KATE GRENVILLE: The Secret River Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Either 15 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: They had their meal early that night. There was a feeling of needing to be ready. Thornhill did not ask himself, ready for what? It was only just dusk when Sal got the children into bed and sang to them. When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch. When will that be, say the bells of Stepney. I do not know, says the great bell at Bow. Her voice sounded parched. He heard in it a quaver of tenderness. 5 Or perhaps of fear. The two of them sat up late over the last of the fire, watching in silence as the draughts flickered over the coals. In their corner the children snuffled and sighed. Dick flung himself over and called out something in a blurred voice. From the lean-to Ned was snoring with a noise like a shuddering saw. They heard him cough, could imagine Dan turning him over, and in the silence that fell they could hear the sounds coming from the camp. 10 At first it was a sharp clapping, insistent as a heartbeat. Sal turned her face to Thornhill's. In the firelight her eyes were pools of shadow but he saw how her mouth was tight. Before he could think of reassurance, the singing started: a high strong wailing of a man's voice, and other voices in a kind of drone underneath. It was not a tune, nothing cheerful that you might listen to like Oranges and Lemons, more a kind of chant as you might hear in a church. It was a sound that worked its way under the skin. 15 Thornhill tried to speak up loud. Having a bit of a sing-song, he said, but his mouth had gone dry. He tried again: Like that Scabby Bill. Remember Scabby Bill? Of course she remembered him. But she knew, as well as he did, that this authoritative chorus of noise was very different from the thin song that Scabby Bill had managed in return for a mouthful of liquor. 20 He had to force himself not to whisper. They'll get sick of it by and by. Out there, between the cracks in the walls, the night was as black as the inside of an ear. The huge air stirred, full of hostile life. He imagined it: the blacks creeping up to the hut, silent as lizards on their wide quiet feet. They might at this very moment be peering in at them. The noises were getting louder, the sort of sound it would take an army to make. 25 The words not said were like a creature pacing up and down between them. Now Ned and Dan, woken out of their sleep, came in. Ned went over to the lamp and stood beside it as if the glow would keep him safe. They coming to get us, Mr Thornhill, he said. Hear them laughing, Dan added. They can't hardly wait. 30 It was true, they could hear distant laughter. Thornhill felt fear cold on his skin at the picture in his mind of them preparing their spears with a butcher's glee, how sharp they were, how quick they would kill a white man. 35 Ned's voice was on the edge of panic. They coming to spear us in the guts, ain't they, and Bub's voice came quavery, Don't let them spear me Da! He could hear Johnny catch the fear and set up a snivelling that set Mary off too. Sal went over to where they lay and wrapped her arms around them. 40 45 If they'd a wanted to spear us they'd a done it ten times over by now, Thornhill said. Then he thought that might not be the best argument to follow. We got no call to worry, he announced, but no one seemed convinced. 50 Now Willie was speaking up. They get away with it, we'll never see the end of it, Da, he said. We best show them good and proper. To Thornhill's ears, the words had a secondhand feel about them, borrowed from someone else. Smasher perhaps, or Sagitty Birtles. He saw the boy anew: a mulish skinny lad who had outgrown his strength, all bony neck and bat-ears and a mouth that was trying to be strong. Willie stood squinting at him, scratching the back of one leg with a long bare foot. Get the gun, Da, whyn't you get the gun? 55 But Dick had got up from the stool and faced up to his brother. Ain't no call for the gun, Willie, he said. They just having a get-together, like Da says. Willie grabbed his shoulder and shook it. Bulldust, he cried. Bloody bulldust that is, we got to get the bloody gun. 60 [from Part 5]