He hid by day in a hole of the braes under a little wood ; and at night , when the coast was clear , would come into the house to visit me . I need not say if I was pleased to see him ; Mrs. Maclaren , our hostess , thought nothing good enough for such a guest ; and as Duncan Dhu -LRB- which was the name of our host -RRB- had a pair of pipes in his house , and was much of a lover of music , this time of my recovery was quite a festival , and we commonly turned night into day . The soldiers let us be ; although once a party of two companies and some dragoons went by in the bottom of the valley , where I could see them through the window as I lay in bed . What was much more astonishing , no magistrate came near me , and there was no question put of whence I came or whither I was going ; and in that time of excitement , I was as free of all inquiry as though I had lain in a desert . Yet my presence was known before I left to all the people in Balquhidder and the adjacent parts ; many coming about the house on visits and these -LRB- after the custom of the country -RRB- spreading the news among their neighbours . The bills , too , had now been printed . There was one pinned near the foot of my bed , where I could read my own not very flattering portrait and , in larger characters , the amount of the blood money that had been set upon my life . Duncan Dhu and the rest that knew that I had come there in Alan 's company , could have entertained no doubt of who I was ; and many others must have had their guess . For though I had changed my clothes , I could not change my age or person ; and Lowland boys of eighteen were not so rife in these parts of the world , and above all about that time , that they could fail to put one thing with another , and connect me with the bill . So it was , at least . Other folk keep a secret among two or three near friends , and somehow it leaks out ; but among these clansmen , it is told to a whole countryside , and they will keep it for a century . There was but one thing happened worth narrating ; and that is the visit I had of Robin Oig , one of the sons of the notorious Rob Roy . He was sought upon all sides on a charge of carrying a young woman from Balfron and marrying her -LRB- as was alleged -RRB- by force ; yet he stepped about Balquhidder like a gentleman in his own walled policy . It was he who had shot James Maclaren at the plough stilts , a quarrel never satisfied ; yet he walked into the house of his blood enemies as a rider * might into a public inn . * Commercial traveller . Duncan had time to pass me word of who it was ; and we looked at one another in concern . You should understand , it was then close upon the time of Alan 's coming ; the two were little likely to agree ; and yet if we sent word or sought to make a signal , it was sure to arouse suspicion in a man under so dark a cloud as the Macgregor . He came in with a great show of civility , but like a man among inferiors ; took off his bonnet to Mrs. Maclaren , but clapped it on his head again to speak to Duncan ; and having thus set himself -LRB- as he would have thought -RRB- in a proper light , came to my bedside and bowed . `` I am given to know , sir , '' says he , `` that your name is Balfour . '' `` They call me David Balfour , '' said I , `` at your service . ''
`` I would give ye my name in return , sir , '' he replied , `` but it 's one somewhat blown upon of late days ; and it 'll perhaps suffice if I tell ye that I am own brother to James More Drummond or XXXXX , of whom ye will scarce have failed to hear . ''
Balquhidder Duncan Macgregor Oig century clansmen day left plough whither