edging happened to be in her favorite color - light pink. She could just imagine how beautiful she would look in it, not to mention Baloo’s reaction. His eyes would pop out of his head.

Then, catching a glimpse at the price, she bit her lower lip. It was exorbitant! It was outrageous! But the dress was gorgeous. Surely it was worth the price. Casually, she asked, “Do you think two hundred dollars is too much?”

“For a DRESS?” Baloo roared, nearly blasting her eardrums out.

“You wasted one hundred dollars on that sticky banana record. What’s the difference?”

“The difference is that record’s a classic.”

“I know it’s a classic. It gives me a classic headache every time I hear it.”

Baloo growled, “Of all the things ta spend two hundred smackers on - a dress you’ll wear once. Do ya know what we could buy with that kind of loot? A new pontoon for one thing, or that icebox for the Duck. I’d get lotsa use out of those things. An’ where are we gonna get that kind of moolah? We ain’t gonna cash in our insurance on the Sea Duck again, Rebecca!”

Carefully tearing the page from the catalog, Rebecca murmured uncertainly, “Well, maybe something will just pop up, like a very profitable cargo delivery.”

“Do ya absotutely hafta have it?”

“No, I don’t have to have it.” She stared at the dress with a wistful expression. “But it sure would be nice.”

Molly, all ready for bed in her pink pajamas, rushed into the room with a plain cedar box in her hands. She slid under the phone cord, climbed onto her mother’s lap, and chirped, “Hi, Baloo!” into the telephone. “Mommy, lookit what I found.”

“I’m on the phone, honey,” she admonished. “Can’t this wait ‘til later?”

The little girl shook her head vehemently. “Later’s past my bedtime. You’re always on the phone with Baloo. Can I call him daddy now?”

That abrupt, unexpected question incited bittersweet feelings in Rebecca. She was glad that Molly wanted to call her future stepfather ‘daddy’; it proved how much the little girl loved and trusted Baloo. However, it also brought back unbidden memories of her first husband, a wonderful man who had died when Molly could barely lisp ‘daddy’.

Her eyes shining with unshed tears, Rebecca tenderly stroked Molly’s golden hair, hair that was the same shade as her late husband’s. She explained quietly, “Now, honey, I told you that Baloo won’t be your daddy until we’re married.”

Sticking her lower lip out in a pout, Molly whined, “Aw, but that’s a long, long, long, long time away.”

“It’ll come faster than you think.” Giving her daughter a hug, Rebecca smiled and blinked the tears from her eyes. “What did you have to show me?”

Molly opened the jewelry box. Inside, nestled on the dark blue velvet was the sub-electron amplifier. Its clear-cut facets reflected the lamplight.

Rebecca’s jaw dropped as she dropped the receiver.

“Becky? Hello?” Baloo’s voice said from the telephone on the table.

The bearess carefully picked up the stone and cradled it in her palm. Turning it over, she saw Shere Khan’s miniature emblem. “We’re rich,” she whispered. Then louder, she said, “We’re rich!”

“Rebecca!” Baloo bellowed.

Rebecca snatched the receiver up, saying excitedly, “Baloo, look what Molly found!”

“Becky, I can’t see nothin’. Telephone, remember?”

She gushed, “We’re rich, darling!”

“Huh? Did ya win the Pazuza sweepstakes again? I’ll mail yer ticket for ya SSDIDUG this time. Honest engines.”

Exasperated, Rebecca explained slowly, “No, silly. Molly found Shere Khan’s stone - the sub-electron amplifier.”

“Are ya sure?”

“I’m pretty sure.” She traced her finger over the encircled ‘SK’. “Shere Khan’s emblem is engraved on it.”

Nothing but stunned silence at the other end of the line.

“Baloo? Hello? Are you there?” Rebecca ventured.

“We’re rich!” he yelled joyfully. “We’re rich! WAHOO!”

“We’re rich?” Kit’s voice said wonderingly. “Papa Bear!” Baloo had tossed the boy up in the air.

He instructed excitedly, “Don’t let that little goldmine outta yer sight, Beckers. Me an’ Kit are comin’ right over.”

Click! went the phone.

Baloo made record time getting to the Cunninghams’ apartment, because, only five minutes later, he pounded on the door. “Becky, it’s us!”

Rebecca flung the door open.

“Where is it?” Baloo asked eagerly, his eyes darting around the large living room.

“Where’s what?” She, clasping the stone behind her back, feigned innocence.

“The stone! Shere Khan’s electronic simplifier.”

Giggling, Rebecca held out her hand.

Baloo grabbed the stone from her and kissed it repeatedly.

“Hey!” Rebecca said, hands on hips, pretending to be jealous. “Who are you marrying? Me or that rock?”

He handed the stone to Kit, dipped Rebecca, and planted a big kiss on her lips.

“Where did you find it?” Kit asked, staring with amazement at the stone. “I thought it blew up with Karnage’s lightning gun.”

Molly said, “I found it in a jewelry box that Mommy bought me.”

Still in Baloo’s arms, Rebecca flashed a confused glance up at her fiancé. “I didn’t buy a jewelry box, did I, Baloo?”

“Dunno, honey. I lost track after the first five stores. But who cares? The important thing is that it’s here now, an’ we’re gonna be rich!” He twirled Rebecca until she plumped down, giggling, in an armchair. “We’ll take this little baby over to Khanny first thing in the mornin’, an’ collect our one hundred thousand smackers!”

“A hundred thousand smackers!” Molly echoed happily, throwing herself at the big bear. “Is that a lot, Baloo?”

“You better believe it, Button-nose!” He tossed the giggling girl into the air.

“If he still wants it back,” Kit said softly, looking the stone over with a critical eye. Unlike the others, he wasn’t going to get his hopes up yet about the money. Something was fishy about the whole situation. There were too many unanswered questions. How did the jewelry box get into Rebecca’s shopping bag? And where did the stone come from? Was it really Shere Khan’s stone or an imitation?

Rebecca said, “Of course he’ll want it back, Kit, but we can’t take it over first thing. You have that delivery in the morning, Baloo.”

Crestfallen, the big bear protested, “But...”

“Higher for Hire can’t afford to lose another customer.”

Grinning confidently, Baloo snatched the stone from Kit and tossed it in the air like a gangster flipping a coin. “With this little baby in our possession, we can.”

“No.” The bearess shook her head; unbending resolve was fixed on her face. “We’re going to keep this client, stone or no stone.”

“Okay, as soon as I get back, we’ll take it over.” Baloo wrapped his arms around Rebecca and the cubs, hugging them tightly. “We’re rich!”

Unnoticed by the four bears, at the window overlooking the rushing waterfall was a mysterious, black-clad figure hanging onto the glass with suction cups. Through the ski mask, the dark eyes stared steadily at the stone.

End of part 2

The Return of the Stone
Part 3

Higher for Hire
Saturday Morning

Rebecca poured herself a second cup of coffee and added a spoonful of sugar to it. Stirring her coffee absently, she gazed out the window over the sink at the dewy freshness of the young day. When she heard a ‘clink’ against the cup’s handle, she awoke from her pleasant reverie to smile down at her engagement ring; the diamond sparkled almost as brightly as her eyes. She thought to herself, Baloo and Kit have nice weather for their delivery of Yippee-Skippee Peanut Butter and Schmucker’s Jelly. As she headed for her office, she found herself impatient for her flight crew’s return although they had been gone only an hour.

Just as the door swung shut behind her, a middle-aged, svelte lion in a three-piece navy suit cautiously peeked in the kitchen window. His shrewd brown eyes took in the small room in a discerning glance. He pushed the sash up and vaulted over the sill with practiced ease, landing lightly on his expensively shod feet. This was going to be the simplest assignment that he, Leo Stedman, had ever been on.

Leo Stedman was Shere Khan’s super-secret secret agent. The best in his business. The créme de la créme. He was a master of disguise. Stealth incarnate. He could blend in anywhere, impersonate anyone. He spoke forty-seven languages fluently, knew the customs of every culture, worked with the cunningness of a fox and the swiftness of an eagle. He was as the wind - able to appear and vanish in the blink of an eye.

And he had an ego large enough to encompass all that greatness.

He flashed a toothy grin at his reflection in the bottom of a copper pot and smoothed down a few loose wisps of his thick, tawny mane. Satisfied with his handsome, almost dandified, appearance, he slunk to the door leading to the office, pushed it open silently, and put his eye to the crack. He smiled patronizingly to himself when he saw the bearess take the stone - his objective - from the jewelry box and lock it in a wall safe. No mere safe could keep him from completing his mission.

Rebecca shut the safe door and turned the knob. “There,” she said, dusting her hands off. “Now I feel safer.” The telephone rang and she answered it. “Good morning. This is Higher for Hire...”

Stedman, staring at the bearess’s back, believed that this was going to be so pitifully easy that he could have pulled the job off in his sleep. All he had to do was get the stone without being seen.

He pushed the door open just enough to admit his wiry body and crouched behind a large potted palm. The safe was a few feet to his

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