The Devil and His Boy Read Online Free PDF

there into a triumphant smile. “We’ll have the boy back – aye and that fine horse with him. And as for our brave traveller…”
    “Dead meat, Mrs S.”
    “Dead and buried, my beloved.”
    And laughing softly to themselves, the innkeeper and his wife turned and began to scavenge for the coins in the mud where they’d been thrown.

the ambush
    He was leaving Framlingham!
    As he watched the last traces of the village disappear behind him, Tom still couldn’t believe it was happening. He had been born in Framlingham. He had lived his whole life there. And he’d always assumed he would die there – probably quite soon. And not only was he leaving … he was on a horse! The Slopes could never have afforded a horse like this, even with all the money they had stolen. The only animal they’d ever owned had been a dog and that had gone mad when they forgot to feed it.
    It was the man who broke the silence.
    “Tom,” he said, “do you have a second name?”
    “My father’s name was Falconer, sir,” Tom replied. “At least, that was what they put on his gravestone. But I’ve only ever been Tom.”
    “And my name is Hawkins,” the traveller said. “Sir William Hawkins.” He smiled. “A hawk and a falcon. We make a good pair.”
    Hawkins pulled on the reins and the horse stopped. He twisted in the saddle and gazed at the boy behind him. His eyes narrowed. He reached out and brushed the hair out of Tom’s eyes, his fingers stroking the boy’s forehead. “It is most wonderful,” he muttered. “You remind me of someone. I knew it the moment I first set eyes on you. But who? There’s the mystery. Who indeed?”
    He turned round and the horse moved off again.
    “Are we really going to London?” Tom asked.
    “We are.”
    “But why? What do you want with me?”
    “It’s not for me to answer your questions, Tom,” Hawkins replied. “I was told to find you and that’s what I’ve done. But for the rest of it … you’ll have to wait until we arrive.”
    Until we arrive.
    But would they?
    Ever since they had set out another fear had been stirring in Tom’s mind. Gamaliel Ratsey was somewhere out there. Maybe he was watching them even now. Tom glanced around him. On one side there were fields, cut into narrow strips with rough trenches in between. On the other, trees were already beginning to thicken into a wood which would soon surround them. Hawkins had spoken of the road to London, but of course there was no real road. They were following a track that was so faint it was barely a track at all. There was nobody else in sight.
    “Why are we going this way?” Tom asked.
    “It’s the way I came,” Hawkins replied.
    “Is this the only way to London?”
    “It’s the fastest way. Why, Tom? What’s the matter?”
    Tom wasn’t sure how to answer. Part of him wanted to tell Hawkins all about Ratsey and to plead with him to go another way. But at the same time he was too afraid to speak. It was he, after all, who had informed Ratsey about the traveller only the night before – as he had done many times in the past. Tom had never been a willing part of it but even so he knew that if Ratsey were discovered, he would hang with him.
    The forest grew thicker, the silence more profound. Above them, a black crow launched itself out of a tree with a sudden scream. Tom could bear it no more.
    “Please, Mr Hawkins!” he exclaimed. “You have to go another way. You’re in danger…”
    But it was already too late.
    Ahead of them, a figure suddenly stepped out, something long and metallic in its hand. The horse reared and tried to find a way round. But there were thick briars on either side. There was no other way.
    Gamaliel Ratsey was wearing another, even more disgusting mask. This one showed the head of a fish, but a fish that was already dead and rotting. Its eyes were white and sightless. Its lips were disfigured as if torn by the fisherman’s hook. Where its neck met Ratsey’s shoulders, blood and green