“How’s Jack McGraw feeling?” Andy asked.
“He’s recovering,” Ned replied. “He’s been through quite a lot.”
“I owe him an apology for running away,” Andy said.
“Pish posh,” said Ned. “He’s quite forgotten about that. He saw your loyalty to your friends when you faced off with Cedric and has no doubt about your character.”
Andy watched a group of fireflies dancing near one of the Navigation Company boats. The vessel was half submerged in the river, but Andy could see its name, Sankuru Sadie, inscribed on the side of the hull. Seeing the broken vessel reminded Andy of his friends and how beaten up they’d been after fighting the Collective.
Ned seemed to read Andy’s thoughts and said, “Albert is seeing to it that the others receive proper medical attention. They’re safely installed at a very good jungle hospital nearby, a place where I myself worked at one time.”
Andy nodded. That was good. But he still felt a bit melancholy. Ned studied Andy, squinting at him through his monocle. “Something bothering you, my boy?”
“We lost the Golden Paw,” Andy said. “It sank into the quicksand with Cedric.”
“True,” Ned said. “And I can think of no better place for it. It’s safer there, lost forever, than locked away where someone else can find it.”
“When the Potentate was disguised as John Bartlemore, she gave me something called the Ghost Box. I was supposed to put the pendant in it and then the box would vanish, keeping it safe,” Andy said.
Ned chuckled. “A great parlor trick, the Ghost Box. But she knew that you would never find the Golden Paw. It was her way of convincing you that she was on the up and up.”
Ned bobbed a little on the new string that suspended him in his cabinet. “You can buy those ghost boxes at any magic shop. It’s a fairly simple illusion and wouldn’t have kept something as dangerous as the Golden Paw any more protected than a cereal box.”
Andy was quiet.
“Something else?” Ned asked.
Andy stared off into the shadowy jungle. “Cedric wasn’t able to drag the secrets of the Jungle Explorers’ Society from you, was he?”
“He tried,” Ned said. “But he wasn’t prepared for a head such as my own. Quite resistant to torture and the extraction of any information I’m unwilling to give, this noggin of mine.” Ned laughed. “I’m always two steps ahead of my enemies, don’t you know?”
Andy smiled at his grandfather’s little joke, but he still felt anxious. “But, Grandfather, Cedric said that the Potentate has the Key of Fate now. If she gets the page from the Library of Alexandria and activates the Doomsday Device, that will be the end of everything. All that we’ve tried to accomplish, along with our lives, will be lost!”
He looked up at Ned. “I can’t stand the idea of losing you again, Grandfather.”
Ned chuckled gently. “Nonsense. Don’t give up yet, my boy. There are still ways that we can stop her. The last thing you need to learn before becoming a full-fledged member of the Jungle Explorers’ Society is that we never give up hope. It’s as much a part of who we are as saying yes to adventure and staying loyal to our friends.”
Andy sighed. Of all the things he had to learn, perhaps this would be the hardest. It was so easy to think the worst could happen when a terrible situation was staring you in the face. He was a worrier by nature.
“It just so happens that Nicodemus Crumb, an associate of mine, knows the location of a very special person most people don’t even know exists. He’s older than the oldest trees and incredibly hard to locate. However, I believe that with his help, we still may defeat our enemies.”
Andy felt a flicker of hope. He knew his grandfather well enough to know that if he said there was still a chance, there really was.
“When do we leave?” Andy asked.
“Just as soon as your friends are healed,” Ned replied.
Andy gazed at the swirling river, noting how the stars reflected in its surface rippled and moved. It was a beautiful sight, and seeing his reflection there, surrounded by stars, reminded him again of his new friends. He would stick by them through the most difficult of times, and he knew, having seen them in action, that they’d do the same for him.
“Thank you for always being there, Grandfather,” Andy said. “For always believing in me, even when I make mistakes.”
Ned’s blue eyes twinkled as he gazed at his young grandson. “But of course, dear boy. You’ve got the Lostmore Spirit. And there’s nothing you could do that would keep me from believing the best of you.”
Andy smiled, and Ned grinned back at him. “Now then, are you ready for your next adventure? It’s bound to be filled with all kinds of danger, excitement, and near-death experiences.”
“I am a Lostmore,” Andy said proudly. “It’s what we live for, isn’t it?” Then, with a wink, he added the secret word that every Jungle Explorers’ Society member said when setting off for adventures.
“Kungaloosh!”
