Do they keep watch here?

Yes, listen, the leader is telling him so.

‘It’s no use denying you were there. The guard saw you go in and recognized you. We know who you are.’

So the guard rang for them to come, thinks Stig. Have all the guards been given the message to keep a look-out for him already? They know who I am. Very well. This is the end.

All the thousand things that are his are tossing about in his mind. And then it is over.

Meanwhile he is led forward by strong hands, with his own hands clamped into irons and forced behind his back. They want to be quite certain they’ve got him. He is led out of the side passage and into the junction with the shining arrow corridor.

His heart gives a lurch: the van is waiting, the van he caused to be blown to bits not so very long ago. Not that one, but one so similar that they are as like as two peas. Knowing the fate of the other one, it is even more horrible to see it standing there like a revenant. And in order to fetch him.

It does not drive into the dangerous side passages. It waits at the corner. Dark and blind and seemingly unrelated to other vans on this earth. It slides out from the centre, and the tiny slithering sound imposes itself on the house like a cold clamp.

Stig is tense with shock as he is led towards it. He had not thought it would come as soon as this. He had thought he was away from his normal routes. He walked straight into the enemy because he had happened to go in to the people who never cause trouble, and he had nearly stayed there himself. If you had, you wouldn’t have been here. No, I suppose not. But no, not in there with them all the same! he thinks.

Soon he is given another shock.

They have come up to the sinister van, and as they do so the leader of the troop halts and stares into Stig’s face, his eyes cold with fury.

‘Do you see it?’

Stig does not bother to reply.

‘As you see, it’s in working order again,’ says the arrow-bedecked fellow with a scornful smile. ‘I suppose you thought you’d destroy us there at the entrance? We know who you are, do you hear? You killed some of our comrades, it’s true, but perhaps you’d rather it were undone now? The van was resurrected and found its way to you, as you see.’

Stig is listening intently. He shudders to hear how they have tracked him down, what dangerous opponents they are.

In any case it is the end.

Would they have brought me out from the resting-place ? he wonders. Nothing seemed to penetrate there. No, I wouldn’t have wanted to be there. Not that. Not that horrible state of rest without face or eyes.

I’m finished. But first there’s the ordeal that haunts us all, all of the time. There’s a lot still to be faced. His ears are buzzing. Yes, there’s a lot to think about.