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

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Chapter fifteen, The lad with a silver button through the Isle of Mull.
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The Ross of Mull, which I had now got upon, was rugged and
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trackless, like the isle I had just left, being all bog and briar
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and big stone. There may be roads for them that know that country well,
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But for my part I had no better guide than my own nose,
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and no other landmark than ben More. I aimed as well as I could
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for the smoke I had seen so often from the island, and with all
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my great weariness and the difficulty of the way, came upon the house in
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the bottom of a little hollow, about five or six at night. It
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was low and longish, roofed with turf, and built of unmortared stones,
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and on a mound in front of it, an old gentleman sat smoking his
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pipe in the sun. With what little English he had, he gave me
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to understand that my shipmates had got safe ashore and had broken bread in that
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very house on the day after. Was there one, I asked? Dressed
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like a gentleman, he said, they all wore rough, greatcoats, But
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to be sure, the first of them, the one that came alone,
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wore breeches and stockings, while the rest had sailor's trousers. Ah, said
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I, and he would have a feathered hat. He told me no,
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that he was bareheaded, like myself. At first I thought Alan might have
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lost his hat, and then the rain came in my mind, and I
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judged it more likely he had it out of harm's way under his greatcoat.
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This set me smiling, partly because my friend was safe, partly to think
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of his vanity in dress. And then the old gentleman clapped his hand to
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his brow and cried out that I must be the lad with a silver button.
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Why, yes, said I, in some wonder Well, then said
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the old gentleman, I have a word for you, that you are to
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follow your friend to his country by toros say. He then asked me how
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I had fared, and I told him my tale. A south country man
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would certainly have laughed. But this old gentleman, I call him so because
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of his manners, for his clothes were dropping off his back, heard me
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all through with nothing but gravity and pity. When I had done, he
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took me by the hand, led me into his hut it was no better,
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and presented me before his wife as if she had been the queen and
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I a duke. The good woman set oat bread before me in a cold
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grouse, patting my shoulder and smiling to me all the time, for she
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had no English, and the old gentleman, not to be behind, brewed
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me a strong punch out of their country spirit. All the while I was
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eating, and after that, when I was drinking the punch, I could
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scarce come to believe in my good fortune, and the house, though it
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was thick with a peat smoke and as full of holes as a colander,
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seemed like a palace. The punch threw me in a strong sweat and a
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deep slumber. The good people let me lie, and it was near noon
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of the next day before I took the road, my throat already easier,
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and my spirits quite restored by good, fair and good news. The old
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gentleman, though I pressed him hard, would take no money, and gave
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me an old bonnet for my head. Though I am free to own,
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I was no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed
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this gift of his than a wayside fountain, thought I to myself, if
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these are the wild highlanders, I could wish my own folk wilder. I
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not only started late, but I must have wandered nearly half the time.
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True, I met plenty of people grubbing in little, miserable fields that would
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not keep a cat, or hurting little kind about the bigness of asses.
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The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion, and the people condemned
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to the Lowland habit, which they much disliked, it was strange to see
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the variety of their array. Some went bare only for a hanging cloak or
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greatcoat, and carried their trousers on their backs like an useless burden. Some
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have made an imitation of the tartan, with little party colored stripes patched together
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like an old wife's quilt. Others, again, still wore the Highland philibeg,
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but by putting a few stitches between the legs, transformed it into a
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pair of trousers like a dutchman's. All those makeshifts were condemned and punished for.
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The law was harshly applied in hopes to break up the clan's spirit.
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But in that out of the way seabound dial there were few to make remarks,
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and fewer to tell tales. They seemed a great poverty, which was
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no doubt natural now that Raypine was put down, and the chiefs kept no
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longer an open house. And the roads, even such a wandering country by
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track as the one I followed, were infested with beggars. And here again
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I marked a difference from my own part of the for our lowland beggars.
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Even the gownsmen themselves who begged my patent, had a louting, flattering way
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with them. And if you gave them a plaque and ask changed, would
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very civilly return you a bottle. But these highland beggars stood on their dignity,
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asked alms only to buy snuff by their account, and would give no
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change. To be sure, this was no concern of mine, except in
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so far as it entertained me. By the way, what was much more
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to the purpose. Few had any English, and these few, unless they
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were the brotherhood of beggars, not very anxious to place it at my service.
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I knew torres Say to be my destination, and repeated the name to
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them and pointed. But instead of simply pointing in reply, they would give
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me a screed of the Gaelic that set me foolish. So it was small
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wonder if I went out of my road as often as I stayed in it.
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At last, about eight at night, and already very weary, I
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came to a lone house, where I asked admittance, and was refused until
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he bethought me of the power of money in so poor a country, and
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held up one of my guineas in my finger and thumb. Thereupon, the
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man of the house, who had hitherto pretended to have no English, and
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driven me from his door by signals, suddenly began to speak as clearly as
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was needful, and agreed for five shillings to give me a night's lodging and
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guide me the next day to Torressay. I slept uneasily that night, fearing
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I should be robbed, But I might have spared myself the pain, for
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my host was no robber, only miserably poor and a great cheat. He
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was not alone in his poverty. But the next morning we must go five
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miles about to the house of what he called a rich man, to have
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one of my guineas changed. This was perhaps a rich man for mull He
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would have scarce been thought so in the South, for it took all he
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had the whole house was turned upside down, and a neighbor brought under contribution
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before he could scrape together twenty shillings in silver, the odd shilling he kept
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for himself, protesting he could ill afford to have so great a sum of
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money lying locked up. For all that, he was very curious and well
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spoken, made us both sit down with his family to dinner, and brewed
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punch in a fine china bowl, over which my rascal guide grew so merry
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that he refused to start. I was forgetting angry, and appealed to the
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rich man, Hector mc lean was his name, who had been a witness
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to our bargain and to my pavement of the five shillings. But mc lean
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had taken his share of the punch and vowed that no gentleman should leave his
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table after the bowl was brewed. So there was nothing for it but to
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sit and hear Jacobite toast and Gaelic songs till all were tipsy and staggered off
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to the bed or the barn for the night's rest. Next day, the
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fourth of my travels, we were up before five upon them clock, but
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my rascal guide got to the bottle at once, and it was three hours
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before I had him clear of the house. And then, as you shall
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hear, only for a worse disappointment. As long as we went down a
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heathery valley that lay before mister mc lean's house, all went well. Only
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my guide looked constantly over his shoulder, and when I asked him the cause
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only grinned at me. No sooner, however, have we crossed the back
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of the hill and got out of sight of the house windows, than he
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told me Torrosay lay right in front, and that a hilltop, which he
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pointed out, was my best landmark. I care very little for that,
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said I, since you are going with me. The infinite cheat answered me
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in the Gaelic that he had no English. My fine fellow, I said,
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I know very well your English. Comes and goes, tell me what
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we'll bring it back? Is it more money you wish? Five shillings mere,
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said he and hersel we'll bring you there. I reflected, awhile,
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and then offered him two, which he accepted greedily and insisted on having in
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his hands at once for luck, as he said, but I think it
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was rather for my misfortune. The two shillings carried him, not quite as
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many miles, at the end of which distance he sat down upon the wayside
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and took off his brogues from his feet, like a man about to rest.
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I was now red hot, HA said, I have you no more
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English? He said impudently no. At that. I boiled over and lifted
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my hand to strike him, and he, drawing a knife from his rags,
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squatted back and grinned at me like a wildcat. At that forgetting everything
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but my anger. I ran in upon him, put aside his knife with
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my left, and struck him in the mouth with the right. I was
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a strong lad and very angry, and he but a little man, And
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he went down before me. By good luck, his knife flew out of
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his hand as he fell. I picked up both that and his brogues,
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wished him a good morning, and set off upon my way, leaving him
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barefoot and disarmed. I chuckled to myself as I went, being sure I
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was done with that rogue for a variety of reasons. First, he knew
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he could have no more of my money. Next, the brogues were worth
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in that country only a few pence. And lastly, the knife, which
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was really a dagger, it was against the law for him to carry.
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In about half an hour of walk, I overtook a great ragged man,
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moving pretty fast, but feeling before him with a staff. He was quite
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blind, and told me he was a catechist, which should have put me
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at my ease, But his face went against me. It seemed dark and
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dangerous and secret. And presently, as we began to go on alongside,
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I saw the steel butt of a pistol sticking from under the flap of his
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coat pocket. Every such a thing meant to find a fifteen pounds sterling upon
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a first offense, and transportation to the colonies upon a second. Nor could
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I quite see why a religious teacher should go armed, or what a blind
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man could be doing with a pistol. I told him about my guide,
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for I was proud of what I had done, and my vanity for once
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got the heels of my prudence. At the mention of the five shillings,
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he cried out so loud that I made up my mind I should say nothing
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of the other two, and was glad he could not see my blushes.
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Was it too much, I asked, a little faltering too much? Cries
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he? Why I would guide you to torosay myself for a drama, brandy,
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and didn't give you the great pleasure of my company. Me that is
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a man of some learning. In the bargain, I said, I did
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not see how a blind man could be a guide. But at that he
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laughed aloud and said his stick was eyes enough for an eagle. In the
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isle of Mull at least, says he. Where I know every stone and
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heather bush by mark of head. See now, he said, striking right
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and left, as if to make sure. Down there a burn is running,
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and at the head of it there stands a bit of a small hill
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with a stone cocked upon the top of that. And it's hard at the
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foot of the hill that the way runs by to Taurus. Say, And
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the way here, being for droves, is plainly trodden and will show grassy
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through the heather. I had to own. He was right in every feature
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and told my wonder ha, says he. That's nothing. Would you believe
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me now that before the act came out, and when there were weapons in
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this country I could shoot, I could, I cries he, and then
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with a leer, if he had such a thing as a pistol, here
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to try with. I would show you how it's done. I told him
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I had nothing of the sort, and gave him a wider berth. If
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he had known. His pistol still stuck at that time quite plainly out of
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his pocket, and I could see the sun twinkle on the steel of the
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butt. But by the better luck for me, he knew nothing, thought
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all was covered and lied on in the dark. He then began to question
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me cunningly where I came from, whether I was rich, whether I could
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change a five shilling piece for him, which he declared he had that moment
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in his sporan. And all the time he kept edging up to me,
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and I avoiding him. We were now upon a sort of green cattle track
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which crossed the hills towards Torosay, and we kept changing sides upon that,
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like answers and a reel. I had so plainly the upper hand that my
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spirits rose, and indeed I took a pleasure in this game of blind man's
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bluff. But the Catechists grew angrier and angrier, and at last began to
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swear in Gaelic and to strike from my legs with his staff. Then I
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told him that sure enough I had a pistol in my pocket as well as
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he, and if he did not strike across the hill due south, I
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would even blow his brains out. He became at once very polite, and
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after trying to soften me for some time, but quite in vain, he
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cursed me once more in Gaelic, and took himself off. I watched him
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striding along through bog and briar, tapping with his stick, until he turned
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the end of a hill and disappeared in the next hollow. Then I struck
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on again for Torosay, much better pleased to be alone than to travel with
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that man of learning. This was an unlucky day, and these two of
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whom I had just rid myself, one after the other, were the two
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worst men I met with in the highlands. At Torrossay, on the sound
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of Mull, and looking over to the mainland of Morven, there was an
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inn with an inn keeper who was a mc Lean. It appeared of a
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very high family, for to keep an inn is thought even more genteel in
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the Highlands than it is with us. Perhaps his partaking of hous fatality,
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or perhaps because the trade is idle and drunken he spoke good English, and,
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finding me to be something of a scholar, tried me first in French,
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where he easily beat me, and then in the Latin, in which
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I don't know which of us did best. This pleasant rivalry put us at
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once upon friendly terms, and I sat up and drank punch with him,
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or, to be more correct, sat up and watched him drink it until
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he was so tipsy that he wept upon my shoulder. I tried him as
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if, by accident were the sight of Alan's button, but it was plain
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he had never seen or heard of it. Indeed, he bore some grudge
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against the family and friends of Ardshield, and before he was drunk he read
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me a lampoon in very good Latin, but with a very ill meaning,
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which he had made in elegiac verses upon a person of that house. When
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I told him of my catechist, he shook his head and said, I
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was lucky to have got clear off. But that is a very dangerous man,
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he said. Duncan mc hee is his name. He can shoot by
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the ear at several yards, and he has often been accused of highway robberies,
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and once of murder. The cream of it is, says I,
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that he called himself a catechist, And why should he not, says he,
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when that is what he is. It was mc lean of Doert gave
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it to him before he was blind. But perhaps it was a pity,
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says my host, for he is always on the road, going from one
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place to another, to hear the young folks say their religion, and doubtless
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that is a great temptation to the poor man. At last, when my
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landlord could drink no more, he showed me to a bed, and I
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lay down in very good spirits, having traveled the greater part of that big
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and crooked island of Mull, from Arid to Torresay fifty miles, says the
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crow flies, and with my wanderings, much nearer a hundred in four days,
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and with little fatigue. Indeed, I was by far in better heart
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and health of body at the end of that long tramp than I had been
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at the beginning end of chapter