 |
| My sentiments exactly! |
While Prentice is busy haranguing his stereotyped allies, Midnight and his pals have followed the Rollo gang to the late Catlett's home. Inside, Ziggy questions the other fake Catlett before pronouncing his rival's story a serendipity. Now that the story is out of Catlett's return, anyone who finds the gang at his estate will simply assume they're invited guests. (A tale which will, of course, be confirmed by Ziggy's own "Catlett"). On top of all this, Ziggy will send his Catlett down to WXBZ to collect on the exorbitant salary promise. To close the loop, he locks the other Catlett in a room...telling his captive this will only last until such time as "we can figure out a nasty way to bump you off!" The henchmen are standing around praising Zig's "genius," when Midnight suddenly appears through an opened window!
Midnight announces to "Catlett" no longer has any reason to fear these hoods, when Ziggy interrupts to inform him that he's misunderstood the situation. Catlett, Ziggy claims, has actually hired the Rollo gang as bodyguards. Though bewildered and suspicious--and perhaps distracted by the "panda" who keeps chewing at his leg--Midnight is hesitant to press further when "Catlett" himself confirms the story.
The crooks seem on the verge of getting away with it when Midnight's investigative instincts are arrested by cries for help and pounding coming from a nearby door. When Midnight opens the door he finds our other "Catlett" fighting for his life against the oncoming spears of the previously introduced "Congo savages."
[Now, in addition to the ethnic and linguistic stereotyping...there's also in the issue of plot problems here. I suppose it's possible to argue that these guys left their previous digs (which were presumably somewhere on the premises of ZKQ--or perhaps in the home of the ZKQ owner?) and have trekked to Catlett's old home where they stumbled upon a Catlett in the random room they broke into. Of course, this must've taken place sometime after Ziggy locked the second Catlett up...that, or Rollo is a singularly unobservant fellow. That...or this is just a giant, gaping plot hole.]
True to form, our boy in blue charges right into the fray, busting the lead Congoman right in the nose. Next thing you know, a trio of Eskimos come barrelling in from a side door. When one of these interlopers tries to spear "Catlett's" "panda", the intrepid explorer plants the business end of his double-barrel right in the Inuit's eyeballs and orders him to release the bear. Recognizing a strangely familiar voice (and not a little suspicious of the fact that the panda's black comes off when touched) Gabby yanks "Catlett's" beard to reveal that he is, in fact, Sniffer Snoop! As frequent readers will expect, Sniffer claims that though he really was an explorer, since Wackey and Gabby kept "slandering" him, he decided to, "help out in the guise of a man with a--er--greater reputation."
Sniffer's deception exposed, the would-be Eskimo assassin announces his satisfaction that, "Catlett plenty dead!" About this time, Prentice emerges with the other "Catlett" screaming that he's "very much alive!"
Midnight, however, operates on the once-bitten-twice-shy principle. He asks Prentice, "Are you sure...?" Without warning, our hero snatches the fake beard off the second "Catlett," exposing him as just a Ziggy Rollo underling. This second imposter exposed, Prentice hastily (and suspiciously) departs for a broadcast--not even bothering to return for his filched wallet! Still a bit befuddled regarding all the goings-on of the evening, Midnight's attention is piqued by something in Prentice's abandoned pocket book.
Assigning Doc and Sniffer to contact the cops for help hauling the Rollo gang downtown, Midnight remains in the Catlett home far into the night pondering over and scrawling on the paper. At last, he has a "eureka!" moment which leads him to throughout the house accessing a series of secret panels, until:
Later--after a mid-broadcast arrest of Prentice--Wackey asks a question that gives us the low-down on just what Midnight found in that wallet and how it wound up leading to the real Catlett.
