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10 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Library

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Chapter ten, the siege of the round House. But now our time of
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truce was come to an end. Those on deck had waited for my coming
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till they grew impatient and scarce. Had Allan spoken when the captain showed face
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in the open door, stand cried Alan and pointed his sword at him.
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The captain stood indeed, but he neither winced nor drew back a foot.
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A naked sword, said he. This is a strange return for hospitality.
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D Ye see me, said Allan. I am come of kings. I
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bear a king's name. My badge is the oak. Do you see my
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sword? It has slashed the heads off Mr Wigamores than you have toes upon
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your feet, call up your vermin to your back, sir, and fall
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on the sooner the clash begins, A sooner you'll taste this steel through your
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vitals. The captain said nothing to Allan, but he looked over at me
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with an ugly look. David said he I'll mind this, and the sound
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of his voice went through me with a jar. Next moment he was gone,
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and now said Alan, Let your hand keep your head, for the
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grip is coming. Alan drew a dirk, which he held in his left
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hand, in case they should run in under his sword. I, on
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my part, clambered up into the berth with an armful of pistols and something
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of a heavy heart, and set open the window where I was to watch.
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It was a small part of the deck that I could overlook, but
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enough for our purpose. The sea had gone down, and the wind was
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steady and kept the sails quiet, so that there was a great stillness in
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the ship, in which I made sure. I heard the sound of muttering
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voices a little after, and there came a clash of steel upon the deck,
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by which I knew they were dealing out the cutlasses, and one had
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been let fall. After that silence again, I do not know if I
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was what you call afraid, but my heart beat like a bird's, both
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quick and little, and there was a dimness come before my eyes, which
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I continually rubbed away, and which continually returned. As for hope, I
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had none, but only a darkness of despair, and a sort of anger
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against all the world that may be long to sell my life. As dear
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as I was able, I tried to pray, I remember, but that
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same hurry of my mind, like a man running, would not suffer me
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to think upon the words, and my chief wish was to have the thing
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begin and be done with it. It came all of a sudden when it
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did, with a rush of feet and a roar, and then a shout
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from Alan, and a sound of blows, and someone crying out as if
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hurt. I looked back over my shoulder and saw mister Chuan in the doorway,
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crossing blades with Alan. That's him that killed the boy, I cried,
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Look to your window, said Alan, and as I turned back to
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my place, I saw him pass his sword through the mate's body. It
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was none too soon for me to look to my own part, for my
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head was scarce back at the window before five men carrying a spare yard for
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a battering ram, ran past me and took post to drive the door in.
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I had never fired with a pistol in my life, and not often
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with a gun, far less against the fellow creature. But it was now
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or never, and just as they swang the yard, I cried out,
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take that, and shot into their midst. I must have hit one of
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them, for he sang out and gave back a step, and the rest
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stopped as if a little disconcerted. Before they had time to recover, I
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sent another ball over their heads, and at my third shot, which went
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as wide as the second, the whole party threw down the yard and ran
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for it. Then I looked round again into the deck house. The whole
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place was full of the smoke of my own firing, just as my ears
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seemed to be burst with the noise of the shots. But there was Alan
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standing as before, only now his sword was running blood to the hilt,
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and himself so swelled with triumph and fallen into so fine an attitude that he
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looked to be invincible. Right before him, on the floor was mister Chuan,
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on his hands and knees. The blood was pouring from his mouth,
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and he was sinking slowly lower with a terrible white face. And just as
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I looked, some of those from behind caught hold of him by the heels
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and dragged him bodily out of the round house. I believe he died as
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they were doing it. There's one of your wigs for you, cried Alan,
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and then turning to me, he asked if I had done much execution.
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I told him I had winged one and thought it was the captain,
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and I have settled too, says he. No, there's not enough blood.
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Let then'll be back again. Do you watch, David. This was
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but a dram before meat. I settled back to my place, recharging the
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three pistols I had fired, and keeping watch with with both eye and ear.
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Our enemies were disputing, not far off upon the deck, and that
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so loudly that I could hear a word or two above the washing of the
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seas. It was shoe unbackled, I heard one say, and another one
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answered him with a hushed man, he's paid the piper. And after that
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the voices fell again into the same muttering as before, only now one person
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spoke most of the time, as though laying down a plan. At first
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one and then another answered him briefly, like men taking orders. By this,
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I made sure they were coming on again and told Alan, it's what
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we have to pray for, said he, unless we can give them a
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good distaste of us and done with it. They've been asleep for either you
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or me, But this time, mind, they'll be in earnest. By
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this my pistols were ready, and there was nothing to do but listen and
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wait while the brush lasted. I had not the time to think if I
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was frighted. But now, when all was still again, my mind ran
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upon nothing else. The thought of the sharp swords and the cold steel was
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strong in me. And presently, when I began to hear stealthy steps and
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a brushing of men's clothes against the round house wall, and knew they were
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taking their places in the dark, I could have found it in my mind
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to cry out aloud. All this was upon Allan's side, and I had
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begun to think my share of the fight was at an end when I heard
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someone drop softly on the roof above me. Then there came a single call
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on the sea pipe, and that was the signal. A knot of them
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made one rush of it, cutlass in hand against the door, and at
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the same moment the glass of the skylight was dashed in a thousand pieces,
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and a man leaped through and landed on the floor. Before he got his
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feet, I had clapped the pistol to his back, and I might have
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shot him too, Only at the touch of him and him alive, my
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whole flesh miss gave me, and I could no more pull the trigger than
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I could have flown. He had dropped his cutlass as he jumped, and
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when he felt the pistol, whipped straight around and laid hold of me,
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roaring out an oath. And at that either my courage came again, or
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I grew so much afraid as came to the same thing. For I gave
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a shriek and shot him in the midst of the body. He gave the
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most horrible, ugly groan and fell to the floor. The foot of a
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second fellow, whose legs were dangling through the skylight, struck me at the
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same time upon the head. And at that I snatched another pistol and shot
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this one through the thigh, so that he slipped through and tumbled in a
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lump on his companion's body. There was no talk of missing any more than
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there was time to aim. I clapped the muzzle to the very place and
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fired. I might have stood and stared at them for long, but I
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heard Alan shout as if for help. That brought me to my senses.
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He had kept the door so long, but one of the seamen, while
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he was engaged with others, had run in under his guard and caught him
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about the body. Alan was dirking him with his left hand, but the
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fellow clung like a leech. Another had broken in and had his cutlass raised.
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The door was thronged with their faces. I thought we were lost,
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and catching up my cutlass fell on them in flank, but I had not
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time to be of help. The wrestler dropped at last, and Alan,
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leaping back to get his distance, ran upon the others like a bull,
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roaring as he went. They broke before him like water, turning and running
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and falling one against another in their haste. The sword in his hands flashed
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like quicksilver into the huddle of our fleeing enemies, and in every flash there
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came the scream of a man hurt. I was still thinking we were lost,
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when lo, they were all gone, and Alan was driving them along
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the deck as a sheep dog chases sheep. Yet he was no sooner out
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than he was back again, being as cautious as he was brave. And
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meanwhile the seaman continued running and crying out as if he was still behind them,
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And we heard them tumble one upon another into the forecastle, and clapped
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to the hatch upon the top. The round house was like a shamble's.
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Three were dead inside, another lay in his death agony across the threshold,
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and there were Alan and I victorious and unhurt. He came up to me
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with open arms. Come to my arms. He cried, and embraced and
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kissed me hard upon both cheeks. David said, he I love you like
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a brother, And oh man, he cried, in a kind of ecstasy,
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Am I no a bony fighter? Thereupon he turned to the four enemies,
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passed his sword clean through each of them, and tumbled them out of
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doors, one after the other. As he did so, he kept humming
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and singing and whistling to himself, like a man trying to recall an air.
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Only what he was trying was to make one. All the while,
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the flush was in his face, and his eyes were as bright as of
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five year old child's with a new toy. And presently he sat down upon
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the table, sword in hand. The air that he was making all the
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time began to run a little clearer, and then clearer still, and then
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out he burst, with a great voice into a gallic song. I have
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translated it here, not in verse, of which I have no skill,
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but at least in the King's English. He sang it often afterwards, and
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the thing became popular, so that I have heard it and had explained to
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me many's the time. This is the song of the sword of Alan.
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The smith made it, the fire set it. Now it shines in the
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hand of Alan Breck. Their eyes were many and bright swift were they to
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behold many the hands they guided. The sword was alone. The dun deer
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troop over the hill. They are many. The hill is one. The
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dun deer vanish the hill remains. Come to me from the hills of heather.
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Come from the isles of the sea. Oh, far beholding eagles.
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Here is your meat. Now this song, which he made both words and
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music, in the hour of our victory, is something less than just to
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me, who stood beside him in the tussle, mister Schuan, and five
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more were either killed outright or thoroughly disabled. But of these two fell by
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my hand, the two that came by the skylight. Four more were hurt.
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And of that number, one, and he not the least important,
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got his hurt from me, So that altogether I did my fair share both
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of the killing and the wounding, and might have claimed a place in Allan's
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verses. But poets have to think upon their rhymes and in good prose talk.
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Alan always did me more than justice. In the meanwhile, I was
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innocent of any wrong being done me, for not only I knew no word
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of the Gaelic, but what with the long suspense of the waiting and the
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scurry and strain of our two spurts of fighting, had more than all the
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horror I had of some of my own share in it. The thing was
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no sooner over than I was glad to stagger to a seat. There was
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that tightness on my chest that I could hardly breathe. The thought of the
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two men I had shot sat upon me like a nightmare, and all upon
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a sudden and before I had a guess of what was coming, I began
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to sob and cry like any child. Alan clapped my shoulder and said I
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was a brave lad and wanted nothing but a sleep. I'll take the first
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watch, said he. You've done well by me, David, first and
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last, and they wouldn't lose you for all appen no nor for Bridlebane.
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So I made up my bed on the floor, and he took the first
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spell, pistol in hand and sword on three hours by the captain's watch.
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Upon the wall. Then he roused me up, and I took my turn
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of three hours before the end of which it was broad day, that very
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quiet morning, with a smooth, rolling sea that tossed the ship and made
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the blood run to and fro on the round house floor, and a heavy
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rain that drummed upon the roof. All my watch there was nothing stirring,
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and by the banging of the helm I knew they had even no one at
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the tiller. Indeed, as I learned afterwards, there were so many of
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them hurt or dead, and the rest in so ill a temper that mister
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Riach and the captain had to take turn and turn like Alan and me,
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or the brig might have gone ashore, and nobody the wiser. It was
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a mercy the night had fallen so still, for the wind had gone down
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as soon as the rain began. Even as it was, I judged by
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the wailing of a great number of gulls that went crying and fishing round the
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ship, that she must have dripped to pretty near the coast or one of
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the islands of the Hebrides. And at last, looking out of the door
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of the round house, I saw the great Stone Hills of sky on the
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right hand, and a little more astern the strange isle of room and chapter