ing our way into the valley and taking it over.'

Arm said: 'No!' in a shocked voice. Davey said: 'Do you mean - fighting Uncle Dave, Daddy?' The others stayed silent.

'We don't have to decide straight away,* John said. 'Until I've seen my brother again, I suppose we can say there's an outside chance of managing it peaceably.

But you can be thinking it over.'

Roger said: 'I still think you ought to take what's offered to you, Johnny.'

This time there was no kind of response; the moment of indecision past, John reflected wrily. The followers had realised the baron's duty towards them again.

Alt Parsons asked. 'What do you think, Mr Custance?'

'I'll keep my opinion until I come back next time,'

John said. 'You be thinking it over.'

Pirrie still did not speak, but he smiled slowly. With the bandage round his head, he looked a frail and innocent old man. Jane sat close by him, her pose protective.

It was not until John was on the point of going back to the gate that Pirrie said anything. Then he said: 'You'll look things over, of course? From inside?'

'Of course,' John said.

If there had been any hope in his mind of David persuading the others in the valley to relent, it would have vanished the moment he saw his brother's face again.

Four or five other men had accompanied him back to the fence, presumably to help the three already on guard in the event of John's troops being reluctant to accept their dismissal. There was, John noticed, a telephone point just inside the fence, so that the men there could summon help quickly in the event of a situation looking dangerous. He glanced about him, looking for further details of the valley's defences.