`` Well , '' says Alan , `` as ye please ; that 'll be the dearer . '' `` The dearer ? '' cries Ebenezer . `` Would ye fyle your hands wi ' crime ? '' `` Hoot ! '' said Alan , `` they 're baith crime , whatever ! And the killing 's easier , and quicker , and surer . Keeping the lad 'll be a fashious * job , a fashious , kittle business . '' * Troublesome . `` I 'll have him keepit , though , '' returned my uncle . `` I never had naething to do with onything morally wrong ; and I 'm no gaun to begin to pleasure a wild Hielandman . '' `` Ye 're unco scrupulous , '' sneered Alan . `` I 'm a man o ' principle , '' said Ebenezer , simply ; `` and if I have to pay for it , I 'll have to pay for it . And besides , '' says he , `` ye forget the lad 's my brother 's son . '' `` Well , well , '' said Alan , `` and now about the price . It 's no very easy for me to set a name upon it ; I would first have to ken some small matters . I would have to ken , for instance , what ye gave Hoseason at the first off-go ? '' `` Hoseason ! '' cries my uncle , struck aback . `` What for ? ''
`` For kidnapping David , '' XXXXX Alan .
'm 're 's Keeping cries ken pay said says sneered