Chapter I: Front Matter

KIDNAPPED

KIDNAPPED

THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

_ILLUSTRATED
By_
N. C. WYETH

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

KIDNAPPED

BEING MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID
BALFOUR IN THE YEAR 1751

HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED AND CAST AWAY; HIS SUFFERINGS IN A
DESERT ISLE; HIS JOURNEY IN THE WILD HIGHLANDS; HIS
ACQUAINTANCE WITH ALAN BRECK STEWART AND OTHER NOTORIOUS
HIGHLAND JACOBITES; WITH ALL THAT HE SUFFERED AT THE HANDS
OF HIS UNCLE, EBENEZER BALFOUR OF SHAWS, FALSELY SO CALLED

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

AND NOW SET FORTH BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1946

COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1913, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

Printed in the United States of America

_All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without
the permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons_

DEDICATION

MY DEAR CHARLES BAXTER:

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.

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 thread the same streets--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--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,

R. L. S.

SKERRYVORE,

BOURNEMOUTH.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS 3

II. I COME TO MY JOURNEY’S END 9

III. I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE 16

IV. I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS 26

V. I GO TO THE QUEEN’S FERRY 37

VI. WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN’S FERRY 46

VII. I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG “COVENANT” OF DYSART 53

VIII. THE ROUND-HOUSE 63

IX. THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD 70

X. THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE 82

XI. THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER 91

XII. I HEAR OF THE “RED FOX” 97

XIII. THE LOSS OF THE BRIG 108

XIV. THE ISLET 116

XV. THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE
ISLE OF MULL 128

XVI. THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN 139

XVII. THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX 149

XVIII. I TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE 157

XIX. THE HOUSE OF FEAR 168

XX. THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE ROCKS 177

XXI. THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH
OF CORRYNAKIEGH 188

XXII. THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR 198

XXIII. CLUNY’S CAGE 208

XXIV. THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE QUARREL 219

XXV. IN BALQUHIDDER 232

XXVI. END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH 241

XXVII. I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR 255

XXVIII. I GO IN QUEST OF MY INHERITANCE 266

XXIX. I COME INTO MY KINGDOM 276

XXX. GOOD-BYE 285

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

MR. BALFOUR, OF THE HOUSE OF SHAWS 18
What he was, whether by trade or birth, was more than
I could fathom

AT QUEEN’S FERRY 48
And the spirit of all that I beheld put me in thoughts
of far voyages and foreign places

THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE 84
It came all of a sudden when it did, with a rush of feet
and a roar, and then a shout from Alan

THE WRECK OF THE “COVENANT” 112
It was the spare yard I had got hold of, and I was amazed
to see how far I had travelled from the brig

ON THE ISLAND OF EARRAID 122
But the second day passed; and as long as the light
lasted I kept a bright look-out for boats on the
sound or men passing on the Boss

THE MURDERER OF ROY CAMPBELL OF GLENURE 154
At that the murderer gave a little, quick look over his
shoulder, and began to run

AT THE CARDS IN CLUNY’S CAGE 214
But Alan and Cluny were most of the time at the cards

TWO PIPERS IN BALQUHIDDER 238
All night long the brose was going and the pipes changing
hands

THE PARTING 286
For we both knew without a word said that we had
come to where our ways parted

MAP 3
Sketch of the Cruise of the Brig _Covenant_ and the
probable course of David Balfour’s Wanderings

KIDNAPPED

And the probable course of DAVID BALFOUR’S WANDERINGS.

THE GRAY LITH. CO., N.Y. ]