"No, you won't," Peter said, looking at the string of tiny birds slung over Raymond's shoulder. "He flew off the moment you shouted. Woodpeckers are extremely timid."
"What you watchin' 'im for?" Raymond asked suspiciously. "What's the point? Don't you 'ave nothin' better to do?"
"It's fun watching birds," Peter said. "It's a lot more fun than shooting them."
"Why, you cheeky little bleeder!" Ernie cried. "So you don't like us shootin' birds, eh? Is that what you're sayin'?"
"I think it's absolutely pointless."
"You don't like anything we do, isn't that right?" Raymond said.
Peter didn't answer.
"Well, let me tell you something," Raymond went on. "We don't like anything you do either."
Peter's arms were beginning to ache. He decided to take a risk. Slowly, he lowered them to his sides.
"Up!" yelled Ernie. "Get 'em up!"
"What if I refuse?"
"Blimey! You got a ruddy nerve, ain't you?" Ernie said. "I'm tellin' you for the last time, if you don't stick 'em up I'll pull the trigger!"
"That would be a criminal act," Peter said. "It would be a case for the police."
"And you'd be a case for the 'ospital!" Ernie said.
"Go ahead and shoot," Peter said. "Then they'll send you to Borstal. That's prison."
; He saw Ernie hesitate.
"You're really askin' for it, ain't you?" Raymond said.
"I'm simply asking to be left alone," Peter said, "I haven't done you any harm."
"You're a stuck-up little squirt," Ernie said. "That's exactly what you are, a stuck-up little squirt."
Raymond leaned over and whispered something in Ernie's ear. Ernie listened intently. Then he slapped his thigh and said, "I like it! It's a great idea!"
Ernie placed his gun on the ground and advanced upon the small boy. He grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Raymond took the roll of string from his pocket and cut oif a length of it. Together, they forced the boy's arms in front of him and tied his wrists together tight.
"Now the legs," Raymond said. Peter struggled and received a punch in the stomach. That winded him and he lay still. Next, they tied his ankles together with more string. He was now trussed up like a chicken and completely helpless.
Ernie picked up his gun, and then, with his other hand, he grabbed one of Peter's arms. Raymond grabbed the other arm and together they began to drag the boy over the grass towards the railway lines.
Peter kept absolutely quiet. Whatever it was they were up to, talking to them wasn't going to help matters.
They dragged their victim down the embankment and on to the railway lines themselves. Then one took the arms and the other the feet and they lifted him up and laid him down again lengthwise right between two lines.
"You're mad!" Peter said. "You can't do this!"
" 'Oo says we can't? This is just a little lesson we're teachin' you not to be cheeky."
"More string," Ernie said.
Raymond produced the ball of string and the two larger boys now proceeded to tie the victim down in such a way that he couldn't wriggle away from between the rails. They did this by looping string around each of his arms and then threading the string under the rails on either side. They did the same with his middle body and his ankles. When they had finished, Peter Watson was strung down helpless and virtually immobile between the rails. The only parts of his body he could move to any extent were his head and feet.