'Have you ever noticed that when people make a lot of money they often get a bit strange? There was a man like that who'd retired to Sway. His passion was for concrete. He might've been a bit like Mr Grockleton I should think. Everything he could lay his hands on he wanted covered in concrete. And he was building this concrete tower. A huge thing - you can see it for miles around today. They say he wanted to be put up at the top of it when he died. It was about half-built then and I shall always remember it, pointing up into the blue sky not half a mile away from where we were that day, like a great broken pillar.

'People were in a cheerful mood. Even Grockleton, who could be severe, was doing his best to be friendly. He organized games for the children; and when we had a race and Furzey organized a tug-of-war, he joined in too.

'It was late afternoon and the Albions and some of the Christchurch people had already started leaving when I noticed little Jack had gone.

'He was already a very daring little boy, with dark hair and bright eyes. Always climbing things. He was always getting into trouble, but you couldn't help loving him because he was so cheerful and so courageous.

'I knew he couldn't be far away. He'd found another boy a bit older than he was - a big draw to him of course - called Alfie Seagull, from Lymington, and the two of them had been playing; so I felt sure if we found one we'd find the other. And it wasn't long before someone pointed out the little Seagull boy playing over near the railway cutting.

'"Is Jack with you?" my wife called out, and he nodded and pointed down into the cutting, so we reckoned that was all right.

'Mrs Furzey came over to talk to us then, who we were always glad to see, and we had a good chat. I did notice out of the corner of my eye that Furzey was walking along the edge of the cutting, some way off. Inspecting it, I dare say. But I didn't pay him any particular regard.

'And then I saw him running. I don't believe - and I've seen many things - that I ever saw a man run as fast as he did then. I truly think he was faster than a deer. And I do not know how it was that he knew what was going to happen. At any event, he flew towards the place where Alfie Seagull was standing and just as he got there we heard the sound.

'You'd think when so much earth and stone is in motion that you'd hear some sort of a rattle or a roar. And maybe in some landslides you do. But from where we were, as that cutting gave way, all we heard was a kind of hiss.