Frank brightens and looks at his father. ‘Are you going to join him?’

‘I expect that’s what it’ll amount to,’ says the arrow polisher, feeling dizzy, hearing the roar of something approaching. Of destruction.

‘But then you’ll give up your job, won’t you?’

He nods. ‘I expect that’s what it’ll amount to. But things have to go on as usual for the time being. For various reasons. Stig asked me to. It’s all part of a splendid plan he has.’

‘What’s that!’ blurts out Freda, looking at her father with such joy that he almost forgets himself.

Frank knows better. He snaps at his sister: ‘Surely you know you should never ask about anything? Do you think Stig would put up with anyone who talked? You ought not to have mentioned his name even, Father, it’s so serious.’

The arrow polisher nods.

‘It slipped out, but I know I can trust you two.’

‘Yes,’ answer the children, so seriously that it is torture to see them. Freda turns to him and says, ‘We’re very happy about this.’

‘Yes. We couldn’t understand why you should want to polish their arrows for them,’ says Frank.

‘We didn’t know about this,’ says Freda.

They have a desire to confess to him that they have done him an injustice. He registers this as he sinks into a strange lethargy. The tension has been great, and now it has relaxed. He has come through it somehow. The happy faces in front of him have their effect on him. The boasting about Stig took him by surprise; he had not thought it out beforehand, he had been incapable of thinking anything at all. But it had saved him. They shall never know the truth. He can stop polishing arrows and still have enough money for some time. He can go off and come home again with fresh hints about secret work for Stig.

He is given a slap in the face when he pauses at the thought of Stig.

Stig is doomed now. He will be seized and killed, after all he has done. And it will be made known at once in order to frighten others. Stig is finished.

His throat is constricted. He struggles to rid himself of the thought.

I don’t know for certain. And it doesn’t concern me. I only did my duty. Now I must concentrate on my obligations: be a good father to these two. Be everything for them, since they have no mother.

‘Thank you, Freda.’

‘Have you finished already? Have a little more…’

‘You young people can fight over it. I think I’ll go in and lie down for a while, straight away.’

Frank and Freda divide the remains of the meal between them. They exchange smiles. It hasn’t been so good to sit together for a long time.

The arrow polisher goes to lie down. What is that roaring? Far away there is a threatening roar. It is inside him, but it is far away, deep down, and incessant.