<div>The evil magicians called the Mesmers are still plotting to take over the world,&nbsp;and the Kennewicketts, recently recruited into the spy business by President Roosevelt, are at the center of the battle for world domination. Now the Amazing Automated Inn has been compromised: someone is smuggling secrets out of the lab and selling them to unscrupulous sorts in Italy. Worse,&nbsp;their friend Nikola Tesla's latest invention—a&nbsp;device that will provide&nbsp;a limitless and free&nbsp;source of&nbsp;electrical power for all—has been sabotaged.<p></p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Determined to stop the villains, the Kennewicketts and their staff of automatons travel to&nbsp;Italy in the<i>Daedalus,</i> a lighter-than-air ship. At first, the trip&nbsp;goes as planned, but then another airship manned by murderous sky pirates chases the&nbsp;family over the Atlantic. Luckily, Wally's latest invention, a man-lifting kite, allows them to&nbsp;reach land safely,&nbsp;where they&nbsp;are rescued by the <i>Arachne</i><i>,</i> a giant steam-powered mechanical spider&nbsp;with a luxury yacht interior that can move at over seventy miles-per-hour! An exciting adventure over the Alps&nbsp;aboard<i>Arachne</i> with the pirates in pursuit&nbsp;ends in Italy, where&nbsp;the Kennewicketts&nbsp;and their robotic staff must face the perilous pigeon Iron Claw&nbsp;and Madini, leaders of&nbsp;the Mesmers, alone.<p></p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Will Wally, the noble boy scientist, and his daring dachshund, Noodles, be able to defeat the Mesmers and their minions a second time? Or will the darker side of the Kennewickett family line prevail?</div>