The Power of Five Oblivion Read Online Free PDF

that they were going to grab hold of him and throw him out of the church – perhaps into prison too. There was a pit in the garage that was used for exactly that purpose, a square hole covered in wire mesh. It hadn’t been used since Jack Hawes, the undertaker, had attacked his neighbour in a dispute over cabbages. He had been sent there for six weeks but he had been let out after three because Mrs Draper had suddenly died and nobody else could be bothered to dig her grave.
    “Wait a minute!” Mr Flint had got to his feet and put himself between the three men. He was a small, neat man with wavy grey hair and if a fight had broken out he would have been squashed in an instant. But a fight was exactly what he was trying to avoid. “The Traveller is here,” he said. “The damage is done. We might as well hear what he’s got to say.”
    Reade and Dolan looked ugly – not difficult for them – but all eyes turned back to Sir Ian, awaiting his decision. Meanwhile, I glanced at Jamie. He had sat perfectly still through all this but I could see he was thinking hard, as if he had no idea what was going on here but was doing his best to work it out.
    Sir Ian was still dithering. Whose side should he take? How could he get out of this without losing authority? In the end, Miss Keyland came to his rescue.
    “I don’t think it will hurt to let him speak, Sir Ian,” she said. “After all, these are exceptional circumstances. And the Traveller came here just like the boy. I agree with Mr Flint. We should hear what he has to say.”
    “Very well.” Now that someone else had made the decision for him, Sir Ian felt more comfortable. “But be brief, Traveller. Say what you have to and then leave.”
    Everyone took their places again. The Traveller had reached the open space in front of me and Jamie and stood there, surrounded by the Council members. Rita, wisely, had said nothing for the whole time. I knew she still had deep suspicions about the Traveller and her opinion hadn’t changed in all the seven years he had been here. “There was nothing chance about the way he arrived, slipping in in the middle of the night,” I’d once heard her say. “And what does he get up to on that boat of his? He says it won’t move. He says it’s stuck on a mudbank. But I wonder!”
    “He doesn’t have a horse any more,” I’d reminded her. “And anyway, why would he want to move?”
    “Why did he come in the first place? That’s what I’d like to know!”
    And here he was now, examining the Council with a glimmer in his eye, as if he knew a lot more than they did and a lot more than he was going to tell.
    “It’s very simple,” he began. “You said it yourselves when you were examining the girl. The only reason that this village has survived as long as it has is because nobody knows it’s here. You’ve got the forest and the river but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? How many years is it since you took down all the road signs and dug up the road so nobody would find their way through? You’ve even got watchtowers. You’ve taken a lot of care to make sure that you’re left alone – and quite right too.”
    “You found us,” Reverend Johnstone muttered.
    “I found you by chance, vicar,” the Traveller agreed. “And you were one of those who voted to let me stay. I’ll always be grateful to you for that. I like it here. I’m comfortable on the Lady Jane and I’m sure you’ll agree that I pull my weight in the village. I’d say I’m pretty much one of you now – which is why I don’t want you to spoil it. You contact the police, you’ll be telling them about yourselves. Worse than that, you’ll be inviting them here – and who’s to say what will happen as a result? Of course, they’ll take the boy. But are you so sure they’ll be grateful to you? You really think you’ll get their thanks?”
    “They offered a reward,” Dolan growled.
    “That’s easy enough to do, isn’t it. A hundred