Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 29 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
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- Chapter twenty nine. I come into my kingdom. For some time, Alan volleyed upon the door, and his knocking only roused the echoes of the house and neighborhood. At last, however, I could hear the noise of a window gently thrust up, and knew that my uncle had come to his observatory. By what light there was, he could see Allan standing like a dark shadow on the steps. The three witnesses were hidden quite out of his view, so that there was nothing to alarm an honest man in his own house. For all that he studied his visitor awhile in silence, and when he spoke his voice had a quaver of misgiving. What's this? Says he? This is no kind of time of night for decent folk, and I have no trackings with night hawks. What brings ye here? I have a blunderbush? Is that yourself? Mister Balfour, returned Allan, stepping back and looking up into the darkness. Have a care of that blunderbuss. They're nasty things to burst. What brings your hair? And what are yeh? Says my uncle angrily. I have no matter of inclination to rout out my name to the countryside, said Alan. But what brings me here is another story, being more of your affair than mine. And if you're sure it's what you would like, I'll set it to a tune and sing it to you. And what is it? Asked my uncle David, says Allan, What was that? Cried my uncle in a mighty changed voice. Shall I give you the rest of the name, then said Alan. There was a pause, And then I'm thinking I better let you in, said my uncle. Doubtfully, I dare say that, said Alan. But the point is, would I go now? I will tell you what I am thinking. I am thinking that it is here upon this doorstep that we must confess, if upon this business, and it shall be here or nowhere at all whatever. For I would have you to understand that I am as stiff necked as yourself, and a gentleman of better family. This change of note disconcerted Ebenezer. He was a little wild digesting it, and then says he will will what must be must, and shut the window. But it took him a long time to get downstairs, and a still longer to undo the fastenings. Repenting, I dare say, and taking with fresh claps of fear at every second step and every bolt and bar. At last, however, we heard the creak of the hinges, and it seems my uncle slipped gingerly out, and, seeing that Allan had stepped back a pace or two, set him down on the top doorstep, with the blunderbuss ready in his hands. And now says he, mind, I have my blunderbush, and if you take a step nearer, you're as good as deed. That very civil speech, says Alan. To be sure, Nah, says my uncle, but this is no very chanty kind of a proceeding. And then bound to be prepared. And now that we understand each other, you can name your business, why says Alan, You that are a man of so much understanding, will doubtless have perceived that I am a highland gentleman. My name is no business in my story. But the county of my friends is not so very far from the Isle of Mull, of which you will have heard. It seems there was a ship lost in those parts, And the next day a gentleman of my family was seeking wreck wood for his fire along the sands, when he came upon a lad that was half drowned well he brought him too, and he and some other gentleman took and clapped him in an old ruined castle, where from that day to this he has been a great expense to my friends. My friends are a wee wild like and not so particular about the law as some that I could name, And finding that the lad owned some decent folk, and was your born nephew, mister Balfour, they asked me to give you a bit of call and confer upon the matter. And I may tell you at the off go unless we can agree upon some terms, you are little likely to set eyes upon him, For my friends added Allan, simply are no very well off. My uncle cleared his throat. I'm no very caring, says he. He wasn't a good lad at the best of it, and I'd not called to interfere. Ay, ay, said Alan. I see what you would be at pretending you don't care to make the ransom smaller, Nah, said my uncle. It's the mere truth. I take no matter interest in the lad, and I pay no ransom, and you can make a kirk and a mill of him for what I care. Hoot, sir, says Allan bloodsticker than water in the devil's name. You cannot desert your brother's son for the fair shame of it. And if you did and it came to be Kent, you wouldn't it be very popular in your countryside? Or I'm the more deceived, I know, very popular the way it is, returned Ebbeneezer. And I didna see how it would come to be Kent. No by me anyway, nor yet by you are your friends, So that's idle talk me, Bucky says he. They'll have to be David. That tells it, said Allan. How's that? Says my uncle? Sharply? Oh, just this way, says Allan. My friends would doubtless keep your nephew as long as there was any likelihood of siller to be made of it. But if there was none, I am clearly of opinion they would let him gang where he pleased and be damned to him. Aye. But I'm no very caring about that either, said my uncle. I wouldn't be muckle made up with that. I was thinkin that, said Allan. And what for why, asked Ebenezer. Why. Mister Balfour replied Alan. By all that I could hear there were two ways of it. Either you liked David and would pay to get him back, or else she had very good reasons for not wanting him, and would pay for us to keep him. It seems as not the first. Well then it's the second, and blithem I to kennet, for it should be a pretty penny in my pocket, in the pocket of my friends. I dinna follow ye there, said my uncle. No, said Allan, Well see here you didn't want the lad back. Well what do you want done with him? And how much will ye pay? My uncle made no answer, but shifted uneasily on his seat. Come, sir, cried Alan, I would have you to ken that I am a gentleman. I bear a king's name. I am not righter to kick my shanks at your hall door. Either give me an answer in civility and that out of hand, or by the top of Glencoe, I will ram three feet of iron through your vitals. Aim man, cried my uncle, scrambling to his feet. Give me a minute. What's like wrong with ye? I'm just a plain man and no dancing manster, and I'm trying to be as civil as as morally possible. As for that wild talk is fear disreputable vitals as you, And where would I be with my blunderbush? He snarled, powder, and your old hands are but as the snail to the swallow against the bright steel in the hands of Allan, says the other. Before your dotterin finger could find the trigger, the hilt would dirl on your breastbane a man, where's denying it? Says my uncle, pitied, as you please, had your own way. I do nothing to cross ye. Just tell me what you'll be wantin, and ye'll see that we can agree. Fine troth, sir, said Allan. I ask for nothin' but plain dealin in two words. Do ye want the land killed or kept? Oh? Sirs, cried Ebenezer. Oh sirs me, that's no kind o language killed or kept, repeated Allan. Oh keep it, keep it, wailed my uncle. We'll head no blood shed if you please, well, said Allan. As you please, that'll be the dearer. The dearer, cries Ebenezer. Would yer file your hands with crime? Hoot? Said Allan. They're both crime whatever, and the killing's easier and quicker and surer. Keeping the laddle be a fascist job, a fascist kittle business. I'll have him keep to though, returned my uncle. I never had nothing to do with anything morally wrong, and I'm no goin to begin to pleasure a wild hygliman your uncle scrupulous, sneered Alan. I'm a man of principle, said Ebenezer, simply, And if I have to pay for it, I'll have to pay for it. And besides, says he, ye've forgot the lad's my brother's son. Well well, said Alan, And now about the price, there's no very easy for me to set a name upon it. I would first have to ken some small matters. I would have to ken, For instance, what you gave hose season at the first off? Go hose season? Cries my uncle struck back. What for for kidnap happen? David, says Alan. It's a lay, It's a black lie, cried my uncle. He was never kidnapped. He light in his throat that he told you that kidnapped. He never was. That's no fault of mine, nor yet of yours, said Alan, nor yet of hose seasons. If he's a man that can be trusted, what do you mean, cried Ebeneezer, did hose season? Tell ye why you dunnard old rant how else what I can cried Alan hose Season and me are partners, we gang shares. So you can see for yourself what good you can do lyon. And I must plainly say you drove a fool's bargain when you let a man like the sailorman so far forward in your private matters. But that's past praying for. And you must lie on your bed the way you made it. And the point in hand is just this. What did you pay him? Has he told? You? Asked my uncle? That's my concern, said Alan Will said my uncle, I didn't care what he said he laid. And the solemn God's truth is this that I gave him twenty pound. But I'll be perfectly honest with ye, for by that he was to have the sellin of the lad in kiroline wilk would be his mucklemare, but nor from my pocket. Ye see, thank you, mister Thompson. That will do excellently well, said the lawyer, stepping forward. And then mighty Civilly, good evening, mister Balfour said he, And good evening, Uncle Ebenezer said I, and it's te Braunick. Mister Balfour added, Torrance never a word, said my uncle, neither black nor white, but just sat where he was on the top doorstep and stared upon us like a man turned to stone. Alan filched away his blunderbus, and the lawyer, taking him by the arm, plucked him up from the doorstep, led him into the kitchen, whither we all followed, and set him down on a chair beside the hearth, where the fire was out, and only a rush light burning there. We all looked upon him for a while, exulting greatly in our success, but yet with a sort of pity for the man's shame. Come, Come, mister Ebeneezer, said the lawyer. You must not be downhearted, for I promise you we shall make easy terms. In the meanwhile, give us the cellar key, and Torrance shall draw us a bottle of your father's wine in honor of the event. Then, turning to me and taking me by the hand, mister David says he I wish you all joy in your good fortune, which I believed to be deserved. And then to Alan, with a spice of drollery, mister Thompson, I'd pay you my compliment. It was most artfully conducted, but in one point you somewhat outran my comprehension. Do I understand your name to be James or Charles? Or is it George perhaps? And why should it be any of the three? Sir, quoth Allan, drawing himself up like one who smelt an offence. Only, Sir, that you mentioned a king's name, replied Rankeler. And as there has never yet been a king Thomson, or his fame at least has never come my way, I judged you must refer to that you had in baptism. This was just the stab that Allan would feel keenest, and I am free to confess. He took it very ill. Not a word would he answer, but stepped off to the far end of the kitchen and sat down and sulked. And it was not till I stepped after him and gave him my hand and thanked him by title as the chief spring of my success, that he began to smile a bit, and was at last prevailed upon to join our party. By that time we had the fire lighted and a bottle of wine uncorked. A good supper came out of the basket, to which Torrance and I and Alan set ourselves down while the lawyer and my uncle passed into the next chamber to consult. They stayed there closeted about an hour, at the end of which period they had come to a good understanding, and my uncle and I set our hands to the agreement in a formal manner. By the terms of this my uncle bound himself to satisfy Rahnkeyler as to his intermissions, and to pay me two clear thirds of the yearly income of shawls. So the beggar in the ballot had come home. And when I had laid down that night on the kitchen chests, I was a man of means and had a name in the country. Alan and Torrance and wren Kyler slept and snored on their hard beds. But for me, who had lain out under heaven and upon dirt and stones, so many days and nights, and often with an empty belly, and in fear of death, this good change of my case unmanned me more than any of the former evil ones. And I lay till dawn, looking at the fire on the roof, and planning the future. End of chapter