Fiction > Book editions > Leipzig, 1888 - Kidnapped

1 96 KIDNAPPED.
which Alan answered; and presently the bouman came
up the water-side, looking for us, right and left. He
seemed less sulky than before, and indeed he was no
doubt well pleased to have got to the end of such a
dangerous commission.
He gave us the news of the country; that it was
alive with red-coats; that arms were being found, and
poor folk brought in trouble daily; and that James and
some of his servants were already clapped in prison at
Fort William, under strong suspicion of complicity. It
seemed, it was noised on all sides that Alan Breck had
fired the shot; and there was a bill issued for both him
and me, with one hundred pounds reward.
This was all as bad as could be; and the little note
the bouman had carried us from Mrs. Stewart was of a
miserable sadness. In it she besought Alan not to let
himself be captured, assuring him, if he fell in the hands
of the troops, both he and James were no better than
dead men. The money she had sent was all that she
could beg or borrow, and she prayed heaven we could
be doing with it. Lastly, she said she enclosed us one
of the bills in which we were described.
This we looked upon with great curiosity and not a
little fear, partly as a man may look in a mirror, partly
as he might look into the baiTel of an enemy's gun to
judge if it be truly aimed. Alan was advertised as "a
small, pock-marked, active man of thirty-five or thereby,
dressed in a feathered hat, a French side-coat of blue
with silver buttons and lace a great deal tarnished, a
red waistcoat and breeches of black shag;" and I as "a
tall strong lad of about eighteen, wearing an old blue
coat, very ragged, an old Highland bonnet, a long