Free The Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner Page B

weren’t winding weights up, you were winding chapel down. It comes to the same. It’s all according, gears and cogs. We’re going at that much of a rattle, the whole blooming earth, moon and stars, we need escapement to hold us together.’
    ‘I must go help me Uncle Charlie,’ said Robert, and stepped onto the ladder, into the pendulum bay.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Father. ‘l knew I could’ve saved me breath.’
    Robert went.
    ‘By, it’s a day’s work to watch you put the kettle on,’ said Father.
    Robert went.
    ‘Hey!’ Father called after him.
    ‘What?’ said Robert.
    ‘Was it you as took the extension off the wall and reared it up?’
    ‘Ay!’
    ‘By yourself?’
    ‘Ay!’
    ‘You’re shaping, youth,’ said Father.
    Robert untied Wicked Winnie, and ran with her along the road. ‘What’s he on at?’ he said. ‘“Escapement”? That’s not escapement. It’s fine oil.’
    He was able to ride a little under the wood, but he had to keep running to push.
    ‘Who-whoop! Wo-whoop! Wo-o-o-o!’
    ‘Who—whoop! Wo-whoop! Wo-o-o-o!’
    Robert heard the distant cry of the summer fields go up on Leah’s Hill.
    The men were excited. ‘Who-whoop! Wo-whoop! Wo-o-o-o! Who-whoop! Wo-whoop! Wo-o-o-o!’
    Then Robert heard a shot. It was hard, not like a gun. There was another. And four quickly after that. And silence. Robert listened. There was no sound. The heat was pressing the day flat, and the air thick with it.
    Robert left Wicked Winnie at the gate and ran into the house. He could hear Mother making the beds. ‘Father’s fettling the clock!’ he called up the bent stairs. ‘I’m off up Leah’s!’
    But first Robert cleaned Wicked Winnie again, and rubbed linseed into her wood. Then he put the kettle on the fire for Faddock Allman’s brew, and went out.
    The bottom field was cut, neat with kivvers. The men and women were eating their food under the hedge. Uncle Charlie was leaving for the road. He had his rifle slung on one shoulder and Faddock Allman over the other.
    ‘Dick-Richard! I want you!’ he shouted.
    ‘What for?’ said Robert.
    ‘Never mind what for. Let’s be having you. The tooter the sweeter.’
    Robert ran to where Uncle Charlie stood by the gate.
    ‘Gently does it, Starie Chelevek,’ said Uncle Charlie. And he carefully set Faddock Allman down in Wicked Winnie.
    ‘Where’s he going? said Robert.
    ‘He’s having his dinner with me,’ said Uncle Charlie.
    ‘At our house?’ said Robert.
    ‘Where else?’ said Uncle Charlie.
    ‘Has Father said?’
    ‘He’s not been asked,’ said Uncle Charlie. He bent down to Faddock Allman’s helmet. It had slipped over one ear.
    ‘I’ll have me brew same as usual,’ said Faddock Allman. ‘Young un fetches for me.’
    ‘Eyes front,’ said Uncle Charlie. ‘Straighten your pith pot. Get on parade, me old Toby.’
    ‘Was that you shooting? said Robert.
    ‘Ay,’ said Uncle Charlie. ‘I’m back at work Tuesday: so I might as good practise.’
    ‘I’ll not come in,’ said Faddock Allman. ‘I’ll not disturb your dinners.’
    They had reached the house.
    ‘Who’s having their dinners disturbed?’ said Uncle Charlie.
    ‘I’d sooner not,’ said Faddock Allman.
    ‘What must I do?’ said Robert.
    ‘Bung him round the back,’ said Uncle Charlie. ‘He can sun hisself, and I’ll feed him through the window.’ Robert took Faddock Allman round the side of the house and put him against the white limewash, under the thatch.
    ‘Shan’t you be too hot, Mister Allman? said Robert.
    ‘Champion,’ said Faddock Allman. ‘Grand.’ He watched the sun.
    Robert went back in.
    ‘Will he be all right?’ he said. ‘It’s a whole topcoat warmer against our back wall.’
    ‘Not for that old sweat,’ said Uncle Charlie. ‘He did his soldiering in Mesopolonica. He’s used to it.’
    Uncle Charlie lifted the boiling kettle off the fire and made a brew of cocoa. He took the brew, the kettle and his rifle with him into