Kidnap and beaten

DANGER IN THE

ig

after a long silence; and when I sought to lead him to talk about my future, slipped out of it again. In a room next door to the kitchen, where he suffered me to go, I found a great number of books, both Latin and English, in which I took great pleasure a

ather's hand and thus conceived: "To my brother Ebenezer on his fifth birthday." Now, what puzzled me was this: That, as my father was of course the y

this notion of my father's hand of writing stuck to me; and when at length I went back into the kitchen, and sat down once more t

quicker mysel'; I was a clever chappie when I w

ought coming into my head, I asked

k that?" he said, and he caught me by the breast of the jacket, and looked this time straight into

ar stronger than he, and not easily frightened. "Take

her. That's where the mistake is." He sat awhile and shook, blinking in his plate: "He was all the brother that ever I ha

hink my uncle was perhaps insane and might be dangerous; on the other, there came up into my mind (quite unbidden by me and even discouraged) a story like some ballad I had heard folk singing, of a poor lad that was

able like a cat and a mouse, each stealthily observing the other. Not another word had he to say to me, black or white, but was busy turning something

f tobacco, just as in the morning, turned round a stool into t

thing legal, ye understand; just gentlemen daffing at their wine. Well, I keepit that bit money separate-it was a great expense, but a promise is a promise-and it has grown by now to be a matter of just prec

ht was considerable; I could see, besides, that the whole story was a lie, invented with some end whi

sir! Pounds ste

if you'll step out-by to the door a minute, just to see what ki

s low down; and as I stood just outside the door, I heard a hollow moaning of wind far off among the hills. I said to myself there was som

rty golden guinea pieces; the rest was in his hand, in small gold and silve

ueer man, and strange wi' strangers; but my

struck dumb by this sudden generosity, an

have done it; but for my part (though I'm a careful body, too) it's a pleasure to me to do the right by

s wondering what would come next, and why he had parted with his precious

looked toward

," says he, "

emand. And yet, when at last he plucked up courage to speak, it was only to tell me (very properly, as I thought) th

expressed my rea

ir-tower at the far end of the house. Ye can only win into it from the outside, for that part of the house is no finis

a light, s

y cunningly. "Nae

" said I. "Are t

ing, "Keep to the wall," he added; "there's nae

ll I came the length of the stairtower door at the far end of the unfinished wing. I had got the key into the keyhole and had just turned it, when all upon a sudden, without sound of wind or thunder, the

und of the stair with the other. The wall, by the touch, was of fine hewn stone; the steps too, though somewhat steep and narrow, were of polished masonwork, and r

ink of the summer lightning came and went. If I did not cry out, it was because fear had me by the throat; and if I did not fall, it was more by Heaven's mercy than my own strength. It was not only that the flash shone in on every side thr

ould break my neck for it; got me down upon my hands and knees; and as slowly as a snail, feeling before me every inch, and testing the solidity of every stone, I continued to ascend the stair. The darkness, by contrast with the fla

hand slipped upon an edge and found nothing but emptiness beyond it. The stair had been carried no higher; to set a stranger mounting it in the darkness was to send him straight to his death; and (although, thanks to th

the ground level it fell in buckets. I put out my head into the storm, and looked along towards the kitchen. The door, which I had shut behind me when I left, now stood open, and shed a little glimmer of light; and I thought I could see

will leave you to guess. Certain it is, at least, that he was seized on by a kind of panic fear, and that he ran into the house

sat with his back towards me at the table. Ever and again he would be seized with a fit of deadly shudd

here he sat, and suddenly clapping my two

elf with arms before my uncle should come again to his senses and the power of devising evil. In the cupboard were a few bottles, some apparently of medicine; a great many bills and other papers, which I should willingly enough have rummaged, had I had the time; and a few necessaries that were nothing to my purpose. Th

ceased breathing. Fear came on me that he was dead; then I got water and dashed it in his face; and with that he seemed to come a little to himsel

e," said I

he sobbed. "O ma

aid I. "Small

sighs. "The blue phial," said he-"in the aumry

e phial of medicine, with the dose written on it on a pape

eviving a little; "I have a tr

d explanation: why he lied to me at every word; why he feared that I should leave him; why he disliked it to be hinted that he and my father were twins-"Is that because it is true?" I asked; why he ha

rn," he said; "as su

pocketed the key, and then returning to the kitchen, made up such a blaze as had not shone ther