Gunner Kelly Read Online Free PDF

have been told not to speak to strange men in cars, so he couldn’t rationally fault her behaviour. But he liked children, and was used to them, and prided himself on being good with them and was accustomed to their trust, so that— however irrationally—he recoiled from the role of strange-man-in-a-car and was disturbed by her fear.
    Yet there was more to it than that, his momentary irrationality told him: the very young were innocent, and gullible and inexperienced with it, but they sometimes knew more than the very wise, picking up vibrations of danger with senses which atrophied as their experience of life increased; and now he was about to enter her secret little English valley—
    But that was absurd fantasy! He broke contact with her and shifted the gear-lever into drive. It wasn’t her valley, and it was only secret for the lack of a proper signpost—the busy main road almost within earshot, and it was only the foreignness of this small-scale countryside which he was foolishly letting himself be upset by, as he might be upset by some unpalatable local dish or custom to which he was unused, but which was unpalatable only because it was different from what he was accustomed to.
    He felt the solid force of the water resist the forward thrust of the wheels, and then the Mercedes pulled free of the stream and surged ahead effortlessly into the dark tunnel formed by the overhanging trees. Then the road curved, to follow the line of the valley, and he could see open country ahead again, with one last glimpse of the child in his rear-view mirror as she broke cover to watch him go, and then took refuge inside the telephone box.
    Beyond the ford the road meandered along the slope of the ridge, undulating with its gentle curves. Large single trees, which looked as though they had been planted for effect, rather than groves and plantations, obscured his view of the wider landscape. He became aware that he was in a different sort of countryside before he understood why it was different. Then he saw that there were no hedges, only a low iron railing on each side of the narrow road: it was as though he was passing through a private parkland—
    Chase —of course, that was what all this land was: Duntisbury Chase —which he had looked up in Mother’s massive double-volumed Shorter Oxford English Dictionary , ever to be relied on, and not least to be trusted as a sure reminder of their first and best owner, who had passed them on to him so long ago.
    Chase—
    3. A tract of unenclosed land reserved for breeding and hunting wild animals ME… ‘ME’ meaning ‘Middle English’, of the medieval variety, when, presumably, those Germanic t ribes who had spoken ‘Old English’—‘OE’—had settled their conquests well enough to start breeding and hunting for enjoyment—
    4. That which is hunted ME …
    And 5. Those who hunt (1811) …
    That certainly covered everything he needed now (the Shorter could always be relied on): here he was, Benedikt Schneider, alias Thomas Wiesehöfer, in the chase, after the chase, and one of the chase, 3., 4., and 5., with all options catered for between the iron railings this fine English summer’s midday—
    But … no further along the chase at the moment, for the road was blocked ahead, with a tractor trying to manoeuvre a trailer loaded with hay bales almost broadside across it.
    As Benedikt halted the car a heavily-built farm labourer appeared from behind the trailer, eyed the gap between the side of the vehicle and the gatepost critically, and shook his head in despair.
    The tractor juddered forward slowly.
    “Whoa!” roared the labourer to the youth at the wheel of the tractor. “You’ll ‘ave the bloody post an’ all! You just back up an‘ straighten ’er now, an‘ come out proper, like I told you.”
    The youth looked from side to side uneasily—as well he might, thought Benedikt sympathetically, for both the road and the entrance to the field were narrow.
    “Just take