His face is burning. Then the flush recedes. He quietens down and turns his attention inwards. There something is saying rapidly: You must make them pay for this; they don’t deserve anything else.

You must let Stig pay for such injustice.

And then you’ll save yourself too.

There’s only one way out.

He sinks inwards into himself. It is strange in there at this moment.

He has not been aware of himself like this before. Many thoughts are passing through his mind simultaneously. A bright little light is burning. No, it isn’t a light, it’s this: Stig is going to pay for this. There is movement round this light. Something rises up that says no, but it is pushed down again by something else that says yes, Stig has deserved what’s coming to him three times over.

It is easy for the arrow polisher to decide that he is forced to take action. Every man has the right to defend himself, and he is threatened by people who have shown that they have no consideration, no conscience, no sense of shame. The words form themselves easily. He can see them. They come of their own accord, and he pronounces them inside himself, in front of the little white flame that has shot up there, and which he knew nothing about until it suddenly appeared.

He looks into this little flame and everything falls into place. Surely you’re going to defend yourself when you’re threatened without having done them any harm? Surely you’re not going to let them have their own way, so that they can simply proceed from you to the next victim? You must be a man and put a stop to this. Someone must stand up to them. You must do it. You, the latest to be threatened.

He looks into the little flame, speaking to it. Or the flame speaks to him. They are one.

Remember, something says, that all you honestly wanted was to be left to work in peace and earn enough for the children’s keep and schooling. You did not wish for anything more and you did nothing besides this job.

He can reply with all his heart that it was so. To work in peace for Frank and Freda. But it seems I’m not allowed to do this without being threatened.

No, you won’t be allowed to do so because a man like Stig is sitting in the dark creating trouble and misfortune to strengthen his own position. He wants to control everything. He wants you to give up an honest job, if you please, and go down into a cellar and do nothing but live on charity. That’s what they’re doing.

The arrow polisher listens. Who is it speaking, and what is the little flame? They complete one another. No one knows who is talking. Be a man, and don’t let yourself be cowed and threatened by such people. You’re in danger! You must hit back, isn’t it simple enough?

It’s as simple as can be. You’ve been attacked; you must defend yourself. Why on earth am I just standing here, when every minute may be decisive?