"Why couldn't she just tell me herself?" Luke complained to his room-mates later.

"It's not the way she works," Taj told him. "She loves running to the housemasters with the sordid details of our crimes. Don't try to use your boyish charm on her, either. She's immune to it."

Taj said this in the tone of someone who had already tried to get round Mrs Mould and failed.

"And why was she poking around in my bedside cabinet anyway?" Luke wondered.

"Get used to it," advised Fred. "There is no privacy in this place."

There were no classes on Wednesday afternoons, although several of the school clubs met then, including the orienteering one. Luke discovered that the sport involved running around the countryside while navigating between checkpoints marked on a map. After the way he'd spent his summer with Ned, Luke enjoyed it immensely and was pleased to discover that he was a lot fitter than he had been at the end of his last school year. When it came to school work, however, Luke found, as he'd feared, that he was a long way behind his colleagues and was having to work hard to catch up.

Ned had clearly spoken to Luke's mother, as he received a letter from her towards the end of his first full week of term.

Dear Luke,

I'm sure you were as surprised as we were to find out your new headmaster was none other than Ned Kelly! I had no idea – I hadn't linked up Graham Kelly MSc with our Ned at all! I'm really happy you have him there to keep an eye on you, although I'm sure you won't need it (please!).