CHAPTER 4
A SNAKE IN THE FACE
While Larryboy continued to torment Bob with an endless string of bad jokes, Outback Jack continued his own reign of terror.
First, he flipped through the stolen file until he found the information he needed about the Treasure of Bumblyburg. Then he zoomed over to the Bumblyburg Clock Tower on his glider where he tied a rope to the clock face. Jackie latched onto the rope with her mouth and yanked at the clock with all of her might.
“Pull, Jackie! Pull!” shouted Outback.
Just as the clock was finally coming loose, a voice spoke from the roof of the Clock Tower: “Your time is up, Outback!”
Outback and Jackie exchanged startled looks as they gazed at the tip-top of the tower. There, with his cape flapping gallantly in the breeze, stood Larryboy.
“What ‘appened?” Outback asked.
“Run out of jokes, Laffy-boy?” “It’s Larryboy!” the caped cucumber corrected. “Your laughing gas wore off a little sooner than you planned—thanks to the forty cups of water that the Bumblyburg staff threw in my face. But now the joke’s on you, Outback! Knock-knock.”
“Who’s there?” said Outback, unable to resist a good knock-knock joke.
“Alaska.”
“Alaska who?”
“Alaska one more time: Give up or you’re going to taste my plungers!”
“He’s good,” Jackie noted.
“But not good enough, luv!”
With that, Jackie and Outback gave a mighty heave-ho, and the clock face cracked loose from the wall. Torn free, the clock dangled mid-air, connected to Outback’s glider by the sturdy rope.
Quick as a cat, Larryboy fired a plunger.
THONK!
The plunger stuck fast to the clock face. Now the tug-of-war began, with Outback pulling on one end of his rope and Larryboy yanking on the other end with his plunger.
Hovering just a few feet away, Outback thrust his sock puppet forward and once again, Jackie became The Power Glove of Doom.
This time, however, Larryboy was ready. A flyswatter popped out of Larryboy’s superhero utility belt and whipped around like a fencing foil.
“My radar-guided flyswatter will take care of your Mega Jester-Bee, Outback Jack!”
“Yer blooming right, mate,” said Outback. “But it’ll only make me snake veeery mad.”
“Snake?” Larryboy gulped. “Did you say snake?”
Larryboy’s flyswatter wilted.
“Larryboy, meet my pet rattlesnake,” Outback told him as the top of Jackie’s hat burst open like a spring-loaded gag-box and a real snake launched forward.
The rattlesnake flew through the air in slow motion, jaws open wide, while Larryboy sprang into action. Pressing a button on his utility belt, he triggered a weapon specially designed to fight snakes.
BOING!
Out popped a cheese grater!
“Wrong weapon, wrong weapon,” Larryboy grumbled. In a panic, he pushed another button. Out popped a set of measuring cups. Then an egg beater. A frying pan. Salt and pepper shakers.
“I’m beginning to get the feeling I put on the wrong utility belt this morning,” Larryboy moaned.
So, with the snake only inches from his face, Larryboy did what any superhero would do in this situation.
He ran.
Outback Jack could barely stop laughing long enough to yell, “G’day, mate!” to the fleeing cucumber. Then he and his sidekick sock puppet flew off in the opposite direction, blazing across the sky, dragging the clock face close behind.
