Clive Cussler

Philomel Books - An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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Copyright © 2010 by Clive Cussler. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. Philomel Books, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

Printed in the United States of America. Design by Richard Amari. Text set in Wilke Roman.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cussler, Clive. The adventures of Hotsy Totsy / Clive Cussler. p. cm. Summary: Ten- year-old twins Casey and Lacey's adventures continue when they use their magical machine to turn a model speedboat into a life-size motorboat to enter a race in San Francisco, and catch the attention of a villain from their past. [1. Motorboats—Fiction. 2. Racing—Fiction. 3. Basset hound—Fiction. 4. Dogs—Fiction. 5. "Bvins—Fiction. 6. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 7. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.C965Ach 2010 [Fie]—dc22 2009019130 ISBN 978-0-399-25434-5 13579 10 8642

To my great-grandchildren when their time comes to hear and read delightful stories.

1 The Magic of Vin Fiz 6

2 The Magic Returns
 

3 Off to San Francisco
 

4 The Return of the Boss
 

5 Carried Off into the Night

6 Alcatraz Island
 

7 Locked in a Dungeon
 

8 Escape from Alcatraz
 

9 Thunder Across the Bay
 

10 The Dash up the Channel to Sacramento
 

11 Danger down the River
 

12 The Dash to the Finish Line

The Nicefolk farm, as you may not know or remember, was near the quaint town of Castroville, California, known for its fields of artichokes, a plant whose leaves taste good when heated and dipped in a creamy sauce. But Ever and Ima didn't grow artichokes like all the other farmers in the neighborhood. Their neighbors thought them a little strange because they raised herbs like licorice, spearmint, ginseng and many other exotic varieties that were sold and used in recipes to spice up tasty meals made by gourmet chefs in restaurants from San Francisco to New York to Paris to Hong Kong.

The Nicefolks were good people. Ever was a big man, serious most of the time but with eyes that twinkled. He could always be counted on to help out a neighbor. His wife, Ima, was a sweetheart with a jolly smile that could light up a dark night. For years they had struggled to keep their heads above water by working very hard in the fields. But the past year brought good luck, and now the farm was becoming prosperous.

Casey and Lacey's adventure began when a field- worker showed up one day and asked their father if he could use help for the harvest. He was a tall, lanky man who said his name was Sucoh Sucop, which Lacey quickly discovered was hocus pocus spelled backward. He was a gentleman and was accompanied by a donkey named Mr. Periwinkle, who pulled a little red two-wheeled wagon.

Mr. Nicefolk said he couldn't afford hired help, but when the stranger asked for only a place to sleep and his meals, Ever Nicefolk hired him on the spot. From then until the end of the harvest, Sucoh Sucop slept nights in the barn. At least Ever and Ima Nicefolk thought he was sleeping after eating dinner with the family in the house.

The twins knew better.

Something very strange and mysterious was happening inside the barn when the sun fell over the Pacific Ocean to the west. People who passed on the road at night swore they saw strange flickering shadows and an eerie mist surrounding the barn. They also reported an unexplained tingling on their skin.

Casey and Lacey got goose bumps on their arms every time they entered the barn and stood in front of the door to the room Sucoh Sucop lived in. Strangely, the door was always locked. They could not but wonder what secrets were hidden inside.

Finally, when the fields were harvested and the spices packaged and sent on their way, the handyman hitched up Mr. Periwinkle to his little wagon and said his good-byes to the Nicefolk family. Everyone was sad to see him go. Their dog, Floopy, howled as his friend, the little donkey Mr. Periwinkle, and Sucoh Sucop rode off beyond the green fields and disappeared, but not before showing Casey and Lacey what he had been doing nights in the barn. He told them, "You cannot tell nobody what I am about to show you."

Because he swore them to secrecy, they couldn't reveal what they were about to see to anyone, not even their mother and father, because Sucoh Sucop said that grown-up people wouldn't understand. His gift to them, he explained, was to be used only for the children's enjoyment and adventure; anything else and the magic wouldn't work.

With a mystical wizardry the twins never unraveled, Sucoh Sucop had created a machine that could change a tiny object into one that was life-size big. To make the machine work, they had to push a little lever on a black box and wish with all their hearts. On their first attempt they changed a toy tractor into a real tractor. It was big and red and became a true blessing for working the spice farm.

Ever and Ima Nicefolk were astounded and wondered where the tractor came from. Because they were sworn to secrecy by the handyman, the twins simply said it was a present Sucoh left everyone for being so kind to him. Which was really quite true. The few months he was with them, the Nicefolks had taken Sucoh Sucop into their lives as if he was one of the family.

Their next task Casey and Lacey gave to the mysterious machine was to make big a model airplane of the Wright Brothers' Flyer, like the one that made the first flight across the United States. They set the model on a large shimmering pad as they had been instructed by Sucop and pushed a lever on an odd-looking box. Then they wished and wished. Before their eyes the model became a real airplane that could actually fly. In fact, because it was so magical it flew itself.

They called it Vin Fiz after a grape soft drink Casey liked. Then with Floopy in a box between them, they took off into a blue sky on their great adventure flying across the country.

After they returned, Casey set the mystical pad under the plane and made it into a little model toy again that he hung on a string from the ceiling of his bedroom.

"School will be out this weekend," said Lacey Nicefolk as she sat on a back porch step and shelled peas from their pods for supper. Lacey was ten years old, with a pretty smile. Her hair was golden amber like her mother, Ima's. She gazed through eyes that were as blue as robin eggs. "We should think about another adventure."

Her brother, Casey, leaned back in a chair and surveyed a model boat he was making.

"I agree with you, sis." Casey was Lacey's non- identical twin since boy and girl twins couldn't be identical. He took after his father, Ever Nicefolk, who had a bushy head of hair as yellow as marigolds and whose sparkly green eyes always seemed to be darting around as if looking for something. "I miss the old Vin Fiz. Maybe we should make her large again and take another flight to some exotic lands."

After their great adventure in the Vin Fiz, with their long-eared basset hound, Floopy, you would think that freeing the citizens of a town in the desert from desperados, saving the passengers of a Mississippi River steamboat from a great collision, stopping a runaway train and foiling a robbery, not to mention rescuing two girls about to go over Niagara Falls, would be enough adventure to last Casey and Lacey a lifetime. But already life around the farm seemed dull and boring.

"But where?" lacey loved to ask questions. "Where will we go?" Schoolwork came easy for her. She especially enjoyed solving puzzling problems and analyzing mathematical equations. But she also liked doing things most girls do, dressing up, taking gymnastics and dance classes and helping her mother in the kitchen, especially baking cookies.

Casey was a hands-on kind of boy. He endured school but didn't find it any fun. He preferred working with his hands. Anything mechanical fascinated him. He loved to take things apart and put them back together again, like the farm tractor. He was always tinkering with it. And he loved to build models. The Wright Brothers airplane that he had named the Vin Fiz started out as a model before becoming a real life-size flyer.

Casey held up a poster he had sent for through the mail. It showed powerboats racing through the water, making towering rooster tails in their wakes. Big letters across the top of the poster proclaimed:

GOLD CUP GRAND NATIONAL RACE

Forty powerboats expected for the endurance run up the Sacramento River to the state capital and back to the San Francisco Bay marina.

Many great drivers and celebrities will participate in the most spectacular race of the year.

Watch boats speeding over the water in a grueling endurance race of over two hundred miles.

Casey passed the poster to Lacey, who seemed more interested in the colorful boats.

"I thought we might enter this," he said, acting as if he was barely interested. "It looks to be a fine adventure."

"Enter Vin Fiz in a powerboat race," Lacey huffed. "That's plain silly."

"Not Vin Fiz." Casey held up the model boat. "But a powerboat like this."

"You can't mean that dumb little piece of wood in your hands."

"It's not dumb," Casey said sharply. "This happens to be a model replica of a powerboat that won the Gold Cup races two years in a row," he added proudly.

"It was a long time ago, but I bet it will go as fast as the other boats."