Clive Cussler by The Adventures of Vin Fiz Page A

beard. "You two tykes can stay as long as you like as my guests. My name is Craven Cranberry. Me and old Abercrombe here," he said, scratching his dog behind the ears, "we live alone. We'd enjoy having company. I made meat loaf. I hope you like meat loaf."
    "We love meat loaf," said Lacey. "Our mother makes a wonderful meat loaf."
    He gazed at Vin Fiz. "Did you fly here in that . . . that thing?"
    "All the way from California," answered Casey, staying clear of saying Castroville, since no one seemed to know where it was.
    "By golly, that's a long way. Now come along, wash up and we'll sit right down at the table."
    The twins enjoyed a delicious dinner with Mr. Cranberry, who amused them with stories of his life of adventuring around the world before he settled down on his farm in southern Illinois. Not wanting to keep his young guests up late, Mr. Cranberry showed them up to their bedrooms at nine o'clock. "Sleep tight," he said with a big smile, "and I'll see you in the morning."
    The twins were soon fast asleep and quickly went into dreamland, wondering in their dreams if their mother and father had missed them. They were still sound asleep when the farm rooster began crowing cock-a-doodle-doo and woke them up.
    After a hearty breakfast, Lacey and Casey showed Mr. Cranberry their airplane. The kindly old gentleman had fixed them a box lunch of cold meat loaf sandwiches, which they put in Floopy's box. He pointed at Lacey's map, which she had laid out on the ground, tracking a line across Illinois into Indiana.
    "All you have to do from now on is follow the railroad tracks to the east. They should take you straight into New York."
    After saying their good-byes, Vin Fiz started the engine herself and the children were quickly airborne, waving to Mr. Cranberry and Abercrombe as they became smaller and smaller until they finally disappeared.
    Without being told, Vin Fiz soon found the railroad tracks and turned east toward the rising sun.

8 The Runaway Train

    The state of Indiana came and went. They flew around the famous Indianapolis racetrack where racing cars hurtled over the great oval on Memorial Day. But on this day, the track and the spectator stands were empty. Then it was into Ohio, and they flew merrily over a tapestry of green, rolling hills of thick, leafy woodlands and meadows filled with rainbow-colored flowers.
    "Where are we?" Casey asked for the umpteenth time.
    "The city off to the right is Chillicothe," Lacey replied after consulting her map.
    "That's a funny name."
    Unerringly, Vin Fiz followed the shiny twin rails of the railroad track. They found it interesting how the rails came together as they vanished miles ahead over the horizon. Pretty soon, they spotted a train stopped on the tracks.
    Casey immediately sensed something was not right. "That's odd," he said.
    "What's odd?" asked Lacey.
    "That train we're approaching. It's stopped."
    "So, why is that odd?"
    "That's a passenger train. It only stops at a station when it comes into town. There is no town, and there is no station. It's sitting in the middle of the countryside."
    "Maybe it broke down."
    "Let's fly over and take a look."
    Vin Fiz immediately zoomed lower until she was flying only ten feet above the tracks as she sped toward the last car of the train. For an instant it looked as though she was going to crash into the rear car, but with just fifty feet to go, she lifted and flew over the rail-cars with her wheels almost touching the tops of the roofs. Rushing over the five passenger cars, a dining car, a baggage car, the coal tender and finally the big steam locomotive, painted blue with gold, the twins took a close look at what was happening.
    What was happening, they quickly realized, was that the train had not broken down but had been stopped by a gang of bandits, who were looting the passengers of their valuables and removing whatever money and gold that was being shipped in the baggage car. After robbing the passengers alongside the