The Sub shook violently as Nataleigh and Maid Madelyn arrived on the bridge of the submarine behind Frangen. Heindel and Boz were already there, moving about frantically, flipping switches and twisting knobs of every kind. “Frangen!” Heindel shouted. “Vhat took you so long? Help Bosvin to suit up for the Mini-digger! Quickly!”
“Mini-digger? What is that?” Madelyn asked, still unsteady on her feet.
Frangen moved to help Boz who had grabbed a diving suit from a hook on the wall and was beginning to dress himself in it. The suit was little more than an air tank with straps that was worn as a back pack. From it ran tubes that connected to a huge iron bowl with little glass windows built into it on three sides and fastened over Boz’s head like a helmet.
“Ze mini-digger is a smaller submersible connected to the front of zis one.” Heindel explained. “It has the drilling mechanism that we use for tunneling under the water, of course.”
“Great! So why is he getting suited up for that?” Maid Madelyn was getting impatient. “I thought we were under attack! This isn’t the time to be digging! It’s time to fight back!”
“Do not be silly! Ve are not fighters!” Heindel said as a matter of fact. “Ve are inventors. Besides, ve have reached ze island so it is time for digging. Ve have to find zis underground cave for ze princess. Right, your majesty?”
Just then, the sub shook again as something exploded under the water nearby. They all stumbled against the side of the sub and grabbed hold of whatever they could to stabilize themselves.
“What is that?” Maid Madelyn shouted.
“Barrels of explosives!” Heindel answered, sticking out his chest with some pride. “One of my better inventions!”
“YOUR inventions?” Maid Madelyn was shocked.
“Oh, yes.” Frangen added as he placed the helmet over Boz’s head. “Heindel invented most of the weapons the pirates use.”
Boz was now nearly suited. Sealing the helmet around his neck, he gave the thumbs up sign to Frangen and disappeared down a ladder in the floor. Frangen followed.
“Are you all crazy?” Maid Madelyn questioned. “Why are you supplying weapons to this bunch of cut-throats?”
“Vhat good does it do to invent somezing if you’re not going to share it.” Heindel shrugged his shoulders, then turned to peer out through one of the forward windows. “Ve supply all ze civilized dwarves of Darrowold viz our inventions. It keeps us busy. Vhere have you been living, girlee, in ze voods somevhere?”
Madelyn threw up her hands in exasperation.
“Wait a minute!” Princess Nataleigh piped in. She had been looking through the periscope to see what was going on up above and now interrupted the conversation. “I don’t think they’re attacking us!”
“What?” That got Maid Madelyn’s attention. “What do you mean, Princess?”
“There are two groups fighting each other up there! I don’t think they even know we’re here.”
“Zen vhy are zere boomers going off all around us, your majesty?”
“Because we’re right below them and caught in the middle of the war!” Nataleigh answered.
“Look!” She offered the periscope to Heindel who quickly looked inside.
“Oh, my wrenches and ratchet sets! I zink you might be right! Zere is a battle going on up zere! It looks like two pirate ships!” He paused, looking closer. “And ze are using my inventions! Marvelous! Zere verking too!”
Heindel pulled himself away from the periscope, clapping his gloved hands with glee. Then he stopped with a puzzled look on his face as if realizing something for the first time.
“Hey, vhat gives? Zhey stole my semi-automatic rapid- fire barrel launcher I invented last summer! So zhat’s vhat happened to it! Eww, zhose naughty pirate-types!” Slapping his head, he returned to gazing through the periscope. “Oh, oh. It appears they’ve found the glitch in it.”
Then shrugging his shoulders he said matter-of-factly, “Dhat’s vhy I didn’t give it to them. It vasn’t tested yet! Vait a minute… Now zhat’s fascinating. I didn’t realize that particular solution vould explode vhen shaken.”
He shook his head in disgust, then jerked his head from the periscope. “I tink w’ed better move from this location. Ve’re about to have company!”
“Company? What do you mean?” Nataleigh asked, taking the periscope again as Heindel moved to the piloting station and began to move the sub. She looked back into the periscope and immediately saw what he was talking about. One of the ships in the pirate fleet directly above them had blown a hole in it’s own deck and was sinking rapidly! It would soon be coming down on top of them if they didn’t move.
Suddenly a light flickered on a display board near an old microphone. “What’s that,” asked Maid Madelyn, pointing at the light.
Heindel frowned at her for interrupting his concentration, then flipped a switch by the microphone. “Yes, ‘Ratchet Man’, vhat iz it?”
The microphone crackled and Frangen’s voice could be heard in reply. “Boz is ready for launch, Heindel. Should we use our walkie-talkie code names now?”
Heindel threw his hands up in the air at the question and then answered slowly and patiently as if explaining the concept for the tenth time. Nataleigh figured that probably wasn’t far from the truth. “Yes, ‘Ratchet Man’. You need to use our code names now in case zhey might be listening to our transmissions from above. I told you, I just recently invented vire tapping. It’s zhe latest rage vit’ zhe pirates.”
“Oh. Sorry, Heindel.” Came the humble reply. “I mean… sorry, ‘Inventor Dude’. ‘Lab Rat’ is ready for launch. ‘Ratchet Man’ is clear.”
“Launching!” Heindel called out in reply. There was a brief shudder in the ship as the digger detached and pushed away from it with Boz inside. The ladies watched it for a moment, then Nataleigh returned to the periscope and her view of the battle above.
The sea was filled with boats and pirate ships of every kind, armed with catapults and cannons and other exotic weapons probably invented by her demented hosts. There were wooden rafts with shark-head rams mounted to their fronts and steel craft in the shape of great whales with mouths that opened and closed upon other vessels, shattering their hulls and sinking them. Everything from explosive barrels, to cannonballs, to giant grappling hooks attached to nets were flying through the air in every direction as the pirate factions quarreled over the legendary treasure of Skull Rock.
I’d hate to be up there trying to get through all of that without getting hit, she thought. And somewhere out there she knew Panganiban, Hagwig and King Kugelbone would be doing that very thing, making their move to claim the treasure for themselves. They had to find this under-water cavern fast!
The princess knew she would probably be in hot water when her father found out what she had done, but she was determined that she would soften his heart by proving that it was all necessary. Her father would HAVE to understand when she proved to him that she was the only one who could save Darrowold. She WOULD bring back the Serpent’s Eye if it was the last thing she ever did!
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