Noble shook his head slightly, but Phyllis ignored him, bringing the straw to Noble’s lips and inserting the end of it into his mouth. “Drink,” she said.

Noble closed his lips around the straw and sucked. The level in the glass dropped noticeably, and for a moment it looked as if he were going to be all right. But then he gagged on the water, coughing up just as much of it as he had drunk.

Phyllis was unfazed by the setback. She wiped up the water with a dish towel, replaced the straw in Noble’s mouth, and repeated the order. “Drink!”

Again Noble sipped from the straw, but this time he did it slowly, letting the fluid trickle past his tongue and slide down his throat.

Everyone held their breath.

At last, Noble swallowed.

The seconds ticked by like minutes…

Nothing happened.

Noble took another sip from the glass.

And everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Ranger Brock was the first to speak. “Well, at least that’s something.”

* * *

When Tora reached the cafeteria at lunchtime, she was hopeful that the pack’s search of the school would produce the source of the poison.

“Find anything?” she asked Argus when he joined her for lunch.

Argus shook his head. “I checked the cutlery here in the cafeteria, and in the drawer in the staff room, but it’s all stainless steel.”

Tora smiled at that.

“What?” asked Argus. “It is called silverware, you know!”

“It was a good try,” she said. “Very imaginative.” She unwrapped her sandwich. “Anything else?”

“Principal Terashita has a silver cup on his desk that he won in a bowling tournament fifteen years ago, but I don’t think Noble’s ever been in his office.”

Tora shook her head. No, Noble was a top student and had never been in the sort of trouble that would take him to the principal’s office.

“What about you?” Argus asked.

“A lot of the girls have silver rings and pins, but I can’t imagine Noble swallowing one.”

Argus took a huge bite of his sandwich and said, “No, I guess not,” around a mouthful of bread and beef.

Just then Harlan entered the cafeteria. Tora could tell by the look on his face that he hadn’t had any luck either, but she still felt compelled to ask.

“Did you find anything?”

Harlan dropped his lunch bag onto the table and fished out a can of cola. Then he shook his head. “There are silver components in all the computers, but I spend more time in the computer labs than Noble, so if that was the source I’m the one who should be sick.”

Harlan slid a couple of Oreos into his mouth, eating his lunch backwards as usual, leaving the sandwich for last.

“The only other thing I could think of,” Harlan continued, “was Mr. Oakland’s mineral collection in the geology lab.”