Among the Barons

CHAPTER 12

Luke was ready to race back up the stairs, but Mr. Dirk grabbed his arm.

“The evacuation corridor network doesn’t go up to the fourth floor,” he said. “I’m sure Smits got out by other means. He doesn’t have the same, uh, fears as the rest of you boys.~

Frantically Luke looked up, toward the top of the school. He wanted so badly to see a gaping hole made by Oscar’s precious sledgehammer. Instead, he saw only smooth brick, all the way to the roof, seemingly unmarred by either fire or escape. A few last tendrils of smoke rose toward the moon.

“Looks like the fire’s out,” Mr. Dirk said cheerfully. “I’m not sure how serious it was to begin with, but it’s good we had such a successful test of our evacuation procedure. It was my idea, you know. We figured you boys would naturally be inclined to want to hide in an emergency, so we thought we’d have to work around that tendency. Don’t you think the secret doors and corridors and stairs worked great?”

Luke had never heard Mr. Dirk talk so much about any event that hadn’t happened centuries ago.

“You were a wonderful help, I must say,” Mr. Dirk rambled on.

“I have to find Smits,” Luke said rudely, and walked away.

All the other boys were standing or sitting numbly in clusters around the yard. Luke went from group to group, asking again and again, “Have you seen Smits? Have you seen Smits?”

Nobody had.

Even in his desperate search for Smits, Luke couldn’t help but notice how stricken all his friends and classmates were. Luke wasn’t sure if they were traumatized by being pulled from their beds in the middle of the night because of a fire — or if they were simply terrified of being outdoors. But several of the boys were shaking uncontrollably Some were even crying.

“There, there, everything’s okay,” someone said soothingly.

Luke turned around. It was Mr. Hendricks. He had rolled his wheelchair across the rough lawn and was patting one of the younger boys on the back Luke rushed to his side.

“Is everyone safe?” Luke demanded. “Is Smits?”

Mr. Hendricks gave Luke a measuring look.

“Yes, everyone’s safe,” he said. “Smits and Oscar are at my house right now, locked in separate rooms.”

“Why?” Luke asked, bewildered.

“Smits is accusing Oscar of setting the fire, of trying to kill him,” Mr. Hendricks said. “And Oscar is accusing Smits.”