23-OO! EEE! OOOOO!

OO! EEE! OOOOO! The three scoundrels pounced on the stone like a hungry cat on a sleeping mouse. "The ruby is so big!" Nastytail cried. "I wonder what it's worth." Bones pulled a calculator out of his pocket. He punched in some numbers. Then he showed the total to Nastytail. Nastytail gulped. "I'm rich!" he shrieked. Just at that moment, a few drops of oil dripped out of the faucet. Bones stared at the oil. "Boss, this is oil! There must be an oil well under this stone!" he giggled. "We won't be rich, we'll be stinking rich!"

Bones and Miceson slapped paws. "We're stinking rich! We're stinking rich!" they chanted. They were so excited. They did cartwheels around the room. They looked like two mouselets on Christmas morning. Nastytail frowned. "I am the boss!" he roared. "I will say who is rich around here!" Then he ordered them to haul the stone away. I noticed Monkeyfur waving to the monkeys. They had been watching us from the ceiling. "Ooo! Ooo! Eee! Eee!" Monkeyfur yelled. In a flash, the monkeys sprang at the three villains. They began to hit them with stones and leftover avocados. I watched with envy. Those monkeys were good shots. I wondered if they ever thought

about starting a baseball team. But I didn't get a chance to ask. Seconds later, Nastytail's two sidekicks had dropped the RUBY. "We give up! Make them stop!" the villains cried.