as he began moving toward the open back door , the words of an old hymn he had learned as a child came to mind , and he began humming the tune , softly , to himself , holding the shotgun at his hip , he limped to the head of the short flight of stairs leading down into the back yard as the first of the natives reached him the end about the author : adrian scott has been writing short stories for a number of years , in addition to studying at university and taking care of media coverage and public relations for various charity organizations .