Treasure Island

“Here we go, Jim!” the captain said to me. The crew hoisted the sails and the wind pushed our ship out of the harbor.

I’m Jim Hawkins. It had only been a month since I found a treasure map at the bottom of a pirate chest. Some friends helped me find a ship’s captain and crew. Before I knew it, we were off to find the gold!

“I have a good feeling about this journey!” said the captain. “This is a fast ship and a fine crew. And you’re a lucky boy to have found that map! Fortune is on our side!”

The captain was quite wrong. Trouble was right around the corner.

It started late one night on the ship. I went to get an apple for a snack. I leaned too far into the apple barrel and fell inside.

Before I could climb back out, I heard footsteps and the clack-clack-clack of a wooden leg. That had to be Long John Silver, the ship’s cook. I hid in the barrel.

“When are we going to take over the ship?” I heard a sailor named Hands whisper.

“Not until we reach the island,” Long John Silver replied. “The captain still has the map that will lead us to the gold.”

“Aye, sir,” said Hands. Then the footsteps moved away.

At first I was too scared to leave the barrel. Later, slipping through the shadows, I found the captain. I told him what I had heard.

“There are pirates among the crew!” he said. “We’ll have to sneak away before they steal the map and throw us overboard.”

It was nighttime when our ship reached the island a few days later. “We’ll start the search for the treasure in the morning,” the captain told the crew.

Then, when the pirates were sleeping, the captain came to me. With a few sailors he trusted, we rowed a small boat to the island.