by Thea Stilton
Inspector Ratt looked shocked at her
strange behavior. “We saw the
Cat Burglar
running on top of the train, toward the last
car!” Paulina explained. “Nicky and Pam are
chasing him! Please, you have to come
with me! But first, arrest Dimitri: He’s the
Cat Burglar’s ACCOMPLICE!”
138
Nicky and Pamela were starting to get
worried: Why hadn’t Violet and Colette
burst into the train car
yet? They couldn’t believe that Yusuf wouldn’t
let their friends in. After all, this was an
EMERGENCY. There was hardly any
time to keep the thief from escaping!
“But how will he get away without being
discovered?” Pam asked.
“That harness must be for transporting the
case with the Veil of Light, but how
does he think he’s going to get it out of
there?” Nicky wondered.
“Maybe Dimitri and his twin have a
henchmouse
arriving by helicopter,” Pam
guessed, looking far off into the sky.
TOO LATE!
Nicky shook her snout. “I don’t think
so . . . but there’s no time to find out. There’s
no one here to arrest him. We’re going to
have to STOP him ourselves!”
And so they did.
Holding
on to the
rope that the Cat Burglar had used before
them, the two mouselets dropped into the
train compartment.
140
BUMP . . . BUMP
When the Cat Burglar saw them dive in
from the roof, an amused grin spread across
his snout.
“Ha ha ha! You’re too late, my little
cheese niblets,” he said.
Pam and Nicky exchanged a quick look:
They needed to delay the thiefif they
had any hope of preventing him from
escaping.
“You won’t be able to get the case out of
here,” Pamela said, pointing to the
harness. “That thing is heavier than the
world’s biggest block of petrified Parmesan!”
“Ha ha ha!” the thief laughed again.
“You think I’m going to try to carry it out on
my back? You must take me for a real
cheesebrain!”
A hot-air balloon
that fits through
the hole in the
ceiling . . .
. . . and the Cat
Burglar, ready to
disappear into
thin air!
1
3
. . . a superstrong
harness tied around the
case holding the
precious gown . . .
2
T
e
c
a
b
u
r
g
l
a
r
’
s
p
l
a
n
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That’s it, keep on squeaking! Tell us how
brilliant you are! Nicky was thinking. The
others will be here any second now with
Yusuf and the inspector, and then we’ll see if
you’re still laughing!
The thief pointed to the straps of the
harness. “Ha ha ha! In another minute,
I’ll press this button, a hot-air balloon will
blow up, and the Veil of Light and the
Cat Burglar
will soar into the sky! Ha
ha haaa!”
Nicky and Pam glanced at each other in
despair. It looked like the Cat Burglar was
going to get away with it again!
But suddenly . . .
BAMMM!
The door flew open and a deep voice
echoed through the compartment:
“Paws up!”
Yusuf loomed in the compartment door,
which suddenly seemed much smaller. Nicky
and Pam could just barely make out Violet
and Colette standing behind the guard.
But the Cat Burglar didn’t seem the least bit
intimidated
.
“Time’s up, my little cheese puffs!” he said,
THE HOAX
144
laughing. He grabbed the harness
straps. As soon as the hot-air balloon was
inflated, he would
fly
out of the train with
the precious gown!
But what happened next didn’t exactly
go as the Cat Burglar had planned. . . .
Suddenly, the Veil of Light disappeared
from inside the crystal case. In its place stood
a stern rodent with thick gray whiskers!
“What in the name of cheddar is that?”
the scoundrel muttered, spinning around to
gaze with
horror
at the case and its
contents. He was so stunned he let go of the
straps.
“H-how . . . W-what . . . ? I . . . I don’t
understand!” spluttered the astounded
thief.
Nicky and Pam took advantage of his
confusion. They threw themselves at
145
the Cat Burglar. Nicky grabbed him by the
tail while Pamela knocked him off his
paws with a tackle worthy of the National
Mouseball League.
But . . .
SWISH . . . SWISH
. . . the thief wriggled out of their grasp
like a slimy sewer rat! His bodysuit was
covered in a slippery substance that made it
146
impossible to get a grip on him.
That was when Yusuf, Violet, and Colette
came to the rescue. They had just
realized what the thief had planned to do
with his strange tools.
Yusuf launched himself across the
compartment at the
Cat Burglar
. At
the same time, Violet and Colette pulled the
train’s manual brake.
The Orient Express shook, jerked violently,
and stopped
SUDDENLY
. A moment
later, Paulina and Chief Inspector Ratt
hurried into the compartment.
The inspector had a strange
smile
on
his snout. In his paws, he held a small object
that looked like a remote control.
Everyone looked around for the Cat
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech!
147
Burglar. In all the commotion, they’d
lost sight of him. Where had he gone?
Pamela raised her eyes to the ceiling. All
she saw was
blue
sky. There was no
sign of the hot-air balloon.
“Did he escape?” she asked, confused.
“Did anyone see what happened?”
No one answered. Then they heard a
moan.
Pamela saw a paw in a black glove waving
from beneath Yusuf’s enormouse bulk. She
burst out laughing. “Ha ha ha! Even the
most slippery customers are no match for
Yusuf!”
The stern guard gave no response, but the
barest hint of a smile flitted across his snout.
150
immediately to make sure that he wouldn’t
wriggle away when Yusuf got up.
The Thea Sisters hugged one another.
Colette, Paulina, and Violet were happy
and relieved that Nicky and Pam had survived
their adventure on the train’s roof!
“Ahem!” the inspector
coughed
to get their attention. “I think you mouselets
deserve the honor of revealing the thief’s
identity.” He pointed to the hood that was
still covering the scoundrel’s snout.
Nicky, Pamela, Paulina, and Violet pushed
Colette forward. “Go on, Colette!” Pam said.
“If it wasn’t for the scalding you accidentally
TWO THIEVES
IN ONE!
gave him, we never would have figured it
out.”
The mouselet timidly approached the Cat
Burglar. With a quick, deft move, she
removed the hood from his snout. Under a
mass of messy fur, the thief’s eyes shone
with fury.
Colette smiled and said politely, “My name
is Colette, what’s yours?”
152
“Leon!” the thief grumbled reluctantly. His
snout was completely identical to his twin’s!
“Dimitri and I would have gotten away with
it if it weren’t for you meddling mouselets!”
Now there was just one mystery left
to solve: Who was the rodent inside the case?
“It’s another projection,” the inspector
explained, winking slyly. “It’s Malik Ratt
the First, my grandfather!”
The inspector looked as happy as a
mouseling
on Christmas morning.
“You see, I made a small adjustment to
my original plan B. I wanted the thief to
believe that the Veil of Light was kept in the
last train car, guarded by Yusuf. We used the
same trick here as in the EXHIBITION
car — a projection of the gown.”
“So where is the real gown, then?!” Colette
asked, bewildered.
153
Everyone turned anxiously to look at the
inspector. He laughed. “It’s already in Istanbul.
The two fake cases were designed to contain
identical holographic images, perfect
reproductions of the gown and my
grandfather. I used this remote
control to switch the projections.”
Chief Inspector Ratt pushed a button.
The image of his grandfather disappeared,
and the wedding gown reappeared.
“Wow, it seems so real!” Pam said,
pressing her snout against the glass.
Ratt pushed the button again, and
the image of his grandfather reappeared.
“See how easy it is?” he exclaimed. “My
grandfather dedicated his whole life to
finding the Veil of Light. It seemed right
that he be present in some way when the Cat
Burglar was CAPTURED.”
PARTY AT THE
TOPKAPI PALACE
MUSEUM!
When the Orient Express reached the
station in Istanbul, word of the Cat Burglar’s
capture had already circulated on the
Internet. Inspector Ratt was welcomed
as a hero, and a day of celebration was
declared in his honor. He brought the Thea
Sisters with him and thanked them for
their invaluable help.
Together, they drove down Istiklal Caddesi,
the main street in Istanbul. The sidewalks
were teeming with rodents cheering them.
All the passengers from the Orient Express
participated in the
CELEBRATION
,
and even Peggy got a moment of glory: She
155
was the one who found Picamouse’s missing
painting! The heiress had ordered a cup of
hot cheese in the café car, where she noticed
the lost painting sticking out from its hiding
place. Her discovery came as an enormouse
relief to her dear friend Pablo!
At the end of the day, the guests assembled
at the Topkapi Palace Museum and waited
eagerly to see the Veil of Light. But minutes
kept slipping by without anything happening.
The journalists were beginning to gossip
about the possibility that the precious gown
had been stolen again when suddenly the
lights went out and a beam of light
illuminated the grand terrace outside.
Everyone scurried out, and their snouts
dropped open in surprise. While
sweet, sad music filled the air, the magnificent
Zelda Mitoff began to dance. She
157
was wearing the Veil of Light!
Violet was moved to tears.
“In light of the extraordinary situation,
Zelda agreed to dance one last time,”
explained Eliot Albamouse.
“She’s hoping everyone will forget that the
Cat Burglar
was her own assistant!”
hissed Priscilla Pawson.
“Not exactly,” Paulina corrected her.
“Dimitri was a substitute for the real assistant,
who mysteriously quit a few days before the
Orient Express was due to depart.”
But it was the kind theater critic who had
the last word. “Actually, what really convinced
Zelda was the enthusiasm of a young
detective who wanted to see her perform!”
Violet blushed from snout to tail. Her
friends put their paws around her, delighted
to see her so happy.
But no one was as delighted as I was when
I met the mouselets at the museum and they
told me all about their journey. As always,
the Thea Sisters proved the power of
teamwork and had a truly thrilling
adventure!
T
h
e
y
w
e
r
e
m
o
r
e
t
h
a
n
f
r
i
e
n
d
s
.
T
h
e
y
w
e
r
e
s
i
s
t
e
r
s
!
Check out
these very
special editions
featuring me
and the Thea
Sisters!
The Journey
Through Time
Join me and my friends on
a journey through time in
this very special edition!
M
o
u
s
e
f
o
r
d
Athletic fields
Library
South Tower
Dorms
Teachers’ living
quart
ers
Garden
Herb garden
North Tower
Cafeteria
Great Hall
Headmaster’s
office
Cl
assrooms
W
h
a
l
e
I
s
l
a
n
d
24
3
2
1
25
6
5
7
8
11
9
1O
21
23
22
18
19
2O
4
16
17
15
12
13
14
11
1. Falcon Peak
2. Observatory
3. Mount Landslide
4. Solar Energy Plant
5. Ram Plain
6. Very Windy Point
7. Turtle Beach
8. Beachy Beach
9. Mouseford Academy
10. Kneecap River
11. Mariner’s Inn
12. Port
13. Squid House
14. Town Square
15. Butterfly Bay
16. Mussel Point
17. Lighthouse Cliff
18. Pelican Cliff
19. Nightingale Woods
20. Marine Biology Lab
21. Hawk Woods
22. Windy Grotto
23. Seal Grotto
24. Seagulls Bay
25. Seashell Beach
Map of
whale island
Thanks for reading,
and good-bye until our
next adventure!