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you about the other night.”
    “What about it?” David knew he was being deliberately rude, but he was still angry about what had happened.
    Mr. Helliwell sighed. The light was reflecting off the huge dome of his head and his round, gray eyes seemed troubled. “I know you’re upset,” he said. “But there’s something I have to tell you. I don’t believe it was you who opened the safe.”
    “What?” David felt a surge of excitement.
    “I was as surprised as anyone to find you in that room,” the teacher went on. “Let me explain. I was making my rounds when I saw someone come down the stairs. It was dark, so I didn’t see who it was. But I could have sworn they had fair hair, lighter than yours.”
    Fair hair. That was Vincent. It had to be.
    “I saw them go into the heads’ study, and that was when I went to get Mr. Fitch and Mr. Teagle.” Mr. Helliwell paused. “Whoever was inside the study had left the door half open. I’d swear to that. Only, when we got back the door was closed. And you were inside.”
    “I didn’t open the safe,” David said. Now that he had started, he couldn’t stop. “Someone set me up. They wanted me to be found there. They knew you’d gone for the heads. And they must have slipped out just before I arrived.”
    “Someone . . . ?” Mr. Helliwell frowned. “Do you have any idea who?”
    For a moment David was tempted to name Vincent King. But that wasn’t the way he did things. He shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell the heads what you’d seen?” he asked.
    Mr. Helliwell shrugged. “At the time it seemed an open-and-shut case. It was only afterward . . .” He stroked his chin. “Even now I’m not sure. I suppose I believe you. But it’s your word against . . .”
    . . . against Vincent’s. David nodded. The trap had been too well prepared.
    Mr. Helliwell pulled a pocket watch from his waist-coat pocket and looked at it. “It’s almost eleven o’clock,” he said. He reached out and put a firm, heavy hand on David’s shoulder. “But if you have any more problems, you come to me. Maybe I can help.”
    “Thank you.” David turned and hurried back down the passageway. He was feeling ten times more confident than an hour before. He had let Vincent beat him once. There wouldn’t be a second time.
    He would take the exam and he would come in first. And the Unholy Grail would be his.
    GROOSHAM GRANGE EXAMINING BOARD
General Certificate of Secondary Education
ADVANCED CURSING
Wednesday, October 24, 11 a.m.
TIME: 2 hours
Write your name and candidate number in ink (not in blood) on each side of the paper. Write on one side of the paper only, preferably not the thin side.
    Answer all the questions. Each question is to be answered on a separate sheet.
    The number of points available is shown in brackets at the end of each question or part question. The total for this paper is 100 points.
    Candidates are warned not to attempt to curse the person who wrote this exam.
    1. Write out in full the words of power that would cause the following curses (30):
    a. Baldness (5)
    b. Acne (5)
    c. Bad breath (5)
    d. Amnesia (5)
    e. Death (10)
    CAUTION: Do not mutter the words of power as you write them. If anyone near you loses their hair, breaks out in pimples, smells like an onion, forgets why they’re here and/or dies, you will be disqualified.
    2. Your aunt announces that she has come to stay for Christmas and New Year.
    She is seventy years old and leaves a lipstick mark on your cheek when she kisses you. Although you are fifteen, she still insists that you are nine. She criticizes your clothes, your hair and your taste in music. As usual, she has brought you a book token.
    Describe in two hundred words a suitable curse that would ensure she spends next Christmas in (10):
    a. The intensive-care unit of your local hospital OR
    b. A rice field in China OR
    c. A crater on the dark side of the moon
    3. What is thanatomania? Define it, giving two historical examples. Then