6. Describe how Hawkins escaped from Hands.
Answers
At the start of the novel, Jim works at his family's inn. A patron of the inn, former swashbuckler Billy Bones, receives the Black Spot, a pirates' summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock, and he drops dead of apoplexy on the spot. In the dead man's sea chest, Jim and his mother find an oilskin packet, which contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint's career, and a detailed map of an island, with the location of Flint's treasure caches marked on it. Squire Trelawney immediately plans to outfit a sailing vessel to hunt the treasure down, with the help of Dr. Livesey and Jim.
When Jim goes to Bristol and visits Long John Silver at the Spy Glass tavern, his suspicions are immediately aroused: Silver is missing a leg, like the man Bones warned him about. But Silver manages to win Jim's trust. Despite Captain Smollett's misgivings about the mission and Silver's hand-picked crew, the Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean Sea. As they near their destination, Jim crawls into the ship's apple barrel to get some apples. While inside, he overhears Silver talking secretly with some of the other crewmen. Silver admits that he was Captain Flint's quartermaster and that several of the other crew were also once Flint's men, and he is recruiting more men from the crew to his own side. After Flint's treasure is recovered, Silver intends to murder the Hispaniola's officers and keep the loot for himself and his men. Once the pirates return to their berths, Jim warns Smollett, Trelawney, and Livesey of the impending mutiny.
When they reach the island, the bulk of Silver's men go ashore immediately. Although Jim is not yet aware of this, Silver's men have given Silver the Black Spot and demanded to seize the treasure immediately, discarding Silver's own more careful plan to postpone any open mutiny or violence until after the treasure is safely aboard. Jim lands with Silver's men but runs away from them almost as soon as he is ashore. Hiding in the woods, Jim sees Silver murder Tom, a crewman loyal to Smollett. Running for his life, he encounters Ben Gunn, another ex-crewman of Flint's who has been marooned three years on the island but who treats Jim kindly in return for a chance to return to civilization. Later, Jim joins Trelawney, Livesey, and their men at an abandoned, fortified stockade on the island. Silver and his pirates assault the stockade but are repulsed in a furious battle.
Under cover of darkness, Jim sneaks out of the stockade, takes Ben Gunn's coracle, and approaches the Hispaniola. He cuts the ship's anchor cable, setting her adrift and out of reach of the pirates on shore. After daybreak, he manages to approach the schooner again and board her. Of the two pirates left aboard, only one is still alive: the coxswain, Israel Hands, who agrees to help Jim helm the ship to a safe beach in exchange for medical treatment and brandy. Once the ship approaches the beach, however, Hands attempts to murder Jim, who shoots him in self defense.
The following day, the enraged pirates turn on Silver and Jim, but Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey, and his men ambush the pirates, killing two and dispersing the rest. Silver surrenders to Dr. Livesey, promising to return to duty. They go to Ben Gunn's cave home, where Gunn has hidden the treasure for some months. The treasure is divided. One night Silver abandons the ship with some bags of gold. Jim says that he still has nightmares in which he can hear Silver's parrot screaming, "Pieces of eight!"