initial commit of ebook 421HEADmain

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+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Kidnapped, By R. L. Stevenson
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Kidnapped
+
+Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2006 [EBook #421]
+Last Updated: July 9, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KIDNAPPED ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      KIDNAPPED
+    </h1>
+<h2>By Robert Louis Stevenson</h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+<h3>Illustrated by Louis Rhead</h3>
+<p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+<hr />
+<p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BEING<br /> MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF<br /> DAVID BALFOUR<br /> IN THE
+      YEAR 1751<br /> HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED AND CAST AWAY; HIS SUFFERINGS IN<br />
+      A DESERT ISLE; HIS JOURNEY IN THE WILD HIGHLANDS;<br /> HIS ACQUAINTANCE
+      WITH ALAN BRECK STEWART<br /> AND OTHER NOTORIOUS HIGHLAND JACOBITES;<br />
+      WITH ALL THAT HE SUFFERED AT THE<br /> HANDS OF HIS UNCLE, EBENEZER<br />
+      BALFOUR OF SHAWS, FALSELY<br /> SO CALLED<br /><br /> WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AND
+      NOW SET FORTH BY<br /> ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON<br /> WITH A PREFACE BY MRS.
+      STEVENSON<br />
+    </h3>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0010m.jpg" alt="0010m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0010.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0011m.jpg" alt="0011m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0011.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0013m.jpg" alt="0013m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0013.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE TO THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> DEDICATION </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0003">
+          CHAPTER III </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+          <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0007">
+          CHAPTER VII </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a>
+          <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0011">
+          CHAPTER XI </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a>
+          <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0016">
+          CHAPTER XVI </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a>
+          <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0021">
+          CHAPTER XXI </a> <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII </a>
+          <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII&nbsp;&nbsp; </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX </a> <br /><br /><a
+          href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX </a>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS <br /><br /> I COME TO
+          MY JOURNEY'S END <br /><br /> I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE <br /><br />
+          I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS <br /><br /> I GO TO THE
+          QUEEN'S FERRY <br /><br /> WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S FERRY <br /><br /> I
+          GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG "COVENANT" OF DYSART <br /><br /> THE ROUND-HOUSE
+          <br /><br /> THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD <br /><br /> THE SIEGE OF THE
+          ROUND-HOUSE <br /><br /> THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER <br /><br /> I HEAR OF
+          THE "RED FOX" <br /><br /> THE LOSS OF THE BRIG <br /><br /> THE ISLET
+          <br /><br /> THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL
+          <br /><br /> THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN <br /><br />
+          THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX <br /><br /> TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF
+          LETTERMORE <br /><br /> THE HOUSE OF FEAR <br /><br /> THE FLIGHT IN THE
+          HEATHER: THE ROCKS <br /><br /> THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH OF
+          CORRYNAKIEGH <br /><br /> THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR <br /><br />
+          CLUNY'S CAGE <br /><br /> THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER <br /><br /> THE
+          QUARREL IN BALQUHIDDER <br /><br /> END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH
+          <br /><br /> I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR <br /><br /> I GO IN QUEST OF MY
+          INHERITANCE <br /><br /> I COME INTO MY KINGDOM <br /><br /> GOOD-BYE
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0015m.jpg" alt="0015m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0015.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE TO THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While my husband and Mr. Henley were engaged in writing plays in
+      Bournemouth they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in the
+      future. Dramatic composition was not what my husband preferred, but the
+      torrent of Mr. Henley's enthusiasm swept him off his feet. However, after
+      several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his
+      endeavours to keep up with Mr. Henley, play writing was abandoned forever,
+      and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having added one of
+      the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list of projected plays, now thrown
+      aside, and emboldened by my husband's offer to give me any help needed, I
+      concluded to try and write it myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I wanted a trial scene in the Old Bailey, I chose the period of 1700
+      for my purpose; but being shamefully ignorant of my subject, and my
+      husband confessing to little more knowledge than I possessed, a London
+      bookseller was commissioned to send us everything he could procure bearing
+      on Old Bailey trials. A great package came in response to our order, and
+      very soon we were both absorbed, not so much in the trials as in following
+      the brilliant career of a Mr. Garrow, who appeared as counsel in many of
+      the cases. We sent for more books, and yet more, still intent on Mr.
+      Garrow, whose subtle cross-examination of witnesses and masterly, if
+      sometimes startling, methods of arriving at the truth seemed more
+      thrilling to us than any novel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally other trials than those of the Old Bailey would be included
+      in the package of books we received from London; among these my husband
+      found and read with avidity:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      THE,<br /> TRIAL<br /> OF<br /> JAMES STEWART<br /> in Aucharn in Duror of
+      Appin<br /> FOR THE<br /> Murder of COLIN CAMPBELL of Glenure, Efq;<br />
+      Factor for His Majefty on the forfeited<br /> Estate of Ardfhiel.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      My husband was always interested in this period of his country's history,
+      and had already the intention of writing a story that should turn on the
+      Appin murder. The tale was to be of a boy, David Balfour, supposed to
+      belong to my husband's own family, who should travel in Scotland as though
+      it were a foreign country, meeting with various adventures and
+      misadventures by the way. From the trial of James Stewart my husband
+      gleaned much valuable material for his novel, the most important being the
+      character of Alan Breck. Aside from having described him as "smallish in
+      stature," my husband seems to have taken Alan Breck's personal appearance,
+      even to his clothing, from the book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A letter from James Stewart to Mr. John Macfarlane, introduced as evidence
+      in the trial, says: "There is one Alan Stewart, a distant friend of the
+      late Ardshiel's, who is in the French service, and came over in March
+      last, as he said to some, in order to settle at home; to others, that he
+      was to go soon back; and was, as I hear, the day that the murder was
+      committed, seen not far from the place where it happened, and is not now
+      to be seen; by which it is believed he was the actor. He is a desperate
+      foolish fellow; and if he is guilty, came to the country for that very
+      purpose. He is a tall, pock-pitted lad, very black hair, and wore a blue
+      coat and metal buttons, an old red vest, and breeches of the same colour."
+      A second witness testified to having seen him wearing "a blue coat with
+      silver buttons, a red waistcoat, black shag breeches, tartan hose, and a
+      feathered hat, with a big coat, dun coloured," a costume referred to by
+      one of the counsel as "French cloathes which were remarkable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are many incidents given in the trial that point to Alan's fiery
+      spirit and Highland quickness to take offence. One witness "declared also
+      That the said Alan Breck threatened that he would challenge Ballieveolan
+      and his sons to fight because of his removing the declarant last year from
+      Glenduror." On another page: "Duncan Campbell, change-keeper at Annat,
+      aged thirty-five years, married, witness cited, sworn, purged and examined
+      ut supra, depones, That, in the month of April last, the deponent met with
+      Alan Breck Stewart, with whom he was not acquainted, and John Stewart, in
+      Auchnacoan, in the house of the walk miller of Auchofragan, and went on
+      with them to the house: Alan Breck Stewart said, that he hated all the
+      name of Campbell; and the deponent said, he had no reason for doing so:
+      But Alan said, he had very good reason for it: that thereafter they left
+      that house; and, after drinking a dram at another house, came to the
+      deponent's house, where they went in, and drunk some drams, and Alan Breck
+      renewed the former Conversation; and the deponent, making the same answer,
+      Alan said, that, if the deponent had any respect for his friends, he would
+      tell them, that if they offered to turn out the possessors of Ardshiel's
+      estate, he would make black cocks of them, before they entered into
+      possession by which the deponent understood shooting them, it being a
+      common phrase in the country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time after the publication of Kidnapped we stopped for a short while
+      in the Appin country, where we were surprised and interested to discover
+      that the feeling concerning the murder of Glenure (the "Red Fox," also
+      called "Colin Roy") was almost as keen as though the tragedy had taken
+      place the day before. For several years my husband received letters of
+      expostulation or commendation from members of the Campbell and Stewart
+      clans. I have in my possession a paper, yellow with age, that was sent
+      soon after the novel appeared, containing "The Pedigree of the Family of
+      Appine," wherein it is said that "Alan 3rd Baron of Appine was not killed
+      at Flowdoun, tho there, but lived to a great old age. He married Cameron
+      Daughter to Ewen Cameron of Lochiel." Following this is a paragraph
+      stating that "John Stewart 1st of Ardsheall of his descendants Alan Breck
+      had better be omitted. Duncan Baan Stewart in Achindarroch his father was
+      a Bastard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, while my husband was busily at work, I sat beside him reading an
+      old cookery book called The Compleat Housewife: or Accomplish'd
+      Gentlewoman's Companion. In the midst of receipts for "Rabbits, and
+      Chickens mumbled, Pickled Samphire, Skirret Pye, Baked Tansy," and other
+      forgotten delicacies, there were directions for the preparation of several
+      lotions for the preservation of beauty. One of these was so charming that
+      I interrupted my husband to read it aloud. "Just what I wanted!" he
+      exclaimed; and the receipt for the "Lily of the Valley Water" was
+      instantly incorporated into Kidnapped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      F. V. DE G. S. <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      DEDICATION
+    </h2>
+    <h4>
+      MY DEAR CHARLES BAXTER:
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      If you ever read this tale, you will likely ask yourself more questions
+      than I should care to answer: as for instance how the Appin murder has
+      come to fall in the year 1751, how the Torran rocks have crept so near to
+      Earraid, or why the printed trial is silent as to all that touches David
+      Balfour. These are nuts beyond my ability to crack. But if you tried me on
+      the point of Alan's guilt or innocence, I think I could defend the reading
+      of the text. To this day you will find the tradition of Appin clear in
+      Alan's favour. If you inquire, you may even hear that the descendants of
+      "the other man" who fired the shot are in the country to this day. But
+      that other man's name, inquire as you please, you shall not hear; for the
+      Highlander values a secret for itself and for the congenial exercise of
+      keeping it. I might go on for long to justify one point and own another
+      indefensible; it is more honest to confess at once how little I am touched
+      by the desire of accuracy. This is no furniture for the scholar's library,
+      but a book for the winter evening school-room when the tasks are over and
+      the hour for bed draws near; and honest Alan, who was a grim old
+      fire-eater in his day has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose
+      than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid, carry him
+      awhile into the Highlands and the last century, and pack him to bed with
+      some engaging images to mingle with his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for you, my dear Charles, I do not even ask you to like this tale. But
+      perhaps when he is older, your son will; he may then be pleased to find
+      his father's name on the fly-leaf; and in the meanwhile it pleases me to
+      set it there, in memory of many days that were happy and some (now perhaps
+      as pleasant to remember) that were sad. If it is strange for me to look
+      back from a distance both in time and space on these bygone adventures of
+      our youth, it must be stranger for you who tread the same streets&mdash;who
+      may to-morrow open the door of the old Speculative, where we begin to rank
+      with Scott and Robert Emmet and the beloved and inglorious Macbean&mdash;or
+      may pass the corner of the close where that great society, the L. J. R.,
+      held its meetings and drank its beer, sitting in the seats of Burns and
+      his companions. I think I see you, moving there by plain daylight,
+      beholding with your natural eyes those places that have now become for
+      your companion a part of the scenery of dreams. How, in the intervals of
+      present business, the past must echo in your memory! Let it not echo often
+      without some kind thoughts of your friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      R.L.S. SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH. <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0021m.jpg" alt="0021m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0021.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9021m.jpg" alt="9021m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9021.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in
+      the month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for the
+      last time out of the door of my father's house. The sun began to shine
+      upon the summit of the hills as I went down the road; and by the time I
+      had come as far as the manse, the blackbirds were whistling in the garden
+      lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley in the time of the dawn
+      was beginning to arise and die away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Campbell, the minister of Essendean, was waiting for me by the garden
+      gate, good man! He asked me if I had breakfasted; and hearing that I
+      lacked for nothing, he took my hand in both of his and clapped it kindly
+      under his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Davie, lad," said he, "I will go with you as far as the ford, to
+      set you on the way." And we began to walk forward in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?" said he, after awhile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, sir," said I, "if I knew where I was going, or what was likely to
+      become of me, I would tell you candidly. Essendean is a good place indeed,
+      and I have been very happy there; but then I have never been anywhere
+      else. My father and mother, since they are both dead, I shall be no nearer
+      to in Essendean than in the Kingdom of Hungary, and, to speak truth, if I
+      thought I had a chance to better myself where I was going I would go with
+      a good will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay?" said Mr. Campbell. "Very well, Davie. Then it behoves me to tell
+      your fortune; or so far as I may. When your mother was gone, and your
+      father (the worthy, Christian man) began to sicken for his end, he gave me
+      in charge a certain letter, which he said was your inheritance. 'So soon,'
+      says he, 'as I am gone, and the house is redd up and the gear disposed of'
+      (all which, Davie, hath been done), 'give my boy this letter into his
+      hand, and start him off to the house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That
+      is the place I came from,' he said, 'and it's where it befits that my boy
+      should return. He is a steady lad,' your father said, 'and a canny goer;
+      and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well lived where he goes.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The house of Shaws!" I cried. "What had my poor father to do with the
+      house of Shaws?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said Mr. Campbell, "who can tell that for a surety? But the name of
+      that family, Davie, boy, is the name you bear&mdash;Balfours of Shaws: an
+      ancient, honest, reputable house, peradventure in these latter days
+      decayed. Your father, too, was a man of learning as befitted his position;
+      no man more plausibly conducted school; nor had he the manner or the
+      speech of a common dominie; but (as ye will yourself remember) I took aye
+      a pleasure to have him to the manse to meet the gentry; and those of my
+      own house, Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of Dunswire, Campbell of Minch,
+      and others, all well-kenned gentlemen, had pleasure in his society.
+      Lastly, to put all the elements of this affair before you, here is the
+      testamentary letter itself, superscrived by the own hand of our departed
+      brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave me the letter, which was addressed in these words: "To the hands
+      of Ebenezer Balfour, Esquire, of Shaws, in his house of Shaws, these will
+      be delivered by my son, David Balfour." My heart was beating hard at this
+      great prospect now suddenly opening before a lad of seventeen years of
+      age, the son of a poor country dominie in the Forest of Ettrick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Campbell," I stammered, "and if you were in my shoes, would you go?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of a surety," said the minister, "that would I, and without pause. A
+      pretty lad like you should get to Cramond (which is near in by Edinburgh)
+      in two days of walk. If the worst came to the worst, and your high
+      relations (as I cannot but suppose them to be somewhat of your blood)
+      should put you to the door, ye can but walk the two days back again and
+      risp at the manse door. But I would rather hope that ye shall be well
+      received, as your poor father forecast for you, and for anything that I
+      ken come to be a great man in time. And here, Davie, laddie," he resumed,
+      "it lies near upon my conscience to improve this parting, and set you on
+      the right guard against the dangers of the world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulder under
+      a birch by the trackside, sate down upon it with a very long, serious
+      upper lip, and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks, put his
+      pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him. There, then, with
+      uplifted forefinger, he first put me on my guard against a considerable
+      number of heresies, to which I had no temptation, and urged upon me to be
+      instant in my prayers and reading of the Bible. That done, he drew a
+      picture of the great house that I was bound to, and how I should conduct
+      myself with its inhabitants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial," said he. "Bear ye this in mind,
+      that, though gentle born, ye have had a country rearing. Dinnae shame us,
+      Davie, dinnae shame us! In yon great, muckle house, with all these
+      domestics, upper and under, show yourself as nice, as circumspect, as
+      quick at the conception, and as slow of speech as any. As for the laird&mdash;remember
+      he's the laird; I say no more: honour to whom honour. It's a pleasure to
+      obey a laird; or should be, to the young."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said I, "it may be; and I'll promise you I'll try to make it
+      so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, very well said," replied Mr. Campbell, heartily. "And now to come to
+      the material, or (to make a quibble) to the immaterial. I have here a
+      little packet which contains four things." He tugged it, as he spoke, and
+      with some great difficulty, from the skirt pocket of his coat. "Of these
+      four things, the first is your legal due: the little pickle money for your
+      father's books and plenishing, which I have bought (as I have explained
+      from the first) in the design of re-selling at a profit to the incoming
+      dominie. The other three are gifties that Mrs. Campbell and myself would
+      be blithe of your acceptance. The first, which is round, will likely
+      please ye best at the first off-go; but, O Davie, laddie, it's but a drop
+      of water in the sea; it'll help you but a step, and vanish like the
+      morning. The second, which is flat and square and written upon, will stand
+      by you through life, like a good staff for the road, and a good pillow to
+      your head in sickness. And as for the last, which is cubical, that'll see
+      you, it's my prayerful wish, into a better land."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0025m.jpg" alt="0025m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0025.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      With that he got upon his feet, took off his hat, and prayed a little
+      while aloud, and in affecting terms, for a young man setting out into the
+      world; then suddenly took me in his arms and embraced me very hard; then
+      held me at arm's length, looking at me with his face all working with
+      sorrow; and then whipped about, and crying good-bye to me, set off
+      backward by the way that we had come at a sort of jogging run. It might
+      have been laughable to another; but I was in no mind to laugh. I watched
+      him as long as he was in sight; and he never stopped hurrying, nor once
+      looked back. Then it came in upon my mind that this was all his sorrow at
+      my departure; and my conscience smote me hard and fast, because I, for my
+      part, was overjoyed to get away out of that quiet country-side, and go to
+      a great, busy house, among rich and respected gentlefolk of my own name
+      and blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Davie, Davie," I thought, "was ever seen such black ingratitude? Can you
+      forget old favours and old friends at the mere whistle of a name? Fie,
+      fie; think shame."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I sat down on the boulder the good man had just left, and opened the
+      parcel to see the nature of my gifts. That which he had called cubical, I
+      had never had much doubt of; sure enough it was a little Bible, to carry
+      in a plaid-neuk. That which he had called round, I found to be a shilling
+      piece; and the third, which was to help me so wonderfully both in health
+      and sickness all the days of my life, was a little piece of coarse yellow
+      paper, written upon thus in red ink:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "TO MAKE LILLY OF THE VALLEY WATER.&mdash;Take the flowers of lilly of the
+      valley and distil them in sack, and drink a spooneful or two as there is
+      occasion. It restores speech to those that have the dumb palsey. It is
+      good against the Gout; it comforts the heart and strengthens the memory;
+      and the flowers, put into a Glasse, close stopt, and set into ane hill of
+      ants for a month, then take it out, and you will find a liquor which comes
+      from the flowers, which keep in a vial; it is good, ill or well, and
+      whether man or woman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, in the minister's own hand, was added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Likewise for sprains, rub it in; and for the cholic, a great spooneful in
+      the hour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be sure, I laughed over this; but it was rather tremulous laughter; and
+      I was glad to get my bundle on my staff's end and set out over the ford
+      and up the hill upon the farther side; till, just as I came on the green
+      drove-road running wide through the heather, I took my last look of Kirk
+      Essendean, the trees about the manse, and the big rowans in the kirkyard
+      where my father and my mother lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0028m.jpg" alt="0028m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0028.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I COME TO MY JOURNEY'S END
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9028m.jpg" alt="9028m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9028.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      n the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw all
+      the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of this
+      descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln. There
+      was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in the
+      firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish
+      clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently after, I came by a house where a shepherd lived, and got a rough
+      direction for the neighbourhood of Cramond; and so, from one to another,
+      worked my way to the westward of the capital by Colinton, till I came out
+      upon the Glasgow road. And there, to my great pleasure and wonder, I
+      beheld a regiment marching to the fifes, every foot in time; an old
+      red-faced general on a grey horse at the one end, and at the other the
+      company of Grenadiers, with their Pope's-hats. The pride of life seemed to
+      mount into my brain at the sight of the red coats and the hearing of that
+      merry music.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little farther on, and I was told I was in Cramond parish, and began to
+      substitute in my inquiries the name of the house of Shaws. It was a word
+      that seemed to surprise those of whom I sought my way. At first I thought
+      the plainness of my appearance, in my country habit, and that all dusty
+      from the road, consorted ill with the greatness of the place to which I
+      was bound. But after two, or maybe three, had given me the same look and
+      the same answer, I began to take it in my head there was something strange
+      about the Shaws itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The better to set this fear at rest, I changed the form of my inquiries;
+      and spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his cart,
+      I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called the house of
+      Shaws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped his cart and looked at me, like the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said he. "What for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a great house?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doubtless," says he. "The house is a big, muckle house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said I, "but the folk that are in it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Folk?" cried he. "Are ye daft? There's nae folk there&mdash;to call
+      folk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What?" say I; "not Mr. Ebenezer?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ou, ay" says the man; "there's the laird, to be sure, if it's him you're
+      wanting. What'll like be your business, mannie?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was led to think that I would get a situation," I said, looking as
+      modest as I could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What?" cries the carter, in so sharp a note that his very horse started;
+      and then, "Well, mannie," he added, "it's nane of my affairs; but ye seem
+      a decent-spoken lad; and if ye'll take a word from me, ye'll keep clear of
+      the Shaws."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next person I came across was a dapper little man in a beautiful white
+      wig, whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds; and knowing well that
+      barbers were great gossips, I asked him plainly what sort of a man was Mr.
+      Balfour of the Shaws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot, hoot, hoot," said the barber, "nae kind of a man, nae kind of a man
+      at all;" and began to ask me very shrewdly what my business was; but I was
+      more than a match for him at that, and he went on to his next customer no
+      wiser than he came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot well describe the blow this dealt to my illusions. The more
+      indistinct the accusations were, the less I liked them, for they left the
+      wider field to fancy. What kind of a great house was this, that all the
+      parish should start and stare to be asked the way to it? or what sort of a
+      gentleman, that his ill-fame should be thus current on the wayside? If an
+      hour's walking would have brought me back to Essendean, I had left my
+      adventure then and there, and returned to Mr. Campbell's. But when I had
+      come so far a way already, mere shame would not suffer me to desist till I
+      had put the matter to the touch of proof; I was bound, out of mere
+      self-respect, to carry it through; and little as I liked the sound of what
+      I heard, and slow as I began to travel, I still kept asking my way and
+      still kept advancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was drawing on to sundown when I met a stout, dark, sour-looking woman
+      coming trudging down a hill; and she, when I had put my usual question,
+      turned sharp about, accompanied me back to the summit she had just left,
+      and pointed to a great bulk of building standing very bare upon a green in
+      the bottom of the next valley. The country was pleasant round about,
+      running in low hills, pleasantly watered and wooded, and the crops, to my
+      eyes, wonderfully good; but the house itself appeared to be a kind of
+      ruin; no road led up to it; no smoke arose from any of the chimneys; nor
+      was there any semblance of a garden. My heart sank. "That!" I cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman's face lit up with a malignant anger. "That is the house of
+      Shaws!" she cried. "Blood built it; blood stopped the building of it;
+      blood shall bring it down. See here!" she cried again&mdash;"I spit upon
+      the ground, and crack my thumb at it! Black be its fall! If ye see the
+      laird, tell him what ye hear; tell him this makes the twelve hunner and
+      nineteen time that Jennet Clouston has called down the curse on him and
+      his house, byre and stable, man, guest, and master, wife, miss, or bairn&mdash;black,
+      black be their fall!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the woman, whose voice had risen to a kind of eldritch sing-song,
+      turned with a skip, and was gone. I stood where she left me, with my hair
+      on end. In those days folk still believed in witches and trembled at a
+      curse; and this one, falling so pat, like a wayside omen, to arrest me ere
+      I carried out my purpose, took the pith out of my legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat me down and stared at the house of Shaws. The more I looked, the
+      pleasanter that country-side appeared; being all set with hawthorn bushes
+      full of flowers; the fields dotted with sheep; a fine flight of rooks in
+      the sky; and every sign of a kind soil and climate; and yet the barrack in
+      the midst of it went sore against my fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Country folk went by from the fields as I sat there on the side of the
+      ditch, but I lacked the spirit to give them a good-e'en. At last the sun
+      went down, and then, right up against the yellow sky, I saw a scroll of
+      smoke go mounting, not much thicker, as it seemed to me, than the smoke of
+      a candle; but still there it was, and meant a fire, and warmth, and
+      cookery, and some living inhabitant that must have lit it; and this
+      comforted my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So I set forward by a little faint track in the grass that led in my
+      direction. It was very faint indeed to be the only way to a place of
+      habitation; yet I saw no other. Presently it brought me to stone uprights,
+      with an unroofed lodge beside them, and coats of arms upon the top. A main
+      entrance it was plainly meant to be, but never finished; instead of gates
+      of wrought iron, a pair of hurdles were tied across with a straw rope; and
+      as there were no park walls, nor any sign of avenue, the track that I was
+      following passed on the right hand of the pillars, and went wandering on
+      toward the house.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0033m.jpg" alt="0033m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0033.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The nearer I got to that, the drearier it appeared. It seemed like the one
+      wing of a house that had never been finished. What should have been the
+      inner end stood open on the upper floors, and showed against the sky with
+      steps and stairs of uncompleted masonry. Many of the windows were
+      unglazed, and bats flew in and out like doves out of a dove-cote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had begun to fall as I got close; and in three of the lower
+      windows, which were very high up and narrow, and well barred, the changing
+      light of a little fire began to glimmer. Was this the palace I had been
+      coming to? Was it within these walls that I was to seek new friends and
+      begin great fortunes? Why, in my father's house on Essen-Waterside, the
+      fire and the bright lights would show a mile away, and the door open to a
+      beggar's knock!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I came forward cautiously, and giving ear as I came, heard some one
+      rattling with dishes, and a little dry, eager cough that came in fits; but
+      there was no sound of speech, and not a dog barked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door, as well as I could see it in the dim light, was a great piece of
+      wood all studded with nails; and I lifted my hand with a faint heart under
+      my jacket, and knocked once. Then I stood and waited. The house had fallen
+      into a dead silence; a whole minute passed away, and nothing stirred but
+      the bats overhead. I knocked again, and hearkened again. By this time my
+      ears had grown so accustomed to the quiet, that I could hear the ticking
+      of the clock inside as it slowly counted out the seconds; but whoever was
+      in that house kept deadly still, and must have held his breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was in two minds whether to run away; but anger got the upper hand, and
+      I began instead to rain kicks and buffets on the door, and to shout out
+      aloud for Mr. Balfour. I was in full career, when I heard the cough right
+      overhead, and jumping back and looking up, beheld a man's head in a tall
+      nightcap, and the bell mouth of a blunderbuss, at one of the first-storey
+      windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's loaded," said a voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have come here with a letter," I said, "to Mr. Ebenezer Balfour of
+      Shaws. Is he here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From whom is it?" asked the man with the blunderbuss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is neither here nor there," said I, for I was growing very wroth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," was the reply, "ye can put it down upon the doorstep, and be off
+      with ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will do no such thing," I cried. "I will deliver it into Mr. Balfour's
+      hands, as it was meant I should. It is a letter of introduction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A what?" cried the voice, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I repeated what I had said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who are ye, yourself?" was the next question, after a considerable pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not ashamed of my name," said I. "They call me David Balfour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that, I made sure the man started, for I heard the blunderbuss rattle
+      on the window-sill; and it was after quite a long pause, and with a
+      curious change of voice, that the next question followed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is your father dead?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was so much surprised at this, that I could find no voice to answer, but
+      stood staring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," the man resumed, "he'll be dead, no doubt; and that'll be what
+      brings ye chapping to my door." Another pause, and then defiantly, "Well,
+      man," he said, "I'll let ye in;" and he disappeared from the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0036m.jpg" alt="0036m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0036.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9036m.jpg" alt="9036m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9036.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      resently there came a great rattling of chains and bolts, and the door
+      was cautiously opened and shut to again behind me as soon as I had passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go into the kitchen and touch naething," said the voice; and while the
+      person of the house set himself to replacing the defences of the door, I
+      groped my way forward and entered the kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fire had burned up fairly bright, and showed me the barest room I
+      think I ever put my eyes on. Half-a-dozen dishes stood upon the shelves;
+      the table was laid for supper with a bowl of porridge, a horn spoon, and a
+      cup of small beer. Besides what I have named, there was not another thing
+      in that great, stone-vaulted, empty chamber but lockfast chests arranged
+      along the wall and a corner cupboard with a padlock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the last chain was up, the man rejoined me. He was a mean,
+      stooping, narrow-shouldered, clay-faced creature; and his age might have
+      been anything between fifty and seventy. His nightcap was of flannel, and
+      so was the nightgown that he wore, instead of coat and waistcoat, over his
+      ragged shirt. He was long unshaved; but what most distressed and even
+      daunted me, he would neither take his eyes away from me nor look me fairly
+      in the face. What he was, whether by trade or birth, was more than I could
+      fathom; but he seemed most like an old, unprofitable serving-man, who
+      should have been left in charge of that big house upon board wages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are ye sharp-set?" he asked, glancing at about the level of my knee. "Ye
+      can eat that drop parritch?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said I feared it was his own supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O," said he, "I can do fine wanting it. I'll take the ale, though, for it
+      slockens (moistens) my cough." He drank the cup about half out, still
+      keeping an eye upon me as he drank; and then suddenly held out his hand.
+      "Let's see the letter," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him the letter was for Mr. Balfour; not for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who do ye think I am?" says he. "Give me Alexander's letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know my father's name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It would be strange if I didnae," he returned, "for he was my born
+      brother; and little as ye seem to like either me or my house, or my good
+      parritch, I'm your born uncle, Davie, my man, and you my born nephew. So
+      give us the letter, and sit down and fill your kyte."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I had been some years younger, what with shame, weariness, and
+      disappointment, I believe I had burst into tears. As it was, I could find
+      no words, neither black nor white, but handed him the letter, and sat down
+      to the porridge with as little appetite for meat as ever a young man had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, my uncle, stooping over the fire, turned the letter over and
+      over in his hands.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0039m.jpg" alt="0039m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0039.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Do ye ken what's in it?" he asked, suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see for yourself, sir," said I, "that the seal has not been broken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "but what brought you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To give the letter," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," says he, cunningly, "but ye'll have had some hopes, nae doubt?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I confess, sir," said I, "when I was told that I had kinsfolk well-to-do,
+      I did indeed indulge the hope that they might help me in my life. But I am
+      no beggar; I look for no favours at your hands, and I want none that are
+      not freely given. For as poor as I appear, I have friends of my own that
+      will be blithe to help me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot-toot!" said Uncle Ebenezer, "dinnae fly up in the snuff at me. We'll
+      agree fine yet. And, Davie, my man, if you're done with that bit parritch,
+      I could just take a sup of it myself. Ay," he continued, as soon as he had
+      ousted me from the stool and spoon, "they're fine, halesome food&mdash;they're
+      grand food, parritch." He murmured a little grace to himself and fell to.
+      "Your father was very fond of his meat, I mind; he was a hearty, if not a
+      great eater; but as for me, I could never do mair than pyke at food." He
+      took a pull at the small beer, which probably reminded him of hospitable
+      duties, for his next speech ran thus: "If ye're dry ye'll find water
+      behind the door."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this I returned no answer, standing stiffly on my two feet, and looking
+      down upon my uncle with a mighty angry heart. He, on his part, continued
+      to eat like a man under some pressure of time, and to throw out little
+      darting glances now at my shoes and now at my home-spun stockings. Once
+      only, when he had ventured to look a little higher, our eyes met; and no
+      thief taken with a hand in a man's pocket could have shown more lively
+      signals of distress. This set me in a muse, whether his timidity arose
+      from too long a disuse of any human company; and whether perhaps, upon a
+      little trial, it might pass off, and my uncle change into an altogether
+      different man. From this I was awakened by his sharp voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your father's been long dead?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Three weeks, sir," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was a secret man, Alexander&mdash;a secret, silent man," he continued.
+      "He never said muckle when he was young. He'll never have spoken muckle of
+      me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never knew, sir, till you told it me yourself, that he had any
+      brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dear me, dear me!" said Ebenezer. "Nor yet of Shaws, I dare say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so much as the name, sir," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To think o' that!" said he. "A strange nature of a man!" For all that, he
+      seemed singularly satisfied, but whether with himself, or me, or with this
+      conduct of my father's, was more than I could read. Certainly, however, he
+      seemed to be outgrowing that distaste, or ill-will, that he had conceived
+      at first against my person; for presently he jumped up, came across the
+      room behind me, and hit me a smack upon the shoulder. "We'll agree fine
+      yet!" he cried. "I'm just as glad I let you in. And now come awa' to your
+      bed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To my surprise, he lit no lamp or candle, but set forth into the dark
+      passage, groped his way, breathing deeply, up a flight of steps, and
+      paused before a door, which he unlocked. I was close upon his heels,
+      having stumbled after him as best I might; and then he bade me go in, for
+      that was my chamber. I did as he bid, but paused after a few steps, and
+      begged a light to go to bed with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot-toot!" said Uncle Ebenezer, "there's a fine moon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Neither moon nor star, sir, and pit-mirk,"* said I. "I cannae see the
+      bed."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Dark as the pit.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot-toot, hoot-toot!" said he. "Lights in a house is a thing I dinnae
+      agree with. I'm unco feared of fires. Good-night to ye, Davie, my man."
+      And before I had time to add a further protest, he pulled the door to, and
+      I heard him lock me in from the outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not know whether to laugh or cry. The room was as cold as a well,
+      and the bed, when I had found my way to it, as damp as a peat-hag; but by
+      good fortune I had caught up my bundle and my plaid, and rolling myself in
+      the latter, I lay down upon the floor under lee of the big bedstead, and
+      fell speedily asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the first peep of day I opened my eyes, to find myself in a great
+      chamber, hung with stamped leather, furnished with fine embroidered
+      furniture, and lit by three fair windows. Ten years ago, or perhaps
+      twenty, it must have been as pleasant a room to lie down or to awake in as
+      a man could wish; but damp, dirt, disuse, and the mice and spiders had
+      done their worst since then. Many of the window-panes, besides, were
+      broken; and indeed this was so common a feature in that house, that I
+      believe my uncle must at some time have stood a siege from his indignant
+      neighbours&mdash;perhaps with Jennet Clouston at their head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the sun was shining outside; and being very cold in that
+      miserable room, I knocked and shouted till my gaoler came and let me out.
+      He carried me to the back of the house, where was a draw-well, and told me
+      to "wash my face there, if I wanted;" and when that was done, I made the
+      best of my own way back to the kitchen, where he had lit the fire and was
+      making the porridge. The table was laid with two bowls and two horn
+      spoons, but the same single measure of small beer. Perhaps my eye rested
+      on this particular with some surprise, and perhaps my uncle observed it;
+      for he spoke up as if in answer to my thought, asking me if I would like
+      to drink ale&mdash;for so he called it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him such was my habit, but not to put himself about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na, na," said he; "I'll deny you nothing in reason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fetched another cup from the shelf; and then, to my great surprise,
+      instead of drawing more beer, he poured an accurate half from one cup to
+      the other. There was a kind of nobleness in this that took my breath away;
+      if my uncle was certainly a miser, he was one of that thorough breed that
+      goes near to make the vice respectable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we had made an end of our meal, my uncle Ebenezer unlocked a drawer,
+      and drew out of it a clay pipe and a lump of tobacco, from which he cut
+      one fill before he locked it up again. Then he sat down in the sun at one
+      of the windows and silently smoked. From time to time his eyes came
+      coasting round to me, and he shot out one of his questions. Once it was,
+      "And your mother?" and when I had told him that she, too, was dead, "Ay,
+      she was a bonnie lassie!" Then, after another long pause, "Whae were these
+      friends o' yours?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him they were different gentlemen of the name of Campbell; though,
+      indeed, there was only one, and that the minister, that had ever taken the
+      least note of me; but I began to think my uncle made too light of my
+      position, and finding myself all alone with him, I did not wish him to
+      suppose me helpless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to turn this over in his mind; and then, "Davie, my man," said
+      he, "ye've come to the right bit when ye came to your uncle Ebenezer. I've
+      a great notion of the family, and I mean to do the right by you; but while
+      I'm taking a bit think to mysel' of what's the best thing to put you to&mdash;whether
+      the law, or the meenistry, or maybe the army, whilk is what boys are
+      fondest of&mdash;I wouldnae like the Balfours to be humbled before a wheen
+      Hieland Campbells, and I'll ask you to keep your tongue within your teeth.
+      Nae letters; nae messages; no kind of word to onybody; or else&mdash;there's
+      my door."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Uncle Ebenezer," said I, "I've no manner of reason to suppose you mean
+      anything but well by me. For all that, I would have you to know that I
+      have a pride of my own. It was by no will of mine that I came seeking you;
+      and if you show me your door again, I'll take you at the word."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed grievously put out. "Hoots-toots," said he, "ca' cannie, man&mdash;ca'
+      cannie! Bide a day or two. I'm nae warlock, to find a fortune for you in
+      the bottom of a parritch bowl; but just you give me a day or two, and say
+      naething to naebody, and as sure as sure, I'll do the right by you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," said I, "enough said. If you want to help me, there's no
+      doubt but I'll be glad of it, and none but I'll be grateful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to me (too soon, I dare say) that I was getting the upper hand
+      of my uncle; and I began next to say that I must have the bed and
+      bedclothes aired and put to sun-dry; for nothing would make me sleep in
+      such a pickle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this my house or yours?" said he, in his keen voice, and then all of a
+      sudden broke off. "Na, na," said he, "I didnae mean that. What's mine is
+      yours, Davie, my man, and what's yours is mine. Blood's thicker than
+      water; and there's naebody but you and me that ought the name." And then
+      on he rambled about the family, and its ancient greatness, and his father
+      that began to enlarge the house, and himself that stopped the building as
+      a sinful waste; and this put it in my head to give him Jennet Clouston's
+      message.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The limmer!" he cried. "Twelve hunner and fifteen&mdash;that's every day
+      since I had the limmer rowpit!* Dod, David, I'll have her roasted on red
+      peats before I'm by with it! A witch&mdash;a proclaimed witch! I'll aff
+      and see the session clerk."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Sold up.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And with that he opened a chest, and got out a very old and well-preserved
+      blue coat and waistcoat, and a good enough beaver hat, both without lace.
+      These he threw on any way, and taking a staff from the cupboard, locked
+      all up again, and was for setting out, when a thought arrested him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannae leave you by yoursel' in the house," said he. "I'll have to lock
+      you out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood came to my face. "If you lock me out," I said, "it'll be the
+      last you'll see of me in friendship."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned very pale, and sucked his mouth in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is no the way," he said, looking wickedly at a corner of the floor&mdash;"this
+      is no the way to win my favour, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," says I, "with a proper reverence for your age and our common blood,
+      I do not value your favour at a boddle's purchase. I was brought up to
+      have a good conceit of myself; and if you were all the uncle, and all the
+      family, I had in the world ten times over, I wouldn't buy your liking at
+      such prices."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Ebenezer went and looked out of the window for awhile. I could see
+      him all trembling and twitching, like a man with palsy. But when he turned
+      round, he had a smile upon his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," said he, "we must bear and forbear. I'll no go; that's all
+      that's to be said of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Uncle Ebenezer," I said, "I can make nothing out of this. You use me like
+      a thief; you hate to have me in this house; you let me see it, every word
+      and every minute: it's not possible that you can like me; and as for me,
+      I've spoken to you as I never thought to speak to any man. Why do you seek
+      to keep me, then? Let me gang back&mdash;let me gang back to the friends I
+      have, and that like me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na, na; na, na," he said, very earnestly. "I like you fine; we'll agree
+      fine yet; and for the honour of the house I couldnae let you leave the way
+      ye came. Bide here quiet, there's a good lad; just you bide here quiet a
+      bittie, and ye'll find that we agree."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said I, after I had thought the matter out in silence, "I'll
+      stay awhile. It's more just I should be helped by my own blood than
+      strangers; and if we don't agree, I'll do my best it shall be through no
+      fault of mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0046m.jpg" alt="0046m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0046.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9046m.jpg" alt="9046m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9046.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      or a day that was begun so ill, the day passed fairly well. We had the
+      porridge cold again at noon, and hot porridge at night; porridge and small
+      beer was my uncle's diet. He spoke but little, and that in the same way as
+      before, shooting a question at me after a long silence; and when I sought
+      to lead him to talk about my future, slipped out of it again. In a room
+      next door to the kitchen, where he suffered me to go, I found a great
+      number of books, both Latin and English, in which I took great pleasure
+      all the afternoon. Indeed, the time passed so lightly in this good
+      company, that I began to be almost reconciled to my residence at Shaws;
+      and nothing but the sight of my uncle, and his eyes playing hide and seek
+      with mine, revived the force of my distrust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One thing I discovered, which put me in some doubt. This was an entry on
+      the fly-leaf of a chap-book (one of Patrick Walker's) plainly written by
+      my father's hand and thus conceived: "To my brother Ebenezer on his fifth
+      birthday." Now, what puzzled me was this: That, as my father was of course
+      the younger brother, he must either have made some strange error, or he
+      must have written, before he was yet five, an excellent, clear manly hand
+      of writing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tried to get this out of my head; but though I took down many
+      interesting authors, old and new, history, poetry, and story-book, this
+      notion of my father's hand of writing stuck to me; and when at length I
+      went back into the kitchen, and sat down once more to porridge and small
+      beer, the first thing I said to Uncle Ebenezer was to ask him if my father
+      had not been very quick at his book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alexander? No him!" was the reply. "I was far quicker mysel'; I was a
+      clever chappie when I was young. Why, I could read as soon as he could."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This puzzled me yet more; and a thought coming into my head, I asked if he
+      and my father had been twins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He jumped upon his stool, and the horn spoon fell out of his hand upon the
+      floor. "What gars ye ask that?" he said, and he caught me by the breast of
+      the jacket, and looked this time straight into my eyes: his own were
+      little and light, and bright like a bird's, blinking and winking
+      strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean?" I asked, very calmly, for I was far stronger than he,
+      and not easily frightened. "Take your hand from my jacket. This is no way
+      to behave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My uncle seemed to make a great effort upon himself. "Dod man, David," he
+      said, "ye should-nae speak to me about your father. That's where the
+      mistake is." He sat awhile and shook, blinking in his plate: "He was all
+      the brother that ever I had," he added, but with no heart in his voice;
+      and then he caught up his spoon and fell to supper again, but still
+      shaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this last passage, this laying of hands upon my person and sudden
+      profession of love for my dead father, went so clean beyond my
+      comprehension that it put me into both fear and hope. On the one hand, I
+      began to think my uncle was perhaps insane and might be dangerous; on the
+      other, there came up into my mind (quite unbidden by me and even
+      discouraged) a story like some ballad I had heard folk singing, of a poor
+      lad that was a rightful heir and a wicked kinsman that tried to keep him
+      from his own. For why should my uncle play a part with a relative that
+      came, almost a beggar, to his door, unless in his heart he had some cause
+      to fear him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this notion, all unacknowledged, but nevertheless getting firmly
+      settled in my head, I now began to imitate his covert looks; so that we
+      sat at table like a cat and a mouse, each stealthily observing the other.
+      Not another word had he to say to me, black or white, but was busy turning
+      something secretly over in his mind; and the longer we sat and the more I
+      looked at him, the more certain I became that the something was unfriendly
+      to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had cleared the platter, he got out a single pipeful of tobacco,
+      just as in the morning, turned round a stool into the chimney corner, and
+      sat awhile smoking, with his back to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Davie," he said, at length, "I've been thinking;" then he paused, and
+      said it again. "There's a wee bit siller that I half promised ye before ye
+      were born," he continued; "promised it to your father. O, naething legal,
+      ye understand; just gentlemen daffing at their wine. Well, I keepit that
+      bit money separate&mdash;it was a great expense, but a promise is a
+      promise&mdash;and it has grown by now to be a matter of just precisely&mdash;just
+      exactly"&mdash;and here he paused and stumbled&mdash;"of just exactly
+      forty pounds!" This last he rapped out with a sidelong glance over his
+      shoulder; and the next moment added, almost with a scream, "Scots!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pound Scots being the same thing as an English shilling, the
+      difference made by this second thought was considerable; I could see,
+      besides, that the whole story was a lie, invented with some end which it
+      puzzled me to guess; and I made no attempt to conceal the tone of raillery
+      in which I answered&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, think again, sir! Pounds sterling, I believe!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's what I said," returned my uncle: "pounds sterling! And if you'll
+      step out-by to the door a minute, just to see what kind of a night it is,
+      I'll get it out to ye and call ye in again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did his will, smiling to myself in my contempt that he should think I
+      was so easily to be deceived. It was a dark night, with a few stars low
+      down; and as I stood just outside the door, I heard a hollow moaning of
+      wind far off among the hills. I said to myself there was something
+      thundery and changeful in the weather, and little knew of what a vast
+      importance that should prove to me before the evening passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I was called in again, my uncle counted out into my hand seven and
+      thirty golden guinea pieces; the rest was in his hand, in small gold and
+      silver; but his heart failed him there, and he crammed the change into his
+      pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," said he, "that'll show you! I'm a queer man, and strange wi'
+      strangers; but my word is my bond, and there's the proof of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, my uncle seemed so miserly that I was struck dumb by this sudden
+      generosity, and could find no words in which to thank him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No a word!" said he. "Nae thanks; I want nae thanks. I do my duty. I'm no
+      saying that everybody would have done it; but for my part (though I'm a
+      careful body, too) it's a pleasure to me to do the right by my brother's
+      son; and it's a pleasure to me to think that now we'll agree as such near
+      friends should."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spoke him in return as handsomely as I was able; but all the while I was
+      wondering what would come next, and why he had parted with his precious
+      guineas; for as to the reason he had given, a baby would have refused it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he looked towards me sideways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And see here," says he, "tit for tat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I was ready to prove my gratitude in any reasonable degree, and
+      then waited, looking for some monstrous demand. And yet, when at last he
+      plucked up courage to speak, it was only to tell me (very properly, as I
+      thought) that he was growing old and a little broken, and that he would
+      expect me to help him with the house and the bit garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered, and expressed my readiness to serve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," he said, "let's begin." He pulled out of his pocket a rusty key.
+      "There," says he, "there's the key of the stair-tower at the far end of
+      the house. Ye can only win into it from the outside, for that part of the
+      house is no finished. Gang ye in there, and up the stairs, and bring me
+      down the chest that's at the top. There's papers in't," he added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can I have a light, sir?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na," said he, very cunningly. "Nae lights in my house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well, sir," said I. "Are the stairs good?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They're grand," said he; and then, as I was going, "Keep to the wall," he
+      added; "there's nae bannisters. But the stairs are grand underfoot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out I went into the night. The wind was still moaning in the distance,
+      though never a breath of it came near the house of Shaws. It had fallen
+      blacker than ever; and I was glad to feel along the wall, till I came the
+      length of the stairtower door at the far end of the unfinished wing. I had
+      got the key into the keyhole and had just turned it, when all upon a
+      sudden, without sound of wind or thunder, the whole sky lighted up with
+      wild fire and went black again. I had to put my hand over my eyes to get
+      back to the colour of the darkness; and indeed I was already half blinded
+      when I stepped into the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so dark inside, it seemed a body could scarce breathe; but I pushed
+      out with foot and hand, and presently struck the wall with the one, and
+      the lowermost round of the stair with the other. The wall, by the touch,
+      was of fine hewn stone; the steps too, though somewhat steep and narrow,
+      were of polished masonwork, and regular and solid underfoot. Minding my
+      uncle's word about the bannisters, I kept close to the tower side, and
+      felt my way in the pitch darkness with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house of Shaws stood some five full storeys high, not counting lofts.
+      Well, as I advanced, it seemed to me the stair grew airier and a thought
+      more lightsome; and I was wondering what might be the cause of this
+      change, when a second blink of the summer lightning came and went. If I
+      did not cry out, it was because fear had me by the throat; and if I did
+      not fall, it was more by Heaven's mercy than my own strength. It was not
+      only that the flash shone in on every side through breaches in the wall,
+      so that I seemed to be clambering aloft upon an open scaffold, but the
+      same passing brightness showed me the steps were of unequal length, and
+      that one of my feet rested that moment within two inches of the well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the grand stair! I thought; and with the thought, a gust of a
+      kind of angry courage came into my heart. My uncle had sent me here,
+      certainly to run great risks, perhaps to die. I swore I would settle that
+      "perhaps," if I should break my neck for it; got me down upon my hands and
+      knees; and as slowly as a snail, feeling before me every inch, and testing
+      the solidity of every stone, I continued to ascend the stair. The
+      darkness, by contrast with the flash, appeared to have redoubled; nor was
+      that all, for my ears were now troubled and my mind confounded by a great
+      stir of bats in the top part of the tower, and the foul beasts, flying
+      downwards, sometimes beat about my face and body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tower, I should have said, was square; and in every corner the step
+      was made of a great stone of a different shape to join the flights. Well,
+      I had come close to one of these turns, when, feeling forward as usual, my
+      hand slipped upon an edge and found nothing but emptiness beyond it. The
+      stair had been carried no higher; to set a stranger mounting it in the
+      darkness was to send him straight to his death; and (although, thanks to
+      the lightning and my own precautions, I was safe enough) the mere thought
+      of the peril in which I might have stood, and the dreadful height I might
+      have fallen from, brought out the sweat upon my body and relaxed my
+      joints.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0053m.jpg" alt="0053m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0053.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      But I knew what I wanted now, and turned and groped my way down again,
+      with a wonderful anger in my heart. About half-way down, the wind sprang
+      up in a clap and shook the tower, and died again; the rain followed; and
+      before I had reached the ground level it fell in buckets. I put out my
+      head into the storm, and looked along towards the kitchen. The door, which
+      I had shut behind me when I left, now stood open, and shed a little
+      glimmer of light; and I thought I could see a figure standing in the rain,
+      quite still, like a man hearkening. And then there came a blinding flash,
+      which showed me my uncle plainly, just where I had fancied him to stand;
+      and hard upon the heels of it, a great tow-row of thunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, whether my uncle thought the crash to be the sound of my fall, or
+      whether he heard in it God's voice denouncing murder, I will leave you to
+      guess. Certain it is, at least, that he was seized on by a kind of panic
+      fear, and that he ran into the house and left the door open behind him. I
+      followed as softly as I could, and, coming unheard into the kitchen, stood
+      and watched him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had found time to open the corner cupboard and bring out a great case
+      bottle of aqua vitae, and now sat with his back towards me at the table.
+      Ever and again he would be seized with a fit of deadly shuddering and
+      groan aloud, and carrying the bottle to his lips, drink down the raw
+      spirits by the mouthful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stepped forward, came close behind him where he sat, and suddenly
+      clapping my two hands down upon his shoulders&mdash;"Ah!" cried I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My uncle gave a kind of broken cry like a sheep's bleat, flung up his
+      arms, and tumbled to the floor like a dead man. I was somewhat shocked at
+      this; but I had myself to look to first of all, and did not hesitate to
+      let him lie as he had fallen. The keys were hanging in the cupboard; and
+      it was my design to furnish myself with arms before my uncle should come
+      again to his senses and the power of devising evil. In the cupboard were a
+      few bottles, some apparently of medicine; a great many bills and other
+      papers, which I should willingly enough have rummaged, had I had the time;
+      and a few necessaries that were nothing to my purpose. Thence I turned to
+      the chests. The first was full of meal; the second of moneybags and papers
+      tied into sheaves; in the third, with many other things (and these for the
+      most part clothes) I found a rusty, ugly-looking Highland dirk without the
+      scabbard. This, then, I concealed inside my waistcoat, and turned to my
+      uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay as he had fallen, all huddled, with one knee up and one arm
+      sprawling abroad; his face had a strange colour of blue, and he seemed to
+      have ceased breathing. Fear came on me that he was dead; then I got water
+      and dashed it in his face; and with that he seemed to come a little to
+      himself, working his mouth and fluttering his eyelids. At last he looked
+      up and saw me, and there came into his eyes a terror that was not of this
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come," said I; "sit up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are ye alive?" he sobbed. "O man, are ye alive?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That am I," said I. "Small thanks to you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had begun to seek for his breath with deep sighs. "The blue phial,"
+      said he&mdash;"in the aumry&mdash;the blue phial." His breath came slower
+      still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ran to the cupboard, and, sure enough, found there a blue phial of
+      medicine, with the dose written on it on a paper, and this I administered
+      to him with what speed I might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the trouble," said he, reviving a little; "I have a trouble, Davie.
+      It's the heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I set him on a chair and looked at him. It is true I felt some pity for a
+      man that looked so sick, but I was full besides of righteous anger; and I
+      numbered over before him the points on which I wanted explanation: why he
+      lied to me at every word; why he feared that I should leave him; why he
+      disliked it to be hinted that he and my father were twins&mdash;"Is that
+      because it is true?" I asked; why he had given me money to which I was
+      convinced I had no claim; and, last of all, why he had tried to kill me.
+      He heard me all through in silence; and then, in a broken voice, begged me
+      to let him go to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell ye the morn," he said; "as sure as death I will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so weak was he that I could do nothing but consent. I locked him into
+      his room, however, and pocketed the key, and then returning to the
+      kitchen, made up such a blaze as had not shone there for many a long year,
+      and wrapping myself in my plaid, lay down upon the chests and fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0057m.jpg" alt="0057m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0057.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I GO TO THE QUEEN'S FERRY
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9057m.jpg" alt="9057m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9057.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      uch rain fell in the night; and the next morning there blew a bitter
+      wintry wind out of the north-west, driving scattered clouds. For all that,
+      and before the sun began to peep or the last of the stars had vanished, I
+      made my way to the side of the burn, and had a plunge in a deep whirling
+      pool. All aglow from my bath, I sat down once more beside the fire, which
+      I replenished, and began gravely to consider my position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was now no doubt about my uncle's enmity; there was no doubt I
+      carried my life in my hand, and he would leave no stone unturned that he
+      might compass my destruction. But I was young and spirited, and like most
+      lads that have been country-bred, I had a great opinion of my shrewdness.
+      I had come to his door no better than a beggar and little more than a
+      child; he had met me with treachery and violence; it would be a fine
+      consummation to take the upper hand, and drive him like a herd of sheep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat there nursing my knee and smiling at the fire; and I saw myself in
+      fancy smell out his secrets one after another, and grow to be that man's
+      king and ruler. The warlock of Essendean, they say, had made a mirror in
+      which men could read the future; it must have been of other stuff than
+      burning coal; for in all the shapes and pictures that I sat and gazed at,
+      there was never a ship, never a seaman with a hairy cap, never a big
+      bludgeon for my silly head, or the least sign of all those tribulations
+      that were ripe to fall on me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently, all swollen with conceit, I went up-stairs and gave my prisoner
+      his liberty. He gave me good-morning civilly; and I gave the same to him,
+      smiling down upon him, from the heights of my sufficiency. Soon we were
+      set to breakfast, as it might have been the day before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said I, with a jeering tone, "have you nothing more to say to
+      me?" And then, as he made no articulate reply, "It will be time, I think,
+      to understand each other," I continued. "You took me for a country Johnnie
+      Raw, with no more mother-wit or courage than a porridge-stick. I took you
+      for a good man, or no worse than others at the least. It seems we were
+      both wrong. What cause you have to fear me, to cheat me, and to attempt my
+      life&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He murmured something about a jest, and that he liked a bit of fun; and
+      then, seeing me smile, changed his tone, and assured me he would make all
+      clear as soon as we had breakfasted. I saw by his face that he had no lie
+      ready for me, though he was hard at work preparing one; and I think I was
+      about to tell him so, when we were interrupted by a knocking at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bidding my uncle sit where he was, I went to open it, and found on the
+      doorstep a half-grown boy in sea-clothes. He had no sooner seen me than he
+      began to dance some steps of the sea-hornpipe (which I had never before
+      heard of far less seen), snapping his fingers in the air and footing it
+      right cleverly. For all that, he was blue with the cold; and there was
+      something in his face, a look between tears and laughter, that was highly
+      pathetic and consisted ill with this gaiety of manner.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0059m.jpg" alt="0059m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0059.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "What cheer, mate?" says he, with a cracked voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him soberly to name his pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, pleasure!" says he; and then began to sing:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "For it's my delight, of a shiny night,
+     In the season of the year."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "if you have no business at all, I will even be so
+      unmannerly as to shut you out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stay, brother!" he cried. "Have you no fun about you? or do you want to
+      get me thrashed? I've brought a letter from old Heasyoasy to Mr.
+      Belflower." He showed me a letter as he spoke. "And I say, mate," he
+      added, "I'm mortal hungry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "come into the house, and you shall have a bite if I go
+      empty for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that I brought him in and set him down to my own place, where he
+      fell-to greedily on the remains of breakfast, winking to me between
+      whiles, and making many faces, which I think the poor soul considered
+      manly. Meanwhile, my uncle had read the letter and sat thinking; then,
+      suddenly, he got to his feet with a great air of liveliness, and pulled me
+      apart into the farthest corner of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Read that," said he, and put the letter in my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here it is, lying before me as I write:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Hawes Inn, at the Queen's Ferry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir,&mdash;I lie here with my hawser up and down, and send my cabin-boy
+      to informe. If you have any further commands for over-seas, to-day will be
+      the last occasion, as the wind will serve us well out of the firth. I will
+      not seek to deny that I have had crosses with your doer,* Mr. Rankeillor;
+      of which, if not speedily redd up, you may looke to see some losses
+      follow. I have drawn a bill upon you, as per margin, and am, sir, your
+      most obedt., humble servant, "ELIAS HOSEASON."* Agent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see, Davie," resumed my uncle, as soon as he saw that I had done, "I
+      have a venture with this man Hoseason, the captain of a trading brig, the
+      Covenant, of Dysart. Now, if you and me was to walk over with yon lad, I
+      could see the captain at the Hawes, or maybe on board the Covenant if
+      there was papers to be signed; and so far from a loss of time, we can jog
+      on to the lawyer, Mr. Rankeillor's. After a' that's come and gone, ye
+      would be swier* to believe me upon my naked word; but ye'll believe
+      Rankeillor. He's factor to half the gentry in these parts; an auld man,
+      forby: highly respeckit, and he kenned your father."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Unwilling.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I stood awhile and thought. I was going to some place of shipping, which
+      was doubtless populous, and where my uncle durst attempt no violence, and,
+      indeed, even the society of the cabin-boy so far protected me. Once there,
+      I believed I could force on the visit to the lawyer, even if my uncle were
+      now insincere in proposing it; and, perhaps, in the bottom of my heart, I
+      wished a nearer view of the sea and ships. You are to remember I had lived
+      all my life in the inland hills, and just two days before had my first
+      sight of the firth lying like a blue floor, and the sailed ships moving on
+      the face of it, no bigger than toys. One thing with another, I made up my
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well," says I, "let us go to the Ferry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My uncle got into his hat and coat, and buckled an old rusty cutlass on;
+      and then we trod the fire out, locked the door, and set forth upon our
+      walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind, being in that cold quarter the north-west, blew nearly in our
+      faces as we went. It was the month of June; the grass was all white with
+      daisies, and the trees with blossom; but, to judge by our blue nails and
+      aching wrists, the time might have been winter and the whiteness a
+      December frost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Ebenezer trudged in the ditch, jogging from side to side like an old
+      ploughman coming home from work. He never said a word the whole way; and I
+      was thrown for talk on the cabin-boy. He told me his name was Ransome, and
+      that he had followed the sea since he was nine, but could not say how old
+      he was, as he had lost his reckoning. He showed me tattoo marks, baring
+      his breast in the teeth of the wind and in spite of my remonstrances, for
+      I thought it was enough to kill him; he swore horribly whenever he
+      remembered, but more like a silly schoolboy than a man; and boasted of
+      many wild and bad things that he had done: stealthy thefts, false
+      accusations, ay, and even murder; but all with such a dearth of likelihood
+      in the details, and such a weak and crazy swagger in the delivery, as
+      disposed me rather to pity than to believe him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him of the brig (which he declared was the finest ship that
+      sailed) and of Captain Hoseason, in whose praises he was equally loud.
+      Heasyoasy (for so he still named the skipper) was a man, by his account,
+      that minded for nothing either in heaven or earth; one that, as people
+      said, would "crack on all sail into the day of judgment;" rough, fierce,
+      unscrupulous, and brutal; and all this my poor cabin-boy had taught
+      himself to admire as something seamanlike and manly. He would only admit
+      one flaw in his idol. "He ain't no seaman," he admitted. "That's Mr. Shuan
+      that navigates the brig; he's the finest seaman in the trade, only for
+      drink; and I tell you I believe it! Why, look'ere;" and turning down his
+      stocking he showed me a great, raw, red wound that made my blood run cold.
+      "He done that&mdash;Mr. Shuan done it," he said, with an air of pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" I cried, "do you take such savage usage at his hands? Why, you are
+      no slave, to be so handled!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said the poor moon-calf, changing his tune at once, "and so he'll
+      find. See'ere;" and he showed me a great case-knife, which he told me was
+      stolen. "O," says he, "let me see him try; I dare him to; I'll do for him!
+      O, he ain't the first!" And he confirmed it with a poor, silly, ugly oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have never felt such pity for any one in this wide world as I felt for
+      that half-witted creature, and it began to come over me that the brig
+      Covenant (for all her pious name) was little better than a hell upon the
+      seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you no friends?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said he had a father in some English seaport, I forget which.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was a fine man, too," he said, "but he's dead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In Heaven's name," cried I, "can you find no reputable life on shore?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, no," says he, winking and looking very sly, "they would put me to a
+      trade. I know a trick worth two of that, I do!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him what trade could be so dreadful as the one he followed, where
+      he ran the continual peril of his life, not alone from wind and sea, but
+      by the horrid cruelty of those who were his masters. He said it was very
+      true; and then began to praise the life, and tell what a pleasure it was
+      to get on shore with money in his pocket, and spend it like a man, and buy
+      apples, and swagger, and surprise what he called stick-in-the-mud boys.
+      "And then it's not all as bad as that," says he; "there's worse off than
+      me: there's the twenty-pounders. O, laws! you should see them taking on.
+      Why, I've seen a man as old as you, I dessay"&mdash;(to him I seemed old)&mdash;"ah,
+      and he had a beard, too&mdash;well, and as soon as we cleared out of the
+      river, and he had the drug out of his head&mdash;my! how he cried and
+      carried on! I made a fine fool of him, I tell you! And then there's little
+      uns, too: oh, little by me! I tell you, I keep them in order. When we
+      carry little uns, I have a rope's end of my own to wollop'em." And so he
+      ran on, until it came in on me what he meant by twenty-pounders were those
+      unhappy criminals who were sent over-seas to slavery in North America, or
+      the still more unhappy innocents who were kidnapped or trepanned (as the
+      word went) for private interest or vengeance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then we came to the top of the hill, and looked down on the Ferry and
+      the Hope. The Firth of Forth (as is very well known) narrows at this point
+      to the width of a good-sized river, which makes a convenient ferry going
+      north, and turns the upper reach into a landlocked haven for all manner of
+      ships. Right in the midst of the narrows lies an islet with some ruins; on
+      the south shore they have built a pier for the service of the Ferry; and
+      at the end of the pier, on the other side of the road, and backed against
+      a pretty garden of holly-trees and hawthorns, I could see the building
+      which they called the Hawes Inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town of Queensferry lies farther west, and the neighbourhood of the
+      inn looked pretty lonely at that time of day, for the boat had just gone
+      north with passengers. A skiff, however, lay beside the pier, with some
+      seamen sleeping on the thwarts; this, as Ransome told me, was the brig's
+      boat waiting for the captain; and about half a mile off, and all alone in
+      the anchorage, he showed me the Covenant herself. There was a sea-going
+      bustle on board; yards were swinging into place; and as the wind blew from
+      that quarter, I could hear the song of the sailors as they pulled upon the
+      ropes. After all I had listened to upon the way, I looked at that ship
+      with an extreme abhorrence; and from the bottom of my heart I pitied all
+      poor souls that were condemned to sail in her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had all three pulled up on the brow of the hill; and now I marched
+      across the road and addressed my uncle. "I think it right to tell you,
+      sir," says I, "there's nothing that will bring me on board that Covenant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to waken from a dream. "Eh?" he said. "What's that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him over again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," he said, "we'll have to please ye, I suppose. But what are
+      we standing here for? It's perishing cold; and if I'm no mistaken, they're
+      busking the Covenant for sea."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0066m.jpg" alt="0066m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0066.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S FERRY
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9066m.jpg" alt="9066m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9066.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      s soon as we came to the inn, Ransome led us up the stair to a small
+      room, with a bed in it, and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal.
+      At a table hard by the chimney, a tall, dark, sober-looking man sat
+      writing. In spite of the heat of the room, he wore a thick sea-jacket,
+      buttoned to the neck, and a tall hairy cap drawn down over his ears; yet I
+      never saw any man, not even a judge upon the bench, look cooler, or more
+      studious and self-possessed, than this ship-captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got to his feet at once, and coming forward, offered his large hand to
+      Ebenezer. "I am proud to see you, Mr. Balfour," said he, in a fine deep
+      voice, "and glad that ye are here in time. The wind's fair, and the tide
+      upon the turn; we'll see the old coal-bucket burning on the Isle of May
+      before to-night."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Captain Hoseason," returned my uncle, "you keep your room unco hot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a habit I have, Mr. Balfour," said the skipper. "I'm a cold-rife man
+      by my nature; I have a cold blood, sir. There's neither fur, nor flannel&mdash;no,
+      sir, nor hot rum, will warm up what they call the temperature. Sir, it's
+      the same with most men that have been carbonadoed, as they call it, in the
+      tropic seas."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well, captain," replied my uncle, "we must all be the way we're
+      made."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it chanced that this fancy of the captain's had a great share in my
+      misfortunes. For though I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out of
+      sight, I was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea, and so
+      sickened by the closeness of the room, that when he told me to "run
+      down-stairs and play myself awhile," I was fool enough to take him at his
+      word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away I went, therefore, leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle and a
+      great mass of papers; and crossing the road in front of the inn, walked
+      down upon the beach. With the wind in that quarter, only little wavelets,
+      not much bigger than I had seen upon a lake, beat upon the shore. But the
+      weeds were new to me&mdash;some green, some brown and long, and some with
+      little bladders that crackled between my fingers. Even so far up the
+      firth, the smell of the sea-water was exceedingly salt and stirring; the
+      Covenant, besides, was beginning to shake out her sails, which hung upon
+      the yards in clusters; and the spirit of all that I beheld put me in
+      thoughts of far voyages and foreign places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked, too, at the seamen with the skiff&mdash;big brown fellows, some
+      in shirts, some with jackets, some with coloured handkerchiefs about their
+      throats, one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets, two or three
+      with knotty bludgeons, and all with their case-knives. I passed the time
+      of day with one that looked less desperate than his fellows, and asked him
+      of the sailing of the brig. He said they would get under way as soon as
+      the ebb set, and expressed his gladness to be out of a port where there
+      were no taverns and fiddlers; but all with such horrifying oaths, that I
+      made haste to get away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This threw me back on Ransome, who seemed the least wicked of that gang,
+      and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me, crying for a bowl of
+      punch. I told him I would give him no such thing, for neither he nor I was
+      of an age for such indulgences. "But a glass of ale you may have, and
+      welcome," said I. He mopped and mowed at me, and called me names; but he
+      was glad to get the ale, for all that; and presently we were set down at a
+      table in the front room of the inn, and both eating and drinking with a
+      good appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here it occurred to me that, as the landlord was a man of that county, I
+      might do well to make a friend of him. I offered him a share, as was much
+      the custom in those days; but he was far too great a man to sit with such
+      poor customers as Ransome and myself, and he was leaving the room, when I
+      called him back to ask if he knew Mr. Rankeillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot, ay," says he, "and a very honest man. And, O, by-the-by," says he,
+      "was it you that came in with Ebenezer?" And when I had told him yes,
+      "Ye'll be no friend of his?" he asked, meaning, in the Scottish way, that
+      I would be no relative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him no, none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought not," said he, "and yet ye have a kind of gliff* of Mr.
+      Alexander."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Look.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I said it seemed that Ebenezer was ill-seen in the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nae doubt," said the landlord. "He's a wicked auld man, and there's many
+      would like to see him girning in the tow*. Jennet Clouston and mony mair
+      that he has harried out of house and hame. And yet he was ance a fine
+      young fellow, too. But that was before the sough** gaed abroad about Mr.
+      Alexander, that was like the death of him."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Rope.
+
+     ** Report.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "And what was it?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ou, just that he had killed him," said the landlord. "Did ye never hear
+      that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what would he kill him for?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what for, but just to get the place," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The place?" said I. "The Shaws?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nae other place that I ken," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, man?" said I. "Is that so? Was my&mdash;was Alexander the eldest
+      son?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Deed was he," said the landlord. "What else would he have killed him
+      for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that he went away, as he had been impatient to do from the
+      beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, I had guessed it a long while ago; but it is one thing to
+      guess, another to know; and I sat stunned with my good fortune, and could
+      scarce grow to believe that the same poor lad who had trudged in the dust
+      from Ettrick Forest not two days ago, was now one of the rich of the
+      earth, and had a house and broad lands, and might mount his horse
+      tomorrow. All these pleasant things, and a thousand others, crowded into
+      my mind, as I sat staring before me out of the inn window, and paying no
+      heed to what I saw; only I remember that my eye lighted on Captain
+      Hoseason down on the pier among his seamen, and speaking with some
+      authority. And presently he came marching back towards the house, with no
+      mark of a sailor's clumsiness, but carrying his fine, tall figure with a
+      manly bearing, and still with the same sober, grave expression on his
+      face. I wondered if it was possible that Ransome's stories could be true,
+      and half disbelieved them; they fitted so ill with the man's looks. But
+      indeed, he was neither so good as I supposed him, nor quite so bad as
+      Ransome did; for, in fact, he was two men, and left the better one behind
+      as soon as he set foot on board his vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing, I heard my uncle calling me, and found the pair in the
+      road together. It was the captain who addressed me, and that with an air
+      (very flattering to a young lad) of grave equality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," said he, "Mr. Balfour tells me great things of you; and for my own
+      part, I like your looks. I wish I was for longer here, that we might make
+      the better friends; but we'll make the most of what we have. Ye shall come
+      on board my brig for half an hour, till the ebb sets, and drink a bowl
+      with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, I longed to see the inside of a ship more than words can tell; but I
+      was not going to put myself in jeopardy, and I told him my uncle and I had
+      an appointment with a lawyer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said he, "he passed me word of that. But, ye see, the boat'll
+      set ye ashore at the town pier, and that's but a penny stonecast from
+      Rankeillor's house." And here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my
+      ear: "Take care of the old tod;* he means mischief. Come aboard till I can
+      get a word with ye." And then, passing his arm through mine, he continued
+      aloud, as he set off towards his boat: "But, come, what can I bring ye
+      from the Carolinas? Any friend of Mr. Balfour's can command. A roll of
+      tobacco? Indian feather-work? a skin of a wild beast? a stone pipe? the
+      mocking-bird that mews for all the world like a cat? the cardinal bird
+      that is as red as blood?&mdash;take your pick and say your pleasure."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Fox.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      By this time we were at the boat-side, and he was handing me in. I did not
+      dream of hanging back; I thought (the poor fool!) that I had found a good
+      friend and helper, and I was rejoiced to see the ship. As soon as we were
+      all set in our places, the boat was thrust off from the pier and began to
+      move over the waters: and what with my pleasure in this new movement and
+      my surprise at our low position, and the appearance of the shores, and the
+      growing bigness of the brig as we drew near to it, I could hardly
+      understand what the captain said, and must have answered him at random.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we were alongside (where I sat fairly gaping at the ship's
+      height, the strong humming of the tide against its sides, and the pleasant
+      cries of the seamen at their work) Hoseason, declaring that he and I must
+      be the first aboard, ordered a tackle to be sent down from the main-yard.
+      In this I was whipped into the air and set down again on the deck, where
+      the captain stood ready waiting for me, and instantly slipped back his arm
+      under mine. There I stood some while, a little dizzy with the unsteadiness
+      of all around me, perhaps a little afraid, and yet vastly pleased with
+      these strange sights; the captain meanwhile pointing out the strangest,
+      and telling me their names and uses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But where is my uncle?" said I suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Hoseason, with a sudden grimness, "that's the point."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I felt I was lost. With all my strength, I plucked myself clear of him and
+      ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough, there was the boat pulling for the town,
+      with my uncle sitting in the stern. I gave a piercing cry&mdash;"Help,
+      help! Murder!"&mdash;so that both sides of the anchorage rang with it, and
+      my uncle turned round where he was sitting, and showed me a face full of
+      cruelty and terror.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0071m.jpg" alt="0071m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0071.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      It was the last I saw. Already strong hands had been plucking me back from
+      the ship's side; and now a thunderbolt seemed to strike me; I saw a great
+      flash of fire, and fell senseless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0074m.jpg" alt="0074m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0074.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG "COVENANT" OF DYSART
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9074m.jpg" alt="9074m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9074.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      came to myself in darkness, in great pain, bound hand and foot, and
+      deafened by many unfamiliar noises. There sounded in my ears a roaring of
+      water as of a huge mill-dam, the thrashing of heavy sprays, the thundering
+      of the sails, and the shrill cries of seamen. The whole world now heaved
+      giddily up, and now rushed giddily downward; and so sick and hurt was I in
+      body, and my mind so much confounded, that it took me a long while,
+      chasing my thoughts up and down, and ever stunned again by a fresh stab of
+      pain, to realise that I must be lying somewhere bound in the belly of that
+      unlucky ship, and that the wind must have strengthened to a gale. With the
+      clear perception of my plight, there fell upon me a blackness of despair,
+      a horror of remorse at my own folly, and a passion of anger at my uncle,
+      that once more bereft me of my senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I returned again to life, the same uproar, the same confused and
+      violent movements, shook and deafened me; and presently, to my other pains
+      and distresses, there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on the
+      sea. In that time of my adventurous youth, I suffered many hardships; but
+      none that was so crushing to my mind and body, or lit by so few hopes, as
+      these first hours aboard the brig.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I heard a gun fire, and supposed the storm had proved too strong for us,
+      and we were firing signals of distress. The thought of deliverance, even
+      by death in the deep sea, was welcome to me. Yet it was no such matter;
+      but (as I was afterwards told) a common habit of the captain's, which I
+      here set down to show that even the worst man may have his kindlier side.
+      We were then passing, it appeared, within some miles of Dysart, where the
+      brig was built, and where old Mrs. Hoseason, the captain's mother, had
+      come some years before to live; and whether outward or inward bound, the
+      Covenant was never suffered to go by that place by day, without a gun
+      fired and colours shown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had no measure of time; day and night were alike in that ill-smelling
+      cavern of the ship's bowels where I lay; and the misery of my situation
+      drew out the hours to double. How long, therefore, I lay waiting to hear
+      the ship split upon some rock, or to feel her reel head foremost into the
+      depths of the sea, I have not the means of computation. But sleep at
+      length stole from me the consciousness of sorrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was awakened by the light of a hand-lantern shining in my face. A small
+      man of about thirty, with green eyes and a tangle of fair hair, stood
+      looking down at me.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0077m.jpg" alt="0077m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0077.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0079m.jpg" alt="0079m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0079.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said he, "how goes it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered by a sob; and my visitor then felt my pulse and temples, and
+      set himself to wash and dress the wound upon my scalp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "a sore dunt*. What, man? Cheer up! The world's no done;
+      you've made a bad start of it but you'll make a better. Have you had any
+      meat?"
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Stroke.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I said I could not look at it: and thereupon he gave me some brandy and
+      water in a tin pannikin, and left me once more to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next time he came to see me, I was lying betwixt sleep and waking, my
+      eyes wide open in the darkness, the sickness quite departed, but succeeded
+      by a horrid giddiness and swimming that was almost worse to bear. I ached,
+      besides, in every limb, and the cords that bound me seemed to be of fire.
+      The smell of the hole in which I lay seemed to have become a part of me;
+      and during the long interval since his last visit I had suffered tortures
+      of fear, now from the scurrying of the ship's rats, that sometimes
+      pattered on my very face, and now from the dismal imaginings that haunt
+      the bed of fever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The glimmer of the lantern, as a trap opened, shone in like the heaven's
+      sunlight; and though it only showed me the strong, dark beams of the ship
+      that was my prison, I could have cried aloud for gladness. The man with
+      the green eyes was the first to descend the ladder, and I noticed that he
+      came somewhat unsteadily. He was followed by the captain. Neither said a
+      word; but the first set to and examined me, and dressed my wound as
+      before, while Hoseason looked me in my face with an odd, black look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, sir, you see for yourself," said the first: "a high fever, no
+      appetite, no light, no meat: you see for yourself what that means."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am no conjurer, Mr. Riach," said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give me leave, sir," said Riach; "you've a good head upon your shoulders,
+      and a good Scotch tongue to ask with; but I will leave you no manner of
+      excuse; I want that boy taken out of this hole and put in the forecastle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What ye may want, sir, is a matter of concern to nobody but yoursel',"
+      returned the captain; "but I can tell ye that which is to be. Here he is;
+      here he shall bide."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Admitting that you have been paid in a proportion," said the other, "I
+      will crave leave humbly to say that I have not. Paid I am, and none too
+      much, to be the second officer of this old tub, and you ken very well if I
+      do my best to earn it. But I was paid for nothing more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If ye could hold back your hand from the tin-pan, Mr. Riach, I would have
+      no complaint to make of ye," returned the skipper; "and instead of asking
+      riddles, I make bold to say that ye would keep your breath to cool your
+      porridge. We'll be required on deck," he added, in a sharper note, and set
+      one foot upon the ladder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mr. Riach caught him by the sleeve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Admitting that you have been paid to do a murder&mdash;&mdash;" he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoseason turned upon him with a flash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's that?" he cried. "What kind of talk is that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems it is the talk that you can understand," said Mr. Riach, looking
+      him steadily in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Riach, I have sailed with ye three cruises," replied the captain. "In
+      all that time, sir, ye should have learned to know me: I'm a stiff man,
+      and a dour man; but for what ye say the now&mdash;fie, fie!&mdash;it comes
+      from a bad heart and a black conscience. If ye say the lad will die&mdash;&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, will he!" said Mr. Riach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir, is not that enough?" said Hoseason. "Flit him where ye
+      please!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon the captain ascended the ladder; and I, who had lain silent
+      throughout this strange conversation, beheld Mr. Riach turn after him and
+      bow as low as to his knees in what was plainly a spirit of derision. Even
+      in my then state of sickness, I perceived two things: that the mate was
+      touched with liquor, as the captain hinted, and that (drunk or sober) he
+      was like to prove a valuable friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes afterwards my bonds were cut, I was hoisted on a man's back,
+      carried up to the forecastle, and laid in a bunk on some sea-blankets;
+      where the first thing that I did was to lose my senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a blessed thing indeed to open my eyes again upon the daylight, and
+      to find myself in the society of men. The forecastle was a roomy place
+      enough, set all about with berths, in which the men of the watch below
+      were seated smoking, or lying down asleep. The day being calm and the wind
+      fair, the scuttle was open, and not only the good daylight, but from time
+      to time (as the ship rolled) a dusty beam of sunlight shone in, and
+      dazzled and delighted me. I had no sooner moved, moreover, than one of the
+      men brought me a drink of something healing which Mr. Riach had prepared,
+      and bade me lie still and I should soon be well again. There were no bones
+      broken, he explained: "A clour* on the head was naething. Man," said he,
+      "it was me that gave it ye!"
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Blow.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here I lay for the space of many days a close prisoner, and not only got
+      my health again, but came to know my companions. They were a rough lot
+      indeed, as sailors mostly are: being men rooted out of all the kindly
+      parts of life, and condemned to toss together on the rough seas, with
+      masters no less cruel. There were some among them that had sailed with the
+      pirates and seen things it would be a shame even to speak of; some were
+      men that had run from the king's ships, and went with a halter round their
+      necks, of which they made no secret; and all, as the saying goes, were "at
+      a word and a blow" with their best friends. Yet I had not been many days
+      shut up with them before I began to be ashamed of my first judgment, when
+      I had drawn away from them at the Ferry pier, as though they had been
+      unclean beasts. No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own
+      faults and virtues; and these shipmates of mine were no exception to the
+      rule. Rough they were, sure enough; and bad, I suppose; but they had many
+      virtues. They were kind when it occurred to them, simple even beyond the
+      simplicity of a country lad like me, and had some glimmerings of honesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one man, of maybe forty, that would sit on my berthside for
+      hours and tell me of his wife and child. He was a fisher that had lost his
+      boat, and thus been driven to the deep-sea voyaging. Well, it is years ago
+      now: but I have never forgotten him. His wife (who was "young by him," as
+      he often told me) waited in vain to see her man return; he would never
+      again make the fire for her in the morning, nor yet keep the bairn when
+      she was sick. Indeed, many of these poor fellows (as the event proved)
+      were upon their last cruise; the deep seas and cannibal fish received
+      them; and it is a thankless business to speak ill of the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among other good deeds that they did, they returned my money, which had
+      been shared among them; and though it was about a third short, I was very
+      glad to get it, and hoped great good from it in the land I was going to.
+      The ship was bound for the Carolinas; and you must not suppose that I was
+      going to that place merely as an exile. The trade was even then much
+      depressed; since that, and with the rebellion of the colonies and the
+      formation of the United States, it has, of course, come to an end; but in
+      those days of my youth, white men were still sold into slavery on the
+      plantations, and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had
+      condemned me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cabin-boy Ransome (from whom I had first heard of these atrocities)
+      came in at times from the round-house, where he berthed and served, now
+      nursing a bruised limb in silent agony, now raving against the cruelty of
+      Mr. Shuan. It made my heart bleed; but the men had a great respect for the
+      chief mate, who was, as they said, "the only seaman of the whole
+      jing-bang, and none such a bad man when he was sober." Indeed, I found
+      there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates: that Mr. Riach was
+      sullen, unkind, and harsh when he was sober, and Mr. Shuan would not hurt
+      a fly except when he was drinking. I asked about the captain; but I was
+      told drink made no difference upon that man of iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did my best in the small time allowed me to make some thing like a man,
+      or rather I should say something like a boy, of the poor creature,
+      Ransome. But his mind was scarce truly human. He could remember nothing of
+      the time before he came to sea; only that his father had made clocks, and
+      had a starling in the parlour, which could whistle "The North Countrie;"
+      all else had been blotted out in these years of hardship and cruelties. He
+      had a strange notion of the dry land, picked up from sailor's stories:
+      that it was a place where lads were put to some kind of slavery called a
+      trade, and where apprentices were continually lashed and clapped into foul
+      prisons. In a town, he thought every second person a decoy, and every
+      third house a place in which seamen would be drugged and murdered. To be
+      sure, I would tell him how kindly I had myself been used upon that dry
+      land he was so much afraid of, and how well fed and carefully taught both
+      by my friends and my parents: and if he had been recently hurt, he would
+      weep bitterly and swear to run away; but if he was in his usual crackbrain
+      humour, or (still more) if he had had a glass of spirits in the
+      roundhouse, he would deride the notion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mr. Riach (Heaven forgive him!) who gave the boy drink; and it was,
+      doubtless, kindly meant; but besides that it was ruin to his health, it
+      was the pitifullest thing in life to see this unhappy, unfriended creature
+      staggering, and dancing, and talking he knew not what. Some of the men
+      laughed, but not all; others would grow as black as thunder (thinking,
+      perhaps, of their own childhood or their own children) and bid him stop
+      that nonsense, and think what he was doing. As for me, I felt ashamed to
+      look at him, and the poor child still comes about me in my dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, you should know, the Covenant was meeting continual
+      head-winds and tumbling up and down against head-seas, so that the scuttle
+      was almost constantly shut, and the forecastle lighted only by a swinging
+      lantern on a beam. There was constant labour for all hands; the sails had
+      to be made and shortened every hour; the strain told on the men's temper;
+      there was a growl of quarrelling all day long from berth to berth; and as
+      I was never allowed to set my foot on deck, you can picture to yourselves
+      how weary of my life I grew to be, and how impatient for a change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And a change I was to get, as you shall hear; but I must first tell of a
+      conversation I had with Mr. Riach, which put a little heart in me to bear
+      my troubles. Getting him in a favourable stage of drink (for indeed he
+      never looked near me when he was sober), I pledged him to secrecy, and
+      told him my whole story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He declared it was like a ballad; that he would do his best to help me;
+      that I should have paper, pen, and ink, and write one line to Mr. Campbell
+      and another to Mr. Rankeillor; and that if I had told the truth, ten to
+      one he would be able (with their help) to pull me through and set me in my
+      rights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And in the meantime," says he, "keep your heart up. You're not the only
+      one, I'll tell you that. There's many a man hoeing tobacco over-seas that
+      should be mounting his horse at his own door at home; many and many! And
+      life is all a variorum, at the best. Look at me: I'm a laird's son and
+      more than half a doctor, and here I am, man-Jack to Hoseason!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought it would be civil to ask him for his story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He whistled loud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Never had one," said he. "I like fun, that's all." And he skipped out of
+      the forecastle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0086m.jpg" alt="0086m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0086.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE ROUND-HOUSE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9086m.jpg" alt="9086m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9086.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ne night, about eleven o'clock, a man of Mr. Riach's watch (which was on
+      deck) came below for his jacket; and instantly there began to go a whisper
+      about the forecastle that "Shuan had done for him at last." There was no
+      need of a name; we all knew who was meant; but we had scarce time to get
+      the idea rightly in our heads, far less to speak of it, when the scuttle
+      was again flung open, and Captain Hoseason came down the ladder. He looked
+      sharply round the bunks in the tossing light of the lantern; and then,
+      walking straight up to me, he addressed me, to my surprise, in tones of
+      kindness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My man," said he, "we want ye to serve in the round-house. You and
+      Ransome are to change berths. Run away aft with ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as he spoke, two seamen appeared in the scuttle, carrying Ransome in
+      their arms; and the ship at that moment giving a great sheer into the sea,
+      and the lantern swinging, the light fell direct on the boy's face. It was
+      as white as wax, and had a look upon it like a dreadful smile. The blood
+      in me ran cold, and I drew in my breath as if I had been struck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Run away aft; run away aft with ye!" cried Hoseason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at that I brushed by the sailors and the boy (who neither spoke nor
+      moved), and ran up the ladder on deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brig was sheering swiftly and giddily through a long, cresting swell.
+      She was on the starboard tack, and on the left hand, under the arched foot
+      of the foresail, I could see the sunset still quite bright. This, at such
+      an hour of the night, surprised me greatly; but I was too ignorant to draw
+      the true conclusion&mdash;that we were going north-about round Scotland,
+      and were now on the high sea between the Orkney and Shetland Islands,
+      having avoided the dangerous currents of the Pentland Firth. For my part,
+      who had been so long shut in the dark and knew nothing of head-winds, I
+      thought we might be half-way or more across the Atlantic. And indeed
+      (beyond that I wondered a little at the lateness of the sunset light) I
+      gave no heed to it, and pushed on across the decks, running between the
+      seas, catching at ropes, and only saved from going overboard by one of the
+      hands on deck, who had been always kind to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The round-house, for which I was bound, and where I was now to sleep and
+      serve, stood some six feet above the decks, and considering the size of
+      the brig, was of good dimensions. Inside were a fixed table and bench, and
+      two berths, one for the captain and the other for the two mates, turn and
+      turn about. It was all fitted with lockers from top to bottom, so as to
+      stow away the officers' belongings and a part of the ship's stores; there
+      was a second store-room underneath, which you entered by a hatchway in the
+      middle of the deck; indeed, all the best of the meat and drink and the
+      whole of the powder were collected in this place; and all the firearms,
+      except the two pieces of brass ordnance, were set in a rack in the
+      aftermost wall of the round-house. The most of the cutlasses were in
+      another place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small window with a shutter on each side, and a skylight in the roof,
+      gave it light by day; and after dark there was a lamp always burning. It
+      was burning when I entered, not brightly, but enough to show Mr. Shuan
+      sitting at the table, with the brandy bottle and a tin pannikin in front
+      of him. He was a tall man, strongly made and very black; and he stared
+      before him on the table like one stupid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took no notice of my coming in; nor did he move when the captain
+      followed and leant on the berth beside me, looking darkly at the mate. I
+      stood in great fear of Hoseason, and had my reasons for it; but something
+      told me I need not be afraid of him just then; and I whispered in his ear:
+      "How is he?" He shook his head like one that does not know and does not
+      wish to think, and his face was very stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Mr. Riach came in. He gave the captain a glance that meant the
+      boy was dead as plain as speaking, and took his place like the rest of us;
+      so that we all three stood without a word, staring down at Mr. Shuan, and
+      Mr. Shuan (on his side) sat without a word, looking hard upon the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle; and at that Mr.
+      Riach started forward and caught it away from him, rather by surprise than
+      violence, crying out, with an oath, that there had been too much of this
+      work altogether, and that a judgment would fall upon the ship. And as he
+      spoke (the weather sliding-doors standing open) he tossed the bottle into
+      the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Shuan was on his feet in a trice; he still looked dazed, but he meant
+      murder, ay, and would have done it, for the second time that night, had
+      not the captain stepped in between him and his victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sit down!" roars the captain. "Ye sot and swine, do ye know what ye've
+      done? Ye've murdered the boy!"
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0089m.jpg" alt="0089m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0089.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Shuan seemed to understand; for he sat down again, and put up his hand
+      to his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," he said, "he brought me a dirty pannikin!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that word, the captain and I and Mr. Riach all looked at each other for
+      a second with a kind of frightened look; and then Hoseason walked up to
+      his chief officer, took him by the shoulder, led him across to his bunk,
+      and bade him lie down and go to sleep, as you might speak to a bad child.
+      The murderer cried a little, but he took off his sea-boots and obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah!" cried Mr. Riach, with a dreadful voice, "ye should have interfered
+      long syne. It's too late now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Riach," said the captain, "this night's work must never be kennt in
+      Dysart. The boy went overboard, sir; that's what the story is; and I would
+      give five pounds out of my pocket it was true!" He turned to the table.
+      "What made ye throw the good bottle away?" he added. "There was nae sense
+      in that, sir. Here, David, draw me another. They're in the bottom locker;"
+      and he tossed me a key. "Ye'll need a glass yourself, sir," he added to
+      Riach. "Yon was an ugly thing to see."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed; and while they did so, the
+      murderer, who had been lying and whimpering in his berth, raised himself
+      upon his elbow and looked at them and at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the first night of my new duties; and in the course of the next
+      day I had got well into the run of them. I had to serve at the meals,
+      which the captain took at regular hours, sitting down with the officer who
+      was off duty; all the day through I would be running with a dram to one or
+      other of my three masters; and at night I slept on a blanket thrown on the
+      deck boards at the aftermost end of the round-house, and right in the
+      draught of the two doors. It was a hard and a cold bed; nor was I suffered
+      to sleep without interruption; for some one would be always coming in from
+      deck to get a dram, and when a fresh watch was to be set, two and
+      sometimes all three would sit down and brew a bowl together. How they kept
+      their health, I know not, any more than how I kept my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet in other ways it was an easy service. There was no cloth to lay;
+      the meals were either of oatmeal porridge or salt junk, except twice a
+      week, when there was duff: and though I was clumsy enough and (not being
+      firm on my sealegs) sometimes fell with what I was bringing them, both Mr.
+      Riach and the captain were singularly patient. I could not but fancy they
+      were making up lee-way with their consciences, and that they would scarce
+      have been so good with me if they had not been worse with Ransome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Mr. Shuan, the drink or his crime, or the two together, had
+      certainly troubled his mind. I cannot say I ever saw him in his proper
+      wits. He never grew used to my being there, stared at me continually
+      (sometimes, I could have thought, with terror), and more than once drew
+      back from my hand when I was serving him. I was pretty sure from the first
+      that he had no clear mind of what he had done, and on my second day in the
+      round-house I had the proof of it. We were alone, and he had been staring
+      at me a long time, when all at once, up he got, as pale as death, and came
+      close up to me, to my great terror. But I had no cause to be afraid of
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You were not here before?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir," said I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There was another boy?" he asked again; and when I had answered him,
+      "Ah!" says he, "I thought that," and went and sat down, without another
+      word, except to call for brandy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was still sorry
+      for him. He was a married man, with a wife in Leith; but whether or no he
+      had a family, I have now forgotten; I hope not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted, which (as you
+      are to hear) was not long. I was as well fed as the best of them; even
+      their pickles, which were the great dainty, I was allowed my share of; and
+      had I liked I might have been drunk from morning to night, like Mr. Shuan.
+      I had company, too, and good company of its sort. Mr. Riach, who had been
+      to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, and
+      told me many curious things, and some that were informing; and even the
+      captain, though he kept me at the stick's end the most part of the time,
+      would sometimes unbuckle a bit, and tell me of the fine countries he had
+      visited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadow of poor Ransome, to be sure, lay on all four of us, and on me
+      and Mr. Shuan in particular, most heavily. And then I had another trouble
+      of my own. Here I was, doing dirty work for three men that I looked down
+      upon, and one of whom, at least, should have hung upon a gallows; that was
+      for the present; and as for the future, I could only see myself slaving
+      alongside of negroes in the tobacco fields. Mr. Riach, perhaps from
+      caution, would never suffer me to say another word about my story; the
+      captain, whom I tried to approach, rebuffed me like a dog and would not
+      hear a word; and as the days came and went, my heart sank lower and lower,
+      till I was even glad of the work which kept me from thinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0094m.jpg" alt="0094m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0094.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9094m.jpg" alt="9094m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9094.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ore than a week went by, in which the ill-luck that had hitherto pursued
+      the Covenant upon this voyage grew yet more strongly marked. Some days she
+      made a little way; others, she was driven actually back. At last we were
+      beaten so far to the south that we tossed and tacked to and fro the whole
+      of the ninth day, within sight of Cape Wrath and the wild, rocky coast on
+      either hand of it. There followed on that a council of the officers, and
+      some decision which I did not rightly understand, seeing only the result:
+      that we had made a fair wind of a foul one and were running south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tenth afternoon there was a falling swell and a thick, wet, white fog
+      that hid one end of the brig from the other. All afternoon, when I went on
+      deck, I saw men and officers listening hard over the bulwarks&mdash;"for
+      breakers," they said; and though I did not so much as understand the word,
+      I felt danger in the air, and was excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maybe about ten at night, I was serving Mr. Riach and the captain at their
+      supper, when the ship struck something with a great sound, and we heard
+      voices singing out. My two masters leaped to their feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She's struck!" said Mr. Riach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir," said the captain. "We've only run a boat down."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And they hurried out.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0097m.jpg" alt="0097m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0097.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The captain was in the right of it. We had run down a boat in the fog, and
+      she had parted in the midst and gone to the bottom with all her crew but
+      one. This man (as I heard afterwards) had been sitting in the stern as a
+      passenger, while the rest were on the benches rowing. At the moment of the
+      blow, the stern had been thrown into the air, and the man (having his
+      hands free, and for all he was encumbered with a frieze overcoat that came
+      below his knees) had leaped up and caught hold of the brig's bowsprit. It
+      showed he had luck and much agility and unusual strength, that he should
+      have thus saved himself from such a pass. And yet, when the captain
+      brought him into the round-house, and I set eyes on him for the first
+      time, he looked as cool as I did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was smallish in stature, but well set and as nimble as a goat; his face
+      was of a good open expression, but sunburnt very dark, and heavily
+      freckled and pitted with the small-pox; his eyes were unusually light and
+      had a kind of dancing madness in them, that was both engaging and
+      alarming; and when he took off his great-coat, he laid a pair of fine
+      silver-mounted pistols on the table, and I saw that he was belted with a
+      great sword. His manners, besides, were elegant, and he pledged the
+      captain handsomely. Altogether I thought of him, at the first sight, that
+      here was a man I would rather call my friend than my enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain, too, was taking his observations, but rather of the man's
+      clothes than his person. And to be sure, as soon as he had taken off the
+      great-coat, he showed forth mighty fine for the round-house of a merchant
+      brig: having a hat with feathers, a red waistcoat, breeches of black
+      plush, and a blue coat with silver buttons and handsome silver lace;
+      costly clothes, though somewhat spoiled with the fog and being slept in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm vexed, sir, about the boat," says the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are some pretty men gone to the bottom," said the stranger, "that I
+      would rather see on the dry land again than half a score of boats."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Friends of yours?" said Hoseason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have none such friends in your country," was the reply. "They would
+      have died for me like dogs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said the captain, still watching him, "there are more men in
+      the world than boats to put them in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's true, too," cried the other, "and ye seem to be a gentleman of
+      great penetration."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have been in France, sir," says the captain, so that it was plain he
+      meant more by the words than showed upon the face of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," says the other, "and so has many a pretty man, for the matter
+      of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No doubt, sir," says the captain, "and fine coats."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oho!" says the stranger, "is that how the wind sets?" And he laid his
+      hand quickly on his pistols.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Don't be hasty," said the captain. "Don't do a mischief before ye see the
+      need of it. Ye've a French soldier's coat upon your back and a Scotch
+      tongue in your head, to be sure; but so has many an honest fellow in these
+      days, and I dare say none the worse of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So?" said the gentleman in the fine coat: "are ye of the honest party?"
+      (meaning, Was he a Jacobite? for each side, in these sort of civil broils,
+      takes the name of honesty for its own).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, sir," replied the captain, "I am a true-blue Protestant, and I thank
+      God for it." (It was the first word of any religion I had ever heard from
+      him, but I learnt afterwards he was a great church-goer while on shore.)
+      "But, for all that," says he, "I can be sorry to see another man with his
+      back to the wall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can ye so, indeed?" asked the Jacobite. "Well, sir, to be quite plain
+      with ye, I am one of those honest gentlemen that were in trouble about the
+      years forty-five and six; and (to be still quite plain with ye) if I got
+      into the hands of any of the red-coated gentry, it's like it would go hard
+      with me. Now, sir, I was for France; and there was a French ship cruising
+      here to pick me up; but she gave us the go-by in the fog&mdash;as I wish
+      from the heart that ye had done yoursel'! And the best that I can say is
+      this: If ye can set me ashore where I was going, I have that upon me will
+      reward you highly for your trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In France?" says the captain. "No, sir; that I cannot do. But where ye
+      come from&mdash;we might talk of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, unhappily, he observed me standing in my corner, and packed me
+      off to the galley to get supper for the gentleman. I lost no time, I
+      promise you; and when I came back into the round-house, I found the
+      gentleman had taken a money-belt from about his waist, and poured out a
+      guinea or two upon the table. The captain was looking at the guineas, and
+      then at the belt, and then at the gentleman's face; and I thought he
+      seemed excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Half of it," he cried, "and I'm your man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other swept back the guineas into the belt, and put it on again under
+      his waistcoat. "I have told ye sir," said he, "that not one doit of it
+      belongs to me. It belongs to my chieftain," and here he touched his hat,
+      "and while I would be but a silly messenger to grudge some of it that the
+      rest might come safe, I should show myself a hound indeed if I bought my
+      own carcase any too dear. Thirty guineas on the sea-side, or sixty if ye
+      set me on the Linnhe Loch. Take it, if ye will; if not, ye can do your
+      worst."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Hoseason. "And if I give ye over to the soldiers?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye would make a fool's bargain," said the other. "My chief, let me tell
+      you, sir, is forfeited, like every honest man in Scotland. His estate is
+      in the hands of the man they call King George; and it is his officers that
+      collect the rents, or try to collect them. But for the honour of Scotland,
+      the poor tenant bodies take a thought upon their chief lying in exile; and
+      this money is a part of that very rent for which King George is looking.
+      Now, sir, ye seem to me to be a man that understands things: bring this
+      money within the reach of Government, and how much of it'll come to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Little enough, to be sure," said Hoseason; and then, "if they knew," he
+      added, drily. "But I think, if I was to try, that I could hold my tongue
+      about it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah, but I'll begowk* ye there!" cried the gentleman. "Play me false, and
+      I'll play you cunning. If a hand is laid upon me, they shall ken what
+      money it is."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *Befool.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Well," returned the captain, "what must be must. Sixty guineas, and done.
+      Here's my hand upon it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And here's mine," said the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thereupon the captain went out (rather hurriedly, I thought), and left
+      me alone in the round-house with the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that period (so soon after the forty-five) there were many exiled
+      gentlemen coming back at the peril of their lives, either to see their
+      friends or to collect a little money; and as for the Highland chiefs that
+      had been forfeited, it was a common matter of talk how their tenants would
+      stint themselves to send them money, and their clansmen outface the
+      soldiery to get it in, and run the gauntlet of our great navy to carry it
+      across. All this I had, of course, heard tell of; and now I had a man
+      under my eyes whose life was forfeit on all these counts and upon one
+      more, for he was not only a rebel and a smuggler of rents, but had taken
+      service with King Louis of France. And as if all this were not enough, he
+      had a belt full of golden guineas round his loins. Whatever my opinions, I
+      could not look on such a man without a lively interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so you're a Jacobite?" said I, as I set meat before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, beginning to eat. "And you, by your long face, should be a
+      Whig?"*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Whig or Whigamore was the cant name for those who were
+     loyal to King George.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Betwixt and between," said I, not to annoy him; for indeed I was as good
+      a Whig as Mr. Campbell could make me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's naething," said he. "But I'm saying, Mr. Betwixt-and-Between,"
+      he added, "this bottle of yours is dry; and it's hard if I'm to pay sixty
+      guineas and be grudged a dram upon the back of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll go and ask for the key," said I, and stepped on deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fog was as close as ever, but the swell almost down. They had laid the
+      brig to, not knowing precisely where they were, and the wind (what little
+      there was of it) not serving well for their true course. Some of the hands
+      were still hearkening for breakers; but the captain and the two officers
+      were in the waist with their heads together. It struck me (I don't know
+      why) that they were after no good; and the first word I heard, as I drew
+      softly near, more than confirmed me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mr. Riach, crying out as if upon a sudden thought: "Couldn't we
+      wile him out of the round-house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's better where he is," returned Hoseason; "he hasn't room to use his
+      sword."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, that's true," said Riach; "but he's hard to come at."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hut!" said Hoseason. "We can get the man in talk, one upon each side, and
+      pin him by the two arms; or if that'll not hold, sir, we can make a run by
+      both the doors and get him under hand before he has the time to draw."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this hearing, I was seized with both fear and anger at these
+      treacherous, greedy, bloody men that I sailed with. My first mind was to
+      run away; my second was bolder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Captain," said I, "the gentleman is seeking a dram, and the bottle's out.
+      Will you give me the key?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They all started and turned about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, here's our chance to get the firearms!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Riach cried; and then to me: "Hark ye, David," he said, "do ye ken where
+      the pistols are?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," put in Hoseason. "David kens; David's a good lad. Ye see, David
+      my man, yon wild Hielandman is a danger to the ship, besides being a rank
+      foe to King George, God bless him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had never been so be-Davided since I came on board: but I said Yes, as
+      if all I heard were quite natural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The trouble is," resumed the captain, "that all our firelocks, great and
+      little, are in the round-house under this man's nose; likewise the powder.
+      Now, if I, or one of the officers, was to go in and take them, he would
+      fall to thinking. But a lad like you, David, might snap up a horn and a
+      pistol or two without remark. And if ye can do it cleverly, I'll bear it
+      in mind when it'll be good for you to have friends; and that's when we
+      come to Carolina."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Mr. Riach whispered him a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very right, sir," said the captain; and then to myself: "And see here,
+      David, yon man has a beltful of gold, and I give you my word that you
+      shall have your fingers in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I would do as he wished, though indeed I had scarce breath to
+      speak with; and upon that he gave me the key of the spirit locker, and I
+      began to go slowly back to the round-house. What was I to do? They were
+      dogs and thieves; they had stolen me from my own country; they had killed
+      poor Ransome; and was I to hold the candle to another murder? But then,
+      upon the other hand, there was the fear of death very plain before me; for
+      what could a boy and a man, if they were as brave as lions, against a
+      whole ship's company?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was still arguing it back and forth, and getting no great clearness,
+      when I came into the round-house and saw the Jacobite eating his supper
+      under the lamp; and at that my mind was made up all in a moment. I have no
+      credit by it; it was by no choice of mine, but as if by compulsion, that I
+      walked right up to the table and put my hand on his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do ye want to be killed?" said I. He sprang to his feet, and looked a
+      question at me as clear as if he had spoken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O!" cried I, "they're all murderers here; it's a ship full of them!
+      They've murdered a boy already. Now it's you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said he; "but they have n't got me yet." And then looking at me
+      curiously, "Will ye stand with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will I!" said I. "I am no thief, nor yet murderer. I'll stand by
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, then," said he, "what's your name?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David Balfour," said I; and then, thinking that a man with so fine a coat
+      must like fine people, I added for the first time, "of Shaws."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It never occurred to him to doubt me, for a Highlander is used to see
+      great gentlefolk in great poverty; but as he had no estate of his own, my
+      words nettled a very childish vanity he had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Stewart," he said, drawing himself up. "Alan Breck, they call
+      me. A king's name is good enough for me, though I bear it plain and have
+      the name of no farm-midden to clap to the hind-end of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And having administered this rebuke, as though it were something of a
+      chief importance, he turned to examine our defences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The round-house was built very strong, to support the breaching of the
+      seas. Of its five apertures, only the skylight and the two doors were
+      large enough for the passage of a man. The doors, besides, could be drawn
+      close: they were of stout oak, and ran in grooves, and were fitted with
+      hooks to keep them either shut or open, as the need arose. The one that
+      was already shut I secured in this fashion; but when I was proceeding to
+      slide to the other, Alan stopped me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," said he&mdash;"for I cannae bring to mind the name of your landed
+      estate, and so will make so bold as to call you David&mdash;that door,
+      being open, is the best part of my defences."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It would be yet better shut," says I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, David," says he. "Ye see, I have but one face; but so long as
+      that door is open and my face to it, the best part of my enemies will be
+      in front of me, where I would aye wish to find them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he gave me from the rack a cutlass (of which there were a few besides
+      the firearms), choosing it with great care, shaking his head and saying he
+      had never in all his life seen poorer weapons; and next he set me down to
+      the table with a powder-horn, a bag of bullets and all the pistols, which
+      he bade me charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that will be better work, let me tell you," said he, "for a gentleman
+      of decent birth, than scraping plates and raxing* drams to a wheen tarry
+      sailors."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *Reaching.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he stood up in the midst with his face to the door, and drawing
+      his great sword, made trial of the room he had to wield it in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must stick to the point," he said, shaking his head; "and that's a
+      pity, too. It doesn't set my genius, which is all for the upper guard.
+      And, now," said he, "do you keep on charging the pistols, and give heed to
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I would listen closely. My chest was tight, my mouth dry, the
+      light dark to my eyes; the thought of the numbers that were soon to leap
+      in upon us kept my heart in a flutter: and the sea, which I heard washing
+      round the brig, and where I thought my dead body would be cast ere
+      morning, ran in my mind strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "First of all," said he, "how many are against us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I reckoned them up; and such was the hurry of my mind, I had to cast the
+      numbers twice. "Fifteen," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan whistled. "Well," said he, "that can't be cured. And now follow me.
+      It is my part to keep this door, where I look for the main battle. In
+      that, ye have no hand. And mind and dinnae fire to this side unless they
+      get me down; for I would rather have ten foes in front of me than one
+      friend like you cracking pistols at my back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him, indeed I was no great shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's very bravely said," he cried, in a great admiration of my
+      candour. "There's many a pretty gentleman that wouldnae dare to say it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But then, sir," said I, "there is the door behind you, which they may
+      perhaps break in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "and that is a part of your work. No sooner the pistols
+      charged, than ye must climb up into yon bed where ye're handy at the
+      window; and if they lift hand against the door, ye're to shoot. But that's
+      not all. Let's make a bit of a soldier of ye, David. What else have ye to
+      guard?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's the skylight," said I. "But indeed, Mr. Stewart, I would need to
+      have eyes upon both sides to keep the two of them; for when my face is at
+      the one, my back is to the other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's very true," said Alan. "But have ye no ears to your head?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be sure!" cried I. "I must hear the bursting of the glass!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye have some rudiments of sense," said Alan, grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0106m.jpg" alt="0106m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0106.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9106m.jpg" alt="9106m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9106.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ut now our time of truce was come to an end. Those on deck had waited for
+      my coming till they grew impatient; and scarce had Alan spoken, when the
+      captain showed face in the open door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand!" cried Alan, and pointed his sword at him. The captain stood,
+      indeed; but he neither winced nor drew back a foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A naked sword?" says he. "This is a strange return for hospitality."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do ye see me?" said Alan. "I am come of kings; I bear a king's name. My
+      badge is the oak. Do ye see my sword? It has slashed the heads off mair
+      Whigamores than you have toes upon your feet. Call up your vermin to your
+      back, sir, and fall on! The sooner the clash begins, the sooner ye'll
+      taste this steel throughout your vitals."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain said nothing to Alan, but he looked over at me with an ugly
+      look. "David," said he, "I'll mind this;" and the sound of his voice went
+      through me with a jar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next moment he was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now," said Alan, "let your hand keep your head, for the grip is
+      coming."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan drew a dirk, which he held in his left hand in case they should run
+      in under his sword. I, on my part, clambered up into the berth with an
+      armful of pistols and something of a heavy heart, and set open the window
+      where I was to watch. It was a small part of the deck that I could
+      overlook, but enough for our purpose. The sea had gone down, and the wind
+      was steady and kept the sails quiet; so that there was a great stillness
+      in the ship, in which I made sure I heard the sound of muttering voices. A
+      little after, and there came a clash of steel upon the deck, by which I
+      knew they were dealing out the cutlasses and one had been let fall; and
+      after that, silence again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not know if I was what you call afraid; but my heart beat like a
+      bird's, both quick and little; and there was a dimness came before my eyes
+      which I continually rubbed away, and which continually returned. As for
+      hope, I had none; but only a darkness of despair and a sort of anger
+      against all the world that made me long to sell my life as dear as I was
+      able. I tried to pray, I remember, but that same hurry of my mind, like a
+      man running, would not suffer me to think upon the words; and my chief
+      wish was to have the thing begin and be done with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came all of a sudden when it did, with a rush of feet and a roar, and
+      then a shout from Alan, and a sound of blows and some one crying out as if
+      hurt. I looked back over my shoulder, and saw Mr. Shuan in the doorway,
+      crossing blades with Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's him that killed the boy!" I cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look to your window!" said Alan; and as I turned back to my place, I saw
+      him pass his sword through the mate's body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was none too soon for me to look to my own part; for my head was scarce
+      back at the window, before five men, carrying a spare yard for a
+      battering-ram, ran past me and took post to drive the door in. I had never
+      fired with a pistol in my life, and not often with a gun; far less against
+      a fellow-creature. But it was now or never; and just as they swang the
+      yard, I cried out: "Take that!" and shot into their midst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must have hit one of them, for he sang out and gave back a step, and the
+      rest stopped as if a little disconcerted. Before they had time to recover,
+      I sent another ball over their heads; and at my third shot (which went as
+      wide as the second) the whole party threw down the yard and ran for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I looked round again into the deck-house. The whole place was full of
+      the smoke of my own firing, just as my ears seemed to be burst with the
+      noise of the shots. But there was Alan, standing as before; only now his
+      sword was running blood to the hilt, and himself so swelled with triumph
+      and fallen into so fine an attitude, that he looked to be invincible.
+      Right before him on the floor was Mr. Shuan, on his hands and knees; the
+      blood was pouring from his mouth, and he was sinking slowly lower, with a
+      terrible, white face; and just as I looked, some of those from behind
+      caught hold of him by the heels and dragged him bodily out of the
+      round-house. I believe he died as they were doing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's one of your Whigs for ye!" cried Alan; and then turning to me, he
+      asked if I had done much execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I had winged one, and thought it was the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I've settled two," says he. "No, there's not enough blood let;
+      they'll be back again. To your watch, David. This was but a dram before
+      meat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I settled back to my place, re-charging the three pistols I had fired, and
+      keeping watch with both eye and ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our enemies were disputing not far off upon the deck, and that so loudly
+      that I could hear a word or two above the washing of the seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was Shuan bauchled* it," I heard one say.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Bungled.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And another answered him with a "Wheesht, man! He's paid the piper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that the voices fell again into the same muttering as before. Only
+      now, one person spoke most of the time, as though laying down a plan, and
+      first one and then another answered him briefly, like men taking orders.
+      By this, I made sure they were coming on again, and told Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's what we have to pray for," said he. "Unless we can give them a good
+      distaste of us, and done with it, there'll be nae sleep for either you or
+      me. But this time, mind, they'll be in earnest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this, my pistols were ready, and there was nothing to do but listen and
+      wait. While the brush lasted, I had not the time to think if I was
+      frighted; but now, when all was still again, my mind ran upon nothing
+      else. The thought of the sharp swords and the cold steel was strong in me;
+      and presently, when I began to hear stealthy steps and a brushing of men's
+      clothes against the round-house wall, and knew they were taking their
+      places in the dark, I could have found it in my mind to cry out aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was upon Alan's side; and I had begun to think my share of the
+      fight was at an end, when I heard some one drop softly on the roof above
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there came a single call on the sea-pipe, and that was the signal. A
+      knot of them made one rush of it, cutlass in hand, against the door; and
+      at the same moment, the glass of the skylight was dashed in a thousand
+      pieces, and a man leaped through and landed on the floor. Before he got
+      his feet, I had clapped a pistol to his back, and might have shot him,
+      too; only at the touch of him (and him alive) my whole flesh misgave me,
+      and I could no more pull the trigger than I could have flown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had dropped his cutlass as he jumped, and when he felt the pistol,
+      whipped straight round and laid hold of me, roaring out an oath; and at
+      that either my courage came again, or I grew so much afraid as came to the
+      same thing; for I gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of the body. He
+      gave the most horrible, ugly groan and fell to the floor. The foot of a
+      second fellow, whose legs were dangling through the skylight, struck me at
+      the same time upon the head; and at that I snatched another pistol and
+      shot this one through the thigh, so that he slipped through and tumbled in
+      a lump on his companion's body. There was no talk of missing, any more
+      than there was time to aim; I clapped the muzzle to the very place and
+      fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I might have stood and stared at them for long, but I heard Alan shout as
+      if for help, and that brought me to my senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had kept the door so long; but one of the seamen, while he was engaged
+      with others, had run in under his guard and caught him about the body.
+      Alan was dirking him with his left hand, but the fellow clung like a
+      leech. Another had broken in and had his cutlass raised. The door was
+      thronged with their faces. I thought we were lost, and catching up my
+      cutlass, fell on them in flank.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0111m.jpg" alt="0111m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0111.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      But I had not time to be of help. The wrestler dropped at last; and Alan,
+      leaping back to get his distance, ran upon the others like a bull, roaring
+      as he went. They broke before him like water, turning, and running, and
+      falling one against another in their haste. The sword in his hands flashed
+      like quicksilver into the huddle of our fleeing enemies; and at every
+      flash there came the scream of a man hurt. I was still thinking we were
+      lost, when lo! they were all gone, and Alan was driving them along the
+      deck as a sheep-dog chases sheep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet he was no sooner out than he was back again, being as cautious as he
+      was brave; and meanwhile the seamen continued running and crying out as if
+      he was still behind them; and we heard them tumble one upon another into
+      the forecastle, and clap-to the hatch upon the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The round-house was like a shambles; three were dead inside, another lay
+      in his death agony across the threshold; and there were Alan and I
+      victorious and unhurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came up to me with open arms. "Come to my arms!" he cried, and embraced
+      and kissed me hard upon both cheeks. "David," said he, "I love you like a
+      brother. And O, man," he cried in a kind of ecstasy, "am I no a bonny
+      fighter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he turned to the four enemies, passed his sword clean through
+      each of them, and tumbled them out of doors one after the other. As he did
+      so, he kept humming and singing and whistling to himself, like a man
+      trying to recall an air; only what HE was trying was to make one. All the
+      while, the flush was in his face, and his eyes were as bright as a
+      five-year-old child's with a new toy. And presently he sat down upon the
+      table, sword in hand; the air that he was making all the time began to run
+      a little clearer, and then clearer still; and then out he burst with a
+      great voice into a Gaelic song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have translated it here, not in verse (of which I have no skill) but at
+      least in the king's English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sang it often afterwards, and the thing became popular; so that I have
+      heard it and had it explained to me, many's the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is the song of the sword of Alan; The smith made it, The fire set
+      it; Now it shines in the hand of Alan Breck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Their eyes were many and bright, Swift were they to behold, Many the
+      hands they guided: The sword was alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The dun deer troop over the hill, They are many, the hill is one; The dun
+      deer vanish, The hill remains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come to me from the hills of heather, Come from the isles of the sea. O
+      far-beholding eagles, Here is your meat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this song which he made (both words and music) in the hour of our
+      victory, is something less than just to me, who stood beside him in the
+      tussle. Mr. Shuan and five more were either killed outright or thoroughly
+      disabled; but of these, two fell by my hand, the two that came by the
+      skylight. Four more were hurt, and of that number, one (and he not the
+      least important) got his hurt from me. So that, altogether, I did my fair
+      share both of the killing and the wounding, and might have claimed a place
+      in Alan's verses. But poets have to think upon their rhymes; and in good
+      prose talk, Alan always did me more than justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, I was innocent of any wrong being done me. For not only
+      I knew no word of the Gaelic; but what with the long suspense of the
+      waiting, and the scurry and strain of our two spirts of fighting, and more
+      than all, the horror I had of some of my own share in it, the thing was no
+      sooner over than I was glad to stagger to a seat. There was that tightness
+      on my chest that I could hardly breathe; the thought of the two men I had
+      shot sat upon me like a nightmare; and all upon a sudden, and before I had
+      a guess of what was coming, I began to sob and cry like any child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan clapped my shoulder, and said I was a brave lad and wanted nothing
+      but a sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll take the first watch," said he. "Ye've done well by me, David, first
+      and last; and I wouldn't lose you for all Appin&mdash;no, nor for
+      Breadalbane."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So I made up my bed on the floor; and he took the first spell, pistol in
+      hand and sword on knee, three hours by the captain's watch upon the wall.
+      Then he roused me up, and I took my turn of three hours; before the end of
+      which it was broad day, and a very quiet morning, with a smooth, rolling
+      sea that tossed the ship and made the blood run to and fro on the
+      round-house floor, and a heavy rain that drummed upon the roof. All my
+      watch there was nothing stirring; and by the banging of the helm, I knew
+      they had even no one at the tiller. Indeed (as I learned afterwards) there
+      were so many of them hurt or dead, and the rest in so ill a temper, that
+      Mr. Riach and the captain had to take turn and turn like Alan and me, or
+      the brig might have gone ashore and nobody the wiser. It was a mercy the
+      night had fallen so still, for the wind had gone down as soon as the rain
+      began. Even as it was, I judged by the wailing of a great number of gulls
+      that went crying and fishing round the ship, that she must have drifted
+      pretty near the coast or one of the islands of the Hebrides; and at last,
+      looking out of the door of the round-house, I saw the great stone hills of
+      Skye on the right hand, and, a little more astern, the strange isle of
+      Rum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0116m.jpg" alt="0116m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0116.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9116m.jpg" alt="9116m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9116.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      lan and I sat down to breakfast about six of the clock. The floor was
+      covered with broken glass and in a horrid mess of blood, which took away
+      my hunger. In all other ways we were in a situation not only agreeable but
+      merry; having ousted the officers from their own cabin, and having at
+      command all the drink in the ship&mdash;both wine and spirits&mdash;and
+      all the dainty part of what was eatable, such as the pickles and the fine
+      sort of bread. This, of itself, was enough to set us in good humour, but
+      the richest part of it was this, that the two thirstiest men that ever
+      came out of Scotland (Mr. Shuan being dead) were now shut in the fore-part
+      of the ship and condemned to what they hated most&mdash;cold water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And depend upon it," Alan said, "we shall hear more of them ere long. Ye
+      may keep a man from the fighting, but never from his bottle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We made good company for each other. Alan, indeed, expressed himself most
+      lovingly; and taking a knife from the table, cut me off one of the silver
+      buttons from his coat.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0117m.jpg" alt="0117m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0117.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "I had them," says he, "from my father, Duncan Stewart; and now give ye
+      one of them to be a keepsake for last night's work. And wherever ye go and
+      show that button, the friends of Alan Breck will come around you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said this as if he had been Charlemagne, and commanded armies; and
+      indeed, much as I admired his courage, I was always in danger of smiling
+      at his vanity: in danger, I say, for had I not kept my countenance, I
+      would be afraid to think what a quarrel might have followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we were through with our meal he rummaged in the captain's
+      locker till he found a clothes-brush; and then taking off his coat, began
+      to visit his suit and brush away the stains, with such care and labour as
+      I supposed to have been only usual with women. To be sure, he had no
+      other; and, besides (as he said), it belonged to a king and so behoved to
+      be royally looked after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all that, when I saw what care he took to pluck out the threads where
+      the button had been cut away, I put a higher value on his gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was still so engaged when we were hailed by Mr. Riach from the deck,
+      asking for a parley; and I, climbing through the skylight and sitting on
+      the edge of it, pistol in hand and with a bold front, though inwardly in
+      fear of broken glass, hailed him back again and bade him speak out. He
+      came to the edge of the round-house, and stood on a coil of rope, so that
+      his chin was on a level with the roof; and we looked at each other awhile
+      in silence. Mr. Riach, as I do not think he had been very forward in the
+      battle, so he had got off with nothing worse than a blow upon the cheek:
+      but he looked out of heart and very weary, having been all night afoot,
+      either standing watch or doctoring the wounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a bad job," said he at last, shaking his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was none of our choosing," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The captain," says he, "would like to speak with your friend. They might
+      speak at the window."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how do we know what treachery he means?" cried I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He means none, David," returned Mr. Riach, "and if he did, I'll tell ye
+      the honest truth, we couldnae get the men to follow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that so?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll tell ye more than that," said he. "It's not only the men; it's me.
+      I'm frich'ened, Davie." And he smiled across at me. "No," he continued,
+      "what we want is to be shut of him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon I consulted with Alan, and the parley was agreed to and parole
+      given upon either side; but this was not the whole of Mr. Riach's
+      business, and he now begged me for a dram with such instancy and such
+      reminders of his former kindness, that at last I handed him a pannikin
+      with about a gill of brandy. He drank a part, and then carried the rest
+      down upon the deck, to share it (I suppose) with his superior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little after, the captain came (as was agreed) to one of the windows,
+      and stood there in the rain, with his arm in a sling, and looking stern
+      and pale, and so old that my heart smote me for having fired upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan at once held a pistol in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Put that thing up!" said the captain. "Have I not passed my word, sir? or
+      do ye seek to affront me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Captain," says Alan, "I doubt your word is a breakable. Last night ye
+      haggled and argle-bargled like an apple-wife; and then passed me your
+      word, and gave me your hand to back it; and ye ken very well what was the
+      upshot. Be damned to your word!" says he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well, sir," said the captain, "ye'll get little good by swearing."
+      (And truly that was a fault of which the captain was quite free.) "But we
+      have other things to speak," he continued, bitterly. "Ye've made a sore
+      hash of my brig; I haven't hands enough left to work her; and my first
+      officer (whom I could ill spare) has got your sword throughout his vitals,
+      and passed without speech. There is nothing left me, sir, but to put back
+      into the port of Glasgow after hands; and there (by your leave) ye will
+      find them that are better able to talk to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay?" said Alan; "and faith, I'll have a talk with them mysel'! Unless
+      there's naebody speaks English in that town, I have a bonny tale for them.
+      Fifteen tarry sailors upon the one side, and a man and a halfling boy upon
+      the other! O, man, it's peetiful!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoseason flushed red.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," continued Alan, "that'll no do. Ye'll just have to set me ashore as
+      we agreed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Hoseason, "but my first officer is dead&mdash;ye ken best how.
+      There's none of the rest of us acquaint with this coast, sir; and it's one
+      very dangerous to ships."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I give ye your choice," says Alan. "Set me on dry ground in Appin, or
+      Ardgour, or in Morven, or Arisaig, or Morar; or, in brief, where ye
+      please, within thirty miles of my own country; except in a country of the
+      Campbells. That's a broad target. If ye miss that, ye must be as feckless
+      at the sailoring as I have found ye at the fighting. Why, my poor country
+      people in their bit cobles* pass from island to island in all weathers,
+      ay, and by night too, for the matter of that."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *Coble: a small boat used in fishing.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "A coble's not a ship, sir," said the captain. "It has nae draught of
+      water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, to Glasgow if ye list!" says Alan. "We'll have the laugh of
+      ye at the least."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My mind runs little upon laughing," said the captain. "But all this will
+      cost money, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," says Alan, "I am nae weathercock. Thirty guineas, if ye land
+      me on the sea-side; and sixty, if ye put me in the Linnhe Loch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But see, sir, where we lie, we are but a few hours' sail from
+      Ardnamurchan," said Hoseason. "Give me sixty, and I'll set ye there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I'm to wear my brogues and run jeopardy of the red-coats to please
+      you?" cries Alan. "No, sir; if ye want sixty guineas earn them, and set me
+      in my own country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's to risk the brig, sir," said the captain, "and your own lives along
+      with her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take it or want it," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Could ye pilot us at all?" asked the captain, who was frowning to
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, it's doubtful," said Alan. "I'm more of a fighting man (as ye have
+      seen for yoursel') than a sailor-man. But I have been often enough picked
+      up and set down upon this coast, and should ken something of the lie of
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain shook his head, still frowning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I had lost less money on this unchancy cruise," says he, "I would see
+      you in a rope's end before I risked my brig, sir. But be it as ye will. As
+      soon as I get a slant of wind (and there's some coming, or I'm the more
+      mistaken) I'll put it in hand. But there's one thing more. We may meet in
+      with a king's ship and she may lay us aboard, sir, with no blame of mine:
+      they keep the cruisers thick upon this coast, ye ken who for. Now, sir, if
+      that was to befall, ye might leave the money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Captain," says Alan, "if ye see a pennant, it shall be your part to run
+      away. And now, as I hear you're a little short of brandy in the fore-part,
+      I'll offer ye a change: a bottle of brandy against two buckets of water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the last clause of the treaty, and was duly executed on both
+      sides; so that Alan and I could at last wash out the round-house and be
+      quit of the memorials of those whom we had slain, and the captain and Mr.
+      Riach could be happy again in their own way, the name of which was drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0123m.jpg" alt="0123m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0123.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I HEAR OF THE "RED FOX"
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9123m.jpg" alt="9123m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9123.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      efore we had done cleaning out the round-house, a breeze sprang up from a
+      little to the east of north. This blew off the rain and brought out the
+      sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here I must explain; and the reader would do well to look at a map. On
+      the day when the fog fell and we ran down Alan's boat, we had been running
+      through the Little Minch. At dawn after the battle, we lay becalmed to the
+      east of the Isle of Canna or between that and Isle Eriska in the chain of
+      the Long Island. Now to get from there to the Linnhe Loch, the straight
+      course was through the narrows of the Sound of Mull. But the captain had
+      no chart; he was afraid to trust his brig so deep among the islands; and
+      the wind serving well, he preferred to go by west of Tiree and come up
+      under the southern coast of the great Isle of Mull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All day the breeze held in the same point, and rather freshened than died
+      down; and towards afternoon, a swell began to set in from round the outer
+      Hebrides. Our course, to go round about the inner isles, was to the west
+      of south, so that at first we had this swell upon our beam, and were much
+      rolled about. But after nightfall, when we had turned the end of Tiree and
+      began to head more to the east, the sea came right astern.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0125m.jpg" alt="0125m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0125.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the early part of the day, before the swell came up, was very
+      pleasant; sailing, as we were, in a bright sunshine and with many
+      mountainous islands upon different sides. Alan and I sat in the
+      round-house with the doors open on each side (the wind being straight
+      astern), and smoked a pipe or two of the captain's fine tobacco. It was at
+      this time we heard each other's stories, which was the more important to
+      me, as I gained some knowledge of that wild Highland country on which I
+      was so soon to land. In those days, so close on the back of the great
+      rebellion, it was needful a man should know what he was doing when he went
+      upon the heather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was I that showed the example, telling him all my misfortune; which he
+      heard with great good-nature. Only, when I came to mention that good
+      friend of mine, Mr. Campbell the minister, Alan fired up and cried out
+      that he hated all that were of that name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said I, "he is a man you should be proud to give your hand to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know nothing I would help a Campbell to," says he, "unless it was a
+      leaden bullet. I would hunt all of that name like blackcocks. If I lay
+      dying, I would crawl upon my knees to my chamber window for a shot at
+      one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Alan," I cried, "what ails ye at the Campbells?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," says he, "ye ken very well that I am an Appin Stewart, and the
+      Campbells have long harried and wasted those of my name; ay, and got lands
+      of us by treachery&mdash;but never with the sword," he cried loudly, and
+      with the word brought down his fist upon the table. But I paid the less
+      attention to this, for I knew it was usually said by those who have the
+      underhand. "There's more than that," he continued, "and all in the same
+      story: lying words, lying papers, tricks fit for a peddler, and the show
+      of what's legal over all, to make a man the more angry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You that are so wasteful of your buttons," said I, "I can hardly think
+      you would be a good judge of business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah!" says he, falling again to smiling, "I got my wastefulness from the
+      same man I got the buttons from; and that was my poor father, Duncan
+      Stewart, grace be to him! He was the prettiest man of his kindred; and the
+      best swordsman in the Hielands, David, and that is the same as to say, in
+      all the world, I should ken, for it was him that taught me. He was in the
+      Black Watch, when first it was mustered; and, like other gentlemen
+      privates, had a gillie at his back to carry his firelock for him on the
+      march. Well, the King, it appears, was wishful to see Hieland
+      swordsmanship; and my father and three more were chosen out and sent to
+      London town, to let him see it at the best. So they were had into the
+      palace and showed the whole art of the sword for two hours at a stretch,
+      before King George and Queen Carline, and the Butcher Cumberland, and many
+      more of whom I havenae mind. And when they were through, the King (for all
+      he was a rank usurper) spoke them fair and gave each man three guineas in
+      his hand. Now, as they were going out of the palace, they had a porter's
+      lodge to go by; and it came in on my father, as he was perhaps the first
+      private Hieland gentleman that had ever gone by that door, it was right he
+      should give the poor porter a proper notion of their quality. So he gives
+      the King's three guineas into the man's hand, as if it was his common
+      custom; the three others that came behind him did the same; and there they
+      were on the street, never a penny the better for their pains. Some say it
+      was one, that was the first to fee the King's porter; and some say it was
+      another; but the truth of it is, that it was Duncan Stewart, as I am
+      willing to prove with either sword or pistol. And that was the father that
+      I had, God rest him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think he was not the man to leave you rich," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's true," said Alan. "He left me my breeks to cover me, and
+      little besides. And that was how I came to enlist, which was a black spot
+      upon my character at the best of times, and would still be a sore job for
+      me if I fell among the red-coats."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What," cried I, "were you in the English army?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was I," said Alan. "But I deserted to the right side at Preston Pans&mdash;and
+      that's some comfort."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could scarcely share this view: holding desertion under arms for an
+      unpardonable fault in honour. But for all I was so young, I was wiser than
+      say my thought. "Dear, dear," says I, "the punishment is death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said he, "if they got hands on me, it would be a short shrift and a
+      lang tow for Alan! But I have the King of France's commission in my
+      pocket, which would aye be some protection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I misdoubt it much," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have doubts mysel'," said Alan drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, good heaven, man," cried I, "you that are a condemned rebel, and a
+      deserter, and a man of the French King's&mdash;what tempts ye back into
+      this country? It's a braving of Providence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tut!" says Alan, "I have been back every year since forty-six!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what brings ye, man?" cried I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, ye see, I weary for my friends and country," said he. "France is a
+      braw place, nae doubt; but I weary for the heather and the deer. And then
+      I have bit things that I attend to. Whiles I pick up a few lads to serve
+      the King of France: recruits, ye see; and that's aye a little money. But
+      the heart of the matter is the business of my chief, Ardshiel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought they called your chief Appin," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but Ardshiel is the captain of the clan," said he, which scarcely
+      cleared my mind. "Ye see, David, he that was all his life so great a man,
+      and come of the blood and bearing the name of kings, is now brought down
+      to live in a French town like a poor and private person. He that had four
+      hundred swords at his whistle, I have seen, with these eyes of mine,
+      buying butter in the market-place, and taking it home in a kale-leaf. This
+      is not only a pain but a disgrace to us of his family and clan. There are
+      the bairns forby, the children and the hope of Appin, that must be learned
+      their letters and how to hold a sword, in that far country. Now, the
+      tenants of Appin have to pay a rent to King George; but their hearts are
+      staunch, they are true to their chief; and what with love and a bit of
+      pressure, and maybe a threat or two, the poor folk scrape up a second rent
+      for Ardshiel. Well, David, I'm the hand that carries it." And he struck
+      the belt about his body, so that the guineas rang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do they pay both?" cried I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, David, both," says he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! two rents?" I repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, David," said he. "I told a different tale to yon captain man; but
+      this is the truth of it. And it's wonderful to me how little pressure is
+      needed. But that's the handiwork of my good kinsman and my father's
+      friend, James of the Glens: James Stewart, that is: Ardshiel's
+      half-brother. He it is that gets the money in, and does the management."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first time I heard the name of that James Stewart, who was
+      afterwards so famous at the time of his hanging. But I took little heed at
+      the moment, for all my mind was occupied with the generosity of these poor
+      Highlanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I call it noble," I cried. "I'm a Whig, or little better; but I call it
+      noble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said he, "ye're a Whig, but ye're a gentleman; and that's what does
+      it. Now, if ye were one of the cursed race of Campbell, ye would gnash
+      your teeth to hear tell of it. If ye were the Red Fox..." And at that
+      name, his teeth shut together, and he ceased speaking. I have seen many a
+      grim face, but never a grimmer than Alan's when he had named the Red Fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who is the Red Fox?" I asked, daunted, but still curious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is he?" cried Alan. "Well, and I'll tell you that. When the men of
+      the clans were broken at Culloden, and the good cause went down, and the
+      horses rode over the fetlocks in the best blood of the north, Ardshiel had
+      to flee like a poor deer upon the mountains&mdash;he and his lady and his
+      bairns. A sair job we had of it before we got him shipped; and while he
+      still lay in the heather, the English rogues, that couldnae come at his
+      life, were striking at his rights. They stripped him of his powers; they
+      stripped him of his lands; they plucked the weapons from the hands of his
+      clansmen, that had borne arms for thirty centuries; ay, and the very
+      clothes off their backs&mdash;so that it's now a sin to wear a tartan
+      plaid, and a man may be cast into a gaol if he has but a kilt about his
+      legs. One thing they couldnae kill. That was the love the clansmen bore
+      their chief. These guineas are the proof of it. And now, in there steps a
+      man, a Campbell, red-headed Colin of Glenure&mdash;&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that him you call the Red Fox?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will ye bring me his brush?" cries Alan, fiercely. "Ay, that's the man.
+      In he steps, and gets papers from King George, to be so-called King's
+      factor on the lands of Appin. And at first he sings small, and is
+      hail-fellow-well-met with Sheamus&mdash;that's James of the Glens, my
+      chieftain's agent. But by-and-by, that came to his ears that I have just
+      told you; how the poor commons of Appin, the farmers and the crofters and
+      the boumen, were wringing their very plaids to get a second rent, and send
+      it over-seas for Ardshiel and his poor bairns. What was it ye called it,
+      when I told ye?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I called it noble, Alan," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you little better than a common Whig!" cries Alan. "But when it came
+      to Colin Roy, the black Campbell blood in him ran wild. He sat gnashing
+      his teeth at the wine table. What! should a Stewart get a bite of bread,
+      and him not be able to prevent it? Ah! Red Fox, if ever I hold you at a
+      gun's end, the Lord have pity upon ye!" (Alan stopped to swallow down his
+      anger.) "Well, David, what does he do? He declares all the farms to let.
+      And, thinks he, in his black heart, 'I'll soon get other tenants that'll
+      overbid these Stewarts, and Maccolls, and Macrobs' (for these are all
+      names in my clan, David); 'and then,' thinks he, 'Ardshiel will have to
+      hold his bonnet on a French roadside.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "what followed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan laid down his pipe, which he had long since suffered to go out, and
+      set his two hands upon his knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "ye'll never guess that! For these same Stewarts, and
+      Maccolls, and Macrobs (that had two rents to pay, one to King George by
+      stark force, and one to Ardshiel by natural kindness) offered him a better
+      price than any Campbell in all broad Scotland; and far he sent seeking
+      them&mdash;as far as to the sides of Clyde and the cross of Edinburgh&mdash;seeking,
+      and fleeching, and begging them to come, where there was a Stewart to be
+      starved and a red-headed hound of a Campbell to be pleasured!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Alan," said I, "that is a strange story, and a fine one, too. And
+      Whig as I may be, I am glad the man was beaten."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Him beaten?" echoed Alan. "It's little ye ken of Campbells, and less of
+      the Red Fox. Him beaten? No: nor will be, till his blood's on the
+      hillside! But if the day comes, David man, that I can find time and
+      leisure for a bit of hunting, there grows not enough heather in all
+      Scotland to hide him from my vengeance!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Man Alan," said I, "ye are neither very wise nor very Christian to blow
+      off so many words of anger. They will do the man ye call the Fox no harm,
+      and yourself no good. Tell me your tale plainly out. What did he next?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's a good observe, David," said Alan. "Troth and indeed, they
+      will do him no harm; the more's the pity! And barring that about
+      Christianity (of which my opinion is quite otherwise, or I would be nae
+      Christian), I am much of your mind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Opinion here or opinion there," said I, "it's a kent thing that
+      Christianity forbids revenge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said he, "it's well seen it was a Campbell taught ye! It would be a
+      convenient world for them and their sort, if there was no such a thing as
+      a lad and a gun behind a heather bush! But that's nothing to the point.
+      This is what he did."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said I, "come to that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, David," said he, "since he couldnae be rid of the loyal commons by
+      fair means, he swore he would be rid of them by foul. Ardshiel was to
+      starve: that was the thing he aimed at. And since them that fed him in his
+      exile wouldnae be bought out&mdash;right or wrong, he would drive them
+      out. Therefore he sent for lawyers, and papers, and red-coats to stand at
+      his back. And the kindly folk of that country must all pack and tramp,
+      every father's son out of his father's house, and out of the place where
+      he was bred and fed, and played when he was a callant. And who are to
+      succeed them? Bare-leggit beggars! King George is to whistle for his
+      rents; he maun dow with less; he can spread his butter thinner: what cares
+      Red Colin? If he can hurt Ardshiel, he has his wish; if he can pluck the
+      meat from my chieftain's table, and the bit toys out of his children's
+      hands, he will gang hame singing to Glenure!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me have a word," said I. "Be sure, if they take less rents, be sure
+      Government has a finger in the pie. It's not this Campbell's fault, man&mdash;it's
+      his orders. And if ye killed this Colin to-morrow, what better would ye
+      be? There would be another factor in his shoes, as fast as spur can
+      drive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye're a good lad in a fight," said Alan; "but, man! ye have Whig blood in
+      ye!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke kindly enough, but there was so much anger under his contempt
+      that I thought it was wise to change the conversation. I expressed my
+      wonder how, with the Highlands covered with troops, and guarded like a
+      city in a siege, a man in his situation could come and go without arrest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's easier than ye would think," said Alan. "A bare hillside (ye see) is
+      like all one road; if there's a sentry at one place, ye just go by
+      another. And then the heather's a great help. And everywhere there are
+      friends' houses and friends' byres and haystacks. And besides, when folk
+      talk of a country covered with troops, it's but a kind of a byword at the
+      best. A soldier covers nae mair of it than his boot-soles. I have fished a
+      water with a sentry on the other side of the brae, and killed a fine
+      trout; and I have sat in a heather bush within six feet of another, and
+      learned a real bonny tune from his whistling. This was it," said he, and
+      whistled me the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And then, besides," he continued, "it's no sae bad now as it was in
+      forty-six. The Hielands are what they call pacified. Small wonder, with
+      never a gun or a sword left from Cantyre to Cape Wrath, but what tenty*
+      folk have hidden in their thatch! But what I would like to ken, David, is
+      just how long? Not long, ye would think, with men like Ardshiel in exile
+      and men like the Red Fox sitting birling the wine and oppressing the poor
+      at home. But it's a kittle thing to decide what folk'll bear, and what
+      they will not. Or why would Red Colin be riding his horse all over my poor
+      country of Appin, and never a pretty lad to put a bullet in him?"
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Careful.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sate very sad and
+      silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will add the rest of what I have to say about my friend, that he was
+      skilled in all kinds of music, but principally pipe-music; was a
+      well-considered poet in his own tongue; had read several books both in
+      French and English; was a dead shot, a good angler, and an excellent
+      fencer with the small sword as well as with his own particular weapon. For
+      his faults, they were on his face, and I now knew them all. But the worst
+      of them, his childish propensity to take offence and to pick quarrels, he
+      greatly laid aside in my case, out of regard for the battle of the
+      round-house. But whether it was because I had done well myself, or because
+      I had been a witness of his own much greater prowess, is more than I can
+      tell. For though he had a great taste for courage in other men, yet he
+      admired it most in Alan Breck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0135m.jpg" alt="0135m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0135.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE LOSS OF THE BRIG
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9135m.jpg" alt="9135m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9135.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      t was already late at night, and as dark as it ever would be at that
+      season of the year (and that is to say, it was still pretty bright), when
+      Hoseason clapped his head into the round-house door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here," said he, "come out and see if ye can pilot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is this one of your tricks?" asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do I look like tricks?" cries the captain. "I have other things to think
+      of&mdash;my brig's in danger!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the concerned look of his face, and, above all, by the sharp tones in
+      which he spoke of his brig, it was plain to both of us he was in deadly
+      earnest; and so Alan and I, with no great fear of treachery, stepped on
+      deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky was clear; it blew hard, and was bitter cold; a great deal of
+      daylight lingered; and the moon, which was nearly full, shone brightly.
+      The brig was close hauled, so as to round the southwest corner of the
+      Island of Mull, the hills of which (and Ben More above them all, with a
+      wisp of mist upon the top of it) lay full upon the lar-board bow. Though
+      it was no good point of sailing for the Covenant, she tore through the
+      seas at a great rate, pitching and straining, and pursued by the westerly
+      swell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Altogether it was no such ill night to keep the seas in; and I had begun
+      to wonder what it was that sat so heavily upon the captain, when the brig
+      rising suddenly on the top of a high swell, he pointed and cried to us to
+      look. Away on the lee bow, a thing like a fountain rose out of the moonlit
+      sea, and immediately after we heard a low sound of roaring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do ye call that?" asked the captain, gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sea breaking on a reef," said Alan. "And now ye ken where it is; and
+      what better would ye have?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Hoseason, "if it was the only one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And sure enough, just as he spoke there came a second fountain farther to
+      the south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There!" said Hoseason. "Ye see for yourself. If I had kent of these
+      reefs, if I had had a chart, or if Shuan had been spared, it's not sixty
+      guineas, no, nor six hundred, would have made me risk my brig in sic a
+      stoneyard! But you, sir, that was to pilot us, have ye never a word?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm thinking," said Alan, "these'll be what they call the Torran Rocks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are there many of them?" says the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Truly, sir, I am nae pilot," said Alan; "but it sticks in my mind there
+      are ten miles of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Riach and the captain looked at each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's a way through them, I suppose?" said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doubtless," said Alan, "but where? But it somehow runs in my mind once
+      more that it is clearer under the land."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So?" said Hoseason. "We'll have to haul our wind then, Mr. Riach; we'll
+      have to come as near in about the end of Mull as we can take her, sir; and
+      even then we'll have the land to kep the wind off us, and that stoneyard
+      on our lee. Well, we're in for it now, and may as well crack on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he gave an order to the steersman, and sent Riach to the
+      foretop. There were only five men on deck, counting the officers; these
+      being all that were fit (or, at least, both fit and willing) for their
+      work. So, as I say, it fell to Mr. Riach to go aloft, and he sat there
+      looking out and hailing the deck with news of all he saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sea to the south is thick," he cried; and then, after a while, "it
+      does seem clearer in by the land."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said Hoseason to Alan, "we'll try your way of it. But I think
+      I might as well trust to a blind fiddler. Pray God you're right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pray God I am!" says Alan to me. "But where did I hear it? Well, well, it
+      will be as it must."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we got nearer to the turn of the land the reefs began to be sown here
+      and there on our very path; and Mr. Riach sometimes cried down to us to
+      change the course. Sometimes, indeed, none too soon; for one reef was so
+      close on the brig's weather board that when a sea burst upon it the
+      lighter sprays fell upon her deck and wetted us like rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brightness of the night showed us these perils as clearly as by day,
+      which was, perhaps, the more alarming. It showed me, too, the face of the
+      captain as he stood by the steersman, now on one foot, now on the other,
+      and sometimes blowing in his hands, but still listening and looking and as
+      steady as steel. Neither he nor Mr. Riach had shown well in the fighting;
+      but I saw they were brave in their own trade, and admired them all the
+      more because I found Alan very white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ochone, David," says he, "this is no the kind of death I fancy!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, Alan!" I cried, "you're not afraid?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said he, wetting his lips, "but you'll allow, yourself, it's a cold
+      ending."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, now and then sheering to one side or the other to avoid a
+      reef, but still hugging the wind and the land, we had got round Iona and
+      begun to come alongside Mull. The tide at the tail of the land ran very
+      strong, and threw the brig about. Two hands were put to the helm, and
+      Hoseason himself would sometimes lend a help; and it was strange to see
+      three strong men throw their weight upon the tiller, and it (like a living
+      thing) struggle against and drive them back. This would have been the
+      greater danger had not the sea been for some while free of obstacles. Mr.
+      Riach, besides, announced from the top that he saw clear water ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye were right," said Hoseason to Alan. "Ye have saved the brig, sir. I'll
+      mind that when we come to clear accounts." And I believe he not only meant
+      what he said, but would have done it; so high a place did the Covenant
+      hold in his affections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this is matter only for conjecture, things having gone otherwise than
+      he forecast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Keep her away a point," sings out Mr. Riach. "Reef to windward!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And just at the same time the tide caught the brig, and threw the wind out
+      of her sails. She came round into the wind like a top, and the next moment
+      struck the reef with such a dunch as threw us all flat upon the deck, and
+      came near to shake Mr. Riach from his place upon the mast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was on my feet in a minute. The reef on which we had struck was close in
+      under the southwest end of Mull, off a little isle they call Earraid,
+      which lay low and black upon the larboard. Sometimes the swell broke clean
+      over us; sometimes it only ground the poor brig upon the reef, so that we
+      could hear her beat herself to pieces; and what with the great noise of
+      the sails, and the singing of the wind, and the flying of the spray in the
+      moonlight, and the sense of danger, I think my head must have been partly
+      turned, for I could scarcely understand the things I saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently I observed Mr. Riach and the seamen busy round the skiff, and,
+      still in the same blank, ran over to assist them; and as soon as I set my
+      hand to work, my mind came clear again. It was no very easy task, for the
+      skiff lay amidships and was full of hamper, and the breaking of the
+      heavier seas continually forced us to give over and hold on; but we all
+      wrought like horses while we could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile such of the wounded as could move came clambering out of the
+      fore-scuttle and began to help; while the rest that lay helpless in their
+      bunks harrowed me with screaming and begging to be saved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain took no part. It seemed he was struck stupid. He stood holding
+      by the shrouds, talking to himself and groaning out aloud whenever the
+      ship hammered on the rock. His brig was like wife and child to him; he had
+      looked on, day by day, at the mishandling of poor Ransome; but when it
+      came to the brig, he seemed to suffer along with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the time of our working at the boat, I remember only one other thing:
+      that I asked Alan, looking across at the shore, what country it was; and
+      he answered, it was the worst possible for him, for it was a land of the
+      Campbells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had one of the wounded men told off to keep a watch upon the seas and
+      cry us warning. Well, we had the boat about ready to be launched, when
+      this man sang out pretty shrill: "For God's sake, hold on!" We knew by his
+      tone that it was something more than ordinary; and sure enough, there
+      followed a sea so huge that it lifted the brig right up and canted her
+      over on her beam. Whether the cry came too late, or my hold was too weak,
+      I know not; but at the sudden tilting of the ship I was cast clean over
+      the bulwarks into the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went down, and drank my fill, and then came up, and got a blink of the
+      moon, and then down again. They say a man sinks a third time for good. I
+      cannot be made like other folk, then; for I would not like to write how
+      often I went down, or how often I came up again. All the while, I was
+      being hurled along, and beaten upon and choked, and then swallowed whole;
+      and the thing was so distracting to my wits, that I was neither sorry nor
+      afraid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently, I found I was holding to a spar, which helped me somewhat. And
+      then all of a sudden I was in quiet water, and began to come to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the spare yard I had got hold of, and I was amazed to see how far I
+      had travelled from the brig. I hailed her, indeed; but it was plain she
+      was already out of cry. She was still holding together; but whether or not
+      they had yet launched the boat, I was too far off and too low down to see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was hailing the brig, I spied a tract of water lying between us
+      where no great waves came, but which yet boiled white all over and
+      bristled in the moon with rings and bubbles. Sometimes the whole tract
+      swung to one side, like the tail of a live serpent; sometimes, for a
+      glimpse, it would all disappear and then boil up again. What it was I had
+      no guess, which for the time increased my fear of it; but I now know it
+      must have been the roost or tide race, which had carried me away so fast
+      and tumbled me about so cruelly, and at last, as if tired of that play,
+      had flung out me and the spare yard upon its landward margin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now lay quite becalmed, and began to feel that a man can die of cold as
+      well as of drowning. The shores of Earraid were close in; I could see in
+      the moonlight the dots of heather and the sparkling of the mica in the
+      rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," thought I to myself, "if I cannot get as far as that, it's
+      strange!"
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0141m.jpg" alt="0141m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0141.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0143m.jpg" alt="0143m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0143.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      I had no skill of swimming, Essen Water being small in our neighbourhood;
+      but when I laid hold upon the yard with both arms, and kicked out with
+      both feet, I soon begun to find that I was moving. Hard work it was, and
+      mortally slow; but in about an hour of kicking and splashing, I had got
+      well in between the points of a sandy bay surrounded by low hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was here quite quiet; there was no sound of any surf; the moon
+      shone clear; and I thought in my heart I had never seen a place so desert
+      and desolate. But it was dry land; and when at last it grew so shallow
+      that I could leave the yard and wade ashore upon my feet, I cannot tell if
+      I was more tired or more grateful. Both, at least, I was: tired as I never
+      was before that night; and grateful to God as I trust I have been often,
+      though never with more cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0146m.jpg" alt="0146m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0146.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE ISLET
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9146m.jpg" alt="9146m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9146.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ith my stepping ashore I began the most unhappy part of my adventures. It
+      was half-past twelve in the morning, and though the wind was broken by the
+      land, it was a cold night. I dared not sit down (for I thought I should
+      have frozen), but took off my shoes and walked to and fro upon the sand,
+      bare-foot, and beating my breast with infinite weariness. There was no
+      sound of man or cattle; not a cock crew, though it was about the hour of
+      their first waking; only the surf broke outside in the distance, which put
+      me in mind of my perils and those of my friend. To walk by the sea at that
+      hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me
+      with a kind of fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the day began to break I put on my shoes and climbed a hill&mdash;the
+      ruggedest scramble I ever undertook&mdash;falling, the whole way, between
+      big blocks of granite, or leaping from one to another. When I got to the
+      top the dawn was come. There was no sign of the brig, which must have
+      lifted from the reef and sunk. The boat, too, was nowhere to be seen.
+      There was never a sail upon the ocean; and in what I could see of the land
+      was neither house nor man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was afraid to think what had befallen my shipmates, and afraid to look
+      longer at so empty a scene. What with my wet clothes and weariness, and my
+      belly that now began to ache with hunger, I had enough to trouble me
+      without that. So I set off eastward along the south coast, hoping to find
+      a house where I might warm myself, and perhaps get news of those I had
+      lost. And at the worst, I considered the sun would soon rise and dry my
+      clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a little, my way was stopped by a creek or inlet of the sea, which
+      seemed to run pretty deep into the land; and as I had no means to get
+      across, I must needs change my direction to go about the end of it. It was
+      still the roughest kind of walking; indeed the whole, not only of Earraid,
+      but of the neighbouring part of Mull (which they call the Ross) is nothing
+      but a jumble of granite rocks with heather in among. At first the creek
+      kept narrowing as I had looked to see; but presently to my surprise it
+      began to widen out again. At this I scratched my head, but had still no
+      notion of the truth: until at last I came to a rising ground, and it burst
+      upon me all in a moment that I was cast upon a little barren isle, and cut
+      off on every side by the salt seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of the sun rising to dry me, it came on to rain, with a thick
+      mist; so that my case was lamentable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stood in the rain, and shivered, and wondered what to do, till it
+      occurred to me that perhaps the creek was fordable. Back I went to the
+      narrowest point and waded in. But not three yards from shore, I plumped in
+      head over ears; and if ever I was heard of more, it was rather by God's
+      grace than my own prudence. I was no wetter (for that could hardly be),
+      but I was all the colder for this mishap; and having lost another hope was
+      the more unhappy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, all at once, the yard came in my head. What had carried me
+      through the roost would surely serve me to cross this little quiet creek
+      in safety. With that I set off, undaunted, across the top of the isle, to
+      fetch and carry it back. It was a weary tramp in all ways, and if hope had
+      not buoyed me up, I must have cast myself down and given up. Whether with
+      the sea salt, or because I was growing fevered, I was distressed with
+      thirst, and had to stop, as I went, and drink the peaty water out of the
+      hags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I came to the bay at last, more dead than alive; and at the first glance,
+      I thought the yard was something farther out than when I left it. In I
+      went, for the third time, into the sea. The sand was smooth and firm, and
+      shelved gradually down, so that I could wade out till the water was almost
+      to my neck and the little waves splashed into my face. But at that depth
+      my feet began to leave me, and I durst venture in no farther. As for the
+      yard, I saw it bobbing very quietly some twenty feet beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had borne up well until this last disappointment; but at that I came
+      ashore, and flung myself down upon the sands and wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time I spent upon the island is still so horrible a thought to me,
+      that I must pass it lightly over. In all the books I have read of people
+      cast away, they had either their pockets full of tools, or a chest of
+      things would be thrown upon the beach along with them, as if on purpose.
+      My case was very different. I had nothing in my pockets but money and
+      Alan's silver button; and being inland bred, I was as much short of
+      knowledge as of means.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew indeed that shell-fish were counted good to eat; and among the
+      rocks of the isle I found a great plenty of limpets, which at first I
+      could scarcely strike from their places, not knowing quickness to be
+      needful. There were, besides, some of the little shells that we call
+      buckies; I think periwinkle is the English name. Of these two I made my
+      whole diet, devouring them cold and raw as I found them; and so hungry was
+      I, that at first they seemed to me delicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps they were out of season, or perhaps there was something wrong in
+      the sea about my island. But at least I had no sooner eaten my first meal
+      than I was seized with giddiness and retching, and lay for a long time no
+      better than dead. A second trial of the same food (indeed I had no other)
+      did better with me, and revived my strength. But as long as I was on the
+      island, I never knew what to expect when I had eaten; sometimes all was
+      well, and sometimes I was thrown into a miserable sickness; nor could I
+      ever distinguish what particular fish it was that hurt me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All day it streamed rain; the island ran like a sop, there was no dry spot
+      to be found; and when I lay down that night, between two boulders that
+      made a kind of roof, my feet were in a bog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second day I crossed the island to all sides. There was no one part of
+      it better than another; it was all desolate and rocky; nothing living on
+      it but game birds which I lacked the means to kill, and the gulls which
+      haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. But the creek, or
+      strait, that cut off the isle from the main-land of the Ross, opened out
+      on the north into a bay, and the bay again opened into the Sound of Iona;
+      and it was the neighbourhood of this place that I chose to be my home;
+      though if I had thought upon the very name of home in such a spot, I must
+      have burst out weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had good reasons for my choice. There was in this part of the isle a
+      little hut of a house like a pig's hut, where fishers used to sleep when
+      they came there upon their business; but the turf roof of it had fallen
+      entirely in; so that the hut was of no use to me, and gave me less shelter
+      than my rocks. What was more important, the shell-fish on which I lived
+      grew there in great plenty; when the tide was out I could gather a peck at
+      a time: and this was doubtless a convenience. But the other reason went
+      deeper. I had become in no way used to the horrid solitude of the isle,
+      but still looked round me on all sides (like a man that was hunted),
+      between fear and hope that I might see some human creature coming. Now,
+      from a little up the hillside over the bay, I could catch a sight of the
+      great, ancient church and the roofs of the people's houses in Iona. And on
+      the other hand, over the low country of the Ross, I saw smoke go up,
+      morning and evening, as if from a homestead in a hollow of the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I used to watch this smoke, when I was wet and cold, and had my head half
+      turned with loneliness; and think of the fireside and the company, till my
+      heart burned. It was the same with the roofs of Iona. Altogether, this
+      sight I had of men's homes and comfortable lives, although it put a point
+      on my own sufferings, yet it kept hope alive, and helped me to eat my raw
+      shell-fish (which had soon grown to be a disgust), and saved me from the
+      sense of horror I had whenever I was quite alone with dead rocks, and
+      fowls, and the rain, and the cold sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I say it kept hope alive; and indeed it seemed impossible that I should be
+      left to die on the shores of my own country, and within view of a
+      church-tower and the smoke of men's houses. But the second day passed; and
+      though as long as the light lasted I kept a bright look-out for boats on
+      the Sound or men passing on the Ross, no help came near me. It still
+      rained, and I turned in to sleep, as wet as ever, and with a cruel sore
+      throat, but a little comforted, perhaps, by having said good-night to my
+      next neighbours, the people of Iona.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charles the Second declared a man could stay outdoors more days in the
+      year in the climate of England than in any other. This was very like a
+      king, with a palace at his back and changes of dry clothes. But he must
+      have had better luck on his flight from Worcester than I had on that
+      miserable isle. It was the height of the summer; yet it rained for more
+      than twenty-four hours, and did not clear until the afternoon of the third
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the day of incidents. In the morning I saw a red deer, a buck
+      with a fine spread of antlers, standing in the rain on the top of the
+      island; but he had scarce seen me rise from under my rock, before he
+      trotted off upon the other side. I supposed he must have swum the strait;
+      though what should bring any creature to Earraid, was more than I could
+      fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little after, as I was jumping about after my limpets, I was startled by
+      a guinea-piece, which fell upon a rock in front of me and glanced off into
+      the sea. When the sailors gave me my money again, they kept back not only
+      about a third of the whole sum, but my father's leather purse; so that
+      from that day out, I carried my gold loose in a pocket with a button. I
+      now saw there must be a hole, and clapped my hand to the place in a great
+      hurry. But this was to lock the stable door after the steed was stolen. I
+      had left the shore at Queensferry with near on fifty pounds; now I found
+      no more than two guinea-pieces and a silver shilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true I picked up a third guinea a little after, where it lay shining
+      on a piece of turf. That made a fortune of three pounds and four
+      shillings, English money, for a lad, the rightful heir of an estate, and
+      now starving on an isle at the extreme end of the wild Highlands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This state of my affairs dashed me still further; and, indeed my plight on
+      that third morning was truly pitiful. My clothes were beginning to rot; my
+      stockings in particular were quite worn through, so that my shanks went
+      naked; my hands had grown quite soft with the continual soaking; my throat
+      was very sore, my strength had much abated, and my heart so turned against
+      the horrid stuff I was condemned to eat, that the very sight of it came
+      near to sicken me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet the worst was not yet come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a pretty high rock on the northwest of Earraid, which (because it
+      had a flat top and overlooked the Sound) I was much in the habit of
+      frequenting; not that ever I stayed in one place, save when asleep, my
+      misery giving me no rest. Indeed, I wore myself down with continual and
+      aimless goings and comings in the rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon, however, as the sun came out, I lay down on the top of that rock
+      to dry myself. The comfort of the sunshine is a thing I cannot tell. It
+      set me thinking hopefully of my deliverance, of which I had begun to
+      despair; and I scanned the sea and the Ross with a fresh interest. On the
+      south of my rock, a part of the island jutted out and hid the open ocean,
+      so that a boat could thus come quite near me upon that side, and I be none
+      the wiser.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0153m.jpg" alt="0153m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0153.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Well, all of a sudden, a coble with a brown sail and a pair of fishers
+      aboard of it, came flying round that corner of the isle, bound for Iona. I
+      shouted out, and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands
+      and prayed to them. They were near enough to hear&mdash;I could even see
+      the colour of their hair; and there was no doubt but they observed me, for
+      they cried out in the Gaelic tongue, and laughed. But the boat never
+      turned aside, and flew on, right before my eyes, for Iona.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not believe such wickedness, and ran along the shore from rock to
+      rock, crying on them piteously even after they were out of reach of my
+      voice, I still cried and waved to them; and when they were quite gone, I
+      thought my heart would have burst. All the time of my troubles I wept only
+      twice. Once, when I could not reach the yard, and now, the second time,
+      when these fishers turned a deaf ear to my cries. But this time I wept and
+      roared like a wicked child, tearing up the turf with my nails, and
+      grinding my face in the earth. If a wish would kill men, those two fishers
+      would never have seen morning, and I should likely have died upon my
+      island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I was a little over my anger, I must eat again, but with such
+      loathing of the mess as I could now scarce control. Sure enough, I should
+      have done as well to fast, for my fishes poisoned me again. I had all my
+      first pains; my throat was so sore I could scarce swallow; I had a fit of
+      strong shuddering, which clucked my teeth together; and there came on me
+      that dreadful sense of illness, which we have no name for either in Scotch
+      or English. I thought I should have died, and made my peace with God,
+      forgiving all men, even my uncle and the fishers; and as soon as I had
+      thus made up my mind to the worst, clearness came upon me; I observed the
+      night was falling dry; my clothes were dried a good deal; truly, I was in
+      a better case than ever before, since I had landed on the isle; and so I
+      got to sleep at last, with a thought of gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day (which was the fourth of this horrible life of mine) I found
+      my bodily strength run very low. But the sun shone, the air was sweet, and
+      what I managed to eat of the shell-fish agreed well with me and revived my
+      courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was scarce back on my rock (where I went always the first thing after I
+      had eaten) before I observed a boat coming down the Sound, and with her
+      head, as I thought, in my direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I began at once to hope and fear exceedingly; for I thought these men
+      might have thought better of their cruelty and be coming back to my
+      assistance. But another disappointment, such as yesterday's, was more than
+      I could bear. I turned my back, accordingly, upon the sea, and did not
+      look again till I had counted many hundreds. The boat was still heading
+      for the island. The next time I counted the full thousand, as slowly as I
+      could, my heart beating so as to hurt me. And then it was out of all
+      question. She was coming straight to Earraid!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could no longer hold myself back, but ran to the seaside and out, from
+      one rock to another, as far as I could go. It is a marvel I was not
+      drowned; for when I was brought to a stand at last, my legs shook under
+      me, and my mouth was so dry, I must wet it with the sea-water before I was
+      able to shout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time the boat was coming on; and now I was able to perceive it
+      was the same boat and the same two men as yesterday. This I knew by their
+      hair, which the one had of a bright yellow and the other black. But now
+      there was a third man along with them, who looked to be of a better class.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were come within easy speech, they let down their sail and
+      lay quiet. In spite of my supplications, they drew no nearer in, and what
+      frightened me most of all, the new man tee-hee'd with laughter as he
+      talked and looked at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he stood up in the boat and addressed me a long while, speaking fast
+      and with many wavings of his hand. I told him I had no Gaelic; and at this
+      he became very angry, and I began to suspect he thought he was talking
+      English. Listening very close, I caught the word "whateffer" several
+      times; but all the rest was Gaelic and might have been Greek and Hebrew
+      for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whatever," said I, to show him I had caught a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, yes&mdash;yes, yes," says he, and then he looked at the other men,
+      as much as to say, "I told you I spoke English," and began again as hard
+      as ever in the Gaelic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This time I picked out another word, "tide." Then I had a flash of hope. I
+      remembered he was always waving his hand towards the mainland of the Ross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you mean when the tide is out&mdash;?" I cried, and could not finish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, yes," said he. "Tide."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that I turned tail upon their boat (where my adviser had once more
+      begun to tee-hee with laughter), leaped back the way I had come, from one
+      stone to another, and set off running across the isle as I had never run
+      before. In about half an hour I came out upon the shores of the creek;
+      and, sure enough, it was shrunk into a little trickle of water, through
+      which I dashed, not above my knees, and landed with a shout on the main
+      island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sea-bred boy would not have stayed a day on Earraid; which is only what
+      they call a tidal islet, and except in the bottom of the neaps, can be
+      entered and left twice in every twenty-four hours, either dry-shod, or at
+      the most by wading. Even I, who had the tide going out and in before me in
+      the bay, and even watched for the ebbs, the better to get my shellfish&mdash;even
+      I (I say) if I had sat down to think, instead of raging at my fate, must
+      have soon guessed the secret, and got free. It was no wonder the fishers
+      had not understood me. The wonder was rather that they had ever guessed my
+      pitiful illusion, and taken the trouble to come back. I had starved with
+      cold and hunger on that island for close upon one hundred hours. But for
+      the fishers, I might have left my bones there, in pure folly. And even as
+      it was, I had paid for it pretty dear, not only in past sufferings, but in
+      my present case; being clothed like a beggar-man, scarce able to walk, and
+      in great pain of my sore throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they
+      both get paid in the end; but the fools first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0158m.jpg" alt="0158m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0158.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9158m.jpg" alt="9158m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9158.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      he Ross of Mull, which I had now got upon, was rugged and trackless, like
+      the isle I had just left; being all bog, and brier, and big stone. There
+      may be roads for them that know that country well; but for my part I had
+      no better guide than my own nose, and no other landmark than Ben More.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I aimed as well as I could for the smoke I had seen so often from the
+      island; and with all my great weariness and the difficulty of the way came
+      upon the house in the bottom of a little hollow about five or six at
+      night. It was low and longish, roofed with turf and built of unmortared
+      stones; and on a mound in front of it, an old gentleman sat smoking his
+      pipe in the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With what little English he had, he gave me to understand that my
+      shipmates had got safe ashore, and had broken bread in that very house on
+      the day after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was there one," I asked, "dressed like a gentleman?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said they all wore rough great-coats; but to be sure, the first of
+      them, the one that came alone, wore breeches and stockings, while the rest
+      had sailors' trousers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah," said I, "and he would have a feathered hat?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He told me, no, that he was bareheaded like myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I thought Alan might have lost his hat; and then the rain came in
+      my mind, and I judged it more likely he had it out of harm's way under his
+      great-coat. This set me smiling, partly because my friend was safe, partly
+      to think of his vanity in dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the old gentleman clapped his hand to his brow, and cried out
+      that I must be the lad with the silver button.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, yes!" said I, in some wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then," said the old gentleman, "I have a word for you, that you are
+      to follow your friend to his country, by Torosay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then asked me how I had fared, and I told him my tale. A south-country
+      man would certainly have laughed; but this old gentleman (I call him so
+      because of his manners, for his clothes were dropping off his back) heard
+      me all through with nothing but gravity and pity. When I had done, he took
+      me by the hand, led me into his hut (it was no better) and presented me
+      before his wife, as if she had been the Queen and I a duke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good woman set oat-bread before me and a cold grouse, patting my
+      shoulder and smiling to me all the time, for she had no English; and the
+      old gentleman (not to be behind) brewed me a strong punch out of their
+      country spirit. All the while I was eating, and after that when I was
+      drinking the punch, I could scarce come to believe in my good fortune; and
+      the house, though it was thick with the peat-smoke and as full of holes as
+      a colander, seemed like a palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The punch threw me in a strong sweat and a deep slumber; the good people
+      let me lie; and it was near noon of the next day before I took the road,
+      my throat already easier and my spirits quite restored by good fare and
+      good news. The old gentleman, although I pressed him hard, would take no
+      money, and gave me an old bonnet for my head; though I am free to own I
+      was no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed this
+      gift of his in a wayside fountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thought I to myself: "If these are the wild Highlanders, I could wish my
+      own folk wilder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I not only started late, but I must have wandered nearly half the time.
+      True, I met plenty of people, grubbing in little miserable fields that
+      would not keep a cat, or herding little kine about the bigness of asses.
+      The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion, and the
+      people condemned to the Lowland habit, which they much disliked, it was
+      strange to see the variety of their array. Some went bare, only for a
+      hanging cloak or great-coat, and carried their trousers on their backs
+      like a useless burthen: some had made an imitation of the tartan with
+      little parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife's quilt;
+      others, again, still wore the Highland philabeg, but by putting a few
+      stitches between the legs transformed it into a pair of trousers like a
+      Dutchman's. All those makeshifts were condemned and punished, for the law
+      was harshly applied, in hopes to break up the clan spirit; but in that
+      out-of-the-way, sea-bound isle, there were few to make remarks and fewer
+      to tell tales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They seemed in great poverty; which was no doubt natural, now that rapine
+      was put down, and the chiefs kept no longer an open house; and the roads
+      (even such a wandering, country by-track as the one I followed) were
+      infested with beggars. And here again I marked a difference from my own
+      part of the country. For our Lowland beggars&mdash;even the gownsmen
+      themselves, who beg by patent&mdash;had a louting, flattering way with
+      them, and if you gave them a plaek and asked change, would very civilly
+      return you a boddle. But these Highland beggars stood on their dignity,
+      asked alms only to buy snuff (by their account) and would give no change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be sure, this was no concern of mine, except in so far as it
+      entertained me by the way. What was much more to the purpose, few had any
+      English, and these few (unless they were of the brotherhood of beggars)
+      not very anxious to place it at my service. I knew Torosay to be my
+      destination, and repeated the name to them and pointed; but instead of
+      simply pointing in reply, they would give me a screed of the Gaelic that
+      set me foolish; so it was small wonder if I went out of my road as often
+      as I stayed in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, about eight at night, and already very weary, I came to a lone
+      house, where I asked admittance, and was refused, until I bethought me of
+      the power of money in so poor a country, and held up one of my guineas in
+      my finger and thumb. Thereupon, the man of the house, who had hitherto
+      pretended to have no English, and driven me from his door by signals,
+      suddenly began to speak as clearly as was needful, and agreed for five
+      shillings to give me a night's lodging and guide me the next day to
+      Torosay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I slept uneasily that night, fearing I should be robbed; but I might have
+      spared myself the pain; for my host was no robber, only miserably poor and
+      a great cheat. He was not alone in his poverty; for the next morning, we
+      must go five miles about to the house of what he called a rich man to have
+      one of my guineas changed. This was perhaps a rich man for Mull; he would
+      have scarce been thought so in the south; for it took all he had&mdash;the
+      whole house was turned upside down, and a neighbour brought under
+      contribution, before he could scrape together twenty shillings in silver.
+      The odd shilling he kept for himself, protesting he could ill afford to
+      have so great a sum of money lying "locked up." For all that he was very
+      courteous and well spoken, made us both sit down with his family to
+      dinner, and brewed punch in a fine china bowl, over which my rascal guide
+      grew so merry that he refused to start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was for getting angry, and appealed to the rich man (Hector Maclean was
+      his name), who had been a witness to our bargain and to my payment of the
+      five shillings. But Maclean had taken his share of the punch, and vowed
+      that no gentleman should leave his table after the bowl was brewed; so
+      there was nothing for it but to sit and hear Jacobite toasts and Gaelic
+      songs, till all were tipsy and staggered off to the bed or the barn for
+      their night's rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day (the fourth of my travels) we were up before five upon the clock;
+      but my rascal guide got to the bottle at once, and it was three hours
+      before I had him clear of the house, and then (as you shall hear) only for
+      a worse disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As long as we went down a heathery valley that lay before Mr. Maclean's
+      house, all went well; only my guide looked constantly over his shoulder,
+      and when I asked him the cause, only grinned at me. No sooner, however,
+      had we crossed the back of a hill, and got out of sight of the house
+      windows, than he told me Torosay lay right in front, and that a hill-top
+      (which he pointed out) was my best landmark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I care very little for that," said I, "since you are going with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The impudent cheat answered me in the Gaelic that he had no English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My fine fellow," I said, "I know very well your English comes and goes.
+      Tell me what will bring it back? Is it more money you wish?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Five shillings mair," said he, "and hersel' will bring ye there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I reflected awhile and then offered him two, which he accepted greedily,
+      and insisted on having in his hands at once "for luck," as he said, but I
+      think it was rather for my misfortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two shillings carried him not quite as many miles; at the end of which
+      distance, he sat down upon the wayside and took off his brogues from his
+      feet, like a man about to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was now red-hot. "Ha!" said I, "have you no more English?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said impudently, "No."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that I boiled over, and lifted my hand to strike him; and he, drawing a
+      knife from his rags, squatted back and grinned at me like a wildcat. At
+      that, forgetting everything but my anger, I ran in upon him, put aside his
+      knife with my left, and struck him in the mouth with the right. I was a
+      strong lad and very angry, and he but a little man; and he went down
+      before me heavily. By good luck, his knife flew out of his hand as he
+      fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I picked up both that and his brogues, wished him a good morning, and set
+      off upon my way, leaving him barefoot and disarmed. I chuckled to myself
+      as I went, being sure I was done with that rogue, for a variety of
+      reasons. First, he knew he could have no more of my money; next, the
+      brogues were worth in that country only a few pence; and, lastly, the
+      knife, which was really a dagger, it was against the law for him to carry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In about half an hour of walk, I overtook a great, ragged man, moving
+      pretty fast but feeling before him with a staff. He was quite blind, and
+      told me he was a catechist, which should have put me at my ease. But his
+      face went against me; it seemed dark and dangerous and secret; and
+      presently, as we began to go on alongside, I saw the steel butt of a
+      pistol sticking from under the flap of his coat-pocket. To carry such a
+      thing meant a fine of fifteen pounds sterling upon a first offence, and
+      transportation to the colonies upon a second. Nor could I quite see why a
+      religious teacher should go armed, or what a blind man could be doing with
+      a pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him about my guide, for I was proud of what I had done, and my
+      vanity for once got the heels of my prudence. At the mention of the five
+      shillings he cried out so loud that I made up my mind I should say nothing
+      of the other two, and was glad he could not see my blushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was it too much?" I asked, a little faltering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Too much!" cries he. "Why, I will guide you to Torosay myself for a dram
+      of brandy. And give you the great pleasure of my company (me that is a man
+      of some learning) in the bargain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said I did not see how a blind man could be a guide; but at that he
+      laughed aloud, and said his stick was eyes enough for an eagle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the Isle of Mull, at least," says he, "where I know every stone and
+      heather-bush by mark of head. See, now," he said, striking right and left,
+      as if to make sure, "down there a burn is running; and at the head of it
+      there stands a bit of a small hill with a stone cocked upon the top of
+      that; and it's hard at the foot of the hill, that the way runs by to
+      Torosay; and the way here, being for droves, is plainly trodden, and will
+      show grassy through the heather."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had to own he was right in every feature, and told my wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" says he, "that's nothing. Would ye believe me now, that before the
+      Act came out, and when there were weepons in this country, I could shoot?
+      Ay, could I!" cries he, and then with a leer: "If ye had such a thing as a
+      pistol here to try with, I would show ye how it's done."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I had nothing of the sort, and gave him a wider berth. If he
+      had known, his pistol stuck at that time quite plainly out of his pocket,
+      and I could see the sun twinkle on the steel of the butt. But by the
+      better luck for me, he knew nothing, thought all was covered, and lied on
+      in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then began to question me cunningly, where I came from, whether I was
+      rich, whether I could change a five-shilling piece for him (which he
+      declared he had that moment in his sporran), and all the time he kept
+      edging up to me and I avoiding him. We were now upon a sort of green
+      cattle-track which crossed the hills towards Torosay, and we kept changing
+      sides upon that like dancers in a reel. I had so plainly the upper-hand
+      that my spirits rose, and indeed I took a pleasure in this game of
+      blindman's buff; but the catechist grew angrier and angrier, and at last
+      began to swear in Gaelic and to strike for my legs with his staff.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0165m.jpg" alt="0165m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0165.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Then I told him that, sure enough, I had a pistol in my pocket as well as
+      he, and if he did not strike across the hill due south I would even blow
+      his brains out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He became at once very polite, and after trying to soften me for some
+      time, but quite in vain, he cursed me once more in Gaelic and took himself
+      off. I watched him striding along, through bog and brier, tapping with his
+      stick, until he turned the end of a hill and disappeared in the next
+      hollow. Then I struck on again for Torosay, much better pleased to be
+      alone than to travel with that man of learning. This was an unlucky day;
+      and these two, of whom I had just rid myself, one after the other, were
+      the two worst men I met with in the Highlands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Torosay, on the Sound of Mull and looking over to the mainland of
+      Morven, there was an inn with an innkeeper, who was a Maclean, it
+      appeared, of a very high family; for to keep an inn is thought even more
+      genteel in the Highlands than it is with us, perhaps as partaking of
+      hospitality, or perhaps because the trade is idle and drunken. He spoke
+      good English, and finding me to be something of a scholar, tried me first
+      in French, where he easily beat me, and then in the Latin, in which I
+      don't know which of us did best. This pleasant rivalry put us at once upon
+      friendly terms; and I sat up and drank punch with him (or to be more
+      correct, sat up and watched him drink it), until he was so tipsy that he
+      wept upon my shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tried him, as if by accident, with a sight of Alan's button; but it was
+      plain he had never seen or heard of it. Indeed, he bore some grudge
+      against the family and friends of Ardshiel, and before he was drunk he
+      read me a lampoon, in very good Latin, but with a very ill meaning, which
+      he had made in elegiac verses upon a person of that house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I told him of my catechist, he shook his head, and said I was lucky
+      to have got clear off. "That is a very dangerous man," he said; "Duncan
+      Mackiegh is his name; he can shoot by the ear at several yards, and has
+      been often accused of highway robberies, and once of murder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The cream of it is," says I, "that he called himself a catechist."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why should he not?" says he, "when that is what he is. It was Maclean
+      of Duart gave it to him because he was blind. But perhaps it was a peety,"
+      says my host, "for he is always on the road, going from one place to
+      another to hear the young folk say their religion; and, doubtless, that is
+      a great temptation to the poor man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, when my landlord could drink no more, he showed me to a bed, and
+      I lay down in very good spirits; having travelled the greater part of that
+      big and crooked Island of Mull, from Earraid to Torosay, fifty miles as
+      the crow flies, and (with my wanderings) much nearer a hundred, in four
+      days and with little fatigue. Indeed I was by far in better heart and
+      health of body at the end of that long tramp than I had been at the
+      beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0169m.jpg" alt="0169m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0169.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9169m.jpg" alt="9169m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9169.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      here is a regular ferry from Torosay to Kinlochaline on the mainland.
+      Both shores of the Sound are in the country of the strong clan of the
+      Macleans, and the people that passed the ferry with me were almost all of
+      that clan. The skipper of the boat, on the other hand, was called Neil Roy
+      Macrob; and since Macrob was one of the names of Alan's clansmen, and Alan
+      himself had sent me to that ferry, I was eager to come to private speech
+      of Neil Roy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the crowded boat this was of course impossible, and the passage was a
+      very slow affair. There was no wind, and as the boat was wretchedly
+      equipped, we could pull but two oars on one side, and one on the other.
+      The men gave way, however, with a good will, the passengers taking spells
+      to help them, and the whole company giving the time in Gaelic boat-songs.
+      And what with the songs, and the sea-air, and the good-nature and spirit
+      of all concerned, and the bright weather, the passage was a pretty thing
+      to have seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was one melancholy part. In the mouth of Loch Aline we found a
+      great sea-going ship at anchor; and this I supposed at first to be one of
+      the King's cruisers which were kept along that coast, both summer and
+      winter, to prevent communication with the French. As we got a little
+      nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise; and what still more
+      puzzled me, not only her decks, but the sea-beach also, were quite black
+      with people, and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them.
+      Yet nearer, and there began to come to our ears a great sound of mourning,
+      the people on board and those on the shore crying and lamenting one to
+      another so as to pierce the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I understood this was an emigrant ship bound for the American
+      colonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We put the ferry-boat alongside, and the exiles leaned over the bulwarks,
+      weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow-passengers, among whom
+      they counted some near friends. How long this might have gone on I do not
+      know, for they seemed to have no sense of time: but at last the captain of
+      the ship, who seemed near beside himself (and no great wonder) in the
+      midst of this crying and confusion, came to the side and begged us to
+      depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon Neil sheered off; and the chief singer in our boat struck into a
+      melancholy air, which was presently taken up both by the emigrants and
+      their friends upon the beach, so that it sounded from all sides like a
+      lament for the dying. I saw the tears run down the cheeks of the men and
+      women in the boat, even as they bent at the oars; and the circumstances
+      and the music of the song (which is one called "Lochaber no more") were
+      highly affecting even to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Kinlochaline I got Neil Roy upon one side on the beach, and said I made
+      sure he was one of Appin's men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what for no?" said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am seeking somebody," said I; "and it comes in my mind that you will
+      have news of him. Alan Breck Stewart is his name." And very foolishly,
+      instead of showing him the button, I sought to pass a shilling in his
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this he drew back. "I am very much affronted," he said; "and this is
+      not the way that one shentleman should behave to another at all. The man
+      you ask for is in France; but if he was in my sporran," says he, "and your
+      belly full of shillings, I would not hurt a hair upon his body."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw I had gone the wrong way to work, and without wasting time upon
+      apologies, showed him the button lying in the hollow of my palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aweel, aweel," said Neil; "and I think ye might have begun with that end
+      of the stick, whatever! But if ye are the lad with the silver button, all
+      is well, and I have the word to see that ye come safe. But if ye will
+      pardon me to speak plainly," says he, "there is a name that you should
+      never take into your mouth, and that is the name of Alan Breck; and there
+      is a thing that ye would never do, and that is to offer your dirty money
+      to a Hieland shentleman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not very easy to apologise; for I could scarce tell him (what was
+      the truth) that I had never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman
+      until he told me so. Neil on his part had no wish to prolong his dealings
+      with me, only to fulfil his orders and be done with it; and he made haste
+      to give me my route. This was to lie the night in Kinlochaline in the
+      public inn; to cross Morven the next day to Ardgour, and lie the night in
+      the house of one John of the Claymore, who was warned that I might come;
+      the third day, to be set across one loch at Corran and another at
+      Balachulish, and then ask my way to the house of James of the Glens, at
+      Aucharn in Duror of Appin. There was a good deal of ferrying, as you hear;
+      the sea in all this part running deep into the mountains and winding about
+      their roots. It makes the country strong to hold and difficult to travel,
+      but full of prodigious wild and dreadful prospects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had some other advice from Neil: to speak with no one by the way, to
+      avoid Whigs, Campbells, and the "red-soldiers;" to leave the road and lie
+      in a bush if I saw any of the latter coming, "for it was never chancy to
+      meet in with them;" and in brief, to conduct myself like a robber or a
+      Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil thought me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inn at Kinlochaline was the most beggarly vile place that ever pigs
+      were styed in, full of smoke, vermin, and silent Highlanders. I was not
+      only discontented with my lodging, but with myself for my mismanagement of
+      Neil, and thought I could hardly be worse off. But very wrongly, as I was
+      soon to see; for I had not been half an hour at the inn (standing in the
+      door most of the time, to ease my eyes from the peat smoke) when a
+      thunderstorm came close by, the springs broke in a little hill on which
+      the inn stood, and one end of the house became a running water. Places of
+      public entertainment were bad enough all over Scotland in those days; yet
+      it was a wonder to myself, when I had to go from the fireside to the bed
+      in which I slept, wading over the shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in my next day's journey I overtook a little, stout, solemn man,
+      walking very slowly with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book
+      and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed decently and
+      plainly in something of a clerical style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This I found to be another catechist, but of a different order from the
+      blind man of Mull: being indeed one of those sent out by the Edinburgh
+      Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, to evangelise the more savage
+      places of the Highlands. His name was Henderland; he spoke with the broad
+      south-country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the sound of; and
+      besides common countryship, we soon found we had a more particular bond of
+      interest. For my good friend, the minister of Essendean, had translated
+      into the Gaelic in his by-time a number of hymns and pious books which
+      Henderland used in his work, and held in great esteem. Indeed, it was one
+      of these he was carrying and reading when we met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We fell in company at once, our ways lying together as far as to
+      Kingairloch. As we went, he stopped and spoke with all the wayfarers and
+      workers that we met or passed; and though of course I could not tell what
+      they discoursed about, yet I judged Mr. Henderland must be well liked in
+      the countryside, for I observed many of them to bring out their mulls and
+      share a pinch of snuff with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him as far in my affairs as I judged wise; as far, that is, as they
+      were none of Alan's; and gave Balachulish as the place I was travelling
+      to, to meet a friend; for I thought Aucharn, or even Duror, would be too
+      particular, and might put him on the scent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his part, he told me much of his work and the people he worked among,
+      the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act, the dress, and many
+      other curiosities of the time and place. He seemed moderate; blaming
+      Parliament in several points, and especially because they had framed the
+      Act more severely against those who wore the dress than against those who
+      carried weapons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This moderation put it in my mind to question him of the Red Fox and the
+      Appin tenants; questions which, I thought, would seem natural enough in
+      the mouth of one travelling to that country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said it was a bad business. "It's wonderful," said he, "where the
+      tenants find the money, for their life is mere starvation. (Ye don't carry
+      such a thing as snuff, do ye, Mr. Balfour? No. Well, I'm better wanting
+      it.) But these tenants (as I was saying) are doubtless partly driven to
+      it. James Stewart in Duror (that's him they call James of the Glens) is
+      half-brother to Ardshiel, the captain of the clan; and he is a man much
+      looked up to, and drives very hard. And then there's one they call Alan
+      Breck&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah!" I cried, "what of him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What of the wind that bloweth where it listeth?" said Henderland. "He's
+      here and awa; here to-day and gone to-morrow: a fair heather-cat. He might
+      be glowering at the two of us out of yon whin-bush, and I wouldnae wonder!
+      Ye'll no carry such a thing as snuff, will ye?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him no, and that he had asked the same thing more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's highly possible," said he, sighing. "But it seems strange ye
+      shouldnae carry it. However, as I was saying, this Alan Breck is a bold,
+      desperate customer, and well kent to be James's right hand. His life is
+      forfeit already; he would boggle at naething; and maybe, if a tenant-body
+      was to hang back he would get a dirk in his wame."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You make a poor story of it all, Mr. Henderland," said I. "If it is all
+      fear upon both sides, I care to hear no more of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na," said Mr. Henderland, "but there's love too, and self-denial that
+      should put the like of you and me to shame. There's something fine about
+      it; no perhaps Christian, but humanly fine. Even Alan Breck, by all that I
+      hear, is a chield to be respected. There's many a lying sneck-draw sits
+      close in kirk in our own part of the country, and stands well in the
+      world's eye, and maybe is a far worse man, Mr. Balfour, than yon misguided
+      shedder of man's blood. Ay, ay, we might take a lesson by them.&mdash;Ye'll
+      perhaps think I've been too long in the Hielands?" he added, smiling to
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him not at all; that I had seen much to admire among the
+      Highlanders; and if he came to that, Mr. Campbell himself was a
+      Highlander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "that's true. It's a fine blood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is the King's agent about?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Colin Campbell?" says Henderland. "Putting his head in a bees' byke!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is to turn the tenants out by force, I hear?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," says he, "but the business has gone back and forth, as folk say.
+      First, James of the Glens rode to Edinburgh, and got some lawyer (a
+      Stewart, nae doubt&mdash;they all hing together like bats in a steeple)
+      and had the proceedings stayed. And then Colin Campbell cam' in again, and
+      had the upper-hand before the Barons of Exchequer. And now they tell me
+      the first of the tenants are to flit to-morrow. It's to begin at Duror
+      under James's very windows, which doesnae seem wise by my humble way of
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you think they'll fight?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," says Henderland, "they're disarmed&mdash;or supposed to be&mdash;for
+      there's still a good deal of cold iron lying by in quiet places. And then
+      Colin Campbell has the sogers coming. But for all that, if I was his lady
+      wife, I wouldnae be well pleased till I got him home again. They're queer
+      customers, the Appin Stewarts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked if they were worse than their neighbours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No they," said he. "And that's the worst part of it. For if Colin Roy can
+      get his business done in Appin, he has it all to begin again in the next
+      country, which they call Mamore, and which is one of the countries of the
+      Camerons. He's King's Factor upon both, and from both he has to drive out
+      the tenants; and indeed, Mr. Balfour (to be open with ye), it's my belief
+      that if he escapes the one lot, he'll get his death by the other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we continued talking and walking the great part of the day; until at
+      last, Mr. Henderland after expressing his delight in my company, and
+      satisfaction at meeting with a friend of Mr. Campbell's ("whom," says he,
+      "I will make bold to call that sweet singer of our covenanted Zion"),
+      proposed that I should make a short stage, and lie the night in his house
+      a little beyond Kingairloch. To say truth, I was overjoyed; for I had no
+      great desire for John of the Claymore, and since my double misadventure,
+      first with the guide and next with the gentleman skipper, I stood in some
+      fear of any Highland stranger. Accordingly we shook hands upon the
+      bargain, and came in the afternoon to a small house, standing alone by the
+      shore of the Linnhe Loch. The sun was already gone from the desert
+      mountains of Ardgour upon the hither side, but shone on those of Appin on
+      the farther; the loch lay as still as a lake, only the gulls were crying
+      round the sides of it; and the whole place seemed solemn and uncouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had no sooner come to the door of Mr. Henderland's dwelling, than to my
+      great surprise (for I was now used to the politeness of Highlanders) he
+      burst rudely past me, dashed into the room, caught up a jar and a small
+      horn-spoon, and began ladling snuff into his nose in most excessive
+      quantities. Then he had a hearty fit of sneezing, and looked round upon me
+      with a rather silly smile.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0175m.jpg" alt="0175m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0175.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "It's a vow I took," says he. "I took a vow upon me that I wouldnae carry
+      it. Doubtless it's a great privation; but when I think upon the martyrs,
+      not only to the Scottish Covenant but to other points of Christianity, I
+      think shame to mind it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we had eaten (and porridge and whey was the best of the good
+      man's diet) he took a grave face and said he had a duty to perform by Mr.
+      Campbell, and that was to inquire into my state of mind towards God. I was
+      inclined to smile at him since the business of the snuff; but he had not
+      spoken long before he brought the tears into my eyes. There are two things
+      that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too
+      much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people; but Mr.
+      Henderland had their very speech upon his tongue. And though I was a good
+      deal puffed up with my adventures and with having come off, as the saying
+      is, with flying colours; yet he soon had me on my knees beside a simple,
+      poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before we went to bed he offered me sixpence to help me on my way, out of
+      a scanty store he kept in the turf wall of his house; at which excess of
+      goodness I knew not what to do. But at last he was so earnest with me that
+      I thought it the more mannerly part to let him have his way, and so left
+      him poorer than myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0179m.jpg" alt="0179m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0179.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9179m.jpg" alt="9179m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9179.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      he next day Mr. Henderland found for me a man who had a boat of his own
+      and was to cross the Linnhe Loch that afternoon into Appin, fishing. Him
+      he prevailed on to take me, for he was one of his flock; and in this way I
+      saved a long day's travel and the price of the two public ferries I must
+      otherwise have passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was near noon before we set out; a dark day with clouds, and the sun
+      shining upon little patches. The sea was here very deep and still, and had
+      scarce a wave upon it; so that I must put the water to my lips before I
+      could believe it to be truly salt. The mountains on either side were high,
+      rough and barren, very black and gloomy in the shadow of the clouds, but
+      all silver-laced with little watercourses where the sun shone upon them.
+      It seemed a hard country, this of Appin, for people to care as much about
+      as Alan did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was but one thing to mention. A little after we had started, the sun
+      shone upon a little moving clump of scarlet close in along the water-side
+      to the north. It was much of the same red as soldiers' coats; every now
+      and then, too, there came little sparks and lightnings, as though the sun
+      had struck upon bright steel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked my boatman what it should be, and he answered he supposed it was
+      some of the red soldiers coming from Fort William into Appin, against the
+      poor tenantry of the country. Well, it was a sad sight to me; and whether
+      it was because of my thoughts of Alan, or from something prophetic in my
+      bosom, although this was but the second time I had seen King George's
+      troops, I had no good will to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last we came so near the point of land at the entering in of Loch Leven
+      that I begged to be set on shore. My boatman (who was an honest fellow and
+      mindful of his promise to the catechist) would fain have carried me on to
+      Balachulish; but as this was to take me farther from my secret
+      destination, I insisted, and was set on shore at last under the wood of
+      Lettermore (or Lettervore, for I have heard it both ways) in Alan's
+      country of Appin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a wood of birches, growing on a steep, craggy side of a mountain
+      that overhung the loch. It had many openings and ferny howes; and a road
+      or bridle track ran north and south through the midst of it, by the edge
+      of which, where was a spring, I sat down to eat some oat-bread of Mr.
+      Henderland's and think upon my situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges, but far more
+      by the doubts of my mind. What I ought to do, why I was going to join
+      myself with an outlaw and a would-be murderer like Alan, whether I should
+      not be acting more like a man of sense to tramp back to the south country
+      direct, by my own guidance and at my own charges, and what Mr. Campbell or
+      even Mr. Henderland would think of me if they should ever learn my folly
+      and presumption: these were the doubts that now began to come in on me
+      stronger than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I was so sitting and thinking, a sound of men and horses came to me
+      through the wood; and presently after, at a turning of the road, I saw
+      four travellers come into view. The way was in this part so rough and
+      narrow that they came single and led their horses by the reins. The first
+      was a great, red-headed gentleman, of an imperious and flushed face, who
+      carried his hat in his hand and fanned himself, for he was in a breathing
+      heat. The second, by his decent black garb and white wig, I correctly took
+      to be a lawyer. The third was a servant, and wore some part of his clothes
+      in tartan, which showed that his master was of a Highland family, and
+      either an outlaw or else in singular good odour with the Government, since
+      the wearing of tartan was against the Act. If I had been better versed in
+      these things, I would have known the tartan to be of the Argyle (or
+      Campbell) colours. This servant had a good-sized portmanteau strapped on
+      his horse, and a net of lemons (to brew punch with) hanging at the
+      saddle-bow; as was often enough the custom with luxurious travellers in
+      that part of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the fourth, who brought up the tail, I had seen his like before,
+      and knew him at once to be a sheriff's officer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had no sooner seen these people coming than I made up my mind (for no
+      reason that I can tell) to go through with my adventure; and when the
+      first came alongside of me, I rose up from the bracken and asked him the
+      way to Aucharn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped and looked at me, as I thought, a little oddly; and then,
+      turning to the lawyer, "Mungo," said he, "there's many a man would think
+      this more of a warning than two pyats. Here am I on my road to Duror on
+      the job ye ken; and here is a young lad starts up out of the bracken, and
+      speers if I am on the way to Aucharn."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Glenure," said the other, "this is an ill subject for jesting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two had now drawn close up and were gazing at me, while the two
+      followers had halted about a stone-cast in the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what seek ye in Aucharn?" said Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, him
+      they called the Red Fox; for he it was that I had stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The man that lives there," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "James of the Glens," says Glenure, musingly; and then to the lawyer: "Is
+      he gathering his people, think ye?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Anyway," says the lawyer, "we shall do better to bide where we are, and
+      let the soldiers rally us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are concerned for me," said I, "I am neither of his people nor
+      yours, but an honest subject of King George, owing no man and fearing no
+      man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, very well said," replies the Factor. "But if I may make so bold as
+      ask, what does this honest man so far from his country? and why does he
+      come seeking the brother of Ardshiel? I have power here, I must tell you.
+      I am King's Factor upon several of these estates, and have twelve files of
+      soldiers at my back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard a waif word in the country," said I, a little nettled, "that
+      you were a hard man to drive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He still kept looking at me, as if in doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said he, at last, "your tongue is bold; but I am no unfriend to
+      plainness. If ye had asked me the way to the door of James Stewart on any
+      other day but this, I would have set ye right and bidden ye God speed. But
+      to-day&mdash;eh, Mungo?" And he turned again to look at the lawyer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But just as he turned there came the shot of a firelock from higher up the
+      hill; and with the very sound of it Glenure fell upon the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, I am dead!" he cried, several times over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer had caught him up and held him in his arms, the servant
+      standing over and clasping his hands. And now the wounded man looked from
+      one to another with scared eyes, and there was a change in his voice, that
+      went to the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take care of yourselves," says he. "I am dead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He tried to open his clothes as if to look for the wound, but his fingers
+      slipped on the buttons. With that he gave a great sigh, his head rolled on
+      his shoulder, and he passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer said never a word, but his face was as sharp as a pen and as
+      white as the dead man's; the servant broke out into a great noise of
+      crying and weeping, like a child; and I, on my side, stood staring at them
+      in a kind of horror. The sheriff's officer had run back at the first sound
+      of the shot, to hasten the coming of the soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the lawyer laid down the dead man in his blood upon the road, and
+      got to his own feet with a kind of stagger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I believe it was his movement that brought me to my senses; for he had no
+      sooner done so than I began to scramble up the hill, crying out, "The
+      murderer! the murderer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So little a time had elapsed, that when I got to the top of the first
+      steepness, and could see some part of the open mountain, the murderer was
+      still moving away at no great distance. He was a big man, in a black coat,
+      with metal buttons, and carried a long fowling-piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here!" I cried. "I see him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that the murderer gave a little, quick look over his shoulder, and
+      began to run. The next moment he was lost in a fringe of birches; then he
+      came out again on the upper side, where I could see him climbing like a
+      jackanapes, for that part was again very steep; and then he dipped behind
+      a shoulder, and I saw him no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time I had been running on my side, and had got a good way up,
+      when a voice cried upon me to stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was at the edge of the upper wood, and so now, when I halted and looked
+      back, I saw all the open part of the hill below me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer and the sheriff's officer were standing just above the road,
+      crying and waving on me to come back; and on their left, the red-coats,
+      musket in hand, were beginning to struggle singly out of the lower wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why should I come back?" I cried. "Come you on!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ten pounds if ye take that lad!" cried the lawyer. "He's an accomplice.
+      He was posted here to hold us in talk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that word (which I could hear quite plainly, though it was to the
+      soldiers and not to me that he was crying it) my heart came in my mouth
+      with quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is one thing to stand the
+      danger of your life, and quite another to run the peril of both life and
+      character. The thing, besides, had come so suddenly, like thunder out of a
+      clear sky, that I was all amazed and helpless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and others to put up
+      their pieces and cover me; and still I stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jouk* in here among the trees," said a voice close by.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Duck.
+</pre>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0185m.jpg" alt="0185m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0185.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, I scarce knew what I was doing, but I obeyed; and as I did so, I
+      heard the firelocks bang and the balls whistle in the birches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just inside the shelter of the trees I found Alan Breck standing, with a
+      fishing-rod. He gave me no salutation; indeed it was no time for
+      civilities; only "Come!" says he, and set off running along the side of
+      the mountain towards Balachulish; and I, like a sheep, to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now we ran among the birches; now stooping behind low humps upon the
+      mountain-side; now crawling on all fours among the heather. The pace was
+      deadly: my heart seemed bursting against my ribs; and I had neither time
+      to think nor breath to speak with. Only I remember seeing with wonder,
+      that Alan every now and then would straighten himself to his full height
+      and look back; and every time he did so, there came a great far-away
+      cheering and crying of the soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quarter of an hour later, Alan stopped, clapped down flat in the heather,
+      and turned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said he, "it's earnest. Do as I do, for your life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at the same speed, but now with infinitely more precaution, we traced
+      back again across the mountain-side by the same way that we had come, only
+      perhaps higher; till at last Alan threw himself down in the upper wood of
+      Lettermore, where I had found him at the first, and lay, with his face in
+      the bracken, panting like a dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My own sides so ached, my head so swam, my tongue so hung out of my mouth
+      with heat and dryness, that I lay beside him like one dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0188m.jpg" alt="0188m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0188.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9188m.jpg" alt="9188m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9188.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      lan was the first to come round. He rose, went to the border of the wood,
+      peered out a little, and then returned and sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said he, "yon was a hot burst, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said nothing, nor so much as lifted my face. I had seen murder done, and
+      a great, ruddy, jovial gentleman struck out of life in a moment; the pity
+      of that sight was still sore within me, and yet that was but a part of my
+      concern. Here was murder done upon the man Alan hated; here was Alan
+      skulking in the trees and running from the troops; and whether his was the
+      hand that fired or only the head that ordered, signified but little. By my
+      way of it, my only friend in that wild country was blood-guilty in the
+      first degree; I held him in horror; I could not look upon his face; I
+      would have rather lain alone in the rain on my cold isle, than in that
+      warm wood beside a murderer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are ye still wearied?" he asked again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said I, still with my face in the bracken; "no, I am not wearied
+      now, and I can speak. You and me must twine,"* I said. "I liked you very
+      well, Alan, but your ways are not mine, and they're not God's: and the
+      short and the long of it is just that we must twine."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Part.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I will hardly twine from ye, David, without some kind of reason for the
+      same," said Alan, mighty gravely. "If ye ken anything against my
+      reputation, it's the least thing that ye should do, for old acquaintance'
+      sake, to let me hear the name of it; and if ye have only taken a distaste
+      to my society, it will be proper for me to judge if I'm insulted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," said I, "what is the sense of this? Ye ken very well yon
+      Campbell-man lies in his blood upon the road."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was silent for a little; then says he, "Did ever ye hear tell of the
+      story of the Man and the Good People?"&mdash;by which he meant the
+      fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said I, "nor do I want to hear it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With your permission, Mr. Balfour, I will tell it you, whatever," says
+      Alan. "The man, ye should ken, was cast upon a rock in the sea, where it
+      appears the Good People were in use to come and rest as they went through
+      to Ireland. The name of this rock is called the Skerryvore, and it's not
+      far from where we suffered ship-wreck. Well, it seems the man cried so
+      sore, if he could just see his little bairn before he died! that at last
+      the king of the Good People took peety upon him, and sent one flying that
+      brought back the bairn in a poke* and laid it down beside the man where he
+      lay sleeping. So when the man woke, there was a poke beside him and
+      something into the inside of it that moved. Well, it seems he was one of
+      these gentry that think aye the worst of things; and for greater security,
+      he stuck his dirk throughout that poke before he opened it, and there was
+      his bairn dead. I am thinking to myself, Mr. Balfour, that you and the man
+      are very much alike."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Bag.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Do you mean you had no hand in it?" cried I, sitting up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell you first of all, Mr. Balfour of Shaws, as one friend to
+      another," said Alan, "that if I were going to kill a gentleman, it would
+      not be in my own country, to bring trouble on my clan; and I would not go
+      wanting sword and gun, and with a long fishing-rod upon my back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "that's true!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now," continued Alan, taking out his dirk and laying his hand upon it
+      in a certain manner, "I swear upon the Holy Iron I had neither art nor
+      part, act nor thought in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thank God for that!" cried I, and offered him my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not appear to see it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And here is a great deal of work about a Campbell!" said he. "They are
+      not so scarce, that I ken!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At least," said I, "you cannot justly blame me, for you know very well
+      what you told me in the brig. But the temptation and the act are
+      different, I thank God again for that. We may all be tempted; but to take
+      a life in cold blood, Alan!" And I could say no more for the moment. "And
+      do you know who did it?" I added. "Do you know that man in the black
+      coat?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have nae clear mind about his coat," said Alan cunningly, "but it
+      sticks in my head that it was blue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blue or black, did ye know him?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I couldnae just conscientiously swear to him," says Alan. "He gaed very
+      close by me, to be sure, but it's a strange thing that I should just have
+      been tying my brogues."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can you swear that you don't know him, Alan?" I cried, half angered, half
+      in a mind to laugh at his evasions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not yet," says he; "but I've a grand memory for forgetting, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And yet there was one thing I saw clearly," said I; "and that was, that
+      you exposed yourself and me to draw the soldiers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's very likely," said Alan; "and so would any gentleman. You and me
+      were innocent of that transaction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The better reason, since we were falsely suspected, that we should get
+      clear," I cried. "The innocent should surely come before the guilty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, David," said he, "the innocent have aye a chance to get assoiled in
+      court; but for the lad that shot the bullet, I think the best place for
+      him will be the heather. Them that havenae dipped their hands in any
+      little difficulty, should be very mindful of the case of them that have.
+      And that is the good Christianity. For if it was the other way round
+      about, and the lad whom I couldnae just clearly see had been in our shoes,
+      and we in his (as might very well have been), I think we would be a good
+      deal obliged to him oursel's if he would draw the soldiers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it came to this, I gave Alan up. But he looked so innocent all the
+      time, and was in such clear good faith in what he said, and so ready to
+      sacrifice himself for what he deemed his duty, that my mouth was closed.
+      Mr. Henderland's words came back to me: that we ourselves might take a
+      lesson by these wild Highlanders. Well, here I had taken mine. Alan's
+      morals were all tail-first; but he was ready to give his life for them,
+      such as they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," said I, "I'll not say it's the good Christianity as I understand
+      it, but it's good enough. And here I offer ye my hand for the second
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereupon he gave me both of his, saying surely I had cast a spell upon
+      him, for he could forgive me anything. Then he grew very grave, and said
+      we had not much time to throw away, but must both flee that country: he,
+      because he was a deserter, and the whole of Appin would now be searched
+      like a chamber, and every one obliged to give a good account of himself;
+      and I, because I was certainly involved in the murder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O!" says I, willing to give him a little lesson, "I have no fear of the
+      justice of my country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As if this was your country!" said he. "Or as if ye would be tried here,
+      in a country of Stewarts!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's all Scotland," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Man, I whiles wonder at ye," said Alan. "This is a Campbell that's been
+      killed. Well, it'll be tried in Inverara, the Campbells' head place; with
+      fifteen Campbells in the jury-box and the biggest Campbell of all (and
+      that's the Duke) sitting cocking on the bench. Justice, David? The same
+      justice, by all the world, as Glenure found awhile ago at the roadside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This frightened me a little, I confess, and would have frightened me more
+      if I had known how nearly exact were Alan's predictions; indeed it was but
+      in one point that he exaggerated, there being but eleven Campbells on the
+      jury; though as the other four were equally in the Duke's dependence, it
+      mattered less than might appear. Still, I cried out that he was unjust to
+      the Duke of Argyle, who (for all he was a Whig) was yet a wise and honest
+      nobleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot!" said Alan, "the man's a Whig, nae doubt; but I would never deny he
+      was a good chieftain to his clan. And what would the clan think if there
+      was a Campbell shot, and naebody hanged, and their own chief the Justice
+      General? But I have often observed," says Alan, "that you Low-country
+      bodies have no clear idea of what's right and wrong."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this I did at last laugh out aloud, when to my surprise, Alan joined
+      in, and laughed as merrily as myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na, na," said he, "we're in the Hielands, David; and when I tell ye to
+      run, take my word and run. Nae doubt it's a hard thing to skulk and starve
+      in the Heather, but it's harder yet to lie shackled in a red-coat prison."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him whither we should flee; and as he told me "to the Lowlands," I
+      was a little better inclined to go with him; for, indeed, I was growing
+      impatient to get back and have the upper-hand of my uncle. Besides, Alan
+      made so sure there would be no question of justice in the matter, that I
+      began to be afraid he might be right. Of all deaths, I would truly like
+      least to die by the gallows; and the picture of that uncanny instrument
+      came into my head with extraordinary clearness (as I had once seen it
+      engraved at the top of a pedlar's ballad) and took away my appetite for
+      courts of justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll chance it, Alan," said I. "I'll go with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But mind you," said Alan, "it's no small thing. Ye maun lie bare and
+      hard, and brook many an empty belly. Your bed shall be the moorcock's, and
+      your life shall be like the hunted deer's, and ye shall sleep with your
+      hand upon your weapons. Ay, man, ye shall taigle many a weary foot, or we
+      get clear! I tell ye this at the start, for it's a life that I ken well.
+      But if ye ask what other chance ye have, I answer: Nane. Either take to
+      the heather with me, or else hang."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's a choice very easily made," said I; and we shook hands upon
+      it.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0193m.jpg" alt="0193m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0193.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "And now let's take another peek at the red-coats," says Alan, and he led
+      me to the north-eastern fringe of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking out between the trees, we could see a great side of mountain,
+      running down exceeding steep into the waters of the loch. It was a rough
+      part, all hanging stone, and heather, and big scrogs of birchwood; and
+      away at the far end towards Balachulish, little wee red soldiers were
+      dipping up and down over hill and howe, and growing smaller every minute.
+      There was no cheering now, for I think they had other uses for what breath
+      was left them; but they still stuck to the trail, and doubtless thought
+      that we were close in front of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan watched them, smiling to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said he, "they'll be gey weary before they've got to the end of that
+      employ! And so you and me, David, can sit down and eat a bite, and breathe
+      a bit longer, and take a dram from my bottle. Then we'll strike for
+      Aucharn, the house of my kinsman, James of the Glens, where I must get my
+      clothes, and my arms, and money to carry us along; and then, David, we'll
+      cry, 'Forth, Fortune!' and take a cast among the heather."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we sat again and ate and drank, in a place whence we could see the sun
+      going down into a field of great, wild, and houseless mountains, such as I
+      was now condemned to wander in with my companion. Partly as we so sat, and
+      partly afterwards, on the way to Aucharn, each of us narrated his
+      adventures; and I shall here set down so much of Alan's as seems either
+      curious or needful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears he ran to the bulwarks as soon as the wave was passed; saw me,
+      and lost me, and saw me again, as I tumbled in the roost; and at last had
+      one glimpse of me clinging on the yard. It was this that put him in some
+      hope I would maybe get to land after all, and made him leave those clues
+      and messages which had brought me (for my sins) to that unlucky country of
+      Appin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, those still on the brig had got the skiff launched, and
+      one or two were on board of her already, when there came a second wave
+      greater than the first, and heaved the brig out of her place, and would
+      certainly have sent her to the bottom, had she not struck and caught on
+      some projection of the reef. When she had struck first, it had been
+      bows-on, so that the stern had hitherto been lowest. But now her stern was
+      thrown in the air, and the bows plunged under the sea; and with that, the
+      water began to pour into the fore-scuttle like the pouring of a mill-dam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took the colour out of Alan's face, even to tell what followed. For
+      there were still two men lying impotent in their bunks; and these, seeing
+      the water pour in and thinking the ship had foundered, began to cry out
+      aloud, and that with such harrowing cries that all who were on deck
+      tumbled one after another into the skiff and fell to their oars. They were
+      not two hundred yards away, when there came a third great sea; and at that
+      the brig lifted clean over the reef; her canvas filled for a moment, and
+      she seemed to sail in chase of them, but settling all the while; and
+      presently she drew down and down, as if a hand was drawing her; and the
+      sea closed over the Covenant of Dysart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never a word they spoke as they pulled ashore, being stunned with the
+      horror of that screaming; but they had scarce set foot upon the beach when
+      Hoseason woke up, as if out of a muse, and bade them lay hands upon Alan.
+      They hung back indeed, having little taste for the employment; but
+      Hoseason was like a fiend, crying that Alan was alone, that he had a great
+      sum about him, that he had been the means of losing the brig and drowning
+      all their comrades, and that here was both revenge and wealth upon a
+      single cast. It was seven against one; in that part of the shore there was
+      no rock that Alan could set his back to; and the sailors began to spread
+      out and come behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And then," said Alan, "the little man with the red head&mdash;I havenae
+      mind of the name that he is called."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Riach," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said Alan, "Riach! Well, it was him that took up the clubs for me,
+      asked the men if they werenae feared of a judgment, and, says he 'Dod,
+      I'll put my back to the Hielandman's mysel'.' That's none such an entirely
+      bad little man, yon little man with the red head," said Alan. "He has some
+      spunks of decency."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "he was kind to me in his way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so he was to Alan," said he; "and by my troth, I found his way a very
+      good one! But ye see, David, the loss of the ship and the cries of these
+      poor lads sat very ill upon the man; and I'm thinking that would be the
+      cause of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I would think so," says I; "for he was as keen as any of the rest
+      at the beginning. But how did Hoseason take it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It sticks in my mind that he would take it very ill," says Alan. "But the
+      little man cried to me to run, and indeed I thought it was a good observe,
+      and ran. The last that I saw they were all in a knot upon the beach, like
+      folk that were not agreeing very well together."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean by that?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, the fists were going," said Alan; "and I saw one man go down like a
+      pair of breeks. But I thought it would be better no to wait. Ye see
+      there's a strip of Campbells in that end of Mull, which is no good company
+      for a gentleman like me. If it hadnae been for that I would have waited
+      and looked for ye mysel', let alone giving a hand to the little man." (It
+      was droll how Alan dwelt on Mr. Riach's stature, for, to say the truth,
+      the one was not much smaller than the other.) "So," says he, continuing,
+      "I set my best foot forward, and whenever I met in with any one I cried
+      out there was a wreck ashore. Man, they didnae stop to fash with me! Ye
+      should have seen them linking for the beach! And when they got there they
+      found they had had the pleasure of a run, which is aye good for a
+      Campbell. I'm thinking it was a judgment on the clan that the brig went
+      down in the lump and didnae break. But it was a very unlucky thing for
+      you, that same; for if any wreck had come ashore they would have hunted
+      high and low, and would soon have found ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0199m.jpg" alt="0199m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0199.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE HOUSE OF FEAR
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9199m.jpg" alt="9199m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9199.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ight fell as we were walking, and the clouds, which had broken up in the
+      afternoon, settled in and thickened, so that it fell, for the season of
+      the year, extremely dark. The way we went was over rough mountainsides;
+      and though Alan pushed on with an assured manner, I could by no means see
+      how he directed himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, about half-past ten of the clock, we came to the top of a brae,
+      and saw lights below us. It seemed a house door stood open and let out a
+      beam of fire and candle-light; and all round the house and steading five
+      or six persons were moving hurriedly about, each carrying a lighted brand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "James must have tint his wits," said Alan. "If this was the soldiers
+      instead of you and me, he would be in a bonny mess. But I dare say he'll
+      have a sentry on the road, and he would ken well enough no soldiers would
+      find the way that we came."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0201m.jpg" alt="0201m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0201.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Hereupon he whistled three times, in a particular manner. It was strange
+      to see how, at the first sound of it, all the moving torches came to a
+      stand, as if the bearers were affrighted; and how, at the third, the
+      bustle began again as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus set folks' minds at rest, we came down the brae, and were met
+      at the yard gate (for this place was like a well-doing farm) by a tall,
+      handsome man of more than fifty, who cried out to Alan in the Gaelic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "James Stewart," said Alan, "I will ask ye to speak in Scotch, for here is
+      a young gentleman with me that has nane of the other. This is him," he
+      added, putting his arm through mine, "a young gentleman of the Lowlands,
+      and a laird in his country too, but I am thinking it will be the better
+      for his health if we give his name the go-by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      James of the Glens turned to me for a moment, and greeted me courteously
+      enough; the next he had turned to Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This has been a dreadful accident," he cried. "It will bring trouble on
+      the country." And he wrung his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoots!" said Alan, "ye must take the sour with the sweet, man. Colin Roy
+      is dead, and be thankful for that!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said James, "and by my troth, I wish he was alive again! It's all
+      very fine to blow and boast beforehand; but now it's done, Alan; and who's
+      to bear the wyte* of it? The accident fell out in Appin&mdash;mind ye
+      that, Alan; it's Appin that must pay; and I am a man that has a family."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Blame.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While this was going on I looked about me at the servants. Some were on
+      ladders, digging in the thatch of the house or the farm buildings, from
+      which they brought out guns, swords, and different weapons of war; others
+      carried them away; and by the sound of mattock blows from somewhere
+      farther down the brae, I suppose they buried them. Though they were all so
+      busy, there prevailed no kind of order in their efforts; men struggled
+      together for the same gun and ran into each other with their burning
+      torches; and James was continually turning about from his talk with Alan,
+      to cry out orders which were apparently never understood. The faces in the
+      torchlight were like those of people overborne with hurry and panic; and
+      though none spoke above his breath, their speech sounded both anxious and
+      angry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about this time that a lassie came out of the house carrying a pack
+      or bundle; and it has often made me smile to think how Alan's instinct
+      awoke at the mere sight of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's that the lassie has?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We're just setting the house in order, Alan," said James, in his
+      frightened and somewhat fawning way. "They'll search Appin with candles,
+      and we must have all things straight. We're digging the bit guns and
+      swords into the moss, ye see; and these, I am thinking, will be your ain
+      French clothes. We'll be to bury them, I believe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bury my French clothes!" cried Alan. "Troth, no!" And he laid hold upon
+      the packet and retired into the barn to shift himself, recommending me in
+      the meanwhile to his kinsman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      James carried me accordingly into the kitchen, and sat down with me at
+      table, smiling and talking at first in a very hospitable manner. But
+      presently the gloom returned upon him; he sat frowning and biting his
+      fingers; only remembered me from time to time; and then gave me but a word
+      or two and a poor smile, and back into his private terrors. His wife sat
+      by the fire and wept, with her face in her hands; his eldest son was
+      crouched upon the floor, running over a great mass of papers and now and
+      again setting one alight and burning it to the bitter end; all the while a
+      servant lass with a red face was rummaging about the room, in a blind
+      hurry of fear, and whimpering as she went; and every now and again one of
+      the men would thrust in his face from the yard, and cry for orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last James could keep his seat no longer, and begged my permission to
+      be so unmannerly as walk about. "I am but poor company altogether, sir,"
+      says he, "but I can think of nothing but this dreadful accident, and the
+      trouble it is like to bring upon quite innocent persons."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little after he observed his son burning a paper which he thought should
+      have been kept; and at that his excitement burst out so that it was
+      painful to witness. He struck the lad repeatedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you gone gyte?"* he cried. "Do you wish to hang your father?" and
+      forgetful of my presence, carried on at him a long time together in the
+      Gaelic, the young man answering nothing; only the wife, at the name of
+      hanging, throwing her apron over her face and sobbing out louder than
+      before.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Mad.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This was all wretched for a stranger like myself to hear and see; and I
+      was right glad when Alan returned, looking like himself in his fine French
+      clothes, though (to be sure) they were now grown almost too battered and
+      withered to deserve the name of fine. I was then taken out in my turn by
+      another of the sons, and given that change of clothing of which I had
+      stood so long in need, and a pair of Highland brogues made of
+      deer-leather, rather strange at first, but after a little practice very
+      easy to the feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time I came back Alan must have told his story; for it seemed
+      understood that I was to fly with him, and they were all busy upon our
+      equipment. They gave us each a sword and pistols, though I professed my
+      inability to use the former; and with these, and some ammunition, a bag of
+      oatmeal, an iron pan, and a bottle of right French brandy, we were ready
+      for the heather. Money, indeed, was lacking. I had about two guineas left;
+      Alan's belt having been despatched by another hand, that trusty messenger
+      had no more than seventeen-pence to his whole fortune; and as for James,
+      it appears he had brought himself so low with journeys to Edinburgh and
+      legal expenses on behalf of the tenants, that he could only scrape
+      together three-and-five-pence-halfpenny, the most of it in coppers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This'll no do," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye must find a safe bit somewhere near by," said James, "and get word
+      sent to me. Ye see, ye'll have to get this business prettily off, Alan.
+      This is no time to be stayed for a guinea or two. They're sure to get wind
+      of ye, sure to seek ye, and by my way of it, sure to lay on ye the wyte of
+      this day's accident. If it falls on you, it falls on me that am your near
+      kinsman and harboured ye while ye were in the country. And if it comes on
+      me&mdash;&mdash;" he paused, and bit his fingers, with a white face. "It
+      would be a painful thing for our friends if I was to hang," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It would be an ill day for Appin," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a day that sticks in my throat," said James. "O man, man, man&mdash;man
+      Alan! you and me have spoken like two fools!" he cried, striking his hand
+      upon the wall so that the house rang again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, and that's true, too," said Alan; "and my friend from the Lowlands
+      here" (nodding at me) "gave me a good word upon that head, if I would only
+      have listened to him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But see here," said James, returning to his former manner, "if they lay
+      me by the heels, Alan, it's then that you'll be needing the money. For
+      with all that I have said and that you have said, it will look very black
+      against the two of us; do ye mark that? Well, follow me out, and ye'll,
+      I'll see that I'll have to get a paper out against ye mysel'; have to
+      offer a reward for ye; ay, will I! It's a sore thing to do between such
+      near friends; but if I get the dirdum* of this dreadful accident, I'll
+      have to fend for myself, man. Do ye see that?"
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Blame.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He spoke with a pleading earnestness, taking Alan by the breast of the
+      coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said Alan, "I see that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And ye'll have to be clear of the country, Alan&mdash;ay, and clear of
+      Scotland&mdash;you and your friend from the Lowlands, too. For I'll have
+      to paper your friend from the Lowlands. Ye see that, Alan&mdash;say that
+      ye see that!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought Alan flushed a bit. "This is unco hard on me that brought him
+      here, James," said he, throwing his head back. "It's like making me a
+      traitor!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Alan, man!" cried James. "Look things in the face! He'll be papered
+      anyway; Mungo Campbell'll be sure to paper him; what matters if I paper
+      him too? And then, Alan, I am a man that has a family." And then, after a
+      little pause on both sides, "And, Alan, it'll be a jury of Campbells,"
+      said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There's one thing," said Alan, musingly, "that naebody kens his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor yet they shallnae, Alan! There's my hand on that," cried James, for
+      all the world as if he had really known my name and was foregoing some
+      advantage. "But just the habit he was in, and what he looked like, and his
+      age, and the like? I couldnae well do less."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wonder at your father's son," cried Alan, sternly. "Would ye sell the
+      lad with a gift? Would ye change his clothes and then betray him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, no, Alan," said James. "No, no: the habit he took off&mdash;the habit
+      Mungo saw him in." But I thought he seemed crestfallen; indeed, he was
+      clutching at every straw, and all the time, I dare say, saw the faces of
+      his hereditary foes on the bench, and in the jury-box, and the gallows in
+      the background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," says Alan, turning to me, "what say ye to that? Ye are here
+      under the safeguard of my honour; and it's my part to see nothing done but
+      what shall please you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have but one word to say," said I; "for to all this dispute I am a
+      perfect stranger. But the plain common-sense is to set the blame where it
+      belongs, and that is on the man who fired the shot. Paper him, as ye call
+      it, set the hunt on him; and let honest, innocent folk show their faces in
+      safety." But at this both Alan and James cried out in horror; bidding me
+      hold my tongue, for that was not to be thought of; and asking me what the
+      Camerons would think? (which confirmed me, it must have been a Cameron
+      from Mamore that did the act) and if I did not see that the lad might be
+      caught? "Ye havenae surely thought of that?" said they, with such innocent
+      earnestness, that my hands dropped at my side and I despaired of argument.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well, then," said I, "paper me, if you please, paper Alan, paper
+      King George! We're all three innocent, and that seems to be what's wanted.
+      But at least, sir," said I to James, recovering from my little fit of
+      annoyance, "I am Alan's friend, and if I can be helpful to friends of his,
+      I will not stumble at the risk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought it best to put a fair face on my consent, for I saw Alan
+      troubled; and, besides (thinks I to myself), as soon as my back is turned,
+      they will paper me, as they call it, whether I consent or not. But in this
+      I saw I was wrong; for I had no sooner said the words, than Mrs. Stewart
+      leaped out of her chair, came running over to us, and wept first upon my
+      neck and then on Alan's, blessing God for our goodness to her family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As for you, Alan, it was no more than your bounden duty," she said. "But
+      for this lad that has come here and seen us at our worst, and seen the
+      goodman fleeching like a suitor, him that by rights should give his
+      commands like any king&mdash;as for you, my lad," she says, "my heart is
+      wae not to have your name, but I have your face; and as long as my heart
+      beats under my bosom, I will keep it, and think of it, and bless it." And
+      with that she kissed me, and burst once more into such sobbing, that I
+      stood abashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot, hoot," said Alan, looking mighty silly. "The day comes unco soon in
+      this month of July; and to-morrow there'll be a fine to-do in Appin, a
+      fine riding of dragoons, and crying of 'Cruachan!'* and running of
+      red-coats; and it behoves you and me to the sooner be gone."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The rallying-word of the Campbells.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon we said farewell, and set out again, bending somewhat eastwards,
+      in a fine mild dark night, and over much the same broken country as
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0208m.jpg" alt="0208m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0208.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE ROCKS
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9208m.jpg" alt="9208m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9208.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ometimes we walked, sometimes ran; and as it drew on to morning, walked
+      ever the less and ran the more. Though, upon its face, that country
+      appeared to be a desert, yet there were huts and houses of the people, of
+      which we must have passed more than twenty, hidden in quiet places of the
+      hills. When we came to one of these, Alan would leave me in the way, and
+      go himself and rap upon the side of the house and speak awhile at the
+      window with some sleeper awakened. This was to pass the news; which, in
+      that country, was so much of a duty that Alan must pause to attend to it
+      even while fleeing for his life; and so well attended to by others, that
+      in more than half of the houses where we called they had heard already of
+      the murder. In the others, as well as I could make out (standing back at a
+      distance and hearing a strange tongue), the news was received with more of
+      consternation than surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all our hurry, day began to come in while we were still far from any
+      shelter. It found us in a prodigious valley, strewn with rocks and where
+      ran a foaming river. Wild mountains stood around it; there grew there
+      neither grass nor trees; and I have sometimes thought since then, that it
+      may have been the valley called Glencoe, where the massacre was in the
+      time of King William. But for the details of our itinerary, I am all to
+      seek; our way lying now by short cuts, now by great detours; our pace
+      being so hurried, our time of journeying usually by night; and the names
+      of such places as I asked and heard being in the Gaelic tongue and the
+      more easily forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first peep of morning, then, showed us this horrible place, and I
+      could see Alan knit his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is no fit place for you and me," he said. "This is a place they're
+      bound to watch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that he ran harder than ever down to the water-side, in a part
+      where the river was split in two among three rocks. It went through with a
+      horrid thundering that made my belly quake; and there hung over the lynn a
+      little mist of spray. Alan looked neither to the right nor to the left,
+      but jumped clean upon the middle rock and fell there on his hands and
+      knees to check himself, for that rock was small and he might have pitched
+      over on the far side. I had scarce time to measure the distance or to
+      understand the peril before I had followed him, and he had caught and
+      stopped me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So there we stood, side by side upon a small rock slippery with spray, a
+      far broader leap in front of us, and the river dinning upon all sides.
+      When I saw where I was, there came on me a deadly sickness of fear, and I
+      put my hand over my eyes. Alan took me and shook me; I saw he was
+      speaking, but the roaring of the falls and the trouble of my mind
+      prevented me from hearing; only I saw his face was red with anger, and
+      that he stamped upon the rock. The same look showed me the water raging
+      by, and the mist hanging in the air: and with that I covered my eyes again
+      and shuddered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next minute Alan had set the brandy bottle to my lips, and forced me
+      to drink about a gill, which sent the blood into my head again. Then,
+      putting his hands to his mouth, and his mouth to my ear, he shouted, "Hang
+      or drown!" and turning his back upon me, leaped over the farther branch of
+      the stream, and landed safe.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0211m.jpg" alt="0211m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0211.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      I was now alone upon the rock, which gave me the more room; the brandy was
+      singing in my ears; I had this good example fresh before me, and just wit
+      enough to see that if I did not leap at once, I should never leap at all.
+      I bent low on my knees and flung myself forth, with that kind of anger of
+      despair that has sometimes stood me in stead of courage. Sure enough, it
+      was but my hands that reached the full length; these slipped, caught
+      again, slipped again; and I was sliddering back into the lynn, when Alan
+      seized me, first by the hair, then by the collar, and with a great strain
+      dragged me into safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never a word he said, but set off running again for his life, and I must
+      stagger to my feet and run after him. I had been weary before, but now I
+      was sick and bruised, and partly drunken with the brandy; I kept stumbling
+      as I ran, I had a stitch that came near to overmaster me; and when at last
+      Alan paused under a great rock that stood there among a number of others,
+      it was none too soon for David Balfour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great rock I have said; but by rights it was two rocks leaning together
+      at the top, both some twenty feet high, and at the first sight
+      inaccessible. Even Alan (though you may say he had as good as four hands)
+      failed twice in an attempt to climb them; and it was only at the third
+      trial, and then by standing on my shoulders and leaping up with such force
+      as I thought must have broken my collar-bone, that he secured a lodgment.
+      Once there, he let down his leathern girdle; and with the aid of that and
+      a pair of shallow footholds in the rock, I scrambled up beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I saw why we had come there; for the two rocks, being both somewhat
+      hollow on the top and sloping one to the other, made a kind of dish or
+      saucer, where as many as three or four men might have lain hidden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while Alan had not said a word, and had run and climbed with such
+      a savage, silent frenzy of hurry, that I knew that he was in mortal fear
+      of some miscarriage. Even now we were on the rock he said nothing, nor so
+      much as relaxed the frowning look upon his face; but clapped flat down,
+      and keeping only one eye above the edge of our place of shelter scouted
+      all round the compass. The dawn had come quite clear; we could see the
+      stony sides of the valley, and its bottom, which was bestrewed with rocks,
+      and the river, which went from one side to another, and made white falls;
+      but nowhere the smoke of a house, nor any living creature but some eagles
+      screaming round a cliff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then at last Alan smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said he, "now we have a chance;" and then looking at me with some
+      amusement, "Ye're no very gleg* at the jumping," said he.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Brisk.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At this I suppose I coloured with mortification, for he added at once,
+      "Hoots! small blame to ye! To be feared of a thing and yet to do it, is
+      what makes the prettiest kind of a man. And then there was water there,
+      and water's a thing that dauntons even me. No, no," said Alan, "it's no
+      you that's to blame, it's me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked him why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said he, "I have proved myself a gomeral this night. For first of
+      all I take a wrong road, and that in my own country of Appin; so that the
+      day has caught us where we should never have been; and thanks to that, we
+      lie here in some danger and mair discomfort. And next (which is the worst
+      of the two, for a man that has been so much among the heather as myself) I
+      have come wanting a water-bottle, and here we lie for a long summer's day
+      with naething but neat spirit. Ye may think that a small matter; but
+      before it comes night, David, ye'll give me news of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was anxious to redeem my character, and offered, if he would pour out
+      the brandy, to run down and fill the bottle at the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wouldnae waste the good spirit either," says he. "It's been a good
+      friend to you this night; or in my poor opinion, ye would still be cocking
+      on yon stone. And what's mair," says he, "ye may have observed (you that's
+      a man of so much penetration) that Alan Breck Stewart was perhaps walking
+      quicker than his ordinar'."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You!" I cried, "you were running fit to burst."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was I so?" said he. "Well, then, ye may depend upon it, there was nae
+      time to be lost. And now here is enough said; gang you to your sleep, lad,
+      and I'll watch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, I lay down to sleep; a little peaty earth had drifted in
+      between the top of the two rocks, and some bracken grew there, to be a bed
+      to me; the last thing I heard was still the crying of the eagles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I dare say it would be nine in the morning when I was roughly awakened,
+      and found Alan's hand pressed upon my mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wheesht!" he whispered. "Ye were snoring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, surprised at his anxious and dark face, "and why not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He peered over the edge of the rock, and signed to me to do the like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now high day, cloudless, and very hot. The valley was as clear as
+      in a picture. About half a mile up the water was a camp of red-coats; a
+      big fire blazed in their midst, at which some were cooking; and near by,
+      on the top of a rock about as high as ours, there stood a sentry, with the
+      sun sparkling on his arms. All the way down along the river-side were
+      posted other sentries; here near together, there widelier scattered; some
+      planted like the first, on places of command, some on the ground level and
+      marching and counter-marching, so as to meet half-way. Higher up the glen,
+      where the ground was more open, the chain of posts was continued by
+      horse-soldiers, whom we could see in the distance riding to and fro. Lower
+      down, the infantry continued; but as the stream was suddenly swelled by
+      the confluence of a considerable burn, they were more widely set, and only
+      watched the fords and stepping-stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took but one look at them, and ducked again into my place. It was
+      strange indeed to see this valley, which had lain so solitary in the hour
+      of dawn, bristling with arms and dotted with the red coats and breeches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye see," said Alan, "this was what I was afraid of, Davie: that they
+      would watch the burn-side. They began to come in about two hours ago, and,
+      man! but ye're a grand hand at the sleeping! We're in a narrow place. If
+      they get up the sides of the hill, they could easy spy us with a glass;
+      but if they'll only keep in the foot of the valley, we'll do yet. The
+      posts are thinner down the water; and, come night, we'll try our hand at
+      getting by them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what are we to do till night?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lie here," says he, "and birstle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That one good Scotch word, "birstle," was indeed the most of the story of
+      the day that we had now to pass. You are to remember that we lay on the
+      bare top of a rock, like scones upon a girdle; the sun beat upon us
+      cruelly; the rock grew so heated, a man could scarce endure the touch of
+      it; and the little patch of earth and fern, which kept cooler, was only
+      large enough for one at a time. We took turn about to lie on the naked
+      rock, which was indeed like the position of that saint that was martyred
+      on a gridiron; and it ran in my mind how strange it was, that in the same
+      climate and at only a few days' distance, I should have suffered so
+      cruelly, first from cold upon my island and now from heat upon this rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the while we had no water, only raw brandy for a drink, which was
+      worse than nothing; but we kept the bottle as cool as we could, burying it
+      in the earth, and got some relief by bathing our breasts and temples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldiers kept stirring all day in the bottom of the valley, now
+      changing guard, now in patrolling parties hunting among the rocks. These
+      lay round in so great a number, that to look for men among them was like
+      looking for a needle in a bottle of hay; and being so hopeless a task, it
+      was gone about with the less care. Yet we could see the soldiers pike
+      their bayonets among the heather, which sent a cold thrill into my vitals;
+      and they would sometimes hang about our rock, so that we scarce dared to
+      breathe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in this way that I first heard the right English speech; one fellow
+      as he went by actually clapping his hand upon the sunny face of the rock
+      on which we lay, and plucking it off again with an oath. "I tell you it's
+      'ot," says he; and I was amazed at the clipping tones and the odd
+      sing-song in which he spoke, and no less at that strange trick of dropping
+      out the letter "h." To be sure, I had heard Ransome; but he had taken his
+      ways from all sorts of people, and spoke so imperfectly at the best, that
+      I set down the most of it to childishness. My surprise was all the greater
+      to hear that manner of speaking in the mouth of a grown man; and indeed I
+      have never grown used to it; nor yet altogether with the English grammar,
+      as perhaps a very critical eye might here and there spy out even in these
+      memoirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tediousness and pain of these hours upon the rock grew only the
+      greater as the day went on; the rock getting still the hotter and the sun
+      fiercer. There were giddiness, and sickness, and sharp pangs like
+      rheumatism, to be supported. I minded then, and have often minded since,
+      on the lines in our Scotch psalm:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "The moon by night thee shall not smite,
+     Nor yet the sun by day;"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and indeed it was only by God's blessing that we were neither of us
+      sun-smitten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, about two, it was beyond men's bearing, and there was now
+      temptation to resist, as well as pain to thole. For the sun being now got
+      a little into the west, there came a patch of shade on the east side of
+      our rock, which was the side sheltered from the soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As well one death as another," said Alan, and slipped over the edge and
+      dropped on the ground on the shadowy side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I followed him at once, and instantly fell all my length, so weak was I
+      and so giddy with that long exposure. Here, then, we lay for an hour or
+      two, aching from head to foot, as weak as water, and lying quite naked to
+      the eye of any soldier who should have strolled that way. None came,
+      however, all passing by on the other side; so that our rock continued to
+      be our shield even in this new position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently we began again to get a little strength; and as the soldiers
+      were now lying closer along the river-side, Alan proposed that we should
+      try a start. I was by this time afraid of but one thing in the world; and
+      that was to be set back upon the rock; anything else was welcome to me; so
+      we got ourselves at once in marching order, and began to slip from rock to
+      rock one after the other, now crawling flat on our bellies in the shade,
+      now making a run for it, heart in mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldiers, having searched this side of the valley after a fashion, and
+      being perhaps somewhat sleepy with the sultriness of the afternoon, had
+      now laid by much of their vigilance, and stood dozing at their posts or
+      only kept a look-out along the banks of the river; so that in this way,
+      keeping down the valley and at the same time towards the mountains, we
+      drew steadily away from their neighbourhood. But the business was the most
+      wearing I had ever taken part in. A man had need of a hundred eyes in
+      every part of him, to keep concealed in that uneven country and within cry
+      of so many and scattered sentries. When we must pass an open place,
+      quickness was not all, but a swift judgment not only of the lie of the
+      whole country, but of the solidity of every stone on which we must set
+      foot; for the afternoon was now fallen so breathless that the rolling of a
+      pebble sounded abroad like a pistol shot, and would start the echo calling
+      among the hills and cliffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By sundown we had made some distance, even by our slow rate of progress,
+      though to be sure the sentry on the rock was still plainly in our view.
+      But now we came on something that put all fears out of season; and that
+      was a deep rushing burn, that tore down, in that part, to join the glen
+      river. At the sight of this we cast ourselves on the ground and plunged
+      head and shoulders in the water; and I cannot tell which was the more
+      pleasant, the great shock as the cool stream went over us, or the greed
+      with which we drank of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We lay there (for the banks hid us), drank again and again, bathed our
+      chests, let our wrists trail in the running water till they ached with the
+      chill; and at last, being wonderfully renewed, we got out the meal-bag and
+      made drammach in the iron pan. This, though it is but cold water mingled
+      with oatmeal, yet makes a good enough dish for a hungry man; and where
+      there are no means of making fire, or (as in our case) good reason for not
+      making one, it is the chief stand-by of those who have taken to the
+      heather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the shadow of the night had fallen, we set forth again, at
+      first with the same caution, but presently with more boldness, standing
+      our full height and stepping out at a good pace of walking. The way was
+      very intricate, lying up the steep sides of mountains and along the brows
+      of cliffs; clouds had come in with the sunset, and the night was dark and
+      cool; so that I walked without much fatigue, but in continual fear of
+      falling and rolling down the mountains, and with no guess at our
+      direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon rose at last and found us still on the road; it was in its last
+      quarter, and was long beset with clouds; but after awhile shone out and
+      showed me many dark heads of mountains, and was reflected far underneath
+      us on the narrow arm of a sea-loch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this sight we both paused: I struck with wonder to find myself so high
+      and walking (as it seemed to me) upon clouds; Alan to make sure of his
+      direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seemingly he was well pleased, and he must certainly have judged us out of
+      ear-shot of all our enemies; for throughout the rest of our night-march he
+      beguiled the way with whistling of many tunes, warlike, merry, plaintive;
+      reel tunes that made the foot go faster; tunes of my own south country
+      that made me fain to be home from my adventures; and all these, on the
+      great, dark, desert mountains, making company upon the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0220m.jpg" alt="0220m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0220.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH OF CORRYNAKIEGH
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9220m.jpg" alt="9220m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9220.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      arly as day comes in the beginning of July, it was still dark when we
+      reached our destination, a cleft in the head of a great mountain, with a
+      water running through the midst, and upon the one hand a shallow cave in a
+      rock. Birches grew there in a thin, pretty wood, which a little farther on
+      was changed into a wood of pines. The burn was full of trout; the wood of
+      cushat-doves; on the open side of the mountain beyond, whaups would be
+      always whistling, and cuckoos were plentiful. From the mouth of the cleft
+      we looked down upon a part of Mamore, and on the sea-loch that divides
+      that country from Appin; and this from so great a height as made it my
+      continual wonder and pleasure to sit and behold them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of the cleft was the Heugh of Corrynakiegh; and although from its
+      height and being so near upon the sea, it was often beset with clouds, yet
+      it was on the whole a pleasant place, and the five days we lived in it
+      went happily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We slept in the cave, making our bed of heather bushes which we cut for
+      that purpose, and covering ourselves with Alan's great-coat. There was a
+      low concealed place, in a turning of the glen, where we were so bold as to
+      make fire: so that we could warm ourselves when the clouds set in, and
+      cook hot porridge, and grill the little trouts that we caught with our
+      hands under the stones and overhanging banks of the burn. This was indeed
+      our chief pleasure and business; and not only to save our meal against
+      worse times, but with a rivalry that much amused us, we spent a great part
+      of our days at the water-side, stripped to the waist and groping about or
+      (as they say) guddling for these fish. The largest we got might have been
+      a quarter of a pound; but they were of good flesh and flavour, and when
+      broiled upon the coals, lacked only a little salt to be delicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In any by-time Alan must teach me to use my sword, for my ignorance had
+      much distressed him; and I think besides, as I had sometimes the
+      upper-hand of him in the fishing, he was not sorry to turn to an exercise
+      where he had so much the upper-hand of me. He made it somewhat more of a
+      pain than need have been, for he stormed at me all through the lessons in
+      a very violent manner of scolding, and would push me so close that I made
+      sure he must run me through the body. I was often tempted to turn tail,
+      but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; if it
+      was but to stand on guard with an assured countenance, which is often all
+      that is required. So, though I could never in the least please my master,
+      I was not altogether displeased with myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, you are not to suppose that we neglected our chief
+      business, which was to get away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It will be many a long day," Alan said to me on our first morning,
+      "before the red-coats think upon seeking Corrynakiegh; so now we must get
+      word sent to James, and he must find the siller for us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how shall we send that word?" says I. "We are here in a desert place,
+      which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be
+      your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay?" said Alan. "Ye're a man of small contrivance, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he fell in a muse, looking in the embers of the fire; and
+      presently, getting a piece of wood, he fashioned it in a cross, the four
+      ends of which he blackened on the coals. Then he looked at me a little
+      shyly.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0223m.jpg" alt="0223m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0223.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Could ye lend me my button?" says he. "It seems a strange thing to ask a
+      gift again, but I own I am laith to cut another."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I gave him the button; whereupon he strung it on a strip of his great-coat
+      which he had used to bind the cross; and tying in a little sprig of birch
+      and another of fir, he looked upon his work with satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said he, "there is a little clachan" (what is called a hamlet in
+      the English) "not very far from Corrynakiegh, and it has the name of
+      Koalisnacoan. There there are living many friends of mine whom I could
+      trust with my life, and some that I am no just so sure of. Ye see, David,
+      there will be money set upon our heads; James himsel' is to set money on
+      them; and as for the Campbells, they would never spare siller where there
+      was a Stewart to be hurt. If it was otherwise, I would go down to
+      Koalisnacoan whatever, and trust my life into these people's hands as
+      lightly as I would trust another with my glove."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But being so?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Being so," said he, "I would as lief they didnae see me. There's bad folk
+      everywhere, and what's far worse, weak ones. So when it comes dark again,
+      I will steal down into that clachan, and set this that I have been making
+      in the window of a good friend of mine, John Breck Maccoll, a bouman* of
+      Appin's."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *A bouman is a tenant who takes stock from the landlord and
+     shares with him the increase.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "With all my heart," says I; "and if he finds it, what is he to think?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," says Alan, "I wish he was a man of more penetration, for by my
+      troth I am afraid he will make little enough of it! But this is what I
+      have in my mind. This cross is something in the nature of the crosstarrie,
+      or fiery cross, which is the signal of gathering in our clans; yet he will
+      know well enough the clan is not to rise, for there it is standing in his
+      window, and no word with it. So he will say to himsel', THE CLAN IS NOT TO
+      RISE, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING. Then he will see my button, and that was
+      Duncan Stewart's. And then he will say to himsel', THE SON OF DUNCAN IS IN
+      THE HEATHER, AND HAS NEED OF ME."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "it may be. But even supposing so, there is a good deal of
+      heather between here and the Forth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is a very true word," says Alan. "But then John Breck will see
+      the sprig of birch and the sprig of pine; and he will say to himsel' (if
+      he is a man of any penetration at all, which I misdoubt), ALAN WILL BE
+      LYING IN A WOOD WHICH IS BOTH OF PINES AND BIRCHES. Then he will think to
+      himsel', THAT IS NOT SO VERY RIFE HEREABOUT; and then he will come and
+      give us a look up in Corrynakiegh. And if he does not, David, the devil
+      may fly away with him, for what I care; for he will no be worth the salt
+      to his porridge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eh, man," said I, drolling with him a little, "you're very ingenious! But
+      would it not be simpler for you to write him a few words in black and
+      white?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is an excellent observe, Mr. Balfour of Shaws," says Alan,
+      drolling with me; "and it would certainly be much simpler for me to write
+      to him, but it would be a sore job for John Breck to read it. He would
+      have to go to the school for two-three years; and it's possible we might
+      be wearied waiting on him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So that night Alan carried down his fiery cross and set it in the bouman's
+      window. He was troubled when he came back; for the dogs had barked and the
+      folk run out from their houses; and he thought he had heard a clatter of
+      arms and seen a red-coat come to one of the doors. On all accounts we lay
+      the next day in the borders of the wood and kept a close look-out, so that
+      if it was John Breck that came we might be ready to guide him, and if it
+      was the red-coats we should have time to get away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About noon a man was to be spied, straggling up the open side of the
+      mountain in the sun, and looking round him as he came, from under his
+      hand. No sooner had Alan seen him than he whistled; the man turned and
+      came a little towards us: then Alan would give another "peep!" and the man
+      would come still nearer; and so by the sound of whistling, he was guided
+      to the spot where we lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a ragged, wild, bearded man, about forty, grossly disfigured with
+      the small pox, and looked both dull and savage. Although his English was
+      very bad and broken, yet Alan (according to his very handsome use,
+      whenever I was by) would suffer him to speak no Gaelic. Perhaps the
+      strange language made him appear more backward than he really was; but I
+      thought he had little good-will to serve us, and what he had was the child
+      of terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan would have had him carry a message to James; but the bouman would
+      hear of no message. "She was forget it," he said in his screaming voice;
+      and would either have a letter or wash his hands of us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought Alan would be gravelled at that, for we lacked the means of
+      writing in that desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was a man of more resources than I knew; searched the wood until he
+      found the quill of a cushat-dove, which he shaped into a pen; made himself
+      a kind of ink with gunpowder from his horn and water from the running
+      stream; and tearing a corner from his French military commission (which he
+      carried in his pocket, like a talisman to keep him from the gallows), he
+      sat down and wrote as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "DEAR KINSMAN,&mdash;Please send the money by the bearer to the place he
+      kens of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your affectionate cousin,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A. S."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This he intrusted to the bouman, who promised to make what manner of speed
+      he best could, and carried it off with him down the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was three full days gone, but about five in the evening of the third,
+      we heard a whistling in the wood, which Alan answered; and presently the
+      bouman came up the water-side, looking for us, right and left. He seemed
+      less sulky than before, and indeed he was no doubt well pleased to have
+      got to the end of such a dangerous commission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave us the news of the country; that it was alive with red-coats; that
+      arms were being found, and poor folk brought in trouble daily; and that
+      James and some of his servants were already clapped in prison at Fort
+      William, under strong suspicion of complicity. It seemed it was noised on
+      all sides that Alan Breck had fired the shot; and there was a bill issued
+      for both him and me, with one hundred pounds reward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all as bad as could be; and the little note the bouman had
+      carried us from Mrs. Stewart was of a miserable sadness. In it she
+      besought Alan not to let himself be captured, assuring him, if he fell in
+      the hands of the troops, both he and James were no better than dead men.
+      The money she had sent was all that she could beg or borrow, and she
+      prayed heaven we could be doing with it. Lastly, she said, she enclosed us
+      one of the bills in which we were described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This we looked upon with great curiosity and not a little fear, partly as
+      a man may look in a mirror, partly as he might look into the barrel of an
+      enemy's gun to judge if it be truly aimed. Alan was advertised as "a
+      small, pock-marked, active man of thirty-five or thereby, dressed in a
+      feathered hat, a French side-coat of blue with silver buttons, and lace a
+      great deal tarnished, a red waistcoat and breeches of black, shag;" and I
+      as "a tall strong lad of about eighteen, wearing an old blue coat, very
+      ragged, an old Highland bonnet, a long homespun waistcoat, blue breeches;
+      his legs bare, low-country shoes, wanting the toes; speaks like a
+      Lowlander, and has no beard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was well enough pleased to see his finery so fully remembered and set
+      down; only when he came to the word tarnish, he looked upon his lace like
+      one a little mortified. As for myself, I thought I cut a miserable figure
+      in the bill; and yet was well enough pleased too, for since I had changed
+      these rags, the description had ceased to be a danger and become a source
+      of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," said I, "you should change your clothes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na, troth!" said Alan, "I have nae others. A fine sight I would be, if I
+      went back to France in a bonnet!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This put a second reflection in my mind: that if I were to separate from
+      Alan and his tell-tale clothes I should be safe against arrest, and might
+      go openly about my business. Nor was this all; for suppose I was arrested
+      when I was alone, there was little against me; but suppose I was taken in
+      company with the reputed murderer, my case would begin to be grave. For
+      generosity's sake I dare not speak my mind upon this head; but I thought
+      of it none the less.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought of it all the more, too, when the bouman brought out a green
+      purse with four guineas in gold, and the best part of another in small
+      change. True, it was more than I had. But then Alan, with less than five
+      guineas, had to get as far as France; I, with my less than two, not beyond
+      Queensferry; so that taking things in their proportion, Alan's society was
+      not only a peril to my life, but a burden on my purse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was no thought of the sort in the honest head of my companion.
+      He believed he was serving, helping, and protecting me. And what could I
+      do but hold my peace, and chafe, and take my chance of it?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's little enough," said Alan, putting the purse in his pocket, "but
+      it'll do my business. And now, John Breck, if ye will hand me over my
+      button, this gentleman and me will be for taking the road."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bouman, after feeling about in a hairy purse that hung in front of
+      him in the Highland manner (though he wore otherwise the Lowland habit,
+      with sea-trousers), began to roll his eyes strangely, and at last said,
+      "Her nainsel will loss it," meaning he thought he had lost it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" cried Alan, "you will lose my button, that was my father's before
+      me? Now I will tell you what is in my mind, John Breck: it is in my mind
+      this is the worst day's work that ever ye did since ye was born."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as Alan spoke, he set his hands on his knees and looked at the bouman
+      with a smiling mouth, and that dancing light in his eyes that meant
+      mischief to his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the bouman was honest enough; perhaps he had meant to cheat and
+      then, finding himself alone with two of us in a desert place, cast back to
+      honesty as being safer; at least, and all at once, he seemed to find that
+      button and handed it to Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, and it is a good thing for the honour of the Maccolls," said Alan,
+      and then to me, "Here is my button back again, and I thank you for parting
+      with it, which is of a piece with all your friendships to me." Then he
+      took the warmest parting of the bouman. "For," says he, "ye have done very
+      well by me, and set your neck at a venture, and I will always give you the
+      name of a good man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lastly, the bouman took himself off by one way; and Alan and I (getting
+      our chattels together) struck into another to resume our flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0230m.jpg" alt="0230m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0230.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9230m.jpg" alt="9230m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9230.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ome seven hours' incessant, hard travelling brought us early in the
+      morning to the end of a range of mountains. In front of us there lay a
+      piece of low, broken, desert land, which we must now cross. The sun was
+      not long up, and shone straight in our eyes; a little, thin mist went up
+      from the face of the moorland like a smoke; so that (as Alan said) there
+      might have been twenty squadron of dragoons there and we none the wiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We sat down, therefore, in a howe of the hill-side till the mist should
+      have risen, and made ourselves a dish of drammach, and held a council of
+      war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," said Alan, "this is the kittle bit. Shall we lie here till it
+      comes night, or shall we risk it, and stave on ahead?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "I am tired indeed, but I could walk as far again, if that
+      was all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but it isnae," said Alan, "nor yet the half. This is how we stand:
+      Appin's fair death to us. To the south it's all Campbells, and no to be
+      thought of. To the north; well, there's no muckle to be gained by going
+      north; neither for you, that wants to get to Queensferry, nor yet for me,
+      that wants to get to France. Well, then, we'll can strike east."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "East be it!" says I, quite cheerily; but I was thinking in to myself: "O,
+      man, if you would only take one point of the compass and let me take any
+      other, it would be the best for both of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, east, ye see, we have the muirs," said Alan. "Once there,
+      David, it's mere pitch-and-toss. Out on yon bald, naked, flat place, where
+      can a body turn to? Let the red-coats come over a hill, they can spy you
+      miles away; and the sorrow's in their horses' heels, they would soon ride
+      you down. It's no good place, David; and I'm free to say, it's worse by
+      daylight than by dark."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," said I, "hear my way of it. Appin's death for us; we have none too
+      much money, nor yet meal; the longer they seek, the nearer they may guess
+      where we are; it's all a risk; and I give my word to go ahead until we
+      drop."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was delighted. "There are whiles," said he, "when ye are altogether
+      too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me; but there
+      come other whiles when ye show yoursel' a mettle spark; and it's then,
+      David, that I love ye like a brother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mist rose and died away, and showed us that country lying as waste as
+      the sea; only the moorfowl and the pewees crying upon it, and far over to
+      the east, a herd of deer, moving like dots. Much of it was red with
+      heather; much of the rest broken up with bogs and hags and peaty pools;
+      some had been burnt black in a heath fire; and in another place there was
+      quite a forest of dead firs, standing like skeletons. A wearier-looking
+      desert man never saw; but at least it was clear of troops, which was our
+      point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We went down accordingly into the waste, and began to make our toilsome
+      and devious travel towards the eastern verge. There were the tops of
+      mountains all round (you are to remember) from whence we might be spied at
+      any moment; so it behoved us to keep in the hollow parts of the moor, and
+      when these turned aside from our direction to move upon its naked face
+      with infinite care. Sometimes, for half an hour together, we must crawl
+      from one heather bush to another, as hunters do when they are hard upon
+      the deer. It was a clear day again, with a blazing sun; the water in the
+      brandy bottle was soon gone; and altogether, if I had guessed what it
+      would be to crawl half the time upon my belly and to walk much of the rest
+      stooping nearly to the knees, I should certainly have held back from such
+      a killing enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Toiling and resting and toiling again, we wore away the morning; and about
+      noon lay down in a thick bush of heather to sleep. Alan took the first
+      watch; and it seemed to me I had scarce closed my eyes before I was shaken
+      up to take the second. We had no clock to go by; and Alan stuck a sprig of
+      heath in the ground to serve instead; so that as soon as the shadow of the
+      bush should fall so far to the east, I might know to rouse him. But I was
+      by this time so weary that I could have slept twelve hours at a stretch; I
+      had the taste of sleep in my throat; my joints slept even when my mind was
+      waking; the hot smell of the heather, and the drone of the wild bees, were
+      like possets to me; and every now and again I would give a jump and find I
+      had been dozing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last time I woke I seemed to come back from farther away, and thought
+      the sun had taken a great start in the heavens. I looked at the sprig of
+      heath, and at that I could have cried aloud: for I saw I had betrayed my
+      trust. My head was nearly turned with fear and shame; and at what I saw,
+      when I looked out around me on the moor, my heart was like dying in my
+      body. For sure enough, a body of horse-soldiers had come down during my
+      sleep, and were drawing near to us from the south-east, spread out in the
+      shape of a fan and riding their horses to and fro in the deep parts of the
+      heather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I waked Alan, he glanced first at the soldiers, then at the mark and
+      the position of the sun, and knitted his brows with a sudden, quick look,
+      both ugly and anxious, which was all the reproach I had of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are we to do now?" I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We'll have to play at being hares," said he. "Do ye see yon mountain?"
+      pointing to one on the north-eastern sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then," says he, "let us strike for that. Its name is Ben Alder. it
+      is a wild, desert mountain full of hills and hollows, and if we can win to
+      it before the morn, we may do yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, Alan," cried I, "that will take us across the very coming of the
+      soldiers!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ken that fine," said he; "but if we are driven back on Appin, we are
+      two dead men. So now, David man, be brisk!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he began to run forward on his hands and knees with an
+      incredible quickness, as though it were his natural way of going. All the
+      time, too, he kept winding in and out in the lower parts of the moorland
+      where we were the best concealed. Some of these had been burned or at
+      least scathed with fire; and there rose in our faces (which were close to
+      the ground) a blinding, choking dust as fine as smoke. The water was long
+      out; and this posture of running on the hands and knees brings an
+      overmastering weakness and weariness, so that the joints ache and the
+      wrists faint under your weight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now and then, indeed, where was a big bush of heather, we lay awhile, and
+      panted, and putting aside the leaves, looked back at the dragoons. They
+      had not spied us, for they held straight on; a half-troop, I think,
+      covering about two miles of ground, and beating it mighty thoroughly as
+      they went. I had awakened just in time; a little later, and we must have
+      fled in front of them, instead of escaping on one side. Even as it was,
+      the least misfortune might betray us; and now and again, when a grouse
+      rose out of the heather with a clap of wings, we lay as still as the dead
+      and were afraid to breathe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The aching and faintness of my body, the labouring of my heart, the
+      soreness of my hands, and the smarting of my throat and eyes in the
+      continual smoke of dust and ashes, had soon grown to be so unbearable that
+      I would gladly have given up. Nothing but the fear of Alan lent me enough
+      of a false kind of courage to continue. As for himself (and you are to
+      bear in mind that he was cumbered with a great-coat) he had first turned
+      crimson, but as time went on the redness began to be mingled with patches
+      of white; his breath cried and whistled as it came; and his voice, when he
+      whispered his observations in my ear during our halts, sounded like
+      nothing human. Yet he seemed in no way dashed in spirits, nor did he at
+      all abate in his activity, so that I was driven to marvel at the man's
+      endurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, in the first gloaming of the night, we heard a trumpet sound,
+      and looking back from among the heather, saw the troop beginning to
+      collect. A little after, they had built a fire and camped for the night,
+      about the middle of the waste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this I begged and besought that we might lie down and sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There shall be no sleep the night!" said Alan. "From now on, these weary
+      dragoons of yours will keep the crown of the muirland, and none will get
+      out of Appin but winged fowls. We got through in the nick of time, and
+      shall we jeopard what we've gained? Na, na, when the day comes, it shall
+      find you and me in a fast place on Ben Alder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," I said, "it's not the want of will: it's the strength that I want.
+      If I could, I would; but as sure as I'm alive I cannot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very well, then," said Alan. "I'll carry ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked to see if he were jesting; but no, the little man was in dead
+      earnest; and the sight of so much resolution shamed me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lead away!" said I. "I'll follow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave me one look as much as to say, "Well done, David!" and off he set
+      again at his top speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It grew cooler and even a little darker (but not much) with the coming of
+      the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and pretty
+      far north; in the darkest part of that night, you would have needed pretty
+      good eyes to read, but for all that, I have often seen it darker in a
+      winter mid-day. Heavy dew fell and drenched the moor like rain; and this
+      refreshed me for a while. When we stopped to breathe, and I had time to
+      see all about me, the clearness and sweetness of the night, the shapes of
+      the hills like things asleep, and the fire dwindling away behind us, like
+      a bright spot in the midst of the moor, anger would come upon me in a clap
+      that I must still drag myself in agony and eat the dust like a worm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By what I have read in books, I think few that have held a pen were ever
+      really wearied, or they would write of it more strongly. I had no care of
+      my life, neither past nor future, and I scarce remembered there was such a
+      lad as David Balfour. I did not think of myself, but just of each fresh
+      step which I was sure would be my last, with despair&mdash;and of Alan,
+      who was the cause of it, with hatred. Alan was in the right trade as a
+      soldier; this is the officer's part to make men continue to do things,
+      they know not wherefore, and when, if the choice was offered, they would
+      lie down where they were and be killed. And I dare say I would have made a
+      good enough private; for in these last hours it never occurred to me that
+      I had any choice but just to obey as long as I was able, and die obeying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Day began to come in, after years, I thought; and by that time we were
+      past the greatest danger, and could walk upon our feet like men, instead
+      of crawling like brutes. But, dear heart have mercy! what a pair we must
+      have made, going double like old grandfathers, stumbling like babes, and
+      as white as dead folk. Never a word passed between us; each set his mouth
+      and kept his eyes in front of him, and lifted up his foot and set it down
+      again, like people lifting weights at a country play;* all the while, with
+      the moorfowl crying "peep!" in the heather, and the light coming slowly
+      clearer in the east.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Village fair.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I say Alan did as I did. Not that ever I looked at him, for I had enough
+      ado to keep my feet; but because it is plain he must have been as stupid
+      with weariness as myself, and looked as little where we were going, or we
+      should not have walked into an ambush like blind men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It fell in this way. We were going down a heathery brae, Alan leading and
+      I following a pace or two behind, like a fiddler and his wife; when upon a
+      sudden the heather gave a rustle, three or four ragged men leaped out, and
+      the next moment we were lying on our backs, each with a dirk at his
+      throat.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0237m.jpg" alt="0237m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0237.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      I don't think I cared; the pain of this rough handling was quite swallowed
+      up by the pains of which I was already full; and I was too glad to have
+      stopped walking to mind about a dirk. I lay looking up in the face of the
+      man that held me; and I mind his face was black with the sun, and his eyes
+      very light, but I was not afraid of him. I heard Alan and another
+      whispering in the Gaelic; and what they said was all one to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dirks were put up, our weapons were taken away, and we were set
+      face to face, sitting in the heather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are Cluny's men," said Alan. "We couldnae have fallen better. We're
+      just to bide here with these, which are his out-sentries, till they can
+      get word to the chief of my arrival."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Cluny Macpherson, the chief of the clan Vourich, had been one of the
+      leaders of the great rebellion six years before; there was a price on his
+      life; and I had supposed him long ago in France, with the rest of the
+      heads of that desperate party. Even tired as I was, the surprise of what I
+      heard half wakened me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What," I cried, "is Cluny still here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, is he so!" said Alan. "Still in his own country and kept by his own
+      clan. King George can do no more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think I would have asked farther, but Alan gave me the put-off. "I am
+      rather wearied," he said, "and I would like fine to get a sleep." And
+      without more words, he rolled on his face in a deep heather bush, and
+      seemed to sleep at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no such thing possible for me. You have heard grasshoppers
+      whirring in the grass in the summer time? Well, I had no sooner closed my
+      eyes, than my body, and above all my head, belly, and wrists, seemed to be
+      filled with whirring grasshoppers; and I must open my eyes again at once,
+      and tumble and toss, and sit up and lie down; and look at the sky which
+      dazzled me, or at Cluny's wild and dirty sentries, peering out over the
+      top of the brae and chattering to each other in the Gaelic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was all the rest I had, until the messenger returned; when, as it
+      appeared that Cluny would be glad to receive us, we must get once more
+      upon our feet and set forward. Alan was in excellent good spirits, much
+      refreshed by his sleep, very hungry, and looking pleasantly forward to a
+      dram and a dish of hot collops, of which, it seems, the messenger had
+      brought him word. For my part, it made me sick to hear of eating. I had
+      been dead-heavy before, and now I felt a kind of dreadful lightness, which
+      would not suffer me to walk. I drifted like a gossamer; the ground seemed
+      to me a cloud, the hills a feather-weight, the air to have a current, like
+      a running burn, which carried me to and fro. With all that, a sort of
+      horror of despair sat on my mind, so that I could have wept at my own
+      helplessness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw Alan knitting his brows at me, and supposed it was in anger; and
+      that gave me a pang of light-headed fear, like what a child may have. I
+      remember, too, that I was smiling, and could not stop smiling, hard as I
+      tried; for I thought it was out of place at such a time. But my good
+      companion had nothing in his mind but kindness; and the next moment, two
+      of the gillies had me by the arms, and I began to be carried forward with
+      great swiftness (or so it appeared to me, although I dare say it was
+      slowly enough in truth), through a labyrinth of dreary glens and hollows
+      and into the heart of that dismal mountain of Ben Alder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0241m.jpg" alt="0241m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0241.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      CLUNY'S CAGE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9241m.jpg" alt="9241m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9241.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      e came at last to the foot of an exceeding steep wood, which scrambled up
+      a craggy hillside, and was crowned by a naked precipice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's here," said one of the guides, and we struck up hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trees clung upon the slope, like sailors on the shrouds of a ship, and
+      their trunks were like the rounds of a ladder, by which we mounted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite at the top, and just before the rocky face of the cliff sprang above
+      the foliage, we found that strange house which was known in the country as
+      "Cluny's Cage." The trunks of several trees had been wattled across, the
+      intervals strengthened with stakes, and the ground behind this barricade
+      levelled up with earth to make the floor. A tree, which grew out from the
+      hillside, was the living centre-beam of the roof. The walls were of wattle
+      and covered with moss. The whole house had something of an egg shape; and
+      it half hung, half stood in that steep, hillside thicket, like a wasp's
+      nest in a green hawthorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within, it was large enough to shelter five or six persons with some
+      comfort. A projection of the cliff had been cunningly employed to be the
+      fireplace; and the smoke rising against the face of the rock, and being
+      not dissimilar in colour, readily escaped notice from below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was but one of Cluny's hiding-places; he had caves, besides, and
+      underground chambers in several parts of his country; and following the
+      reports of his scouts, he moved from one to another as the soldiers drew
+      near or moved away. By this manner of living, and thanks to the affection
+      of his clan, he had not only stayed all this time in safety, while so many
+      others had fled or been taken and slain: but stayed four or five years
+      longer, and only went to France at last by the express command of his
+      master. There he soon died; and it is strange to reflect that he may have
+      regretted his Cage upon Ben Alder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we came to the door he was seated by his rock chimney, watching a
+      gillie about some cookery. He was mighty plainly habited, with a knitted
+      nightcap drawn over his ears, and smoked a foul cutty pipe. For all that
+      he had the manners of a king, and it was quite a sight to see him rise out
+      of his place to welcome us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, Mr. Stewart, come awa', sir!" said he, "and bring in your friend
+      that as yet I dinna ken the name of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how is yourself, Cluny?" said Alan. "I hope ye do brawly, sir. And I
+      am proud to see ye, and to present to ye my friend the Laird of Shaws, Mr.
+      David Balfour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan never referred to my estate without a touch of a sneer, when we were
+      alone; but with strangers, he rang the words out like a herald.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Step in by, the both of ye, gentlemen," says Cluny. "I make ye welcome to
+      my house, which is a queer, rude place for certain, but one where I have
+      entertained a royal personage, Mr. Stewart&mdash;ye doubtless ken the
+      personage I have in my eye. We'll take a dram for luck, and as soon as
+      this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we'll dine and take a
+      hand at the cartes as gentlemen should. My life is a bit driegh," says he,
+      pouring out the brandy; "I see little company, and sit and twirl my
+      thumbs, and mind upon a great day that is gone by, and weary for another
+      great day that we all hope will be upon the road. And so here's a toast to
+      ye: The Restoration!"
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0243m.jpg" alt="0243m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0243.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon we all touched glasses and drank. I am sure I wished no ill to
+      King George; and if he had been there himself in proper person, it's like
+      he would have done as I did. No sooner had I taken out the drain than I
+      felt hugely better, and could look on and listen, still a little mistily
+      perhaps, but no longer with the same groundless horror and distress of
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was certainly a strange place, and we had a strange host. In his long
+      hiding, Cluny had grown to have all manner of precise habits, like those
+      of an old maid. He had a particular place, where no one else must sit; the
+      Cage was arranged in a particular way, which none must disturb; cookery
+      was one of his chief fancies, and even while he was greeting us in, he
+      kept an eye to the collops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears, he sometimes visited or received visits from his wife and one
+      or two of his nearest friends, under the cover of night; but for the more
+      part lived quite alone, and communicated only with his sentinels and the
+      gillies that waited on him in the Cage. The first thing in the morning,
+      one of them, who was a barber, came and shaved him, and gave him the news
+      of the country, of which he was immoderately greedy. There was no end to
+      his questions; he put them as earnestly as a child; and at some of the
+      answers, laughed out of all bounds of reason, and would break out again
+      laughing at the mere memory, hours after the barber was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be sure, there might have been a purpose in his questions; for though
+      he was thus sequestered, and like the other landed gentlemen of Scotland,
+      stripped by the late Act of Parliament of legal powers, he still exercised
+      a patriarchal justice in his clan. Disputes were brought to him in his
+      hiding-hole to be decided; and the men of his country, who would have
+      snapped their fingers at the Court of Session, laid aside revenge and paid
+      down money at the bare word of this forfeited and hunted outlaw. When he
+      was angered, which was often enough, he gave his commands and breathed
+      threats of punishment like any king; and his gillies trembled and crouched
+      away from him like children before a hasty father. With each of them, as
+      he entered, he ceremoniously shook hands, both parties touching their
+      bonnets at the same time in a military manner. Altogether, I had a fair
+      chance to see some of the inner workings of a Highland clan; and this with
+      a proscribed, fugitive chief; his country conquered; the troops riding
+      upon all sides in quest of him, sometimes within a mile of where he lay;
+      and when the least of the ragged fellows whom he rated and threatened,
+      could have made a fortune by betraying him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that first day, as soon as the collops were ready, Cluny gave them with
+      his own hand a squeeze of a lemon (for he was well supplied with luxuries)
+      and bade us draw in to our meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They," said he, meaning the collops, "are such as I gave his Royal
+      Highness in this very house; bating the lemon juice, for at that time we
+      were glad to get the meat and never fashed for kitchen.* Indeed, there
+      were mair dragoons than lemons in my country in the year forty-six."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Condiment.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I do not know if the collops were truly very good, but my heart rose
+      against the sight of them, and I could eat but little. All the while Cluny
+      entertained us with stories of Prince Charlie's stay in the Cage, giving
+      us the very words of the speakers, and rising from his place to show us
+      where they stood. By these, I gathered the Prince was a gracious, spirited
+      boy, like the son of a race of polite kings, but not so wise as Solomon. I
+      gathered, too, that while he was in the Cage, he was often drunk; so the
+      fault that has since, by all accounts, made such a wreck of him, had even
+      then begun to show itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were no sooner done eating than Cluny brought out an old, thumbed,
+      greasy pack of cards, such as you may find in a mean inn; and his eyes
+      brightened in his face as he proposed that we should fall to playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this was one of the things I had been brought up to eschew like
+      disgrace; it being held by my father neither the part of a Christian nor
+      yet of a gentleman to set his own livelihood and fish for that of others,
+      on the cast of painted pasteboard. To be sure, I might have pleaded my
+      fatigue, which was excuse enough; but I thought it behoved that I should
+      bear a testimony. I must have got very red in the face, but I spoke
+      steadily, and told them I had no call to be a judge of others, but for my
+      own part, it was a matter in which I had no clearness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cluny stopped mingling the cards. "What in deil's name is this?" says he.
+      "What kind of Whiggish, canting talk is this, for the house of Cluny
+      Macpherson?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will put my hand in the fire for Mr. Balfour," says Alan. "He is an
+      honest and a mettle gentleman, and I would have ye bear in mind who says
+      it. I bear a king's name," says he, cocking his hat; "and I and any that I
+      call friend are company for the best. But the gentleman is tired, and
+      should sleep; if he has no mind to the cartes, it will never hinder you
+      and me. And I'm fit and willing, sir, to play ye any game that ye can
+      name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," says Cluny, "in this poor house of mine I would have you to ken
+      that any gentleman may follow his pleasure. If your friend would like to
+      stand on his head, he is welcome. And if either he, or you, or any other
+      man, is not preceesely satisfied, I will be proud to step outside with
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had no will that these two friends should cut their throats for my sake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," said I, "I am very wearied, as Alan says; and what's more, as you
+      are a man that likely has sons of your own, I may tell you it was a
+      promise to my father."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say nae mair, say nae mair," said Cluny, and pointed me to a bed of
+      heather in a corner of the Cage. For all that he was displeased enough,
+      looked at me askance, and grumbled when he looked. And indeed it must be
+      owned that both my scruples and the words in which I declared them,
+      smacked somewhat of the Covenanter, and were little in their place among
+      wild Highland Jacobites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What with the brandy and the venison, a strange heaviness had come over
+      me; and I had scarce lain down upon the bed before I fell into a kind of
+      trance, in which I continued almost the whole time of our stay in the
+      Cage. Sometimes I was broad awake and understood what passed; sometimes I
+      only heard voices, or men snoring, like the voice of a silly river; and
+      the plaids upon the wall dwindled down and swelled out again, like
+      firelight shadows on the roof. I must sometimes have spoken or cried out,
+      for I remember I was now and then amazed at being answered; yet I was
+      conscious of no particular nightmare, only of a general, black, abiding
+      horror&mdash;a horror of the place I was in, and the bed I lay in, and the
+      plaids on the wall, and the voices, and the fire, and myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The barber-gillie, who was a doctor too, was called in to prescribe for
+      me; but as he spoke in the Gaelic, I understood not a word of his opinion,
+      and was too sick even to ask for a translation. I knew well enough I was
+      ill, and that was all I cared about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I paid little heed while I lay in this poor pass. But Alan and Cluny were
+      most of the time at the cards, and I am clear that Alan must have begun by
+      winning; for I remember sitting up, and seeing them hard at it, and a
+      great glittering pile of as much as sixty or a hundred guineas on the
+      table. It looked strange enough, to see all this wealth in a nest upon a
+      cliff-side, wattled about growing trees. And even then, I thought it
+      seemed deep water for Alan to be riding, who had no better battle-horse
+      than a green purse and a matter of five pounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The luck, it seems, changed on the second day. About noon I was wakened as
+      usual for dinner, and as usual refused to eat, and was given a dram with
+      some bitter infusion which the barber had prescribed. The sun was shining
+      in at the open door of the Cage, and this dazzled and offended me. Cluny
+      sat at the table, biting the pack of cards. Alan had stooped over the bed,
+      and had his face close to my eyes; to which, troubled as they were with
+      the fever, it seemed of the most shocking bigness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked me for a loan of my money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What for?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, just for a loan," said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But why?" I repeated. "I don't see."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hut, David!" said Alan, "ye wouldnae grudge me a loan?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I would, though, if I had had my senses! But all I thought of then was to
+      get his face away, and I handed him my money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the morning of the third day, when we had been forty-eight hours in the
+      Cage, I awoke with a great relief of spirits, very weak and weary indeed,
+      but seeing things of the right size and with their honest, everyday
+      appearance. I had a mind to eat, moreover, rose from bed of my own
+      movement, and as soon as we had breakfasted, stepped to the entry of the
+      Cage and sat down outside in the top of the wood. It was a grey day with a
+      cool, mild air: and I sat in a dream all morning, only disturbed by the
+      passing by of Cluny's scouts and servants coming with provisions and
+      reports; for as the coast was at that time clear, you might almost say he
+      held court openly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I returned, he and Alan had laid the cards aside, and were
+      questioning a gillie; and the chief turned about and spoke to me in the
+      Gaelic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no Gaelic, sir," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now since the card question, everything I said or did had the power of
+      annoying Cluny. "Your name has more sense than yourself, then," said he
+      angrily, "for it's good Gaelic. But the point is this. My scout reports
+      all clear in the south, and the question is, have ye the strength to go?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw cards on the table, but no gold; only a heap of little written
+      papers, and these all on Cluny's side. Alan, besides, had an odd look,
+      like a man not very well content; and I began to have a strong misgiving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not know if I am as well as I should be," said I, looking at Alan;
+      "but the little money we have has a long way to carry us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan took his under-lip into his mouth, and looked upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," says he at last, "I've lost it; there's the naked truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My money too?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your money too," says Alan, with a groan. "Ye shouldnae have given it me.
+      I'm daft when I get to the cartes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot-toot! hoot-toot!" said Cluny. "It was all daffing; it's all
+      nonsense. Of course you'll have your money back again, and the double of
+      it, if ye'll make so free with me. It would be a singular thing for me to
+      keep it. It's not to be supposed that I would be any hindrance to
+      gentlemen in your situation; that would be a singular thing!" cries he,
+      and began to pull gold out of his pocket with a mighty red face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan said nothing, only looked on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you step to the door with me, sir?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cluny said he would be very glad, and followed me readily enough, but he
+      looked flustered and put out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now, sir," says I, "I must first acknowledge your generosity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nonsensical nonsense!" cries Cluny. "Where's the generosity? This is just
+      a most unfortunate affair; but what would ye have me do&mdash;boxed up in
+      this bee-skep of a cage of mine&mdash;but just set my friends to the
+      cartes, when I can get them? And if they lose, of course, it's not to be
+      supposed&mdash;&mdash;" And here he came to a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said I, "if they lose, you give them back their money; and if they
+      win, they carry away yours in their pouches! I have said before that I
+      grant your generosity; but to me, sir, it's a very painful thing to be
+      placed in this position."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a little silence, in which Cluny seemed always as if he was
+      about to speak, but said nothing. All the time he grew redder and redder
+      in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a young man," said I, "and I ask your advice. Advise me as you would
+      your son. My friend fairly lost his money, after having fairly gained a
+      far greater sum of yours; can I accept it back again? Would that be the
+      right part for me to play? Whatever I do, you can see for yourself it must
+      be hard upon a man of any pride."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's rather hard on me, too, Mr. Balfour," said Cluny, "and ye give me
+      very much the look of a man that has entrapped poor people to their hurt.
+      I wouldnae have my friends come to any house of mine to accept affronts;
+      no," he cried, with a sudden heat of anger, "nor yet to give them!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so you see, sir," said I, "there is something to be said upon my
+      side; and this gambling is a very poor employ for gentlefolks. But I am
+      still waiting your opinion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sure if ever Cluny hated any man it was David Balfour. He looked me
+      all over with a warlike eye, and I saw the challenge at his lips. But
+      either my youth disarmed him, or perhaps his own sense of justice.
+      Certainly it was a mortifying matter for all concerned, and not least
+      Cluny; the more credit that he took it as he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Balfour," said he, "I think you are too nice and covenanting, but for
+      all that you have the spirit of a very pretty gentleman. Upon my honest
+      word, ye may take this money&mdash;it's what I would tell my son&mdash;and
+      here's my hand along with it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0252m.jpg" alt="0252m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0252.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE QUARREL
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9252m.jpg" alt="9252m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9252.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      lan and I were put across Loch Errocht under cloud of night, and went
+      down its eastern shore to another hiding-place near the head of Loch
+      Rannoch, whither we were led by one of the gillies from the Cage. This
+      fellow carried all our luggage and Alan's great-coat in the bargain,
+      trotting along under the burthen, far less than the half of which used to
+      weigh me to the ground, like a stout hill pony with a feather; yet he was
+      a man that, in plain contest, I could have broken on my knee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doubtless it was a great relief to walk disencumbered; and perhaps without
+      that relief, and the consequent sense of liberty and lightness, I could
+      not have walked at all. I was but new risen from a bed of sickness; and
+      there was nothing in the state of our affairs to hearten me for much
+      exertion; travelling, as we did, over the most dismal deserts in Scotland,
+      under a cloudy heaven, and with divided hearts among the travellers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For long, we said nothing; marching alongside or one behind the other,
+      each with a set countenance: I, angry and proud, and drawing what strength
+      I had from these two violent and sinful feelings; Alan angry and ashamed,
+      ashamed that he had lost my money, angry that I should take it so ill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thought of a separation ran always the stronger in my mind; and the
+      more I approved of it, the more ashamed I grew of my approval. It would be
+      a fine, handsome, generous thing, indeed, for Alan to turn round and say
+      to me: "Go, I am in the most danger, and my company only increases yours."
+      But for me to turn to the friend who certainly loved me, and say to him:
+      "You are in great danger, I am in but little; your friendship is a burden;
+      go, take your risks and bear your hardships alone&mdash;&mdash;" no, that
+      was impossible; and even to think of it privily to myself, made my cheeks
+      to burn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet Alan had behaved like a child, and (what is worse) a treacherous
+      child. Wheedling my money from me while I lay half-conscious was scarce
+      better than theft; and yet here he was trudging by my side, without a
+      penny to his name, and by what I could see, quite blithe to sponge upon
+      the money he had driven me to beg. True, I was ready to share it with him;
+      but it made me rage to see him count upon my readiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were the two things uppermost in my mind; and I could open my mouth
+      upon neither without black ungenerosity. So I did the next worst, and said
+      nothing, nor so much as looked once at my companion, save with the tail of
+      my eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, upon the other side of Loch Errocht, going over a smooth, rushy
+      place, where the walking was easy, he could bear it no longer, and came
+      close to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," says he, "this is no way for two friends to take a small
+      accident. I have to say that I'm sorry; and so that's said. And now if you
+      have anything, ye'd better say it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O," says I, "I have nothing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed disconcerted; at which I was meanly pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said he, with rather a trembling voice, "but when I say I was to
+      blame?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, of course, ye were to blame," said I, coolly; "and you will bear me
+      out that I have never reproached you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Never," says he; "but ye ken very well that ye've done worse. Are we to
+      part? Ye said so once before. Are ye to say it again? There's hills and
+      heather enough between here and the two seas, David; and I will own I'm no
+      very keen to stay where I'm no wanted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This pierced me like a sword, and seemed to lay bare my private
+      disloyalty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan Breck!" I cried; and then: "Do you think I am one to turn my back on
+      you in your chief need? You dursn't say it to my face. My whole conduct's
+      there to give the lie to it. It's true, I fell asleep upon the muir; but
+      that was from weariness, and you do wrong to cast it up to me&mdash;&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Which is what I never did," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But aside from that," I continued, "what have I done that you should even
+      me to dogs by such a supposition? I never yet failed a friend, and it's
+      not likely I'll begin with you. There are things between us that I can
+      never forget, even if you can."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will only say this to ye, David," said Alan, very quietly, "that I have
+      long been owing ye my life, and now I owe ye money. Ye should try to make
+      that burden light for me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This ought to have touched me, and in a manner it did, but the wrong
+      manner. I felt I was behaving badly; and was now not only angry with Alan,
+      but angry with myself in the bargain; and it made me the more cruel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You asked me to speak," said I. "Well, then, I will. You own yourself
+      that you have done me a disservice; I have had to swallow an affront: I
+      have never reproached you, I never named the thing till you did. And now
+      you blame me," cried I, "because I cannae laugh and sing as if I was glad
+      to be affronted. The next thing will be that I'm to go down upon my knees
+      and thank you for it! Ye should think more of others, Alan Breck. If ye
+      thought more of others, ye would perhaps speak less about yourself; and
+      when a friend that likes you very well has passed over an offence without
+      a word, you would be blithe to let it lie, instead of making it a stick to
+      break his back with. By your own way of it, it was you that was to blame;
+      then it shouldnae be you to seek the quarrel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aweel," said Alan, "say nae mair."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And we fell back into our former silence; and came to our journey's end,
+      and supped, and lay down to sleep, without another word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gillie put us across Loch Rannoch in the dusk of the next day, and
+      gave us his opinion as to our best route. This was to get us up at once
+      into the tops of the mountains: to go round by a circuit, turning the
+      heads of Glen Lyon, Glen Lochay, and Glen Dochart, and come down upon the
+      lowlands by Kippen and the upper waters of the Forth. Alan was little
+      pleased with a route which led us through the country of his blood-foes,
+      the Glenorchy Campbells. He objected that by turning to the east, we
+      should come almost at once among the Athole Stewarts, a race of his own
+      name and lineage, although following a different chief, and come besides
+      by a far easier and swifter way to the place whither we were bound. But
+      the gillie, who was indeed the chief man of Cluny's scouts, had good
+      reasons to give him on all hands, naming the force of troops in every
+      district, and alleging finally (as well as I could understand) that we
+      should nowhere be so little troubled as in a country of the Campbells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan gave way at last, but with only half a heart. "It's one of the
+      dowiest countries in Scotland," said he. "There's naething there that I
+      ken, but heath, and crows, and Campbells. But I see that ye're a man of
+      some penetration; and be it as ye please!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We set forth accordingly by this itinerary; and for the best part of three
+      nights travelled on eerie mountains and among the well-heads of wild
+      rivers; often buried in mist, almost continually blown and rained upon,
+      and not once cheered by any glimpse of sunshine. By day, we lay and slept
+      in the drenching heather; by night, incessantly clambered upon break-neck
+      hills and among rude crags. We often wandered; we were often so involved
+      in fog, that we must lie quiet till it lightened. A fire was never to be
+      thought of. Our only food was drammach and a portion of cold meat that we
+      had carried from the Cage; and as for drink, Heaven knows we had no want
+      of water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a dreadful time, rendered the more dreadful by the gloom of the
+      weather and the country. I was never warm; my teeth chattered in my head;
+      I was troubled with a very sore throat, such as I had on the isle; I had a
+      painful stitch in my side, which never left me; and when I slept in my wet
+      bed, with the rain beating above and the mud oozing below me, it was to
+      live over again in fancy the worst part of my adventures&mdash;to see the
+      tower of Shaws lit by lightning, Ransome carried below on the men's backs,
+      Shuan dying on the round-house floor, or Colin Campbell grasping at the
+      bosom of his coat. From such broken slumbers, I would be aroused in the
+      gloaming, to sit up in the same puddle where I had slept, and sup cold
+      drammach; the rain driving sharp in my face or running down my back in icy
+      trickles; the mist enfolding us like as in a gloomy chamber&mdash;or,
+      perhaps, if the wind blew, falling suddenly apart and showing us the gulf
+      of some dark valley where the streams were crying aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of an infinite number of rivers came up from all round. In this
+      steady rain the springs of the mountain were broken up; every glen gushed
+      water like a cistern; every stream was in high spate, and had filled and
+      overflowed its channel. During our night tramps, it was solemn to hear the
+      voice of them below in the valleys, now booming like thunder, now with an
+      angry cry. I could well understand the story of the Water Kelpie, that
+      demon of the streams, who is fabled to keep wailing and roaring at the
+      ford until the coming of the doomed traveller. Alan I saw believed it, or
+      half believed it; and when the cry of the river rose more than usually
+      sharp, I was little surprised (though, of course, I would still be
+      shocked) to see him cross himself in the manner of the Catholics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During all these horrid wanderings we had no familiarity, scarcely even
+      that of speech. The truth is that I was sickening for my grave, which is
+      my best excuse. But besides that I was of an unforgiving disposition from
+      my birth, slow to take offence, slower to forget it, and now incensed both
+      against my companion and myself. For the best part of two days he was
+      unweariedly kind; silent, indeed, but always ready to help, and always
+      hoping (as I could very well see) that my displeasure would blow by. For
+      the same length of time I stayed in myself, nursing my anger, roughly
+      refusing his services, and passing him over with my eyes as if he had been
+      a bush or a stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second night, or rather the peep of the third day, found us upon a
+      very open hill, so that we could not follow our usual plan and lie down
+      immediately to eat and sleep. Before we had reached a place of shelter,
+      the grey had come pretty clear, for though it still rained, the clouds ran
+      higher; and Alan, looking in my face, showed some marks of concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye had better let me take your pack," said he, for perhaps the ninth time
+      since we had parted from the scout beside Loch Rannoch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do very well, I thank you," said I, as cold as ice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan flushed darkly. "I'll not offer it again," he said. "I'm not a
+      patient man, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never said you were," said I, which was exactly the rude, silly speech
+      of a boy of ten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan made no answer at the time, but his conduct answered for him.
+      Henceforth, it is to be thought, he quite forgave himself for the affair
+      at Cluny's; cocked his hat again, walked jauntily, whistled airs, and
+      looked at me upon one side with a provoking smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third night we were to pass through the western end of the country of
+      Balquhidder. It came clear and cold, with a touch in the air like frost,
+      and a northerly wind that blew the clouds away and made the stars bright.
+      The streams were full, of course, and still made a great noise among the
+      hills; but I observed that Alan thought no more upon the Kelpie, and was
+      in high good spirits. As for me, the change of weather came too late; I
+      had lain in the mire so long that (as the Bible has it) my very clothes
+      "abhorred me." I was dead weary, deadly sick and full of pains and
+      shiverings; the chill of the wind went through me, and the sound of it
+      confused my ears. In this poor state I had to bear from my companion
+      something in the nature of a persecution. He spoke a good deal, and never
+      without a taunt. "Whig" was the best name he had to give me. "Here," he
+      would say, "here's a dub for ye to jump, my Whiggie! I ken you're a fine
+      jumper!" And so on; all the time with a gibing voice and face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew it was my own doing, and no one else's; but I was too miserable to
+      repent. I felt I could drag myself but little farther; pretty soon, I must
+      lie down and die on these wet mountains like a sheep or a fox, and my
+      bones must whiten there like the bones of a beast. My head was light
+      perhaps; but I began to love the prospect, I began to glory in the thought
+      of such a death, alone in the desert, with the wild eagles besieging my
+      last moments. Alan would repent then, I thought; he would remember, when I
+      was dead, how much he owed me, and the remembrance would be torture. So I
+      went like a sick, silly, and bad-hearted schoolboy, feeding my anger
+      against a fellow-man, when I would have been better on my knees, crying on
+      God for mercy. And at each of Alan's taunts, I hugged myself. "Ah!" thinks
+      I to myself, "I have a better taunt in readiness; when I lie down and die,
+      you will feel it like a buffet in your face; ah, what a revenge! ah, how
+      you will regret your ingratitude and cruelty!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the while, I was growing worse and worse. Once I had fallen, my leg
+      simply doubling under me, and this had struck Alan for the moment; but I
+      was afoot so briskly, and set off again with such a natural manner, that
+      he soon forgot the incident. Flushes of heat went over me, and then spasms
+      of shuddering. The stitch in my side was hardly bearable. At last I began
+      to feel that I could trail myself no farther: and with that, there came on
+      me all at once the wish to have it out with Alan, let my anger blaze, and
+      be done with my life in a more sudden manner. He had just called me
+      "Whig." I stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Stewart," said I, in a voice that quivered like a fiddle-string, "you
+      are older than I am, and should know your manners. Do you think it either
+      very wise or very witty to cast my politics in my teeth? I thought, where
+      folk differed, it was the part of gentlemen to differ civilly; and if I
+      did not, I may tell you I could find a better taunt than some of yours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan had stopped opposite to me, his hat cocked, his hands in his breeches
+      pockets, his head a little on one side. He listened, smiling evilly, as I
+      could see by the starlight; and when I had done he began to whistle a
+      Jacobite air. It was the air made in mockery of General Cope's defeat at
+      Preston Pans:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin' yet?
+     And are your drums a-beatin' yet?"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And it came in my mind that Alan, on the day of that battle, had been
+      engaged upon the royal side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why do ye take that air, Mr. Stewart?" said I. "Is that to remind me you
+      have been beaten on both sides?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air stopped on Alan's lips. "David!" said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But it's time these manners ceased," I continued; "and I mean you shall
+      henceforth speak civilly of my King and my good friends the Campbells."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am a Stewart&mdash;" began Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O!" says I, "I ken ye bear a king's name. But you are to remember, since
+      I have been in the Highlands, I have seen a good many of those that bear
+      it; and the best I can say of them is this, that they would be none the
+      worse of washing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you know that you insult me?" said Alan, very low.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am sorry for that," said I, "for I am not done; and if you distaste the
+      sermon, I doubt the pirliecue* will please you as little. You have been
+      chased in the field by the grown men of my party; it seems a poor kind of
+      pleasure to out-face a boy. Both the Campbells and the Whigs have beaten
+      you; you have run before them like a hare. It behoves you to speak of them
+      as of your betters."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A second sermon.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Alan stood quite still, the tails of his great-coat clapping behind him in
+      the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is a pity," he said at last. "There are things said that cannot be
+      passed over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never asked you to," said I. "I am as ready as yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ready?" said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ready," I repeated. "I am no blower and boaster like some that I could
+      name. Come on!" And drawing my sword, I fell on guard as Alan himself had
+      taught me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David!" he cried. "Are ye daft? I cannae draw upon ye, David. It's fair
+      murder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was your look-out when you insulted me," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's the truth!" cried Alan, and he stood for a moment, wringing his
+      mouth in his hand like a man in sore perplexity. "It's the bare truth," he
+      said, and drew his sword. But before I could touch his blade with mine, he
+      had thrown it from him and fallen to the ground. "Na, na," he kept saying,
+      "na, na&mdash;I cannae, I cannae."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the last of my anger oozed all out of me; and I found myself only
+      sick, and sorry, and blank, and wondering at myself. I would have given
+      the world to take back what I had said; but a word once spoken, who can
+      recapture it? I minded me of all Alan's kindness and courage in the past,
+      how he had helped and cheered and borne with me in our evil days; and then
+      recalled my own insults, and saw that I had lost for ever that doughty
+      friend. At the same time, the sickness that hung upon me seemed to
+      redouble, and the pang in my side was like a sword for sharpness. I
+      thought I must have swooned where I stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This it was that gave me a thought. No apology could blot out what I had
+      said; it was needless to think of one, none could cover the offence; but
+      where an apology was vain, a mere cry for help might bring Alan back to my
+      side. I put my pride away from me. "Alan!" I said; "if ye cannae help me,
+      I must just die here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He started up sitting, and looked at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's true," said I. "I'm by with it. O, let me get into the bield of a
+      house&mdash;I'll can die there easier." I had no need to pretend; whether
+      I chose or not, I spoke in a weeping voice that would have melted a heart
+      of stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can ye walk?" asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said I, "not without help. This last hour my legs have been fainting
+      under me; I've a stitch in my side like a red-hot iron; I cannae breathe
+      right. If I die, ye'll can forgive me, Alan? In my heart, I liked ye fine&mdash;even
+      when I was the angriest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wheesht, wheesht!" cried Alan. "Dinna say that! David man, ye ken&mdash;"
+      He shut his mouth upon a sob. "Let me get my arm about ye," he continued;
+      "that's the way! Now lean upon me hard. Gude kens where there's a house!
+      We're in Balwhidder, too; there should be no want of houses, no, nor
+      friends' houses here. Do ye gang easier so, Davie?"
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0261m.jpg" alt="0261m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0261.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0263m.jpg" alt="0263m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0263.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said I, "I can be doing this way;" and I pressed his arm with my
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he came near sobbing. "Davie," said he, "I'm no a right man at all;
+      I have neither sense nor kindness; I could nae remember ye were just a
+      bairn, I couldnae see ye were dying on your feet; Davie, ye'll have to try
+      and forgive me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O man, let's say no more about it!" said I. "We're neither one of us to
+      mend the other&mdash;that's the truth! We must just bear and forbear, man
+      Alan. O, but my stitch is sore! Is there nae house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll find a house to ye, David," he said, stoutly. "We'll follow down the
+      burn, where there's bound to be houses. My poor man, will ye no be better
+      on my back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, Alan," says I, "and me a good twelve inches taller?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye're no such a thing," cried Alan, with a start. "There may be a
+      trifling matter of an inch or two; I'm no saying I'm just exactly what ye
+      would call a tall man, whatever; and I dare say," he added, his voice
+      tailing off in a laughable manner, "now when I come to think of it, I dare
+      say ye'll be just about right. Ay, it'll be a foot, or near hand; or may
+      be even mair!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was sweet and laughable to hear Alan eat his words up in the fear of
+      some fresh quarrel. I could have laughed, had not my stitch caught me so
+      hard; but if I had laughed, I think I must have wept too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," cried I, "what makes ye so good to me? What makes ye care for such
+      a thankless fellow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Deed, and I don't know" said Alan. "For just precisely what I thought I
+      liked about ye, was that ye never quarrelled:&mdash;and now I like ye
+      better!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0267m.jpg" alt="0267m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0267.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      IN BALQUHIDDER
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9267m.jpg" alt="9267m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9267.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      t the door of the first house we came to, Alan knocked, which was of no
+      very safe enterprise in such a part of the Highlands as the Braes of
+      Balquhidder. No great clan held rule there; it was filled and disputed by
+      small septs, and broken remnants, and what they call "chiefless folk,"
+      driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the
+      advance of the Campbells. Here were Stewarts and Maclarens, which came to
+      the same thing, for the Maclarens followed Alan's chief in war, and made
+      but one clan with Appin. Here, too, were many of that old, proscribed,
+      nameless, red-handed clan of the Macgregors. They had always been
+      ill-considered, and now worse than ever, having credit with no side or
+      party in the whole country of Scotland. Their chief, Macgregor of
+      Macgregor, was in exile; the more immediate leader of that part of them
+      about Balquhidder, James More, Rob Roy's eldest son, lay waiting his trial
+      in Edinburgh Castle; they were in ill-blood with Highlander and Lowlander,
+      with the Grahames, the Maclarens, and the Stewarts; and Alan, who took up
+      the quarrel of any friend, however distant, was extremely wishful to avoid
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chance served us very well; for it was a household of Maclarens that we
+      found, where Alan was not only welcome for his name's sake but known by
+      reputation. Here then I was got to bed without delay, and a doctor
+      fetched, who found me in a sorry plight. But whether because he was a very
+      good doctor, or I a very young, strong man, I lay bedridden for no more
+      than a week, and before a month I was able to take the road again with a
+      good heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time Alan would not leave me though I often pressed him, and
+      indeed his foolhardiness in staying was a common subject of outcry with
+      the two or three friends that were let into the secret. He hid by day in a
+      hole of the braes under a little wood; and at night, when the coast was
+      clear, would come into the house to visit me. I need not say if I was
+      pleased to see him; Mrs. Maclaren, our hostess, thought nothing good
+      enough for such a guest; and as Duncan Dhu (which was the name of our
+      host) had a pair of pipes in his house, and was much of a lover of music,
+      this time of my recovery was quite a festival, and we commonly turned
+      night into day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldiers let us be; although once a party of two companies and some
+      dragoons went by in the bottom of the valley, where I could see them
+      through the window as I lay in bed. What was much more astonishing, no
+      magistrate came near me, and there was no question put of whence I came or
+      whither I was going; and in that time of excitement, I was as free of all
+      inquiry as though I had lain in a desert. Yet my presence was known before
+      I left to all the people in Balquhidder and the adjacent parts; many
+      coming about the house on visits and these (after the custom of the
+      country) spreading the news among their neighbours. The bills, too, had
+      now been printed. There was one pinned near the foot of my bed, where I
+      could read my own not very flattering portrait and, in larger characters,
+      the amount of the blood money that had been set upon my life. Duncan Dhu
+      and the rest that knew that I had come there in Alan's company, could have
+      entertained no doubt of who I was; and many others must have had their
+      guess. For though I had changed my clothes, I could not change my age or
+      person; and Lowland boys of eighteen were not so rife in these parts of
+      the world, and above all about that time, that they could fail to put one
+      thing with another, and connect me with the bill. So it was, at least.
+      Other folk keep a secret among two or three near friends, and somehow it
+      leaks out; but among these clansmen, it is told to a whole countryside,
+      and they will keep it for a century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was but one thing happened worth narrating; and that is the visit I
+      had of Robin Oig, one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy. He was sought
+      upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and
+      marrying her (as was alleged) by force; yet he stepped about Balquhidder
+      like a gentleman in his own walled policy. It was he who had shot James
+      Maclaren at the plough stilts, a quarrel never satisfied; yet he walked
+      into the house of his blood enemies as a rider* might into a public inn.*
+      Commercial traveller. &lt;/>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Duncan had time to pass me word of who it was; and we looked at one
+      another in concern. You should understand, it was then close upon the time
+      of Alan's coming; the two were little likely to agree; and yet if we sent
+      word or sought to make a signal, it was sure to arouse suspicion in a man
+      under so dark a cloud as the Macgregor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came in with a great show of civility, but like a man among inferiors;
+      took off his bonnet to Mrs. Maclaren, but clapped it on his head again to
+      speak to Duncan; and having thus set himself (as he would have thought) in
+      a proper light, came to my bedside and bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am given to know, sir," says he, "that your name is Balfour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They call me David Balfour," said I, "at your service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would give ye my name in return, sir," he replied, "but it's one
+      somewhat blown upon of late days; and it'll perhaps suffice if I tell ye
+      that I am own brother to James More Drummond or Macgregor, of whom ye will
+      scarce have failed to hear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir," said I, a little alarmed; "nor yet of your father,
+      Macgregor-Campbell." And I sat up and bowed in bed; for I thought best to
+      compliment him, in case he was proud of having had an outlaw to his
+      father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bowed in return. "But what I am come to say, sir," he went on, "is
+      this. In the year '45, my brother raised a part of the 'Gregara' and
+      marched six companies to strike a stroke for the good side; and the
+      surgeon that marched with our clan and cured my brother's leg when it was
+      broken in the brush at Preston Pans, was a gentleman of the same name
+      precisely as yourself. He was brother to Balfour of Baith; and if you are
+      in any reasonable degree of nearness one of that gentleman's kin, I have
+      come to put myself and my people at your command."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are to remember that I knew no more of my descent than any cadger's
+      dog; my uncle, to be sure, had prated of some of our high connections, but
+      nothing to the present purpose; and there was nothing left me but that
+      bitter disgrace of owning that I could not tell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robin told me shortly he was sorry he had put himself about, turned his
+      back upon me without a sign of salutation, and as he went towards the
+      door, I could hear him telling Duncan that I was "only some kinless loon
+      that didn't know his own father." Angry as I was at these words, and
+      ashamed of my own ignorance, I could scarce keep from smiling that a man
+      who was under the lash of the law (and was indeed hanged some three years
+      later) should be so nice as to the descent of his acquaintances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just in the door, he met Alan coming in; and the two drew back and looked
+      at each other like strange dogs. They were neither of them big men, but
+      they seemed fairly to swell out with pride. Each wore a sword, and by a
+      movement of his haunch, thrust clear the hilt of it, so that it might be
+      the more readily grasped and the blade drawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Stewart, I am thinking," says Robin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Troth, Mr. Macgregor, it's not a name to be ashamed of," answered Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did not know ye were in my country, sir," says Robin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It sticks in my mind that I am in the country of my friends the
+      Maclarens," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's a kittle point," returned the other. "There may be two words to
+      say to that. But I think I will have heard that you are a man of your
+      sword?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unless ye were born deaf, Mr. Macgregor, ye will have heard a good deal
+      more than that," says Alan. "I am not the only man that can draw steel in
+      Appin; and when my kinsman and captain, Ardshiel, had a talk with a
+      gentleman of your name, not so many years back, I could never hear that
+      the Macgregor had the best of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do ye mean my father, sir?" says Robin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I wouldnae wonder," said Alan. "The gentleman I have in my mind had
+      the ill-taste to clap Campbell to his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My father was an old man," returned Robin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The match was unequal. You and me would make a better pair, sir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was thinking that," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was half out of bed, and Duncan had been hanging at the elbow of these
+      fighting cocks, ready to intervene upon the least occasion. But when that
+      word was uttered, it was a case of now or never; and Duncan, with
+      something of a white face to be sure, thrust himself between.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gentlemen," said he, "I will have been thinking of a very different
+      matter, whateffer. Here are my pipes, and here are you two gentlemen who
+      are baith acclaimed pipers. It's an auld dispute which one of ye's the
+      best. Here will be a braw chance to settle it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, sir," said Alan, still addressing Robin, from whom indeed he had not
+      so much as shifted his eyes, nor yet Robin from him, "why, sir," says
+      Alan, "I think I will have heard some sough* of the sort. Have ye music,
+      as folk say? Are ye a bit of a piper?"
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Rumour.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I can pipe like a Macrimmon!" cries Robin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is a very bold word," quoth Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have made bolder words good before now," returned Robin, "and that
+      against better adversaries."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is easy to try that," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Duncan Dhu made haste to bring out the pair of pipes that was his
+      principal possession, and to set before his guests a mutton-ham and a
+      bottle of that drink which they call Athole brose, and which is made of
+      old whiskey, strained honey and sweet cream, slowly beaten together in the
+      right order and proportion. The two enemies were still on the very breach
+      of a quarrel; but down they sat, one upon each side of the peat fire, with
+      a mighty show of politeness. Maclaren pressed them to taste his mutton-ham
+      and "the wife's brose," reminding them the wife was out of Athole and had
+      a name far and wide for her skill in that confection. But Robin put aside
+      these hospitalities as bad for the breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would have ye to remark, sir," said Alan, "that I havenae broken bread
+      for near upon ten hours, which will be worse for the breath than any brose
+      in Scotland."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take no advantages, Mr. Stewart," replied Robin. "Eat and drink;
+      I'll follow you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each ate a small portion of the ham and drank a glass of the brose to Mrs.
+      Maclaren; and then after a great number of civilities, Robin took the
+      pipes and played a little spring in a very ranting manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ye can blow" said Alan; and taking the instrument from his rival, he
+      first played the same spring in a manner identical with Robin's; and then
+      wandered into variations, which, as he went on, he decorated with a
+      perfect flight of grace-notes, such as pipers love, and call the
+      "warblers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been pleased with Robin's playing, Alan's ravished me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's no very bad, Mr. Stewart," said the rival, "but ye show a poor
+      device in your warblers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Me!" cried Alan, the blood starting to his face. "I give ye the lie."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do ye own yourself beaten at the pipes, then," said Robin, "that ye seek
+      to change them for the sword?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that's very well said, Mr. Macgregor," returned Alan; "and in the
+      meantime" (laying a strong accent on the word) "I take back the lie. I
+      appeal to Duncan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, ye need appeal to naebody," said Robin. "Ye're a far better judge
+      than any Maclaren in Balquhidder: for it's a God's truth that you're a
+      very creditable piper for a Stewart. Hand me the pipes." Alan did as he
+      asked; and Robin proceeded to imitate and correct some part of Alan's
+      variations, which it seemed that he remembered perfectly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ye have music," said Alan, gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now be the judge yourself, Mr. Stewart," said Robin; and taking up
+      the variations from the beginning, he worked them throughout to so new a
+      purpose, with such ingenuity and sentiment, and with so odd a fancy and so
+      quick a knack in the grace-notes, that I was amazed to hear him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Alan, his face grew dark and hot, and he sat and gnawed his
+      fingers, like a man under some deep affront. "Enough!" he cried. "Ye can
+      blow the pipes&mdash;make the most of that." And he made as if to rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Robin only held out his hand as if to ask for silence, and struck into
+      the slow measure of a pibroch. It was a fine piece of music in itself, and
+      nobly played; but it seems, besides, it was a piece peculiar to the Appin
+      Stewarts and a chief favourite with Alan. The first notes were scarce out,
+      before there came a change in his face; when the time quickened, he seemed
+      to grow restless in his seat; and long before that piece was at an end,
+      the last signs of his anger died from him, and he had no thought but for
+      the music.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0273m.jpg" alt="0273m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0273.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Robin Oig," he said, when it was done, "ye are a great piper. I am not
+      fit to blow in the same kingdom with ye. Body of me! ye have mair music in
+      your sporran than I have in my head! And though it still sticks in my mind
+      that I could maybe show ye another of it with the cold steel, I warn ye
+      beforehand&mdash;it'll no be fair! It would go against my heart to haggle
+      a man that can blow the pipes as you can!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon that quarrel was made up; all night long the brose was going and
+      the pipes changing hands; and the day had come pretty bright, and the
+      three men were none the better for what they had been taking, before Robin
+      as much as thought upon the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0277m.jpg" alt="0277m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0277.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9277m.jpg" alt="9277m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9277.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      he month, as I have said, was not yet out, but it was already far through
+      August, and beautiful warm weather, with every sign of an early and great
+      harvest, when I was pronounced able for my journey. Our money was now run
+      to so low an ebb that we must think first of all on speed; for if we came
+      not soon to Mr. Rankeillor's, or if when we came there he should fail to
+      help me, we must surely starve. In Alan's view, besides, the hunt must
+      have now greatly slackened; and the line of the Forth and even Stirling
+      Bridge, which is the main pass over that river, would be watched with
+      little interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a chief principle in military affairs," said he, "to go where ye are
+      least expected. Forth is our trouble; ye ken the saying, 'Forth bridles
+      the wild Hielandman.' Well, if we seek to creep round about the head of
+      that river and come down by Kippen or Balfron, it's just precisely there
+      that they'll be looking to lay hands on us. But if we stave on straight to
+      the auld Brig of Stirling, I'll lay my sword they let us pass
+      unchallenged."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first night, accordingly, we pushed to the house of a Maclaren in
+      Strathire, a friend of Duncan's, where we slept the twenty-first of the
+      month, and whence we set forth again about the fall of night to make
+      another easy stage. The twenty-second we lay in a heather bush on the
+      hillside in Uam Var, within view of a herd of deer, the happiest ten hours
+      of sleep in a fine, breathing sunshine and on bone-dry ground, that I have
+      ever tasted. That night we struck Allan Water, and followed it down; and
+      coming to the edge of the hills saw the whole Carse of Stirling underfoot,
+      as flat as a pancake, with the town and castle on a hill in the midst of
+      it, and the moon shining on the Links of Forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now," said Alan, "I kenna if ye care, but ye're in your own land again.
+      We passed the Hieland Line in the first hour; and now if we could but pass
+      yon crooked water, we might cast our bonnets in the air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Allan Water, near by where it falls into the Forth, we found a little
+      sandy islet, overgrown with burdock, butterbur and the like low plants,
+      that would just cover us if we lay flat. Here it was we made our camp,
+      within plain view of Stirling Castle, whence we could hear the drums beat
+      as some part of the garrison paraded. Shearers worked all day in a field
+      on one side of the river, and we could hear the stones going on the hooks
+      and the voices and even the words of the men talking. It behoved to lie
+      close and keep silent. But the sand of the little isle was sun-warm, the
+      green plants gave us shelter for our heads, we had food and drink in
+      plenty; and to crown all, we were within sight of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the shearers quit their work and the dusk began to fall, we
+      waded ashore and struck for the Bridge of Stirling, keeping to the fields
+      and under the field fences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bridge is close under the castle hill, an old, high, narrow bridge
+      with pinnacles along the parapet; and you may conceive with how much
+      interest I looked upon it, not only as a place famous in history, but as
+      the very doors of salvation to Alan and myself. The moon was not yet up
+      when we came there; a few lights shone along the front of the fortress,
+      and lower down a few lighted windows in the town; but it was all mighty
+      still, and there seemed to be no guard upon the passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was for pushing straight across; but Alan was more wary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It looks unco' quiet," said he; "but for all that we'll lie down here
+      cannily behind a dyke, and make sure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we lay for about a quarter of an hour, whiles whispering, whiles lying
+      still and hearing nothing earthly but the washing of the water on the
+      piers. At last there came by an old, hobbling woman with a crutch stick;
+      who first stopped a little, close to where we lay, and bemoaned herself
+      and the long way she had travelled; and then set forth again up the steep
+      spring of the bridge. The woman was so little, and the night still so
+      dark, that we soon lost sight of her; only heard the sound of her steps,
+      and her stick, and a cough that she had by fits, draw slowly farther away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She's bound to be across now," I whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na," said Alan, "her foot still sounds boss* upon the bridge."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Hollow.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And just then&mdash;"Who goes?" cried a voice, and we heard the butt of a
+      musket rattle on the stones. I must suppose the sentry had been sleeping,
+      so that had we tried, we might have passed unseen; but he was awake now,
+      and the chance forfeited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This'll never do," said Alan. "This'll never, never do for us, David."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And without another word, he began to crawl away through the fields; and a
+      little after, being well out of eye-shot, got to his feet again, and
+      struck along a road that led to the eastward. I could not conceive what he
+      was doing; and indeed I was so sharply cut by the disappointment, that I
+      was little likely to be pleased with anything. A moment back and I had
+      seen myself knocking at Mr. Rankeillor's door to claim my inheritance,
+      like a hero in a ballad; and here was I back again, a wandering, hunted
+      blackguard, on the wrong side of Forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Alan, "what would ye have? They're none such fools as I took
+      them for. We have still the Forth to pass, Davie&mdash;weary fall the
+      rains that fed and the hillsides that guided it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why go east?" said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ou, just upon the chance!" said he. "If we cannae pass the river, we'll
+      have to see what we can do for the firth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are fords upon the river, and none upon the firth," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be sure there are fords, and a bridge forbye," quoth Alan; "and of
+      what service, when they are watched?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "but a river can be swum."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By them that have the skill of it," returned he; "but I have yet to hear
+      that either you or me is much of a hand at that exercise; and for my own
+      part, I swim like a stone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm not up to you in talking back, Alan," I said; "but I can see we're
+      making bad worse. If it's hard to pass a river, it stands to reason it
+      must be worse to pass a sea."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But there's such a thing as a boat," says Alan, "or I'm the more
+      deceived."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and such a thing as money," says I. "But for us that have neither one
+      nor other, they might just as well not have been invented."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye think so?" said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do that," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," says he, "ye're a man of small invention and less faith. But let
+      me set my wits upon the hone, and if I cannae beg, borrow, nor yet steal a
+      boat, I'll make one!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think I see ye!" said I. "And what's more than all that: if ye pass a
+      bridge, it can tell no tales; but if we pass the firth, there's the boat
+      on the wrong side&mdash;somebody must have brought it&mdash;the
+      country-side will all be in a bizz&mdash;-"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Man!" cried Alan, "if I make a boat, I'll make a body to take it back
+      again! So deave me with no more of your nonsense, but walk (for that's
+      what you've got to do)&mdash;and let Alan think for ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All night, then, we walked through the north side of the Carse under the
+      high line of the Ochil mountains; and by Alloa and Clackmannan and
+      Culross, all of which we avoided: and about ten in the morning, mighty
+      hungry and tired, came to the little clachan of Limekilns. This is a place
+      that sits near in by the water-side, and looks across the Hope to the town
+      of the Queensferry. Smoke went up from both of these, and from other
+      villages and farms upon all hands. The fields were being reaped; two ships
+      lay anchored, and boats were coming and going on the Hope. It was
+      altogether a right pleasant sight to me; and I could not take my fill of
+      gazing at these comfortable, green, cultivated hills and the busy people
+      both of the field and sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all that, there was Mr. Rankeillor's house on the south shore, where I
+      had no doubt wealth awaited me; and here was I upon the north, clad in
+      poor enough attire of an outlandish fashion, with three silver shillings
+      left to me of all my fortune, a price set upon my head, and an outlawed
+      man for my sole company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, Alan!" said I, "to think of it! Over there, there's all that heart
+      could want waiting me; and the birds go over, and the boats go over&mdash;all
+      that please can go, but just me only! O, man, but it's a heart-break!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Limekilns we entered a small change-house, which we only knew to be a
+      public by the wand over the door, and bought some bread and cheese from a
+      good-looking lass that was the servant. This we carried with us in a
+      bundle, meaning to sit and eat it in a bush of wood on the sea-shore, that
+      we saw some third part of a mile in front. As we went, I kept looking
+      across the water and sighing to myself; and though I took no heed of it,
+      Alan had fallen into a muse. At last he stopped in the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did ye take heed of the lass we bought this of?" says he, tapping on the
+      bread and cheese.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To be sure," said I, "and a bonny lass she was."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye thought that?" cries he. "Man, David, that's good news."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of all that's wonderful, why so?" says I. "What good can that
+      do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Alan, with one of his droll looks, "I was rather in hopes it
+      would maybe get us that boat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it were the other way about, it would be liker it," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's all that you ken, ye see," said Alan. "I don't want the lass to
+      fall in love with ye, I want her to be sorry for ye, David; to which end
+      there is no manner of need that she should take you for a beauty. Let me
+      see" (looking me curiously over). "I wish ye were a wee thing paler; but
+      apart from that ye'll do fine for my purpose&mdash;ye have a fine,
+      hang-dog, rag-and-tatter, clappermaclaw kind of a look to ye, as if ye had
+      stolen the coat from a potato-bogle. Come; right about, and back to the
+      change-house for that boat of ours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I followed him, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David Balfour," said he, "ye're a very funny gentleman by your way of it,
+      and this is a very funny employ for ye, no doubt. For all that, if ye have
+      any affection for my neck (to say nothing of your own) ye will perhaps be
+      kind enough to take this matter responsibly. I am going to do a bit of
+      play-acting, the bottom ground of which is just exactly as serious as the
+      gallows for the pair of us. So bear it, if ye please, in mind, and conduct
+      yourself according."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," said I, "have it as you will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we got near the clachan, he made me take his arm and hang upon it like
+      one almost helpless with weariness; and by the time he pushed open the
+      change-house door, he seemed to be half carrying me. The maid appeared
+      surprised (as well she might be) at our speedy return; but Alan had no
+      words to spare for her in explanation, helped me to a chair, called for a
+      tass of brandy with which he fed me in little sips, and then breaking up
+      the bread and cheese helped me to eat it like a nursery-lass; the whole
+      with that grave, concerned, affectionate countenance, that might have
+      imposed upon a judge. It was small wonder if the maid were taken with the
+      picture we presented, of a poor, sick, overwrought lad and his most tender
+      comrade. She drew quite near, and stood leaning with her back on the next
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's like wrong with him?" said she at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan turned upon her, to my great wonder, with a kind of fury. "Wrong?"
+      cries he. "He's walked more hundreds of miles than he has hairs upon his
+      chin, and slept oftener in wet heather than dry sheets. Wrong, quo' she!
+      Wrong enough, I would think! Wrong, indeed!" and he kept grumbling to
+      himself as he fed me, like a man ill-pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's young for the like of that," said the maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ower young," said Alan, with his back to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He would be better riding," says she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And where could I get a horse to him?" cried Alan, turning on her with
+      the same appearance of fury. "Would ye have me steal?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought this roughness would have sent her off in dudgeon, as indeed it
+      closed her mouth for the time. But my companion knew very well what he was
+      doing; and for as simple as he was in some things of life, had a great
+      fund of roguishness in such affairs as these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye neednae tell me," she said at last&mdash;"ye're gentry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Alan, softened a little (I believe against his will) by this
+      artless comment, "and suppose we were? Did ever you hear that gentrice put
+      money in folk's pockets?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed at this, as if she were herself some disinherited great lady.
+      "No," says she, "that's true indeed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was all this while chafing at the part I played, and sitting tongue-tied
+      between shame and merriment; but somehow at this I could hold in no
+      longer, and bade Alan let me be, for I was better already. My voice stuck
+      in my throat, for I ever hated to take part in lies; but my very
+      embarrassment helped on the plot, for the lass no doubt set down my husky
+      voice to sickness and fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has he nae friends?" said she, in a tearful voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That has he so!" cried Alan, "if we could but win to them!&mdash;friends
+      and rich friends, beds to lie in, food to eat, doctors to see to him&mdash;and
+      here he must tramp in the dubs and sleep in the heather like a beggarman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why that?" says the lass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear," said Alan, "I cannae very safely say; but I'll tell ye what
+      I'll do instead," says he, "I'll whistle ye a bit tune." And with that he
+      leaned pretty far over the table, and in a mere breath of a whistle, but
+      with a wonderful pretty sentiment, gave her a few bars of "Charlie is my
+      darling."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wheesht," says she, and looked over her shoulder to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's it," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And him so young!" cries the lass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He's old enough to&mdash;&mdash;" and Alan struck his forefinger on the
+      back part of his neck, meaning that I was old enough to lose my head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It would be a black shame," she cried, flushing high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's what will be, though," said Alan, "unless we manage the better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the lass turned and ran out of that part of the house, leaving us
+      alone together. Alan in high good humour at the furthering of his schemes,
+      and I in bitter dudgeon at being called a Jacobite and treated like a
+      child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alan," I cried, "I can stand no more of this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye'll have to sit it then, Davie," said he. "For if ye upset the pot now,
+      ye may scrape your own life out of the fire, but Alan Breck is a dead
+      man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so true that I could only groan; and even my groan served Alan's
+      purpose, for it was overheard by the lass as she came flying in again with
+      a dish of white puddings and a bottle of strong ale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Poor lamb!" says she, and had no sooner set the meat before us, than she
+      touched me on the shoulder with a little friendly touch, as much as to bid
+      me cheer up. Then she told us to fall to, and there would be no more to
+      pay; for the inn was her own, or at least her father's, and he was gone
+      for the day to Pittencrieff. We waited for no second bidding, for bread
+      and cheese is but cold comfort and the puddings smelt excellently well;
+      and while we sat and ate, she took up that same place by the next table,
+      looking on, and thinking, and frowning to herself, and drawing the string
+      of her apron through her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm thinking ye have rather a long tongue," she said at last to Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay" said Alan; "but ye see I ken the folk I speak to."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would never betray ye," said she, "if ye mean that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said he, "ye're not that kind. But I'll tell ye what ye would do, ye
+      would help."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I couldnae," said she, shaking her head. "Na, I couldnae."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said he, "but if ye could?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered him nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look here, my lass," said Alan, "there are boats in the Kingdom of Fife,
+      for I saw two (no less) upon the beach, as I came in by your town's end.
+      Now if we could have the use of a boat to pass under cloud of night into
+      Lothian, and some secret, decent kind of a man to bring that boat back
+      again and keep his counsel, there would be two souls saved&mdash;mine to
+      all likelihood&mdash;his to a dead surety. If we lack that boat, we have
+      but three shillings left in this wide world; and where to go, and how to
+      do, and what other place there is for us except the chains of a gibbet&mdash;I
+      give you my naked word, I kenna! Shall we go wanting, lassie? Are ye to
+      lie in your warm bed and think upon us, when the wind gowls in the chimney
+      and the rain tirls on the roof? Are ye to eat your meat by the cheeks of a
+      red fire, and think upon this poor sick lad of mine, biting his finger
+      ends on a blae muir for cauld and hunger? Sick or sound, he must aye be
+      moving; with the death grapple at his throat he must aye be trailing in
+      the rain on the lang roads; and when he gants his last on a rickle of
+      cauld stanes, there will be nae friends near him but only me and God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this appeal, I could see the lass was in great trouble of mind, being
+      tempted to help us, and yet in some fear she might be helping malefactors;
+      and so now I determined to step in myself and to allay her scruples with a
+      portion of the truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did ever you hear," said I, "of Mr. Rankeillor of the Ferry?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rankeillor the writer?" said she. "I daur say that!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said I, "it's to his door that I am bound, so you may judge by
+      that if I am an ill-doer; and I will tell you more, that though I am
+      indeed, by a dreadful error, in some peril of my life, King George has no
+      truer friend in all Scotland than myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face cleared up mightily at this, although Alan's darkened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's more than I would ask," said she. "Mr. Rankeillor is a kennt man."
+      And she bade us finish our meat, get clear of the clachan as soon as might
+      be, and lie close in the bit wood on the sea-beach. "And ye can trust me,"
+      says she, "I'll find some means to put you over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this we waited for no more, but shook hands with her upon the bargain,
+      made short work of the puddings, and set forth again from Limekilns as far
+      as to the wood. It was a small piece of perhaps a score of elders and
+      hawthorns and a few young ashes, not thick enough to veil us from
+      passersby upon the road or beach. Here we must lie, however, making the
+      best of the brave warm weather and the good hopes we now had of a
+      deliverance, and planing more particularly what remained for us to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had but one trouble all day; when a strolling piper came and sat in the
+      same wood with us; a red-nosed, bleareyed, drunken dog, with a great
+      bottle of whisky in his pocket, and a long story of wrongs that had been
+      done him by all sorts of persons, from the Lord President of the Court of
+      Session, who had denied him justice, down to the Bailies of Inverkeithing
+      who had given him more of it than he desired. It was impossible but he
+      should conceive some suspicion of two men lying all day concealed in a
+      thicket and having no business to allege. As long as he stayed there he
+      kept us in hot water with prying questions; and after he was gone, as he
+      was a man not very likely to hold his tongue, we were in the greater
+      impatience to be gone ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day came to an end with the same brightness; the night fell quiet and
+      clear; lights came out in houses and hamlets and then, one after another,
+      began to be put out; but it was past eleven, and we were long since
+      strangely tortured with anxieties, before we heard the grinding of oars
+      upon the rowing-pins. At that, we looked out and saw the lass herself
+      coming rowing to us in a boat. She had trusted no one with our affairs,
+      not even her sweetheart, if she had one; but as soon as her father was
+      asleep, had left the house by a window, stolen a neighbour's boat, and
+      come to our assistance single-handed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was abashed how to find expression for my thanks; but she was no less
+      abashed at the thought of hearing them; begged us to lose no time and to
+      hold our peace, saying (very properly) that the heart of our matter was in
+      haste and silence; and so, what with one thing and another, she had set us
+      on the Lothian shore not far from Carriden, had shaken hands with us, and
+      was out again at sea and rowing for Limekilns, before there was one word
+      said either of her service or our gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even after she was gone, we had nothing to say, as indeed nothing was
+      enough for such a kindness. Only Alan stood a great while upon the shore
+      shaking his head.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0287m.jpg" alt="0287m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0287.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "It is a very fine lass," he said at last. "David, it is a very fine
+      lass." And a matter of an hour later, as we were lying in a den on the
+      sea-shore and I had been already dozing, he broke out again in
+      commendations of her character. For my part, I could say nothing, she was
+      so simple a creature that my heart smote me both with remorse and fear:
+      remorse because we had traded upon her ignorance; and fear lest we should
+      have anyway involved her in the dangers of our situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0291m.jpg" alt="0291m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0291.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9291m.jpg" alt="9291m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9291.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      he next day it was agreed that Alan should fend for himself till sunset;
+      but as soon as it began to grow dark, he should lie in the fields by the
+      roadside near to Newhalls, and stir for naught until he heard me
+      whistling. At first I proposed I should give him for a signal the "Bonnie
+      House of Airlie," which was a favourite of mine; but he objected that as
+      the piece was very commonly known, any ploughman might whistle it by
+      accident; and taught me instead a little fragment of a Highland air, which
+      has run in my head from that day to this, and will likely run in my head
+      when I lie dying. Every time it comes to me, it takes me off to that last
+      day of my uncertainty, with Alan sitting up in the bottom of the den,
+      whistling and beating the measure with a finger, and the grey of the dawn
+      coming on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was in the long street of Queensferry before the sun was up. It was a
+      fairly built burgh, the houses of good stone, many slated; the town-hall
+      not so fine, I thought, as that of Peebles, nor yet the street so noble;
+      but take it altogether, it put me to shame for my foul tatters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the morning went on, and the fires began to be kindled, and the windows
+      to open, and the people to appear out of the houses, my concern and
+      despondency grew ever the blacker. I saw now that I had no grounds to
+      stand upon; and no clear proof of my rights, nor so much as of my own
+      identity. If it was all a bubble, I was indeed sorely cheated and left in
+      a sore pass. Even if things were as I conceived, it would in all
+      likelihood take time to establish my contentions; and what time had I to
+      spare with less than three shillings in my pocket, and a condemned, hunted
+      man upon my hands to ship out of the country? Truly, if my hope broke with
+      me, it might come to the gallows yet for both of us. And as I continued to
+      walk up and down, and saw people looking askance at me upon the street or
+      out of windows, and nudging or speaking one to another with smiles, I
+      began to take a fresh apprehension: that it might be no easy matter even
+      to come to speech of the lawyer, far less to convince him of my story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the life of me I could not muster up the courage to address any of
+      these reputable burghers; I thought shame even to speak with them in such
+      a pickle of rags and dirt; and if I had asked for the house of such a man
+      as Mr. Rankeillor, I suppose they would have burst out laughing in my
+      face. So I went up and down, and through the street, and down to the
+      harbour-side, like a dog that has lost its master, with a strange gnawing
+      in my inwards, and every now and then a movement of despair. It grew to be
+      high day at last, perhaps nine in the forenoon; and I was worn with these
+      wanderings, and chanced to have stopped in front of a very good house on
+      the landward side, a house with beautiful, clear glass windows, flowering
+      knots upon the sills, the walls new-harled* and a chase-dog sitting
+      yawning on the step like one that was at home. Well, I was even envying
+      this dumb brute, when the door fell open and there issued forth a shrewd,
+      ruddy, kindly, consequential man in a well-powdered wig and spectacles. I
+      was in such a plight that no one set eyes on me once, but he looked at me
+      again; and this gentleman, as it proved, was so much struck with my poor
+      appearance that he came straight up to me and asked me what I did.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Newly rough-cast.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I told him I was come to the Queensferry on business, and taking heart of
+      grace, asked him to direct me to the house of Mr. Rankeillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said he, "that is his house that I have just come out of; and for a
+      rather singular chance, I am that very man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, sir," said I, "I have to beg the favour of an interview."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not know your name," said he, "nor yet your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is David Balfour," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David Balfour?" he repeated, in rather a high tone, like one surprised.
+      "And where have you come from, Mr. David Balfour?" he asked, looking me
+      pretty drily in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have come from a great many strange places, sir," said I; "but I think
+      it would be as well to tell you where and how in a more private manner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to muse awhile, holding his lip in his hand, and looking now at
+      me and now upon the causeway of the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," says he, "that will be the best, no doubt." And he led me back with
+      him into his house, cried out to some one whom I could not see that he
+      would be engaged all morning, and brought me into a little dusty chamber
+      full of books and documents. Here he sate down, and bade me be seated;
+      though I thought he looked a little ruefully from his clean chair to my
+      muddy rags. "And now," says he, "if you have any business, pray be brief
+      and come swiftly to the point. Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo&mdash;do
+      you understand that?" says he, with a keen look.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0293m.jpg" alt="0293m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0293.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "I will even do as Horace says, sir," I answered, smiling, "and carry you
+      in medias res." He nodded as if he was well pleased, and indeed his scrap
+      of Latin had been set to test me. For all that, and though I was somewhat
+      encouraged, the blood came in my face when I added: "I have reason to
+      believe myself some rights on the estate of Shaws."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got a paper book out of a drawer and set it before him open. "Well?"
+      said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I had shot my bolt and sat speechless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come, Mr. Balfour," said he, "you must continue. Where were you
+      born?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In Essendean, sir," said I, "the year 1733, the 12th of March."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to follow this statement in his paper book; but what that meant
+      I knew not. "Your father and mother?" said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My father was Alexander Balfour, schoolmaster of that place," said I,
+      "and my mother Grace Pitarrow; I think her people were from Angus."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you any papers proving your identity?" asked Mr. Rankeillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir," said I, "but they are in the hands of Mr. Campbell, the
+      minister, and could be readily produced. Mr. Campbell, too, would give me
+      his word; and for that matter, I do not think my uncle would deny me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Meaning Mr. Ebenezer Balfour?" says he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The same," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom you have seen?" he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By whom I was received into his own house," I answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you ever meet a man of the name of Hoseason?" asked Mr. Rankeillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did so, sir, for my sins," said I; "for it was by his means and the
+      procurement of my uncle, that I was kidnapped within sight of this town,
+      carried to sea, suffered shipwreck and a hundred other hardships, and
+      stand before you to-day in this poor accoutrement."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You say you were shipwrecked," said Rankeillor; "where was that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Off the south end of the Isle of Mull," said I. "The name of the isle on
+      which I was cast up is the Island Earraid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah!" says he, smiling, "you are deeper than me in the geography. But so
+      far, I may tell you, this agrees pretty exactly with other informations
+      that I hold. But you say you were kidnapped; in what sense?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the plain meaning of the word, sir," said I. "I was on my way to your
+      house, when I was trepanned on board the brig, cruelly struck down, thrown
+      below, and knew no more of anything till we were far at sea. I was
+      destined for the plantations; a fate that, in God's providence, I have
+      escaped."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The brig was lost on June the 27th," says he, looking in his book, "and
+      we are now at August the 24th. Here is a considerable hiatus, Mr. Balfour,
+      of near upon two months. It has already caused a vast amount of trouble to
+      your friends; and I own I shall not be very well contented until it is set
+      right."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, sir," said I, "these months are very easily filled up; but yet
+      before I told my story, I would be glad to know that I was talking to a
+      friend."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is to argue in a circle," said the lawyer. "I cannot be convinced
+      till I have heard you. I cannot be your friend till I am properly
+      informed. If you were more trustful, it would better befit your time of
+      life. And you know, Mr. Balfour, we have a proverb in the country that
+      evil-doers are aye evil-dreaders."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are not to forget, sir," said I, "that I have already suffered by my
+      trustfulness; and was shipped off to be a slave by the very man that (if I
+      rightly understand) is your employer?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while I had been gaining ground with Mr. Rankeillor, and in
+      proportion as I gained ground, gaining confidence. But at this sally,
+      which I made with something of a smile myself, he fairly laughed aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, no," said he, "it is not so bad as that. Fui, non sum. I was indeed
+      your uncle's man of business; but while you (imberbis juvenis custode
+      remoto) were gallivanting in the west, a good deal of water has run under
+      the bridges; and if your ears did not sing, it was not for lack of being
+      talked about. On the very day of your sea disaster, Mr. Campbell stalked
+      into my office, demanding you from all the winds. I had never heard of
+      your existence; but I had known your father; and from matters in my
+      competence (to be touched upon hereafter) I was disposed to fear the
+      worst. Mr. Ebenezer admitted having seen you; declared (what seemed
+      improbable) that he had given you considerable sums; and that you had
+      started for the continent of Europe, intending to fulfil your education,
+      which was probable and praiseworthy. Interrogated how you had come to send
+      no word to Mr. Campbell, he deponed that you had expressed a great desire
+      to break with your past life. Further interrogated where you now were,
+      protested ignorance, but believed you were in Leyden. That is a close sum
+      of his replies. I am not exactly sure that any one believed him,"
+      continued Mr. Rankeillor with a smile; "and in particular he so much
+      disrelished me expressions of mine that (in a word) he showed me to the
+      door. We were then at a full stand; for whatever shrewd suspicions we
+      might entertain, we had no shadow of probation. In the very article, comes
+      Captain Hoseason with the story of your drowning; whereupon all fell
+      through; with no consequences but concern to Mr. Campbell, injury to my
+      pocket, and another blot upon your uncle's character, which could very ill
+      afford it. And now, Mr. Balfour," said he, "you understand the whole
+      process of these matters, and can judge for yourself to what extent I may
+      be trusted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed he was more pedantic than I can represent him, and placed more
+      scraps of Latin in his speech; but it was all uttered with a fine
+      geniality of eye and manner which went far to conquer my distrust.
+      Moreover, I could see he now treated me as if I was myself beyond a doubt;
+      so that first point of my identity seemed fully granted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," said I, "if I tell you my story, I must commit a friend's life to
+      your discretion. Pass me your word it shall be sacred; and for what
+      touches myself, I will ask no better guarantee than just your face."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed me his word very seriously. "But," said he, "these are rather
+      alarming prolocutions; and if there are in your story any little jostles
+      to the law, I would beg you to bear in mind that I am a lawyer, and pass
+      lightly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon I told him my story from the first, he listening with his
+      spectacles thrust up and his eyes closed, so that I sometimes feared he
+      was asleep. But no such matter! he heard every word (as I found afterward)
+      with such quickness of hearing and precision of memory as often surprised
+      me. Even strange outlandish Gaelic names, heard for that time only, he
+      remembered and would remind me of, years after. Yet when I called Alan
+      Breck in full, we had an odd scene. The name of Alan had of course rung
+      through Scotland, with the news of the Appin murder and the offer of the
+      reward; and it had no sooner escaped me than the lawyer moved in his seat
+      and opened his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would name no unnecessary names, Mr. Balfour," said he; "above all of
+      Highlanders, many of whom are obnoxious to the law."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, it might have been better not," said I, "but since I have let it
+      slip, I may as well continue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not at all," said Mr. Rankeillor. "I am somewhat dull of hearing, as you
+      may have remarked; and I am far from sure I caught the name exactly. We
+      will call your friend, if you please, Mr. Thomson&mdash;that there may be
+      no reflections. And in future, I would take some such way with any
+      Highlander that you may have to mention&mdash;dead or alive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this, I saw he must have heard the name all too clearly, and had
+      already guessed I might be coming to the murder. If he chose to play this
+      part of ignorance, it was no matter of mine; so I smiled, said it was no
+      very Highland-sounding name, and consented. Through all the rest of my
+      story Alan was Mr. Thomson; which amused me the more, as it was a piece of
+      policy after his own heart. James Stewart, in like manner, was mentioned
+      under the style of Mr. Thomson's kinsman; Colin Campbell passed as a Mr.
+      Glen; and to Cluny, when I came to that part of my tale, I gave the name
+      of "Mr. Jameson, a Highland chief." It was truly the most open farce, and
+      I wondered that the lawyer should care to keep it up; but, after all, it
+      was quite in the taste of that age, when there were two parties in the
+      state, and quiet persons, with no very high opinions of their own, sought
+      out every cranny to avoid offence to either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," said the lawyer, when I had quite done, "this is a great
+      epic, a great Odyssey of yours. You must tell it, sir, in a sound Latinity
+      when your scholarship is riper; or in English if you please, though for my
+      part I prefer the stronger tongue. You have rolled much; quae regio in
+      terris&mdash;what parish in Scotland (to make a homely translation) has
+      not been filled with your wanderings? You have shown, besides, a singular
+      aptitude for getting into false positions; and, yes, upon the whole, for
+      behaving well in them. This Mr. Thomson seems to me a gentleman of some
+      choice qualities, though perhaps a trifle bloody-minded. It would please
+      me none the worse, if (with all his merits) he were soused in the North
+      Sea, for the man, Mr. David, is a sore embarrassment. But you are
+      doubtless quite right to adhere to him; indubitably, he adhered to you. It
+      comes&mdash;we may say&mdash;he was your true companion; nor less paribus
+      curis vestigia figit, for I dare say you would both take an orra thought
+      upon the gallows. Well, well, these days are fortunately by; and I think
+      (speaking humanly) that you are near the end of your troubles."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he thus moralised on my adventures, he looked upon me with so much
+      humour and benignity that I could scarce contain my satisfaction. I had
+      been so long wandering with lawless people, and making my bed upon the
+      hills and under the bare sky, that to sit once more in a clean, covered
+      house, and to talk amicably with a gentleman in broadcloth, seemed mighty
+      elevations. Even as I thought so, my eye fell on my unseemly tatters, and
+      I was once more plunged in confusion. But the lawyer saw and understood
+      me. He rose, called over the stair to lay another plate, for Mr. Balfour
+      would stay to dinner, and led me into a bedroom in the upper part of the
+      house. Here he set before me water and soap, and a comb; and laid out some
+      clothes that belonged to his son; and here, with another apposite tag, he
+      left me to my toilet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0302m.jpg" alt="0302m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0302.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I GO IN QUEST OF MY INHERITANCE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9302m.jpg" alt="9302m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9302.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      made what change I could in my appearance; and blithe was I to look in
+      the glass and find the beggarman a thing of the past, and David Balfour
+      come to life again. And yet I was ashamed of the change too, and, above
+      all, of the borrowed clothes. When I had done, Mr. Rankeillor caught me on
+      the stair, made me his compliments, and had me again into the cabinet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sit ye down, Mr. David," said he, "and now that you are looking a little
+      more like yourself, let me see if I can find you any news. You will be
+      wondering, no doubt, about your father and your uncle? To be sure it is a
+      singular tale; and the explanation is one that I blush to have to offer
+      you. For," says he, really with embarrassment, "the matter hinges on a
+      love affair."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Truly," said I, "I cannot very well join that notion with my uncle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But your uncle, Mr. David, was not always old," replied the lawyer, "and
+      what may perhaps surprise you more, not always ugly. He had a fine,
+      gallant air; people stood in their doors to look after him, as he went by
+      upon a mettle horse. I have seen it with these eyes, and I ingenuously
+      confess, not altogether without envy; for I was a plain lad myself and a
+      plain man's son; and in those days it was a case of Odi te, qui bellus es,
+      Sabelle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It sounds like a dream," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said the lawyer, "that is how it is with youth and age. Nor was
+      that all, but he had a spirit of his own that seemed to promise great
+      things in the future. In 1715, what must he do but run away to join the
+      rebels? It was your father that pursued him, found him in a ditch, and
+      brought him back multum gementem; to the mirth of the whole country.
+      However, majora canamus&mdash;the two lads fell in love, and that with the
+      same lady. Mr. Ebenezer, who was the admired and the beloved, and the
+      spoiled one, made, no doubt, mighty certain of the victory; and when he
+      found he had deceived himself, screamed like a peacock. The whole country
+      heard of it; now he lay sick at home, with his silly family standing round
+      the bed in tears; now he rode from public-house to public-house, and
+      shouted his sorrows into the lug of Tom, Dick, and Harry. Your father, Mr.
+      David, was a kind gentleman; but he was weak, dolefully weak; took all
+      this folly with a long countenance; and one day&mdash;by your leave!&mdash;resigned
+      the lady. She was no such fool, however; it's from her you must inherit
+      your excellent good sense; and she refused to be bandied from one to
+      another. Both got upon their knees to her; and the upshot of the matter
+      for that while was that she showed both of them the door. That was in
+      August; dear me! the same year I came from college. The scene must have
+      been highly farcical."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought myself it was a silly business, but I could not forget my father
+      had a hand in it. "Surely, sir, it had some note of tragedy," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, no, sir, not at all," returned the lawyer. "For tragedy implies some
+      ponderable matter in dispute, some dignus vindice nodus; and this piece of
+      work was all about the petulance of a young ass that had been spoiled, and
+      wanted nothing so much as to be tied up and soundly belted. However, that
+      was not your father's view; and the end of it was, that from concession to
+      concession on your father's part, and from one height to another of
+      squalling, sentimental selfishness upon your uncle's, they came at last to
+      drive a sort of bargain, from whose ill results you have recently been
+      smarting. The one man took the lady, the other the estate. Now, Mr. David,
+      they talk a great deal of charity and generosity; but in this disputable
+      state of life, I often think the happiest consequences seem to flow when a
+      gentleman consults his lawyer, and takes all the law allows him. Anyhow,
+      this piece of Quixotry on your father's part, as it was unjust in itself,
+      has brought forth a monstrous family of injustices. Your father and mother
+      lived and died poor folk; you were poorly reared; and in the meanwhile,
+      what a time it has been for the tenants on the estate of Shaws! And I
+      might add (if it was a matter I cared much about) what a time for Mr.
+      Ebenezer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And yet that is certainly the strangest part of all," said I, "that a
+      man's nature should thus change."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True," said Mr. Rankeillor. "And yet I imagine it was natural enough. He
+      could not think that he had played a handsome part. Those who knew the
+      story gave him the cold shoulder; those who knew it not, seeing one
+      brother disappear, and the other succeed in the estate, raised a cry of
+      murder; so that upon all sides he found himself evited. Money was all he
+      got by his bargain; well, he came to think the more of money. He was
+      selfish when he was young, he is selfish now that he is old; and the
+      latter end of all these pretty manners and fine feelings you have seen for
+      yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said I, "and in all this, what is my position?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The estate is yours beyond a doubt," replied the lawyer. "It matters
+      nothing what your father signed, you are the heir of entail. But your
+      uncle is a man to fight the indefensible; and it would be likely your
+      identity that he would call in question. A lawsuit is always expensive,
+      and a family lawsuit always scandalous; besides which, if any of your
+      doings with your friend Mr. Thomson were to come out, we might find that
+      we had burned our fingers. The kidnapping, to be sure, would be a court
+      card upon our side, if we could only prove it. But it may be difficult to
+      prove; and my advice (upon the whole) is to make a very easy bargain with
+      your uncle, perhaps even leaving him at Shaws where he has taken root for
+      a quarter of a century, and contenting yourself in the meanwhile with a
+      fair provision."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him I was very willing to be easy, and that to carry family
+      concerns before the public was a step from which I was naturally much
+      averse. In the meantime (thinking to myself) I began to see the outlines
+      of that scheme on which we afterwards acted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The great affair," I asked, "is to bring home to him the kidnapping?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," said Mr. Rankeillor, "and if possible, out of court. For mark
+      you here, Mr. David: we could no doubt find some men of the Covenant who
+      would swear to your reclusion; but once they were in the box, we could no
+      longer check their testimony, and some word of your friend Mr. Thomson
+      must certainly crop out. Which (from what you have let fall) I cannot
+      think to be desirable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said I, "here is my way of it." And I opened my plot to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But this would seem to involve my meeting the man Thomson?" says he, when
+      I had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think so, indeed, sir," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dear doctor!" cries he, rubbing his brow. "Dear doctor! No, Mr. David, I
+      am afraid your scheme is inadmissible. I say nothing against your friend,
+      Mr. Thomson: I know nothing against him; and if I did&mdash;mark this, Mr.
+      David!&mdash;it would be my duty to lay hands on him. Now I put it to you:
+      is it wise to meet? He may have matters to his charge. He may not have
+      told you all. His name may not be even Thomson!" cries the lawyer,
+      twinkling; "for some of these fellows will pick up names by the roadside
+      as another would gather haws."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must be the judge, sir," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was clear my plan had taken hold upon his fancy, for he kept musing
+      to himself till we were called to dinner and the company of Mrs.
+      Rankeillor; and that lady had scarce left us again to ourselves and a
+      bottle of wine, ere he was back harping on my proposal. When and where was
+      I to meet my friend Mr. Thomson; was I sure of Mr. T.'s discretion;
+      supposing we could catch the old fox tripping, would I consent to such and
+      such a term of an agreement&mdash;these and the like questions he kept
+      asking at long intervals, while he thoughtfully rolled his wine upon his
+      tongue. When I had answered all of them, seemingly to his contentment, he
+      fell into a still deeper muse, even the claret being now forgotten. Then
+      he got a sheet of paper and a pencil, and set to work writing and weighing
+      every word; and at last touched a bell and had his clerk into the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Torrance," said he, "I must have this written out fair against to-night;
+      and when it is done, you will be so kind as put on your hat and be ready
+      to come along with this gentleman and me, for you will probably be wanted
+      as a witness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, sir," cried I, as soon as the clerk was gone, "are you to venture
+      it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, so it would appear," says he, filling his glass. "But let us speak
+      no more of business. The very sight of Torrance brings in my head a little
+      droll matter of some years ago, when I had made a tryst with the poor oaf
+      at the cross of Edinburgh. Each had gone his proper errand; and when it
+      came four o'clock, Torrance had been taking a glass and did not know his
+      master, and I, who had forgot my spectacles, was so blind without them,
+      that I give you my word I did not know my own clerk." And thereupon he
+      laughed heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said it was an odd chance, and smiled out of politeness; but what held
+      me all the afternoon in wonder, he kept returning and dwelling on this
+      story, and telling it again with fresh details and laughter; so that I
+      began at last to be quite put out of countenance and feel ashamed for my
+      friend's folly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards the time I had appointed with Alan, we set out from the house, Mr.
+      Rankeillor and I arm in arm, and Torrance following behind with the deed
+      in his pocket and a covered basket in his hand. All through the town, the
+      lawyer was bowing right and left, and continually being button-holed by
+      gentlemen on matters of burgh or private business; and I could see he was
+      one greatly looked up to in the county. At last we were clear of the
+      houses, and began to go along the side of the haven and towards the Hawes
+      Inn and the Ferry pier, the scene of my misfortune. I could not look upon
+      the place without emotion, recalling how many that had been there with me
+      that day were now no more: Ransome taken, I could hope, from the evil to
+      come; Shuan passed where I dared not follow him; and the poor souls that
+      had gone down with the brig in her last plunge. All these, and the brig
+      herself, I had outlived; and come through these hardships and fearful
+      perils without scath. My only thought should have been of gratitude; and
+      yet I could not behold the place without sorrow for others and a chill of
+      recollected fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was so thinking when, upon a sudden, Mr. Rankeillor cried out, clapped
+      his hand to his pockets, and began to laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," he cries, "if this be not a farcical adventure! After all that I
+      said, I have forgot my glasses!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that, of course, I understood the purpose of his anecdote, and knew
+      that if he had left his spectacles at home, it had been done on purpose,
+      so that he might have the benefit of Alan's help without the awkwardness
+      of recognising him. And indeed it was well thought upon; for now (suppose
+      things to go the very worst) how could Rankeillor swear to my friend's
+      identity, or how be made to bear damaging evidence against myself? For all
+      that, he had been a long while of finding out his want, and had spoken to
+      and recognised a good few persons as we came through the town; and I had
+      little doubt myself that he saw reasonably well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we were past the Hawes (where I recognised the landlord smoking
+      his pipe in the door, and was amazed to see him look no older) Mr.
+      Rankeillor changed the order of march, walking behind with Torrance and
+      sending me forward in the manner of a scout. I went up the hill, whistling
+      from time to time my Gaelic air; and at length I had the pleasure to hear
+      it answered and to see Alan rise from behind a bush. He was somewhat
+      dashed in spirits, having passed a long day alone skulking in the county,
+      and made but a poor meal in an alehouse near Dundas. But at the mere sight
+      of my clothes, he began to brighten up; and as soon as I had told him in
+      what a forward state our matters were and the part I looked to him to play
+      in what remained, he sprang into a new man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is a very good notion of yours," says he; "and I dare to say
+      that you could lay your hands upon no better man to put it through than
+      Alan Breck. It is not a thing (mark ye) that any one could do, but takes a
+      gentleman of penetration. But it sticks in my head your lawyer-man will be
+      somewhat wearying to see me," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly I cried and waved on Mr. Rankeillor, who came up alone and was
+      presented to my friend, Mr. Thomson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Thomson, I am pleased to meet you," said he. "But I have forgotten my
+      glasses; and our friend, Mr. David here" (clapping me on the shoulder),
+      "will tell you that I am little better than blind, and that you must not
+      be surprised if I pass you by to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This he said, thinking that Alan would be pleased; but the Highlandman's
+      vanity was ready to startle at a less matter than that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, sir," says he, stiffly, "I would say it mattered the less as we are
+      met here for a particular end, to see justice done to Mr. Balfour; and by
+      what I can see, not very likely to have much else in common. But I accept
+      your apology, which was a very proper one to make."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is more than I could look for, Mr. Thomson," said Rankeillor,
+      heartily. "And now as you and I are the chief actors in this enterprise, I
+      think we should come into a nice agreement; to which end, I propose that
+      you should lend me your arm, for (what with the dusk and the want of my
+      glasses) I am not very clear as to the path; and as for you, Mr. David,
+      you will find Torrance a pleasant kind of body to speak with. Only let me
+      remind you, it's quite needless he should hear more of your adventures or
+      those of&mdash;ahem&mdash;Mr. Thomson."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly these two went on ahead in very close talk, and Torrance and I
+      brought up the rear.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0309m.jpg" alt="0309m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0309.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Night was quite come when we came in view of the house of Shaws. Ten had
+      been gone some time; it was dark and mild, with a pleasant, rustling wind
+      in the south-west that covered the sound of our approach; and as we drew
+      near we saw no glimmer of light in any portion of the building. It seemed
+      my uncle was already in bed, which was indeed the best thing for our
+      arrangements. We made our last whispered consultations some fifty yards
+      away; and then the lawyer and Torrance and I crept quietly up and crouched
+      down beside the corner of the house; and as soon as we were in our places,
+      Alan strode to the door without concealment and began to knock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0312m.jpg" alt="0312m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0312.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I COME INTO MY KINGDOM
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9312m.jpg" alt="9312m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9312.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      or some time Alan volleyed upon the door, and his knocking only roused
+      the echoes of the house and neighbourhood. At last, however, I could hear
+      the noise of a window gently thrust up, and knew that my uncle had come to
+      his observatory. By what light there was, he would see Alan standing, like
+      a dark shadow, on the steps; the three witnesses were hidden quite out of
+      his view; so that there was nothing to alarm an honest man in his own
+      house. For all that, he studied his visitor awhile in silence, and when he
+      spoke his voice had a quaver of misgiving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What's this?" says he. "This is nae kind of time of night for decent
+      folk; and I hae nae trokings* wi' night-hawks. What brings ye here? I have
+      a blunderbush."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Dealings.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Is that yoursel', Mr. Balfour?" returned Alan, stepping back and looking
+      up into the darkness. "Have a care of that blunderbuss; they're nasty
+      things to burst."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What brings ye here? and whae are ye?" says my uncle, angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no manner of inclination to rowt out my name to the country-side,"
+      said Alan; "but what brings me here is another story, being more of your
+      affair than mine; and if ye're sure it's what ye would like, I'll set it
+      to a tune and sing it to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is't?" asked my uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "David," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What was that?" cried my uncle, in a mighty changed voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I give ye the rest of the name, then?" said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause; and then, "I'm thinking I'll better let ye in," says my
+      uncle, doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare say that," said Alan; "but the point is, Would I go? Now I will
+      tell you what I am thinking. I am thinking that it is here upon this
+      doorstep that we must confer upon this business; and it shall be here or
+      nowhere at all whatever; for I would have you to understand that I am as
+      stiffnecked as yoursel', and a gentleman of better family."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This change of note disconcerted Ebenezer; he was a little while digesting
+      it, and then says he, "Weel, weel, what must be must," and shut the
+      window. But it took him a long time to get down-stairs, and a still longer
+      to undo the fastenings, repenting (I dare say) and taken with fresh claps
+      of fear at every second step and every bolt and bar. At last, however, we
+      heard the creak of the hinges, and it seems my uncle slipped gingerly out
+      and (seeing that Alan had stepped back a pace or two) sate him down on the
+      top doorstep with the blunderbuss ready in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And, now" says he, "mind I have my blunderbush, and if ye take a step
+      nearer ye're as good as deid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a very civil speech," says Alan, "to be sure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na," says my uncle, "but this is no a very chanty kind of a proceeding,
+      and I'm bound to be prepared. And now that we understand each other, ye'll
+      can name your business."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," says Alan, "you that are a man of so much understanding, will
+      doubtless have perceived that I am a Hieland gentleman. My name has nae
+      business in my story; but the county of my friends is no very far from the
+      Isle of Mull, of which ye will have heard. It seems there was a ship lost
+      in those parts; and the next day a gentleman of my family was seeking
+      wreck-wood for his fire along the sands, when he came upon a lad that was
+      half drowned. Well, he brought him to; and he and some other gentleman
+      took and clapped him in an auld, ruined castle, where from that day to
+      this he has been a great expense to my friends. My friends are a wee
+      wild-like, and not so particular about the law as some that I could name;
+      and finding that the lad owned some decent folk, and was your born nephew,
+      Mr. Balfour, they asked me to give ye a bit call and confer upon the
+      matter. And I may tell ye at the off-go, unless we can agree upon some
+      terms, ye are little likely to set eyes upon him. For my friends," added
+      Alan, simply, "are no very well off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My uncle cleared his throat. "I'm no very caring," says he. "He wasnae a
+      good lad at the best of it, and I've nae call to interfere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said Alan, "I see what ye would be at: pretending ye don't care,
+      to make the ransom smaller."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Na," said my uncle, "it's the mere truth. I take nae manner of interest
+      in the lad, and I'll pay nae ransome, and ye can make a kirk and a mill of
+      him for what I care."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot, sir," says Alan. "Blood's thicker than water, in the deil's name!
+      Ye cannae desert your brother's son for the fair shame of it; and if ye
+      did, and it came to be kennt, ye wouldnae be very popular in your
+      country-side, or I'm the more deceived."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm no just very popular the way it is," returned Ebenezer; "and I dinnae
+      see how it would come to be kennt. No by me, onyway; nor yet by you or
+      your friends. So that's idle talk, my buckie," says he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then it'll have to be David that tells it," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How that?" says my uncle, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ou, just this way," says Alan. "My friends would doubtless keep your
+      nephew as long as there was any likelihood of siller to be made of it, but
+      if there was nane, I am clearly of opinion they would let him gang where
+      he pleased, and be damned to him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but I'm no very caring about that either," said my uncle. "I wouldnae
+      be muckle made up with that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was thinking that," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what for why?" asked Ebenezer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Mr. Balfour," replied Alan, "by all that I could hear, there were
+      two ways of it: either ye liked David and would pay to get him back; or
+      else ye had very good reasons for not wanting him, and would pay for us to
+      keep him. It seems it's not the first; well then, it's the second; and
+      blythe am I to ken it, for it should be a pretty penny in my pocket and
+      the pockets of my friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dinnae follow ye there," said my uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No?" said Alan. "Well, see here: you dinnae want the lad back; well, what
+      do ye want done with him, and how much will ye pay?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My uncle made no answer, but shifted uneasily on his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, sir," cried Alan. "I would have you to ken that I am a gentleman; I
+      bear a king's name; I am nae rider to kick my shanks at your hall door.
+      Either give me an answer in civility, and that out of hand; or by the top
+      of Glencoe, I will ram three feet of iron through your vitals."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eh, man," cried my uncle, scrambling to his feet, "give me a meenit!
+      What's like wrong with ye? I'm just a plain man and nae dancing master;
+      and I'm tryin to be as ceevil as it's morally possible. As for that wild
+      talk, it's fair disrepitable. Vitals, says you! And where would I be with
+      my blunderbush?" he snarled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Powder and your auld hands are but as the snail to the swallow against
+      the bright steel in the hands of Alan," said the other. "Before your
+      jottering finger could find the trigger, the hilt would dirl on your
+      breast-bane."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Eh, man, whae's denying it?" said my uncle. "Pit it as ye please, hae't
+      your ain way; I'll do naething to cross ye. Just tell me what like ye'll
+      be wanting, and ye'll see that we'll can agree fine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Troth, sir," said Alan, "I ask for nothing but plain dealing. In two
+      words: do ye want the lad killed or kept?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, sirs!" cried Ebenezer. "O, sirs, me! that's no kind of language!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Killed or kept!" repeated Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O, keepit, keepit!" wailed my uncle. "We'll have nae bloodshed, if you
+      please."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," says Alan, "as ye please; that'll be the dearer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The dearer?" cries Ebenezer. "Would ye fyle your hands wi' crime?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoot!" said Alan, "they're baith crime, whatever! And the killing's
+      easier, and quicker, and surer. Keeping the lad'll be a fashious* job, a
+      fashious, kittle business."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Troublesome.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I'll have him keepit, though," returned my uncle. "I never had naething
+      to do with onything morally wrong; and I'm no gaun to begin to pleasure a
+      wild Hielandman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye're unco scrupulous," sneered Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'm a man o' principle," said Ebenezer, simply; "and if I have to pay for
+      it, I'll have to pay for it. And besides," says he, "ye forget the lad's
+      my brother's son."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," said Alan, "and now about the price. It's no very easy for
+      me to set a name upon it; I would first have to ken some small matters. I
+      would have to ken, for instance, what ye gave Hoseason at the first
+      off-go?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hoseason!" cries my uncle, struck aback. "What for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For kidnapping David," says Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's a lee, it's a black lee!" cried my uncle. "He was never kidnapped.
+      He leed in his throat that tauld ye that. Kidnapped? He never was!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's no fault of mine nor yet of yours," said Alan; "nor yet of
+      Hoseason's, if he's a man that can be trusted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do ye mean?" cried Ebenezer. "Did Hoseason tell ye?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, ye donnered auld runt, how else would I ken?" cried Alan. "Hoseason
+      and me are partners; we gang shares; so ye can see for yoursel' what good
+      ye can do leeing. And I must plainly say ye drove a fool's bargain when ye
+      let a man like the sailor-man so far forward in your private matters. But
+      that's past praying for; and ye must lie on your bed the way ye made it.
+      And the point in hand is just this: what did ye pay him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has he tauld ye himsel'?" asked my uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's my concern," said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Weel," said my uncle, "I dinnae care what he said, he leed, and the
+      solemn God's truth is this, that I gave him twenty pound. But I'll be
+      perfec'ly honest with ye: forby that, he was to have the selling of the
+      lad in Caroliny, whilk would be as muckle mair, but no from my pocket, ye
+      see."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank you, Mr. Thomson. That will do excellently well," said the lawyer,
+      stepping forward; and then mighty civilly, "Good-evening, Mr. Balfour,"
+      said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, "Good-evening, Uncle Ebenezer," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, "It's a braw nicht, Mr. Balfour," added Torrance.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0317m.jpg" alt="0317m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0317.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Never a word said my uncle, neither black nor white; but just sat where he
+      was on the top door-step and stared upon us like a man turned to stone.
+      Alan filched away his blunderbuss; and the lawyer, taking him by the arm,
+      plucked him up from the doorstep, led him into the kitchen, whither we all
+      followed, and set him down in a chair beside the hearth, where the fire
+      was out and only a rush-light burning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There we all looked upon him for a while, exulting greatly in our success,
+      but yet with a sort of pity for the man's shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come, Mr. Ebenezer," said the lawyer, "you must not be
+      down-hearted, for I promise you we shall make easy terms. In the meanwhile
+      give us the cellar key, and Torrance shall draw us a bottle of your
+      father's wine in honour of the event." Then, turning to me and taking me
+      by the hand, "Mr. David," says he, "I wish you all joy in your good
+      fortune, which I believe to be deserved." And then to Alan, with a spice
+      of drollery, "Mr. Thomson, I pay you my compliment; it was most artfully
+      conducted; but in one point you somewhat outran my comprehension. Do I
+      understand your name to be James? or Charles? or is it George, perhaps?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why should it be any of the three, sir?" quoth Alan, drawing himself
+      up, like one who smelt an offence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only, sir, that you mentioned a king's name," replied Rankeillor; "and as
+      there has never yet been a King Thomson, or his fame at least has never
+      come my way, I judged you must refer to that you had in baptism."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was just the stab that Alan would feel keenest, and I am free to
+      confess he took it very ill. Not a word would he answer, but stepped off
+      to the far end of the kitchen, and sat down and sulked; and it was not
+      till I stepped after him, and gave him my hand, and thanked him by title
+      as the chief spring of my success, that he began to smile a bit, and was
+      at last prevailed upon to join our party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By that time we had the fire lighted, and a bottle of wine uncorked; a
+      good supper came out of the basket, to which Torrance and I and Alan set
+      ourselves down; while the lawyer and my uncle passed into the next chamber
+      to consult. They stayed there closeted about an hour; at the end of which
+      period they had come to a good understanding, and my uncle and I set our
+      hands to the agreement in a formal manner. By the terms of this, my uncle
+      bound himself to satisfy Rankeillor as to his intromissions, and to pay me
+      two clear thirds of the yearly income of Shaws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the beggar in the ballad had come home; and when I lay down that night
+      on the kitchen chests, I was a man of means and had a name in the country.
+      Alan and Torrance and Rankeillor slept and snored on their hard beds; but
+      for me who had lain out under heaven and upon dirt and stones, so many
+      days and nights, and often with an empty belly, and in fear of death, this
+      good change in my case unmanned me more than any of the former evil ones;
+      and I lay till dawn, looking at the fire on the roof and planning the
+      future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0322m.jpg" alt="0322m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0322.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      GOOD-BYE
+    </h3>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img src="images/9322m.jpg" alt="9322m " width="100%" />
+      <a href="images/9322.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      o far as I was concerned myself, I had come to port; but I had still
+      Alan, to whom I was so much beholden, on my hands; and I felt besides a
+      heavy charge in the matter of the murder and James of the Glens. On both
+      these heads I unbosomed to Rankeillor the next morning, walking to and fro
+      about six of the clock before the house of Shaws, and with nothing in view
+      but the fields and woods that had been my ancestors' and were now mine.
+      Even as I spoke on these grave subjects, my eye would take a glad bit of a
+      run over the prospect, and my heart jump with pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About my clear duty to my friend, the lawyer had no doubt. I must help him
+      out of the county at whatever risk; but in the case of James, he was of a
+      different mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mr. Thomson," says he, "is one thing, Mr. Thomson's kinsman quite
+      another. I know little of the facts, but I gather that a great noble (whom
+      we will call, if you like, the D. of A.)* has some concern and is even
+      supposed to feel some animosity in the matter. The D. of A. is doubtless
+      an excellent nobleman; but, Mr. David, timeo qui nocuere deos. If you
+      interfere to balk his vengeance, you should remember there is one way to
+      shut your testimony out; and that is to put you in the dock. There, you
+      would be in the same pickle as Mr. Thomson's kinsman. You will object that
+      you are innocent; well, but so is he. And to be tried for your life before
+      a Highland jury, on a Highland quarrel and with a Highland Judge upon the
+      bench, would be a brief transition to the gallows."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Duke of Argyle.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Now I had made all these reasonings before and found no very good reply to
+      them; so I put on all the simplicity I could. "In that case, sir," said I,
+      "I would just have to be hanged&mdash;would I not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My dear boy," cries he, "go in God's name, and do what you think is
+      right. It is a poor thought that at my time of life I should be advising
+      you to choose the safe and shameful; and I take it back with an apology.
+      Go and do your duty; and be hanged, if you must, like a gentleman. There
+      are worse things in the world than to be hanged."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not many, sir," said I, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, yes, sir," he cried, "very many. And it would be ten times better
+      for your uncle (to go no farther afield) if he were dangling decently upon
+      a gibbet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he turned into the house (still in a great fervour of mind, so
+      that I saw I had pleased him heartily) and there he wrote me two letters,
+      making his comments on them as he wrote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This," says he, "is to my bankers, the British Linen Company, placing a
+      credit to your name. Consult Mr. Thomson, he will know of ways; and you,
+      with this credit, can supply the means. I trust you will be a good husband
+      of your money; but in the affair of a friend like Mr. Thomson, I would be
+      even prodigal. Then for his kinsman, there is no better way than that you
+      should seek the Advocate, tell him your tale, and offer testimony; whether
+      he may take it or not, is quite another matter, and will turn on the D. of
+      A. Now, that you may reach the Lord Advocate well recommended, I give you
+      here a letter to a namesake of your own, the learned Mr. Balfour of
+      Pilrig, a man whom I esteem. It will look better that you should be
+      presented by one of your own name; and the laird of Pilrig is much looked
+      up to in the Faculty and stands well with Lord Advocate Grant. I would not
+      trouble him, if I were you, with any particulars; and (do you know?) I
+      think it would be needless to refer to Mr. Thomson. Form yourself upon the
+      laird, he is a good model; when you deal with the Advocate, be discreet;
+      and in all these matters, may the Lord guide you, Mr. David!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he took his farewell, and set out with Torrance for the Ferry,
+      while Alan and I turned our faces for the city of Edinburgh. As we went by
+      the footpath and beside the gateposts and the unfinished lodge, we kept
+      looking back at the house of my fathers. It stood there, bare and great
+      and smokeless, like a place not lived in; only in one of the top windows,
+      there was the peak of a nightcap bobbing up and down and back and forward,
+      like the head of a rabbit from a burrow. I had little welcome when I came,
+      and less kindness while I stayed; but at least I was watched as I went
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan and I went slowly forward upon our way, having little heart either to
+      walk or speak. The same thought was uppermost in both, that we were near
+      the time of our parting; and remembrance of all the bygone days sate upon
+      us sorely. We talked indeed of what should be done; and it was resolved
+      that Alan should keep to the county, biding now here, now there, but
+      coming once in the day to a particular place where I might be able to
+      communicate with him, either in my own person or by messenger. In the
+      meanwhile, I was to seek out a lawyer, who was an Appin Stewart, and a man
+      therefore to be wholly trusted; and it should be his part to find a ship
+      and to arrange for Alan's safe embarkation. No sooner was this business
+      done, than the words seemed to leave us; and though I would seek to jest
+      with Alan under the name of Mr. Thomson, and he with me on my new clothes
+      and my estate, you could feel very well that we were nearer tears than
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We came the by-way over the hill of Corstorphine; and when we got near to
+      the place called Rest-and-be-Thankful, and looked down on Corstorphine
+      bogs and over to the city and the castle on the hill, we both stopped, for
+      we both knew without a word said that we had come to where our ways
+      parted. Here he repeated to me once again what had been agreed upon
+      between us: the address of the lawyer, the daily hour at which Alan might
+      be found, and the signals that were to be made by any that came seeking
+      him. Then I gave what money I had (a guinea or two of Rankeillor's) so
+      that he should not starve in the meanwhile; and then we stood a space, and
+      looked over at Edinburgh in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, good-bye," said Alan, and held out his left hand.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0325m.jpg" alt="0325m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0325.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Good-bye," said I, and gave the hand a little grasp, and went off down
+      hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither one of us looked the other in the face, nor so long as he was in
+      my view did I take one back glance at the friend I was leaving. But as I
+      went on my way to the city, I felt so lost and lonesome, that I could have
+      found it in my heart to sit down by the dyke, and cry and weep like any
+      baby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was coming near noon when I passed in by the West Kirk and the
+      Grassmarket into the streets of the capital. The huge height of the
+      buildings, running up to ten and fifteen storeys, the narrow arched
+      entries that continually vomited passengers, the wares of the merchants in
+      their windows, the hubbub and endless stir, the foul smells and the fine
+      clothes, and a hundred other particulars too small to mention, struck me
+      into a kind of stupor of surprise, so that I let the crowd carry me to and
+      fro; and yet all the time what I was thinking of was Alan at
+      Rest-and-be-Thankful; and all the time (although you would think I would
+      not choose but be delighted with these braws and novelties) there was a
+      cold gnawing in my inside like a remorse for something wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hand of Providence brought me in my drifting to the very doors of the
+      British Linen Company's bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>