r
w
e
’
l
l
s
t
a
y
!
”
“
L
e
t
m
e
o
u
t
!
”
THE VALLEY OF THE VAIN VAMPIRES
THE VALLEY OF THE
VAIN VAMPIRES
We drove all through the night. By the time
dawn came, we had reached a
gloom
y
valley. Thick trees with twisted branches
grew all around.
I looked away from the trees into the valley.
The mountainside was shaped like a giant
skull. A creepy castle with lots of towers sat
on top of it. It looked so spooky, I knew it
had to be
THE V
ALLEY OF THE VAIN VAMPIRES
1. Shrieking Peak
2
. Screaming Peak
3. Scaredycat Mountain
4. Mangymouse
Mountain
5. Cacklefur Castle
6. Rancidrat River
7. Nightmare Woods
8. Sleazysnot Stream
9. Toad Spit Brook
10. Putrid Pond
11. Ghoul’s Gully
12. Dangerous Dale
C
a
c
k
l
e
f
u
r
C
a
s
t
l
e
!
18
A muddy moat surrounded the castle.
Creepella stopped the car in front of a
drawbridge blocked by a gate. The gate was
marked with a carved wooden sign:
Creepella leaned out of the car and rang a
bell on the gate.
I nea
rly jumped out of my fur.
“What
was t
hat? I want to go
HOME
!” I
squea
ked.
Creepella laughed. “Calm down, my little
cheesecake. It’s only the
DOORBELL
!
”
Someone inside the castle lowered the
drawbridge. As we drove across the moat,
I thought I saw two eyes gleaming from the
depths of the murky water. But it must have
been my imagination. Right?
C
AC
KLEFUR
C
A S TLE
M
e
e
e
e
o
o
o
o
o
w
!
A creepy castle sat on top of the skull-shaped mountain.
Welcome to
cacklefur castle!
“Welcome to Cacklefur Castle!” Creepella
shrieked.
She parked the car, and we walked up to
the front door. I could make out a plant next
to the doorway. A big plant. It had a thorny
stem. It had
spiky
leaves. And when I
looked closer, I saw the plant had white,
sharp, shiny . . .TEETH!
“Rat-munching rattlesnakes!” I cried.
The plant leaned over and
sniffed me. Then it bit off
one of my buttons!
“Geronimo, meet Chompers,
our watch plant,”
Creepella said.
THE VON CACKLEFUR
CREST
Who Is She? Her scientifi
c name is Horrifica
dentibula. Her nickname is Chompers. She has
very sharp teeth at the end of her flower.
Her Secret: She owns a collection of toothbrushes
that she guards ferociously.
TH
E CACKLEFUR
W
ATCH PLANT
22
I quickly turned on my cell phone. “I’m
just going to call my sister,” I said casually. “I
want to tell her I’ve been mousenapped — I
mean, that I’ll be away for a while.”
Creepella’s green eyes fla
shed. She
snatched the phone away. “No phone calls!”
she snapped. “They are forbidden here!”
She threw my cell
phone to the plant. “Here,
Chompers,” she said. “A little snack for you.”
The plant gulped down my phone in one
mouthful! I began to lose hope. I was going
to be trapped in Cacklefur Castle forever!
Creepella stepped up to the door. I
followed her. I set my paw on the doormat,
and it cried out, “
Ouch
!
”
I jumped back. What kind of a place was
this?
Creepella opened the door. We stepped
into an enormouse hall with marble flo
ors.
Tall windows let in the morning sunlight.
Paintings of the Cacklefur family’s ancestors
lined the walls.
Creepella turned her snout to mine. “It’
s
so good to be home,” she said with a sigh.
“How about a kiss, my little zombie-
wombie?”
THE CACKLEFUR ANCESTORS
1. Abracadabra von Cacklefur, a medieval magician
famouse for his love potions.
2. Swashbuckler von Cacklefur, a knight who fought
against that mythical monster, the Three-headed Cat.
3. Cruella von Cacklefur, a charming rat. Many a rodent
lost his head over Cruella. (Really — she had them all
beheaded!)
1
3
2
24
I took a ste
p back. A cold
breez
e
BLEW
throu
gh the
windo
ws. The curtains whirled
in th
e air like ghosts.
Creepella turned to the
window. “This room has a
lovely view of the graveyard.
Isn’t it romantic?”
“I want to go
HOME
!
”
I wailed.
Then I hea
rd a loud cough.
I turn
ed around.
A gra
y rat stood there. He
held
a candelabra in his paw.
He
was
tall
and
thin
, with
a
pointy
snout and whiskers
that were waxed and curled
.
What a curious-looking
rodent!
25
I CAN’T BELIEVE
MY EARS!
“This is Boneham, our butler,” Creepella
said. “How are you today
, Boneham?”
The thin rat bowed. “
VERY BAD
,
thank you, Miss Von Cacklefur.” Then he
looked up and saw me. “Good heavens! We
have a guest!” he said, shocked.
“This is Geronimo Stilton,” Creepella
declared. “We are going to be married!”
I almost fainted. “Well, that’s n-n-not —”
I stammered. “I mean, Creepella and I —”
“I will see you later, my little
MONSTER
pie,” Creepella said. She turned to the butler.
“Take care of him for me, please.”
“I will do my worst, Miss Creepella,” the
butler said.
1
3
2
6
8
7
5
4
9
10
17
16
19
15
11
14
12
13
18
INSIDE CACKLEFUR CASTLE
1. Muddy moat where The Thing lives
2. Drawbridge
3. Front door
4. Chompers
5. Front hall
6. Drawing room
7. Library
8. Hall of mummies
9. Dining hall
10. Safe
11. Watchtower
12. Weapons room
13. Inner courtyard
14. Greenhouse
15. Castle grounds
16. Crocodile pool and piranha tank
17. Bedrooms
18. Guest bedroom
19. Kitchen and pantry
.
.
.
t
h
e
c
r
o
c
o
d
i
l
e
p
o
o
l
.
.
e
e
s
h
-
e
i
r
r
i
.
.
.
a
n
d
t
h
e
p
i
r
a
n
h
a
t
a
n
k
!
Boneham led me down a
very long
,
very narrow
, and
VERY
DARK
hallway. He pointed
out rooms in the castle as we
walked.
“Over there is the greenhouse,”
he explained. “That is where
we grow the
flesh-eatin
g
strawberries
, my pride and
joy. And at the end of this hall
you’ll find the library, the gym,
the crocodile pool, and the
piranha tank.”
I could not believe my ears.
What kind of a house has a
crocodile pool?
“And these stairs lead to the
castle dungeons,” Boneham
continued.
Who Is He? Boneham has been the Cacklefur f
amily
butler for ages. He is very devoted to the Cacklefurs
and calls them “the Family.” He is a snob from the tip
of his tail to the tips of his curled whiskers.
His Secret: His socks stink!
BONE
HAM
My stomach rumbled. I had not eaten for
hours and hours.
“Where is the kitchen?” I asked.
The butler pointed to a door. “In there.
But please make sure you call it
K
itchen,
with a capital
K
. Its feelings get hurt if you
don’t.”
Then the butler coughed. “Ahem, Mr.
Stilton,” he began. “I have heard you are a
publisher. I am working on a
MASTERPIECE
.
It’s entitled The Adventures of
the Cacklefur Family.
So far I have written
365
volumes. Would
you mind taking a look
at it?”
I gave him a card. “Give
me a call when you are
finished writing,” I told him.
17 Swiss Cheese Center
Mouse Island 13131
P
ublisher
T
H
E
RODEN
T’S
GAZETTE
HERE LIES THE
GUEST .
. .
Boneham stopped in front of a purple door
engraved with a skull. A brass plaque on the
door read
. .
Boneham opened the door and I peeked
inside. It was a strange-looking room! Thick
purple velvet covered the walls. It reminded
me of the inside of a
price
y coffi n. Creepy!
The dresser was shiny and black. The
silver handles looked like coffi n handles. A
large bed with four posts sat in the center
of the room. Bats and spiders were carved
into the posts. Over the bed hung a sign:
GUEST ROOM
HERE LI
ES THE GUEST
31
How was I supposed to sleep in this chamber of horrors?
33
I gulped and stepped inside. How was I
supposed to get any sleep in this chamber of
horrors? I shivered at the thought.
Boneham cleared his throat. “We could
certainly use a fire
on this chilly autumn
day.”
I turned toward the fireplace. There was
no fire.
The butler spoke again, more loudly this
time. “I said, we could certainly use a
fire
.”
Once again, I was confused. Who was
Boneham talking to?
Finally, Boneham began to yell. "We need"
a F-I-R-E! A fire! It is cold enough to
FR EEZ E
your whiskers in here!”
Suddenly, a crackling fi re began to burn
in the fireplace. I stepped back, shocked.
What had happened? Was this some kind
of magic?
I
t
'
s
a
r
e
a
l
p
a
w
-
p
u
l
l
e
r
!
U
m
.
.
.
t
h
e
m
i
r
r
o
r
.
.
.
“I am sorry, sir,” Boneham
said. “The
fireplace
is a bit deaf. It is more than
three hundred years old,
you see.”
I took another step back
and found myself standing
next to a tall mirror. At least
I thought it was a mirror. I
could not see my reflection
in it!
“Is something wrong with
the m
irror?” I asked.
“Oh, the
MIRROR
has probably just gone
somewhere to take a nap,”
Boneham answered. “It’s
very lazy,
sir. So sorry.”
A deaf fireplace? A lazy
35
mirror? What kind of a place was this?
Boneham walked toward the door. “One
more thing, sir,” he said. “Be careful of the
carpet. It’s a real paw-puller
. And if you need
anything, just
yell
.”
The butler left and closed the door. I
looked down at the carpet, curious. Without
warning, it pulled out from under me.
I fell flat on my snout. Then
the carpet rolled up — with me inside it!
Boneham opened the door. “I told you, sir.
The carpet is a real paw-puller!” Then he
shut the door behind him.
I could not take it anymore. I was hungry.
I was tired. And now I was rolled up in a
paw-pulling carpet!
“I want to go home!” I wailed.
Splat!
36
EARTHWORM LIVER
AND LEECH LARD
I unrolled myself from the carpet. There
was no way I could sleep in this awful room.
I decided to search for something to eat
instead. I was so hungry, I would have given
my left paw for a cheese sandwich!
As I walked down the hallway, a delicious
smell wafted toward me. My whiskers
twitched.
Sniff ... Sniff ... It smelled like stew!
I followed my snout until I
found the
kitchen. It was an enormouse room with a
brick ceiling and stone floor.
I saw a rat stirring a pot over the stove. If I
were being polite, I might describe him as a
heavy rat with a stained apron and waxed
CHEF
S
T
EWRAT
Who Is He? The Cacklefur family cook. He loves
the opera. He is always trailed by a cloud of gnats.
That’s probably because he hasn’t washed since
Christmas — exactly which Christmas, nobody knows!
His Secret: He dreams of selling his stew around the
world. And he is in love with Madame Latomb!
“
Open your snout
Come and pig out!
My
stew is a treat.
The Secret Of Cacklefur Castle Page 2