Brass Monkeys (28 page)

I could see that the water around the edge of the mist seemed to be boiling wildly. And then, with a rush of fear, I knew what it was.

I yelled out, “Waterfall!” But my voice was lost in the rumbling roar of water.

Our speed accelerated and we were bowling along right into the mist. I heard Harriet call out something and clutch my hand. The next moment we were shoved ahead as if by a giant hand, and we plummeted downward, accompanied by a ripple of what sounded amazingly like organ music.

I felt a smooth, hard surface below me and realized we were in some kind of narrow, rocky chute, like the world’s most wonderful, natural waterslide. We went skidding wildly around a corner, and when my eyes cleared for a moment, I could see we were traveling like a rocket down a steep waterway. We twisted and wound through a beautiful landscape filled with trees and flowers. Water was gushing out of holes of various sizes and it was this that seemed to be making the organ music.

I yelled out in sheer joy, and when I did, I heard a faint cry of excitement from Ray who was somewhere behind us. We flew down and down, past huge trees and giant cliffs of stone, and it was the kind of ride you hope never ends.

At last we reached bottom, and with a great organ chord we shot off the edge of the chute and landed in the most beautiful clear blue water I’d ever seen.

When I surfaced, I began to hoot happily and Harriet joined in. Ray was just coming up not too far off. Luckily, the trumpet was still on its sling, and quickly I pulled out the book to see if was okay. The plastic bag was locked tight, and I could tell there wasn’t a drop of water inside.

“This must be the Blue Grotto,” I called out to Harriet. “Look at the water!” I cupped some in my hand and looked closely at it.

There was no response from Harriet, and I glanced over at her. She was looking over at Ray who was floating on his back and not paying any attention to us. She shot me a glance of alarm.

“Raymondo,” I called to him. “Are you okay?”

Harriet turned pale. “He’s not!” she said. “Get his head out of the water!”

I swam quickly behind Ray and lifted his head. His eyes were shut and I could see a bruise on his temple.

“He must have bumped his head on the chute,” I said. “Let’s get him ashore.”

I put my arm around Ray’s neck, and with Harriet keeping his chin up out of the water, we started pulling him toward the narrow, rocky shore. In a sudden, panicky burst, Ray came to and began to struggle. I yelled at him to stop, but he didn’t understand and, before I knew it, he was pulling us under.

Vaguely I realized Harriet was trying to help, and at one point we had Ray back to the surface, but all three of us were in big trouble, and I knew it. We had yards to go to reach shore and Ray still wasn’t cooperating. Worse, the trumpet had filled with water and felt like a ton of lead.

“Save yourself,” I gasped out to Harriet.

“No way. All or none,” she said, her golden-brown eyes flashing.

We went under again, and this time I was afraid I wasn’t coming back up. But somehow we all surfaced one more time. Right about then I began to hear music.
Bluegrass music
.

Through blurry eyes, I saw a fantastic sight coming toward us. It was a sailboat with a man standing in the bow playing a fiddle.

“A boat from heaven,” I murmured. I don’t remember much more. Hands were reaching down and pulling us aboard, and then a bunch of wavy faces were peering at me. I recall throwing up a lot of water and all the faces jumped back. Then I think I must have passed out.

When I finally came to, I knew I was in heaven, or something close to it, because the first thing that swam into view was this beautiful face framed by black curls. Lilah. And there was Teddy, holding the fiddle.

“Billy,” said Teddy with a big grin, “I was playing that music for you, trying to give you some inspiration to stay afloat.”

“Hey you,” said Lilah in her even-toned voice. She leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek. That felt totally real, and I was still enjoying it when I saw another face loom in behind Teddy’s. Jack.

“Bumpus,” he said. “I’ve got to say, you’re a surprise a minute.”

“Jack!” I sat up. “You’re not dead!”

“Not hardly. Thanks to you and your drainage pipe, I’ve lived to fight another day, or something like that.”

“Yeah, man, my stupid directions. Wow, I’m dizzy.” I shook my head, trying to clear the fuzziness. I could see I was in the bow of the sailboat. The sails were down and I was propped against the rail. Harriet sat at my side and she was smiling at me. I realized all over again how pretty she was, even with the fur! Ray was on the other side of her, looking pale but grinning nonetheless.

“Raymondo, you’re okay,” I said, amazed.

“Never better, Bumpus-man,” he said. “And I owe it all to you and Harriet.”

“No, make that Harriet,” I said. “She’s the one.” My head was still whirling a bit. “Okay, listen, I need to introduce everybody. Ray and Harriet, this is Jack—”

“We’ve already done that,” said Harriet, smiling. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Man, you had us worried,” said Ray.

“Me?” I said. “I was worried about
you
.” Suddenly a terrible thought swept over me. “Wait, where’s my trumpet?
And the book?”

“Easy kid, they’re right here.” Jack leaned in and handed them to me.

I grasped the trumpet fondly. “This baby almost dragged me under, but it’s okay because he’s my friend. And here’s old
Brass Monkeys
looking cool and dry, which means we still have a chance if we can only find McGinty. ‘Course we haven’t found him yet, but hey, with all of us working as a team—”

“Bumpus, slow down and take it easy,” said Jack. He was signing all this to Lilah, but I could tell she was way ahead of him. “Just sit back and rest a minute.”

“Jack, listen,” I plunged on, “I’ve got to confess some stuff and right now. First, I shouldn’t have sent you guys into that pipe. That was stupid, I mean sooo totally dumb. I don’t know what I was thinking. And second, and this is a biggie—”

Lilah reached out and touched my lips to stop me. “Billy, it worked out fine. We simply rode the water down, just like—”

“Frogs inside a garden hose!” burst out Teddy. “Then we popped out into the most stinky water you can imagine and these frightful little biting creatures—”

“I know,” I broke in. “The Sea of Hot Lunches. We were just in there.”

Jack shook his head in amazement. “Harriet and Ray told me you came down the cliffs. That’s supposed to be impossible.”

I gave him a cocky smile. “Yeah, but not for the Wild Bunch.”

Jack kind of laughed when I said that, and it made think he was okay. It sounded like his old laugh, but still something seemed missing.

“Anyway, to finish our story,” said Teddy, “we came down the chute and for some reason this cold water just snapped me right out of it! Woozy I was, and discombobulated, and now, sharp as a tack!”

Jack looked up at the sky and muttered, “Woozy I was?”

That sounded like the old Jack, I thought, but still … What was it?

“And the next thing we saw was this wonderful sailboat anchored nearby,” continued Lilah. “Luckily, Jack can sail.”

“Yeah, and no thanks to this lubberly crew,” said Jack. “The only fly in the ointment is the fact that we don’t know where we are, Bumpus. Your buddies here act like they know, but they want to give you the honor of telling us.”

I glanced at Harriet and Ray, and from their pale, nervous looks I could tell they were worried about how Jack was going to take the news.

“Right, okay,” I began nervously. “See, this was the biggie I wanted to mention. I think there’s a good chance that we’re … I mean, I think it’s likely that we are now, ahh … Well, to be exact, it’s possible—”

“Bumpus,” snapped Jack. “Spill it.”

“I think we’re in the Blue Grotto,” I said in a wimpy rush.

Jack stared at me. “Okay,” he said after what seemed like a century, “I hope for your sake I misunderstood what you just said.”

I got to my feet. “Nope,” I said. “It’s the Grotto. Pretty sure.”

Lilah expelled her breath softly and said, “Oh, my heavens.”

“Jeezo-peezo, Billy,” said Teddy sadly, as if he had just now realized what a true dimwit I was. “We’ll be stuck here forever.”

“Billy,” said Lilah, “don’t you remember we told you there’s no way out of the Grotto?” She was massaging her forehead as if she felt a headache coming on.

“We’ll end up dying down here!” wailed Teddy.

“Bumpus, Bumpus, Bumpus,” said Jack. For a moment, I thought he might jump overboard. “Might as well write our obituaries.”

Harriet spoke up then, her voice sounding more mature and grown-up than all the rest of them put together. “You know, I think you should hear the real reason he sent you down here,” she said quietly, “before you judge him on this.”

“Yeah,” said Ray, “you guys are gyratin’ around and you haven’t even asked him
why
he sent you down here.”

“Oh, the
why
of it,” said Jack in a biting voice. “My yes, let’s by all means find out the why, Bumpus.”

“Okay, that’s easy,” I began. “I thought we should all come down to the Grotto because McGinty is here.”

This hit the air like a bombshell. Teddy and Jack both signed it to Lilah.

“McGinty is
here?”
repeated Lilah. She expelled her breath in a little gasp.

“He’s here in the Blue Grotto?” Teddy looked astounded.

“Whoa,” said Jack harshly. “Hold the phone. How do you know that? That sounds like more drone gossip.”

“It’s not drone gossip,” I snapped. “It’s a hard fact. First of all, Ray here saved McGinty and Webster about two weeks ago, and while they were at his hideout, he heard all about McGinty’s idea of coming down here.” I turned to Ray. “Take it, Raymondo, and tell ‘em what you know.”

Ray cleared his throat. “It’s pretty simple. McGinty and this Webster dude argued about going to the Grotto all the time they were at my hideout. Finally, Webster left to head for town to find some drone buddies.”

“Us,” piped up Teddy proudly.

Ray nodded. “The next thing I know, McGinty says he’s heading for the Blue Grotto and, bam, away he goes heading straight for Ming’s school and the old drainage pipe. I saw him go inside the school and he never came out. Ming-daddy and the Stormies are still looking for him, so I know he made it.”

Jack was shaking his head. “Listen, McGinty wasn’t dumb enough to come down here with no way out. He’s way too smart for that.”

“You got that right,” I broke in quickly. “And the reason he dared come down here was because
he knew there was a way out.”

Jack stared at me. Harriet gave me a triumphant grin and Ray flashed a thumb’s up.

I could see Lilah and Teddy were convinced, but Jack was still giving me a sour, disbelieving look.

“I still don’t understand why McGinty would come down here in the first place,” he went on. “Why would he risk all these dangers just to get to another dangerous place? Take your time answering.”

“I don’t have to take time,” I said, ready to unleash my killer punch. “He came down because he needs Adjana’s help on his secret weapon.”

“Secret weapon?” Jack said sharply. “What secret weapon?”

“You tell ‘em, Ray,” I said.

Ray nodded and frowned importantly. “Right. They talked about the project all the time, and I think it may be a bomb or some kind of gun.”

Now Teddy began laughing like a zany and Lilah clasped her hands excitedly.

“This is wonderful,” she cried. “It means we’re right where we should be.”

“Duwang,” I heard Ray say under his breath.

Even Jack was starting to weaken. “You’re sure about this weapon, Bumpus?”

“Absoltootly. It’s a super weapon of some kind,” I went on grandly.

“So here’s the way I see it. We find McGinty, use his weapon to blow Ming’s wig off, and free the kids. He interprets the map and—bingo—we’re home in time for Christmas.”

Lilah and Teddy were delirious with excitement, hugging me and slapping me on the back. Jack forced a sour smile.

Minutes later, with a lot of yelling and bumping around, we got the sails up.

“So after all your yacking,” said Jack, “how do we find Adjana and the actual Grotto?”

“Hey,” I said, like a smart butt, “that’s the captain’s job.”

Jack gave me a narrow look, but then barked out a laugh and grabbed the tiller. The sails filled with a crack and we went bowling across the blue water.

If you didn’t know Jack, you’d think everything was dandy. But the look he’d just given me made me realize what was missing in him, and my heart skipped a beat.

That wild blue glint in Jack’s eyes was gone.

As I thought back on it, I realized it had been gone ever since I came to on the boat, and I was fairly sure how it had happened. It had been Ming’s awful video. Something had snapped in Jack when we were in that room, and I knew it was all tied up with his new letter, the horrible “U.” I glanced over at him now and saw the letter. He caught my look.

“What’s the matter?” he said. He sounded tense.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You’re probably wondering about my new tunic, right? The Stormies ripped off our old ones and gave us these.” He smiled bleakly. “Their choice of letters.”

“Right. I was in the same room, remember?”

He came over to me and lowered his voice. “It was pretty ugly in there. I hope you didn’t see too much.” He gave me a questioning look.

“I didn’t see much at all,” I said quickly. “I know they put the ring on you and then started beating on you. That’s when I sprang into action with my trusty—”

“Right, kid. You were good, I’ll have to say that. I should have thanked you.”

“Absoltootly,” I said, grinning. “I should have gotten a medal—”

I was interrupted by a sudden commotion. Teddy had untied the wrong rope and let the anchor go. This caused a momentary uproar, and Jack rushed over to help haul it back. While this was going on, Harriet left the group and joined me.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked. “You still look kind of pale and funny.”