Catriona

Page 98

It was

impossible to chase after the Gebbies into the High Germany, and we

had no other acquaintance to fall back upon but Captain Sang

himself. It was the more gratifying to find the man friendly and

wishful to assist. He made it a small affair to find some good

plain family of merchants, where Catriona might harbour till the

Rose was loaden; declared he would then blithely carry her back to

Leith for nothing and see her safe in the hands of Mr. Gregory; and

in the meanwhile carried us to a late ordinary for the meal we

stood in need of. He seemed extremely friendly, as I say, but what

surprised me a good deal, rather boisterous in the bargain; and the

cause of this was soon to appear. For at the ordinary, calling for

Rhenish wine and drinking of it deep, he soon became unutterably

tipsy. In this case, as too common with all men, but especially

with those of his rough trade, what little sense or manners he

possessed deserted him; and he behaved himself so scandalous to the

young lady, jesting most ill-favouredly at the figure she had made

on the ship's rail, that I had no resource but carry her suddenly

away.

She came out of the ordinary clinging to me close. "Take me away,

David," she said. "YOU keep me. I am not afraid with you."

"And have no cause, my little friend!" cried I, and could have

found it in my heart to weep.

"Where will you be taking me?" she said again. "Don't leave me at

all events--never leave me."

"Where am I taking you to?" says I stopping, for I had been staving

on ahead in mere blindness. "I must stop and think. But I'll not

leave you, Catriona; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if I

should fail or fash you."

She crept close into me by way of a reply.

"Here," I said, "is the stillest place we have hit on yet in this

busy byke of a city. Let us sit down here under yon tree and

consider of our course."

That tree (which I am little like to forget) stood hard by the

harbour side. It was like a black night, but lights were in the

houses, and nearer hand in the quiet ships; there was a shining of

the city on the one hand, and a buzz hung over it of many thousands

walking and talking; on the other, it was dark and the water

bubbled on the sides. I spread my cloak upon a builder's stone,

and made her sit there; she would have kept her hold upon me, for

she still shook with the late affronts; but I wanted to think

clear, disengaged myself, and paced to and fro before her, in the

manner of what we call a smuggler's walk, belabouring my brains for

any remedy. By the course of these scattering thoughts I was

brought suddenly face to face with a remembrance that, in the heat

and haste of our departure, I had left Captain Sang to pay the

ordinary. At this I began to laugh out loud, for I thought the man

well served; and at the same time, by an instinctive movement,

carried my hand to the pocket where my money was. I suppose it was

in the lane where the women jostled us; but there is only the one

thing certain, that my purse was gone.

"You will have thought of something good," said she, observing me

to pause.

At the pinch we were in, my mind became suddenly clear as a

perspective glass, and I saw there was no choice of methods. I had

not one doit of coin, but in my pocket-book I had still my letter

on the Leyden merchant; and there was now but the one way to get to

Leyden, and that was to walk on our two feet.

"Catriona," said I, "I know you're brave and I believe you're

strong--do you think you could walk thirty miles on a plain road?"

We found it, I believe, scarce the two-thirds of that, but such was

my notion of the distance.

"David," she said, "if you will just keep near, I will go anywhere

and do anything. The courage of my heart, it is all broken. Do

not be leaving me in this horrible country by myself, and I will do

all else."

"Can you start now and march all night?" said I.

Robert Louis Stevenson
Classic Literature Library

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