Among the Barons

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.”

CHAPTER 13

Luke wanted to ask questions; he wanted Mr. Hendricks to solve every mystery right then and there. But Mr. Hendricks was already turning to other boys, repeating again and again, “It’s all right. You’re safe.”

“They need to be indoors,” Luke muttered. He looked around at the forlorn clusters of boys scattered across the shadowy lawn. “Is there room for everyone in your house, Mr. Hendricks?”

‘An excellent idea,” Mr. Hendricks said. He raised his voice. “Hot apple cider and biscuits will be served at the headmaster’s house in five minutes.”

Fearfully the boys began moving through the darkness. Once again Luke got stuck herding the others.

“It’s safe on the path, really,” he had to assure one boy after another. “You’re not going anywhere dangerous.”

He had thought his classmates had made so much progress, had become so much braver. All that seemed to have been erased tonight.

Once everyone got to Mr. Hendricks’s house, they all crowded in eagerly Nobody wanted to be left out on the porch, even if it meant standing shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow. Someone started a brigade of biscuits and cups of cider. The cider sloshed on the floor and crumbs dropped everywhere, but no one seemed to care. They were all coming back to life.

“When that door opened in my room, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Joel said.

“Did anybody know those doors were there?” John asked.

“Why didn’t they just let us go out the regular doors?” Robert asked.

“Because they knew we’d all be too scared,” They said glumly. “They knew we were cowards.”

They seemed thoroughly disgusted with himself He wouldn’t meet Luke’s eyes. Luke thought about how he’d feel now if he’d been one of the boys cowering in their beds or trembling in their closets. He felt a surge of pride; he, at least, had been brave. This time.

“Hey, maybe there wasn’t a fire at all. Maybe this was just a drill,” Joel said. “Maybe it was just a test Luke and the teachers cooked up to see how we’d react. They probably got the idea from Smits, talking about needing a sledgehammer to escape.”

He and several other boys turned almost accusingly toward Luke.

“No, there was a fire,” They said dully. “Didn’t you smell the smoke?”

“Hey, where is Smits?” John asked. “Why isn’t he here bragging about how his bodyguard got him out, because he’s so rich and his life is so much more valuable than any of ours?”

Now everyone looked expectantly toward Luke, waiting for him to explain. Smits wasn’t even Luke’s real brother, and Luke was still supposed to be Smits’s keeper.

“He’s here in Mr. Hendricks’s house, too,” Luke said. “He’s just in a different room.”

“He’s probably got a room to himself,” Joel said resentfully.

Luke didn’t answer this time. He was still trying to make sense of what Mr. Hendricks had told him. The last thing he wanted to do was try to explain everything to the others, who didn’t think much of Smits anyway. But they didn’t like Oscar, either. They’d probably want to blame both of them for setting the fire.

Luke was pretty sure he knew which one was guilty. But why?

The conversation seemed to swirl away from Luke as the other boys moved from the dining room to the kitchen. Only They stayed by Luke’s side.

“Weren’t you scared at all?” They asked softly “Why didn’t you want to hide, too?”

Luke thought back. It was hard to remember what he had been thinking when that first alarm went off, when that first order came over the loudspeaker: “Evacuate immediately!” He wasn’t even sure if he had been thinking.

“I probably did want to hide,” he told They. “I just knew that I couldn’t. And I was worried about everyone else.”

“Of course,” They said. “That’s because you’re brave. You’re a hero. And I’m not I never will be.”

Luke remembered how miserable he’d been when he found out that his friend Jen had died at the rally for third children’s rights, when Luke hadn’t even had the courage to go to it. But Luke, at least, had had the comfort of knowing that his cowardice — if that’s what it was — had probably saved his life. They’s cowardice could have led to his death.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Luke said lightly “Next time, you’re welcome to be the hero instead of me.”

They shook his head. “I’m not joking,” he said. “It’s not that easy. When I’m terrified, I can’t just stand up and say, ‘Well, it’s hero time!’ I can’t And you — you went back into a burning building, what — six, seven, eight times? You risked your life.”

Luke didn’t like thinking about what he had done in those terms.

“There wasn’t that much danger,” Luke said. “I never even saw any flames.”

“That’s because the escape corridors are sealed,” They said. “Mr. Dirk explained everything. They sealed off our dormitory rooms and the escape route as soon as the first alarm went off. It really is an ingenious system. None of us deserve it. Except you.”

Luke had never seen They like this before. They had never seemed to mind being easily frightened; he’d never seemed to long for courage. What had the fire done to him?

“All right, everyone,” Mr. Hendricks announced at the front of the room. “We’ve now checked the entire school thoroughly. It’s safe for all of you to go back to your rooms. I realize this has been a disruptive experience — all morning classes are canceled, so you all may sleep late.”

The boys had recovered enough of their spirit that they managed to raise a feeble cheer. But the exuberance died as soon as they began moving out into the darkness once more, facing their fears of the outdoors yet again.

Luke moved around the edges of the crowd, thinking he’d need to guide the others along the path to the