Kidnapped | Page 3

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--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
I
I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS II I COME TO MY JOURNEY'S END III I MAKE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY UNCLE IV I RUN A GREAT DANGER IN THE HOUSE OF SHAWS V I GO TO THE QUEEN'S FERRY VI WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN'S FERRY VII I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG "COVENANT" OF DYSART VIII THE ROUND-HOUSE IX THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD X THE SIEGE OF THE ROUND-HOUSE XI THE CAPTAIN KNUCKLES UNDER XII I HEAR OF THE "RED FOX" XIII THE LOSS OF THE BRIG XIV THE ISLET XV THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: THROUGH THE ISLE OF MULL XVI THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON: ACROSS MORVEN XVII THE DEATH OF THE RED FOX XVIIII TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE XIX THE HOUSE OF FEAR XX THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE ROCKS XXI THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE HEUGH OF CORRYNAKIEGH XXII THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE MOOR XXIII CLUNY'S CAGE XXIV THE FLIGHT IN THE HEATHER: THE QUARREL IN BALQUHIDDER XXVI END OF THE FLIGHT: WE PASS THE FORTH XXVII I COME TO MR. RANKEILLOR XXVIII I GO IN QUEST OF MY INHERITANCE XXIX I COME INTO MY KINGDOM XXX GOOD-BYE

CHAPTER I
I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS
I 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.
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.
"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.
"Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?" said he, after awhile.
"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."
"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