Q1. What is your name?

‘Faith my dear Bess,’ said Walter smiling broadly, ‘you have too kind a heart, too generous a spirit. Have you not often told me of these men? Did they not shout at you and drive you of their land? Did they not shoot at your dog? What’s one broken window after all that? A broken window is but a trifle and can be afterwards mended.’ ‘A trifle?’ said Will. ‘What does that mean, a trifle?’ I didn’t know what Walter meant either, but I could guess. After all I was more used to his strange language than Will was. Walter crouched down beside us. ‘You have something of a pirate in you, Master Will,’ he said. ‘Would that I had you by my side at Cadiz when we brunt the Spanish fleet, or when the Armada came and we harried them up the channel. I had need of such men as you in those days.’ He peered in through the window once more. ‘But I think I may have a way to resolve this, cousin Bess; and moreover we might do it in such a way that we would have no need to break any windows.’ He was smiling wickedly. ‘Watch at the window, I pray, and you shall see that I can whine and scream and jabber as well as any other ghost if I choose to.’ A few minutes later he was no longer beside us but standing in the kitchen behind the ‘horrible Barrowbills’ who were still bent over the sink together. Walter turned and winked at us. He was smiling like a naughty boy. I saw him take a deep breath and very slowly and deliberately he lifted his arms up inside his cloak so that he looked like a giant black bat, a vampire bat, and then he let out the most hideous skin-crawling cry I have ever heard. It echoed around the house before dying away to a whining, tremulous whimper. Behind us the chickens flew up out of the vegetable garden in panic. The ‘horrible Barrowbills’ had turned and were backing away along the kitchen wall. I felt sorry for them – honestly I did. Worse was to come, though, for as Walter advanced slowly towards them arms outstretched, his hands reached up towards his head, and took it off. ‘Cripes!’ said Will beside me. But my friend Walter hadn’t finished with them yet. He tucked his head under his arm, glared at them through baleful red-rimmed eyes and set up a soft cooing sound that wound itself up into a reverberating ululation sound that shook the crockery on the dresser. All this time I had not looked at the horrible Barrowbills but I did now. Bertie was clinging to Boney’s arm (or perhaps it was the other way round- I could never tell them apart), his face screwed up with terror, and Boney was trying to push him off as he edged away from Sir Walter towards the door.

Q3. ‘He was smiling wickedly.’ What does the word ‘wickedly’ suggest about how Walter is feeling?

Q4. ‘…hideous skin-crawling cry…’ What do the words ‘skin-crawling’ suggest about the sound Walter was making?

Q5. ‘and very slowly and deliberately he lifted his arms up…’ What does the word ‘deliberately’ suggest about how Walter moved his arms?

Q6. ‘…a whining, tremulous whimper.’ What does the word ‘tremulous’ suggest about the sound Walter was making?