Read The Runaways for Free Online Page B

outside. Sometimes he was early and sometimes late.
    Half an hour passed and the warden did not come. Yarra rose to her feet, walked to the door and sniffed at it. Then she turned back along the far wall. Her restlessness was coming back fast. She walked back to her straw, scraped at it, working her shoulder muscles, and then went to the door again. She wanted to be outside, where the world was full of sounds, blackbirds and sparrows calling, the beat of a car’s engine passing down the narrow road and the low, mocking caws of rooks moving from their night roosts to forage on the iron-hard field furrows.
    Annoyed now, she raised herself on her hind feet and scraped against the shut door, rattling and banging it impatiently.
    The scraping, rattling and banging from down below eventually woke Smiler. He lay on his hay bed, still a little muzzy with sleep, listening to it. It took him a minute or two to remember where he was. When he did, he jumped quickly to his feet and stood above the trapdoor. Somebody was down below! With the thought his heart began to thump with alarm. He knelt down and cautiously lifted the lid of the loft trap an inch and peered through. His eyes, dazed from the sunlight which was streaming in through his loft window, could make out nothing in the gloom below. Then, as his eyes slowly adjusted themselves, he saw the movement at the barn door. For a moment or two he watched, his mouth open in amazement. Then – with a swift, panic reaction – he slammed the trapdoor and shot across the holding bolt which was fastened to the top of it. He dropped back to a sitting position on the hay, clapped a hand to his forehead, and said out loud, ‘Blimey O’Reilly!’

4. A Door is Opened
    As Smiler sat there considering the situation the skin of his scalp crept with a slow shiver of fear as he realized what a narrow escape he had had. Not this morning – but last night! When he had come back from throwing the rubbish away he had closed the barn door and that thing had already been in the barn! He had closed the door and climbed the ladder and that thing must have been watching him! And now that thing was down there and he was up here!
    What on earth was he going to do? To help his thoughts he swigged off what remained of the orange juice. Then, because no helpful thoughts came, he drew back the bolt of the loft trap and raised it a few inches cautiously. Down below Yarra was padding restlessly up and down. She caught the slight movement of the loft trap out of the corner of her eye and swung round. She backed away a little, raised her head, and made an angry movement of her jaws.
    Smiler could see her clearly now. He saw the wrinkling of her face mask, the white shine of her teeth, the restless switching of the long tail, the tensing of the high powerful shoulders, and the long, lean length of her forelegs and body. He dropped the loft trap back into place and bolted it.
    Smiler was no fool. He could put two and two together faster than many young lads. ‘Samuel M.,’ he said to himself, the problem on his hands now overcoming his shock and fright, ‘ what you have got down there is that escaped cheetah! Yarra. That’s right. And what you are stuck with right now is that you can’t get out until you get her out. That’s Thing Number One without any question.’
    He got up and went to the barn window, scratching his head. He looked out. It was still very early in the morning. The sun was only just half clear of the valley ridge. He took a good look at the window for the first time, and he saw that it was not fixed in its frame. There was a hook catch at one side. He pushed this up, opened the window and looked out. Six feet below him and a little to his left was the top of the barn door. Two-thirds of the way up the door and on the side closest to him was the door latch. It was a curved handgrip with a thumb press latch above it that had to be pushed down to lift