Latest / Thrilling Adventures - Daily / 05 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

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05 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, I go to the queen's ferry. Much rain
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  Speaker 1: fell in the night, and the next morning there blew
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  Speaker 1: a bitter wintry wind out of the northwest, driving scattered
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  Speaker 1: clouds for all that, and before the sun began to
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  Speaker 1: peep over the last of the stars had vanished. I
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  Speaker 1: made my way to the side of the burn and
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  Speaker 1: had a plunge in a deep whirling pool. All aglow
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  Speaker 1: from my bath, sat down once more beside the fire,
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  Speaker 1: which I replenished, and began gravely to consider my position.
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  Speaker 1: There was now no doubt about my uncle's enmity. There
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  Speaker 1: was no doubt I carried my life in my hand,
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  Speaker 1: and he would leave no stone unturned that he might
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  Speaker 1: compass my destruction. But I was young and spirited, and
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  Speaker 1: like most lads that had been country bred, I had
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  Speaker 1: a great opinion of my shrewdness. I had come to
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  Speaker 1: his door no better than a beggar, little more than
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  Speaker 1: a child. He had met me with treachery and violence.
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  Speaker 1: It would be a fine consummation to take the upper
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  Speaker 1: hand and drive him like a herd of sheep. I
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  Speaker 1: sat there, nursing my knee and smiling at the fire,
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  Speaker 1: and I saw myself in fancy, smell out his secrets
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  Speaker 1: one after another, and grow to be that man's king
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  Speaker 1: and ruler. The Warlock of Essendean, they say, had made
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  Speaker 1: a mirror in which men could read the future. It
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  Speaker 1: must have been of other stuff than burning coal. For
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  Speaker 1: in all the shapes and pictures that I sat and
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  Speaker 1: gazed at, there was never a ship, never a seaman
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  Speaker 1: with a hairy cap, never a big bludgeon for my
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  Speaker 1: silly head, or the least sign of all those tribulations
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  Speaker 1: that were ripe to fall on me. Presently, all swollen
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  Speaker 1: with conceit, I went upstairs and gave my prisoner his liberty.
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  Speaker 1: He gave me good morning, civilly, and I gave the
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  Speaker 1: same to him, smiling down upon him from the heights
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  Speaker 1: of my sufficiency. Soon we were set to breakfast, as
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  Speaker 1: it might have been the day before. Well, sir, said I,
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  Speaker 1: with a jeering tone, have you nothing more to say
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  Speaker 1: to me? And then, as he made no articulate reply,
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  Speaker 1: it will be time I think to understand each other,
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  Speaker 1: I continued. You took me for a country, Johnny Raw,
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  Speaker 1: with no more mother wit or courage than a porridge stick.
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  Speaker 1: I took you for a good man or no worse
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  Speaker 1: than others. At the least, it seems we were both wrong.
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  Speaker 1: What cause have you to fear me, to cheat me,
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  Speaker 1: and to attempt my life? He murmured something about a
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  Speaker 1: jest and that he liked a bit of fun, and then,
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  Speaker 1: seeing me smile, changed his tone and assured me he
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  Speaker 1: would make all clear as soon as we had breakfasted.
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  Speaker 1: I saw by his face that he had no lie
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  Speaker 1: ready for me, though he was hard at work preparing one,
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  Speaker 1: and I think I was about to tell him so
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  Speaker 1: when we were interrupted by knocking at the door, bidding
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  Speaker 1: my uncle sit where he was. I went to open
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  Speaker 1: it and found on the doorstep a half grown boy
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  Speaker 1: in sea clothes. He had no sooner seen me than
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  Speaker 1: he began to dance some steps of the sea hornpipe,
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  Speaker 1: which I had never before heard of, far less seen,
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  Speaker 1: snapping his fingers in the air and footing it right cleverly,
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  Speaker 1: for all that he was blue with the cold, and
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  Speaker 1: there was something in his face, a look between tears
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  Speaker 1: and laughter that was highly pathetic and consisted ill with
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  Speaker 1: this gayety of manner. What's yer, mate, says he with
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  Speaker 1: a cracked voice. I asked him soberly to name his pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Oh pleasure, says he, and then began to sing. For
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  Speaker 1: it's my delight of a shiny night in the season
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  Speaker 1: of the year, Well says I. If you have no
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  Speaker 1: business at all, I will even be so unmannerly as
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  Speaker 1: to shut you out. Stay, brother, he cried, have you
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  Speaker 1: no fun about you? Or do you want to get
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  Speaker 1: me thrashed. I've brought a letter from old Heziosi to
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  Speaker 1: mister Bellflower. He showed me a letter as he spoke,
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  Speaker 1: and I say, mate, he added, I'm mortal hungry, Well
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  Speaker 1: said I come into the house, and you shall have
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  Speaker 1: a bite if I go empty for it. With that,
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  Speaker 1: I brought him in and set him down to my
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  Speaker 1: own place, where he fell too greedily on the remains
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  Speaker 1: of breakfast, winking to me between whiles and making many
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  Speaker 1: faces which I think the poor soul considered manly. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: my uncle had read the letter and sat thinking. Then
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  Speaker 1: suddenly he got to his feet with a great air
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  Speaker 1: of liveliness, and pulled me apart into the farthest corner
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  Speaker 1: of the room. Read that, said he, and put the
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  Speaker 1: letter in my hand. Here it is lying before me
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  Speaker 1: as I write the haws in at the Queen's ferry. Sir,
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  Speaker 1: I lie here with my haws, are up and down,
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  Speaker 1: and send my cabin boy to inform if you have
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  Speaker 1: any further commands for overseas. To day will be the
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  Speaker 1: last occasion, as the wind will serve us well out
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  Speaker 1: of the firth. I will not seek to deny that
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  Speaker 1: I have had crosses with your doer, mister wren Keuyler,
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  Speaker 1: of which if not speedily read up, you may look
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  Speaker 1: to see some losses follow. I have drawn a bill
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  Speaker 1: upon you as per margin, and am sir, your most obedient,
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  Speaker 1: humble servant, Elias host Season agent. You see, Davy resumed
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  Speaker 1: my uncle as soon as he saw that I had done.
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  Speaker 1: I have a venture with this man host Season, the
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  Speaker 1: captain of a trading brig, the Covenant of Dysart. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you and me was to walk over with young
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  Speaker 1: lad I could see the captain of the haws, and
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  Speaker 1: maybe on board the Covenant if there were papers to
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  Speaker 1: be signed, and so far from a loss of time,
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  Speaker 1: we can jog on to the lawyer mister wren Kyler's
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  Speaker 1: after that's coming gone. You would be swire to believe
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  Speaker 1: me upon my naked word, But you'll believe rang Kuyler,
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  Speaker 1: he's factor a half the gentry in these parts, an
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  Speaker 1: old man for by, highly respected, and he kenned your father.
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  Speaker 1: I stood awhile in thought I was going to some
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  Speaker 1: place of shipping, which was doubtless populous, and where my
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  Speaker 1: uncle darst attempt no violence, and indeed even the society
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  Speaker 1: of the cabin boy so far protected me. Once there,
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  Speaker 1: I believed I could force on the visit to the lawyer,
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  Speaker 1: even if my uncle were now insincere in proposing it.
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  Speaker 1: And perhaps in the bottom of my heart I wished
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  Speaker 1: a nearer view of the sea and ships. You are
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  Speaker 1: to remember I had lived all my life in the
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  Speaker 1: inland hills, and just two days before had my first
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  Speaker 1: sight of the thirth lying like a blue floor, and
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  Speaker 1: the sailed ships moving on the face of it, no
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  Speaker 1: bigger than toys. One thing with another, I made up
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  Speaker 1: my mind very well, says I. Let us go to
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  Speaker 1: the ferry. My uncle got into his hat and coat
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  Speaker 1: and buckled an old, rusty cutlass on, and then we
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  Speaker 1: trod the fire out, locked the door, and set forth
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  Speaker 1: upon our walk. The wind, being in that cold quarter
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  Speaker 1: the northwest, blew nearly in our faces as we went.
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  Speaker 1: It was the month of June. The grass was all
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  Speaker 1: white with daisies, and the trees with blossoms, but to
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  Speaker 1: judge by her blue nails and aching wrists, the time
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  Speaker 1: might have been winter, and the whiteness of December frost.
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Ebenezer trudged in the ditch, jogging from side to
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  Speaker 1: side like an old plowman coming home from work. He
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  Speaker 1: never said a word the whole way, and I was
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  Speaker 1: thrown for talk on the cabin boy. He told me
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  Speaker 1: his name was Ransom, and that he had followed the
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  Speaker 1: sea since he was nine, but could not say how
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  Speaker 1: old he was, as he had lost his reckoning. He
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  Speaker 1: showed me tattoo marks bearing his breast in the teeth
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  Speaker 1: of the wind, and in spite of my remonstrances, for
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was enough to kill him, he swore
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  Speaker 1: horribly whenever he remembered, but more like a silly schoolboy
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  Speaker 1: than a man, and boasted of many wild and bad
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  Speaker 1: things that he had done, stealthy thefts, false accusations, aye,
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  Speaker 1: and even murder, but all with such a dearth of
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  Speaker 1: likelihood in the details, and such a weak and crazy
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  Speaker 1: swagger in the delivery, as disposed me rather to pity
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  Speaker 1: than to believe him. I asked him of the brig
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  Speaker 1: which he declared was the finest ship that sailed, and
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  Speaker 1: of Captain hose Season, in whose praise, as he was
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  Speaker 1: equally loud, heziosie. For so he still named the skipper
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  Speaker 1: was a man, by his account, that minded for nothing,
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  Speaker 1: either in heaven or earth, one that, as people said,
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  Speaker 1: would crack on all sail into the day of judgment. Rough, fierce, unscrupulous,
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  Speaker 1: and brutal. And all this my poor cabin boy had
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  Speaker 1: taught himself to admire as something seamen like and manly.
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  Speaker 1: He would only emit one flaw in his idol. He
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  Speaker 1: ain't no seaman, he admitted. That's mister Swan that navigates
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  Speaker 1: the bridge. He's the finest seamen in the trade, only
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  Speaker 1: for drink. And I tell you I believe it. Why
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  Speaker 1: look here, And turning down his stocking, he showed me
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  Speaker 1: a great, raw, red wound that made my blood run cold.
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  Speaker 1: He done that, mister Chuan did that, he said, with
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  Speaker 1: a air of pride. What I cried, do you take
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  Speaker 1: such savage usage at his hands? Why you're no slave
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  Speaker 1: to be so handled? No, said the poor moon calf,
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  Speaker 1: changing his tune at once, and so he'll find see here.
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  Speaker 1: And he showed me a great case knife, which he
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  Speaker 1: told me was stolen. Oh, says he let him see me. Try,
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  Speaker 1: I dare him. I'll do for him. Oh he ain't
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  Speaker 1: the first. And he confirmed it with a poor, silly,
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  Speaker 1: ugly oath. I have never felt such pity for any
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  Speaker 1: one in this wide world as I felt for that
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  Speaker 1: half witted creature. And it began to come over me
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  Speaker 1: that the brig Covenant, for all her pious name, was
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  Speaker 1: little better than a hell upon the seas. Have you
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  Speaker 1: no friends, said I? He said he had a father
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  Speaker 1: in some English seaport I forget, which he was a
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  Speaker 1: fine man, too, he said, But he's dead. In Heaven's name,
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  Speaker 1: cried I. Can you find no reputable life on shore?
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, says he, winking and looking very sly. They
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  Speaker 1: would put me to a trade. I know a trick
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  Speaker 1: worth two of that, I do. I asked him what
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  Speaker 1: trade could be so dreadful as the one he followed,
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  Speaker 1: where he ran the continual peril of his life, not
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  Speaker 1: alone from wind and sea, but by the horrid cruelty
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  Speaker 1: of those who were his masters. He said, it was
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  Speaker 1: very true, and then began to praise the life, and
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  Speaker 1: tell what a pleasure it was to get on shore
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  Speaker 1: with money in his pocket and spend it like a man,
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  Speaker 1: and buy apples and swagger and surprise what he called
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  Speaker 1: stick in the mud boys. And then it's not all
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  Speaker 1: as bad as that, says he. There's worse off than me.
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  Speaker 1: There's the twenty pounders, oh laws, you should see them
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  Speaker 1: taking on. Why I've seen a man as old as you,
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  Speaker 1: I daresay to him, I seemed old, ah, And he
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  Speaker 1: had a beard too well. And as soon as we
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  Speaker 1: cleared out of the river and he had the drug
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  Speaker 1: out of his head, my how he cried and carried on.
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  Speaker 1: I made a fine full of him, I tell you.
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  Speaker 1: But then there's littl uns too, oh little by me,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you, I keep them in order. When we
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  Speaker 1: carry littl uns, I have a rope's end of my
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  Speaker 1: own to wop them. And so he ran on until
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  Speaker 1: it came in on me. What he meant by twenty
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  Speaker 1: pounders were of those unhappy criminals who were sent overseas
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  Speaker 1: to slavery in North America, or the still more unhappy
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  Speaker 1: innocents who were kidnapped or tree panned, as the word went,
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  Speaker 1: for private interest or vengeance. Just then we came to
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  Speaker 1: the top of the hill and looked down on the
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  Speaker 1: ferry and the hope. The Firth of Forth, as is
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  Speaker 1: very well known, narrows at this point to the width
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  Speaker 1: of a good sized river, which makes a convenient ferry
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  Speaker 1: going north and turns the upper reach into a landlocked
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  Speaker 1: haven for all manner of ships. Right in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of the narrows lies an islet with some ruins. On
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  Speaker 1: the south shore, they have built a pier for the
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  Speaker 1: service of the ferry. And at the end of the pier,
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  Speaker 1: on the other side of the road, and backed against
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  Speaker 1: a pretty garden of holly trees and hawthorns, I could
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  Speaker 1: see the building, which they called the haws Inn. The
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  Speaker 1: town of Queen's Ferry lies further west, and the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: of the inn looked pretty lonely at that time of day,
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  Speaker 1: for the boat had just gone north with passengers. A skiff, however,
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  Speaker 1: lay beside the pier with some seamen sleeping on the thwarts. This,
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  Speaker 1: as Ransom told me, was the Briggs boat waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the captain, and about half a mile off and all
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  Speaker 1: alone in the anchorage, he showed me the Covenant herself.
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  Speaker 1: There was a sea going bustle on board. Yards were
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  Speaker 1: swinging into place, and as the wind blew from that quarter,
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  Speaker 1: I could hear the song of the sailors as they
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: pulled upon the ropes. After all I had listened to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: upon the way, I looked at that ship with an
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  Speaker 1: extreme abhorrence, and from the bottom of my heart I
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  Speaker 1: pitied all poor souls that were condemned to sail in her.
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  Speaker 1: We had all three pulled up on the brow of
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  Speaker 1: the hill, and now I marched across the road and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: addressed my uncle. I think it right to tell you, sir,
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  Speaker 1: says I, there's nothing that will bring me on board
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  Speaker 1: that Covenant. He seemed awaken from a dream. Eh, he said,
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  Speaker 1: what's that? I told him over again? Well, well, he said,
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  Speaker 1: we'll have to please ye, I suppose, But what are
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: we standin here? For? It's perishing cold, and if I'm
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  Speaker 1: no mistaken, they're buskin' the Covenant for sea. End of
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  Speaker 1: chapter