Catweazle

what’s that?’
    ‘Sssh. That I will say nothing,’
    ‘That I will say nothing,’
    ‘Of Catweazle.’
    ‘Of Catweazle,’ finished Carrot, his eyes still following the moving
knife.
    ‘ ’Tis well,’ said Catweazle, sheathing Adamcos. Slowly Carrot’s eyes
re-focused.
    ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Now don’t you think you ought to push off?’
    Before Catweazle had a chance to ask the hoy what he meant, they were
interrupted by the sound of Sam trying to get into the kitchen.
    ‘Carrot!’ he called, ‘I can’t get in.’
    Carrot froze and pointed towards the scullery, but as Catweazle reached
the door and prepared to run out into the yard, the headlights from Mr Bennet’s
truck swept across the windows.
    ‘It’s Dad,’ hissed Carrot, grabbing Catweazle, and he pushed him once
more towards the kitchen.
    ‘What are you playin’ at, Carrot?’ came Sam’s aggrieved voice from the
hall.
    ‘We’re trapped!’ whispered Carrot, bundling Catweazle over to the
kitchen window as he heard the door °f the truck slam and his father’s
approaching footsteps.
    Whither shall I go?’ wailed Catweazle as Carrot frantically opened the
window and tried to push him out.
    Anywhere,’ he said, longing to be rid of him, ‘Just go!’ a nd
heaving with all his might he got most of Catweazle ° u t of the
window. For a moment he hung on the sill, then with a. final shove and a crash
of broken glass Catweazle fell out into the night.
    Sam finally pushed the chair away from the door and staggered into the
room just as Mr Bennet, hearing the noise of breaking glass, came hurrying in
from the scullery.
    ‘What the devil are you two up to?’ he said angrily.
    ‘Me, boss!’ said Sam with outraged innocence, as Carrot
finally managed to close the shattered window.
    ‘How did that happen, Carrot?’ said Mr Bennet, pointing grimly at the
window.
    Carrot, deciding to tell his father everything, opened his mouth to
speak.
    ‘Well, you see, Dad,’ he began. ‘There was this - ’, but he found he
couldn’t say any more. His voice just wouldn’t come. He tried again. ‘There was
this - ’, but it was no good, he had dried up completely.
    ‘Well, come on,’ said his father patiently, ‘tell me.’
    Carrot tried again, but it was impossible for him to say anything at all
about Catweazle.
    ‘I can’t,’ he said desperately.
    ‘What d’you mean - you can’t?’ Mr Bennet was beginning to lose his
temper.
    ‘Well,’ said Carrot, ‘I want to, but - ’, and again he found it
impossible to speak. With a great effort Mr Bennet controlled himself.
    ‘I’ll give you one last chance to explain. Do you understand?’
    ‘Yes, Dad,’ said Carrot, preparing himself.
    ‘Good. Now what exactly have you been up to?’
    Carrot opened his mouth but no sound came out. He pointed to his mouth,
then to the window and sadly shook his head,
    ‘All right,’ said Mr Bennet furiously. ‘If you’re going to play about
with me, my lad, you’d better go straight to bed!’
    Carrot walked miserably across the room and turning at the door, made
one last attempt to speak.
    ‘Go to bed!’ ordered his father, convinced that Carrot was just trying
to be funny, and the boy slunk out of the room.
    ‘Ain’t never seen ’im like that before,’ said Sam. Mr Bennet sighed
heavily. ‘When I was in the army,’ he said, ‘we called that dumb insolence.’
    There was a sudden gobbling from one of the turkey pens. The two men
listened.
    ‘Could be a fox,’ said Sam.
    It wasn’t a fox. It was Catweazle looking for somewhere to hide for the
night. He shied away from the strange birds and their unearthly cries and
eventually found refuge in a disused chicken coop, on the edge of the farm.
Creeping in and carefully shutting the door behind him, he examined his new
shelter.
    Hanging from the roof was an old hurricane lantern, so Catweazle looked
on the door post for a switch. As chance would have it there was a large nail
sticking out at an angle, and he crooked his finger round it and looking
towards the lantern, gave a tug.
    ‘Shine tiny sun,’ he chanted, pulling on the nail. ‘Shine tiny sun!’
Nothing happened. There was no blinding light to dazzle him and after trying
again for a few times he gave up.
    He settled himself in the hay, bewildered by all the extraordinary
happenings. He had jumped forward through time nine hundred years, of this
there was no doubt, and now he found himself in a world of new and