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“Oh, dear,” said Fifi with a frown marring her perfect features. “That calls for an immediate intervention. And when I say immediate, I do mean immediate!”

And before our very eyes, she promptly skedaddled, and disappeared from view!

“I think she ran away,” said Dooley, much surprised.

“That exterminator must have scared her,” said Jack, sadly shaking his head. “Oh, Max. I think it’s going to take a miracle now to save Judy. A real miracle!”

And I’m afraid he was right. In all honesty I couldn’t see the happy end to this story either. Not with Mr. Death spraying destruction all around in there, and with Kurt’s sister hell-bent on eradicating every last trace of ‘vermin’ from her house.

“You have to think of something, Max,” Dooley urged, eyeing me imploringly. “Please use that extremely large brain of yours!”

“I’m trying, Dooley,” I said. But to be honest, try as I might, nothing was cooking. Was it the heat turning my brain cells into mush, or the simple fact that that exterminator scared the bejeezus out of me? I honestly couldn’t think of a single scheme we could put into motion to save thosepour mice up there.

And just when the exterminator and Kelly entered the house, ready for business, Fifi decided to put in a return appearance, and this time she wasn’t alone. She had brought with her a very large fluffy dog. It was none other than Rufus, the sheepdog belonging to the Trappers, who reside next to Tex and Marge.

“What seems to be the trouble?” asked Rufus in that deep rumbling voice of his.

“Two mice need saving,” I said, not wasting time with explanations.

“I know. Fifi told me as much.” He eyed the house with his brow furrowed and a no-nonsense look on his furry face. “Just tell me where that darn exterminator is,” he said, and I could tell he was ready to rumble.

Fifi pointed to the back door, which was still ajar, and Rufus let out a sort of deep grumble, presumably a war cry of some sort that sheepdogs the world over use when heading into battle, and then he trundled off in the direction indicated.

He disappeared into the house, and Fifi turned to us and uttered these immortal words:“And now we wait. And pray.”

CHAPTER 8

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I would have happily taken Fifi’s advice and waited the thing out, but Jack’s intent gaze was burning a hole in the side of my head, and so after a while I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get in on the action. After all, the greatest detective alive couldn’t very well allow a sheepdog to do all his work for him, now could he? And so it was with a great deal of reluctance that I finally got up and started for the house. “Dooley, are you coming?” I said when I noticed it was just me, myself and I making the short trek.

“’Oh, all right,” said Dooley after a pregnant pause, and came trotting up in my wake.

“We ride again, my friend,” I said.

“Ride where?” asked Dooley, interested.

“No idea,” I said. “Just something I heard once. Thought it sounded cool.”

The house, when we entered, seemed permeated with a sort of eerie calm. I would have expected to be encountered by furious barking, wild snarls and the panicky cries of humans finding themselves under attack from an impossibly large woolly mammoth type of dog. Instead, there was nothing of the sort. No sound could be heard, inasmuch that I wondered if we’d entered the right place.

The first room that we found underpaw was the living room, whereGeneral Hospital was playing on an outsized television set decorating the wall.

“Oh, I love this one,” said Dooley immediately. He likes to watch television of an afternoon, cozily curled up on the couch next to Gran, and he was about to hop up onto the couch and submerge himself in the adventures or misadventures of the cast ofGeneral Hospital when I said,“Not now, Dooley,” and he reluctantly tore his eyes away from the men and women in white to continue our quest to save two murine lives from certain death.

“Think of Jack’s great love,” I reminded him. “We’re not just saving a life here, buddy, we’re instrumental in bringing two sundered hearts together.”

“I’m sure that if Judy didn’t notice Jack before, she won’t notice him now,” Dooley said, proving that he’d never seen a Hallmark Christmas movie.

“Just you wait and see,” I said. “The moment Judy hears that it was actually Jack who was instrumental in saving her life, she’s sure to redistribute her affections in favor of that small but heroic mouse.”

Finding no evidence of a fierce struggle to the death on the ground floor, we decided to mount the stairs and head into the thick of the fight. But the second floor was as deserted as the first one, and we shared a look of confusion.

“Odd,” I whispered.

“Where is everyone?” Dooley whispered back.

“Maybe this is a haunted castle after all. And Kelly really is an evil witch!”

“I just hope she doesn’t change us into mice,” said Dooley. “I don’t think I’d like to be a mouse. All this craving for cheese. Can’t be good for your cholesterol.”