in the village or try to steal any food. They had learned their lesson. Instead they camped well away from it, behind one of those thickets of fishing rods with dozens of vicious hooks like thorns, and tangled nets of lines. Once or twice a villager in a sewing-machine car had surprised them, but they had skilfully avoided being caught. Chloe could tell by the expression on the faces of those Atticans that she and Alex scared as well as angered them.
Above the children – high, high above – was a small skylight which sent down a sunbeam shaft to illuminate them. They both sat cross-legged in the ray, enjoying its brightness. Chloe was stroking Nelson’s tummy and he was purring. Nelson had joined them a short time ago, bringing with him a large freshly dead rat which to the amazement and horror of his sister Alex skinned and cooked. He ate the meat, feeding himself through the hole in the mask. Chloe refused to touch it and was most damning in her criticism of her younger brother, who said he couldn’t care less.
‘If you could see this jungle, you’d be excited too,’ Alex told her. ‘Have a go now, if you want,’ he added generously, removing the mask. ‘You simply have to put it on and look hard. You have to think about jungles though. If you just sit there and don’t try, you end up seeing only the attic.’
Chloe recoiled from the offer, shuddering. ‘You don’t know who’s had that thing on,’ she said.
The mask said: ‘Who are you calling a thing?’
‘You,’ said Chloe emphatically. ‘I bet there’ve been all sorts of people slobbering inside you.’
The mask declined to argue further, having made its point.
Alex returned the mask to his face. He was having great fun, having crossed the world through the mask’s eyes. All around him was lush jungle with tall buttress-rooted trees covered in parasitic creepers and ferns. Below the level of the first canopy there was a second canopy composed of smaller trees, though in Alex’s eyes these too were quite tall. Then came the undergrowth, steamy, with moist, slick or hairy leaves, some of them large and thick enough to make a sunbed. There was wildlife there too, in the form of monkeys and birds and lots of insects. The smell, through the mask’s nostrils, was of damp vegetation and animal droppings.
A beautiful swallowtail butterfly flew past Alex’s head.
‘Clo, you don’t know what you’re missing.’
‘I’ll do without it, thank you,’ she replied primly. ‘Just don’t go inside that cave, you don’t know what’s in there.’
Alex of course ignored her and went inside. It was dark so he delved into his pack for the matches. He struck one and held it up, right in front of his sister’s face. She tightened her mouth.
‘You’re in there, aren’t you?’ accused Chloe. ‘Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?’
‘Pictures,’ murmured Alex in a disappointed tone. ‘In charcoal I think. A little rhino. And a fish. And some birds. Just Stone Age people’s drawings on the walls. I could do better than them.’
‘I should think so. Art has developed since they were drawn.’
‘Oh, Clo – there’s a snake. White one.’
‘Drawing or real?’
‘Real.’
Chloe said, ‘Cave racer. They’re blind. They catch bats and eat them.’
‘Yup – I just saw it get one. Talk about fast. Bats look nice and crunchy. Oh, it’s not a bat, it’s a bird. There are thousands of them in here, Clo. There are nests on the ceiling and all up the walls. Yuk, what am I treading in?’
‘I can guess. Alex, come out of that cave. How do you know there’s not something dangerous in the back? Caves are full of scorpions, you know.’
‘I’m only looking, sis.’
Alex took off the mask. His face was sweaty and he wiped it on his sleeve. ‘I don’t know why you’re so awkward, Clo.’
‘I just am, that’s all.’
Nelson had had enough of being stroked. He went up on his three legs and trotted away with that peculiar gait of his.
‘Good old Nelson,’ said Alex, picking up a cold drumstick of rat’s leg. ‘He’s a great hunter, isn’t he?’
Chloe stared at her brother. ‘You don’t have to eat that, you know. I found some boxes of apples, and some bottled plums. The people below must have stored them up here. Would you like some?’
‘Nope,’ replied Alex, tossing away the bone. ‘I like rat meat. I was going to keep it from you, ’cause I knew you’d be upset. I like