Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-10-12
KIDNAPPED,
BEING MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID
BALFoUR IN THE YEAR 1851.
By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
CHAPTER XXIv.-(Continued.)

Never" says he; but We ken very
well that we've done worse. Are we to
part? Ye said so once before. Are We
TO say it again? There's hills and
heather enough between here and the
two seas, David; and l will own I'm
no very keen to stay where I'm no
wanted"
This pierced me like a sword. and
seemed to lay bare my private ,lisloy-
atty:
"Do you think | am one to turn my
durstn't say it to my face. My whole
conducts there to give the lie to it. It's
true, | fell asleep upon the Muir; but
that was from WEAKNESS, and you do me
wrong to cast it up to me-
(Which is what l never did, said
Alan.
But aside from that" I continued,
'what have l done that you should
even me to dogs by such a suppOsition
/ never yet failed friend and it's not
likely I'll begin with you. There are
two things between us that L can never
forget, even if you can"
II will only say this to We, David"
sad Alan, very quietly, that | nave
long been owing ye my life, and now l
owe We mony. Ye should try to make
that burden light for me-"
This ought to have touched me, and
in a manner it did, but the wrong man
ner. / felt that l 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.
"You asked me to speak" said /.
"Well, then, 1 will. You own yourself
that you have done me a disservice;
have had to swallow an affront; | have
never reproached you, never named
the thing till you did. And now you
blame me-" cried l, because | cannae
laugh and sing as if I was glad To be
affronted. The next thing will be that
I'm going down upon my knees and
of others, Alan Brock. If We thought
more of others, We would perhaps speak
less about yourself; and when a friend
that likes you very well, has passed
over an offense 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 should
nae be you to seek the quarrel"
"Aweel," said Alan ''sae nae mair.'
And we fell back into our former 81
lence; and came to our journeys end
and supped, and lay down to sleep,
without another word.
The gillie put us across Loeb Ran
noch in the dusk of the next day, and
This was to get 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 Kip
pen and the upper waters of the Forth.
Alan was little pleased with 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 Stewards, race Of his
own name and lineage, although follow
ing a different chief, and come besides
by a far easier and sWifter way 10 the
place whittier 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 l could understandl
that we should nowhere be so little
troubled as in country of the Camp
bells.
Alan gave way at last, but
with only half a heart. Its
land" said he There's naething there
that | ken but heath and crows, and
Campbells. But / see that we're a man
of some penetration; and be it as We
please!'
We set forth accordingly by this tin
erary; and for the best part of three
nights travelled on eerie mountains and
among the Weil-headS of wild rivers; Of
ten 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, necessarily clambered
upen breackneck hills and among rude
crags. We often wandered; we were
often so involved in fog, that we must
ia Of irh+ A
never to be thought of. Our only food
was drammach and q portion of cold
meat that we had carried from the Cage;
and as for drink, Heaven knows we had
no want Of water
This was a dreadful time, rendered the
more, dreadful by the gloom of the
weather and the country / was never
warm; my teeth chartered in my head;
| was troubled with very sore throat
such as | had on the isle: | had a painful
stitch in my side, which never left me:
and when | slept in my wet bed with
the rain beating above and the mud ooz-
ing below me- it was to live over again
IN fancy the worst part of my adven-
tures-t0 see the tower of ShaWS lit by
lightning, Ransome carried below on the
mems backs, Shuan dying on the round
house floor, or Colin Campbell grasping
at the bosom of bis coat. From such
broken slumbers l would be aroused in
tie gloaming, 10 sit up in the same pud-
die where [ had slept and sup cold dram
mach; the rain driving sharp in my face
or running down my back in icy trickles;
the mist EMBEDDING us like as in a gloomy
chamber-or perhaps, if the wind blew,
falling suddenly apart and showing us
the gulf of some dark valley where the
streams were crying aloud
The sound Of an infinite number of
rivers came up from all round. In this
steady rain the springs of the noun
tain were broken up; every glen gushed
water like a cistern; every stream was
in high spate, and had filled and over
flowed its channel. During our night
tramps twas solemn to hear the voice of
them below in the valleys, now booming
like thunder, now with an angry cry.
could well understand the story of the
Water Kelpie, that demon Of the
streams, who is tabled to keep wailing
and roaring at the ford until the coming
of the doomed traveller. Alan l saw be-
lived it, or half believed it; and when
the cry of the river rose more than usu-
ally sharp, ] was little surprised Though
of course, | would still be shocked) to
CO. ~, e