'Yes, that's why it's better for folks to stick together.

Respectable folk.'

'How long have you been on the road?' John asked her.

She looked puzzled. 'We started this morning - we could see fires in Sedbergh, and they were burning the Follins farm, and that's not more than three miles from the village.'

'We've had three days' start on you. We aren't respectable any longer. We've killed people on our way here, and we may have to kill more. I think you'd better carry on by yourselves, as you were doing.'

They stared at him. The older man said at last:

'I suppose you had to. I suppose a man's got to save himself and his family any way he can. They got me on killing in the First War, and the Jerries hadn't burned Sedbergh then, nor the Follins farm. If you've got to do things, then you've got to.'

John did not reply. At the wall, the two children were playing with the others, scrambling up and along the wall and down in a complicated kind of obstacle race. Arm saw his glance, and rose to come towards him.

'Can we go with you?' the man said. 'We'll do as you say - I don't mind killing if it's necessary, and we can do our share of the work. We don't mind which way you're going - it's all the same as far as we're concerned.

Apart from being in the army, I've lived all my life in Carbeck. Now I've had to leave it, it doesn't matter where I go.'

'How many guns have you got?' John asked.

He shook his head. 'We haven't got any guns.'

'We've got three, to look after six adults and four children. Even that isn't enough. That's why we're waiting here - to find others who've got guns and who will join up with us. I'm sorry, but we can't take passengers.'

'We wouldn't be passengers! I can turn my hand to most things. I can shoot, if you can come by another