As Chapter 7 ("I Go to Bristol") begins, Jim is staying at the squire's Hall for his protection and that of the map, while Dr. Livesey is in London to arrange for someone to take over his medical practice and Squire Trelawney is in Bristol to buy and outfit a ship. After a few weeks, Jim and Tom Redruth, the squire's trusted servant and head gamekeeper, receive a letter from Trelawney that informs them he has bought a schooner, the Hispaniola, and has hired a crew (with the help and advice of a man called Long John Silver, whom he has engaged as ship's cook). He directs them to come as soon as possible to Bristol. So, after a day's visit with Jim's mother at the inn (repaired now and refurnished by the squire), Jim and Redruth set off by stage for Bristol, an overnight journey. Trelawney greets them and says they will sail the next day.
The squire sends Jim (in Chapter 8, "At the Sign of the 'Spy-Glass'") to take a letter to Long John Silver at the tavern he owns, and there — after Silver has announced loudly that this is their new cabin boy — a man whom Jim recognizes as Black Dog runs out the door. Jim is at first suspicious of the one-legged Silver, and especially so upon seeing Black Dog, whom he knows to be a pirate. But he is soon convinced, by Silver's cleanliness, his courtesy, and in general his overall charisma, that Silver is an honest man. Silver sends two men out to run after Black Dog, but they return saying they have lost him in the crowd. Apologizing for his failure to have apprehended the pirate, Silver returns with Jim to the inn where Trelawney and Livesey are waiting and tells the story to them, impressing the doctor, too, with his apparent honest worthiness. Then he goes back to his tavern and the others set off to see the ship.
