Attack Of The Bandit Cats Read online

  THOUGHTS

  MY

  IN

  LOST

  SOON

  WAS

  I

  been through. Some sailors believe that

  ships have a soul. I bet this ship’s soul was

  as rotten as a sewer rat.

  Keeping an eye on the waves,

  I

  wondered if anyone had taken the time to

  dust my aged cheese collection. Or my

  priceless set of the Encyclopaedia Ratannica.

  I patted the notebook in my pocket. All

  my book needed now was an ending. I

  hoped it would be a happy one.

  “Laaaaaaaaaand hoooooo!”

  came Trap’s shout.

  I snapped to attention.

  “Land?” asked Thea,

  racing across the deck.

  red-and-white-striped

  “Land, land, laaand!” sang Benjamin,

  kicking up his paws.

  Thea twirled around in circles. “Home

  sweet home!” she sang. Trap played air

  guitar with his tail.

  I guess we all looked

  pretty silly. We were

  dressed in the pirate cats’ clothing. My

  sister had used her sewing skills to make

  them

  smaller

  .

  Trap was wearing a big lacy shirt with

  lots of ruffles. He looked like the mouse

  from the high-wire act at the Big Cheese

  Circus.

  Thea had on a yellow silk vest and the

  pearls she had found. Benjamin’s oversized

  shirt made

  him look like a jailmouse.

  As for me, I was wearing one of the

  99

  Black Bandit's coats. It was

  so long I swept the floor as I

  walked.

  I tried to untangle my knotted

  whiskers. It was no use. They were

  wound up tighter than a spring. Next, I tried

  to smooth out my shirt. It was still a

  wrinkled mess.

  “Don’t worry about the look,

  Cousinkins!

  ” squeaked Trap. He

  strutted around, puffing up his fur. “We’re

  too good for any dress code!

  After

  all

  , it’s not every mouse who can say he

  fought against pirates. Giant pirate catsas

  big as buildings!”

  Thea giggled. “Let’s not overdo it. I was

  there, too, you know,” she replied.

  “Are you calling me a liar?” Trap

  demanded, paws on his hips. “They WERE

  100

  humongous cats. Don’t you remember their

  claws? They were sharp enough to slice ten

  mice in half!” he insisted.

  101

  Thea made a

  face at him.

  “Well, maybe

  not ten mice,”

  Trap added. “Maybe

  just

  two

  .

  ”

  My sister rolled her eyes.

  “OK, OK, maybe they

  could just chop off some

  fur,” Trap admitted.

  “But they were still the

  BIGGEST

  cats

  I have ever seen!”

  Thea burst out laughing. “Why, of course

  they were, Cousin,” she said. “They were

  also the only cats you have ever seen!”

  102

  WIDE

  SO

  WERE

  SMILES

  OUR

  Can a land be sweet? I don’t

  mean sweet like sugar on a cream-cheese

  doughnut. I mean sweet as in “melt your

  heart sweet.” Yes, there was no other place

  like sweet, sweet Mouse Island. We sailed

  toward land, grinning from ear to ear. Our

  we could have been poster mice for Flossy,

  my dental rat.

  It felt so good to be home at last! By now

  you know how much I HATE traveling!

  We sailed by the statue that stands at the

  entrance to New Mouse City Harbor. It is the

  Statue of Liberty, holding

  up

  a big piece of

  104

  Sweet, Sweet

  MouSe ISland!

  cheese. Mice come from all

  over just to see her. Today a

  crowd of rodents had

  gathered at her feet.

  They all gave us

  puzzled stares as we

  sailed by.

  “Let’s show those

  mice a real pirate’s

  homecoming!” Trap

  shOUTed.

  We bowed low. Then

  we waved our hats and

  cheered, “Hooray for

  New Mouse City!

  ”

  Next, before we could

  stop him, Trap fired a

  round from our ship’s one

  hundred cannons. Luckily,

  the mice below knew it was only meant as a

  greeting. Leave it to my cousin to come in

  with a bang!

  The other ships in the water quickly let

  us pass. Then they followed behind us in a

  line. It was like we were leading a floating

  mouse parade.

  “We are going to be famous,

  ratlets!

  ” cried Trap. He was waving to

  the mice below

  as if he were a famouse

  rock star or a big-time movie mouse. “Look

  at them!” he squeaked excitedly. “They’re

  practically drooling over us! Wait until they

  see the treasure!”

  We lowered the sails. The Silver

  Claw

  dropped anchor right in the middle

  of the harbor.

  The four of us climbed

  into a rowboat and reached the

  shore. The crowd was extra

  noisy.

  They had enough

  questions to sink our ship!

  “Where do you come from? And

  where does that enormouse ship come

  from?”

  “Why the cannons? And what about that

  flag with the skull?”

  “Look at their clothing! Hey, isn’t that

  Geronimo Stilton, the newspaper

  mouse? You know, the one who published

  the YELLOW PAGES? Remember all those

  wrong numbers?”

  I had forgotten all about

  the phone book disaster.

  108

  YELLOW

  PAGES

  all is forgiven!

  Fortunately, I didn’t

  have to worry about the

  phone books. Now

  everyone just wanted

  to hear about our

  adventure. We told

  our tale on the

  WRAT radio program. We even appeared

  on Ben Squeaker’s

  TV

  talk show.

  We had become the island’s national

  heroes! Not only because we had beaten the

  pirate cats and sent them to Ho-hum

  Island, but also because of that famouse

  silver quarter. It had been stolen by the

  pirates at the time of the Great Cat War!

  109

  PAGES

  As for the pirate ship, we finally agreed to

  give it to the city. The mayor ended up

  turning it into a mouseum dedicated to the

  history of rodents.

  Now that we were

  famouse, my little mix-up with

  the YELLOW PAGES was
>
  forgiven. Once in a while,

  a rodent would call the

  office to place an order

  for some Furry

  Tails

  toilet paper.

  But I didn’t mind.

  I was too busy

  working on my

  own paper. The

  paper in my

  notebook, that is. I

  buried myself behind

  PAGES

  my desk and began writing my book. I wrote

  about our crazy balloon ride. I wrote about

  our capture by the Black Bandit. I

  wrote about our daring escape. I even

  wrote about Chef Slobbertooth and the

  snails!

  The book was ready in less than a month.

  I had already chosen the title: Attack

  of the Bandit Cats

  . I had a

  bestseller in the making. I could smell it! It

  was as strong as my great-

  grandma Scamper’s garlic cheese

  rolls!

  islands, Pizzas,

  and suiTCases

  Now, you are probably wondering what

  happened to all of the treasure. Well, each

  one of us used it in a different way. My sister

  bought a small island north of New Mouse

  City. She called it Thea’s Wild Paradise.

  She goes there to vacation and to get away

  from the rat race. My sister also managed to

  sell the pirate

  cats’ song

  to

  a big-time record company. Believe it or not,

  that meow music is now at the

  TOP

  OF THE

  CHARTS!

  My

  sister still can’t carry a tune, but she’s

  singing all the way to the bank!

  What did my cousin Trap do with his

  share of the treasure? Well, he built an

  enormouse pizza restaurant

  shaped just like a pirate’s ship. The waiters

  dress as pirates and serve hot, steaming

  pizzas with evil names like the THIN

  CRUST SCREAM SUPREME

  . The place

  is a huge success. Mice are just scurrying

  to get in. Plus, they all want to meet Trap.

  Yes, my cousin is famouse — and not just

  because of our adventure. He’s the star

  of his own television commercial.

  He swings back and forth on a rope with a

  hot slice of pizza between his teeth. “Come

  113

  BESTSELLER

  NEXT

  MY

  and see me at The

  Pirate’s Ship for the very

  best pizzas in town!” he

  squeaks.

  As for me and Benjamin,

  we came up with a different

  plan. A special plan. An

  unbelievably exciting plan! Right now, I

  am packing my suitcases for our trip. That’s

  right, Benjamin and I have decided to travel

  around the world!

  Yes, I have discovered that traveling

  really isn’t so bad after all. In fact, I think

  every mouse should try it. Maybe my next

  book will be a travel guide: Geronimo

  Stilton’s Travel Tips for Tails of All Ages.

  Hmm . . . that’s not bad. I think I just might

  smell

  Benjamin and I have decided

  to travel around the world.

  Born in New Mouse City, Mouse

  Island,

  Geronimo Stilton

  is

  Rattus Emeritus of Mousomorphic

  Literature and of Neo-Ratonic

  Comparative Philosophy. For the

  past twenty years, he has been

  running The Rodent’s Gazette, New Mouse City’s

  most widely read daily newspaper.

  Stilton was awarded the Ratitzer Prize for his

  scoops on The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid and

  The Search for Sunken Treasure. He has also

  received the Andersen 2000 Prize for Personality of

  the Year. One of his bestsellers won the 2002 eBook

  Award for world’s best ratlings’ electronic book. His

  works have been published all over the globe.

  In his spare time, Mr. Stilton collects antique

  cheese rinds and plays golf. But what he most

  enjoys is telling stories to his nephew Benjamin.

  A

  BOUT THE

  A

  UTHOR

  1. Main entrance

  2. Printing presses (where the books

  and newspaper are printed)

  3. Accounts department

  4. Editorial room (where the editors,

  illustrators, and designers work)

  5. Geronimo Stilton’s office

  6. Helicopter landing pad

  The RodenT’s

  GazeTTe

  6

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  41

  42

  38

  37

  35

  36

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  30

  29

  34

  27

  28

  31

  32

  33

  40

  44

  43

  46

  45

  R

  O

  D

  E

  N

  T

  R

  I

  V

  E

  R

  B

  e

  a

  c

  h

  1. Industrial Zone

  2. Cheese Factories

  3. Angorat International

  Airport

  4. WRAT Radio and

  Television Station

  5. Cheese Market

  6. Fish Market

  7. Town Hall

  8. Snotnose Castle

  9. The Seven Hills of

  Mouse Island

  10. Mouse Central Station

  11. Trade Center

  12. Movie Theater

  13. Gym

  14. Catnegie Hall

  15. Singing Stone Plaza

  16. The Gouda Theater

  17. Grand Hotel

  18. Mouse General Hospital

  19. Botanical Gardens

  20. Cheap Junk for Less

  (Trap’s store)

  21. Aunt Sweetfur and

  Benjamin’s House

  22. Mouseum of

  Modern Art

  23. University and Library

  24. The Daily Rat

  25. The Rodent’s Gazette

  26. Trap’s House

  27. Fashion District

  28. The Mouse House

  Restaurant

  29. Environmental

  Protection Center

  30. Harbor Office

  31. Mousidon Square

  Garden

  32. Golf Course

  33. Swimming Pool

  34. Tennis Courts

  35. Curlyfur Island

  Amousement Park

  36. Geronimo’s House

  37. Historic District

 
38. Public Library

  39. Shipyard

  40. Thea’s House

  41. New Mouse Harbor

  42. Luna Lighthouse

  43. The Statue of Liberty

  44. Hercule Poirat’s Office

  45. Petunia Pretty Paws’s

  House

  46. Grandfather William’s

  House

  Map of New Mouse City

  1

  35

  37

  36

  34

  4

  33

  32

  31

  29

  28

  27

  24

  23

  22

  25

  21

  20

  19

  18

  16

  15

  14

  13

  12

  10

  9

  8

  7

  6

  5

  3

  2

  Cat’s

  Claw

  Bay

  17

  This way

  to the Mousific

  Ocean

  This way

  to the

  Ratlantic Ocean

  This way to the Sea of Mice

  This way to the Rodent Straits

  Stray

  Cat

  Harbor

  Furflung Island

  Hamster Islands

  C

  o

  r

  a

  l

  R

  e

  e

  f

  s

  Brigand’s Isle

  Tomcat Island

  Panther

  Archipelago

  Blue Dolphin

  Bay

  Mousefort Beach

  New Mouse City

  San Mouscisco

  Swissville

  Mouseport

  Cheddarton

  11

  26

  30

  P

  i

  r

  a

  t

  e

  S

  h

  i

  p

  o

  f

  C

  a

  t

  s

  M

  o

  u

  s

  e

  I

  s

  l

  a

  n

  d

  1. Big Ice Lake

  2. Frozen Fur Peak

  3. Slipperyslopes Glacier

  4. Coldcreeps Peak

  5. Ratzikistan

  6. Transratania

  7. Mount Vamp

  8. Roastedrat Volcano

  9. Brimstone Lake

  10. Poopedcat Pass

  11. Stinko Peak

  12. Dark Forest

  13. Vain Vampires Valley