Fiction > Book editions > New York, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

280 THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE.
Mountain the trader, proved upon inquiry, to be another
of the same kidney ; the errand they were all gone
upon, being the recovery of ill-gotten treasures, offered
in itself a very strong incentive to foul play ; and the
character of the country Avhere they journeyed promised
impunity to deeds of blood. Well : it is true I had all
these thoughts and fears, and guesses of the Master's
fate. But you are to consider I was the same man that
sought to dash him from the bulwarks of a ship in the
mid-sea ; the same that, a little before, very impiously
but sincerely offered God a bargain, seeking to hire God
to be my bravo. It is true again that I had a good deal
melted toward our enemy. But this I always thought
of as a weakness of the flesh and even culpable ; my
mind remaining steady and quite bent against him.
True yet again, that it was one thing to assume on
my own shoulders the guilt and danger of a criminal
attempt, and another to stand by and see my lord im-
peril and besmirch himself. But this was the very
ground of my inaction. For (should I anyway stir in
the business) I might fail indeed to save the Master,
but I could not miss to make a byword of my lord.
Thus it was that I did nothing ; and upon the same
reasons, I am still strong to justify my course. We
lived meanwhile in Albany, but though alone together
in a strange place, had little traffic beyond formal salu-
tations. My lord had carried with him several introduc-
tions to chief people of the town and neighbourhood ;