‘I — I would rather...’
‘Keep it,’ whispered Wardyke out of the darkness. ‘It is yours.’
‘Mine?’ murmured Jan. Wardyke’s dagger, given him by Wardyke himself!
He felt he had left his family and friends a long way behind. He felt he had become a man without the complicated rituals and tests other boys had to endure.
‘There is just one thing...’ Wardyke’s sly voice interrupted the flow of his thought.
‘Anything,’ answered Jan without thinking, filled with excitement at the thought of keeping the dagger... at the thought of meeting the mysterious and almost legendary Wardyke himself...
‘I am lonely — I need a friend.’
‘I’ll be your friend,’ Jan offered at once.
Wardyke smiled and the darkness of his shadow seemed to intensify.
‘Our friendship must be a secret.’
‘Of course!’ Jan said
