Wild Jack by John Christopher

Author:John Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

7

WE WERE TAKEN TO ANOTHER hut and left there. In this village, as in the first, huts were built round the sides of a clearing, under the shelter of the trees, but these were much more substantial. The logs which formed the walls were thicker and more solidly bound, and the hut had a proper door. We heard the sound of an iron bolt being slammed home on the far side.

It was pitch dark inside. I felt my way to a wall and leaned against it. Kelly said, “OK, so who is Wild Jack?”

I scarcely knew what to think myself. I said, “It’s a story the servants tell—the nurse-women, anyway. He’s a kind of bogeyman. They talk about Wild Jack coming up from the Outlands and stealing children. It’s just a way of making kids behave themselves—at least, I thought so.”

Sunyo said, “We have a story something like it in Japan. But he’s called Hairy Ainu. Some of the tales are very bloodthirsty.”

“Some of the ones about Wild Jack are. There’s a song he’s supposed to sing:

“Fee fo fi fan,

I smell the blood of a city man.”

“Our servants talk about Bloody Bill,” Kelly said. “I guess it’s the same legend everywhere.”

“But this Wild Jack is real,” Sunyo said. “He seems to be the chief of this lot.”

“He called himself Wild Jack,” Kelly said. “Talking big. He’s just a savage.”

I said slowly, “Not just a savage. He speaks good city English.”

“Are you telling us you believe that guff?” Kelly asked. “Stealing babies and all that? You ever hear of a baby being stolen?”

I said with heat, “No, of course, I don’t believe it. But he’s not an ordinary savage. He could be more dangerous. Why does he call himself Wild Jack, anyway? He’s obviously some kind of renegade.”

Kelly started to reply, but Sunyo cut across.

“Whoever he is, he doesn’t look friendly. We should be thinking of escape instead of wasting our time in argument.”

“Sure,” Kelly said, “but how? We can’t even see the walls.”

“We can feel round them,” Sunyo said. “There was a weak spot in the other hut. We might be able to find one in this.”

At least it gave us something to do. I groped my way along the wall, which seemed discouragingly substantial. At one point I stumbled across Kelly, and we exchanged a few sharp words. Sunyo was telling us to shut up when we heard the bolt being drawn.

The door was pushed open, showing the light of the campfire and another light much nearer where a man held up a burning torch. A figure came past him and I saw, with surprise, that it was a girl.

She was roughly our age and Sunyo’s height but, of course, much slimmer. She was dressed in green like the men, wearing a shirt open at the neck and long pants. Her hair was black and thick, shoulder length, and I could see that her face was very brown—I had never seen a girl with so brown a face. It had a hard, unfriendly look, though her features were regular enough.

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