With the Bats

by J. C. Greenburg

  meep… “Can open eyes now, Oody,” said Thudd.

  They were in a dark, narrow, rocky tunnel. A strong current was speeding them along.

  The tunnel was getting wider and higher. Ahead, patches of light danced on the water.

  The stream dragged them around a bend and into another enormous room of the cave. The stalactites above twinkled with blue-green lights.

  “Jumping gerbils!” said Andrew. “Looks like someone put holiday decorations on the stalactites!”

  meep… “Glowworms!” said Thudd. “Glowworm is kind of baby insect.

  “Glowworm make silk thread, like spider. Sticky! Sticky! Sticky! Hang thread from top of cave.

  “Mosquitoes, other bugs fly to light of glowworm. Fly through sticky threads. Get caught! Glowworm crawl down thread and eat prey.”

  “Sheesh,” Judy grumbled, slapping her hand on the side of the boat. “Everybody’s always eating some— Youch!” she cried. “Something bit my hand!”

  Andrew looked down into the clear water. Fish the size of fingers were darting everywhere!

  “Leaping lizards!” said Andrew. “Look at all these fish! And they’re all white! And there’s one of those white salamanders we were following!”

  meep … “Lotsa cave animals got no color. Color not help animal here cuz everything dark, everything blind.

  “Animal with color need more food than animal that not got color. Animal that not got color live longer here than animal with color.”

  “Strange-a-mundo!” said Judy.

  Ahead of them, a rocky ledge jutted out in the stream. The bug boat was speeding toward it.

  “Hang on, Judy!” said Andrew. “We’re gonna crash!”

  Plumph …

  It was a soft crash.

  “Whew!” said Andrew. “That was like hitting a pillow!”

  Andrew reached out to push the boat off the ledge. Instead of touching rock, his hands touched something soft.

  “This stuff feels like cotton candy!” he said.

  When Andrew tried to pull his hands away, he couldn’t!

  He tugged. Then he yanked.

  “What are you doing, Andrew?” asked Judy.

  “Um, this stuff is really sticky,” said Andrew. “I’m kind of super stuck.”

  meep … “Glowworm web!” said Thudd. “Web fall from top of cave!”

  “Judy,” said Andrew. “Grab my belt. When I count to three, give me a big jerk.”

  “You already are a big jerk!” said Judy.

  “One, two, three!” said Andrew.

  Judy jerked. Andrew came loose and fell into the bottom of the bug boat. The boat teetered and water slopped in.

  “You know,” said Andrew, “this glowworm web is really neat stuff. Maybe I can use it in one of my inventions.”

  “Don’t you dare touch that stuff again, Bug-Brain,” said Judy.

  “I won’t touch it,” said Andrew.

  He leaned over the side of the bug boat and grabbed a hollow cockroach leg. He bent it from side to side and twisted it until it came loose.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew. “This leg is heavy!”

  He shoved the cockroach leg into the glob of glowworm web. He spun the leg around till he had collected a big glob of web. Then he tossed it into the bottom of the bug boat.

  Andrew snapped off another cockroach leg and used the tip of it to push them away from the ledge.

  The tiny boat lurched into the stream again. It bounced and dipped as fish and salamanders snapped at it.

  A fish’s head popped up so close to Andrew, he could have kissed its fishy lips.

  “Holy moly!” said Andrew. “These guys don’t have eyes!”

  meep … “Cave fish and cave salamander born with eyes,” said Thudd. “Then skin grow over eyes. Eyes sink into head.”

  “That’s disgusting!” said Judy.

  “Cave animals not need eyes in cave that got no light. Cave animals find prey by smell. Feel prey move.

  “Easy for eyes to get hurt, too,” Thudd continued. “Easier for cave animal that not got eyes to survive here than animal that got eyes!”

  The ceiling of the glowworm cave dipped low. The river was moving frighteningly fast. Ahead loomed the entrance to a dark tunnel.

  As the bug boat swirled into the blackness, Andrew noticed that the beam of the flashlight was very dim. He could barely see the water.

  Must be the batteries, thought Andrew. The beam began to flicker—and then it went out.

  THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

  The river dragged them through the cold darkness.

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “Put on your flashlight, Andrew! There could be a humongous waterfall ahead and we wouldn’t even know it!”

  “Um, I think the batteries are dead,” said Andrew. He was silent for a moment. “But maybe the Stone Age people can save us.”

  “Huh?” said Judy.

  “I picked up pieces of their firestones,” said Andrew. “I can use them to light a fire.”

  “We don’t have anything to burn,” said Judy.

  “We can use the bug leg with the glowworm web as a torch,” said Andrew. He picked it up off the bottom of the bug boat and passed it back to Judy. “Hang on to this,” he said.

  “Not a bad idea, Bug-Brain,” said Judy. She waved her hands in the darkness until she felt the bug leg and grabbed it.

  Andrew pulled the tiny firestones out of his pocket.

  meep… “Gotta hit one stone against other stone,” said Thudd.

  Andrew slammed one piece against the other. Nothing happened. He smashed them together hard. Still nothing. He kept on trying.

  Suddenly a few tiny flashes of yellow-orange light curved into the air.

  “Woo-hoo!” yelled Andrew. “We’ve got sparks!”

  Andrew felt around and took the bug leg from Judy. He braced it between his knees, then smacked the stones hard. Sparks flew high!

  Ffffft … WHOOOOSH!

  A ball of fire bigger than a beach ball leapt up from the water!

  “AAAAAAAAAH!” screamed Judy.

  “YEOOOOW!” hollered Andrew, jumping as though a Tyrannosaurus had come up behind him. Quick as a lightning flash, the ball of fire disappeared. But the torch was lit!

  “What was that?” asked Judy.

  meep… “Like swamp fire,” said Thudd. “Gas come up from under ground.”

  “Woofers!” said Andrew. “This torch seems kind of dangerous, but it will keep away the salamanders.”

  meep … “Fish, too,” said Thudd.

  “And we can see where we’re going,” said Judy.

  They sat silently as the boat bobbed along. Andrew was thinking how good the heat of the torch felt when he saw a lump rising ahead of them. A rock was sticking out of the water and they were speeding straight at it!

  Klick!

  Their bug boat slammed into the rock. Water sloshed over the sides of the boat and soaked the Dubbles.

  ch … ch … ch … Judy shivered. “The water’s so cold.”

  “Hold the torch,” said Andrew to Judy. “I’ll get us out of here.”

  Andrew picked up the other bug leg and used it to push them off the rock and back into the river.

  The river was getting faster and rougher. And Andrew could see more rocks sticking up ahead.

  meep … “When river got lotsa big rocks,” said Thudd, “water go fast, fast, fast around rocks. Places in river that got lotsa rocks and fast water called rapids.”

  As Andrew scanned the river for rocks, he thought he saw something else. He squinted. Am I seeing spots? he thought. Or is that a dot of light out there?

  But the dot was getting bigger and brighter.

  “There’s light ahead!” said Andrew.

  “Humph,” Judy grumped. “Probably just some more stupid glowworms.”

  But soon they could see the craggy opening. Through it they could see the rising sun!

  TAKING THE WRONG TERN

  “
We made it!” cheered Andrew.

  “I don’t believe it!” said Judy. “Thudd was right!”

  “Thunkoo, Oody” said Thudd. His face screen turned pink.

  Andrew used the bug leg to keep the boat from smacking into boulders.

  With the light from the cave opening, they didn’t need the torch anymore. Judy dunked it in the river and used it to push them away from the rocks.

  At last they swirled through the opening of the cave. The light was so bright, it hurt their eyes.

  “Where are we?” said Judy, blinking at the land around them.

  On both sides of the river stretched fields of weeds. In the distance was a pine tree forest.

  “I saw a rusty plow on the riverbank,” said Andrew. “Maybe this is a farm. Maybe we can find someone who can get us back to school. But first we have to get to the river-bank.”

  “There’s lots of weeds hanging into the water,” said Judy. “If we get near them, we can grab on and pull ourselves to shore.”

  Andrew and Judy used their bug legs like hooks.

  “Got one!” said Judy. Her bug leg had caught on a vine trailing in the current.

  “Yay, Oody!” said Thudd.

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” said Andrew.

  As Judy held the boat in place, Andrew climbed onto the vine and pulled himself to-ward the shore. Judy climbed out and followed. The bug boat took off down the river.

  In a minute, Andrew and Judy arrived onshore at the end of the vine.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew, leaning against a big brown lump. It was hard, but not as hard as a rock, and the vine was growing out of it.

  “I landed on a potato!” said Andrew. “I see one of its eyes!”

  “Who cares about your stupid potato, Bug-Brain,” said Judy. “We’re in a field. There are mice in fields—and snakes. We could get eaten. We need to get out of here—fast.”

  “I know how to make a battery out of a potato!” said Andrew. “If we had some electricity, maybe I could get us back to normal size! Or at least a little bigger. We’d be able to get back to school and get totally unshrunk!

  “Do you have anything that’s made out of metal, Judy?”

  “Maybe some hairpins,” said Judy, running her fingers through her soggy, tangled hair. She pulled out six hairpins and a hair clip and handed them to Andrew.

  A shadow darkened the ground.

  Andrew looked up to see the white underside of a bird overhead. It was flying low and unsteadily.

  “That bird is coming in for a landing,” said Andrew.

  “Hide!” said Judy. “Birds eat bugs, and we’re looking awfully buggy!”

  meep… “Hide in skunk cabbage,” said Thudd, pointing to a strange plant behind Judy. Its single reddish leaf was twisted into a round tent shape. There was a slit on its side.

  “Pee-yew!” said Judy as they rushed toward the skunk cabbage.

  They crept inside the slit.

  “It’s warm here!” said Andrew.

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd. “Plant make heat.”

  They peeked out of the slit. The bird landed on the edge of the river and began to drink. A long feather drooped from one of its wings.

  meep … “Bird is arctic tern,” said Thudd. “Arctic tern make long, long flight, from North Pole to South Pole and then back again, every year. Called migration.

  “Most time, arctic tern not stop between Arctic and Antarctic. This bird got problem with flight feather.”

  The bird finished drinking. It hopped into the air, flapped its wings—and fell back to the ground. Then it walked toward a patch of grass and tucked its head under a wing.

  “Aw,” said Judy. “The poor thing. I wonder if we can help.”

  meep… “Maybe if feather get stuck back in place,” said Thudd.

  “Let’s sneak up and see what we can do,” said Judy.

  They left the skunk cabbage and crept up to the bird. It didn’t seem to notice them.

  “Let’s climb up on the wing,” said Judy. “Maybe we can tuck the feather in place with my hairpins.”

  “Let’s try it,” said Andrew.

  They climbed onto the wing and crept among the feathers. Andrew tugged at the long, heavy flight feather but hardly moved it.

  “Give me a hand here, Judy,” he said. She grabbed the feather, too.

  “One … two … three!” said Andrew, taking a deep breath. “Oomph!”

  Together Andrew and Judy pulled with all their might and hauled the feather up to the other flight feathers. Judy tucked the feather in place with her hairpins and clip.

  “Okay,” said Judy. “Let go of the feather. We’ll see if it holds.”

  Andrew let go. The feather stayed in place.

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” he shouted.

  The bird suddenly shook itself and stretched both wings!

  Andrew and Judy were tossed onto the bird’s back. The arctic tern hopped into the air and flapped. She was off!

  “YAAAAAAH!” screamed Judy as they rose into the air.

  “Hang on!” yelled Andrew, clinging to a feather.

  “We’re going for a ride!”

  TO BE CONTINUED IN ANDREW, JUDY, AND THUDD’S

  NEXT EXCITING ADVENTURE:

  ANDREW LOST

  IN THE JUNGLE!

  In stores January 2007

  TRUE STUFF

  Thudd wanted to tell you more about bats and caves, but he was busy keeping Andrew and Judy from being chewed by beetles and chomped by salamanders. Here’s what he wanted to say:

  Mosquitoes suck your blood to make food for their babies. Only female mosquitoes bite. A mosquito can drink four times her own weight in blood!

  Male mosquitoes are peaceful little guys. They stick to drinking nectar from flowers.

  Mosquitoes’ antennas feel the heat of living creatures. They also sense the water and a gas in the air that animals breathe out. That’s how they find a living creature to bite.

  Mosquito repellents keep the antennas from being able to find what they’re looking for.

  The nasty whine of a mosquito comes from the beating of its wings. The sound is annoying to us, but it’s music to the sensitive antennas of a male mosquito. When he hears that special nyeeeeee, he knows there’s a lovely female mosquito—maybe a mate—nearby.

  Some moths have a super way of protecting themselves from being eaten by birds—they look like bird poop!

  The smallest bat is the bumblebee bat. It’s about an inch long and weighs less than a penny. This little fellow is also the smallest mammal.

  The largest bat is the giant flying fox. This guy’s wings stretch almost six feet from tip to tip, but he weighs only about two pounds.

  In total darkness, bats use sound waves to “see” wires as thin as a human hair!

  Baby bats’ claws are so sharp, they can hang on to something as smooth as a lightbulb.

  More than 20 million bats live in Bracken Cave in Texas. Each night, these bats eat a quantity of insects that weighs as much as sixty-three elephants!

  In some places, people are afraid of bats. They have even blown up the caves where bats roost. But if you don’t want to get bitten by mosquitoes and other insect pests, help protect the bats!

  Vampire bats drink only about a tablespoon of blood each night. They don’t suck blood. Their sharp teeth cut the skin of an animal— usually a cow or a bird—and then they lick up the blood. Their saliva keeps blood from clotting, so they can lap up blood for hours!

  When an underground space has many “rooms,” scientists call it a cavern. When there’s just one big space, it’s called a cave. In this book, Andrew, Judy, and Thudd visit a cavern—it has different “rooms.” But Thudd didn’t bother to point out the difference.

  Cave rock is made up mostly of calcium, the same stuff shells and teeth and bones are made of. Cave rock came from the shells of sea creatures. After they died, their shells got buried and squashed into stone. Sometimes this stone is pushed up
to the surface of the earth by the same geologic forces that slowly move the continents.

  You can do an easy experiment to see how calcium can be washed away. Put an egg in a glass and cover the egg with vinegar. The eggshell is made mostly of calcium, like cave rock. The vinegar is like the water that drips through the rock into the cave.

  Put the glass in the refrigerator and check the egg every day. Lift it very gently with a large spoon and touch it. What happens to the eggshell? How long does it take? Try the same experiment with Coca-Cola!!

  WHERE TO FIND MORE TRUE STUFF

  Would you like to find out more about the batty creatures of the night? Here are some books you might enjoy:

  Billions of Bats by Miriam Schlein (Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1982). Lots of great information about some of the most interesting bats, including the vampires!

  Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats by Ann Earle (New York: HarperTrophy, 1995). All about bats: how they fly, feed, hibernate, take care of themselves and each other—and how we can take care of them.

  Amazing Bats by Frank Greenaway (New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1991). Do you want to impress your friends and parents with bat facts? Read this book!

  Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004). This terrific book gives you a feeling for a day in the life of a bat.

  Turn the page

  for a sneak peek at

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd’s

  next exciting adventure—

  ANDREW LOST

  IN THE JUNGLE!

  Available January 2007

  Excerpt copyright © 2007 by J. C. Greenburg.

  Published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of

  Random House, Inc., New York.

  IT’S A JUNGLE DOWN THERE