Острів Скарбів / Treasure Island

Слухайте, що я вам скажу: одна склянка рому, звичайно, не вб’е вас, але ж коли ви вип’ете одну, то за нею пiде друга i третя. Закладаюся на свою перуку, що коли ви не перестанете пити, то дуже скоро помрете. Розумiете? Полинете на небо, як сказано в Бiблii… А тепер спробуйте встати. Я допоможу вам добратися до вашоi постелi.

З великими труднощами витягли ми капiтана нагору i поклали в лiжко. Голова його безсило впала на подушку, немовби вiн знепритомнiв.

– Отже, майте на увазi, – промовив лiкар, – я кажу вам по совiстi: слова «ром» i «смерть» для вас означають одне й те саме.

Сказавши це, вiн узяв мене за руку й пiшов оглянути мого батька.

– Дрiбницi, – сказав вiн, як тiльки зачинилися дверi. – Я випустив йому досить кровi, i вiн надовго заспокоiться. Тиждень проваляеться в лiжку, а це краще й для нього, i для вас. Але другого удару йому не перенести.

3

The Black Spot

About noon I stopped at the captain’s door with some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying very much as we had left him, only a little higher, and he seemed both weak and excited.

«Jim», he said, «you’re the only one here that’s worth anything, and you know I’ve been always good to you. Never a month but I’ve given you a silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, mate, I’m pretty low, and deserted by all; and Jim, you’ll bring me one noggin of rum, now, won’t you, matey?»

«The doctor» – I began.

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily.

«Doctors is all swabs», he said; «and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earthquakes – what do the doctor know of lands like that? – and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me. Аnd if I’m not to have my rum now I’m a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab». Аnd he ran on again for a while with curses.

«Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges», he continued in the pleading tone. «I can’t keep ’em still, not I. I haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll raise Cain.