Adventure Books
14 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
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Hey Amazon Prime members! Why pay more for groceries when you can save big on thousands of items at Amazon Fresh? Shop Prime exclusive deals and save up to 50% on weekly grocery favorites. Plus save 10% on Amazon brands. Like our new brand Amazon Saver, 365 by Whole Foods Market, a plenty and more. Come back for new deals rotating every week. Don't miss out on savings. Shop Prime exclusive deals at Amazon Fresh. Select varieties. There's only one feeling like the traditions of baseball. From creating memories with your family to the joy of being with fellow fans. The taste of your first hot dog of the season and the excitement of catching your first foul ball. Baseball brings communities together and as your hometown bank, we support the hometown team. We're proud to be the official bank of the Colorado Rockies. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Remember FDIC. Chapter 14. The Islet. With my stepping ashore, I began the most unhappy part of my adventures. It was half past 12 in the morning, and though the wind was broken by the land, it was a cold night. I dare not sit down, or I thought I should have frozen, but I took off my shoes and walked to and fro upon the sand, barefoot, and beating my breast with infinite weariness. There was no sound of man or cattle, not a cock-crew, though it was about the hour of their first waking. Only the surf broke outside in the distance, which put me in mind of my perils and those of my friend. To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome struck me with a kind of fear. As soon as the day began to break I put on my shoes and climbed a hill, the ruggedest scramble I ever undertook, falling the whole way between big blocks of granite, or leaping from one to another. When I got to the top, the dawn was come. There was no sign of the brig which must have lifted from the reef and sunk. The boat, too, was nowhere to be seen. There was never a sail upon the ocean, and in what I could see of the land was neither house nor man. I was afraid to think what had befallen my shipmates, and afraid to look longer at so empty a scene, but with my wet clothes and weariness, and my belly that now began to ache with hunger, I had enough to trouble me without that. So I set off eastward along the south coast, hoping to find a house where I might warm myself, and perhaps get news of those I had lost. And at the worst I considered the sun would soon rise and dry my clothes. After a little, my way was stopped by a creek or inlet of the sea which seemed to run pretty deep into the land, and as I had no means to get across, I must needs change my direction to go around the end of it. It was still the roughest kind of walking, indeed the whole, not only of Herod, but of the neighboring part of Mull, which they called the Ross, is nothing but a jumble of granite rocks with heather in among. At first the creek kept narrowing, as I had looked to see, but presently to my surprise it began to widen out again. At this I scratched my head, but had still no notion of the truth. Until at last I came to a rising ground, and it first upon me all in a moment that I was cast upon a little barren aisle, and cut off on every side by the salt seas. It is instead of the sun rising to dry me, it came on to rain with a thick mist so that my case was lamitable. I stood in the rain and shivered and wondered what to do, till it occurred to me that perhaps the creek was fordable. Back I went to the narrowest point and waited in, but not three yards from shore I plumped in head over ears, and if ever I was heard of more it was rather by God's grace than my own prudence. I was no wetter, for that could hardly be, but I was all the colder for this mishap, and having lost another hope was the more unhappy. And now all at once the yard came in my head. What had carried me through the roost would surely serve me to cross this little quiet creek in safety. With that I set off undaunted across the top of the aisle, the fetch and carry it back. It was a weary trap in all ways, and if hope had not buoyed me up I must have cast myself down and given up. Whether with the sea salt or because I was growing fevered, I was distressed with thirst, had to stop as I went and drink the peaty water out of the hags. I came to the bay at last, more dead than alive, and at the first glance I thought the yard was something farther out than when I left it. When I went for the third time into the sea, the sand was smooth and firm and shelled gradually down so that I could wait out till the water was almost to my neck and little waves splashed into my face. But at that depth my feet began to leave me, and I drew a venture in no farther. As for the yard I saw it bobbing very quietly some twenty feet beyond. I had borne up well until this last disappointment, but at that I came ashore and flung my self down upon the sands and wept. The time I spent upon the island is still so horrible a thought to me that I must pass it lightly over. In all the books I have read of people cast away that either they are pockets full of tools or a chest of things which would be thrown upon the beach along with them as if on purpose. My case was very different. I had nothing in my pockets but money and Alan's silver button. When being inland bread I was as much short of knowledge as of means. I knew indeed that shellfish were counted good to eat, and among the rocks of the aisle I found a great plenty of limpots, which at first I could hardly strike from their places, not knowing quickness to be needful. There were besides some of the little shells that we call "buckies," I think periwinkle is the English name. Of these two I made my whole diet devouring them cold and raw as I found them. And so hungry was I that at first they seemed to me delicious. Perhaps they were out of season; perhaps there was something wrong in the sea about my island. But at least I had no sooner eaten my first meal than I was seized with giddiness and retching, and lay for a long time no better than dead. A second trial of the same food, indeed I had no other, did better with me, and revived my strength. But as long as I was on the island I never knew what to expect when I had eaten. Sometimes all was well, but sometimes I was thrown into a miserable sickness, nor could I ever distinguish what particular fish it was that hurt me. All day it streamed rain. The island ran like a sopp, there was no dry spot to be found, and when I lay down that night between two boulders that made a kind of roof, my feet were in a bog. The second day I crossed the island to all sides. There was no one part of it better than another. It was all desolate and rocky, nothing living on it but game-birds which I lacked the means to kill, and gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. But the creek, or straight, that cut off the aisle from the mainland of the Ross, opened out on the north into a bay, and the bay again opened into the sound of Iona. And it was the neighborhood of this place that I chose to be my home, though if I had thought upon the very name of home in such a spot I must have burst out weeping. I had good reasons for my choice. There was in this part of the aisle a little hut of a house like a pig's hut, where fishers used to sleep when they came there upon their business, but the turf roof of it had fallen entirely in so that the hut was of no use to me and gave me less shelter than my rocks. What was more important, the shellfish on which I lived grew there in great plenty. When the tide was out I could gather a peck at a time, and this was doubtless a convenience. But the other reason went deeper. I had become in no way used to the horrid solitude of the aisle, but still looked round me on all sides like a man that was hunted, between fear and hope that I might see some human creature coming. Now from a little up the hillside over the bay I could catch a side of the great ancient church and the roofs of the people's houses in Nionna, and on the other hand, over the low country of the Ross, I saw smoke go up morning and evening as it from a homestead in the hollow of the land. I used to watch this smoke when I was wet and cold and had my head have turned with loneliness, and I think of the fireside and the company to my heart burned. It was the same with the roofs of Iona. Altogether this side I had of men's homes and comfortable lives, although I put a point on my own sufferings, yet it kept hope alive and helped me to eat my raw shellfish, which had soon grown to be a disgust, and saved me from the sense of horror I had whenever I was quite alone with dead rocks and fowls and the rain and the cold sea. I say it kept hope alive, and indeed it seemed impossible that I should be left to die on the shores of my own country and within view of a church-tower and the smoke of men's houses, but the second day passed, and though as long as the light lasted I kept the bright lookout for boats on the sound, or men passing on the Ross, no help came near me. It still rained, and I turned into sleep as wet as ever, and with a cruel sore throat, but a little comforted perhaps by having said goodnight to my next neighbors, the people of Iona. Charles II declared a man could stay outdoors more days in the year in the climate of England than in any other. This was very like a king, with a palace at his back and changes of dry clothes, but he must have had better luck on his flight from Worcester than I had in that miserable aisle. It was the height of the summer, yet it rained for more than twenty-four hours; it did not clear until the afternoon of the third day. This was the day of incidents. In the morning I saw a red deer, a buck with a fine spread of antlers, standing in the rain on the top of the island, but he had scarcely seen me rise from my rock before he trotted off upon the other side. I supposed he must have swam the straight, though what should bring any creature to arid was more than I could fancy. A little after, as I was jumping about after my limpets, I was startled by a guinea-piece, which fell upon a rock in front of me and glanced off into the sea. When the sailors gave me my money again, they kept back not only about a third of the whole sum, but my father's leather purse, so that from that day out I carried my gold loose in a pocket with a button. I now saw there must be a hole and clapped my hand to the place in a great hurry, but this was to lock the stable door after the steed was stolen. I had left the shore at Queens Ferry with near on fifty pounds. Now I found no more than two guinea-pieces and a silver-shilling. It is true I picked up a third guinea a little after, where it lay shining on a piece of turf. That made a fortune of three pounds and four shillings, English money, for a lad the rightful air of an estate now starving on an aisle at the extreme end of the wild highlands. The state of my affairs dashed me still further, and indeed my plight on that third morning was truly pitiful. My clothes were beginning to rot, my stockings in particular were quite worn through, so that my shanks went naked. My hands had grown quite soft with a continual soaking, my throat was very sore, my strength had much abated, and my heart so turned against the hard stuff I was condemned to eat that the very sight of it came near to sicken me. And yet the worse was not yet come. There is a pretty high rock on the north-west of Herod, which, because it had a flat top and overlooked the sound, I was much in the habit of frequenting, not that ever I stayed in one place, save one asleep, my misery giving me no rest. Indeed I wore myself down with continual and aimless goings and comings in the rain. As soon, however, as the sun came out, I lay down on the top of that rock to dry myself. The comfort of the sunshine is a thing I cannot tell. It set me thinking hopefully of my deliverance of which I had begun to despair, and I scanned the sea and the Ross with a fresh interest. On the south of my rock, a part of the island shut it out and hid the open ocean, so that a boat could thus come quite near me upon that side and I'd be none the wiser. Well, all of a sudden, a cobble with a brown sail and a pair of fishers aboard of it came and flying round that corner of the aisle bound for Iona. I shouted out and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands and prayed to them. They were near enough to hear, I could even see the color of their hair, and there was no doubt but they observed me, for they cried out in the Gaelic tongue and laughed. But the boat never turned aside and flew on right before my eyes for Iona. I could not believe such wickedness and ran along the shore from rock to rock, crying on them pitiously even after they were out of reach of my voice, I still cried and waved to them, and when they were quite gone, I thought my heart would have burst. All the time of my troubles I wept only twice, once when I could not reach the yard, and now, second time, when these fishers turned a deaf ear to my cries. But this time I wept and roared like a wicked child, tearing up the turf with my nails, and grinding my face in the earth, if the wish would kill men, those two fishers would never have seen mourning, and I should likely have died upon my island. When I was a little over my anger I must eat again, but with such loathing of the mess as I could now scarce control. Sure enough I should have done as well to fast, for my fishes poisoned me again. I had all my first pains, my throat was so sore I could scare swallow, I had a fit of strong shuddering, which clucked my teeth together, and there came on me that dreadful sense of illness which we have no name for, either in scotch or English. I thought I should have died, and made my peace with God, for giving all men, even my uncle and the fishers, and as soon as I had thus made up my mind to the worst, clearness came upon me. I observed the night was falling dry, my clothes were dried a good deal, truly I was in a better case than ever before, since I had landed on the aisle, and so I got to sleep at last for the thought of gratitude. The next day, which was the fourth of this horrible life of mine, I found my bodily strength run very low, but the sun shone, the air was sweet, and what I managed to eat of the shell-fish agreed well with me and revived my courage. I was scarce back on my rock, where I went always the first thing after I'd eaten, before I observed a boat coming down the sound, and with her head as I thought in my direction. I began at once to hope and fear exceedingly, for I thought these men might have thought better of their cruelty in becoming back to my assistance. But another disappointment, such as yesterday's, was more than I could bear. I turned my back accordingly upon the sea, and did not look again till I had counted many hundreds. The boat was still heading for the island. The next time I counted the full thousand, as slowly as I could, my heart beating so as to hurt me, and then it was out of all question she was coming straight to errant. I could no longer hold myself back, but ran to the seaside and out, from one rock to another as far as I could go. It is a marvel I was not drowned, for when I was brought to a stand at last, my legs shook under me, and my mouth was so dry, I must wet it with a sea-water before I was able to shout. All this time the boat was coming on, and now I was able to perceive it was the same boat and the same two men as yesterday. Once I knew by their hair which the one had of a bright yellow and the other black, but now there was a third man along with them who looked to be of a better class. As soon as they were come within easy speech, they let down their sail and lay quiet. In spite of my supplications they drew no nearer in, and what frightened me most of all, the new man tehed with laughter as he talked and looked at me. When he stood up in the boat and addressed me a long while, speaking fast and with many wavings of his hand, I told him I had no Gaelic, and at this he became very angry, and I began to suspect he thought he was talking English. Listing very close, I caught the word, but heifer. Several times but all the rest was Gaelic and might have been Greek and Hebrew for me. "Whatever," said I, to show him I had caught a word. "Yes, yes, yes, yes," says he, and then he looked at the other man as much as to say, "I told you I spoke English, and began again as hard as ever in the Gaelic." This time I picked out another word, tied. Then I had a flash of hope. I remembered he was always waving his hand towards the mainland of the Ross. "Do you mean when the tide is out?" I cried and could not finish. "Yes, yes," said he, tied. At that I turned tail upon their boat, where my advisor had once more begun to t-he with laughter, leaped back the way I had come from one stone to another, and set off running across the aisle as I had never run before. In about half an hour I came out upon the shores of the creek, and sure enough it was shrunk into a little trickle of water, through which I dashed, not above my knees, and landed with a shout on the main island. A sea-bred boy would not have stayed a day on arid, which is only what they call a tidal islet, and except in the bottom of the nieps can be entered and left twice in every twenty-four hours, either dry shod or at the most by waiting. Even I, who had the tide going out and in before me in the bay, and even watched for the ebbs the better to get my shellfish, even I, I say, if I had sat down to think instead of raging at my fate, must have soon guessed the secret and got free. It was no wonder the fishers had not understood me. The wonder was whether they had ever guessed my pitiful illusion and taken the trouble to come back. I had starved with cold and hunger on that island for close upon one hundred hours, but for the fishers I might have left my bones there and pure folly, and even as it was, I had paid for it pretty dear, not only in past sufferings, but in my present case, being clothed like a beggar man, scarce able to walk and in great pain of my sore throat. I have seen wicked men in fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first. The CHAPTER Hey Amazon Prime members, why pay more for groceries when you can save big on thousands of items at Amazon Fresh? Shop Prime exclusive deals and save up to 50% on weekly grocery favorites. Plus save 10% on Amazon brands, like our new brand Amazon Saver, 365 by Whole Foods Market, a Plenty and more. Come back for new deals rotating every week. Don't miss out on savings. Prime exclusive deals at Amazon Fresh, select varieties. There's only one feeling like the traditions of baseball. From creating memories with your family, to the joy of being with fellow fans, the taste of your first hot dog of the season, and the excitement of catching your first foul ball. Baseball brings communities together, and as your hometown bank, we support the hometown team. I'm proud to be the official bank of the Colorado Rockies. Bank of Colorado, there's only one member FDIC.