The Crowstarver by Dick King-Smith Page A

and you two Ogle boys, and then spread yourselves round the back of the spinney. We’ll go in the front. If you see him and he comes out with his hands up, all well and good, but if he’s got a pistol, don’t try anything till we get help. And you, Billy, give me that pitchfork of yourn.’
    Once he was satisfied that his men had surrounded the spinney, Percy shouted, ‘Come on out with your hands up!’ and then, remembering the phrase from that other War, ‘
Hände hoch
!’ At this, some woodpigeons crashed out of the ash trees but there was no sign of the fugitive.
    Spider pulled at Tom’s arm.
    â€˜What is it?’ the shepherd said.
    â€˜Spider’s house,’ said the boy.
    â€˜Like as not,’ said Tom to Percy.
    â€˜Come on then,’ said the foreman.‘You keep behind me and keep the boy behind you,’ and he limped forward into the edge of the spinney, pitchfork held before him.
    Spider’s house was partly overgrown now. Climbing plants had crept up its sides, and it was surrounded by a bed of stinging nettles. A pathway through the nettles had been freshly crushed, they could see.
    â€˜He’s in there,’ said Percy softly.‘Tom, you pull the flap of the ricksheet back,’ and he stood opposite the entry to the shelter, pitchfork at the ready, his weight forward on his good leg.
    â€˜Keep back of me, Spider,’ said Tom, and he pulled back the flap.
    â€˜Right,’ said Percy.‘Come out, you bastard.’
    Then, bending under the low entry, there emerged from Spider’s house a slim boyish figure, with fair curly hair and blue eyes.
    â€˜
Kamerad,
’ said the German pilot quietly, as he raised his hands above his head. He managed a nervous smile.
    Percy Pound stared into those blue eyes, and all of a sudden, as he did so, he experienced a dramatic change of mood. He found himself forgetting his anger and his hatred for any member of the race that had killed his son, and instead he felt a stab of pity and an enormous sorrow for the madness of mankind.
    He lowered the pitchfork.
    Oh dear God, he thought, he looks so much like our Henry.

C HAPTER F OURTEEN
    T he war in the air played quite a part in the life of Outoverdown Farm that September, as the Battle of Britain was fought. Hardly had the wrecked Messerschmitt been removed than another official telegram arrived, this time for Major and Mrs Yorke. Mercifully, it was not news of death, but of capture.
    Their only son, Pilot Officer Hugh Yorke, had been shot down over the French coast. In a kind of mirror-image of the incident on the farm, he had managed to land his stricken Hurricane and had been taken prisoner.
    â€˜First Percy’s boy, now Mister’s boy,’ said Tom to Kathie. ‘These things often come in threes. Will it be Albie Stanhope next, d’you think?’
    â€˜He was home on leave not long ago,wasn’t he?’ said Kathie.
    â€˜Yes, he’s stationed up in the north of the county, I think, not all that far away,’ said Tom.
    â€˜How’s your Albie then?’ said the shepherd to the horseman when next they met.
    â€˜Oh, he’s fallen on his feet, he has,’ said Ephraim.‘They’ve gone mechanized, his lot have, thees know, riding on Bren carriers instead of horses, but our Albie’s C.O., he’s a hunting man, like Mister, and he keeps a couple of horses and gets a day out now and again, and what d’you think?’
    â€˜I bet I know,’ said Tom. ‘Albie’s got the job of looking after them.’
    Ephraim nodded.
    â€˜Rides ’em out, what’s more.’
    â€˜Cushy young devil,’ said Tom.‘Wass think about Mister’s boy then?’
    â€˜He’s alive, any road,’ said Ephraim. Unlike Percy’s son, each man thought.
    â€˜One thing,’ said the horseman.‘Your lad’s safe, whatever happens.’
    Tom of course had no means of