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25 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter twenty five. In balcu Hitter, at the door of the first house,
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  we came to Allan knocked, which was of no very safe enterprise.
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  In such a part of the Highlands as the Braves of balcu Hitter, no
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  great clan held rule. There was filled and disputed by small steps and broken
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  remnants, and what they call chiefless folk, driven into the wild country about
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  the springs of forth and teeth by the advance of the Campbells. Here were
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  Stuarts and mac Larens, which came to the same thing. For the Maclarens
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  followed Allan's chief in war and made but one clan with appen. Here too
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  were many of that old proscribed, nameless, red handed clan of the Macgregors.
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  They had always been ill considered, and now worse than ever, having
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  credit with no side or party in the whole country of Scotland. Their chief,
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  MacGregor of mac Gregor, was in exile. The more i mediate leader
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  of that part of them about balcour Hitter, James Moore, rob Roy's eldest
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  son, lay waiting his trial in Edinburgh Castle. They were in ill blood
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  with Highlander and lowlander, with the Grahams. The McLarens and the Stewarts,
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  and Allan, who took up the quarrel of any friend, however distant,
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  was extremely wishful to avoid them. Chance served us very well, for it
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  was a household of McLarens that we found, where Allan was not only welcome
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  for his name's sake, but known by reputation. Here. Then I was
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  got to bed without delay, and a doctor fetched who found me in a
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  sorry plight. But whether because he was a very good doctor or I a
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  very young strong man, I lay bedridden for no more than a week,
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  and before a month I was able to take the road again with a good
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  heart. All this time Allan would not leave me, though I often pressed
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  him, and indeed his full heartiness in staying was a common subject of outcry
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  with the two or three friends that were let into the secret. He hid
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  by day in a hole of the braves under a little wood, and at
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  night, when the coast was clear, would come into the house to visit
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  me. I need not say if I was pleased to see him. Missus
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  mc laren, our hostess, thought nothing good enough for such a guest.
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  And as Duncan Dew, which was the name of Our host had a pair
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  of pipes in his house, and was much a lover of music. This
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  time of my recovery was quite a festival, and we commonly turned night into
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  day. The soldiers let us be, although once a party of two companies
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  and some dragoons went by in the bottom of the valley, where I could
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  see them through the window as I lay in bed. But was much more
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  astonishing. No magistrate came near me, and there was no question put of
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  whence I came or whither I was going. And in that time of excitement,
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  I was as free of all aquy as though I had lain in a
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  desert. Yet my presence was known before I left to all the people in
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  Balco Hitter and the adjacent parts, many coming about the house on visits,
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  and these, after the custom of the country, spreading the news among their
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  neighbors. The bills, too, had now been printed. There was one
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  pinned near the foot of my bed, where I could read my own,
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  not very flattering portrait, and in larger characters, the amount of the blood
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  money that had been set upon my life, duncan dew, and the rest
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  that knew that I had come there in Allan's company could have entertained no doubt
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  of who I was, and many others must have had their guests, For
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  though I had changed my clothes, I could not change my age or person.
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  And Loland boys of eighteen were not so rife in these parts of the
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  world, and above all about that time, that they could fail to put
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  one thing with another and connect me with the bill. So it was at
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  least other folk keep a secret among two or three near friends, and somehow
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  it leaks out. But among these clansmen it is told to a whole country
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  side, and they will keep it for a century. There was but one
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  thing happening worth narrating, and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig,
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  one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy. He was sought upon
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  all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her,
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  as was alleged by force. Yet he stepped about balco hit her like
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  a gentleman in his own walled policy. It was he who had shot James
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  mac laren at the plow Stilts, a quarrel never satisfied. Yet he walked
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  into the house of his blood enemies, as a writer might into a public
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  inn. Duncan had time to pass me word of who it was, and
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  we looked at one another in concern. You should understand. It was then
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  close upon the time of Allan's coming. The two were little likely to agree,
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  and yet if we sent word or sought to make a signal, it
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  was sure to arouse suspicion in a man under so dark a cloud as the
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  MacGregor. He came in with a great show of civility, but like a
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  man among inferiors, took off his bonnet to missus mc laren, but clapped
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  it on his head again to speak to Duncan, and, leaving thus set
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  himself as he would have thought in a proper light, came to my bedside
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  and bowed. I am givin to know, Sir, says he that your
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  name is Balfour. They call me David. Balfour, said I, at
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  your service, I would give ye my name in return, Sir, he
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  replied, but it's one somewhat blown upon of late days, and it'll perhaps
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  suffice if I tell you that I am own brother to James Maud Drummond or
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  MacGregor, of whom you will scarce have failed to hear no, sir,
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  said I a little long armed, nor yet of your father mac Gregor Campbell.
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  And I sat up and bowed in bed, for I thought best to
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  compliment him in case he was proud of having had an outlaw to his father.
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  He bowed in return. But what I am about to say, sir,
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  he went on, is this. In the year forty five, my
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  brother raised a part of the Gregara and marched six companies to strike a stroke
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  for the good side. And the surgeon that marched with our clan and cured
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  my brother's leg when it was broken in the brush it pressed in pans,
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  was a gentleman of the same name precisely as yourself. He was Brother de
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  Balfour of Baith. And if you are in any reasonable degree of nearness one
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  of that gentleman's skin, I have come to put myself in my people at
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  your command. You are to remember that I knew no more of my descent
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  than any cadger's dog. My uncle, to be sure, had prayed of
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  some of her high connections, but nothing to the present purpose. And there
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  was nothing left me but that bitter disgrace of owning that I could not tell.
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  Robin told me shortly he was sorry he had put himself about, turned
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  his back upon me without a sign of salutation, and as he went towards
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  the door, I could hear him telling Duncan that I was only some kinness
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  loon, that he didn't know his own father. Angry as I was at
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  these words, and ashamed of my own ignorance, I could scarce keep from
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  smiling that a man who was under the lash of the law, and was
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  indeed hanged some three years later, should be so nice as to the descent
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  of his acquaintances. Just in the door he met Allan coming in, and
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  the two drew back and looked at each other like strange dogs. They were
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  neither of them big men, but they seemed fairly to swell out with pride.
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  Each wore a sword, and by a movement of his haunch, thrust
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  clear the hilt of it, so that it might be the more readily grabbed
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  asp and the blade drawn. Mister Stuart, I am thinking, says Robin.
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  Truth, mister mac gregor, it's not a mean to be ashamed of,
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  answered Allan. I did not know you were in my country, sir,
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  says Robin. It sticks in my mind that I am in the country
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  of my friends. Mac Laurence, says Allan. That's a kittle point,
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  returned the other. There may be two words to say to that, but
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  I think I will have heard that you are mad of your sword. Unless
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  you were born deaf, mister MacGregor, you would have heard a great deal
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  more than that, says Allan. I am not the only man that can
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  draw steel and appen. And when my kinsman and Captain Ardshield had a talk
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  with a gentleman of your name not so many years back, I could never
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  hear that the MacGregor had the best of it. Do you mean my father,
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  sir, says Robin. Well, I would no wonder, said Allan.
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  The gentleman I have in mind, had the ill taste to clap campbell
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  to his name. My father was an old man, returned Robin. The
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  match was unequal. You and me would make a better pyre, Sir,
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  I was thinkin that, said Allan. I was half out of bed,
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  and Duncan had been hanging at the elbow of these fighting cocks, ready to
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  intervene upon the least occasion. But when that word was uttered, it was
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  a case of now or never, and Duncan, with something of a white
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  face, to be sure, thrust himself between gentlemen, said he, I
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  will have been thinking of a very different matter. Whatever, here are my
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  pipes, and here are you, two gentlemen, who are both acclaimed pipers.
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  It's in all dispute which one of you is the best. He will
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  be a broad chance to settle it, Why, sir, said Allan,
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  still addressing Robin, from whom indeed he had not so much as shifted his
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  eyes, nor yet Robin from him. Why, sir, says Alan,
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  I think I will have heard some soft of the sort, have ye music?
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  As folks say? Are ye a bit of a piper? I can
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  pipe like a mac crimon, cries Robin. And that is a very bold
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  word, quoth Alan. I have made bolder words good before now, returned
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  Robin. And that against better adversaries, it is easy to try, that,
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  says Allan. Duncan. Dew made haste to bring out a pair of
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  pipes that was his principal possession, and to set before his guests a mutton
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  ham and a bottle of that drink which they call athol bros, which is
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  made of old whiskey strained honey and sweet green, slowly beaten together in the
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  right order and proportion. The two enemies were still on the very breach of
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  a quarrel, but down they sat, one upon each side of the peat
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  fire. With a mighty show of politeness, mc laren pressed them to taste
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  his mutton ham men the wife's bros, reminding them the wife was out of
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  Athol and had a name far and wide for her skill in that confection.
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  But Robin put aside these hospitalities as bad for the breath. I would have
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  you to remark, sir, said Alan, that I haven't broken bread for
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  near upon ten hours, which will be worse for the breath than any bros
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  in Scotland. I will take no advantages, mister Stewart, replied Robin.
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  Eat and drink. I'll follow you. He JdE a small portion of the
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  ham and drank a glass of the bros to missus mc laren. And then,
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  after a great number of civilities, Robin took the pipes and played a
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  little spring in a very ranting manner. Ay you can blow, said Alan,
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  and taking the instrument from his rival, he first played the same spring
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  in a manner identical with Robin's and then wandered into variations, which, as
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  he went on he decorated with a perfect flight of grace, notes such as
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  Piper's Love and call the Warblers. I have been pleased with Robin's playing.
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  Allan's ravished me. That's not so very bad, mister Stuart said the rival.
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  But you show a poor device in you warblers. Me, cried Allan,
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  the blood starting to his face. I give you the lie? Do
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  you own yourself beaten at the pipes? Then said Robin, that you seek
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  that changed them for the sword. And that's very well, said mister mac
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  gregor, returned Alan, and in the meantime, laying a strong accent on
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  the word, I take back the lie. I appealed to Duncan. Indeed
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  you need appeal to nobody, said Robin. You're far better judge than any
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  mc laren in balk Hitter, for it's a god's truth that you're a very
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  credible pipe Afore Stuart and me the pipes. Allan did as he asked,
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  and Robin proceeded to imitate and correct some part of Allan's variations, which it
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  seemed that he remembered perfectly. I ye have music, said Allan gloomily,
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  and now be the judge yourself, mister Stuart, said Robin, and taking
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  up the variations from the beginning, he worked them throughout to so new a
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  purpose, with such ingenuity and sentiment, and with so odd a fancy,
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  and so quick a knack in the grace notes that I was amazed to hear
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  him. As for Allan, his face grew dark and hot, and he
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  sat and gnawed his fingers like a man under some deep affront. Enough,
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  he cried, ye can blow the pipes, make the most of that,
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  and he made as if to rise, But Robin only held out his hand
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  as if to ask for silence, and struck into the slow measure of a
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  pibroch. It was a fine piece of music in itself, and nobly played,
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  But it seems besides it was a piece peculiar to the appens Stuarts,
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  and a chief favored with Allan. The first notes were scarce out before there
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  came a change in his face. When the time quickened, he seemed to
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  grow restless in his seat, And long before that piece was at an end,
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  the last signs of his anger died from him, and he had no
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  thought but for the music, Robin oig, he said, when it was
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  done, ye are a great piper. I am not fit to blow in
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  the same kingdom with ye body of me. Ye have more music in your
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  sporin than I have in my head. And though it still sticks to my
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  mind that I could maybe show ye another of it with the cold steel,
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  I warn you beforehand it'll no be fair. It would go against my heart
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  to haggle a man that can blow the pipes as you can. Thereupon that
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  quarrel was made up. All night long, the broughs was going and the
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  pipes changing hands, and the day had come pretty bright, and the three
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  men were none the better for what they had been taking before. Robin as
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  much as thought upon the road, and doctor