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29 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine. I come into my kingdom. For some time,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Alan volleyed upon the door, and his knocking only roused
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the echoes of the house and neighborhood. At last, however,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I could hear the noise of a window gently thrust up,
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  Speaker 1: and knew that my uncle had come to his observatory.
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  Speaker 1: By what light there was, he could see Allan standing
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  Speaker 1: like a dark shadow on the steps. The three witnesses
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: were hidden quite out of his view, so that there
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: was nothing to alarm an honest man in his own house.
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  Speaker 1: For all that he studied his visitor awhile in silence,
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  Speaker 1: and when he spoke his voice had a quaver of misgiving.
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  Speaker 1: What's this? Says he? This is no kind of time
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  Speaker 1: of night for decent folk, and I have no trackings
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  Speaker 1: with night hawks. What brings ye here? I have a blunderbush?
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  Speaker 1: Is that yourself? Mister Balfour, returned Allan, stepping back and
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  Speaker 1: looking up into the darkness. Have a care of that blunderbuss.
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  Speaker 1: They're nasty things to burst. What brings your hair? And
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  Speaker 1: what are yeh? Says my uncle angrily. I have no
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  Speaker 1: matter of inclination to rout out my name to the countryside,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan. But what brings me here is another story,
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  Speaker 1: being more of your affair than mine. And if you're
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  Speaker 1: sure it's what you would like, I'll set it to
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  Speaker 1: a tune and sing it to you. And what is it?
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  Speaker 1: Asked my uncle David, says Allan, What was that? Cried
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  Speaker 1: my uncle in a mighty changed voice. Shall I give
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  Speaker 1: you the rest of the name, then said Alan. There
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  Speaker 1: was a pause, And then I'm thinking I better let
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  Speaker 1: you in, said my uncle. Doubtfully, I dare say that,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan. But the point is, would I go now?
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you what I am thinking. I am
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  Speaker 1: thinking that it is here upon this doorstep that we
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  Speaker 1: must confess, if upon this business, and it shall be
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  Speaker 1: here or nowhere at all whatever. For I would have
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  Speaker 1: you to understand that I am as stiff necked as yourself,
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  Speaker 1: and a gentleman of better family. This change of note
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  Speaker 1: disconcerted Ebenezer. He was a little wild digesting it, and
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  Speaker 1: then says he will will what must be must, and
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  Speaker 1: shut the window. But it took him a long time
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  Speaker 1: to get downstairs, and a still longer to undo the fastenings. Repenting,
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  Speaker 1: I dare say, and taking with fresh claps of fear
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  Speaker 1: at every second step and every bolt and bar. At last, however,
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  Speaker 1: we heard the creak of the hinges, and it seems my
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  Speaker 1: uncle slipped gingerly out, and, seeing that Allan had stepped
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  Speaker 1: back a pace or two, set him down on the
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  Speaker 1: top doorstep, with the blunderbuss ready in his hands. And
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  Speaker 1: now says he, mind, I have my blunderbush, and if
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  Speaker 1: you take a step nearer, you're as good as deed.
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  Speaker 1: That very civil speech, says Alan. To be sure, Nah,
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  Speaker 1: says my uncle, but this is no very chanty kind
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  Speaker 1: of a proceeding. And then bound to be prepared. And
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  Speaker 1: now that we understand each other, you can name your business,
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  Speaker 1: why says Alan, You that are a man of so
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  Speaker 1: much understanding, will doubtless have perceived that I am a
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  Speaker 1: highland gentleman. My name is no business in my story.
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  Speaker 1: But the county of my friends is not so very
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  Speaker 1: far from the Isle of Mull, of which you will
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  Speaker 1: have heard. It seems there was a ship lost in
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  Speaker 1: those parts, And the next day a gentleman of my
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  Speaker 1: family was seeking wreck wood for his fire along the sands,
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  Speaker 1: when he came upon a lad that was half drowned
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  Speaker 1: well he brought him too, and he and some other
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  Speaker 1: gentleman took and clapped him in an old ruined castle,
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  Speaker 1: where from that day to this he has been a
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  Speaker 1: great expense to my friends. My friends are a wee
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  Speaker 1: wild like and not so particular about the law as
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  Speaker 1: some that I could name, And finding that the lad
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  Speaker 1: owned some decent folk, and was your born nephew, mister Balfour,
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  Speaker 1: they asked me to give you a bit of call
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  Speaker 1: and confer upon the matter. And I may tell you
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  Speaker 1: at the off go unless we can agree upon some terms,
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  Speaker 1: you are little likely to set eyes upon him, For
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  Speaker 1: my friends added Allan, simply are no very well off.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle cleared his throat. I'm no very caring, says he.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't a good lad at the best of it,
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  Speaker 1: and I'd not called to interfere. Ay, ay, said Alan.
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  Speaker 1: I see what you would be at pretending you don't
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  Speaker 1: care to make the ransom smaller, Nah, said my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: It's the mere truth. I take no matter interest in
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  Speaker 1: the lad, and I pay no ransom, and you can
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  Speaker 1: make a kirk and a mill of him for what
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  Speaker 1: I care. Hoot, sir, says Allan bloodsticker than water in
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  Speaker 1: the devil's name. You cannot desert your brother's son for
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  Speaker 1: the fair shame of it. And if you did and
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  Speaker 1: it came to be Kent, you wouldn't it be very
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  Speaker 1: popular in your countryside? Or I'm the more deceived, I know,
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  Speaker 1: very popular the way it is, returned Ebbeneezer. And I
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  Speaker 1: didna see how it would come to be Kent. No
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  Speaker 1: by me anyway, nor yet by you are your friends,
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  Speaker 1: So that's idle talk me, Bucky says he. They'll have
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  Speaker 1: to be David. That tells it, said Allan. How's that?
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  Speaker 1: Says my uncle? Sharply? Oh, just this way, says Allan.
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  Speaker 1: My friends would doubtless keep your nephew as long as
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  Speaker 1: there was any likelihood of siller to be made of it.
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  Speaker 1: But if there was none, I am clearly of opinion
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  Speaker 1: they would let him gang where he pleased and be
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  Speaker 1: damned to him. Aye. But I'm no very caring about
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  Speaker 1: that either, said my uncle. I wouldn't be muckle made
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  Speaker 1: up with that. I was thinkin that, said Allan. And
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  Speaker 1: what for why, asked Ebenezer. Why. Mister Balfour replied Alan.
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  Speaker 1: By all that I could hear there were two ways
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  Speaker 1: of it. Either you liked David and would pay to
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  Speaker 1: get him back, or else she had very good reasons
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  Speaker 1: for not wanting him, and would pay for us to
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  Speaker 1: keep him. It seems as not the first. Well then
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  Speaker 1: it's the second, and blithem I to kennet, for it
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  Speaker 1: should be a pretty penny in my pocket, in the
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  Speaker 1: pocket of my friends. I dinna follow ye there, said
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  Speaker 1: my uncle. No, said Allan, Well see here you didn't
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  Speaker 1: want the lad back. Well what do you want done
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  Speaker 1: with him? And how much will ye pay? My uncle
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  Speaker 1: made no answer, but shifted uneasily on his seat. Come, sir,
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  Speaker 1: cried Alan, I would have you to ken that I
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  Speaker 1: am a gentleman. I bear a king's name. I am
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  Speaker 1: not righter to kick my shanks at your hall door.
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  Speaker 1: Either give me an answer in civility and that out
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  Speaker 1: of hand, or by the top of Glencoe, I will
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  Speaker 1: ram three feet of iron through your vitals. Aim man,
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  Speaker 1: cried my uncle, scrambling to his feet. Give me a minute.
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  Speaker 1: What's like wrong with ye? I'm just a plain man
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  Speaker 1: and no dancing manster, and I'm trying to be as
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  Speaker 1: civil as as morally possible. As for that wild talk
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  Speaker 1: is fear disreputable vitals as you, And where would I
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  Speaker 1: be with my blunderbush? He snarled, powder, and your old
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  Speaker 1: hands are but as the snail to the swallow against
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  Speaker 1: the bright steel in the hands of Allan, says the other.
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  Speaker 1: Before your dotterin finger could find the trigger, the hilt
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  Speaker 1: would dirl on your breastbane a man, where's denying it?
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  Speaker 1: Says my uncle, pitied, as you please, had your own way.
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  Speaker 1: I do nothing to cross ye. Just tell me what
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  Speaker 1: you'll be wantin, and ye'll see that we can agree.
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  Speaker 1: Fine troth, sir, said Allan. I ask for nothin' but
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  Speaker 1: plain dealin in two words. Do ye want the land
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  Speaker 1: killed or kept? Oh? Sirs, cried Ebenezer. Oh sirs me,
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  Speaker 1: that's no kind o language killed or kept, repeated Allan.
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  Speaker 1: Oh keep it, keep it, wailed my uncle. We'll head
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  Speaker 1: no blood shed if you please, well, said Allan. As
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  Speaker 1: you please, that'll be the dearer. The dearer, cries Ebenezer.
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  Speaker 1: Would yer file your hands with crime? Hoot? Said Allan.
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  Speaker 1: They're both crime whatever, and the killing's easier and quicker
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  Speaker 1: and surer. Keeping the laddle be a fascist job, a
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  Speaker 1: fascist kittle business. I'll have him keep to though, returned
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  Speaker 1: my uncle. I never had nothing to do with anything
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  Speaker 1: morally wrong, and I'm no going to begin to pleasure
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  Speaker 1: a wild hygliman your uncle scrupulous, sneered Alan. I'm a
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  Speaker 1: man of principle, said Ebenezer, simply, And if I have
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  Speaker 1: to pay for it, I'll have to pay for it.
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  Speaker 1: And besides, says he, ye've forgot the lad's my brother's son. Well, well,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan, And now about the price, there's no very
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  Speaker 1: easy for me to set a name upon it. I
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  Speaker 1: would first have to ken some small matters. I would
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  Speaker 1: have to ken, For instance, what you gave hose season
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  Speaker 1: at the first off? Go hose season? Cries my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: struck back. What for for kidnap happen? David, says Alan.
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  Speaker 1: It's a lay, It's a black lie, cried my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: He was never kidnapped. He light in his throat that
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  Speaker 1: he told you that kidnapped. He never was. That's no
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  Speaker 1: fault of mine, nor yet of yours, said Alan, nor
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  Speaker 1: yet of hose seasons. If he's a man that can
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  Speaker 1: be trusted, what do you mean, cried Ebeneezer, did hose season?
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  Speaker 1: Tell ye why you? Dunnard old rant how else what
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  Speaker 1: I can cried Alan hose Season and me are partners,
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  Speaker 1: we gang shares. So you can see for yourself what
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  Speaker 1: good you can do lyon. And I must plainly say
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  Speaker 1: you drove a fool's bargain when you let a man
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  Speaker 1: like the sailorman so far forward in your private matters.
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  Speaker 1: But that's past praying for. And you must lie on
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  Speaker 1: your bed the way you made it. And the point
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  Speaker 1: in hand is just this. What did you pay him?
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  Speaker 1: Has he told? You? Asked my uncle? That's my concern,
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  Speaker 1: said Alan Will said my uncle, I didn't care what
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  Speaker 1: he said he laid. And the solemn God's truth is
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  Speaker 1: this that I gave him twenty pound. But I'll be
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  Speaker 1: perfectly honest with ye, for by that he was to
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  Speaker 1: have the sellin of the lad in kiroline wilk would
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  Speaker 1: be his mucklemare, but nor from my pocket. Ye see,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, mister Thompson. That will do excellently well, said
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  Speaker 1: the lawyer, stepping forward. And then mighty Civilly, good evening,
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  Speaker 1: mister Balfour said he, And good evening, Uncle Ebenezer said I,
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  Speaker 1: and it's te Braunick. Mister Balfour added, Torrance never a word,
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  Speaker 1: said my uncle, neither black nor white, but just sat
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  Speaker 1: where he was on the top doorstep and stared upon
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  Speaker 1: us like a man turned to stone. Alan filched away
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  Speaker 1: his blunderbus, and the lawyer, taking him by the arm,
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  Speaker 1: plucked him up from the doorstep, led him into the kitchen,
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  Speaker 1: whither we all followed, and set him down on a
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  Speaker 1: chair beside the hearth, where the fire was out, and
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  Speaker 1: only a rush light burning there. We all looked upon
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  Speaker 1: him for a while, exulting greatly in our success, but
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  Speaker 1: yet with a sort of pity for the man's shame. Come, Come,
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  Speaker 1: mister Ebeneezer, said the lawyer. You must not be downhearted,
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  Speaker 1: for I promise you we shall make easy terms. In
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  Speaker 1: the meanwhile, give us the cellar key, and Torrance shall
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  Speaker 1: draw us a bottle of your father's wine in honor
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  Speaker 1: of the event. Then, turning to me and taking me
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  Speaker 1: by the hand, mister David says he I wish you
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  Speaker 1: all joy in your good fortune, which I believed to
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  Speaker 1: be deserved. And then to Alan, with a spice of drollery,
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  Speaker 1: mister Thompson, I'd pay you my compliment. It was most
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  Speaker 1: artfully conducted, but in one point you somewhat outran my comprehension.
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  Speaker 1: Do I understand your name to be James or Charles?
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  Speaker 1: Or is it George perhaps? And why should it be
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  Speaker 1: any of the three? Sir, quoth Allan, drawing himself up
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  Speaker 1: like one who smelt an offence. Only, Sir, that you
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  Speaker 1: mentioned a king's name, replied Rankeler. And as there has
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  Speaker 1: never yet been a king Thomson, or his fame at
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  Speaker 1: least has never come my way, I judged you must
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  Speaker 1: refer to that you had in baptism. This was just
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  Speaker 1: the stab that Allan would feel keenest, and I am
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  Speaker 1: free to confess. He took it very ill. Not a
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  Speaker 1: word would he answer, but stepped off to the far
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  Speaker 1: end of the kitchen and sat down and sulked. And
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it was not till I stepped after him and gave
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  Speaker 1: him my hand and thanked him by title as the
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  Speaker 1: chief spring of my success, that he began to smile
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  Speaker 1: a bit, and was at last prevailed upon to join
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  Speaker 1: our party. By that time we had the fire lighted
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  Speaker 1: and a bottle of wine uncorked. A good supper came
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  Speaker 1: out of the basket, to which Torrance and I and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Alan set ourselves down, while the lawyer and my uncle
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  Speaker 1: passed into the next chamber to consult. They stayed there
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  Speaker 1: closeted about an hour, at the end of which period
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  Speaker 1: they had come to a good understanding, and my uncle
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  Speaker 1: and I set our hands to the agreement in a
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  Speaker 1: formal manner. By the terms of this my uncle bound
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: himself to satisfy Rahnkeyler as to his intermissions, and to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: pay me two clear thirds of the yearly income of shawls.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So the beggar in the ballot had come home. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: when I had laid down that night on the kitchen chests,
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  Speaker 1: I was a man of means and had a name
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  Speaker 1: in the country. Alan and Torrance and Wren Kyler slept
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  Speaker 1: and snored on their hard beds. But for me, who
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: had lain out under heaven and upon dirt and stones,
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  Speaker 1: so many days and nights, and often with an empty belly,
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  Speaker 1: and in fear of death, this good change of my
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: case unmanned me more than any of the former evil ones.
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  Speaker 1: And I lay till dawn, looking at the fire on
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the roof, and planning the future. End of chapter