Jim Hawkins was an apprentice pawnbroker in the British colony of Antigua in the Caribbean.
One day, Mr. Johansen, the pawnbroker, came into the store carrying a big heavy trunk.
The trunk was old and rusted, and it seemed like it was covered in dust or sand.
"What's that?"
Jim asked.
"It looks like a box of old junk."
"Old?
Definitely.
Junk?
Well, that's for you to figure out."
Mr. Johansen dumped the chest on a bench.
"This is from that old widow, Mrs. Blue.
With her husband gone, she figured it was time to sort out his belongings.
I told her you'd have an appraisal of its worth for her by the end of the week."
Jim sighed after Mr. Johansen left.
Mr. Johansen was a kind man and a good boss, but Jim wanted more for his life than following
in his footsteps.
He wanted to walk on sand no other foot had ever imprinted before.
He wanted adventure.
He had been appraising objects from the chest when he came across something that didn't
seem to belong with all the assorted trinkets and odds and ends.
It looked like an scrap of paper, yellowed with age and rolled up tightly.
As he unfurled it, he saw a picture of a chain of nearby islands.
On one of those islands there was a large red "X".
Though Jim had never seen anything like this before, he knew what it was: it was a treasure
map!
Jim knew that this was his opportunity to have a real adventure.
Mr. Blue must have been none other than Bluebeard the Pirate, fearsome predator of the seas!
He brought the map to Mr. Johansen and explained his theory.
Mr. Johansen said nothing, but instead closed the shop, rolled up the map and, grabbing
Jim by the arm, led him down to the harbor.
Once there, he looked up and down the docks, though Jim hadn't the faintest clue what he
was looking for.
Finally, they stopped in front of a ship.
"This one looks sturdy, and the captain looks like he's seen his fair share of sailing in
his day."
Indeed, the captain looked hardened with experience and salted by the spray of the sea.
"We'd like you to take us out to these islands," Mr. Johansen told the captain, pointing to
his map.
The captain's eyes widened with recognition when he saw the map, but he said nothing of
it.
Instead, he asked, "What business do you have on those islands?
No one goes there anymore."
"That's private.
Just know that you'll be handsomely compensated once our business is done."
The captain smiled a grim smile.
"Don't worry," he said, "I have no doubt I'll get paid.
All aboard, and we'll set sail immediately."
They had sailed long into the night when Jim and Mr. Johansen decided it was time to head
to their cabin below deck and get some sleep.
When they woke up, they discovered their map gone and the door to their cabin barricaded
from the outside.
"We've got to get out of here!"
Jim screamed.
"It looks like there's only one way out of this room.
Help me loosen this door."
Together, they managed to push the door open and get back up on deck.
"What are you doing out of your room?"
the captain asked, clutching the map tightly in his hand.
"Well, no matter.
It just saves me the trouble of having to fetch you."
"Why did you lock us up?
What do you want from us?"
Jim asked "The name's Long John Silver," the captain
explained, "and I'm the meanest pirate in all the seven seas.
Or at least I was.
Ol' Bluebeard found a fortune in treasure, but when I tried to steal it off of him he
wound up destroying my ship and marooning most of my crew.
He left me with nothing!
I had to build myself back up again from scratch.
But this map," he continued, "shows where he buried that treasure and neither you nor
anyone else is going to get in my way."
"Captain, land ho!" said a crewman from the crow's nest.
"Ah, we're close to the treasure.
Time to get rid of you."
The pirate forced Jim and Mr. Johansen onto the ship's emergency dingy and began to sail
towards land.
"Jim, how well do you remember that map?"
Mr. Johansen asked as they were bobbing up and down in the little wooden raft.
"Like the back of my hand," he replied.
"Why?"
"I have an idea."
Mr. Johansen removed his large, puffy white shirt.
"Hold the other end of this," he explained to Jim, "and we'll use it like a sail.
Our boat is much smaller and weighs less, so maybe, just maybe, we'll get to the island
before them."
Sure enough, their little boat flew across the waves and they landed on the beach with
time to spare.
"Now we get to work.
Do you remember where that treasure is buried?"
Mr. Johansen asked.
"Well, yes, but what's the point?
We wouldn't be able to get the treasure off the island on that little dinghy even if we
did find it," moaned Jim.
"We don't have to get the treasure off the island in our dinghy, but in order to do that
we need to make sure that pirate doesn't find it."
"Well, as I recall, it was through the woods and fifty paces west at a group of three trees."
"Excellent!"
cried Mr. Johansen.
They ran through the woods until they found the trees.
Locating a sharp stone, they managed to cut the trees down and cover the land with dirt
and leaves so it appeared as though the trees were never there.
Then they continued on to the treasure and dug it up with their bare hands.
Then, they fashioned a sled out of sticks and palm fronds and pulled the big iron treasure
chest along on it so that it wouldn't leave tell-tale tracks in the dirt.
They waited with their treasure in a hidden part of the tree-line where the jungle met
the beach and waited for Long John Silver to land.
They watched from a distance as he and all his men ran off the boat, practically tripping
over their own feet, down the beach and into the jungle in search of the treasure.
So great was Silver's desire to find it that he had every last man join the hunt, leaving
his ship unguarded.
Dragging their booty behind them, Jim and Mr. Johansen boarded the pirate's ship with
their treasure and took off for home, leaving Silver only the beat-up dinghy to make the
journey.
When they returned to their pawnshop, they sent word to Mrs. Blue to come by.
They told her all about how her husband was Bluebeard the pirate and showed her the treasure
they had unearthed.
The three of them decided to split it evenly, three ways, and Jim was able to live out the
rest of his life rich in both treasure and adventure.