“Jumping would be much faster, 99.”
“I won’t jump, and I won’t be pushed,” von BOOM said.
Max sighed, resigned. “All right,” he said, “we’ll do it the hard way. But, just remember, when I make out my report on this mission, I’m going to make sure that the record shows that I wanted to jump.”
Max, 99 and von BOOM returned to their compartments and waited until night. Then, a little after midnight, when everyone else on the train was asleep, they quietly returned to the platform of the observation car.
“How are the cars connected, Max?” 99 whispered. “Do you know how to detach them?”
“I’m sure it’s very simple, 99. All mechanical things are simple. I once took a Swiss watch apart-and after I’d looked at it for only a few minutes.”
“Did you get it back together?” von BOOM asked.
“That isn’t important, Professor,” Max replied. “I don’t intend to put these two cars back together after I disconnect them. We’re going to leave the special car stranded-remember?” He got down on his hands and knees and looked closely at the mechanism that linked the two cars. “There’s a handle here,” he said. “All I’ll have to do is pull it, I imagine.”
“Then pull it, Max. Hurry-before someone in that other car hears us.”
“I can’t reach it,” Max replied. “It’s- Oh, I see.” He got to his feet.
“What are you going to do, Max?”
“It’s closer to that other car,” he explained. He stepped to the platform of the special car. “From over here-”
“Max-”
“Quiet, 99. You’re liable to wake those KAOS agents.”
“But, Max-”
“Shh-shh-shh!” Max got down on his hands and knees again. “I can reach it from here,” he reported. “All I have to do is- There!”
Max had pulled the lever.
“Max! Oh, Max!” 99 cried.
The train was speeding off into the night, leaving the special car stranded-with Max standing on the platform.
“99-wait!”
“Max-we can’t stop!” She turned tearfully to von BOOM. “Do something!” she wept.
The Professor raised an arm and waved goodbye to Max. “How’s that?” he said to 99.
As the train disappeared into the darkness, Max waved limply in response to von BOOM’s farewell. The special car was losing momentum. After a few moments, it stopped dead.
The door opened. One of the mysterious strangers looked out. “What the-”
“I hope you fellows have a sense of humor,” Max smiled. “Because, if you don’t, you’re going to be a little bit put out about what’s happened.”
The whole car of mysterious strangers began crowding into the doorway, looking baffled.
“Let me put it this way,” Max said, backing off the platform. “Let’s just say that Control has triumphed again, and let it go at that. No hard feelings-okay? Actually, I’m the one who ought to be upset. I was supposed to be on that other platform.”
The mysterious stranger who appeared to be the leader pointed in the direction in which the train had disappeared. “You do dot!” he said angrily to Max.
“Well, yes. But, you see-”
“Dumbhead!” the leader raged.
“Exactly what I was afraid of-no sense of humor,” Max said. He jumped to the ground, whipped around, and raced into the darkness, with no idea at all where he was heading.
“Get dot dumbhead!” the leader of the mysterious strangers screamed.
The ground beneath Max’s feet suddenly disappeared. He performed a rolling, head-over-heels summersault, and then touched ground again. He was at the bottom of a deep ditch.
“Find me dot dumbhead!” the voice screeched.
Max scrambled to his feet. Following the ditch, he raced forward. The voice followed him. He scampered up the side of the ditch, then, on level ground once more, plunged into the darkness-and bounced off a wire fence.
“Oooooooo! — do I vant dot dumbhead!”
Max dragged himself to his feet. He struggled to the top of the fence, tumbled over it-and dangled, with one shoe caught in the wire.
“Soch a dumbhead!”
Max slipped his foot out of the shoe-and crashed to the ground. He staggered to his feet, retrieved the shoe, put it back on, then plunged forward once more-but, unfortunately, in the wrong direction, right back into the fence.
“Dere he is! Get him! Dot dumbhead!”
Again, Max lunged into the darkness. He found himself running across a plowed field, falling on his face after every third step. Behind him, the voice of rage was raised over and over again. But Max kept on. And his determination was soon rewarded. Ahead, he saw a dim light-and then the outline of a house.
“A peasant farmhouse!” he gasped. “Maybe they’ll hide me!”
With renewed strength, he plunged forward again-straight into a wooden fence, over the top of it, and down into a pig pen.
“Oink!” the pig complained.
“Sorry about that,” Max replied, climbing out.
He rushed on, and, moments later, reached the porch of the farmhouse. Collapsing against the door, he beat on it frantically. In the near distance, he heard the voice again, getting closer.
“I think you’re going to have some more company,” he called back to the pig.
At that instant, the door opened-and Max fell into the house, landing flat on his face.
“Da?” a voice said.
Max raised his head. Standing over him were a Russian man and his Russian wife. They were dressed in night clothes. Apparently Max had awakened them.
“KAOS!” Max panted. “I’m being. . pursued. . by. . by KAOS agents. Save. . me.”
The man smiled broadly. “Da!” he said. But he made no effort to help Max.
Max got to his feet. “You don’t understand! Hide! Hide! Conceal! Stash!” He remembered his Russian-American dictionary and quickly got it out.
But at that same instant there was a loud rap on the door.
“Vere is dot dumbhead!” a voice shouted from outside.
The peasant and his wife exchanged baffled looks.
Max raced from the main room into the bedroom and dived under the bed. Soon after that he heard the peasant open the door.
“Greetings!” Max heard the leader of the mysterious strangers say. “Vee are looking for a dumbhead. Maybe you haff seen him. He is a little dumpy fellow that looks like he needs a keeper. And, oh, boy, does he need a keeper! Such a dumbhead!”
“Da?” the peasant replied.
“Who’s got the Russian-American dictionary?” the leader of the mysterious strangers demanded.
Apparently one of his followers quickly handed it over to him. For, a minute or so later, he began addressing the peasant in his native tongue. Max recognized only one word-dumbhead. Evidently the peasant did not understand much more than that, either. He kept responding with one word-da, da, da, da, da.
“Is very clear!” the leader of the mysterious strangers said finally. “He is saying, yes, he does not know vere the dumbhead is. Let’s go! Vee find him!”
The door closed.
Max crawled out from under the bed and returned to the main room. “I want to thank you,” he said to the peasant and his wife. “That was very clever. You made him think you couldn’t understand a word he was saying.”
The peasant brightened. He pointed to Max. “Dumbhead!” he beamed.
“Yes, yes, I’m the dumbhead,” Max nodded. “Now then, can you help me get away?”
The peasant tapped Max’s chest with a forefinger, his grin growing broader. “Dumbhead!” he repeated.
“We’re not accomplishing anything,” Max muttered. Once more, he got out his Russian-English dictionary. “Let’s see now. .” he said, paging through it. “I want to get to the ocean. . water. . but I want to get there without being seen. . that is, to stay hidden. . hide. .”
“Da?”
“Hold it a second,” Max said. “I’m working this out. I need the word for- Ah, here it is!” He closed the dictionary and addressed the peasant. “Droski hobbit. Bibnik. Ish Kabibble. Da?”
The peasant’s eyes opened wide. He turned to his wife. “Droski hobbit?” he said incredulously.