The Secret of Dinswood

by Ellen Alexander

  The boys looked at each other in amazement. Against all odds, they had been miraculously saved. Without any further hesitation, they went around to the passenger side and climbed in. The Jeep continued to approach, but now it did so at a much slower rate of speed.

  “Just please drive, Mr. Munsen. We’ll explain as we go,” Doug said quickly as he and Sebastian got in the truck. Some of the boys’ urgency must have communicated itself to him because, without comment, Mr. Munsen put the truck in gear and started forward. As the truck began to move, Doug’s shoulders sagged in relief. They had just started to gather speed when the black Jeep passed them. Doug tried to get a look at its occupants, but the Jeep had tinted windows. All that could be seen were two shadowy shapes in the front seat. After the Jeep had passed, Doug watched in the rearview mirror as it disappeared around the curve.

  Mr. Munsen drove in silence for a minute or two. Then he looked over at the two boys he’d nearly run over, and with a raised eyebrow, asked, “Now one of you boys wanna tell me what in heaven’s name is goin’ on?”

  Taking a deep breath, Doug began to relate the events of the last hour. When he had finished his narration, he took another deep breath and said with heartfelt gratitude, “You came in the nick of time, Mr. Munsen! We thought we were as good as dead.”

  Sebastian, who had been listening quietly up to this point, could remain silent no longer. Doug had left one important thing out of his story. “They shot at us!” he shouted, clearly incredulous that such a thing could ever happen to him.

  “They were shootin’ at ya?” Mr. Munsen asked, unable to hide his own surprise.

  Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, they nearly took Doug’s head off.”

  “You boys wouldn’t be foolin’ an old man now, would ya?” Mr. Munsen was finding the story a little hard to believe.

  “No, sir. We’re telling you the truth. You can go up to the cabin and see for yourself,” Doug answered earnestly.

  Mr. Munsen looked at Doug a moment longer. He liked the way Doug called him sir and looked him straight in the eye when he talked. Sighing, he said, “Well then, I guess we’d better be callin’ the sheriff when we get back to town.”

  On the way back to town, it was decided that Mr. Munsen would call the sheriff and report that he had heard a gunshot coming from the general direction of Cal Thrabek’s cabin, but he would not mention Doug and Sebastian’s involvement.

  “No need ta bring you boys into it,” Mr. Munsen had said with a shake of his head. “I cud tell when that Jeep passed us that those men were up to no good. It was mighty suspicious the way they suddenly slowed down. I got their license plate number, but I doubt it’ll do us any good.”

  “You got their license plate number?” Sebastian asked excitedly.

  “Why won’t it do any good?” Doug asked at almost the same time.

  Mr. Munsen grinned. “I may not look like the smartest guy on the planet, but I’ve always had a good head for numbers.” Mr. Munsen paused for a moment then continued with a frown, “I got the number all right, but I’d be willing to bet that Jeep was stolen.”

  Doug had been kicking himself for not thinking of getting the license plate number himself. At the time, he’d been too busy trying to see inside the car. Now he realized that Mr. Munsen was probably right. The men that he and Sebastian had seen at Cal’s cabin would undoubtedly have been smart enough not to drive anything that could be traced back to them.

  The rest of the ride to town was accomplished in silence. Doug and Sebastian were contemplating their narrow escape, and Mr. Munsen was mulling over what exactly he would tell the sheriff. When they got to Windland, Doug and Sebastian ducked down until Mr. Munsen brought the truck to a stop on one of the side streets. After checking to make sure they would not be seen, the boys climbed out of the truck. Before Doug closed the passenger side door, he thanked Mr. Munsen again for all of his help, and then the truck pulled away. Doug and Sebastian headed to the bookstore. It seemed liked ages ago since they’d left the girls to go up to Cal’s cabin. They sure had a lot to tell them.

  Emma and Martha were sitting quietly by the front window of the bookstore when they saw Mr. Munsen’s truck pull up. Emma panicked for a moment when she saw that Doug and Sebastian were not with him. Then she realized he’d probably let them out on a side road to avoid being seen by any of their schoolmates. Her pulse was just beginning to return to normal when Mr. Munsen entered the store and said in a loud voice, “Alice, where’s the phone? We need ta getta hold of the sheriff in Benton.”

  Emma and Martha looked at each other in alarm. Something terrible must have happened to require the services of the sheriff. A feeling of dread swept over Emma. She was just about to ask Mr. Munsen what had happened when he suddenly looked over at them as if he’d just remembered their presence. Seeing their expressions, he immediately sought to reassure them. “The boys are fine. I let them off around the corner. I expect they’ll be here any second, so I’ll let them tell you what’s been goin’ on.”

  Fortunately, they didn’t have long to wait, for at that moment the door to the bookstore opened once again and Doug and Sebastian came in. Emma was shocked at their appearance. They had scratches on their faces from where they’d encountered tree branches on their race down the hill, and their jackets and pants were wet from the snow. Before Emma could say anything, Alice Munsen was hurrying around the counter. “Oh, you poor dears. You look a mess. Come sit over here by the furnace vents, and we’ll see if we can get you dried out before you have to go back to school.”

  The boys followed meekly to the spot she indicated, too worn out by their harrowing adventure to object. After taking off their jackets and hanging them over a couple of chairs to dry, they sat down with their backs to the heater facing Emma and Martha. “I’ll fix you some hot chocolate and then we can see to those scratches,” Alice said as she bustled around them like a mother hen. Soon she had disappeared into the room behind the counter. Only the four of them, Becky and Mr. Munsen remained. Fortunately, the store was empty of customers. All was silent for a moment except for the sounds of Alice moving about in the back room. Finally, Emma could stand it no longer. “What on earth has happened? Are you guys all right?”

  “We’ll tell you all about it later,” Doug said quickly, forestalling Sebastian who was about to relate the events of the last hour in their entirety. Doug looked pointedly over at Becky. She was listening intently to everything that was being said. Doug didn’t want to say anything in front of her that might get back to his dad. Emma, noticing the direction of Doug’s gaze, nodded her understanding.

  In just a few minutes, Mrs. Munsen was back with hot chocolate for everyone and some antiseptic for the boys’ scratches. They submitted to her ministrations as she dabbed their cuts with cotton balls soaked in peroxide. “There now,” Mrs. Munsen said as she finished, “at least there’ll be no infection.”

  As they sipped their hot chocolate, Emma was wondering how they were going to explain the boys’ appearance to their teachers. Martha must have been thinking the same thing. “Just what are we going to tell everyone? There’s no way we can hide those scratches,” she said, pointing at Doug and Sebastian.

  “I bet we could cover them with a little makeup,” Becky said suddenly from behind the counter.

  “I’m not wearing any makeup,” Sebastian exclaimed, highly insulted that such a thing should even be suggested.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Martha said at almost the same instant. Then hearing Sebastian’s objection, she added forcefully, “Well, we’ve got to do something! You two can’t get on the bus looking like you’ve just had a fight with a rabid cat.”

  “I’ve got some makeup in my purse,” said Becky as she bent beneath the counter. A few seconds later, she had located the bottle of foundation and was just coming around the counter toward the boys when Emma forestalled her.

  “I’ll do it,” Emma said, grabbing the bottle from Becky. She wasn’t about to let that girl get her ha
nds on Doug.

  Doug raised his eyebrows at Emma’s uncharacteristic rudeness but remained silent. The idea of wearing makeup wasn’t very appealing to begin with, so he’d just as soon let Emma apply the disgusting goop as Becky.

  A few minutes later, it was obvious that Becky’s makeup had done the trick; the scratches were only visible if you got up close to the boys. From a distance, their faces looked smooth and unblemished. The four of them stayed in the bookstore long enough for the boys’ clothes to dry out and to hear Mr. Munsen’s phone conversation with the sheriff in Benton. Both Emma’s and Martha’s eyes widened in shock when they heard Mr. Munsen reporting to the sheriff that he had heard gunshots coming from the direction of Cal’s cabin. Although Emma’s curiosity was about to get the best of her, she managed to refrain from asking any questions. She would get her answers as soon as they left the bookstore.

  A glance at the clock revealed that it was almost time for the buses to leave for the return trip to Dinswood, so after saying their goodbyes and expressing their gratitude for all the Munsens’ help, they gathered up their packages and left the store. The door to the bookstore had just closed behind them and Emma was just opening her mouth to speak when it happened; something hard hit her on the back of the head. More startled than hurt, she automatically put her hand where she’d been struck and encountered something cold and wet. It took her a moment to realize that she’d been hit with a snowball. Immediately upon that realization, she began looking around for the snowball’s point of origin. A second later, she spotted Bobby Wilcox standing across the street with his buddies. He was laughing and pointing at her, and when he bent down to scoop up more snow, she was certain that he had been the one who had thrown the snowball.

  Doug was a step ahead of the others as they left the bookstore. When he heard Emma’s exclamation of surprise, he turned around to look at her. He was in the process of trying to figure out what was wrong when the answer was provided in the form of another snowball. The missile hit him hard enough on the chin to knock his jaw backward. Looking over the top of Emma’s head, he could see Bobby Wilcox standing across the road with a smirk on his face. Doug knew that Bobby didn’t like him, and he thought he knew why. Beating Bobby’s team in the relay race the day of the October Fest hadn’t helped matters either. Doug had known then that there would be repercussions, but at the time he’d felt that he could handle whatever Bobby sent his way. He hadn’t counted on Bobby bringing Emma into it. Stepping in front of Emma to protect her from any more snowballs, Doug shouted, “What’s your problem, Wilcox?”

  “You’re my problem, Harwood. You and your girlfriend don’t belong at Dinswood!” Bobby shouted back.

  Although he thought he already knew the answer, Doug asked the question anyway just to make Bobby voice it out loud. “How do you figure that?”

  “Dinswood Academy isn’t for freeloaders. It’s for paying customers,” Bobby sneered with emphasis on the last. Bobby had known that Doug was one of the scholarship winners from the beginning of school, but he’d only found out about Emma from his father over Thanksgiving break. Bobby’s dad was on the school’s board of directors and had been the only one against awarding scholarships to students who couldn’t afford the tuition. Mr. Wilcox held the view that Dinswood Academy was an exclusive school designed only for the rich and that it should remain that way. Bobby agreed with his dad. It was a shame about Emma, though. He had kind of liked her, but that was before he’d found out she wasn’t from a rich family.

  With what he’d suspected confirmed, Doug shouted back, “Is that right? Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t have to take the entrance exam, because you wouldn’t have passed it. Lucky for you that Dinswood accepts stupid kids as long as their parents can buy their way in.”

  “Who do you think you’re kidding, Harwood? Everybody knows you only got in because your dad’s the dean. You probably didn’t even take the exam.” Bobby was shouting louder now, and the two of them were beginning to attract the attention of those passing by.

  Doug looked around and saw that they now had an audience. Realizing that that was what Bobby had wanted all along, Doug found himself growing angrier by the second.

  “Just ignore him, Doug,” Sebastian said in an attempt to diffuse a situation that was getting rapidly out of hand. If Doug and Bobby went to blows, they could get into serious trouble.

  “Yeah, Doug. Let’s go. Nobody cares what Bobby Wilcox thinks,” Martha said, agreeing with Sebastian.

  “Please don’t get into it with Bobby on my account,” Emma pleaded as she pulled on Doug’s arm.

  Doug took a deep breath and realized his friends were right. He was in a no-win situation. The intense satisfaction he’d get from punching Bobby in the nose wasn’t worth the trouble he’d get into afterward. He had just turned around and was walking away when Bobby had to get in one last zinger. “Yeah, Harwood. Why don’t you just leave? Nobody wants you here.” Encouraged by snickers from the crowd, Bobby added, “In fact, the way I hear it, nobody wants you period. Even your own mother didn’t want you!”

  Doug froze in midstride. Bobby had gone too far with that last statement. Doug could not and would not let it pass. Before any of the others realized his intention, Doug was racing toward Bobby. Those standing around began to chant loudly, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Doug barreled into Bobby, knocking him to the ground. The two boys wrestled around on the ground as Emma, Martha, and Sebastian watched helplessly from the sidelines.

  “Do something,” Martha said urgently to Sebastian.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Sebastian asked, disinclined to get between the two boys. He had tried to break up a fight once before and had gotten punched in the nose for his trouble. After that disaster, Sebastian had made up his mind that he’d never get between two combatants again, but when he saw Martha’s look of exasperation, he relented. With a shrug of his shoulders and a deep breath, he said grudgingly, “Okay, I’ll try.”

  Fortunately, he was spared another punch in the nose by the imperious tones of Miss Grimstock, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. “Boys! You will stop this nonsense immediately!”

  As if by magic, Doug and Bobby broke apart and stood up. From the looks of their faces, they had both managed to land a few good blows. Doug’s scratches were visible once again, but now they could be attributed to the fight, as Bobby was wearing a school ring on his right hand. In addition to the scratches, Doug’s chin was red and was already starting to bruise. Bobby didn’t look any better. His left eye was beginning to swell, and it was apparent that he would have a pretty good shiner by tomorrow.

  Upon Miss Grimstock’s arrival, the crowd had gone silent. Everyone was waiting to see what punishment she would pronounce, but in that, they were to be disappointed. “You two will come with me,” Miss Grimstock said sternly. Without a word, the two boys obeyed as Miss Grimstock led them away. Martha, Emma, and Sebastian stood looking at one another in disbelief until Martha recovered from her shock enough to say, “I can’t believe what just happened.”

  “Me neither,” Sebastian agreed, shaking his head.

  Emma was too sick to say anything. She was so afraid that Doug would be expelled. As she thought about what Bobby had said that had started this whole mess, her blood began to boil. Bobby had had no right to say that about Doug’s mother. If she had been Doug, she would have done exactly the same thing. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and if Bobby had been nearby at that moment, she would gladly have punched him in his other eye. She fully intended to inform Miss Grimstock of what Bobby had done that had prompted the fight. In Emma’s view, the blame rested solely with him.

  The fight had pushed everything else out of Emma’s and Martha’s minds, and they didn’t think to ask Sebastian what had happened at Cal’s cabin until they got back to the school. After retreating to a secluded corner of the lounge, Sebastian quickly filled them in on everything that had happened that afternoon. By the time he’d answered all o
f their questions, it was time for supper.

  At supper, Doug and Bobby were nowhere to be seen. The two boys had had to ride back to the school with Grim—that in itself was punishment enough as far as Sebastian was concerned. The moment they had arrived at Dinswood, the two boys had been taken to Dean Harwood’s office, and that was undoubtedly where they still were. The fact that they were in the dean’s office so long was not a good sign. Bobby’s dad being on the school’s board of directors didn’t help matters either. Mr. Wilcox would probably insist on Doug’s expulsion. Emma was so worried throughout supper that she barely ate. She noticed Martha and Sebastian didn’t have much of an appetite either.

  Later that evening, Emma was called into Dean Harwood’s office. She could only assume it was because she’d been a witness to the fight. She had expected to see Bobby and Doug, but when Emma entered the room, Dean Harwood was sitting alone behind his desk. At Emma’s questioning glance, Dean Harwood explained, “Doug and Bobby are having their supper now.”

  “What will happen to Doug?” Emma asked anxiously.

  “That’s what I’m still trying to decide,” Dean Harwood said with a sigh. “Emma, I need you to tell me what happened in Windland today. Doug has already admitted that he threw the first punch, but he won’t tell me what prompted it.” Dean Harwood paused for a moment, and then with a shake of his head, he continued, “It’s just not like Doug to do something like this. He knows what the consequences could be. If you could help me understand this, I’d greatly appreciate it.”