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and saying, "Goodbye, Miss Gillyvor," he turned to the others and thumbed towards the village, and they followed him out of the field.

The sun still shone and birds in the thicket still Mrs. Bella Lennon stood at the bedroom window and looked down on the unusually busy village street. There was something up.

Hurrying down the narrow stairs, she went out of her front door and into the smithy, where her husband was standing in the opening talking to their eldest son. Jack.

"What's up?" she said.

"What's all the bustle?"

Her son turned to her and said on a laugh, "The gillyvor's lost, the whorin' one. It seems that Mr. Tim called in at her dear Papa's that was around six o'clock, so they say. So, they've been runnin' like scalded cats ever since. Damn fools, them. I bet she's laid up with somebody else."

"It wouldn't be our Arthur," said the blacksmith on a deep guffaw, then added, "By the way, where is he?"

"He's gone into Fellburn with Davey."

"Fellburn? What for?"

"Well, apparently he was fed up and wanted a night out, so he says.

Didn't you see him go? Didn't he call in? "

"No, he didn't. What time was this?"

"Oh' she shook her head 'some time ago. He came in the back way and had a sluice under the pump. He had been down with Davey who was tarring the new railin's for Dobson; then he got changed and went out, saying as usual, "I'll be back when you see me." The smith now looked at his son.

"You didn't see him pass this way, did yer?" he said.

"No; and I've been outside here most of the time. Aye! Look!" He pointed.

"Here's a carriage, an' comin' hell for leather."

As the carriage passed them, Mrs. Lennon said, "That's Mr. Timothy in there and somebody else." Then turning to her son, her eyes screwed up and her whole face one of enquiry, she said, "You must have seen our Arthur come out of the house?"

"Ma, I'm neither drunk nor daft at this hour of the day and I tell yer he hasn't passed me."

"Well, he surely wouldn't go out the garden and jump the wall."

The three of them looked at each other. Then hurrying from them, Mrs.

Lennon went upstairs again and opened a door off a narrow landing and surveyed her son's room. It looked as it always did. But going to the cupboard, she saw his working clothes thrown into the bottom of it, together with his boots. Well, that was nothing new. But looking on the shelf above she saw that something was missing. After opening the top drawer in an old chest, she stood biting on her lip. The two shirts she had ironed and put in there just this morning, after yesterday's wash, were gone, as also were his long pants and two pairs of socks. Then, lifting the lid of a wooden box that took up the space between the chest and the wall, she saw it was empty. The oddments usually in it were no longer there, the two woollen guernseys, his other cap, a good Sunday waistcoat, and a muffler.

She took the stairs almost two at a time and, bursting into the smithy, where her husband and son were now working, she cried, "Stop it! Stop it! He's gone."

The hammering ceased and her husband looked at her and said, "What d'you mean, he's gone?"

"He's done a bunk for good. He's taken his back-pack and his clothes.

He must have pushed them all in there and dropped them out of the back window. That's the way he went. "

The men looked at each other; then the smith, turning to his son, said,

"Finish that. We've got to get that order out; they're waitin'; an' they don't come easy. "

And then, pushing his wife before him, they went into the house and at the foot of the stairs he said, "The box?"

"The box? What d'you mean the box?"

"Don't be so bloody stupid, woman! The box under the bed. Have you seen to it?"

"No. No. But he wouldn't, not Arthur."

Without a word the smith bounded up the stairs into their bedroom, pulled out a tin trunk from under the high bed, lifted the lid, put his hand down through oddments of clothes and felt the tin box.

Pulling it out, he looked up at her as if in relief. Then he opened it, and as he did so his expression changed. And when they were both looking down into the empty cash box he said, "The bugger! I'll have him. I'll get him. All twenty-seven of them!"

"You should have put it into the bank. I've told you an' told you."

"Aye, and let the buggers know what we've got. They know too much down there already. Goldmine, they'd be sayin' it is. But my God!" He stood up, his teeth grinding as he said, "I'll get him! I'll find him!"

"You'll do nowt of the sort." She pushed at his big frame.

"An' you'd better not let on to our Jack, either. You're always pulling a long face about the bills not being' paid. He knows nowt about this, an' if his Lena got to know, we wouldn't have a minute's peace, ever. An' you expectin' him to work overtime, like the night.

So stick it back!" And she thrust her foot against the big box.

"By God!" Lennon said; 'if I could get me hands on him this minute!

Anyway, why the rush? He was set to finish the domino game the night.

He could have wiped Willie Melton off the board and raked up a nice little pile after fourteen games at sixpence a go. "

"Never mind that. Get downstairs and put a face on to our Jack. And from now on that'll lam you. By God! it will. Twenty-seven pounds in that wild young sod's pocket." She paused as though thinking, then said, "D'you think he'll sign on some boat?"

"Likely; an' Davey with him, 'cos whatever he does that dumb head'll follow. An' think on, woman, what's goin' to happen when his mother finds out. She'll be along here, saying, as usual, our Arthur's leading her dear lad astray."

"God! He went astray when he was born that It was about two hours later. The village street was still abuzz, with small groups here and there gossiping, when Clan Wallace came to the forge opening and asked,

" Seen anything of our Art, Rob? "

"Young Art? No. Is he lost an' all?"

"Well, he hasn't come in for his tea. And it's now goin' on eight. His mother's goin' up the pole."

"Perhaps he's run off with the gillyvor."

"Don't be so daft! He was helpin' Davey Carter the day, an' I can't see hilt nor hair of Davey, either."

The blacksmith, who was now dressed in his second best suit, came out of the forge and closed the doors, and he had his back to Clan Wallace as he said, "An' you won't. He's ... he's gone into Fellburn with our Arthur for the night."

"Oh. Oh, I see. Well, I wonder where the young kite has got to ...

?"

The young kite was now sneaking in the back door of his home. And when his mother saw him she said, "Where d'you think you've been?" then stopped and said, "My God! What's the matter with you, boy? You sick?"

The boy opened his mouth, took in a deep gulp of air and said, "Dad.

Where's Dad? "

"Out looking for you, of course. Past eight; where've you been? "

"Get Dad. Get Dad, Mam."

"You bad? Caught something'?"

"Get Dad, Mam! Get Dad."

The woman now pushed the boy into a chair;

then she turned and ran out of the house, up the village street, past the King's Head, and on

past the cottages, shouting to one after another, "Have you seen Clan?" And one woman, rising from a chair where she had been sitting trying to keep cool, pointed and said, "Just this minute turned up the alley."

The alley led to Willie Melton's stint, where he kept his pigs, and there she saw her husband talking to Willie, who had a bucket in his hand and a crowd of pigs around him, and she called, "ClanI ClanI He's in. ClanI come on."

When her husband came up to her, she said, "He's bad. Something's wrong with him, he can hardly speak ... When they entered the house the boy straightaway got up from his chair and, going to his father, gripped his hand as he said, " Dad. Dad, they said what they'd . he said what he would do, Arthur Lennon, but . but you won't let them will you, Dad? You won't let them, will you? "

"What in the name of God are you talkin' about, boy? What did he say he would do?"

The boy looked at his mother, then put his hand down between his legs and said, "Cut 'em off. Cut 'em off."

The husband and wife exchanged looks, and his father said gently, "Sit down, lad. Sit down and tell me."

"No, Dad, no. You've got to go and get her."

"Get who?"

"The young lass, the young lass. She's lyin' in the hedge."

"Oh my God! My God!" His mother now put her hand up through her hair and let out a cry, and her husband said, "Shut up! Shut up! Tell me.

Tell me. Where's the girl?

What have they done? "

"Tarred ... tarred and feathered her, he did, he did. Tied her up.

Said . said what they would . would do, an' . an' he will, Dad, he will. "

"He will?" Clan Wallace stood up now.

"He'll swing if I get my hands on him. Come on, lad; show me where she is? "

"No, Dad, no. I can't ... I can't go. At the stile."

"Come on, come on. Be a brave lad. Nobody'll do anythin' to you."

"They will. They will; I was there. I was there. And Davey Carter an' his sister an' all. Aye ... aye, she ... she was awful, Betty ...

she was awful."

"Come on. Come on." Clan Wallace now led his son out into the street, but he had to keep a firm arm round him and keep pressing him forward.

Then his wife, who was at the other side of him, turned and said,

"Here's the carriage comin'! It's Mr. Timothy's. Stop it! Stop it!

Tell 'em!"

Clan Wallace waved his hand, and when Edward pulled up the carriage Timothy put his head out of the window in enquiry and Clan said to him,

"My boy here, sir, my boy says he knows where the girl is." He looked beyond Timothy now to the strained face of the girl's father, and Nathaniel cried, "He does? He does? Where?"

"Sir, I think both of you ... I think you'd better prepare yourself for something'. I don't know, but my boy here seems to know all about it.

They threatened him."

"Who, man? Who?"

"I'll tell you later, sir, but I think we'd better get there, wherever it is. Come on, sir." He now took his son's arm and ran him down the street, the carriage following, and this brought people out of their houses, out of the gardens, and out of both inns, all asking questions.

Beyond the village, when they came to the gap in the hedge, the boy shrank against his father, but his father dragged him into the field and when the boy pointed, Clan Wallace muttered, "Almighty God! Oh, Almighty God!" And a minute later, when Nathaniel and Timothy stood looking down on the tarred and feathered naked body, with its torn clothes spread like broken wings at each side of her, both, for a moment, had to hold on to each other for support. And then Nathaniel was kneeling on one side of her and Timothy on the other; and Timothy, taking her smeared face between his hands, said not a word, for his mind was screaming against the obscene cruelty that had been inflicted on this innocent girl, on his beloved Anna.

Nathaniel raised his head and looked at him and whispered, "She's ..

she's breathing."

They both stood up and looked about them. It seemed that a crowd of people had gathered from nowhere and were standing awe struck.

Clan Wallace said, "She'll have to be lifted on to a cart or something."

But Timothy's coachman said quietly, "I ... I wouldn't touch her, sir, until a doctor comes, and the polis."

Nathaniel looked at the man; then he looked at Timothy; and after a slight hesitation Timothy said, "Get into Fellburn at top speed and bring them both."

"We ... we can't leave her like this. We must loosen her arms and legs," said Nathaniel, kneeling beside Anna.

Timothy too knelt and tugged at the knots, then looking around he muttered, "A knife? Has anyone got a knife?"

At least three knives were handed towards him;

then, as he cut the rope around Anna's wrist, Clan Wallace said, "I wouldn't move her arms, sir, not for a bit. She'll be in cramp."

When Timothy had finished there were feathers sticking to his tarred hands and somebody offered him a handkerchief; then another.

The crowd had grown now, but it was silent: it was definitely a group of frightened people, for they could surely see the outcome of this dreadful deed.

The boy was clinging to his mother now and crying openly. And when a thin voice near them said, "Did he do it?" Mrs. Wallace startled everybody by screaming, "No! he didn't. Your bosom drinking mates did it. Arthur Lennon and Davey Carter. And aye, aye, where's his sister?

Where's his sister, dear little Betty? "

Her husband turned on her fiercely now, saying, "Shut up! Shut up!

woman. That'll be seen. to later. "

It was noticeable now that here and there a person moved out of the crowd and went quietly away, and one of these was the blacksmith . It was exactly twenty-five minutes later when the doctor and the policeman arrived in the carriage,

and after pressing through the crowd they both stood and looked down, first with amazement, then with horror at the sight of the tarred and feathered girl.

The doctor now took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves before kneeling on the ground. Putting his ear to the discoloured mouth and then roughly rubbing the sticking feathers to one side, he felt the flesh below the breast. Standing up, he said, "We must get her to hospital."

"Hospital ?" It was a whispered word from Nathaniel, and the doctor said, "Yes. You won't be able to get her clean with soap and water, and I'm afraid she'll be ill for some time, if only with shock." The doctor now looked at the policeman who had already taken out a notebook, and he said grimly, "I hope you get your details right." And the policeman said, "I will that, sir, I will that. Never in me life have I seen anything like it. Whoever did this should swing."

And Timothy's mind yelled at him, "And they might yet. Oh, yes, they might yet. Oh! Anna. Anna. Oh, my dearest Anna."