Max entered the stateroom and signalled 99 and Fang to follow. When they were inside, he closed the door.
“This time,” he said, “I’ll check the closet. 99, you check the dust.”
“Yes, Max.”
Max went to the closet and opened the door. “Three suitcases in here,” he reported.
“Dust under here, Max,” 99 replied, looking under the bunk.
Max lifted a suitcase. “No, this one is heavy-it must be full,” he said. He lifted the second suitcase. “Nope- same here.” Then the third suitcase. “No luck-this one is full, too.”
“Max,” 99 said, “are you sure that just because the guinea pigs are invisible they don’t weigh anything?”
Max looked thoughtful. “Now that you mention it,” he said, “I’m not sure. I’ve never weighed an invisible guinea pig.”
“Maybe you better look inside the suitcases,” 99 suggested.
“Right.”
He opened the first suitcase. “99, would invisible guinea pigs be wearing argyle sox?” he asked.
“I doubt it, Max.”
He closed the suitcase, then opened the next one.
“99… how about a chartreuse tie that lights up in the dark and says ‘Einstein Didn’t Know the Half of It!’?”
“Are there six, Max?”
“No, just one.”
“Then it couldn’t be the guinea pigs, Max.”
Max closed the second suitcase, and opened up the third. He closed it again immediately.
“Rorff?”
“Never mind, Fang. Even a scientist — even Dr. X — is entitled to some privacy.”
“Rorff!”
“I am not withholding evidence. There is nothing incriminating about a collection of Superman comic books!” He turned to 99. “Any luck?” he asked.
“None,” 99 reported, closing the last drawer of the chest. “Nothing in here but clothes. People clothes, not guinea pig clothes.”
Max stood in the center of the room pondering. “Obviously,” he said, “Dr. X removed the guinea pigs from the suitcase. But where did he hide them?”
“Rorff!”
“In a secret compartment? All right, I’ll go along with that. But where?”
“Rorff!”
Max smiled. “A secret compartment in the floor, eh? I’m afraid your imagination is running away with you, Fang. I’ve heard of secret compartments in the floor, yes. But in the deck? Hardly.”
“Rorff!”
“Where?”
“He said ‘under the rug,’ ” 99 translated.
“I know what he said,” Max replied. “I was expressing astonishment, not asking you what he said. I’m a little dumbfounded. Suggesting that there might be a secret compartment in the deck was fantastic enough, but adding to it by suggesting that-”
Fang had pulled back the rug, revealing a small door.
“Well… live and learn,” Max said. He kneeled down by the secret door. “Just large enough to get six invisible guinea pigs through,” he said. “99, I think this is it!”
“Open it, Max.”
“I can’t. It’s locked.”
“Rorff!”
“Good idea,” Max said. “It so happens that I do have another one of those door-opening gadgets that R and D sent along for experience-testing.”
“Max, that was an awfully strong explosive,” 99 said worriedly.
“But not too strong,” Max said, taking one of the coin-sized gadgets from his pocket. “R and D is very careful about things like that. Just enough T.N.T.-but never a pinch too much.”
He set the control to ON and dropped the gadget into the keyhole.
“Now then, I think we’d better step back a step, so we-”
A tremendous explosion rocked the stateroom. Smoke filled the air.
99 screamed. “Max! We’re falling!”
“Yes, I think we blew the floor right out from under us,” Max replied.
A moment later, there was a splash-as big as three splashes.
“Max!” 99 cried, gasping for air. “We’re in the ocean!”
Max, bobbing on the surface, looked around. “No, 99,” he replied, “we’re not in the ocean.”
At that moment, the face of Steward 76 appeared.
“Max! No!” 99 wept.
“Yes,” Max said. “We’re in the indoor swimming pool.”
“It’s directly below Stateroom 14 on A Deck,” the steward explained. “Would you care to crawl out of the pool now? I think the Captain would like to see you.”
The steward escorted Max, 99 and Fang-dripping wet-to the Captain’s office.
“I fished them out of the pool, sir,” he said.
“That’s preposterous!” the Captain snorted. “What would they be doing in the pool in those white coats?”
“Would you believe that we were fixing the air-conditioning?” Max asked.
The Captain sighed, relieved. “I was afraid you wouldn’t have a logical explanation,” he said.
“They fell into the pool from Stateroom 14, Captain,” the steward said. “They were looting it.”
“And I say we were fixing the air-conditioning,” Max insisted.
“That puts me in a bit of a spot,” the Captain said. “Which one of you to believe?”
“I can settle that,” Max said, turning his back to the Captain. “Read that! What does it say?”
The Captain squinted. “It says: ‘Indian tent, totem pole, fat kangaroo, skinny-”
“No, no, the lettering,” Max interrupted.
“Max, that’s what the lettering says,” 99 explained. “It ran when it got wet in the pool. Now, Acme Air- Conditioning Repair looks like an Indian tent and a totem pole and a fat-”
“I know,” the Captain broke in, “I’ll believe you both. Max, because I believe you, I’ll let you go. And, because I also believe the steward, I’ll tell you this: The next time you get caught, you go to the brig!”
“I’ll accept that decision,” Max said.
“So will I,” the steward smiled. “With their luck, they’ll be there before lunch.”
“Yes,” Max snapped, “and with your luck, you’ll be the one who puts us there!”
“That’s telling ’im, Max!” the Captain beamed.
6
“How are we going to outwit that steward, Max?” 99 asked when they got outside the Captain’s office.
“Simple, 99. The old element of surprise.”
“But how exactly, Max?”
“Well, he expects us to begin searching staterooms again, doesn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“So, we’ll pull the old switcheroo. We’ll stop searching staterooms altogether.”
“Max, I don’t know how you do it! That steward will never figure that out!”
Max smiled modestly, “I’ve learned a few tricks in my life,” he admitted.
