The Mystery of The Master of Ballantrae

THE MYSTERY OF THE. MASTER Of_ BALLANTRAE By Robert E. Bonds (The University of Toledo) There is much mystery and suspense in Robert Louis Stevenson's THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE (I889); after all, it was the author's intention to combine "gentility" and "melodrama" into one neat packaged "dessert" of mystery.' We can hardly do justice to Stevenson's work, then, without mentioning the fact that the suspense is remarkably carried out (except for Colonel Burke's memoirs, which at times reveal too many clues too soon); and that the author himself, although his work was written in installments for serial publication and despite his own surprised dissatisfaction with the improbable conclusion, had at all times a strong awareness of the pattern of circumstances as he laid them out. We can sense this awareness in all of the passages that are clearly labeled, In effect, "of which I shall say more later." Unlike Defoe, who used the same expression but often forgot afterwards that he had uttered it (see ROBINSON CRUSOE and CAPTAIN SINGLETON especially), Stevenson does "say more later"; that is, he consciously resolves all of the issues in his work„ Mackellar remarks, by example, that Burke whistled the tune of "Shule Aroon" as he departed from Durrisdeer. "It was the first time I had heard that tune; I was to hear it again, words and all, as you shall learn." (SI) So, indeed, he does hear the melody again, this time the Master singing it, some twenty pages later. (68) Similarly, we are informed that "Miss Graeme enjoyed a large estate in the province" (46) near New York, long before we as readers are actually led to the scene by Mackellar. And, as a last testimony of the care which Stevenson took in tying up his facts (many more examples are readily available), we find this remark: "...the risk the Master was supposed to stand in (supposed, I say—you will soon hear why) made it seem the more ungenerous to criticise." (64) There is a reason, as Mackellar hints, for this emphasis upon the word "supposed" (which implies fln uncertainty about the Master's condition); and it is very carefully revealed later on, first by one of the tenants (71) that James was in reality under no risk from the government. Mackellar's journal illustrates, then, a certain command for accuracy in detail on the part of the author; and in all fairness we should report that even the blundering Colonel Burke, who suggests several times that a particular factor is especially significant as a means of someone's deliverance" (a word for which both Burke and Mackellar share a certain fondness), even he is rarely (if ever) negligent about relating the factor eventually with the actual occurrence of "deliverance." Indeed, we can rightly share William Golding's enthusiasm in the suggestion that "Stevenson was the professional, knowing precisely what effects he wanted and how he was going to get them";3 and we might say of THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE too what GoIding says about TREASURE ISLAND, that it "was written to order.1" There is one mystery or puzzling circumstance in THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, which certainly escapes the notice of many readers today. Mackellar calls attention to the situation in a footnote to Colonel Burke's remark that "upon that very day [November, 1747] as we sat among these barbarous mountains, his brother [Henry Durie] and Miss Graeme were married." (46) This statement, says Mackellar, is "a complete blunder; there was at this date no word of the marriage," (46n) and he refers the reader back to his own narrative for a more accurate representation of details. If we recall the situation from the early section of the novel, Mackellar's "Summary of Events," we will notice that Miss Graeme was actually for a long while cold (extremely cold) in her affections towards Henry, perhaps with good reason. She loved the nobler of the two brothers, James, who stood most like his father as a man of the arts (we are told repeatedly that he was quite a singer as well as an enthusiastic reader). When he was reported missing and presumed dead, she...