Harry Campbell 4
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Mr Pritchard had begun to believe that Harry was innocent. He decided to find out more. He took out the exam papers and looked at them.
He looked at Harry's paper. It was very good but not excellent.
Then he looked at Egerton's. It seemed to be word-for word the same as the translation. Then he found two mistakes. The first was " the lone of the man's voice was angry." The t should have been crossed so it read, "the tone of his voice was angry."
Then a mistake in a heading "THE FLIXIR OF LIFE " The bottom part of the E was missing. It should have read "THE ELIXIR OF LIFE"
Now Mr Pritchard remembered what happened when he gave out the translations. Those 2 misprints were there. He told the class to put the 2 things right by crossing the t and adding the bottom part of the E.
Perhaps Egerton was not there that day. Mr Pritchard checked the register. Egerton was absent that day. It was now certain that Egerton had copied the two mistakes from his translation and and that Harry was innocent.
Mr Pritchard thought that he would send for both boys straight away but they had both gone up to their dormitory. He decided to leave it until the morning and sort things out then.
It was a pity he made this decision because Harry was going to get into great danger.
When all the other boys were asleep Harry got out of bed very quietly. He put on his clothes. He opened the door as quietly as he could but the hinges needed oiling and there was a squeaking sound. One of the other boys shuffled around in his bed and Harry thought that he must have woken up. Harry stood absolutely still. His heart was pounding so hard that the thought that the boys would be able to hear it. There were no more movements so Harry crept out into the corridor. He came down the stairs and began to walk towards the outside door.
Then he heard someone coming . It was the headmaster Dr Palmer and Mr Pritchard. " We will have to do something about this door, " he said, "It has not locked properly and it has come open. I will put a padlock and chain on for tonight and we will get the joiner to look at it tomorrow."
Harry stood against a door leading to the kitchen while the two men walked past. Fortunately they had only one candle and they were looking forwards towards the main door. They never looked in Harry's direction.
But now Harry could not get out of the main door. He would have to try something else. He tried the kitchen door. It was not locked. He went in and made his way towards one of the windows. He pushed it open and climbed out.
But where would he go? He thought of Mrs Valentine and decided he would go to her house. He thought he would take a short cut across a field. All went well at first but there was a dark cloud in the sky and it passed over the face of the moon, Harry found that he was in almost total darkness. What was he to do?
As he looked round he saw that there was a light coming from a barn. He walked towards it and then went inside and lay down in the hay. A few minutes later he heard some men talking,
"That went well but how are we going to get rid of the stuff."
"My boy Egerton is going to take it and hide it in the school."
"Are you sure that will be safe?"
"Of course it will. He will put it in his locker. Who will think of looking for it in a school."
Harry had hay fever. He felt a tickle in his nose and felt that he was going to sneeze. He took out a handkerchief and brought it up towards his nose. He was just a second too late. There was a loud "Atishoo."
The next moment three men came and looked in the hay. "What can we do?" said one of them, "He knows our plans and he will tell the police."
"Tie him up."said another. In a couple of days we can arrange for him to disappear."
Harry was firmly tied up. The rope cut into his legs and arms and he thought he would never manage to break free. Whatever did they intend to do? Did they really intend to kill him?
