Clive Cussler (6 page)

"Vin Fiz truly is enchanted," cried Lacey joyously.

Casey did not have to put his hands on the control levers or touch the throttle. Vin Fiz simply rolled forward out of the cavern, turned her wheels onto the road and raced ahead, lifting into the air as lightly as a butterfly.

For the first time Casey discovered that he no longer had to fly the plane. She flew herself. All he had to do was give her voice commands. "Turn due east," he said, and Vin Fiz gently banked in that direction. "And go fast." She responded with a surge from her engine that turned the big propellers like whirlwinds, sending the airplane soaring through the sky at over fifty miles an hour. They flew less than a hundred feet above the sandy desert, sailing over thousands of sagebrush with silver stems and yellow flowers, yuccas with their bundles of purplish-white bell-shaped blossoms and groves of Joshua trees, some standing as tall as forty feet with spiked leaves and creamy-green flowers.

"The desert is so beautiful," Lacey said in a normal voice because Vin Fiz was flying so quietly, the only sounds came from the wind humming past the wing struts. She had always thought of the desert as dry and barren, but now she marveled at the vast fields of wildflowers.

"Do you see Fort Blodgett yet?" Casey asked as he kept a wary eye to their rear for any signs of pursuit from the Boss and his henchmen.

She raised her goggles and shielded her eyes from the sun. "I see it, I see it," she cried with excitement. "I can make out the walls and guard towers on the corners."

It wasn't long before Vin Fiz was circling the stars-and-stripes flag flying over the fort while searching for a place to land. The twins could see soldiers in khaki uniforms running around the parade ground and pointing into the sky. A wide, open field beckoned, and the airplane glided to a smooth landing and rolled to a stop less than thirty feet from the main gate. Before they could release their seat belts, they were surrounded by a small army of soldiers.

A man who looked to be an officer stepped up to the children. "My gosh," he muttered. "Young kids in an old airplane. How did you come to be here?"

When Lacey began to blurt out her story, the officer held up a hand to quiet her. "Come with me," he said in a kindly manner. "I'll take you to my commanding officer, Colonel Rumby."

The colonel was a gray-haired man with one eye brown and the other gray. The gray one looked out to the side and was very distracting.

Both children told of the people of Gold City being held prisoner and forced to work in the mines. To their surprise, kindly Colonel Rumby believed their story from the first word to the last. He looked up at his younger officer. "That explains why nobody in Gold City answers their telephone." He came to his feet. "Captain Crowsfeet, assemble the troop. We're riding to Gold City at full gallop." The colonel turned to Lacey and Casey. "I'd like you to fly above us and keep a sharp eye out for the Boss and his henchmen, should they try to escape."

"Yes sir," Casey agreed.

It wasn't long before a troop of fifty men of the U.S. Cavalry, riding on big brown and black horses, charged out of Fort Blodgett and across the desert toward Gold City. Before getting back on board Vin Fiz, Casey looked in her fuel tank, thinking they must be almost out of gas, but astoundingly it was full to the brim. An enchanted airplane, he thought, must not need fuel to fly. The twins jumped into the plane and were soon in the air, following the dust cloud that billowed behind the cavalry.

Lacey and Casey reached the hill and looked down at the entrance to the cavern. Women were emptying an ore cart and did not look up. Nor did their henchman guard because Vin Fiz was flying as silently as a ghost and looked like a big hawk circling in the sky.

Only when the cavalry troop came charging up the hill, with Colonel Rumby whirling his saber in the air, did Casey tell Vin Fiz to land. "Hurry!" Lacey said to Casey. "We have to save Floopy before the Boss harms him."

They leaped from the plane and ran into the mine shaft ahead of the troops. They ran past the ore cart, past the ladies pushing it, past the henchman prodding them along who shouted at them to stop. They broke all records in their mad dash to rescue their dog. Following on their heels came the cavalry troops, who had dismounted their horses, captured the henchman and come bounding into the mine shaft after Lacey and Casey.

Quickly things began to happen. In less time than it takes to say "dingle, fingle, gingle," the troops had rounded up the rest of the henchmen, stood them against a wall with their hands in the air and trapped the Boss in his cavern bedroom. "You'll never take me alive," said he.

"Then we'll use dynamite to bury you under a ton of rock," Colonel Rumby threatened him.

"Please, Colonel," Lacey begged. "Our beloved dog is in there."

Before the words were out of her mouth, a great yowl came from the Boss as he bellowed in pain. Suddenly, he burst out of his bedroom and ran into the mine shaft with Floopy's jaws firmly dug into his behind. At the sight of Lacey and Casey, Floopy let loose of the Boss and ran over to the twins, wildly wagging his long, slender tail. He licked their faces and barked with joy as the Boss, still rubbing his pants where Floopy had bit him, was led away by the cavalrymen.

Well, you can imagine the jubilation as the good friends and neighbors of Gold City found themselves free to go to their homes and resume their happy lives. Joyous, they cheered madly and raised Lacey, Casey and Colonel Rumby on their shoulders as they marched, singing at the top of their lungs. The troopers joined in, shouting hooray as they escorted the Boss and his henchmen with their rifles to the town jail, where they promptly locked them up.

Later, at a gala fiesta, everybody danced around Vin Fiz, whose yellow and green wings seemed to blush as if she were bashful. Mayor Firepit gave Lacey and Casey a big wooden key painted gold that represented the Key to the City. "From now on," stated Mayor Firepit solemnly, "every year on this day, Gold

City will have a celebration called Vin Fiz Day to honor the rescue of the townspeople from the nasty and evil Mr. Boss."

When asked if they would like a share of the gold the townspeople had been forced to dig, Lacey, with Casey's nodding approval, said, "Please use our share of the gold to build a new schoolhouse, church, city hall and town jail."

A mighty cheer went up from all at hearing such generous words.

Early the next morning, it was time to leave and there were fond, affectionate farewells as the twins, along with Floopy, climbed into Vin Fiz. Casey checked to see that the bottle containing the grape soda Vin Fiz was named after was still tied to the wing strut. The bottle was safely snug, having been unseen and untouched by the Boss and his henchmen. The twins then lifted Floopy into his box and slipped the helmet over his head and long, dangling ears. They climbed into their seats and adjusted their seat belts.

The engine sputtered to life entirely on its own and the airplane rolled down the street, the spin of her propellers leaving behind a cloud of dust. Soon they were free of the ground and circling the town, waving to those below, who cheered and waggled their hands in the air.

Lacey took her diary from her pocket and began recording the day's events. Ahead, the morning sun was creeping over the desert horizon. At Casey's instructions, Vin Fiz turned her tail to the fair town of Gold City and its good citizens and set a course toward the east.

The desert soon fell behind, and Vin Fiz took them over the lofty, snowcapped Rocky Mountains. The jagged, icy peaks looked like upside-down icicles. The air was chilly that high in the sky, and they all had goose bumps until they reached where the mountains fell away into foothills. Now the airplane flew low again as she carried Casey, Lacey and Floopy out over the Western Plains. The land became flat as far as their eyes could see. For a long time they saw almost no trees except those growing beside dry streambeds and farms separated by miles and miles of dry land. They were thankful when Vin Fiz sailed over the lush green countryside bordering fields of golden wheat.

The sky was a glorious peacock blue above, and the wind that rushed past the wings was warm with a heavy trace of humidity. They passed over farms and waved to the startled men working the fields and the women sitting out on porches shelling peas.

"Where do you think we are?" asked Casey.

Lacey consulted her map. "Somewhere over Kansas, I think."

"That's where Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz was from."

"And don't forget Toto," said Lacey, laughing as she turned and petted Floopy, whose tongue was hanging out the side of his jaw.

They floated over rolling hills and the picturesque farms of Missouri. It would be dark soon, and Casey began looking for a place to spend the night. The orange ball of the sun was just touching the edge of their world when they found themselves flying over the mighty Mississippi River. A huge white steamboat with a big red paddle wheel on its stern was approaching a bend as its steam whistle gave off a loud shriek. The paddle wheel spun and beat the water into white foam; the tall, twin smokestacks spewed black smoke into the twilight sky.

Without waiting to be asked, Vin Fiz dove and spiraled down until she was flying around the steamboat only twenty feet above the surface of the river. She flew around in circles and waggled her wings as if she were trying to say something, perhaps give a warning. But even an enchanted airplane can't talk, and Lacey and Casey had no idea what Vin Fiz was trying to tell them.

As the airplane circled the boat, the children could plainly see the big red light on the starboard side of the boat (that would be the right side when facing the bow, which is the front of the boat) and the green light on the port (which means the left side when facing the bow). The captain, who stood with his hands on the big steering wheel in the wheelhouse, and the passengers who were walking the decks stared in wonder at the funny-looking aircraft flown by two young children and a dog as it circled the boat.

Abruptly, to the surprise of the twins, Vin Fiz leveled off and zoomed upriver and around the bend. Once on the other side and out of sight of the steamboat, Lacey and Casey were shocked to see an immense coal barge, carried by the swift current, drifting wildly down the center of the river. It was black and menacing. From the air they could see that it would soon hurtle around the bend, directly into the path of the unsuspecting captain of the riverboat, who could not see the danger. The looming collision seemed unavoidable.

Far behind the barge came a towboat, whistle blowing, propellers thrashing as the engines ran at full speed in chase of the runaway barge. (If you've wondered how towboats got their name since they almost always push barges instead of pulling them, it is because when barges are tied together they are called a tow, hence a towboat moves them.)

"We've got to warn the captain of the steamboat," cried Lacey.

"Quickly!" shouted Casey. "Use a page out of your diary to write a warning."

"How will we drop it to them? The paper will simply blow into the river."

"Not if you fold it into a glider."

As soon as Lacey had finished writing the note, she folded it into a glider with a pointy tail and wide wings.

"Hurry, hurry," Casey shouted at her. "The barge will be coming around the bend any minute."

Realizing the terrible disaster should the barge crash into the steamboat with all its passengers, Casey pleaded with the airplane. "Take us right over the steamboat, Vin Fiz, quickly."

With no hesitation, the ungainly craft turned back around the bend and swooped low over the steamboat. Lower and lower she swooped around the towering black smokestacks. At the exact moment they passed over the wheelhouse, Lacey threw the glider and motioned to the captain, who was standing outside the wheelhouse gazing at the antics of Vin Fiz.

Captain Otis Shagnasty, master and owner of the steamboat Muddy Queen, saw the glider and grabbed it before it could pass over the deck and land in the river.

Uncertainty crossed his mind for a moment. Airplanes rarely dropped notes on riverboats warning them of danger, and this was an especially strange-looking airplane. But Captain Shagnasty had almost two hundred passengers and thirty crew members to consider. A man with a body bent like an S, he tugged at his long spiral mustache, straightened his cap and whistled shrilly into the speaking tube that ran from the wheelhouse to the boiler room.

His chief engineer, Hiram Gooberdum, yelled back, "What is it, Captain?"

"I've just received a warning there's a runaway barge bearing down on us upriver." The captain didn't tell Gooberdum how he knew because he thought the chief engineer might laugh at him. "Reverse engines. Full speed astern."

"Aye, aye," answered Gooberdum as he grabbed the big brass lever that changed the gears for the stern wheel. First he pulled it into neutral, waited a moment and then threw the lever into reverse, turning and watching the big stern wheel as it pounded the water with its paddle boards, causing water to splash and spray over the stern decks and the passengers who happened to be standing there.