People of my age always are, I supposed. One is always eager to throw off one’s youth when one has it and it is only when it is beyond recall that one wants it back.“Perhaps,” he went on, “seventeen was the age I wanted you to be.”“Why should my age be any concern of yours?”“Because I wanted you to be nearer to me.”“Listen,” I said, “I can hear something.”We were silent, straining our ears. Yes, there were voices from some way off being carried to us on the southwesterly wind.“Let’s get inside the cave,” I said. “Collect everything and take it in. We don’t know who this can be.”Hastily we gathered up the remains of the picnic. We went into the cave and listened.Jocelyn had become rather tense; so had I. I was imagining Jasper’s face. I could hear him as he betrayed us. “They be up to something. Food gone from the pantry, so my wife tells me. They’re hiding something … they’re hiding someone. It’s someone who’s been up to sin, you can be sure of that.
