At the very last moment, she jumped out of the way like a race-car driver bailing out before a crash. The ax hurtled to the floor—and bounced! It was made out of rubber! Nancy gasped. A queasy mixture of anger, fear, and relief washed over her. She bent down and examined the toy ax. The blade was rubber, but the handle was hard wood. Some practical joke, Nancy thought. If that thing had hit her, the handle could have knocked her out, rubber blade or no rubber blade. She reached up to touch the “severed head” and found that it was an incredibly convincing mask. She picked up the ax and quietly walked out to the studio. When she appeared, Mick started laughing wildly. “Mick, the remote control whiz kid, strikes again,” he joked, oblivious to Nancy’s distress. “Simple but brilliant,” he bragged. “I rigged a remote control device to the handle of that ax. Then all I had to do was push a button to make it fall.” He laughed again and pulled a small control box out of a jacket pocket.
