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’Do you hear me, boNr?’

’Yes,’ said Wladek, petrified

’If you go back to ht off, then you won’t be able to hear me, will you?’

’No, sir,’ said Wladek

Wladek felt the point of the knife breaking the surface of the skin behind his ear and blood began trickling down his neck

’Let that be a warning to you, boy!

A knee suddenly caaround A hand rued into his coat pockets and the recently acquired rubles were removed

’Mine, I think,’ the voice said

Blood was now co out of Wladek’s nose and froe to look up from the corner of the corridor, it was eet to his feet~ but his body refused to obey the order from his brain, so he remained slumped in the comer for several minutes Even - tually when he was able to rise, he walked slowly to the other end of the train, as far away frorotesquely exaggerated He hid in a carriage occupied mostly by women and children, and fell into a deep sleep

At the next stop, Wladek didn’t leave the train He undid his little parcel and started to investigate Apples, bread, nuts, two shirts, a pair of trousers and even shoes were contained in that brown - papered treasure trove What a woman, what a husband

He ate, he slept, he dreahts and five days, the train chugged into the terminal at Odessa The saave Wladek a second look This time his papers were all in order, but noas on his own He still had one hundred and fifty rubles in the lining of his suit, and no inten - don of wasting any of the around the town trying to faraphy, but he found he was continually distracted by sights he had never log seen before: big town houses, shops s, hawkers selling their colourful trinkets on the street, gaslights, and even a monkey on a stick

Wladek walked on until he reached the harbour and stopped to stare at the open sea beyond it Yes, there it was - what the Baron had called an ocean

He gazed into the blue expanse longingly: that as freedom and escape fro: burotesque in the mild, flower - scented sea air Wladek wondered whether the city was still at war

There was no one he could ask As the sun disappeared behind the high buildings, he began to look for soht Wladek took a side road and kept walking Healong the ground and the brown paper parcel under his ar looked safe to hi in which a solitary old carriage stood in isolation He stared into it cautiously; darkness and silence: no one was there He threw his paper parcel into the carriage, raised his tired body up on to the boards, crawled into a comer and lay down to sleep As his head touched the wooden floor, a body leaped on top of him and two hands were quickly around his throat He could barely breathe

’Who are you?’ hissed a boy who, in the darkness, sounded no older than himself