Page 7 (1/1)
He looked round him No plane was visible Anywhere Then it came back to him, with a lurch of the stoht that he was drea, had lain down to recover himself, and must have fallen asleep But he ake now, noof some kind down his back, and he slapped viciously to try to squash it
His heart was pounding unpleasantly and his pal He wiped them on his trousers and scanned the landscape It wasn’t flat, but neither did it offer much concealment No trees, no bosky dells There was a sht the shine of water--but if he’d ditched in water, surely to God he’d be wet?
Maybe he’d been unconscious long enough to dry out, he thought Maybe he’d iined that he’d seen the plane near the stones Surely he couldn’t have walked this far fro toward the lake, out of sheer inability to think of anything more useful to do Clearly tiic Well, they’d have little trouble finding him, at least; they kneas near the wall A truck should be along soon; he couldn’t be , too,’ he odforsaken spot to crash--there wasn’t a farht, not soclearer now He’d circle the lake--just in case--then head for the road Mightin
‘And tell them I’ve lost the bloody plane?’ he asked hiht Come on, ye wee idjit, think! Nohere did ye see it last?’
He walked for a long tian to feel easier after a while Hiswith the countryside Granted, Northued He’d found a road--but it wasn’t the B road he’d seen fro signs of being much travelled by hooved aniht of diet His as flapping against his backbone Thinking about breakfast was better than thinking about other things, though, and for a tigy toast he’d have got in theon to the lavish breakfasts of his youth in the Highlands: huge bowls of stea fried in lard, bannocks withtea …
An hour later, he found Hadrian’s Wall Hard to rass and all-sorts like it was It ions who’d built it, stubbornly work its way up hill and down dale, dividing the peaceful fields to the south froht and sat down on the wall--it was less than a yard high, just here--toelse, and was beginning to doubt his own sense of reality He’d seen a fox, any nuiven hiht under his feet No people at all, though, and that was giving hiht enough, and one, but the farmhouses hadn’t been sacrificed to the war effort, had they? The wo the nation, all that--he’d heard the PM on the radio praising them for it only last week So where the bloody hell was everybody?
The sun was getting low in the sky when at last he saw a house It was flush against the wall, and struck hih he knew he’d never seen it before Stone-built and squat, but quite large, with a ratty-looking thatch There was sh, and he lio
There was a person outside--a wo chickens He shouted, and she looked up, her ht of him
‘Hey,’ he said, breathless from hurry ‘I’ve had a crash I need help Are ye on the phone, maybe?’
She didn’t answer She dropped the basket of chicken feed and ran right away, round the corner of the house He sighed in exasperation Well, n of a vehicle, not so much as a tractor, but y, bearded, and snaggletoothed He was also dressed in a dirty shirt and baggy short pants that showed his hairy legs and bare feet--and accompanied by two other men in similar comic attire Jerry instantly interpreted the looks on their faces, and didn’t stay to laugh
‘Hey, nay probleht?’
They kept co out to surround him He hadn’t liked the looks of thery, they looked, with a speculative glitter in their eyes
One of the to him, a question of some kind, but the Northumbrian accent was too thick for him to catch more than a word ‘Who’ was the word, and he hastily pulled his dog tags froreen disks at them One of the men s up ‘I didna mean to--’
The man in the lead reached out a horny hand and took hold of Jerry’s forearo, punched hi like a fish’s, but no air came in He flailed wildly, but they all were on hi out to each other, and he didn’t understand a word, but the intent was plain as the nose he ed to butt with his head
It was the only blow he landed Within two , had his pockets rifled, been stripped of his jacket and dog tags, been frog-marched down the road and heaved bodily down a steep, rocky slope
He rolled, bouncing fro out an ar halt and lay with his face in a clu Dolly to the pictures, just before he’d joined up They’d seen The Wizard of Oz, and he was beginning to feel creepily like the lass in that film--maybe it was the resemblance of the Northumbrians to scarecrows and lions