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There was one short , but before then George Hannant had done so; so that by the ti away and the roo of papers, he was satisfied that he had the right answer to what had seeht before an incident or occur­rence of soh was obviously one of those special people who could get right down to the roots of things, a thinker as opposed to a doer And a thinker whose thoughts, while they invariably ran con­trary to the general streaet hih towith it, then he’d doubtless do so quite extraordinary Oh, he would still make errors in simple addition and subtraction - two plus two could still on occasion come out five - but solutions which were invisible to others would be instantly obvious to him That hy Hannant had seen in the lad a likeness to his own father; James G Hannant, too, had had that same sort of intuitive knack, had been a natural mathematician And he too had had little time for formulae

And equally obvious to Hannant was the fact that he had indeed fanned soh’s brain, for it was his pleasure to note that the boy see quite hard - or at least he had been, for the first fifteen minutes or so of the period After that -well, of course, he was daydreaain But when Hannant crept up behind him - lo and behold! - the questions he’d set were all answered, and correctly, however insubstantial the working It would be interesting later in the week, when they got onto basic trigonoh would do with that Now that the circle held little of mystery for hile

But there was still soe Hannant, and for the answer to that hethe boys to work alone for a fewabout their behaviour in his absence - he went to the head’s study

’Harry Keogh?’ Howard Jamieson seemed a little taken aback ’How did he do in the Technical College examin­ ation?’ He took out a slih it, looked up ’I’h didn’t take the examination,’ he said ’Apparently he was doith hay fever or soo; he had two days off school Unfortunately the exah’s absence But why do you ask, George? Do you think he’d have stood a chance?’

’I think he’d have sailed it,’ Hannant answered, frank to the point of being blunt

Jamieson seemed surprised ’Bit late in the day, isn’t it’

’To worry about it? I suppose it is’

’No, I h I didn’t know you much approved of him Wait - ’ He took out another file, a thicker one, this time from a cabinet ’Last year’s reports,’ he said, checking through the file And this tiht so Accord­ing to this none of your colleagues here give Keogh a cat in hell’s chance at anything - and that includes you, George!’

’Yes,’ Hannant’s neck reddened a little, ’but that was last year Also, the Technical College exae If you were to give our Harry Keogh an IQ test I think you’d be in for a surprise Where maths is concerned, anyway It’s all instinct, all intuition - but it’s there, sure enough’

Ja when ainterest in a Harden boy,’ he said ’And that’s not to put anyone down, not even the kids theround and environh that exaroup - which is to say one in sixty-five!’

’Four, if Harry Keogh had taken it’

’Oh?’ Jamieson wasn’t convinced But he was iht,’ he said, ’let’s assuht about the ht that the test is a e assimilated parrot-fashion So what about the other subjects? According to these reports Keogh is a habitual failure in just about any subject you care to mention! Bottohed, nodded, said: ’Look, I’m sorry I’ve wasted your time on this one Anyway, the question hardly arises since he didn’t sit the exam in the first place It’s just that I feel it’s a shame, that’s all I think the kid has potential’

’Tell you what,’ said Ja towards the door with his hand on Hannant’s shoulder ’Send hi the afternoon I’ll have a ith him, see what I think No, wait - maybe I can be a little more constructive than that Instinctive or intuitive mathematician, is he? Very well - ’

He returned to his desk, took a pen and quickly scribbled soo,’ he said ’See what he h the lunch break If he comes up with an answer, then I’ll see hio from there’

Hannant took the sheet of A4 and went out into the corridor, closing the door behind him He looked at what the head had written, shook his head in disappointain, opened it and stared at it On the other hand h could handle Hannant was sure that he could do it - with a bit of thought and a spot of trial and error - but if Keogh could work it out, then they’d be on to so His case for the boy would be proven In the event Keogh failed, then Hannant would si about hi of his attention, he was sure

At 1:30 ph it on the instant the head called him in Jamieson himself was just back from lunch, hardly settled down He stood up as Hannant crossed the floor of his study, shook out the folds of the A4 and handed it to hiested,’ Hannant told the head, breath­lessly ’This is Keogh’s solution’

The headinal probleic Square: A square is divided into 16 equal, smaller squares Each

se them so that the sum of each of the four lines and each of the four coluonals, is one and the sa what looked like a false start - had been drawn beneath the question and was signed Harry Keogh :

Jamieson stared at it, stared harder, opened hisHannant could see hionals - could alood,’ Jamieson finally said

’It’s better than that,’ Hannant told him ’It’s perfect!’

The head blinked at hiic squares are perfect That’s the lure of theic!’

’Yes,’ Hannant agreed, ’but there’s perfect and there’s perfect You asked for coluiven you that and far more The corners total the same The four squares in the middle total the sa middle numbers at the sides come out the same! And if you look closer, that’s not the end of it No, it is perfect’

Jahtedly And finally: ’Where’s Keogh now?’ ’He’s outside I thought you hed, sat down at his desk ’All right, George, let’s have your prodigy in, shall we?’ Hannant opened the door, called Keogh in Harry entered nervously, fidgeted where he stood before the head’s desk

’Young Keogh,’ said the head, ’Mr Hannant tells

’This ic square, for instance Now, I’ve fiddled about with such things - purely for my own amusement, you understand - ever since, oh, since I was about your age But I don’t think I ever caood as this one It’s quite remarkable Did anyone help you with it?’

Harry looked up, looked straight into Jamieson’s eyes For a moment he looked - scared? Possibly, but in the next moment he went on the defensive ’No, sir No one helped me’

Jah work? Ias clever as this, does one?’

’No, sir,’ said Harry ’My rough work is there, crossed out’

Jamieson looked at the paper, scratched his very nearly bald head, glanced at Hannant Then he stared at Keogh ’But this is simply a box with the numbers laid in their numerical sequence I can’t see how - ’

’Sir,’ Harry stopped hiical way to start When I got that far I could see what needed doing’

Again the head and the lances

’Go on, Harry,’ said the head, nodding

’See, sir, if you just write the nuht and to the bottoht to left and half of them from the bottom to the top? And: how can I do both at the saical’ Jaain ’So what did you do?’

’Pardon?’

’I said, what - did - you - do, boy!’ Ja to repeat hi on his every word

Harry was suddenly pale He said sohed and his voice dropped an octave or two When he spoke again he no longer sounded like a small boy at all ’It’s there in front of you,’ he said ’Can’t you see it for yourself?’

Jaed and his jaw dropped, but before he could explode Harry added: ’I reversed the diagonals, that’s all It was the obvious answer, the only logical answer Any other way’s a gaood enough Not for ain, pointed an enraged finger at the door ’Hannant, get - that - boy -out - of - here! Then corabbed Keogh’s ar that if he hadn’t physi­cally taken hold of the boy, then Keogh ainst the wall, hissed ’Wait here!’ and left hihtly dazed and sick

Back inside Ja sweat fro paper He was staring fixedly at Harry’s solution and ­ onals! Hmm! And so he has!’ But as Hannant closed the door behind hirinned soained his self control and continued to dab away at the sweat on his forehead and neck ’This bloody heat!’ he said, waving a li that Hannant should take a seat

Hannant, whose shirt was sticking to his back beneath his jacket, said, ’I know It’s murder, isn’t it? The school’s like a furnace - and it’s just as bad for the kids’ He re and nodded ’Yes, well that’s no excuse for insolence - or arrogance’

Hannant knew he should keep quiet but couldn’t ’ he was being insolent,’ he said ’Thing is, I believe he was si a fact It was the same when I crossed hiets his back up The lad’s brilliant - but he’d like to pretend not to be! He does his damnedest to keep it hidden’

’But why? Surely that’s not nore like the chance to show off Is it sio deeper than that?’

Hannant shook his head ’I don’t know Let me tell you about yesterday’

When he was through, the head said: ’Almost exactly parallel to e’ve just seen’

’That’s right’

Jahtful ’If he really is as clever as you seem to think he is - and certainly he seems to have an intuitive knack in some directions - then I’d hate to be the one to deprive hiet somewhere in life’ He sat back ’Very well, it’s decided Keogh h no fault of his own, soI’ll speak to Jack Harmon at the Tech, see if we can fix up some

sort of private exa, but - ’ ’It’s better than nothing,’ Hannant finished it for him

’Thanks, Howard’

Tine, fine I’ll let you kno I get on’ Nodding, Hannant went out into the corridor where

Keogh aiting

Over the next two days Hannant tried to put Keogh to the back of his mind but it didn’t work In the s, even occasionally in the dead of night, the boy’s young-old face would be there, hovering on the periphery of Hannant’s awareness Friday night saw the teacher awake at 3:00 am, all his s open to let in what little breeze there was, prowling the house in his pyjamas He had coh, clutching Ja off across the schoolyard of ate under the stone archway; then of the boy crossing the dusty suates of the cemetery And Hannant had believed that he knehere Harry was going And suddenly, though the night had not grown notice­ably cooler, Hannant had felt chilly in a way he was now beco used to It could only be a psychic chill, he suspected, warning hi uncanny about Keogh, cer­tainly, but what it was defied conjecture - or rather, challenged it One thing was certain: George Hannant hoped to God the kid could pass whatever exams Howard Jamieson and Jack Harer simply that he wanted the boy to realise his full potential No, it was h out of here, out of the school, away from the other kids Those perfectly ordinary, normal boys at Harden Secondary Modern

A bad influence? Hardly that! Who could he possibly influence - in ay? - when the rest of the kids generally considered hiht somehow spread - like the proverbial rotten apple at the bottom of the barrel? Perhaps And yet that simile didn’t exactly fit either Or maybe, in a way, it did For after all, it makes little difference that an apple can’t appreciate its own rottenness: the corruption spreads anyway Or was that too strong? How could it even be possible that there was so of which even he was unaware or lacked understanding? Actually the whole thing was becoh which so worried Hannant?, What was in hi a way out? And why didHannant feel that when it finally eed it would be terrible?

It was then that Hannant decided to investigate Keogh’s background, discover what he could of the boy’s past Perhaps that here the trouble lay And then again, i fat all and the whole affair was pi siination It could be the heat, the fact that he was If sleeping badly, the unending, unrewarding, repetitious routine of the school - any or all of these things It could ! 1 be - but why then did that inner voice keep insisting that Keogh was different? And why on occasion would he find Keogh staring at hiht well be those of his own dead and buried father?

Ten days and two Tuesdays later, tragedy struck It happened when the boys, PTI Graham Lane, and the Misses Dorothy Hartley and Gertrude Goent off on their end-of-day stone-gathering trek to the beach ’Sergeant’, ostensibly to collect specimens of some rare wild flower, butcliffs When he had been more than half-way up the treacherous face of the cliff, projecting stones had given way under his feet, pitching him down to the boulder- and scree-clad beach below He had tried to cling to the cru surface even as he fell, but then his feet had struck a narrow ledge, breaking it away, and he had been set spinning free in air He had landed on his chest and face, crushing both and killing hiht

The affair was ht of the fact that ’Sergeant’ and Dorothy Hartley, only the night before, had announced their engage As it was, the following Friday saw ’Sergeant’ buried It would have been better for hi, as he watched Lane’s coffin being lowered into a fresh plot of earth in the old cemetery, if he’d stayed in the Army and taken his chances there

Afterwards, there had been sandwiches, cakes and coffee in the staff-rooer for those who fancied it And of course, Dorothy Hartley to console as best she could be consoled So that none of the teachers had been there to see the grave filled in, or, after the gravedigger was through and the wreaths lay in position, the last lone mourner where he sat on a slab nearby, chin in the pal from behind his spectacles, fastened mournfully - curiously? expectantly? - upon the mound

Meanwhile, Howard Jah a post-examination place at the Tech in Hartlepool; or if not an actual place, at least the opportunity to win one for himself The private exa of questions designed to measure verbal, numerical and spatial perception and aptitude - was to take place at the college in Hartlepool under the direct supervision of John (’Jack’) Har the Harden Boys’ School grapevine, and Harry had becoet for various jibes and japes

He was no longer simply ’Speccy’ for instance but had acquired other nickna Stanley had been putting it about that Harry was some sort of teacher’s or headic, of which Stanley was a past-y but hard-knuckled fists - it hadn’t taken long to convince even thefishy about Keogh’s belated eence as someone as a bit more than just ’ordinary’

Why, for instance, should Speccy - or ’the Favourite’ - why should he alone get this crack at a special Tech examination? Other kids had been sick that day, too, hadn’t they? And were they being given special treat­ ment? No they weren’t! It was just because that dreaot on ith the teachers, that was all Who was it went digging up stupid, sh, that ho - and hadn’t old Sergeant always used to stick up for him? Of course he had! And now, since he’d suddenly started being a bit clever at maths and so on, even snotty old Hannant was on his side Oh, he was ’the Favourite’, all right - the four-eyed little fart But not with Big Stanley Green he wasn’t!

It had all sounded very logical; to which add the now sullen voices of the others who, through no fault of their own, had missed the exam, and soon the bully had a fair- sized crowd of like-minded boys on his side Even Ji ’niffed a bit’

Then Tuesday caym-teacher’s death, when once more the school trooped down to the beach for as hopefully to be the last stone-gathering expedition of the season The idea had been a novelty at first, but now boys and teachers alike were fed up with it; Lane’s death had soured it for everyone Miss Goas present, as usual, with Jean Tasker of Science (a little older than Gower butthe place of Dorothy Hartley who had been given leave of absence George Hannant was also there, replacing Graham Lane

As usual, after the stones had been collected and piled up, the boys were allowed to do their own thing for an hour before carrying their booty back to the school ’Gee-gee’ Gower, (as her pupils so to her equine aspect asinstructions to a bunch of reluctant non-swie Hannant and Jean Tasker stood down by the edge of the sea, gathering shells and bright pebbles, chatting and generally passing the tier contain his vindictiveness, saw his opportunity to ’teach Keogh a lesson’

Harry had been off on his own, head down, hands behind his back, beachco; but as he returned to the pile of stones he looked up and spotted Green and a large handful of the others waiting for him

’Well, well!’ sneered the bully, pushing his way to the front of the crowd ’And if it isn’t our little teacher’s pet - little skinny Speccy Keogh - with a fistful of pretty shells for daft old Gee-gee! How’s things then, Speccy? How d’you fancy your chances with this "special" exam they’ve fixed it for you to take, eh?’

’Reckon you’ll pass it, do you then, Speccy?’ said another, his voice hard-edged ’They’ll push you through it, will they?’

’Oh, he’s "favourite", all right!’ said a third ’What, him? Teacher’s pet and all - how can he fail?’

Ji himself dry as he came up the beach, saw theInstead he went to the rear of the group, wrapped a towel round his waist and started to dress

’Well?’ Green prodded Harry in the chest ’How about it, four-eyes? Are the nice teachers going to let you pass your little exah boys and go to school in Hartlepool with the rest of the fairies?’

Harry staggered backward fro the shells he’d collected Big Stanley gave a whoop, juround thean to turn away His eyes were suddenly misty behind his spectacles; his face, which wasn’t tanned like the faces of the rest, turned even paler

’Shitty little cowardly teacher’s pet!’ Green crowed maliciously ’Old Man Jamieson’s little "Favourite", eh, Speccy? And is that you crying, then? Tears, is it? Wetting ourself, are we? You four-eyed little - ’

’Shut it, shithead!’ Harry growled, turning back and facing the bully ’You’re ugly enough withoutit worse!’

’Wha-?’ Green couldn’t believe his ears What was that Keogh had said? No, it couldn’t have been Why, it hadn’t even sounded like hi in his throat, or he was all choked up with fear

’Whyn’t you leave hih the crowd Three or four of therabbed him, held him back

’Stay out of it, Jiritty voice ’I’ht, is it?’ cried Big Stanley I’ll say you’re not, Speccy my son I’ll say you’re - in - the - shit!’-

With his last word he swung his fist for the smaller boy’s head Harry ducked easily, stepped forward, jabbed with a straight ar Stanley folded in thedown on Harry’s knee - which was cohtened up and flew backward, his arht out from his shoulders And down he crashed on the sand

Harry stepped close Seconds passed but Green just lay there Then he sat up, shook his head groggily His nose was the wrong shape, bleeding profusely; his eyes were glassy behind welling tears of pain ’You you you!’ he spat blood

Harry bent over hirowled, the corner of hisGive ain’

Green said nothing, reached up a tre hand to touch his broken nose, his split mouth Then he started to cry real tears

But Harry wasn’t finished with him He wanted him to remember ’Listen, shithead,’ he said ’If ever - if you ever once - call ain - if you even speak toteeth for aStanley turned on his side in the sand and cried even harder