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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, The Flight in the Heather the Hue
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  Speaker 1: of Kornakich. Early as day comes in the beginning of July,
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  Speaker 1: it was still dark when we reached our destination, a
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  Speaker 1: cleft in the head of a great mountain, with a
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  Speaker 1: water running through the midst and upon the one hand
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  Speaker 1: a shallow cave in a rock. Birches grew there in
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  Speaker 1: a thin, pretty wood, which if little farther on, was
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  Speaker 1: changed into a wood of pines. The burn was full
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  Speaker 1: of trout, the wood of kushat. Doves on the open
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  Speaker 1: side of the mountain. Beyond WAPs would be always whistling,
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  Speaker 1: and cuckoos were plentiful. From the mouth of the cleft
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  Speaker 1: we looked down upon a part of Mamour and on
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  Speaker 1: the sea lock that divides that country from Appen, And
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  Speaker 1: this from so great a height as made it my
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  Speaker 1: continual wonder and pleasure to sit and behold them. The
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  Speaker 1: name of the cleft was the Hue of Kornakich, And
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  Speaker 1: although from its height and being so near upon the sea,
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  Speaker 1: it was often beset with clouds, yet it was on
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  Speaker 1: the whole a pleasant place, and the five days we
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  Speaker 1: lived in it went happily. We slept in the cave,
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  Speaker 1: making our bed of heather bushes which we cut for
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  Speaker 1: that purpose, and covering our sails with Allan's greatcoat. There
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  Speaker 1: was a low, concealed place in a turning of the glen,
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  Speaker 1: where we were so bold as to make fire, so
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  Speaker 1: that we could warm ourselves when the clouds set in,
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  Speaker 1: and cook hot porridge, and grill the little trouts that
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  Speaker 1: we caught with our hands under the stones and overhanging
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  Speaker 1: banks of the bern. This was indeed our chief pleasure
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  Speaker 1: and business, and not only to save our meal against
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  Speaker 1: worse times, but with a rivalry that much amused us.
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  Speaker 1: We spent a great part of our days at the
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  Speaker 1: water side, stripped to the waist and groping about, or
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  Speaker 1: as they say, beddling for these fish. The largest we
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  Speaker 1: got might have been a quarter of a pound, but
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  Speaker 1: they were of good flesh and flavor, and when broiled
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  Speaker 1: upon the coals, lacked only a little salt to be
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  Speaker 1: delicious in any by time, Alan must teach me to
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  Speaker 1: use my sword, for my ignorance had much distressed him,
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  Speaker 1: and I think besides, as I had sometimes the upper
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  Speaker 1: hand of him and the fishing, he was not sorry
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  Speaker 1: to turn to an exercise, where he had so much
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  Speaker 1: the upper hand of me, he made it somewhat more
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  Speaker 1: of a pain than need have been. For he stormed
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  Speaker 1: at me all through the lessons in a very violent
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  Speaker 1: manner of scolding, and would push me so close that
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  Speaker 1: I made sure he must run me through the body.
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  Speaker 1: I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my
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  Speaker 1: ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons,
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  Speaker 1: if it was but to stand on guard with an
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  Speaker 1: assured countenance, which is often all that is required. So
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  Speaker 1: though I could never in the least please my master,
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  Speaker 1: I was not altogether displeased with myself. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: you were not to suppose that we neglected our chief business,
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  Speaker 1: which was to get away. It will be many a
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  Speaker 1: long day, Alan said to me in our first morning,
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  Speaker 1: before the radcoats think upon seeking Korinakich. So now we
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  Speaker 1: must get words sent to James. He must find the
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  Speaker 1: Siller force. And how shall we send that word? Says I.
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  Speaker 1: We are here in a desert place which yet we
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  Speaker 1: dare not leave. And unless you get the fowls of
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  Speaker 1: the air to be your messengers, I see not what
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  Speaker 1: we shall be able to do. I said Allan you're
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  Speaker 1: a man of small contrivance, David. Thereupon he fell in
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  Speaker 1: a muse, looking in the embers of the fire, and presently,
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  Speaker 1: getting a piece of wood, he fashioned it in a cross,
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  Speaker 1: the four ends of which he blackened on the coals.
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  Speaker 1: Then he looked at me a little shyly. Could you
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  Speaker 1: lend me my button? Says he. It seems a strange
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  Speaker 1: thing to ask a gift again, But I own I
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  Speaker 1: am laith to cut another. I gave him the button,
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  Speaker 1: whereupon he strung it on a strip of his greatcoat,
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  Speaker 1: which he had used to bind the cross, and tying
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  Speaker 1: in a little sprig of birch and another of fir
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  Speaker 1: He looked upon his work with satisfaction. Now said he.
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  Speaker 1: There is a little Klachen, what is called a hamlet
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  Speaker 1: in the English, not very far from Kornakhich, and it
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  Speaker 1: has the name of Koalisnikhan. There there are living many
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  Speaker 1: friends of mine whom I could trust with my life,
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  Speaker 1: and some that I am no just so sure of.
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  Speaker 1: You see, David, there would be money set upon our heads.
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  Speaker 1: James himself had to set money on them. And as
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  Speaker 1: for the campbells, they would never spare Siller. Where there
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  Speaker 1: was a steward to be hurt. If it was otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: I would go down to Koalisna Khan whatever, and trust
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  Speaker 1: my life into these people's hands as lightly as I
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  Speaker 1: would trust another with my glove. But being so said I,
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  Speaker 1: being so said he, I would as lief they did
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  Speaker 1: not see me. There's bad folk everywhere, and what's far
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  Speaker 1: worse weak ones. So when it comes dark again, I
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  Speaker 1: will steal down into that clakhan and set this that
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  Speaker 1: I have been making in the window of a good
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  Speaker 1: friend of mine, John Breck mac call a booman of
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  Speaker 1: appens with all my heart, says I. And if he
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  Speaker 1: finds it, what is he to think? Well, says Allan,
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  Speaker 1: I wish he was a man of more penetration, for
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  Speaker 1: by my troth, I'm afraid he will make little enough
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  Speaker 1: of it. But this is what I have in mind.
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  Speaker 1: This cross is something in the nature of the cross
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  Speaker 1: tarry or fiery cross, which is the signal of gathering
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  Speaker 1: in our clans. Yet he will know well enough the
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  Speaker 1: clan is not to rise, for there it is standing
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  Speaker 1: in his window, and no word with it. So he
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  Speaker 1: will say to himself the clan is not to rise,
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  Speaker 1: but there is something. Then he will see my button,
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  Speaker 1: and that was Duncan Stuart's. And then he will say
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  Speaker 1: to himself, the son of Duncan is in the heather
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  Speaker 1: and has need of me. Well, said I, it may be,
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  Speaker 1: But even supposing so, there is a good deal of
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  Speaker 1: heather between here and the fourth. And that is a
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  Speaker 1: very true word, says Allen. But then John Breck will
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  Speaker 1: see the sprig of birch and the sprig of pine,
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  Speaker 1: and he will say to himself, if he is a
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  Speaker 1: man of any penetration at all, which I misdoubt, Allan
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  Speaker 1: will be lying in a wood which is both of
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  Speaker 1: pines and birches, then he will think to hisself, that
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  Speaker 1: is not so very right hereabout? And then he will
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  Speaker 1: come and give us a look up in Kornaki. And
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  Speaker 1: if he does not, David the devil may fly away
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  Speaker 1: with him. For what I care for he will be
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  Speaker 1: no wor the salt to his porridge. Amen, said I.
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  Speaker 1: Drolling with him a little, You are very ingenious, but
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  Speaker 1: would it not be simpler for you to write him
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  Speaker 1: a few words in black and white? And that is
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  Speaker 1: an excellent observe. Mister Balfour of Shaws, said Alan, drolling
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  Speaker 1: with me, And it would certainly be much simpler for
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  Speaker 1: me to write to him, but it would be a
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  Speaker 1: sore job for John Breck to read it. He would
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  Speaker 1: have to go to the school for two three years,
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  Speaker 1: and it's possible we might be wearied waiting on him.
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  Speaker 1: So that night Alan carried down his fiery cross and
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  Speaker 1: set it in the bowman's window. He was troubled when
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  Speaker 1: he came back, for the dogs had barked, and the
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  Speaker 1: folk run out from their houses, and he thought he
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  Speaker 1: had heard a clatter of arms and seen a redcoat
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  Speaker 1: come to one of the doors. On all accounts, we
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  Speaker 1: lay the next day in the borders of the wood
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  Speaker 1: and kept a close lookout, so that if it was
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  Speaker 1: John Breck that came, we might be ready to guide him,
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  Speaker 1: and if it was the Redcoats, we should have time
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  Speaker 1: to get away. About noon a man was to be
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  Speaker 1: spied straggling up the open side of the mountain in
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  Speaker 1: the sun, and looking round him as he came from
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  Speaker 1: under his hand. No sooner had Allan seen him than
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  Speaker 1: he whistled. The man turned and came a little towards us,
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  Speaker 1: than Allan would give another peep, and the man would
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  Speaker 1: come still nearer, And so by the sound of whistling.
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  Speaker 1: He was guided to the spot where we lay. He
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  Speaker 1: was a ragged, wild bearded man about forty, grossly disfigured
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  Speaker 1: with a smallpox, and looked both dull and savage. Although
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  Speaker 1: his English was very bad and broken. Yet Allan, according
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  Speaker 1: to his very handsome use whenever I was by, would
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  Speaker 1: suffer him to speak no Gaelic. Perhaps the strange language
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  Speaker 1: made him appear more backward than he really was, But
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  Speaker 1: I thought he had little good will to serve us,
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  Speaker 1: and what he had was the child of terror. Alan
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  Speaker 1: would have had him carry a message to James, but
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  Speaker 1: the bowman would hear of no message. She was forget it,
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  Speaker 1: he said in his screaming voice, and would either have
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  Speaker 1: a letter or wash his hands of us. I thought
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  Speaker 1: Allan would be graveled at that, for we lacked the
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  Speaker 1: means of writing in that desert. But he was a
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  Speaker 1: man of more resources than I knew. Searched the wood
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  Speaker 1: until he found the quill of a cushet dove, which
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  Speaker 1: he shaped into a pen, made himself a kind of
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  Speaker 1: ink with gunpowder from his horn and water from the
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  Speaker 1: running stream, and tearing a corner from his French military
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  Speaker 1: commission which he carried in his pocket like a talisman
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  Speaker 1: to keep him from the gallows. He sat down and
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  Speaker 1: wrote his follows, Dear Kinsman, please send the money by
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  Speaker 1: the bearer to the place he cans of your affectionate
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  Speaker 1: cousin a s. This he entrusted to the bowman, who
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  Speaker 1: promised to make what manner of speed he best could,
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  Speaker 1: and carried it off with him down the hill. He
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  Speaker 1: was three full days gone, but about five in the
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  Speaker 1: evening of the third we heard a whistling in the wood,
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  Speaker 1: which Allan answered, And presently the bowman came up the
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  Speaker 1: water side, looking for us right and left. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: less sulky than before, and indeed he was no doubt
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  Speaker 1: well pleased to have got to the end of such
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  Speaker 1: a dangerous commission. He gave us the news of the country,
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  Speaker 1: that it was alive with red coats, that arms were
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  Speaker 1: being found and poor folk brought in trouble daily, and
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  Speaker 1: that James and some of his servants were already clapped
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  Speaker 1: in prison at Fort William under strong suspicion of complicity.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed it was noised on all sides that Alan
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  Speaker 1: Breck had fired the shot, and there was a bill
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  Speaker 1: issued for both him and me, with one hundred pounds reward.
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  Speaker 1: This was all as bad as could be, and the
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  Speaker 1: little note the bowman had carried us from Missus Stewart
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  Speaker 1: was of a miserable sadness. In it. She besought Allan
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  Speaker 1: not to let himself be captured, assuring him if he
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  Speaker 1: fell in the hands of the troops, both he and
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  Speaker 1: James were no better than dead men. The money she
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  Speaker 1: had sent was all that she could beg or borrow,
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  Speaker 1: as she prayed heaven we could be doing with it. Lastly,
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  Speaker 1: she said, she enclosed us one of the bills in
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  Speaker 1: which we were described. This we looked upon with great
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  Speaker 1: curiosity and not a little fear, partly as a man
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  Speaker 1: may look in a mirror, partly as he might look
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  Speaker 1: into the barrel of an enemy's gun, to judge if
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  Speaker 1: it be truly aimed. Allan was advertised as a small,
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  Speaker 1: pock marked active man of thirty five or thereby dressed
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  Speaker 1: in a feathered hat, a French side coat of blue
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  Speaker 1: with silver buttons and lace, a great deal tarnished, a
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  Speaker 1: red waistcoat and breeches of black shag I as a tall,
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  Speaker 1: strong lad of about eighteen, wearing an old blue coat,
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  Speaker 1: very ragged, an old Highland bonnet, a long homespun waistcoat,
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  Speaker 1: blue breeches, his legs bare, low country shoes, wanting the toes,
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  Speaker 1: speaks like a lowlander and has no beard. Alan was
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  Speaker 1: well enough pleased to see his finery so fully remembered
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  Speaker 1: and set down. Only when he came to the word
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  Speaker 1: tarnish he looked upon his lace like one a little mortified.
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  Speaker 1: As for myself, I thought I cut a miserable figure
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  Speaker 1: in the bill, And yet was well enough pleased too,
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  Speaker 1: For since I had changed these rags, the description had
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  Speaker 1: ceased to be a danger and became a source of safety.
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  Speaker 1: Allan said I, you should change your clothes. Na troth,
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  Speaker 1: said Allan, aDNA others a fine sight it would be
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  Speaker 1: if I went back to France and a bonnet. This
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  Speaker 1: put a second reflection in my mind, that if I
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  Speaker 1: were to separate from Allan and his tell tale clothes,
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  Speaker 1: I should be safe against a rest and might go
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  Speaker 1: openly about my business. Nor was this all for suppose
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  Speaker 1: I was arrested when I was alone, there was a
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  Speaker 1: little again aainst me. But suppose I was taken in
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  Speaker 1: company with the reputed murderer, my case would begin to
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  Speaker 1: be grave. For generosity's sake, I dare not speak my
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  Speaker 1: mind upon this head, but I thought of it none
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  Speaker 1: the less. I thought of it all the more too,
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  Speaker 1: when the bowman brought out a green purse with four
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  Speaker 1: guineas in gold and the best part of another in
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  Speaker 1: small change. True it was more than I had, But
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  Speaker 1: then Alan, with less than five guineas, had to get
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  Speaker 1: as far as France, I with my less than two,
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  Speaker 1: not beyond Queen's ferry, so that taking things in their proportion,
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  Speaker 1: Allan's society was not only apparel to my life, but
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  Speaker 1: a burden on my purse. But there was no thought
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  Speaker 1: of the sort in the honest head of my companion.
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  Speaker 1: He believed he was serving, helping and protecting me. And
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  Speaker 1: what could I do but hold my peace and chafe
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  Speaker 1: and take my chance of it. It's little enough, said Allan,
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  Speaker 1: putting the purse in his pocket. But it'll do my business.
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  Speaker 1: And now, John Breck, if you will hand me over
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  Speaker 1: my button, this gentleman and me wolf be for taking
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  Speaker 1: the road. But the bowman, after feeling about in a
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  Speaker 1: hairy purse that hung in front of him in the Highland, manner,
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  Speaker 1: though he wore otherwise the lowland habit with sea trousers.
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  Speaker 1: Began to roll his eyes strangely, and at last said
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  Speaker 1: PERNANSO will loss it, meaning he thought he had lost it.
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  Speaker 1: What cried Alan, You will lose my button that was
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  Speaker 1: my father's before me. Now I will tell you what
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  Speaker 1: is in my mind, John Breck, It is in my mind.
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  Speaker 1: This is the worst day's work that ever you did
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  Speaker 1: since she was born. And as Alan spoke, he set
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  Speaker 1: his hands on his knees and looked at the bowman
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  Speaker 1: with a smiling mouth and that dancing light in his
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  Speaker 1: eyes that meant mischief to his enemies. Perhaps the bowman
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  Speaker 1: was honest enough, Perhaps he it meant to cheat. And then,
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  Speaker 1: finding himself alone with two of us in a desert place,
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  Speaker 1: cast back to honesty as being safer at least, And
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  Speaker 1: all at once he seemed to find that button and
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  Speaker 1: handed it to Allan. Well, and it is a good
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  Speaker 1: thing for the honor of the Maccalls, said Allan. And
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  Speaker 1: then to me, here is my button back again, and
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  Speaker 1: I thank you for parting with it, which is of
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  Speaker 1: a piece with all your friendships to me. Then he
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  Speaker 1: took the warmest parting of the bowmen, for says he
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  Speaker 1: Ye've done very well by me. I'd set your neck
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  Speaker 1: at a venture, and I will always give you the
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  Speaker 1: name of a good man. Lastly, the bowman took himself
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  Speaker 1: off by one way, and Alan and I, getting our
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  Speaker 1: chattels together, struck into another to resume our flight. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter