‘No use, that,’ she said. ‘Too strong, they are. Can’t fight ‘em, can you?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I want it to cut the rope. I’m going to run for it.’

Suddenly Alice was gone. Had she gone to fetch a knife or would she be too scared of Lizzie? I waited a few moments, but when she didn’t come back I became desperate. I struggled, trying to pull my wrists apart, trying to snap the rope, but it was no use.

When a face peered down at me, my heart jumped with fear, but it was Alice holding something out over the pit. She dropped it, and as it fell, metal gleamed in the moonlight.

Alice hadn’t let me down. It was a knife. If I could just cut the rope I’d be free…

At first, even with my hands tied behind my back, I never had any doubt in my mind that I could do it. The only danger was that I might cut myself a bit, but what did that matter compared to what they’d do to me before the sun came up? It didn’t take me long to get a grip on the knife. Positioning it against the rope was more difficult and it was very hard to move it. When I dropped it for the second time, I began to panic. There couldn’t be more than a minute or so before they came for me.

‘You’ll have to do it for me,’ I called up to Alice. ‘Come on, jump down into the pit.’

I didn’t think she’d really do it, but to my surprise she did. She didn’t jump but lowered herself down feet first, facing the side of the pit and hanging onto the edge with her arms. When her body was fully extended, she dropped the final two feet or so.

It didn’t take her long to cut the rope. My hands were free and all we had to do was get out of the pit.

‘Let me stand on your shoulders,’ I said. "Then I’ll pull you up.’

Alice didn’t argue, and at the second attempt I managed to balance on her shoulders and drag myself up onto the wet grass. Then came the really hard part – pulling Alice out of the pit.

I reached down with my left hand. She gripped it hard with her own and placed her right hand on my wrist for extra support. Then I tried to pull her up.

My first problem was the wet, slippery grass and I found it hard to keep myself from being dragged over the edge. Then I realized that I didn’t have the strength to do it. I’d made a big mistake. Just because she was a girl, that didn’t necessarily make her weaker than me. Too late I remembered the way she’d pulled the rope to make the Spook’s bell dance. She’d done it almost effortlessly. I should have let her stand on my shoulders. I should have let her get out of the pit first. Alice would have pulled me up without any trouble.

It was then that I heard the sound of voices. Bony Lizzie and Tusk were coming through the trees towards us.

Below me I saw Alice’s feet scrabbling against the side of the pit, trying to get a hold. Desperation gave me extra strength. I gave a sudden heave and she came up over the edge and collapsed beside me.

We got away just in time, running hard with the sound of other feet running behind us. They were quite a long way back at first, but very gradually they began to get closer and closer.

I don’t know how long we ran for. It felt like a lifetime. I ran until my legs felt like lead and the breath was burning in my throat. We were heading back towards Chipenden – I could tell that from the occasional glimpses I got of the fells through the trees. We were running towards the dawn. The sky was greying now and growing lighter by the minute. Then, just as I felt I couldn’t take another step, the tips of the fells were glowing a pale orange. It was sunlight and I remember thinking that even if we were caught now, at least it was daylight and so my bones would be of no use to Lizzie.

As we came out of the trees onto a grassy slope and began to run up it, my legs finally began to fail. They were turning to jelly and Alice was starting to pull away from me. She glanced back at me, her face terrified. I could still hear them crashing through the trees behind us.

Then I came to a complete and sudden halt. I stopped because I wanted to stop. I stopped because there was no need to run any further.

There, standing at the summit of the slope ahead, was a tall figure dressed in black carrying a long staff. It was the Spook all right but somehow he looked different. His hood was thrown back and his hair, lit by the rays of the rising sun, seemed to be streaming back from his head like orange tongues of flame.

Tusk gave a sort of roar and ran up the slope towards him, brandishing his blade, with Bony Lizzie close at his heels. They weren’t bothered about us for the moment. They knew who their main enemy was. They could deal with us later.

By now Alice had come to a halt too, so I took a couple of shaky steps to bring myself level with her. We both watched as Tusk made his final charge, lifting his curved blade and bellowing angrily as he ran.

The Spook had been standing as still as a statue, but then in response he took two big strides down the slope towards him and lifted his staff high. Aiming it like a spear, he drove it hard towards Tusk’s head. Just before it made contact with his forehead, there was a sort of click and a red flame appeared at the very tip. There was a heavy thud as it struck home. The curved knife went up in the air and Tusk’s body fell like a sack of potatoes. I knew he was dead even before he hit the ground.

Next the Spook cast his staff to one side and reached inside his cloak. When his left hand appeared again it was clutching something that he cracked high in the air like a whip. It caught the sun and I knew it was a silver chain.

Bony Lizzie turned and tried to run but it was too late: the second time he cracked the chain, it was followed almost immediately by a thin, high, metallic sound. The chain began to fall, shaping itself into a spiral of fire to bind itself tightly around Bony Lizzie. She gave one great shriek of anguish, then fell to the floor.

I walked with Alice to the summit of the slope. There we saw that the silver chain was wrapped tightly about the witch from head to toe. It was even tight across her open mouth, hard against her teeth. Her eyes were rolling in her head and her whole body was twitching with effort, but she couldn’t cry out.

I glanced across at Tusk. He was lying on his back with his eyes wide open. He was dead all right and there was a red wound in the middle of his forehead. I looked at the staff then, wondering about the flame I’d seen at its tip.

My master looked gaunt, tired and suddenly very old. He kept shaking his head as if he was weary of life itself. In the shadow of the slope, his hair was back to its usual grey colour and I realized why it had seemed to stream back from his head: it was saturated with sweat and he’d slicked it back with his hand so that it stuck up and out behind his ears. He did it again as I watched. Beads of sweat were dripping from his brow and he was breathing very rapidly. I realized he’d been running.

‘How did you find us?’ I asked.

It was a while before he answered, but at last his breathing began to slow and he was able to speak. ‘There are signs, lad. Trails that can be followed, if you know how. That’s something else you’ll have to learn.’

He turned and looked at Alice. ‘That’s two of them dealt with, but what are we going to do about you?’ he asked, staring at her hard.

‘She helped me escape,’ I said.

‘Is that so?’ asked the Spook. ‘But what else did she do?’

He looked hard at me then and I tried to hold his gaze. When I looked down at my boots he made a clicking noise with his tongue. I couldn’t lie to him and I knew that he’d guessed that she’d played some part in what had happened to me.

He looked at Alice again. ‘Open your mouth, girl,’ he said harshly, his voice full of anger. ‘I want to see your teeth.’

Alice obeyed and the Spook suddenly reached forward, seizing her by the jaw. He brought his face close to her open mouth and sniffed very loudly.