Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

THE   FLIGHT  IN  THE   HEATHER.                  203
could never in the least please my master, I was not
altogether displeased with myself.
In the meanwhile, you are not to suppose that we
neglected our chief business, which was to get away.
"It will be many a long day," Alan said to me on
our first morning, "before the red-coats think upon
seeking Corrynakiegh; so now we must get word sent
to James, and he must find the siller for us."
"And how shall we send that word?" says I. "We
are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave;
and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your mes-
sengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."
"Ay?" said Alan. "Ye're a man of small contri-
vance, David."
Thereupon he fell in a muse, looking in the embers
of the fire; and presently, getting a piece of wood, he
fashioned it in a cross, the four ends of which he
blackened on the coals. Then he looked at me a little
shyly.
"Could ye lend me my button?" says he. "It
seems a strange thing to ask a gift again, but I own I
am laith to cut another."
I gave him the button; whereupon he strung it on a
strip of his great coat which he had used to bind the
cross; and tying in a little sprig of birch and another
of fir, he looked upon his work with satisfaction.
"Now," said he, "there is a little clachan" (what
is called a hamlet in the English) "not very far from
Corrynakiegh, and it has the name of Koalisnacoan.