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The Smelly Search (Geronimo Stilton Cavemice #13)

Page 4

by Geronimo Stilton


  Not

  here,

  either!

  Not

  here!

  A MOUSESTASTIC

  IDEA!

  ?!?

  Luckily, Hercule was quick on his paws.

  FAST

  as a falling meteorite, he dashed

  away from my cave and waved for me to

  follow him.

  “

  Watch this

  ,

  Geronimo!” he said

  with a chuckle.

  Then he took a

  deep breath and

  cried, “Emergency

  at Gossip Radio!

  There’s been

  a break-in!”

  A second later,

  Let’s get out

  of here!

  We have to help!

  Sally’s henchmice darted out of my cave and

  hightailed

  it to Gossip Radio. Bones and

  stones, what a relief! Hercule and I scurried

  into my cave as soon as the coast was clear.

  “

  Hurry!

  ” my friend instructed. “When

  those stonesnouts figure out there’s no

  emergency

  , they’ll be back in the twitch

  of a whisker!”

  I quickly checked to see if my

  interview

  was safe. I was shaking with nerves from

  the ends of my ears to the tip of my tail! But

  it was still in its

  hiding place

  under my

  pillow, wrapped inside a palm leaf.

  Whew!

  The tablets were stacked like a book, and

  on the cover I’d written “

  Songsnout

  Interview

  .”

  “Prehistoric Parmesan! What are we going

  to do now? Sally’s henchmice are

  going to be back any

  minute,” squeaked

  Hercule, twisting

  his tail. “Come on,

  Geronimo.

  Think!

  ”

  “Um, let’s see . . .”

  “Well? Come on.

  What’s the plan?”

  “

  Cave rats!

  ”

  I said, annoyed.

  “Hercule, if you

  It’s

  here!

  Songsnout

  Interview

  keep interrupting, I’ll hit

  you on the

  snout

  with

  my book of Greasella

  Stonyfur’s most famouse

  recipes!”

  Hearing that, Hercule

  looked at me with a

  smile

  . He picked up

  the book of recipes from the

  table.

  “Of course! That’s a mousestastic

  idea

  !”

  Huh? What was he squeaking about now?

  “These recipe

  Tablets

  are the same

  size as the tablets you used to chisel the

  interview,” Hercule went on. “Look!”

  I examined the two books of tablets very

  closely.

  Fossilized cheese crumbs!

  Hercule was right. The size and shape

  were

  identical

  !

  GREASELLA

  STONYFUR’S

  FAMOUSE

  RECIPES

  “Listen carefully, Geronimo. We’ll

  swap

  the covers! When Sally’s

  henchmice come back, they’ll take the

  wrong thing!” Hercule squeaked excitedly.

  “They’ll grab Greasella’s recipes instead of

  the

  interview

  !”

  I had to admit, it was a

  FABUMOUSE

  idea. It just might save our fur!

  Grinning, we switched the covers.

  Then we wrapped the recipe book (with

  “

  Songsnout Interview

  ” on its cover) in

  the palm leaves and left the actual interview

  (with the cookbook’s cover) in plain sight

  on the table.

  We left my cave feeling as

  proud

  as

  prehistoric peacocks.

  “

  Yoo-hoo

  , Geronimo! Hercule!”

  someone called from the road. “We’re here!”

  It was Clarissa! She, Benjamin, and Trap

  were back from the dentist’s office with a

  new

  riddle

  in their paws.

  It said:

  Paint your fur red —

  make no mistakes!

  Then scamper to where

  the latest news breaks.

  AS RED AS

  FOSSILIZED HOT

  PEPPERS!

  Wait one whisker-loving minute!

  “Paint ourselves

  red

  ?” I cried. “Sticks

  and stones! That’s impawssible!”

  The

  red

  ochre mine that is the source

  of all cavemice dye was thousands of

  tails

  away! It would take us a day to get there

  and back.

  How many

  seashells

  would I have to paw

  over to get what we needed from the citizens

  of Old Mouse City to paint ourselves red? It

  ruffled

  my fur just thinking about it!

  “I know what to do,” Clarissa

  squeaked

  ,

  before I could get my tail in too much of a

  twist.

  Where is it?

  We all

  LOOKED

  at her,

  intrigued. What could she have

  in mind?

  “We’ll paint ourselves

  red

  with one of my new inventions!”

  she squeaked. “Come on, follow

  me!”

  With that, we followed the

  fabumouse and

  brilliant

  mouse to her cave. There,

  she showed us her stone

  tub, where water

  from the Great

  Gurgling Geyser

  bubbled

  ,

  super-pure and

  super-hot

  .

  Clarissa went

  over to her

  dresser and began rummaging through

  drawers of

  jars

  , vials, and perfume

  bottles, until she finally said, “

  Found it!

  Super-concentrated Jurassic beet juice!”

  “

  What is that?

  ” I asked. I had no clue

  what her plan was!

  Clarissa opened the bottle, poured the

  contents into the tub, and . . .

  by the

  Great Zap

  ! The gurgling water instantly

  turned

  BRIGHT RED

  and fizzled with

  mousetastic bubbles!

  “So . . . do we have to go in there?” I

  asked,

  worried

  .

  Clarissa didn’t bother answering. Instead,

  she gracefully jumped into the water. When

  she came out, she was bright red from head

  to tail. Ah,

  Clarissa

  — what an amazing

  mouse!

  “Hooray!” exclaimed Hercule, Benjamin,

  Um

  Come on,

  Geronimo!

  Woo-hoo!

  and Trap. Following Clarissa’s exa
mple,

  they

  dove

  into the tub.

  But I hesitated.

  “Um, is the water very hot? What if the

  color

  doesn’t ever fade from our fur?

  What if my poor

  paws

  get boiled?”

  Trap and Hercule finally dragged me into

  the tub,

  kicking and squeaking

  .

  When I climbed out of the water, I was as

  red

  as a hot lava pepper!

  “What are we waiting for?” said Clarissa.

  “Let’s hightail it out of here!”

  Since the riddle said that we should

  “scamper to where the latest news breaks,”

  we ran straight to Gossip Radio. When

  Sally

  SPOTTED

  us coming, she hastily

  hid something behind her back. Holey

  boulders — it looked exactly like the

  palm

  leaf

  –wrapped book that I’d left in my cave!

  Sally’s henchmice had fallen into our

  trap — they’d stolen the

  recipes

  instead

  of the real interview!

  “What do you know?” Hercule

  whispered

  with a grin. “Our plan worked!”

  Pretending we didn’t notice the tablets,

  As straight as arrows, the

  sentinels circle around.

  Nothing breaks them, not even

  a stone from the ground!

  Hee, hee,

  hee!

  Oops!

  we asked Sally for the next riddle.

  She handed us a tablet that read:

  WHAT DOES THAT

  MEAN?

  We were more determined than ever to

  figure this out and finish the treasure hunt.

  We got to work on the

  riddle

  right away.

  “Sentinels . . . hmmm,” Clarissa said.

  “What do sentinels do?”

  “They protect or keep

  WATCH

  over

  something,” Benjamin responded.

  Clarissa nodded. “Okay, so what could

  sentinels standing

  STRAIGHT

  as arrows be?”

  “The riddle also says, ‘

  Nothing breaks

  them, not even a stone from the

  ground

  ,’” Benjamin added. “What does

  that mean?”

  “It means that the sentinels are strong!” I

  Let’s see . . .

  said. “What if they’re

  TREES

  ?”

  Just then Benjamin clapped his paws in

  excitement.

  “No, they’re not trees, Uncle Geronimo —

  they’re

  poles

  ! The poles of the fence that

  goes around Old Mouse City!”

  Hercule leaped to his paws. “Of course!

  They’re

  STRAIGHT

  , they

  circle around

  the city, and they are

  hard and

  sturdy

  — so hard that not even a

  stone could break them!”

  “Ugh, but there are so

  many

  of them,”

  Trap said with a groan. “How are we

  supposed to find the next clue?”

  Hercule knew just what to do.

  “Simple.

  We’ll split up!

  Each of

  us will check a different section of the fence.

  Whoever finds the riddle first will alert the

  rest of the team with a

  whistle

  ! Ready?

  LET’S GO!

  ”

  He handed each of us a wooden whistle

  and assigned us areas to investigate. “When

  you hear a

  whistle

  , drop everything and

  meet at Singing Rock Square.”

  We quickly rinsed the red dye from our

  fur — luckily, it was

  easy-cheesy

  to wash

  out! — and then took off to

  EXAMINE

  the fence. Benjamin and I worked together,

  while the others spread out around the city.

  Benjamin was

  scampering

  from one

  pole to another when he tripped on a

  rock

  and fell. Petrified cheese!

  “Are you okay?” I asked, crouching down

  by his side.

  “

  Shhhh

  ,” he said, pressing his ear to

  the ground. He was listening attentively to

  something.

  But what?

  “Benjamin?” I asked again. “Are you all

  right?”

  “I’m

  fine

  !” he said, his eyes wide. “But

  “Heeeelp!”

  there’s someone under here that isn’t . . .”

  What in the Stone Age was he squeaking

  about? I put my ear to the ground.

  Bones and stones! Benjamin was

  right! Someone was

  yelling

  for help underground. They could

  only be in

  one

  place — the

  TWEEEEEEEEET!

  subwaysaurus

  tunnel!

  I had to get everyone’s tail in gear to help,

  so I pulled out my

  whistle

  .

  A few minutes later, we all met at Singing

  Rock Square.

  “We didn’t find the next riddle, but we

  have to hurry

  !” Benjamin explained.

  “There’s someone in

  danger

  in the

  subwaysaurus tunnel!”

  “Fossilized cheddar chunks!” exclaimed

  Hercule. “Grab your

  clubs

  and let’s get

  going!”

  CHAAAARGE!

  What happened?

  Squeak!

  Together we raced

  DOWN, DOWN,

  DOWN

  under Old Mouse City into the

  metrocave, where the subwaysaurus lives.

  “Try not to make any

  noise

  !” Hercule

  hissed at us. “You never know who may

  be —”

  Shhh . . .

  quiet!

  “

  Help!

  ” someone yelled at the far end of

  the tunnel.

  “

  Someone rescue us!

  ” shouted a

  second voice.

  “

  Save us!

  ” screamed a third.

  Slithering

  on our

  bellies

  like

  serpentsauruses, we finally came to the end

  of the

  tunnel

  . What we saw left me

  squeakless!

  It was the

  Jurassic Cheddarsnouts

  and the

  Megalithic Mice

  ! They were

  tied

  up like balls of mozzarella . . . and

  they were surrounded by a gang of saber-

  toothed tigers. Fossilized feta!

  Even worse, we saw

  Tiger Khan

  ,

  the chief of the Saber-Toothed Squad and

  the most ferocious, evil

  fanged

  feline in the

  entire

  STONE AGE

  !

&
nbsp; I was shaking in my fur and preparing

  myself for premature extinction when

  Hercule came up with a mousestastic plan.

  “I’ve got an

  idea

  !” he squeaked quietly.

  “They haven’t spotted us yet, so we’ll use

  the element of surprise. By sneaking through

  the tunnel’s shadows, we can spook those

  overgrown cats

  and pretend we’re

  prehistoric monsters!”

  Even though I didn’t want to get anywhere

  near those giant fanged felines, I had to

  admit — Hercule’s plan could

  work

  !

  We tiptoed quietly down the last few steps

  into an alcove. The Saber-Toothed Squad

  still couldn’t

  SEE

  us, but we could see

  them. Once we had all reached the bottom,

  Clarissa

  raised her club and squeaked

  bravely:

  Side by side, we followed her, staying in

  the tunnel’s shadows. We had to rescue our

  captured fellow cavemice!

  “CAVEMICE,

  CHAAAARGE!”

  AH, CLARISSA . . .

  WHAT A MOUSE!

  "Yaaaaahhh!”

  "Uuuuughh!”

  "AAAAAAYAAAHHHH!”

  Clarissa ran toward the saber-toothed tigers

  with a valiant cry. “

  YAAAAAHHH!

  ”

  Hercule, Trap, Benjamin, and I imitated

  her, vying to see who could squeak loudest.

  When the saber-toothed tigers saw the

  shadows of us with our clubs raised, they

  began to shake like Paleozoic pudding!

  “

  Monsters!

  ” cried

  Tiger Khan

  ,

  shaking in his fur.

  Help!

  Run for

  your life!

  Then they all turned tail as we swung our

  clubs and started

  chasing

  them away!

  Then we heard thundering pawsteps

  coming down the tunnel. Holey cheese — all

  that

  racket

  had attracted the attention of

  rodents aboveground, who were RUNNING

  to help us!

  BONK!

  CLUNK!

  KAPOW!

  The village chief, Ernest Heftymouse, and

  his wife, Chattina, scurried

  DOWN

  the

  subwaysaurus tunnel, followed by a group

  of cavemice armed with

  clubs

  .

  “Take that!” shrieked Chattina, swinging

  at Tiger Khan. “And that! And that!”

  Defeated

 

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