The Secret Of Cacklefur Castle
Page 4
I didn’
t believe them. But they were telling
the truth.
“It was
Booey
, sir,” explained Boneham.
“He is the
castle ghost
. He loves to play
jokes. He’s very playful.”
BOOEY THE
PO
LTERGEIST
Who Is He? The ghost of Cacklefur Castle. This
young ghost is a poltergeist, which means he likes
to play tricks on everyone.
His Secret: He is afraid of scary movies -- but he
watches them anyway!
Just then, my water glass flo
ated off the
table. Then the water poured onto my lap!
“Booey seems to like you a lot, sir,” said
the butler.
I shuddered. What would Booey do
if he didn’t like me?
Everyone began to eat their stew. I looked
into my bowl and frowned. Inside the
bubbling goo, I saw one of my
own buttons! I saw a yellow
canary feather, too. I pushed
away the bowl in disgust.
“Excuse me, Chef,” I asked. “May I have
something else to eat? A salad, maybe?”
Chef Stewrat looked angry. “Are you
saying you don’
t like my stew?”
Everyone at the table stared at me.
“That Geronimo Stilton is a strange
mouse,” they murmured.
The chef sighed. “I can make you a salad if
you want. How about some poison ivy with
slime dressing? Or sewer algae with moldy
mushrooms and some nice pond scum on
top?”
T
h
a
t
G
e
r
o
n
i
m
o
S
t
i
l
t
o
n
i
s
o
n
e
s
t
r
a
n
g
e
m
o
u
s
e
!
I turned as pale as a piece of mozzarella.
“Um, how about some fruit instead?”
“I have just the thing,” Chef Stewrat said.
“How about a bowl of flesh-eating
strawberries? Their teeth are nice and
sharp.”
I turned even pal
er. “No, thank
you,” I said weakly.
“Well, what will it be?” asked the chef.
“Some snake steak? Or some nice
toxic
tiger fi sh? It’s fresh from the moat.”
“I think I’ll just skip supper,” I said. My
poor stomach growled.
“Have some toadstool
tea, my little bat wing,”
said Creepella. “It will
make your tummy feel
better!”
H
a
v
e
s
o
m
e
t
o
a
d
s
t
o
o
l
t
e
a
.
.
.
61
THE THING HAS A
TUMMY ACHE!
I turned down the toadstool tea and left.
I was walking down the hallway when,
suddenly, the castle walls began to
shake
!
Then I heard a strange rumbling sound.
My fu
r stood on end. “Putrid cheese puffs!”
I crie
d. “It’s
an
earth
quake
!
”
Boneham the butler walked up to me. “It
is not an earthquake, sir. It is The Thing.”
Boneh
am led me to the window. He
point
ed to the green, slimy moat that
surro
unded the castle. “The Thing has a
tummy
ache
,” he
explained.
“What
thing?” I squeaked. I
leaned
out
the w
indow for a better look. The moat
B
u
u
r
r
r
r
r
p
p
p
p
!
!
THE THING
What Is It? Nobody knows. If they did, it wouldn’t be
called The Thing! Nobody has ever seen it, but everyone
knows it is enormouse. It lives in the moat and eats
whatever crosses its path.
Its Secret: The Thing is very shy. That is why nobody
has ever seen it!
63
G
U
R
G
L
E
D
and
B
U
B
B
L
E
D
belo
w.
Boneham pulled me back. “Be careful, sir.
The Thing will eat anything it can. Don’t
get too close to the moat. We’ve lost many
guests that way.”
“Th-thank you, Boneham,” I stammered.
I scurried back to my room. My mind was
r
acing faster than a
HAMSTER ON A WHEEL
.
Ca
cklefur Castle was too much for me. The
mouse-eating Thing in the moat was the last
straw. There had to be some way to escape!
I looked out the window. I am
afraid of
heights
. But I was not
too
far from the
ground. Maybe, just maybe, I could . . .
I put
my plan into action. I took the sheets
off t
he bed. I tied them together to make
one
long
rope. I tied one end of the rope to
the
bedpost.
Then I dropped the rest out
the w
indow.
I took a deep breath and began to
climb down.
Sudde
nly, the sheets began
to
swing back and forth
!
Above me,
the
window shutters began to
rattle.
Then the window — y
es,
t
he
window — b
egan to tease me!
“
Nyah
nyah
nyah
nyah
nyah!
”
the w
indow sang.
I gripped the sheets
tightly. I did not want to
fall!
“
I want to go
H O M E
!
”
I
screa
med.
Below me, I saw Boneham
driv ing up in a strange car. There
was a big net attached to it.
“Hold on, sir!” he called up.
The sheets twisted once
more. I lost my grip. I fell . . .
Plop!
. . .
and I landed safely in Boneham’s net.
The net dropped me on the grass. Kafka
the cockroach ran up. He lifted his leg — a
nd
peed on my pants!
“Why is this happening to me?” I sobbed.
“I am a good mouse. I don’t deserve this!”
I ran back up to my room and jumped
in bed. I pulled the covers over my head.
Maybe this was all just a bad dream!
But it wasn’
t. The mattress began to
tickl
e
my tail!
H
o
l
d
o
n
,
s
i
r
!
H
o
l
d
o
n
,
s
i
r
!
H
o
l
d
o
n
,
s
i
r
!
I jumped out of bed. I decided to take a hot
bath instead, to calm my nerves. I turned on
the water
. Then I jumped back.
The water was
steaming hot
! I tried another
knob. This time, the water was freezing!
Actual ice cubes fl oated on the water!
The bathtub laughed at me. “Ha-ha-ha!”
I gave up on the bath. But there was one
thing I really had to do. . . .
I slowly walked up to the toilet. I had
to go, but I was a little ner vous. What would
the toilet be like? It looked scary. It was black
with skulls and crossbones on the tank.
Slowly, I lifted the lid. The toilet began to
gurgle.
“Use me if you dare.
You’re in for quite a scare!
Maybe I’ll flood the room.
Or suck you to your doom!”
66
My whiskers
quivered
in fear
. I backed
away slowly.
The t
oilet kept singing. The window
shutter
s
kept cla
pping. The bed kept
laugh
ing
. The
n
the c
loset joined in. It began opening and
shuttin
g it s door.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang!
I covered my ears and ran out of the
GUEST ROOM
.
“
I wan
t to go
HOOOOME
!
”
I wailed.
g
u
r
g
l
e
!
68
THE ATTACK OF
THE FLESH-EA
TING
STRAW
BERRIES
I bumped into the twins in the hall. “Where
is the bathroom?” I asked them.
Snip and Snap pointed to a nearby door.
“It’s in there!”
“Thank you!” I said. How polite.
But when I opened the door, I saw I wasn’t
in a bathroom. I was in a greenhouse. Clay
pots with small green plants fi lled the room.
For a moment, I thought I heard a noise.
Munch! Munch! Munch!
I moved closer to the plants. They looked
so pretty! Each plant was loaded with red,
sweet-smelling fruit.
“Strawberries!” I said.
“At last, something
69
normal to eat!” I reached out with my paw
to pick a strawberry . . .
and
it bit me
!
“Ow!” I cried. I looked down. The little
strawberry had a mouth and tiny teeth!
“I want to go
HOME
!” I wailed.
All at once, the strawberries jumped out
of their pots. They began to chase me!
Munch! Munch! Munch!
Their little teeth
chomped as they got closer and closer
.
. . .
Luckily, at that moment Boneham ran
in. He was carrying a can of sardines.
“Dinnertime, my sweets!” he called out.
The strawberries ran to Boneham. He fed
them the sardines. They gobbled them up
like a pack of cats at a mouse buffet.
I sighed with relief and headed for the door.
It was then that I noticed a sign on the wall.
FLESH-EATING STRAWBERRIES
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.
(BUT YOU DON’T REALLY WANT TO ENTER, DO YOU?)
I ran from the flesh-eating strawberries.
71
Then I heard a giggle. I turned to see Snip
and Snap.
“
You rotten little ratlets!
” I
cried.
The twins just laughed and ran away.
I scurried down the hall, looking for a
bathroom door. In the dim light, I saw a
small yellow figure flying toward me.
It was Madame Latomb’s were-canary!
The little bird chomped on my finger with
its sharp beak.
“
Ow!
” I squeaked.
Madame Latomb stepped out of a door.
“Come here, my little songbird,” she said.
The were-canary flew to
Madame
Latomb
and disappeared inside
her huge hairdo. I wanted to tell
her what I thought of her little
terror, but I really
, really had to
find a bathroom now
.
I looked at the nearest
door
. It had a sign with
teeny-weeny print on it.
Boneham ran up to me.
“Please don’t open this
door, sir,” he said. “We
have lost many guests
this way.”
“But what is inside?” I
asked.
Boneham’s whiskers
twitched. “I do not know,
sir,” he said. “But I am
sure it is not very nice!”
DO NOTOPEN THIS DOOR!
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
REALLY! DON’T TRY IT!
73
A SURPRISE IN
THE DARK
I had had enough surprises for one day. I
found another door. This one did not have
any signs on it. I opened it.
I stepped into a dark room. I felt on the
wall for a light switch, but there was none.
Then I made out a shape in the dark. A
toilet
!
Relieved, I sat down and began to take care
of business. When I was done, I reached out
to grab the to
ilet paper. I touched something
that felt like toilet paper. So I gave it a
pull
.
I flushed
the toilet. Then I remembered I
had a small fla
shlight in my pocket. I took it
out, turned it on . . .
74
. . .
and found myself face-to-face with a
!
“
H
eeeeel
p
!
” I shrieked. With
horror,
I realized I hadn’
t found toilet paper at
all. I had found the wrappings of a mouse
mummy!
My paws trembled. I dropped the fla
shlight.
The light went out.
“Heeeeeeelp!” I screamed again.
The door opened. Creepella stepped
inside.
75
“There you are, my little ghostie-whostie,”
she said. “What are you doing in the staff
bathroom? This is where my grandfather
kept his mummies. He was fix
ing them. You
didn’t hurt them, did you?”
I was still in shock. “
!”
I s
tammered.
Suddenly, I felt someone step on my tail. I
whirled around.
Snip and Snap stood there, giggling.
“He did it!” said Snip.
“He did it!” said Snap.
“I want to go
H O M E
!” I
wailed.
The Cacklefur family gathered in the
hallway. They shook their heads.
“That Geronimo Stilton is a strange
mouse!” they cried.
I WANT TO
GO HOME!
Still
shaki
ng
, I mad
e my way back to
the
guest
room. At least there were no mummies
there
. But I got lost in the
long hallways
.
As I searched for my door, I noticed
something on the flo
or. I reached down and
picked it up. It was an
old
piece of paper.
I raised it to my snout. It was a treasure
map!
Even though I was
tired, and scared,
and hungry, I had
to follow the map. I
was too
curious
to
resist.
I took three steps
to the right. Then two steps to the left.
Then one more step to the right. I found