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The Smelly Search (Geronimo Stilton Cavemice #13)

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by Geronimo Stilton

Geyser

  for her arthritis treatments,” I

  explained.

  Hercule

  LOOKED

  at me

  slyly. “Geronimo, no one else

  comes to mind?

  No one?

  I know someone perfect

  for our team — and for

  you

  !”

  CLARISSA WITH HER

  PET DINOSAUR, FIFI

  “W-wait a m-m-minute!” I stammered,

  turning as red as a Paleozoic

  hot

  pepper

  .

  “Y-you’re not thinking of . . .”

  “Of course I am!” Hercule said, grinning.

  “We’ll ask

  Clarissa Conjurat

  , the shaman’s

  daughter!”

  But . . . but . . . but . . .”

  Hercule shook his snout. “No

  buts

  —

  I’m heading to her cave right now! In the

  meantime, you go get Trap and Benjamin.

  We’ll all meet for dinner at the Rotten Tooth

  Tavern!”

  I stood there, as

  petrified

  as a block

  of granite. You see,

  Clarissa

  is the most

  beautiful, charming, determined, brave

  mouse in the Stone Age. I have a huge

  crush

  on her!

  As it turned out, Clarissa accepted

  Hercule’s invitation without twitching a

  whisker. But before she left, she stuffed her

  purse with bottles and bottles of perfume

  (

  lily of the valley

  , her favorite scent).

  “You said that this treasure hunt

  stinks

  of trickery,” she explained with a grin, “so I

  figured I’d better bring along a good supply

  of perfume. It’s going to be a

  smelly

  search

  !”

  SPRITZ! SPRITZ!

  SPRITZ!

  As planned, we met that evening at the

  Rotten Tooth Tavern. Our team was now

  complete, and we’d named ourselves the

  Super Stiltonoots. We were ready for the

  most mousestastic

  TREASURE HUNT

  in

  the Stone Age!

  Trap was jumping out of his

  fur

  with

  excitement. “This is going to be easy-cheesy!

  I’m a riddle-cracking genius!”

  “

  Actually

  . . .” I started.

  Trap grinned. “Do you remember the

  time I solved the brainteasers at the

  Ice

  Age Puzzles Competition

  all by

  myself?”

  Huh?

  Huh?

  I remembered that competition

  well — because I had whispered

  the answers to Trap! But this wasn’t

  the time to

  point

  that out.

  Instead, I sniffed and noticed that

  Clarissa

  was spraying her lily of the

  valley perfume all over the

  Rotten

  Tooth Tavern

  .

  “

  Fossilized feta!

  ” grumbled

  Hey!

  Greasella Stonyfur. Then she turned

  to Clarissa, frowning. “Are you

  trying to say that my restaurant

  stinks

  ?” she asked.

  “Of course not, Greasella!” Clarissa

  said with a

  smile

  . “Your tavern is

  squeaky clean. It’s your customers

  who don’t wash often!”

  Greasella

  sniffed

  and made a

  face. “

  FUNKY FUR!

  You’re right!”

  “

  I object!

  ” exclaimed Trap. “I took a

  bath a month and a half ago!”

  “And I washed myself about a month ago,”

  I said. “I even lathered my

  whiskers

  !”

  Greasella pinched her snout. “

  News

  flash: You stink!

  ”

  That’s when we noticed that Hercule

  was unusually quiet. He looked awfully

  uncertain

  .

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I was just thinking,” he said. “I still feel

  like Sally’s invitation is

  very

  ,

  very

  strange

  !”

  “I think so, too, Uncle Geronimo,”

  Benjamin

  piped up.

  “Yes,” said Hercule. “Sally isn’t the type to

  organize something without an

  ulterior

  motive

  , a

  trick

  , a

  scam

  , a —”

  I just had a

  thought!

  Bones and stones!

  “Enough squeaking!” Clarissa interrupted

  him. “Let’s have

  dinner

  and then get to

  bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day,

  and it sounds like we need to be ready for

  anything!”

  “I just had a thought!” Hercule squeaked.

  “Be sure to bring your

  clubs

  , and keep

  them close to you. With Sally, you never

  know what might happen . . .”

  I was

  stunned

  .

  Hercule was right!

  Good night,

  Geronimo!

  C-C-Clarissa!

  What kind of the dangers would we face

  the next day? Thinking of the possibilities

  made my whiskers curl with fear.

  Squeak!

  But then a sweet voice said, “Good night,

  Geronimo!”

  I turned to see Clarissa blow me a

  kiss

  and saunter off to her cave.

  Ah, Clarissa . . . what a fabumouse rodent!

  BY THE GREAT ZAP!

  I suddenly realized something.

  The treasure hunt might be dangerous,

  treacherous

  , and very risky — risky

  enough to make us extinct. But I would get

  to spend a lot of time with the rodent of my

  dreams!

  My whiskers quivered . . . but this time

  with

  excitement

  !

  Gulp!

  JURASSIC

  CHEDDARSNOUTS AND

  MEGALITHIC MICE

  The next morning, we showed up at Singing

  Rock Square, as

  fresh

  and

  nimble

  as

  cricketosauruses. There were two other

  teams: the

  Jurassic Cheddarsnouts

  ,

  led by Squeaks McStone, and the

  Megalithic

  Mice

  , led by Bobby Bouldermouse.

  “Don’t the Jurassic Cheddarsnouts look

  like a bunch of boneheads?” asked Hercule.

  “Beating them will be mouseling’s play!”

  I had to admit, the members of the first

  team did look like

  boneheads

  !

  On the other paw, the Megalithic Mice

  looked like real

  brains

  ! As I walked

  closer, Sally Rockm
ousen gave me a

  JURASSIC

  CHEDDARSNOUTS

  Megalithic

  Mice

  dirty

  look. She

  stood between two

  enormouse rodents.

  Squeak!

  “The rules are

  very simple,”

  Sally

  explained. “You each

  have to solve a

  riddle

  that will lead you

  someplace in the city.

  Once you get there,

  you’ll find a second

  riddle

  that will point

  you to the third

  riddle

  ,

  and then to the fourth,

  and so on until you find

  the

  TREASURE

  ! The

  first one to the treasure

  wins. Simple!”

  “Yeah, right!” Hercule whispered in my

  ear. “It may sound simple, but

  underneath

  it all, I smell a rat. Mark my squeaks!”

  Sally handed out the first

  riddles

  to each

  of the three team leaders. Squeaks McStone,

  the Jurassic Cheddarsnouts’ leader, was the

  first to read his note out loud:

  “Hmm, could it be Gossip Radio?” asked

  Patty Rockington, one of the team members.

  “

  It could be

  . . .” said her sister Tracy.

  “Fabumouse! Let’s go there now!”

  squeaked the third sister, Maisy.

  Oh, for the love of cheese!

  Gossip Radio was the

  only

  radio show in

  the Stone Age!

  “The most famouse

  radio show in the

  Stone Age!”

  Hmms. . .let’s see!

  Is it . . . Gossip Radio?

  It could be . . .

  Next up was BOBBY BOULDERMOUSE,

  who read the Megalithic Mice’s riddle:

  “Gossip queen of the Stone

  Age. Her name begins with

  an

  S and ends with a Y!”

  Now we know

  where to go!

  “It’s Sally, of course!” Matt, Pat, and Nat

  Stoneford answered in unison. “Couldn’t

  our riddle be something harder? Rats!”

  “Don’t

  complain

  — now we know that

  we have to go to Sally’s

  CAVE

  ,” replied

  Annie Ablepaws

  .

  Hercule had been listening to the other

  teams, too, and he

  winked

  at me.

  “Pawsome! The riddles are all

  easy-

  cheesy

  ! We’ve got victory in our paws,

  Geronimo!”

  But maybe he had spoken

  too

  soon . . .

  BENJAMIN THE

  BRAIN!

  ‘When he’s full,

  he’s lighter!’”

  Trap, who had named himself our team

  leader, read our riddle and

  scratched

  his

  snout.

  “Hmm. I don’t get it!”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the

  king of

  riddles

  ?” asked Clarissa.

  “Sure as Swiss, but this is a Jurassic

  brainteaser!” Trap said. “Listen to this:

  We all twirled our whiskers and thought

  about it.

  Fossilized feta!

  Smoke

  was coming out

  Hmm

  . . .

  Um . . .

  Any idea?

  of our ears from all that thinking!

  “The other two teams are already on their

  way,” said Clarissa, “and we’re standing

  here like

  boulders

  !”

  “Petrified Parmesan, it’s not fair!” Hercule

  grumbled. “The other teams got

  super-

  simple

  riddles. I knew that rat Sally was

  going to trick us!”

  “Let’s not get discouraged,” Benjamin

  squeaked. “Let’s concentrate, instead. Who

  is

  lighter when he’s full?”

  “If you’re full because you drank ten cups

  of steamy hot cheese, then you obviously

  don’t feel lighter,”

  Clarissa

  said.

  “I agree,” I put in. “And if your skin is

  full of megalithic

  mosquito bites

  , you

  definitely don’t feel any lighter.”

  Crusty cheese crumbs! We weren’t a single

  pawstep

  closer to solving the riddle!

  All of a sudden, Benjamin remembered

  something. “I think I’ve got it! There’s

  someone in

  Old Mouse City

  who

  becomes lighter when he’s full — and then

  he

  FLIES

  !”

  Clarissa jumped to her paws.

  “Of course! Why didn’t we think of it

  sooner? It must be a

  balloonosaurus

  !”

  We scurried toward Old Mouse City’s

  flightport

  as fast as our paws would

  take us. That’s where they keep all the

  balloonosauruses that we cavemice use for

  long

  air trips!

  DID YOU HEAR ME?

  Screech!

  Screech!

  The

  flightport

  was filled with

  balloonosauruses that were ready for

  takeoff

  . Some were filling up on flight

  fuel:

  superbean concentrate

  for the

  big ones, and

  SPICY SUPERBEAN

  Huh?!

  CONCENTRATE

  for the faster ones.

  Gas from the beans is how they fly!

  “Let’s get our tails in gear!” I urged my

  teammates. “We have to find the tablet with

  the second

  riddle

  !”

  Easier squeaked than done! Where could

  it be? We

  SEARCHED

  everywhere.

  We looked between the balloonosauruses’

  paws:

  Nothing!

  We looked inside

  the baskets tied to the balloonosauruses:

  Nothing!

  We looked along the balloonosaurus

  runway:

  Nothing!

  Then Hercule got a fabumouse idea! “Let’s

  ask somebody for

  help

  — a rodent who

  knows the flightport well.”

  “Mouserific plan,” Clarissa said. “How

  about the manager?”

  Ah,

  Clarissa

  . . . what a determined

  mouse!

  We found the manager easily enough. He

  was very, very

  tall

  and very, very

  skinny

  .

  He was a rodent of few words — gruff but

  polite.

  “If you haven’t found what you’re looking

  for among the balloonosauruses on the

  runway

  , try looking in their training

  pen,” he suggested.

  He led us to a

  fenced-in

  compound.

  “
This is where we train the baby

  balloonosauruses,” he explained. “Here,

  they learn to stretch their wings and

  fly

  .

  They exercise until they’re big enough to

  take flight on their own. And when they

  do, you can

  smell

  them coming from a

  thousand tails away!”

  Blech!

  CAN YOU FIND THE TABLET

  THAT HAS THE SECOND

  RIDDLE FOR THE SUPER

  STILTONOOT TEAM?

  Answer:

  Look in the superbean concentrate

  cauldron on the left page!

  Slithering on our bellies, we approached

  the little

  balloonosauruses

  . We

  didn’t want to frighten them!

  The compound was filled with cute but

  lively

  little balloonosaurus pups!

  Trumpeting triceratops! They didn’t stay

  still for a second! They

  skipped

  here

  and there, squealed and squeaked, and

  tooted

  away. (After all, they were full of

  superbean gas!)

  PFFFFT!

  PFFFFT!

  PFFFFT!

  “Maybe the manager is right,” said

  Benjamin, covering his snout. “The

  riddle

  could be inside the pen.”

  We wanted to look around, but the pups

  were so wild that crossing the

  pen

  seemed

  impawssible!

  But Clarissa took matters into her own

  paws.

  Enough!

  “

  Stop it!

  ” she bellowed at the crazy

  pups. “If you don’t stop moving around

  right now, I’ll make you all take a bath —

  with soap!

  Did you hear me?

  ”

  The pups froze in their tracks. Then, with

  their little tails between their

  paws

  ,

  they trotted silently to one corner.

  Ah,

  Clarissa

  — what a mouse!

  Trap, Benjamin, and I searched all over

  Tavern

  Cavern

  Lantern

  the pen, but Hercule was the one who finally

  found the tablet with the

  riddle

  .

  It was inside a big cauldron of superbean

  concentrate!

  YUCK

  — this was one seriously

  smelly

  search

  !

  The little tablet was chiseled with three

  words:

  While Trap, Benjamin, Hercule, and I

 

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