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on top of Barney.
The rope went slithering to the street eighteen floors below.
BiBi Lanay let out a series of high-pitched shrieks.
* * *
The peace and quiet of room 1720 was broken by a crash and screams from the
room above.
"Bugs!" Adam threw open the door and ran for the stairs. He was halfway up to
the eighteenth floor when suddenly he came face to face with Barney and Ralph,
who were pounding down the stairs as fast as they could go. The two burglars
looked at him oddly but did not stop running.
At that moment he heard an all-too-familiar voice call, "How do you do, Miss
Lanay!"
"Stop, you!" boomed a heavy baritone from above.
Bugs came into view and whizzed by, dragging Adam with him. The two boys
darted down the hall of the seventeenth floor and into their room. Adam
slammed the door and wedged a chair up against it.
"What happened?" he gasped.
Bugs raised his arms in confusion. "I don't know! I honestly don't know!
There were these two guys on the balcony, and when the phone went crashing
through the door "
"Hold on a minute," cried Adam. "The phone went what? How did that happen?"
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"That was BiBi's fault," explained Bugs. "When she came into the room I got
so excited that the phone slipped out of my hands."
"What were you doing with the phone?" Adam demanded.
"Fixing it," replied Bugs airily. "It really was busted. That's another thing
I don't understand."
"So you threw a telephone through BiBi Lanay's window?"
"Of course not," said Bugs. "I threw it through the balcony door. And then
these two guys came busting in and BiBi started screaming, so we ran."
Adam frowned. "Bugs, who are those guys? They're the same two who claimed to
be plumbers, aren't they?"
Bugs shrugged. "I really didn't get a good look at them. There was a lot of
yelling and screaming going on, and none of us ever stopped moving."
Adam held his head. "Bugs, there's something fishy going on up there."
"You're telling me," said Bugs in annoyance. "Every time I go to see BiBi
those two guys gum it up. They'd better not be there next time."
"Next time?" howled Adam. "Next time? Listen, Mr. Bugs-Potter-The-Most, you
went twice already and look what happened! There isnot going to be anext
time!"
Bugs popped a tape into the deck and switched on some loud rock music. "This
group is Chips," he announced cheerfully. "In concert, recorded live in
Buffalo, New York. The album is calledBuffalo Chips . The first song is called
'Get Yer Shovel.' Notice the drum sound& "
* * *
"I'm leaving," stormed BiBi Lanay. "I'm getting out of Toronto tonight!"
"Calm down," soothed Claire. "What aboutRedhead in the Big City! Your big
opening, remember?"
"This is one redhead who's getting out of this big city while her red head is
still attached. Somebody's trying to kill me!"
"It's just fans trying to get a look at you."
"Yeah?" BiBi pointed a long painted fingernail at Charlie. "Well, that big
lunkhead isn't doing his job. He's my chief of security, and I don't feel very
secure.''
"It's only a few nuts," said Charlie defensively.
"And another thing," BiBi raged on, "there are to be no more repairmen in
here  foranything! I don't care if this suite cracks right down the middle.
No repairmen!"
Two men carrying tool boxes appeared in the open doorway. "We're here to fix
your balcony door, Miss."
Another man strolled up behind them. "Telephone repairman."
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BiBi clenched her hands and opened her mouth to scream.
Claire clamped a hand firmly over the movie star's mouth. "Come on in," she
invited. "The phone's out on the balcony with what's left of the door. Mind
you don't cut yourselves." She hauled BiBi off into the bedroom and shut the
door. "Now, BiBi, you calm down and behave yourself. You're a famous movie
star with an image to maintain."
"It's all because of that emerald," babbled BiBi, barely coherent. "Ever
since I got that emerald  "
"From now on," soothed Claire, "Charlie will be sleeping on the couch out
there in the sitting room. We'll be perfectly safe."
* * *
"Ralph, you idiot!" cursed Barney, rubbing a bruised arm. "We had it all
wrapped up and you had to fall!"
"All wrapped up, eh?" cried Ralph. "All wrapped up? That suite was full of
people. And I didn't fall  someone threw a telephone at me. They're on to us!
Let's get out of town!"
"Don't be an idiot," snapped Barney. "You're just trying to cover up the fact
that you bungled everything. We got away clean."
"Yeah?" shouted Ralph. "Then what about that guy with the beard? Why did he
look so familiar? And what about that kid coming up the stairs? He looked
familiar too. We're being watched!"
"It's all in your mind," Barney insisted. "We're staying right here and we're
going to get that emerald!"
* * *
"Well," yawned Adam, stretching, "everyone's back fromMacbeth and tucked away
in their rooms. I guess we should go to bed too."
Bugs turned in surprise. "Didn't I mention it?"
"Mention what?" asked Adam suspiciously.
"Migraine is in town. They're at a little club called The Snake Pit just a
block down from Dante's. Endomorph told me about it last night."
"You want togo there?" Adam was horrified. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]