The First Blow

• Jim looks around himself: the island is marshy and uninhabited.
• He comes across a glade of trees.
• He hears a rustle from a surprised bird and assumes that his shipmates are about to appear.
• He hides in a tree and listens.
• Two people are talking: Long John Silver and a sailor named Tom.
• Long John Silver is explaining something to Tom – it's unclear what.
• Tom answers: Silver, you're a brave, smart, rich guy – why would you follow the words of this bunch of low-lives?
• Tom's answer is interrupted by a scream off in the distance.
• Tom jumps and reaches out his hand to Long John Silver.
• Long John Silver leaps backwards out of reach and demands that Tom keep his hands off.
• Tom tells Long John Silver he must be feeling guilty about something, to be so afraid of Tom.
• Tom asks what that sound was.
• Long John Silver doesn't sound upset at all when he says it must have been Alan.
• Tom says Alan was a true sailor and tells Long John Silver he won't join Silver's group even if it means his death.
• Tom turns around and sets off for the beach.
• Long John Silver grabs a branch and hits Tom across the back, then stabs him twice.
• Jim faints.
• When Jim comes to, he sees Long John Silver pull a whistle out of his pocket and blow a series of notes as some kind of signal.
• Jim grows frightened and crawls away.
• Jim is lost and too afraid to go back to the ship.
• He thinks he's either going to starve to death on the island or be murdered by the mutineers.
• Jim has reached a hillier, more thickly forested part of the island.
• Something makes him stand stock still, his heart beating quickly.