by Don Wilcox
“Thanks, Jimmy. You’re one in a million.”
“But don’t ask me to help you,” Jimmy said. “I used to carry out ashes for Doc Pakkerman, long before I ever got into the navy. If you gotta do it, do it quick. An’ let me go somewhere an’ hide while it happens.”
Allan patted Jimmy lightly on the shoulder. “You and Sue have a job to do. I want you to go back to the glide-walk, where we came in—”
“Where we set the trap with the bottle?”
“That’s right. Station yourselves there and keep guard. I’ll join you there later. Understand?”
Sue pressed Allan’s hand. “Good luck, Captain.” Then she and Jimmy hurried down the long incline.
Jimmy was low. All the way back to the glide-walk, Sue noticed, he hadn’t a word to say. The big troubles had come in on him like an avalanche. After all the high hopes he had nourished for restoring Pakkerman, this new turn of events fairly crushed him.
CHAPTER XXXVI
At the glide-walk Sue told him to sit and rest. She worked around in the dark opening of the glide-walk tunnel, trying to find the cord they had used on their homemade alarm. To her surprise, the bottle was still there, with a length of string tied to it.
“They didn’t stop to investigate our alarm,” she said to Jimmy. “The rattle of glass must have bluffed them out.”
In the deep darkness she could see Jimmy’s narrowed eyes staring off toward the peak of the cone. She took him by the hand and led him around to the other end of the glide-walk platform. He slouched down and rested his head in his hands.
“I supposed the search party would have finished drinking the lava bubbles,” Sue said, giving the bottle a slosh. “They’re slipping . . . I wonder if they’re still wandering around the outside of the cone . . . They’re probably waiting on the outer edge until the fireworks—”
She interrupted herself by giving the bottle another slosh. She had said the wrong thing, certainly. The fireworks might go on until Allan succeeded in dispatching Pakkerman. Jimmy mustn’t be allowed to think of it. The bottle was a much safer topic.
“Gallagher didn’t know what he was starting when he put this drink in our lunch,” she said.
Jimmy didn’t seem to hear her. There wasn’t any use, she thought, trying to divert his mind. When a fellow has an old-time friend that has to be bumped off in the interests of world peace and happiness, he can’t be expected to think of anything else. Sue had a job on her hands.
She sat close by him and put her arm around him, and said all the comforting things she could think of. It helped. Jimmy began to revive a little. He was grateful to her for understanding.
She tousled his hair and gave him a friendly little pat on the cheek.
“I’m all right, Yippee,” he said. “If I could jist quit thinkin’. That’s the trouble with people. They think too much.”
Sue lifted the bottle.
“Here, Jimmy. Smell it.” She removed the stopper and held the bottle up to his nose.· “What’s it smell like?”
“Nothin’ much.”
“Funny how they went for it—Bandyworth and the Green Coats. They liked it. And Gallagher—I guess he drinks it all the time.”
Are you try in’ to talk me into tryin’ a drink?”
“Certainly not,”· Sue said, drawing back a little. “You wouldn’t touch it after what it did to Bandyworth and the boys.”
“What it did to ‘em was nothin’ compared to what we did to em.”
“Well, anyway, you wouldn’t touch it.” She eyed him closely. “Would you?”
“No,” said Jimmy. “Heck; I might jist sample it outta curiosity. You want to?”
“No, thanks,” Sue said emphatically.
At least, she thought, she was getting his mind off his big trouble.
“I’ll try it,” Jimmy said, “an’ tell you how it tastes.”
In the dim light she could barely see his shadows of arms as he lifted the bottle to wet his lips.
“Good?” she asked. “Or terrible? It’s probably poison.”
“Try it.”
“No, thanks, really. The name is enough to scare me. Lava bubbles!” She started to take the bottle from Jimmy, but he held it, and from the turn of his head he seemed to be regarding it with interest. He shook his head apparently with distaste.
“I’ll fix it up with the cord again,” Sue volunteered, so we’ll know if anyone else comes— Say, you must like it. You’re taking another sample.”
“There’s not much left. Gosh-geewhickety.”
“What do you mean, gosh-geewhickety?”
“You sure you won’t try it?”
“No thanks. ·It just happens that I never—wait, I will sample it.” Her change of mind came from a sudden fear that Jimmy might take more than was good for him. From the actions of Gallagher, Bandyworth, and the Green Coats, she guessed it must be pretty potent goods. She took the bottle from Jimmy’s hands, lifted it to her lips, and pretended to drink.
“Go ahead, you can finish it,” Jimmy said.
She hadn’t any such thought. She’d hardly tasted it.
“Take all you want,” Jimmy said. “I’ve already had a good sample. Go ahead, I don’t want any more.”
Jimmy was licking his lips. Obviously he did want more. His sudden appetite for the drink alarmed Sue. This was dangerous. She decided he’d better not have any more. She took a tiny sip. Was there any easy way to get rid of the remainder without offending him? She couldn’t pour it out without his knowing. She took another swallow . . .
Later, Allan hurried across the path toward the glide-walk platform. He called as he approached. No one answered.
In the dim light he found Jimmy lying on the edge of the platform in an impossible heap, as if he’d rolled off a merry-go-round and forgot to untangle himself. Sue was there too, huddled up in a corner, singing a little lullaby to herself.
“What goes on here?” Allan asked breathlessly. “Did you folks know that Sully and a party of searchers came through? They must have come right by you. And you didn’t warn me. I’ve been dodging—are you listening, Jimmy? Don’t tell me you’re asleep at the switch!”
Groaning, Jimmy uttered something unintelligible.
“What? What on earth? What’s he saying?”
Sue mumbled a response of sorts.
“You can’t come froo zish gate unless you gives zuh password. Zuh password is lava bubbles.”
“Lava bubbles! Great guns. You can’t mean that you two—”
“Shure do. The Green Coats come froo and lava bubbles for ush. So we been bubblin’ and bubblin’ and bubb—”
“Hush! Wake Jimmy. I need him.
Jimmy! Listen to me, Sue.”
“I’m lishening, Captain.” Sue slapped her cheeks and made a heroic effort to come out of it. “Ugh! Go ahead, Captain, I’m listening”
“I’ve got to hurry,” Allan said.
“I’ve got to be ready when Doc Pakkerman goes back to the Ksentajaiboa. The statue, you know. That will be my chance. Do you follow me?”
“Your chance to murder him?”
“My chance to do him the supreme favor that has to be done if we’re going to stop this orgy of destruction. I’ve found out how to get him. There’s a way. I overheard Sully and the others. I should have known. The Scravvzek once spoke of it.”
“You got some kind of formula?”
“That’s it exactly. A formula. Nature took care of mixing it. Gallons and gallons of it. We rode over it on the glide-walk, remember?”
“You mean the Black River?”
“That’s it. Water from the Black River. It’s quick poison. Where’s that bottle? If Jimmy’ll wake up I’ll send him after it.”
Sue tugged at Allan’s arm “No. No you shouldn’t do that to Jimmy.”
Allan started to shake Jimmy. Sue tried to restrain him, protesting that the poor guy needed to sleep it off.
But Allan needed help, and time was short.
“J
immy! Jimmy! I need you. Take this bottle—”
“No more, shank you,” Jimmy mumbled.
“Take the bottle and go back to the river. Fill it with water from the big spring that pours in above the bridge. Do you hear me, Jimmy? I want some water.”
“No water on the menu today, shir,” Jimmy said happily, blinking his eyes. “Allow me to recommend our famoush drink, our famoush green ink.”
“Jimmy, you’re blotto! Come out of it.”
“I’m blotter zan you think, Cappan. I’m blotter from too mush Green Ink.”
“Talk sense, Jimmy. Are you going to help me?”
“Not serving no sense today. We got spinach, but whass the sense of spinach? Have your meal tickets ready, boys. Jimmy Ruggles is comin’ through.”
Allan groaned. “He’s hopeless.”
“I’m hopeless, am I? I’m also soapless an’ dopeless, so zhay had to hang me ropeless.”
Allan had to give up. He told Sue to let the poor guy sleep it off, and see that he didn’t get into any more lava bubbles. “I’ll be back after I take care of Pakkerrnan.”
“Remember, Jimmy feels bad about it,” Sue said. “Don’t be’ rough on him.” She caught his hand as he was about to hurry off. “Allan, Isn’t there any other way? You talked with the Doc for a minute, you said, and he was all right—”
“For a minute, yes. But this thing has him. It took him away from me before I got anywhere.” Allan hesitated. He felt deeply the need of squaring things with Sue before he plunged into a deed that might be, in her eyes, plain murder. She had taken him on faith all along. He owed her a word of reassurance. “Let me tell you what I’ve learned.”
“Please do,” Sue’s eyes searched him anxiously.
“There’s no one else like Pakkerman, in the eyes of the Scravvzek. Of all the eighty men, he’s the only one who has been found smart enough to go ahead with this evil plan of destruction. The only one. So you see—Sully and the others have missed the boat. In the eyes of the Scravvzek, they fall short. The job belongs to Pakkerman. Now, do you see what that means?”
“I—I think so.”
“It means that all that orgy of disasters that Pakkerman is broadcasting with his showers of sparks can be brought to a stop only if Pekkerman destroyed. He knows it. That’s why he prayed for death.”
“Wouldn’t the Scravvzek find someone else?”
“Perhaps so, sometime in the distant furture. But at least we could stop the deal temporarily. And that would give us time to get back to civilization and find a way to fight this thing. We’re fighting for time, Sue.”
“But Sully still had hopes that he would qualify, didn’t he?”
“He did. But he won’t. Just in the past hour I’ve seen proof that he won’t make the grade. He and his party came through to find me. But while I was dodging them the Scravvzek reached down the side of the cone with his green fingers and took them in. Then and there he put them to the test. I watched and listened and I saw them fail. They don’t have the brains for the job, Sue, not one of them. The Scravvzek let them go in disgust. So that leaves Doc Pakkerman right where he was—right at the focal point of the Scravvzek’s deadly doings. He’s the one key man, believe me.”
“I believe you,” Sue said. “Can I get the water for you?”
Allan said no. If she’d take care of Jimmy and watch the glide-walk, that would be enough. He pressed her hand. She wished him luck, and he boarded the upper level of the glide-walk to return to the Black River.
CHAPTER XXXVII
Sue stared into the dimly lighted world, trying to organize her thoughts. She had indorsed Allan’s plan with her words, but her feelings were racing out of bounds.
Jimmy mumbled. “Whass that you’re sayin’, Yippee?”
“Must be talking to myself,” Sue said.
She couldn’t help thinking of· Madam Lasanda. A woman’s sympathy for a woman. She looked across the way to the mountain-like cone, toward the icy blue section that she remembered to be air tourists. Madam Lasanda and her party, flying toward these mountains, were still visible, no doubt. Sue’s curiosity was tugging hard. It would only take her four or five minutes to run up the side of the cone to that section, to see the mirror of Madam Lasanda again.
She was strongly tempted. Everything was quiet.
“Jimmy.” She slapped his cheeks lightly. “Jimmy, watch the glide-walk. I’ll be back soon. I want to run over to the cone for a minute.”
“Gonna look in the fortune teller again?”
“How’d you know?”
“If you don’t come back shoon enough, I’ll join you.”
All the way, Sue kept thinking how it would be with Madam Lasanda. How it would be to ride toward these mountains, looking at the picture of Val Pakkerrnan, not knowing that when she arrived she would find he had been killed.
How much would the fortune teller know? Would she ever be made to understand the necessity of Allan’s actions? Would she always think of the words she might have said if she had come a few hours sooner?
Sue slowed her pace to a dogged walk up the slope. She was out of breath. But now she could rest on her hands and knees. Here were the air passengers. Madam Lasanda must be here somewhere . . . There were thousands of persons in flight. The variations in shades of color enabled Sue to eliminate the less hopeful parts of the flight section, block at a time. Here, this was it . . . The mayor the cronies . . . the beautifully coiffured dark-haired woman with the mysterious eyes.
Sue gazed at the little square mirror, and the image seemed to grow larger before her eyes.
The fortune teller was sitting quietly in the plane. A fanciful object was before her on a tray and she seemed to be talking to it. It was a little copper statue. Its arm waved a sort of wand. A weird fire from the base rose and fell in rhythm with the arm.
Sue listened. The woman was speaking to the little copper idol, as if it understood everything. This statue resembled the one among the arches, Sue observed, except that it was much smaller. Sue listened to the woman’s quiet speech.
“So death has been planned for you, Val . . . Planned in answer to your own pleading . . . I was afraid it would happen this way . . . Somehow I knew you would prefer death . . . Are you hearing me, Val? . . . Do you know that I am coming? . . . Can you wait? . . . Please wait. I am bringing the enemies who once accused you of disloyalty . . . Can you wait, Val, and settle your score with them? . . . Do you hear? . . . Do you hear?”
The voice was faint, as if the words were hardly being spoken but only articulated in Mad a m Lasanda’s mind. Sue’s heart was beating almost as loud as the voice.
“If you can’t wait, Val . . . then let the Scravvzek power reach up and strike this plane before your life ends . . . Your enemies are here, Val . . . The men who started you on this awful trail—hssssh!”
Madam Lasanda lowered her eyes as if paying no attention to the motions of the copper figure. She was listening to something the men were saying.
Sue bent closer, intent on sharing Madam Lasanda’s thoughts . . .
The mayor had been pacing back and forth through the aisle for several minutes. He was aware that the plane’s engines were grinding steadily through a climb to higher altitudes. The mountain peaks were almost close enough to touch. The mayor cleared his throat, thinking to attract Madam Lasanda’s attention. She didn’t look up. She had shrunk into her own shell, so to speak. Her directions had been polite but brief. The mayor kept wondering whether they were still on their course, but he hated to keep asking. Once every ten minutes was often enough. He was making a great effort to be patient.
Bill Gavor and Charley were in a huddle at the rear. They called Mayor Channing to join them.
“You see how’s she’s been watchin’ that doll, Mayor? She’s even been talkin’ to it.”
The mayor squinted. “It’s some kind of a magic gadget. She always watches it.”
“Ask her what goes on.”
“I’ve tried.” The mayor
shrugged his fat shoulders.
“Yeah. She always gives you twisted answers, I’ve noticed. You get nowhere. I don’t like it.”
Bill Gavor whispered. He gave a cocksure gesture. He knew how to get the answers he wanted. “There’s always a way, boys. If you told her we had to throw overboard every pound of extra weight, she’d sing a screech-song, only quick.”
“She’d claw your eyes out,” Charley said, “an’ jerk the hair outa your head.” He passed his ham-like hand over his own egg-bald dome as if to remind himself that he wouldn’t be the loser, in case any rough stuff started.
Madam Lasanda might have been trying to hear their whispers, the way her eyes turned. Now she motioned to them sharply.
“We’re very near our destination,” she said. She told them that the tall spike-shaped mountain peak straight ahead was the very mountain. “Look closely and you’ll see the giant eye.”
“I don’t see it . . . What tall tower of stone?”
“That needle spire straight ahead.”
“I don’t see it,” Mayor Channing said.
“That’s strange. I don’t know how you could miss it. We’re flying straight toward it and it’s the highest—”
The pilot had caught his cue from Bill Gavor by this time and he yelled back, “Throw off something! Quick! Throw off some ballast. We’ve got to climb higher. Quick. Anything!”
Bill Gavor dashed back, snatching at suitcases, then shaking his head, grabbing for something else. His flurry brought him straight to Madam Lasanda and he seized the little copper Egyptian fire tender.
“Here’s something heavy!” He passed it to Charley, who was too flustered to hold it. The weighty little object would have fallen, but Madam Lasanda was right after it, shrieking.
“No, not that!”
She snatched it and clutched it as if it were her own life in the balance.
“Come on with it!” Bill Gavor demanded.
“You want us to crash?”
Madam Lasanda looked ahead and what she saw beyond the plane made her scream.