Franklin! chimed Tink.

"Who's Franklin?" said Peter.

The monkey, said Tink. I know him.

"Not well, I hope," Peter said grimly. "It appears he's going to steer the rocket."

He's a nice monkey, said Tink.

They watched as Glotz, aided by Slightly and Tootles, climbed the scaffold and put Franklin into his compartment near the top of the rocket. After they descended, Glotz had soldiers bring the fuse roll.

"He'll be putting the fuse in soon," muttered Peter. "Tink, I've got to get down there."

Tink fluttered into his face. They'll shoot you.

Peter nodded, looking at the soldiers. "If I fly in, they will," he said. "I need another way." His eyes scanned the courtyard. The powder wagon was being drawn away. Trudging behind it, surrounded by guards, were Slightly and three other boys. They turned right, heading toward the dungeon. Peter frowned. Then he pushed away from the wall, hovering in the darkness.

What are you doing! chimed Tink.

"Thinking."

About what?

"About Slightly and the other boys. I bet they're going to get the starstuff to load onto the rocket. Glotz and Zarboff don't dare go near it themselves."

So?

"So," said Peter, "they'll be coming back with the trunk."

So?

But Peter was gone, zooming low along the outside of the wall. In an instant Tink was after him, a tiny blur of light, angrily chiming questions that for the moment went unanswered.

CHAPTER 51.

NOT ALL RIGHT.

MOLLY FLEW OVER THE PALACE-COMPOUND WALL, immediately spotting the rocket, which was surrounded by a ring of torches and the shadowy shapes of soldiers. She flew away from this activity to the far end of the compound, where she dropped to the ground in the deep shadow next to a large building. Entering the compound had been easier than she'd expected. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw small windows with bars along the bottom of the wall. The building was evidently a prison.

Hardly daring to believe she'd been lucky enough to land next to the dungeon, she ran along the side of the building, looking for a way in. She turned a corner, and in a few feet, came to a large wooden door with iron bands. She took a breath and tried the handle. To her surprise, it turned. She pushed open the heavy door and peered inside; seeing n.o.body, she stepped into a small s.p.a.ce from which low, torch-lit corridors ran off to the left and right.

She jumped when she heard a man's voice coming from the corridor to the right. A moment later, a second voice answered. Two mena"definitely heading toward her. She hesitated, considering going back outside, but she'd come too far to give up. She hurried down the corridor to the left.

Pa.s.sing a line of empty cells, she entered a dark stretch of corridor, where the torches were s.p.a.ced far apart. She smelled a strong, unpleasant aroma, and heard strange sounds coming from very close by.

A hairy hand brushed her neck. She stifled a scream and turned to see, in the dim light, a long, hairy arm reaching through the cell bars. The hand grabbed the air, trying to touch her again.

A monkey! What on earth?

She stepped out of its reach and moved cautiously forward to the next cell. Her heart stopped: a man! He was standing in shadow in the far cornera"tall, like her father. Moving closer, she pressed her face to the bars.

"Father?" she whispered.

The figure stepped into the glow of the torchlight. Again Molly fought back a scream. A long black moustache slashed across a familiar hatchet-thin face.

Hook!

The pirate recognized hera"she had once been a prisoner on his ship. He smiled, enjoying her fear, his thin lips pulling back to reveal a jagged row of brown tooth stumps. Molly willed herself on, glancing nervously back at the pirate's cell.

"Molly!"

Relief filled her soul at the sound of her father's voice. His face was pressed against the bars of the cell. She ran to him, and they embraced awkwardly through the bars for several long seconds. Then Leonard, apologizing for his rudeness, formally introduced his daughter to Bakari, who shook hands with her.

"How did you get in here?" Leonard asked.

"The door was unguarded," said Molly.

Leonard nodded. "I a.s.sume the soldiers are preoccupied with the rocket preparations." He nodded toward the cell window, which looked out onto the courtyard. "Molly, we've got to stop them."

"I know," said Molly. "Tink gave us your message. She and Peter are going to see about the rocket. But I came to get you out first."

"But how?" said Leonard.

"I've got starstuff in my locket," said Molly. "I'll use it on the lock." She drew the locket out from under her robe and flicked it open, reflexively squinting her eyes to guard against the brilliant light.

But there was no light.

"Oh, no," said Molly. "I must have used it all up. Perhaps I cana"" She stopped, seeing her father's expression change suddenly.

"Molly, run!" he shouted. She whirled and found herself face-to-face with a burly soldier who grabbed her arms with a grip that made her cry out in pain. The soldier shouted something in the Rundoon language; moments later three more soldiers came running. They drew swords and gestured at Leonard and Bakari to go to the back of the cell, then opened the door and roughly shoved Molly inside. After making sure the door was securely locked, the soldiers left, laughing loudly.

Molly ran to her father's arms. "Father, I'm so sorry," she said. "I meant to help, and now I've just made everything worse."

"It's all right," said Leonard, gently patting his daughter's back. "We'll be all right."

Still holding Molly, he looked at Bakari. Bakari glanced out the window at the rocket, then back at Leonard. He shook his head, and Leonard understood his expression: things were most definitely not all right.

CHAPTER 52.

THE GOLD SUITS.

PETER, WITH TINK FLYING ALONGSIDE, landed in front of the big door leading to the dungeon. The door was ajar. Peter poked his head inside and, seeing n.o.body, stepped into the entry room. He held his breath and stood absolutely still: laughter came toward him from the corridor to his left. He turned toward the corridor to the right, but heard the sound of men's voices coming from that direction. With nowhere else to go, he flew to the ceiling and flattened himself in the darkness next to a wooden beam. Tink tucked herself in beside him. Moments later, four soldiers, still laughing, pa.s.sed directly beneath them and crossed into the right-hand corridor, their voices slowly fading.

Peter dropped quickly to the floor and trotted down the corridor to the left. He pa.s.sed the storage room where the gold suits were locked up. He continued on to the monkey cell, then hesitated, weighing the risk of continuing until he reached the cell holding Leonard Aster and Bakari. But then he once again heard men's voicesa"now coming from behind hima"and decided to stay with his plan.

As he'd hoped, the monkey cage had no lock, only a latch. He opened it and, wrinkling his nose at the smell, stepped inside, pulling the door closed but not letting it latch. Immediately, he was surrounded by excited monkeys, hooting and shrieking.

You're scaring them, said Tink, from Peter's shoulder.

"Tell them it's all right," he said. "Tell them to be quiet."

Tink flew down and spoke to the monkeys, making a strange combination of bell and monkey sounds. Whatever she said was effective; all of them quieted. A young monkey approached Peter, sniffed his leg, and made a noise.

She says you smell bad, said Tink.

"Shh," said Peter, listening. The voices were getting closer.

"Listen, Tink," he whispered, wriggling out of his robe. "Tell the monkeys that I'm about to open the door and that they should go outside and distract the soldiers."

Why would they want to do that?

"I don't know," snapped Peter. The approaching voices and footsteps were very close now. "We need a distraction," he whispered. "Make something up."

All right.

As Tink spoke to the monkeys, Peter peered through the cage bars and saw soldiers approaching. As he'd hoped, they were the ones escorting the four boysa"Slightly in the front, followed by Tootles, Curly, and Nibs. They stopped in front of the locked room containing the gold suits. Peter glanced down at Tink hovering among the monkeys and nodded. Then he pulled the cage door open.

Tink emitted a loud chime. Instantly, the monkeys, screeching like banshees, shot into the corridor and leapt onto the soldiers, climbing on their heads, clinging to their faces, yanking off their hats, and pawing through their hair. The soldiers dropped their weapons and frantically tried to free themselves of their furred, frenzied attackers; several stumbled and fell.

Peter held back, waiting. When the corridor was utter chaos, with the monkey-besieged soldiers paying no attention to the four boys, Peter darted out, grabbed the second boy in linea"Tootlesa"and yanked him back into the monkey cage.

"Shh," whispered Peter, cupping Tootles's mouth before the boy could cry out. "Stay in here and keep out of sight until the soldiers are gone. I'm here to help."

To Peter's relief, Tootles nodded.

Peter tucked Tink into his shirt and watched for the right moment, then ducked into the still-chaotic corridor and slipped into line behind Slightly, motioning for the other boys to keep their mouths shut.

A minute or two pa.s.sed while the soldiers struggled to rid themselves of the annoying monkeys, who finally scampered away down the corridor, screeching and hooting. The disheveled soldiers, clearly upset about the delay, hastily retrieved their hats and weapons. Peter pressed close against Slightly, keeping his face down. The soldiers didn't notice the switch. Barking orders, they opened the door and shoved the boys inside, gesturing impatiently at the gold suits hanging along the far wall.

Peter, following Slightly's lead, began putting on one of the suits. It was heavy, made of a gold-mesh fabric. It felt cool to the touch, and smooth against his skin.

"What did you tell the monkeys?" he whispered to Tink, as he tucked her inside the gold jacket.

I said the soldiers had bananas in their hair.

Peter slipped his feet into a pair of gold boots, then pulled on a gold-mesh head covering. The hood reduced his vision considerably, but now his face was obscured. He fell into line behind Slightly as the boys filed back out into the corridor, four small gold figures on their way to get the starstuff that would end the world.

CHAPTER 53.

GREASING THE ROLLERS.

AS THE DARKNESS DEEPENED, George, ignoring the meteor display, studied the ship, making sure the last of the workers had put away their tools and left for the day. The docks were quiet now, the sailors and dock men having found their way into nearby cafes, from which spilled loud laughter and billowing tobacco smoke.

When night had completely fallen, George said, "James, Prentiss, and Thomas, you'll come with me. Ted, you stay here. Wait for my signal."

"What signal? To do what?"

George reached inside his robe and drew out a white handkerchief. He waved it over his head. "When you see this," he said to Ted, "I want you to kick out this barrel." He pointed to a barrel at the bottom of a tall stack.

Ted studied the barrels. "But if I do that," he said, "all these barrels will fall."

"Yes," said George.

"Ah," said Ted, as though he understood, which he did not.

"Once you kick out the barrel," said George, "run for the ship. It will be moving. Jump on quick as you can."

"Buta"" Ted began.

"Quick as you can," repeated George, cutting him off.

George, with the help of Prentiss, Thomas, and James, then selected two of the barrels of olive oil and carefully rolled them down the hill to the harbor. The dry dock was essentially a large trench dug into the harborside and lined with timbers. At one end of the trench, holding back the water, was a large wooden gate secured at one end by a thick chain. Inside the dry dock, the ship, its stern tilted down toward the water, sat atop a row of big, smooth logs; it was prevented from falling over by wooden braces along both sides. Between these braces netting hung down from the deck, so workmen could climb up and down.

"The way it's supposed to work," said George, "is that when that gate is opened at high tide, the water comes in and lifts the ship until it just barely floats. Then the ship rides on those logsa"the rollersa"into the sea."

"It must take a lot of men," said Thomas.

"Actually, it's mostly gravity and leverage," said George. "You see those two winches on each side? Those lines pulled the ship up into the dry dock. When they're released, if there's not too much friction, the ship will slide down and into the water."

"But there are only four of us," said Thomas.

"Yes," said George. "One to release each of the winches, one to open the water gate, and one on board to start preparing the sails. The tricky part is the timing. Usually the water gate is opened at low tide. As the tide comes in, the boat is lifted. But we haven't got time to wait for that. That's why we've got this." He pointed to the two barrels of oil.

James nodded. "To help it slide," he said.

"Precisely," said George.

"What about the side braces?" said James.

"Most of them will fall off or break away as she slides in," said George. "We'll have to count on her momentum to keep her upright."