Mr. Jennings and Mr. Porter led the hunt for Benjamin. A heavyset boy from the crowd had briefly taken a pit stop near the double turn due to a stitch in his side. When he’d reached the double turn by himself, he was unaware of what direction the other boys and orderlies had taken. His group had outpaced him and was no longer in his view. This sudden dilemma proved too great a puzzle for one so dim-witted.
The boy lifted a penny from his pocket and tossed it into the air.
“Heads for left, tails for right,” he breathlessly muttered to himself. He glanced at the sweaty palm of his left hand, awaiting the coin, and then slapped it onto the top of his right.
When he lifted his left hand off the coin, it was facing tails. The boy proceeded to slowly jog down the right corridor, rubbing the side of his torso to sooth the stitch. Right then Benjamin dodged him, running the opposite direction.
The startled boy screamed. “Mr. Porter! Mr. Jennings! Come quick! I’ve found one! It’s him!”
Upon hearing the boy’s scream, Mr. Jennings and Mr. Porter marched into view at the end of the corridor, leading the crowd toward Benjamin.
“You, there!” yelled Mr. Porter, pointing his fat finger at Benjamin.
Benjamin pulled at the side door at the dead end—just when Gatesville’s custodian pushed it open from the inside. The custodian carried a tall pile of fresh bed sheets that towered over his face. He didn’t notice Benjamin until the panicked boy ran into him, knocking him onto the floor.
“Don’t let him pass you!” shouted Mr. Jennings at the custodian, but it was too late. Benjamin was already inside.
Mr. Jennings stopped for a brief second to glare at the custodian who had unknowingly given Benjamin his last chance to escape.
“You idiot,” Mr. Jennings scolded. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Benjamin found another exit door inside the laundry room just when a crowd of prefects appeared behind it and blocked his path. Thinking fast, he jumped onto a row of wooden washing benches above them and struggled to avoid the multiple hands that reached up to grab him.
He raced across the unstable benches, heading for the nearest window. It seemed utterly hopeless until a foot booted through the windowpane ahead of him.
Speckles of glass splashed over the crowd. Just two more benches were all it would take to reach the helping hand that presented itself through the window’s frame. He plucked up enough strength to make the space in one giant leap, extending his right arm to grab hold of his rescuer.
The hand swiftly pulled him up to the window within a split second, revealing the identity of his hero.
It was Tommy.
He’s going to let me go just to be wicked, Benjamin thought.
But to his surprise, Tommy used all his strength and effort to pull him out and away from the mob below them, just in time.
“Leg it!” Tommy cried, sprinting away from the hands that grasped for their feet through the window frame.
Once they’d reached the gate, Tommy shook it again. “I got him. I got him out,” he cried as each boy threw his bag of belongings over the gate.
“Come on, open it up,” George shouted nervously, peeping over his shoulder.
Jimmy jumped up and down in anticipation. Everyone seemed tense except for Peter. Benjamin looked to Peter and then to Tommy and shrugged his small shoulders.
“The key, where’s the key you little–,” Tommy rambled, grabbing Benjamin by the scruff.
“Oh, right,” Benjamin laughed nervously. “It’s here, I have it somewhere,” he said. Benjamin reached deep into his trouser pockets and pulled out…nothing.
The three boys on the inside of the gate gasped in horror. “Hurry up, unlock it!” George cried. Benjamin searched his pockets, then his coat. Still he found nothing.
“I-I’ve lost it.” Benjamin stammered in a panic as he vigorously searched his pockets. Tommy and George scolded Benjamin while Jimmy started to sob.
Peering over Tommy and George’s shoulder, Benjamin saw Mr. Jennings, Mr. Porter, and thirty or more boys, all stomping toward them from the front of the building.
Jimmy stared down at the ground with a miserable look on his face. He’d already given up.
Benjamin was trying desperately to find the key, searching inside his pockets and upon the ground while Tommy pointed at Peter through the gate.
“This is all your fault!” he shouted. “I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
Shaking in fear, Jimmy tried to climb the gate. After several failed attempts, he managed to jump high enough and grab a firm hold of the rusty bars. The rest followed his lead.
Benjamin’s skill at climbing showed when he passed the others, reaching the top of the gates first. Missing a footing, Tommy slid back down following after George. Both boys stood staring up at Jimmy and Benjamin.
Benjamin’s arms burned in agony when he swung them over the top of the gate. A shimmer of silver light crossed his face the moment he tried to climb down the other side. Dangling right there on top of one of the gate’s spikes was the silver key. It had fallen out from somewhere inside his maroon silk blanket. With a free arm, Benjamin carefully stretched to grab hold of the key before he threw it down to Tommy.
Tommy caught the key in one swift grasp and unlocked the large gate. Mr. Jennings and the mob were a few feet away when Tommy swung the gate open and ran out, followed closely by George, who tripped over himself. Jimmy still held on to the bars but Tommy couldn’t wait for him to let go. He slammed the gate tightly shut and reached round the keyhole to lock the gate from the inside when Mr. Jennings grabbed his arm. With a stroke of luck, Tommy swiftly locked it and broke the key trying to pull away from the principal’s grasp.
“Give me back my master key, you thief,” Mr. Jennings growled, giving him an evil glare.
“Let go!” Tommy demanded.
Peter peered up at Jimmy who was losing his grip fast. “Sorry, old chap,” Peter muttered.
Jimmy watched in horror as Peter charged toward the gate to kick it. The heavy vibration of Peter’s kick caused Jimmy to lose his grip and fall on top of the group below him. Benjamin managed to balance and hold onto the gate at the top.
The mob of boys stumbled and banged into one another, which crushed Mr. Jennings. The old man remained standing but was shoved so hard by the group of youngsters that he lost his own grasp on Tommy.
“Can we leave now?” yelled George.
“We have to help Benjamin,” Peter replied.
From the high view, Benjamin could see Jimmy being escorted away by Mr. Porter along with a group of four prefects.
“No. I don’t want to go,” Jimmy called out, crying loudly across the playground.
Mr. Jennings ordered the remaining mob to shake Benjamin from the gate’s top.
“I’ll catch you, Benjamin!” shouted Tommy.
Even though his arms were exhausted, Benjamin somehow found the strength to drop down the other side of the gate, but not without giving Mr. Jennings a cheeky wave goodbye. As promised, Tommy caught him, falling back onto the gravel.
Holding onto his bruised back, Tommy shoved Benjamin off him. The successful landing was over and the four boys looked back at the crowd to laugh at them, especially at Mr. Jennings.
“This isn’t over! You will not get far, you little hoodlums!” the man screamed back with contempt.
Peter turned to the three boys with a huge smile across his face. “The easy part is over,” he said calmly.
Benjamin giggled to himself. “You thought that was easy?”
“We must keep moving, they’ll soon be after us,” Peter said seriously as he led the way forward, down the hill that Gatesville was built upon. Tommy paused to turn back and slowly lifted the other half of the broken key out of his pocket to tease the furious principal.
“Mr. Jennings…catch!”