White Crow Read Online Free PDF Page A

answer me, but this time pointed around to the far side of the hall.
    Shaking my head, I made swift route to the pump, and saw two or three of the men gathered round it.
    - Will you pump for me while I drink, man? I asked the nearest of them.
    He bent to his task, but again said not a word.
    I took a long drink, bathing my face in the cool liquid, and straightened.
    The men stood watching me, and still none of them uttered a sound.
    - What is wrong with you all? Do none of you have anything to say?
    The nearest, who at least must have understood English, pointed to his mouth.
    I shook my head in confusion, and so he opened his mouth, and showed me that he had no tongue, that at some point in his miserable life it had been cut out. He pointed to the man next to him, and the one next to him, and waved his hand at them, and they too opened their mouths to show that their organ of speech had also been forcibly removed.
    Before I left, I went round every man in the gang, nine of them. Each and every one a mute.
    Each and every one without the power of speech.
    I wondered at Dr Barrieux, at what it was he intended;
    I wondered why he deemed a gang of mute labourers necessary to his work, and I marvelled at the power of the man to go to such lengths to ensure the success of his labours.

Four Sea Interludes - II
    I spent a few days at home, but I didn’t feel like talking to the others. I kept myself to myself. There were times when I needed them but since I turned sixteen I don’t need them any more.
    It had been fun with Rebecca, but I didn’t want to push it. She seemed to me to be very shy, which is odd for someone so beautiful. And I . . . well, I’m me, so I thought I would leave her alone for a while.
    But I began to grow itchy again, and so by Monday evening I decided to go out.
    I walked down the lane from the house, hugging the shade by the high brick wall, because it had been a really hot afternoon, and the sun still shone fiercely, though it was gone six.
    I walked along The Street, and as I passed The Mansion I slowed my pace, and risked glancing at the house from the corner of my eye. Maybe someone moved inside, maybe not, but I walked on, past the pub, and up into the woods by the snaking path, to the Lover’s Seat. A walk I must have made a thousand times or more in my life, my life in Winterfold.
    I waited.
    It was even hotter at the Seat, if possible, for although the cool sea lay in front of me, there was not a breath of wind. The sea lay like a glassy pool, and even the waves breaking on the beach seemed without energy in the heat. It was what a sailor would have called a dead calm, and surrounded by the wall of trees and bushes, it was really, really hot.
    I waited, but actually I didn’t have long to wait.
    I knew she was there behind me; I heard the rustle in the bushes, too big for a walker’s dog, and I heard the rustle stop suddenly as she must have seen I was there.
    I waited, and when she came like a timid deer into the Lover’s Seat, I turned, pretending to be surprised.
    ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘Sorry. I didn’t know . . .’
    She paused, expecting me to say something, looking for an excuse to back out again. I wasn’t going to give her one.
    ‘That’s okay,’ I said. ‘It’s a free country. I’m not doing anything anyway. Sit down.’
    I patted the grass beside me and she came over.
    She sat further away than necessary, as if she was scared of me, so I tried to make her feel better.
    ‘How are you finding Winterfold, then?’
    She shrugged. It was just one of many little gestures she had that somehow made her even more beautiful.
    ‘Quiet. It’s really quiet here,’ she said, and laughed, quickly and briefly.
    I smiled.
    ‘That’s about it.’
    I looked out to sea.
    ‘But you know, once upon a time…’
    ‘Are you going to tell me a story?’ she said, seriously.
    ‘Yes, I guess I am,’ I said. I started again. ‘Once upon a time, this was the biggest town for a hundred miles