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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, The lad with a silver button through the
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  Speaker 1: Isle of Mull. The Ross of Mull, which I had
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  Speaker 1: now got upon, was rugged and trackless, like the isle
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  Speaker 1: I had just left, being all bog and briar and
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  Speaker 1: big stone. There may be roads for them that know
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  Speaker 1: that country well, But for my part I had no
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  Speaker 1: better guide than my own nose, and no other landmark
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  Speaker 1: than ben More. I aimed as well as I could
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  Speaker 1: for the smoke I had seen so often from the island,
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  Speaker 1: and with all my great weariness and the difficulty of
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  Speaker 1: the way, came upon the house in the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: a little hollow, about five or six at night. It
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  Speaker 1: was low and longish, roofed with turf, and built of
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  Speaker 1: unmortared stones, and on a mound in front of it,
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  Speaker 1: an old gentleman sat smoking his pipe in the sun.
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  Speaker 1: With what little English he had, he gave me to
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  Speaker 1: understand that my shipmates had got safe ashore and had
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  Speaker 1: broken bread in that very house on the day after.
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  Speaker 1: Was there one, I asked? Dressed like a gentleman, he said,
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  Speaker 1: they all wore rough, greatcoats, But to be sure, the
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  Speaker 1: first of them, the one that came alone, wore breeches
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  Speaker 1: and stockings, while the rest had sailor's trousers. Ah, said I,
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  Speaker 1: and he would have a feathered hat. He told me no,
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  Speaker 1: that he was bareheaded, like myself. At first I thought
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  Speaker 1: Alan might have lost his hat, and then the rain
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  Speaker 1: came in my mind, and I judged it more likely
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  Speaker 1: he had it out of harm's way under his greatcoat.
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  Speaker 1: This set me smiling, partly because my friend was safe,
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  Speaker 1: partly to think of his vanity in dress. And then
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  Speaker 1: the old gentleman clapped his hand to his brow and
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  Speaker 1: cried out that I must be the lad with a
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  Speaker 1: silver button. Why, yes, said I, in some wonder Well,
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  Speaker 1: then said the old gentleman, I have a word for you,
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  Speaker 1: that you are to follow your friend to his country
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  Speaker 1: by toros say. He then asked me how I had fared,
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  Speaker 1: and I told him my tale. A south country man
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  Speaker 1: would certainly have laughed. But this old gentleman, I call
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  Speaker 1: him so because of his manners, for his clothes were
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  Speaker 1: dropping off his back, heard me all through with nothing
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  Speaker 1: but gravity and pity. When I had done, he took
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  Speaker 1: me by the hand, led me into his hut it
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  Speaker 1: was no better, and presented me before his wife as
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  Speaker 1: if she had been the queen and I a duke.
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  Speaker 1: The good woman set oat bread before me in a
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  Speaker 1: cold grouse, patting my shoulder and smiling to me all
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  Speaker 1: the time, for she had no English, and the old gentleman,
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  Speaker 1: not to be behind, brewed me a strong punch out
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  Speaker 1: of their country spirit. All the while I was eating,
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  Speaker 1: and after that, when I was drinking the punch, I
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  Speaker 1: could scarce come to believe in my good fortune, and
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  Speaker 1: the house, though it was thick with a peat smoke
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  Speaker 1: and as full of holes as a colander, seemed like
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  Speaker 1: a palace. The punch threw me in a strong sweat
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  Speaker 1: and a deep slumber. The good people let me lie,
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  Speaker 1: and it was near noon of the next day before
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  Speaker 1: I took the road, my throat already easier, and my
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  Speaker 1: spirits quite restored by good, fair and good news. The
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  Speaker 1: old gentleman, though I pressed him hard, would take no money,
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  Speaker 1: and gave me an old bonnet for my head. Though
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  Speaker 1: I am free to own, I was no sooner out
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  Speaker 1: of view of the house than I very jealously washed
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  Speaker 1: this gift of his than a wayside fountain, thought I
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  Speaker 1: to myself, if these are the wild highlanders, I could
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  Speaker 1: wish my own folk wilder. I not only started late,
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  Speaker 1: but I must have wandered nearly half the time. True,
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  Speaker 1: I met plenty of people grubbing in little, miserable fields
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  Speaker 1: that would not keep a cat, or hurting little kind
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  Speaker 1: about the bigness of asses. The Highland dress being forbidden
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  Speaker 1: by law since the rebellion, and the people condemned to
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  Speaker 1: the Lowland habit, which they much disliked, it was strange
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  Speaker 1: to see the variety of their array. Some went bare
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  Speaker 1: only for a hanging cloak or greatcoat, and carried their
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  Speaker 1: trousers on their backs like an useless burden. Some have
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  Speaker 1: made an imitation of the tartan, with little party colored
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  Speaker 1: stripes patched together like an old wife's quilt. Others, again,
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  Speaker 1: still wore the Highland philibeg, but by putting a few
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  Speaker 1: stitches between the legs, transformed it into a pair of
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  Speaker 1: trousers like a dutchman's. All those makeshifts were condemned and punished,
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  Speaker 1: but the law was harshly applied in hopes to break
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  Speaker 1: up the clan's spirit. But in that out of the
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  Speaker 1: way seabound dial there were few to make remarks, and
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  Speaker 1: fewer to tell tales. They seemed a great poverty, which
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  Speaker 1: was no doubt natural now that Raypine was put down,
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  Speaker 1: and the chiefs kept no longer an open house. And
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  Speaker 1: the roads, even such a wandering country by track as
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  Speaker 1: the one I followed, were infested with beggars. And here
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  Speaker 1: again I marked a difference from my own part of
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  Speaker 1: the for our lowland beggars. Even the gownsmen themselves who
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  Speaker 1: begged my patent, had a louting, flattering way with them.
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  Speaker 1: And if you gave them a plaque and ask changed,
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  Speaker 1: would very civilly return you a bottle. But these highland
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  Speaker 1: beggars stood on their dignity, asked alms only to buy
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  Speaker 1: snuff by their account, and would give no change. To
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  Speaker 1: be sure, this was no concern of mine, except in
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  Speaker 1: so far as it entertained me. By the way, what
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  Speaker 1: was much more to the purpose. Few had any English,
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  Speaker 1: and these few, unless they were the brotherhood of beggars,
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  Speaker 1: not very anxious to place it at my service. I
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  Speaker 1: knew torres Say to be my destination, and repeated the
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  Speaker 1: name to them and pointed. But instead of simply pointing
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  Speaker 1: in reply, they would give me a screed of the
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  Speaker 1: Gaelic that set me foolish. So it was small wonder
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  Speaker 1: if I went out of my road as often as
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  Speaker 1: I stayed in it. At last, about eight at night,
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  Speaker 1: and already very weary, I came to a lone house,
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  Speaker 1: where I asked admittance, and was refused until he bethought
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  Speaker 1: me of the power of money in so poor a country,
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  Speaker 1: and held up one of my guineas in my finger
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  Speaker 1: and thumb. Thereupon, the man of the house, who had
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  Speaker 1: hitherto pretended to have no English, and driven me from
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  Speaker 1: his door by signals, suddenly began to speak as clearly
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  Speaker 1: as was needful, and agreed for five shillings to give
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  Speaker 1: me a night's lodging and guide me the next day
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  Speaker 1: to Torressay. I slept uneasily that night, fearing I should
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  Speaker 1: be robbed, But I might have spared myself the pain,
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  Speaker 1: for my host was no robber, only miserably poor and
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  Speaker 1: a great cheat. He was not alone in his poverty.
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  Speaker 1: But the next morning we must go five miles about
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  Speaker 1: to the house of what he called a rich man,
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  Speaker 1: to have one of my guineas changed. This was perhaps
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  Speaker 1: a rich man for mull He would have scarce been
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  Speaker 1: thought so in the South, for it took all he
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  Speaker 1: had the whole house was turned upside down, and a
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  Speaker 1: neighbor brought under contribution before he could scrape together twenty
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  Speaker 1: shillings in silver, the odd shilling he kept for himself,
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  Speaker 1: protesting he could ill afford to have so great a
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  Speaker 1: sum of money lying locked up. For all that, he
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  Speaker 1: was very curious and well spoken, made us both sit
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  Speaker 1: down with his family to dinner, and brewed punch in
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  Speaker 1: a fine china bowl, over which my rascal guide grew
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  Speaker 1: so merry that he refused to start. I was forgetting angry,
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  Speaker 1: and appealed to the rich man, Hector mc lean was
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  Speaker 1: his name, who had been a witness to our bargain
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  Speaker 1: and to my pavement of the five shillings. But mc
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  Speaker 1: lean had taken his share of the punch and vowed
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  Speaker 1: that no gentleman should leave his table after the bowl
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  Speaker 1: was brewed. So there was nothing for it but to
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  Speaker 1: sit and hear Jacobite toast and Gaelic songs till all
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  Speaker 1: were tipsy and staggered off to the bed or the
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  Speaker 1: barn for the night's rest. Next day, the fourth of
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  Speaker 1: my travels, we were up before five upon them clock,
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  Speaker 1: but my rascal guide got to the bottle at once,
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  Speaker 1: and it was three hours before I had him clear
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  Speaker 1: of the house. And then, as you shall hear, only
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  Speaker 1: for a worse disappointment. As long as we went down
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  Speaker 1: a heathery valley that lay before mister mc lean's house,
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  Speaker 1: all went well. Only my guide looked constantly over his shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: and when I asked him the cause only grinned at me.
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  Speaker 1: No sooner, however, have we crossed the back of the
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  Speaker 1: hill and got out of sight of the house windows,
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  Speaker 1: than he told me Torrosay lay right in front, and
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  Speaker 1: that a hilltop, which he pointed out, was my best landmark.
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  Speaker 1: I care very little for that, said I, since you
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  Speaker 1: are going with me. The infinite cheat answered me in
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  Speaker 1: the Gaelic that he had no English. My fine fellow,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I know very well your English. Comes and goes,
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  Speaker 1: tell me what we'll bring it back? Is it more
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  Speaker 1: money you wish? Five shillings mere, said he and hersel
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  Speaker 1: we'll bring you there. I reflected, awhile, and then offered
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  Speaker 1: him two, which he accepted greedily and insisted on having
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  Speaker 1: in his hands at once for luck, as he said,
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  Speaker 1: but I think it was rather for my misfortune. The
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  Speaker 1: two shillings carried him, not quite as many miles, at
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  Speaker 1: the end of which distance he sat down upon the
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  Speaker 1: wayside and took off his brogues from his feet, like
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  Speaker 1: a man about to rest. I was now red hot,
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  Speaker 1: HA said, I have you no more English? He said
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  Speaker 1: impudently no. At that. I boiled over and lifted my
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  Speaker 1: hand to strike him, and he, drawing a knife from
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  Speaker 1: his rags, squatted back and grinned at me like a wildcat.
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  Speaker 1: At that forgetting everything but my anger. I ran in
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  Speaker 1: upon him, put aside his knife with my left, and
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  Speaker 1: struck him in the mouth with the right. I was
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  Speaker 1: a strong lad and very angry, and he but a
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  Speaker 1: little man, And he went down before me. By good luck,
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  Speaker 1: his knife flew out of his hand as he fell.
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  Speaker 1: I picked up both that and his brogues, wished him
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  Speaker 1: a good morning, and set off upon my way, leaving
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  Speaker 1: him barefoot and disarmed. I chuckled to myself as I went,
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  Speaker 1: being sure I was done with that rogue for a
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  Speaker 1: variety of reasons. First, he knew he could have no
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  Speaker 1: more of my money. Next, the brogues were worth in
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  Speaker 1: that country only a few pence. And lastly, the knife,
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  Speaker 1: which was really a dagger, it was against the law
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  Speaker 1: for him to carry. In about half an hour of walk,
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  Speaker 1: I overtook a great ragged man, moving pretty fast, but
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  Speaker 1: feeling before him with a staff. He was quite blind,
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  Speaker 1: and told me he was a catechist, which should have
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  Speaker 1: put me at my ease, But his face went against me.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed dark and dangerous and secret. And presently, as
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  Speaker 1: we began to go on alongside, I saw the steel
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  Speaker 1: butt of a pistol sticking from under the flap of
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  Speaker 1: his coat pocket. Every such a thing meant to find
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  Speaker 1: a fifteen pounds sterling upon a first offense, and transportation
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  Speaker 1: to the colonies upon a second. Nor could I quite
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  Speaker 1: see why a religious teacher should go armed, or what
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  Speaker 1: a blind man could be doing with a pistol. I
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  Speaker 1: told him about my guide, for I was proud of
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  Speaker 1: what I had done, and my vanity for once got
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  Speaker 1: the heels of my prudence. At the mention of the
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  Speaker 1: five shillings, he cried out so loud that I made
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  Speaker 1: up my mind I should say nothing of the other two,
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  Speaker 1: and was glad he could not see my blushes. Was
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  Speaker 1: it too much, I asked, a little faltering too much?
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  Speaker 1: Cries he? Why I would guide you to torosay myself
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  Speaker 1: for a drama, brandy, and didn't give you the great
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  Speaker 1: pleasure of my company. Me that is a man of
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  Speaker 1: some learning. In the bargain, I said, I did not
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  Speaker 1: see how a blind man could be a guide. But
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  Speaker 1: at that he laughed aloud and said his stick was
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  Speaker 1: eyes enough for an eagle. In the isle of Mull
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  Speaker 1: at least, says he. Where I know every stone and
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  Speaker 1: heather bush by mark of head. See now, he said,
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  Speaker 1: striking right and left, as if to make sure. Down
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  Speaker 1: there a burn is running, and at the head of
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  Speaker 1: it there stands a bit of a small hill with
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  Speaker 1: a stone cocked upon the top of that. And it's
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  Speaker 1: hard at the foot of the hill that the way
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  Speaker 1: runs by to Taurus. Say, And the way here, being
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  Speaker 1: for droves, is plainly trodden and will show grassy through
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  Speaker 1: the heather. I had to own. He was right in
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  Speaker 1: every feature and told my wonder ha, says he. That's nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Would you believe me now that before the act came out,
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  Speaker 1: and when there were weapons in this country I could shoot,
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  Speaker 1: I could, I cries he, and then with a leer,
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  Speaker 1: if he had such a thing as a pistol, here
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  Speaker 1: to try with. I would show you how it's done.
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  Speaker 1: I told him I had nothing of the sort, and
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  Speaker 1: gave him a wider berth. If he had known. His
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  Speaker 1: pistol still stuck at that time quite plainly out of
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  Speaker 1: his pocket, and I could see the sun twinkle on
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  Speaker 1: the steel of the butt. But by the better luck
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  Speaker 1: for me, he knew nothing, thought all was covered and
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  Speaker 1: lied on in the dark. He then began to question
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  Speaker 1: me cunningly where I came from, whether I was rich,
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  Speaker 1: whether I could change a five shilling piece for him,
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  Speaker 1: which he declared he had that moment in his sporan.
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  Speaker 1: And all the time he kept edging up to me,
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  Speaker 1: and I avoiding him. We were now upon a sort
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  Speaker 1: of green cattle track which crossed the hills towards Torosay,
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  Speaker 1: and we kept changing sides upon that, like answers and
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  Speaker 1: a reel. I had so plainly the upper hand that
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  Speaker 1: my spirits rose, and indeed I took a pleasure in
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  Speaker 1: this game of blind man's bluff. But the Catechists grew
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  Speaker 1: angrier and angrier, and at last began to swear in
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  Speaker 1: Gaelic and to strike from my legs with his staff.
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  Speaker 1: Then I told him that sure enough I had a
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  Speaker 1: pistol in my pocket as well as he, and if
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  Speaker 1: he did not strike across the hill due south, I
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  Speaker 1: would even blow his brains out. He became at once
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  Speaker 1: very polite, and after trying to soften me for some time,
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  Speaker 1: but quite in vain, he cursed me once more in Gaelic,
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  Speaker 1: and took himself off. I watched him striding along through
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  Speaker 1: bog and briar, tapping with his stick, until he turned
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  Speaker 1: the end of a hill and disappeared in the next hollow.
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  Speaker 1: Then I struck on again for Torosay, much better pleased
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  Speaker 1: to be alone than to travel with that man of learning.
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  Speaker 1: This was an unlucky day, and these two of whom
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  Speaker 1: I had just rid myself, one after the other, were
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  Speaker 1: the two worst men I met with in the highlands.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: At Torrossay, on the sound of Mull, and looking over
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  Speaker 1: to the mainland of Morven, there was an inn with
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  Speaker 1: an inn keeper who was a mc Lean. It appeared
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  Speaker 1: of a very high family, for to keep an inn
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: is thought even more genteel in the Highlands than it
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  Speaker 1: is with us. Perhaps his partaking of hous fatality, or
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  Speaker 1: perhaps because the trade is idle and drunken he spoke
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  Speaker 1: good English, and, finding me to be something of a scholar,
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  Speaker 1: tried me first in French, where he easily beat me,
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  Speaker 1: and then in the Latin, in which I don't know
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  Speaker 1: which of us did best. This pleasant rivalry put us
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  Speaker 1: at once upon friendly terms, and I sat up and
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  Speaker 1: drank punch with him, or, to be more correct, sat
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  Speaker 1: up and watched him drink it until he was so
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  Speaker 1: tipsy that he wept upon my shoulder. I tried him
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  Speaker 1: as if, by accident were the sight of Alan's button,
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  Speaker 1: but it was plain he had never seen or heard
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  Speaker 1: of it. Indeed, he bore some grudge against the family
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  Speaker 1: and friends of Ardshield, and before he was drunk he
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: read me a lampoon in very good Latin, but with
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: a very ill meaning, which he had made in elegiac
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: verses upon a person of that house. When I told
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  Speaker 1: him of my catechist, he shook his head and said,
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  Speaker 1: I was lucky to have got clear off. But that
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  Speaker 1: is a very dangerous man, he said. Duncan mc hee
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  Speaker 1: is his name. He can shoot by the ear at
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  Speaker 1: several yards, and he has often been accused of highway robberies,
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  Speaker 1: and once of murder. The cream of it is, says I,
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  Speaker 1: that he called himself a catechist, And why should he not,
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  Speaker 1: says he, when that is what he is. It was
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  Speaker 1: mc lean of Doert gave it to him before he
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  Speaker 1: was blind. But perhaps it was a pity, says my host,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: for he is always on the road, going from one
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  Speaker 1: place to another, to hear the young folks say their religion,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and doubtless that is a great temptation to the poor man.
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  Speaker 1: At last, when my landlord could drink no more, he
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: showed me to a bed, and I lay down in
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  Speaker 1: very good spirits, having traveled the greater part of that
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  Speaker 1: big and crooked island of Mull, from Arid to Torresay
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  Speaker 1: fifty miles, says the crow flies, and with my wanderings,
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  Speaker 1: much nearer a hundred in four days, and with little fatigue. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I was by far in better heart and health of
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  Speaker 1: body at the end of that long tramp than I
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  Speaker 1: had been at the beginning end of chapter