effort to hide her disgust that such vermin were mixing with her refined children.
Like many children, the boys had a sixth sense that detected intentions and what lived in people’s hearts. They saw something in their aunt’s expression that made them comfortable.
“Come now, your food is ready in the dining room,” she insisted, gesturing for them to hurry up and get to eating.
Marcel and Paul followed her to the dining room, but as soon as she turned to leave, Marcel discreetly followed her. Paul hesitated but then joined his brother.
“Where are we going?” he whispered. Marcel motioned for him to keep quiet. They watched their aunt go into the kitchen and then followed.
“What are you doing?” Paul asked again.
“I think Aunt Clotilde knows where Jacob and Moses are.”
Paul scrunched up his face. He could not understand why his aunt would do anything bad to his friends.
Clotilde came back out of the kitchen, a set of keys tinkling at her side. Marcel stared at them a moment, then said to Paul, “Call to her. While you talk to her, I’ll try to steal the keys.”
Paul stepped forward and stopped his aunt in the middle of the hallway. Marcel slipped out behind the door and stood just behind her.
“What’s going on, Paul? Have you already finished eating?” she asked with annoyance.
“Yes, but I can’t find Alice or Fabien. The house is so big . . .”
Marcel managed to slip the keys from Clotilde without jingling them, then tiptoed away.
“But don’t worry, I’ll find them!” Paul said, turning and running away.
Clotilde was puzzled but went on about her tasks. The gendarmes would arrive any minute, and she did not want the inconvenience of those children to make her lose her whole morning.
Paul caught back up with his brother, who was examining the keys one by one. “If they’re locked up somewhere,” Marcel said, “it’ll be where only the maids go, since she knows we wouldn’t look for them there.”
Marcel tried each door one by one until he found one that was locked. Then he tried several keys until the lock finally gave way.
Jacob tumbled out of the room so fast he knocked Marcel over. Moses followed, armed with a stick he had found.
“What happened to you?” Paul asked the boys.
“Your aunt locked us up,” Jacob said.
“You have to get out of here right away. I bet she called the gendarmes.”
The boys headed for the door, but then Jacob remembered his backpack.
“I’ll go get it, and you just get out of here,” Marcel said. He ran back to the pantry as fast as he could. On his way out again, he found himself standing face-to-face with his aunt.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
He pushed her hard and ran to the door. The others were waiting for him, jittering with impatience. They could see a cloud of dust at the end of the drive. “A car is coming,” Jacob said.
They ran through the cornfields, then along the river. If they followed the current, it would lead them to Roanne. “You’ve already done so much for us,” Jacob said through ragged breaths. “You’d better get back to the house.”
“No, we’ll go with you to the city. I know where the train station is. We were here a couple of years ago. When the train leaves the station, it goes really slow, and you can jump on it and get to Lyon. You’ll have to avoid the ticket collector and make sure you jump off before you get to the last station,” Marcel said, panting.
Jacob hugged his friend, and Moses hugged Paul. “Thank you,” he said.
“We’re your friends.” Marcel shrugged.
They ran farther along the river’s edge. The vegetation protected them from being seen from the road, but they knew they did not have much time. The gendarmes would not be slow to pick up their trail. Besides, their pursuers had a car, and the boys would soon lose their advantage.
They slowed and walked for some time until they reached the city center. They turned up Avenue Gambetta and walked until they saw the great mustard-yellow station. “We have to get to the tracks,” Marcel said, pointing toward the end of the road.
“How will we know which is the right train?” Jacob asked.
“Each train has a sign, and we’ll be able to see it from the tracks.”
They ran again until the station was behind them, crossed the street, jumped a fence, and went down to the tracks. Minutes later they heard a train slowly approaching. They let the