Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

By Al R. Young

Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped begins with David Balfour's departure from the small home of his late father. The story is not yet two pages old before the reader finds himself standing with Master Davie on the road, in the cool of the early morning, listening to the ominous words of Mr. Campbell, minister of Essendean.

David is to make his way to the House of Shaws, known throughout the countryside as a dark and dreadful place. To David's surprise, he finds he is not merely David Balfour, but David Balfour of Shaws. A letter from his late father, and the injunction to go to his ancestral home, is all that David knows of his inheritance.

With such a beginning, and the name of the author being Stevenson, little more need be said. This story is the stuff of which adventure is made, and finding a copy illustrated by N. C. Wyeth is worth the effort.