Then, as if a tap had been turned off, the river stopped. Gerald looked up as the last drips spilled over the edge. With a grinding of gears, the floor began to rise back into place. Gerald waited until the stone surface had reformed beneath his feet, and he let the section carry him back up to the corridor, unhooking his tattered backpack from the iron rod as he went past.
Ruby, Sam and Felicity swooped onto him in a rolling embrace, wrapping him in their arms. After everyone was assured that everyone else was all right, Gerald took a step back and his hands dropped to his knees. He was drenched and shivering. And his heart ached at Professor McElderry’s fate.
Why did he give up like that? Let himself be swept away?
Gerald’s head fell between his shoulders, and his gaze landed on the small door under the angel and the devil: it had popped open a centimetre.
They all stared at the gap.
‘What do you think?’ Felicity said.
There was a long silence. Then Gerald turned towards the end of the corridor. ‘Mason Green was right,’ he said. ‘Enough puzzles for one day.’
Ruby quickly found their way back to the exit. She tapped in the TOWEL combination and pushed open the entrance to the tunnel out of the cellars.
‘Is that it for Mason Green?’ Sam asked as he followed his sister along the narrow passage. ‘Could you even see where all that water was going?’
Gerald trailed his friends along the dimly lit path, following the sign towards Central Park. ‘It was a black hole,’ he said. ‘They were swallowed up.’ Gerald shook his head in disbelief. The professor had actually wanted to be washed away. ‘What was he thinking?’ Gerald said to no one in particular. A shiver rolled down his spine. ‘We could have helped each other.’
Ruby waited for Gerald to catch up. She took his hand and held it tight. ‘You were lucky he didn’t take you down with him,’ she said.
‘He must have been under the influence of one of those potions,’ Felicity said. ‘It’s the only explanation.’
‘But that’s the thing,’ Gerald said. ‘I don’t think he was affected by whatever drugs Green had been feeding him. He remembered my name. He remembered Sam. And there were his eyes.’
‘What about his eyes?’ Ruby asked.
‘When he stared at me, just before he let himself be washed away, his eyes were completely fine. I’m sure he was back to normal.’
‘Except for throwing himself off the top of a waterfall,’ Sam said. ‘Normal apart from that.’
Ruby gave Sam an annoyed look, then turned back to Gerald. ‘We’ll call the police. They might be able to find them.’
Gerald shook his head. ‘I couldn’t care if Mason Green was flushed into the bowels of the earth.’
They walked in silence to the end of the passage. There was a metal grille not much bigger than a cat flap at the bottom of the end wall. Sam unscrewed the four wing nuts at the corners and worked the grille free. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled in. Felicity was halfway through the opening when Sam’s cries filtered back to them.
‘Ow! Ouch! Getoffit!’
Ruby squeezed in behind Felicity, as if packing into a rugby scrum. ‘What is it?’ Ruby called. ‘What’s the matter?’ Then she paused, a suspicious expression forming on her face. ‘Is this to do with rats?’ she asked.
Sam’s voice came back to them again, this time a high-pitched squeak. ‘Rats? What rats?’
‘No, you dunderhead. There aren’t any rats. What are you squealing about?’
There was a lengthy pause. ‘Uh—there’s a bunch of flying bugs in here,’ Sam said with more than a touch of wounded pride. ‘Some of them got in my hair.’
Ruby blew a long burst of air between her lips, a little like an overheating steam engine just before it explodes. ‘My brother, the thrillseeker,’ she said. ‘Let’s go, Flicka. Hercules in there might need some help with his hair.’
Moments later they were standing in what seemed to be an enormous hot house, full of exotic tropical plants and thousands upon thousands of —
‘Butterflies!’ Felicity said as one landed on the top of her head. She glanced at Sam. ‘This is what you were scared of?’ she asked.
Sam’s cheeks turned pink. ‘Some of them can give you a nasty scratch,’ he mumbled.
Gerald turned a slow circle to gaze at the soaring palm trees and the flights of gossamer above them. ‘Does this remind you of somewhere, Felicity?’ he asked.
‘I was just thinking that,’ she said as they started along a winding path. ‘Mr Mantle’s butterfly house, but a lot smaller of course. Where are we, do you think?’
‘I’d guess it’s the Central Park Zoo,’ Ruby said. ‘We’re almost back to civilisation.’
‘I hope that civilisation comes with breakfast,’ Sam said. ‘I’m starving.’
They reached a large glass door. On the other side were posters promoting upcoming winter events and how to get the most from your day at the zoo. Sam pulled on the door, but it was locked.
‘Looks like we’re here till opening time,’ Felicity said. She found a plastic chair by the entrance and sat down. ‘Might as well make ourselves comfy.’
‘Why would you lock the door to the butterfly house?’ Sam said, dragging a chair next to Felicity. ‘It’s not like all the bugs are going to stage a breakout.’
‘I suppose it’s to keep people out,’ Ruby said.
The first rays of morning sun cut through the glass walls, casting a golden hue throughout the enclosure.
‘What type of idiot would break into a butterfly house?’ Sam asked.
‘Apart from us, you mean?’ Ruby said.
‘Butterfly collectors, maybe,’ Gerald said. He pulled up a squat stool, tossed his backpack on the floor and nestled in beside Ruby. He started to shiver. Sam wrapped his jacket over his friend’s shoulders to keep him warm. ‘People like Jasper Mantle travel the world trying to complete their collections.’ Gerald continued. ‘Except he’s only one short of getting the lot and he’s not likely to find that one in a public zoo.’
Felicity yawned. It had been a long night. ‘What was its name again?’ she asked.
Gerald leaned back to rest against Ruby’s legs. ‘It’s the Xerxes Blue,’ he said. ‘I haven’t had the chance to tell you, but there’s a massive butterfly collection up in the Billionaires’ Club. It must have belonged to Diamond Jim. But he didn’t have any more luck than Jasper Mantle with the Xerxes Blue. There was an empty frame on the wall, just waiting until he found it—a bit like the empty box for Drebbel’s perpetual motion machine. I guess collectors like to plan ahead.’
Gerald stopped.
He sat upright, as if he had just swallowed a particularly hot peppermint.
‘What is it?’ Ruby asked.
Gerald grabbed up his backpack. It was sodden from the drenching back in the cellars. He tipped out his notebook. The covers were wet but the pages inside were mostly dry.
‘The message from Jeremy Davey,’ Gerald said, searching inside the bag for his pencil. ‘The keyword.’
Felicity moved from her chair and knelt next t
o Gerald. ‘I’d forgotten all about that.’
‘Mason Green hadn’t forgotten about it,’ Gerald said. ‘He was talking about it on the phone, remember? The professor was going to work on deciphering the code. On finding the keyword. But it has been staring us in the face all along.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ruby asked, moving to the other side of Gerald.
Gerald pointed with the end of his pencil at a page in his notebook. ‘See? The very first letters in the coded message are XERS BLU. Jeremy Davey was telling us the keyword and we were too stupid to figure it out. Felicity, what was the boat that Davey was going on?’
‘The Beagle. What about it?’
‘Where was it sailing to?’
Felicity thought for a moment. ‘Um, around the bottom of South America and across to Australia,’ she said.
‘Hold on,’ Sam interrupted. ‘Is this the HMS Beagle you’re talking about? The same ship that Charles Darwin was on when he did all his botany stuff at the Galapagos Islands?’
Gerald clapped Sam on the shoulder. ‘The Galapagos Islands is where the Xerxes Blue butterfly comes from. Jeremy Davey picked a keyword for his message from the name of a rare butterfly that he must have seen on the journey with Darwin.’
Ruby prodded a finger in Gerald’s ribs. ‘Well, what’s the message say, genius?’
Gerald quickly drew up a fresh grid.
He studied the original message: Xers blu c axtb pxfbi pab cilbnixg hxracib jl snbeebg xis rjiocuibs cp pj pab sbkpao eqp hy rjiorcbirb co cgg xp nbop c xh lclpy hcgbo ib jl rqgkbkkbn cogxis c sj ijp fijv cl c sbobntb nborqb oj c nbgy ji pab dqsuhbip jl pab jib vaj lciso paco hbooxub hxy yjqn ojqg eb nxcobs ji eqppbnlgy vciuo.
In a minute he had solved the puzzle. Gerald pushed his pencil behind his right ear and read the one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old words of Jeremy Davey: I have taken the infernal machine of Drebbel and consigned it to the depths but my conscience is ill at rest. I am fifty miles NE of Culpepper Island. I do not know if I deserve rescue so I rely on the judgment of the one who finds this message. May your soul be raised on butterfly wings.
Gerald, Ruby, Sam and Felicity were silent. The only sound was the rustling of thousands of wings, opening to absorb the morning light.
‘The infernal machine of Drebbel,’ Gerald repeated.
‘The perpetual motion machine,’ Sam said.
Ruby shook her head. ‘Davey had it all along.’
‘He must have taken it from the keystone in the castle in Scotland,’ Felicity chimed in. ‘Maybe that’s why we found his diary there.’
‘The son of a luddite transported to Australia,’ Gerald said. ‘He would hate the idea of a machine that could run forever. Just like Sergei Baranov does.’
‘So he steals the machine and takes it on the Beagle, but to do what?’ Ruby asked.
‘Maybe he wanted to take it to his father in Australia so they could destroy it together?’ Sam said. ‘Like Alex and his dad.’
‘But on the way something goes wrong,’ Ruby said. ‘Jeremy is marooned. He throws the machine into the ocean, but then has second thoughts: maybe he shouldn’t have destroyed it.’
‘So he writes a note asking for help and puts it in a bottle, but because he’s torn about whether he did the right thing he writes it in code,’ Gerald said. ‘A cry for help, but an uncertain one.’
He leaned back and stared at the final words of a young man who died trying to reach the father who had been taken from him.
‘It would have been handy knowing all that before we came to New York,’ Sam said. ‘It might have saved a bit of hassle.’
Gerald snorted. ‘It would have got Mason Green off my back,’ he said. ‘I think he was actually going to kill us this time. He must have wanted that machine so badly.’
‘Which one?’ Sam said. ‘The perpetual motion machine or the curiosity machine?’
‘Yeah, what’s that all about?’ Ruby said. ‘Green’s eyes really lit up when you said you had the plans.’
Gerald patted his jacket pocket and felt the folded paper inside. ‘That’s one puzzle I’m happy to leave unsolved,’ he said.
‘Aren’t you the slightest bit curious about where the perpetual motion machine is?’ Felicity asked. ‘Davey’s note basically tells you where to find it. Don’t you want to go on an exotic expedition to the Galapagos Islands?’
Gerald gave her a sympathetic look. ‘Now, why on earth would I want to do something like that?’ he said.
It was early afternoon by the time the zoo authorities, the police and the FBI were through with their questions. A heavily armed search-and-rescue team had scoured the tunnel leading to the cellars of the Billionaires’ Club, but there was no sign of Professor McElderry or Sir Mason Green. An inspection of the booby-trapped corridor triggered by the angel showed that it led directly to the New York stormwater system.
‘It empties into the East River,’ a bullet-headed police sergeant reported back. ‘If they were reasonable swimmers they might have survived.’
Jasper Mantle arrived at the zoo in a purple-faced flurry some hours after he had opened the doors to the clubhouse to find neither Gerald nor Alex anywhere to be seen. He was horrified to hear of the ordeal that Gerald had been through; however, he was placated swiftly when Gerald told him about the extensive butterfly collection. Mantle made an excuse about an urgent meeting he had to attend and disappeared down Fifth Avenue in the direction of the club.
Mr Fry had a car waiting to take everyone back to the Plaza. He had spent the time while the police were questioning Gerald pacing up and down outside the butterfly enclosure, growing increasingly harried. Gerald gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. ‘We can keep this our little secret, Mr Fry,’ Gerald said. ‘I don’t think my parents need to know all the details of what happened last night. You know, how all the children in your care managed to end up in a life-threatening situation. It can only cause problems that neither of us wants.’
Mr Fry gave a slow nod. ‘As ever,’ he said, ‘young sir is wise beyond his years.’
Gerald wrapped a blanket around himself, and they all emerged into the afternoon. The sky had clouded over and a light dusting of snow was scattering across the rolling hillocks of Central Park. Gerald turned to his butler. ‘It’s a nice afternoon for a walk. How about you lead the way back to the hotel, St John?’
Mr Fry’s eyes flickered towards the waiting limousine and its heated interior, parked just metres away.
‘Or,’ Gerald said, ‘I could always tell my parents about your child-minding abilities.’
Mr Fry’s jaw tightened. ‘Wise beyond his years,’ he mumbled and strode off along a path towards the soaring tower blocks of midtown Manhattan.
Sam and Felicity fell in behind Mr Fry but Gerald held Ruby back for a moment.
Ruby gave him a sideways glance as they walked side by side through the park. Snow danced earthward as gentle and light as any butterfly. Ruby bumped him gently with her shoulder. ‘What are you going to do when you see Alex Baranov back at camp?’ she asked. ‘It sounds like he was pretty nasty.’
Gerald shrugged. ‘I’ll probably just ignore him. I figure any revenge I could
take would be nothing compared to the roasting he’ll get from his father when he presents him with a dud perpetual motion machine.’
They walked in silence for a while, then Ruby bumped his shoulder again. ‘It’s never boring when I’m with you,’ she said.
The snow began to fall a little heavier. A sizeable flake landed on the tip of Ruby’s nose. Gerald stopped and took Ruby’s hand. If it was going to happen, it had to happen now.
‘What is it?’ Ruby asked, peering up at him. Gerald reached out a finger and brushed the flake from the end of her nose. Ruby stifled a murmur of surprise.
Gerald fixed his eyes on hers. The world around them blurred. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the gold key that they found in the boiler and put the chain over Ruby’s head. ‘I want you to have this,’ he said.
Ruby put a hand to her throat and stared at the key in her palm. ‘Thank you,’ she said, biting her bottom lip.
Gerald brushed his hand down Ruby’s cheek. It flushed red in the cold.
He opened his mouth.
Limerick time.
But before he could begin, Ruby had her forefinger across his lips. ‘I’ve written a poem for you,’ she said.
Gerald’s heart stopped beating.
Ruby smiled up at him, and spoke:
‘There once was a boy from Australia
Keen for snogging and paraphernalia
But when push came to shove
His confessions of love
Were destined for hopeless failure.’
Ruby rose to her tiptoes and kissed Gerald gently on the cheek. Then she jogged off to catch up with Felicity and Sam.
She got ten metres, looked back at him and smiled, then ran on.
Gerald stood in the snow and put a hand to his cheek. He could still feel Ruby’s lips on his skin.
The House of Puzzles Page 24
