“That hamburger looks good, though,” 99 said.
“Horrible,” von BOOM growled. “The idiots made it with ham.”
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. When it was finished, the waiter left the check at the table.
“Does anybody know how much to tip a Russian waiter?” Max asked.
Von BOOM got up and headed toward the far end of the dining car.
“Max! Get him!” 99 said.
“It’s all right, 99. He’s going to the kitchen. He wants to complain to the chef.”
“But, Max, you said ‘tip.’ ”
“I’m aware of that, 99,” Max replied. “I still contend that he’s going to the kitchen, though. Think, 99. Where are we? We’re in a dining car. A dining car is a restaurant on wheels. Would it make any sense to leave a restaurant to go to a restaurant? I knew when I said it that, as long as we were in a restaurant, anyway, it was perfectly safe to say ‘tip.’ ”
“Max, I’m just- Max! The train is stopping! Something has happened to Professor von BOOM!”
“Nonsense, 99. You’re a worry-wort. Look out the window. This is a regular stop, that’s all. See the little village?”
“Oh. Oh. . yes. You’re right, Max, I was foolish to worry.”
“Of course, 99. See? The train is starting up again. It probably stopped to let off a passenger-somebody who lives in that little village. Now, it will- There-look, 99. See that dumpy little man on the platform? He’s probably the one who got off. There was absolutely-”
“Max!” 99 screeched. “That dumpy little man! That’s Professor von BOOM!”
Max peered out the window. “He
“Max, I know it’s him!”
“Follow me, 99. We’ll check it out.”
They got up and walked to the end of the car. “Did you see a dumpy-” Max started to say to a waiter who was standing there.
“He got off at the last stop,” the waiter broke in.
“Quick, Max! After him!” 99 cried.
With Max in the lead, they rushed out to the platform. The train had picked up a good bit of speed.
“Jump, 99!”
Together, they leaped from the platform, and together they hit the ground and then rolled, ending up in a tangle in a ditch. The train sped on, leaving them.
“It’s a good thing Control gives its agents parachute training,” Max said, rising and helping 99 to her feet. “Otherwise, we might have been killed.”
“Max, I don’t see him.”
“Of course not, 99. We must be at least a mile from the station. Hurry.”
Running as fast as they could, they rushed back to the village, then began going from restaurant to restaurant asking about von BOOM. Since there were only two restaurants, the task did not take long. At the first restaurant they were advised that the last little dumpy man who had been there was a Frenchman named Napoleon who had stopped for a sandwich on his way to Moscow. The proprietor of the second restaurant was more helpful, however.
“Dumpy?” he said. “How dumpy? About like you?”
“Much dumpier,” Max replied crisply.
“I saw him,” the proprietor replied. “He passed the restaurant only a few minutes ago.”
“Passed?” Max said, surprised.
“He went thataway,” the proprietor nodded, pointing up the street.
Max and 99 hurried in the direction the man had pointed. They soon reached the end of the business district.
“Gone, Max!” 99 wailed.
“He must be in one of these houses, 99.”
“But he should be in a restaurant.”
“Maybe he smelled home-cooking. Come on. We’ll just have to go from door to door until we find him.”
At the first house, there was no answer to their knock. At the second house, the woman who answered said that she hadn’t seen a dumpy little man since her neighbor, the man next door, had left for Leningrad two weeks earlier. At the third house, the door was opened by a dumpy little man.
“No, I haven’t seen anybody in town lately,” he replied to Max’s question. “I just got off the Trans Siberian Railway. I’ve been in Leningrad for the past two weeks.”
Max clapped a hand to his brow. “Von BOOM!”
“No need to shout,” the dumpy little man said.
“We’re sorry,” 99 told him. “We thought you were somebody else.”
“Two weeks in Leningrad changes a person,” the dumpy little man said. He closed the door.
“Max, do you realize what this means?” 99 said. “Professor von BOOM is still on the train! We’ve lost him!”
“Not yet, 99. Let’s get to the airport, hire a plane, and catch the train at the next stop.”
“Brilliant, Max!”
They rushed back to the second restaurant.
“Quick!” Max said to the proprietor. “Where’s the airport?”
The proprietor frowned thoughtfully. “Behind the bag of onions?” he guessed.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Max asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never even played this game before.”
“It isn’t a game,” Max said. “We have to get to the airport. We need a fast plane-and fast!”
“You’re asking directions from the wrong person,” the proprietor said. “I didn’t even know we had an airport until you mentioned it.”
“No airport, Max!” 99 groaned.
“All right, we’ll just have to settle for a fast car,” Max said. “Is there a fast car in town?” he asked the proprietor.
“You know it, buddy!” the proprietor beamed. “We got an American car. Zoom! It’s the same kind of car all you Americans drive on your super highways. Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! It’s what you Americans call a bestseller. Everybody in the United States who is anybody has a car like this. Zoom!”
“A Ford!” Max said. “Great. Now-”
The proprietor was shaking his head.
“A Chevy?” Max said.
“You don’t know much about America,” the proprietor said. “This is the most popular car on the road. Ready? An Edsel!”
“We’ll give it a try,” Max said gloomily.
The proprietor telephoned his brother-in-law, the owner of the Edsel, and a few minutes later he drove up to the restaurant. Max and 99 got in and the car sped off, headed for the town at which the train was scheduled to stop next.
“Will we make it?” Max asked the driver.
“In a breeze,” he replied. “I wound the key as tight as it would go.”
“This is a wind-up car!” Max said, appalled.
“My own invention,” the driver replied. “It saves on gas.”
They reached the town just as the train, which had stopped, was pulling out again. Max and 99 jumped from the car, raced along the platform, and leaped aboard the train, catching it at the very moment that it started to pick up speed.
“By a whisker!” Max breathed. “Now-let’s find von BOOM!”
They ran along the aisle toward the front of the train. Other passengers dived to the left and right to avoid getting run down. A few moments later, they reached the dining car. Max spotted the waiter who had served them.
“A dumpy little man-did you see him?” he panted.
