Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 02 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

Transcript

02 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books Library

• 0:00
  Chapter two. I come to my journey's end on the forenoon of the second
• 0:07
  day. Coming to the top of a hill, I saw all the country
• 0:11
  fall away before me down to the sea, and in the midst of this
• 0:15
  descent, on a long ridge the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln.
• 0:20
  There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in
• 0:24
  the firth, both of which, for as far away as they were,
• 0:28
  I could distinguish clearly, and both brought my country heart into my mouth.
• 0:33
  Presently after I came by a house where a shepherd lived and got a rough
• 0:37
  direction for the neighborhood of Cramond, and so from one to another worked my
• 0:42
  way to the westward of the capital by Colinton till I came out upon the
• 0:47
  Glasgow Road, and there, to my great pleasure and wonder, I beheld
• 0:51
  a regiment marching to the fifes every foot in time, an old red faced
• 0:56
  general on a gray horse at the one end, and at the other the
• 0:59
  cup of grenadier's were their pope's hats. The pride of life seemed to mount
• 1:03
  into my brain at the sight of the red coats and the hearing of that
• 1:07
  merry music. A little further on, and I was told I was in
• 1:11
  creman of parish, and began to substitute in my inquiries the name of the
• 1:17
  House of Shaws. It was a word that seemed to surprise those of whom
• 1:22
  I sought my way. At first, I thought the plainness of my appearance
• 1:26
  in my country habit, and that all dusty from the road consorted ill with
• 1:30
  the greatness of the place to which I was bound. But after two or
• 1:34
  maybe three had given me the same look and the same answer, I began
• 1:38
  to take it in my head that there was something strange about the Shaws itself.
• 1:46
  The better to set the sphere at rest. I changed the form of
• 1:49
  my inquiries, and, spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the
• 1:53
  shaft of his cart, I asked him if he had ever heard tell of
• 1:57
  a house they called the House of Shaws. He stopped his card and looked
• 2:00
  at me like the others, I said, he what for it's a great
• 2:07
  house, I asked, doubtless, says he. The house is a big
• 2:14
  muckle house, I said, I. But the folk that are in it,
• 2:20
  folk cried, he are ye daft? Then they're folks there to call
• 2:24
  folk? What say I? Not mister Ebenezer, Oh, I says the
• 2:31
  man. There's the laird, to be sure, if it's him you're wanting,
• 2:37
  what'll like be your business? Mannie? I was led to think that
• 2:40
  I would get a situation, I said, looking as modest as I could,
• 2:46
  What cries the carter in so sharp a note that his very horse started?
• 2:51
  And then well, Mannie, he added, it's none of my affairs,
• 2:55
  but you seem a decent spoken lad, and if you'll take a word
• 3:00
  from me, you'll keep clear of the shaws. The next person I came
• 3:05
  across was a dapper little man in a beautiful white wig, whom I saw
• 3:08
  to be a barber on his rounds, and, knowing well that barbers were
• 3:12
  great gossips, I asked him plainly, what sort of a man was mister
• 3:15
  Balfour of the shaws? Hoot? Hoot, hoot? Said the barber nat
• 3:21
  kind of a man, na kind of a man at all, and began
• 3:24
  to ask me, very shrewdly what my business was. But I was more
• 3:29
  than a match for him at that, and he went on to his next
• 3:31
  customer, no wiser than he came. I cannot well describe the blow this
• 3:37
  dealt to my illusions. The more indistinct the accusations were, the less I
• 3:42
  liked them, for they left the wider field to fancy. What kind of
• 3:46
  a great house was this, that all the parish should start and stare to
• 3:51
  be asked the way to it? Or what sort of a gentleman that his
• 3:54
  ill fame should be thus current on the wayside. If an hour's walking would
• 3:59
  have brought me back to Essendean, I would have left my adventure then and
• 4:02
  there and returned to mister Campbell's. But when I had come so far away
• 4:08
  already, mere shame would not suffer me to desist till I had put the
• 4:12
  matter to the touch of proof. I was bound out of mere self respect
• 4:15
  to carry it through. And little as I liked the sound of what I
• 4:19
  heard, and slow as I began to travel, I still kept asking my
• 4:25
  way, and still kept advancing. I was drawing on to sundown when I
• 4:30
  met a stout, dark, sour looking woman coming trudging down a hill,
• 4:33
  And she, when I had put my usual question, turned sharp about,
• 4:39
  accompanied me back to the summit she had just left, and pointed to a
• 4:42
  great bulk of buildings standing very bare upon a green in the bottom of the
• 4:46
  next valley. The country was pleasant round about, running in low hills,
• 4:51
  pleasantly watered and wooded, and the crops, to my eyes wonderfully good.
• 4:57
  But the house itself seemed to be a kind of room. No road led
• 5:00
  up to it, no smoke arose from any of the chimneys, nor was
• 5:04
  there any semblance of a garden. My heart sank that I cried. The
• 5:12
  woman's face lit up with a malignant anger. That is the house of Shaws,
• 5:16
  She cried, Blood built it, Blood stopped the building of it.
• 5:20
  Blood shall bring it down. See here, she cried again. I spit
• 5:26
  upon the ground and crack my thumb at it. Black be its fall.
• 5:30
  If you see the laird, tell him what you hear, tell him.
• 5:33
  This makes the twelve hundred and nineteen times that Jennak Gluston has called down the
• 5:38
  curse on him and his house byre and stable man, Guest and master wife
• 5:43
  miss or Bairn. Black, black be their fall. And the woman,
• 5:48
  whose voice had ridden to a kind of eldritch sing song, turned with a
• 5:53
  skip and was gone. Stood where she left me with my hair on end.
• 6:00
  In those days, folk still believed in witches and trembled at a curse,
• 6:02
  and this one falling so pat like a wayside omen to arrest me.
• 6:08
  Ere I carried out my purpose, took the pith out of my legs.
• 6:13
  I sat me down and stared at the house of shaws. The more I
• 6:16
  looked, the pleasanterer that countryside appeared, being all set with hawthorn bushes full
• 6:23
  of flowers, the fields dotted with sheep, a fine flight of rooks in
• 6:27
  the sky, and every sign of a kind soil and climate. And yet
• 6:30
  the barrack in the midst of it went sore against my fancy. Country Folk
• 6:35
  went by from the fields as I sat there on the side of the ditch,
• 6:40
  but I lacked the spirit to give them a good inn. At last
• 6:43
  the sun went down, and then right up against the yellow sky, I
• 6:47
  saw a scroll of smoke go mounting, not much thicker, as it seemed
• 6:53
  to me, than the smoke of a candle, but still there it was,
• 6:56
  and meant a fire and warmth and cookery, and some living inhabitant that
• 7:00
  must have lit it. And this comforted my heart. So I set forward
• 7:05
  by a little faint track in the grass that led in my direction. It
• 7:10
  was very faint, indeed, to be the only way to a place of
• 7:13
  habitation, yet I saw no other. Presently. It brought me to stone
• 7:17
  uprights, with an unroofed lodge beside them, and coats of arms upon the
• 7:21
  top. A main entrance it was plainly meant to be, but never finished.
• 7:28
  Instead of gates of wrought iron, a pair of hurdles were tied across
• 7:31
  with a straw rope. And as there were no park walls nor any sign
• 7:35
  of avenue, the track that I was following passed on the right hand of
• 7:40
  the pillars, and went wandering on toward the house. The nearer I got
• 7:45
  to that, the drearier it appeared. It seemed like the one wing of
• 7:48
  a house that had never been finished. What should have been the inner end
• 7:53
  stood open on the upper floors, and showed against the sky with steps and
• 7:58
  stairs of uncompleted masonry. Many of the windows were unglazed, and bats flew
• 8:03
  in and out like doves out of a dove cote. The night had begun
• 8:07
  to fall as I got close, and in three of the lower windows,
• 8:11
  which were very high up and narrow and well barred, the changing light of
• 8:16
  a little fire began to glimmer. Was this the palace I had been coming
• 8:20
  to. Was it within these walls that I was to seek new friends and
• 8:24
  begin great fortunes? Why in my father's house on essen water side, the
• 8:30
  fire and the bright lights would show a mile away, and the door opened
• 8:33
  to a beggar's knock. I came forward, cautiously and giving ear as I
• 8:39
  came, heard some one rattling with dishes, a little dry, eager cough
• 8:43
  that came in fits, But there was no sound of speech, and not
• 8:48
  a dog barked. The door, As well as I could see it in
• 8:52
  the dim light was a great piece of wood, all studded with nails.
• 8:56
  And I lifted my hand, with a faint heart under my jacket, and
• 9:00
  knocked once. Then I stood and waited. The house had fallen into a
• 9:05
  dead silence. A whole minute passed away, and nothing stirred but the bats
• 9:11
  overhead. I knocked again, and hearkened again. By this time my ears
• 9:16
  had grown so accustomed to the quiet that I could hear the ticking of the
• 9:20
  clock inside as it slowly counted out the seconds. But whoever was in that
• 9:24
  house kept deadly still, and must have held his breath. I was in
• 9:31
  two minds whether to run away, but anger got the upper hand, and
• 9:35
  I began instead to rain kicks and buffets on the door and to shout aloud
• 9:39
  for mister Balfourt. I was in full career when I heard the cough right
• 9:43
  overhead, and jumping back and looking up, beheld a man's head in a
• 9:48
  tall nightcap and the bell mouth of a blunderbuss at one of the first story
• 9:52
  windows. It's loaded, said a voice. I have come here with a
• 9:58
  letter, I said, said to mister Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws. Is he
• 10:03
  here? From whom is it? Asked the man with the blunderbuss. That
• 10:09
  is neither here nor there, said I, for I was growing very wroth.
• 10:13
  Well was the reply. YE can put it down upon the door step
• 10:18
  and be off with ye. I will do no such thing, I cried.
• 10:22
  I will deliver it into mister Balfour's hands, as it was meant I
• 10:26
  should. It is a letter of introduction. A what cried the voice sharply,
• 10:33
  I repeated what I had said. Who are ye yoself? Was the
• 10:37
  next question, after a considerable pause. I am not ashamed of my name,
• 10:43
  said I. They call me David Balfour. At that I made sure
• 10:48
  the man started, for I heard the blunderbuss rattle on the window sill.
• 10:52
  And it was after quite a long pause, and with a curious change of
• 10:56
  voice, that the next question followed, Is your father dead? I was
• 11:03
  so much surprised at this that I could find no voice to answer, but
• 11:07
  stood staring Aye, the man resumed, He'll be dead, no doubt.
• 11:13
  An that'll be what brings ye chappin' to my door. Another paused, and
• 11:18
  then defiantly, well man, he said, I'll let ye in, and
• 11:24
  he disappeared from the window. End of chapter