Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

I   TALK   WITH   ALAN   IN   THE   WOOD.                177
entirely  bad little man,  yon little man with   the red
head," said Alan.    "He has some spunks of decency."
"Well," said I," he was kind to me in his way."
"And so he was to Alan," said he; "and by my
troth, I found his way a very good one! But ye see,
David, the loss of the ship and the cries of these poor
lads sat very ill upon the man; and I'm thinking that
would be the cause of it."
"Well, I would think so," says I; "for he was as
keen as any of the rest at the beginning. But how did
Hoseason take it?"
"It sticks in my mind that he would take it very
ill," says Alan. "But the little man cried to me to
run, and indeed I thought it was a good observe, and
ran. The last that I saw they were all in a knot upon
the beach, like folk that were not agreeing very well
together."
"What do you mean by that?" said I.
"Well, the fists were going," said Alan; "and I
saw one man go down like a pair of breeks. But I
thought it would be better no to wait. Ye see there's a
strip of Campbells in that end of Mull, which is no good
company for a gentleman like me. If it hadnae been for
that I would have waited and looked for ye mysel', let
alone giving a hand to the little man." (It was droll how
Alan dwelt on Mr. Biach's stature, for, to say the truth,
the one was not much smaller than the other.) "So,"
says he, continuing."  I set my best foot forward, and
whenever I met in with any one I cried out there was a
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