Kidnapped

Kidnapped
Robert Louis Stevenson

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.’Orphaned as a young teenager, Lowlander David Balfour’s only relative is his guardian and uncle, Ebenezer. Ill-thought of and disliked by many, it’s not long before Ebenezer betrays his nephew and David finds himself trapped aboard a ship.He soon strikes up a friendship with fugitive stranger and Scottish Highlander Alan Breck and becomes embroiled in the fierce Jacobite struggle against English rule. A tale of high-seas adventure, loyalty and fighting, the complex relationship between Alan and David stops Stevenson’s novel from becoming ‘just’ a boys adventure novel.

KIDNAPPED

Robert Louis Stevenson

CONTENTS

Cover (#u718bfd84-4c29-5ba5-b015-34a0e605b6c2)

Title Page (#u69036935-2d96-5f28-9a77-5010e0bed3ca)

Chapter 1 I Set off Upon My Journey to the House of Shaws (#ulink_721f302b-d31d-54a2-84cb-db513421387b)

Chapter 2 I Come to My Journey’s End (#ulink_1016505b-d7fb-50de-b748-f0539161451b)

Chapter 3 I Make Acquaintance of My Uncle (#ulink_54c5a9eb-c028-5983-a50c-80c4fd41db7d)

Chapter 4 I Run a Great Danger in the House of Shaws (#ulink_ac378e4a-755e-5133-b9ab-f026589addc0)

Chapter 5 I Go to the Queen’s Ferry (#ulink_a8f72a15-4096-5afb-8473-8b097e903127)

Chapter 6 What Befell at the Queen’s Ferry (#ulink_7778d847-a514-51fc-a59a-20190b5969ec)

Chapter 7 I Go to Sea in the Brig Covenant of Dysart (#ulink_40804824-238a-5a38-8af7-71a5ce9281bd)

Chapter 8 The Round-House (#ulink_3d16956b-68d5-5c8e-a649-5db69b9a0c84)

Chapter 9 The Man With the Belt of Gold (#ulink_abcd8b1b-bf16-5041-b99a-8febcc0b33f8)

Chapter 10 The Siege of the Round-House (#ulink_8dfea614-cddd-5717-ac96-411203594bb8)

Chapter 11 The Captain Knuckles Under (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 I Hear of the “Red Fox” (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 The Loss of the Brig (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 The Islet (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 The Lad with the Silver Button: Through the Isle of Mull (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 The Lad With the Silver Button: Across Morven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 The Death of the “Red Fox” (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 I Talk With Alan in the Wood of Lettermore (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 The House of Fear (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 The Flight in the Heather: The Rocks (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakiegh (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 The Flight in the Heather: The Moor (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 Cluny’s Cage (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 The Flight in the Heather: The Quarrel (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 In Balquhidder (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 End of the Flight: We Pass the Forth (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 I Come to Mr. Rankeillor (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 I Go in Quest of My Inheritance (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 I Come into My Kingdom (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 Good-Bye! (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 1 I Set off Upon My Journey to the House of Shaws (#ulink_ebfdf7f1-1852-5039-9c2c-613818ee7ff4)

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 a while.

“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. That is the place I came from,’ he said, ‘and it’s where it befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad,’ your father said, ‘and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well liked where he goes.”’