Billy Bones and Pew

Billy Bones, the old sea-dog who lodges at the Admiral Benbow Inn, and Blind Pew, the eyeless beggar who hunts him down, share a past as crewmen under the legendary buccaneer Captain Flint. Their relationship is not one of friendship or loyalty but of the cold, procedural violence that governs pirate society. Pew is the instrument of the pirate code, sent to deliver the Black Spot—a paper summons that marks the end of Bones's time and, effectively, his life. The encounter between them is the climax of Bones's hunted existence and the immediate cause of his death.

The Black Spot and the Summons

Pew arrives at the Admiral Benbow on a bitter, foggy afternoon, tapping his way with a stick and wearing a great green shade over his eyes. He forces young Jim Hawkins to lead him to the captain, gripping the boy's arm like a vise and threatening to break it if he refuses. When Pew confronts Bones, the rum-dazed buccaneer sobers instantly at the sight of him, his face turning not merely terrified but mortally sick. Pew commands Jim to take Bones's left hand and bring it near, and from the hollow of his own hand he passes something into the captain's palm—the Black Spot. The message is brief: "You have till ten tonight." Pew then leaves with uncanny speed, his stick tap-tap-tapping into the distance, and Bones, after a moment of stunned recognition, springs to his feet, reels, and falls dead of a stroke.

The Weight of Pirate History

Pew's role as the deliverer of the Black Spot is rooted in the shared history of Flint's crew. Bones himself had told Jim that if the pirates "tip me the black spot," they would be after his sea-chest, which contains Flint's treasure map. Pew is the agent of that threat, and his blindness—far from being a weakness—makes him a figure of almost supernatural menace. He is described as "horrible, soft-spoken, eyeless," and his voice is "cruel, and cold, and ugly." His physical disability is not a limitation but a tool of intimidation; he moves with "incredible accuracy and nimbleness" and strikes his stick against the road in fury when his comrades hesitate. In the pirate hierarchy, Pew is not a leader but a specialist—a collector of debts and a deliverer of judgments, feared even by the men he commands.

The Aftermath and the End of Both Men

Bones's death is the direct consequence of Pew's visit. The shock of the Black Spot, combined with his already weakened state from drink and a previous stroke, kills him on the spot. Pew himself does not survive the night. After the pirates ransack the inn and fail to find the map, they are scattered by the arrival of revenue officers on horseback. Pew, abandoned by his own men in their panic, stumbles blindly into the path of a horse and is trampled to death. His end is as violent and ignominious as Bones's: a cry, a fall, and the four hoofs passing over him. The two former shipmates, bound by the same code and the same treasure, die within hours of each other—one from the terror of the summons, the other from the chaos that follows its delivery.

Thematic Significance

Billy Bones and Blind Pew embody the two faces of pirate justice: the hunted and the hunter, the debtor and the collector. Their relationship is a transaction, not a bond—a reminder that in the world of buccaneers, loyalty is a currency that can be spent and revoked. Pew's blindness, far from making him vulnerable, makes him a figure of implacable authority; he is the blind eye of the law that sees everything and forgives nothing. Bones, for all his bluster and violence, is reduced to a trembling wreck at the sight of his old shipmate. Their encounter is the first demonstration in the novel of how the past—especially a pirate past—can reach out and destroy the present with a single piece of paper.