The last flight of stairs led to a small, crammed tower space that had been kept locked for years. Peter gently opened the boxy door and invited Benjamin inside.
“What are we doing here?”
Peter didn’t answer him. Instead, he walked over to the far end of the roof and opened a set of wooden shutters. Light immediately filled the room.
“Who’s there?” a voice whispered.
At first Benjamin couldn’t make the figures out through the cloud of smoke that surrounded them, until Peter opened one last shutter.
With the room fully lit, Benjamin realized who the figures in the smoke were. By the edge of the window sat Tommy Joel along with his sidekicks George Johnston and Jimmy Donald.
“Why did you bring him?” snapped Tommy, glaring hard at Benjamin.
“You know each other?” Benjamin asked Peter.
“I’m not as new to this place as you thought, Benjamin,” Peter replied.
As Tommy offered his cigarette to Peter, the odd boy casually stubbed it out with his foot.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Tommy sighed.
Peter knelt down to show the boys a rusted silver key in his hand.
“Benjamin’s coming with us,” Peter said firmly, staring directly into Tommy’s piercing blue eye. “We can trust him,” he added, then carefully placed the silver key into Benjamin’s hand to secure his inclusion. “Take this, Benjamin. It is the key to the back gate.”
“How did you get this?” Benjamin gasped.
“Swiped it from Jennings’s desk a few days ago. He’s been searching for it ever since,” Peter sniggered along with the other boys.
“So, where are we going?” asked Benjamin.
“We’re getting out of this dump. We’re going to live and work on a farm,” George explained excitably as Peter nodded in agreement.
“I know a friend in the country. He’ll give you work and a better life, if you want to go.” Peter added.
“You bet I do.” Benjamin smiled. “I was just thinking of leaving, myself, actually.”
Tommy pointed to Benjamin. “Dare slow us up, and you’ll be left behind. Understood?”
Jimmy extinguished another newly lit cigarette and lifted out a small torn travel bag that was hidden behind a few dusty boxes. George grabbed his tatty coat and hat while Peter climbed out onto the balcony space of the rooftop’s window. Benjamin tucked the key safely in his maroon blanket.
Peter coolly turned around to look at all four of them through the window. “I’m going to climb down and check that the back gate area is safe. Everyone is inside so far as I can tell. They won’t be able to see me from here.”
George rushed down a few steps to open the attic door. He nodded back to the rest of the group after he had checked that the top floor was clear.
“Like we planned, remember? Make your way to the back kitchen in the dinner hall and climb through the top window,” Peter whispered. “Trust me,” he added, before vanishing from sight to inspect the back gate.
Tommy grabbed a jar of pennies and emptied them onto the dusty floor. He separated them into three piles, scraping the first pile off the old wooden floorboards and sticking the pennies in his trouser pocket. He handed one pile of pennies to George and another to Jimmy.
Benjamin was the last in line, of course, carefully following the group on the unstable steps of Gatesville’s tower space.
Mr. Jennings’ screams still echoed through the library from the mound of books he was buried under.
“Sounds like that old crab Jennings,” George whispered.
Tommy motioned for Benjamin to come closer. “What happened?” Tommy asked.
Benjamin took a deep breath. He proudly explained how Mr. Jennings had caught Peter in the library and how he had pushed a giant bookshelf on top of the nasty principal and his prefects. George and Jimmy laughed in amusement at Benjamin’s daring act, but Tommy sniggered at him.
“You’re not telling us fibs, are you?”
Benjamin earnestly shook his head before the bully gave him a respectful nod.
“Not bad, for someone so small,” Tommy reluctantly admitted.
“Anyone who pulls a stunt like that on Jennings is all right in my book,” George said, much to Benjamin’s pleasure.
Tommy padded down the top staircase silently toward the second floor. He searched around for a brief moment then whispered up to them. “It’s all clear.”
Angry cries from Mr. Jennings boomed up at them from the library and across the corridors.
Mr. Jennings and the older boys were pulled up from under the rubble of books by Mr. Porter and several prefects. “Give us some help over here!” yelled Mr. Porter.
The bruised and shaken principal finally stood up straight in front of the crowd that had gathered around the library’s entrance.
“I’m going to kill those boys,” he growled. “Porter, you come with me. I need volunteers to search for the two brats who did this to me.”
Mr. Jennings’s face grew red with anger. “Whoever helps me find the culprits will be off cleaning duties and mathematics study for the remainder of the year,” he announced.
The math teacher sighed when every boy in the room shot their arm into the air to volunteer.
Mr. Jennings grinned as he picked out thirty boys from the crowd.
“Bring me Benjamin Brannon!” he shouted. “You have one hour. Happy hunting, scrappers!”
Meanwhile, Benjamin and the boys could hear every word loud and clear. When Mr. Jennings shouted out Benjamin’s name, Tommy and his friends looked at the boy, now trembling.
“I knew you would be a problem,” whispered Tommy.
George tapped Tommy on the shoulder. “Peter says we should take him with us, remember?”
“I don’t care what Peter says. He’s not my leader,” Tommy snapped back.
“Then chase me, one of you. It’s the perfect distraction you need.” Benjamin replied.
Tommy stood up and pulled Jimmy up onto his feet. “Go with him and pretend to chase him into the kitchen. George and I will meet you at the back gate.”
Jimmy nodded and ran down the stairs after Benjamin, heading toward the kitchen at the same time Mr. Jennings and Mr. Porter stepped out of the library.
Benjamin flew in between them like the wind, missing a head-on collision by an inch. Spinning around in a full circle, both teachers gasped in surprise.
Mr. Jennings screamed hysterically. “I don’t believe it, there he goes! Get that brat! Over here, you fools. That way! That way!”
As Jennings stepped into the corridor to shout to the crowd of boys, Jimmy couldn’t slow himself, and charged into his principal. Mr. Jennings screamed like a girl when he was shoved to the floor again. He pulled Mr. Porter down with him while Jimmy stumbled over them.
“Okay, that didn’t go as planned,” Jimmy puffed.
Crowds of boys spotted Benjamin making his way toward the kitchen. When he reached a double turn, he realized he had forgotten whether to take a right or a left turn in order to reach the dinner hall. Feeling rushed, he took a hesitated guess and headed right.
Jimmy came to the same double turn Benjamin had, but took a left instead.
Benjamin reached a dead end. Two black exit doors lay in front of him, which had been padlocked. He remembered the rusty key and tried to unlock the locks with it.
“Oh no,” he whispered. The key and padlocks were incompatible.
As the crowd and orderlies continued their pursuit of Benjamin and Jimmy, George and Tommy coolly slipped by everyone and paced toward the front doors of the Gatesville building. Mr. Jennings and Mr. Porter were so caught up in the pandemonium that the boys were able to exit the building undetected.
Both boys instantly ran to the back gate, fearful they would be spotted cutting through the main playground if they lingered too long.
Peter stood behind the locked gate, waiting for the group to arrive.
“How did you get behind the gate?” George asked.
“I climbed it. Where is Benjamin?” Peter asked, crossing his long skinny arms over his chest.
“The whole place is rootling for him,” George answered, breathing heavily.
“You left him behind?” Peter gasped.
Tommy smirked at Peter without answering his question. “What do you care? We’ve made it, haven’t we?” he panted, bending down to catch his breath. Tommy then grabbed the handle of the gate only to discover it was still locked.
“Open it,” he ordered.
“I can’t,” Peter replied calmly.
Tommy grabbed the rusty bars of the gate door and began to violently shake it in frustration. “You’ll pay for this,” he threatened. Time was of the essence and all Tommy and George could do was wait and hope.
“Well, we had to wait on Jimmy anyway, Tommy,” George muttered.
“Shut up!”
Jimmy rammed the kitchen doors wide open and searched for the exit. He hastily barricaded the doors when he noticed Mr. Jennings leading a mob down the hallway after him. The crowd of thirty boys reached the double doors and started shoving their way through the weak blockade of tables and chairs.
“Hurry up, you weaklings. Put your back into it!” yelled Mr. Jennings.
With a mighty force of ten boys pushing together, the kitchen doors flung open. Jimmy was already halfway out of the window when the first boy in the crowd grabbed his leg.
“I’ve caught one, Sir!” the boy cried.
Jimmy called out to his friends for help.
When Tommy and George heard him, they ran cautiously around the corner of the building. Tommy was the first to rush toward him. He frantically attempted to tug the rest of his body out of the open window.
Inside, Mr. Porter pushed a group of boys out of his way to grab a hold of Jimmy’s legs.
Tommy and George were almost pulled inside the window along with Jimmy by a huge tugging force. Jimmy kicked violently to break free until his large foot struck Mr. Porter’s chest, sending the man slamming to the ground. With one last heave, Jimmy flew out of the window and landed on top of his friends. The three boys quickly dusted themselves off and ran back to the gate.
Each looked around for ways to climb the gate, but they couldn’t find anything to cling onto, for it was a solid rusted gate with singular poles running from its top to its bottom.
“I’m afraid we cannot leave until Benjamin comes with us,” Peter said.
“Why is that pip-squeak so important?” Tommy asked with a long sigh of frustration.
“Because I told him we would leave together. I will not go back on my word.”
Tommy reached between the bars and grabbed Peter by his collar. “What about the rest of us?” he rasped.
Peter stood fearless in the face of Tommy’s sudden outburst.
“I’m afraid your fate is in Benjamin’s hands now,” Peter replied bluntly. “He has the key, remember?”