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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six, what befell at the Queen's Ferry. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as we came to the inn, Ransom led us up
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  Speaker 1: the stair to a small room with a bed in it,
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  Speaker 1: and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal.
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  Speaker 1: At a table hard by the chimney, a tall, dark,
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  Speaker 1: sober looking man sat riding in spite of the heat
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  Speaker 1: of the room. He wore a thick sea jacket buttoned
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  Speaker 1: to the neck, and a tall, hairy cap drawn down
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  Speaker 1: over his ears. Yet I never saw any man, not
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  Speaker 1: even a judge upon the bench, look cooler or more
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  Speaker 1: studious and self possessed than this ship captain. He got
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  Speaker 1: to his feet at once, and, coming forward, offered his
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  Speaker 1: large hand to Ebenezer. I am proud to see, mister Balfour,
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  Speaker 1: said he in a fine, deep voice, and glad that
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  Speaker 1: you are here. In time. The wind's fair, and the
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  Speaker 1: tide upon the turn. We'll see the old coal bucket
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  Speaker 1: burnin on the Isle of May before tonight. Captain ho
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  Speaker 1: Sasan returned, my uncle, you keep your room, uncle hot.
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  Speaker 1: It's a habit I have, mister Balfour, said the skipper.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a cold, rife man by my nature. I have
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  Speaker 1: a cold blood, sir. There's neither fer nor flannel, no, sir,
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  Speaker 1: nor hot rum will warm up what they call the temperature. Sir.
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  Speaker 1: It's the same with most men that have been carbonadoed,
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  Speaker 1: as they call it in the tropic seas well. Well,
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  Speaker 1: captain replied my uncle, we must all be the way
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  Speaker 1: we're made. But it chanced that this fancy of the
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  Speaker 1: captain's had a great share in my misfortunes. For though
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  Speaker 1: I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out
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  Speaker 1: of sight, I was both so impatient for a nearer
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  Speaker 1: look of the sea and so sickened by the closeness
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  Speaker 1: of the room, that when he told me to run
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  Speaker 1: downstairs and play myself a while, I was fool enough
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  Speaker 1: to take him at his word. Away I went there,
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  Speaker 1: leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle in
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  Speaker 1: a great mass of papers, and crossing the road in
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  Speaker 1: front of the inn, walked down upon the beach with
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  Speaker 1: a wind in that quarter. Only little wavelets, not much
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  Speaker 1: bigger than I had seen upon a lake, beat upon
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  Speaker 1: the shore. But the weeds were new to me, some green,
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  Speaker 1: some brown and long, and some with little blatters that
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  Speaker 1: crackled between my fingers. Even so far up the firth,
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  Speaker 1: the smell of the sea water was exceedingly salt and stirring.
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  Speaker 1: The Covenant besides, was beginning to shake out her sails,
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  Speaker 1: which hung upon the yards in clusters, and the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of all that I beheld put me in thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: far voyages and foreign places. I looked too at the
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  Speaker 1: seamen with the skiff, big brown fellows, some in shirts,
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  Speaker 1: some with jackets, some with colored handkerchiefs about their throats,
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  Speaker 1: one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets,
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  Speaker 1: two or three with knotty bludgeons, and all with their
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  Speaker 1: case knives. I passed the time of day with one
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  Speaker 1: that looked less desperate than his fellows, and asked him
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  Speaker 1: of the sailing of the brig. He said they would
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  Speaker 1: get under way as soon as the ebbset, and expressed
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  Speaker 1: his gladness to be out of a port where there
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  Speaker 1: were no taverns and fiddlers, but all with such horrifying
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  Speaker 1: oaths that I made haste to get away from him.
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  Speaker 1: This threw me back on Ransom, who seemed the least
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  Speaker 1: wicked of that gang, and who soon came out of
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  Speaker 1: the inn and ran to me crying for a bowl
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  Speaker 1: of punch. I told him I would give him no
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  Speaker 1: such thing, for neither he nor I was of an
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  Speaker 1: age for such indulgences. But a glass of ale you
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  Speaker 1: may have, and welcome, says I. He mopped and mowed
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  Speaker 1: at me and called me names, but he was glad
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  Speaker 1: to get the ale for all that. And presently we
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  Speaker 1: were set down at a table in the front room
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  Speaker 1: of the inn, and both eating and drinking with a
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  Speaker 1: good appetite. Here it occurred to me that, as the
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  Speaker 1: landlord was a man of that county, I might do
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  Speaker 1: well to make a friend of him him. I offered
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  Speaker 1: him a share, as was much the custom in those days,
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  Speaker 1: but he was far too great a man to sit
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  Speaker 1: with such poor customers as Ransom and myself. And he
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  Speaker 1: was leaving the room when I called him back to
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  Speaker 1: ask if he knew mister Renkiler, ought. I says, he
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  Speaker 1: a very honest man, And oh, by the bye, says
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  Speaker 1: he was it you who came in with Ebenezer? And
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  Speaker 1: when I told him, yes, you be no friend of his,
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  Speaker 1: he asked, meaning in the Scottish way, that I would
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  Speaker 1: be no relative. I told him no, none, I thought,
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  Speaker 1: not said he and yet you have a kind of
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  Speaker 1: glyph of mister Alexander. I said, it seemed that Ebenezer
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  Speaker 1: was ill seen in the country. Nay doubt, said the Landlord.
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  Speaker 1: He's a wicked old man, and there's many would like
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  Speaker 1: to see him Gernon in the tow Jennet Klouston him.
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  Speaker 1: Many mare that he has harried out of house. And
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  Speaker 1: and yet he was once a fine young fellowtoo. But
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  Speaker 1: that was before the soft gate abroad. About mister Alexander.
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  Speaker 1: That was like the death of him. And what was it,
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  Speaker 1: I asked, Oh, just that he had killed him, said
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  Speaker 1: the Landlord. Did you never hear that? And what would
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  Speaker 1: he kill him for? Said I? And what for? But
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  Speaker 1: just to get the place? Said he? The place, said I,
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  Speaker 1: the Shaws, the other place that I can, said he.
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  Speaker 1: I man, said I is that? So was Alexander, the
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  Speaker 1: eldest son. Indeed he was, said the Landlord. What else
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  Speaker 1: would he have killed him for? And with that he
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  Speaker 1: went away, as he had been impatient to do from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning. Of course, I had guessed it a long
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  Speaker 1: while ago, But it is one thing to guess, another
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  Speaker 1: to know. And I sat stunned with my good fortune
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  Speaker 1: and could scarce grow to believe that the same poor
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  Speaker 1: lad who had trudged in the dust from Ettric forest
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  Speaker 1: not two days ago was now one of the rich
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, and had a house and broad lands,
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  Speaker 1: and might mount his horse tomorrow. All these pleasant things
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  Speaker 1: and a thousand others crowded into my mind as I
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  Speaker 1: sat staring before me out of the inn window, and
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  Speaker 1: paying no heed to what I saw. Only I remember
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  Speaker 1: that my eye lighted on Captain Hose season down on
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  Speaker 1: the pier among a seamen, and speaking with some authority.
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  Speaker 1: Presently he came marching back towards the house, with no
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  Speaker 1: mark of a sailor's clumsiness, but carrying his fine, tall
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  Speaker 1: figure with a manly bearing, and still with the same sober,
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  Speaker 1: grave expression on his face. I wondered if it was
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  Speaker 1: possible that Ransom stories could be true, and half disbelieve them.
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  Speaker 1: They fitted so ill with the man's looks. But indeed
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  Speaker 1: he was neither so good as I supposed him, nor
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  Speaker 1: quite so bad as Ransom did. For in fact, he
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  Speaker 1: was two men, and left the better one behind as
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  Speaker 1: soon as he set foot on board his vessel. The
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  Speaker 1: next thing, I heard my uncle calling me, and found
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  Speaker 1: the pair in the road together. It was the captain
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  Speaker 1: who addressed me, and that with an air very flattering
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  Speaker 1: to a young lad of grave equality. Sir says he,
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  Speaker 1: mister belfour, tells me great things of you, And for
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  Speaker 1: my own part, I like your looks. I wish I
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  Speaker 1: was for longer here, that we might make the better friends,
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  Speaker 1: but will make the most of what we have. He
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  Speaker 1: should come on board my brig for half an hour
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  Speaker 1: till the ebb sets and drink a bowl with me. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I longed to see the inside of a ship, more
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  Speaker 1: than words can tell, but I was not going to
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  Speaker 1: put myself in jeopardy. And I told him my uncle
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  Speaker 1: and I had an appointment with a lawyer. Ay ay said.
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  Speaker 1: He passed me word of that. But you see, the
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  Speaker 1: boat'll set you ashore at the town pier, and that's
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  Speaker 1: but a penny stonecast from Rancaller's house. And here he
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  Speaker 1: suddenly leaned down and whispered in my ear, take care
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  Speaker 1: the old tod he means mischief. I'm aboard till I
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  Speaker 1: can get a word with you. And then, passing his
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  Speaker 1: arm through mine, he continued aloud as he set off
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  Speaker 1: towards his boat. But come, What can I bring you
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  Speaker 1: from the Carolinas. Any friend of mister Balfour's can command
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  Speaker 1: a roll of tobacco, Indian featherwork, a skin of a
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  Speaker 1: wild beast, a stone pipe, the mocking bird that mews
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  Speaker 1: for all the world like a cat, the cardinal bird
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  Speaker 1: that is as red as blood. Take your pick and
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  Speaker 1: say your pleasure. By this time we were at the
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  Speaker 1: boat's side, and he was handing me in. I did
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  Speaker 1: not dream of hanging back. I thought the poor fool
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  Speaker 1: that I had found a good friend in help her,
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  Speaker 1: and I was rejoicing to see the ship. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as we were all set in our places, the boat
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  Speaker 1: was thrust off from the pier and began to move
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  Speaker 1: over the waters. And what with my pleasure in this
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  Speaker 1: new movement am I surprise at our low position, and
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  Speaker 1: the appearance of the shores, and the growing bigness of
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  Speaker 1: the brig As we drew near to it. I could
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  Speaker 1: hardly understand what the captain said, and must have answered
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  Speaker 1: him at random. As soon as we were alongside, where
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  Speaker 1: I sat fairly gaping at the ship's height, the strong
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  Speaker 1: humming of the tide against its sides, and the pleasant
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  Speaker 1: cries of the seamen at their work host season, declaring
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  Speaker 1: that he and I must be the first aboard, ordered
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  Speaker 1: a tackle to be sent down from the main yard.
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  Speaker 1: In this I was whipped into the air and set
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  Speaker 1: down again on the deck, where the captain stood ready
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  Speaker 1: waiting for me, and instantly slipped back his arm under mine.
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  Speaker 1: There I stood somewhile, a little dizzy with the unsteadiness
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  Speaker 1: of all around me, perhaps a little afraid. He it
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  Speaker 1: vastly pleased with these strange sights. The captain meanwhile pointing
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  Speaker 1: out the strangest and telling me their names and uses.
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  Speaker 1: But where is my uncle? Said I. Suddenly, Hi said,
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  Speaker 1: hose season, with a sudden grimness. That's the point I felt.
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  Speaker 1: I was lost. With all my strength, I plucked myself
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  Speaker 1: clear of him and ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough
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  Speaker 1: there was the boat pulling for the town, with my
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  Speaker 1: uncle sitting in the stern. I cave a piercing cry, help, help, murder,
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  Speaker 1: so that both sides of the anchorage rang with it,
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  Speaker 1: and my uncle turned round where he was sitting and
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  Speaker 1: showed me a face full of cruelty and terror. It
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  Speaker 1: was the last I saw. Already, strong hands had been
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  Speaker 1: plucking me back from the ship's side. And now a
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  Speaker 1: thunderbolt seemed to strike me. I saw a great flash
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  Speaker 1: of fire, and fell senseless. Of chapter