Early the next morning King Olaf summoned the three Baudelaires.

"You've been in the Gorgonian Grotto before," Olaf said. "Tell me more about it."

"The Medusoid Mycellium has a daily waxing and waning cycle," Klaus explained. "The safest time to cross through the cave is when they are completely on the wane. The last time were there, that was at 7:30AM."

"Let's go," said Olaf. "It will take us nearly an hour to walk the tunnel and the timing will be perfect."

The Decision Day boat had already been moved into the tunnel. "Pick it up and get moving," Olaf commanded.

Olaf led the way, carrying a torch. He walked briskly and the children were hard-pressed to keep up while carrying the heavy boat. They were out of breath when they reached the end of the tunnel. Shovels and picks leaned against the wall.

"Just a little more digging and we'll break through to the Grotto," said Olaf.

"This is still extremely dangerous," objected Violet. "If we breathe in one spore..."

"I found a box of surgical masks," said Olaf. "Here."

He pulled two plastic bags from his pocket. In one was a large mask and a small mask. He opened this bag, gave the small mask to Sunny, and put on the large mask himself. He tossed the other bag, containing two medium-sized masks, to Violet and Klaus.

They broke through into the Grotto and the Baudelaires carried the boat across the waned mushroom field. Olaf directed them to a concealed door that lead to a vertical shaft with a ladder fastened to one wall.

"This will lead to the surface," he told them. "Carry the boat up, and be quick about it."

Olaf rushed up the ladder first. The Baudelaires found it wasn't easy to climb the ladder while carrying the heavy boat, but they managed. From the top of the shaft, Olaf heard the two older Baudelaires begin to cough and wheeze, and he smiled to himself.

The children found themselves in the burnt-out ruins of a huge aquatic research and rhetorical center. They looked around curiously.

"Don't waste time -- launch the boat!" yelled Olaf.

They pushed off an Violet and Klaus began to row. Once they were out at sea Olaf told them to discard the used masks. He seemed to be in a very good mood.

"In a few hours your fortune will be mine," he boasted. "I feel so happy that I'll do one of my favorite laughs.. Heh heh 'heritance hah hack kack kack."

The laugh became a hacking cough. Olaf narrowed his eyes at the Baudelaires. None of them were coughing anymore.

"What have you done? You tricked me somehow, didn't you?"

"We found those two plastic bags with the masks in your room last night," said Violet. "We thought you might have contaminated the masks for Klaus and me with Medusoid Mycellium spores from your diving helmet."

"If we died that way, Sunny wouldn't be able to prove it wasn't an accident," said Klaus.

"All we did was switch the contents of the bags," said Violet.

"If not poisoned no harm done," said Sunny.

"But that would have contaminated all the masks," said Olaf. "Why weren't you poisoned too?"

"I found out from my research that the apple tree is a horseradish hybrid," said Klaus. "The apples cure Medusoid Mycellium poisoning. I never told you about it because you depended on the threat of the mushrooms to stay in power. It was the ace up our sleeves."

"Apples up our sleeves," said Sunny. "Ate when we climbed shaft."

"Give me one of those apples," Olaf croaked, lunging at them.

Klaus and Violet were ready for him. They swung their oars at Olaf and knocked him overboard. Normally Olaf was a good swimmer, but he was weakened by the poisonous mushrooms. He couldn't keep up as the Baudelaires rowed away from him.

"Murderers, poisoners just like your parents!" Olaf yelled, then started coughing again. Soon he sank beneath the waves.

The children rowed back to Anwhistle Aquatics and left a note:

"Dear Kit,

We were right. We're sorry but we had to kill him in self-defense.

Now we're going to look for The Great Unknown and rejoin our friends if we can. Goodbye and thank you for all your help.

Sincerely,
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire"

I found that note in the process of my research for my last book, 'The End'. I found the tunnel and followed it back to the island, after taking appropriate horseradish precautions. The island is prospering under Kit's leadership and becoming once again a fine place for a shipwrecked person to get a hot bath and oysters Rockefeller.

The islanders pushed over the unfinished sculpture of King Olaf's head. Beside it, Kit placed a plaque with this quotation from a famous V.F.D. member:

"...Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains...

Natasha is no longer being spoiled and she is becoming a fine young woman. In one thing I am grateful to Olaf, that my niece bears the name she does and not the name Kit originally wanted, a name which would have brought up painful memories for me: Beatrice.