Nibbler immediately began to give chase to the roguish, plotting keeper. Despite his enthusiasm for the task at hand, however, he quickly realized he was ill suited for such a pursuit. On this occasion, his four furry limbs became a disadvantage, causing him to wobble precariously on the dilapidated bridge.
Without the benefit of arms and hands, there was no way for Nibbler to use the crude rope railings to assist his impeded balance. Murphy squeaked in alarm as his Labradoodle steed wobbled from side to side.
Despite the imminent peril he found himself in, Nibbler bravely tried to continue forth. He was determined to help his friend, Noodles, and he did not want to see the hooded bandit make off with the stolen robotic noggin. He gingerly took another step, cautiously placing his weight onto his paw. But this only caused the bridge to rock from side to side in distressing fashion.
“Nibbler!” Jack shouted, his voice filled with fear for his dog. “Get back here, right now!”
Nibbler looked over his shoulder at Jack, and the worry was clear in his expressive eyes. He knew it was foolish to proceed, but he couldn’t come to terms with the notion of giving up.
“Don’t worry, Nibbler,” Neil told him. “We’ll get that crazy bandit! You stay on this side of the bridge, and we’ll go flush him out from the other.”
“Yeah, come on, boy,” Jack said. “If you stay on this side, you’ll be ready for that maniac, in case he doubles back.”
Though Nibbler was exceptionally smart for a dog, it was unreasonable to believe he could understand everything the boys were telling him. Yet, it seemed that their words were soothing to him, and he delicately backed off of the bridge, once more setting all four paws onto solid ground.
“That’s a good boy,” Jack told him, ruffling his ears and scratching at his neck, making the tags on his collar jingle.
“Don’t worry, Nibbler, we’ll be back before you know it,” Neil assured him, patting his head.
“Woof!” Nibbler responded, wagging his tail in the affirmative.
Neil and Jack approached the bridge as their dog stepped to the side. They set foot upon the rickety structure and slowly set forth, muttering in unease as the ancient contraption wobbled beneath their feet. They had greater success than Nibbler, for they had hands to help them maintain their balance, but it was slow going, nonetheless. They proceeded in a single file, with Neil in the lead and Jack following a few steps behind him.
“Gobstoppers!” Neil exclaimed. “Who designed this bridge? It’s downright terrible! I’d like to pick the brain of the guy who built it and ask him what exactly he was thinking.”
“It’s awfully old. I think it must have been built very long ago by somebody who didn’t intend to use it much… or perhaps by somebody who wanted to ensure they weren’t followed,” Jack theorized.
“Ah, you could be onto something there,” Neil said. “Like if somebody had built this thing with the intent of keeping others from following him to his secret lair.”
“I suppose most people would take this as a sign that they should probably turn back,” Jack chuckled.
“Yeah,” Neil agreed, grinning. He was starting to get a hang of the way the bridge moved beneath his feet, and he was slowly increasing his pace. “Most people.”
When the boys were about halfway across the bridge, the keeper of the island reached the other side of the ravine. He stepped from the final, rotting plank and set foot onto the solid ground that waited on the other side. Now safe, he turned to face his pursuers.
“I see your tradition of not listening has continued, you half deaf simpletons!” he boomed.
“You might say that. But we can’t very well listen to you when you’re running off with what’s in that sack, as we’ve explained. We need Noodles’ noggin!” Jack shouted.
The keeper threw back his head and laughed. Clearly, he did not consider the boys to be any kind of threat whatsoever. He held up the burlap sack and waved it from side to side, taunting them.
“Oh, you mean this, do you? I’m afraid it belongs to me now, as I’ve already explained, though words seem to have the hardest task, when it comes to penetrating those thick skulls of yours. You truly have no comprehension of who I am and what you’re dealing with. You simply cannot understand the heritage that flows within my blood; the ancestor from whom I descended. Mine is a bloodline that is unrivaled throughout the history of the world. If you did comprehend, I wager you wouldn’t be nearly as rude in your dealings with me.”
“We’d be happy to attempt such comprehension, if you’d clue us in a bit,” Jack offered.
“Go ahead, lay it on us, oh wise keeper!” Neil added. “We are but ignorant whippersnappers, wandering about without the foggiest notion of what we’re doing, more often than not. Er… at least, that’s what we’ve been told by our elders on several occasions.”
As the conversation continued, the boys were inching farther and farther along the bridge. They couldn’t understand why the keeper didn’t realize he was playing right into their hands by entertaining their questions. If they could only keep him talking for a few more minutes, they would be across the bridge and be able to reclaim Noodles’ stolen head.
“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to show you my face,” the keeper said. His voice had adopted a hint of pride. “After all, you’ll be leaving my island soon enough, whether you realize it or not. And then… you won’t be giving me any trouble at all, will you?”
“As you say,” Neil granted. “I suppose you might as well reveal yourself to our unworthy eyes and enfeebled minds, eh?”
The keeper snorted with contempt, but it appeared he was going to play along. He raised one hand toward his hood. His skin was leathery and weather beaten, and his knuckles were gnarled from years of hard life spent in the outdoors. As his dirty fingers clutched at the fabric of his robe, he threw back the hood with a quick, clean motion.
Upon doing so, the face that had thus far remained hidden was bathed in sunlight and revealed in full.
Chapter Sixteen
The Face of Savagery
The Green Beans, Volume 4: Shipwrecked on Smuttynose Island Page 15