I was often tempted to turn tail , but held my ground for all that , and got some profit of my lessons ; if it was but to stand on guard with an assured countenance , which is often all that is required . So , though I could never in the least please my master , I was not altogether displeased with myself . In the meanwhile , you are not to suppose that we neglected our chief business , which was to get away . `` It will be many a long day , '' Alan said to me on our first morning , `` before the red-coats think upon seeking Corrynakiegh ; so now we must get word sent to James , and he must find the siller for us . '' `` And how shall we send that word ? '' says I. `` We are here in a desert place , which yet we dare not leave ; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers , I see not what we shall be able to do . '' `` Ay ? '' said Alan . `` Ye 're a man of small contrivance , David . '' Thereupon he fell in a muse , looking in the embers of the fire ; and presently , getting a piece of wood , he fashioned it in a cross , the four ends of which he blackened on the coals . Then he looked at me a little shyly . `` Could ye lend me my button ? '' says he . `` It seems a strange thing to ask a gift again , but I own I am laith to cut another . '' I gave him the button ; whereupon he strung it on a strip of his great-coat which he had used to bind the cross ; and tying in a little sprig of birch and another of fir , he looked upon his work with satisfaction . `` Now , '' said he , `` there is a little clachan '' -LRB- what is called a hamlet in the English -RRB- `` not very far from Corrynakiegh , and it has the name of Koalisnacoan . There there are living many friends of mine whom I could trust with my life , and some that I am no just so sure of . Ye see , David , there will be money set upon our heads ; James himsel ' is to set money on them ; and as for the Campbells , they would never spare siller where there was a Stewart to be hurt . If it was otherwise , I would go down to Koalisnacoan whatever , and trust my life into these people 's hands as lightly as I would trust another with my glove . '' `` But being so ? ''
XXXXX I. `` Being so , '' said he , `` I would as lief they didnae see me .
am called gave get go looked said seems spare trust