Red Cap Tales

Red Cap Tales, by Samuel Rutherford Crockett

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Title: Red Cap Tales Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North
Author: Samuel Rutherford Crockett
Release Date: September 17, 2007 [EBook #22656]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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RED CAP TALES
[Illustration: Red Cap among the Wizard's Treasures.]
RED CAP TALES
STOLEN FROM THE TREASURE CHEST OF THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH
WHICH THEFT IS HUMBLY ACKNOWLEDGED BY
S. R. CROCKETT
=New York= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1904
COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1904.
=Norwood Press= J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

THE WHY!
FOUR CHILDREN WOULD NOT READ SCOTT
SO I told them these stories--and others--to lure them to the printed book, much as carrots are dangled before the nose of the reluctant donkey. They are four average intelligent children enough, but they hold severely modern views upon storybooks. Waverley, in especial, they could not away with. They found themselves stuck upon the very threshold.
Now, since the first telling of these Red Cap Tales, the Scott shelf in the library has been taken by storm and escalade. It is permanently gap-toothed all along the line. Also there are nightly skirmishes, even to the laying on of hands, as to who shall sleep with Waverley under his pillow.
It struck me that there must be many oldsters in the world who, for the sake of their own youth, would like the various Sweethearts who now inhabit their nurseries, to read Sir Walter with the same breathless eagerness as they used to do--how many years agone? It is chiefly for their sakes that I have added several interludes, telling how Sweetheart, Hugh John, Sir Toady Lion, and Maid Margaret received my petty larcenies from the full chest of the Wizard.
At any rate, Red Cap succeeded in one case--why should he not in another? I claim no merit in the telling of the tales, save that, like medicines well sugar-coated, the patients mistook them for candies and--asked for more.
The books are open. Any one can tell Scott's stories over again in his own way. This is mine.
S. R. CROCKETT.

CONTENTS
CERTAIN SMALL PHARAOHS THAT KNEW NOT JOSEPH 1
RED CAP TALES FROM "WAVERLEY"
THE FIRST TALE: I. GOOD-BYE TO WAVERLEY-HONOUR 11 II. THE ENCHANTED CASTLE 16 III. THE BARON AND THE BEAR 21 THE FIRST INTERLUDE OF ACTION 28
THE SECOND TALE: I. THE CATTLE-LIFTING 31 II. THE ROBBER'S CAVE 35 THE SECOND INTERLUDE 41
THE THIRD TALE: I. THE CHIEF OF THE MAC-IVORS AND THE CHIEF'S SISTER 46 II. MISFORTUNES NEVER COME SINGLE 55 THE THIRD INTERLUDE--BEING MAINLY A FEW WORDS UPON HEROES 62
THE FOURTH TALE: HERE AND THERE AMONG THE HEATHER 64 INTERLUDE OF STICKING-PLASTER 78
THE FIFTH TALE: THE WHITE COCKADE 81
THE SIXTH TALE: BLACK LOOKS AND BRIGHT SWORDS 94 INTERLUDE OF BREVITY 104
THE LAST TALE: THE BARON'S SURPRISE 105
RED CAP TALES FROM "GUY MANNERING"
WHERE WE TOLD THE SECOND TALE 123
THE FIRST TALE: I. WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY 124 INTERLUDE OF INTERROGATION 140
THE SECOND TALE: I. HAPPY DOMINIE SAMPSON 143 II. DANDIE DINMONT 150 III. IN THE LION'S MOUTH 158 INTERLUDE OF LOCALITY 162
THE THIRD TALE: THE RETURN OF DIRK HATTERAICK 166
THE FOURTH TALE: THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE 185 INTERLUDE OF CONSULTATION 204
RED CAP TALES FROM "ROB ROY"
THE FIRST TALE: FRANK THE HIGHWAYMAN 211 INTERLUDE OF DISCUSSION 236
THE SECOND TALE: I. IN THE TOILS OF RASHLEIGH 241 II. ROB ROY AT LAST 254 III. THE BAILIE FIGHTS WITH FIRE 267 IV. THE DROWNING OF THE SPY 276 INTERLUDE OF EXPOSTULATION 284
THE THIRD TALE: I. IN THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES 288 II. THE ESCAPE 294 III. THE DEATH OF RASHLEIGH 307
RED CAP TALES FROM "THE ANTIQUARY" THE FIRST TALE: I. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. LOVEL 326 II. THE NIGHT OF STORM 337 INTERLUDE OF WARNING 352
THE SECOND TALE: I. LOVEL FIGHTS A DUEL 354 II. THE SEEKERS OF TREASURE 370 III. MISTICOT'S GRAVE 377 A QUITE SUPERFLUOUS INTERLUDE 389
THE THIRD TALE: I. THE EARL'S SECRET 396 II. THE MOTHER'S VENGEANCE 400 III. THE HEIR OF GLENALLAN 408

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BY SIMON HARMON VEDDER
1 Red Cap among the Wizard's treasures Frontispiece
WAVERLEY Facing page 2 In an instant his red cap was off and he was bowing and saluting . . . with . . . extravagant gestures 20 3 So fierce was the attack . . . made on Edward, that the young man was compelled to draw his pistol 66 4 Rose Bradwardine . . . watched