Sometimes I was broad awake and understood what passed ; sometimes I only heard voices , or men snoring , like the voice of a silly river ; and the plaids upon the wall dwindled down and swelled out again , like firelight shadows on the roof . I must sometimes have spoken or cried out , for I remember I was now and then amazed at being answered ; yet I was conscious of no particular nightmare , only of a general , black , abiding horror -- a horror of the place I was in , and the bed I lay in , and the plaids on the wall , and the voices , and the fire , and myself . The barber-gillie , who was a doctor too , was called in to prescribe for me ; but as he spoke in the Gaelic , I understood not a word of his opinion , and was too sick even to ask for a translation . I knew well enough I was ill , and that was all I cared about . I paid little heed while I lay in this poor pass . But Alan and Cluny were most of the time at the cards , and I am clear that Alan must have begun by winning ; for I remember sitting up , and seeing them hard at it , and a great glittering pile of as much as sixty or a hundred guineas on the table . It looked strange enough , to see all this wealth in a nest upon a cliff-side , wattled about growing trees . And even then , I thought it seemed deep water for Alan to be riding , who had no better battle-horse than a green purse and a matter of five pounds . The luck , it seems , changed on the second day . About noon I was wakened as usual for dinner , and as usual refused to eat , and was given a dram with some bitter infusion which the barber had prescribed . The sun was shining in at the open door of the Cage , and this dazzled and offended me . Cluny sat at the table , biting the pack of cards . Alan had stooped over the bed , and had his face close to my eyes ; to which , troubled as they were with the fever , it seemed of the most shocking bigness . He asked me for a loan of my money . `` What for ? '' said I. `` O , just for a loan , '' said he . `` But why ? '' I repeated . `` I do n't see . '' `` Hut , David ! ''
said XXXXX , `` ye wouldnae grudge me a loan ? ''
Alan Cluny David barber-gillie battle-horse bigness fire guineas noon pounds