Stevenson stated in a letter that he made this change because he wanted to draw a portrait of a real-life friend of his upon whom the acquaintance in the preface is based.

The Master wins and departs to join the Rising, while Henry remains in support of King George II.

At the insistence of the Laird (their father) the Master's heartbroken fiancée marries Henry to repair the Durie fortunes.

He is treated with complete indifference by his family, since his wife and his father both spend their time mourning the fallen favourite.

He abandoned the Rising as soon as it looked sure to fail and, in company with Burke, took ship for France, refusing to wait in case they might be able to rescue the Prince.

The pirate captain, who called himself Teach (not the famous Edward Teach, called Blackbeard, who had died some thirty years previously, but an imitator), took both Burke and the Master aboard to join his pirate crew, but had the rest of the ship's company killed.

Burke and the Master obtain passage to Albany on a merchant ship, deserting it once it makes port.

They take along a guide, an Indian trader named Chew, but he dies of a fever and the pair became hopelessly lost.

For some days the Master navigates his way through the wilderness by tossing a coin, saying, "I can think of no better way to express my scorn of human reason."

he cried, "he sits in my place, he bears my name, he courts my wife; and I am here alone with a damned Irishman in this tooth-chattering desert!

Colonel Burke has kept his share of the pirate treasure, while the Master is on "the largest pension on the Scots Fund of any refugee in Paris".

The Master is in fact well-supported by a pension assigned by the French monarchy to Scotsmen who lost their estates due to the Rising, but he continues to demand money from his brother anyway, accusing him of stealing the inheritance: "'My dear Jacob' – This is how he begins!"

cries he – "'My dear Jacob, I once called you so, you may remember; and you have now done the business, and flung my heels as high as Criffel.'

To the family it seems that the Master is a long-suffering and kind-hearted hero and saint, while Henry is a cruel, unfeeling monster.

He exults that he will destroy Henry's virtue:"[Y]ou need not look such impotent malice, my good fly.

Mackellar eventually discovers that the Master betrayed the Jacobites and sold himself out to the Hanoverian government by becoming a paid spy for King George, and that this is the real reason for his safe return.

By the tracks they can see that the body has been dragged away by smugglers ("free traders"), who carried it to a boat, but whether alive or dead they do not know.

The Master miraculously survives the sword wound and, with the money extorted from his father, goes to India to make his fortune.

Her eyes are opened and she becomes reconciled with Henry, though she also burns the papers, not to protect the Master, but to prevent a scandal for the family.

says Mr Henry; and suddenly rising from his seat with more alacrity than he had yet discovered, set one finger on my breast, and cried at me in a kind of screaming whisper, "Mackellar" – these were his words – "nothing can kill that man.

The Laird takes his wife and children and leaves Scotland for New York, where Mrs Durie has a family estate.

Mackellar remains behind, and tells the Master that he may have room and board at Durrisdeer, but he will not be permitted to contact the family or given any money.

The Master furiously answers: "Inside of a week, without leaving Durrisdeer, I will find out where these fools are fled to.

Henry, who has grown more unstable as the years have passed, takes pleasure in rubbing the Master's face in his failure.

The Master refuses and rants that he cares only about ruining his brother: "Three times I have had my hand upon the highest station: and I am not yet three-and-forty.

I know the world as few men know it when they come to die – Court and camp, the East and the West; I know where to go, I see a thousand openings.

Unknown to Mackellar, Henry secretly arranges with a smuggler to gather a crew of riff-raff and present themselves to the Master as being willing to set out with him to find the buried treasure.

Mountain encounters the diplomat Sir William Johnson, who is on his way to negotiate with the hostile Native Americans.

[2] There have been several TV adaptations, including a 1984 presentation in the Hallmark Hall of Fame, with John Gielgud as the Laird.

[4] Half of Stevenson's original manuscripts are lost, including those of Treasure Island, The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae.