05 金银岛 Treasure Island P8-10

He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poorfather was far gone in a decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey camelate one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from mymother, and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse shouldcome down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old Benbow. Ifollowed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, brightdoctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes andpleasant 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 bigbox of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingledin my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by thistime we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song; itwas new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed itdid not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quiteangrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, ona new cure for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain graduallybrightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand uponthe table before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voicesstopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey’s; he went on as before speakingclear and kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word ortwo. 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 hadtold him, with another oath, that this was so, “I have only one thing tosay 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 openeda 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 hisshoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all theroom might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: 

“If you do not put thatknife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shallhang at the next assizes.” 

Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soonknuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling likea beaten dog. 

“And now, sir,” continued the doctor, “since I now know there’s such afellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day andnight. I’m not a doctor only; I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breathof complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility liketonight’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routedout of this. Let that suffice.” 

Soon after, Dr. Livesey’s horse came to the door and he rode away, butthe captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.