The Runaways Read Free

worse than her bite and was only engaged just now in trying to get the children sufficiently under control for it to be possible to live with them. But it takes a long time to learn to appreciate the excellent motives of those who are trying to control you, and patient waiting was not the strong point of the Linnet children. They had the charming surname of Linnet, and it was a pity it did not suit them.
    The rubbish heap was at the bottom of the kitchen garden hidden from the world by a tall yew hedge that bordered the garden upon the west. It was private, and a good place for counsels of war. Usually they sat cross-legged on the rough grass for the discussion of their affairs, but today Robert did not stop to sit down before announcing, ‘We’re escaping. We will walk to the mountains and earn our living there.’
    ‘Are there mountains?’ asked Nan cautiously. Robert had such a fine imagination that it was necessary to distinguish between what was there and what he thought was there. They were sometimes the same, but not always.
    ‘I’ve seen them,’ said Robert. ‘Westwards where the sun sets.’ And he swung round dramatically with one arm outflung toward the yew hedge. Should he be the greatest actor of the age? he suddenly wondered. Would there be more money in being a great actor than inburglary or acrobatics? He was so busy wondering that he did not actually look at the yew hedge and it was Timothy who yelled, ‘Look!’
    Behind the hedge the sky was a bright blue. It dazzled the eyes and got inside the head and exploded there as a wild desire for wings, so that one could take off and soar up into it. There was a bird up there who had done just that, and his song came down to the earth he had left in a clear fall of music that was lovelier than anything the children had ever heard, and leaning against the yew hedge was a ladder that the gardener had forgotten to take away. Timothy was up it in a flash. His smooth fair head showed for a moment gold against the blue of the sky and then he was gone. Robert gave a gasp of astonishment and then he leapt after Timothy, Absolom still under his arm. Betsy scrambled after him clutching at Absolom’s plume of a tail to help herself up, and Nan came last rather more soberly. She was not expecting to take off into the sky as the lark had done, and it did just cross her mind that it might not be as easy on the other side of the hedge as Robert seemed to think. But she climbed steadily to the top of the hedge, for Father had told her to look after the others, and resignedly fell off it on to the struggling mass of the other four down below.
    At first there was a good deal of noise, for though they had fallen on to the grass verge of a narrow lane it had been a considerable fall. Betsy was roaring because she had bumped herself, Absolom was yelping because she still had hold of his tail and the boys were shouting at them both to stow their din.
    ‘Do you want to bring the Thunderbolt out on us?’ asked Nan as soon as she could make herself heard. ‘Because if you don’t, keep quiet.’
    They disentangled themselves in a sudden silence, got up and looked about them. The lane ran between gardens and backs of houses and only a short distance to their right turned left towards the sunset: ‘That’s the way,’ said Robert, and ran down it, the others after him, Absolom bringing up the rear with his tongue out and his ears flopping. He was a medium-sized mongrel, dirty white in colour, very hairy, and apt to get caught in bushes because he was so hairy. His great dark eyes were his only beauty, but it was difficult to see them through the thicket of hair that fell over them. But he could run fast. He had to.
    The lane brought them to the back streets of the little town and they followed these towards the sunset. Beyond the town the road began to climb steeply between woods and fields. Streams ran through the fields, quick-running streams that had come down from the hills,