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18 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen. I talked with Allan in the wood of Lettermore.
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  Speaker 1: Allan was the first to come round. He rose, went
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  Speaker 1: to the border of the wood, peered out a little,
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  Speaker 1: and then returned and sat down. Well, said he young
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  Speaker 1: was a hot burst David. I said nothing, nor so
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  Speaker 1: much as lifted my face. I had seen murder done,
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  Speaker 1: and a great ruddy, jovial gentleman struck out of life
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  Speaker 1: in a moment. The pity of that sight was still
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  Speaker 1: sore within me. And yet that was but a part
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  Speaker 1: of my concern. Here was murder done upon the man
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  Speaker 1: Allan hated. Here was Allan skulking in the trees and
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  Speaker 1: running from the troops. And whether his was the hand
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  Speaker 1: that fired or only the head that ordered, signified. But little,
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  Speaker 1: by my way of it, My only friend in that
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  Speaker 1: wild country was blood guilty. In the first degree. I
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  Speaker 1: held him in horror. I could not look upon his face.
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  Speaker 1: I would have rather lain alone in the rain on
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  Speaker 1: my cold isle than in that warm wood beside a murderer.
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  Speaker 1: Are you still wearied, he asked again, No, said I
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  Speaker 1: still with my face in the bracken. No, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: wearied now, and I can speak you and me must twine,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I liked you very well, Alan, but your
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  Speaker 1: ways are not mine, and they're not gods. And the
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  Speaker 1: short and the long of it is just that we
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  Speaker 1: must twine. I will hardly twine from you, David, without
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  Speaker 1: some kind of reason for the same, said Allan mighty gravely.
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  Speaker 1: If you can anything against my reputation, it's the least
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  Speaker 1: thing that you should do for old acquaintance sake to
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  Speaker 1: let me hear the name of it. And if you
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  Speaker 1: have only taken a distaste to my society, it will
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  Speaker 1: be proper for me to judge if I'm insulted, Alan
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  Speaker 1: said I what is the sense of this? You can
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  Speaker 1: very well, young campbell man lies in his blood upon
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  Speaker 1: the road. He was silent for a little, then says
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  Speaker 1: he did. Ye. Ever, he'll tell of the story of
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  Speaker 1: the man and the good people, by which he meant
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  Speaker 1: the fairies. No, said I, nor do I want to
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  Speaker 1: hear it. With your permission, mister Balfour, I will tell
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  Speaker 1: it you whatever says Alan. The man yasha Ken was
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  Speaker 1: cast upon a rock in the sea, where it appears
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  Speaker 1: the good people were in use to come and rest
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  Speaker 1: as they went through to Ireland. The name of this
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  Speaker 1: rock is called the Scary Boar. It's not far from
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  Speaker 1: where we suffered shipwreck. Well, it seems the man cried
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  Speaker 1: so sore if he could just see his little baron
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  Speaker 1: before he died. Then at last the King of the
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  Speaker 1: good people took pity upon him and sent one flying
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  Speaker 1: that brought back the baron in a poke and laid
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  Speaker 1: it down beside the man where he lay sleeping. So
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  Speaker 1: when the man woke there was a poke beside him,
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  Speaker 1: and something into the inside of it that moved. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it seems he was one of these gentry that think
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  Speaker 1: I the worst of things, and for greater security, he
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  Speaker 1: stuck his dirk throughout that poke before he opened it,
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  Speaker 1: and there was as barren dead. I am thinking to myself,
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  Speaker 1: mister Balfour, that you and the man are very much alike.
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  Speaker 1: Do you mean you had no hand in it? Cried I,
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  Speaker 1: sitting up. I will tell you first of all, mister
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  Speaker 1: Balfour of Shaw's, as one friend to another said Alan,
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  Speaker 1: that if I were going to kill a gentleman, it
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  Speaker 1: would not be in my own country to bring trouble
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  Speaker 1: on my clan, and I would not go want and
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  Speaker 1: sword and gun, and with a long fishing rod upon
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  Speaker 1: my back. Well, said I, that's true, And now continued Allan,
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  Speaker 1: taking out his dirk and laying his hand upon it
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  Speaker 1: in a certain manner. I swear upon the holy iron.
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  Speaker 1: I had neither art, nor part, act nor thought in it.
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  Speaker 1: I thank God for that, cried I, and offered him
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  Speaker 1: my hand. He did not appear to see it. And
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  Speaker 1: here is a great deal of work about a campbell,
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  Speaker 1: said he. They are not so scarce that I can
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  Speaker 1: at least, said I. You cannot justly blame me, for
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  Speaker 1: you know very well what you told me in the
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  Speaker 1: brig But the temptation and the act are different. I
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  Speaker 1: thank God again for that. We may all be tempted,
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  Speaker 1: but to take a life in cold blood? Allan, and
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  Speaker 1: I could say no more for the moment. And do
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  Speaker 1: you know who did it? I added? Do you know
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  Speaker 1: that man in the black coat? I have neck clear
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  Speaker 1: mind about his coat, said Alan cunningly. But it sticks
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  Speaker 1: in my head that it was blue, blue or black?
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  Speaker 1: Do you know him? Said I I could have just
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  Speaker 1: conscientiously swear to him, says Alan. He gained very close
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  Speaker 1: by me, to be sure. But it's a strange thing
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  Speaker 1: that I should just have been tying my brogues. Can
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  Speaker 1: you swear that you don't know him? Allan, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: half angered, half in a mind to laugh at his evasions.
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  Speaker 1: Nought yet, says he. But I have a grand memory
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  Speaker 1: for forgetting David. And yet there was one thing I
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  Speaker 1: saw clearly, said I, and that was that you exposed
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  Speaker 1: yourself and me to draw the soldiers. It's very likely,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan, and so would any gentleman. You and me
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  Speaker 1: were innocent of that transaction. The better reason, since we
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  Speaker 1: were falsely suspected that we should get clear, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: The innocent should surely come before the guilty. Why David
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  Speaker 1: said he. The innocent have I a chance to get
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  Speaker 1: a soiled in court. But for the lad that shot
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  Speaker 1: the bullet, I think the best place for him will
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  Speaker 1: be the heather. Them that heavena dipped their hands in
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  Speaker 1: any little difficulty should be very mindful of the case
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  Speaker 1: of them that have. And that is the good Christianity.
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  Speaker 1: For if it was the other way round about, and
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  Speaker 1: the lad whom I couldn't just clearly see, had been
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  Speaker 1: in our shoes, and we in his, as might very
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  Speaker 1: well have been, I think we would be a good
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  Speaker 1: deal obliged to him ourselves if he would draw the soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: When it came to this, I gave Allan up. But
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  Speaker 1: he looked so innocent all the time, and was in
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  Speaker 1: such clear good faith in what he said, and so
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  Speaker 1: ready to sacrifice himself for what he deemed his duty,
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  Speaker 1: that my mouth was closed. Mister Henderlen's words came back
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  Speaker 1: to me that we ourselves might take a lesson by
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  Speaker 1: these wild highlanders. Well, here I had taken mine. Allan's
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  Speaker 1: morals were all tail first, but he was ready to
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  Speaker 1: give his life for them, such as they were. Allan said,
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  Speaker 1: I I'll not say it's the good Christianity as I
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  Speaker 1: understand it, but it's good enough. And here I offer
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  Speaker 1: you my hand for the second time. Whereupon he gave
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  Speaker 1: me both of his saying, surely I had cast a
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  Speaker 1: spell upon him, for he could forgive me anything. Then
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  Speaker 1: he grew very grave and said, we had not much
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  Speaker 1: time to throw away, but must both flee that country.
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  Speaker 1: He because he was a deserter, and the whole of
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  Speaker 1: Appen would now be searched like a chamber, and everyone
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  Speaker 1: obliged to give a good account of himself, and I
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  Speaker 1: because I was certainly involved in the murder, oh, says
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  Speaker 1: I willing to give him a little lesson. I have
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  Speaker 1: no fear of the justice of my country, as if
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  Speaker 1: this was your country, said he, or as if you
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  Speaker 1: would be tried here in a country of Stuarts. It's
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  Speaker 1: all Scotland, said I man. I was wonder at you,
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  Speaker 1: said Allan, this is a campbell that's been killed. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it'll be tried in Verara, the Campbell's head place, with
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  Speaker 1: fifteen campbells in the jury box, and the biggest campbell
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  Speaker 1: of all, and that's the Duke sitting cocking on the bench,
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  Speaker 1: just as David. The same justice by all the world,
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  Speaker 1: as Glenyear found while ago at the roadside. This frightened
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  Speaker 1: me a little, I confess, and would have frightened me
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  Speaker 1: more if I had known how nearly exact were Allan's predictions.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed it was but in one point that he exaggerated
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  Speaker 1: there being but eleven campbells on the jury, though as
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  Speaker 1: the other four were equally in the Duke's dependence, it
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  Speaker 1: mattered less than might appear. Still, I cried out that
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  Speaker 1: he was unjust to the Duke of Argyle, who, for
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  Speaker 1: all he was a Whig, was yet a wise and
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  Speaker 1: honest nobleman, hoot, said Allan. The man's a whig, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: But I would never deny he was a good chief
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  Speaker 1: and to his clan. And what would the clan think
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  Speaker 1: if there was a campbell shot and nobody hanged, and
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  Speaker 1: their own chief the justice general? But I have often observed,
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  Speaker 1: said Allan, that you low country bodies have no clear
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  Speaker 1: idea of what's right and wrong. At this I did
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  Speaker 1: at last laugh out aloud, when to my surprise Alan
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  Speaker 1: joined in and laughed as merrily as myself. Na ha na, said,
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  Speaker 1: he oue in the highlands, David. And when I tell
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  Speaker 1: you to run, take my wood and run, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: It's a hard thing to skulk and starve in the heather,
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  Speaker 1: but it's harder yet to lie shackled in a red
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  Speaker 1: coat prison. I asked him whither we should flee, And
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  Speaker 1: as he told me to the lowlands, I was a
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  Speaker 1: little better inclined to go with him, for indeed I
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  Speaker 1: was growing impatient to get back and have the upper
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  Speaker 1: hand of my uncle. Besides, Allan made so sure there
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  Speaker 1: would be no question of justice in the matter that
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  Speaker 1: I began to be afraid he might be right of
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  Speaker 1: all deaths. I would truly like least to die by
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  Speaker 1: the gallows. And the picture of that uncanny instrument came
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  Speaker 1: into my head with extraordinary clearness, as I had once
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  Speaker 1: seen it engraved at the top of a peddler's ballad,
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  Speaker 1: and took away my appetite for courts of justice. I'll chance,
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  Speaker 1: said Allan, said I I'll go with you. But mind you,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan, it's no small thing. You monlight, bear and hard,
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  Speaker 1: and brook many an empty belly. Your bed shall be
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  Speaker 1: the moor cocks, and your life shall be like the
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  Speaker 1: haunted deers. And ye shall sleep with your hand upon
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  Speaker 1: your weapons a man. You should taggle many a weary foot,
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  Speaker 1: or we get clear. I tell you this at the start,
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  Speaker 1: for it's a life that I can well. But if
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  Speaker 1: you ask what other chance you have, I answer, Nane,
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  Speaker 1: either take to the heather with me, or else. Hang.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a choice very easily made, said I. And
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  Speaker 1: we shook hands upon it. And now let's take another
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: keek at the red coats, says Alan, And he led
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  Speaker 1: me to the northeastern fringe of the wood. Looking out
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  Speaker 1: between the trees, we could see a great side of mountain,
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  Speaker 1: running down, exceeding steep into the waters of the loch.
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  Speaker 1: It was a rough part, all hanging stone and heather
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  Speaker 1: and big scrogs of birch wood, and away at the
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  Speaker 1: far end, towards Ballacoolish, little wee red soldiers were dipping
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  Speaker 1: up and down over hill and howe and growing smaller
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  Speaker 1: every minute. There was no cheering now, for I think
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  Speaker 1: they had other uses for what breath was left them.
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  Speaker 1: But they still stuck to the trail, and doubtless thought
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  Speaker 1: that we were close in front of them. Allan watched them,
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  Speaker 1: smiling to himself, Aye said he they'll be gay weary
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  Speaker 1: before they've got to the end of that employ. And
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  Speaker 1: so you and me, David, can sit down and eat
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  Speaker 1: a bite, and breathe a bit longer, and take a
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  Speaker 1: dram from my bottle. Then we'll strike for Okharn, the
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  Speaker 1: house of my kinsman James of the Glens, where I
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  Speaker 1: must get my clothes and my arms and money to
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  Speaker 1: carry us along. And then David, we'll cry forth fortune
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  Speaker 1: and take a cast among the heather. So we sat
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  Speaker 1: again and ate and drank in a place whence we
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  Speaker 1: could see the sun going down into a field of great,
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  Speaker 1: wild and houseless mountains, such as I was now condemned
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  Speaker 1: to wander in with my companion. Partly as we so sat,
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  Speaker 1: and partly afterwards on the way to Accard, each of
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  Speaker 1: us narrated his adventures, and I shall here set down
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  Speaker 1: so much of Allan's as seems either curious or needful.
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  Speaker 1: It appears he ran to the bulwarks as soon as
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  Speaker 1: the wave was passed, saw me, and lost me, and
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  Speaker 1: saw me again as I tumbled in the roost, and
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  Speaker 1: at last had one glimpse of me clinging on the yard.
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  Speaker 1: It was this that put him in some hope I
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  Speaker 1: would maybe get to land after all, and made him
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  Speaker 1: leave those clues and messages which had brought me from
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  Speaker 1: my sins to that unlucky country of appen in the Meanwhile,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: those still on the brig had got the skiff launched,
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  Speaker 1: and one or two were on board of her already,
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  Speaker 1: when there came a second wave greater than the first,
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  Speaker 1: and heaved the brig out of her place, and would
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: certainly have sent her to the bottom, had she not
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  Speaker 1: struck and caught on some projection of the reef. When
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  Speaker 1: she had struck first, it been bows on, so that
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  Speaker 1: the stern had hitherto been lowest, but now her stern
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  Speaker 1: was thrown in the air, and the boughs plunged under
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  Speaker 1: the sea. And with that the water began to pour
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  Speaker 1: into the force scuttle, like the pouring of a mill damp.
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  Speaker 1: It took the color out of Alan's face even to
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  Speaker 1: tell what followed, for there were still two men lying
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  Speaker 1: impotent in their bunks, and these, seeing the water pour in,
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  Speaker 1: and thinking the ship had foundered, began to cry out aloud,
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  Speaker 1: and that with such harrowing cries that all who were
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  Speaker 1: on deck tumbled one after another into the skiff and
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  Speaker 1: fell to their oars. They were not two hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: away when there came a third great sea, and at
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  Speaker 1: that the brig lifted clean over the reef. Her canvas
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  Speaker 1: filled for a moment, and she seemed to sail in
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  Speaker 1: chase of them, but settling all the while. And presently
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  Speaker 1: she drew down and down, as if a hand were
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  Speaker 1: drawing her, and the sea closed over the covenant of Dysart.
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  Speaker 1: Never a word they spoke as they pulled ashore, being
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  Speaker 1: stunned with the horror of that screaming. But they had
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  Speaker 1: scarce set foot upon the beach, when Ho Seson woke up,
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  Speaker 1: as if out of a muse, and bade them lay
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  Speaker 1: hands upon Allan. They hung back, indeed, having little taste
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  Speaker 1: for the employment. But Ho Sieson was like a fiend,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: crying that Allan was alone, that he had a great
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  Speaker 1: sum about him, that he had been the means of
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  Speaker 1: losing the brig and drowning all their comrades, and that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: here was both revenge and wealth upon a single cast.
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  Speaker 1: It was seven against one in that part of the shore.
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  Speaker 1: There was no rock that Alan could set his back to,
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  Speaker 1: And the sailors began to spread out and come behind him.
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  Speaker 1: And then said Alan, the little man with the red head,
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  Speaker 1: I have no mind of the name that he is
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  Speaker 1: called Riach, I said Ay, said Allan Rehatch, Well, it
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  Speaker 1: was him that took up the clubs for me. Asked
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  Speaker 1: the men if they were in no feared of a judgment,
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  Speaker 1: And says he dawd, I'll put my back to the
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  Speaker 1: hellenmans myself. There's none such an entirely bad little man. Yon,
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  Speaker 1: little man with the red head, said Allan. He has
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  Speaker 1: some spunks of decency, Well, said I. He was kind
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  Speaker 1: to me in his way, and so was he to Allan,
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  Speaker 1: said he, And by my troth I found his way
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  Speaker 1: a very good one. But you see, David, the loss
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  Speaker 1: of the ship and the cries of these poor lads
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  Speaker 1: set very ill upon the man, And I'm thinking that
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  Speaker 1: would be the cause of it. Well, I would think so,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: says I, for he was as keen as any the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: rest at the beginning. But how did Hoseesan take it?
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: It sticks in my mind that he would take it
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: very ill, says Allan. But the little man cried to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: me to run, and indeed I thought it was a
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  Speaker 1: good observe and ran. The last that I saw they
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: were all in a knot upon the beach, like folk
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: that were not agreeing very well together. What do you
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: mean by that? Said I? Well the fists were going,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: said Alan. I saw one man go down like a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: pair of breeks. But I thought it would be better
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  Speaker 1: nor to wait. You see, there's a strip of Campbell's
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in that end of mow, which is no good company
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: for a gentleman like me. If it hadn't been for that,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I would have waited and looked for you myself. That
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: alone given a hand to the little man. It was droll,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: how Allan dwelt on mister Riach's stature, for to say
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the truth, the one was not much smaller than the other,
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  Speaker 1: so says he, continuing, I set my best foot forward,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and whenever I met in with any one, I cried out,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: there was a wreck ashore. Man. They didn't stop to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: fash with me. You should have seen them Lincoln for
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the beach, and when they got there they found they
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: had the pleasure of a run, which is I good
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: for a Campbell, I'm thinkin it was a judgment on
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the clan that the brig went down in the lump
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  Speaker 1: and didna break. But it was a very unlucky thing
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  Speaker 1: for you. That's same, for if any wreck had come ashore,
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  Speaker 1: they would have hunted high and low, and would soon
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  Speaker 1: have found ye. End of chapter