Soul Seekers Read Online Free PDF Page B

once about how people used to sleep for two periods at night, in the time before streetlights. Instead of one long sleep, they would sleep for two four-hour periods, with a break in between when they would go about their business as though it were daytime: reading, visiting friends or carrying out chores.
    Cas looked at the interior of the prison wagon. The floor and roof were solid panels of wood two-inches thick, far too strong to scrape or push through. The bars were thin and not too closely spaced, but the gaps were too small for anybody to squeeze through. The gate on one side of the wagon was made of iron and welded onto heavy hinges. The lock securing it was bigger than Cas’s fist. Unbreakable.
    Cas thought of his father, trapped inside the city and facing certain death. Joshua was a great dad and the thought of him dying here alone sent a shiver of grief shuddering through his body. Cas fought back tears that welled in his eyes as he forced himself to think. He remembered what his father had told him long ago when Cas was afraid of the bigger boys in his new school in England:
    ‘You can’t fight your way out of everything, but you can think your way out of anything.’
    Cas looked at the bars and then across at Kip’s cane, and an idea formed in his mind.
    Cas waited until the other prisoners in the wagon were asleep, old Kip snoring loudly. The guards were not far away but slumped against nearby trees, dozing quietly. Cas could just make out soldiers standing guard around the edges of the camp: picket duty, he’d heard them call it.
    Cas touched Jude and Emily on the arm and together they huddled alongside Siren.
    ‘It’s time to leave,’ Cas whispered.
    ‘We’re in a prison wagon with iron bars,’ Jude uttered, ‘just sayin’.’
    Cas looked at Siren. ‘Take your belt off.’
    ‘Are you kidding?’ she hissed.
    ‘Do it,’ Cas insisted. ‘Jude, get me Kip’s cane.’
    ‘What are you going to do?’ Jude challenged. ‘Poke your way out?’
    Cas ignored Jude as Siren undid her thick leather belt and handed it across to him. Jude returned moments later, having slid Kip’s cane from his grasp. He handed it across to Cas, who shuffled across to the iron bars on the side of the wagon that was opposite to where the guards were dozing against the trees.
    Cas threaded Siren’s belt through two of the bars and back into the wagon, then fastened it. As Siren, Jude and Emily looked on he slid Kip’s cane up through the belt hoop and then began twirling it around and around.
    The cane twisted the belt, which became taut under the pressure, squeezing against the iron bars. Cas increased the pressure on the cane, squeezing the belt tighter.
    Siren moved alongside him and grasped the cane, forcing it farther around with her greater strength. The thin iron bars began to bend toward each other under the pressure.
    ‘That’s brilliant!’ Emily whispered excitedly.
    Cas and Siren twisted the belt until the iron bars were almost touching, and then Cas slipped the cane out and undid the belt. Siren understood immediately and moved the belt across to the next pair of bars. Cas fastened the belt and together they turned the cane through the belt until it pulled the bars toward each other.
    Cas sat back and looked at the gap, wide enough for them to slip through.
    Siren threaded her belt through her jeans and looked at Cas. ‘Not bad for a wimp.’
    Cas grinned and carefully slid between the bars.
    ‘Hurry,’ Jude whispered. ‘Somebody’s coming.’
    Cas clambered down off the wagon and dashed away from the glow of the camp fires. He reached the safety of the darkness and turned to see Emily and Jude drop from inside the wagon and hurry across to join him. Last out was Siren.
    Cas looked to his left and saw two patrolling soldiers walking side by side from out of the woods, their muskets cradled in their arms as they surveyed the camp.
    ‘We’d better get moving,’ Emily said. ‘If they see the bars are