To Matthew's horror, Miss Smart, Miss Brock, Mr Xavier and Mr Reed grabbed their faces, their wrinkles and flaps of skin, and began to pull. Matthew only saw a glimpse of ripping before he shut his eyes for the second time, his heart racing uncontrollably. Were they monsters, aliens, vampires in disguise? Were they about to eat him? He wanted to run away, to do something, but he couldn't move.

'It's all right,' said Miss Smart after a while. 'You can open your eyes.'

'Are you going to eat me if I do?' Matthew fumbled from his mouth.

The answer to that was giggling.

'We're not going to eat you,' said Miss Smart. 'Or hurt you. You're safe now.'

Matthew hesitated before slowly opening his eyes.

Four new human faces were now staring at him, their fake ones, their wigs, their fake facial hair strewn beside their feet. Miss Smart, Miss Brock, Mr Xavier and Mr Reed were children.

'What is going on?' Matthew said softly, his heart beating slower. His legs were getting some feeling back.

'Really?' said Mr Reed. 'We rip our faces off' -- he gave a quick pull of his tiny ears -- 'and that's all you can say.' His brown eyes stared in astonishment at Matthew.

Rubbing her freckled nose, Miss Brock said, 'Don't listen to him. He's a moron.'

That's it, Matthew realized, and he slapped himself quite hard across the face. It did not have the desired effect.

'Why did you do that?' asked Mr Xavier. He scrunched up his pale face so much his eyepatch dug into his shaved head.

'I thought I might be dreaming,' said Matthew.

'And I'm the moron,' said Mr Reed.

'Please,' said Matthew, 'someone tell me what's going on?'

'We came to rescue all the children here,' replied Miss Smart, putting a hand through her long flowing dark hair. She had on a smile that made her dimples stand out even more.

'Rrrrrreally?' said Matthew.

'Yeah,' said Miss Brock. Her green eyes seemed brighter than when Matthew had seen them the first time.

'Shame we could only rescue one kid,' said Mr Xavier.

'It is what it is,' said Miss Smart. 'One's better than none. My real name's Chloe, by the way.'

'Jennifer,' said Miss Brock.

'I'm Norman,' said Mr Xavier.

'Never call him Norm,' said Mr Reed. 'He doesn't like that. Oh, and his eyepatch is real, so that you know. Many people don't think it is, but it is. He fell out of a tree when he was younger. A branch went right in his –'

'Are you going to tell him your name or what?' said Norman.

'All right, all right. My name's John.'

'Matthew, not Billy,' said Matthew.

'Orphan?' asked Norman.

Matthew nodded.

'The children we rescue usually are,' said Jennifer. 'We're orphans too.'

'So, you've done this kind of thing before?' asked Matthew.

'A few times,' said Norman.

Matthew looked at each one of his rescuers with admiration. 'Well thank you for rescuing me.' He wasn't going to tell them that he was planning on escaping before they showed up.

'No problem,' said John, his tiny ears twitching.

'We also invite the children we rescue to come live with us,' said Norman. 'And if you want to be a part of what we do, to help rescue children from bad people, that'll be up to you.'

Matthew's heart began to race for the umpteenth time that night. 'Where do you live?'

'In a big city,' said Jennifer. 'Spring Heights.'

'We live on the streets,' said John, 'and with a group of other children, some of whom we've rescued.'

'Spring Heights, hey?' said Matthew. 'What a coincidence because Miss Thorn's sister lives in Spring Heights.'

Equally as bad as Miss Thorn, her sister, Mrs Grey, would visit the manor every month to collect the counterfeit money. She would also bring along her musical instruments that she would play in front of the children while they worked. She joined in with the children's feeding as well and was a better shot than Miss Thorn.

'Really?' said Chloe, Jennifer, Norman and John.

'That's interesting,' added Norman.

'Just so that you know, it's not a coincidence,' said John. 'Do you have any idea of where she lives exactly in Spring Heights? Because knowing that could possibly lead us to rescuing more children.'

Matthew thought of Julia, Trevor and the others. 'Sorry, I don't.'

His rescuers looked disappointed but then Chloe smiled, her dimples once again standing out, and said, 'So . . . what do you say, Matthew? Are you going to join us? We'll need your answer fairly quickly. We don't want to spend more time here than we have to.'

Matthew didn't need a lot of time to think about it. He had no other place to go and he wanted to help rescue other children. He wanted to find Julia, Trevor and the others.

'I'll join you,' Matthew said with courage.

'Brilliant,' said Jennifer. She and Chloe gave Matthew a hug, and Norman and John shook his hand.

'Now,' said Chloe, 'let's get carrying that safe to the car.'

'You have a car?' said Matthew. He knew Miss Smart, Miss Brock, Mr Xavier and Mr Reed had a car but surely that was all made up. Children don't have cars.

'Oh, yes,' said Jennifer.

'But you're children,' said Matthew. 'You're too young to have drivers' licenses.'

'We don't have drivers' licenses,' said Norman.

John chimed in, counting on his fingers, 'Nor do we have car insurance, real tags, real license plates, registration —'

'I think Matthew gets the picture, John,' said Chloe. 'Now, like I was saying, let's get carrying that safe to the car.'

'Why do we have to do that?' asked Norman.

'The counterfeit money's in it,' said Chloe. 'Miss Thorn wasn't giving up the combination.'

'Are you going to use the money if you open it?' asked Matthew. He needed to ask that question.

'No way,' said Jennifer. 'We want to destroy it.'

'That's right,' said Chloe. 'We would never ever use counterfeit money. Even though we are poor, orphaned and live on the streets.'

Matthew was glad to hear that.

'Maybe we can dump the whole thing in a river somewhere,' suggested John.

'That's a good idea,' said Chloe.

'Or,' said Matthew, 'I could just get the money out.'

'You know the combination?' asked Norman.

'No, but I know how to break into safes,' said Matthew.

'Come again?' Norman and the others looked a bit shocked at that information.

'My father and grandmother used to be locksmiths,' said Matthew. 'They had their own business, well, it was my father's. They taught me everything they knew, including how to get into locked safes.'

'That's something different, isn't it?' said John.

'I'll need a stethoscope,' said Matthew. 'The nurses' office will have one.'

'A stethoscope?' said John.

'You know,' said Norman, 'what doctors use to hear their patients' hearts and whatnot.'

'I know what a stethoscope is,' John said in frustration. 'I'm not stupid. I was just wondering why Matthew needs one.'

'It'll be easier for me to hear the safe's locking mechanism, so I can unlock it,' said Matthew.

'I'll get the stethoscope,' said John.

'The nurses' office is on —' said Norman.

'I know where it is. I got the same tour as you, remember.'

Norman smirked.

As John left Miss Thorn's office, Matthew went over to the safe and knelt down. 'This is a very old Robinson's,' he said, tracing his finger over the embossed letter 'R' on the front of the safe. 'The first safe I ever cracked was one of these. I may be a bit rusty but I'll get it open.'

When John came back with the stethoscope, Matthew began. He put the stethoscope on and started to slowly turn the safe's combination wheel, listening very carefully to what was happening inside. Meanwhile, the others quietly looked around Miss Thorn's office, searching for any useful information that could lead to rescuing Trevor, Julia and the others. There was nothing.

It was all of five minutes before the safe door creaked open.

'Bingo,' said Matthew, taking off the stethoscope.

'Wow,' said Chloe and Norman.

'Yeah, impressive,' said Jennifer.

'I wanna learn how to do that,' added John.

Inside the safe were bags and bags, all stuffed with counterfeit money. Chloe came over and rummaged through them. 'Look at all of it. There's so much.'

'It's probably just pocket change to Mr Sterling,' said Norman.

'You're probably right,' said Chloe, 'but at least he won't be using it.'

'Who's Mr Sterling?' asked Matthew.

'We'll tell you about him when we stop off for the night on our way back home,' said Chloe, 'Speaking of which, I think it's time to hit the road. Is everyone ready? Matthew?'

'Ready,' replied Matthew. He couldn't believe he was about to leave the manor, to be free.

'You four take the money to the car,' said Chloe, 'and I'll go and check in on Miss Thorn and Mrs Jacobs.'

Carrying four bags each, Matthew, Jennifer, Norman and John made their way to the entrance hall. The front door was wide open, owing to the escaping staff.

Matthew was curious about something. 'How did you guys get into the manor?'

'Through a window,' said John.

'But they're always locked at night. Did you smash it?'

'No.' John smiled. 'Do you remember when I went to the bathroom at lunch?'

'Yes.'

'Well, apart from going there and gluing my moustache back to my face — it came off when I sneezed — I went to the study and put chewing gum over one of the window's latches so it wouldn't lock properly.'

'Clever,' responded Matthew, as they walked outside. The smell of rain lingered in the air despite the storm passing.

'No point lugging these bags to the car,' said Jennifer. 'I'll bring it around.'

Bagless, Jennifer bounded off down the driveway until halfway and darted behind a row of trees. Next minute, a car's engine sounded. Matthew then saw headlights speeding up to the manor.

'How did you guys sneak up here undetected by security last night?' asked Matthew.

'We did our homework,' said Norman. 'Seems like a waste of time now being that the storm knocked out all the power, but we carefully mapped out all of the cameras around the manor, finding a path to the front door blind to them. Last night we just tested it out, preparing ourselves for our assault.'

'And since we were here, we thought why not say hello, meet whoever was awake at that hour and see what we'd be up against.'

Jennifer skidded the car to a halt right in front of Matthew. 'Like our ride?' she said, out from the driver's window.

The car was bright yellow with a blue trunk and on the hood was an ornament of a bronze fox. There was a bit of rust, but overall it looked well-taken care of. Also, strapped to the roof was a box with tiny holes.

'Love it,' Matthew said truthfully. It was weird seeing a child driving a car. He glanced at the license plate. It read '22H RWR'.

'There are honey bees in the box,' said John.

'Honey bees?'

'That's right. We've always wanted a honey bee hive. For the honey. We found them the other day.'

Matthew wondered if they were the bees from the water tower.

John continued. 'Don't worry about getting stung . . . it's night time and the bees are asleep.'

'Bees don't sleep,' said Norman, as he began putting the bags of counterfeit money into the trunk. 'They just become inactive at night.'

'Well excuse me Mr Know-it-all,' said John. 'When did you become Slink?'

Slink? Matthew now knew why John's voice sounded familiar. 'It was you!' he said to John. 'I heard your voice on Miss Thorn's radio. You interrupted her programs. How did you do that?'

Handing his crossbow over to Norman, John said, 'I was trying to contact home -- we have a two-way radio, you see -- but I couldn't so I was just trying out all the radio frequencies out of frustration.'

'So, what's this Slink?'

'Slink is a boy who lives with us,' said Jennifer. 'He knows everything about everything. We are so grateful he joined us.'

'I was trying to get a hold of him so he could help us fix the car,' said John.

'So you did break down on the way to Eagle Falls,' said Matthew. 'I got the whole story from Miss Thorn.'

'Not on our way to Eagle Falls,' said Norman. 'We were already here when the car broke down. We thought we should get it fixed before trying to rescue you. In the end, we had to use a pay phone to get a hold of Slink.'

'The nights we didn't have the fans going in the car . . . let me tell you,' said John. 'It was so hot with our fake faces on that nobody could sleep.'

'You slept in the car?' said Matthew. 'Didn't you have hotel rooms?' He answered his own question, realizing. 'No, you didn't.'

'Yeah, we could never afford hotel rooms,' said Jennifer.

'Maybe not us,' said a voice from behind. It was Chloe and she had just walked out the front door, 'but you, Matthew.' She raised a wad of cash an inch thick. 'I think it's real. When I went to check on those two, Miss Thorn was thrashing around. This money was lying beside her. She must have been carrying it on her, which possibly means it's real.'

'If it is real,' said Norman, 'I think Matthew has earned it.'

'That's what I thought,' said Chloe. She handed the cash over to Matthew. 'There you go. It's all yours.'

Matthew thought about it for a few seconds. 'It's not mine . . . it's ours,' he said with a smile, and he gave the cash back to Chloe.

'This will help us a great deal, believe you me, if it is real,' said Chloe. 'Slink would know if it's real or not. Slink's one of our —'

'We've already told him about Slink,' said John.

'Ssoorrry,' replied Chloe, making a face. She shook her head before saying, 'Shall we get going.'

While John went to sit in the front of the car, Matthew followed Chloe and Norman into the back.

'On we go,' said Jennifer, and she stepped on the gas.

As they sped away, Matthew looked over his shoulder at Bordash Manor. He was glad to see the back of it. 'So, what happens to Miss Thorn now?'

'We'll phone the police when we're far away from here,' said John. 'Tell them everything. Hopefully Miss Thorn and her staff will go to jail.'

Matthew truly wished for that. 'By the way, did you guys know I was one of Miss Thorn's children when we met?' He had an inkling they did.

'When we saw all that ink on your hands we knew,' said Norman. 'The information we got was there was a counterfeiting operation at Bordash Manor. Money . . . ink.'

'That's why we wanted you to show us around Eagle Falls,' said Chloe. 'We wanted to get you outta there. We were going to reveal ourselves. We could have said something at the table but we didn't want to risk anyone overhearing.'

'And this information,' said Matthew, 'Where did you get that from? Where do you know where children are?'

'We listen in on private conversations.'

Matthew was going to ask them more about that when John suddenly laughed out loud.

'What's so funny?' said Norman.

'I was just thinking of what you said to Miss Thorn after she asked us who we were,' said John. 'We are your worst nightmare.'

'I've always wanted to say that,' said Norman.

'Well, I'm saying it the next time, all right,' said John.