Treasure Island!!! Read Online Free Page B

beginning, she’d thought that she could win them over, naively supposing that she and the animal rights people were on the same side. They would come round ostensibly to inspect the cleanliness of the cages and Nancy would wheedle them to apply for a membership card. But they never so much as checked out a hamster. Instead they organized protests, wrote letters to the newspaper, and once they covered The Pet Library’s windows with black spray paint that said, “2-DAY LOAN PERIOD = 2 MUCH TRAUMA.” Luckily,
that
wasn’t so catchy. Their movement fizzled out when the local leader left to set up a handicraft cooperative in the Kyrgyz Republic.
    As I walked around, checking out the damages, I realized I wasn’t looking at the work of the animal people. They would have escaped with every animal in tow, and although I hadn’t done a head count, already I was conscious of having kicked the rooster away with my boot. Now he was pecking away at a torn bag of dog food, greedily keeping pace with the mutts. The record book was on the floor, a few of its pages bent, but nothing was missing. No, whoever had come in had not wanted to destroy the place. They had vandalized it, almost carelessly. I was wandering around, noting the large amount of water on the floor—did the fish jump out of the tank?—when the door chimed, and Nancy stepped into the room.
    She screamed. It was such an awful blood-curdling scream—and not, may I remind you, the first scream I’d heard that day—that I almost wet myself. Her scream was answered by Richard’s scream, which was answered by the dogs barking, which was answered by the cats yowling, which was answered by the rooster crowing, which in turn set off a car alarm right outside the door.
    â€œLook this place! What happened? You drink vanilla latte?”
    As Nancy darted around the room, taking inventory of the disaster, I felt a hard knot in my stomach, twisting and turning. This was an admirable opportunity to put the Core Values into action—particularly RESOLUTION —but I hardly knew where to begin.
    â€œWhere is Willie?” Nancy muttered in a low voice. “Where is poodle?”
    â€œI’m sure he’s here somewhere,” I said though at that point, I wasn’t. It didn’t seem likely that anyone would have abducted a poodle, but if the vandals had held the door open for him, he might have run off. He was Nancy’s favorite, but not as attached to her as she liked to think.
    A whimpering noise came from the back room.
    â€œWillie?” Nancy cried. “Where are you?”
    â€œI know this sounds weird, but he might be tied up,” I said, but she had already broken past me before I could finish my sentence.
    In fact, he had not been tied up. But neither had he been spared. Whoever had barged into the place had managed to find the electric clippers and shave fluffy white Willie clean as a lamb. It was fascinating to see him shivering there under the table, all white and pink, like a licked candy cane. About three feet away from him lay a soft, enormous, tufty pile of fur.
    â€œWilliam!” said Nancy, stricken.
    I wish I could say that was the end of the trouble. In fact, because I had left the fish tank uncovered, the cats had helped themselves to a snack, which explained the water on the floor. It must have taken them quite a bit of work to catch those fish. You might almost say they deserved them—not that Nancy was open to entertaining that point of view.
    â€œYou leave fish tank uncovered,” she wailed. “Cats loose! Fish massacre!”
    â€œI have a notion,” I began. “I feel that my talents are a bit under-used in my present position. I realize that right now you may not even be following every word that I’m saying, but I’ll go on. The Pet Library is ailing—admit it! Admit what you and every other person in this town know. This Pet Library is going