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18 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter eighteen. I talked with Allan in the wood of Lettermore. Allan was
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the first to come round. He rose, went to the border of the
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wood, peered out a little, and then returned and sat down. Well,
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said he young was a hot burst David. I said nothing, nor
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so much as lifted my face. I had seen murder done, and a
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great ruddy, jovial gentleman struck out of life in a moment. The pity
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of that sight was still sore within me. And yet that was but a
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part of my concern. Here was murder done upon the man Allan hated.
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Here was Allan skulking in the trees and running from the troops. And whether
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his was the hand that fired or only the head that ordered, signified.
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But little, by my way of it, My only friend in that wild
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country was blood guilty. In the first degree. I held him in horror.
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I could not look upon his face. I would have rather lain alone
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in the rain on my cold isle than in that warm wood beside a murderer.
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Are you still wearied, he asked again, No, said I still
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with my face in the bracken. No, I'm not wearied now, and
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I can speak you and me must twine, I said, I liked you
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very well, Alan, but your ways are not mine, and they're not
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gods. And the short and the long of it is just that we must
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twine. I will hardly twine from you, David, without some kind of
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reason for the same, said Allan mighty gravely. If you can anything against
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my reputation, it's the least thing that you should do for old acquaintance sake
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to let me hear the name of it. And if you have only taken
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a distaste to my society, it will be proper for me to judge if
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I'm insulted, Alan said I what is the sense of this? You can
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very well, young campbell man lies in his blood upon the road. He
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was silent for a little, then says he did. Ye. Ever,
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he'll tell of the story of the man and the good people, by which
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he meant the fairies. No, said I, nor do I want to
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hear it. With your permission, mister Balfour, I will tell it you
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whatever says Alan. The man yasha Ken was cast upon a rock in the
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sea, where it appears the good people were in use to come and rest
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as they went through to Ireland. The name of this rock is called the
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Scary Boar. It's not far from where we suffered shipwreck. Well, it
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seems the man cried so sore if he could just see his little baron before
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he died. Then at last the King of the good people took pity upon
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him and sent one flying that brought back the baron in a poke and laid
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it down beside the man where he lay sleeping. So when the man woke
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there was a poke beside him, and something into the inside of it that
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moved. Well, it seems he was one of these gentry that think I
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the worst of things, and for greater security, he stuck his dirk throughout
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that poke before he opened it, and there was as barren dead. I
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am thinking to myself, mister Balfour, that you and the man are very
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much alike. Do you mean you had no hand in it? Cried I,
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sitting up. I will tell you first of all, mister Balfour of
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Shaw's, as one friend to another said Alan, that if I were going
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to kill a gentleman, it would not be in my own country to bring
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trouble on my clan, and I would not go want and sword and gun,
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and with a long fishing rod upon my back. Well, said I,
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that's true, And now continued Allan, taking out his dirk and laying
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his hand upon it in a certain manner. I swear upon the holy iron.
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I had neither art, nor part, act nor thought in it.
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I thank God for that, cried I, and offered him my hand.
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He did not appear to see it. And here is a great deal of
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work about a campbell, said he. They are not so scarce that I
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can at least, said I. You cannot justly blame me, for you
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know very well what you told me in the brig But the temptation and the
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act are different. I thank God again for that. We may all be
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tempted, but to take a life in cold blood? Allan, and I
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could say no more for the moment. And do you know who did it?
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I added? Do you know that man in the black coat? I
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have neck clear mind about his coat, said Alan cunningly. But it sticks
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in my head that it was blue, blue or black? Do you know
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him? Said I I could have just conscientiously swear to him, says Alan.
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He gained very close by me, to be sure. But it's a
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strange thing that I should just have been tying my brogues. Can you swear
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that you don't know him? Allan, I cried, half angered, half
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in a mind to laugh at his evasions. Nought yet, says he.
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But I have a grand memory for forgetting David. And yet there was one
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thing I saw clearly, said I, and that was that you exposed yourself
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and me to draw the soldiers. It's very likely, said Alan, and
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so would any gentleman. You and me were innocent of that transaction. The
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better reason, since we were falsely suspected that we should get clear, I
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cried, The innocent should surely come before the guilty. Why David said he.
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The innocent have I a chance to get a soiled in court. But
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for the lad that shot the bullet, I think the best place for him
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will be the heather. Them that heavena dipped their hands in any little difficulty
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should be very mindful of the case of them that have. And that is
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the good Christianity. For if it was the other way round about, and
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the lad whom I couldn't just clearly see, had been in our shoes,
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and we in his, as might very well have been, I think we
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would be a good deal obliged to him ourselves if he would draw the soldiers.
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When it came to this, I gave Allan up. But he looked
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so innocent all the time, and was in such clear good faith in what
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he said, and so ready to sacrifice himself for what he deemed his duty,
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that my mouth was closed. Mister Henderlen's words came back to me that
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we ourselves might take a lesson by these wild highlanders. Well, here I
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had taken mine. Allan's morals were all tail first, but he was ready
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to give his life for them, such as they were. Allan said,
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I I'll not say it's the good Christianity as I understand it, but it's
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good enough. And here I offer you my hand for the second time.
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Whereupon he gave me both of his saying, surely I had cast a spell
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upon him, for he could forgive me anything. Then he grew very grave
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and said, we had not much time to throw away, but must both
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flee that country. He because he was a deserter, and the whole of
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Appen would now be searched like a chamber, and everyone obliged to give a
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good account of himself, and I because I was certainly involved in the murder,
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oh, says I willing to give him a little lesson. I have
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no fear of the justice of my country, as if this was your country,
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said he, or as if you would be tried here in a country
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of Stuarts. It's all Scotland, said I man. I was wonder at
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you, said Allan, this is a campbell that's been killed. Well,
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it'll be tried in Verara, the Campbell's head place, with fifteen campbells in
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the jury box, and the biggest campbell of all, and that's the Duke
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sitting cocking on the bench, just as David. The same justice by all
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the world, as Glenyear found while ago at the roadside. This frightened me
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a little, I confess, and would have frightened me more if I had
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known how nearly exact were Allan's predictions. Indeed it was but in one point
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that he exaggerated there being but eleven campbells on the jury, though as the
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other four were equally in the Duke's dependence, it mattered less than might appear.
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Still, I cried out that he was unjust to the Duke of Argyle,
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who, for all he was a Whig, was yet a wise and
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honest nobleman, hoot, said Allan. The man's a whig, no doubt.
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But I would never deny he was a good chief and to his clan.
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And what would the clan think if there was a campbell shot and nobody
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hanged, and their own chief the justice general? But I have often observed,
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said Allan, that you low country bodies have no clear idea of what's
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right and wrong. At this I did at last laugh out aloud, when
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to my surprise Alan joined in and laughed as merrily as myself. Na ha
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na, said, he ou in the highlands, David. And when I
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tell you to run, take my wood and run, no doubt. It's
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a hard thing to skulk and starve in the heather, but it's harder yet
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to lie shackled in a redcoat prison. I asked him whither we should flee,
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And as he told me to the lowlands, I was a little better
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inclined to go with him, for indeed I was growing impatient to get back
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and have the upper hand of my uncle. Besides, Allan made so sure
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there would be no question of justice in the matter that I began to be
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afraid he might be right of all deaths. I would truly like least to
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die by the gallows. And the picture of that uncanny instrument came into my
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head with extraordinary clearness, as I had once seen it engraved at the top
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of a peddler's ballad, and took away my appetite for courts of justice.
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I'll chance, said Allan, said I I'll go with you. But mind
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you, said Alan, it's no small thing. You monlight, bear and
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hard, and brook many an empty belly. Your bed shall be the moor
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cocks, and your life shall be like the haunted deers. And ye shall
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sleep with your hand upon your weapons a man. You should taggle many a
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weary foot, or we get clear. I tell you this at the start,
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for it's a life that I can well. But if you ask what
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other chance you have, I answer, Nane, either take to the heather
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with me, or else. Hang. And that's a choice very easily made,
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said I. And we shook hands upon it. And now let's take
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another keek at the red coats, says Alan, And he led me to
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the northeastern fringe of the wood. Looking out between the trees, we could
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see a great side of mountain running down, exceeding steep into the waters of
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the loch. It was a rough part, all hanging stone and heather and
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big scrogs of birch wood, and away at the far end, towards Ballacoolish
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little wee red soldiers were dipping up and down over hill and howe and growing
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smaller every minute. There was no cheering now, for I think they had
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other uses for what breath was left them. But they still stuck to the
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trail, and doubtless thought that we were close in front of them. Allan
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watched them, smiling to himself, Aye said he they'll be gay weary before
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they've got to the end of that employ. And so you and me,
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David, can sit down and eat a bite, and breathe a bit longer,
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and take a dram from my bottle. Then we'll strike for Okharn,
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the house of my kinsman James of the Glens, where I must get my
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clothes and my arms and money to carry us along. And then David,
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we'll cry forth fortune and take a cast among the heather. So we sat
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again and ate and drank in a place whence we could see the sun going
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down into a field of great wild and houseless mountains, such as I was
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now condemned to wander in with my companion, partly as we so sat,
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and partly afterwards on the way to Accard, each of us narrated his adventures,
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and I shall here set down so much of Allan's as seems either curious
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or needful. It appears he ran to the bulwarks as soon as the wave
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was passed, saw me, and lost me, and saw me again as
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I tumbled in the roost, and at last had one glimpse of me clinging
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on the yard. It was this that put him in some hope I would
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maybe get to land after all, and made him leave those clues and messages
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which had brought me from my sins to that unlucky country of appen In the
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meanwhile, those still on the brig had got the skiff launched, and one
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or two were on board of her already, when there came a second wave
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greater than the first, and heaved the brig out of her place, and
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would certainly have sent her to the bottom, had she not struck and caught
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on some projection of the reef. When she had struck first, it been
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bows on, so that the stern had hitherto been lowest, but now her
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stern was thrown in the air, and the boughs plunged under the sea.
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And with that the water began to pour into the force scuttle, like the
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pouring of a mill damp. It took the color out of Alan's face even
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to tell what followed, for there were still two men lying impotent in their
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bunks, and these, seeing the water pour in, and thinking the ship
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had foundered, began to cry out aloud, and that with such harrowing cries
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that all who were on deck tumbled one after another into the skiff and fell
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to their oars. They were not two hundred yards away when there came a
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third great sea, and at that the brig lifted clean over the reef.
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Her canvas filled for a moment, and she seemed to sail in chase of
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them, but settling all the while. And presently she drew down and down,
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as if a hand were drawing her, and the sea closed over the
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covenant of Dysart. Never a word they spoke as they pulled ashore, being
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stunned with the horror of that screaming. But they had scarce set foot upon
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the beach, when Ho Seson woke up, as if out of a muse,
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and bade them lay hands upon Allan. They hung back, indeed,
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having little taste for the employment. But Ho Sieson was like a fiend,
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crying that Allan was alone, that he had a great sum about him,
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that he had been the means of losing the brig and drowning all their comrades,
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and that here was both revenge and wealth upon a single cast. It
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was seven against one in that part of the shore. There was no rock
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that Alan could set his back to, And the sailors began to spread out
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and come behind him. And then said Alan, the little man with the
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red head, I have no mind of the name that he is called Riach,
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I said Ay, said Allan Rehatch, Well, it was him that
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took up the clubs for me. Asked the men if they were in no
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feared of a judgment, And says he dawd, I'll put my back to
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the hellenmans myself. There's none such an entirely bad little man. Yon,
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little man with the red head, said Allan. He has some spunks of
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decency, Well, said I. He was kind to me in his way,
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and so was he to Allan, said he, And by my troth
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I found his way a very good one. But you see, David,
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the loss of the ship and the cries of these poor lads set very ill
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upon the man, And I'm thinking that would be the cause of it.
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Well, I would think so, says I, for he was as keen
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as any the rest at the beginning. But how did Hoseesan take it?
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It sticks in my mind that he would take it very ill, says Allan.
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But the little man cried to me to run, and indeed I thought
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it was a good observe and ran. The last that I saw they were
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all in a knot upon the beach, like folk that were not agreeing very
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well together. What do you mean by that? Said I? Well the
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fists were going, said Alan. I saw one man go down like a
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pair of breeks. But I thought it would be better nor to wait.
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You see, there's a strip of Campbell's in that end of mow, which
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is no good company for a gentleman like me. If it hadn't been for
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that, I would have waited and looked for you myself. That alone given
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a hand to the little man. It was droll, how Allan dwelt on
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mister Riach's stature, for to say the truth, the one was not much
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smaller than the other, so says he, continuing, I set my best
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foot forward, and whenever I met in with any one, I cried out,
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there was a wreck ashore. Man. They didn't stop to fash with
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me. You should have seen them Lincoln for the beach, and when they
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got there they found they had the pleasure of a run, which is I
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good for a Campbell, I'm thinkin it was a judgment on the clan that
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the brig went down in the lump and didna break. But it was a
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very unlucky thing for you. That's same, for if any wreck had come
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ashore, they would have hunted high and low, and would soon have found
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ye. End of chapter