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Chapter Six
The Throwing Nets
She walked quickly away from the river, because the ele of narrow streets between there and the Royal Arctic Institute, which was the only place Lyra was sure of being able to find, and into that dark maze she hurried now
If only she knew London as well as she knew Oxford! Then she would have knohich streets to avoid; or where she could scrounge some food; or, best of all, which doors to knock on and find shelter In that cold night, the dark alleys all around were alive with movement and secret life, and she knew none of it
Pantalaimon becaht-piercing eyes Every so often he’d stop, bristling, and she would turn aside froht was full of noises: bursts of drunken laughter, two raucous voices raised in song, the clatter and whine of some badly oiled h it all, her sensesto the shadows and the narrow alleys
From time to time she had to cross a wider, well-lit street, where the tramcars hummed and sparked under their anbaric wires There were rules for crossing London streets, but she took no notice, and when anyone shouted, she fled
It was a fine thing to be free again She knew that Pantalai on wildcat paws beside her, felt the same joy as she did to be in the open air, even if it was orous with noise So of what they’d heard in Mrs Coulter’s flat, but not yet And sometime eventually they’d have to find a place to sleep
At a crossroads near the corner of a big department store whose s shone brilliantly over the wet pavement, there was a coffee stall: a little hut on wheels with a counter under the wooden flap that swung up like an awning Yellow light glowed inside, and the fragrance of coffee drifted out The white-coated oas leaning on the counter talking to the two or three custo for an hour now, and it was cold and damp With Pantalaiain the owner’s attention
"Cup of coffee and a ham sandwich, please," she said
"You’re out late, entleman in a top hat and white silkaway from him to scan the busy intersection A theater nearby was just e for cabs, wrapping coats around their shoulders In the other direction was the entrance of a Chthonic Railway station, withup and down the steps
"Here you are, love," said the coffee stall s"
"Let me pay for this," said the ht, why not? I can run faster than hiht need all my money later The top-hatted man dropped a coin on the counter and s to his lapel, staring round-eyed at Lyra
She bit into her sandwich and kept her eyes on the busy street She had no idea where she was, because she had never seen ait was or how far she’d have to walk to find the country
"What’s your name?" said the man
"Alice"
"That’s a pretty name Let me put a drop of this into your coffeewar the top of a silver flask
"I don’t like that," said Lyra "I just like coffee"
"I bet you’ve never had brandy like this before"
"I have I was sick all over the place I had a whole bottle, or nearly"
"Just as you like," said the , all alone like this?"
"Going to meet my father"
"And who’s he?"
"He’s a murderer"
"He’s what?"
"I told you, he’s a ht I got his clean clothes in here, ’cause he’s usually all covered in blood when he’s finished a job"
"Ah! You’re joking"
"I en’t"
The le sound and clambered slowly up behind the man’s head, to peer out at her She drank her coffee stolidly and ate the last of her sandwich
"Goodnight," she said "I can see ry"
The top-hat lanced around, and Lyra set off toward the theater crowd Much as she would have liked to see the Chthonic Railway (Mrs Coulter had said it was not really intended for people of their class), she ary of being trapped underground; better to be out in the open, where she could run, if she had to
On and on she walked, and the streets beca, but even if there’d been no clouds the city sky was too tainted with light to show the stars Pantalai north, but who could tell?
Endless streets of little identical brick houses, with gardens only big enough for a dustbin; great gaunt factories behind wire fences, with one anbaric light glowing bleakly high up on a wall and a night watch by his brazier; occasionally a disuished from a warehouse by the crucifix outside Once she tried the door of one of these places, only to hear a groan from the bench a foot away in the darkness She realized that the porch was full of sleeping figures, and fled
"Where we going to sleep, Pan?" she said as they trudged down a street of closed and shuttered shops
"A doorway soh They’re all so open"
"There’s a canal down there"
He was looking down a side road to the left Sure enough, a patch of dark glimmer showed open water, and when they cautiously went to look, they found a canal basin where a dozen or so barges were tied up at the wharves, soallows-like cranes A diht shone in oneof a wooden hut, and a thread of shts were high up on the wall of the warehouse or the gantry of a crane, leaving the ground in gloom The wharves were piled with barrels of coal spirit, with stacks of great round logs, with rolls of cauchuc-covered cable
Lyra tiptoed up to the hut and peeped in at theAn olda picture’Story paper and s a pipe, with his spaniel daeot up and brought a blackened kettle fro before settling back with his paper
"Should we ask him to let us in, Pan?" she whispered, but he was distracted; he was a bat, an owl, a wildcat again; she looked all round, catching his panic, and then saw the at her, one fro net
Pantalaimon uttered a harsh scream and launched hie-looking fox, bowling her backward and tangling with the ed aside, and Lyra darted past him toward the open spaces of the wharf What she et boxed in a corner
Pantalaile noooped at her and cried, "Left! Left!"
She swerved that way and saw a gap between the coal-spirit barrels and the end of a corrugated iron shed, and darted for it like a bullet
But those throwing nets!
She heard a hiss in the air, and past her cheek sos whipped across her face, her arled and held her, and she fell, snarling and tearing and struggling in vain
"Pan! Pan!"
But the fox daemon tore at the cat Pantalaireat cry as he fell Onecords around her, around her li her over and over on the wet ground She was helpless, exactly like a fly being trussed by a spider Poor hurt Pan was dragging hi his back, and he had no strength left to change, even; and the other h his neck -
The whole world grew still as thethe net saw it too
Pantalaimon sat up and blinked, and then there was a soft thud, and the net ht across Lyra, who cried out in horror: that was blood gushing out of hi feet, and someone hauled the man away and bent over him; then other hands lifted Lyra, a knife snicked and pulled and the net strings fell away one by one, and she tore the, and hurled herself down to cuddle Pantalai, she twisted to look up at the newcomers Three dark men, one armed with a bow, the others with knives; and as she turned, the bowht his breath
"That en’t Lyra?"
A familiar voice, but she couldn’t place it till he stepped forward and the nearest light fell on his face and the hawk daeyptian! A real Oxford gyptian!
"Tony Costa," he said "Remember? You used to play with my little brother Billy off the boats in Jericho, afore the Gobblers got him"
"Oh, God, Pan, we’re safe!" she sobbed, but then a thought rushed into her mind: it was the Costas’ boat she’d hijacked that day Suppose he re with us," he said "You alone?"
"Yeah I was running away"