‘These look-outs,’ Matthew said. ‘Against what?’

Lawrence asked: ‘Since you got across – are we the first you’ve met?’

‘We saw two women, but they ran off before I could talk to them.’

‘It was a rhetorical question,’ Lawrence said. ‘You still have your packs and they look as though they have something in them. And that shotgun. Any cartridges for it, by the way?’

‘A couple of dozen.’

‘That’s a considerable armament. The point is, my dear Matthew, that some dig, but some do not. Some prefer to have their digging done for them. Hence the look-outs. It is infinitely depressing to labour amongst muck and dust and corpses only to have the fruits of your labour taken from you. And not gently, either.’