2-3-4 Tree Insert

[woohoo]

I need some help with my homework.
Prompt

The variable some_key contains the value (or key) to be inserted into the array the_keys
Empty slots will contain a value less than zero, there is room in the array (duh) for the new item
Can be solved with if statements or a loop, there are at most 2 items in a 234 Tree node before this insert

This is what I have. I know some of the parts are really redundant but there is no way of telling what the array is filled with or knowing what/where they are at.
The alg i'm trying to write is sweep left to right, if -1 and less then the next insert else insert. However, this has not been working when checking against his random, yes, random compiler which places -1 in different locations every check.

  if((the_keys[0] == -1) && (some_key  < the_keys[1])) // stay left
{
	the_keys[0] = some_key   ;
}
else if((the_keys[1] == -1) || (the_keys[2] == -1)) // check middle
{
	if((the_keys[1] == -1) && (the_keys[2] == -1)) // if last is empty then insert into middle
		the_keys[1] = some_key     ;
	else if(some_key      < the_keys[2]) // check key is less than last slot
		the_keys[1] = some_key     ;
	else
		the_keys[2] = some_key     ;
}

His message when checking

The incorrect values found 19, 57, 24 should be 19, 24, 57