Chocolate Fever (5 page)

“My name is Henry Green,” said Henry, “and he’s Mac.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m sure,” said Louie, “even under these unfortunate circumstances.” Polite as they seemed to be, Louie and Lefty were still pointing their guns at Mac and Henry.

“You sure you want to do this?” Mac asked slowly. He seemed to be puzzled by the hijackers. “I think you’re going to be in a whole lot of trouble.”

“Trouble?” said Louie. “You will be in trouble if you don’t do exactly what I say. Now climb up to that bunk up there, both of you, so we can get on with the job.”

Henry did as he was told, with Mac following slowly behind him. Mac was getting angry, Henry could see, but when he spoke, his voice was calm. “I don’t suppose it would do much good to tell you that you are definitely breaking the law,” he said.

Louie laughed. “Breaking the law? Mister, we are fracturing it.” And with that, Lefty jumped into the driver’s seat, Louie took his place beside him, and the truck began to roll.

Mac still had something on his mind, and above the roar of the motor he called down to the pair of thieves: “You better stop now . . . I think you’re making an awful mistake.”

“There’s no mistake about it,” Louie called back over his shoulder. “We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re hijacking a cargo of expensive furs.”

Mac looked dumbfounded at this last piece of news. “Furs?” he cried out. “Furs?” And with that he started to laugh. Great gusts of laughter poured out of Mac, he doubled over one or two times, and, finally, tears came to his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “Oh, Lord,” he cried when he could finally speak, “they think they’re stealing furs!”

The more Mac laughed, the more concerned Louie became. He signaled Lefty to stop the truck and, when he had, turned to look up at Mac.

In a low voice he said, “No furs?”

Mac, taking care to keep a straight face, simply answered, “No furs.”

“Then what?—” Louie began as Mac interrupted.

“Candy bars!”
Mac shouted, the laughter beginning again. “Haw-haw . . . candy bars . . .”

“Oh, no!” Louie said.

“Chocolate bars . . . haw-haw . . . with almonds.”

“Nuts!” exclaimed Lefty.

“And some without almonds.”

“What are we gonna do with a load of chocolate bars, genius?” Lefty demanded of Louie.

“Haw . . . and some with crunch . . . haw . . . and some without crunch.”

“Chocolate bars! I can’t believe it,” Louie mumbled.

“You said this job would be like taking candy from a baby,” Lefty said in an angry way, “but . . . chocolate bars?”

“And some with caramel . . . haw-haw . . .”

As Mac continued his roll call of the various kinds of candy the truck carried, the two thieves sat silently in the front seat, staring at each other. It was plain that they were amazed.

After a while, Lefty spoke. “What do we do now?” he asked Louie.

“I don’t know,” Louie replied, “but I’ll think of something. Meanwhile, let’s get this truck to the hideout.”

“And some of it with peanut butter . . . haw-haw . . . but none of it with furs! Haw-haw!”

With Mac’s laughter ringing in their ears, the unhappy thieves looked glumly ahead as the truck rumbled through the night.

THEY TRAVELED for a long time.

Lefty was driving very carefully, making sure he kept the big truck within the speed limit. From his perch up in the bunk, Mac was keeping a watchful eye on their route.

Henry tried to keep watch, too, but as the hours flew by, he found himself nodding. He was soon asleep, his head cradled on Mac’s chest. As the first streaks of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, the big man was still holding his arms about the boy, cushioning his body from the shocks and jolts of the road.

As the truck shifted gears and slowed, Henry’s eyes opened. “Shhh,” Mac whispered, a finger held to his lips.

“Where are we?” Henry whispered in turn.

Mac put his mouth almost against Henry’s ear before he answered. “Far out in the country,” he said, “a long way from nowhere.

“Now when we get where we’re going,” he continued, “I want you to keep a sharp eye on me. Don’t do anything sudden, and don’t run. Let’s just be very careful, hear?”

Henry nodded.

He would follow Mac’s lead and do as he was told. The big man was a person you could trust, especially in a tight spot.

They were traveling along a two-lane road now, with just a few houses set wide apart. Lefty was driving the big truck very slowly, looking right and left at every crossroad.

“Any time, now, we’re going to turn off,” Mac whispered.

Henry agreed. They must be very close to the thieves’ hideout, he thought.

Lefty slowed the truck almost to a crawl and turned down a small dirt road. The truck bounced along the narrow track, turning right and left through the trees, and in a few minutes came to a stop in a grove of pines, near a small wooden cabin.

When Lefty had turned off the motor, Louie called up to them. “Gentlemen, we have arrived. Last stop—everybody off.”

Lefty and Louie opened the cab doors and stepped down out of the truck. “Easy now, you two,” Louie said, as Mac and Henry joined them. “No sudden moves. No funny business. No tricks, right?”

“No tricks,” Mac said quietly.

Louie had his gun in his hand again, Henry could see. With the gun pointed squarely at Mac, the thieves led them into the cabin. It had one room, dirty and desolate-looking. A wooden table and chairs stood in one corner, and Louie prodded Mac and Henry in that direction. There were no windows in the cabin and no light, either, until Louie lit a small lantern that hung from the rafters. Lefty pulled a chair over near the door and sat there, gun in hand, watching carefully.

“Well, now,” Mac said, “what comes next?”

“What comes next is up to you,” Louie said. “Play it smart, and we leave you here when the job’s over. Give us trouble and. . . . Just don’t give us any trouble.”

With that, Louie drew a chair over near Lefty, and the two of them fell into a quiet conversation. Lefty was angry, that much was clear. “What do we do with a load of candy?” they heard him say. Louie spent most of his energy trying to keep Lefty calm.

“Looks like our friends over there bought a pack of trouble,” Mac said to Henry. “Instead of furs, they got something they don’t want.”

“Haw-haw,” said Henry and they both had a quiet chuckle, followed by several minutes of quiet giggles. When their mirth had subsided, Henry asked Mac what was really going to happen.

“I don’t know,” Mac said, “except for this. If either one of them tries to put a hand on you, I will personally lay them out flat—gun or no gun. So don’t you worry, hear?”

There was a kind of iron in Mac’s voice now, and Henry was sure that when the moment came, the big man would be ready for it. Just then, out of the corner of his ear, Henry heard a faint and faraway sound. It could have been a dog barking.

Mac heard it, too, and the two of them sat quietly listening. It was barking, all right, but now there seemed to be two dogs barking. Mac put his hand on Henry’s arm. “No noise now,” he said, “listen.”

The barking got louder, and closer, as the seconds ticked by. Louie and Lefty had heard it too. They stood near the closed door, listening for all they were worth.

You had to be deaf not to hear the chorus of yelps and yowls. It was getting louder and louder with every moment.

“Keep them covered,” Louie shouted against the din. “I’m going out to see what’s happening.”

Lefty shuffled over to the corner where Mac and Henry sat, his drawn pistol looking them straight in the eyes. Louie, gun in hand, opened the door and froze on the spot. But only for a split second.

For at that exact moment a big German shepherd came sailing through the doorway and landed on Louie’s chest. Louie was knocked flat on his back, his pistol clattered across the floor. Behind the German shepherd came a whole army of yelping, barking dogs, all heading straight for Henry. Airedales, Dobermans, a brown and white collie, several spaniels and setters, and a small French poodle. They were yelping and jumping and barking enough to fill the little cabin with noise and confusion. Lefty was stunned, speechless, absolutely confused by the dog riot that was taking place before him. But Mac knew what he was about. In a flash he pounced on Lefty and took the pistol right out of his hand.

Then he leaped to where Louie’s gun had fallen and scooped that one up, too. One gun in each hand, Mac whirled to face the pair of confused crooks. Louie was still on the floor. Lefty was surrounded by a pack of yipping-yapping dogs. Even if he wanted to run, he couldn’t.

Henry, of course, was the star attraction for the animal army. They were licking him as if he were some sort of new dog yummy. His arms and legs and face were covered with happy, licking dogs. And all of it made him laugh so hard he could scarcely protest.

While this was going on, still more dogs were racing into the tiny cabin. And behind them came people—most of them with leashes in their hands —and all with the same puzzling story. They had been out walking with their dogs when, one after the other, the animals had put their noses in the air, sniffed wildly, and then began racing madly along the dirt road as if following an irresistible scent. Now what could have made those animals behave so strangely? And what about those pistols? What was going on in this cabin, anyway?
Why
did the place smell like a chocolate shop?

It took about an hour, and the arrival of the local police, to sort it all out. Mac had a lot of explaining to do, but when it was over, Louie and Lefty were handcuffed. As they were being led away, Henry heard Lefty mutter, “We go after furs, and we get candy bars. We get to our hideout, and we’re invaded by dogs. It’s getting so a guy can’t make a dishonest living anymore.”

“Haw! Haw!” said Mac and Henry together.