Richard wanted to find the entrance in Stringfellow, take the tunnel to sneak into Farnham’s apartment, and deposit the dead animal.
“What if there’s something blocking the door?” Greg asked.
“We leave it behind the door. It’ll still stink up the place. That’ll be even better. He’ll never get rid of it.”
“And how are we going to find the tunnel in Stringfellow?”
That was the tricky part of Richard’s plan. He hoped to use the blueprint to show him the precise angle at which the tunnel left the gymnasium. He would then follow that angle with his eye. Where his eye met Stringfellow Hall, he hoped to find the entrance to the tunnel.
In the cold mist the boys stood at the corner of Stringfellow and looked carefully at the dark gym. The only lighted windows were in the far left side of the building.
“Farnham’s at home,” said Greg. “Let’s just go ask him if we can look around.”
Richard held up the bag with the squirrel in it. “Why not just ask him to stick this squirrel under his refrigerator for us and leave it for a month? The whole idea is secrecy, you moron.”
Greg tried to guess how far it was from Farnham’s apartment to Stringfellow. The first building next to Stringfellow was the infirmary; then came the headmaster’s house; then the chapel; and finally the gym. The south end of the gym was closer to them than the Homestead was, but the place was still a long way from where they were standing. It seemed impossible that the Stringfellow family would dig a tunnel over a hundred yards long just to get to the library.
But Richard was busy checking the blueprint. The parallel lines indicated that the tunnel veered off from the building at a forty-five-degree angle.
“Farnham’s apartment doesn’t stretch the width of the building,” said Greg.
“I know, I know,” said Richard. “It ends before the side stairs to the locker rooms.”
They traced an imaginary line from Farnham’s apartment to Stringfellow.
“Right in the middle of this building,” said Richard. “That makes sense.”
“But it’s one floor below us,” said Greg. “What’s down there?”
“That’s what we’re about to find out,” said Richard.
SCENE 28
Thomas and Hesta walked out of Bradley Hall into the misty silence of the night. He had his arm around her shoulders; she had both her arms around his waist in an awkward hug. It would have been hard to walk that way if they had been in a hurry. But part of the mood was to wait, to see, to let build whatever volcanic explosion Thomas was anticipating. They turned left when they emerged from the building and walked past Reid Hall, the science building.
Thomas wasn’t sure where he was going. If it had been warm and dry weather, they could have stayed outside. Or if it had been warm and wet, they could have managed by finding an unlocked car belonging to a member of the faculty. There were stories all over the school about where you could take girls. You were crazy if you tried to sneak a girl back onto your dormitory. There was always some resident master or a DM prowling around, and for big dances they recruited other members of the faculty and even faculty wives to help supervise. Part of the game was to see where you could find to take a girl, and then to see how far you could get with her once you’d arrived.
“It feels good out here,” said Hesta.
“Yeah. That room gets hot.” It felt good to be touching her. They walked past Fleming Hall, where Thomas had English class, and he thought for a minute about taking Hesta up to Farnham’s classroom. That would make a good story, but the problem was the furniture. The teachers had nothing but desks in their classrooms. But the teachers’ lounge had a couch.
“Let’s go in here,” said Thomas. They cut in through the entrance to Fleming and scampered immediately up a flight of stairs. They dropped their arms from around each other, and Thomas took Hesta by the hand to pull her along. Now it was urgent. The teacher’s lounge was the first door on the left. Thomas pushed it open and nearly ran into Mr. Somerville.
“Boatwright,” said Mr.Somerville. “I thought I heard footsteps in the building.” He was in a sports coat and tie as usual, as if it were Monday morning instead of Saturday night.
Thomas wanted to turn and run.
“This is Hesta,” he said. He was grateful for the habit of manners, which gave him some time to think.
Mr. Somerville took her hand and said he was delighted to meet her.
“I was just showing her around the campus,” said Thomas.
“Indeed,” said Mr. Somerville. “This room seems to be a popular stop on the tour tonight. I encountered my own grandson with a young lady earlier in the evening.”
That was good. At least he wasn’t getting mad.
“We’d better go,” said Thomas.
“Yes,” said Mr. Somerville. “Have a nice visit, Hesta.”
Outside again they were walking.
“We were lucky he was mellow tonight,” said Thomas.
“He seemed like a nice man,” said Hesta. She put her arm around his waist.
She was so warm. He suggested that they cut across the campus.
“Where are we going?”
“The chapel.”
“Isn’t that sacrilegious?” she said.
He did not think so.
She asked him what they would do if it was locked. “Then we’ll go next door,” he said, “and sneak into the gym.”
SCENE 29
They were very scientific about the whole thing. First they paced off the distance on the outside of the building. Starting at the west end of Stringfellow, they carefully counted their footsteps to the point in the middle of the building where the angle to Mr. Farnham’s apartment in the gym matched the angle on the diagram. If the angle was drawn wrong on the blueprint, then they
