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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, The Death of the Red Fox. The next
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  Speaker 1: day mister Henderland found for me a man who had
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  Speaker 1: a boat of his own, and was to cross the
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  Speaker 1: liney lock that afternoon into Appen fishing. Here. He prevailed
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  Speaker 1: on to take me, for he was one of his flock,
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  Speaker 1: and in this way I saved a long day's travel
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  Speaker 1: and the price of the two public ferries I must
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  Speaker 1: otherwise have passed. It was near noon before we set out,
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  Speaker 1: a dark day, with clouds and the sun shining upon
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  Speaker 1: little patches. The sea was here very deep and still,
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  Speaker 1: and had scarce a wave upon it, so that I
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  Speaker 1: must put the water to my lips before I could
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  Speaker 1: believe it to be truly salt. The mountains on either
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  Speaker 1: side were high, rough and barren, very black and gloomy
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  Speaker 1: in the shadow of the clouds, but all silver laced
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  Speaker 1: with little water courses where the sun shone upon them.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed a hard country, this of Appen, for people
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  Speaker 1: to care as much about as Allan did. There was
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  Speaker 1: but one thing to mention. A little after we had started,
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  Speaker 1: the sun shone upon a little moving plump of scarlet
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  Speaker 1: close in along the water side to the north. It
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  Speaker 1: was much of the same red as soldier's coats. Every
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  Speaker 1: now and then, too there came little sparks and lightnings,
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  Speaker 1: as though the sun had struck upon bright steel. I
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  Speaker 1: asked my boatman what it should be, and he answered
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  Speaker 1: he supposed it was some of the red soldiers coming
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  Speaker 1: from Fort William in d'appen against the poor tenantry of
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  Speaker 1: the country. Well, it was a sad sight to me,
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  Speaker 1: and whether it was because of my thoughts of Allan
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  Speaker 1: or from something prophetic in my bosom, although this was
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  Speaker 1: but the second time I had seen King George's troops,
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  Speaker 1: I had no good will to them. At last we
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  Speaker 1: came so near the point of land, at the entering
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  Speaker 1: inn of Loch Leven, that I begged to be set
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  Speaker 1: on shore. My boatman, who was an honest felt and
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  Speaker 1: mindful of his promise to the Catechist, would fain have
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  Speaker 1: carried me on to Ballacoolish, But as this was to
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  Speaker 1: take me farther from my secret destination, I insisted and
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  Speaker 1: was set on shore at last under the wood of
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  Speaker 1: Lettermore or letter Vore, as I have heard it both ways.
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  Speaker 1: In Allan's country of Appen. This was a wood of
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  Speaker 1: birches growing on a steep, craggy side of a mountain
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  Speaker 1: that overhung the loch. It had many openings in ferny hows,
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  Speaker 1: and a road or bridle track ran north and south
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  Speaker 1: through the midst of it, by the edge of which
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  Speaker 1: where was a spring. I sat down to eat some
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  Speaker 1: oat bread of mister Henderland's and think upon my situation here.
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  Speaker 1: I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges,
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  Speaker 1: but far more by the doubts of my mind. What
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  Speaker 1: I ought to do. Why I was going to join
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  Speaker 1: myself with an outlaw and a would be murderer like Alan,
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  Speaker 1: Whether I should not be acting more like a man
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  Speaker 1: of sense to tramp back to the south country direct
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  Speaker 1: by my own guidance and at my own charges. And
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  Speaker 1: what mister Campbell, or even mister Henderland would think of me,
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  Speaker 1: if they should learn my folly and presumption. These were
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  Speaker 1: the doubts that now began to come in on me
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  Speaker 1: stronger than ever. As I was so sitting and thinking,
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  Speaker 1: a sound of men and horses came to me through
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  Speaker 1: the wood, And presently after, at a turning of the road,
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  Speaker 1: I saw four travelers come into view. The way was
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  Speaker 1: in this part so rough and narrow, that they came
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  Speaker 1: single and led their horses by the reins. The first
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  Speaker 1: was a great, red headed gentleman of an imperious and
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  Speaker 1: flushed face, who carried his hat in his hand and
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  Speaker 1: fanned himself, for he was in a breathing heat. The second,
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  Speaker 1: by his decent black garb and white wig, I correctly
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  Speaker 1: took to be a lawyer. The third was a servant
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  Speaker 1: and wore some part of his clothes in tartan, which
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  Speaker 1: showed that his master was of a highland family and
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  Speaker 1: either an outlaw or Elson's singular good odor with the government,
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  Speaker 1: since the wearing of tartan was against the act. If
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  Speaker 1: I had been better versed in these things, I would
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  Speaker 1: have known the tartan to be of the Argyle or
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  Speaker 1: Campbell colors. This servant had a good sized portmanteau strapped
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  Speaker 1: on his horse, and a net of lemons to brew
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  Speaker 1: punch with hanging at the saddle bow, as was often
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  Speaker 1: the custom with luxurious travelers in that part of the country.
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  Speaker 1: As for the fourth who brought up the tale, I
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  Speaker 1: had seen his like before, and knew him at once
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  Speaker 1: to be a sheriff's officer. I had no sooner seen
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  Speaker 1: these people coming, than I made up my mind, for
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  Speaker 1: no reason that I can tell, to go through with
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  Speaker 1: my adventure. And when the first came alongside of me,
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  Speaker 1: I rose up from the bracken and asked him the
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  Speaker 1: way to a carne. He stopped and looked at me
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  Speaker 1: as I thought a little oddly, And then turning to
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  Speaker 1: the lawyer, Mungo said he there's many a man would
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  Speaker 1: think this more of a warning than two piats. Here
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  Speaker 1: am I on my road to duror on the job
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  Speaker 1: you can? And here is a young land starts up
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  Speaker 1: out of the bracken and spears if I'm on the
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  Speaker 1: way to Acarne, Gleneur said the other, This is an
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  Speaker 1: ill subject for jesting. These two had now drawn close
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  Speaker 1: up and were gazing at me, while the two followers
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  Speaker 1: had halted about a stonecast in the rear. And what
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  Speaker 1: seek yea an ocanne, said Colin Roy Campbell of Gleneur
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  Speaker 1: him they called the red fox, for it was he
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  Speaker 1: that I had stopped. The man that lives there, said
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  Speaker 1: I James of the Glens, says Gleneur musingly, And then
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  Speaker 1: to the lawyer, is he gathering his people? Think ye? Anyway?
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  Speaker 1: Says the lawyer. We shall do better to bide where
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  Speaker 1: we are and let the soldiers rally us. If you
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  Speaker 1: are concerned for me, say I, I am neither of
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  Speaker 1: his people nor yours, but an honest subject of King George,
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  Speaker 1: owing no man and fearing no man. Why very well,
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  Speaker 1: said replies the factor. But if I may make so
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  Speaker 1: bold as ask, what does this honest man so far
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  Speaker 1: from his country? And why does he come seeking the
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  Speaker 1: brother of Ardshield? I have power here. I must tell
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  Speaker 1: you I am King's factor upon several of these estates,
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  Speaker 1: and have twelve files of soldiers at my back. I
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  Speaker 1: have heard a waif word in the country, said I,
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  Speaker 1: a little nettled that you were a hard man to drive.
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  Speaker 1: He still kept looking at me as if in doubt,
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  Speaker 1: well said he. At last, your tongue is bold. But
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  Speaker 1: I am no unfriend to plainness. If ye had asked
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  Speaker 1: me the way to the door of James Stuart on
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  Speaker 1: any other day, but this, I would have set you
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  Speaker 1: right and bidden ye God's speed. But to day, eh Mungo,
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  Speaker 1: And he turned again to look at the lawyer. But
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  Speaker 1: just as he turned there came the shot of a
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  Speaker 1: firelock from higher up. The hill, and with the very
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  Speaker 1: sound of it, Glenyear fell upon the road. Oh, I'm dead,
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  Speaker 1: he cried several times over. The lawyer had caught him
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  Speaker 1: up and held him in his arms, the servant standing
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  Speaker 1: over and clasping his hands. And now the wounded man
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  Speaker 1: looked from one to another with scared eyes, and there
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  Speaker 1: was a change in his voice that went to the heart.
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  Speaker 1: Take care of yourselves, said he I'm dead. He tried
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  Speaker 1: to open his clothes, as if to look for the wound,
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  Speaker 1: but his fingers slipped on the buttons. With that he
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  Speaker 1: gave a great sigh. His head rolled on his shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: and he passed away. The lawyer said never a word,
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  Speaker 1: but his face was as sharp as a pen and
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  Speaker 1: as white as the dead man's. The servant broke out
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  Speaker 1: into a great noise of crying and like a child,
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  Speaker 1: and I on my side stood staring at them in
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  Speaker 1: a kind of horror. The sheriff's officer had run back
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  Speaker 1: at the first sound of the shot, to hasten the
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  Speaker 1: coming of the soldiers. At last, the lawyer laid down
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  Speaker 1: the dead man in his blood upon the road, and
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  Speaker 1: got to his own feet with a kind of stagger.
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  Speaker 1: I believe it was his movement that brought me to
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  Speaker 1: my senses, for he had no sooner done so than
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  Speaker 1: I began to scramble up the hill, crying out the murderer,
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  Speaker 1: the murderer. So little a time had elapsed that when
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  Speaker 1: I got to the top of the first steepness and
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  Speaker 1: could see some part of the open mountain, the murderer
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  Speaker 1: was still moving away at no great distance. He was
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  Speaker 1: a big man in a black coat with metal buttons,
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  Speaker 1: and carried a long fowling piece. Here, I cried, I
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  Speaker 1: see him. At that the murderer gave a little quick
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  Speaker 1: look over his shoulder and began to run. The next
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  Speaker 1: moment he was lost in a fringe of birds. Then
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  Speaker 1: he came out again on the upper side, where I
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  Speaker 1: could see him climbing like a jackanapes, for that part
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  Speaker 1: was again very steep. And then he dipped behind the shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: and I saw him no more. All this time I
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  Speaker 1: had been running on my side and got a good
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  Speaker 1: way up when a voice cried upon me to stand.
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  Speaker 1: I was at the edge of the upper wood, and
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  Speaker 1: so now when I halted and looked back, I saw
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  Speaker 1: all the open part of the hill below me. The
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  Speaker 1: lawyer and the sheriff's officer were standing just above the road,
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  Speaker 1: crying and waving on me to come back, and on
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  Speaker 1: their left the Redcoats, musket in hand, were beginning to
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  Speaker 1: struggle singly out of the lower wood. Why should I
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  Speaker 1: come back, I cried, Um, you on ten pounds if
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  Speaker 1: ye take that, lad, cried the lawyer. He's an accomplice.
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  Speaker 1: He was posted here to hold us and talk. At
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  Speaker 1: that word, which I could hear quite plainly, though it
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  Speaker 1: was to the soldiers and not to me that he
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  Speaker 1: was crying it, my heart came in my mouth with
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  Speaker 1: quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is one
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  Speaker 1: thing to stand the danger of your life, and quite
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  Speaker 1: another to run the peril of both life and character.
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  Speaker 1: The thing, besides, had come so suddenly like thunder out
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  Speaker 1: of a clear sky, that I was all amazed and helpless.
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  Speaker 1: Soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and
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  Speaker 1: others to put up their pieces and cover me. And
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  Speaker 1: still I stood juck in here among the trees, said
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  Speaker 1: a voice close by. Indeed, I scarce know what I
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  Speaker 1: was doing, but I obeyed, And as I did so,
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  Speaker 1: I heard the firelocks bang and the ball's whistle in
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  Speaker 1: the birches. Just inside the shelter of the trees, I
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  Speaker 1: found Alan Breck standing with a fishing rod. He gave
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  Speaker 1: me no salutation. Indeed, it was no time for civilities.
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  Speaker 1: Only come, says he, and set off running along the
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  Speaker 1: side of the mountain towards Balacoulish, and I, like a
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  Speaker 1: sheep to follow him. Now we ran among the birches,
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  Speaker 1: now stooping behind low humps upon the mountain side, now
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  Speaker 1: crawling on all fours among the heather. Pce was deadly.
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  Speaker 1: My heart seemed bursting against my ribs, and I had
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  Speaker 1: neither time to think nor breath to speak with Only
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  Speaker 1: I remember seeing with wonder that Alan every now and
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  Speaker 1: then would straighten himself to his full height and look back,
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  Speaker 1: And every time he did so there came a great
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  Speaker 1: far away cheering and crying of the soldiers. Quarter of
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  Speaker 1: an hour later Alan stopped, clapped down flat in the heather,
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  Speaker 1: and turned to me. Now said he it's earnest do
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  Speaker 1: as I do for your life, and at the same speed,
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  Speaker 1: but now with infinitely more precaution. We traced back again
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  Speaker 1: across the mountain side by the same way that we
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  Speaker 1: had come, only perhaps higher till at last Alan threw
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  Speaker 1: himself down in the upper wood of Lettermore, where I
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  Speaker 1: had found him at the first, and lay with his
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  Speaker 1: face in the bracken, panting like a dog. My own
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  Speaker 1: sides so ached, my head, so swam my tongue, so
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  Speaker 1: hung out of my mouth with heat and dryness, that
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  Speaker 1: I lay beside him like one dead end of Chapter