The Hamster of the Baskervilles by Bruce Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

Natalie's voice on the walkie-talkie.
    I thumbed the talk button. "Yeah, what is it?" I yawned.
    "Chet, you're supposed to say
over
when you're done talking. Over."
    "
Over.
Over."
    "Ha, ha," said Natalie. "All quiet here. Anything happening there? Over."
    I scanned the empty school yard. "Nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees."
    Natalie's voice came back, the only sound in the lonely predawn. "Let's check in later. Over and out."
    "Roger, dodger," I said, just for yuks. I thought I heard Natalie snort, but it could have been static.
    I set down the walkie-talkie and propped my elbows on my knees. Being a private eye isn't all glamour and gunshots, you know. Sometimes you've got to face down Mean Old Mr. Boredom on a stakeout.
    If I kept sitting, sleep would claim me soon. I stood and stretched. My joints popped like an army of cheerleaders in a gum-chewing contest.
    Couldn't hurt to take a spin past the library,
I thought. Stepping onto my skateboard, I drifted down the hallways. I'd like to say my eyes were peeled and my senses were alert, but Mom always tells me not to he. My brain felt like it had been wrapped in cotton and dipped in molasses.
    Nothing happening by the library, either. I sat down again to keep watch. I watched my eyelids droop, lower ... lower....
    I was dreaming. I dreamed a huge shadow freed itself from the darkness of a nearby wall and flowed

    across the grass. Closer and closer it came, easing toward me. I sat frozen.
    The shadow loomed over me, its red eyes gleaming. It opened a wide, fanged mouth that smelled of ... peanut butter?
    "
Yaaah!
" I screamed, snapping out of my trance.
    I found myself face-to-face with the were-creature of Emerson Hicky.
    It was real.

15. Monster Mashed
    "
Aieee!
" keened the startled monster. All I saw was fur and fangs.
    It leaped backward like an Olympic gymnast in instant replay. By the time I staggered to my feet, the hairy creature was galloping for the administration building in a blur of speed. I pushed my skateboard in pursuit.
    Then I thought,
What happens if I catch it?
    I needed backup. Rounding the corner, I pawed my pocket for the walkie-talkie. The monster had nearly made the shadows of the admin building.
    Whizzing down the hall, I fumbled for the radio's talk switch. Where was—ah, found it!
    "Natalie, come—"
    Bwa-gonnng!
    Unfortunately, I also found a pole.
    The world spun like a whirling dervish playing Twister. I watched it spin. I wondered why the air felt so hard under my back. Oh yeah. It was the ground.
    Head ringing, I picked myself up from the cement. Through the dizziness, a voice in my head repeated my name. Was I cracking up?
    "Chet! Chet, what's happening?"
    I grabbed my throbbing skull to silence the voice and found ... I was wearing a walkie-talkie for a hat.
    Natalie spoke again. "Chet? Come in, Chet!"
    I clutched the radio to my face and thumbed the button. "You're supposed to say
over
" I groaned.
    "THAT'S NOT FUNNY! OVER!" she yelled.
    I held the walkie-talkie away from my ear. "Settle down," I said.
    "I was worried about you, you nincompoop! Over!"
    "I saw the monster. By the admin building."
    "Why didn't you say so?"
    By the time Natalie flapped up, I had gotten myself back together—or as together as I get, anyway. I scanned the shadows, but nothing moved.
    Carefully, we circled the building. The creature's gunboat-sized pawprints led up to some bushes by the teachers' lounge. Then they stopped.
    The monster was too big to hide behind a shrub. Had it leaped to the roof? I climbed the wall and poked my head over the top. Nothing.
    Natalie took wing and scouted the area. Still nothing. For the next half hour, as teachers arrived and the sky grew pink, we searched the grounds.
    Finally, we admitted it: The creature had given us the slip.

    Discouraged, Natalie and I hunkered down on a wall at the edge of the playground. Students trickled onto campus.
    The rascal moon slunk below the rim of the hill. I could have