“Let’s see. .” Max said, looking around. He pointed. “I think we take that tunnel over there. No. . just a second.” He looked at the palm of his hand. “I was wrong,” he decided. He pointed again, in the opposite direction. “We take that tunnel over there.”
“Are you sure, Max?” 99 said.
Max held out the palm of his hand. “Look for yourself.”
“I have a question,” von BOOM said. “Did you have any Custers in your family?”
“Let’s make up our minds,” Max said irritably. “Are we going to play Twenty Questions or are we going to go out there and beat up on that handful of Indians? Uh. . scratch that. I don’t know what made me think of it. It’s something a great, great uncle of mine said a long, long time ago.” He led the way toward an opening to a tunnel. “Last one in is a KAOS agent,” he called back.
99 and von BOOM hurried after him. The passageway, too, was lighted by torches. After a few moments, they reached a fork.
“This looks familiar,” Max said. “That way is the thumb, I think, and that other way is the index finger. Or is it the other way around?” He consulted the palm of his hand again. “No, I was right the first time. Or. . wait a second-is that the same palm? Do you remember, 99? Before, was I using the palm of my right hand or my left hand?”
“Your right hand, I believe, Max.”
“Good. We’re on the right track.” He traced a path on the palm of his right hand. “We follow this line right here,” he said. “It takes us into the thumb, and then, right here at the fingernail, we reach the exit. Let’s go.”
As they continued through the passageway, Max addressed the Professor. “Just to make sure that none of our own agents get lost in here, we have guides posted along the way,” he said. “We should be reaching the first one soon. It’s Willowby, isn’t it, 99?”
“Yes, Max.”
“His appearance may startle you a bit,” Max said, speaking to von BOOM again. “He’s been down here for as long as anyone can recall, and naturally, in this dim light, he’s become a bit bleary-eyed. Also, his beard is a little longer than the beards you usually see. For him, though, it’s an advantage. At night, he uses it as a blanket. And at meals it comes in very handy as a bib. Although, the fact that it’s white is a minor drawback. It shows the gravy stains.”
There was no response from von BOOM.
“Max!” 99 cried. “He’s gone!”
Max halted and looked back. Von BOOM was nowhere in sight. “Don’t worry, 99,” he said. “He isn’t gone, he’s only lost. He must have taken a wrong turn back at that fork. We’ll just retrace our steps, then follow the index finger, and we’re bound to find him.”
“I hope so, Max,” 99 said, uncertainty in her tone, as they made their way back through the tunnel. “But suppose you used one of the key words, and he went off somewhere else? How would we know where to look?”
“He couldn’t possibly get out of here, 99. Unless you happen to know these passageways like the palm of your hand, there’s no escape.”
They reached the fork and this time took the lefthand tunnel. A minute or so later they came upon a tall, bleary-eyed man with a long white beard. Spotting Max and 99, the man immediately snatched up the end of the beard and placed it on top of his head.
“Willowby, you know, you’re not fooling anybody,” Max said. “And, besides, it’s no disgrace at your age to be getting bald.”
“I won’t have to do this much longer,” Willowby replied. “I put in a request for a hairpiece.”
“When was that?” Max asked.
“I can’t remember the exact date. But it was around the time when Lucky Lindy was taking off for Paris. How did he make out, anyway?”
“He made it,” Max replied.
Willowby tossed his beard into the air. “Hurrah for Lucky Lindy!” he shouted exultantly.
“Willowby, I’ll tell you something about requests,” Max said. “By the time you get that hairpiece, you won’t need it. You’ll be in your second childhood, and you’ll be starting a new full head of hair of your own. But, listen, what are you doing over here in this passageway? You’re supposed to be in the tunnel that leads to the exit.”
Willowby looked at him sadly. “You’re lost again, Max.”
“I’m lost!” Max said indignantly. “You’re lost.”
“I’ve been in this same spot for over one-hundred-and-fifty years. The only way I could get lost would be if the tunnels moved.”
“Oh.”
“You took the thumb again,” Willowby guessed.
“All right, nevermind that,” Max said. “I have a more important problem right now. Have you seen anybody wandering around in here who looked like he needed a keeper?”
“Besides you, you mean?”
“I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer, Willowby,” Max replied. “This fellow I’m talking about is short and dumpy and-”
“-and is looking for the post office,” Willowby said. “He stopped here just a few minutes ago.”
“He was looking for the post office?” Max said, puzzled.
“You must have used a key word, Max,” 99 guessed. “I wonder what it was?”
“He probably wanted to mail a fan letter to Lucky Lindy,” Willowby said. “Ol’ Lindy is probably the toast of the town these days, eh?”
“There hasn’t been a lot of fuss made over it lately, Willowby,” Max said. “That happened over forty years ago.”
“Fame is fickle,” Willowby sighed sorrowfully. “They probably don’t remember Abe any more, either.”
“As a matter of fact, they do,” Max said. “Every year, almost the whole country celebrates his birthday. To a lot of people, he’s a great hero.”
Willowby looked surprised. “That’s more than I expected. All that for Abe Berkowitz?”
“Berkowitz?”
“He invented the buggywhip with the patented fox-skin grip.”
“I had another Abe in mind,” Max said. “This one-”
“Max,” 99 broke in. “What about Professor von BOOM?”
“99, his name isn’t Abe. It’s Wormser.”
“Max, what I mean is, shouldn’t we be looking for him?”
“Oh. . yes.” He addressed Willowby again. “Which way did he go?”
“If you’re asking about that other dumpy little man who looked like he needed a keeper. .” Willowby pointed straight up. “He went thataway.”
Max peered up at the ceiling of the tunnel. “I find that a little hard to believe,” he said.
“Would you believe that I directed him back to the elevator?” Willowby asked.
“That makes a little more sense,” Max replied. He signalled to 99, then headed back through the tunnel.
“If you see Lucky Lindy-” Willowby called after them “-tell him some of us still remember!”
Max and 99 hurried back through the passageway to the elevator. When they reached it, Max punched the UP button, then they waited for the car to descend to their level.
“I wonder if it was ‘hand?’ ” Max said, as they stood near the elevator doors.
“If what was, Max?”
“The key word.”
“I don’t understand. What’s the connection between hand and post office?”
“If you request it, 99, you can have your letters hand-stamped. That’s because sometimes when they’re machine-stamped the impression penetrates the envelope.”
“Oh, I see-and the impression is stamped on whatever’s inside the envelope.”
“Correct. For instance, if you were mailing a butterfly to someone and the envelope was machine-stamped, the butterfly might arrive with ‘Buy U.S. Savings Bonds’ stamped on its wing. That can make a butterfly look like a professional flag-waver.”
The car arrived and they got aboard and Max punched the DOWN button and the car began rising.
“Or, maybe it was ‘finger,’ ” Max mused.
“You’re missing me again, Max,” 99 said.
“After I lick a stamp, it always sticks to my finger,” he explained.