A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines Page A

I see. Carry on.’
    ‘Well when you’ve done that, you thread your leash, that’s a leather thong, through t’bottom ring o’ t’swivel…’
    Billy carefully threaded the leash, grabbed the loose end as it penetrated the ring, and pulled it through.
    ‘… until it binds on t’knot at t’other end. Have you got that?’
    ‘Yes, I think so. Just let me get it right. The jesses round the hawk’s legs are attached to a swivel, which is then attached to a lead…’
    ‘A leash!’
    ‘Leash, sorry. Then what?’
    ‘You wrap your leash round your fingers and tie it on to your little finger.’
    ‘So that the hawk is now attached to your hand?’
    ‘That’s right. Well when you’ve reached this stage and it’s stepping on to your glove regular, and feeding all right and not bating too much…’
    ‘Bating? What’s that?’
    ‘Trying to fly off; in a panic like.’
    ‘How do you spell it?’
    ‘ B-A-T-I-N-G .’
    ‘Carry on.’
    ‘Well when you’ve reached this stage inside, you can try feeding her outside and getting her used to other things. You call this manning. That means taming, and you’ve got to have her well manned before you can start training her right.’
    While Billy was talking Mr Farthing reached out and slowly printed on the board BATING; watching Billy all the time as though he was a hawk, and that any sudden movement, or rasp of chalk would make him bate from the side of the desk.
    ‘You take her out at night first and don’t go near anybody. I used to walk her round t’fields at t’back of our house at first, then as she got less nervous I started to bring her out in t’day and then take her near other folks, and dogs and cats and cars and things. You’ve to be ever so careful when you’re outside though, ’cos hawks are right nervous and they’ve got fantastic eyesight, and things are ten times worse for them than they are for us. So you’ve to be right patient, an’ all t’time you’re walking her you’ve to talk to her, all soft like, like you do to a baby.’
    He paused for breath. Mr Farthing nodded him on before he had time to become self-conscious.
    ‘Well when you’ve manned her, you can start training her right then. You can tell when she’s ready ’cos she looks forward to you comin’ an’ there’s no trouble gettin’ her on to your glove. Not like at first when she’s bating all t’time.
    ‘You start inside first, makin’ her jump on to your glove for her meat. Only a little jump at first, then a bit further and so on; and every time she comes you’ve to give her a scrap o’ meat. A reward like. When she’ll come about a leash length straight away, you can try her outside, off a fence post or summat like that. You put her down, hold on to t’end of your leash wi’ your right hand, and hold your glove out for her to fly to. This way you can get a double leash length. After she’s done this, you can take her leash off an’ attach a creance in it’s place.’
    ‘Creance?’
    Mr Farthing leaned over to the blackboard.
    ‘ C-R-E-A-N-C-E – it’s a long line, I used a long nylon fishing line wi’ a clasp off a dog lead, tied to one end. Well you clip this to your swivel, pull your leash out, and put your hawk down on a fence post. Then you walk away into t’field unwindin’ your creance, an’ t’hawk sits there waitin’ for you to stop an’ hold your glove up. It’s so it can’t fly away, you see.’
    ‘Yes I see. It all sounds very skilful and complicated, Billy.’
    ‘It don’t sound half as bad as it is though. I’ve just telled you in a couple o’ minutes how to carry on, but it takes weeks to go through all them stages. They’re as stubborn as mules, hawks, they’re right tempr… tempr…’
    ‘Temperamental.’
    ‘Temperamental. Sometimes she’d be all right, then next time I’d go in, she’d go mad, screamin’ an’ batin’ as though she’d never seen me before. You’d think you’d learnt her summat, an’ put