I don't own Treasure Island.
Please let me know what you think.
The Vow on the Pieces of Eight.
Long John Silver stared at the increasingly vanishing island where his captain had buried the treasure that they'd accumulated over the last few years; unlike the majority of the crew, such as George Merry and Ben Gunn, who had been marooned on the island when he had tried Flint's patience, Silver was one of the few of the crew who understood where their captain was coming from. Under Flint, the pirates had been killing and plundering their way through the waters of the Caribbean, picking ships clean and selling cargoes of foods like sugars and rums and other spirits off for a profit, when they didn't help themselves, that was before the ships and squadrons under the command and control of the Royal Navy began getting smarter, laying traps to catch them unawares. More than once, Flint and his crew had been trapped and it had been a fight and a half to avoid capture, and Flint had more than once gotten intelligence from different ports in the Caribbean that seemed a bit too good to be true when their pickings were being culled.
Silver's views on Flint were complex; on the one hand, he resented the other pirate for forcing him into this life although ultimately, he had developed and he had become somebody, and his cunning and his natural ability to adapt to any situation and develop from it had grown in leaps and bounds in ways Silver had never imagined. On top of that, he had become significantly richer than he had ever been in his life. But he had to admire Flint for knowing when to suspect a trap and when to run and hide from potential enemies or to move to a different part of the globe and carry on whereas their fellow pirate brethren like Blackbeard, Vane, and the others were vulnerable because they just refused to change their hunting grounds.
Sure, granted, it had been a nightmare persuading the crew to see the logic, but Flint with Silver's backing had realised the benefits. The Caribbean might have the odd rare picking, but the truth was there hadn't been anything significant for years. The pirates had basically picked the waters clean.
The waters of the Indian ocean, however, now that was something else. Flint and the rest of the crew had gotten out just when they had, and they had gained a lot from it. It was just upsetting that they had become hunted as a result.
It was Silver who had agreed with Flint's decision to bury everything that they'd collected and gathered over the years and then wait for the heat to die down. The navy was closing in on them, and sooner or later the Walrus was bound to encounter a frigate or a Man o' War. Silver had no doubt the Walrus would escape; the ship was designed for speed above all else, but it would take time. But the treasure needed to be safeguarded. It wasn't a sudden decision; Flint had been trying to discover a way of getting away from the naval hunting parties for a while before Silver had approached him just as the captain was coming to the idea; just bury it on an island somewhere reasonably close to England. Then wait for a few years, and come back and retrieve the treasure and then divide it into shares.
That was one of the reasons why Silver had supported the whole plan. He could wait for his share. The others… well he wasn't too sure. Gunn was an idiot. If he'd had any sense, he would have realised they would have reassembled the crew, come out here, recovered the treasure and been back on their way before anything else happened. But no. Gunn had to try Flint's patience, but at the same time, Flint could have easily killed Gunn and used him as an example. By marooning Gunn on the island, Flint was still setting an example. Flint had made a map of where the treasure was buried after spending a few days surveying the island and determining the best place to hide it. Silver had been tempted to follow Flint and the five other men the captain had taken along with the boatload full of treasure to get an insight into the, if not the actual, knowledge of where the treasure was actually buried. But he had decided against it; Silver knew that Flint would kill him if he disobeyed orders, but it had been so trying.
For days, Flint was on the island. And then he returned to the ship, alone. The other men were missing, dead. Silver wasn't surprised in the least. He would have done the same thing; take a party of men to do the dirty hard laborious work, find a place that was secure for burying the treasure, and then kill each and every single one of the party and then come back without giving any clues about where the treasure was actually buried. But this island was just as special. Flint had signalled the ship to send across cutting tools, and he had relayed to Silver and the rest of the crew they were building a stockade and fort on the island. That meant Flint was likely planning on using the island again in the future for some long-term plan, but that didn't mean anything to Silver; he would personally need to see the stockade and the treasure before he could find a use for the island himself, but he could see where the captain was coming from there.
When night fell and everything was pitch dark, Silver silently clambered up the rigging into one of the crows' nests of the ship, his pockets jangling while he constantly had to move his cutlass out of the way; carrying all of his weapons might not be a good move, but Silver had learnt over the long years he'd spent in piracy, there was always the chance of someone out there who wanted to kill him on board the ship as well as other threats. Silver was highly regarded, but at the same time, he was highly feared, among the crew. His role, the influence he had over the others, and indeed over Flint himself would make him the perfect candidate for a fatal accident while somebody else took his place. Silver had quickly needed to fend off dozens of attacks, each time using his ruthless streak and his cunning to drive home nobody was going to take him unawares.
In the crows' nest, Silver took out a purse full of gold coins. He opened it up and found a number of pieces of eight and doubloons. "I will get the treasure," he vowed. "Alone, or with the others."