CHAPTER<br > ONE<br > 1951<br >After supper on Holy Thursday evening， Father McCabe<br >motioned Sean Cronin away from the black line of semi-<br >narians filing in silence out of the house chapel. "Mistah<br >Cmnin，" he snapped， "go to my office."<br > Sean walked down the dimly lit corridor and waited<br >at the door of the disciplinarian s office， his heart beat-<br >ing rapidly. What would his father say if he were sent<br >home in disgrace? As far as he could remember， he<br >hadn t violated any rules， but in the atmosphere of sus-<br >picion and distrust that permeated Mundelein a sudden<br >and final decision to expel a student could be made ar-<br >bitrarily on the basis of very little evidence.<br > When the last of the seminarians finished reporting<br >minor infractions of the rules to Father McCabe--being<br >late for class; not turning out lights at 9:45; violating<br > the "great silence" between lights out and the end of<br > morning mass. McCabe shuffled out of his office， a tall<br > lean shaggy dog of a man， and， almost without looking<br > at Sean， beckoned him inside.<br > "Your father called earlier this afternOOn，" he said<br > abruptly. "Your brother has been reported missing in<br >