Figure 1.-- Here Carlos is at the school/orphanage. The boys are at breakfast and Carlos is being questioned about sneaking into the kitchen to get a jug of water. |
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The school/orphmage's headmistress and a professor support the Republicans and are rumored to be hiding a cache of gold for their cause. Carlos, son of a Republican hero killed in the fighting, arrives at the school with a tutor and a bodyguard--Carlos doesnoy yet understnd what is happening. Meanwhile an unexploded bomb ticks away in the courtyard. The other boys, particularly an older youth named Jaime, treat Carlos roughly until he wins their trust. Jaime tells Carlos that the school is haunted by the ghost of a boy named Santi, who was killed by a vicious school caretaker, Jacinto. Jacinto covets the gold which is supposedly in a safe within the school. One night, Santi came across Jacinto lurking near the safe, and Jacinto killed him accidentally in a fit of anger. Jaime, unseen by Jacinto, witnessed the murder, but he and the other boys fear Jacinto, so he told no one what he'd seen. Jacinto hid Santi's body by throwing it down a well. The killer won't let anyone near the well for fear Santi's remains will be found. Santi's ghost, however, reveals himself to Carlos, and tells him that many at the school will die. As the Republican cause becomes increasingly desperate, the headmistress and the professor decide to close the school and take as many of the boys with them as they can. Jacinto, determined to have their gold, causes an explosion that severely damages the school and kills the headmistress and causes the professor's death. A number of the boys are also killed and most suffer some injury. Jacinto, aided by two accomplices, confines the boys while searching for the gold. The boys decide to fight Jacinto, left alone when his accomplices abandon the search for the gold. Carlos, Jaime, and the other boys sharpen long sticks and lure Jacinto to them. Jaime deals a serious wound to Jacinto, who is cast into the well by the students. Santi's ghost then appears to Jacinto, his death avenged.
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