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06 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter six, what befell at the Queen's Ferry. As soon as we came
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  to the inn, Ransom led us up the stair to a small room with
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  a bed in it, and heated like an oven by a great fire of
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  coal. At a table hard by the chimney, a tall, dark,
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  sober looking man sat riding in spite of the heat of the room. He
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  wore a thick sea jacket buttoned to the neck, and a tall, hairy
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  cap drawn down over his ears. Yet I never saw any man, not
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  even a judge upon the bench, look cooler or more studious and self possessed
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  than this ship captain. He got to his feet at once, and,
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  coming forward, offered his large hand to Ebenezer. I am proud to see,
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  mister Balfour, said he in a fine, deep voice, and glad
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  that you are here. In time. The wind's fair, and the tide
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  upon the turn. We'll see the old coal bucket burnin on the Isle of
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  May before tonight. Captain ho Sasan returned, my uncle, you keep your
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  room, uncle hot. It's a habit I have, mister Balfour, said
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  the skipper. I'm a cold, rife man by my nature. I have
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  a cold blood, sir. There's neither fer nor flannel, no, sir,
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  nor hot rum will warm up what they call the temperature. Sir.
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  It's the same with most men that have been carbonadoed, as they call it
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  in the tropic seas well. Well, captain replied my uncle, we must
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  all be the way we're made. But it chanced that this fancy of the
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  captain's had a great share in my misfortunes. For though I had promised myself
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  not to let my kinsman out of sight, I was both so impatient for
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  a nearer look of the sea and so sickened by the closeness of the room,
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  that when he told me to run downstairs and play myself a while,
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  I was fool enough to take him at his word. Away I went there,
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  leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle in a great mass of
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  papers, and crossing the road in front of the inn, walked down upon
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  the beach with a wind in that quarter. Only little wavelets, not much
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  bigger than I had seen upon a lake, beat upon the shore. But
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  the weeds were new to me, some green, some brown and long,
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  and some with little blatters that crackled between my fingers. Even so far up
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  the firth, the smell of the sea water was exceedingly salt and stirring.
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  The Covenant besides, was beginning to shake out her sails, which hung upon
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  the yards in clusters, and the spirit of all that I beheld put me
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  in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places. I looked too at the seamen
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  with the skiff, big brown fellows, some in shirts, some with jackets,
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  some with colored handkerchiefs about their throats, one with a brace of pistols
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  stuck into his pockets, two or three with knotty bludgeons, and all with
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  their case knives. I passed the time of day with one that looked less
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  desperate than his fellows, and asked him of the sailing of the brig.
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  He said they would get under way as soon as the ebbset, and expressed
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  his gladness to be out of a port where there were no taverns and fiddlers,
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  but all with such horrifying oaths that I made haste to get away from
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  him. This threw me back on Ransom, who seemed the least wicked of
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  that gang, and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me
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  crying for a bowl of punch. I told him I would give him no
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  such thing, for neither he nor I was of an age for such indulgences.
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  But a glass of ale you may have, and welcome, says I.
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  He mopped and mowed at me and called me names, but he was
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  glad to get the ale for all that. And presently we were set down
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  at a table in the front room of the inn, and both eating and
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  drinking with a good appetite. Here it occurred to me that, as the
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  landlord was a man of that county, I might do well to make a
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  friend of him him. I offered him a share, as was much the
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  custom in those days, but he was far too great a man to sit
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  with such poor customers as Ransom and myself. And he was leaving the room
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  when I called him back to ask if he knew mister Renkiler, ought.
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  I says, he a very honest man, And oh, by the bye,
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  says he was it you who came in with Ebenezer? And when I
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  told him, yes, you be no friend of his, he asked,
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  meaning in the Scottish way, that I would be no relative. I told
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  him no, none, I thought, not said he and yet you have
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  a kind of glyph of mister Alexander. I said, it seemed that Ebenezer
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  was ill seen in the country. Nay doubt, said the Landlord. He's
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  a wicked old man, and there's many would like to see him Gernon in
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  the tow Jennet Klouston him. Many mare that he has harried out of house.
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  And and yet he was once a fine young fellowtoo. But that was
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  before the soft gate abroad. About mister Alexander. That was like the death
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  of him. And what was it, I asked, Oh, just that
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  he had killed him, said the Landlord. Did you never hear that?
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  And what would he kill him for? Said I? And what for?
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  But just to get the place? Said he? The place, said I,
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  the Shaws, the other place that I can, said he. I
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  man, said I is that? So was Alexander, the eldest son.
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  Indeed he was, said the Landlord. What else would he have killed him
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  for? And with that he went away, as he had been impatient to
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  do from the beginning. Of course, I had guessed it a long while
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  ago, But it is one thing to guess, another to know. And
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  I sat stunned with my good fortune and could scarce grow to believe that the
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  same poor lad who had trudged in the dust from Ettric forest not two days
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  ago was now one of the rich of the earth, and had a house
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  and broad lands, and might mount his horse tomorrow. All these pleasant things
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  and a thousand others crowded into my mind as I sat staring before me out
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  of the inn window, and paying no heed to what I saw. Only
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  I remember that my eye lighted on Captain Hose season down on the pier among
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  a seamen, and speaking with some authority. Presently he came marching back towards
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  the house, with no mark of a sailor's clumsiness, but carrying his fine,
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  tall figure with a manly bearing, and still with the same sober,
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  grave expression on his face. I wondered if it was possible that Ransom stories
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  could be true, and half disbelieve them. They fitted so ill with the
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  man's looks. But indeed he was neither so good as I supposed him,
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  nor quite so bad as Ransom did. For in fact, he was two
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  men, and left the better one behind as soon as he set foot on
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  board his vessel. The next thing, I heard my uncle calling me,
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  and found the pair in the road together. It was the captain who addressed
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  me, and that with an air very flattering to a young lad of grave
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  equality. Sir says he, mister belfour, tells me great things of you,
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  And for my own part, I like your looks. I wish I
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  was for longer here, that we might make the better friends, but will
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  make the most of what we have. He should come on board my brig
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  for half an hour till the ebb sets and drink a bowl with me.
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  Now, I longed to see the inside of a ship, more than words
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  can tell, but I was not going to put myself in jeopardy. And
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  I told him my uncle and I had an appointment with a lawyer. Ay
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  ay said. He passed me word of that. But you see, the
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  boat'll set you ashore at the town pier, and that's but a penny stonecast
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  from Rancaller's house. And here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my ear,
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  take care the old tod he means mischief. I'm aboard till I can
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  get a word with you. And then, passing his arm through mine,
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  he continued aloud as he set off towards his boat. But come, What
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  can I bring you from the Carolinas. Any friend of mister Balfour's can command
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  a roll of tobacco, Indian featherwork, a skin of a wild beast,
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  a stone pipe, the mocking bird that mews for all the world like a
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  cat, the cardinal bird that is as red as blood. Take your pick
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  and say your pleasure. By this time we were at the boat's side,
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  and he was handing me in. I did not dream of hanging back.
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  I thought the poor fool that I had found a good friend in help her,
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  and I was rejoicing to see the ship. As soon as we were
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  all set in our places, the boat was thrust off from the pier and
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  began to move over the waters. And what with my pleasure in this new
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  movement am I surprise at our low position, and the appearance of the shores,
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  and the growing bigness of the brig As we drew near to it.
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  I could hardly understand what the captain said, and must have answered him at
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  random. As soon as we were alongside, where I sat fairly gaping at
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  the ship's height, the strong humming of the tide against its sides, and
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  the pleasant cries of the seamen at their work host season, declaring that he
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  and I must be the first aboard, ordered a tackle to be sent down
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  from the main yard. In this I was whipped into the air and set
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  down again on the deck, where the captain stood ready waiting for me,
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  and instantly slipped back his arm under mine. There I stood somewhile, a
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  little dizzy with the unsteadiness of all around me, perhaps a little afraid.
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  He it vastly pleased with these strange sights. The captain meanwhile pointing out the
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  strangest and telling me their names and uses. But where is my uncle?
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  Said I. Suddenly, Hi said, hose season, with a sudden grimness.
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  That's the point I felt. I was lost. With all my strength,
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  I plucked myself clear of him and ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough
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  there was the boat pulling for the town, with my uncle sitting in the
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  stern. I cave a piercing cry, help, help, murder, so
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  that both sides of the anchorage rang with it, and my uncle turned round
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  where he was sitting and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror.
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  It was the last I saw. Already, strong hands had been plucking me
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  back from the ship's side. And now a thunderbolt seemed to strike me.
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  I saw a great flash of fire, and fell senseless. Of chapter