Hitz nodded and sat up. Thank God, Strand thought. Hitz weighed over two hundred pounds and the driver was a small old man and Strand doubted that between them they could have managed to have carried Hitz even as far as the door.

"Madre!" Romero said disgustedly, "a little scratch like that and he makes a fucking massacre out of it."

"You keep quiet," Strand said, standing up and taking Hitz's hand to help pull him to his feet. "And I advise you to start thinking hard. There are a lot of questions you're going to have to answer."

"I want a lawyer," Romero said. "I have a right to a lawyer."

Even as he got Hitz to put his arm around his shoulders, saying "Just lean on me and walk slowly," Strand nearly laughed. A lawyer. In Romero's neighborhood, he realized, ten-year-old children knew all about lawyers.

Romero wheeled around and walked quickly into the house. He had the lights of the common room on and was sitting on a table, swinging his legs, when Strand and the driver got Hitz, staggering dramatically, into the room. "You'd better lie down," Strand said to Hitz, "and keep your head up." The handkerchief was now drenched in blood.

He helped Hitz stretch out on the battered couch of the common room and prop his head against the arm. "Mrs. Strand is calling the doctor," Strand said to him. "I'm sure you'll be all right." Then he said to the driver, who was standing in the middle of the room, shaking his head, muttering, over and over, "Goddamn kids, goddamn kids."

"You can go now, driver. Everything's under control. You've got a long way back to town." He wanted to get rid of the man. The fewer people involved in this little mess the better. He was glad that Hazen hadn't made Conroy drive them out. He could imagine the story Conroy would have to tell his employer if he had been there.

"Okay, I'm leaving," the driver said. "I ain't got any special desire to be here all night when the police come."

Police. Strand hadn't thought of that.

"You might want to hold on to this." The driver held out the knife. It was a Swiss army knife and the blade had blood on it. "I picked it up outside. If you can, keep my name out of it. I don't want to get mixed up in no court case if I can help it...having to drive out to Connecticut on my own time every time a lawyer makes an objection. It's enough trouble driving in New York as it is."

"Thanks," Strand said and took the knife. The blade was only about three inches long. It didn't look like much of a weapon, but Hitz's blood was still coming through the handkerchief he was holding to his cheek.

"This yours?" he asked Romero as the driver went out.

"Who knows?" Romero said. He grinned malevolently.

Strand looked at him closely for the first time in the neon glare of the common room. Romero's lips were bruised and swollen. The flesh around his right eye was puffing up and already beginning to discolor and he had to squint to see out of it. "Anybody can buy a knife like that in any hardware store," Romero said. "They sell them by the million. I've had one since I was nine. Never leave home without it, like they say on the television."

"Listen, Romero," Strand said quietly, "you're in trouble and I want to help you. You've got to believe that, because I'm afraid you're going to need all the help you can get. Now tell me what happened. Before the doctor gets here and Mr. Babcock and the police."

Romero took a deep breath, stopped swinging his legs. "He beat up on me. I went down to his room on a personal matter and he beat the shit out of me. He weighs sixty pounds more than me, so I thought we ought to meet on more equal terms." He grinned again, his swollen and battered face grotesquely twisted.

"What was the personal matter?"

"Personal," Romero said.

"He accused me of stealing his money," Hitz said. His garishly striped pajamas were streaked with blood. "I'm not going to let a little sneaky spic make accusations like that and get away with it."

"What money?" Strand asked, looking from one boy to the other.

"My money," Romero said. "And some letters. He broke open my tin box and he took my money and the letters."

Leslie hurried into the room. "Allen," she said, "the doctor and Mr. Babcock are coming right over." She stared at the bloodied boy on the couch, Romero's disfigured face, the knife still open in Strand's hand. "Oh, it's too much," she said softly. She turned and rushed out of the room, down the hall to their apartment.

"What letters?" Strand demanded again.

"Private letters," Romero said. "From a girl friend. I don't like to have my private letters read by anybody. Especially shits like him."

"I never saw any of your letters," Hitz said.

"You fucking liar," Romero said and Strand moved to get between the table on which he was sitting and the couch. But Romero didn't get off the table. "You made fun of them when I came to your room. You read them, all right. Romeo Romero you called me, you fat shit."

"Shut up," said Strand.

"I never saw any letters," Hitz whined. "I don't know what he's talking about."

"All right," Strand said, "let's forget about the letters for the time being. How much money do you say it was, Romero?"

"Three hundred and seventy-five dollars."

"What?" Strand said, surprised. "How much?"

"Three seventy-five."

"Where did you get that much money?"

"I want a lawyer," Romero said.

"I'll tell you where, Mr. Strand," Hitz said. "He runs a crap game two or three nights a week in his and Rollins's room. And a lot of the fellers think he uses loaded dice. Him and Rollins both. A spic and a nigger. That's the kind of school you're running and don't think I'm not going to let everybody know about it. My father's a big wheel in Washington and he knows every newspaperman down there and plenty in New York..."

"You'd better keep quiet, Hitz," Strand said, despising the fat, blubbering boy. "Concentrate on keeping your mouth shut and stopping the bleeding." He sighed as he thought of what the night's disaster would look like in the newspapers and what it would sound like at the next meeting of the Dunberry Board of Trustees. "Do you and Rollins run a crap game in your room at night?" he asked Romero.

"Leave Rollins out of it," Romero said. "He's got nothing to do with it. He just happens to be my roommate."

"Where is Rollins?"

"Asleep. He doesn't know anything about what's happened. He came home tired and went to sleep."

"You didn't tell him anything about what happened?"

"If I told him he'd've gone down and killed Hitz with his bare hands. And he'd be out on his ass in the morning. And there'd be no college for him, no pro ball. He's got enough trouble being black. I don't want to see him wiped out just because he's my friend."

"Let me ask you a question, Jesus," Strand said. "Why do you think Hitz here took your money?"

"If there ever was any money," Hitz said. "This little greaseball's been trying to get me since the beginning of the term. I don't like some of the types they're letting into this school nowadays and I don't hide it. This is a free country and I can say what I want..."

"I think you'll be better off holding your peace, Hitz," Strand said, trying to sound impartial and patient and knowing he was not succeeding. "Now, Romero, what made you think that it was Hitz who took your money and nobody else?"

"I got private information."

"What sort of information?"

"Confidential."

"Who told you?"

"I said confidential," Romero repeated.

"Did you find the money in Hitz's room? Or the letters you spoke of?"

"No," Romero said.

"Sure he didn't," Hitz said. "Because I didn't take anything. If anybody took anything. That man's crazy, Mr. Strand, he's got a hate on against the whole world, especially if they're white. If the teachers here had the guts of a rabbit, even, they'd all say, every one of them, including you, that they wished that this little bastard had never heard of Dunberry."

"You be careful of your language, fat boy," Romero said, "or I'll carve your other cheek and cut your ass for dessert."

The threat reminded Strand that he was still holding the open bloodstained knife. He closed it and dropped it into the pocket of his overcoat. "Romero," he said, "you're not doing yourself any good by talking like..."

The door opened and Dr. Philips and Mr. Babcock came in. Babcock stopped dead as his eyes took in the scene. "Oh, dear," he said.

The doctor nodded to Strand, looked curiously at Romero, then bent over Hitz and said, "Let's see what we have here." He took the soaked handkerchief from Hitz's face and dropped it on the floor, squinted through his glasses, bending down over Hitz's head and touching the wounded cheek lightly. "I'd better get him to the infirmary," he said. "It's going to take some cleaning and sewing. Quite a bit of sewing."

"It hurts," Hitz said, his lower lip quivering.

"Of course it hurts," the doctor said. "It's supposed to hurt." He was a brusque man, competent and quick and not known to coddle adolescents. He opened his bag and took out a big bandage pad and taped it over the wound. It turned red immediately. The doctor took off his coat. "Put this on and get up and I'll walk you to my car."

"I don't know if I can walk.... I lost a lot of..."

"Nonsense," the doctor said. "Get up on your feet. It's just superficial. Your beauty won't be marred."

Hitz made a show of dizziness as he pushed himself off the couch. The doctor helped him on with the overcoat and buttoned it up. Romero, his head bent, watched through lowered eyelids, his eyes dark and scornful. "Maybe he needs morphine," he said. "So he can bear the awful pain."

"That's enough out of you, young man," Babcock said. It was the first time Strand had heard a note of severity in the headmaster's voice.

"Babcock," the doctor said, stopping at the door, his hand lightly on Hitz's arm, "I suggest you call the police."

"The police," Babcock said distractedly. "Oh, dear. Do you really think it's necessary?"

"If I want to keep my license to practice," the doctor said, "and if you want to keep your school, it's necessary."

"Of course," Babcock said. "It's just that...Nothing like this has ever come up before. Of course. I'll call."

"Tell them to meet us all at the infirmary. There'll certainly have to be an inquiry. In the meantime, young man-" He stopped and stared at Romero. "I know you, don't I? From the football team?"

"Yes," Romero said. "You told me I was crazy to play."

"What's your name...?"

"Romero," the boy said.

"Consider yourself under a citizen's arrest. And I'm the citizen. I'll see you all at the infirmary."

There was silence for a moment as the doctor and Hitz went out. Strand was glad that he no longer had to look at Hitz's bloody face. Babcock sighed and stared down at the couch and raised his glasses to his forehead then pulled them down again. Strand noticed that Babcock wasn't wearing a tie. It was the first time he had seen him tieless. He probably had been in bed with his stout wife when Leslie's call came and had dressed hurriedly.

"The couch will have to be cleaned," Babcock said. "It's all bloody. What should I say to the police?" He sounded helpless. "I have no idea of what happened. Is there a phone here?"

"There's a pay phone in the basement," Romero said.

"Thank you," Babcock said. He started toward the staircase leading to the basement level, then stopped. "Oh, dear," he said, patting his pockets, "I left all my money on the dresser. I was in bed and...Allen, do you...?"

Strand dug into his pocket. There were only bills. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You can call the police emergency number," Romero said. Strand had the feeling that Romero was enjoying himself. "They'll come in three minutes, sirens and lights, the whole business."

"They'll wake everybody up," Babcock said. "I don't think we need..."

"I'll go into the apartment and make the call from there," Strand said.

"I wish I knew what this is all about," Babcock said plaintively.

"I'll fill you in later." Strand went down the hall and into his own living room. Leslie was sitting at the piano bench, but not playing. She turned when she heard Strand come into the room. "Well?" she said.

"It's a mess. I haven't time to tell you now. Nothing really serious." As he said it he wished he could believe it. "I have to call the police." He looked up the number in the directory on the table next to the phone and dialed. The man on duty said his name was Leary, Sergeant Leary. "Sergeant," Strand said, "could you send somebody over to the Dunberry infirmary as soon as possible?"

"What is the nature of the incident?" Sergeant Leary asked.

"There's been a...a dispute...a scuffle, between two of the boys. One of them has been hurt..."

"Does it require an ambulance?"

"Oh, I don't think so. The doctor's examined him. A superficial wound. A cut." He cleared his throat; "One of the boys had a knife."

"At Dunberry?" Leary sounded shocked. The crime rate in the village and its environs was not rich in midnight stabbings.

"It was the end of the holiday." For the honor of the school, Strand thought that he had to make some sort of apology. "None of the staff was on duty. Can you send someone?"

"There'll be a man down there-the infirmary, you said?"

"Yes."

"What side of the campus is that on? East? West?"

Strand felt confused. He closed his eyes and tried to remember on which side of the campus the sun rose. He said, "East," to Sergeant Leary and the sergeant said, "Okay. Is the perpetrator in custody?"

For a moment, Strand didn't associate the word with the events of the evening. Then he remembered Romero. "Yes," he said, "we are holding the perpetrator."

As he hung up, Leslie laughed. The laugh had a little crack in it. "You sound like a detective in a movie," she said.

"Darling," Strand said, "I think you'd better not wait up. I have to go to the infirmary with Romero and Babcock, and the police'll be there and God knows how long it's going to take. I'll tell you all about it when I get back."

"Perpetrator," Leslie said. "I wonder how many perpetrators we have on the campus. I wish I could see the alumni bulletin of the year 2000 and see how many graduates of Dunberry are behind bars at that time."

"I'm sorry, dear, that you..."

"It's not your fault," she said. "Try not to stay up too late. You have to get up early in the morning."

He kissed her and went back into the common room. Behind him he heard Leslie locking the door.