William Johnston: And Loving It!

“I hear something,” 99 said.

“Yes-so do I. It sounds like. . gurgle, gurgle, gurgle. There must be a stream somewhere nearby. Either that, or-Brattleboro? Are you, by any chance, strangling?”

There was no reply.

“Brattleboro!” Max called.

Again, no answer.

“99, where is Brattleboro?” Max asked.

“I don’t know, Max. The last time I saw him was when we jumped down from the plane. He must be-Max, his survival kit is missing too! I think he’s deserted us.”

“99, that’s ridiculous. We’re working together. He probably just-”

A shot rang out! A bullet zinged past Max’s ear!

“Down!” Max shouted, flattening himself against the ground.

“He’s trying to kill us!” 99 cried.

“Wouldn’t you know it? Once a KAOS man, always a KAOS man!”

Another shot rang out. A bullet hit near them.

“Shoot back, Max!”

“At what, 99? I don’t have the eyes of a cat.” He raised himself on his elbows, peering into the pitch blackness. “Although, I can see that the beacon on the Empire State Building is out again.”

“The survival kit, Max-maybe it has a flashlight.”

Max zipped open his kit. “Yes, I think. . You’re right, 99. Here’s a flashlight.”

“Shield the light, Max. Don’t let Brattleboro see it.”

Max switched on the light, but kept a hand cupped around the beam. “Let’s see, now, what I can find in this kit,” he said. “It seems to contain a number of tiny capsules. Here’s a capsule of scrambled eggs. . good. . and a capsule of parsley. . very good. . and a capsule of fresh water, thirty-seven gallons. . excellent. . and a capsule of. . ah, here’s what we want, 99-a capsule of collapsible machine gun!”

“How will that help, Max?”

“Well, it would be pointless to fire into the darkness with a pistol, when I can’t see Brattleboro. But with a machine gun I can spray the whole area with bullets and perhaps, if luck is with me, hit him by sheer accident.”

“I suppose it’s worth a try,” 99 said.

Max broke open the capsule and a full-size machine gun popped out. Gripping it tautly, he jumped to his feet. “This is it, Brattleboro!” he shouted. He began firing, turning slowly in a circle. Bullets tore into the trees and underbrush. And the trees, sliced away at the base, began falling.

“Max! Watch out! That tree!”

He dived out of the way just in time. Then, leaping to his feet again, he began firing once more. To the right, the trees fell! To the left, the trees fell!

“Max! Stop!” 99 cried. “You’ll get us killed.”

He lowered the machine gun. “99, you don’t seem to understand. I’m trying to get Brattleboro, not us.”

“But, Max, you’ve leveled all the trees already!”

Max looked around. “I guess I have, haven’t I? Well, that takes care of the man from KAOS.”

“How can you be sure, Max?”

“99, remember when we first met Brattleboro? He was posing as a painting. This time, unless I miss my guess, he was posing as a tree. And, as you just pointed out, all the trees are now lying flat on the ground. We’re safe!”

“Max. .” 99 said, looking worried. “Remember that gurgle, gurgle, gurgle? Listen-”

Max cocked an ear. “Yes, I see what you mean. It’s become a sort of brogum, brogum, brogum-and much louder.”

“Flash the light over in that direction, Max.”

He aimed the beam of the flashlight at the spot that 99 had indicated. They saw that a number of the trees had fallen across a stream.

“Max-the stream is dammed.”

“99! Watch your language, please!”

“No, Max, I mean the trees are stopping the water from flowing along the stream bed. That could be dangerous. It could cause a flood. If the dam breaks, all that water that’s building up behind the trees could-”

“99,” Max interrupted, “I think you have a tendency to exaggerate. Forget about the stream. Our problem now is to find that castle.”

“But, Max, listen-Now, the stream is going hargaber, hargaber, hargaber! I’m afraid the-”

“Forget it, 99! That’s an order!” He picked up the survival kit. “Do you suppose they included a map of the island in here? It would certainly be a help.”

“Max! Those tree trunks-they’re going skreek, skreek, skreek!”

“I think that’s what I’d do too, 99, if I were holding back a stream that was going hargaber, hargaber, hargaber.” He took a capsule from the kit. “Ah. . this is interesting, a capsule of paddles for a collapsible boat. I wonder if-”

“Max!” 99 said, shuddering, “Those tree trunks are going gramf, gramf, gramf!”

“Probably a speech impediment,” Max replied. “Yes, here it is,” he said, taking another capsule from the kit. “A capsule for-”

“Max! The dam is breaking!”

He looked up. The tree trunks had splintered, and a great wall of water was rushing toward them.

“Talk about the nick of time,” Max said. “I just found a capsule of collapsible boat to go with that capsule of paddles.”

Quickly, Max broke the two capsules. A fully-inflated rubber boat and two paddles popped out. He and 99 leaped aboard, grasping the paddles, just as the wall of water reached them. The boat was swept up by a huge wave, and moments later they found themselves bounding downstream, carried along by the irresistible force of the flood.

“Max! Do something!” 99 squealed, struggling to stay aboard the boat. “We’re going to be carried out to sea!”

“99, I am doing something-I’m paddling!”

“It isn’t helping, Max!”

“I didn’t say I was doing something constructive, I just said I was doing something.”

The boat was hit by another huge wave. With Max and 99 still clinging to it, it submerged. When it bobbed to the surface again a few seconds later, both Max and 99 were paddling furiously. Then 99 stopped.

“Max-the island, where is it?” 99 cried.

“I’m having trouble enough as it is, 99. Let the island find its own boat.”

“Max, it’s gone. We were swept out to sea!”

“Good riddance!” Max said. “It was nothing but trouble, anyway.”

“But, Max, we’re lost! Lost at sea!”

The boat had stopped pitching and tossing. Max sat up and looked around. “Well, we’re at sea, 99, I’ll go along with you that far,” he said. “But we’re hardly lost. After all, we’re intelligent beings, we can determine direction. And we know that the mainland lies to the east of us and the island lies to the west of us.”

99 sat up too. “From here, which direction is which, Max?”

“Offhand, I don’t know. But we can find out easily enough. We know that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. So all we-”

“Max, it’s the other way around.”

“Oh. All right, then, we know that the sun sets in the east and rises in the west. So-”

“No, Max, when I said the other way around, I meant to transpose east and west, not rises and sets.”

“Skip it, 99. It’s the middle of the night and the sun isn’t out, anyway.” He looked up into the sky. “Maybe we can use the stars to guide us.”

99 peered up too. “Wliat are we looking for, Max?”

“A group of stars in the shape of an arrow that blink on and off and spell out ‘To the Mainland.’ ”

“To the mainland, Max? We want to get back to the island, don’t we?”

“99, we wouldn’t survive an hour on that island. We lost our survival kits. Our only chance is to reach the mainland, get new kits, then have that helicopter pilot fly us to the island again.”

“All right, Max, if you say so. But if the stars won’t point the way, how are we going to find the mainland?”