Nick of Time Page 10

  “Five seconds!”

  Gunner popped inside. They were all safe.

  “Horatio!” Katie cried out in panic.

  The big white cat was standing on the dock just outside the door, looking quizzically at the three of them. They’d forgotten all about him. He was peering curiously into the doorway, about to use another of his nine lives for the second time that day.

  “Fish,” Gunner said, and Horatio instantly leaped inside as the door swung shut with a loud hiss and then a solid thud, missing Horatio’s tail by a fraction. All sirens and horns ceased in an instant. They looked at each other, bathed in the red light and the sudden silence, each taking a deep breath and trying to avoid thinking about what could have happened on the dock outside. The sudden silence was complete and a relief to their still ringing ears.

  “Fish?” Nick asked Gunner, finally breaking the silence. “D’you say fish?”

  “D’you think the puss would’ve jumped in here if I’d said, ‘lectric dock, little kitty, step lively’?”

  Nick smiled. “Right then. Everyone ready? There’s another door at the end of this tunnel. It must lead to the castle proper somehow. Let’s go find out if Lord Hawke is more neighborly in person than he seems at first glance,” Nick said, grinning from ear to ear, and giving his sister a quick hug. He’d taken a calculated risk, but they were safely inside Hawke Castle and his instincts were not abandoning him. Not yet, at least.

  “Oh sure, laddie, Lord Hawke’s probably saving the real friendly bit for when we ring his front doorbell. Keeps a little bit o’ dynamite under the doormat, he does, just to be neighborly, when sociable folks such as us comes callin’,” Gunner muttered under his breath, lifting the chest and trailing his two friends into the hazy light of a tunnel that, as far as he knew, led straight down to Hades.

  Which, at this point, would have hardly surprised him. “Probably offer us a nice pot o’ poisoned tea, too,” Gunner added, just loud enough for Nick to hear.

  Gunner decided then and there that, after this day, nothing on this island would ever surprise him again.

  He couldn’t have been more wrong.

  The greatest surprises of his life were waiting just beyond the next door.

  CHAPTER XII

  The Chinese Butler

  6 June 1939

  HAWKE CASTLE

  There was no handle on this second door, either, and it appeared to be made of steel as thick as Nick’s old family Bible. And, of course, who knew what lay on the other side of it? The highly machined and polished steel reflected their three red-tinged images back at them like a mirror. It was not an inviting door, nor was it meant to be. As far as Gunner was concerned, this was probably the way the door to Hades would look, and therefore, no surprise to him.

  “Why don’t we just leave ’em a little note?” Gunner said, stroking his full white beard. “And just say, blimey, sorry we missed you, m’lord, we’ll ring you on the telephone first thing in the mornin’.”

  Nick gave him a look and Gunner shrugged it off as a joke. He saw that look in Nick’s eye once more and it crossed Gunner’s mind that Nick might one day make a fine officer in His Majesty’s Royal Navy. The good ones he’d known possessed exactly this kind of unbending determination. And he also realized that he’d always known this about the boy, ever since he’d been a wee one. He was a boy born with a heart for any fate.

  “Maybe there’s a hidden control panel that opens the door,” Nick said, “but we probably need the code.”

  “Or maybe you just push it open,” Katie said, and put her little hand against the steel. A kind of warning lamp above the steel door illuminated and began flashing. The door opened an inch or so, and Kate said, “See?”

  SEA LEVEL. Blink. SEA LEVEL. Blink. SEA LEVEL, the warning sign read.

  Nick was just about to wonder what that meant when the door swung fully open with a whoosh and a rush of misty icecold air. Gunner smelled something he recognized instantly. Marine-grade motor oil and high octane gasoline. It smelled like a shipyard in there. Motor oil? That meant motors, and what kind of motors could there be down here? They were inside a solid mountain of rock unless he was mistaken.

  The white mist cleared.

  “Well, I’ll be blowed sideways to Rangoon,” Gunner said, and they all stared in openmouthed wonder at the sight before them.

  Another lagoon, except this one was entirely inside the mountainous rocky cliff!

  A cavernous underground lake that was at least twice the size of the one they’d left above. There was a complex system of docks, all painted bright yellow, and boat slips, and connecting bridges. There was even a small crane, mounted on a set of small-gauge railroad tracks that ran the length of the main dock. To Nick’s delight, there were several highly experimental watercraft, the likes of which he’d never seen before.

  A hazy blue electric light filled the cavern and, here, too, there were underwater floodlights that turned the water a luminous yellow-green. There was a continuous hum in the background that Nick decided was the sound of generators or some other power source. The whole place was utterly astounding and the fact that it even existed on a place as remote and desolate as tiny Greybeard Island served only to make it that much more thrilling.

  “Nick, look!” Kate said, pointing at one very strange craft. “A big floating cigar!” Nick followed her down the dock.

  “Katie, do you know what this is?” Nick asked in breathless excitement. “Only the S-1 two-man aluminum submarine, that’s all! The press reports said she went down with two crew off the Azores! And, that the top-secret project had been canceled because of the disaster! Well, then, what is this? The S-1 herself I’ll tell you, and—”

  Nick stopped dead in his tracks. She was far more beautiful close up than he’d ever dreamed she could be. A low whistle escaped his lips as he read the name painted in gold on the varnished transom.

  THOR

  What on earth was Thor doing in Lord Hawke’s secret underground marina? Was this the secret base of “Captain Thor” himself?

  She was indeed a boat a boy could only dream of, Nick thought, whistling silently as he gazed longingly at her. Sixty feet of gleaming mahogany, polished to such a luster you could see your face in her topsides! And, in the slip right next to the beautiful cruiser, a triple-engined seaplane, of all things! Nick, feeling like a child in the world’s most wonderful candy shop, didn’t know where to turn his attention first. The most beautiful boat in the world? Or a sleek, black seaplane deep inside an underground lake?

  “Nicky!” Kate cried out from across the smoky blue lagoon. “Nicky, come look what I’ve found!” But her brother made no reply as he was so busy looking at a funny-looking black aeroplane that floated on the water. He and Gunner were so excited about all the silly boats and aeroplanes that Kate had decided to have a look all by herself.

  She had found two strange little illuminated buttons next to another steel door in the cavern wall. There were indeed the two funniest buttons she had ever seen.

  One read UP.

  One read DOWN.

  What on earth could they be?

  That’s all they said. What went up? What went down? She couldn’t even imagine, but she thought they were very funny. She stood up on her tiptoes and jabbed her index finger at the DOWN button.

  Nothing happened.

  She punched the other one and it started blinking but that was all. Boring. She pushed DOWN again, but UP kept blinking. Really boring.

  She turned around to see what her brother and Gunner were doing with the little floating aeroplane. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to him across the underground harbor.

  “Nicky, come on! We’ve got to find Jipper and you’re going to be late for supper again!” she said. Not that she was all that worried about Nicky getting into trouble, mind you, but she was getting very hungry herself. She wanted to get home to her book, too—Black Beauty. Her most favorite.

  “One minute, Katie!”
her brother said. He had climbed out on one of the aeroplane’s floating pontoons and was talking to Gunner. He was so silly about some things lately that it was starting to make her cranky. All these old boats and aeroplanes. Really. Why weren’t they having any fun anymore? Were they ever going to have another picnic? She stuck her tongue out at Nicky and Gunner, even though she knew they couldn’t see her, and it made her feel a little bit better.

  Now, if she had a horse just like Beauty here on Greybeard, why she could ride all—What was that? She’d heard a funny noise directly behind her. Pirates? She turned around very slowly with her eyes squinched shut just in case.

  No pirates, thank goodness, she saw, cracking one eye open the teeniest bit.

  Just a silly little room where the big steel door with the buttons had been. A tiny room, actually, with no furniture at all except a pretty wooden bench with a green velvet cushion.

  She stepped forward and peered inside.

  It was a very nice room even if it was a wee bit small. The walls were paneled with gleaming wood. In addition to the settee, there was a pretty gold mirror with an eagle on top. She wanted to sit on that little velvet cushion, it looked so comfortable. And, after all, she was very tired.

  She stepped inside and sat down and it was quite comfortable, indeed. And on either side of the open door were two pretty lamps with an “H” and a crown over it on the lampshades. It was all very fancy, she thought. La-dee-dah, as Mother would say.

  Then the big steel door slid shut with a whoosh of air.

  Oh my goodness. She seemed to be locked in the tiny room.

  Then the room began to shake and rumble and her head fell back against the wall. She felt like the room was moving although that plainly could not be. Rooms didn’t move except maybe in China when they had those terrible earthquakes she’d heard about. Was this an earthquake? Inside a mountain? She didn’t think so, but you couldn’t help but wonder. At least she didn’t live in China where you had to worry about such things all the time.

  She decided to just sit there and not be afraid and make the best of it. Sooner or later her brother would come over and knock on the door and let her out. He was quite accustomed to rescuing her, after all. She’d just have to wait.

  Suddenly, the pretty room stopped moving. It jerked once, then stopped for good. The door whooshed back inside the wall, where it must have disappeared before. She sat on the settee and swung her legs back and forth, waiting to wake up from the funny dream. She blinked her eyes. She blinked them again. It was too impossible.

  The room had moved!

  Instead of all the silly boats and aeroplanes that had been outside the room before, now there was daylight coming through windows and a tall man standing just outside the door looking in at her. He looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. Maybe more so because his eyes were staring so hard they were almost coming out of his head and his mouth hung open and he had forgotten to close it. He was very nice-looking, but he did have the most peculiar expression.

  “Hullo,” Kate said. “Are you Chinese?”

  “I beg your pardon, miss?”

  “I know they only have earthquakes in China and I’ve just been in one that made this funny little room move, so I thought you might be Chinese,” Katie said, trying to be friendly. She had noticed that the man had a sword in his hand and, although he didn’t look the type to be cutting a little girl’s head off, one couldn’t be too careful.

  “I assure you, I am not Chinese. I am, as it happens, from Cornwall.”

  Katie thought he spoke beautiful English. Deciding he was most definitely not Chinese, she smiled at him.

  “Are you going to cut my head off?” she asked.

  “Certainly not!” said the handsome man.

  “Then why do you have a sword?”

  The man looked at the sword as if he’d completely forgotten he was carrying it. Then he looked back at Katie. He kept forgetting to close his mouth when he stared at her. He was funny.

  “Well, because I have just been—that is, I mean to say, I have just been giving my employer a fencing lesson. Besides, this is not a sword, as you so incorrectly put it; it is called a foil.” He put the foil behind his back. “I say, this is most remarkable! How on earth did you get—”

  “So this isn’t China?” Katie said, hopping off the settee.

  “Hardly. This is Hawke Castle. Look here, I must say—”

  Katie offered him her hand. He took it.

  “Well! Are you Lord Hawke?” Katie asked. “That’s who we came to visit.”

  “Certainly not. I am in Lord Hawke’s employ. Although I very much doubt that you came to visit him. We do not receive visitors here, we generally shoot them. You are quite fortunate to be alive, my child. There is clearly a grievous flaw in the security system. I am in charge of any number of things here, including keeping people off the premises. I seem to be failing miserably. If someone such as yourself, I mean to say, if a mere five-year-old—”

  “I’m six and three-quarters, actually,” Katie said, “practically seven.”

  “I beg your pardon, six. If a six-year-old child can penetrate—sorry, six and three-quarters—can penetrate our security defenses, then heaven knows who—tell me, how on God’s green earth did you come to be in this castle? It’s quite impossible, you know!”

  “Nicky says nothing is impossible. We came here on my brother’s sailboat. It’s called Stormy Petrel, after the bird that always flies ahead of the storm. Nicky says that’s what we do. Fly before the storm, I mean. Have you ever heard of that bird?”

  “I have a passing acquaintance with ornithology, yes. You sailed in from the sea, did you? Well, of course, that is quite impossible.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because, my dear child,” the handsome man puffed himself up and said, “there is a thirty-foot chain-mesh curtain called a Seagate that prohibits any boat—or submarine, for that matter—from either entering or leaving Hawke Lagoon unless I open it. It’s made of titanium and steel and is virtually indestuctible. When raised, it spans the opening to the lagoon, lying just below the water level so as to be completely invisible. I designed it myself and it’s the only one of its kind on earth.” The man smiled down at her. “Completely impenetrable,” he said, rocking back on his heels in a funny way, as if he was very happy with himself. “Completely.”

  “So then you must have left your gate open,” Katie said with a bright smile. “Or somebody else opened it foryou, I suppose.”

  “Aha! Well, that is quite impossible! You see, the only possible way the Seagate can be opened or closed is with this device here, which is always on my person.”

  He reached inside the tweed coat he was wearing over his funny white suit. “It’s the world’s first radio-wave, handheld, remote controller! Just a minute, where is the blasted thing—” He patted all his pockets, finally pulling a small, silvery object from one of them. “Ah, here it is! See, the red button is—I say! That’s quite impossible!”

  “You really are quite funny. My brother thinks nothing is impossible and you think everything is impossible!”

  “Hold on! Why, the green button is lit! The Seagate is, as you say, open! Impossible! How could that—ah, yes. Lord Hawke’s thrust to the heart must have struck my breast pocket. Marvelous swordsman, he is. Hit me right in the green button! By jove, that’s quite remarkable. Well, well, I suppose I do jolly well owe you an apology. The Seagate is open.”

  “You see, nothing’s impossible. That’s what my brother always says. And he’s my hero. He saved Horatio.”

  “Your brother. You mean there are more of you? I must sound the alarm and—”

  “Are you going to kidnap me? You can if you want to. My brother will only rescue me again. He always does, you see. Some people have an angel sitting on their shoulder. I have a brother!”

  “Why on earth would I want to kidnap you?” the man said, taking a step backward. “Frankly, I am so shocked by your app
earance that I hardly know what to even make of you! You say you have a brother? I say! Is he lurking about the premises as well?”

  “Well, he is around here somewhere,” Kate said. “Since the room I was in moved, I’m not sure where he is exactly. The last time I saw him, he was on an aeroplane. He said it was experimental. He’s very interested in anything experimental. Anything at all. He’s very smart, actually.”

  “My word! On an aeroplane, you say? You don’t mean to say he—How old is this brother of yours?”

  “He’s twelve. Gunner’s probably fifty at least. I’m staying with him now. Right next to the room with all the guns.”

  “I say!” the man said, looking shocked. “Did you say guns?”

  “Right, guns. Gunner wanted to put a cannon on our boat but we never got to do it. I don’t think we could hit anybody anyway. A very small little cannon. Just in case we ran into any pirates, although you probably think that’s impossible, too. Since pirates don’t exist anymore, I mean.”

  “Gunner? Who on earth is he?”

  “He’s our friend. The one with all the guns.”

  “All the guns? I think perhaps you’d better step inside. What is your name, child?”

  “Katie McIver,” she said with a curtsy and a smile. “What’s yours?”

  “Hobbes. Miss,” the man said, shaking her hand. “I hold the title of Commander in the British Royal Navy, but that won’t be necessary. You may call me simply Hobbes. Everyone else does. You’re not Angus McIver’s child by any chance?”

  “Sure! He’s my father! So’s that your old ’luminium cigar we saw, Hobbes?” she asked, referring to the small two-man sub Nick had pointed out to her.

  “I’m frightfully sorry, I’m afraid my hearing’s not quite up to par anymore. Did you ask if I smoked aluminum cigars?” Hobbes replied.

  “You can’t smoke them, silly, they’d be too wet!” Katie giggled.

  “Yes, quite right. Who’d wish to smoke a wet cigar? Ahem. Well, there you are then. Where did you say this brother of yours was? And the chappie with all the guns?”