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29 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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  Chapter twenty nine. I come into my kingdom. For some time, Alan
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  volleyed upon the door, and his knocking only roused the echoes of the house
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  and neighborhood. At last, however, I could hear the noise of a
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  window gently thrust up, and knew that my uncle had come to his observatory.
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  By what light there was, he could see Allan standing like a dark
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  shadow on the steps. The three witnesses were hidden quite out of his view,
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  so that there was nothing to alarm an honest man in his own house.
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  For all that he studied his visitor awhile in silence, and when he
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  spoke his voice had a quaver of misgiving. What's this? Says he?
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  This is no kind of time of night for decent folk, and I have
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  no trackings with night hawks. What brings ye here? I have a blunderbush?
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  Is that yourself? Mister Balfour, returned Allan, stepping back and looking
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  up into the darkness. Have a care of that blunderbuss. They're nasty things
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  to burst. What brings your hair? And what are yeh? Says my
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  uncle angrily. I have no matter of inclination to rout out my name to
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  the countryside, said Alan. But what brings me here is another story,
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  being more of your affair than mine. And if you're sure it's what you
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  would like, I'll set it to a tune and sing it to you.
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  And what is it? Asked my uncle David, says Allan, What was
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  that? Cried my uncle in a mighty changed voice. Shall I give you
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  the rest of the name, then said Alan. There was a pause,
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  And then I'm thinking I better let you in, said my uncle. Doubtfully,
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  I dare say that, said Alan. But the point is, would
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  I go now? I will tell you what I am thinking. I am
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  thinking that it is here upon this doorstep that we must confess, if upon
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  this business, and it shall be here or nowhere at all whatever. For
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  I would have you to understand that I am as stiff necked as yourself,
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  and a gentleman of better family. This change of note disconcerted Ebenezer. He
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  was a little wild digesting it, and then says he will will what must
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  be must, and shut the window. But it took him a long time
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  to get downstairs, and a still longer to undo the fastenings. Repenting,
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  I dare say, and taking with fresh claps of fear at every second step
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  and every bolt and bar. At last, however, we heard the creak
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  of the hinges, and it seems my uncle slipped gingerly out, and,
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  seeing that Allan had stepped back a pace or two, set him down on
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  the top doorstep, with the blunderbuss ready in his hands. And now says
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  he, mind, I have my blunderbush, and if you take a step
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  nearer, you're as good as deed. That very civil speech, says Alan.
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  To be sure, Nah, says my uncle, but this is no
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  very chanty kind of a proceeding. And then bound to be prepared. And
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  now that we understand each other, you can name your business, why says
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  Alan, You that are a man of so much understanding, will doubtless have
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  perceived that I am a highland gentleman. My name is no business in my
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  story. But the county of my friends is not so very far from the
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  Isle of Mull, of which you will have heard. It seems there was
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  a ship lost in those parts, And the next day a gentleman of my
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  family was seeking wreck wood for his fire along the sands, when he came
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  upon a lad that was half drowned well he brought him too, and he
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  and some other gentleman took and clapped him in an old ruined castle, where
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  from that day to this he has been a great expense to my friends.
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  My friends are a wee wild like and not so particular about the law as
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  some that I could name, And finding that the lad owned some decent folk,
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  and was your born nephew, mister Balfour, they asked me to give
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  you a bit of call and confer upon the matter. And I may tell
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  you at the off go unless we can agree upon some terms, you are
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  little likely to set eyes upon him, For my friends added Allan, simply
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  are no very well off. My uncle cleared his throat. I'm no very
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  caring, says he. He wasn't a good lad at the best of it,
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  and I'd not called to interfere. Ay, ay, said Alan.
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  I see what you would be at pretending you don't care to make the ransom
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  smaller, Nah, said my uncle. It's the mere truth. I take
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  no matter interest in the lad, and I pay no ransom, and you
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  can make a kirk and a mill of him for what I care. Hoot,
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  sir, says Allan bloodsticker than water in the devil's name. You cannot
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  desert your brother's son for the fair shame of it. And if you did
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  and it came to be Kent, you wouldn't it be very popular in your
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  countryside? Or I'm the more deceived, I know, very popular the way
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  it is, returned Ebbeneezer. And I didna see how it would come to
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  be Kent. No by me anyway, nor yet by you are your friends,
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  So that's idle talk me, Bucky says he. They'll have to be
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  David. That tells it, said Allan. How's that? Says my uncle?
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  Sharply? Oh, just this way, says Allan. My friends would
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  doubtless keep your nephew as long as there was any likelihood of siller to be
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  made of it. But if there was none, I am clearly of opinion
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  they would let him gang where he pleased and be damned to him. Aye.
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  But I'm no very caring about that either, said my uncle. I
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  wouldn't be muckle made up with that. I was thinkin that, said Allan.
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  And what for why, asked Ebenezer. Why. Mister Balfour replied Alan.
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  By all that I could hear there were two ways of it. Either
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  you liked David and would pay to get him back, or else she had
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  very good reasons for not wanting him, and would pay for us to keep
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  him. It seems as not the first. Well then it's the second,
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  and blithem I to kennet, for it should be a pretty penny in my
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  pocket, in the pocket of my friends. I dinna follow ye there,
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  said my uncle. No, said Allan, Well see here you didn't want
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  the lad back. Well what do you want done with him? And how
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  much will ye pay? My uncle made no answer, but shifted uneasily on
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  his seat. Come, sir, cried Alan, I would have you to
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  ken that I am a gentleman. I bear a king's name. I am
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  not righter to kick my shanks at your hall door. Either give me an
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  answer in civility and that out of hand, or by the top of Glencoe,
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  I will ram three feet of iron through your vitals. Aim man,
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  cried my uncle, scrambling to his feet. Give me a minute. What's
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  like wrong with ye? I'm just a plain man and no dancing manster,
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  and I'm trying to be as civil as as morally possible. As for that
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  wild talk is fear disreputable vitals as you, And where would I be with
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  my blunderbush? He snarled, powder, and your old hands are but as
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  the snail to the swallow against the bright steel in the hands of Allan,
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  says the other. Before your dotterin finger could find the trigger, the hilt
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  would dirl on your breastbane a man, where's denying it? Says my uncle,
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  pitied, as you please, had your own way. I do nothing
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  to cross ye. Just tell me what you'll be wantin, and ye'll see
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  that we can agree. Fine troth, sir, said Allan. I ask
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  for nothin' but plain dealin in two words. Do ye want the land killed
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  or kept? Oh? Sirs, cried Ebenezer. Oh sirs me, that's
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  no kind o language killed or kept, repeated Allan. Oh keep it,
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  keep it, wailed my uncle. We'll head no blood shed if you please,
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  well, said Allan. As you please, that'll be the dearer.
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  The dearer, cries Ebenezer. Would yer file your hands with crime? Hoot?
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  Said Allan. They're both crime whatever, and the killing's easier and quicker
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  and surer. Keeping the laddle be a fascist job, a fascist kittle business.
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  I'll have him keep to though, returned my uncle. I never had
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  nothing to do with anything morally wrong, and I'm no goin to begin to
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  pleasure a wild hygliman your uncle scrupulous, sneered Alan. I'm a man of
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  principle, said Ebenezer, simply, And if I have to pay for it,
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  I'll have to pay for it. And besides, says he, ye've
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  forgot the lad's my brother's son. Well well, said Alan, And now
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  about the price, there's no very easy for me to set a name upon
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  it. I would first have to ken some small matters. I would have
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  to ken, For instance, what you gave hose season at the first off?
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  Go hose season? Cries my uncle struck back. What for for kidnap
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  happen? David, says Alan. It's a lay, It's a black lie,
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  cried my uncle. He was never kidnapped. He light in his throat
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  that he told you that kidnapped. He never was. That's no fault of
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  mine, nor yet of yours, said Alan, nor yet of hose seasons.
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  If he's a man that can be trusted, what do you mean,
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  cried Ebeneezer, did hose season? Tell ye why you dunnard old rant how
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  else what I can cried Alan hose Season and me are partners, we gang
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  shares. So you can see for yourself what good you can do lyon.
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  And I must plainly say you drove a fool's bargain when you let a man
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  like the sailorman so far forward in your private matters. But that's past praying
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  for. And you must lie on your bed the way you made it.
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  And the point in hand is just this. What did you pay him?
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  Has he told? You? Asked my uncle? That's my concern, said
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  Alan Will said my uncle, I didn't care what he said he laid.
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  And the solemn God's truth is this that I gave him twenty pound. But
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  I'll be perfectly honest with ye, for by that he was to have the
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  sellin of the lad in kiroline wilk would be his mucklemare, but nor from
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  my pocket. Ye see, thank you, mister Thompson. That will do
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  excellently well, said the lawyer, stepping forward. And then mighty Civilly,
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  good evening, mister Balfour said he, And good evening, Uncle Ebenezer said
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  I, and it's te Braunick. Mister Balfour added, Torrance never a word,
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  said my uncle, neither black nor white, but just sat where he
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  was on the top doorstep and stared upon us like a man turned to stone.
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  Alan filched away his blunderbus, and the lawyer, taking him by the
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  arm, plucked him up from the doorstep, led him into the kitchen,
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  whither we all followed, and set him down on a chair beside the hearth,
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  where the fire was out, and only a rush light burning there.
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  We all looked upon him for a while, exulting greatly in our success,
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  but yet with a sort of pity for the man's shame. Come, Come,
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  mister Ebeneezer, said the lawyer. You must not be downhearted, for
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  I promise you we shall make easy terms. In the meanwhile, give us
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  the cellar key, and Torrance shall draw us a bottle of your father's wine
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  in honor of the event. Then, turning to me and taking me by
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  the hand, mister David says he I wish you all joy in your good
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  fortune, which I believed to be deserved. And then to Alan, with
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  a spice of drollery, mister Thompson, I'd pay you my compliment. It
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  was most artfully conducted, but in one point you somewhat outran my comprehension.
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  Do I understand your name to be James or Charles? Or is it George
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  perhaps? And why should it be any of the three? Sir, quoth
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  Allan, drawing himself up like one who smelt an offence. Only, Sir,
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  that you mentioned a king's name, replied Rankeler. And as there has
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  never yet been a king Thomson, or his fame at least has never come
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  my way, I judged you must refer to that you had in baptism.
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  This was just the stab that Allan would feel keenest, and I am free
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  to confess. He took it very ill. Not a word would he answer,
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  but stepped off to the far end of the kitchen and sat down and
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  sulked. And it was not till I stepped after him and gave him my
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  hand and thanked him by title as the chief spring of my success, that
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  he began to smile a bit, and was at last prevailed upon to join
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  our party. By that time we had the fire lighted and a bottle of
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  wine uncorked. A good supper came out of the basket, to which Torrance
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  and I and Alan set ourselves down while the lawyer and my uncle passed into
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  the next chamber to consult. They stayed there closeted about an hour, at
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  the end of which period they had come to a good understanding, and my
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  uncle and I set our hands to the agreement in a formal manner. By
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  the terms of this my uncle bound himself to satisfy Rahnkeyler as to his intermissions,
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  and to pay me two clear thirds of the yearly income of shawls.
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  So the beggar in the ballot had come home. And when I had laid
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  down that night on the kitchen chests, I was a man of means and
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  had a name in the country. Alan and Torrance and wren Kyler slept and
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  snored on their hard beds. But for me, who had lain out under
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  heaven and upon dirt and stones, so many days and nights, and often
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  with an empty belly, and in fear of death, this good change of
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  my case unmanned me more than any of the former evil ones. And I
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  lay till dawn, looking at the fire on the roof, and planning the
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  future. End of chapter