Free Clive Cussler by The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy

recognized as chilies, beans and cabbage. While Casey focused his attention on speeding around the bends of the river, Lacey looked up and marveled at flights of white pelicans gliding just inches above the water, ignoring the boats zooming past and the thunderous roar of their exhaust.
    Floopy yapped at a blue heron that stood on spindly legs, his claws clutched around a branch of a walnut tree that hung over the river. He seemed fascinated by the blur of colors that flashed past.
    "Here they come," the Boss declared, peering from his black phantom boat, which was hidden in the reeds.
    "They're going awful fast," said the Beard.
    "Real fast," added Wrinkle Face.
    "Our boat is faster than any in the race," said the Boss with a smug grin.
    "The Boss will fix 'em," said Wrinkle Face.
    "Yeah, he'll fix 'em," came back the Beard.
    "They'll never know what hit them," the Boss muttered in growing fury.
    He waited until the twins passed before he jammed his foot down on the pedal, sending the black boat rocketing into the center of the river behind Hotsy Totsy's wake.
    Hotsy Totsy was closing on a boat painted white with a lightning-shaped red stripe along its hull. Lacey checked the list of boats and saw that its name was Toot Toot Tootsie. She had slender and graceful lines and was setting a fast pace, rapidly coming up on the boats in front of her. Her pilot turned and saw Hotsy Totsy charging up like a racehorse around the far turn.
    Casey backed off the throttle pedal to keep Hotsy Totsy's bow from striking Toot Toot Tootsie's stern. The sudden move saved the twins, their dog and the magical boat from an unforeseen disaster.
    In the blink of an eye the phantom black boat shot past in front of them. The Boss misjudged the distance between the two boats just as Casey took his foot off the throttle pedal. Instead, the Boss rammed his boat into the stern of Toot Toot Tootsie. cutting the boat in two just ahead of the engine. Toot Toot Tootsie's bow soared out of the water as the engine with its prop still wildly spinning sank into the depths of the river.
    Luckily, the pilot and his copilot were thrown clear and swiftly swam toward the riverbank, where people were wading out into the water to help them ashore.
    "Curses!" grumbled the Boss. "I'll get those brats yet." He spun the wheel and cut in front of Hotsy Totsy in another attempt to smash into her.
    "Oh no!" Lacey moaned. "It's the Boss and his henchmen."
    "Where did they come from?" Casey wondered aloud.
    "They must have been hiding off the river waiting to crush us and destroy Hotsy Totsy."
    Casey could see that the Beard said something to the Boss, who then began whipping his boat from side to side in an attempt to block the twins and Hotsy Totsy from passing and getting away.
    Casey tried to back off the throttle and stay behind the black phantom, but Hotsy Totsy was determined to pass and locked the throttle pedal. She steered to their right to confuse the Boss but suddenly swung around to the left and bounced high in the air as she climbed over the wave caused by the black phantom's wake. Hotsy Totsy smacked down again with a huge splash as she pulled alongside just as both boats entered a tight, narrow bend in the river.
    Hotsy Totsy was fighting the black phantom hard. Neither boat gave an inch. Together, Casey and Lacey held their breath. They twisted around the bend hull to hull. Casey was sure he could have reached out and touched the Boss, who was trying to shove them against a dead tree standing out from the shoreline fifty yards ahead. Then, reaching deep within her magical powers,Hotsy Totsy twisted and cut around the turn, tearing through the water while leaning on the side of her hull.
    If not for their safety belts and harnesses, Casey and Lacey would surely have been thrown out of the boat. But just as they thought Hotsy Totsy was going to flip upside down, she flattened out and surged ahead, leaving the phantom black boat bouncing in her wake.
    Lacey felt