Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson (the gingerbread man read aloud TXT) 📗

new clothes and my estate, you could feel very well that we were nearer tears than laughter.

We came the byway over the hill of Corstorphine; and when we got near to the place called Rest-and-be-Thankful, and looked down on Corstorphine bogs and over to the city and the castle on the hill, we both stopped, for we both knew without a word said that we had come to where our ways parted. Here he repeated to me once again what had been agreed upon between us: the address of the lawyer, the daily hour at which Alan might be found, and the signals that were to be made by any that came seeking him. Then I gave what money I had (a guinea or two of Rankeillor’s) so that he should not starve in the meanwhile; and then we stood a space, and looked over at Edinburgh in silence.

“Well, goodbye,” said Alan, and held out his left hand.

“Goodbye,” said I, and gave the hand a little grasp, and went off down hill.

Neither one of us looked the other in the face, nor so long as he was in my view did I take one back glance at the friend I was leaving. But as I went on my way to the city, I felt so lost and lonesome, that I could have found it in my heart to sit down by the dyke, and cry and weep like any baby.

It was coming near noon when I passed in by the West Kirk and the Grassmarket into the streets of the capital. The huge height of the buildings, running up to ten and fifteen storeys, the narrow arched entries that continually vomited passengers, the wares of the merchants in their windows, the hubbub and endless stir, the foul smells and the fine clothes, and a hundred other particulars too small to mention, struck me into a kind of stupor of surprise, so that I let the crowd carry me to and fro; and yet all the time what I was thinking of was Alan at Rest-and-be-Thankful; and all the time (although you would think I would not choose but be delighted with these braws and novelties) there was a cold gnawing in my inside like a remorse for something wrong.

The hand of Providence brought me in my drifting to the very doors of the British Linen Company’s bank.

Afterword

Just there, with his hand upon his fortune, the present editor inclines for the time to say farewell to David. How Alan escaped, and what was done about the murder, with a variety of other delectable particulars, may be some day set forth. That is a thing, however, that hinges on the public fancy. The editor has great kindness for both Alan and David, and would gladly spend much of his life in their society; but in this he may find himself to stand alone. In the fear of which, and lest anyone should complain of scurvy usage, he hastens to protest that all went well with both, in the limited and human sense of the word “well”; that whatever befell them, it was not dishonour, and whatever failed them, they were not found wanting to themselves.

Endnotes

Moistens. ↩

Dark as the pit. ↩

Sold up. ↩

Agent. ↩

Unwilling. ↩

Look. ↩

Rope. ↩

Report. ↩

Fox. ↩

Stroke. ↩

Blow. ↩

Befool. ↩

Whig or Whigamore was the cant name for those who were loyal to King George. ↩

Reaching. ↩

Bungled. ↩

Coble: a small boat used in fishing. ↩

Careful. ↩

Duck. ↩

Part. ↩

Bag. ↩

Blame. ↩

Mad. ↩

Blame. ↩

The rallying-word of the Campbells. ↩

Brisk. ↩

A bouman is a tenant who takes stock from the landlord and shares with him the increase. ↩

Village fair. ↩

Condiment. ↩

A second sermon. ↩

Commercial traveller. ↩

Rumour. ↩

Hollow. ↩

Newly rough-cast. ↩

Dealings. ↩

Troublesome. ↩

The Duke of Argyle. ↩

Colophon

Kidnapped
was published in 1886 by
Robert Louis Stevenson.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Grigg,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2006 by
An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Siege of the Roundhouse,
a painting completed in 1922 by
N. C. Wyeth.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
April 24, 2018, 2:59 a.m.
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Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

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