Chapters 29-31 Summary

Chapter 29

The boys hike out of town, on the pretext of camping. Mike shadows the rest at a distance, remaining out of sight. The boys set up their camp for the night, each armed with guns they scrounged from closets and bottom drawers. Mike sets up twenty yards from them as Dale, Lawrence, Kevin, and Jim get in their pup tents for the night. Mike is nodding off when three figures approach, carrying axes. They skulk up to the tents, then attack, driving their axes into the contents of the tents. Mike fires his shotgun, and suddenly gunfire erupts from other sides of the camp. The three men are injured or dead, having slashed through dummies the boys had prepared and placed in their tents, and the boys flee to a nearby, prearranged safe spot.

Chapter 30

Father Cavanaugh, who had been...