Zelamir

Another Country

Chapters 15-

Nicky lay naked on his stomach stretched across the table feeling, helpless and vulnerable, waiting, knowing that he was going to be hurt and that there was nothing he could do to avoid it.

He was frightened and he was ashamed.

No normal boy would respond to the abuse that had been inflicted on him so passively. A normal boy would fight and resist and even if he could not win, he would not get excited by it. Only a slut would react in that way. His body betrayed him, it was telling him and it was telling the world, he was not normal. He was a slut, a fuck boy, a whore.

It was clear that Mister Toby had almost finished kneading the cream into his bottom. He was just putting the finishing touches to the task, working the ointment into the crease of his bottom where the stripes burnt longest and hottest. Mister Toby was standing over him thrusting his thumbs into the cleft of his bum touching his anus lips. Entry to his boy hole was blocked by the plug but Mister Toby's touch generated tremors of extreme excitement deep inside Nicky's body. He threw his head back, whimpering in excit ement, the muscles in his bottom contracted deepening the dimples on either side of his rump.

Seeing and recognising the signs Mister Toby laughed and delivered a hard open handed slap across the boy's quivering bottom.

"Slut," he said contemptuously and turned away to set about assembling the gear he would need to clean and dress the boy's feet, bruised and torn after his shoeless track to the farm.

He could not see Mister Toby but he could hear him moving about behind him, with the occasional sounds of drawers being opened and closed, the clink of metal and glass, and the sound of running water. Then there was the sound of shod feet approaching, the heavy deliberate step of a grown man and the lighter quicker step of a young boy. Nicky felt a blast of cool air against his bare skin as the door into the loose box was swung open.

"Here's Mister William," Jason's young voice announced. "We would have been quicker but he was on the telephone when I got to the house."

"Yes sorry Toby. I had just got hold of our friend at the Border Agency and was discussing with him what could be arranged about getting young Nicky quietly out to the Island. Apparently they're holding a Vietnamese boy of about the right age, picked up by the police when they raided the cannabis farm he was meant to be looking after. He's due to be deported once the formalities are completed and the last appeal hearing and that appeal will be rejected, is scheduled in just under four weeks time. They'd usually dispose of him by selling him back to the gang who owned him in the first place and covering his disappearance by saying he had absconded but they're prepared to let us have him and then they will deport Nicky in his place. I said we would make sure they would not be out of pocket on the transaction."

"How much do you think?"

"Oh just fifty quid. That's apparently about the standard charge. For that the gang get their boy back. It's a good deal cheaper than bringing a fresh one in from Vietnam. The transport costs are so high."

" Well that's not too bad."

"Specially when you consider you are saving a good deal more than that on Nicky's air fare. This way the British taxpayer will be paying for his ticket not us."

"But will we get away with it." Mister Toby asked doubtfully, "Substituting an English boy for a Vietnamese one I mean. They won't look the slightest bit alike."

"Same age, roughly the same size I am told,".Bill replied. "Certainly not the same colouring but nobody will be looking too closely. All the people. Involved just want to be rid of the brat and he'll be handcuffed to one of our friends through out. Nobody will even think it's possible he's the wrong boy. And by then, after four weeks, nearly all the time outside whatever the weather, Nicky's skin will be a good deal darker. His hair will be fair but there are quite a few blond Vietnamese boys about now after twenty years or so of sex tourism from the West. Like I said nobody's going to check anyway."

"Well, yes that's fair enough but then there's the Vietnamese slut. What are we to do with him? He'll be very much surplus to requirements. Do you think we could sell him back to his old owners? That's after all what our friends in the Border Agency would have done if we hadn't wanted him."

"I suggested it to the Border agency boys but they were very much against if. Their way the boy runs away before he can be deported so no one will be surprised if he turns up tending the plants in another cannabis farm in this country. Our way depends on his appearing to have been deported so if he turns up here it would invite questions."

"So?"

"Well we have a problem but rather a pleasant one I suggest. A twelve to thirteen year old chocolate coloured brat that nobody cares a damn about to get rid of. A brat who as part of the deportation procedure has been subjected to a full medical check up and who is certified as clear of all infectious and contagious diseases."

There was a pause while Mister Toby thought this over absent mindedly squeezing the back of Nicky's firm young thigh as he did so.

Suddenly he grinned.

"We'll have a party," he said, "for our UK patrons. Four weeks will be quite enough notice for it and we can use the occasion to offer Nicky to the Society. It will be the first time a boy is donated away from the Island. That way he'll arrive there already bearing the mark of the dragon."

He laughed again and landed a resounding open handed smack across Nicky's bare rump.

"Right," he said cheerfully, "Bill, you hold him by his shoulders and keep him face down across the table while I get to work on his feet. I am afraid you'll find it hard work. It's surprising how hard quite a small brat will struggle when it's really being hurt and this will hurt a lot."

Nicky felt strong hands grasping him by his shoulders forcing him face down onto the table. He lay there helpless, feeling utterly vulnerable in his nakedness waiting with sick anticipation for the pain to begin. He felt his ankle gripped and lifted from the floor. Twisting his head he saw Mister Toby standing with his back to him his leg gripped tight against the man's waste by his crooked elbow.

Mister Toby bent down to take a look at the sole of the boy's foot, wrinkled his nose in distaste and then pressed his right thumb firmly into the ball of the boy's dirt encrusted foot.

Nicky's feet, bruised and torn from his forced trek along the rough lane to the farm, already hurt. Mister Toby's thumb pressing into the raw flesh of sent waves of pain surging though His body. He screamed and tried to pull his foot away . Bill swore as he fought to keep the frantically writhing boy pinned to the table top.

"Jason," Mister Toby commanded, "fill a bucket with hot water and splash a good dollop of iodine in it and swab the dirt off the brat's foot. Let's see what needs to be done."

There was a clank of metal and the rush of running water. The sharp pungent smell of iodine filled the air. A brief moment.of respite for Nicky as Mister Toby eased the pressure of his thumb and then fresh agony as the disinfectant burnt and stung his broken flesh.

"Work it well into the cuts Jason," Mister Toby ordered raising his voice to be heard over the boy's howls. "They need to be thoroughly cleaned out before we apply the foot dressing or there'll be risk of infection."

"Wait a moment. I'll pull the cut open and you can get the cloth right into it and sponge the gravel out."

"Lucky," Bill remarked the strain in his voice betraying the effort he was making to hold Nicky down, "we don't have any neighbours or there would be complaints about the noise."

"Stop a moment now Jason and pass me the small knife," Toby ordered, I'm afraid he'll make even more noise now. The last fragments of gravel of gravel seem to be embedded in the cuts and will need to be scraped out. Watch out Bill he's really going to start to fight now."

The room echoed to Nicky's shrill screams as Mister Toby, a frown of concentration on his face, dug fragments of gravel out of the cuts in his feet. The boy's howls of agony mingling with Bill's deeper expletives as he struggled to keep the thrashing boy pinned to the table.

"Keep swabbing the blood away Jason," Mister Toby ordered, "I've got to see what I'm doing."

"He's bleeding a lot," Jason remarked as he dabbed away at the soul of Nicky's foot.

"Could I have a go with the knife Mister Toby?" he asked wistfully. Mister Toby glanced up and seeing Jason's little boy's prick erect, it's pink head exposed and wobbling just short of his belly button, smiled. The young lad had the right spirit he thought.

Cursing quietly to himself Bill fought to pin Nicky to the table as the boy thrashed about in his agony.

"That's the one foot done," Mister Toby said half an hour or so later raising his voice to be heard over Nicky's wild sobbing.

"Jason, you see the can on the top there with the paint brush resting in it. Bring it here and use the brush to slap its contents on the brat's feet. Use the brush and be sure to work it well into the cuts and put it on really thick so as to staunch the bleeding. I'll hold his foot steady while you do it."

Saying this he caught hold of Nicky's ankle with hands red and sticky from the boy's blood and braced himself to restrain the lad's struggles.

"Petroleum jelly, dog oil, and a few other things. By tomorrow morning the soles of his feet will be the firmness and consistency of soft leather," Mister Toby remarked as Jason vigorously applied the pungent liquid to Nicky's raw feet. (1)

Nicky descended into a dark seemingly endless tunnel of intense pain divorced from any sense of place or time. The pain was all consuming. He felt nothing else, was aware of nothing else.

The one thing he was conscious of was pain. Pain that somehow was centred on his feet but nevertheless filled his entire body. Then slowly the blackness that had filled his mind began to clear. He was kneeling on all fours on the concrete floor. Inches away from his face he could see three pairs of shoes, a set of heavy brown brogues, a battered pair of canvas shoes and a pair of much smaller and considerably more expensive trainers. Turning his head his eyes travelled upwards, a pair of grey flannel trousers, a pair of denim jeans, and the smooth naked legs of a young boy. In his nakedness there was little chance of missing the boy's intense excitement. The massive bulges in the crutches of the denim jeans and the grey flannel trousers were hardly less noticeable. Slowly he raised his eyes further. Misters Toby and Bill and young Master Jason, he had learnt enough already to know that he had to think of them in that way, stood looming over him. In their eyes he saw cruelty, excitement and an amused contempt. He couldn't help himself. He cowered down on the floor, sobbing loudly, naked, terrified and without hope.

"Open the door to the yard please Jason," Toby said picking the length of rubber hosing up. "I'll put him in the spare kennel for the night. I think he's just about had as much as he can take for the moment."

"Bill could you fetch the bucket of maize porridge and scraps from the house. We'll feed Trapper and the slut together."

Nicky heard the door open and felt a blast of cool air against his bare flesh.

"Come on boy cunt move," Toby shouted landing a hefty kick up his bottom.

Nicky tried to stand up but collapsed back on his knees the lacerated souls of his feet unable to bear his weight.

"Come on move!" Toby snarled cutting him across the side of his rump with the length of hosing. Urged on by frequent sharp blows from the hose Toby sent the boy scuttling in front of him on his hands and knees out into the yard.

Bill carrying a zinc bucket appeared hurrying down from the house. Trapper sensing food hurled himself against the bars of the kennel in which he was confined barking loudly.

"Get the small trough and put it down here Jason please," Toby said bending down and taking a firm grip of Nicky's collar.

Trapper's barking reached a crescendo of hysterical enthusiasm as Bill tipped the contents out of the bucket, banging its rim against the side of the trough to make sure it was emptied.

"Come on slut," Mister Toby growled dragging Nicky, still on his hand and knees, by his collar towards the trough.

Nicky seeing the unappetising mixture of vegetable scraps swimming in a sea of watery maize porridge that had been tipped into the trough baulked, fighting back with all his strength against the man pulling on his collar.

Bill moved quickly. Still holding the now empty bucket he got behind the boy and drove him forward with a powerful boot up his bottom.

"Stubborn little bastard," Mister Toby growled, "you'd think he would be too hungry to be so choosy."

Grabbing a handful of Nicky's hair with his free hand he tried to force his head down into the trough. Nicky, who was by now beyond rational thought, fought back desperately. He had.not eaten for at least twenty four hours and if he had only allowed himself a moment of calm would have recognised that he was desperately hungry but calm thought in his present state of terror induced panic was beyond him.

Toby understood the position very well and knew the cure from his experience with the Island boys. He swore softly to himself, handed the length of hosing to Jason and dipping his free hand in the unappetising swill took a handful of the stuff and slapped it over Nicky's mouth clamping his nostrils shut with his finger and thumb. Nicky struggled and choked and then faced with the choice of swallowing or suffocating, swallowed. He was suddenly aware of how hungry he was. He swallowed and nuzzled at Mister Toby's hand to get at the last morsel of food there.

Toby withdrew his hand and released his grip of the boy's hair. Nicky seeing the trough in front of him and suddenly recognising how hungry he was reached out with his hands to scoop the food from the trough. To the famished boy the sloppy yellowish porridge with fragments of vegetable waste floating in it now looked very attractive.

Toby snatched the length of piping from Jason and smashed it viciously down on Nicky's hands knocking them apart. Nicky yelled and pulled his hands hastily away from the trough. The hunger gnawing at his belly drove him to try again. For the second time he reached out to the trough and again Mister Toby slashed down at his hands knocking them apart.

Nicky felt Mister Toby's hand on the back of his head forcing it down towards the trough. All at once he sensed what he would have to do if he was to be allowed to fill his achingly empty belly. Putting his hands flat on the ground he bent forward pushing his head down into the trough and began gobbling up the maize porridge. He ate quickly for he now realised how very hungry he was and he had no idea when, the to him totally unpredictable forces that now ruled his life, would allow him to eat again.

Mister Toby wiped the last fragments of swill from the palm of his hand on the boy's upturned bottom leaving a yellowish smear of dirt across the pale taughtly drawn flesh.

"Didn't take long to work out what he had to do that time," Mister Toby said approvingly, "the slut is learning."

"He looks gross," Jason remarked, disgust and contempt apparent in his voice as Nicky gobbled away at the food in the trough oblivious to the the two men and the boy watching his humiliation. "His arse is stuck up in the air and you can see right into his hole. He's eating like an animal."

"He is an animal; that's the lesson he's learnt today," Mister Toby said and then added. "Go and let Trapper out of his kennel. Its time he has his turn at the trough."

Jason slid the bolt holding the door to Trapper's cage back. The big dog, wild with excitement, hurled itself against the door before the boy was able to pull it fully open. He burst from the cage and charged across the yard to where Nicky eating hungrily knelt, his head buried in the trough. Growling fiercely the dog knocked him to one side replacing him at the trough. Nicky cowered on the yard floor watching Trapper greedily gulping down the remaining swill. Driven by his newly discovered hunger the famished boy crept nearer the trough. Trapper briefly lifted his head and snarling fiercely launched himself at the boy who starting back just avoided the dog's bared teeth. Trapper having driven off his rival began to eat again while Nicky hunkered back on his knees watching him enviously.

Trapper licked the trough clean and then raising his leg directed a stream of dog's pee into it. Only then did he seem to have time to spare for the naked boy kneeling with a couple of feet of him. He ambled over towards Nicky and began to undertake a leisurely perambulation around him. Nicky made a half-hearted attempt to stand up but hastily abandoned it. The souls of his feet were too cut and sore after Mister Toby's work on them to bear his weight. Dropping back to his knees Nicky tried to back away from Trapper while manoeuvring to stop the animal getting behind him.

Jason and the two men watched grinning, enjoying the fun. Nicky looked up at them. Seeing from their grinning faces that he could expect no help from them he backed up hard against the stable wall pressing his bare bum tight against the rough stone work. Trapper circled about him and tried to press his nose between the stable wall and the boy's bare bottom. Nicky resisted stubbornly maintaining his position even when the dog snarled and nipped at his rump.

"Poor Trapper," Jason said laughing, "why can't he have his turn at the boy bitch's bottom. Don't be a spoil sport Uncle Toby get Nicky away from the wall and give Trapper a chance."

"You seem to have forgotten the whore's bottom has been plugged Jason but we'll see how Trapper squares up to that challenge. It may be amusing."

"Get away from that wall boy," Mister Toby shouted striking down at Nicky's head with the hose pipe and then, as he bowed his head under the rain of blows, at his shoulders, trying to drive the boy out into the yard away from the protection of the wall.

"Please don't, please don't," Nicky wailed raising his arm in a vain attempt to shield his body.

"Do as you're fucking told whore," Mister Toby roared striking down with such force that he knocked the boy's thin arm to one side.

Nicky's scream of pain was cut short as Mister Toby slipped his hand inside his slave collar and hurled him bodily out into the middle of the yard. Nicky landed on his knees and made a desperate attempt to scuttle back to the protection of the stable wall before Trapper could reach him. Jason ran forward and grabbing him by the collar struggled to hold him fast as Nicky on his hands and knees fought to break free.

Trapper seeing his chance got behind the frantic boy and tried to push his nose into his bum. Nicky while fighting against Jason's grip on his neck chain tried to twist his bottom away from the do 's prying nose.

"Twist your hand in the chain Jason," Mister Toby called, "that'll choke the little sod and stop that nonsense."

Blood pounded in Nicky's head as the chain tightened round his neck cutting off the air to his lungs. He felt Jason pressing down on the back of his neck forcing his head down. He tried to fight back but lack of air sapped his strength. He knelt his face pressed against the concrete floor his bottom sticking up in the air. He heard Trapper briefly whine and felt the dog's nose, cold and wet, pressing in to his bottom.

In a last desperate attempt to escape the dog's attentions he shot his legs straight out collapsing his body face down onto the ground. Trapper confused by this development circled round the boy trying to get at Nicky's bottom.

"Bloody stubborn little turd," Toby swore, "I'll fix you."

He bent down and pushed his hand between the Nicky's thighs. Taking a grip of the boy's balls he forced his hips upwards. Toby turned so that he was standing astride the brat facing down his body his right hand thrust under Nicky grasping him by the crutch forcing his bottom up. He reached out with his free hand and grabbing hold of the Trapper's collar pulled him forward.

"There you are boy, that's what you want," Toby said encouragingly holding Trapper's nose to Nicky's hole.

Trapper thrust his nose into Nicky's bottom with such force and enthusiasm that he lifted the boy's feet off the ground. Checked by the plug embed in the boy's hole the dog brought his tongue into play in an attempt to dislodge it.

"God almighty," Mister Toby exclaimed feeling Nicky's small prick pressing erect and throbbing against the butt of his hand, "little whore's gone hard again."

He laughed obviously amused at Nicky' being excited by the dog's attentions. Mister Brown and Jason joined in the laughter.

"Filthy little brute," he added contemptuously.

Nicky aroused by Trapper's nose pressing into his bottom and the warm eager lapping of his damp tongue heard the man's verdict and accepted it. Exhausted and terrified he was beyond thinking rationally. He must be all that Mister Toby said and worse. What else could a boy be who got excited by a dog exploring his bottom with his nose and tongue? And did so while others stood by watching. It did not occur to him that the responsibility for this lay with the adults who had subjected him to all this. Why should it? It was his body that responded to Trapper's canine advances with such uninhibited and demeaning eagerness.

This moment of introspection was brought to an abrupt close by Trapper finding that his tongue could not dislodge the plug blocking Nicky's hole took more vigorous action to remove it. Baring his teeth he forced his muzzle into the boy's bottom until he could grip the base of the butt with his teeth. Shaking his head and pulling he tried to prize it from Nicky's bottom.

Nicky found his bottom, a second before the centre of the most exciting and pleasurable sensations as Trapper's questing tongue teased his boy hole, suddenly became a source of the most excruciating agony as the dog tried to wrench the firmly seated plug clear. Wave after wave of pain swelled and merged into a single all-consuming flood that filled his body. It felt to Nicky as if his bottom was being torn apart. He screamed, his howls and desperate pleas for assistance rising clear and shrill over the deep laughter of the watching men.

Trapper finding he could not tear the plug clear by worrying at it decided to resort to simple brute force. Bracing his four legs on the ground he threw his whole weight into a desperate attempt to pull the plug out by brute force. Nicky previously manoeuvring to keep Trapper away from his bottom suddenly changed his tactics scuttling backwards in a desperate attempt to prevent Trapper ripping his bottom apart. Trapper his dog's penis pink and swollen, a potent signal of his lust and determination, would not let go or give up. It looked as though the boy was being towed backwards about the yard by a rampant hound. The laughter and general hilarity of the onlookers increased as they dodged the obviously lust crazed dog and the wildly howling naked boy as they conducted their frantic reverse pursuit around the yard.

At last Trapper's efforts appeared to be beginning to bear fruit. An extra loud screech from Nicky announced the emergence of the broadest part of the plug from behind his anus where it was buried in his body. This did not bring any relief to the suffering boy for the fine chain running from the plug's base and secured around the neck of his scrotum was still anchored it in his bottom. Now all Trapper's strength and weight was brought to bear on that chain. Nicky's screams, already very loud, increased in volume and shrillness as he felt the chain tighten around the root of his ball sac.. Panic stricken he reached behind his back and tried to catch hold of the chain in a desperate effort to prevent his balls being ripped from his body.

"That's enough," Mister Toby said fighting to control his laughter and taking hold of Trapper by his collar.

"Take the dog for me Bill so I can prize his jaw open and Jason, open the door to the empty kennel and get Nicky in there when I've freed him. I think he'll go willingly enough."

"Thanks Bill, now Trapper old man I'm sorry but I like my brats to have something for me to catch hold of."

Surrendering his hold on Trapper's collar to Bill he forced the snarling dog's jaws apart. Nicky freed from his grasp scuttled on all fours across the yard and through the open kennel door. Once inside he headed for the furthest corner and huddled there whimpering and shivering with fear.

"Shove that dog in the other kennel would you Bill and leave the brute to cool down. I'd better check the slut has not been damaged permanently. Come on Jason you're meant to be in charge of the little whore."

While Bill dragged Trapper by his collar across to his kennel Mister Toby shot the bolt back in the door to the other kennel in which Nicky cowered. The boy seeing them approach huddled tighter into the corner where he had taken refuge staring up at them with wide fear filled eyes.

"Come on, get out of there," Mister Toby snapped driving the toe of one heavy brogue into Nicky's bare thigh. "I want to have a look at you. Come on out of that corner and get in position," another heavy kick thumped into the boy this time on the side of his ribcage.

"Come on turd you know what that is. I told you in the flat less than twenty four hours ago you stupid little git," Mister Toby said grabbing Nicky by an ear and hauling him unceremoniously out of the corner in which he had taken refuge.

"And stop that stupid squealing," he continued cuffing the boy hard round the head.

"There's no point, in wasting my breath telling you things if you can't be bothered to remember them," Mister Toby continued punctuating his remarks with heavy slaps around the boy's head.

"Now knees wide apart, legs straight back, bum pressed down to the floor, back straight, head and eyes down. Show some fucking respect for your betters you miserable little cunt."

"That's better now stay still while I check you for damage."

"He's crying," Jason crowed laughing as Mister Toby bent down and tentatively adjusted the whimpering boy's cock ring.

"Cry baby, cry baby," he sneered. "I don't cry UncleToby however much I am hurt. I'd be ashamed to."

"Of course you would be Jason. But Nicky here is quite different from you. It's surprising at Nicky's end of the scale how little difference there is between man and monkey. He's more animal and human."

Toby spoke absently, he was trying to assess what damage if any Trapper had done to Nicky when he had tried to pull the plug out of his bottom by tugging on the chain attaching it to the back of his cock ring. He recognized however it was important to explain and justify the situation to Jason.

And justification was so difficult, the truths on which it was based were so obvious but at the same time so contrary to the prejudices of the age. The statement so obviously untrue that all are equal so universally accepted that to publicly deny it was tantamount to heresy. Yet it was not true. It was not true in nature and it was not true in history. In both the strong ruled the weak. And what was more inequality was the foundation on which civilisation was built. If all men were born equal and remained equal we should all still be living in caves and scratching a living as hunter gatherers. All the great civilisations were impossible without inequality. That was is as true today, as we mouth platitudes about equality and freedom, as it was in the days of the Roman Empire when it was recognised that inequality and its most perfect legal expression, slavery is a condition natural to mankind. Then as now a very few were born to rule the majority to serve.

Because of the tiresome and unnatural confines of the law this truth has to be disguised and kept hidden except in certain places where the old ways were still followed and practised; such as the island where Nicky would be taken and allowed to fulfil his destiny as a born slave. For slaves could be both made and born. Made on the island where all the facilities to break and train a boy to servitude were to hand. Born anywhere and available to anyone who had the skill to recognise and harvest the livestock.

It saddened Toby to think how many boys born with the instinct to submit and to serve, particularly in the West, were fated to spend a lifetime of frustration and unhappiness. At least Nicky he reflected would be spared that fate. Nicky, though he did not know it and perhaps never would recognise it, was one of the lucky ones. Thanks to his, Toby's, intervention he would be stripped of those illusions of pride and self-worth that deluded those of his sort, and reduced to the essential animal that he truly was. The slave within him would at last be free to find fulfilment and peace in total subordination to those chosen by nature to rule over him.

As he reflected with some satisfaction on the part he had played and was continuing to play in the schooling Nicky, Toby continued his examination of the boy. Trapper he saw in his eagerness to gain access to the slut's hole must have tugged with considerable force on the chain anchoring the plug in his bottom. Attached to the back of the broad metal ring originally clamped around the neck of the boy's scrotum the dog had pulled the chain so hard that the ring had ridden someway up over Nicky's balls taking his skin with it..

Toby taking the ring between his finger and thumb eased it with some difficulty back into place exposing a broad band of broken skin around the base of Nicky's scrotum where the it had bitten into the boy's flesh as it had been dragged partway over his balls squeezing them so hard that it had rolled the skin back.

"Jason," he said to the naked boy who had followed him into the kennel and was standing beside him very obviously excited by the sight of the damage inflicted on Nicky by Trapper's eagerness, "go to the stable and get the bottle of iodine and some clean rags would you please. You'll find them among the other stuff on the top of the table."

Toby followed Jason with his eyes as he set off at the run, a half smile on his face. There was the right stuff in the lad he thought. He approved of the easy confidence with which the boy assumed and exercised authority over Nicky and his readiness to use his fists and feet on the brat.

One or two of his colleagues had brought to the Island Western boys as visitors and guests, sons, nephews, lovers, to enjoy and share the very special pleasures available there. They had all seemed to find the structured nature of the society they found and the forthright methods used to enforce discipline at the least startling if not distasteful. Most overcame their initial surprise and even learnt to embrace the local system, no doubt fortified by the reflection that they were numbered among the privileged. A substantial minority however were so indoctrinated with the pernicious doctrine of "rights" so prevalent in the West, although it is obvious the weak and defenceless can have no rights, for there cannot be such things without the power to enforce them, that they were quite unable to adjust to local conditions and customs.

Toby was sure Jason would adjust well to the customs peculiar to the Island. Of course the real test would come the next morning when the boy was due to use the cane on Nicky's bare bottom. Many people Toby knew from observation found it difficult to inflict pain on another person, even if that person was a mere boy. This was, he understood from discussing the matter with a few such people suffering from this disability, caused by some feeling of sympathy for the whimpering wretch reluctantly presenting his naked rump for punishment.

He was glad that he was afflicted with no such weakness. Any boy brought before him for correction would look in vain for pity or mercy. He recognised that it was his duty to beat the pride and wilfulness out of those entrusted to his care and took a fierce pride and an equally fierce pleasure in doing so. Jason he was sure would prove to be just such another as himself. Not only would he lay the cane on with exemplary vigour, he would persevere even when the rod had split the tautly drawn flesh and the smooth tight curves of the slut's rump were slicked with freely flowing blood.

Jason came hurrying towards him from the stable carrying a dark brown medicine bottle and a small bundle of rags. He was grinning happily and the tip of his stiff little prick quivered with eagerness. Toby smiled to himself. It was pleasant to see a boy so obviously happy and enjoying himself.

"No," he said as Jason offered him the iodine bottle, "you keep it. I'll hold Nicky and you slap the stuff on him. He'll squirm quite a bit when the iodine hits his raw flesh and it's better I hold him. I'm stronger than you."

"You think he'll yell Mister Toby," the boy asked his voice crackling with excitement.

"Almost certain too I would think. The steel ring has cut into his skin and pulled it back exposing the raw flesh and that's a very tender part of his body at the best of times.. Mind you the slut is lucky. He would have lost his balls completely if we had let Trapper have a little more time with him. I don't expect though the little brute feels the slightest gratitude."

Toby moved to stand behind Nicky and took a firm hold of the boy's bare shoulders. He tightened his grasp making sure the boy felt the full force of his strength. He felt the bones in Nicky's shoulders shift under his grip and the boy caught his breath and whimpered in pain.

"I'm afraid you'll have to kneel down to do the job Jason," Toby said. "Nicky can't stand with the open cuts on his feet."

"Now tip a good lot of iodine on one of the rags and slap it on the raw flesh round the his balls."

The air was suddenly full of the pungent smell of disinfectant. Toby felt Nicky's body jerk as though it had been hit with a surge of electricity.

"Don't forget behind his balls too," he said raising his voice to be heard over Nicky's yells, "the skins been torn there as well. Good boy 3; I tell you what see if you can get a firm grip of them that will help hold him steady 3; I know it's difficult there's not much to get hold of."

"Finished?" Toby asked a second or two later. "Good I'll just check he's not torn behind."

Releasing his grip of the boy's shoulders he placed a hand on the back of his neck and forced him forward so his face was pressed to the ground. Toby bent to examine the boy's anus. Trapper's violent tugging on the chain securing the base of the butt plug to Nicky's cock ring had wrenched the plug partly from his bottom. It now stood proud and clear of his hole.

"No broken skin," Toby remarked sounding pleased. "Now to get thing properly lodged again."

He delivered a sharp blow with the butt of his hand on the exposed base of the plug ringing a further sharp cry of pain from him. He bent to check that it was properly lodged in Nicky's bottom before leading the way out of the kennel.

"Gosh," Jason said as he walked up the path towards the farm house, "he does make a noise crying," and then turning his mind to more important things.

"I wonder what there's for supper tonight. I hope it's roast chicken. Uncle Bill said we ought to have something special for your first night."

Toby lent back in the arm chair and stretched his legs out towards the glow of the wood fire stove that heated the big first floor room which served as sitting room, play room and when any boys were down, small assembly hall. The weather had reverted to type and a storm had blown in from the west. Rain driven by a strong wind rattled against the big glass windows, now shrouded in heavy curtains, that formed one end of the room looking out over the bay to the Gower and Worms Head in the distance. Muted by the drawn curtains and the windows' double glazing the muffled roar of the waves breaking against the shore was a reminder of how wild the weather was away from the warmth and comfort of the farm house.

The feeling of general well being generated by this contrast was increased by an excellent supper and his share of a bottle of Chateau Montrose. No domestic staff was employed at the farm for obvious reasons and any people staying there were expected to cater for themselves. Meals could therefore be a rather hit or miss affair but Bill by judicious use of the freezer managed to ensure his special guests were well fed and he maintained a carefully guarded and well stocked cellar there for his own use. That evening he had produced a robust bottle of Bordeaux that accompanied to perfection generous helpings of steak and kidney pie oozing rich meat gravy, the speciality of a local butcher.

Opposite him on the other side of the stove Bill lounged comfortably in a second armchair with Jason seated on the floor at his feet his head resting on the side of one of the man's thighs. Earlier in the evening the boy had chattered excitedly about their plans for the next day focussing largely on the ferocious flogging he was planning to inflict on Bobby as soon as he was allowed to get at him the next morning. Now though he had fallen silent and dozed quietly his fair boy's head resting on the side of his lover's, for that was what Toby was sure BIll was, knee.

Apart from the muted sound of the storm outside a comfortable silence filled the room as the two men sat busy with their own thoughts. There were things though that needed discussing.

"Wild night," Toby remarked deliberately breaking the silence.

"Yes," Bill replied, "your brat will be having a hard time of it. There's no shelter in that cage you know."

"Good thing too," Toby replied cheerfully, "the weather will do most of my work for me, by tomorrow there'll be little fight left in the brute after a night out in this. The cold and the wet will be quite as effective as the lash in breaking its spirit."

"When do you think you will have him ready to fly out East?" Bill asked.

"Well I take it he'll be in the custody of one of your friends among the border agency staff all the time but I can see it would be better if he went quietly. I think he probably would do so now but give me another fortnight or so, so that we can be quite certain. A fortnight being worked hard naked in the open should darken his skin a bit as well. Make him look less utterly implausible when presented as a Vietnamese boy."

"What date are you planning to have them deliver the Vietnamese boy here?"

"Well I suggested to them about a fortnight this coming Saturday. That's just under three weeks from now. They could deliver the boy on the Friday; we have the barbecue on the Sunday, and they take Nicky away on the Monday. That should give us plenty of time to issue invitations and organise things."

"How many people do you plan to ask? Anyway how big is the brat."

"I've asked the Border Control People about the boy and they said thirty five and a half kg [78 lbs]. I thought about ten people at the party, you, me, the two Border Agency people and eight others selected from supporters of the NGO in this country. Apart from the Border Agency people that will be staying three nights, the rest of them will only be staying the Sunday night and there is ample room here to accommodate them and there will be plenty of flesh for the barbecue."

"Just over thirty five kilograms – slightly less than Nicky weighs now," Toby said thoughtfully, "three weeks of hard work and short commons should easily get Nicky down to that. So far as size is concerned they will look pretty similar by then. But I wonder if ten guests will be quite enough. The primary purpose of the barbecue is there should be no scraps."

"I've thought of that. The winter term begins the following Monday so I am calling our Senior Rugby Seven Aside Squad here for a ten day team building training camp with the squad members to arrive the Friday evening before the barbecue so they will be all settled in and raring to go before our guests arrive on the Saturday. The boys will have ferocious appetites especially after a few training sessions and our guests will appreciate the presence of enthusiastic young company."

"How many will come? They'll only have three weeks notice and some will be away on their holidays and unable to make it even if they want to and maybe not all of them will want to."

"They'll all want to come you can be sure of that. You don't get selected for the squad unless you're a hot little boy bitch. I've sent out e.mails to the parents of fifteen boys inviting their sons to attend and I expect at least ten of them will turn up here and those that don't will be, like you say, out of the country on family holidays."

"Aren't you taking a bit of a risk having the boys here at all?"

"Good God Toby," Bill exclaimed laughing, "you've been away enjoying the exotic delights of the Orient so long that you have lost touch with how things work over here. The boys will never complain not so long as they are boys. They enjoy it too much. You look at the cases reported in the media. There are very few involving current "abuse" and those are rarely if ever started by a boy complaining to the police. Current cases usually arise from some accident or stupid error by the adult "abuser" in some way alerting the authorities. Most investigations that start because of "abuse" being reported to the authorities by the supposed "abused" individual do so many years after the incident complained of. The time of maximum danger of betrayal by the current crop is not now but thirty years hence and my aim is to ensure that that betrayal does not occur by involving the boys now in something so heavy and so dark that it will keep them silent for ever."

"I think," Toby remarked thoughtfully, "I'll sheer Bobby's head, which is the only place he has any hair, tomorrow and keep it shorn for the rest of the time he is here. It will mark him as different and inferior and distinguish him from young Jason here and your other boy's when they turn up. And cropped really short his fair hair won't be so noticeable when he is flown out as a Vietnamese boy criminal."

"Good idea," Bill said approvingly.

"Now it's time I got young Jason here to bed he's asleep already. Jason, Jason wake up young man time for bed," he continued smiling and gently pulling the lobe of. the boy's ear.

Jason stirred, lifted his head from the man's knee and looked about himself blinking sleepily.

"Oh Sir," he said in mild protest.

"Come on upstairs with you and into the shower. I'll be up in a minute to see you do the job thoroughly."

With a single lithe movement Jason uncurled himself from the floor and getting to his feet lifted his arms above his head and stretched arching his back luxuriously His shirt, that was his only clothing, rose up his body giving Toby a clear view of the sweet curves of his delicious boy's bottom. Jason held the pose for a second or two longer than was perhaps strictly necessary while turning slightly so that, whether deliberately or not was not clear, Toby caught a glimpse of his hairless crutch. Toby noticed with amusement that his prick, a tiny tube of pale flesh tipped with a small but swollen pink helmet, was erect and quivering with excitement

"Will Mister Toby be joining us in bed Sir?" he asked with apparent innocence.

"No he will not," Bill replied sharply allowing his surprise at the suggestion to show, "whatever put that into your head Jason."

"Just that that was what happened to the Chinese boy In the video you showed me last night Sir. I'm sure I could manage it if you and Mister Toby wanted. It looked like fun."

"Get upstairs with you, you evil little boy or I'll put you across my knee and spank your bare bottom in front of Mister Toby," Bill said half laughing, half shocked by the child's temerity.

"That might be fun too," Jason said with a giggle and jumped back out of reach as Bill made a grab for him.

"Well good night Mister Toby Sir," he called over his shoulder as he darted from the room laughing.

"Lively young lad ," Toby observed with an indulgent laugh as the two men listened to the sound of the boy scampering bare footed up the stairs.

"A bit too lively at times," Bill replied a trifle grimly, "I must admit that at times it's hard work keeping him satisfied. I suppose it is all part of getting older."

"Well if you want a bit of help we could always give Jason's suggestion a try and share the little whore," Toby said lightly.

"Not bloody likely," Bill snapped scrambling to his feet, suddenly angry and possessive, "he's my boy and I'm not sharing him with anyone and you keep your hands off him Toby or we'll be falling out big time. If you must fuck a boy, fuck that slut Nicky you brought with you."

"Now I had better close the stove down for the night. You can stay down here if you wish but I am going upstairs."

He moved across to the stove and busied himself riddling and stoking the embers glowing in its grate.

"I think I'll go to bed too," Toby said addressing his friend's turned back, apparently unruffled by his sudden burst of ill temper. "Apart from anything else I have had two days of pretty continuous motorway driving. I doubt if I would be able to contribute much to satisfying young Jason even if you were prepared to share him with me."

Poor chap, he thought to himself as he climbed the staircase towards his bedroom, he has got it badly and I doubt if the boy is really worth it. A nice enough lad but like most boy's his age oversexed with the morals of a tom cat.

He undressed stretched himself on his bed and tired from two days of traveling soon fell asleep to the sound of the faint roar of the waves and the wind rattling the windows of his bedroom.

Toby struggled back to consciousness. He felt arms about his neck. lips against his mouth. Still half asleep, without conscious intent on his part, his hands explored and caressed the bare young body, vibrant with life and passion, pressing against his own, the boy's skin warm and silky smooth to his touch. Jason, he thought, it can only be Jason, there'll be trouble if Bill finds about this.

Then the boy's tongue darted between his lips and he forgot about Bill and everything else except the eagerly wriggling bundle of bare boy flesh in his arms. His hands roamed over the boy's naked body as their two tongues darted snake like deep into each other mouths. Jason's arms locked tight about his neck, his lips pressed hard against his mouth, his hands were free to caress and to probe the most intimate and exciting recesses of the boy's body; down the boy's back, over his taught firm bottom, between his legs fingering his small hairless balls, toying with his boy's prick, tiny but pulsating with passion, and then into his crack searching for and then teasing his anus. The boy he realized with a thrill had come greased ready for penetration, or perhaps he had already been prepared for an earlier encounter. Who cared? He was there in his bed hot and randy, demanding cock and he would ge itt.

Putting his hands on the boy's shoulders he pressed down breaking the boy's embrace.

It was pitch dark. He raised himself and reached across to the bedside lamp, switching it on. As he did so he felt Jason move beside him. Sitting upright he turned to see the boy had rolled onto his back. Catching his eye Jason grinned and brought his knees up so that they pressed into the mattress on either side of his head offering his open bottom as a target for Toby's lust.

Toby swung his legs from the bed and stood up. He pulled his pyjama trousers down over his hips letting them fall about his ankles. Grabbing the boy by his hips Toby turned him and dragged him to the edge of the bed. Jason lay waiting, reaching round his bottom he used his hands to pull its cheeks of apart.

"Fuck me Mister Toby. Fuck me good and hard Sir," Jason said his light boy's voice thick with passion

Toby spat on the palm of his hand and smeared his swollen cock with saliva. Then he drove into the boy. There was a moments resistance then Jason's sphincter gave way to the pressure of his thrusting prick and he was inside the boy. Jason gasped and moaned as Toby hammered his swollen rod into him with heavy forward thrusts of his hips. Toby felt the heat of the boy's gut close around his cock seemingly drawing it ever deeper into the softly moaning child. Soon it was fully sheathed in the boy, Toby's crutch with each forward thrust of his hips striking against the taughtly drawn flesh of Jason's raised bum adding a rhythmic accompaniment to the lust induced murmurs of the boy and the laboured breathing of the man.

Toby felt the blood surge in his loins, he thrust forward the muscles in his buttocks working as he pumped semen deep inside Jason. For a time he rested, sweat pouring from his body, his prick still buried in the boy. Then Jason gently at first but with increasing urgency began to work his bottom, tensing and relaxing it, around his cock. It was not long before Toby was fully erect again. Four further times Toby was brought to a climax before pulling his cock from the boy's hole with a noise similar to a cork being drawn from a wine bottle. He collapsed exhausted on the bed and quickly fell asleep Jason's naked butt pressed tight into his crutch.

He woke to find daylight filtering into the room through the drawn curtains. He was alone in the bed. The bedclothes had been drawn up round his shoulders. Memory came flooding back. For a moment he wondered if it was all a dream perhaps induced by memories of earlier episodes at the farmhouse before he had found it sensible to withdraw from the UK. Then he saw his pyjama trousers tumbled on the bedroom floor and realized that he was naked from the waist down.

The storm had not abated. A strong wind was blowing flurries of heavy rain against his bedroom window. He pulled back the curtains. The sea was a dull grey flecked with white breakers under a dark heavy sky. He dressed quickly and hurried downstairs to find the kitchen warm and smelling pleasantly of hot coffee and fried bacon.

Bill was sitting at the kitchen table munching a piece of toast, his laptop, open, beside him. He looked well settled and in no hurry to go outside and face the elements. Jason on the other hand was standing staring out of the window, his back to the room. He was wearing a warm polar necked jumper and nothing else. The jumper had rooked up round his waste affording an un-obstructed view of his tight little boy's bottom.

As he entered the kitchen Jason spun round to face him. Toby saw with surprise mixed with admiration that the boy's penis was standing erect and quivering jutting out from his hairless crutch. To manage that so soon after the multiple orgasms of the previous night the boy had to be all but insatiable. No wonder Bill experienced difficulty in satisfying the lad.

"Hello Mister Toby Sir," Jason greeted him with a cheerful and distinctly cheeky grin, "I hope you slept well Sir."

"Thank you Jason that is very nice of you. As a matter of fact I was disturbed by a most peculiar dream. I dreamt that a beautiful and very sexy young boy came to me in the night."

"That sounds fun Sir," Jason replied the cheeky grin broadening.

"It was Jason. It was, I enjoyed it enormously."

"Must have been generated by memories of past visits here," Bill remarked looking up from his lap top. "What was the name of the boy who caused all those problems for you."

"Richard Perkins, silly young whore kept a diary despite all the boy's being warned not to and his Mother went and found it and there was all hell to play. What happened to him? I had take off in rather a hurry to get away from things."

"Well thanks to your precipitate departure, and I very much appreciate that, thank you Toby, the whole thing quickly blew over. I managed, backed up by Richard lying manfully, to persuade his parents that you were the sole person in the school with such tastes and with you out of the country and out of reach of the law there was no point at all in involving the police. The father wasn't too keen on it anyway. Saying the more fuss that was made the more it would upset his son."

"And what happened to Richard."

"Oh I agreed in the end that he could stay on here. It was quite funny really; I had the mother crying in my study about the terrible abuse suffered by her poor little son and Richard himself an hour or so later snivelling and begging to be allowed to stay because he enjoyed so much the "fun" we all had together. I explained to him that he had to accept the thrashing of his young life though to do so as he had broken the rules and put us all to a great deal of trouble. He accepted that willingly. Seemed he thought it was a small price to pay for being allowed to continue with us. We had him down for three weeks during the Summer holidays and gave him the flogging the first day he was here. It was the principal item of entertainment of that Summer program. The marks had only just about faded by the end of his stay. I don't think I've seen a boy's bottom cut up so badly before or since, in this country anyway. Seen worse with your Island boys of course Toby. God the brat bled and went on bleeding."

"I hope I make Nicky bleed," Jason exclaimed wistfully. "Do you think I will make him bleed Mister Toby?. I do hope I do Sir. Do you think I will Mister Toby? "

"You said I was to give the brat his beating this morning," the boy hurried on sudden anxiety showing in his voice. "You do remember that Sir? I am going to beat him this morning Sir? Please you did promise."

"Cos I remember Jason and you will too," Toby said laughing at the boy's eagerness. He was really a very engaging lad with all the unforced enthusiasm of a young boy. "Just let me have a bite of breakfast and we'll all go down to the yard and get the job done. And as for drawing blood, you're a good well built boy you should do so, just put all your strength and weight behind each stroke and cut down as hard as you can, and try to lay the strokes over each other. That's surprisingly difficult to do. However firmly we hold the brat down for you he'll jump and twist a bit as the cane bites and the cane itself gets deflected slightly as it descends. But try and you should manage a few crosses and overlaps and that's your best chance of making the little brute bleed."

"Well I do hope I can," Jason persisted wistfully.

"You will video me won't you Sir," the boy continued turning his attention to Bill. "But it's raining, perhaps don't want to get the camera wet."

Doubt and anxiety showed in the boy's voice.

"We'll take him into the big barn and do the job out of the rain in there."

"Oh good Sir, and maybe if I really make the slut bleed you'll show it to the other boys when we get back to school. That would be really cool.

Jason fell silent for the moment as he contemplated the increased standing he would enjoy among his young fellows if that happened.

Toby smiled indulgently. He could see why Bill was fond of the boy. A handsome lad, there was in addition a youthful freshness and a zest for life about him that were very appealing. These were qualities that needed to be encouraged and nurtured. At the moment Jason was looking forward to being allowed to flog Nicky with all the single minded enthusiasm of which a twelve year old boy is capable. If anything went wrong, if he botched the job, above all if he failed to draw blood and that in copious quantities, he would be bitterly disappointed. And with that disappointment would come a loss of confidence that would be devastating for him. The infliction of pain, not drawing blood, was of course the primary purpose of corporal punishment but try convincing an excited twelve year old of that.

"Do you still have Brother Desmond's strap about the place Bill? " Toby asked abruptly.

"Of course I do. He gave it to me as a memento of his stay with us and I wouldn't give it away or anything."

"I don't suppose Jason you have any idea who Brother Desmond was, he was long before your time with us," Bill continued speaking to the boy whom he obviously felt should be kept informed of what was going on. "He was a Christian Brother who taught, if that is the right word, in an Industrial School in Ireland. We provided him with temporary refuge after he ran into a bit of trouble. I forget the details some boy went and died and the mother kicked up a fuss despite the death certificate saying natural causes. She went on and on about some bruises and a couple of broken ribs and stuff like that.

"I took his strap off him when he arrived here. I explained to him that while it was fine to use a strap with a large brass stud at the business end in the shape of a Celtic Cross on the bare bottom of a delinquent gypsy brat in the wilds of Ireland it just wouldn't do with fee paying middle class boys in a Preparatory School in the South East of England."

"Anyway the Christian Brothers found him a permanent haven teaching in one of their schools in Canada. I offered it back to him before he left but he told me to keep it. He said that maybe he had overdone things in the past and that he had decided in future to follow the usual practice of his colleagues and content himself with opening the seam at the tip of a strap and inserting a two penny coin to give it extra impact."

"Great character but with a foul temper that he found very hard to control."

"Anyway, yes I have it Toby. I suppose you want Jason to use it rather than the cane on your brat's bottom?"

"Yes,he'll certainly draw blood with it if he wants to use it. Do you want to use it Jason?"

The grin that split the boy's face was answer enough to that question.

Bill laughed and leaning forward in his chair patted his young protégée fondly on his bare bottom.

"You go and fetch the strap Jason. It's hanging up with the other boy management tools in the glass fronted cabinet in the assembly room upstairs. You'll recognise it when you see it by the brass stud at its tip shaped like a Celtic cross."

The two men exchanged indulgent smiles as the boy hurried eagerly from the room.

"Won't you be breaking the Society's regulations Toby?" Bill asked, "using Brother Desmond's enhanced strap rather than the regulation cane to chastise your brat?"

"Well I have always regarded the Society's rules as being more for guidance than mandatory." Toby replied with a grin. "Anyway I think making sure that nothing happens to blunt the enthusiasm of young Jason is more important than a slavish adherence to the rules."

Toby was interrupted by Jason bursting back into the room carrying the strap.

"This is it I think Sir, can we go down the yard now and use it on the slut please?"

"Jason," Bill said laughing, "leave the man alone and let him have his breakfast in peace. Just be patient. You'll have plenty of chances to make that slut squeal before the end of our holiday I promise you.

"Now why don't you feed Trapper while Toby has his breakfast? Then we can go down to the yard and sort Nicky out. Maybe it will have stopped raining by then

"O.K. Sir," Jason said cheerfully taking a short yellow oil skin down from behind the kitchen door. There was a certain amount of banging and clashing from the scullery as he filled the dog's bowl with the mixture of flake maize and meat pellets from the bucket in which they had been soaking overnight. Then he was out in the rain shouting for Trapper The two men looking out at the boy, the rain streaming down his glistening oil skin its bottom flapping against his bare thighs exchanged smiles.

"Nice boy," Toby remarked turning away from the window to help himself to a bowl of hot porridge from the saucepan on the Aga.

Jason reappeared as Toby was finishing his breakfast. He stood just inside the kitchen door rain glinting in his fair hair, water trickling off his oilskin jacket to form a growing pool on the flagstone floor.

"It's still raining Sir," he announced it seemed to Toby somewhat unnecessarily and then added, "and I've fed Trapper. If Mister Toby has finished his breakfast can we go down to the yard so I can use the strap on Nicky."

"Give me a second to finish my coffee," Toby said laughing at the lad's eagerness, "I tell you what find me a bowl from somewhere. Nicky's due for his morning feed."

"Trapper's bowl will do Jason," Bill remarked.

Jason hesitated and looked doubtful.

"Well I dunno Sir," he said, "you know what Trapper's like Sir. Soon as he finishes eating he goes and pees in his bowl. I don't know why he does it, but he does."

"Oh just swill the bowl out under the outside tap would you Jason," Toby said rather dismissively. He didn't want to upset Jason but he just didn't see why he should be bothered about such a triviality. "It doesn't really matter, the brat will be so hungry it will be glad to get anything in its stomach even if it was soaked in dog pee. Anyway it's lucky to get fed at all."

"And don't give it more than two ladle spoons of swill. It's easier to handle if it's kept hungry."

A few minutes later they were walking through the rain down the path to the yard. Toby having for the moment taken charge of Brother Dominic's strap. While Jason carried a metal bowl no more than half full of maize porridge and reconstituted meat pellets.

Nicky locked in his cage heard them coming and crawled into the corner the furthest away from the door where he huddled on the bare concrete floor shivering miserably trying to make himself as small and as inconspicuous as possible.

It had not been too bad in the cage at first. Admittedly it was cramped, too low for even a boy like Nicky to stand upright and the concrete floor was hard to sit on and even harder to lie on. However the day had been sunny and the warmth lingered on into the late evening. Nicky utterly exhausted curled up into a ball on the concrete floor that still retained some of the heat of the summer sun and fell into an uneasy sleep. Once the sun set the temperature fell sharply and Nicky woke shivering with cold to find the world in darkness. Shortly afterwards the wind got up, first a gentle breeze with occasional stronger gusts but soon rising to a near gale that whipped across the yard driving the sheeting rain before it.

Nicky naked, with no blanket or even straw to lie on could only huddle in a corner of the open cage shivering, listening to the wind howling round the farm buildings and the crash of the waves breaking on the strand.

Dawn brought no improvement in conditions. Nicky crouched on the cage's bare concrete floor, shivering with cold, rain streaming down his naked body, his tummy aching with hunger. Minutes and hours crawled slowly by as he sank deeper and deeper into a state of dull hopeless misery. He ceased to think, he simply endured.

He was only roused from this state of misery induced stupor by the sound of the wicket gate at the bottom of the path to the farmhouse being opened. Looking up he saw, through the driving rain, the two men and the boy enter the yard. Uncle Toby he saw was carrying a heavy leather strap doubled in his right hand. Sick terror replaced dull misery. There was nowhere to go, nobody to help him, nobody to turn to for help. Bent double he scuttled to the furthest corner of the small cage from the door and crouched on the floor pressed up close against the railings. He watched, trembling with fear and cold, as Jason and the two men walked briskly across the yard towards him.

They came to a halt by the cage door and stood there looking in at him. Nicky briefly searched their faces for any sign of sympathy or kindness and finding none looked down. He felt their eyes on him, cold, hostile and merciless.

"He looks really miserable," Jason exclaimed with no hint of compassion in his voice, "like something the cat has brought in, a half drowned rat or something don't you think Sir?"

Nicky, naked, shivering with cold and wet, looked up and saw a boy, a year or so younger than himself, bare legged but kept warm and protected from the wind and driving rain by a short waterproof jacket. Utterly wretched as he was he felt a flicker of resentment and envy. How would that boy look if he had been forced to spend a night in that cage. And anyway he was younger and smaller than he was. He would like to get his hands on him away from those two adults. He'd teach him to keep his mouth shut. It was different with Uncle Toby and his friend. They were grownups and were older and bigger and stronger than he was that gave them a sort of natural authority but this boy, Jason, was just a little runt. Somebody, he could, if the adults weren’t there he was sure smash into the ground tired and cold and hungry as he was.

"He does look pretty unappetising Jason," Toby replied, "but he'll look even worse when I've got his head sheared, not a rat but a nasty wet slimy hairless slug."

"Let's get the brat out of there. I don't want to spend all morning out in this rain."

"Ok," Bill said pulling the key to the padlock securing the cage door. He stood for a moment fiddling with the key in the pouring rain. There was a click and the hasp fell open.

"Come on out of there you miserable little turd," he ordered swinging the cage door open.

[author's note: Christian Brothers, Irish Reformatories and Industrial Schools. I will not elaborate on these in case I am accused of anti-religious prejudice but would refer readers to the very full entries in Wikipedia. I was told of the practice of the good Brothers of enhancing the impact of their favourite educational aide by an individual who had the misfortune to be placed, when a young boy, in their care.]