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"Whatever you say"

We flen the stairs so fast that our feet hardly seeround In twenty seconds ere back in the courtyard, leaping over dead Mr Cru in theit open It broke froes and fell in pieces "Look out below!" I called, then lostinto the dark

A pair of strong arht me--Bronwyn’s--and set

"What happened up there?" asked Bronwyn "Did you catch the pigeon?"

"We got it," I said as E our friends "That’s Melina," I said, pointing up at her, and that was all the time for introductions we had Melina was still at the top of the steps, fooling with so us time!" she shouted back, and then she pulled shut and locked a wooden lid that capped the well, closing out the last rays of light As she climbed down in darkness, I explained about the hollows that were chasing us In my panicked state, this came out as "GO NOW RUN HOLLOWS NOW," which was effective if not terribly articulate, and threw everyone into hysterics

"How can we run if we can’t see?!" Enoch shouted "Light a fla back in the attic

Now seerabbed her arm and said, "Don’t! They’ll be able to pinpoint us too easily!" Our best hope, I thought, was to lose the maze of tunnels

"But we can’t just run blindly in the dark!" said Eer echolocator

"We can," said the older

Melina stumbled toward their voices "Boys! You’re alive! It’s ht you were--"

"Dead every last--"

"One of you"

"Everyone link hands!" Melina said "Let the boys lead the way!"

So I took Melina’s hand in the dark and Emma took mine, then she felt for Bronwyn’s, and so on until we’d formed a huave the word and the boys took off at an easy run, plunging us into the black

We forked left Splashed through puddles of standing water Then fro crash that could only have h the well door

"They’re in!" I shouted

I could al down into the shaft Once they round and could run, they’d overtake us in no tih to lose theh

Which is hat Millard said next struck me as patently insane: "Stop! Everyone stop!"

The blind boys listened to hi to a halt

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted "Run!"

"So sorry," Millard said, "but this just occurred to h the loop exit before the echolocators or the girl do, or they will cross into the present and we into 1940, and we’ll be separated For theo first and open the way"