Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

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CHAPTER XVII.
THE    DEATH   OF   THE    RED    FOX.
THE next day Mr. Henderland found for me a man
who had a boat of his own and was to cross the Linnhe
Loch that afternoon into Appin, fishing. Him he pre-
vailed on to take me, for he was one of his flock ; and
in this way I saved a long day's travel and the price of
the two public ferries I must otherwise have passed.
It was near noon before we set out ; a dark day,
with clouds, and the sun shining upon little patches.
The sea was here very deep and still, and had scarce a
wave upon it; so that I must put the water to my lips
before I could believe it to be truly salt. The mountains
on either side were high, rough and barren, very black
and gloomy in the shadow of the clouds, but all silver-
laced with little watercourses where the sun shone upon
them. It seemed a hard country, this of Appin, for
people to care as much about as Alan did.
There was but one thing to mention. A little after we
had started, the sun shone upon a little moving clump of
scarlet close in along the waterside to the north. It
was much of the same red as soldiers' coats; every now
and then, too, there came little sparks and lightnings,
as though the sun had struck upon bright steel.