As he drew near, I tensed my legs and crouched. Then he hit me, and I pushed upward with all my strength. The fate of a whole world—and Laura and me—depended on my strength at that instant.
It worked. His heavy body lifted, and he grunted in pain as I rammed upward. He went up, up, over the garden fence—
And then, to my horror, he cleared the garden fence and, with a soul-splitting cry, fell into the gaping mouth of his own vortex!
I leaned against the fence, gaping—and before I could think of what to do, the vortex was gone, winked out as if it had never been!
Then Laura was on the porch, white-faced, terrified.
"What happened? Where's Daddy?"
I ran to her side. "He's gone," I said. "Tripped and fell into the vortex, and then—"
"Oh!" She gave a little cry and I thought she was going to faint, but she caught herself with an effort and straightened up. Speaking carefully, syllable by syllable, she said, "I—just—smashed—Daddy's—machinery."
"You what?"
"While you were fighting—I ran down to the basement and wrecked everything. Everything!"