Chapter One GENTLEMEN Schoolmaster Bane slapped his pointer down on his desk and barked out a question What is the purpose of snow The question floated out into the dead air of the classroom and over the bowed heads of the boys Then it gave up hope and began to sink toward the floor Edwin Edwin heaved himself out of his desk and stood in the aisle An answer surfaced in his head and he gave it with a sure sense of defeat Edwin had answers but they were never the right answers Snowballs sir Slap The desk took another lashing from the pointer No you scurvy lump of a semiwitted ne’er-do-well Sit Hugo
