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No, I won’t go, thought Dustfinger, I’ll hide here for a while To And perhaps I shall go away froo away for ever … No He kneouldn’t do that Not while the book was here

The fairy had flown over to the , and was peering curiously out at the alley

‘Forget it Stay here,’ said Dustfinger ‘Please Believe me, it’s no place for you out there’

She looked at his and knelt on the sill And there she stayed, as if she couldn’t decide between the hot rooe freedoht Words

This was the shocking thing; that the slime of the pit seeesticulated and sinned; that as dead, and had no shape, should usurp the offices of life

Robert Louis Stevenson,

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Fenoglio wrote and wrote, but the nureater He kept taking the another ‘No, no, no!’ Meggie heard hi crossly to himself ‘No, that’s not it yet’

‘It will be dark in a few hours,’ she said at last, anxiously ‘Suppose you don’t finish it in time?’

‘I have finished!’ he snapped, irritated ‘I’ve finished a dozen times already, but I’m not happy with it’ He lowered his voice to a whisper before he went on ‘There are so many questions Suppose the Shadow turns on you orCapricorn really the only solution? What’s going to happen to his men afterwards? What do I do with them?’

‘What do you think? The Shadow ie whispered back ‘How else are we ever going to get holio did not like this reply ‘Good heavens, what a heartless creature you are!’ he whispered ‘Kill the some of them are?’ He shook his head ‘No! I’m not a mass murderer, I’m a writer! I’’ And he began writing again … and crossing words out … and writing more, while outside the sun sank lower and lower until its rays were gilding the hilltops

Every tilio hid what he had been writing under his mattress, but no one ca on his blank sheets of paper For Basta was down in the crypt

The bored guards on duty outside their door had several visitors that afternoon Men had obviously coe fro her ear to the door, Meggie eavesdropped on their conversations They laughed a lot, and their voices sounded excited They were all looking forward to the night’s spectacle Not one of the Capricorn’s forht just seeie too That little witch, they called her, that little madam the enchantress, and not all of them seemed to be convinced of her powers

As for Basta’s executioner, Meggie learned no lio had already told her and what she repie had made her read It wasn’t much, but she heard the fear in those voices outside the door, and the horrified awe that overcame them all at the mention of his name, which was not a real name at all Only those who, like Capricorn hilio’s book had ever seen the Shadow – but they had all obviously heard about him – and they painted pictures in the darkest tones of the way he would deal with the prisoners There were evidently several opinions about how he actually killed his victirewcaer She went to sit by the ith her hands over her ears

It was six o’clock – the church clock was just beginning to strike – when Fenoglio suddenly put down his pen and looked over what he had written with a satisfied expression ‘Got it!’ he whispered ‘Yes, that’s it That’s hoill be It will turn out splendidly’ Iave her the paper