`` Eh , man , '' said I , drolling with him a little , `` you 're very ingenious ! But would it not be simpler for you to write him a few words in black and white ? '' `` And that is an excellent observe , Mr. Balfour of Shaws , '' says Alan , drolling with me ; `` and it would certainly be much simpler for me to write to him , but it would be a sore job for John Breck to read it . He would have to go to the school for two-three years ; and it 's possible we might be wearied waiting on him . '' So that night Alan carried down his fiery cross and set it in the bouman 's window . He was troubled when he came back ; for the dogs had barked and the folk run out from their houses ; and he thought he had heard a clatter of arms and seen a red-coat come to one of the doors . On all accounts we lay the next day in the borders of the wood and kept a close look-out , so that if it was John Breck that came we might be ready to guide him , and if it was the red-coats we should have time to get away . About noon a man was to be spied , straggling up the open side of the mountain in the sun , and looking round him as he came , from under his hand . No sooner had Alan seen him than he whistled ; the man turned and came a little towards us : then Alan would give another `` peep ! '' and the man would come still nearer ; and so by the sound of whistling , he was guided to the spot where we lay . He was a ragged , wild , bearded man , about forty , grossly disfigured with the small pox , and looked both dull and savage . Although his English was very bad and broken , yet Alan -LRB- according to his very handsome use , whenever I was by -RRB- would suffer him to speak no Gaelic . Perhaps the strange language made him appear more backward than he really was ; but I thought he had little good-will to serve us , and what he had was the child of terror . Alan would have had him carry a message to James ; but the bouman would hear of no message . `` She was forget it , '' he said in his screaming voice ; and would either have a letter or wash his hands of us . I thought Alan would be gravelled at that , for we lacked the means of writing in that desert . But he was a man of more resources than I knew ; searched the wood until he found the quill of a cushat-dove , which he shaped into a pen ; made himself a kind of ink with gunpowder from his horn and water from the running stream ; and tearing a corner from his French military commission -LRB- which he carried in his pocket , like a talisman to keep him from the gallows -RRB- , he sat down and wrote as follows : `` DEAR KINSMAN , -- Please send the money by the bearer to the place he kens of . `` Your affectionate cousin , `` A. S. '' This he intrusted to the bouman , who promised to make what manner of speed he best could , and carried it off with him down the hill . He was three full days gone , but about five in the evening of the third , we heard a whistling in the wood , which Alan answered ; and presently the bouman came up the water-side , looking for us , right and left . He seemed less sulky than before , and indeed he was no doubt well pleased to have got to the end of such a dangerous commission .
He gave us the news of the country ; that it was alive with XXXXX ; that arms were being found , and poor folk brought in trouble daily ; and that James and some of his servants were already clapped in prison at Fort William , under strong suspicion of complicity .
Alan Breck French KINSMAN cushat-dove left look-out red-coats right water-side