The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall Book 1 by Ali Standish

Author:Ali Standish
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-07-24T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

Daguerreotypes and Dynamite

JIMMIE OFFERED TO GO WITH ARTHUR, BUT he shrugged his friend off. He strode from the hall with as much dignity as he could muster under the eyes of all his classmates. How disappointed his mother would be if she had seen him. Only now that it was too late did Arthur realize he had played right into Sebastian’s hands. The brute had probably meant for Arthur to hear everything, hoping to provoke him. And now Arthur was the one who looked like the fool, while Sebastian maintained the illusion of the perfect gentleman.

Arthur gritted his teeth as he wandered through the empty halls toward Professor Grey’s classroom to find Pocket. He needed to make sure she was all right.

But when he reached the classroom, it too was empty. There was no sign of Pocket or Professor Grey. Perhaps they had gone to her office? He had a vague idea that it was on the second floor, so he plunged farther down the deserted corridor, toward the back staircase.

He walked slowly, reliving the last moments in a kind of horrible trance. Would Challenger punish him? Write home to his parents? Or worse?

It was with this grim thought that Arthur looked up to find himself face-to-face with the ugliest portrait he had ever seen. A sneering, jowly man stared down at him. At least, one eye did. The other seemed to be looking up at the ceiling. The golden plaque at the bottom of the portrait read: Lord Hugh Baker.

This, Arthur realized, was the portrait Oscar and Afia had told him about—the one that had fallen and nearly killed two people. Arthur, who still had half a mind to pick a fight, was debating whether to tempt his luck and tell the sneering man exactly what he thought of snobs like him when he heard a loud bang, a scream, and then footsteps from overhead.

Arthur ran to the steps and climbed them two at a time.

He had just reached the top when a tall, cloaked figure came barreling down the hall and nearly crashed into him. He was about to follow the runner when he smelled something burning.

Smoke rose through the air from the direction the figure had come. Arthur was torn. Follow the figure or the smoke? Then he remembered why he had been on his way upstairs in the first place. To look for Pocket. What if she had been the one screaming?

“Pocket!” he called out. “Pocket, are you all right?”

Turning away from the runner, Arthur sprinted around the corner in time to see two people stamping out a small fire that was burning on the hall carpet. It was Pocket and Professor Grey. Pocket was supporting the older woman, who had gone completely white.

“What happened?” Arthur exclaimed. Together, he and Pocket led Grey to an armchair inside an open office door. The chair was one of the only things in the room that had not been overturned. A handsome desk lay on its side. Books and silver instruments littered the floor.

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