Latest / Adventure Books Library / 23 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

Transcript

23 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure Books Library

• 0:00
  Chapter twenty three, Clooney's Cage. We came at last to the foot of
• 0:07
  an exceeding steep wood, which scrambled up a craggy hillside and was crowned by
• 0:12
  a naked precipice. It's here, said one of the guides, and we
• 0:17
  struck up hill. The trees clung upon the slope like sailors on the shrouds
• 0:22
  of a ship, and their trunks were like the rounds of the ladder by
• 0:26
  which we mounted. Quite at the top, and just before the rocky face
• 0:30
  of the cliffs sprang above the foliage, we found that strange house, which
• 0:35
  was known in the country as Clooney's Cage. The trunks of several trees had
• 0:40
  been waddled across the intervals, strengthened with stakes, and the ground behind this
• 0:45
  barricade leveled up with earth to make the floor. A tree which grew out
• 0:50
  from the hillside was the living center beam of the roof. The walls were
• 0:55
  of wattle and covered with moss. The whole house had something of an egg
• 0:59
  shap ape, and had half hung half stood in that steep hillside thicket,
• 1:03
  like a wasp's nest in a green hawthorn within it was large enough to shelter
• 1:10
  five or six persons with some comfort. A projection of the cliff had been
• 1:14
  cunningly employed to be the fireplace, and the smoke, rising against the face
• 1:19
  of the rock, and being not dissimilar in color, readily escaped notice from
• 1:23
  below. This was but one of Clooney's hiding places. He had caves besides
• 1:30
  and underground chambers in several parts of his country, and following the reports of
• 1:34
  his scouts, he moved from one to another as the soldiers drew near or
• 1:38
  moved away. By this manner of living, and thanks to the affection of
• 1:44
  his clan, he had not only stayed all this time in safety, while
• 1:48
  so many others had fled or been taken and slain, but stayed four or
• 1:53
  five years longer, and only went to France at last by the express command
• 1:57
  of his master. There he soon died, and it is strange to reflect
• 2:01
  that he may have regretted his cage upon ben Alder. When we came to
• 2:07
  the door, he was seated by his rock chimney, watching a gilly about
• 2:10
  some cookery. He was mighty plainly habited, with a knitted nightcap drawn over
• 2:16
  his ears, and smoked a foul cutty pipe, for all that he had
• 2:21
  the manners of a king, and it was quite a sight to see him
• 2:23
  rise out of his place to welcome us. Well, mister Stewart, come
• 2:29
  away, sir, said he, and bringing your friend that as yet I
• 2:32
  dinnoken the name of. And how is yourself? Pooney, said Allan.
• 2:38
  I hope you do brawly, sir, and I am proud to see you
• 2:42
  and to present to ya my friend, the Lord of Shaw's, mister David
• 2:46
  Balfour Alan never referred to my estate without a touch of a sneer when we
• 2:52
  were alone, But with strangers he rang the words out like a herald.
• 2:57
  Step in by the both of you, gentlemen, says Clooney, I make
• 3:01
  you welcome to my house, which is a queer rude place, for certain,
• 3:06
  but one where I have entertained a royal personage, mister Stuart, yet
• 3:09
  doubtless ken the personage I have in my eye. We'll take a dram for
• 3:14
  luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready,
• 3:19
  we'll dine and take a hand at the carts, as gentlemen should.
• 3:23
  My life is a bit dry, he says, he pouring out the brandy.
• 3:28
  I see little company, and sit and twirl my thumbs, and mind
• 3:31
  upon a great day that is gone by, and weary for another great day
• 3:36
  that we all hope will be upon the road. So here's a toast to
• 3:39
  ye the restoration. Thereupon we all touched glasses and drank. I am sure
• 3:46
  I wished no ill to King George, And if ye had been there himself
• 3:51
  in proper person, it's like he would have done as I did. No
• 3:54
  sooner had I taken out the drain than I felt hugely better, and could
• 3:59
  look and listen, still a little mistily, perhaps, but no longer with
• 4:03
  the same groundless horror and distress of mind. It was certainly a strange place,
• 4:09
  and we had a strange host. In his long hiding, Clooney had
• 4:13
  grown to have all manner of precise habits, like those of an old maid.
• 4:17
  He had a particular place where no one else must sit. The cage
• 4:21
  was arranged in a particular way which none must disturb. Cookery was one of
• 4:27
  his chief fancies, and even while he was greeting us in, he kept
• 4:30
  an eye to the collopse. It appears he sometimes visited or received visits from
• 4:36
  his wife and one or two of his nearest friends under the cover of night,
• 4:42
  but for the more part lived quite alone, and communicated only with his
• 4:46
  sentinels and the gillies that waited on him in the cage. The first thing
• 4:49
  in the morning, one of them, who was a barber, came and
• 4:53
  shaved him and gave him the news of the country, of which he was
• 4:57
  immoderately greedy. There was there's no end to his questions. He put them
• 5:01
  as earnestly as a child, and at some of the answers laughed out of
• 5:05
  all bounds of reason, and would break out again laughing at the mere memory
• 5:10
  hours after the barber was gone. To be sure, there might have been
• 5:15
  a purpose in his questions, for though he was thus sequestered, and like
• 5:18
  the other landed gentlemen of Scotland, stripped by the late Act of Parliament of
• 5:23
  legal powers, he still exercised a patriarchal justice in his clan. Disputes were
• 5:30
  brought to him in his hiding hole to be decided, and the men of
• 5:32
  his country, who would have snapped their fingers at the court of Session,
• 5:38
  laid aside revenge and paid down money at the bare word of this, forfeited
• 5:42
  and hunted outlaw. When he was angered, which was often enough, he
• 5:46
  gave his commands and breathed threats of punishment like any king, and his gillies
• 5:51
  trembled and crouched away from him like children before a hasty father. With each
• 5:58
  of them. As he entered, he ceremoniously shook hands, both parties,
• 6:02
  touching their bonnets at the same time, in a military manner. Altogether,
• 6:08
  I had a fair chance to see some of the inner workings of a highland
• 6:11
  clan. And this with a proscribed fugitive chief his country conquered, the troops
• 6:16
  riding upon all sides in quest of him, sometimes within a mile of where
• 6:21
  he lay, and when the least of the ragged fellows whom he raided and
• 6:26
  threatened, could have made a fortune by betraying him. On that first day,
• 6:30
  as soon as the collops were ready, Clooney gave them with his own
• 6:34
  hand a squeeze of a lemon, for he was well supplied with luxuries,
• 6:40
  and bade us draw in to our meal, they said, he, meaning
• 6:44
  the collops are such as I give His Royal Highness in this very house,
• 6:48
  baiting the lemon juice, for at that time we were glad to get the
• 6:53
  meat, and never fashed for kitchen. Indeed, there were more dragoons than
• 6:58
  lemons in my country in the year forty. I do not know if the
• 7:01
  collops were truly very good, but my heart rose against the sight of them,
• 7:06
  and I could eat but little. All the while Clooney entertained us with
• 7:11
  stories of Prince Charlie's stay in the cage, giving us the very words of
• 7:15
  the speakers, and rising from his place to show us where they stood.
• 7:20
  By these I gathered the Prince was a gracious, spirited boy, like the
• 7:25
  son of a race of polite kings, but not so wise as Solomon.
• 7:30
  I gathered too, that while he was in the cage he was often drunk.
• 7:34
  So the fault that has since, by all accounts, made such a
• 7:39
  wreck of him had even then begun to show itself. We were no sooner
• 7:44
  done eating that Clooney brought out an old, thumbed, greasy pack of cards,
• 7:47
  such as you may find in a mean inn, and his eyes brightened
• 7:51
  in his face as he proposed that we should fall to playing. Now,
• 7:56
  this was one of the things I had been brought up to a shoe like
• 7:59
  to disgrace it being held by my father. Neither the part of a Christian,
• 8:03
  nor yet of a gentleman to set his own livelihood and fish for that
• 8:07
  of others on the cast of painted pasteboard. To be sure, I might
• 8:13
  have pleaded my fatigue, which was excuse enough, but I thought it behooved
• 8:18
  that I should bear a testimony. I must have got very red in the
• 8:22
  face, But I spoke steadily and told them I had no call to be
• 8:26
  a judge of others, but for my own part it was a matter in
• 8:31
  which I had no clearness. Clooney stopped mingling the cards. What in Derrell's
• 8:37
  name is this? Says he? What kind of whiggish canting talk is this?
• 8:43
  For the house of Clooney mac Pherson. I will put my hand in
• 8:46
  the fire for mister Balfour, says Allan. He is an honest and a
• 8:52
  metal gentleman. And I would have you bear in mine. Who says it
• 8:56
  I bear a king's name, says he, cocking his hat. And I
• 9:00
  and any that I call friend or company for the best. But the gentleman
• 9:03
  is tired and should sleep. He has no mind to the carts. It
• 9:09
  will never hinder you and me. And I'm fit and willing, sir,
• 9:11
  to play any game that you can name, Sir, says Cloony. In
• 9:16
  this poor house of mine, I would have you to ken that any gentleman
• 9:20
  may follow his pleasure. If your friend would like to stand on his head,
• 9:24
  he is welcome. And if either he or you, or any other
• 9:28
  man is not precisely satisfied, I would be proud to step outside with him.
• 9:35
  I had no will that these two friends should cut their throats for my
• 9:39
  sake, Sir said I. I'm very wearied, as Alan says. And
• 9:45
  what's more, as you are a man that likely has sons of your own,
• 9:48
  I may tell you it was a promise to my father. Say no
• 9:52
  more. Say no more, said Clooney, and pointed me to a bed
• 9:56
  of heather in a corner of the cage. For all all that he was
• 10:00
  displeased, enough looked at me askance, and grumbled when he looked. And
• 10:05
  indeed it must be owned that both my scruples and the words in which I
• 10:09
  declared them smacked somewhat of the covenanter, and were little in their place among
• 10:15
  wild highland Jacobites. What were the brandy and the venison. A strange heaviness
• 10:20
  had come over me, and I had scarce lain down upon the bed before
• 10:24
  I fell into a kind of trance in which I continued almost the whole time
• 10:28
  of our stay in the cage. Sometimes I was brought awake and understood what
• 10:33
  passed. Sometimes I only heard voices or men snoring, like the voice of
• 10:39
  a silly river, and the plaids upon the wall dwindled down and swelled out
• 10:43
  again like firelight shadows on the roof. I must sometimes have spoken or cried
• 10:50
  out, for I remember I was now and then amazed at being answered.
• 10:54
  Yet I was conscious of no particular nightmare, only of a general, black,
• 11:00
  abiding horror, a horror of the place I was in, and the
• 11:03
  bed I lay in, and the plaids on the wall, and the voices,
• 11:07
  and the fire, and myself. The barber Gillee, who was a
• 11:13
  doctor too, was called in to prescribe for me, But as he spoke
• 11:16
  in the Gaelic, I understood not a word of his opinion, and was
• 11:20
  too sick even to ask for a translation. I knew well enough I was
• 11:26
  ill, and that was all I cared about. I paid little heed while
• 11:31
  I lay in this poor pass, but Alan and Clooney were most of the
• 11:33
  time at the cards, and I am clear that Allan must have begun by
• 11:37
  winning, for I remember sitting up and seeing them hard at it, and
• 11:43
  a great glittering pile of as much as sixty or one hundred guineas on the
• 11:46
  table. It looked strange enough to see all this wealth in a nest upon
• 11:50
  a cliff side waddled about growing trees, and even then I thought it seemed
• 11:58
  deep water for Allan to be riding, who had no better battle horse than
• 12:01
  a green purse and a matter of five pounds. The luck, it seems,
• 12:07
  changed, on the second day, about noon, I was wakened as
• 12:11
  usual for dinner, and as usual, refused to eat, and was given
• 12:15
  a dram with some bitter infusion, which the barber had prescribed. The sun
• 12:20
  was shining in at the open door of the cage, and this dazzled and
• 12:24
  offended me. Looney sat at the table biting the pack of cards. Alan
• 12:28
  had stooped over the bed and had his face close to my eyes, to
• 12:33
  which troubled as they were with the fever, it seemed of the most shocking
• 12:37
  bigness. He asked me for a loan of my money. What for,
• 12:43
  said I, Oh, just for a loan, said he. But why,
• 12:50
  I repeated, I don't see put, David said Alan. You wouldn't
• 12:56
  grudge me alone. I would, though, if I'd had my senses.
• 13:01
  But all I thought of then was to get his face away, and I
• 13:05
  handed him my money. On the morning of the third day, when we
• 13:09
  had been forty eight hours in the cage, I awoke with a great relief
• 13:13
  of spirits, very weak and weary indeed, but seeing things of the right
• 13:18
  size and with their honest everyday appearance, I had a mind to eat moreover,
• 13:24
  rose from bed of my own movement, and as soon as we had
• 13:26
  breakfasted stepped to the entry of the cage and sat down outside in the top
• 13:31
  of the wood. It was a gray day with a cool mild air,
• 13:37
  and I sat in a dream all morning, only disturbed by the passing by
• 13:41
  of Clooney's scouts and servants coming with provisions and reports. For as the coast
• 13:46
  was at that time clear, he might almost say he held court openly.
• 13:52
  When I returned, he and Alan had laid the cards aside and were questioning
• 13:56
  a Gilly and the chief turned about and spoke to me in the game glick.
• 14:01
  I have no Gaelic, sir, said I. Now, since the
• 14:05
  card question, everything I said or did had the power of annoying Clooney.
• 14:09
  Your name has more sense than yourself, then, said he angrily. For
• 14:16
  it's good Gaelic. But the point is this, my scout reports all clear
• 14:20
  in the south, and the question is have you got the strength to go?
• 14:26
  I saw cards on the table, but no gold, only a heap
• 14:30
  of little written papers, and these all on Clooney's side. Alan, besides,
• 14:35
  had an odd look, like a man not very well content, and
• 14:39
  I began to have a strong misgiving. I do not know if I'm as
• 14:45
  well as I should be, said I, looking at Alan. But the
• 14:48
  little money we have has a long way to carry us. Alan took his
• 14:54
  underlip into his mouth and looked upon the ground. David says he last,
• 15:01
  I've lost it. There's the naked truth. My money too, said I.
• 15:07
  Your money too, says Alan, with a groan. YE shouldna have
• 15:11
  given it me. I'm daft when I get to the carts. Hut tut
• 15:18
  hou tute, said Clooney. It was all daffing. It's all nonsense.
• 15:22
  Of course, you'll have your money back again, and the double of it.
• 15:26
  If you'll make so free with me, It would be a singular thing
• 15:30
  for me to keep it. It's not to be supposed that I would be
• 15:33
  any hindrance to gentlemen in your situation. That would be a singular thing,
• 15:37
  cries he, and began to pull gold out of his pocket. With a
• 15:41
  mighty red face. Alan said nothing, only looked on the ground. Will
• 15:48
  you step to the door with me, sir, said I. Clooney said
• 15:52
  he would be very glad, and followed me readily enough. But he looked
• 15:56
  flustered and put out. And now, sir says I, I must first
• 16:02
  acknowledge your generosity. Nonsensical nonsense, cries Clooney. Where's the generosity? This
• 16:10
  is just a most unfortunate affair. But what would you have me do?
• 16:14
  Boxed up in this beast skip of a cage of mine? But just set
• 16:18
  my friends through the carts? When can I get them? And if they
• 16:21
  lose, of course it's not to be supposed. And here he came to
• 16:26
  a pause. Yes, said I. If they lose, you give them
• 16:30
  back their money, and if they win, they carry away yours in their
• 16:33
  pouches. I've said before that I grant your generosity. But to me,
• 16:38
  sir, it's a very painful thing to be placed in this position. There
• 16:44
  was a little silence in which Clooney seemed always as if he were about to
• 16:48
  speak, but said nothing. All the time he grew redder and redder in
• 16:52
  the face. I am a young man, said I, and I ask
• 16:57
  your advice. Advise me as you would your son. My friend fairly lost
• 17:03
  his money after having fairly gained a far greater sum of yours. Can I
• 17:07
  accept it back again? Would that be the right part for me to play?
• 17:12
  Whatever I do? You can see for yourself it must be hard upon
• 17:15
  a man of any pride. It's rather hard on me too, mister Balfour,
• 17:22
  said Clooney. And you give me very much the look of a man
• 17:25
  that has entrapped poor people to their hurt. I wouldn't I have my friends
• 17:29
  come to any house of mind to accept affronts. No, he cried,
• 17:33
  with a sudden heat of anger, nor yet to give them. And so
• 17:38
  you see, sir, said I. There is something to be said upon
• 17:42
  my side. And this gambling is a very poor employ for gentlefolks. But
• 17:48
  I am still waiting your opinion. I am sure if ever Clooney hated any
• 17:52
  man, it was David Balfour. He looked me all over with a warlike
• 17:57
  eye, and I saw the chance lunge at his lips. But either my
• 18:02
  youth disarmed him, or perhaps his own sense of justice. Certainly it was
• 18:07
  a mortifying matter for all concerned, and not least Clooney more credit that he
• 18:11
  took it as he did. Mister Balfour said he, I think you are
• 18:17
  too nice in covenanting, but for all that you have the spirit of a
• 18:21
  very pretty gentleman. Upon my honest word, you may take this money.
• 18:26
  It's what I would tell my son. And here's my hand along with it.
• 18:32
  End of chapter