Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 30 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Chapter thirty, the final chapter good Bye. As far as I was concerned
• 0:08
  myself, I had come to port, but I still had Allan to whom
• 0:12
  I was so much beholden on my hands, and I felt besides a heavy
• 0:16
  charge in the matter of the murder and James of the Glens, on both
• 0:20
  these heads. I unbosomed to Rankeiler the next morning, walking to and fro
• 0:25
  about six of o'clock before the House of Shaws, and with nothing in view
• 0:30
  but the fields and woods that had been my ancestors and were now mine.
• 0:35
  Even as I spoke on these grave subjects, my eye would take a glad
• 0:39
  bit of a run over the prospect, and my heart jump with pride about
• 0:44
  my clear duty to my friend. The lawyer had no doubt I must help
• 0:49
  him out of the county at whatever risk. But in the case of James,
• 0:53
  he was of a different mind. Mister Thompson says he is one thing,
• 1:00
  mister Thompson's kinsman quite another. I know little of the facts, but
• 1:03
  I gather that a great noble whom we will call if you like, the
• 1:07
  d of A, has some concern and is even supposed to feel some animosity
• 1:14
  in the matter. The d of a is doubtless an excellent nobleman. But
• 1:19
  mister David timio Key, no kuere dios. If you interfere to balk his
• 1:25
  vengeance. You should remember there is one way to shut your testimony out,
• 1:30
  and that is to put you in the dock. There you would be in
• 1:34
  the same pickle as mister Thompson's kinsman. You will object that you are innocent,
• 1:38
  will, but so is he, And to be tried for your life
• 1:42
  before a highland jury, on a highland quarrel, and with a highland judge
• 1:47
  upon the bench, would be a brief transition to the gallows. Now I
• 1:53
  had made all these reasonings before and found no very good reply to them,
• 1:57
  so I put on all the simplicity I can could. In that case,
• 2:01
  Sir said I, I would just have to be hanged, would I not?
• 2:07
  My dear boy, cries he. Go in God's name and do what
• 2:10
  you think is right. It is a poor thought that at my time of
• 2:15
  life I should be advising you to choose the safe and shameful. And I
• 2:19
  take it back with an apology. Go and do your duty and be hanged
• 2:23
  if you must, like a gentleman, There are worse things in the world
• 2:28
  than to be hanged. Not many, sir, said I smiling. Why
• 2:35
  yes, sir, he cried, very many. It would be ten times
• 2:38
  better for your uncle to go no farther afield if he were dangling decently upon
• 2:45
  a gibbet. Thereupon he turned into the house, still in a great fervor
• 2:50
  of mind, so that I saw I had pleased him heartily, And there
• 2:53
  he wrote me two letters, making his comments on them as he wrote,
• 2:59
  this says he is to my banker's the British Lidding Company, placing a credit
• 3:05
  to your name. Consult mister Thomas. He will know of ways, and
• 3:08
  you, with this credit, can supply the means. I trust you will
• 3:13
  be a good husband of your money. But in the affair of a friend
• 3:16
  like mister Thompson, I would be even prodigal. Then for his kinsman.
• 3:22
  There is no better way than that you should seek the Advocate, tell him
• 3:25
  your tale and offer testimony. Whether he may take it or not is quite
• 3:30
  another matter, and will turn on the d of a Now that you may
• 3:36
  reach the Lord Advocate well recommended I give you here a letter to a namesake
• 3:39
  of your own, the learned mister Balfour of Pilrig, a man whom I
• 3:45
  esteem. It will look better that you should be presented by one of your
• 3:49
  own name. And the Lord of Pilrig is much look up to in the
• 3:53
  faculty, and stands well with Lord Advocate Grant. I would not trouble him
• 3:59
  if I with any particulars, And to you, no, I think it
• 4:04
  would be needless to refer to mister Thompson. Form yourself upon the lard.
• 4:10
  He is a good model. When you deal with the Advocate, be discreet,
• 4:15
  and in all these matters, may the Lord guide you, mister David.
• 4:19
  Thereupon he took his farewell and set out with torrents for the ferry,
• 4:24
  while Allan and I turned our faces for the city of Edinburgh. As we
• 4:28
  went by the footpath and beside the gate posts and the unfinished lodge, we
• 4:32
  kept looking back at the house of my father's. It stood there, bare
• 4:36
  and great and smokeless, like a place not lived in. Only in one
• 4:42
  of the top windows there was the peak of a nightcap, bobbing up and
• 4:46
  down and back and forward, like the head of a rabbit from a borough.
• 4:50
  I had little welcome when I came, and less kindness while I stayed,
• 4:56
  but at least I was watched as I went away. Allan and I
• 5:00
  went slowly forward upon our way, having little heart either to walk or speak.
• 5:05
  The same thought was uppermost in both, that we were near the time
• 5:10
  of our parting, and remembrance of all the by gone days sat upon us
• 5:15
  sorely. We talked, indeed, of what should be done, and it
• 5:18
  was resolved that Allan should keep to the county, biding now here now there,
• 5:23
  but coming once in the day to a particular place, where I might
• 5:27
  be able to communicate with him, either in my own person or by messenger.
• 5:31
  In the meanwhile, I was to seek out a lawyer who was an
• 5:34
  appen Stuart, and a man therefore to be wholly trusted, and it should
• 5:39
  be his part to find a ship and to arrange for Allan's safe embarkation.
• 5:45
  No sooner was this business done than the words seemed to leave us. And
• 5:49
  though I would seek the jest with Allan under the name of mister Thompson,
• 5:54
  and he with me on my new clothes and my estate, you could feel
• 5:58
  very well that we were nearer tiers. Then laughter we came the bye way
• 6:02
  over the hill of Corstorphine, and when we got near to the place called
• 6:06
  rest and be thankful, and looked down on Corstorphine Boggs, and over to
• 6:12
  the city and the castle on the hill. We both stopped, for we
• 6:15
  both knew, without a word, said that we had come to wear our
• 6:18
  ways parted. Here he repeated to me once again what had been agreed upon
• 6:24
  between us, the address of the lawyer, the daily hour at which Alan
• 6:29
  might be found, and the signals that were to be made by any that
• 6:32
  came seeking him. Then I gave what money I had, a guinea or
• 6:36
  two of Rangkeuiler's, so that he should not starve in the meanwhile. And
• 6:41
  then we stood a space and looked over at Edinburgh in silence. Well goodbye,
• 6:48
  said Alan, and held out his left hand. Good Bye, said
• 6:54
  I, and gave the hand a little grasp, and went off downhill.
• 6:59
  Neither t one of us looked the other in the face, nor so long
• 7:02
  as he was in my view, did I take one back glance at the
• 7:05
  friend I was leaving. But as I went on my way to the city,
• 7:10
  I felt so lost and lonesome that I could have found it in my
• 7:14
  heart to sit down by the dike and cry and weep. Like any baby.
• 7:18
  It was coming near noon when I passed in by the West Kirk and
• 7:23
  the grass Market, into the streets of the capital. The huge height of
• 7:27
  the buildings running up to ten in fifteen stories, the narrow arched entries that
• 7:31
  continually vomited passengers, the wares of the merchants in their windows, the hubub
• 7:38
  and endless stir, the foul smells, and the fine clothes, and a
• 7:43
  hundred other particulars too small to mansion struck me into a kind of stupor of
• 7:47
  surprise, so that I let the crowd carry me to and fro. And
• 7:53
  yet all the time what I was thinking of was allan at rest and be
• 7:57
  thankful. And all the time, although you would think I would not choose
• 8:01
  but be delighted with these bras and novelties, there was a cold gnawing in
• 8:05
  my inside, like a remorse for something wrong. The hand of providence brought
• 8:11
  me, in my drifting to the very doors of the British Linen Company's bank.
• 8:18
  End of chapter and of book