09 The Man With the Belt of Gold (Kidnapped)

01IX.

02THE MAN WITH THE BELT OF GOLD.

03more than a week went by in which the ill-luck that had hitherto pursued the covenant upon this voyage grew yet more strongly marked some days she made a little way others she was driven actually back at last we were beaten so far to the south that we tossed intact to and fro the whole of the ninth day within sight of cape wrath and the wild rocky coast on either hand of it there followed on that a council of the officers and some decision which i did not rightly understand seeing only the result that we had made a fair wind of a foul one and were running south the tenth afternoon there was a falling swell and a thick wet white fog that hid one end of the brig from the other all afternoon when i went on deck i saw men and officers listening hard over the bulwarks for breakers they said and though i did not so much as understand the word i felt danger in the air and was excited maybe about ten at night i was serving mr riach and the captain at their supper when the ship struck something with a great sound and we heard voices singing out my two masters leaped to their feet she struck said mr riach no sir said the captain we've only run a boat down and they hurried out the captain was in the right of it we had run down a boat in the fog and she had parted in the midst and gone to the bottom with all her crew but one this man as i heard afterwards had been sitting in the stern as a passenger while the rest were on the benches rowing at the moment of the blow the stern had been thrown into the air and the man having his hands free and for all he was encumbered with a frieze overcoat that came below his knees had leaped up and caught hold of the brig's bowsprit it showed he had luck and much agility and unusual strength that he should have thus saved himself from such a pass and yet when the captain brought him into the roundhouse and i set eyes on him for the first time he looked as cool as i did he was smallish in stature but well set and as nimble as a goat his face was of a good open expression but sunburnt very dark and heavily freckled and pitted with the smallpox his eyes were unusually light and had a kind of dancing madness in them that was both engaging and alarming and when he took off his great coat he laid a pair of fine silver mounted pistols on the table and i saw that he was belted with a great sword his manners besides were elegant and he pledged the captain handsomely altogether i thought of him at the first sight that here was a man i would rather call my friend than my enemy the captain too was taking his observations but rather of the man's clothes than his person and to be sure as soon as he had taken off the great coat he showed forth mighty fine for the roundhouse of a merchant brig having a hat with feathers a red waistcoat breeches of black plush and a blue coat with silver buttons and handsome silver lace costly clothes though somewhat spoiled with a fog and being slept in i'm vexed i'm vexed sir about the boat said the captain there are some pretty men gone to the bottom said the stranger that i would rather see on the dry land again than half a score of boats friends of yours said ho season you have none such friends in your country was the reply they would have died for me like dogs well sir said the captain still watching him there are more men in the world than boats to put them in and that's true too cried the other and you seem to be a gentleman of great penetration i have been in france sir says the captain so that it was plain he meant more by the words than showed upon the face of them well sir says the other and so is many a pretty man for the matter of that no doubt sir says the captain and fine coats oh ho says the stranger is that how the wind sets and he laid his hand quickly on his pistols don't be hasty said the captain don't do a mischief before you see the need of it you have a french soldier's coat upon your back and a scotch tongue in your head to be sure but so has many an honest fellow these days and i dare say none the worse of it so said the gentleman in the fine coat are ye of the honest party meaning was he a jacobite for each side in these sort of civil broils takes the name of honesty for its own why sir replied the captain i am a true blue protestant and i thank god for it it was the first word of any religion i had ever heard from him but i learned afterwards he was a great churchgoer while on shore but for all that says he i can be sorry to see another man with his back to the wall can you so indeed asked the jacobite well sir to be quite plain with you i am one of those honest gentlemen that were in trouble about the years forty five and six and to be still quite plain with you if i got into the hands of any of the red-coated gentry it's like it would go hard with me now sir i was for france and there was a french ship cruising here to pick me up but she gave us the go-by and the fog as i wish from the heart that ye had done yourself and the best that i can say is this if you can set me ashore where i was going i have that upon me will reward you highly for your trouble in france says the captain no sir that i cannot do but where ye come from we might talk o that and then unhappily he observed me standing in my corner and packed me off to the galley to get supper for the gentleman i lost no time i promise you and when i came back into the roundhouse i found the gentleman had taken a money belt from about his waist and poured out a guinea or two upon the table the captain was looking at the guineas and then at the belt and then at the gentleman's face and i thought he seemed excited half of it he cried and i'm your man the other swept back the guineas into the belt and put it on again under his waistcoat i have told you sir said he that not one doit of it belongs to me it belongs to my chieftain and here he touched his hat and while i would be but a silly messenger to grudge some of it that the rest might come safe i should show myself a hound indeed if i bought my own carcass any too dear thirty guineas on the seaside or sixty if you set me on the linny lock take it if you will if not you can do your worst aye said ho season and if i give you over to the soldiers you would make a fool's bargain said the other my chief let me tell you sir is forfeited like every honest man in scotland his estates is in the hands of the man they call king george and it is his officers that collects the rents or try to collect them but for the honour of scotland the poor tenant bodies take a thought upon their chief lying in exile and this money is a part of that very rent for which king george is looking now sir you seem to me to be a man that understands things bring this money within the reach of government and how much of it will come to you little enough to be sure said ho season and then if they knew he added dryly but i think if i was to try that i could hold my tongue about it ah but i'll be gawky there cried the gentleman play me false and i'll play you cunning if a hand is laid upon me they shall ken what money it is well returned the captain that must be must sixty guineas and done here's my hand upon it and here's mine said the other and thereupon the captain went out rather hurriedly i thought and left me alone in the roundhouse with the stranger at that period so soon after the forty five there were many exiled gentlemen coming back at the peril of their lives either to see their friends or to collect a little money and as for the highland chiefs that had been forfeited it was a common matter of talk how their tenants would stint themselves to send them money and their clansmen out faced the soldiery to get it in and run the gauntlet of our great navy to carry it across all this i had of course heard tell of and now i had a man under my eyes whose life was forfeit on all these counts and upon one more for he was not only a rebel and a smuggler of rents but he had taken service with king louis of france and as if all this were not enough he had a belt full of golden guineas round his loins whatever my opinions i could not look on such a man without a lively interest and so you're a jacobite said i as i set meat before him i said he beginning to eat and you by your long face should be a wig betwixt in between said i not to annoy him but for indeed i was as good a wig as mr campbell could make me and that's nothing said he but i'm saying mr betwixt in between he added this bottle of yours is dry and it's hard if i'm to pay sixty guineas and be grudged a dram upon the back of it i'll go and ask for the key said i and stepped on deck the fog was as close as ever but the swell almost down they had laid the brig too not knowing precisely where they were and the wind what little there was of it not serving well for their true course some of the hands were still hearkening for breakers but the captain and the two officers were in the waist with their heads together it struck me i don't know why that they were after no good and the first word i heard as i drew softly near more than confirmed me it was mr riach crying out as if upon a sudden thought couldn't we while him out of the roundhouse he's better where he is returned hose season he hasn't room to use his sword well that's true said riach but he's hard to come at but said hose season we can get the man and talk one upon each side and pin him by the two arms or if that'll not hold sir we can make a run by both the doors and get him under hand before he has the time to draw at this hearing i was seized with both fear and anger at these treacherous greedy bloody men that i sailed with my first mind was to run away my second was bolder captain said i the gentleman is seeking a dram and the bottle's out will you give me the key they all started and turned about why here's our chance to get the firearms riach cried and then to me hark ye david he said do ye ken where the pistols are aye aye put in hose season david kens david's a good lad ye see david my man yon wild highlandman is a danger to the ship besides being a rank foe to king george god bless him i had never been so be david since i came on board but i said yes as if all i heard were quite natural the trouble is resumed the captain that all our fire locks great and little are in the round house under this man's nose likewise the powder now if i or one of the officers was to go in and take them he would fall to thinking but a lad like you david might snap up a horn and a pistol or two without remark and if you can do it cleverly i'll bear it in mind when it'll be good for you to have friends and that's when we come to carolina here mr riach whispered him a little very right sir said the captain and then to myself and see here david yon man has a belt full of gold and i give you my word that you shall have your fingers in it i told him i would do as he wished though indeed i had scarce breath to speak with and upon that he gave me the key of the spirit locker and i began to go slowly back to the round house what was i to do they were dogs and thieves they had stolen me for my own country they had killed poor ransom and was i to hold the candle to another murder but then upon the other hand there was the fear of death very plain before me for what could a boy and a man if they were as brave as lions against a whole ship's company i was still arguing it back and forth and getting no great clearness when i came into the round house and saw the jacobite eating his supper under the lamp and at that my mind was made up all in a moment i have no credit by it it was by no choice of mine but as if by compulsion that i walked right up to the table and put my hand on his shoulder do you want to be killed said i he sprang to his feet and looked a question at me as clear as if he had spoken oh cried i they're all murderers here it's a ship full of them they've murdered a boy already now it's you i i said he but they haven't got me yet and then looking at me curiously will you stand with me that will i said i i am no thief nor yet murderer i'll stand by you why then said he what's your name david balfour said i and then thinking that a man with so fine a coat must like fine people i added for the first time of shaws it never occurred to him to doubt me for a highlander is used to see great gentlefolk and great poverty but as he had no estate of his own my words nettled the very childish vanity he had my name is stuart he said drawing himself up alan breck they call me the king's name is good enough for me though i bear it plain and have the name of no farm midden to clap to the hind end of it and having administered this rebuke as though it were something of a chief importance he turned to examine our defenses the roundhouse was built very strong to support the breaching of the seas of its five apertures only the skylight and the two doors were large enough for the passage of a man the doors besides could be drawn close they were of stout oak and ran in grooves and were fitted with hooks to keep them either shut or open as the need arose the one that was already shut i secured in this fashion but when i was proceeding to slide to the other alan stopped me david said he for i cannot bring to mind the name of your landed estate and so will make so bold as to call you david that door being open is the best part of my defenses it would be yet better shut says i not so david says he you see i have but one face but so long as that door is open and my face to it the best part of my enemies will be in front of me where i would i wish to find them then he gave me from the rack a cutlass of which there were a few besides the firearms choosing it with great care shaking his head and saying he had never in all his life seen poorer weapons and next he set me down to the table with a powder-horn a bag of bullets and all the pistols which he bade me charge and that will be better work let me tell you said he for a gentleman of decent birth than scraping plates and raxing drums to a ween terry sailors thereupon he stood up in the midst with his face to the door and drawing his great sword made trial of the room he had to wield it in i must stick to the point he said shaking his head and that's a pity too it doesn't set my genius which is all for the upper guard and now said he do you keep on charging the pistols and give heed to me i told him i would listen closely my chest was tight my mouth dry the light dark to my eyes and the thought of the numbers that were soon to leap in upon us kept my heart in a flutter and the sea which i heard washing round the brig and where i thought my dead body would be cast ere morning ran in my mind strangely first of all said he how many are against us i reckon them up and such was the hurry of my mind i had cast the numbers twice fifteen said i alan whistled well said he that can't be cured and now follow me it is my part to keep this door where i look for the main battle in that you have no hand and mind and do not fire to this side unless they get me down for i would rather have ten foes in front of me than one friend like you cracking pistols at my back i told him indeed i was no great shot and that's very bravely said he cried in a great admiration of my candor there's many a pretty gentleman that would not dare to say it but then sir said i there is the door behind you which they may perhaps break in aye said he and that is the part of your work no sooner the pistols charged than you must climb up into yon bed where you handy at the window and if they lift hand against the door you're to shoot but that's not all let's make a bit of a soldier of you david what else have you to guard there's the skylight said i but indeed mr stewart i would need to have eyes upon both sides to keep the two of them for when my face is at the one my back is to the other and that's very true said alan but have you no ears to your head to be sure cried i i must hear the bursting of the glass you have some rudiments of sense said alan grimly end of chapter