B00DW1DUQA EBOK Read Online Free PDF

following me?’ Finn managed to ask.
    ‘I wasn’t,’ said Connor. ‘Not at first. I was looking for somewhere to ice-fish and found your tracks. I followed, then I heard the snow breaking. My dad warned me it could happen but I didn’t believe him.
    ‘You saved my life.’
    Connor shrugged, as if near-death adventures happened to him every day. ‘You saved mine. I couldn't have found that tree without you.’
    Finn grinned and looked at Connor. The older boy wasn’t, in truth, very much taller than he was. He looked much stronger, though, his arms thick with muscles where Finn’s were just straight lines.
    ‘You’re a good climber,’ said Connor. ‘Just like a squirrel.’ His eyes glinted with amusement beneath his shock of black hair.
    ‘Good job no-one has a catapult down there,’ said Finn.
    Connor laughed. He flipped off the backpack he carried and pulled out his catapult. It was a Y-shaped piece of wood with red twine bound around it for a handle. It was strung with a length of strong elastic upon which was threaded a small leather pouch.
    ‘Fancy a go?’ asked Connor. ‘I’ve got a few stones. I collect the good ones.’
    They took turns firing the catapult, making the pebbles rebound of the surrounding trees, seeing who could hit a certain branch, seeing who could fire a stone the farthest. Connor’s went so far you lost sight of them but Finn was at least as accurate as the older boy. Twice he beat Connor to hit a knot on a nearby oak.
    ‘Here’s your prize,’ said Connor. He pulled two apples out of his backpack and handed one to Finn. They both ate hungrily.
    ‘How deep do you think the snow is?’ asked Finn. The ground looked much nearer than it normally did.
    ‘Pretty deep. Don’t think we could walk through it.’
    ‘When do you think they'll find us?’
    ‘Oh, soon enough,’ said Connor, leaning backwards against the trunk of the tree and closing his eyes. ‘Our tracks will have been obliterated but they’ll find us. Wait, I know!’
    He was alert again and rummaging around in his backpack. This time he pulled out a small, wooden whistle.
    ‘My mother carved it for me. There’s a dried pea inside, see.’
    He put it to his lips and blew, sending out a shrill sound that cut easily through the muffled air.
    ‘We’ll blow this every few minutes then they’ll know where we are. I’ve got this, too.’
    He fished out a small, brass tube. A telescope. Connor stretched it open and held it up to his eye, surveying the woods around them.
    ‘It’s our old line-of-sight. There’s a crack in one of the lenses but it still works.’
    ‘Let me see.’
    It took a few moments for Finn to get his eye in the right place, and to work out how to focus it. He wasn’t allowed to touch theirs at home. The distant trees down the slope sprang into sharp detail. He swept the telescope backwards and forwards, looking for signs of life, for someone coming to rescue them.
    ‘See anyone?’ asked Connor.
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘Ah, well. They’ll find us.’
    Connor didn’t seem in the least frightened now. It was all like some game for him. If Finn had been on his own he’d probably have tried to climb down and make his way home. Connor seemed quite comfortable where he was.
    ‘Here, watch this,’ said Connor.
    The older boy stood again and, after a moment’s fumbling, sent out a jet of pee into the air. He took great delight in making swirling patterns in the snow beneath them.
    ‘I can write my name!’ he called.
    Laughing again, Finn stood to join in with him.
     
    When the daylight started to fade, darkness creeping through the trees to surround them, they huddled back together for warmth, locking arms. Finn shivered with the cold. His eyes drifted shut again and again, but he was terrified of falling asleep and pitching out of the tree. He blew the whistle one more time.
    ‘I heard about your sister,’ said Connor.
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Did she want to go?’
    Finn shrugged but said