Treasure Island

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The novel opens in southern England in the mid-18th century. The narrator, Jim Hawkins, is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. A old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Some months later, Bones is visited by a mysterious sailor named Black Dog. Their meeting turns violent, Black Dog flees, and Bones suffers a stroke. While Jim cares for him, Bones confesses that he was once the mate of the late notorious pirate, Captain Flint, and that his old crewmates want Bones’ sea chest.

Some time later, another of Bones’ crewmates, Blind Pew, appears at the inn and forces Jim to lead him to Bones. Pew delivers Bones a paper with a black spot, a pirates’ summons, with the warning that he has until ten o’clock. Bones suffers a second stroke and drops dead on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones’ sea chest to collect the bill for Bones’ room and board, but before they can count out the money due them, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. The pirates, led by Blind Pew, find the sea chest and the money, but are frustrated that the chest does not contain “Flint’s fist.” Revenue agents approach and the pirates escape to their vessel, except for Blind Pew, who is accidentally run down and killed by the agents’ coach and horses…