After a moment, he realized there were no fangs. There weren’t even any growls. The dogs seemed to have disappeared. Cautiously he opened his eyes just as the entire hillside erupted in a blaze of landscape lighting. There wasn’t a bared tooth anywhere, unless you counted the ones in Shawn’s broad smile.

“The magic words?” Gus sputtered. “That’s it? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Told you you were going to be mad.”

Gus realized he was. Relieved, yes, at no longer facing a hideous, drooling death. But also annoyed at the simplicity-in fact, the stupidity-of the clue.

“How did you figure it out?”

“You’ve just got to know how magicians work,” Shawn said.

“How do they work?”

“Mostly as waiters,” Shawn said. “It’s convenient for them because they can use the tux for both jobs. Shall we head on up to the Fortress?”

Shawn waved Bud’s present up the now brightly illuminated path to a grand craftsman manor that sat on top of the hill.

“But where are the dogs?”

“Same place they always were.” Shawn pointed to a spot a foot away from the path where a small speaker was staked between two lavender bushes. Gus could see several other speakers hidden in the landscaping.

“How did you know?”

“Magic.”

“Exactly what kind of magic?”

“The magic of the human ear,” Shawn said. “Do you realize how complex that organ is?”

Gus glared at him and waited for him to continue.

“The dog growls were on a tape loop,” Shawn said. “After the fourth dog joined in, there was a tiny blip where it was spliced together. And since it seemed unlikely that the canines were doing the editing job themselves, I figured out that there were no dogs anywhere around.”