Duncton Found

DUNCTON FOUND

“I’m frightened,” said the youngster, not moving at all. The wood was suddenly hushed and awed about them, and the air stilled as the light seemed to tremble and darken.

“The best way with fear is to turn your snout towards it and put one paw resolutely in front of another,” said Tryfan. “Come now, for the June sun has summoned us today and beckons us up through the wood... Come, for I have things to say that you must know.”

Then one after another, with Tryfan in the lead followed by the youngster and Feverfew protectively at the rear, they set off upslope to find the clearing in the high wood where Duncton’s great Stone stands alone and mighty, always ready and waiting for anymole that comes to it in humility and faith.

DUNCTON

FOUND

Part Three of the Duncton Chronicles

William Horwood

CENTURY

LONDON MELBOURNE AUCKLAND JOHANNESBURG

Copyright © 1989 William Horwood

All rights reserved

First published in Great Britain

in 1989 by Century Hutchinson Ltd

Brookmount House, 62-65 Chandos Place

London Wc2N 4NW

(Arrow edition 1990)

These 
ePub, Mobi 
and LIT 
editions v1.0 by Dead^Man September 2011

Century Hutchinson (South Africa) Pty Ltd

PO Box 337, Bergvlei 2012, South Africa

Century Hutchinson (Austrailia) Pty Ltd

89-91 Albion Street, Surry Hills

NSW 2010 Austrailia

Century Hutchinson (NZ) Ltd

PO Box 40-086, Glenfield

Auckland 10 New Zealand

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Horwood, William, 1944-

Duncton found.

I. Title II. Series

823’.914 [F]

ISBN 0 7126 2979 3

(ISBN 0 09 968300 8)

Typeset by Deltatype, Ellesmere Port

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Mackays of Chatham
PLC
, Chatham, Kent

The right of William Horwood to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

P
ROLOGUE

Part I

R
ITES
OF
M
IDSUMMER

Part II

T
O
THE
S
UMMER
’
S
E
ND

Part III

D
ARKNESS
F
ALLS

Part IV

B
EECHENHILL

Part V

D
UNCTON
F
OUND

E
PILOGUE

T
ALES
OF
L
ONGEST
N
IGHT

E
PLILOGUE
II

S
CANNER
’
S
N
OTE

P
UBLISHER
’
S
N
OTE

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Prologue

So now is he come to moledom, with no name yet but “Stone Mole’.

He came of a blessed union, but one mysterious and strange, discovered only in the light and Silence of the Stone itself.

His father was Boswell, White Mole, wise mole. Mole we have learnt to trust and love. Mole who in his passing left his only son, not to guide us, but for us to guide.

His mother is gracious Feverfew, born a Wen mole and the last of an ancient line whose final and greatest destiny is to nurture the mole upon whose fateful life our story must now turn.

Whilst to Tryfan, Boswell bequeathed the task of watching over the Stone Mole and helping Feverfew prepare him for the challenges yet to come.

You who remember Duncton as it was when the present histories began and who accompanied Bracken and then Tryfan on their dread tasks, do not weaken now. For the challenges that face the Stone Mole must become your own. His life will be shaped and made, and brought to fruition, sweet or bitter as the case may be, by the actions and thoughts of allmole, of whom you, by your care, your love, and your doubts, are one.

Blessed Boswell knew that moles find it hard to keep faith at the hardest time. So, long ago, he spoke of the first who would follow in the Stone Mole’s path, and said that female she shall be, and by her example would light the path for all. Unknown yet to us! To be discovered best by moles with open hearts and courage, and snouts inclined towards the Stone.

So now, you who once prayed for Bracken and petitioned for brave Tryfan, pray for these two who follow them. First for the Stone Mole, whose birth you witnessed and whose life has now begun; next for she who will understand his life and his example first of all living moles, and show us how to honour it.

Let us choose our companions along the way wisely and well, for we journey but once and need at our flanks moles who have it truly in their hearts to help us to that place we lost even as we first knew it; but where, once more, may be our Duncton found.