The Golden Paw

by Jason Lethcoe

  Written by Jason Lethcoe

  Illustrations by Jeff Clark

  Cover paint by Grace Lee

  Copyright © 2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

  For information address Disney Press, 1200 Grand Central Avenue, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-368-02100-5

  For more Disney Press fun, visit www.disneybooks.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: A Calamitous Cruise!

  Chapter Two: The Key of Fate

  Chapter Three: Happy Meetings

  Chapter Four: The Expedition Team

  Chapter Five: An Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter Six: Escape by Night

  Chapter Seven: The Airport

  Chapter Eight: Gone in a Flash

  Chapter Nine: The Fueling Station

  Chapter Ten: The Flying Phantom

  Chapter Eleven: A Reunion of Sorts

  Chapter Twelve: A Message from Yaw

  Chapter Thirteen: The Death Maze

  Chapter Fourteen: A Surprising Departure

  Chapter Fifteen: Full Disclosure

  Chapter Sixteen: The Ghosts

  Chapter Seventeen: The Prison

  Chapter Eighteen: The Dingonek

  Chapter Nineteen: The Dead End

  Chapter Twenty: The Horrible Isnashi

  Chapter Twenty-One: The Cave

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Treehouse

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A Daring Escape

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Race to the Boathouse

  Epilogue

  Andy Stanley gripped the tiller of the Nile Princess as the ramshackle boat rocked up and down on the churning river. If anyone had told him a few months ago that he would be alone on a boat in the Congo, he would have thought they were crazy. If they had told him that he would secretly be having the time of his life, he would have thought they were talking about some other person entirely!

  But here he was, battling the thundering current, his pith helmet set firmly on his head and his lips pressed together in a thin, determined line as he tried to navigate the dangerous river. His heart was pounding nearly as fast as the foaming rapids, and he could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck.

  Andy’s skinny arms ached and strained as he pushed and pulled the heavy wooden tiller back and forth, desperately trying to avoid the sharp rocks that clawed like greedy fingers at the sides of the boat. River water splashed over the front, drenching his battered brown leather jacket and plastering his blond hair to his forehead. Andy sputtered and wiped away the water from his eyes, trying to see what perils lay in front of him.

  Belowdecks, Andy could hear the bilge pump whine as the machine tried to dispel the water that was filling the cabin. Faint whiffs of smoke from the overworked pump filled Andy’s nostrils, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before it sputtered and died.

  I’ve got to get to land, he thought, looking around for some way to dock his boat. But it was no use. He was going too fast to stop without crashing.

  As he searched desperately for somewhere safe to land, he spotted a large shape in the water just ahead of him.

  What’s that?

  Suddenly, the gigantic object surfaced. Andy pushed hard on the tiller to avoid colliding with it. As the boat careened to the right, he swung his head to the side and saw that the object was actually the head of a mammoth hippo! The beast roared, exposing its giant canine tusks. Then, with a huge splash, it plunged back into the water and began swimming furiously after the Nile Princess.

  “It’s charging the boat!” Andy exclaimed.

  But there was no one there to hear him. The entire crew was gone! For better or worse, Andy was on his own.

  Andy stared at the ferocious hippo on his tail. It was faster than the boat and quickly catching up to its target. Andy may not have had a lot of experience in the water, but he knew that such a powerful animal could easily destroy the leaky ship.

  His heart thudded wildly in his chest as he fumbled around, searching for anything he could use to scare the beast away. Finally, in the captain’s crate, Andy spotted a flare gun.

  Praying it was loaded, Andy grabbed the emergency pistol and, after nearly dropping it in his rush to get it, raised it into the air.

  “Go! Get out of here!” he shouted at the huge hippo. He pulled the trigger and a bright flare leapt into the air.

  Luckily, the flash of red light and the corresponding noise seemed to have an effect on the massive beast. It quickly plunged back into the murky depths of the river and began to move in the opposite direction.

  “I guess you’d call that a hippo-shot-I-miss,” Andy mumbled under his breath, then laughed at the corny joke. It seemed his grandfather’s sense of humor was starting to rub off on him.

  Andy took a deep breath. His hands were trembling violently from the power of the blast, and his legs were shaking from the near collision with the hippo. He would have loved nothing more than to sit down, but the leaky boat was still splashing down the rushing river at an alarming rate. There was no time to rest.

  Andy tossed the flare gun back into the crate. In spite of his shaking hands, he managed to reclaim tight control of the tiller as he tried to anticipate what other dangers might lie ahead.

  The Nile Princess was definitely waterlogged. Andy could tell that the hull was sitting much lower in the water than when he’d first set off. The acrid smell of burning oil from the bilge pump filled the air.

  There’s got to be a bank or inlet somewhere that I can steer into! If I can’t find one, I’m done for!

  At that moment, Andy noticed a distant roar sounding from somewhere up ahead. He paled, knowing exactly what it was.

  Schweitzer Falls.

  Andy been told by his guide that it was one of the deadliest and most massive waterfalls for miles around. Going over it in a sinking ship was certain doom.

  Sweat broke out on Andy’s forehead as the roar of the waterfall grew closer, the sound thundering all around him. Ahead of him, the river seemed to drop off in a foaming rush. All Andy could see at the edge of the falls was a horizon filled with fluffy white clouds.

  CRUNCH! The waterlogged boat careened off a large boulder, and the engine, which had already been struggling, finally quit.

  An eerie silence, punctuated only by the roar of the cascading falls, filled the air. Andy knew that this was it. There was no escape now. In seconds, he would tumble over the waterfall and it would all be over.

  As the nose of the boat reached the edge of the precipice, Andy lunged for the nearest life preserver and prayed desperately that somehow, someway, he would survive. His last thought as the boat began to tip forward was Maybe the Key of Fate really is cursed.

  It was supposed to be an “in-between” mission—a quick job before embarking on the search for the Golden Paw. The senior members of the Jungle Explorers’ Society thought Andy could use a little more experience—a little more time in the field before setting off on a mission that was sure to stretch his abilities. It should have been easy. All he had to do was recover a key Ned had long ago hidden in the jungle.

  Of course, Andy hadn’t found out until the expedition was under way that the mysterious Key of Fate he was being sent to retrieve was rumored to be cursed. According to Jack McGraw, the leader of the expedition, great danger and calamity would befall anyone who possessed it. But still, Andy was the Keyma
ster, and securing the key was his responsibility.

  What nobody in the Society had counted on was the fact that the key had fallen into the possession of a troop of angry gorillas, and that retrieving it would put several members of the Society in serious danger! Andy could still picture the look of terror on Jack McGraw’s face as he and the three other navigation experts had clung to the top of a palm tree, an angry rhino snorting beneath them.

  Andy had known he had to save his friends!

  “Hey! Leave them alone!” he’d shouted, trying to make his voice sound as loud and authoritative as possible. Apparently, it had been enough to get the rhino’s attention, for the great beast had turned and leveled its beady eyes directly at him.

  As the rhino had snorted and pawed the ground with a huge hoof, preparing to attack, Andy had quickly pulled out his Zoomwriter fountain pen and pointed it at the beast.

  The fountain pen, which was not only a rare and wonderful writing device but had also been modified to be a weapon, was Andy’s saving grace. It had been a gift from Andy’s grandfather, the great Ned Lostmore.

  Andy had leveled his pen and aimed its explosive pulse at the rhino. It worked! The rhino flew backward. But the sound of the blast drew the attention of the nearby gorillas, who had been slowly gathering around the palm tree. The group had turned to Andy and begun howling and thumping their massive chests. Andy hadn’t wasted any time. He’d fired his Zoomwriter a second time.

  But that time, he’d missed.

  The next thing Andy had known, a stampede of angry gorillas was charging at him.

  Andy had been so intent on his own survival that he hadn’t heard the shouts of instruction from his treed colleagues. Deep down, part of him had wondered if he should be running away. He was trying to qualify to become a full member of the Jungle Explorers’ Society. Weren’t they supposed to stand and fight? But at the time, he’d been too scared to consider the thought.

  Fortunately for the young Keymaster, he had managed to hang on to the goal of the expedition, the pitted brass key he’d been sent to recover.

  Just save the key, Andy remembered thinking as he ran away. That’s what’s most important. The others can take care of themselves.

  Andy had just barely made it to the boat. As he shoved off from the dock and leapt aboard, he’d narrowly missed being grabbed by the fastest of the ferocious gorillas.

  Now, as he tipped over Schweitzer Falls, Andy wondered how everything had gone so wrong, and how he could possibly survive this situation.

  The answer to his prayers appeared out of nowhere. If Andy had had time to think, he would have thought that Abigail Awol—determined expression on her face and braided hair flying behind her like a banner as she gripped a long rope and flew toward him—looked like a heroine out of a movie. But instead, the only thought Andy had time for as Abigail grabbed him around the waist and yanked him to safety was relief at the fact that he’d somehow been spared. And that she couldn’t have come at a better time.

  As the two scrabbled onto a nearby bank, Andy tried not to retch. Gathering himself, he turned to Abigail and offered her a shaky smile.

  “That was really good timing,” he said.

  Abigail laughed. “You’re telling me! You wouldn’t believe how fast I had to run to get to the falls before you did. I think I might have set some kind of world record!”

  Andy edged toward the rocky bank and peered over the cliff. His boat had smashed to pieces on the rocks far, far below.

  “It seems like saying thank you is hardly enough,” Andy said as he quickly stepped back from the edge. The sight of his shattered boat and the thought that he had very nearly been aboard it was making him feel nauseated. “You saved my life!”

  “I’m sure you’d do the same,” Abigail replied with a shrug. “It’s what a Jungle Explorers’ Society member does, right?”

  “Right,” Andy said. But even as he uttered the words, his heart sank. The fact that he’d been the one rescued and not doing the rescuing was sure to be noted by the others. And, inwardly, Andy wondered if he could have pulled off such a bold and incredible rescue.

  Abigail was the daughter of Albert Awol, Ned Lostmore’s oldest friend and a great adventurer in his own right. His daughter had definitely inherited her father’s bravery. Andy sighed as he thought about the cowardice he had shown in leaving the members of his team behind. His grandfather kept telling him he had the Lostmore Spirit, but right now it felt like Abigail had a lot more of it than he did.

  “Come on,” Abigail said. “I’ll take you to base camp. It’s not too far from here.”

  As Andy walked with Abigail through the deep undergrowth, he explained what had happened with the gorillas.

  “But you got the key, right?” Abigail asked.

  Andy grinned and patted his right trouser pocket. “Right here.” Then Andy’s expression grew troubled. “I hope the others made it to safety.”

  His hand remained on the key in his pocket. He hoped that having retrieved it would be enough to redeem him for his botched mission.

  Andy was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice when Abigail stopped moving. “Oof,” he said, crashing into her.

  Abigail raised her finger to her lips and gripped Andy’s arm. “There’s something moving out there,” she whispered.

  Andy scanned the dense jungle and listened intently. He didn’t see or hear anything amiss.

  After a few moments of standing in silence, Andy whispered, “I don’t hear anything. Maybe it’s a false—”

  But he never got to the word alarm. Without warning, a gigantic shape leapt, snarling, from behind a tree.

  “Down!” Abigail shouted.

  Andy fell to the ground as Abigail pushed down hard on his shoulder. A flash of tawny fur with ebony stripes shot over him. Andy whirled around to see Abigail standing face to face with a giant tiger! And judging by the pronounced ribs on its heaving flanks, it was very hungry.

  “Nice kitty,” Abigail said in a soothing voice. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

  I think she’s got it the wrong way around, Andy thought. He reached slowly into his pocket, trying not to make any sudden moves. Carefully, he removed his Zoomwriter and twisted the cap.

  I hope the battery has had some time to charge.

  The tiger drooled as it stalked closer to Abigail, its body tensed and ready to spring. Andy knew he had to work fast. Everything depended on his being able to distract the beast with his pen.

  Andy pressed the top of the cap, aiming the pen directly at the massive cat.

  When completely full, the pen could have easily knocked the beast back at least fifty feet. However, it hadn’t had enough time to fully recharge. But it wasn’t completely dead. The pen had just enough power left to produce a very large BANG!

  With a hiss that sounded as loud as a steam engine, the beast leapt into the air, its tail stiff, and bolted into the nearby brush.

  Andy’s hand shook as he lowered the Zoomwriter.

  Abigail offered him a grateful smile. “Good thinking!” she said.

  “Th-thanks,” stuttered Andy as he placed the pen back in his pocket. Then, keeping his eyes peeled and his footfalls as soft as possible, he followed Abigail the rest of the way to the camp.

  Andy’s eyes widened as he looked around at the sophisticated base camp. The hastily cleared plot of land was dotted with portable bungalows. A large fire pit in the center of camp was equipped with a cooking station, and the delicious smells of roasted plantains, pork, and freshly brewed coffee filled the air. Several Society members were gathered around the fire, sitting on camp chairs and sipping from metal cups. Andy recognized the curling red mustache of his friend Rusty Bucketts, a bush pilot with a shiny ball bearing in place of his missing eye. Andy had seen firsthand how accurate a weapon Rusty’s artificial eye and trusty slingshot could be. The pilot was hot-tempered but good-natured, and Andy was glad to see that he was part of the team.

  Sitting next to the pilot we
re the beautiful conjoined twins, Betty and Dotty. The sisters were lethal assassins and martial arts experts, as lovely and deadly as poisonous flowers. When they saw Andy, the two flashed him matching delighted smiles. Andy offered a wave and smiled back, blushing a little at the attention.

  Andy glanced around the camp for anyone else he might know. He had met many of the Society members during his last mission. But Molly the talkative mime and Cedric the witch doctor weren’t in sight. Abigail’s father, Albert, seemed to be absent as well.

  “I wonder where they are,” Andy murmured. “I was really hoping to see them again.”

  Before Andy could think any further on where his missing friends might be, his eyes alighted on a familiar figure standing a little apart from the others. It was a big barrel-chested robot with a heavy glass plate on its torso. Andy recognized his grandfather’s robotic assistant, Boltonhouse, at once. More importantly, he recognized the precious cargo the machine carried in its transparent chest cavity.

  “Grandfather!” Andy exclaimed, running over to greet him.

  Bobbing on a string inside the robot’s rotund metal chest was Dr. Ned Lostmore, a living, breathing shrunken head.

  Ned chuckled when he saw his grandson. “Andy, my boy! You made it. Knew you would, of course,” Ned said in his sophisticated English accent. Andy saw that Ned’s blue eyes were twinkling and his white handlebar mustache was turned upward with his broad, welcoming smile. “And the key?” Ned asked.

  “It wasn’t easy, but I got it,” Andy said, producing the key he’d been sent to retrieve. Ned squinted through his monocle at the brass key and nodded with satisfaction.

  “Well done, lad. Well done, indeed! That particular key has given us a deuce of a time. It opens a very special vault. If it hadn’t been for the disastrous run-in that led to my current, ahem, disembodied state, I feel certain that I would have never misplaced such a valuable object. It’s difficult to complete a mission when one has a shrunken head and no body.”

  “The gorillas didn’t seem too happy to give it up,” Andy said. “I think they liked how shiny it was.”