Chapter 19: The Garrison in the Stockade
Jim picks the narrative back up here and returns us to shortly before he arrives at the stockade. He’s still with Ben Gunn, though not for much longer, as Ben doesn’t want to join the party without talking to either Livesey or Trelawney first. At least, that’s Jim’s read; Stevenson knew that Ben’s ramblings would be incomprehensible even to readers in the 1880s, so Jim has to serve as a helpful interpreter for us. To which I say: thank god.
Before letting Jim go, Ben makes him promise to come back for him, and not to rat him out to Silver. If he’d been reading along, he’d know that Jim isn’t very good at not being a snitch; but it’s hard to imagine Ben has a copy of the script on hand, so I’ll give him a pass.
Jim doesn’t go to the stockade immediately, though, largely because that area is actively being pelted by cannonballs. Instead, he hangs around until evening, watching from afar as the pirates get drunk on rum. I have to keep reminding myself that this book can’t be relying on tired old stereotypes if it was the origin of said stereotypes.
Eventually, he does reunite with the others, and they all get to settling in for the night. It’s not a pleasant experience; somehow the cabin has no ventilation for the smoke from the cooking fire to get out, but is simultaneously constructed shoddily enough to let in a whole bunch of sand, which is coarse and rough and gets everywhere. Smollett keeps them distracted by putting them to work—standing watch, getting firewood, burying the gamekeeper, things like that.
During the downtime of keeping watch, Livesey admits to Jim that “Captain Smollett is a better man than me, and that’s saying something because I’m fucking awesome.” Then he asks about Ben Gunn for a bit before revealing to Jim that he (Livesey) carries a tobacco box with him at all times (would have been cool to see this before now) despite not being a smoker (really could have set up this quirk earlier), in which he instead keeps a piece of cheese! (okay this is cute though) And he promises to reserve it for Ben, since cheese was his big craving (which I did tell you back in Chapter 15 without even knowing it would be relevant; anyway the point is I’m a better writer than Stevenson).
Before bed, the party regroups to take stock of their situation and tally up the numbers in case the readers haven’t been keeping track or have been hand-waving the specifics while writing disingenuous summaries.
Our protagonists count for seven: Smollett, Livesey, Trelawney, Jim, the honest sailor who defected, and Trelawney’s two manservants. On the other side, the crew roster started at 19; but following the initial skirmishes and factoring in the not-actually-bad-guys who got ganked by the pirates on shore, the opposition would be down to 15 at best, with maybe two or three of those wounded.
Still outnumbered, then, and low on provisions; but the odds are starting to grow more favorable, and our gang has other advantages as well. The stockade is their ace in the hole, of course, but Livesey notes that the dumbass pirates are camping in the marsh without any medical supplies, and predicts half of them will be sick in a week. At that point, they might be miserable enough to pack up and leave the island. Until then, the plan is to just keep picking them off and wearing their numbers down.
The group gets some sleep. However, early the next morning, Silver shows up at the stockade… alone but for a single aide, who is waving the white flag of truce.