Charlie Bone and the Beast (The Children of the Red King, Book 6) Part 5 doc

forming in his mind. Behind him lay Runner

Bean, asleep in his basket. Runner Bean

could find anything, Benjamin reckoned.

And if he could sniff something belonging to

Asa, the big dog could surely find him. Ben￾jamin kept this idea to himself. He didn't

want his parents'

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help. He wanted to find Asa on his own, or

maybe with Charlie.

"We'd better do something soon," said Mr.

Brown, "or the hunt will kill that poor boy

before they realize who he is. I'll go and see

the mayor."

"He won't believe you," Mrs. Brown said

sadly. "He doesn't hold with all the stuff that

goes on at Bloor's Academy. He knows about

the endowed children, of course, but he

doesn't like to admit it."

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"I expect I'll think of something," said

Benjamin.

Finding something belonging to Asa wasn't

as easy as Benjamin had hoped. He dis￾covered that Asa's parents had never been

seen. No one knew where they lived. They

appeared to have no friends and no relations.

Any item that Asa might have worn or

touched lay inside Bloor's Academy, an im￾possible place for someone like Benjamin to

enter. The Bloors certainly wouldn't be

happy to assist in Asa's rescue. He had

changed sides. They would consider him a

turncoat and a traitor.

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By the time Benjamin got home from school

the next day, the hunt was already underway.

Half the city had turned out to watch. Forty

able-bodied men were assembled on the

bridge that led to the wilderness. In charge

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were the chief of police and Officer Wood.

They were joined by a motley group of

determined-looking men, dressed in an as￾sortment of trenchcoats, suits, jackets, and

raincoats. Their heads were covered by

woolly hats, hoods, berets, and even a Stet￾son. A few pairs of rain boots and sneakers

were to be seen, but most wore sturdy leath￾er boots. Half the men carried rifles; the oth￾ers took flashlights and clubs.

A cheer went up as the forty-two men

marched across the bridge and turned right,

down a path that ran beside the river. A few

meters farther on, it disappeared into dense

undergrowth - the beginning of the

wilderness.

From a path on the city-side of the river,

Benjamin's father had watched the whole

proceedings. He returned home a worried

man.

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"It's not right," he told his wife and son, as

they ate their scrambled eggs and spinach.

"There's going to be a catastrophe, you mark

my words. All those guns; someone's going

to be killed in the wilderness, and it might

not be the beast-boy."

Benjamin suddenly thought of Charlie's

friend Naren. She lived with her father and

mother in a little house deep in the wilder￾ness. It was a beautiful, secret place, a sanc￾tuary for lost and injured animals. Would it

remain secret, when a group of angry men

came tramping through the trees with guns

and clubs and torches?

I wish I could talk to Charlie, thought

Benjamin.

Charlie had fallen asleep. He woke up to find

someone shaking his shoulder.

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"Charlie, there's something on the wall be￾hind you. A word." It was Dagbert's voice.

Charlie sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Look! Look behind you," Dagbert insisted.

Charlie looked around. On the wall above his

bed

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was the word "good-bye," It was written in a

patch of moonlight, in shaky spiderlike let￾ters that seemed as though they were a little

uncertain of themselves.

"Naren!" Charlie whispered to the wall.

One by one, the letters began to fade.

"Naren!" said Charlie, forgetting to whisper.

"Where are you going?"

There was no answering message. The wall

remained blank. The slice of moonlight dis￾appeared and the room returned to its usual

inky darkness.

"What's going on?" asked Dagbert.

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