Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

264                                    KIDNAPPED.
cannae pass the river, we'll have to see what we can do
for the firth."
"There are fords upon the river, and none upon the
firth," said I.
"To be sure there are fords, and a bridge forbye,"
quoth Alan; "and of what service, when they are
watched?"
"Well," said I, "but a river can be swum."
"By them that have the skill of it," returned he;
"but I have yet to hear that either you or me is much
of a hand at that exercise; and for my own part, I swim
like a stone."
"I'm not up to you in talking back, Alan," I said;
"but I can see we're making bad worse. If it's hard
to pass a river, it stands to reason it must be worse to
pass a sea."
"But there's such a thing as a boat," says Alan,
"or I'm the more deceived."
"Ay, and such a thing as money," says I. "But
for us that have neither one nor other, they might just
as well not have been invented."
"Ye think so?" said Alan.
"I do that," said I.
"David," says he, "ye're a man of small invention
and less faith. But let me set my wits upon the hone,
and if I cannae beg, borrow, nor yet steal a boat, I'll
make one!"
"I think I see ye!" said I. "And what's more
than all that: if ye pass a bridge, it can tell no tales;