The other boy raised his hand as if to strike, but as he twirled about, he discovered Chub and Joan and let his hand drop. It was Alex. He looked as embarrassed as he had when Joan had discovered him scrubbing the floor. “Oh, hello,” he said. “This is Charley Falls. He was just having a little joke. Weren’t you, Charley?”
Charley did not answer except with a snort of disgust as he turned away. At the gates the boys were already in lines, shuffling their feet, clouds of pale gold dust blowing up in the light of the gate lamps. “Good-by!” Alex called over his shoulder as he ran to join the others. Then, the tramp, tramp of their feet sounded as the boys began their two-mile march back to the school.
Chub and Joan went back and found the photographer busy taking a flashlight picture of the ruins and the crowds. At length, Lefty folded up his tripod and came to the car.
“This Boyville stuff will make a good feature,” Mack was saying. “They saved the old man’s books, all right. They say he’s going to do something big for the Boyville boys. We’ve decided to follow it up. Drive on up to the school and see whether all the boys return.”
Lefty stepped on the starter, and in a second, the car had whizzed around past the smoky house and out through the gates where the boys had started their march. They did not pass the boys, though it hardly seemed possible that they could have reached the school before this. There were lights here and there in the Boyville School and it looked really pretty at night, like a fairy castle, so high on the hill. Even the cold stone gates and plain sign took on a different look in the moonlight, Joan thought, as they turned in and drove up to the main building.
“Just Mack and I’ll go in,” decided Lefty. “Five of us look like a gang, and that principal’s an old bear, anyway.”
The ones on the back seat sat and waited. The excitement of the fire and the smoke in her eyes had made Joan rather sleepy. It was silly to have come on to the school. Of course, the boys had all returned. From within, they could hear the low drone of voices, rhythmic and even.
Mack rushed down the steps. “What a wow of a story! Two of the boys didn’t come back. The boys came across lots by the old hospital building because it was so much shorter than all the way around by the road, and when they got here, two of them were missing!”
“Which ones?” Joan hardly knew she asked the question.
Mack looked at her. Of course, he did not know that she knew any of the boys. He had a bit of paper in his hand, and he leaned nearer to let the dash light fall on it. “Had to bribe one of the kids to tell me that. Couldn’t get anything out of that clam, Link.” He consulted the paper. “Charley Falls and Alex White,” he read. “That’s the kids’ names.”