Now he said,‘I got a sick ewe up in the yard as I want to take a look at later. You meet me there, Spider, and we’ll walk home together. You be there, at my hut, five o’clock, all right?’ and he held up four fingers and a thumb.
They watched him set off up the road with that distinctive walk, his watch on his wrist, his whistle round his neck, his knife in his pocket, his dog at heel.
‘He’s happy, our boy, isn’t he, Tom,’ Kathie said. It was a statement, not a question.
‘Long may he be so,’ said Tom.
When five o’clock came, Tom was in the shepherd’s hut doing some odd jobs while he waited for his son, but time passed without sight of him. Tom went outside the yard and looked around the fields but could not see him coming. He misunderstood, he thought, he’ll have made his own way home. But then he heard in the distance the noise of a dog howling. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the spinney. ‘Come, Moss,’ said Tom, and he set off across the grass ground that led to both Maggs’ Corner and Slimer’s.
That’s got to be Sis howling, he thought. Why? What’s happened? He quickened his steps towards the spinney. Now he could see that its greenness was stippled with black, for in every ash tree there sat crows and rooks and jackdaws, still and silent.
‘Spider!’ called Tom, and at the sound of his voice the howling stopped, and the birds rose in a great flock.
Sis was sitting outside Spider’s house. She ran to him as he approached and then ran back again. Tom followed, running too now.
‘Spider?’ he said again as he reached the overgrown shelter, but there was no answer. Tom bent to look inside.
Spider was sitting on the wooden crate, his back against the hurdle wall, his long arms hanging by his side. His eyes were closed. He looked to be fast asleep.
Tom took hold of Spider’s hand. It was cold. He felt for a pulse. There was no pulse. That heart, that murmuring heart, was still. Now the shepherd carried the boy slung across his shoulders, as he would have carried a dead ewe, back over the grass field to the yard, the two dogs following.
High above them, the croaks, silent still, caprioled and curvetted in the sky, an aerial ballet bidding a final farewell to the crowstarver.
Tom opened the door of the shepherd’s hut, so close to which he had first set eyes on the foundling, and laid Spider gently on the rough wooden bunk. Moss sat silent, but Sis crept forward, whining softly, and licked at one cold hanging hand.
‘It’s all right, girl,’ Tom said softly. ‘We’ll look after you.’ He stood looking down upon the face of this, his only son. It wore its customary lopsided smile.
‘He’s happy,’ said Tom to the watching dogs. ‘Thank God, he’s happy.’
GODHANGER
Dick King-Smith
‘The evening’s peace was shattered by the blast of a gunshot. After a heartbeat’s pause came the noise of a second shot, followed by a thin agonized screaming…’
From a silent perch in the upper branches of a great tree, a huge and mysterious bird known as the Skymaster watches over Godhanger Wood… watches the innocent blood shed daily by the cruel gamekeeper. And when the birds determine to save themselves, the gamekeeper finds himself locked in a deadly battle of wills with the greatest prize of all at stake – the Skymaster himself. But there can only be one winner…
A powerful and dramatic tale from the best-selling and award-winning author, Dick King-Smith.
‘For his insights into nature and his vivid descriptions of them, Dick King-Smith is an exceptional writer. In the new, more sober voice of GODHANGER, he shows just what a good storyteller and writer he is’ Books For Keeps
0 552 54501 5
Available now from all good bookshops
CORGI BOOKS
PIG-HEART BOY
Malorie Blackman
Adapted for a BBC TV serial
All I had to do was go downstairs. Or I could call Dad and tell him that I didn’t want to meet Dr Bryce and that would be the end of that. Life would go on as normal. And I’d be dead before my fourteenth birthday…
Cameron is thirteen and desperately in need of a heart transplant when a pioneering doctor approaches his family with a startling proposal. He can give Cameron a new heart – but not from a human donor. From a pig.
It’s never been done before. It’s experimental, risky and very controversial. But Cameron is fed up with just sitting on the side of life, always watching and never doing. He has to try – to become the world’s first pig-heart boy…
‘A powerful story about friendship, loyalty and family around this topical and controversial issue’ Guardian
‘Warm, well-packed story… Moving but never maudlin, this is a tale of courage stretched to the limit’ TES
0 552 54684 4
CORGI BOOKS
THE WELKIN WEASELS
Book 1: Thunder Oak
Garry Kilworth
Long ago, before Sylver the weasel was born, the humans all left Welkin. Now life for a weasel – under the heavy paw of the vicious stoat rulers – is pretty miserable (unless you happen to be a weasel who likes living in a hovel and toiling all hours for the benefit of the stoats).
It’s certainly not enough for Sylver. Or for his small band of outlaws, both jacks and jills. But slingshots and darts can only do so much against heavily-armed stoats and life as an outlaw has a fairly limited future (probably a painful one, too). That’s when Sylver comes up with his plan – a heroic plan that could destroy the stoats’ reign of power for ever. He will find humans and bring them back to Welkin! And the first step is to follow up a clue from the past – a clue that lies in a place known as Thunder Oak …
0 552 54546 5
Now available from all good book stores
About the Author
DICK KING-SMITH was a Gloucestershire farmer until the age of 45, when he gave up farming to become a primary school teacher. As a bestselling full-time author, his work received many awards including a Bronze Medal for the Smarties Prize of l997 for All Because of Jackson and the Childrens Book Award in l995 for Harriet’s Hare. In l992, he was also voted Children’s Author of the Year. In l995, his top-selling title The Sheep-Pig was developed into a box-office movie, BABE, introducing hundreds of thousands of youngsters to his work. He died in 2011.
Titles available by award-winning author
DICK KING-SMITH
Published by Corgi Pups
Happy Mouseday
Published by Doubleday/Young Corgi
The Adventurous Snail
All Because of Jackson
Billy the Bird
Connie and Rollo
E.S.P.
Funny Frank
The Guard Dog
Horse Pie
Omnibombulator
Titus Rules OK!
Published by Doubleday/Corgi Yearling
A Mouse Called Wolf
Harriet’s Hare
Mr Ape
Published by Corgi
The Crowstarver
Godhanger
THE CROWSTARVER
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 9781407099422
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2012
Illustrations copyright © Peter Bailey, 1998
Copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 1998
First published in Great Britain by Doubleday
Doubleday 1998
The right of Dick King-Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthoriz
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The Crowstarver Page 11
