Free Collision Course by Gordon Korman Page A

bow’s peak.
    That means it isn’t far to the baggage room
!
    He dashed through the fireman’s passage and burst through the familiar hatch.
    His exhaustion mingled with a surge of triumph. He’d been on the run for eight hours, but he’d made it.
    He slipped under the netting and crawled into the large steamer trunk that was the closest thing to a safe place he would ever know aboard the
Titanic
. Curled up on Mrs. Astor’s fine linens, he fell into the deepest sleep he could remember.
    When Alfie was shaken awake in his bunk, he very nearly swallowed his heart.
    Lightoller! He saw me last night
!
    But as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, he was relieved to find his father bending over him.
    “Da?” John Huggins almost never left the stokers’ realm in the nether regions of the
Titanic
. Since sailing day, Alfie had seen his father only once or twice outside the orange-black glow of Number 5 Boiler Room.
    The ash-stained face looked haunted. “Alfie, how do you know that boy?”
    “Boy? What boy?”
    “He brought water to the black gang yesterday,” his father prodded. “He spoke to me — mentioned you by name. He was in the firemen’s quarters just now, but he’s not one of us. What’s he to you?”
    Alfie chose to play innocent, but his heart was sinking. He’d always feared that his association with Paddy would come to light. “I don’t know who you mean,” he lied. “There are many young crew members. Sometimes even the steerage boys help out for a few coins.”
    John Huggins looked worried. “I hope to God you’re telling the truth, lad. There’s talk of a stowaway. And if you’ve aided him, it’s both our jobs. Where would we ever find work again with a blot like that on our records?”
    With a growing sense of dread, the young stewardrealized that his father was right. Alfie’s own rash behavior and Paddy’s carelessness threatened to bring down all of them. New York was still some three days away. How would he ever keep this awful secret until then?
    He felt the bulkheads of the crew quarters closing in on him.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    RMS
TITANIC

S UNDAY, A PRIL 14, 1912, 7:45 A.M.
    Rodney, Earl of Glamford, was never pleasant in the morning. This was usually thanks to his gaming losses and the crashing headache he suffered due to overindulging the night before.
    Yet this morning, Juliana entered the parlor of their suite to find her father in a towering rage.
    “I require an explanation of your behavior, miss!” he demanded harshly.
    “I have no idea what you mean, Papa.”
    “Do you not?” he raged. “Before you craft a proper lie, you should know that I witnessed your disgusting display — down in steerage, no less!”
    Juliana worked hard to keep her expression neutral. Papa must not be allowed to see her humiliation at being exposed indulging in a pastime unbecoming the daughter of an earl. Amid the chaos of last night and her worry over what might have happened toPaddy, the one thing she thought she’d known for certain was that her father would be deep in a card game, oblivious to it all.
    Alas, not so.
    The old Juliana would have held her peace and taken the tongue-lashing meekly. But she was not the same girl that she had been at the start of this voyage. Her friendship with Sophie — and with Alfie and Paddy, too — had opened her eyes. Instead of blindly following a code of conduct that was centuries old, why not accept people of all stations with an open heart, and take kindness where you find it? In spite of the upsets of last night, she still remembered the glow of being welcomed into the third-class celebration.
    “How peculiar,” she ventured demurely, “that in spite of your concern at my behavior, you were not waiting here in the cabin when I returned.”
    “How dare you?” he retorted. “So distressed was I at the sight of you flouncing around like a common scullery maid that I required some companionship to settle my nerves!”
    “Fifty-two companions,