stand between Flint and the pistol. "Gimme the word, Cap'n," he said, spitting fire and fury at Silver. "Gimme the word and I'll have the bollocks off the sodding old ruin!"

"Billy-my-chicken," said Flint, and he barked with laughter. His quick, flickering mind could turn to humour in the instant, and he laughed at Bones's stupidity… his stupid bravery and his very great usefulness. "Will you split the marrow-bones, of him, my Billy? Will you pop out his eyes with your thumbs?"

"That I will, Cap'n!" said Bones.

"Will you, though?" said Silver. "Will you, indeed!" And he hopped to his feet, hauling the long crutch under his arm, and shoving Selena out of harm's way. "Well then, you swab," he said, "I challenge you, man to man, and according to articles. I challenge you to face me with the weapons your mother gave you, on fair and level ground and with no man to intervene."

Billy Bones blinked a while, pondering the legality of this appeal to articles. He searched his memory for what he'd signed, nodded unconsciously as he recalled the article in question… and a fat, slow grin spread over his heavy face.

"Aye," he said, "on fair and level ground, with no man to intervene." He turned to Flint. "That's fair and proper, Cap'n. According to articles, and only your permission is awaited. I duly asks for that permission."

"As do I!" said Silver, and Flint nearly bust himself holding back the hysterical laughter. But it wouldn't do, at this vital moment, to piss into Mr Bones's font. Not when Mr Bones was about to oblige by battering Silver senseless with mighty fists, before kicking in Silver's skull with heavy boots.

And what a fine thing that would be, thought Flint. Once the decks were scrubbed and hosed down, he would make a speech, sorrowing over Silver's fall into decrepitude and praising his past triumphs, and so bringing his rival's remaining supporters over to his own side. And then, if anyone thought the worse of Billy Bones for killing a poor old cripple, well, so much the worse for Billy-boy. He could always be replaced.

But first there were formalities to be observed. The crew had to be mustered, the Book of Articles brought forth, the articles read, and the combatants searched for hidden weapons. Finally the hands were warned, on pain of death, that nobody must interfere.

The excitement was immense. Such yelling and shouting and eager jostling, and such innocent delight on all sides at the prospect of so wonderful a fight. So Flint led Silver and Billy Bones to the quarterdeck, where the ship offered its nearest equivalent to fair and level ground, and each man took off his hat and coat, and stood to face the other. Bravado drove Billy Bones to haul off his shirt and stand like the pugilist he was, chest matted in black hair and tattooed arms bulging with strength. All of Flint's supporters, and many of Long John's too, roared their approval and admiration at the sight of him, while Long John stood waiting and trembling. He was visibly shaking. His face was white. His lips were black. He looked already dead. He looked a lost man, and Selena gaped in horror and tried to stop the inevitable. She appealed to Flint, and was ignored. She appealed to Long John, who seemed barely to hear her. She appealed to the crew, who howled and roared and ridiculed.

"So," said Flint, drawing a pair of fresh-primed pistols, "I charge all hands to stand back and take no part of this fair and chosen fight, remembering that, if any does interfere, then he shall die by my hand!"

He turned to Billy Bones. "Are you ready, Mr Bones?"

"Aye!"

"Are you ready, Mr Silver?"

"One thing more — " cried Silver.

"What is it?" said Flint.

"Does Mr Bones agree that I takes no unfair advantage over him?" said Silver. "Does he agree that I has no weapons other than what he sees. And that this — " he gestured at himself, "as I stand here, is the thing he fights?"

Billy Bones sneered with contempt at the cripple leaning on his crutch. "Aye," he said.

"Then go to it!" said Flint, which words were the signal for deafening shouts and cries of delight from the happy onlookers, fiercely shaking their fists and urging on their man to inflict death and mutilation. They filled the shrouds for a better view, they crowded all round in a ring. They jumped and fought to see, and the ship rolled and plunged beneath them. And Billy Bones grinned and stepped forward, waving his fists in little circles to exercise his arms.

"Cripple," he said, "I've been waiting for this. I'll stamp your face in!"

And then there was a gasp of amazement.

Long John swung his crutch out from under his shoulder. He balanced neatly on one leg and threw the heavy timber like a javelin. It caught Billy Bones squarely between the eyes. Bones staggered. His knees buckled. His arms drooped. Long John leapt forward and slammed the top of his head straight into Billy Bones's face, with all the weight of his body behind it. Billy Bones's nose crunched like a smashed apple, spraying blood left, right and centre… And down went Billy. Down went Long John too, right on top of him, driving the point of his knee hard into Billy Bones's belly, so the breath wheezed out in a gasp, then heaving him on to his face and wrenching his arm behind his back to twist the shoulder joint till the dazed and semi-conscious Billy Bones woke up again and roared in pain.

"Here we are then, Billy-my-chicken!" cried Long John, and got himself more comfortably seated on Billy's back, and got a better grip of his arm. He might have lost a leg, but he still had plenty of dead weight to hold Billy down, and all the powerful muscles of his arms and shoulders were fighting- fit and ready to put some real pressure to the wrestler's hold he'd applied.

"Bastard!" screamed Billy Bones. "I'll kill you!"

"So now who's the better man, of us?" hissed Long John, face close to Billy Bones's ear and the sweat dripping off his nose.

"Fuck you!" screamed Billy. "Fuck your mother! Fuck your father!"

Billy Bones was tough as granite and immune to pain — or so he'd thought. He struggled fiercely to unseat the one-legged man, but Silver hung on. He hung on like a spider round a fly. He hung on and he worked at Billy Bones's shoulder joint until eventually even Billy couldn't stand it any more, and stopped bellowing and started yelping.

"Now then, Billy," said Silver, when he thought he had Mr Bones's full attention, "shall I pop this shoulder out of her joint?" He looked up and nodded at the crowd. "There's Mr Cowdray over there, our surgeon, and he can always put her back in for you… unless I does a real job and tears the flesh and sinews of her, in which case she won't never work again. And then who'd be the cripple, Billy-boy? So here's a few more pulls, just to make sure you've got the feel of it. Are you ready, Billy?"

"AAAARGH!" Billy Bones shrieked in agony.

"I asks you once more, Billy-boy: Who's the better man?"

"Ohhhh.…" groaned Billy Bones, "no more…"

"Last time, Billy, or out she comes. Who's the better man?"

"Owww… It's you."

"Say it loud, Billy-boy. Good and loud."

"YOU'RE THE BETTER MAN!" cried Billy Bones, and he wept for the humiliation of it.

Long John rolled clear of Billy Bones and stood up, throwing his weight on to his leg and driving himself upright all in one movement. He stood swaying and balancing, hopping occasionally and stretching out his arms for balance. The hands cheered in delight and surged forward, but not before Long John had hopped a few neat steps, and bent at the knee, and stooped, and heaved upright again, retrieving the crutch that had knocked the wind out of Billy Bones. All this he did by himself, and he stood head and shoulders over the men who came forward to acclaim him.

He was Long John Silver again.

Except that he wasn't quite the old Long John. He was something else. The men didn't clap him on the back as they would have done before. They pressed close and they nodded and saluted. But they didn't dare touch him. There'd been something serpent-like in the one-legged man leaping and hopping; and where the old Long John would have knocked down Billy Bones with his fists, the new Long John had won by cunning and by torture. Long John himself felt the change, but at least he knew by the respect — and fear — in men's eyes that there'd be no more reference to cripples. Not aboard this ship.

Billy Bones certainly felt the change, for he'd always feared Long John before and now feared him twice as bad, and never dared challenge him again. Flint saw it too, and knew there'd be no easy solution to the split in the ranks that left half following himself and half his rival. And Selena saw it and pushed through the men around Silver. She pulled at his arm, and he grinned, and waved the hands away, and they obeyed like sheep, and left him and the girl alone. She was puzzled.

"Why'd you do that?" she said. "If you'd fight Billy Bones, then why not Flint? Are you afraid of him?"

"Huh!" said Long John. He frowned deeply, and searched within himself for an answer. He might even have managed one, but he was interrupted.

"Sail-ho!" cried the masthead lookout.

"Where away?"

"Two points on the larboard beam!"

"Hands to quarters!" cried Flint.

At the sniff of a prize, all else was forgotten for the moment, and the ship cleared for action at a speed that would not have disgraced a man-o'-war.

It took a speedy, well-found ship like Walrus little time to come alongside of the vessel the lookouts had spotted. There'd not been so much as a reef-point torn free during the storm. As Long John had said, Flint was a fine seaman, and now Flint stood by the tiller, hands behind his back, parrot on his shoulder. Billy Bones, still nursing his wounded shoulder was already stamping up and down, bawling at the men, as Walrus bore down on a fine little brig that was rolling and wallowing as if no man were aboard of her.

Flint backed his main topsail and ordered a boat's crew to pull across to the brig. He looked at the vessel carefully, and turned to Israel Hands, the gunner, and grinned.

"You can send your cartridges below, Mr Hands," he said. "No need to burn powder today."

Long John also considered the new vessel. Flint was right.

There was nobody at the wheel, not a man in the rigging, and the remains of her sails were flapping in streamers where they'd been blown out of their reefs and repeatedly split by the force of the tempest. The brig yawed and staggered, coming into the wind and falling off as the waves and weather played with her. But for all that, she was an uncommon fine little craft and, despite the storm damage, she appeared quite new.

She was about ninety-five foot in the keel, a hundred and fifty tons burden, and of a most graceful and pleasing form. The hull was painted white, picked out in brown, with actual gold leaf glittering around the frames of her stern windows and the carvings round her broadside of four gun-ports. Her name was Susan Mary and a united murmur of appreciation arose from Walrus's men in contemplation of her, for any seafaring man takes pleasure in a beautiful ship.

Under Billy Bones's urging, the men swung out a boat and its crew pulled across to the brig. They went over the side with a customary cheer, and pistols and cutlasses in their belts. But it was more for form than anything else. Everyone could see there would be no resistance. Long John and Selena watched as they thundered across her small decks, whooping and yelling, and then vanished below. The sounds of their busy searching and breaking things open came clearly across the water.

Walrus's men shifted enviously and muttered to one another, feeling left out of the fun. More than that, they feared the natural tendency of small and precious items of loot to find their way into the pockets of the first finders, rather than into the general pile, whatever the articles said on the matter.

Then Black Dog, who was in command of the boarders, appeared at the rail and called across the short space of water.

"Five left living, Cap'n!" he said. "Six months out of London, and foul winds the whole while…" He paused, and looked at things hidden by Susan Mary's rail from the sight of those aboard Walrus. "'Tis the scurvy, Cap'n. The swabs ain't got a tooth in their heads, nor a limb without sores. These aboard is what's left out of twenty-three, and the rest buried at sea or swept away last night."

"What's her cargo?" cried Flint.

"Plantation goods, Cap'n: herring and slops for the slaves mainly, with bar copper and lead, and some powder and muskets."

"Well, my chickens," said Flint, turning to his men with a smile, "here's a piece of Flint's luck and no mistake. The ship and cargo will fetch a fine price at Savannah, and all without the effort of a fight." The men grinned and nodded to one another, and squinted at the brig and made their well-practised estimates of what might be their own shares from this excellent piece of business.

"Cap'n Flint," said Long John, and silence fell as Flint turned to face him and the good humour drained from his face.

"Aye?" said Flint, and his eyes wavered as Silver stared steadily back at him.

"Cap'n," said Silver, "all hands knows that there must come a parting, sooner or later, between you and I."

It seemed as if even the wind and the sea fell silent at these words, for it was the first open saying of a truth that all parties had tried hard not to notice.

"Either that," said Silver, "or this happy crew shall split, and messmates shall spill one another's blood." Flint looked about him, and his parrot hissed and clucked and shifted its claws, sensing the discomfort in its master. As for the crew, they hardly breathed. Even those aboard the brig could hear enough to know that a momentous event was taking place, and they strained their ears and leaned over the rail to catch what it was.

"Perhaps," said Flint, scowling and ever-suspicious of a trap.

"You know it, Joe Flint," said Silver steadily. "And I know it. And there ain't no perhaps about it." Flint still said nothing, but looked away.

"So I says this," said Silver: "Here's to old times and new luck!" He paused and took a breath and came out with it. "I'll take that vessel — " he pointed at the brig "- and them as takes the fancy may follow me… together with our share of the goods." Flint sneered nastily at this and shook his head emphatically. Silver ignored him and continued.

"And so," he said, "we'll sail in company. That way we shall be jolly companions still, without being forced to rub along together, Joe, for we ain't never going to do that again."

"And who's to set a course for you, John?" said Flint. "Or have you finally learned the way of it, while below decks these weeks past?"

"Bah!" said Silver, expecting the jibe but still smarting from it. "No need to worry about that, Joe. Just you give me Billy Bones, there, for you've told us many times it's only you and him as knows how to find your precious island. So lend me Billy-boy until we're done with the island and we come safe into Savannah, and I'll get me my own quadrant-monger after that. I'll hire one, as you would a coachman or a kitchen maid."

Billy Bones's jaw dropped to his very breast, and he turned to his master, shocked to the marrow, and terrified too. Flint stamped his foot in anger and the parrot squawked and fluttered its wings.

"And is that all then, John?" he said. "A brand-new ship, half the goods, the pick of the crew, and the best man among 'em, apart from myself?" he sneered. "John, your brains are rotted with the opium the surgeon fed you to stop you blubbering over your wound!"

Silver kept a tight hold on himself, for he could see that Flint had chosen to bargain rather than fight. That was good. That was very good. It was all that mattered. It was now just a matter of settling the details. So Silver argued his case.

He argued fluently and well, just as he always did. Then Flint took his turn, and he argued impressively, just as be always did. But the men had to have their say too, and ideas and suggestions were yelled from all sides, and the result was a most excellent compromise; which is to say that it was something both Flint and Silver detested equally.