Conquering Kilmarni by Hugh Cave Page A

that door locked at night. If he didn't, anyone coming along the veranda could walk right into his bedroom. And someone must be out there now, trying to get his attention.
    Swinging himself out of bed, he snatched the flashlight he always kept on his bedside table. Without switching it on, he went to the door and, with his face close to it, said quietly, "Who is it? Who's out there?"
    "Me! Zackie!"
    With the light on, Peter quickly turned the key and drew the door open. There was no sound of rain anymore, he noticed at once. But when Zackie walked into the room, his pants sounded like wet sheets flapping on a clothesline, and in only a moment there was a puddle on the floor around his bare feet. With water running down his face from his hair, he looked half-drowned.
    "Hey!" Peter said. "You got my message at the garden!"
    "Yeah. After Corpie did let me go, me think it better me go up there." Zackie wiped the water from his face with both hands, and then wiped his hands on his shirt. "You really mean me can stay here tonight?"
    "Not just tonight." In the light from the flash, Peter could see now how wet the boy really was. "Look. Why don't you take those clothes off while I get a towel from the bathroom? Go ahead. I won't be a second." He turned and hurried out, wondering if he should wake his father. Better not, he decided.
    When he returned with the towel, Zackie was on the veranda, wringing out his wet clothes and draping them over the railing. "There's a bed in the room next to this one," Peter said while the boy was drying himself. "But we can talk first. That is, unless you're pretty tired. I bet it was no picnic, walking all the way down from your garden in the rain." Suddenly he realized Zackie was naked. "Hey, you want some clothes to put on, or do you want some pajamas?"
    "Well . . . pajamas, if me going to bed."
    "Sure." Peter pulled open a dresser drawer and held out a pair of blue ones. "These okay?"
    Zackie took them and looked at them for a few seconds, then grinned. "You know something, Peter? Never in me whole life did me ever wear pajamas."
    "What do you wear?"
    "When it warm enough, nothing. When it cold, me sleep in me clothes." Zackie stepped carefully into the pajama pants. "These fit real good."
    "Yeah. We're about the same size."
    Zackie put on the top part and grinned. "Boy! These good enough fe go to school in!"
    "Sit down a minute. I've got something to tell you," Peter said. "Better yet, if you're tired, stretch out on the bed."
    Zackie lay down on the side of the bed Peter hadn't been using, and after relocking the door to the veranda, Peter lay down, too. "How'd you like to go to Kingston tomorrow?" Peter asked.
    "What?"
    "My dad and I are going to Kingston. You can come if you want to. I've already asked him."
    "Well . . ."
    "We can look for your mother. Corporal Buckley says she works at a place called the Constant Spring market."
    Zackie had been lying on his back, with his hands laced behind his head. He turned over on his side now so he could look at Peter. "Corpie did say what?"
    "He said he knows your mother, and she works at Constant Spring market. My dad said we can go there. That is, if there's time enough left after he does what he's going to town for, like seeing his lawyer and other dumb stuff."
    "Boy!" Zackie said in a whisper.
    "My mom used to say everything that happens is for the best," Peter said. "What she meant is that everything's good if you find something good in it. Looks like she was right, hey? I mean, if the corporal hadn't come here looking for you, we wouldn't know where your mom works."
    "Don't it the truth!" Zackie said. He was trembling enough to make the bed shake.
    "So, after the corporal spoke to you, you went up to your garden and found the message I scratched in the dirt, huh?"
    "That's right."
    "Where'd you sleep last night? You didn't come back to the mule pen."
    "Me daddy did know me was there the night before. Natty Anderson did tell me. So me afraid to go