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Chapter 10 continued...

XL moved to the net as Beeba and Max followed. He reached down to the cord above the rabbit and lifted most of it off. There were two loops around the rabbits back foot, and he had to hold the rabbit's leg in order to get the leg untangled.

Then he let go, and the rabbit bounded away. After it was a safe distance, it stopped for a moment and turned back to face them. Then it turned away again and hopped into the bush.

"It's too bad we didn't bring any carrots," said Beeba, thinking about his own lunch box that was waiting for him in Saucer 1. "Do you think the rabbit will be O.K.?"

"Probably," said XL. "Likely it knows where to find food."

"Is that why you freed it?" asked Beeba. "You know it could be killed by a predator anyway."

"Yes," answered XL, "but it has a chance now. Dying by starvation is a slower death so I wanted to prevent that. We can't help every little animal in the forest that's in trouble, but we could help this one. So why not?"

"True," said Beeba, looking toward the tracks that the rabbit had left in the snow. Just then he noticed something. As the rabbit had hopped away, it had jumped on something white that didn't leave a foot print. Beeba walked over to it.

"What's that?" asked XL, as Beeba leaned over.

Beeba pulled a white panel out of the snow. It was a sign that had fallen over in the storm. He turned it over. The sign said, "House for Sale" and below that was a large sticker marked "Sold."

"I think that's all the proof we need," commented Max.

"Right," said XL. "They aren't just on vacation."

"We better get back," said Max. "The map shows a public boat launch just 50 meters from here."

Beeba looked puzzled. Of what use is a boat launch in the winter?

"Come along Mr. Boeboo!" said Max, as he and XL set out through the snow.

Beeba followed. The boat launch was not far from the house. It was a gradual slope that led out onto the ice. On either side of the launch, the ground was about a meter above the ice surface, so the launch provided an easy way to ski onto the ice. All three of them skied onto the lake, and then XL pulled out his remote control to call Saucer 1 to them.

"Now that we're in the clear, there will be no risk of the elevator being tangled in tree branches," explained Max.

Two minutes later they were back in Saucer 1, heading to meet XL's mother and sister who they left at the spa.

Beeba grabbed his lunch as he looked out the windows. "At last!" he said, with a smile on his face.

"Do you think of nothing else?" asked XL, as he pulled a sandwich out of his own lunch box.

"Look who's taking!" answered Beeba.

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.