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

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  Chapter seventeen, The Death of the Red Fox. The next day mister Henderland
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  found for me a man who had a boat of his own, and was
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  to cross the liney lock that afternoon into Appen fishing. Here. He prevailed
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  on to take me, for he was one of his flock, and in
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  this way I saved a long day's travel and the price of the two public
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  ferries I must otherwise have passed. It was near noon before we set out,
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  a dark day, with clouds and the sun shining upon little patches.
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  The sea was here very deep and still, and had scarce a wave upon
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  it, so that I must put the water to my lips before I could
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  believe it to be truly salt. The mountains on either side were high,
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  rough and barren, very black and gloomy in the shadow of the clouds,
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  but all silver laced with little water courses where the sun shone upon them.
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  It seemed a hard country, this of Appen, for people to care as
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  much about as Allan did. There was but one thing to mention. A
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  little after we had started, the sun shone upon a little moving plump of
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  scarlet close in along the water side to the north. It was much of
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  the same red as soldier's coats. Every now and then, too there came
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  little sparks and lightnings, as though the sun had struck upon bright steel.
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  I asked my boatman what it should be, and he answered he supposed it
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  was some of the red soldiers coming from Fort William in d'appen against the poor
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  tenantry of the country. Well, it was a sad sight to me,
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  and whether it was because of my thoughts of Allan or from something prophetic in
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  my bosom, although this was but the second time I had seen King George's
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  troops, I had no good will to them. At last we came so
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  near the point of land, at the entering inn of Loch Leven, that
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  I begged to be set on shore. My boatman, who was an honest
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  felt and mindful of his promise to the Catechist, would fain have carried me
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  on to Ballacoolish, But as this was to take me farther from my secret
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  destination, I insisted and was set on shore at last under the wood of
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  Lettermore or letter Vore, as I have heard it both ways. In Allan's
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  country of Appen. This was a wood of birches growing on a steep,
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  craggy side of a mountain that overhung the loch. It had many openings in
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  ferny hows, and a road or bridle track ran north and south through the
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  midst of it, by the edge of which where was a spring. I
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  sat down to eat some oat bread of mister Henderland's and think upon my situation
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  here. I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges, but
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  far more by the doubts of my mind. What I ought to do.
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  Why I was going to join myself with an outlaw and a would be murderer
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  like Alan, Whether I should not be acting more like a man of sense
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  to tramp back to the south country direct by my own guidance and at my
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  own charges. And what mister Campbell, or even mister Henderland would think of
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  me, if they should learn my folly and presumption. These were the doubts
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  that now began to come in on me stronger than ever. As I was
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  so sitting and thinking, a sound of men and horses came to me through
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  the wood, And presently after, at a turning of the road, I
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  saw four travelers come into view. The way was in this part so rough
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  and narrow, that they came single and led their horses by the reins.
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  The first was a great, red headed gentleman of an imperious and flushed face,
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  who carried his hat in his hand and fanned himself, for he was
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  in a breathing heat. The second, by his decent black garb and white
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  wig, I correctly took to be a lawyer. The third was a servant
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  and wore some part of his clothes in tartan, which showed that his master
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  was of a highland family and either an outlaw or Elson's singular good odor with
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  the government, since the wearing of tartan was against the act. If I
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  had been better versed in these things, I would have known the tartan to
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  be of the Argyle or Campbell colors. This servant had a good sized portmanteau
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  strapped on his horse, and a net of lemons to brew punch with hanging
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  at the saddle bow, as was often the custom with luxurious travelers in that
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  part of the country. As for the fourth who brought up the tale,
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  I had seen his like before, and knew him at once to be a
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  sheriff's officer. I had no sooner seen these people coming, than I made
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  up my mind, for no reason that I can tell, to go through
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  with my adventure. And when the first came alongside of me, I rose
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  up from the bracken and asked him the way to a carne. He stopped
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  and looked at me as I thought a little oddly, And then turning to
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  the lawyer, Mungo said he there's many a man would think this more of
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  a warning than two piats. Here am I on my road to duror on
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  the job you can? And here is a young land starts up out of
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  the bracken and spears if I'm on the way to Acarne, Gleneur said the
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  other, This is an ill subject for jesting. These two had now drawn
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  close up and were gazing at me, while the two followers had halted about
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  a stonecast in the rear. And what seek yea an ocanne, said Colin
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  Roy Campbell of Gleneur him they called the red fox, for it was he
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  that I had stopped. The man that lives there, said I James of
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  the Glens, says Gleneur musingly, And then to the lawyer, is he
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  gathering his people? Think ye? Anyway? Says the lawyer. We shall
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  do better to bide where we are and let the soldiers rally us. If
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  you are concerned for me, say I, I am neither of his people
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  nor yours, but an honest subject of King George, owing no man and
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  fearing no man. Why very well, said replies the factor. But if
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  I may make so bold as ask, what does this honest man so far
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  from his country? And why does he come seeking the brother of Ardshield?
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  I have power here. I must tell you I am King's factor upon several
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  of these estates, and have twelve files of soldiers at my back. I
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  have heard a waif word in the country, said I, a little nettled
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  that you were a hard man to drive. He still kept looking at me
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  as if in doubt, well said he. At last, your tongue is
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  bold. But I am no unfriend to plainness. If ye had asked me
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  the way to the door of James Stuart on any other day, but this,
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  I would have set you right and bidden ye God's speed. But to
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  day, eh Mungo, And he turned again to look at the lawyer.
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  But just as he turned there came the shot of a firelock from higher up.
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  The hill, and with the very sound of it, Glenyear fell upon
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  the road. Oh, I'm dead, he cried several times over. The
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  lawyer had caught him up and held him in his arms, the servant standing
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  over and clasping his hands. And now the wounded man looked from one to
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  another with scared eyes, and there was a change in his voice that went
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  to the heart. Take care of yourselves, said he I'm dead. He
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  tried to open his clothes, as if to look for the wound, but
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  his fingers slipped on the buttons. With that he gave a great sigh.
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  His head rolled on his shoulder, and he passed away. The lawyer said
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  never a word, but his face was as sharp as a pen and as
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  white as the dead man's. The servant broke out into a great noise of
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  crying and like a child, and I on my side stood staring at them
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  in a kind of horror. The sheriff's officer had run back at the first
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  sound of the shot, to hasten the coming of the soldiers. At last,
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  the lawyer laid down the dead man in his blood upon the road,
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  and got to his own feet with a kind of stagger. I believe it
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  was his movement that brought me to my senses, for he had no sooner
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  done so than I began to scramble up the hill, crying out the murderer,
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  the murderer. So little a time had elapsed that when I got to
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  the top of the first steepness and could see some part of the open mountain,
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  the murderer was still moving away at no great distance. He was a
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  big man in a black coat with metal buttons, and carried a long fowling
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  piece. Here, I cried, I see him. At that the murderer
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  gave a little quick look over his shoulder and began to run. The next
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  moment he was lost in a fringe of birds. Then he came out again
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  on the upper side, where I could see him climbing like a jackanapes,
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  for that part was again very steep. And then he dipped behind the shoulder,
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  and I saw him no more. All this time I had been running
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  on my side and got a good way up when a voice cried upon me
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  to stand. I was at the edge of the upper wood, and so
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  now when I halted and looked back, I saw all the open part of
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  the hill below me. The lawyer and the sheriff's officer were standing just above
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  the road, crying and waving on me to come back, and on their
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  left the Redcoats, musket in hand, were beginning to struggle singly out of
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  the lower wood. Why should I come back, I cried, Um,
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  you on ten pounds if ye take that, lad, cried the lawyer.
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  He's an accomplice. He was posted here to hold us and talk. At
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  that word, which I could hear quite plainly, though it was to the
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  soldiers and not to me that he was crying it, my heart came in
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  my mouth with quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is one
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  thing to stand the danger of your life, and quite another to run the
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  peril of both life and character. The thing, besides, had come so
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  suddenly like thunder out of a clear sky, that I was all amazed and
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  helpless. Soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and others
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  to put up their pieces and cover me. And still I stood juck in
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  here among the trees, said a voice close by. Indeed, I scarce
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  know what I was doing, but I obeyed, And as I did so,
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  I heard the firelocks bang and the ball's whistle in the birches. Just
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  inside the shelter of the trees, I found Alan Breck standing with a fishing
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  rod. He gave me no salutation. Indeed, it was no time for
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  civilities. Only come, says he, and set off running along the side
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  of the mountain towards Balacoulish, and I, like a sheep to follow him.
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  Now we ran among the birches, now stooping behind low humps upon the
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  mountain side, now crawling on all fours among the heather. Pce was deadly.
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  My heart seemed bursting against my ribs, and I had neither time to
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  think nor breath to speak with Only I remember seeing with wonder that Alan every
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  now and then would straighten himself to his full height and look back, And
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  every time he did so there came a great far away cheering and crying of
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  the soldiers. Quarter of an hour later Alan stopped, clapped down flat in
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  the heather, and turned to me. Now said he it's earnest do as
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  I do for your life, and at the same speed, but now with
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  infinitely more precaution. We traced back again across the mountain side by the same
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  way that we had come, only perhaps higher till at last Alan threw himself
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  down in the upper wood of Lettermore, where I had found him at the
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  first, and lay with his face in the bracken, panting like a dog.
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  My own sides so ached, my head, so swam my tongue,
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  so hung out of my mouth with heat and dryness, that I lay beside
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  him like one dead end of Chapter