The road led for a time through a bunch of semi-deserted strip malls, convenience stores, and video stores, and a one 24 hour diner that was still open. As they walked the subject turned to the meanings behind the various icons they saw on people’s shirts and hats.

  "Symbols have no fixed meaning," pontificated the Ratsack Golem. "They change according to the level of consciousness of whoever contemplates them and the cultural context in which they appear."

  "Uh-huh," said Montana.

  They had now reached that part of the valley that lay between the two high mountains which Mono had seen from her tower window. At the far end was a big brown lumpy fartcano. Every few minutes the top of the fartcano noisily let out a toxic cloud of noxious gas. It was inside this fartcano that the Fartmeister's headquarters was said to be; but it would be some time before they reached that place.

  The path was becoming rocky and difficult for the wheels of the truckbed to pass over, and presently a deep gulf appeared at their feet which was too wide for them to leap. So Titiana took a severed tongue out of her pocket and threw it upon the ground. At once the tongue swelled and swole up, and extended itself far enough for all the cavalcade to walk upon, and they all passed over in safety.

  "That's easy enough," said Ratsack. "I wonder what will happen next."

  He was not long in making the discovery, for the sides of the mountain came closer together until finally there was but a narrow path between them, along which Titiana and her party were forced to pass in single file.

  They now heard a low and deep "THWUNK!- --THWUNK!- --THWUNK!" which echoed throughout the valley and seemed to grow louder as they advanced. Then, turning a corner of rock, they saw before them a huge form, which towered above the path for more than a hundred feet. The form was that of a gigantic dour robot built out of grey Mukusian plastic. It stood with one foot on either side of the narrow road and swung over its shoulder an immense molybdenum sledge hammer, with which it constantly pounded the earth. These resounding blows explained the thwunking sounds they had heard, for the sledge hammer was much enormous, and where it struck the path between the rocky sides of the mountain it filled all the space through which our travelers would be obliged to pass.

  Of course they at once halted, a safe distance away from the terrible robot.

  "Wow!" said Agent Orange, with a shudder.

  "Not cool, man," said Bruce the Retiring Ocelot. "One blow would crush me into a door-mat."

  "Can he think, and speak, as you two do?" Titania asked Cydroidobot and his son, regarding the giant robot with wondering eyes.

  "I don’t think so," said Cydroidobot. “It’s a Sledjbot4000, they’re only made to pound the ground, it has no thinking or speaking microcircuits."

  "He does pound very well," said the robotic emperor’s son.

  "Too well," observed Ratsack. "He is keeping us from going farther. Is there no way to stop his machinery?"

  "See that big keyhole on his torso? Only the Fartmeister, who has the key, can do stop him," answered Cydroidobot.

  "Then," said Montana, anxiously, "what shall we do?"

  The giant mean-looking android continued to raise his molybdenum sledge hammer high in the air and to strike the path terrific blows that echoed through the mountains like the roar of a cannon. Each time the sledge hammer lifted, however, there was a moment when the path beneath the robot was free, and perhaps Montana had noticed this, for to the others she said:

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "The matter is a very simple one, after all. We have but to run under the hammer, one at a time, when it is lifted, and pass to the other side before it falls again."

  "It will require quick work, if we escape the blow," said Cydroidobot, with a shake of his head. "But it really seems the only thing to be done. Who will make the first attempt?"

  They looked at one another hesitatingly for a moment. Then Bruce lowered his sunglasses with one hoof and said to them:

  "I suppose the head of the procession must go first- and that's me. But that giant hammer is really harshening my buzz."

  “We shall disembark from the truckbed and I shall ride you, Bruce,” said Titiana.

  So this was decided upon, and Titiana, as soon as the massive ocelot was unfastened from the truckbed, at once mounted the steed-class yokai’s back and said she was ready.

  So Titiana clung fast, and Bruce crouched in the path and eyed the swinging sledge hammer carefully until he knew just the instant it would begin to rise in the air.

  Then, before anyone thought he was ready, he made a sudden leap straight between the plastic giant's legs, and before the sledge hammer struck the ground again the fleshy gammon-colored ocelot and the willowy caramel-colored flatulenz fairy were safe on the other side.

  Jo went next. Montana dumped most of the items out of her large backpack, placed Vira inside of it, and zipped it shut. Then she climbed on Jo’s back, and the prolific rhinoceros ran straight and true as an arrow from a bow, and ere Montana realized it she was out of danger. She dismounted and ran to Titiana's side. Without thinking they embraced in a warm hug, then they parted and both blushed.

  Now came the Ratsack Golem, Nate Goiterhead, and B.M. Foulfinger on Gashmouth, and while they made the dash in safety they were within a hair's breadth of being caught by the descending hammer.

  Cydroidobot's son walked up to the very edge of the spot the hammer struck. A compartment on his back slid open and two jet engines popped out, and as the giant Sledjbot4000 raised his hammer for the next blow the black and orange plastic boy calmly blasted forward and escaped its descent. That was an idea for Cydroidobot to follow, and he also used his rocket boosters and roller skate extensions to zoom by in safety while the great hammer was in the air. But when it came to Agent Orange, his knees were so weak that he could not walk a step.

  "In battle I am wonderfully courageous," yelled Orange over the thwunks of the Sledjbot4000’s hammer, "and my foes find me very terrible to face. But war is one thing and this is another. When it comes to being pounded upon the head by a molybdenum hammer and smashed into a latke! I naturally object."

  "Make a run for it," urged the Cydroidobot’s son.

  "My knees shake so that I cannot run," answered the orange agent. "If I should try it I would certainly be pounded to jelly."

  "You know what? You’re fired," said Titania, and it was the fifth time that month she had fired him.

  "Well, well!" sighed Bruce, "Well, Jo, well, Gash, which one of is going to risk his life to collect this dork-butt?"

  Gashmouth the Chainsaw Raccoon thought it was easy to evade the Sledjbot4000’s hammer, so he casually volunteered to go. He had no trouble crossing to Agent Orange, who then clung to the raccoon for dear life. But on the way back either the wooden raccoon was careless, or it failed to properly time the descent of the hammer, for when the chainsaw sculpture darted forward the mighty weapon caught it squarely upon its tail, and thumped it so powerfully that the orange bejumpsuited man flew off its back high into the air, and landed upon the robot's hammer-swingin’ arm. Here he clung desperately while the arm rose and fell with each one of the rapid strokes.

  Ratsack, Nate, and Titiana dashed in to rescue Gashmouth, and had his left foot smashed by the hammer before he could pull the wooden golem out of danger. They then found that the Chainsaw Raccoon had been badly dazed by the blow; for while the hard dead fleshwood of which his head was formed could not be crushed by the hammer, both his ears were broken off and he would be unable to hear a sound until some new ones were made for him. Also his left knee was cracked, and had to be bound up with electrical tape Mono had in her backpack (where Vira was sound asleep).

  Now all that remained to rescue Agent Orange, who was riding upon the plastic giant's arm, high in the air. Ratsack lay flat upon the ground and called to the agent to climb up to the Sledjbot4000’s head and then jump down upon his body, which was soft because it was stuffed with rats. After several minutes of coaxing the orange agent waited until a time when he was nearest the ground and then letting himself drop upon Ratsack. He accomplished the feat without breaking any bones, and Ratsack declared his rats were not injured in the least.

  Now everyone was across but Cockadoody the Cocky Cockadoodoo. She made a running start and frantically flew under the hammer. Montana walked forward to catch her friend, but before she could reach her the giant’s sledge hammer hit the ground so hard that the it cracked open and Montana tumbled into the resulting crevice, and she and Vira fell for hours and hours and hours.