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definitely building up and Jim smiled, but only inwardly. The plan was right on schedule.
    He opened the Bible, laying it side on. As he did so he noticed that it had opened at the Book of Job. He smiled to himself, thinking of the plagues and pestilences he would like to visit on the three boys opposite. He took the pencil from the top pocket of his shirt and laid it cross-ways across the Bible pointing directly at Bob Kerr.
    The air in the room seemed to have chilled and from the corner of his eye he could see the dancing shadows cavorting on the rough stone walls. He pushed them from his thoughts - Dad had told him that there would be no problems, no need to fear, and he always trusted Dad’s judgement.
    ‘I’ll ask first,’ he said. ‘Just to show you how it works.’ He didn’t wait for a response. He held out his arms, palms down over the Bible, and he could feel the tingle, the power, as it built up and his breath condensed in the air.
    ‘Is Edinburgh the capital of Scotland?’
    He heard gasps from across the chamber as the pencil rolled across the pages, coming to rest at the edge of the Bible.
    Bob Kerr was unimpressed.
    ‘Is that it? Not much of a question, was it?’
    Jim was unperturbed. This too was part of the plan. ‘Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.’ Dad had said. He put his hands back to his side and stared across at Bob.
    ‘Okay big shot, you do it,’ he said, grinning widely. Bob looked at the other two, shrugged his shoulders and ground out the cigarette. That was when Jim knew that he had them - right where he wanted them. He waited for the boy to shuffle over towards the Bible then he held Bob’s arms over the book and turned the palms down.
    He spoke as he replaced the pencil at its starting point.
    ‘You must concentrate,’ he said, secretly delighted at the fear he could see twinkling in Bob Kerr’s eyes. He sat back on his haunches. From now on he could leave them to it and the end would be just as Dad had foreseen.
    ‘I feel like a right divvy,’ Bob Kerr said and his two companions giggled until silenced by a quick angry glance. ‘Okay,’ he asked, ‘what should I say?’
    ‘Anything you want,’ Jim replied. ‘Just remember to ask a question that can be answered with a yes or a no.’
    He could almost hear the cogs and wheels as he watched the boy try to come up with an idea. The other two boys were shuffling around noisily, already getting bored with the proceedings, but Jim didn’t think they would be bored for very much longer.
    ‘Is my name Robert Justin Kerr?’ he finally asked.
    The other two giggled again but soon stopped as the pencil rolled to the right.
    ‘All right,’ Bob whispered, ‘now for the hard ones.’
    Jim noticed that all three boys were completely engrossed in the movement of the pencil - so much so that they had failed to notice the gathering of the shadows in the far corner of the room, the deeper blackness which was even now creeping slowly towards them.
    Bob Kerr looked as if he was pondering one of life’s big questions and Jim was not in the least surprised at his next question.
    ‘Are you a ghost?’ the boy asked.
    The pencil didn’t roll - it raised up an inch off the pages and floated in the air. The candle flickered wildly as a breeze wafted through the small room but the pencil didn’t waver - not moving until Bob lowered one of his hands to place it back in the middle of the Bible.
    All was now deathly quiet, the only noise the soft breathing from the four young bodies and, a noise which Jim could barely hear, a dry wheezing from the far corner, a corner which was now completely consumed in shadow.
    The time was getting close and Jim tried to hide the smiles which were waiting to burst from his face. He tried to look serious as Bob brought the end nearer.
    ‘Are you a man?’
    Jim didn’t need to watch the pencil. He knew that Bob meant to go through the old twenty questions routine, trying to track down the