“You had a clear responsibility to shut me up, Hymie, and you muffed it. How you got to be an executive, I’ll never know.”
Again, Max motioned to Hymie, and they withdrew to a corner of the cell.
“We have to get out of here,” Max said, whispering. “Now-how do we do it?”
“I don’t know, Max.”
“Hymie, I figured out the problem. It’s your duty, as the leader, to come up with the solution. Do I have to do it all myself?”
“Do you have a suggestion, Max?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. First, I think we ought to overpower the guard.”
“But we’ll still be locked in the cell, Max.”
“Mmmmmm. . you’re right. All right, first, we have to escape from the cell. .
“Fine, Max. How do we escape?”
“Wouldn’t you like to do the thinking from here on out, Hymie? It’s your turn, you know.”
“It’s too bad we didn’t pick up some escape devices from Research and Development before we left,” Hymie said.
“Yes. Good old R amp; D is always- Wait a minute! I may have some left over from my last case,” Max said, digging a hand into his pocket. He brought out a small metal spoon.
“What’s that?” Hymie asked.
“It’s a small metal spoon,” Max replied.
“I mean what is it really?”
“Really, it’s a small metal spoon,” Max replied. “I don’t know what it’s doing in my pocket-it belongs in my sandbox.”
“Could we use it in some way, Max?”
“Well. . if the guard is a sand-boxer himself, and he doesn’t have a small metal spoon, I suppose we could try bribing him.”
Hymie shook his head. “I don’t think so, Max.”
“If we could get him to take us to the machine shop, we could make it into a key,” Max suggested.
“I doubt it, Max.”
“Hold the spoon,” Max said. “I’ll see what else I can find.”
He dug into his pocket again. This time, he came up with a metal item about the size of an aspirin tablet. “This will do it,” he said. “This is used for underwater demolition. This one little explosive will blow up a body of water the size of Lake Ontario. My last case was at the bottom of the Pacific. The mission was to destroy a KAOS secret underwater nuclear power installation.”
“Did you do it, Max?”
“Would I still have the explosive if I’d done it?”
“What happened?”
“It’s dark at the bottom of the Pacific,” Max replied. “I couldn’t find the explosive. At the time, I had a slight headache-from thinking about carrying around an explosive the size of an aspirin tablet that could blow up a body of water the size of Lake Ontario-and so, I was also carrying some aspirin tablets. Well, as it happened, the explosive got mixed up with the aspirin tablets. And, my light wouldn’t work-”
“What was the matter with it, Max?”
“How do I know? I used up a whole box of matches, trying to strike a light. Defective workmanship, I suppose.”
“Maybe it was because you were at the bottom of the Pacific,” Hymie suggested.
“Hymie, above or below sea level, matches should still work. Anyway,” he said, “that was another case. It’s just lucky I didn’t use this explosive to blow up that nuclear power installation. If I had, I wouldn’t have it with me now. And this explosive, Hymie, is going to get us out of here.”
“It probably would, Max,” Hymie said. “But I think we’d regret it.”
“Oh? How so?”
“Max, if it’s powerful enough to blow up a body of water the size of Lake Ontario, what do you suppose it will do to this cell-and everybody in it?”
“That’s a very good point, Hymie. We better crawl under that bunk, so we won’t get hurt.”
“That won’t help, Max. Think about it.”
Max thought about it, then put the explosive back into his pocket. “I guess we’re stuck with the spoon,” he said.
“That won’t be much help, either, Max.”
“Never say die,” Max said. “I saw a Jimmy Cagney picture once where he rattled on the cell bars with a spoon. It made an awful racket.”
“Did it get him out of the cell, Max?”
“No, but it got me out of the theater,” Max replied. “And maybe the same thing would work in this instance. I’ll rattle the spoon on the bars. The noise may drive the guard away. And once the guard is gone, we can use the spoon to start digging our way out.”
“Max-”
But Max was determined. He began rattling the spoon on the bars, making a terrible racket.
“Hey!” the guard said, coming to the cell door. “That’s a terrible racket. You’re giving me a headache.”
“Sorry about that,” Max said sympathetically. “I know exactly how that is.” He dug into his pocket. “Here. Here’s an aspirin.”
“Thanks,” the guard replied, taking the tablet and swallowing it.
Max began rattling the spoon on the bars again.
The guard drew his gun and pointed it at Max. “Do that once more, and you get it right between the eyes!” he warned.
Glowering, Max put the spoon away. The guard returned to his post.
“Max! Do you know what you gave that guard!” Hymie said.
“Yes-a very nasty look!” Max replied. “He could have been polite about asking me to stop, he didn’t have to threaten me.”
“That aspirin, I mean. That was the explosive!”
“Oh-oh,” He called through the bars. “Guard! I want you to know that you don’t have to worry about us trying to make a jailbreak. So, don’t make any sudden moves. If you hear or see anything unusual, don’t panic. Ask questions first. Whatever you do, don’t jump up or run.”
“Quiet!” the guard yelled back.
“Leave him alone, Max,” Hymie said. “You might upset him.”
“Maybe we better get under that bunk, anyway, Hymie-just in case.”
“There’s nothing but cotton padding on that bunk, Max. What good would that do?”
“Don’t forget-I’ll be holding my spoon over us, too.”
8
As soon as 99 had had breakfast that morning, she strolled out to where the horse and cow were standing, grazing, assuming that Max and Hymie would make contact with her there. But morning passed and they did not appear. 99 took a half-hour off for lunch, then returned to the corral. She noticed now that all of the hired hands were clean-shaven. That started her wondering. Was it possible that Max and Hymie, obeying their bedside computers, had taken off their false mustaches? If so, they might have been recognized. They might now, in fact, be in the clutches of Ways and Means!
Beginning to worry, 99 strolled to the pool, mingled with the other guests, and began asking sly questions.
“Well. . any clues to anything?” she inquired of a middle-aged man, settling down beside him in the next deck
