Felix smelled a hint of something sweet, and heard a faint sound from somewhere far, far away.
And then—just like that!—Hadley and Rayne dropped into The Treasure Chest.
Except for his father showing up at Elm Medona this afternoon, Felix had never been so happy to see someone.
“You’re alive!” he shouted as he ran over to them and spontaneously pulled them both into a hug.
“No thanks to you,” Rayne said, wriggling away from him.
“We were going to get eaten by lions,” Felix tried to explain.
But Rayne held up her hand to stop him. “Don’t bother,” she said. “You have no idea what we’ve been through. Lions. Hah!”
“Curious,” Great-Uncle Thorne said thoughtfully. “Since we’ve never had travelers left behind, I can’t explain what’s happened here or why. But hallelujah! You’re back!”
Felix turned to Hadley, who was still standing in a half-hug with him. Her hair looked like corkscrew pasta standing up all around her head.
“I’m sorry,” he said to her. “First Maisie got kidnapped by a silverback gorilla, and then I practically got bitten by a huge poisonous snake, and then—”
“The lions,” Hadley finished for him. “I know. I saw you.”
“You were there?”
Hadley nodded. “I was on the other side of that pride—”
“—and I was being held hostage by natives!” Rayne said indignantly. “They had never seen hair like mine before and they wanted it. All of it.” She smoothed her hair nervously as she talked. “The whole village came to stare at me and touch my hair, and then the chief started making preparations to cut it all off—”
“And then you escaped,” Hadley reminded her.
“Barely,” Rayne muttered.
“Meanwhile,” Hadley said, “I saw those lions, and I saw you and Maisie, but I was afraid to call out to you. I mean, I didn’t want the lions to see me. And then in a flash you two completely vanished.” She snapped her fingers. “Faster than that!”
“We ended up in St. Louis,” Felix said.
“Missouri?” Rayne asked, incredulous.
Felix nodded. “And then we went to Kansas, and you’ll never guess who we met.”
When neither Ziff twin tried to guess, he said, “Amelia Earhart!”
“Well,” Rayne huffed, “while you were in Kansas with Amelia Earhart, I had to spend the night alone in the jungle with a tribe chasing me, and Hadley lost.”
Felix cringed at the thought. The jungle had been scary enough in the daytime. He couldn’t imagine what it was like at night.
As if she’d read his mind, Rayne continued. “Civets,” she said, “are nocturnal. They are creepy little animals that come out around midnight to hunt. Also badgers and other animals I can’t even describe. And of course, leopards.”
“But you were fine,” Hadley said.
“Until the elephants,” Rayne said.
“Well, the elephants were kind of scary,” Hadley agreed.
“Kind of? They charged us! A whole herd of them!”
“But we managed to escape,” Hadley said proudly.
“You got charged by a herd of elephants?” Felix sputtered. “And then what?”
Hadley smiled at Felix.
“And then,” she said, “we found Amy Pickworth.”
CHAPTER 3
911
Even though Maisie did not like that her father left, she took comfort in the fact that James Ferocious stayed by her side and followed her up the Grand Staircase, and along the hallway that led to the wall with the special place to press. When the wall magically opened, James Ferocious yelped. Maisie liked that, too. She bent and petted him behind his ears until he closed his eyes in sheer happiness.
“Come on, boy,” she whispered.
James Ferocious groaned a little and pushed his big smelly head against her leg for more petting.
“We’ve got things to do,” Maisie told the dog. But she still had to tug on his collar to get him to come with her.
The staircase looked small beneath the big dog, who galumphed up it awkwardly, his claws scratching as he kept his balance. James Ferocious was the first one to reach The Treasure Chest, but instead of going inside, he slid to a halt at the door and let out a mournful howl.
Maisie came up right behind him.
She stopped dead in her tracks, too. Though instead of a howl, she gasped.
“Oh no!”
Three pairs of eyes turned toward her.
“Is he . . . ?” Maisie began, unable to say the actual word.
Great-Uncle Thorne was splayed on the floor of The Treasure Chest, his face a ghostly white, his eyes closed, and a thin line of drool coming from his gaping mouth.
Hadley kneeled beside him, her ear pressed to his chest.
From here, Great-Uncle Thorne looked oddly small and very, very old.
“His heart’s beating!” Hadley announced, and it seemed to Maisie that everyone and everything gave an enormous sigh of relief. Even James Ferocious. Even The Treasure Chest itself.