Adventure Books
16 - Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
https://www.solgoodmedia.com Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad-free! Step into a world of daily intrigue and timeless tales with our Classic Adventure Podcast Series! Each day, we bring to life a new chapter from a beloved classic, inviting you on an exhilarating journey through some of the greatest adventure stories ever written. Imagine unraveling the mysteries with Sherlock Holmes, exploring bizarre landscapes with Alice, or circumnavigating the globe in just eighty days. Why settle for mundane daily commutes or routine chores when you can escape into the thrilling escapades of "Treasure Island" or the eerie encounters in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"? Our podcast transforms your every day into a captivating adventure, perfect for both the literary enthusiast and the casual listener seeking an escape from the ordinary. Join us as we traverse the dark depths of "Heart of Darkness," soar through the imaginative realms of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and survive the wilds with "Robinson Crusoe." Each episode is crafted to make the classics accessible and exciting, ensuring that whether you're reliving your favorite tales or discovering them for the first time, you're guaranteed a gripping experience. Subscribe to our Classic Adventure Podcast Series today and start your daily adventure! Let us awaken the explorer in you as we delve into these timeless narratives, chapter by chapter, transforming your daily routine into an extraordinary journey through the pages of history's most thrilling adventures. Don't just listen to stories—live them every day with us!
- Broadcast on:
- 15 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Ryan Seacrest here, when you have a busy schedule, it's important to maximize your downtime. One of the best ways to do that is by going to Chumbah Casino.com. Chumbah Casino has all your favorite social casino games, like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire that you can play for free for a chance to redeem some serious prizes. So hop on to Chumbah Casino.com now and live the Chumbalife. Sponsored by Chumbah Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Chapter 16, the lad with the silver button across Morven. There is a regular ferry from Torres Sade to Kinlokaleen on the mainland. Both shores of the sound are in the country of the strong clan of the McLean's, and the people that pass the ferry with me were almost all of that clan. The skipper of the boat, on the other hand, was called Neil Roy McCrawb. And since McCrawb was one of the names of Allen's clansmen, and Allen himself had sent me to that ferry, I was eager to come to private speech of Neil Roy. In the crowded boat this was, of course, impossible, and the passage was a very slow affair. There was no wind, and as the boat was wretchedly equipped, we could pull but two oars on one side and one on the other. The men gave way, however, with a good will, the passengers taking spells to help them, and the whole company giving the time in Gaelic boat songs. And what were the songs, and the sea air, and the good nature and spirit of all concern, and the bright weather, the passage was a pretty thing to have seen. But there was one melancholy part. In the mouth of Lachalin, we found a great seagoing ship at anchor, and this I supposed it first to be one of the king's cruisers which were kept along that coast, both summer and winter, to prevent communication with the French. As we got a little nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise. And what still more puzzled me, not only her decks but the sea beach also, were quite black with people, and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them. But nearer, and there began to come to our ears a great sound of mourning, the people on board and those on the shore crying and lamenting one to another, so as to pierce the heart. Then I understood this was an emigrant ship bound for the American colonies. We put the ferry boat alongside, and the exiles leaned over the bulwarks, weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow passengers, among whom they counted some near friends. How long this might have gone on I do not know, for they seemed to have no sense of time, but at last the captain of the ship, who seemed near beside himself, and no great wonder, in the midst of this crying and confusion, came to the side and begged us to depart. Their upon Neil sheared off, and the chief singer in our boat struck into a melancholy air, which was presently taken up both by the emigrants and their friends upon the beach, so that it sounded from all sides like a lament for the dying. I saw the tears run down the cheeks of the men and women in the boat, even as they bent at the oars, and the circumstances and the music of the song, which is one called "Lakebrno Moore," were highly affecting even to myself. At Kinlokaleen I got Neil Roy upon one side on the beach and said I made sure he was one of Appen's men. "And what for no?" said he. "I am seeking some by," said I, "and it comes in my mind that you will have news of him. Alan Brecht Stewart is his name, and very foolishly, instead of showing him the button, I sought to pass a shilling in his hand. At this he drew back. "I am very much affronted," he said, "and this is not the way that one gentleman should behave to another at all. The man you asked for is in France, but if he were in my sporen," says he, "and you're belly full of shillings, it would not hurt a hair upon his body." I saw I had gone the wrong way to work, and without wasting time upon apologies showed him the button lying in the hollow of my palm. "Hahil hil, hil," said Neil, "and I think you might have begun with that end of the stick whatever, but if you are the lad with the silver button, all is well, and I have the word to see that you come safe. But if you will pardon me to speak plainly," says he, "there is a name that you should never take into your mouth, and that is the name of Alan Brecht. And there is a thing that you would never do, and that is to offer your dirty money to a Helen gentleman." It was not very easy to apologize for I could scarce tell him, what was the truth, that I had never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman until he told me so. Neil on his part had no wish to prolong his dealings with me, only to fulfill his orders and be done with it, and he made haste to give me my route. This was to lie the night in King Lachaline and the public inn, to cross Morvan the next day to Ardgura, and lie the night in the house of one John of the Claymore, who was worn that I might come. The third day, to be set across one lock at Corin, and another at Balaculis, and then ask my way to the house of James of the Glens, at Aacarn in Durr of Appen. There was a good deal of fairing, as you hear, the sea and all this part running deep into the mountains and winding about their roots. It makes the country strong to hold in difficult to travel, but full of prodigious wild and dreadful prospects. I had some other advice from Neil, to speak with no one, by the way, to avoid wigs, cambles, and the red soldiers, to leave the road and lie in a bush, if I saw any of the latter coming, for it was never chancy to meet in with them, and, in brief, to conduct myself like a robber or a Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil thought me. The Inn at Kinlockaleen was the most beggarly vile place that ever pigs were stied in, full of smoke, vermin, and silent highlanders. I was not only discontented with my lodging, but with myself for my mismanagement of Neil, and thought I could hardly be worse off. But very wrongly, as I was soon to see, for I had not been half an hour at the inn, standing in the door most of the time, to ease my eyes from the peat-smoke, when a thunderstorm came close by, the springs broke in the little hill on which the inn stood, and one end of the house became a running water. Places of public entertainment were bad enough all over Scotland in those days, yet it was a wonder to myself, when I had to go from the fireside to the bed in which I slept, weeding over the shoes. Early in my next day's journey I overtook a little stout, solemn man, walking very slowly with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book, and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed decently and plainly in something of a clerical style. This I found to be another catechist, but of a different order from the blind man of Mo, being indeed one of those sent out by the Edinburgh Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, to evangelize the more savage places of the highlands. His name was "Hendlerland." He spoke with a broad south-country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the sound of, and besides common country-ship, we soon found we had a more particular bond of interest. For my good friend, the minister of Essendon, had translated into the Gaelic in his by-time a number of hymns and pious books, which Hendlerland used in his work, and held in great esteem. Indeed, it was one of these he was carrying, and reading when we met. We fell in company at once, our ways lying together as far as to King Gerouac. As we went, he stopped and spoke with all the way fairs and workers that we met were past, and though, of course, I could not tell what they discoursed about, yet I judge Mr. Hendlerland must be well liked in the countryside, where I observe many of them to bring out their moles and share a pinch of snuff with him. I told him as far in my affairs as I judge wise. As far that is, as they were none of allons, and gave Balakulish as the place I was travelling to, to meet a friend, for I thought Akarn or even Durer would be too particular, in my put him on the scent. On his part he told me much of his work, and the people he worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the disarming act, the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place. He seemed moderate, blaming Parliament in several points, and especially because they had framed the act more severely against those who wore the dress than against those who carried weapons. This moderation put it in my mind to question him of the Red Fox and the Appentenence, questions which I thought would seem natural enough in the mouth of one travelling to that country. He said it was a bad business. "It's wonderful," said he, "where the tenants find the money, for their life is mere starvation. You don't carry such a thing as snuff, do you, Mr. Balfour?" "No, well, I'm better wanting it. But these tenants, as I was saying, are doubtless partly driven to it. James Stewart Endure, that's him they call James of the Glens, is half-brother to Arteschiel, the captain of the Clan, and he is a man much looked up to, and drives very hard. And then this one they call Alan Breck. "Ah!" I cried. "What of him?" "What of the wind that bloweth where it listeth?" said Hendrelin. "He's here, in a way, here today, and gone to-morrow. A fair heathercat. He might be glowering at the two of us out of Jan Windbush, and I wouldn't wonder. You know, carry such a thing as snuff, will you?" I told him, though, and that he had asked the same thing more than once. "Hear it's highly possible," said he, sighing, "but it seems strange you shouldn't carry it. However, I was saying, this Alan Breck is a bold, desperate customer, and well-cant to be James's right hand. His life is forfeit already. He would boggle it nothing, and maybe, if a tenant body were to hang back, he would get a dirk in his way." "You make a poor story of it all, Mr. Hendrelin," said I. "If it is all fear upon both sides, I care to hear no more of it." "Nah," said Mr. Hendrelin. "But there's love, too, and self-denial that should put the like of you and me to shame. There's something fine about it. No, perhaps, Christian, but humanly fine." Even Alan Breck, by all that I hear, is a shield to be respected. There's many a lion's snake-draws its closing kirk in our own part of the country, and stands well in the world's eye. It may be as a far worse man, Mr. Balfour, than Jan, this guided cheddar of man's blood. "Hi. Hi. We might take a lesson by them. You'll perhaps think I've been too long in the highlands," he added, smiling to me. I told him not at all that I had seen much to admire among the highlanders, and if he came to that, Mr. Campbell himself was a highlander. "I," said he, "that's true. It's a fine blood. And what is the king's agent about?" I asked. "Colin Campbell," said Sandlin, putting his head in a bees-bike. "He has to turn the tenants out by force, I hear," said I. "Yes," says he, "but the business is gone back and forth," as folks say. First, James of the Glens rode to Edinburgh, and got some lawyer, a steward, and a doubt. They all hanged together like bats and a steeple, and had the proceedings stayed. And then Colin Campbell came in again, and had the upper hand before the barons of Exchequer. And now they tell me the first of the tenants are to flit tomorrow. It's to begin at Durar under James' very windows, which doesn't seem wise by my humble way of it. "Do you think they'll fight?" I asked. "Well," says Sandlin, "they're disarmed, or supposed to be, while there's still a good deal of cold iron lying by in quiet places. And then Colin Campbell has the soldiers coming. But for all that, if I was his lady-wife, I wouldn't be well pleased till I got him home again. They're queer customers, the Appen Stewards." I asked if they were worse than their neighbors. "No, they," said he, "and that's the worst part of it. For if Colin Roy can get his business done in Appen, he has it all to begin again in the next country, which they call memoir, and which is one of the countries of the Cameron's. He's King's Factor upon both, and from both he has to drive out the tenants. And indeed, Mr. Balfour, to be open with you, it's my belief that if he escapes the one lot, he'll get his death by the other." So we continued talking and walking the great part of the day, until at last Mr. Handelan, after expressing his delight in my company, and satisfaction at meeting with a friend of Mr. Campbell's, "Oom," says he, "I would make the bold to call that sweet singer of our Commodated Zion. Her pose that I should make a short stage, and lie the night in his house, a little beyond Congerlock. To say truth, I was overjoyed. For I had no great desire for John of the Claymore, and since my double misadventure, first with a guide and next with a gentleman's skipper, I stood in some fear of any highland stranger. Accordingly we shook hands upon the bargain, and came in the afternoon to a small house, standing alone by the shore of the Linne Lock. The sun was already gone from the desert mountains of Ardgore upon the hither side, but shone on those who have happened on the farther. The lock lay as still as a lake, only the gulls were crying round the sides of it, and the whole place seemed solemn and uncouth. We had no sooner come to the door of Mr. Hendlin's dwelling than to my great surprise, for I was now used to the politeness of highlanders. He burst rudely past me, dashed into the room, caught up a jar in a small horn spoon, and began ladling snuff into his nose in most excessive quantities. Then he had a hearty fit of sneezing, and looked round upon me with a rather silly smile. "It's a vow," I took, says he, "I took a vow upon me that I wouldn't carry it. Doubtless it's a great privation, but when I think upon the martyrs, not only to the Scottish covenant but to other points of Christianity, I think shamed to mind it. As soon as we had eaten, and porridge and way were the best of the good man's diet, he took a grave face and said he had a duty to perform by Mr. Campbell, and that was to inquire into my state of mind towards God. I was inclined to smile at him since the business of the snuff, but he had not spoken long before he brought the tears into my eyes. There are two things that men should never weary of—goodness and humility. We get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people, but Mr. Hendlin had their very speech upon his tongue. And though I was a good deal puffed up with my adventures and with having come off, as the saying is, with flying colours, yet he soon had me on my knees beside a simple poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there. Before we went to bed he offered me sixpence to help me on my way. Out of a scanty store he kept in the turf wall of his house, at which excess of goodness I knew not what to do. But at last he was so earnest with me that I thought at the more mannerly part to let him have his way, and so left him poorer than myself. And a chapter. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest. Life comes at you fast, which is why it's important to find some time to relax a little you time. Enter Chumba Casino. With no download required you can jump on any time, anywhere, for the chance to redeem some serious prizes. So treat yourself with Chumba Casino and play over a hundred online casino style games all for free. Go to Chumba Casino dot com to collect your free welcome bonus sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary VGW group void where prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. What's next at Moss Adams that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future as one of America's leading accounting consulting and wealth management firms. Our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry focus insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity and move upward at Moss Adams dot com.