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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter four, I run a great danger in the house
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Shaws for a day that was begun, so ill
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the day passed fairly well. We had the porridge cold
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: again at noon, and hot porridge at night. Porridge and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: small beer was my uncle's diet. He spoke but little,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and that in the same way as before, shooting a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: question at me after a long silence, and when I
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: sought to lead him to talk about my future, slipped
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: out of it again. In a room next door to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, where he suffered me to go, I found
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a great number of books, both Latin and English, in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: which I took great pleasure all the afternoon. Indeed, the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: time passed so lightly in this good company that I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: began to be almost reconciled to my residence at Shaws.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And nothing but the sight of my uncle and his
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: eyes playing a hide and seek with mine, revived the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: force of my distrust. One thing I desiscovered which put
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: me in some doubt. There was an entry on the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: fly leaf of a chap book, one of Patrick Walker's,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: plainly written by my father's hand, and thus conceived to
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  Speaker 1: my brother Ebenezer on his fifth birthday. Now what puzzled
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: me was this that, as my father was, of course
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the younger brother, he must either have made some strange error,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: or he must have written before he was yet five,
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  Speaker 1: an excellent, clear, manly hand of writing. I tried to
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  Speaker 1: get this out of my head, but though I took
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: down many interesting authors, old and new, history, poetry and
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  Speaker 1: story book, this notion of my father's hand of writing
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: stuck to me, and when at length I went back
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: into the kitchen and sat down once more to porridge
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and small beer. The first thing I said to Uncle
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Ebenezer was to ask him if my father had not
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: been very quick at his book. Alexander, No him, was
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the reply. I was far quicker, mysel I was a
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: clever chappie when I was young. Why I could read
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: as soon as he could. This puzzled me yet more,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and a thought coming into my head, I asked if
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: he and my father had been twins. He jumped upon
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: his stool, and the horn spoon fell out of his
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: hand upon the floor. Look Garzia, ask that, he said,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And he caught me by the breast of the jacket
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and looked this time straight into my eyes. His own
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: were little and light and bright, like a bird's blinking
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and winking strangely. What do you mean, I asked, very calmly,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: for I was far stronger than he, and not easily frightened.
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  Speaker 1: Take your hand from my jacket. This is no way
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  Speaker 1: to behave. My uncle seemed to make a great effort
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: upon himself, Dad Man David. He said, you shouldn't speak
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  Speaker 1: to me about your father. That's where the massas is.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: He sat awhile and shook, blinking in his plate. He
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  Speaker 1: was all the brother that ever I had, he added,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: with no heart in his voice. And then he caught
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: up his spoon and fell to supper again, but still shaking. Now,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: this last passage, this laying of hands upon my person,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and sudden profession of love for my dead father, went
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  Speaker 1: so clean beyond my comprehension that it put me into
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  Speaker 1: both fear and hope. On the one hand, I began
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to think my uncle was perhaps insane and might be dangerous.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: On the other, there came up into my mind, quite
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: unbidden by me, and even discouraged a story like some
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: ballad I had heard folks singing of a poor lad
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that was a rightful heir and a wicked kinsman that
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: tried to keep him from his own. But why should
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: my uncle play a part with a relative that came
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: almost a beggar to his door, unless in his heart
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: he had some cause to fear him. With this notion
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: all unacknowledged, but nevertheless getting firmly settled in my head,
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  Speaker 1: I now began to imitate his covert looks, so that
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: we sat at table like a cat and a mouse,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: each stealthily observing the other. Not another word had he
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to say to me black or white? But he was
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: busy turning something secretly over in his mind. And the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: longer we sat, and the more I looked at him,
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  Speaker 1: more certain I became that something was unfriendly to myself.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: When he had cleared the platter, he got out a
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: single pipe full of tobacco, just as in the morning,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: turned round a stool into the chimney corner, and sat
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a while smoking with his back to me. Davy, he said,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: at length, I've been thinking. Then he paused and said
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: it again. There's a wee bit, Siller, that I have
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: promised you before you was born, he continued, promised it
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  Speaker 1: to your father. Oh, nothing legal. You want to to
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: stand just gentlemen daffin at their wine. Well, I keep
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: it that bit of money separate. It was a great expense,
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  Speaker 1: but a promise. He is a promise, and it has
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: grown by now to be a matter of just precisely,
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  Speaker 1: just exactly. And here he paused and stumbled, just exactly
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: forty pounds. This last he wrapped out with a sidelong
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: glance over his shoulder, and the next moment he added,
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  Speaker 1: almost with a scream, Scott's the pound, Scot's being the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: same thing as an English shilling. The difference made by
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: this second thought was considerable. I could see besides that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the whole story was a lie, invented with some end
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: which it puzzled me to guess. And I made no
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: attempt to conceal the tone of raillery in which I answered, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: think again, sir, Pounds Sterling. I believe that's what I said,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: returned my uncle, Pound Sterling. And if you'll step out
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: by to the door a minute, just to see what
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: kind of a night it is, I get it out
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: to ye and call ye in again. I did his will,
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  Speaker 1: smiling to myself in my contempt that he should think
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  Speaker 1: I was so easily to be deceived. It was a
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  Speaker 1: dark night with a few stars low down and as
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I stood just outside the door, I heard a hollow
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: moaning of wind far off among the hills. I said
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to myself, there was something thundery and changeful in the weather,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and little knew of what a vast importance that should
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: prove to me. Before the evening passed. When I was
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: called in again, my uncle counted out into my hand
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  Speaker 1: seven and thirty golden guinea pieces. The rest was in
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: his hand, in small gold and silver. But his heart
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: failed him there, and he crammed the change into his pocket. There,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: said he. That'll show you. I'm a queer man and
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  Speaker 1: strange with strangers. But my word is my bond, and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: there's the proof of it. Now. My uncle seemed so
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  Speaker 1: misily that I was struck dumb by this sudden generosity,
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  Speaker 1: and could find no words in which to thank him.
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  Speaker 1: Not a word, he said, no thanks. I want noth thanks.
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  Speaker 1: I do my duty. I'm no saying that everybody would
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: have done it but for my part, though I'm a
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  Speaker 1: careful body too. It's a pleasure to me to do
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  Speaker 1: the right by my brother's son. And it's a pleasure
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  Speaker 1: to me to think that now we'll agree as such
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  Speaker 1: near friends. Should I spoke him in return as handsomely
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  Speaker 1: as I was able. But all the while I was
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  Speaker 1: wondering what would come next, and why he had parted
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  Speaker 1: with his precious guineas for as to the reason he
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: had given a baby, would have refused it. Presently he
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: looked towards me sideways, and see here, said he tit
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  Speaker 1: for tat. I told him I was ready to prove
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  Speaker 1: my gratitude in any reasonable degree, and then waited, looking
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  Speaker 1: for some monstrous demand. And yet when at last he
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: plucked up courage to speak, it was only to tell
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: me very properly, as I thought that he was growing
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  Speaker 1: old and a little broken, and that he would expect
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  Speaker 1: me to help him with the house and the binder garden.
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  Speaker 1: I answered, and expressed my readiness to serve. Well, said he,
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  Speaker 1: let's begin. He pulled out of his pocket a rusty key. There,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: says he, there's the key of the stair tower at
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  Speaker 1: the far end of the house. You can only win
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  Speaker 1: into it from the outside, for that part of the
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  Speaker 1: house is nuffinished. Gang ye in there and up the
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  Speaker 1: stairs and bring me down the chest that's at the top.
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  Speaker 1: There's papers in it, he added, Can I have a light?
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  Speaker 1: Sir said, I nah, said he very cunningly. No lights
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  Speaker 1: in my house. Very well, Sir said, I are the
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  Speaker 1: stairs good? They're grand, said he, And then as I
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  Speaker 1: was going heap to the wall, he added, there's neb banisters,
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  Speaker 1: but the stairs are grand. Underfoot, out I went into
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  Speaker 1: the night. The wind was still moaning in the distance,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: though never a breath of it came near the House
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  Speaker 1: of Shawls. It had fallen blacker than ever, and I
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  Speaker 1: was glad to feel along the wall till I came
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  Speaker 1: the length of the stair tower door at the far
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  Speaker 1: end of the unfinished wing. I had got the key
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  Speaker 1: into the keyhole and had just turned it, when all
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, without sound of wind or thunder, the
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  Speaker 1: whole sky lighted up with wild fire and went black again.
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  Speaker 1: I had to put my hand over my eyes to
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: get back to the color of the darkness, And indeed
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I was already half blinded when I stepped into the tower.
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  Speaker 1: It was so dark inside it seemed a body could
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: scarce breathe. But I pushed out with foot in hand,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and presently struck the wall with one and the lowermost
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  Speaker 1: round of the stair with the other. The wall by
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  Speaker 1: the touch was of fine hewn stone. The steps, too,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: though somewhat steep and narrow, were of polished mason work,
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  Speaker 1: and regular and solid underfoot. Minding my uncle's word about
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  Speaker 1: the banisters, I kept close to the tower side and
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: felt my way in the pitch darkness with a beating heart.
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  Speaker 1: The House of Shaws stood some five full stories high,
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  Speaker 1: not counting lofts. Well. As I advanced, it seemed to
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  Speaker 1: me the stair grew airier, in a thought, more lightsome,
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  Speaker 1: and I was wondering what might be the cause of
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: this change, when a second blink of the summer lightning
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  Speaker 1: came and went. If I did not cry out, it
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: was because fear had me by the throat, and if
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I did not fall, it was more by Heaven's mercy
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: than my own strength. It was not only that the
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  Speaker 1: flash shone in on every side through breeches in the wall,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: so that I seemed to be clambering aloft upon an
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  Speaker 1: open scaffold, but the same passing brightness showed me the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: steps were of unequal length, and that one of my
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: feet rested that moment within two inches of the well.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: This was the grand Stare, I thought, and with the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: thought a gust of a kind of angry courage came
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  Speaker 1: into my heart. My uncle had sent me here, certainly
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  Speaker 1: to run great risks, perhaps to die. I swore I
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  Speaker 1: would settle that, perhaps if I should break my neck,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: for it got me down upon my hands and knees,
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  Speaker 1: and as slowly as a snail, feeling before me every
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  Speaker 1: inch and testing the solidity of every stone, I continued
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  Speaker 1: to ascend the stair. The darkness, by contrast with the flash,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: appeared to have redoubled. Nor was that all, for my
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: ears were now troubled in my mind, confounded by a
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: great stir of bats in the top part of the tower,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and the foul beasts flying downwards sometimes beat about my
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: face some body. The tower, I should have said, was square,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and in every corner the step was made of a
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: great stone of a different shape to join the flights. Well,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I had come close to one of these turns, when,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: feeling forward as usual, my hand slipped upon an edge
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  Speaker 1: and found nothing but emptiness beyond it. The stair had
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: been carried no higher. To set a stranger mounting it
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  Speaker 1: in the darkness was to send him straight to his death.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: And although thanks to the lightning and my own precautions.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I was safe enough. The mere thought of the peril
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: in which I might have stood, and the dreadful height
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I might have fallen from, brought out the sweat upon
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: my body and relaxed my joints. But I knew what
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I wanted now, and turned to grope my way down again,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: with a wonderful anger in my heart. About half way down,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the wind sprang up in a clap and shook the tower,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and died again. The rain followed, and before I had
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: reached the ground level it fell in buckets. I put
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: out my head into the storm and looked along towards
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the kitchen. The door which I had shut behind me
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: when I left, now stood open and shed a little
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: glimmer of light, and I thought I could see a
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: figure standing in the rain, quite still, like a man hearkening.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: And then there came a blinding flash which showed me
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: my uncle plainly just where I had fancied him to stand,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and hard upon the heels of it a great tow
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: row of thunder. Now, whether my uncle thought the crash
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to be the sound of my fall, or whether he
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: heard in it God's voice denouncing murder, I will leave
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you to guess certain it is at least that he
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: was seized on by a kind of panic fear, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: that he ran into the house and left the door
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: open behind him. I followed as softly as I could, and,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: coming unheard into the kitchen, stood and watched him. He
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: had found time to open the corner cupboard and bring
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: out a great case bottle of Aqua vitae, and now
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: sat with his back towards me at the table. Ever
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and again he would be seized with a fit of
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: deadly shuddering, and grown aloud, and carrying the bottle to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: his lips, drinked down the raw spirits by the mouthful.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I stepped forward, came close behind him where he sat,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and suddenly, clapping my two hands down upon his shoulders, ah,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: cried I My uncle gave a kind of broken cry
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: like a sheep's bleat, flung up his arms, and tumbled
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to the floor like a dead man. I was somewhat
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: shocked at this, but I had myself to look to
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: first of all, and I did not hesitate to let
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: him lie as he had fallen. The keys were hanging
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in the cupboard, and it was my design to furnish
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: myself with arms before my uncle should come again to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: his senses and the power of devising evil. And the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: cupboard were a few bottles, some apparently of medicine, a
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: great many bills, and other papers, which I should willingly
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: enough have rummaged had I had the time, and a
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: few necessaries that were nothing to my purpose. Thence I
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: turned to the chests. The first was full of meal,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the second of money, bags and papers tied into sheaves.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: In the third with many other things, and these for
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the most part clothes. I found a rusty, ugly looking
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Highland dirk without the scabbard. This, then I concealed inside
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: my waistcoat and turned to my uncle. He lay as
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: he had fallen, all huddled, with one knee up and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: one arm sprawling abroad. His face had a strange color
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of blue, and he seemed to have ceased breathing. Fear
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: came on me that he was dead. Then I got
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: water and dashed it in his face, and with that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: he seemed to come a little to himself, working his
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: mouth and fluttering his eyelids. At last he looked up
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and saw me, and there came into his eyes a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: terror that was not of this world. Come, said I
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: sit up. Are you alive? He sobbed, Oh man, are
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you alive? That am? I said, I small? Thanks to you?
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: He had begun to seek for his breath with deep sighs.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: The blue file, said he in the Olmri, the blue vial.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: His breath came slower still. I ran to the cupboard,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and sure enough found there a blue file of medicine
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: with the dose written on it on a paper. And
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: this I administered to him with what speed I might.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It's the trouble, said he, reviving a little. I have
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: a trouble, Davy, it's the heart. I set him on
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a chair and looked at him. It is true. I
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: felt some pity for a man that looked so sick.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: But I was full besides of righteous anger. And I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: numbered over before him the points on which I wanted explanation.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Why he lied to me at every word, Why he
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: feared that I should leave him, why he disliked it
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to be hinted that he and my father were twins?
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Is that? Because it is true? I asked why he'd
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: given me money, to which I was convinced I had
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: no claim, And last of all, why he had tried
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: to kill me? He heard me all through in silence,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and then, in a broken voice, begged me to let
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: him go to bed. I'll tell you the morn, he said,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: as sure as death, I will. And so weak was
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: he that I could do nothing but consent. I locked
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: him into his room, however, and pocketed the key, and then,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: returning to the kitchen, made up such a blaze as
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: had not shown there for many a long year, and,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: wrapping myself in my plaid, lay down upon the chests
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and fell asleep. End of chapter