What had happened to Gwen?

While Lance was climbing the tower, Gwen had been doing a little climbing of her own. Soon after leaving Sleeping Beauty's castle, she and Org began to see large billboard signs along the road which read: "JACK'S MIRACLE BEANSTALK MUSEUM, ONE MILE AHEAD!!" and " SEE THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGGS!! HEAR THE AMAZING SINGING HARP!!" and "SEE THE GIANT'S LAST RESTING PLACE!! DON'T MISS THIS WORLD-FAMOUS ATTRACTION!!!"

Shortly, they arrived in a small dusty valley, where they saw a giant stump of wilted-looking green rising several hundred feet into the sky. At its base stood a large empty parking lot, and a small wooden building with a window.

Looking drearily out of the window was a very bored-looking young man, who said in a dull voice, "Welcome to the beanstalk. Admission is fifty cents and includes the beanstalk and the pit made by the giant when falling. Going inside to see the harp and hen, twenty-five cents more. Golden egg omelets served in the coffee shop, one dollar each."

"Actually," said Gwen, "we just need to climb your beanstalk."

"Climb it!" The young man stared at her. "What do you mean, climb it?" he snapped. "Nobody's allowed to climb it. It's against the rules!"

"Oh, please," begged Gwen, " It's important! And you could give us permission, couldn't you? It's your beanstalk, after all."

"Mine?" said the bored young man. "What gave you that idea?"

"Well, you're Jack, aren't you?"

"Don't I wish," said the young man gloomily. "I'm Jim. Jack's my uncle. He built this museum and got rich off all the tourists. Then he hired me to run it instead. Only problem is, nobody comes any more. Everyone's seen it already-it's old news. I'm bored out of my skull."

"Well," said Gwen, "this man here," she pointed to Org, "is a very important person in Adventure Storyland. If you let us climb the beanstalk, He could do something about finding you a better job, couldn't you, Org?"

"Oh, certainly," said Org. To the young man he added, "Imagine a more exciting job-a life of adventure-shall we say, head dragon-keeper?"

"D-dragon-keeper!" stuttered Jim. "Wow-I've always wanted-I've never even seen a dragon! Here ." He dashed over to the gate and opened it. "Go right in-but be careful, it's slippery to climb!"

The beanstalk was nearly as big around as a house. Org surveyed it doubtfully. "Are you sure you wish to attempt this? It seems a bit risky."

"I've been climbing trees since I was little," said Gwen confidently. "This won't be that different." But seeing that Org was looking a bit pale, she added, "You know, we really don't need two of us up there. Suppose you stay down here in case-uh-you need to go for help or something."

She meant only to make Org feel better, but she spoke more truly than she dreamed. For the beanstalk was not at all easy to climb. The branches were few and far apart, and in between she had to dig handholds and footholds into the pulpy flesh. The whole thing was slippery with bean juice. At last she neared the upper end of the broken stalk, and saw something white fluttering from a leaf near the very top. Climbing out onto the topmost branch, she found that it was a large white handkerchief tied to the leaf. Untying it, she saw that something was written on it.

"I've found it," she called down to Org. "It has numbers or something written on it-probably another code."

"Be careful coming down!" he called back. She nodded and put it in her pocket, then started back down the branch. Just as she neared the main stalk, the branch beneath her suddenly gave way with a loud CRACK!, collapsing and falling towards the ground! Gwen flung herself at the main stalk, digging her fingers in, and barely managed to hang on. The branch crashed down onto the one below it, which broke off as well, and both plummeted to the ground, narrowly missing Org.

"Are you all right, my dear?" he called anxiously.

"I'm O.K. for now," Gwen called down, "but I'm stuck. All I have is this stump of a branch to stand on, and no way to climb down." With the two top branches of the beanstalk broken off, the nearest branch was now far below her and she had no way to reach it.

"Stay there!" called Org-as if she could do anything else-and ran for the museum. Jim, however was no help. There was no ladder, he said, and seemed more upset about the broken branches than Gwen's plight.

"My uncle's going to be really mad," he said. "You'd better get me that dragon job, quick!"

At the word dragon, Org's eyes lit up. "That's it!" he exclaimed. "Jim, my boy, you're a genius!" He quickly pulled out his walkie-talkie and radioed Lance and Howard.

When they answered, he told them to run for Sleeping Beauty's castle as fast as they could. "It's just down the road from the town," he said. "Lance, you'll find an old friend there. Bring him to the beanstalk right away. He's the only one who can save Gwen!"

Up on the beanstalk, Gwen was growing tired and hungry. "I'm really going to need one of those golden egg omelets when I get down," she thought. Her legs ached, so she carefully eased herself down onto the stump of the branch and sat. Just for something to do, she pulled out the handkerchief and spread it out. The markings on it were numbers:

9-6 25-15-21 4-1-14-3-5 1-20 3-9-14-4-5-18-5-12-12-1-19 2-1-12-12
25-15-21-12-12 6-9-14-4 3-12-21-5-19 1-14-4 20-8-1-20-19
14-15-20 1-12-12

'Another code," she said to herself. "But what do these numbers mean? They must stand for something else-hey, maybe each number stands for a letter of the alphabet!"

Soon, she had it all figured out.

"Well, now I know where to go next," she thought, "if I ever get off this beanstalk." She was growing sleepy, and struggled hard to stay awake. What if she fell asleep and tumbled off?

Meanwhile, Lance and Howard were running pell-mell down the road for Sleeping Beauty's castle.

"I'm sure glad I didn't eat that blackbird pie first," puffed Lance.

"If I'd known we were going to do so much running," panted Howard, "I'd have done some working out before we came here!" They were approaching the castle now.

"I hope your friend has a car!" coughed Howard, clutching his side.

"Sorry, no cars here!" gasped Lance. "And I don't know who."

He was interrupted by an enormous ROAR! that echoed down the whole valley. A huge blue-green form came winging toward them. "Wha-what is that?" gasped Howard, his eyes huge. Lance stopped in his tracks. "Uh-oh," he said. "It's a dragon." "A-a-a what?" Howard went white as a sheet, and prepared to turn and run the other way. But Lance's face suddenly lit up in a smile. He ran forward, waving and grinning.

"Puff!" he called, "Hey Puff! Down here!"

"You know this dragon?" cried Howard, astonished.

"You bet I do! Don't worry, he's totally harmless. Hey, Puff!"

The dragon had seen them at last. He glided in for a landing, coming to rest in the road just in front of them. "Lance!" he cried happily. "Is that you? Gwen said you were here! I'm glad to see you!"

"We're glad to see you, too, old buddy!" said Lance. "Boy, are we ever. We need a ride-can you get us to Jack's Beanstalk right away? We have to save Gwen, she's in trouble!"

"Climb on!" cried the dragon, and the three of them roared across the sky towards Jack's museum. As they approached, they saw the broken stalk rising into the sky, and Org and Jim running around like frantic insects below it. The handkerchief clue had fallen off Gwen's lap, and in trying to catch it, she had lost her balance and tumbled off! Now she hung perilously from the broken stump, dangling hundreds of feet above the ground!

With a roar, Puff went into a nose dive, and zoomed down beneath the branch just in time. Gwen's hands slipped, and she dropped onto Puff's back, where Lance and Howard reached out to steady her. Puff glided down to the ground, and the three of them tumbled off his back, exhausted.

As for Jim, he took one look at the giant dragon, and took off running.

"Wait!" called Gwen. "What about your dragon-keeper job?"

"Are you kidding?" he hollered back. "I'd rather face my uncle than that thing!" And he kept on running until they could no longer see him.

Later, they prepared golden-egg omelets for themselves in the coffee shop. It kept the golden hen very busy laying enough eggs for Puff, who ate his giant omelet in the parking lot. Inside the coffee shop, the two sets of detectives shared information. Lance and Howard told them what they had learned at the bears' house and at Rapunzel's tower. Gwen showed them the numbers on the handkerchief and how she had figured them out.

"It says: 'IF YOU DANCE AT CINDERELLA'S BALL, YOU'LL FIND CLUES AND THAT'S NOT ALL!"

Howard said this kind of code was called a number substitution code.

"You don't always have to use 1 for A, 2 for B and so on," he said. "You can start with any number, and make your code more complicated."

"But how do you keep track?" asked Lance.

"You can make a code wheel," said Howard. "Then you just set the letter "A" on any number you choose, and the wheel will give you the rest of the numbers. Here, I'll show you." Using the back of a paper menu, a pencil, and a few other items from Jim's desk, he made the code wheel, and showed them how it worked.

"About the ball--I'm a little confused," said Lance. "I thought it was the Prince's ball. Cinderella was just a guest."

"That was before she married the prince," said Org. "Now she's a princess, she throws a ball every week. She's costing him a fortune."

"Well," said Gwen, "We'd better get going. I say we all go to Cinderella's ball together. Right, Howard?"

To everyone's surprise, Howard blushed. "I, uh, I'd rather not," he said. Gwen looked offended.

Lance tried to come to Howard's rescue. "Howard and I have more investigating to do. We still have to go to Henny Penny's farm and the Queen of Hearts' castle."

Howard looked relieved, but then Org said, "Actually, Lance my boy, I'd like to come with you to see the critters and the queen. Howard here is such a crackerjack code-breaker, I think he ought to stick with Gwen this time." Gwen had the feeling that Org didn't want to go to a ball, either.

"Fine," she said shortly. "I'm going to have a good time at the ball, at least. Come on, Howard. You don't have to dance with me, you know." She stalked out of the coffee shop. Howard followed, looking miserable.

"Well," said Lance cheerfully, "Whatever else we might be getting into, at least we don't have to dance."

"True," said Org as they followed the others out, "but don't be deceived, my boy. There is danger ahead. Mark my words."