The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett Page A

What else can we do? his expression said. So she pushed the door open.
    At first it looked like no one was there. And then they saw a body.

C HAPTER 16

    I t was a man's body, right in front of them. They couldn't see his face because he was leaning back in a big chair, his feet on a desk, his head dangling down at an unnatural angle.
    Xander grabbed Xena's hand. “Is he dead?” he whispered hoarsely.
    â€œI don't know,” Xena answered, her throat tight, and just at that moment a loud sound made them jump.
    It was a snore, and it came from the man in the chair. Xander dropped Xena's hand and tried to pretend that he hadn't touched her.
    Xena stepped forward. “Sir?” she said. A grunt. She took a deep breath, then reached out and shook his shoulder.
    He opened one eye. “Yes?” he asked. Then he sat up. “You're not students here,” he said suspiciously.
    â€œBingo,” Xena said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œNothing,” Xander said. He didn't want Xena's sarcasm to get them kicked out. He turned his most winning smile on the man, who appeared to be a custodian, and told him the story that he and Xena had come up with on the bus ride, that their grandfather had been a student there. Xena couldn't tell whether the man was won over by Xander's charm or whether he just wanted him to shut up and let him go back to sleep, because he finally said, “Just what is it you kids want?”
    â€œWe just want to see his room,” Xander said.
    â€œSo go see it,” the man said.
    â€œBut we don't know the room number,” Xena said.
    â€œCan't help you there,” the man said, settling back down. “Records were destroyed in a fire.”
    â€œWhere are the dorms?” Xander asked.
    â€œGo out the main door, turn left, next building you see.”
    â€œThanks,” Xena said and they left.
    The low two-story brick building that faced them had to be the dormitory. Curtains hung in the windows, and bikes stood in a rack by the door.
    â€œNow what?” Xander asked.
    â€œI think I can figure it out,” Xena said. “Come on.”
    The long corridor inside was a little more cheery than the one in the first building. A worn carpet lay on the floor, and on the doors hung whiteboards with felt pens dangling on strings. “Gone home for weekend,” read one, and “Sign up for crew practice” was on another.
    Xena followed her brother, wandering around long passages and up, then down, narrow staircases. A boy wearing a bathrobe came out of a room and looked at them curiously, but most of the students seemed to be out.
    â€œI've been thinking about those letters,” Xena said. “In one, Robert mentioned that he had to get up so early that while he was getting dressed he could watch the sun rise from his window.”
    â€œThe sun rises in the east and sets in the west,” Xander said, getting it now. “So his room must be on the east side of the house. This side,” he said, pointing. “Anything else?”
    Xena nodded, concentrating. “The headmaster said Robert put a toad in the bed of the boy upstairs from him—remember? So his room had to be on the first floor. There are only two floors, and if he was on the second floor, therewouldn't be a boy above him.” The words were tumbling out of her now. “He also said that the sound of running water in the pipes reminded him of the brook at home.”
    They stood in front of a door next to the bathroom. “This has to be it,” Xena decided. “The bathroom's at the end of the hall, so this is the only room right next to the pipes. East side, first floor.”
    Xander knocked. No answer. Xena knocked harder, and the door swung open. They looked at each other, gathered their nerve, and entered.

C HAPTER 17

    X ena flicked on a light. It looked like an ordinary bedroom, with a single bed, a desk piled with books and a lamp, a chest of drawers, and