Wild mountains stood around it ; there grew there neither grass nor trees ; and I have sometimes thought since then , that it may have been the valley called Glencoe , where the massacre was in the time of King William . But for the details of our itinerary , I am all to seek ; our way lying now by short cuts , now by great detours ; our pace being so hurried , our time of journeying usually by night ; and the names of such places as I asked and heard being in the Gaelic tongue and the more easily forgotten . The first peep of morning , then , showed us this horrible place , and I could see Alan knit his brow . `` This is no fit place for you and me , '' he said . `` This is a place they 're bound to watch . '' And with that he ran harder than ever down to the water-side , in a part where the river was split in two among three rocks . It went through with a horrid thundering that made my belly quake ; and there hung over the lynn a little mist of spray . Alan looked neither to the right nor to the left , but jumped clean upon the middle rock and fell there on his hands and knees to check himself , for that rock was small and he might have pitched over on the far side . I had scarce time to measure the distance or to understand the peril before I had followed him , and he had caught and stopped me . So there we stood , side by side upon a small rock slippery with spray , a far broader leap in front of us , and the river dinning upon all sides . When I saw where I was , there came on me a deadly sickness of fear , and I put my hand over my eyes . Alan took me and shook me ; I saw he was speaking , but the roaring of the falls and the trouble of my mind prevented me from hearing ; only I saw his face was red with anger , and that he stamped upon the rock . The same look showed me the water raging by , and the mist hanging in the air : and with that I covered my eyes again and shuddered . The next minute Alan had set the brandy bottle to my lips , and forced me to drink about a gill , which sent the blood into my head again . Then , putting his hands to his mouth , and his mouth to my ear , he shouted , `` Hang or drown ! '' and turning his back upon me , leaped over the farther branch of the stream , and landed safe . I was now alone upon the rock , which gave me the more room ; the brandy was singing in my ears ; I had this good example fresh before me , and just wit enough to see that if I did not leap at once , I should never leap at all . I bent low on my knees and flung myself forth , with that kind of anger of despair that has sometimes stood me in stead of courage . Sure enough , it was but my hands that reached the full length ; these slipped , caught again , slipped again ; and I was sliddering back into the lynn , when Alan seized me , first by the hair , then by the collar , and with a great strain dragged me into safety . Never a word he said , but set off running again for his life , and I must stagger to my feet and run after him .
I had been weary before , but now I was sick and bruised , and partly drunken with the brandy ; I kept stumbling as I ran , I had a stitch that came near to overmaster me ; and when at last XXXXX paused under a great rock that stood there among a number of others , it was none too soon for David Balfour .
Alan Glencoe William dinning first left morning night right water-side