Golem in the Gears Read Online Free PDF

"Are you going to steal my bed now?"
    "That's right, sweetie," Bink agreed. And methodically he opened the largest window wide, tied his rope to the bed, and lifted it up.
    Snortimer scooted away, startled. "Not so fast, mon- ster!" Grundy said, dropping down. "You're my steed,
    remember?"
    It was dark in the room, so he really couldn't see Snor- timer very well, but the monster seemed to consist of five or six big hairy arms and hands and nothing else. Some- what diffidently, Grundy climbed aboard, and found a fairly comfortable seat at the juncture of the arms. Snor- timer was not a large monster, for he had to fit under the small bed, but he was a good size for Grundy.
    Bink heaved the bed out through the window and let it down with the rope. It swung and bumped against the stones of the wall, generating an awfiil clatter, but still no one seemed to notice. What phenomenal luck!
    When the bed scraped its way to the base, Chester Centaur caught hold of it with his powerful arms and set it on his back. They had rigged a harness for him so that he could carry it without having to use his hands, and its weight was no problem at all for him.
    They bade farewell to Ivy, who remained thrilled at this secret adventure and perhaps a little jealous that she wasn't going along, but she knew as well as they did that there was no way her mother would let her get involved in something like this. And of course it was for the best of causes: the rescue of Stanley Steamer.
    They went down and out, still without stirring up any commotion in the castle, and rejoined Chester. Quietly they walked away from the wall and crossed the moat and entered the main orchard. The trees rustled their branches, wondering what was going on, but did not inter- fere.
    They wended their way on through the darkness, unspeaking. Grundy was able to see very little, but Snor- timer had no trouble. The monster was of course a crea- ture of the dark, completely at home in it. Grundy began to appreciate the wisdom of selecting a steed like this, though he remained uncertain whether the Good Magi- cian's advice was good for the long term. He still had no idea where to find the Ivory Tower.
    They came to a spot in the forest that Chester knew, where several great trees clustered to form a leafy bower. They stopped. "We can talk here," Chester said. "No one will overhear us. Where do we go from here?"
    "I don't know," Grundy confessed. "I'm supposed to go to the Ivory Tower, but the Good Magician didn't tell me where it is. If one of you happens to know—"
    "Not me," Chester said, and Bink agreed.
    Grundy sighed. "I suppose we'll just have to search for it. I can ask the plants and things as we go along."
    "The Good Magician must have had a reason to have you ride the Bed Monster," Bink said. "Maybe you had better just give the monster its head and see where it takes you."
    "I suppose so. "Then Grundy thought of something else. "I thought no adults could see the monster, or believe in it."
    "We haven't seen it yet," Chester growled. "It's dark."
    "But people become more childlike as they grow older," Bink said. "Maybe there comes a time when they believe in that particular monster again."
    "Okay, Snortimer," Grundy said. "Go where you have a mind, and let's see if it's the Ivory Tower."
    "I have no idea where to go either," Snortimer pro- tested. Grundy could understand him perfectly, but the others could not speak the language, so couldn't partic- ipate.
    "Isn't that great!" Grundy exclaimed. "Four of us
    here—and not one of us has any notion how to proceed!"
    "Perhaps we should ask someone, then," Bink sug- gested mildly.
    "Who would possibly know?" Grundy demanded dis- piritedly.
    "The female Gap Dragon," Chester suggested. "At least
    she has a motive to find Stanley."
    "But she would gobble us up in a moment!" Grundy
    protested.
    "Not if you presented our case clearly," Bink said. "I'm
    sure it will work out."
    The man was certainly a fool! But Chester agreed with