SCENE EXCERPT:

STILL LAUGHING, JIM CROSSES TO THE APPLE BARREL AND REACHES IN. NOT BEING ABLE TO REACH AN APPLE, HE STRAINS, REACHING FARTHER INTO THE BARREL. GRUNTING WITH THE EFFORT, HIS FEET SUDDENLY LEAVE THE FLOOR AND HE TOPPLES INTO THE BARREL, DISAPPEARING FROM SIGHT. PAUSE. SUDDENLY THERE IS A COMMOTION. HANDS AND BLACK DOG COME ONTO THE DECK, SHOVING REDRUTH BEFORE THEM.

BLACK DOG: Well, what’s it to be, Mister Redruth, you lilly-livered coward!

HANDS: Yeah, are you with us or against us?

REDRUTH: Well I…(BLACK DOG KICKS HIM. THEY LAUGH)

BLACK DOG: Answer your mate, Mr. Redruth! Are you with us, or against us?

REDRUTH: I…I…don’t know…

HANDS: I say do him in right now!

BLACK DOG: Aye! Leave him for the sea gulls!

THEY PICK REDRUTH UP AND HOLD HIM OVER THE RAILING. JIM, HOLDING AN APPLE, PEERS OVER THE EDGE OF THE BARREL. LONG JOHN ENTERS. THE PIRATES DANGLE REDRUTH OVER THE SIDE, SHOUTING OATHS. LONG JOHN INTERRUPTS THEM.

LONG JOHN: Belay that! What goes on here?

THE PIRATES TURN TO LONG JOHN, STILL HOLDING REDRUTH.

BLACK DOG: This coward can’t make up his mind what side he’s on!

LONG JOHN: Never mind him! There’s plenty of us to handle the three of them. That treasure will be ours soon enough.

THE PIRATES DROP REDRUTH ONTO THE DECK.

AT SOME POINT IN THE SCENE. LONG JOHN STICKS HIS KNIFE INTO THE BARREL TO SPEAR AN APPLE. BEFORE THE KNIFE GETS VERY FAR, JIM, UNSEEN BY THE PIRATES PUTS AN APPLE ON THE END OF LONG JOHN’S KNIFE. THIS PUZZLES LONG JOHN SLIGHTLY, BUT HE’S TOO CAUGHT UP IN THE BUSINESS AT HAND TO GIVE MUCH ATTENTION TO IT.

HANDS: I say, let’s go down there and take care of them right now! I’ve had all I can take of that Captain Smollett!

BLACK DOG: I’m with Hands. Let’s finish them now!

LONG JOHN: You’ll finish nobody. When Smollett is gone, who will get to plot a course to the island? You, Hands? You, Black Dog? No, we need the Captain to sail the ship for us, and the doctor to lead us to the treasure with his map. Once we get the treasure aboard mates, we’ll finish them all off!

REDRUTH: Even the boy?

LONG JOHN: (IMPALING HIM WITH A STEELY GLANCE) I said all of them! All of them that ain’t with us! (HE LOOKS OUT AND SEES SOMETHING) Land!

HANDS: Land? (HE TURNS) Land! Land HO ! (RUNS AND SHOUTS BELOW) Land HO!

LIVESEY AND SMOLLET COME RUSHING ONTO THE DECK.

LIVESEY: Land?

SMOLLETT: That’s it. I told you, Doctor Livesey.

LIVESEY: Aye, that’s it! Skeleton Island. There’s Foremast Hill, and the cove, and Spyglass Hill and the stockade!

SMOLLETT: All hands prepare to anchor!

THE CREW SCURRIES ABOUT THE DECK, PERFORMING THEIR CHORES. LIVESY AND SMOLLET GO TO THE RAIL. LOOKING AROUND FURTIVELY TO SEE IF THE PIRATES ARE WATCHING, JIM CLIMBS OUT OF THE APPLE BARREL AND RUNS TO THE RAIL. IN THE BACKGROUND, VERY LOW, THE MEN SING “LORD FRANKLIN”.

JIM: Captain! Doctor Livesey!

LIVESEY: Look, Jim, Skeleton Island!

JIM: I heard them Captain, I heard them. Silver! Hands! Black Dog! They’re going to kill us all.