[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It was established that we were neither of us outlaws.'What's all this?' he repeated.The temptation was to tell him to mind his own damned business,but I thought it more tactful in the circumstances to be placatory.Iexplained that my sister's pony had been attacked, and that we had answeredher calls for help.He wasn't willing to take that at its face value.Helooked at me steadily, and then turned to regard Sally andKatherine.'Maybe.But what brought you two here in such a hurry?' he asked them.'Naturally we came when we heard the child calling,' Sally told him.'I was right behind you, and I heard no calling,' he said.Sally and Katherine looked at one another.Sally shrugged.'We did,' she told him shortly.It seemed about time I took a hand.' I'd have thought everyone for miles around would have heard it,' I said.'The pony was screaming, too, poor little brute.'I led him round the clump of bushes and showed him the savaged ponyand the dead creature.He looked surprised, as if he'd not expected thatevidence, but he wasn't altogether appeased.He demanded to seeRosalind's and Petra's tags.'What's this all about?' I asked in my turn.' You didn't know that the Fringes have got spies out?' he said.'I didn't,' I told him.'Anyway, do we look like Fringes people?'He ignored the question.'Well, they have.There's an in-struction to watchfor them.There's trouble working up, and the clearer you keep of the woods,the less likely you are to meet it before we all do.'He still was not satisfied.He turned to look at the pony again, then atSally.'I'd say it's near half an hour since that pony did any screaming.How did youtwo manage to come straight to this spot?'Sally's eyes widened a little.Page 56 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html'Well, this was the direction it came from, and then when we got nearer weheard the little girl screaming,' she said simply.'And very good it was of you to follow it up,' I put in.'You would have savedher life by doing it if we hadn't happened to be a little nearer.It's allover now, and luckily she wasn't hurt.But she's had a nasty fright and I'dbetter get her home.Thank you both for wanting to help.'They took that up all right.They congratulated us on Petra'sescape, hoped she would soon get over the shock, and then rode off.The man lingered.He still seemed dissatisfied and a little puzzled.There was, however, nothing for him to take a firm hold of.Presently hegave the three of us a long, searching stare, looking as if he were about tosay something more, but he changed his mind.Finally he repeated his advice tokeep out of the woods, and then rode off in the wake of the other two.Wewatched him disappear among the trees.'Who is he?' Rosalind asked, uneasily.I could tell her that the name on his tag had been Jerome Skinner, but nomore.He was a stranger to me, and our names had not seemed to mean much tohim.I would have asked Sally but for the barrier that Petra was still puttingup.It gave me a strange, muffled feeling to be cut off from the restlike that, and made me wonder at the strength of purpose which hadenabled Anne to withdraw herself entirely for those months.Rosalind, still with her right arm round Petra, started home-wards at a walk.I collected the dead pony's saddle and bridle, pulled the arrows out of thecreature, and followed them.They put Petra to bed when I brought her in.During the late afternoon andearly evening the disturbance she was making fluctuated from time to time, butit kept up naggingly until almost nine o'clock when it diminished steeply anddisappeared.'Thank goodness for that.She's gone to sleep at last,' came from one of theothers.'Who was that man Skinner?' Rosalind and I inquired anxiously andsimultaneously.Sally answered: 'He's fairly new here.My father knows him.He has a farmbordering on the woods near where you were.It was just bad luck his seeingus, and of course he wondered why we were making for the trees at a gallop.''He seemed very suspicious.Why?' asked Rosalind.'Does he know anything aboutthought-shapes? I didn't think any of them did.''He can't make them, or receive them himself I tried him hard,' Sally toldher.Michael's distinctive pattern came in, inquiring what it was all about.Weexplained.He commented:' Some of them do have an idea that something of the kind may be possible but only very roughly of the kind a sort of emotional transfer of mental impressions
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
