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The Master of Ballantrae

By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Condensation by JAMES B. CONNOLLY THE Duries of Ballantrae were a strong family in Scotland from the days of David I. Their ups and down I pass over, to come to that year 1745 when the foundations of this tragedy were laid.

There was my lord, studious, tactful and retired from the world. There was The Master (James in baptism) with his father's love of study; but what was tact in the father changed to black dissimulation in him. Though ever in broils, invariably he left his partners in mischief to pay the piper. The second son, Mr. Henry, was neither able nor bad; an out-of-doors, solid sort, who had had an active hand from a boy in the management of the estate. In the house also was Miss Alison Graeme, an orphan, comely and self-willed, heiress to a fortune and, because of my lord's necessities, pledged in marriage to The Master.