B00DW1DUQA EBOK Read Online Free PDF Page B

nothing. He blew the whistle again, as loud as he could.
    This time he heard an answering call, someone shouting in the distance. The two boys scrambled to their feet. Connor snatched the whistle and blew it again and again. Through the gloom they heard more calls, voices growing louder.
    It was fully dark by the time their rescuers arrived. Finn’s parents and several workers from the farm, including Connor’s own father and two uncles. Not Connor’s mother, of course, as she was bed-ridden and never left her room. Matt was with them, lengthsman’s tools slung over his shoulder. Some of the men drove a team of eight heavy horses, pushing a great wooden plough up through the drifts. The horses strained against the hill and the weight of the snow, steam rising off them as they stamped forwards. Men shovelled mounds of snow aside with diamond-shaped spades. Others held up hissing torches that burned with a shifting light and gave off threads of smoke that lay horizontal in the cold air.
    At the tree, his father sat on one of the horses and reached up to pluck Finn from the lowest branch. He held Finn tight for long moments, muffling him into his furs, his grip like iron. Finn had to turn his head to one side to breathe but he didn’t mind. Then his father held him out at arms’ length, dangling him in the air to look into his eyes.
    ‘What were you thinking of? I've told you a hundred times to stay away from the snow fields.’
    ‘I ...’
    ‘It wasn't his fault,’ called out Connor from another horse. ‘It was mine. I was chasing him.’
    Finn looked across at Connor, who winked. He sat in front of his own father. The Baron was a short, powerful man with a scowling red face. Finn avoided him at all times. The King of the Valley they sometimes called him, only half-joking. Finn could see, now, the similarity of Connor to his father. Finn, on the other hand, was nothing like his father. He was tall for his age but stick-thin.
    ‘No,’ said Finn. ‘It wasn't like that. Connor saved me . I didn't know what was happening. I forgot about what you said. I’m sorry.’
    ‘Just so long as you’re both safe,’ the Baron said.
    ‘Aye, well,’ said Finn’s father. ‘No harm done. But listen to what we tell you next time, eh?’
    ‘I will.’
    ‘Come on,’ said Finn’s mother. ‘Let’s get you both home.’
    The two boys were wrapped in blankets and given soup that had been kept warm in a silver flask. They sat side-by-side on a plank of wood stretched across the horses’ traces, facing backwards, rocking together as they made their way back down the slope. Everyone moved slowly, men and horses exhausted by their efforts. They followed the path that had been forced through the avalanche on the way up. Finn, very sleepy, watched the trees drift by over the high walls of ploughed snow.
    Back near the water-wheel they went their separate ways, Connor and the horses to the farm, Finn walking with his mother and father to their own house. The snow was thinner here. The avalanche had hit the river some way upstream. There were countless lines of footprints, as if a crowd of people had been darting backwards and forwards looking for something.
    His father picked him up, swung him round and placed him onto his shoulders. They headed for home, the electric lights from their windows twinkling to them through the gathering gloom.
    ‘I lost my sledge,’ said Finn.
    ‘We can make a new sledge,’ said his father.
    ‘Hey, Finn!’ Connor called out. ‘Let’s play together tomorrow!’
    Finn twisted to see Connor disappearing into the darkness astride one of his father’s horses. Too weary to shout, Finn waved a thumbs-up sign at his new friend.

Chapter 3
    A shower of rain thrummed on the metal roof of the moving engine, heavier and heavier, the sound swelling from drum-beat to roar. Finn clasped his hands over his ears. It was the roar of the avalanche once again. Despite the darkness he screwed his eyes tight shut.