Chapter XVII. The Death of the Red Fox

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　The next day Mr. Henderland found for me a man who had a boat ofhis own and was to cross the Linnhe Loch that afternoon intoAppin, fishing. Him he prevailed on to take me, for he was oneof his flock; and in this way I saved a long day's travel and theprice of the two public ferries I must otherwise have passed.It was near noon before we set out; a dark day with clouds, andthe sun shining upon little patches. The sea was here very deepand still, and had scarce a wave upon it; so that I must put thewater to my lips before I could believe it to be truly salt. Themountains on either side were high, rough and barren, very blackand gloomy in the shadow of the clouds, but all silver-laced withlittle watercourses where the sun shone upon them. It seemed ahard country, this of Appin, for people to care as much about asAlan did.There was but one thing to mention. A little after we hadstarted, the sun shone upon a little moving clump of scarletclose in along the water-side to the north. It was much of thesame red as soldiers' coats; every now and then, too, there camelittle sparks and lightnings, as though the sun had struck uponbright steel.I asked my boatman what it should be, and he answered he supposedit was some of the red soldiers coming from Fort William intoAppin, against the poor tenantry of the country. Well, it was asad sight to me; and whether it was because of my thoughts ofAlan, or from something prophetic in my bosom, although this wasbut the second time I had seen King George's troops, I had nogood will to them.At last we came so near the point of land at the entering in ofLoch Leven that I begged to be set on shore. My boatman (who wasan honest fellow and mindful of his promise to the catechist)would fain have carried me on to Balachulish; but as this was totake me farther from my secret destination, I insisted, and wasset on shore at last under the wood of Lettermore (or Lettervore,for I have heard it both ways) in Alan's country of Appin.This was a wood of birches, growing on a steep, craggy side of amountain that overhung the loch. It had many openings and fernyhowes; and a road or bridle track ran north and south through themidst of it, by the edge of which, where was a spring, I sat downto eat some oat-bread of Mr. Henderland's and think upon mysituation.Here I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges, butfar more by the doubts of my mind. What I ought to do, why I wasgoing to join myself with an outlaw and a would-be murderer likeAlan, whether I should not be acting more like a man of sense totramp back to the south country direct, by my own guidance and atmy own charges, and what Mr. Campbell or even Mr. Henderlandwould think of me if they should ever learn my folly andpresumption: these were the doubts that now began to come in onme stronger than ever.As I was so sitting and thinking, a sound of men and horses cameto me through the wood; and presently after, at a turning of theroad, I saw four travellers come into view. The way was in thispart so rough and narrow that they came single and led theirhorses by the reins. The first was a great, red-headedgentleman, of an imperious and flushed face, who carried his hatin his hand and fanned himself, for he was in a breathing heat.The second, by his decent black garb and white wig, I correctlytook to be a lawyer. The third was a servant, and wore some partof his clothes in tartan, which showed that his master was of aHighland family, and either an outlaw or else in singular goododour with the Government, since the wearing of tartan wasagainst the Act. If I had been better versed in these things, Iwould have known the tartan to be of the Argyle (or Campbell)colours. This servant had a good-sized portmanteau strapped onhis horse, and a net of lemons (to brew punch with) hanging atthe saddle-bow; as was often enough the custom with luxurioustravellers in that part of the country.As for the fourth, who brought up the tail, I had seen his likebefore, and knew him at once to be a sheriff's officer.I had no sooner seen these people coming than I made up my mind(for no reason that I can tell) to go through with my adventure;and when the first came alongside of me, I rose up from thebracken and asked him the way to Aucharn.He stopped and looked at me, as I thought, a little oddly; andthen, turning to the lawyer, "Mungo," said he, "there's many aman would think this more of a warning than two pyats. Here am Ion my road to Duror on the job ye ken; and here is a young ladstarts up out of the bracken, and speers if I am on the way toAucharn.""Glenure," said the other, "this is an ill subject for jesting."These two had now drawn close up and were gazing at me, while thetwo followers had halted about a stone-cast in the rear."And what seek ye in Aucharn?" said Colin Roy Campbell ofGlenure, him they called the Red Fox; for he it was that I hadstopped."The man that lives there," said I."James of the Glens," says Glenure, musingly; and then to thelawyer: "Is he gathering his people, think ye?""Anyway," says the lawyer, "we shall do better to bide where weare, and let the soldiers rally us.""If you are concerned for me," said I, "I am neither of hispeople nor yours, but an honest subject of King George, owing noman and fearing no man.""Why, very well said," replies the Factor. "But if I may make sobold as ask, what does this honest man so far from his country?and why does he come seeking the brother of Ardshiel? I havepower here, I must tell you. I am King's Factor upon several ofthese estates, and have twelve files of soldiers at my back.""I have heard a waif word in the country," said I, a littlenettled, "that you were a hard man to drive."He still kept looking at me, as if in doubt."Well," said he, at last, "your tongue is bold; but I am nounfriend to plainness. If ye had asked me the way to the door ofJames Stewart on any other day but this, I would have set yeright and bidden ye God speed. But to-day -- eh, Mungo?" And heturned again to look at the lawyer.But just as he turned there came the shot of a firelock fromhigher up the hill; and with the very sound of it Glenure fellupon the road."O, I am dead!" he cried, several times over.The lawyer had caught him up and held him in his arms, theservant standing over and clasping his hands. And now thewounded man looked from one to another with scared eyes, andthere was a change in his voice, that went to the heart."Take care of yourselves," says he. "I am dead."He tried to open his clothes as if to look for the wound, but hisfingers slipped on the buttons. With that he gave a great sigh,his head rolled on his shoulder, and he passed away.The lawyer said never a word, but his face was as sharp as a penand as white as the dead man's; the servant broke out into agreat noise of crying and weeping, like a child; and I, on myside, stood staring at them in a kind of horror. The sheriff'sofficer had run back at the first sound of the shot, to hastenthe coming of the soldiers.At last the lawyer laid down the dead man in his blood upon theroad, and got to his own feet with a kind of stagger.I believe it was his movement that brought me to my senses; forhe had no sooner done so than I began to scramble up the hill,crying out, "The murderer! the murderer!"So little a time had elapsed, that when I got to the top of thefirst steepness, and could see some part of the open mountain,the murderer was still moving away at no great distance. He wasa big man, in a black coat, with metal buttons, and carried along fowling-piece."Here!" I cried. "I see him!"At that the murderer gave a little, quick look over his shoulder,and began to run. The next moment he was lost in a fringe ofbirches; then he came out again on the upper side, where I couldsee him climbing like a jackanapes, for that part was again verysteep; and then he dipped behind a shoulder, and I saw him nomore.All this time I had been running on my side, and had got a goodway up, when a voice cried upon me to stand.I was at the edge of the upper wood, and so now, when I haltedand looked back, I saw all the open part of the hill below me.The lawyer and the sheriff's officer were standing just above theroad, crying and waving on me to come back; and on their left,the red-coats, musket in hand, were beginning to struggle singlyout of the lower wood."Why should I come back?" I cried. "Come you on!""Ten pounds if ye take that lad!" cried the lawyer. "He's anaccomplice. He was posted here to hold us in talk."At that word (which I could hear quite plainly, though it was tothe soldiers and not to me that he was crying it) my heart camein my mouth with quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is onething to stand the danger of your life, and quite another to runthe peril of both life and character. The thing, besides, hadcome so suddenly, like thunder out of a clear sky, that I was allamazed and helpless.The soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and others toput up their pieces and cover me; and still I stood."Jock[18] in here among the trees," said a voice close by.[18]Duck.Indeed, I scarce knew what I was doing, but I obeyed; and as Idid so, I heard the firelocks bang and the balls whistle in thebirches.Just inside the shelter of the trees I found Alan Breck standing,with a fishing-rod. He gave me no salutation; indeed it was notime for civilities; only "Come!" says he, and set off runningalong the side of the mountain towards Balaehulish; and I, like asheep, to follow him.Now we ran among the birches; now stooping behind low humps uponthe mountain-side; now crawling on all fours among the heather.The pace was deadly: my heart seemed bursting against my ribs;and I had neither time to think nor breath to speak with. Only Iremember seeing with wonder, that Alan every now and then wouldstraighten himself to his full height and look back; and everytime he did so, there came a great far-away cheering and cryingof the soldiers.Quarter of an hour later, Alan stopped, clapped down flat in theheather, and turned to me."Now," said he, "it's earnest. Do as I do, for your life."And at the same speed, but now with infinitely more precaution,we traced back again across the mountain-side by the same waythat we had come, only perhaps higher; till at last Alan threwhimself down in the upper wood of Lettermore, where I had foundhim at the first, and lay, with his face in the bracken, pantinglike a dog.My own sides so ached, my head so swam, my tongue so hung out ofmy mouth with heat and dryness, that I lay beside him like onedead.