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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Long Journey Home

I was confused. Things were changing so quickly, I I did not know what to think. The soldiers began to climb the hill after me.

‘Come in here among these trees,’ said a voice nearby.

I did what the voice said and heard gunshots going through the air past the trees. Just inside the trees was Alan Breck. He said nothing except, ‘Run!’ He started running across the mountain, and I followed him.

After a while, we stopped running.

‘This is serious,’ Alan said. ‘Do as I do - for your life.’

At the same speed, we ran back across the mountain, but a little higher. Finally we stopped behind some trees. We were breathing quickly.

Alan moved first. He went to the edge of the wood and looked around carefully. Then he came back.

‘Are you alright, David?’ he asked.

I said nothing and did not even look at him. A man was murdered in front of me - the man that Alan hated. And here was Alan, hiding in the trees, running from the soldiers. Was Alan the murderer? Or did he order someone else to kill the Red Fox? My only friend in this strange country was guilty of killing another man. I did not want to look at him. I wanted to be on my own, not hiding here with a murderer.

‘Are you still tired?’ asked Alan.

‘No,’ I said, ‘but you and I must go different ways, Alan. I liked you very much, but I don’t like the things that you do. They are not my ways and they are not God’s ways. I must leave you.’

Alan thought for a moment. ‘Do you think that I killed the Red Fox, David?’ he asked me.

‘Well, I know how much you hated him.’

‘If I want to kill a man, I will not do it in my own country,’ said Alan. ‘We don’t have much time. We have to run away from here. If we’re caught, I’ll be in trouble because I’m a deserter. And you’ll be in trouble because you were involved in the murder of the Red Fox,’ he said.

‘But I’m innocent!’ I said. ‘I’m not afraid of the law in my own country!’

‘This is not your country!’ said Alan. ‘Listen, David. The dead man is a Campbell. If they catch you, the Campbells will want somebody to die for this murder. And that “somebody” could be you! This is the Campbell law here.’

This scared me.

‘You people from the Lowlands don’t understand. We’re in the Highlands, David. When I say run, trust me and run. It’s difficult to run and hide here, but it’s even more difficult to be in a Redcoat prison.’

‘I’ll take my chances with you, Alan,’ I said.

‘It’ll be hard,’ warned Alan, ‘but your only other choice is death.’

We shook hands. ‘Now, let’s see where the Redcoats are now,’ he said. We started walking.

Night came. It was a cloudy night so it was very dark. Sometimes we walked, sometimes we ran. We travelled on and on until I was tired and weak. At dawn we stopped. Alan found a safe place high up between two rocks. I slept.

I was woken by Alan’s hand over my mouth.

‘Sssh!’ he said. ‘You were making too much noise in your sleep!’

‘Well, what’s wrong?’ I asked.

He went to the edge of the rock and called me over. ‘Look!’ he said quietly.

It was now the middle of the day and very hot. From the rock, we looked down into a valley. A river ran through it. About half a mile up the river were a group of Redcoats. I looked around. There were more Redcoats everywhere I looked.

‘I was afraid of this, David,’ said Alan. ‘They began to arrive about two hours ago, but you were asleep. If they stay down in the valley we’ll be alright, but if they come up here they’ll see us. We’ll stay here until it gets dark and then we’ll try to get past them.’

All that day, we lay in the hot sun. But we had no water so, finally, Alan decided we had to move. We jumped down from the rock and waited in the shade. The sun also made the soldiers tired; many were sleeping. We started to leave the rocks.

We moved slowly but by the evening we were some distance away from the Redcoats. Later on we found some fresh water and washed and drank from it. We felt safe and decided to stop and eat.

And so we travelled like this for several days, always looking out for Redcoats, always moving south. I wanted to get to Edinburgh, and Alan needed to get to France.

We became very tired and hungry. We did not speak much because we were so tired. I was getting ill, but I knew we had to keep going. But soon I felt very ill and I could not continue.

I had to ask Alan for help. My legs simply could not carry me any further. I had a fever and my stomach hurt.

Alan promised to find a house for me to rest. Luckily, the family at the first house we found knew Alan well by name. They saw that I was ill and called a doctor. I was young and strong and I slowly began to get better.

I stayed in bed for only a week. During this time, Alan did not leave me. It was very dangerous for Alan to stay there - the Redcoats might see him, but still he came to see me every night and hid in the woods during the day. After a month we were ready to continue our journey south towards Edinburgh.