My Friend the Enemy Read Online Free

hill, going straight to the man in charge. The lieutenant was tall and strong-looking, with a cap on his head and a moustache on his lip.
    They spoke for a moment, the sergeant turning to point up at us, then both men climbed the hill to where we were waiting.
    â€˜Who saw this parachute, then?’ said the lieutenant when he reached the top. He stood with his hands behind his back, his right wrist resting on the flap of his holster, and he was slightly out of breath.
    â€˜This one, lieutenant.’ The sergeant pointed at Tom Chambers.
    â€˜Is this some kind of joke? Because if it is—’
    â€˜It’s no joke, mister. I really saw it.’
    â€˜Aye, it’s true,’ said Alan Parson.
    The lieutenant looked around at each one of us. ‘Did anyone else see this parachute?’
    I put up my hand, along with most of the other children.
    â€˜You’re sure?’ asked the sergeant. ‘Because there’ll be trouble if you’re lying.’ He leant forward and looked at each of us in turn, furrowing his brow and staring as if hecould see right into our heads and pick out the lies.
    After a moment, almost everyone dropped their hand so that only three of us were still holding them up.
    â€˜That’s what I thought,’ said the sergeant. ‘I know how to deal with this lot, lieutenant. It’s all games to them.’
    â€˜Thank you, sergeant,’ the lieutenant said without looking at him. ‘And you boys saw it over that way?’ He pointed across at the place in the sky where I’d seen the parachute.
    The three of us nodded.
    â€˜Right, then.’ He turned to the sergeant. ‘Well done, Sergeant Wilkes. As you were.’ And with that, he turned and marched away.
    When he reached the bottom of the hill, the lieutenant shouted an order and all the men stopped what they were doing and ran over to stand in front of him. He issued instructions to the full-time soldiers and to the Home Guard, and then they started leaving the crash site, moving away in small groups until only the lieutenant remained, along with a handful of men who stayed to douse what was left of the fire.
    â€˜Don’t you worry,’ said Sergeant Wilkes. ‘We’ll find that Jerry in no time. We’ve got good men looking for him now.’ He puffed himself up a bit. ‘Good men like me. It’s all under control.’
    â€˜You really think you’ll catch a German, mister?’ Tom Chambers asked.
    â€˜You just watch.’ The sergeant came closer to us and crouched to our level. ‘We’ll get ’im, you can bet on it.’
    â€˜What you gonna do when you get ’im, like?’
    â€˜What do you think?’ He tapped one hand on the stock of his rifle and grinned like a wolf. ‘If I see him, he doesn’t stand a chance. I can put a bullet through a rabbit’s eye at five hundred yards, you know.’
    â€˜Really? That far?’ Tom Chambers couldn’t hide his wonder, but he probably didn’t even know how far five hundred yards was.
    â€˜Maybe even further,’ said the sergeant. ‘So don’t you worry, we’ll give ’im what every sackless Jerry deserves. Just like we got that plane.’
    Some of the boys laughed and punched fists in the air. ‘We showed ’em!’
    â€˜We didn’t show them anything,’ someone mumbled beside me. ‘It crashed.’
    â€˜What’s that you said?’ Sergeant Wilkes stood up quickly and looked about with a flash of anger, but everyone fell silent, some of the boys shaking their heads. The soldier waited a few seconds, scanning our faces, then he scowled and stepped back, turning to watch the men dampening the fire.
    But I knew who had said it. Beside me there was a girl I didn’t recognise. I hadn’t noticed her before because she was sitting so quietly, just watching what was going on. She was a little taller than I was, and her