Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

108                                    KIDNAPPED.
a gaol if he has but a kilt about his legs. One thing
they couldnae kill. That was the love the clansmen
bore their chief. These guineas are the proof of it. And
now, in there steps a man, a Campbell, red-headed Colin
of Glenure------"
"Is that him you call the Red Pox?" said I.
"Will ye bring me his brush?" cries Alan, fiercely.
"Ay, that's the man. In he steps, and gets papers from
King George, to be so-called King's factor on the lands
of Appin. And at first he sings small, and is hail-
fellow-well-met with Sheamus - that's James of the
Glens, my chieftain's agent. But by-and-bye, that came
to his ears that I have just told you; how the poor
commons of Appin, the farmers and the crofters and the
boumen, were wringing their very plaids to get a second
rent, and send it over-seas for Ardshiel and his poor
bairns. What was it ye called it, when I told
ye?"
"I called it noble, Alan," said I.
"And you little better than a common Whig!"
cries Alan. "But when it came to Colin Boy, the black
Campbell blood in him ran wild. He sat gnashing his
teeth at the wine table. What! should a Stewart get
a bite of bread, and him not be able to prevent it? Ah!
Bed Fox, if ever I hold you at a gun's end, the Lord
have pity upon ye!" (Alan stopped to swallow down
his anger.) "Well, David, what does he do? He
declares all the farms to let. And thinks he, in his
black heart, I'll soon get other tenants that'll overbid