Clive Cussler Read Online Free PDF Page A

of the big race. None were near Hotsy Totsy when the Boss and his henchmen leaped aboard.
    They quickly wrapped Casey and Lacey in blankets and carried them struggling onto the black boat. The children were too shocked to know where they were being taken. Their cries for help were muted by the blankets.
    "No sense you brats yelling," the Boss growled. "Nobody is around to hear you."
    "Yeah, nobody will hear you," hissed the Beard.
    "Can't nobody hear you," echoed the henchman with the wrinkled face.
    "I said that," the Beard came back.
    "You guys shut up," snapped the Boss at his henchmen, "before the guards get wise."
    "Okay, Boss."
    "Yeah, Boss."
    "Where is the dumb dog?" the Boss snarled. "I want that dumb dog!"
    "He ain't on the boat," Wrinkled Face answered through yellow teeth.
    "Must be up on the dock somewhere," said the Beard, his whiskers streaked with food stains.
    Floopy finally woke up and heard familiar voices. With a dog's good memory he remembered the harsh tone of the Boss, who he had bitten only a few months before. His frantic barks broke the silence.
    "Get him!" cried the Boss.
    The henchmen climbed onto the dock, but Floopy was too fast for them. He took off running toward two security guards who were checking the boats farther down the dock. The evil henchmen couldn't catch him; he was fast for a short-legged, chubby dog.
    The Boss shouted, "Get back on the boat before the dog alerts the security guards. We'll come back for him. Let's get out of here."
    In less than a minute the sinister boat had vanished into the darkness, taking Casey and Lacey with it.
    Floopy ran down the dock to the security guards, yapped and ran back toward the boat.
    The guards merely stared at him, more amused than suspicious. Floopy ran back and forth several more times, barking and trying as only a dog can to alert them of the twins' abduction. Nothing worked.
    The guards, tired of his antics, began to walk away.
    One guard, fat and jolly with his belly hanging over his belt, grinned. "I wonder what's the matter with him."
    "Probably those two kids who own him," said the other guard, skinny in a uniform two sizes too big. "They must have taken off for home and forgot him."
    "We'll call the dogcatcher in the morning."
    "Yeah," replied Skinny. "They'll know what to do with him."
    Saddened, his droopy eyes drooping more than ever, Floopy returned to the empty boat at the dock and howled into the night. If dogs could cry, he would have shed a river of tears. He had no idea what to do or where to go. In sorrow, he curled up in the coil of rope in the hope that Casey and Lacey would return.
    Floopy lay there, feeling lonely and abandoned. Then his sensitive ears heard something. He lifted his muzzle and cocked his head. A faint ramble seemed to come from the water below the dock. He rose to his four paws and peered over the side. All he saw under the dim light along the dock was the outline of Hotsy Totsy. The boat looked dark and empty. Then he spotted blinking lights on the instrument panel and realized the soft rumble came from the big twelve- cylinder Wright engine. Hotsy Totsy had magically started the Wright, which was idling softly.
    The engine revved several times ever so quietly as if trying to tell Floopy something. He tilted his head as if in thought. He stiffened as he came to realize what Hotsy Totsy was trying to tell him.
    The speedboat wanted to go after the twins but was secured to the dock.
    Floopy ran to the cleat where the bowline was tied. He attacked the cleat with his teeth, pulling it around and around until it came loose and dropped into the water. Then he raced to the bowline and gripped it in his teeth, pulling it from the cleat until it also fell into the water.
    Hotsy Totsy revved her engine but didn't shift into gear. She was waiting for Floopy, who was measuring the jump from the dock into the boat. He hesitated a long minute before closing his eyes and leaping through the air. Dropping like the basset