Ella twisted round and looked towards the kids at the gate. They hadn’t moved. Thank God. They’d listened to her. But they would have had a good look at Scarface by now. What would they be thinking? Especially now he had a gang of dogs coming with him. Which would they fear more? Ella’s warning or the things bolting towards them across the field?

One of the girls obviously decided to risk the gate. She walked quickly towards it, and Ella screamed louder than she had ever screamed before in her life, shrill as a referee’s whistle.

A boy hurried after the girl and pulled her back, and at last Ella and Scarface were there.

‘He’s all right!’ Ella shouted, wriggling down out of Scarface’s arms. ‘He won’t hurt you. He’s not an enemy. He’s been looking after me. But this is his home and there are traps.’

Her words had come spilling out in a breathless tumble and she hoped it was enough. The kids were all armed and ready to fight. Scarface had his knives in his hands. He didn’t trust them any more than they trusted him. The mongrel was zooming around them, jumping up, and snapping and yapping. Scarface kicked it away and risked glancing back at the field. The other dogs were still coming through the grass.

One of the boys pointed at Scarface.

‘We know who he is,’ he said. ‘He’s The Predator.’

‘Never seen him up close before,’ said another boy. ‘He’s even uglier than I thought.’

‘He’s a good person,’ said Ella angrily.

‘Never mind that,’ said the girl who had almost got herself killed in Scarface’s traps. ‘Those dogs are going to massacre us.’

They all turned now, weapons at the ready, set to take on the pack.

The dogs were nearly on them, but they were slowing down, and at the last moment they began to split and turn to left and right, avoiding the farm, all except for one huge brute with a square head and short black fur. It charged towards the kids, who scattered. But the dog ignored them and ran on, not attacking but retreating. It went right past them, barking like mad, and stumbled straight into the tripwires. Ella didn’t manage to look away in time and watched helplessly as the pole came whipping out of the bushes and smacked right into the dog, taking it in the back of its neck as it jumped up to free itself from the wires.

One of the other girls screamed and a boy laughed. The shortest of the three, the one who’d been mean to Scarface.

‘Did you see that? Sick!’

The dog died instantly and hung there on the spikes, its back legs twitching, as if it was still trying to run.

‘Close one, Sonya,’ said the tallest boy.