"EDITH:" "I've said it before." "No!" "You stay here." "What can you be thinking of?" "All there is to do here, and you talk of riding off to find Tom?" "Charles will find him." "That's why he went." "Now, go and finish those billhooks we need for the forge." "Ain't got no iron." "How do you suppose I'd manage with you two gone as well?" "They want to ride off." "Hmm." "To find Tom, they said." "Charles is doing that." "That's what I said." "Charles has been gone for 10 days." "How much longer are we supposed to wait?" "He had a gun." "A real bigshot, eh?" "Provisions, maps, a good horse." "I've lost one son already." "And if you two go as well..." "We'll come back!" "Even if we don't find Tom." "Hasn't it got through to you yet?" "What?" "Nobody who leaves here comes back." "Not even your Charles." "(WHISTLING)" "We should never have let him go." "Someone had to look for Tom." "One of the boys should have gone." "He's their brother, after all." "I would rather trust Charles to find him than those two." "Finding Edith's eldest son isn't really our concern." "We've recovered their farm and got rid of Brod." "I did that." "Lot of thanks I got." "We all appreciate it, Hubert." "There's one that didn't." "But if it hadn't been for me..." "Yes, yes." "We know, Hubert." "I bloody wishes I was with him now." "If he hasn't been eaten by dogs, that is." "(WHISTLING)" "(LAUGHS)" "If they can't get organised here on their own, they never will." "Every day we're stuck here," "Greg could be getting further and further away." "This is the only place we have found where they manage to produce more than they need." "There's enough wool in this loft from last summer's shearing to clothe hundreds of people." "Enough cheese is stored as well." "Unless they can soon exchange it for the things they want they'll let it all run down." "Well, why not send Steve and Owen to find people to trade with?" "(SCOFFS) They do little enough here." "Steve and Owen don't care." "You know that." "Sitting around with their bows and arrows, wishing they could ride with Brod again." "They could be making tools we need in a forge." "They're just not interested." "They'll settle down again once Tom gets..." "Tom?" "I'm sick and tired of hearing about Tom." "You never met him." "True." "But he's as practical as Greg." "He found this place at the time of the plague, rounded up all the sheep he could find, gathered together a herd of cattle." "Well, we can't just abandon everything he started." "We have to find Greg!" "And we will." "But there are more important things." "(GROANS)" "Jenny!" "People in my country are starving." "(COW MOOING)" "What is the matter with you, Betty, me old love, eh?" "She kept lifting her tail just now." "Eh?" "Did she?" "Well, it is swelled up." "How long has she been in calf, then?" "You'd better ask Edith." "No, you had." "Go on." "She's starting." "Find out if she should have." "Don't fret, me old darling." "We'll do all we can for you." "But Betty's not due for another three months." "AGNES:" "You could easily have got that wrong." "Are you sure it's not one of the other cows?" "No, it's Betty." "Just started, Hubert says." "Well, if she's going to start early, it could happen again." "Again?" "Last calf we had was born dead." "Well, when was that?" "Last month, on Brod's place." "Well, that's not surprising, the way things were there." "Well, what's so worrying about a stillborn calf?" "It's happened before." "That's why it's worrying." "Two abortions in a row." "And left to herself, she'd eat her own afterbirth." "They like the taste of it." "And it will all start up again." "What would start up again?" "Brucol..." "Brucellosis?" "That's right." "What she said." "Could be that." "Charles is coming up, from the river." "Charles?" "I'll go, Jenny." "HUBERT:" "Hold the end steady just once more." "He's back?" "Yeah, on foot." "Charles!" "(LAUGHS) Hello, Agnes!" "Are you all right?" "We've been so anxious." "Oh, I'm just tired, that's all." "You're not ill?" "No, not now." "What happened?" "Plenty." "Did you find Tom?" "No." "But I met a few people who had news of Greg." "Where is he?" "Oh, it wasn't enough to lead me to him." "Well, what's been happening here?" "Oh, all sorts of things." "Edith is inside." "She'll tell you about it." "She's making soup, I think it's carrot." "Well, that's the lot." "Well, at least the mother's free of it now." "HUBERT:" "Can't be sure of that." "She didn't touch her calf or the placenta." "I'll go and scrub out the cowshed." "Isolate her, Hubert, in case she gets infected again by the others." "A bit late for that." "She could be the only healthy cow we've got left." "Could have been just a bad calving." "And there's no news at all of Tom?" "I'm sorry." "I need him, Charles." "I need him here." "Come on, let's go inside." "Rabies?" "If it's all going rabid out there as well..." "It's just something else we have to contend with, Jenny." "Now, Charles, what about this man who said he'd seen Greg?" "Oh, that was weeks ago." "He said he was looking into the possibilities of some open cast mining about 30 miles from here." "Well, then we must go there." "I tried to find him for you, Jenny, but he'd moved on." "Anyway, we can't go anywhere yet." "Well, the cows will be all right." "Once they've aborted, they've got rid of the disease, surely." "Then it'll be a year before any of our bullocks are ready to serve them." "Mmm." "If Brod hadn't taken our bull." "Oh, I think I saw him this afternoon." "They boys could recapture it." "Our whole livelihood depends on those cows." "Can humans catch it?" "Well, it's possible." "It's not fatal." "Hubert's the one most likely to have picked it up." "So keep away from him." "Hey, watch it!" "I should keep out of there, if I were you." "But you're not bothered." "Oh, I'm used to it, aren't I?" "I'm the one that does other people's dirty work for them, aren't I?" "You got back safely, then?" "I managed." "Who was your guardian angel this time?" "Hubert, look." "I know from every rational point of view, you did right to kill Brod." "But you must understand that for me, well, it takes a bit of getting used to." "I'm sorry." "Better not." "You might get infected." "With the cow disease, I mean." "How do you know it's a disease, then?" "We don't but we're not taking any chances, lad." "Well, there's one man who could tell us, isn't there?" "Perhaps Owen and I should ride out and find him?" "EDITH:" "Bill Sheridan?" "He's much too far away." "You and Tom rode over there once." "It's out of the question." "Look, first, you won't let us go and find Tom, and then you won't let us go and find the one man who'll help you to save your stupid cattle." "Bill's not a vet." "He just knows about homeopathic medicine." "How could he vaccinate?" "Well, perhaps he could cure." "Are these the people you told us about before?" "Yeah, they're miles away." "Two days at least." "Well, the boys will be all right." "They'd not come back." "AGNES:" "You said that about Charles." "He wanted to come back." "They don't." "STEVE:" "Oh, of course we do." "You've done nothing!" "Ever since we got back here." "We guarded the sheep." "Well, that was quite important, wasn't it?" "You're looking for any excuse to ride off." "You're not interested in making a success of this farm." "Is it true what she says, Steve?" "Come on, Owen, better go and calm her down." "(SIGHS) Edith is right." "They're Brod's boys at heart." "Then I'll go..." "CHARLES:" "Oh, Jenny!" "...by boat." "That's what we were going to do before, wasn't it?" "Keep to midstream and I'll be safe enough." "Jenny, if anybody goes, the boys go." "And if they don't come back?" "You'll not leave Edith to cope on her own?" "And you'll not leave her with a useless herd of cattle, either." "That's true." "So the sooner we get the vet, the sooner we can get on after Greg." "(SIGHS)" "JENNY:" "I could have gone on my own." "CHARLES:" "Nobody should ever go anywhere on their own." "JENNY:" "You did." "CHARLES:" "It's a mistake I learnt from." "JENNY:" "It didn't have to be you to come." "Look, Jenny, I got reasons of my own for coming along." "So don't get the idea I'm here just to protect you." "Hmm." "Thanks for the warning." "(JENNY LAUGHING)" "(CHARLES EXCLAIMS IN DISAPPOINTMENT)" "You know, it's a long time since I heard you laugh." "Well, it's a long time since there's been anything to laugh at." "It's getting better, Jenny." "It's getting better all the time." "Catch the bull?" "No one else here could possibly do it." "It's in Brod's field but it may not stay there." "So, if you and Owen ride out first thing..." "I thought you were afraid we might ride off for good?" "It's a risk I'll have to take." "Steve, your mother needs you." "If all our calves are going to be born dead, we need that bull." "CHARLES:" "Ha!" "There I was, 20 miles from home, all by myself." "Nothing to protect myself but that stick." "Do you know, I was cold and I was wet and I felt exhilarated." "You felt what?" "Exhilarated." "I know it's something stupid." "A bird was singing." "That's jungle noises." "That's Brod's jungle." "Ah, but it's all ours, Jenny." "You know that 30 miles to the northeast of here, there's a railway with a full working steam train on it?" "And coal they just spoon out of the ground beside it." "Is that the scene that Greg found?" "Rivers that aren't polluted any more." "Fish, timber, coal." "All the fruits of the earth." "Just waiting, waiting for us." "Us?" "Privileged, the lucky ones, those that survived." "Oh, we should be exhilarated, Jenny." "You know, we're so damned... lucky." "It would help if you were a little more friendly to them." "Young, healthy boys, you must have seen how they look at you." "I certainly have." "And what's wrong with that?" "Nice boys." "They're almost your age." "They way you cold-shoulder them, it's not surprising they're so restless." "I'm sorry, Agnes." "So you should be." "Why don't you come with us, then?" "To catch a bull?" "We'd look after you." "I bet you would." "Then why not?" "OWEN:" "Perhaps Agnes would come too." "If you like." "Really?" "Well, isn't that great?" "What, as a nursemaid?" "We'll go on our own." "Mavis..." "On our own, I said." "STEVE:" "Well, don't look so worried." "We'll come back, promise." "OWEN:" "Unless we're gored to death, that is." "Or get a lucky break." "Pick up a couple of birds at the local caff." "Drop in at the pub." ""Pint of export, please."" ""Let's go to the cinema."" "Sex and the Single Girl." "(STEVE WHOOPS)" "I just don't want to have to spend another night on the river." "You were all right last night, weren't you?" "Safe as houses." "Take it easy." "There's no rush." "(ENGINE WHIRRING)" "What's that?" "What?" "Listen." "It's a car." "Can't be." "It is." "You know it is." "Well, if it was a car, it's long gone by now." "(SOFTLY) Charles!" "Hey." "Did you hear anything just then?" "A car." "(CHUCKLES) Impossible." "That's what we thought." "Where have you come from?" "Downriver." "JENNY:" "We're looking for a man called Bill Sheridan." "Do you know him?" "Does he know you?" "He knows a friend of ours, Edith Walter." "Well, you've got a good way to go to Bill Sheridan's house." "You know it?" "I hope I've not forgotten my own home." "Come on." "Come on, cowboy." "Give us a hand." "I done my bit." "I got that rope round that brute's neck." "Up to you now." "Fine brother you are." "Friends of who?" "BILL:" "The Walters." "BILL:" "You remember them?" "You rather fancied Tom Walter, as I remember." "Oh, them." "But they live miles away." "No, it's just two days' row." "With the blisters to show for it." "Oh, where did you spend the night?" "Anchored in midstream." "Oh!" "There you are." "Nothing can harm you if you keep away from the banks." "Well, how did you meet the Walters?" "Oh, they rode by one day last summer, Edith and Tom." "They said they had a mill down there." "On the lookout for anyone with grain." "Not that we could help." "We just grow enough for ourselves." "JENNY:" "Yes, most people do." "How is Tom these days?" "Not bad-looking, is he?" "I don't know." "I've not met him." "Well, he's still looking for grain." "He went off about three months ago." "What, and hasn't come back?" "From what I can remember, Tommy can look after himself." "He's as likely to be torn to pieces by the dogs as anyone, Bill." "You know that." "Want to see my pharmacy?" "Why, is one of you ill?" "Edith's having trouble with her cows." "She thinks I can help." "I hope it's nothing serious." "We think it's brucellosis." "Bill will give you something to give them." "It's the beauty of homeopathic medicine, you do it yourself." "No need to have a vet." "She's from London." "Her husband was a bus driver." "She was carrying his child when I met her." "Where was that?" "Wandering about the M1." "She'd been on a train from Derby till it came to a halt in mid-country." "(CHUCKLING) Poor Alice, didn't know where she was." "Now, then." "How many cows has Edith got?" "Um, 20." "People?" "Fifteen." "Mmm." "We had an outbreak of brucellosis ourselves in these parts some time ago." "This is all I've got left." "Uh, where did all this come from?" "Homeopathic pharmacy." "That's where I was going when I met Alice." "My wife had died and I had the baby in the car." "I thought if I can get to that pharmacy I could save him." "Do you understand about homeopathic medicine?" "The basics, yes." "My parents were fanatics about it." "I knew what I was looking for and as it seemed to have protected me from the plague..." "Oh, come along." "Others survived, too." "But not so many were quite so exposed to it as I was." "I was an orderly in the county hospital." "Till I found myself alone." "Hmm." "So, all of this came from that pharmacy?" "Well, most of it I've made up myself." "I've got the distillery outside for the alcohol." "I grow what I want." "Then I filch things from the woods and hedges on my rounds." "Not that all this can be replaced." "You don't know anybody with business in Whitstable, do you?" "Whitstable?" "Who could bring me back some oyster shells?" "Is that what this is made from?" "It's not all herbs and juices and poisons but it's all organic." "Part of nature, like man." "Maybe it was always the best medicine." "Maybe not, but..." "Well, if you go to the x-ray department of the county hospital, the intensive care unit, or the fully computerised operating theatre, if you're looking for scrap metal, you'll find plenty there." "There's no other use for it." "Never will be." "But this is growing all about us." "Part of nature, like us." "For our use, if enough people learn about it." "Now, look, you said you had an outbreak of brucellosis before." "Did you cure it?" "Well, unless they never had the disease in the first place, which is always possible." "ALICE:" "Half the people who send for him don't need him." "They just take advantage." "Just how many people are there around here anyway?" "More than you'd think." "Once it gets about you're a doc or a vet, you soon find out." "They had him treating rabies the other day." "And half of that was just imagination." "Rabies?" "Where was that?" "You've been treating rabies?" "Well, it turned out it wasn't as serious as they thought." "People will panic." "You're telling me." "Charles was there." "They hunted him like a mad dog." "That was you?" "You heard?" "Yes." "Let's have supper, shall we?" "We want to make an early start in the morning." "But you can't cure rabies, can you?" "Well, I can set people's minds at rest about it, anyway." "See what I mean?" "Half the time he needn't go at all." "BILL:" "Of course I do." "Reassurance is part of the treatment." "People say it's a part of the disease." "It's the patient you must treat, not the illness." "That's why you'll go and see their cattle, won't you?" "If only to tell them it's not brucellosis at all." "All that way, and all that danger, just to put their minds at rest?" "Well, what about my mind?" "That could use some reassurance, too, while you're away." "I'm not going, Alice." "I made up a pack for Charles, if it is brucellosis, told him what to do." "Now, let's have supper, shall we?" "(CLOCK TICKING)" "(COW BELLOWING)" "Edith." "You aren't coming to bed?" "It's been dark for hours." "I thought I'd read a while." "By that light?" "I'm not sleepy." "That cow isn't, either." "She woke me up with her bellowing." "Edith, she's not..." "Hubert is coping." "We must go and help." "He won't let you." "He doesn't want anyone else in the cowshed." "Why is he so stupid?" "Considerate." "He thinks of others." "Can humans really get it?" "Yes." "Perhaps this time it will be all right." "A good healthy calf." "There's a chance." "At least this one went her full time." "(COW BELLOWING)" "Did Steve and Owen catch the bull?" "I haven't heard." "Didn't they say?" "They're not back." "But it's nearly midnight." "Another reason I'm waiting up." "They said they'd come back, they promised." "I did offer to go with them." "They didn't want me to." "I expect they've made camp somewhere." "They'll probably be back in the morning." "Even at home in Norway I never found it easy to make friends, apart from my father." "And these days, travelling as we do, well, it's best to travel light, isn't it?" "I think so." "I couldn't bear to be Jenny." "What are you looking at?" "Hubert's lit another fire." "I thought Edith might like some apples." "JENNY:" "Oh, thank you." "I remember her saying there weren't any fruit trees on that farm." "Yes, their only fruit is what they can pick wild." "I thought we might send that grain we were given too, Bill." "At least they've got a mill." "Will you give her that when you get there?" "Um, it's all right, Alice." "I can manage, from what Bill's told me." "The reassurance wouldn't be the same from you." "It's got to come from him." "If something does happen, maybe one of you'd come back and tell me." "JENNY:" "Alice, do you think I could stay here with you till he does come back?" "Sort of hostage?" "Sort of friend." "Get out of the way there, Ted!" "Don't clear their muck, neither." "Keep away from my cows, if you know what's good for you!" "Hey, don't go in my cowshed!" "Hubert, have you seen Steve and Owen?" "How could I?" "I spent all night in the cowshed, didn't I?" "Their horses are in the field, they must be back." "Well, I ain't seen 'em." "I don't think I want to, particularly." "Go on, there, get out there, you..." "BILL:" "It's the isolation that gets her down." "She's always been a town girl." "Well, perhaps you should move." "To a town?" "Railway station over there somewhere." "Yeah, half a mile up the road from the bridge." "Close as that?" "What, you know it?" "Well, I passed through it on my way back from the Dales." "They've got a working railway in the Dales." "Aye, I know." "And coal to feed it." "You know, it runs out of track about 20 miles from here." "We've got to link it up." "What, lay 20 miles of track?" "Irish navvies did it in the 19th century." "All manual labour." "There's no one unemployed around here." "They're all too busy feeding themselves." "Aye." "Most of what they grow goes to waste." "You know, you kill a sheep or a pig, there's only two or three of you to share it." "It all goes bad." "There's no preservatives." "Not just meat, either." "You look at what's growing around here." "You know that grain we're taking to Edith?" "Know where it came from?" "Payment, you said, for medical services." "That's right." "For the brucellosis?" "No." "The rabies." "The man who tried to hunt you down grew that." "Sanders." "(BOTH CHUCKLING)" "How much..." "How much wheat does he grow?" "Enough to fill a very big granary, where most of it is rotting." "Why didn't you tell Tom and his mother that when they came to visit you?" "Because I didn't know about it then." "Alice..." "Alice isn't the only one who's lonely, you know." "I met people up in the Dales who were living in holes." "We've got to get them together." "They don't even know each other, most of them." "They don't want to." "They go about with guns." "Aye." "Distrust and suspicion, it'll get them nowhere." "You'd never get them together, not even to talk to them." "Aye, I couldn't, but I think you could." "How?" "Well, let's just think." "Say you...you let it be known that you were going to leave the area and before you went, you were going to pass on all the fruits of your medical knowledge." "That'd soon bring them." "(CHUCKLES)" "You know what you remind me of?" "A ruddy politician." "(BOTH LAUGHING)" "Who knows, we might need them yet." "They weren't all rogues." "I don't know everyone around here, you know." "Well..." "You read that." "Get to know a few more." "Where'd you get this?" "A man called Fenton." "I knew him." "Aye." "Well, he wrote down all the names and even the addresses of all the people he met." "But all he ever did was write whimsical little observations on them for his own amusement." "If I could only get some of them together, eh?" "Well, you tell them you expect some payment for your knowledge." "Anything they could bring." "Where should I tell them to come to?" "Railway station?" "You could get to it by the old tracks or along the river." "And you tell them to be there Friday after we get back." "Why Friday?" "Good a day as any for market day, isn't it?" "(LAUGHING)" "(ENGINE WHIRRING)" "BILL:" "Hey!" "CHARLES:" "Hey!" "Come back here!" "What was that on the roof?" "It's methane." "They run a car on it?" "I know someone who could." "If he had the right equipment, if it was him." "AGNES:" "Greg?" "It can't have been." "I didn't see who was driving." "But he'd have stopped." "Well, whoever it was, I'd like to have had a talk to him." "It's just association." "Car, methane, Greg." "What would Greg be doing here?" "Well, you said he was interested in this place when he came with you, you told me so yourself." "He'd have come to find us." "He doesn't know we're here." "So Jenny stayed with Alice, did she?" "Aye, so she wouldn't be lonely." "What did Bill say about the calves?" "Oh." "With a little luck, we may save some of them." "He's dosing them now, him and Hubert." "Did you get the bull back?" "No." "No Steve and Owen, either." "There it is." "Well, he won't get far with that thing around his neck." "As long as he's not tethered to anything he won't strangle himself." "They must have been disturbed, or they'd have ridden off or tethered it properly." "Well, I think they went that way." "The undergrowth's trampled." "Whoa." "What were they trying to do, take a train?" "(CHARLES SIGHS)" "Well, there's no evidence that they came here at all, except for that track we think they followed." "And something else." "CHARLES:" "Aha!" "Thank you." "You know, I came through here the other day." "Brod's carriages are down that way, but there's no track that way for 20 miles." "But where did they go?" "They leave the bull, their horses, their crossbows, why?" "(LAUGHS)" "Perhaps they heard a car." "They'd drop everything then and go off towards the sound." "Greg?" "If it was him in the car." "But the boys have been gone four days." "CHARLES:" "Hmm." "It was four days ago that Jenny and I heard it." "All the flowers here are to do with his pharmacy." "You know, I reckon I'd have been a grass widow with Bill even in the old world." "Gardening, fishing." "Can't you just see him?" "How do you protect yourself?" "I mean, you've got the river one side, but what's the other?" "Barbed wire." "We found it in an army camp." "Nothing can ever get in here." "You'd like wild dogs for company?" "No, just the odd neighbour to drop in once in a while." "Only other person I ever see at all is an old lady, the other side." "Take the children to see sometimes." "Still, I can't complain." "My Harry would never have managed." "Lifting his arm in the pub's about all he ever did in his spare time." "Mind you, he took me with him sometimes." "Saturday nights in the pub." "Never see those days again, will we?" "CHARLES:" "Alice!" "Jenny!" "They're back!" "We kept telling ourselves you couldn't possibly be back in six days and you made it in five." "Are the cows going to be all right?" "Well, some, maybe." "It's a bit early to tell." "Hello, love." "What's for supper?" "You and your stomach." "Edith's given us enough cheese to live on for a year." "Well, at least he's treated them." "There's nothing more he can do." "Well, we must move on, then." "Steve and Owen have gone." "Ah, well, that's not going to stop us." "I'll take one of those." "(CHARLES GRUNTING)" "Jenny, there's some other news as well." "Past you?" "Greg?" "And you let him drive away?" "Now, it may not have been him." "But if it was, he'll be back." "Why?" "Why do you say that?" "Because that's the second time that car's been there." "Oh, to think I was there myself the first time." "So close." "Look, if he's as interested in that railway as I think he is," "I know where he might be now." "He'll be up at that coal seam in Dovedale." "They talked about him there." "They said he was interested in getting a national system going." "Well, now, listen." "We're a lot nearer here than we were at Edith's farm." "So no time's been wasted." "We'll go there tomorrow." "You can't." "JENNY:" "We must." "It means going upriver till you reach Sanders' farm, across his land, past Fenton's place, right through the rabies country." "But you said it was under control now." "As long as Charles isn't seen there again." "I mean, you know he hasn't got it." "Well, I wouldn't bank on them assuming that." "They'll shoot on sight." "(SIGHS) If Greg is at that coal seam..." "I'll take you, Jenny." "It'll give me a chance to tell everyone I can about your cunning scheme to get them to the station." "Station?" "What station?" "I'll take the kids as well, Alice." "Leave them with Mrs Judd for a few days." "Then you can go downriver with Charles and we'll all meet again on market day." "Market?" "ALICE:" "Do you think they'll come?" "Oh, if Bill has convinced them that you really intend to leave, oh, yes, they'll come." "It's a mighty long way from some of those small holdings." "Well, it doesn't matter if only four or five of them turn up, as long as we make a start, establish a bridgehead." "As long as they promise to come once a week." "Just to barter?" "No, no, no." "Market day was always more than that." "It's where you came to catch up on the gossip, have a few beers, where you met your friends." "That's what all this is about, isn't it?" "Making friends." "Charles, look up there." "Morning!" "My name's Charles Vaughan." "Be careful of him, Charles." "Are you going to the station?" "Where's your gun?" "I haven't got one." "(CHARLES SIGHS)" "Well, at least we've got one customer." "CHARLES:" "More than one." "(HENS CLUCKING)" "Where are we supposed to put all this?" "Well, down there." "Good morning." "EDITH:" "Here's Charles and Alice." "It's nice to see you." "It's nice to see you." "Hey, you." "You without a gun." "Where have you come from?" "I'm staying with Mrs Walter about five miles down the river." "You came from upstream." "Mrs Walter has a farm, a dairy herd, sheep too, and a mill in good working order." "I hope Bill gets here soon." "If that man's from the Dales, he might recognise me." "Well, at least they're coming." "(HUMMING)" "EDITH:" "Morning." "(CONTINUES HUMMING)" "(CHUCKLES)" "(SIGHS)" "Where's Agnes?" "Well, she's got it." "She's got what?" "EDITH:" "She's all right." "She's just not feeling up to it." "So, I thought I'd come instead." "(HENS CLUCKING)" "Good morning." "Waiting for Bill Sheridan?" "Maybe." "Going away, he said." "Where?" "Ask him that, hadn't you?" "(MUMBLES PLAYFULLY)" "I was going to have the old sow put down last week but Bill gave her something and she was right as rain after that." "My little girl nearly poisoned herself on some berries." "She would have done if Bill hadn't known what to do." "Where do you live?" "Why do you want to know that?" "Just friendly." "Caravan, haven't you?" "Best keep where you live to yourself these days." "What are you afraid of?" "You've got a gun." "Who hasn't?" "He hasn't." "And there's a fellow going about with rabies, I'm told." "WOMAN:" "Rabies?" "Aye, they were looking for him up in Dovedale but he got away." "You from Dovedale?" "No, are you?" "How do you know about rabies, then?" "A man called Sanders told me." "He and his friends have a lot of grain." "They came south looking for a mill they'd heard about." "Edith Walters, here!" "Well, you must tell them about it." "He could send his grain down by boat and I could mill it." "We could store the flour here on the station, enough for the whole region." "You mean, we might make our own flour?" "What do you do at the moment?" "Do you grow it yourself or do you pick it wild?" "I do." "Yes, so do we, at present." "Sanders could save everyone the trouble." "Why would he want to?" "For what you could give him in return." "Such as?" "All Sanders wants are plough shears." "And who can make those?" "My sons could." "From what?" "Where will you get the iron to work from?" "The place is full of scrap iron." "What we need is grain, if we can get the trains running." "(SCOFFS) Listen to him." "Well, they've got one up in Dovedale." "So you have been up there?" "If Charles had rabies, he'd have been dead by now." "Bill will tell you." "Bill's not here and I'm beginning to wonder if he's coming." "Ah, maybe something's happened to him." "No." "You can't know." "He said he'd give us his medicines or at least show us how to make them." "He said we could do it ourselves if we learnt about it." "I was going to give him this honey." "It's all I've got that he might not have himself." "I've left the child locked up in the caravan and if he's not going to come after all..." "You make honey?" "I came across the hives." "Me father was a beekeeper, so I've got plenty of honey," "if nothing else." "But honey's as good as sugar." "You can sweeten anything with honey." "How much have you got?" "You'd be prepared to offer a piglet in exchange?" "That was for Bill, but if he ain't going to turn up..." "Who else keeps pigs?" "Do you keep pigs?" "Good for the ground, if nothing else." "Not bad for eating, either." "They take a lot of getting through when there's only two of you." "Aye, if we'd had more salt we could turn it into bacon." "But we'll never get enough of that around here." "Why not?" "We used to get it in bulk from brine pits up near Chester." "In the meantime, if we all took it in turns to bring a pig to market once a week..." "Market!" "...slaughter it here on the platform, divide it up amongst those who want some." "And if I supply the cheese." "We've all got cheese, Mrs Walter." "I've only got a goat and the cheese I get from that." "Oh, I'm very partial to a bit of goat cheese." "Here, how's that?" "Well, Edith." "We may have to concentrate on the sheep." "We might have to, anyway, but let our friend with the gun here look after the cattle." "I'm not keeping cows for the whole neighbourhood." "No, not even for fresh pork when you want it?" "Or flour or wool or honey?" "What's going on around here?" "Some kind of trick's been played on us, I reckon and you're the one behind it." "(CAR HORN HONKING)" "ALICE:" "It's Bill and Jenny !" "A trick has been played, of sorts." "You're the man Sanders told us to look out for, the one with rabies." "I reckoned that as soon as I set eyes on you." "Take care, Charles." "What trick?" "Look, it was the only thing I could think of that would get you all here." "I must say, I would have preferred it if there had been more of you." "But to be tricked?" "Look, you'll be pleased to know that Bill isn't going to leave you after all." "WOMAN:" "Do you mean we've come all this way for nothing?" "Just so you could tell us how to run our lives, eh?" "If you don't start trading with each other, you won't meet." "And if you don't meet, you won't have any kind of society at all." "Society?" "Have you none of you ever thought of having a school for your children?" "You could have that once a week on market day, here in the station." "You can use the station waiting room." "But where would we get books?" "Aye, and pen and ink?" "Papers to write on?" "Reading and writing isn't your first priority, although when we come to it, Edith here used to be a teacher." "We all of us have invaluable skills to pass on." "What did you do before the plague?" "A bricklayer." "But who'll need bricks again?" "Build houses where we can be safe and together, then you will need bricks." "How do we get mortar?" "But they've got lime at Winterton to make cement, and a brickyard." "And a man who hopes you can supply him with enough wood pulp from here to make paper." "Did you find Greg?" "And there's coal at Dovedale..." "We've timber enough to burn here." "...to drive a train that will bring you lime... (TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING) ...and methane gas, and salt, and anything else you want, as long as you've plenty to send back." "The railway at Dovedale runs out of track this end but at the other it joins up with the main line." "It does that way too, where both carriages are." "It's a long roundtrip, of course, and all the points had to be set back before they left." "It took Greg weeks to check it out." "Is that what he was doing?" "He got back to Dovedale the day after you left, with two girls he found at Winterton." "It was the girls, not Greg in that car." "Greg sent them to check out this end but the car broke down." "Steve and Owen rode up and helped them fix it and then they drove back again." "EDITH:" "Steve!" "Steve, Owen, what happened?" "Don't ask me, Mother, ask the driver." "There." "Tom!" "Tom!" "Hello, Mother." "But where's Greg?" "Ask Tom." "Greg left him in charge before we got there." "Oh, Jenny." "So he'll be on his way back, then?" "No, he's not." "Some children were ill." "He's gone up north somewhere looking for a doctor." "Why don't we give up the cottage and come and live down here, Bill?" "The children would love it." "All this coming and going." "Live in a railway yard?" "Be just like the Portobello Road one day, I wouldn't wonder." "Neither would I." "Well, we're on our way." "Nothing much to keep us here now." "No, you're right." "Jenny." "Which way, guvnor?" "North, I think." "Well, if this is going to be the start of an important market town, we'd better catch Greg before he sets off to the capital." "Come on."