Well, here I sit starin’ out to sea, much like ever’ other day. Been here goin’ on three years or so. Name’s Ketchum, by the by. There was plenty a time to get to that, I reckon, but might as well get it over with. I suppose you’re wonderin’ just how I come to be stranded here. Marooned. Well, I tell ya. And like as not you’ll get a far diff’rent tale from him that’s on t’other side. Of this here island, I mean. Oh, you thought I was alone, did ya? Well, I am. Like I said, he’s on the other side a the island. We don’t truck much with one another. We did once, but that was a long time ago. If’n it hadn’t been for the treasure, or the map, we wouldn’t be here. The map itself wasn’t the problem. Nor the treasure. The problem was that Steele purloined it. The map—that’s what he stole . . . Now I know’d if’n you go an’ lend that good for nuthin’ an ear, he’ll be fillin’ it with all kinds a nonsense about how I’s the one to blame. Not true. Not verily so. Not at all. Now he, Steele, I mean—he overheard the conversation aboard ship one night, about the map and all of it. That’s how the whole thing got started in the first place. And, you know . . . ah, you know what . . . ah, dang it. Hang a dog—I’s too danged tired to think about it, much less tell you the story. I’ll just plain get all worked up and angry, and it’ll ruin my whole day. So, for now, just leave me be. I want to just sit here for a bit and do some cogitatin’ on my own—about things other than the whole business of Steele, and the map, and the treasure. Just you go on . . . leastwise for now. You can come back later in the day. I’m sure you will have heard his side of things by then. And you know, I don’t care much of a fiddle about it. Just you know that whatever that ol’ fool says is a lie, a damned lie. So, don’t you believe it, not a word, hear . . .
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What’s that? Who’s there? Oh, I reckon . . . I reckon sure enough that, judgin’ from the direction you’re comin’ you done heard some cock and bull tale from him that resides on the other side a this here island. Now I’m just sittin’ here mindin’ my own business. But if you’re lookin’ for a spot a the truth, you come to the right place, the right side of the island. Of all the dang folks to be stranded with, it had to be him. Why, if it hadn’t been for him talkin’ me into the theft of that map . . . well, things woulda turned out a bit different; a whole lot different. He prob’ly done told ya all about how I overheard the conversation about the map and the treasure, all of it. And if he did, that part’d be truth. But when I went and mentioned the overheard conversation to him, his eyes got as big as, well I dunno—they just got big and excited. He was all aglow with excitement and ideas about how we should go about stealin’ the damned map and huntin’ down the treasure, and well, you can guess the rest. In any case, being stuck on this here island was the result of it. And that’s about the whole thing in a nutshell. I got nuthin’ more to say on the subject. You can go on back over to the other side and listen to more lies, or you can just take my word on things . . .
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Oh, you’s back, huh. I reckon he filled your noggin with all kinds of crazy nonsense. Nonsense about how I got excited on hearin’ of the map and treasure and whatnot, and how I just forced him to go along and steal it. Now, I admit, I was a good bit excited. Wouldn’t you be? Hearin’ of a treasure map? You’d wanta get in on it, wouldn’t ya? Oh, you might say you’d have to give it some thought. But that ain’t true now is it? That’s about as true as anything he might a told you about over there. Well, I tell ya, he wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and . . . Well, it don’t matter none anyhow. What’s done is done. And now here we sit. Neither one of us can get off this wretched place. And you . . . hey, wait a minute—where’d you come from anyhow? How’d you come to show up here? You’d have to have a boat. I bet you do. Sure. Sure you do. You got it tucked away somewhere nice and safe, don’t you? Well, don’t you? How’s about I tell you where the treasure is? You see, map or no map, I got it all stored in my mind, see. I got it all mem’rised. I can picture the X marks the spot. You want any info on that treasure or where it might be, you come to me. You just leave him out of it. There was a time I could trust him, or leastwise thought I could. But that time’s long gone. Don’t trust him. Trust me. You can trust me sure enough. . . Hey, hey now, where you goin’? You goin’ back over to get some more lies from him? That’s right, you do that. Let’s see just what kinda nonsense he’s peddlin’ today about the whole thing. Good idea. He might spill somethin’ we can use. He might just let it slip by accident. And that’s the only way you’s gonna get truth out of him. You go on then. Come back after you get your ears full of nuthin’ useful. Can’t say as I blame you for givin’ it a shot. Who knows what a man’s liable to spill . . .