Execution Dock Page 0,79

'Oo'd 'ide us from Phillips, or 'is like? There's just as bad on shore."

"You're on shore now and safe from him. And I'm not talking about the young ones. I asked about boys your age," Monk pressed him. "Why don't they go, one by one, before he sells them to a ship?"

The boy's face was bitter. "You mean why'd 'e kill Fig, an' Reilly an' them like that? 'Cause they stood up agin 'im. It's a lesson, see? Do as yer told an' yer'll be all right. Fed, somewhere ter sleep, shoes and a jacket. Mebbe a new one every year. Make trouble an' yer'll get yer throat cut."

"Escape?" Monk reminded him.

The boy gulped, his thin face twisting painfully. "Escape, an' 'e'll 'unt yer down an' kill yer. But before that, 'e'll 'urt the little kids left be'ind, burn their arms an' legs, maybe worse. I wake up in the night 'earin' 'em scream... an' find it's just rats. But I still 'ear 'em in me 'ead. That's why I wish I 'adn't left, but I can't go back now. But I in't swearin' ter nothin'. I told Mr. Durban that, an' I'm tellin' you. Yer can't make me."

"I never thought to try," Monk said gently. "I couldn't live with it either. I have enough already, without adding that. I just wanted to know." He fished in his pocket and pulled out the two shillings Orme had promised the boy. He held them out.

The boy hesitated, then snatched them. Monk stood aside so he could pass.

The boy hesitated.

Monk backed further away.

The boy dived past him as if terrified he would be seized, then he ran with surprising speed, almost silent on the cobbles. Only then did Monk realize his feet were bound in rags, not boots. Within seconds he had disappeared into one of the many alleys like a tunnel mouth, and he could have been no more than the voice of a nightmare.

As they walked back towards the open air of the dockside, they kept in step with each other, walking single file because there was no room to do anything else. Monk went first, glad of the enforced silence between them. What the boy had said was hideous, but he never questioned the truth of it. It explained not only why no one had testified against Phillips, but also why Durban had been fired by an uncontrollable anger. Helplessness and a sense of the terror and pain, the sheer despair of others, had drowned the outside world and its balance, its values of caution and judgment.

Monk felt closer to Durban as he made his way along the tortuous alleys, following memory and the sound of water yard by yard towards the open river. He understood not only his actions but also the emotions that must have crowded his mind and made his muscles clench and his stomach churn. He shared the anger, the need to hurt someone in return for all the wrong.

But was Monk remembering him as he had really been? Or was grief painting it in warmer colors of companionship than reality? He did not believe that. It was not only dishonest, it was also cowardly to pretend now that the sense of friendship had been artificial. He could still hear Durban 's voice and his laughter, taste the bread and beer, and feel the companionable silence as dawn came up over the river. They watched the light spread across the water, catching the ripples and brightening on the drifting mist that hid some of the harsher outlines, lending beauty to the crooked spars of a wreck and blurring the jagged line of utilitarian buildings.

Scuff was immediately behind him now, padding along, looking warily to either side. Narrowness frightened him. He did not want to think about what hid in the passages. He had heard what the boy said about the others that Phillips had taken. He knew it could happen to him also. Without Monk, it could happen very easily. He wanted to reach out and take hold of Monk's coat, but that would be a very undignified thing to do, and it would tell everybody that he was afraid. He would not like Orme to think that of him, and he could not bear it if Monk did. He might even tell Hester, and that would be worse still.

They worked for several more days questioning lightermen, ferrymen, dockers, and mudlarks. They found thieves and beggars, heavy horsemen, and opulent receivers, asking each about Durban