Night of the New Magicians (4 page)

J
ack and Annie whirled around. A dark figure was standing at a side door of the institute.
The sorcerer!
Jack thought. He frantically tried to remember his line of the rhyme.

“Can I help you?” the figure said. He stepped forward into the light of a gas lamp. He was an old man with stooped shoulders. His hair was white and he had a friendly smile.

“Hi! Who are you?” asked Annie.

“I am the night watchman,” the man said. “The institute is closed for the night. Have you
been bitten by a dog? Have you come for the rabies treatment?”

“No, we’re fine,” said Annie.

“Is that what you do here?” asked Jack. “You treat people for rabies?”

“Yes. Not I, of course, but Dr. Pasteur. He treats other diseases as well,” said the old man. “He is the world’s foremost medical researcher.”

“Really?” said Jack. “What does he research?”

“Microbes,” said the night watchman.

“Microbes?” said Annie.

“Germs,” explained Jack.

“Yuck,” said Annie.

“Microbes are invisible to the eye,” said the old man. “Some are useful and necessary, but others can cause great harm. Dr. Pasteur battles the deadly ones with research and vaccines and new medicines.”

Annie gasped.
“He battles deadly enemies no one can see!”
she said. “He’s the Magician of the Invisible!”

“Yes!” said Jack.

The old man smiled. “I suppose you could say that,” he said. “Dr. Pasteur has certainly helped a lot of people.”

“We have to find him,” said Annie. “Do you know where he is now?”

“Unfortunately, you have just missed him,” said the night watchman. “Earlier, a messenger left an invitation for him.”

“A strange man in a black cloak?” said Annie.

“You know him?” said the night watchman.

“Not really,” said Jack. “But we think we know who he is. What did the invitation say?”

“I do not know,” said the old man. “But when Dr. Pasteur read it, he left immediately. He said he had to get to the Eiffel Tower by ten p.m.”

“The Eiffel Tower?” said Annie.

“By ten p.m.?” said Jack. “Do you know what time it is now?”

The old man pulled out a pocket watch. “It is about twenty-five minutes until ten.”

“Yikes, we’d better get going!” said Annie.

“Thanks for your help,” Jack said to the night watchman.

“You’re welcome,” the old man said. Then he stepped back inside the institute and closed the door.

“Hurry!” said Annie. She and Jack ran down the steps to the street.

“Dr. Louis Pasteur!” said Jack. “I’ve heard of him, too! This is crazy. None of these guys are really magicians. They’re all famous for doing great things in science and stuff!”

“I wonder who the
fourth
‘magician’ is,” said Annie. “The Magician of Iron, who bends the metals of earth and triumphs over the wind. Is he a magician or a scientist or what?”

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “But we have to get to that tower fast! We have to find the magicians and learn their secrets—before the sorcerer finds them!”

Jack and Annie looked up and down the
lamp-lit street. A man was pushing a cart over the cobblestones. A couple on a two-seater bicycle rode by and disappeared. Then a horse and carriage clattered up the street.

“Taxi!” yelled Jack.

But the horse and carriage kept going. There was no sign of another one. The street was empty except for Jack and Annie.

“Let’s start walking,” said Jack.

“Look,” said Annie.

The couple on the two-seater bicycle rattled back down the road. They stopped near a yellow streetlamp.

“We heard you call for help. Do you need assistance?” the man asked in a gruff voice.

Jack and Annie stepped closer to the bike. The riders were an odd-looking couple. The man was short. He wore a tall black hat and had a bushy beard and a long mustache. The woman was short, also. She wore a hat with a veil that hid most of her face.

“We need to know the quickest way to the Eiffel Tower,” said Annie. “We have to get there by ten. It’s an emergency!”

“An emergency! Oh, dear!” exclaimed the woman in a high, squeaky voice.

The man cleared his throat and spoke in his low, gruff voice. “It would take quite a long time to walk to the Eiffel Tower from here,” he said. “Perhaps you should take our bicycle.”

“Really?” said Jack.

“Of course,” said the man, “if it’s
truly
an emergency.”

“It’s an emergency, all right,” said Annie. “But how can we get your bike back to you?”

“Just leave it for us under the arches at the bottom of the tower,” said the man.

“We can pay you for letting us borrow it,” said Annie. She pulled coins out of her pocket and held them out to the couple. “You can have them all.”

“No, please, we are happy to help,” said the man as the couple climbed off their bicycle.

“This is really nice of you!” said Annie.

“Good luck!” the woman squeaked. Then she and the man started walking away.

“You
were our good luck!” shouted Annie. “Thanks!”

“Yes, thanks a lot!” shouted Jack.

The man turned back. “You had better hurry!” he called over his shoulder. “If you want to be there by ten, you will have to spin like a whirlwind!” Then he and the woman rounded the corner and were gone.

“I love this bike!” said Annie. She climbed onto the front seat, and Jack climbed onto the one in back. “Ready?”

“Go easy till we get the hang of it,” said Jack.

Jack and Annie started pedaling. At first, the large bike was very wobbly and they almost fell over. “We have to pedal at the same speed,” said Jack.

Jack and Annie balanced themselves on the bike and tried to pedal together. The bike bumped over the cobblestones a little more smoothly.

“I think I’ve got the hang of it now!” said Annie.

“Me too!” said Jack. “It isn’t that different from riding a regular bike.”

“Which way do we go?” said Annie.

“We have to find that busy street with the cafés,” said Jack.

They rode the bike to the corner and looked right and left. “That way” said Annie. She pointed to the right, where there was a busy block with lots of gaslit restaurants and people strolling about.

“Okay go,” said Jack.

Annie turned the front handlebars, and she and Jack pedaled down the bumpy street. Annie steered them carefully around couples walking arm in arm. People at outdoor cafés waved at them as they rode by.

But the street grew more deserted as Jack and Annie kept riding. By the time they came to the end, there was no one around. They pushed back on their pedals and brought their bike to a shaky stop.

“Which way now?” said Annie.

Jack looked to the right and left. Both ways were dimly lit, with closed shops and dark houses. Jack didn’t recognize anything. “I don’t
know,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention during the carriage ride.”

“Me, either,” said Annie.

Jack could see the Eiffel Tower rising into the sky behind other buildings. It didn’t look that far away, but he had no idea how to get there. “Let’s try going left,” he said.

Jack and Annie turned left and rattled over the cobblestones until they came to an empty square at the end of the street.

“It’s a dead end,” said Jack.

“We have to go back!” said Annie. “Hurry!”

Jack and Annie turned the bike around and sped back up the street. They pedaled until they came to another dead end.

“Oh, no!” said Jack. “Where’s that busy street with all the cafés?”

“We must have missed it somehow,” said Annie. “We’re
completely
lost! And it’s almost ten o’clock!”

“This is so annoying!” said Jack. “The tower
is
right there
!” He pointed to the Eiffel Tower looming over Paris. “It’s really not that far away! We just don’t know how to get there!”

“Wait a minute,” said Annie. “That guy said that to get there by ten, we’d have to ‘spin like a whirlwind.’”

“I know, but we’re lost!” said Jack. “We don’t know which way to go!”

“It doesn’t matter!” said Annie. “We have to spin!
Spin into the Air!
That’s one of our magic rhymes!
We have to spin our bike into the air!”

“
W
ow,” whispered Jack. He reached into his satchel and pulled out their rhyme book.

“I’ll say the first line of the rhyme,” Jack said to Annie. “You say the second. Then we’ll start pedaling as fast as we can. The street’s empty. No one will see us. So we can—”

“Good,” interrupted Annie. “Let’s get going.”

Jack held up the rhyme book so they could both read by the light of a streetlamp. He read his line first:

Whirl and twirl and swirl and spin!

Then Annie read the second line:

Tee-roll-eye-bee-eye-ben!

Jack shoved the book back into his satchel. “Pedal!” he cried.

Jack and Annie balanced themselves on the bike and pedaled hard. The bike rattled over the cobblestones.

“Faster!” shouted Jack. He pedaled as hard as he could.

The bike shot forward! The front wheel began rising off the stone pavement!

“Whoa!” cried Annie.

“Hold on tight!” cried Jack.

Jack gripped his handlebars as the wheels spun faster and faster and the bicycle rose into the air. It rose higher and higher above the dark street, above the rooftops, and into the moon-bright sky.

“Turn left!” shouted Jack.

Annie turned her handlebars, and the flying bicycle headed straight toward the Eiffel Tower. The white beams of the tower’s spotlights swept over Paris, shining on chimneys, church steeples, and domes. But Jack kept his eyes fixed on the glowing iron tower. That was where they had to go. That was their goal.

As Jack and Annie pedaled, the warm Paris air embraced them, holding the bike steady. With very little effort, they drew closer and closer to the tower. Soon they were almost there.

“We have to land!” shouted Jack.

“I know!” shouted Annie. “Lean forward!”

They both leaned forward. The front wheel of the bike dipped. Annie steadied her handlebars as the bike zoomed down toward the base of the tower.

“Stop pedaling!” shouted Jack. He was afraid they would dive straight into the ground.

But the bike seemed to have a mind of its own. As it drew nearer to the base of the tower, it began to drop softly and slowly, like a falling feather.

The bike floated closer and closer to the
ground. Its wheels brushed the grass of a shadowy garden not far from the tower. Jack and Annie pushed on the brakes and the bike slowed to a stop. Then it fell gently onto its side, dumping Jack and Annie onto the soft, wet grass.

Jack looked up. The Eiffel Tower loomed above them, reaching toward the bright Paris moon.

“We made it,” Annie said breathlessly.

“Not yet,” said Jack. “We still have to find that party.” He and Annie stood up.

“But first we have to leave the bike under the tower, like we promised,” said Annie.

Jack and Annie picked up the big bike. They jumped back on and started pedaling toward the Eiffel Tower. The bike felt a lot clunkier on the ground than it had in the air. As they bumped over the grass, they saw people streaming away from the fairgrounds.

“It looks like the fair’s closing,” said Annie.

Jack and Annie parked the bike in a bike stand beneath the tower. The area looked
deserted. There was no sign of a party or of the new magicians. A single guard stood under one of the tall arches.

“Excuse me!” Annie called to the guard. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Almost ten,” answered the guard.

“Is the tower closed for the day?” said Jack.

“Yes, I’m afraid it is,” said the guard.

“We heard there was going to be a party at the Eiffel Tower tonight,” said Annie.

The guard shook his head. “No, sorry. As you can see, there is no party here—unless you mean the private affair at the top of the tower.”

“There’s a private party at the very top?” said Annie. She and Jack looked up. The top of the tower seemed a mile away.

“Yes, with some very important guests,” said the guard. He leaned closer and whispered, “Mr. Thomas Edison, Dr. Louis Pasteur, and Mr. Alexander Graham Bell.”

“That’s our party!” exclaimed Annie.

“Is there a fourth guest?” Jack asked.

“There may be others, but I did not see anyone else go up,” said the guard.

“We need to be there, too,” said Annie. “How do we get up?”

The guard smiled. “I am sorry,” he said, “but the elevators are all shut down for the night. Even if you had an invitation, the only way you could get to the top would be to climb the steps.” The guard looked up. “And that is quite a few steps, indeed. Come back bright and early tomorrow and you can ride the elevators.” The guard tipped his hat and strolled away.

“Excuse me, sir!” Annie called after him. “Just how many steps are there?”

“To be exact, there are 1,652 steps to the platform at the top of the Eiffel Tower,” the guard said. Then he disappeared into the dark.

“That’s too many steps,” said Jack.

“Let’s fly up on the bike!” said Annie.

“We can’t,” said Jack. “We can only use a rhyme once, remember?” He pulled out their book of rhymes and read the ones they hadn’t
used.
“Find a Treasure You Must Never Lose.”

“That doesn’t help,” said Annie.

“Pull a Cloud from the Sky,”
read Jack.

“No help there, either,” said Annie.

“Turn into Ducks,”
read Jack.

Annie smiled.

“Forget it. I’m not meeting Thomas Edison as a duck,” said Jack.

“So …?” said Annie.

“The steps,” said Jack.

Jack and Annie moved quickly around the base of the tower, searching for steps. “There!” said Jack. They hurried to a staircase tucked inside one of the legs of the tower.

Jack gripped the iron railing. “Ready?” he said.

“Yep,” said Annie. “Let’s go.”

Together they started up the 1,652 steps that led to the top platform of the Eiffel Tower.