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making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in `
`
at him through the curtained door before he entered the `
`
parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a `
`
mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, `
`
there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a `
`
way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one `
`
day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of `
`
every month if I would only keep my "weather-eye open `
`
for a seafaring man with one leg" and let him know the `
`
moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the `
`
month came round and I applied to him for my wage, he `
`
would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, `
`
but before the week was out he was sure to think better `
`
of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat his orders `
`
to look out for "the seafaring man with one leg." `
`
`
`
How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely `
`
tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the `
`
four corners of the house and the surf roared along the `
`
cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand `
`
forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now `
`
the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; `
`
now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never `
`
had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his `
`
body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge `
`
and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether `
`
I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in `
`
the shape of these abominable fancies. `
`
`
`
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the `
`
seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of `
`
the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. `
`
There were nights when he took a deal more rum and `
`
water than his head would carry; and then he would `
`
sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, `
`
minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses `
`
round and force all the trembling company to listen to `
`
his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I `
`
have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, and a `
`
bottle of rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear `
`
life, with the fear of death upon them, and each `
`
singing louder than the other to avoid remark. For in `
`
these fits he was the most overriding companion ever `
`
known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence `
`
all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a `
`
question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he `
`
judged the company was not following his story. Nor `
`
would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had `
`
drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed. `
`
`
`
His stories were what frightened people worst of all. `
`
Dreadful stories they were--about hanging, and walking `
`
the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and `
`
wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own `
`
account he must have lived his life among some of the `
`
wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and `
`
the language in which he told these stories shocked our `
`
plain country people almost as much as the crimes that `
`
he described. My father was always saying the inn `
`
would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming `
`
there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent `
`
shivering to their beds; but I really believe his `
`
presence did us good. People were frightened at the `
`
time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was `
`
a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there `
`
was even a party of the younger men who pretended to `
`
admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real `
`
old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the `
`
sort of man that made England terrible at sea. `
`
`
`
In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept `
`
on staying week after week, and at last month after month, `
`
so that all the money had been long exhausted, and still `
`
my father never plucked up the heart to insist on having `
`
more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew through `
`
his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared `
`
my poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing `
`
his hands after such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance `
`
and the terror he lived in must have greatly hastened his `
`
early and unhappy death. `
`
`
`
All the time he lived with us the captain made no change `
`
whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a `
`
hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, `
`
he let it hang from that day forth, though it was a great `
`
annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance of his `
`
coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and `
`
which, before the end, was nothing but patches. He never `
`
wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any `
`
but the neighbours, and with these, for the most part, `
`
only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none of us `
`
had ever seen open. `
`
`
`
He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, `
`
when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took `
`
him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see `
`
the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and `
`
went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse `
`
should come down from the hamlet, for we had no `
`
stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I `
`
remember observing the contrast the neat, bright `
`
doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, `
`
black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish `
`
country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, `
`
bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone `
`
in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he--the `
`
captain, that is--began to pipe up his eternal song: `
`
`
`
"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!" `
`
`
`
At first I had supposed "the dead man's chest" to be `
`
that identical big box of his upstairs in the front `
`
room, and the thought had been mingled in my nightmares `
`
with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by this `
`
time we had all long ceased to pay any particular `
`
notice to the song; it was new, that night, to nobody `
`
but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed it did not `
`
produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a `
`
moment quite angrily before he went on with his talk to `
`
old Taylor, the gardener, on a new cure for the `
`
rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually `
`
brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his `
`
hand upon the table before him in a way we all knew to `
`
mean silence. The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. `
`
Livesey's; he went on as before speaking clear and kind `
`
and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or `
`
two. The captain glared at him for a while, flapped `
`
his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke `
`
out with a villainous, low oath, "Silence, there, `
`
between decks!" `
`
`
`
"Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doctor; and `
`
when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that `
`
this was so, "I have only one thing to say to you, sir," `
`
replies the doctor, "that if you keep on drinking rum, `
`
the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!" `
`
`
`
The old fellow's fury was awful. He sprang to his `
`
feet, drew and opened a sailor's clasp-knife, and `
`
balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened `
`
to pin the doctor to the wall. `
`
`
`
The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as `
`
before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of `
`
voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, `
`
but perfectly calm and steady: "If you do not put that `
`
knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my `
`
honour, you shall hang at the next assizes." `
`
`
`
Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the `
`
captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and `
`
resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog. `
`
`
`
"And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know `
`
there's such a fellow in my district, you may count I'll `
`
have an eye upon you day and night. I'm not a doctor only; `
`
I'm a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint `
`
against you, if it's only for a piece of incivility like `
`
tonight's, I'll take effectual means to have you hunted `
`
down and routed out of this. Let that suffice." `
`
`
`
Soon after, Dr. Livesey's horse came to the door and he `
`
rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, `
`
and for many evenings to come. `
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
2 `
`
`
`
Black Dog Appears and Disappears `
`
`
`
`
`
IT was not very long after this that there occurred the `
`
first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of `
`
the captain, though not, as you will see, of his `
`
affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard `
`
frosts and heavy gales; and it was plain from the first `
`
that my poor father was little likely to see the `
`
spring. He sank daily, and my mother and I had all the `
`
inn upon our hands, and were kept busy enough without `
`
paying much regard to our unpleasant guest. `
`
`
`
It was one January morning, very early--a pinching, `
`
frosty morning--the cove all grey with hoar-frost, the `
`
ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low `
`
and only touching the hilltops and shining far to `
`
seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual and `
`
set out down the beach, his cutlass swinging under the `
`
broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope `
`
under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I `
`
remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as `
`
he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him as he `
`
turned the big rock was a loud snort of indignation, as `
`
though his mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey. `
`
`
`
Well, mother was upstairs with father and I was laying `
`
the breakfast-table against the captain's return when `
`
the parlour door opened and a man stepped in on whom I `
`
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