Then I looked round again into the deck-house. The whole place was full of the smoke of my own firing, just as my ears seemed to be burst with the noise of the shots. But there was Alan, standing as before; only now his sword was running blood to the hilt, and himself so swelled with triumph and fallen into so fine an attitude, that he looked to be invincible. Right before him on the floor was Mr. Shuan, on his hands and knees; the blood was pouring from his mouth, and he was sinking slowly lower, with a terrible, white face; and just as I looked, some of those from behind caught hold of him by the heels and dragged him bodily out of the round-house. I believe he died as they were doing it.

This quote is from Chapter 10, during the battle of the Round-House. Since Kidnapped is primarily an adventure novel, it is important to look at an action scene. Stevenson fills these scenes with words that bring to mind action and heroism, such as smoke, firing, burst, blood, swelled, triumph, invincible, "blood…pouring from his mouth." Stevenson here conveys both the action and the chaos of battle.

We also see here a difference between Alan and David. While Alan takes great pride in his fighting, and feels that each death of an enemy is a "triumph," David cannot help but notice the details of death: Shuan's "horrible white face" and the blood that pours from his mouth. He pays attention to Shuan's death, and, from the language, it seems to horrify him somewhat. Alan, on the other hand, seems quite used to it. When the battle is over, he jauntily stabs each of the four men remaining in the room to make sure they are dead, and then kicks them out the door.