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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, The Loss of the Brig. It was already
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  Speaker 1: late at night and as dark as ever would be
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  Speaker 1: at that season of the year, and that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: it was still pretty bright when ho Seson clapped his
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  Speaker 1: head into the round house door here, said he come
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  Speaker 1: out and see if ye can pile it? Is this
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  Speaker 1: one of your tricks, asked Allan. Do I look like tricks?
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  Speaker 1: Cries the captain, I have other things to think of
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  Speaker 1: my brig's in danger. By the concerned look of his face,
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  Speaker 1: and above all by the sharp tones in which he
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  Speaker 1: spoke of his brig, it was plain to both of
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  Speaker 1: us he was in deadly earnest, and so Alan and I,
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  Speaker 1: with no great fear of treachery, stepped on deck. The
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  Speaker 1: sky was clear, it blew hard, and it was bitter cold.
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  Speaker 1: A great deal of daylight lingered, and the moon, which
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  Speaker 1: was nearly full, shone brightly. The brig was close hauled
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  Speaker 1: so as to round the southwest corner of the island
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  Speaker 1: of Mull, the hills of which and ben Moore above them,
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  Speaker 1: all with a wisp of mist upon the top of it,
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  Speaker 1: lay full upon the larboard bow. Though it was no
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  Speaker 1: good point of sailing, for the covenant. She tore through
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  Speaker 1: the seas at a great rate, pitching and straining, and
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  Speaker 1: pursued by the westerly swell. Altogether, it was no such
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  Speaker 1: ill night to keep the seas in. And I had
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  Speaker 1: begun to wonder what it was that sat so heavily
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  Speaker 1: upon the captain. When the brig rising suddenly on the
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  Speaker 1: top of a high swell, he pointed and cried to
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  Speaker 1: us to look away. On the lee bow, a thing
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  Speaker 1: like a fountain rose out of the moonlit sea, And
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  Speaker 1: immediately after we heard a low sound of roaring. What
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  Speaker 1: do you call that? Asked the captain gloomily. The sea
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  Speaker 1: breakin' on a reef, said allan, And now you can
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  Speaker 1: where it is. And what better would you have, aye,
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  Speaker 1: said Hoseason, if it was the only one. And sure enough,
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  Speaker 1: just as he spoke, there came a second fountain farther
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  Speaker 1: to the south. There, said Hoseason. Ye see for yourself
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  Speaker 1: if I had kent of these reefs, if I had
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  Speaker 1: had a chart, or if shoe on had been spared,
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  Speaker 1: it's not sixty guineas no, nor six hundred would have
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  Speaker 1: made me risk my brig in such a stone yard.
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  Speaker 1: And you, sir, that was to pilot us, have ye
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  Speaker 1: never a word I'm thinkin, said Allan, that these are
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  Speaker 1: be what they call the torn rocks? Are there many
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  Speaker 1: of them? Says the captain? Truly, sir, I am no pilot,
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  Speaker 1: said Allan, but it sticks to my mind there are
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  Speaker 1: ten miles of them. Mister Reach and the Captain looked
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  Speaker 1: at each other. There's a way through them, I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: said the captain, doubtless, said Allan. But where? But it
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  Speaker 1: somehow runs in my mind once more, that is clearer
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  Speaker 1: under the land, so said ho season we'll have to
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  Speaker 1: haul our wind, then, mister Riach. We'll have to come
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  Speaker 1: as near in about the end of mall as we
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  Speaker 1: can take her, sir. And even then we'll have the
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  Speaker 1: land to keep the wind off us, and that stone
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  Speaker 1: yard on our lee. Well, we're in for it now,
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  Speaker 1: and may as well crack on. But that he gave
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  Speaker 1: an order to the steersman and sent Riach to the foretop.
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  Speaker 1: There were only five men on deck, counting the officers,
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  Speaker 1: these being all that were fit, or at least both
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  Speaker 1: fit and willing for their work. So, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: it fell to mister Riach to go aloft. And he
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  Speaker 1: sat there, looking out and hailing the deck with news
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  Speaker 1: of all he saw. The sea to the south is thick,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, And then after a while it does seem
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  Speaker 1: clearer in by the land. Well, sir said, Ho, Sesan, Allan,
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  Speaker 1: We'll try your way of it, but I think I
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  Speaker 1: might as well trust to oblige fiddler. Pray God you're right,
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  Speaker 1: Bey God, I am, said Allan to me. But where
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  Speaker 1: did I hear it? Well, well, it will be as
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  Speaker 1: it must. As we got nearer to the turn of
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  Speaker 1: the land, the reefs began to be sown here and
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  Speaker 1: there on our very path. Mister Riach sometimes cried down
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  Speaker 1: to us to change the course, sometimes indeed none too soon.
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  Speaker 1: For one reef was so close on the brig's weatherboard
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  Speaker 1: that when a sea burst upon it, the lighter sprays
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  Speaker 1: fell upon her deck and wetted us like rain. The
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  Speaker 1: brightness of the night showed us these perils as clearly
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  Speaker 1: as by day, which was perhaps the more alarming. It
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  Speaker 1: showed me too, the face of the captain as he
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  Speaker 1: stood by the steersman, now on one foot, now on
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  Speaker 1: the other, and sometimes blowing in his hands, but still
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  Speaker 1: listening and looking, and as steady as steel. Neither he
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  Speaker 1: nor mister Riach had shown well in the fighting. But
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  Speaker 1: I saw they were brave, and their own trade had
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  Speaker 1: admired them all the more because I found Allan very white. Ahon, David,
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  Speaker 1: says he. This is no the kind of death I fancy,
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  Speaker 1: what Allan, I cried. You're not afraid, no, said he,
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  Speaker 1: wetting his lips. But you'll allow yourself. It's a cold
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  Speaker 1: ending by this time now and then sheering to one
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  Speaker 1: side or the other to avoid a reef, but still
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  Speaker 1: hugging the wind and the land. We had got round
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  Speaker 1: Iona and begun to come alongside Mull. The tide at
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  Speaker 1: the tail of the land ran very strong and threw
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  Speaker 1: the brig about. Two hands were put to the helm,
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  Speaker 1: and ho Seson himself would sometimes lend a help. And
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  Speaker 1: it was strange to see three strong men throw their
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  Speaker 1: weight upon the tiller, and it like a living thing,
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  Speaker 1: struggle against and drive them back. This would have been
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  Speaker 1: the greater danger had not the sea been for some
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  Speaker 1: while free of obstacles. Mister Riach, besides, announced from the
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  Speaker 1: top that he saw clear water ahead. You are right,
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  Speaker 1: said ho Season to Allan. Ye have saved the brig.
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  Speaker 1: Sir I'll mind that when we come to clear accounts.
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  Speaker 1: And I believe he not only meant what he said,
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  Speaker 1: but he would have done it so high a place
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  Speaker 1: did the covenant hold in his affections. But this is
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  Speaker 1: matter only for conjecture, things having gone otherwise than he forecast,
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  Speaker 1: keep her away. A point sings out mister Riach, reef
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  Speaker 1: to windward, And just at the same time the tide
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  Speaker 1: caught the brig and threw the wind out of her sails.
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  Speaker 1: She came to round into the wind like a top,
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  Speaker 1: and the next moment struck the reef with such a
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  Speaker 1: crunch as threw us all flat upon the deck, and
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  Speaker 1: came near to shake mister Riach from his place upon
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  Speaker 1: the mast. I was on my feet in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: The reef on which we had struck was close in
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  Speaker 1: under the southwest end of mull Off, a little isle
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  Speaker 1: they call ehred, which lay low and black upon the larboard.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes the swell broke clean over us. Sometimes it only
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  Speaker 1: ground the poor brig upon the reef, so that we
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  Speaker 1: could hear her beat herself to pieces. And what with
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  Speaker 1: the great noise of the sails, and the singing of
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  Speaker 1: the wind, and the flying of the spray in the moonlight,
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  Speaker 1: and the sense of danger. I think my head must
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  Speaker 1: have been partly turned, for I could scarcely understand the
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  Speaker 1: things I saw. Presently, I observed mister Riach and the
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  Speaker 1: seamen busy round the skiff, and still in the same blank,
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  Speaker 1: ran over to assist them, And as soon as I
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  Speaker 1: set my hand to work, my mind came clear again.
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  Speaker 1: It was no very easy task, for the skiff lay
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  Speaker 1: amidships and was full of hamper, and the breaking of
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  Speaker 1: the heavier seas continually forced us to give over and
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  Speaker 1: hold on, But we all wrought like horses while we could. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: such of the wounded as could move came clambering out
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  Speaker 1: of the force scuttle and began to help, while the
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  Speaker 1: rest that lay helpless in their bunks harrowed me with
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  Speaker 1: screaming and begging to be saved. The captain took no part.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed he was struck stupid. He stood holding by
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  Speaker 1: the shrouds, talking to himself and groaning out aloud whenever
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  Speaker 1: the ship hammered on the rock. His brig was like
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  Speaker 1: wife and child to him. He had looked on day
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  Speaker 1: by day at the mishandling of poor ransom, but when
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  Speaker 1: it came to the brig, he seemed to suffer along
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  Speaker 1: with her. All the time of our working at the boat,
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  Speaker 1: I remember only one other thing that I asked Alan,
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  Speaker 1: looking across at the shore, what country it was, and
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  Speaker 1: he answered it was the worst possible for him. It
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  Speaker 1: was a land of the campbells. We had one of
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  Speaker 1: the wounded men told off to keep a watch upon
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  Speaker 1: the seas and cry us warning. Well. We had the
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  Speaker 1: boat about ready to be launched, when this man sang
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  Speaker 1: out pretty shrill, for God's sake, hold on. We knew
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  Speaker 1: by his tone that it was something more than ordinary.
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  Speaker 1: And sure enough there followed a sea so huge that
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  Speaker 1: it lifted the brig right up and candied her rover
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  Speaker 1: on her beam. Whether the cry came too late, or
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  Speaker 1: my hold was too weak, I know not. But at
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  Speaker 1: the sudden tilting of the ship I was cast clean
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  Speaker 1: over the bulwarks into the sea. I went down and
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  Speaker 1: drank my fill, and then came up and got a
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  Speaker 1: blink of the moon, and then down again. They say
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  Speaker 1: a man sinks a third time for good. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: be made like other folk then, for I would not
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  Speaker 1: like to write how often I went down, or how
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  Speaker 1: often I came up again. All the while I was
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  Speaker 1: being hurled along and beaten upon, and choked and then
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  Speaker 1: swallowed whole, And the thing was so distracting to my
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  Speaker 1: wits that I was neither sorry nor afraid. Presently I
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  Speaker 1: found I was holding to a spar, which helped me somewhat.
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  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden I was in quiet
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  Speaker 1: water and began to come to myself. It was the
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  Speaker 1: spare yard I had got hold of, and I was
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  Speaker 1: amazed to see how far I had traveled from the brig.
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  Speaker 1: I hailed her indeed, but it was plain she was
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  Speaker 1: already out of cry. She was still holding together. But
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  Speaker 1: whether or not they had yet launched the boat, it
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  Speaker 1: was too far off and too low down to see.
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  Speaker 1: While I was hailing the brig, I spied a tract
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  Speaker 1: of water lying between us, where no great waves came,
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  Speaker 1: but which yet boiled white all over and bristled in
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  Speaker 1: the moon with rings and bubbles. Sometimes the whole tract
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  Speaker 1: swung to one side like the tail of a live serpent.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes for a glimpse, it would all disappear, then boil
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  Speaker 1: up again. What it was I had no guess which
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  Speaker 1: for the time increased my fear of it. But I
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  Speaker 1: now know it must have been the roost or tide race,
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  Speaker 1: which had carried me away so fast and tumbled me
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  Speaker 1: about so cruelly, and at last, as if tired of
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  Speaker 1: that play, had flung out me and the spare yard
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  Speaker 1: upon its landward margin. I now lay quite becalmed, and
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  Speaker 1: began to feel that a man can die of cold
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  Speaker 1: as well of a drowning. The shores of Arriage were
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  Speaker 1: close end. I could see in the moonlight the dots
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  Speaker 1: of heather and the sparkling of the mica and the rocks. Well,
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  Speaker 1: thought I to myself, if I cannot get as far
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  Speaker 1: as that, it's strange. I had no skill of swimming
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  Speaker 1: essen water, being small in our neighborhood. But when I
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  Speaker 1: laid hold upon the yard with both arms and kicked
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  Speaker 1: out with both feet, I soon begun to find that
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  Speaker 1: I was moving hard work it was, and mortally slow.
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  Speaker 1: But in about an hour of kicking and splashing I
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  Speaker 1: had got well in between the points of a sandy bay,
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by low hills. The sea was here quite quiet.
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  Speaker 1: There was no sound of any surf. The moon shone clear,
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  Speaker 1: and I thought in my heart I'd never seen a
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  Speaker 1: place so desert and desolate, but it was dry land,
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  Speaker 1: and when at last it grew so shallow that I
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  Speaker 1: could leave the yard and wade ashore upon my feet,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot tell if I was more tired or more
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  Speaker 1: grateful both. At least I was tired as I never
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  Speaker 1: was before that night, and grateful to God, as I
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  Speaker 1: trust I have been often, though never with more cause.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter