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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, the final chapter good Bye. As far as
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  Speaker 1: I was concerned myself, I had come to port, but
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  Speaker 1: I still had Allan to whom I was so much
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  Speaker 1: beholden on my hands, and I felt besides a heavy
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  Speaker 1: charge in the matter of the murder and James of
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  Speaker 1: the Glens, on both these heads. I unbosomed to Rankeiler
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  Speaker 1: the next morning, walking to and fro about six of
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  Speaker 1: o'clock before the House of Shaws, and with nothing in
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  Speaker 1: view but the fields and woods that had been my
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  Speaker 1: ancestors and were now mine. Even as I spoke on
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  Speaker 1: these grave subjects, my eye would take a glad bit
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  Speaker 1: of a run over the prospect, and my heart jump
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  Speaker 1: with pride about my clear duty to my friend. The
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  Speaker 1: lawyer had no doubt I must help him out of
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  Speaker 1: the county at whatever risk. But in the case of James,
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  Speaker 1: he was of a different mind. Mister Thompson says he
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  Speaker 1: is one thing, mister Thompson's kinsman quite another. I know
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  Speaker 1: little of the facts, but I gather that a great
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  Speaker 1: noble whom we will call if you like, the d
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  Speaker 1: of A, has some concern and is even supposed to
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  Speaker 1: feel some animosity in the matter. The d of a
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  Speaker 1: is doubtless an excellent nobleman. But mister David timio Key,
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  Speaker 1: no kuere dios. If you interfere to balk his vengeance.
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  Speaker 1: You should remember there is one way to shut your
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  Speaker 1: testimony out, and that is to put you in the dock.
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  Speaker 1: There you would be in the same pickle as mister
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  Speaker 1: Thompson's kinsman. You will object that you are innocent, will,
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  Speaker 1: but so is he, And to be tried for your
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  Speaker 1: life before a highland jury, on a highland quarrel, and
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  Speaker 1: with a highland judge upon the bench, would be a
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  Speaker 1: brief transition to the gallows. Now I had made all
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  Speaker 1: these reasonings before and found no very good reply to them,
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  Speaker 1: so I put on all the simplicity I can could.
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  Speaker 1: In that case, Sir said I, I would just have
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  Speaker 1: to be hanged, would I not? My dear boy, cries he.
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  Speaker 1: Go in God's name and do what you think is right.
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  Speaker 1: It is a poor thought that at my time of
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  Speaker 1: life I should be advising you to choose the safe
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  Speaker 1: and shameful. And I take it back with an apology.
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  Speaker 1: Go and do your duty and be hanged if you must,
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  Speaker 1: like a gentleman, There are worse things in the world
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  Speaker 1: than to be hanged. Not many, sir, said I smiling.
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  Speaker 1: Why yes, sir, he cried, very many. It would be
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  Speaker 1: ten times better for your uncle to go no farther
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  Speaker 1: afield if he were dangling decently upon a gibbet. Thereupon
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  Speaker 1: he turned into the house, still in a great fervor
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  Speaker 1: of mind, so that I saw I had pleased him heartily,
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  Speaker 1: And there he wrote me two letters, making his comments
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  Speaker 1: on them as he wrote, this says he is to
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  Speaker 1: my banker's the British Lidding Company, placing a credit to
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  Speaker 1: your name. Consult mister Thomas. He will know of ways,
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  Speaker 1: and you, with this credit, can supply the means. I
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  Speaker 1: trust you will be a good husband of your money.
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  Speaker 1: But in the affair of a friend like mister Thompson,
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  Speaker 1: I would be even prodigal. Then for his kinsman. There
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  Speaker 1: is no better way than that you should seek the Advocate,
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  Speaker 1: tell him your tale and offer testimony. Whether he may
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  Speaker 1: take it or not is quite another matter, and will
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  Speaker 1: turn on the d of a Now that you may
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  Speaker 1: reach the Lord Advocate well recommended I give you here
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  Speaker 1: a letter to a namesake of your own, the learned
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  Speaker 1: mister Balfour of Pilrig, a man whom I esteem. It
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  Speaker 1: will look better that you should be presented by one
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  Speaker 1: of your own name. And the Lord of Pilrig is
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  Speaker 1: much look up to in the faculty, and stands well
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  Speaker 1: with Lord Advocate Grant. I would not trouble him if
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  Speaker 1: I with any particulars, And to you, no, I think
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  Speaker 1: it would be needless to refer to mister Thompson. Form
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  Speaker 1: yourself upon the lard. He is a good model. When
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  Speaker 1: you deal with the Advocate, be discreet, and in all
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  Speaker 1: these matters, may the Lord guide you, mister David. Thereupon
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  Speaker 1: he took his farewell and set out with torrents for
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  Speaker 1: the ferry, while Allan and I turned our faces for
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  Speaker 1: the city of Edinburgh. As we went by the footpath
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  Speaker 1: and beside the gate posts and the unfinished lodge, we
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  Speaker 1: kept looking back at the house of my father's. It
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  Speaker 1: stood there, bare and great and smokeless, like a place
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  Speaker 1: not lived in. Only in one of the top windows
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  Speaker 1: there was the peak of a nightcap, bobbing up and
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  Speaker 1: down and back and forward, like the head of a
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  Speaker 1: rabbit from a borough. I had little welcome when I came,
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  Speaker 1: and less kindness while I stayed, but at least I
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  Speaker 1: was watched as I went away. Allan and I went
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  Speaker 1: slowly forward upon our way, having little heart either to
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  Speaker 1: walk or speak. The same thought was uppermost in both,
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  Speaker 1: that we were near the time of our parting, and
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  Speaker 1: remembrance of all the by gone days sat upon us sorely.
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  Speaker 1: We talked, indeed, of what should be done, and it
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  Speaker 1: was resolved that Allan should keep to the county, biding
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  Speaker 1: now here now there, but coming once in the day
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  Speaker 1: to a particular place, where I might be able to
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  Speaker 1: communicate with him, either in my own person or by messenger.
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  Speaker 1: In the meanwhile, I was to seek out a lawyer
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  Speaker 1: who was an appen Stuart, and a man therefore to
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  Speaker 1: be wholly trusted, and it should be his part to
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  Speaker 1: find a ship and to arrange for Allan's safe embarkation.
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  Speaker 1: No sooner was this business done than the words seemed
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  Speaker 1: to leave us. And though I would seek the jest
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  Speaker 1: with Allan under the name of mister Thompson, and he
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  Speaker 1: with me on my new clothes and my estate, you
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  Speaker 1: could feel very well that we were nearer tiers. Then
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  Speaker 1: laughter we came the bye way over the hill of Corstorphine,
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  Speaker 1: and when we got near to the place called rest
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  Speaker 1: and be thankful, and looked down on Corstorphine Boggs, and
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  Speaker 1: over to the city and the castle on the hill.
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  Speaker 1: We both stopped, for we both knew, without a word,
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  Speaker 1: said that we had come to wear our ways parted.
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  Speaker 1: Here he repeated to me once again what had been
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  Speaker 1: agreed upon between us, the address of the lawyer, the
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  Speaker 1: daily hour at which Alan might be found, and the
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  Speaker 1: signals that were to be made by any that came
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  Speaker 1: seeking him. Then I gave what money I had, a
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  Speaker 1: guinea or two of Rangkeuiler's, so that he should not
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  Speaker 1: starve in the meanwhile. And then we stood a space
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  Speaker 1: and looked over at Edinburgh in silence. Well goodbye, said Alan,
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  Speaker 1: and held out his left hand. Good Bye, said I,
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  Speaker 1: and gave the hand a little grasp, and went off downhill.
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  Speaker 1: Neither t one of us looked the other in the face,
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  Speaker 1: nor so long as he was in my view, did
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  Speaker 1: I take one back glance at the friend I was leaving.
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  Speaker 1: But as I went on my way to the city,
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  Speaker 1: I felt so lost and lonesome that I could have
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  Speaker 1: found it in my heart to sit down by the
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  Speaker 1: dike and cry and weep. Like any baby. It was
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  Speaker 1: coming near noon when I passed in by the West
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  Speaker 1: Kirk and the grass Market, into the streets of the capital.
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  Speaker 1: The huge height of the buildings running up to ten
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  Speaker 1: in fifteen stories, the narrow arched entries that continually vomited passengers,
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  Speaker 1: the wares of the merchants in their windows, the hubub
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  Speaker 1: and endless stir, the foul smells, and the fine clothes,
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  Speaker 1: and a hundred other particulars too small to mansion struck
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  Speaker 1: me into a kind of stupor of surprise, so that
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  Speaker 1: I let the crowd carry me to and fro. And
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  Speaker 1: yet all the time what I was thinking of was
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  Speaker 1: allan at rest and be thankful. And all the time,
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  Speaker 1: although you would think I would not choose but be
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  Speaker 1: delighted with these bras and novelties, there was a cold
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  Speaker 1: gnawing in my inside, like a remorse for something wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The hand of providence brought me, in my drifting to
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  Speaker 1: the very doors of the British Linen Company's bank. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter and of book