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