‘You’re still up?’

‘Yes,’ answers his father dully. ‘Since you told me the news. But I suppose I’d better lie down and get some rest. Soon, do you hear?’ he adds angrily. ‘You just lie down and leave me in peace. And that goes for Freda as well.’

‘Yes, of course,’ replies Frank, who is thinking only of Stig now. Stig had been very important to him and his friends. They knew a good deal in secret and kept it loyally hidden from those in authority.

He lets his father stay where he is, undresses quickly and creeps into bed, pulling the quilt further up over his head than he usually does.

The arrow polisher is in turmoil. Perhaps he ought to lie down? No, he must sit in his chair.

This is where he must face judgement. This is where the finger is writing its warning. And he wants to be close to it all. Something has been set in motion that will seek him out wherever he may hide. The certainty is keeping him here in the chair, but not that alone. Something else is keeping him here as well.

He sits there. He hears that Frank has fallen asleep after all. Not so quickly as usual, but he is asleep now. Freda is asleep in her own little room, he imagines.

Is it going to happen now, while everyone is asleep?

For he guesses that something is moving towards him. His fear is stifling. It is smothering him in the depths of the chair.

If it’s going to happen while everyone’s asleep, it’s going to find me awake at any rate! he thinks wildly.

So passes the night. The finger writes on the desk and the huge, tense house cracks and crumbles. The arrow polisher sits in his chair but nothing enters; it has only been set in motion.

What is happening to Stig now? he wonders, trembling.

Freda puts her head round the door. She is up and making breakfast. There’s her father sitting at his desk, already dressed.

‘But Father – are you up already?’

He does not turn his head. ‘Leave me alone!’ he says loudly. ‘I don’t want to eat. Leave me in peace.’

Freda comes in all the same, and sees his exhaustion and his staring eyes. She asks in dismay, ‘Haven’t you slept?’

‘Yes, of course,’ he replies unwillingly. ‘I slept here. I can sleep and sit here at the same time. And now I want peace for a while. Wake Frank, so that he can get up in good time, and then leave me alone. Do you hear?’

Freda gives up, turns away from him, and shakes Frank, who is still fast asleep.

‘Frank, come along, get up!’

He wakes up slowly and with difficulty. He catches sight of his father. Freda motions to him that he must just come out to the kitchen as quickly as he can. Stig returns to their consciousness. Freda disappears, and Frank follows her as soon as he has dressed. He makes no attempt to talk to his father but goes out to Freda who is clattering cups and knives.