you didn’t really want to immigrate to Thembria.  No one does.”

“Thanks, pal!”  Baloo slapped Dunder on the back. “Let’s go home, Becky.”

Rebecca smiled and nodded.

A half an hour later, they were in the Sea Duck, thanks to Sgt. Dunder and his myriad of  forms.  Baloo sighed with contentment as he sank into the pilot’s seat.  He was back where he belonged.  He flipped the familiar switches and pushed the familiar buttons in the start-up sequence, causing the familiar-sounding Superflight-100 engines to roar to life.

Still, something was missing.

Baloo pulled the picture of the Higher for Hire gang out of his pocket and clipped it to the control panel.  He smiled at it, then at the bearess sitting in the navigator’s seat, and taxied the plane towards the runway.

A few minutes later, they were airborne and were leaving the snowbound country of Thembria behind.

As Baloo turned the Sea Duck towards tropical Cape Suzette, he said, “Ya know something, Becky?  I just stopped a war and no one knows.”

“I  know,” Rebecca said quietly. She rushed over to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him tenderly on the cheek.

For some strange reason, Baloo, who was blushing up to his red cap, felt as if that was the only reward he needed. That, and maybe a couple dozen hamburgers.

A roguish gleam sprang to her eyes as she regained her place in the navigator’s seat and buckled her seatbelt. “And so will Kit and Molly and Wildcat and Louie and whoever else you tell the story to over and over and over.”

Baloo’s goofy grin was quickly replaced by a scowl. “I could tell you a thing or three, Ms. Rebecca.  Fallin’ for a schmuck like that Col. Conrad.”

“Ha!” Rebecca retorted. “You can’t say anything, Mr. I-Fall-For-Every-Pretty-Face-and-Great-Set-of-Legs-I-See.”

“’Least I don’t go around, gettin’ myself engaged.”

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer!”

“More like you couldn’t say no.”

They bickered all the way home...and it was just right.

The End