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"It was very good of Commodore Horatio to give us a free boat ride as a reward for our information about the sea serpent, wasn't it, Harry?" said Fred, otherwise known as Agent Ten Zero Zero Three. "Seeing it was only our jobs and there never was a sea serpent."
The sun was setting behind the Grizzly Bear Mountains and cast a trail of gold across the Great Bear Sea. The sea tulips hugging the coastline looked especially charming in the golden light. Harry, Agent Three Five Zero small case b, thought it was all very beautiful, but Fred regarded the scene worriedly.
"It was very good of him," answered Harry. "And you were very good to accept. Just as you were very good to indulge me with a vacation to the seaside. But for our next vacation, I think we should tour Bearmania on the Bearmanian Railroad."
"Oh, Harry, you don't mean it!" exclaimed Fred.
"I would take it as a particular favor if you were to manage the railroad schedules for us, Fred," Harry said, smiling down at his friend.
And Fred gazed up at him with shining eyes, that for once held hardly a hint of worry.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Night had settled over Beartown-on-the-Sea. The Jo-Anne-Mae was safely moored again, her guests departed at last for Spy Headquarters — or so Commodore Horatio assumed. It didn't do to ask a spy his business. He stood at his cabin windows, watching the gollops in the moonlight. Already the industrious creatures were subduing the sea tulips. It gladdened his heart to see it.
Through the cabin wall, he heard a rhythmic sighing and plopping, as if someone were climbing the hull with suction cups. Soon there was a knock on the door.
"Here you are, Professor!" Commodore Horatio called. "I hoped you would come by tonight! I have just acquired a new duet!"
"Oh, wonderful!" Professor Waldo replied. "May I say how charming the Jo-Anne-Mae looked tonight, her colors all lit up by the sunset?"
Commodore Horatio blushed in pleasure. "You may, sir. Will you please sit here?" Commodore Horatio showed the Professor his best chair. The Commodore took the other, the chair almost disappearing beneath his bulk. They took out their instruments. "Will you give me an A, sir?"
And beneath the cabin windows, the gollops gambolled in the moonlight to the sweet strains of Bearmania's premier composer, Johann S. Bear.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Below decks, Sailor Ned lounged by the kitchen stove with the old Hermit Bear. The relaxed, friendly organization of the Bearmanian Navy was all very well, but sometimes it was nice for the enlisted bears to have below-decks all to themselves.
"Have you thought of a name, then?" Sailor Ned asked the old Hermit Bear. He liked the old Hermit Bear, and especially that he didn't know any silly nautical terms.
"Not yet. I want to name myself after the nicest thing there is," said the old Hermit Bear.
"Well, then," said Sailor Ned. "Have you tried Parmesan cheese yet?"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Now that Little George was Official Gollop Chief, he didn't shout so much. Big George liked that. Every day Little George picked a new grazing area for the gollops, and every day Big George rowed his rowboat there, the gollops following. It was nice. Nicer than being lighthouse keeper on Left Bear Paw Island.
It was not nice for sea-going bears who relied on the lighthouse. "Who will be the lighthouse keeper now?" Big George asked.
The new lighthouse keeper, when he came, had a mean scowl and a green sheen to his fur. "My name is Boris," he said.