gun. I was a sharpshooter in the Fusiliers.'

'If you were by yourself, we might have you. As it is, with four women and two more children ... we can't afford to take on extra handicaps.'

The rain had stopped, but the sky remained grey and formless, and it was rather cold. The younger man, who had still not spoken, shivered and pulled his dirty raincoat more tightly round him.

The other man said desperately: 'We've got food. In the pram.- half a side of bacon.'

'We have enough. We killed to get it, and we can kill again.'

The mother said: 'Don't turn us down. Think of the children. You wouldn't turn us down with the children.'

'I'm thinking of my own children,' John said. 'If I were able to think of any others, there would be millions I could think of. If I were you, I should get moving. If you're going to find your quiet place, you want to find it before the mob does.'

They looked at him, understanding what he said but unwilling to believe that he could be refusing them.

Arm said, close beside him: 'We could take them, couldn't we? The children . . . ' He looked at her. 'Yes - I haven't forgotten what I said - about Spooks. I was wrong.'

'No,' John said. 'You were right. There's no place for pity now.'

With horror, she said: 'Don't say that.'

He gestured towards the smoke, rising in the valley.

'Pity always was a luxury. It's all right if the tragedy's a comfortable distance away - if you can watch it from a seat in the cinema. It's different when you find it on your doorstep - on every doorstep.'

Olivia had also come over from the wall. Jane, who had made little response to Olivia, following her morning of walking with Pirrie, also left the wall, but went