Clive Cussler (2 page)

"What do you know about driving In a race with a powerboat?"

"I learned to fly Vin Fiz, didn't I?"

"She flew herself," said Lacey, laughing. "You only sat there and held the control stick like a dummy in a store window."

Casey glared at her. "She couldn't have done all those wonderful things without me."

"She flew so high," Lacey said dreamily.

"And she flew so fast," Casey added.

"We could make her big and fly again."

Casey shook his head. "Maybe someday," he said remembering their great flight, "but another adventure could be waiting for us to speed over the water instead of in the air."

Lacey could tell by the look on Casey's face that his mind was set. "When and where is this race?"

"Next Saturday," he replied. "The starting buoy is in San Francisco. The boats travel across the bay and then speed a hundred miles up the Sacramento River to the state capital before coming back again to the starting line at the marina."

"Do you really think your boat can go fast enough to win?" she asked her brother.

"If the mystical machine will give it enough magic, it will," he answered, staring at the model boat in his hands.

Lacey gazed across the fields at the Salinas River, where it ran past the farm on its way to the ocean at Monterey Bay. Thoughtfully, she curled her long golden-amber-colored hair between her fingers. "Mom and Dad are leaving to visit Aunt Polly in San Jose on Thursday. We could start early the next day and use the mystical machine to make the boat big. Then we could cruise up to San Francisco the day before the race, enter the next morning and be home before Mom and Dad the day after."

Suddenly, Floopy began jumping up and down on his short rear legs and barking, his long drooping ears flapping like flags in a Fourth of July breeze.

"See," said Casey, "Floopy wants to go too. I bet he thinks we can win."

Casey and Lacey could see that Floopy knew what they were talking about. He was a basset hound who loved adventure. He had sat in a box between the twins all the way to New York and back on the Vin Fiz, and his dog senses told him there was excitement in the air.

Lacey didn't waste time. She was a take-charge girl, and plans for the race were already forming in her mind. She knew what she and Casey had to do.

"You finish your model and make it as perfect as you can," she said, her mind churning. "I'll go to the boat store in town and buy charts showing the coast from here to San Francisco and up the river to Sacramento. They'll be the most important. Speeding up a river will take expert navigation. That will be my job."

Casey wasn't about to let his sister's business-like manner pass by him. "When the time comes, you can also make me a peanut butter sandwich for lunch with a cherry soda. Driving a powerboat makes a man hungry."

Lacey gave her brother a cold look. "You'll be lucky to get bread and water."

Casey ignored her. "We must be careful to make the model into a big boat out of sight of the neighbors. Sucop Sucoh said that if anyone but us knew about the machine, it would never work again."

"We'll be careful," Lacey agreed.

"Then it's a go," said Casey. "Come Friday afternoon, we'll be in San Francisco. On Saturday, we'll be racing up to the state capital with a fleet of powerboats."

But the twins had no idea how complicated entering the race could be. They had no idea there would be entry fees, scads of forms and applications to fill out, an inspection of their boat and documents describing their racing experience. They had the naive notion that all they had to do was show up and speed across the water when the race started.

"It certainly sounds exciting," Lacey said, trying to imagine what it would be like to actually compete against other boats.

The twins shook hands on their coming adventure. Floopy jumped up and down and barked, so they shook his paw too.

That night, after everyone was sleeping, Casey sat in bed under a sheet that was propped up with a stick like an Indian tepee. Using a flashlight, he put the finishing touches on his model powerboat. He secured the steering wheel and fastened the rudder. When he turned the steering wheel lightly, the rudder swung back and forth. Satisfied the sleek little boat was as correct as he could make it, he set it on his nightstand and stared at it, wondering if the mystical machine in the barn could make it speed through the water as Vin Fiz had flown through the air.

On Friday morning, the day after saying good-bye to her mother and father, Lacey was in the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the trip. She put the sandwiches and a thermos of cold milk in a backpack along with a few dog goodies for Floopy. After taking five one-dollar bills from a shoe box in her closet, she hurried across the yard to the barn as the first rays of the sun beamed on her golden amber hair. She didn't have to wait more than a minute before Casey walked in carrying the toy boat he had built with loving care. It was a sleek little craft with a tiny cockpit for the crew to sit in and steer. There was even a miniature American flag mounted on a staff in the stern.

"We can't make it big in the barn," said Lacey. "The river is nearly a hundred yards away."

He handed her the boat. "Here, you carry the Hotsy Totsy. I'll bring the pad and the mystical box."

She peered at the teeny words Casey had lettered on the bow, which is the front of the boat. "Hotsy Totsy? How did you come up with that?"

"It was the name of the powerboat I told you that won the Gold Cup."

"Vin Fiz," Lacey muttered to herself. "And now Hotsy Totsy." She carefully held the fragile little boat in her hands as she walked with Floopy trotting beside her down to the Nicefolk dock, which ran from the shore along the farm thirty feet into the Salinas River. She held the navigation charts of the California coastline and the Sacramento River under her arms.

Casey followed carrying the big shimmering pad over his shoulder and the copper box with two levers in his hands. At the end of the dock, he said, "I'm going to set the boat in a shallow part of the river so she can float."

He took off his shoes and socks and waded into the river until he climbed up a small mound of silt that rose from the bottom. He laid the pad down on the mound and set the copper box on the dock. Then he reached up, took the model boat from Lacey and placed it on the pad. Next, he climbed out of the water and sat on the dock as Floopy, tail wagging, trotted over and licked his face.

Lacey sat down beside Casey and stared at the model powerboat. "How big do you think it will be?" she asked.

"From what I read, Hotsy Totsy was a little over twenty-eight feet long by seven feet wide. It had a V-shaped hull with a shingled bottom like the roof of the farmhouse that made the boat slip easier through the water as it raised the bow."

Excitement grew in Lacey as she tried to imagine what the model boat would look like full size. She couldn't help but admire Casey's craftsmanship. "Okay, let's do it," she said, trembling with anticipation.

He nodded. "All right, wish with all your might." He picked up the copper box with two levers on the top. The left one made things big. The right one made things small. He pushed the Get Big lever and stared at the little model on the mound, wishing with all his heart that it would grow.

Casey and Lacey watched breathlessly as they wished and wished. The little boat glimmered and sparkled, followed by a swirling, whirling purple mist. Then came a burst of tiny stars and in the blink of an eye Hotsy Totsy became real, as real as the dock the twins stood on.

Lacey's blue eyes widened and she jumped for joy. "Oh, she's beautiful," she gasped in amazement.

Casey said nothing. He just stared and stared.

Hotsy Totsy was indeed a beautiful boat. Her long lines were sleek and graceful. Her hull, beginning with a small bow, widened as it reached the engine compartment in the middle and began rounding past the cockpit into a torpedo-shaped stern. The wooden hull was formed from dark mahogany and was varnished and highly polished. The seats of her cockpit were covered in a rich red leather. She was built for speed and appeared to be hurtling over the water even though she was sitting still.

Floopy jumped about the dock and barked and barked and barked.

"I'll bet she's fast," said Lacey.

Casey nodded. "The real Hotsy Totsy had a big Wright V-l2 aircraft engine that could push her over the water faster than any other boats."

Lacey held her hand over her eyes and glanced at the rising sun. She handed Casey a black baseball cap and tied a bandanna around her hair. "We'd better get moving if we want to reach San Francisco and sign up to run in the race."

Casey checked to see if he had his Swiss army knife in his pocket and jumped in the water, waded over to the boat and pushed the bow back and forth until the hull slid off the magic pad. He then hid the magic box and pad under a bush. With the boat moving free in the water, he eased it alongside the dock so Lacey and Floopy could climb down into the cockpit. Then he quickly put on his shoes and socks before studying the instrument panel and the single throttle that was attached to a foot pedal.

"Do you know how to start it?" asked Lacey as she and Floopy settled into the leather seat in the cockpit, anxious to get moving.

"Just like starting the tractor," Casey replied, self- assured.

Lacey had brought life jackets and wouldn't allow Casey to start Hotsy Totsy's engine until they slipped them on. She even settled one around Floopy so they could all float if thrown from the boat. Then she adjusted the seat belts and harness straps that Casey had thoughtfully installed on the model.

Casey pushed the big fuel pedal a half an inch downward. Then he looked for the choke and starter switch. He found them easily because they had little plates under them that labeled what they were. Carefully, cautiously, almost afraid of what would happen, he eased open the choke and pulled the starter switch.

The starter motor began to whine as it turned over the big Wright aircraft engine under the cowl in front of the cockpit. Then came a pop, followed by another pop, and then an entire series of pops inside the twelve cylinders until the engine burst into life with a thunderous roar through the exhaust pipes in the stern.

"She sounds awfully powerful," said Lacey, holding her hands over her ears.

"She's powerful, all right," shouted Casey above the roar. "The original Hotsy Totsy's engine turned out seven hundred and fifty horsepower." He gripped the shift lever that stood upright on the middle of floor and pushed it forward. The gears clunked and the powerboat moved forward, picking up speed as Casey cautiously eased his foot against the pedal.

Although she knew the Salinas River like the back of her hand from many enjoyable trips in their father's little fishing boat, Lacey spread her charts out on her lap and begin studying the riverbanks and the shoals. She wanted to warn Casey if he became excited and steered too close to them.

"Careful not to go too fast down the river," shouted Lacey. "There are fishermen in their rowboats, so you should stay under ten miles an hour."

"I'll be careful," Casey assured her. "I won't open her up until we come into the bay and enter the ocean."

So far there was nothing magical about Hotsy Totsy. She merely responded to Casey's hands on the throttle and steering wheel as he aimed her down the Salinas River into Monterey Bay. She gave no sign of mystical powers or any desire to control her own speed and direction like Vin Fiz had on her flight across the country.

Lacey could see the eager look on Casey's face. She could tell he was anxious to reach the Pacific Ocean and see how fast Hotsy Totsy could go. He kept glancing down at the fuel pedal, which stood nearly two inches above its stop. He held his foot back in anticipation of pushing it all the way to the floor.

At last, after what seemed a week in Casey's mind, they rounded a bend in the river and cruised into Monterey Bay. The smooth water of the river noticeably changed to choppy as the waves rolled in from the ocean.

"Hold on," he yelled in happy excitement. "Here we go." As he spoke the words, his foot pressed the throttle pedal and slowly pushed it all the way down. As quick as a cat runs through a half-open door,Hotsy Totsy lifted her bow and began skimming over the waves, her stern with its spinning bronze propeller whipping through the water. The bow rose until it was two feet above the water as the shingled, V-shaped hull lifted and cut through the waves like a knife, leaving a wide frothing wake that spread behind them.

To protect Floopy's eyes from the spray as the boat bounced over the waves, Lacey slipped a leather helmet with goggles over his head. It was the same helmet and goggles he had worn on the flight of the Vin Fiz.

He seemed happy as a lizard on a hot rock with his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth and his ears waggling in the breeze that blew over the small windshield in front of the cockpit.

"How do you like it?" Casey yelled to Lacey.

"Oh, this is great fun," she answered as they passed a sloop under sail as if it was standing still.

They swept past famous Cannery Row in the town of Monterey as Casey steered clear of fishing boats going out to sea to catch mackerel, halibut and cod. Some of the fishing fleet were going after crabs that crawled into wooden traps sitting on the seabed and were attached to a line that stretched upward to a buoy so they could be pulled into the boats.

The fishermen stared in astonishment at the Hotsy Totsy as it whisked by them, leaving them rocking to and fro in its wake. They couldn't believe that such a speedy craft was being driven by two children and a funny-looking dog wearing a leather helmet with goggles. Lacey and her brother waved, but the fishermen were too surprised to wave back.

Fortunately for the twins, the summer weather was warm and enjoyable. There was a light mist on the water, common in the morning along the California coast. Casey kept a sharp eye on the rugged coastline so he wouldn't run Hotsy Totsy onto the rocks that stretched from the shore. Although he and Lacey were good swimmers, tearing the bottom out of such a beautiful boat and watching her sink below the waves wasn't a calamity he wanted to experience.