“Wonder who lives here,” Micky whispered. As though in answer, they heard a dog barking. “That sounds just like Petula!” Micky gasped. “It’s coming from that shed.” Micky stroked the mountain dog. “Good boy.”
Lily began pushing through the sopping leaves ahead. “How do we get down there?”
Micky grabbed her arm. “I think Petula’s locked up, Lily. We don’t know who lives down there. It could be really dangerous. We’re going to have to play this one carefully. “
Lily stared at him. “Who’s locked her up? Do you think Molly is with her? Or Malcolm?”
“I don’t know,” said Micky. “Let’s watch for a bit and see.”
And so Micky and Lily waited. Petula could obviously smell them, for she continued to bark. Their patience paid off. In five minutes Miss Teriyaki and Miss Speal, both holding glasses containing some sort of brown liquid, emerged unsteadily from one of the huts.
“Ooh, it’s raining cats and dogs!” Miss Teriyaki exclaimed. Then, ignoring the downpour, the two women went to the shed where Petula was locked up. Both were giggling.
“Miss Hunroe is going to be furious when she finds out that you found a pug and didn’t tell her!” Miss Speal tittered. “I mean, how could you think that the breed of pug was native to Ecuador?”
“I don’t know!” Miss Teriyaki replied, hiccupping, and then laughed. “What an idiot I am! What a twit! I’m going to get into so much trouble!” When she said this, both of the women fell about, giggling.
“That’s not funny!” Miss Speal exclaimed. “She’ll skin you alive! We know how nasty she can be!”
Micky watched them. “Miss Speal and Miss Teriyaki. Drunk as skunks!” he whispered.
Miss Teriyaki picked up her poison-dart tube.
“I could always get rid of the dog now,” she said. “Blow a dart and finish it off. This poison kills instantaneously, you know.”
“I could cook it and give Miss Hunroe dog pie for supper!” At this suggestion, the two ladies folded over with laughter.
“Ooh, you are so funny, Miss Speal! I can’t think why we haven’t gotten on like this before.”
“Maybe Miss Oakkton’s special rain-forest brew has something to do with it,” Miss Speal replied, slurring her words. “Come on, let’s have some more.”
With that, they sauntered back to the hut.
The two children tried to think what to do next.
“I could morph into one of them,” Micky suggested.
“Or couldn’t you hypnotize them?”
Micky made a face. “I can’t hypnotize.”
It was then that Lily noticed a bunch of keys on the table outside the hut.
“Look! Bet those are the padlock keys,” Lily whispered. “I’ve got an idea.”
Canis watched the two humans and wondered what they were talking about. He could smell fear on both of them. Then he saw the girl beginning to edge forward.
Lily parted the ferns and, finding footholds below, climbed carefully down the slope. Once at encampment level, she quickly crossed the wet dirt ground behind the kitchen hut, and quiet as a cunning fox she crept toward the women’s cabin. The radio was on. The voice of a newsreader blasted out of the hut.
“We are getting reports of strange tornadoes in the northern Pacific. These are causing grave concerns that tidal waves will hit the west coast of America, costing millions of lives.”
“Oh, not more weather!” Miss Teriyaki complained. “Switch channels!” Ecuadorian pop music now blared out into the damp mountain air. “Ooh, yeah!” Miss Teriyaki shouted. “Move yer body!”
“What a dancer you are, Miss Teriyaki!” Miss Speal cried.
“I know! You should see me with my disco outfit on!”
Lily ignored them. She tiptoed past cautiously, dodging behind a bin and moving silently in the rain. The padlock keys twinkled in the dappled green light. Taking a deep breath, Lily shot toward them. Swiftly she grabbed them from the table and darted behind the kitchen hut. As she did, Petula began barking again. Lily winced. If Petula made too much noise, the women would be out again. Lily had to act immediately. So as quickly as she could, she stole across to Petula’s shed.
“Shh. Petula! It’s me, Lily, but you have to be quiet.” She matched a key to the padlock, put it in, and turned it.
Light flooded into the hut, and Petula bounded out and leaped up into Lily’s arms.
“Good girl!” she whispered. She looked at the keys. She knew she ought to return them, because then the women would still think that Petula was locked up. And so, slipping behind the kitchen work table, she began making her way back to the disco hut.
But as she approached, the hut door opened. Miss Speal stumbled out. And as she lurched forward, she saw Lily.
“Aaaah!” she shrieked.
Lily turned. “Petula!” she shouted. “Follow me!” She began to scramble for the slope. But it was too late.
“It’s a girl, Miss Teriyaki!” Miss Speal screamed, diving after Lily. “Get her!” As she rushed forward, Miss Teriyaki came out of the hut. She was clasping her poison-dart pipe. Lily glanced behind her and saw her putting it to her lips.
“Quick, Petula!” she urged.
She ran, but Miss Speal ran, too, like a lean, thin, muscley athlete. She tripped over a trailing root, but this did not hold her up for long. She was now alarmingly close. Petula shot past Lily, barking encouragement as she went. And then Lily slipped. She trod on a shiny leaf and slipped down the slope. Miss Speal, her hand like some horrid killer vine grabbing around Lily’s ankle, caught her foot.
But as she did, something else happened, too. Miss Teriyaki blew her poison-dart pipe. Drunk as she was, her weapon jolted sideways as she blew it, and the poison dart intended for Lily hit Miss Speal’s bony bottom. Miss Speal froze, her expression one of utter surprise, as though a monkey had just appeared in front of her dressed in a pink tutu. She winced and then squealed. “Eeeehweeer!” And then she turned green.
Lily didn’t stop to watch her keel over. She shook her foot free and scrambled up the hill as fast as she could.
Micky watched Miss Speal fall. Like a bird shot down with perfect aim, she fell backward, dead on the ground.
Miss Teriyaki saw what she had done and screamed. And then, full of fury, for she blamed Lily entirely, she began to chase her. With her poison-dart pipe clutched in her right hand and spare darts in the other, she leaped up the slope.
“Come on!” Lily cried. And she and Micky, Petula, and Canis bolted.
They ran on blindly, trying to keep together as they went. Leaves and wet branches whipped their faces, bushes caught them and the vines tripped them up, but still they ran. And behind, they heard Miss Teriyaki’s war cries as she too sprinted through the undergrowth. She was like some horrific hunter, intent on the kill. Micky and Lily had no doubt that they were her prey. They waited to feel the sharp stab of one of her darts, followed by the rush of poison in their blood. Micky turned to check how close behind she was.
It was then that he saw that Petula had stopped. Like a person standing on a road waiting for a car to run them over, she was standing waiting for Miss Teriyaki.
“Petula, come on!” Micky cried. But Petula didn’t budge. She sat still and expectantly, her velvety ears pricked up.
The horrid form of Miss Teriyaki came bursting out through the trees. Her face was pulled into ugly contortions, and she was growling like a wild animal. But still Petula didn’t move. And then, suddenly, Miss Teriyaki’s face changed.
She began to smile inanely, and then she stopped running. She dropped her blowpipe and fell on her knees with her mouth hanging open.