Kidnapped | Page 3

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--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.